TRUMP FAILURE - North Korean Summit

The build-up:

"Can U.S. post-war relationship with Vietnam serve as a model for North Korea?" PBS NewsHour 2/26/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In Vietnam, President Trump is preparing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- and the summit's location isn't a mere coincidence.  Indeed, U.S. officials are touting the rapprochement and economic ties that now exist between the U.S. and Vietnam, only decades after brutal warfare divided them.  Nick Schifrin reports on whether U.S.-Vietnam relations can serve as a model for North Korea.

"In Hanoi, Trump looks to develop a ‘phased’ North Korean denuclearization" PBS NewsHour 2/27/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Last June's summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un marked the first time a sitting U.S. President met a North Korean leader.  Now the two are convening in Vietnam, whose economic resurgence U.S. officials hope can serve as an incentive for North Korea to prioritize cooperation with the U.S.  Judy Woodruff talks to Nick Schifrin, who is reporting from Hanoi, about the summit's policy goals.

"What Trump’s personal relationship with Kim Jong Un means for U.S. policy" PBS NewsHour 2/27/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Last June, President Trump called his first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a new chapter in the historically adversarial relationship between the two nations.  Since then, American policy toward North Korea has evolved from demanding complete denuclearization to emphasizing peace on the Korean peninsula.  Nick Schifrin reports from Hanoi on how and why that change has taken place.

The collapse:

Kim sucker-punches Trump, again.  So much for the 'good relationship.'
Trump does not understand Kim.  Kim does NOT care about money issues, he ONLY cares about his personal power at home and the world, which overrides all other considerations.  Kim is not about to give up his ONLY negotiating tool, Nuclear Weapons.  After all, the only reason for the summit was Kim's Nuclear Weapons.

"After months of buildup, Hanoi talks conclude early — with no deal" PBS NewsHour 2/28/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After 8,000 miles of travel and hours of high-stakes discussion, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked away from the Hanoi summit without a deal.  U.S. officials said that while North Korea agreed to reduce its nuclear facilities, their concessions didn't warrant the requested lifting of U.S. sanctions.  Nick Schifrin reports on the much-anticipated meeting's abrupt conclusion.

VIETNAM WAR - Remembering Father

"Remembering a father lost to Vietnam by doing good" PBS NewsHour 9/19/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Rebecca Rusch has spent most of her life wondering what happened to the father who left for Vietnam and never came back.  As a tribute to him and closure for her family, Rusch rode nearly 1,200 miles along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to visit the site where her dad's plane was shot down in Laos in 1972.  But her journey was just the beginning.  Special correspondent Mike Cerre reports.

LOOKING BACK - Vietnam War, 11/1/1955 to 04/30/1975

Personal note.  I am a Vietnam Vet, USN 22yrs (retired).

"The first American Vietnam War POW on why we need to understand the war" by Anne Azzi and Alison Thoet, PBS NewsHour 9/14/2017




"Why America is still raw over the Vietnam War" PBS NewsHour 9/14/2017

Because it's a prime example of overreach of government power, and the ending of trusting government.  (Vietnam War Wikipedia)

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick sorted through 5,000 hours of historical footage and photos for a documentary that took 10 years to create.  The new PBS documentary series, “The Vietnam War” takes us to a moment in history that is still not fully understood, and comes at a moment when we're thinking about America's role in the world.  Judy Woodruff discusses its resonance with Burns and Novick.

"Voices from all sides trace deep roots and wounds in 'Vietnam War'" PBS NewsHour 9/15/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick spent a decade talking to hundreds of veterans from both sides of the Vietnam War, to capture the complexity of perspectives that persists years later.  In the second part of their conversation, Judy Woodruff speaks with Burns and Novick about their new PBS documentary series, “The Vietnam War.”

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  But, Lynn, do you come away, do you think, understanding how the United States got pulled into this, despite the French being kicked out, essentially, Dien Bien Phu?

Senator John F. Kennedy saying the Americans don’t belong in a land war in Asia.  Decisions made by Eisenhower not to get involved.  And yet the United States was pulled in.

LYNN NOVICK:  Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Did you understand why, at the end, do you think?

LYNN NOVICK:  Well, it is sometimes stunning to think, with all those road maps and signposts saying don’t do it, we still did.

It seems clear that there’s definitely a Cold War context that’s very important, and certain kind of received wisdom, conventional wisdom about that, and that we have to stop communism and containment and that whole idea.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Even so, the film shows that, in May of 1964, President Johnson himself expressed misgivings about why the U.S. was at war and Vietnam’s value in a phone call with national security adviser McGeorge Bundy.

FORMER PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON:  I just laid awake last night thinking about this thing.  The more I think of it, I don’t know what in the hell — it looks like to me we are getting into another Korea.

It just worries the hell out of me.  I don’t see what we can ever hope to get out of there with, once we’re committed.  I don’t think it’s worth fighting for, and I don’t think we can get out, and it’s just the biggest damn mess.

MCGEORGE BUNDY, Former National Security Advisor:  It is an awful mess.

FORMER PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON:  And I just thought about ordering those kids in there.  And what the hell am I ordering them out there for?  What in the hell is Vietnam worth to me?  What is it worth to this country?

MCGEORGE BUNDY:  Yes.  Yes.

FORMER PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON:  Now, of course, if you start running into communists, they may just chase you right in your own kitchen.

MCGEORGE BUNDY:  Yes, that’s the trouble.  And that’s what the rest of the — that half of the world is going to think if this thing comes apart on us.