Willie, since this is on tape, you know, since this is a taped special hour i cant ask you how your barbecue was but must have been amazing. It was. Richard haass grilling tips from his book the world in disarray second half of the book. I use it. I wore my apron it. Was great. How about you . Oh, wonderful. I wore the world in disarray apron and did not cook the piggy, didnt eat the piggy or live chickens. We made live food. All healthy, all vegan. Happy memorial day. So we all hope you enjoyed memorial day as well. Our viewers. And i want to start off with jon meacham with a historical look at this day. Remind us what this day is really about. Well, its really about the people who gave in lincolns phrase at gettysburg the last full measure of devotion. The people who because of the exo againsies of history, found themselves on the front lines fighting and either for ideas or defending ideas. They gave their lives. Generally younger people, which is an ancient reality. If you read, its about the flower of youth being killed and the great dramas of war. These are the people we were supposed to pause and ponder, who stood on the wall, who stood on the point, and made it possible for all of us to have these endless debates and these endless disputes that we have all the time, which is actually as depleting as it may feel, as disspiriting as the current political moment is, my god, think about the alternative. The people we commemorate are the people who made argument and democracy possible and we owe them everything. Mike barnacle, before you take it to a next panelist, i want to ask you what your reflections are during this time in terms of our attitudes in america, our knowledge and our understanding of people who serve in the military, who serve multiple tours of duty, who have taken part in wars on behalf of this country, and also, are being deployed by this president by lets say maybe perhaps controversial means in terms of their deployments at southern border for caravans that are coming in. Its a convoluting time, is it not . Mika, because of my age, my background, my family history, theres a certain sadness with me about memorial day. Because you think of the word memorial and part of that word incorporates memory. And with all the tools we have today, with snapchat and twitter and our smartphones, theyre incredible instrument but theyve caused a loss of memory in america, memory about who we are and who weve been. Memorial day used to be may 30th. And memorial day used to be a time that was not just the start of summer, it was the time when nearly everyone remembered the fallen because nearly everyone in this country had been touched by the fallen on the street where they lived, in the parish where they belonged, in the clubs that they joined, in just the people they knew. They had either lost a member of their own family or knew someone on the block who had been lost. Multiple members of the of people on the block. Thats gone. We now live in a 1 world where less than 1 of people serve in our military and the impact on them and their families is pretty much off to the sidelines. Thats the sadness. And paul, i would love for you to reflect on what Mike Barnacle just said and also, given the work that you have done, how youre feeling about the way the military perhaps is beings used by this presidency . Does it really match their role in history . I think sadly thats right, mika, but as a starting point, memorial day still can be a time where we come together as a nation and its a time when were so divided say thank you. One minute on the moment of silence observed at 3 00 local time everywhere in america, take one minute and reflect on someone that you know that has died or even if you dont know someone who has died, someone that has died on your behalf to give you the opportunity to have a barbecue or go to the beach or even if youre at work take one minute to reflect on what this means. I think its actually an opportunity for us to reinvigorate what patriotism means. An inspiring generation that served overseas and we take inspiration from the ones that came before us and i think that can be kind of a Silver Lining in the sadness, looking at the fact that three post911 veterans are running for party. That can be a sign of inspiration. We have to remember we are profoundly disconnected. Most of america is going to the beach or going to work and our troops are overseas or remembering their friends at a cemetery. Its a time of deep disconnect and forever war where theres no real political or social accountability. People keep going over and over again. Because of the authorization we can go to war forever and any blank check the president wants. We have to put it in context and were on a potentially new war with iran and ask hard questions and thats a good way to honor people who have died. You have lived the story of the 9 11 generation of veterans and those who died in iraq and afghanistan, in new york city on september 11th, at ground zero, making rescues and helping people get out from under there, signed up, went to iraq, fought, came back, spent more than a decade fighting at iava for veterans of those wars. What are your thoughts about the brothers and sisters who you didnt get a chance to fight for, the ones who were lost in iraq, the ones lost in afghanistan, this most recent generation of the fallen . Theyre my friends and i think thats what kind of hits me the hardest, theyre not just people i see on tv, not just names i read in a paper. Theyre my friends. Guys like ed, he was 28 years old from nebraska, one of the nicest guys i met and he got killed by an rpg in fallujah. I want people to remember ed was a Great American a great guy, he was a great son. You know, thats what i want. I want people to remember he shouldnt be forgotten and neither should all the other folks and think what ed would want and i would want is people to recommit to the folks still living, includes people facing suicide, includes the people that are facing burn pits and toxin exposures, i get into this is in my podcast where we talk about what folks are facing and underserved. Its an opportunity, the whole conversation today is an opportunity to bring us together, have the barbecue, enjoy the hell out of it, but also remember why we have it. What about talking about the issues that face veterans right now, once theyve returned from service . The men and women who have put their lives on the line for the country returning have ptsd, high levels of suicide and cancer and talk about that on this type of day, do you feel like this government is serving them to the full extent they should be . No. I think you cant have this conversation without talking about the president. Hes the commander in chief. He sets the tone. I think what hes done especially in the last two years has politicized the military in a way weve never seen, whether the fourth of july parade, troops on the border, we are now in a political political chew toy, pulled in either direction. The president uses you as a political shield and thats bad. Hes not listening to military counsel. General mattis left as secretary of defense, our senior military leader, because the president didnt listen to him. Now we have folks running our wars enacting secretary of defense shanahan, hasnt been senate approved, bolton hasnt been senate approved. Is where the voice of our troops. Thats what i want to know on all these issues we need people who are publicly vetted, known by the public and vetted. And that starts with the president. You talked about president who never served his country. One thing that we have now in this last as a result of the last election, red, white and blue wave, more people coming back as veterans and now continuing to serve their country in congress. Can you get into what they offer and maybe why their leadership is so critical now . Yeah. Ive called it the camouflage wave. They come from both parties, about 100 that came in the new wave in congress. What they most of all represent is effectiveness and patriotism and hopefully a practical approach to governing where they put their country ahead of their party. Weve seen that, for example, on burn pits. Republicans and democrats like brian mast on the republican side and Tulsi Gabbard come together because they want to take care of their fellow troops. Thats an example. Maybe they can bring light to all this heat in washington and try to move us forward as a country, especially as other generations have. Think about the world war ii generation, bob dole and frank lawsuitenburg working together maybe they can bring us inspiration. Jon meacham, the sacrifice of military men and women are put in our face front and center, memorial day and coming up soon here on june the 6th which will be the 75th anniversary of dday or go walk through washington, d. C. , and you encounter the 58,000 names on the wall of vietnam memorial, those are moments where it rushes over you the commitment people have made, the sacrifice people have made for the country, but it feels like those are just spurts. How do we stay connected to our history and how do we make sure our children in the next generations understand whats gone in, going all the way back to the revolution, to making this country and to keeping this country together . Well it goes back to something mike was saying. Its about memory. You know, the Central Command at the center of several of the great religious traditions, christianity, do this in remembrance of me, judaism, from the song of moses, remember the days of old, remember the years of many generations, ask thai fathers and they will tell thee, ask the elders and they will show thee. Human instinct, thinking about it last week, we lost herman woke, the great novelist who wrote a lot, but the winds of war and war and remembrance i think im right that last line of war and remembrance, thousands upon thousands of pages into this narrative, he wrote, the beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance. I would suggest that the beginning of wisdom lies in remembrance. Remembering what we got right, remembering what we got wrong. If you walk on the mall in washington, you have monuments, both the world war ii monument and the vietnam monument, two very different conflicts and we shouldnt lose that. We should not overly sentimentalize the past. These were controversial wars in real time. We forget that we didnt declare war on germany until germany declared war on us. Five days after pearl harbor. We were an isolationist country heading into the great cataclysm of the middle of the 20th century. Vietnam divide . Some ways in some ways divides us there, the conflict there. Understanding the panoply of history and remembering the debates we v the debates on the the newspapers and now digitally and television and congress, remembering that there is a human cost to this. This is not paintball. There are people in iraq and afghanistan and all the forward places who are actually giving their lives. Our words have consequences. I would love to ask you more about that, jon, and i also think Mike Barnicle would have a thing or two to say about this, didnt it used to be that everybody had a stake in the war . Everybody served. Evds now it appears we have people who have served in iraq and afghanistan who are now running for president and who are bringing their service to washington, which we appreciate, but there seems to be such a disparity between those who choose to join and serve and those who often have the power and the ability to talk about it . Well, thats the great story of vietnam. World war ii was far more commonly shared and led to a peace time or a cold war draft where one of the reasons were so divided right now, i would argue, is that we dont know each other very well. We live in thats correct. We live in very secure silos and so you have to look back and think, what was that. My old boss charlie peters, has written a lot about this and thought about it. John kennedy, when he was on pt 109, was on there with a plumber from the bronx, a truck driver from iowa. People that john kennedy would never have encountered as the sion of massachusetts immigrant family and yet he understood, because he served with them, he understood that people were more complex and he knew, they knew each other. Again, i dont want to be nostalgic about it. Then you cut to vietnam and you have people getting their way out. Remember the great john fogerty song fortunate son. There were people who could buy their way out. Fogerty wrote that song because he was watching julie nixon marrying david eisenhauer. He realized eisenhower wouldnt be affected by this. That was the ambient reality of the time. My own family story is fairly representative. My both my grand fathers fought in the Second World War, my father fought in vietnam and i didnt serve. Thats a fairly common story. Yeah. As we mark this very important day, memorial day, a major milestone has been reached at west point. This year the u. S. Military academy graduated a recordsetting number of africanamerican women cadets. Nbc news correspondent Morgan Radford has the story. Reporter its a class photo gone viral. 34 black female cadets, standing on the stairs of west point academy, part of the most diverse class in the schools history. How does it feel to be a part of that history . It was just a very overwhelming feeling to see all of our sisters, us just standing there in solidarity. Reporter the women have formed a sisterhood thats a support system. With more than 900 students in their graduating class, black women make up less than 4 . It hasnt always been pretty. When you say it hasnt always been pretty, what do you mean . There are some moments here where you feel like, oh, am i worthy . Do i deserve to be here . I definitely struggled sometimes because sometimes i would be like the only woman of color or even women in general in my in one of my classes. Every time i step into a new class i count and im like its just me today. Reporter something their classmates also want to change. Sent the message that we need different perspectives. Thats what makes us better cadets and leaders. Reporter leaders for the next generation. What do you hope other little girls who are watching you graduate take away from seeing you here . I hope those girls can see themselves in us. I want women to be soldiers. I want these little black girls to say, hey, i can do it too. I have the strength to defy the odds which is what we did, we defied the odds. Reporter Morgan Radford, nbc news, west point, new york. I have chills. Paul, final thoughts from you this morning . I think its all about the future, right. The proper way to honor the people who have gone before us is to commit to the future and, you know, mix war is the extension of politics by other means so get involved, whether its voting, you know, supporting a candidate, if you want to honor the people that came before us you have to be involved in our democracy and make it better. Mark twain said i love my country always and my government when it doesnt deserve it. If you think this government doesnt deserve it right now, get involved. At very least, take that one moment today to make a prayer and say thank you. Memorial day is often considered the unofficial start of summer and this hour, we have Summer Reading for you, including the untold story of the american spy who helped win world war ii, how one woman talked her way behind enemy lines and changed the course of history. We will speak to that author. Plus, pivot to the future. A new playbook helps us discover value in a disrupted world. We all know theres plenty of that right now. Well talk about that. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Well be right back. This simple banana peel represents a bold idea a way to create energy from household trash. It not only saves about 80 in carbon emissions. It helps reduce landfill waste. Thats why bp is partnering with a California Company fulcrum bioenergy. To turn garbage into jet fuel. Because we cant let any good ideas go to waste. At bp, we see possibilities everywhere. To help the world keep advancing. Do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back . About 50 of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. Eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. Fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. Fasenra is an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. Fasenra may cause allergic reactions. Get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. Dont stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Havent you missed enough . Ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. During world war ii, they called her the most dangerous of the allied spies, not many know about virginia hall, one of the greatest spies in u. S. History, born into a wealthy family in baltimore, hall was reject from the Foreign Service because she was a woman and had a prosthetic leg. However, during world war ii she would work as an ambulance driver for the french army before joining the soe, a british spy division, going behind enemy lies in occupied france. Halls face covered wanted posters throughout europe as she ki quickly established networks of spies to blow up bridges, track german troop movements and trained armed guerrilla fighters. Her intelligence is credited with the americans trap German Forces west of paris and helping lay the foundation for the allied liberation of france. Joining us now is author sonya personnel, her book a woman of no importance, the untold story of the american spy who helped win world war ii which takes a closer look at halls life. Great to have you here. Congratulations on the book. We said this is screaming for a movie, theyve already optioned the movie. Of course they have because the story is so remarkable. Tell us more about virginia. She comes from a wealthy family in baltimore. How did she find herself in france before america had entered the Second World War . She was always an adventurist, a tomboy growing up. She went into high school with an unusual bracelet, because it was made of live snakes. She had an unusual spirit. She wasnt just going to sit around and marry the local boy. She wanted to be an ambassador ant it didnt work out. She lost her leg in a hunting accident but she was determined that would not hold her back. It gave her the resolve and determination so she volunteered to drive ambulances on front line for the french army. For the french army. No one else would take her. She was under german bombardment, bombings, machine gunfire, and kept going and finally fra