Russian hackers gained access that could have allowed them to sabotage or shut down facilities that will the new sanctions come and that's rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. And its allies this week Britain accused Russia of launching the 1st chemical weapons attack on European soil since World War 2 over the alleged poisoning of Russian spies surrogate scare Paul and his daughter in Salisbury last week Russia said today it's prepared to retaliate against Western sanctions saying it will expand a blacklist of Americans and will expel British diplomats from embassies and consulates across Russia. In Miami Florida authorities say at least 6 people have died after a pedestrian bridge under construction collapsed onto a busy street below crushing vehicles and trapping Victims Center huge piles of concrete at least 9 others were injured in the collapse of the nearly 200 foot long bridge under construction near the campus of Florida International University Police say they don't know the cause of the collapse and are enlisting the help of Engineers as they investigate the disaster as a possible homicide. In Syria over 10000 civilians have fled the Damascus suburb of eastern over the past 24 hours as Syrian government forces continue a bloody offensive against the rebel held territory Syrian ground forces have split the territory in 3 with many observers predicting a government victory over the rebels is eminent the offensive has killed as well over $1000.00 civilians in less than a month among the latest victims were 12 civilians who reportedly died in a Russian airstrike today as well as photojournalist Bashar alaap car who died from injuries he sustained in a March 12th airstrike Meanwhile human rights groups say residents have fled from over 10000 homes in northern Syria of Afrin in recent days as the mostly Kurdish population flees an offensive by Turkey's military. In Brazil tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Rio de Janeiro Thursday to protest the apparent assassination of 38 year old city council member and human rights activists Mario Franco Franco died along with her driver Wednesday night after a pair of gunmen riddled her car with bullets Franco was a fierce critic of police killings in Brazil's impoverished favela neighborhoods the night before her death Franco wrote on Twitter how many more must die for this war to end in January alone government figures show police killed 154 people in state Franco's murder came a month after President Michel tomorrow ordered Brazil's military to assume control of police duties and Rio in Massachusetts civil rights groups filed a petition Thursday in the state's Supreme Judicial Court asking it to stop immigration agents from arresting people at courthouses saying it violates the rights of defendants victims and witnesses as well as the accused the case is the 1st of its kind and comes as Legal Aid Society attorneys protested Thursday in New York City this is Jarrod Trujillo. I'm going to turn to the Legal Aid Society I suspect internees courts with something called administrative warrants administrative warrants are not issued by a judge they're issued solely by their issues only by eyes I says effectively writing their own warrants to come into the courts Well we are asking is that they not be allowed to come into the courts without a judicial warrant a judicial warrant signed by a jury Philippines president. Says he will pull his country out of the International Criminal Court the announcement came just weeks after the I.C.C. Open an investigation into accusations do charity has committed crimes against humanity by overseeing the killing of up to 8000 people in his so-called war on drugs to terror to has repeatedly boasted he's personally murdered drug dealers President Donald Trump has expressed admiration for to terror today saying he's done a quote unbelievable job on the drug problem unquote This comes as political reports Trump is expected to formally call for capital punishment for drug dealers when he unveils his plan for combat in the opioid epidemic during a planned trip to New Hampshire next week. President boasted to wealthy Republican donors Wednesday he made up a claim about trade deficits during a recent private conversation he had with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and no audio recording obtained by The Washington Post Trump's reportedly heard telling the donors he insisted to Trudeau the U.S. Has a trade deficit with Canada even though he was completely unsure whether the statement was true in fact the U.S. Has a trade surplus with Canada on Thursday Trump repeated the lie tweeting quote We do have a trade deficit with Canada as we do with almost all countries some of them massive unquote the White House is denying media reports that President Trump is poised to fire a national security advisor the 10 inch eneral H.R. McMaster ahead of a planned US North Korea summit in May Trump is reportedly considering replacing McMaster with John Bolton who was named by President George W. Bush in 2005 to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a recess appointment after Bush feared he would not be confirmed by the Senate foreign policy hawk who suggested the U.S. Military should directly engage Iran and North Korea he once said if the U.N. Headquarters in New York lost 10 stories that quote would make a bit of difference the position of national security adviser does not require Senate confirmation and an update to a story we covered on Tuesday about President Trump's pick to head the CIA Jane Haskell Pro Publica has retracted part of its reporting which we cited about hassels role that a secret CIA black site in Thailand where prisoners were tortured Pro Publica is now reporting she now has but was not yet based at the site when Abu Zubaida was over was water boarded 83 times and did not mock the person or while he was being tortured but according to The New York Times has full did oversee the waterboarding of another person or the rocking him. At the secret prison Cina House will also later advocated for destroying videotapes of waterboarding. In New York former Black Panther Herman Bell has been granted parole after 44 years in prison for the killing of 2 police officers Bell pleaded not guilty at trial and is said witness coercion and prosecutorial misconduct led to his conviction is expected to release date is April 17th in their decision to release Bell who is now 69 years old parole board member cited a noteworthy letter from an unnamed person likely the son of one of the victims officer Waverley Jones he wrote of Bell's release the simple answer is it would bring joy and peace as we have already forgiven Herman Bell publicly on the other hand to deny him parole again would cause us pain as we are reminded of the painful episode each time he appears before the board. In New York City hundreds of protesters marched in the streets of Manhattan on Thursday in support of farm workers with a coalition of a mockery workers who are demanding that fast food giant Wendy's sign on to a worker designed code of conduct that includes a 0 tolerance policy for sexual harassment and abuse in the fields where they pick tomatoes and marchers passed outside the Manhattan office of billionaire Nelson Peltz the board chair and largest shareholder at Wendy's before rallying near the United Nations building where workers broke a 5 day fast this is a mockery worker and hunger strike or Nelly rectory guess when I look at what's up me I'm up with what we're asking is that Nelson Peltz promises that Wendy's will join the Fair Food Program which is a program recognized for ending sexual violence and slavery in the agricultural fields of Florida another thing that we'd like to say to Nelson cults and Wendy's is that we're not doing this for the money we as an association don't receive a bonus the money is paid from the corporation to the farmers and the farmers are responsible for distributing that extra cent to the farm workers were not doing it for the cent when Jesus lying saying we're doing this for the money we're here to prove they're lying they're lying through their false code of conduct that does not include the voice of the workers. And in Mexico thousands of women from across the world converged to territory in the southern state of Chiapas over the weekend for the 1st international political artistic sports and cultural gathering of women that struggle this is at the Teesta woman delivering a collective message at the closing ceremony. This little late is for you to take it sister and company and take it to the women who are disappeared take it to the murdered take it to the imprisoned take it to the rain take it to the beaten him take it to the abused take it to the women who face violence in all forms take it to the migrants take it to the exploited take it to the does take it and tell each and every one of them that she is not yet you're going to fight for her that you're going to fight for the truth and for the justice that her pain deserves and those are some of the headlines This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean we can today we begin a special series looking back at the 1968 a pivotal year in modern American history it was a year that saw the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy historic student strikes from Colombia to San Francisco State the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the Chicago Democratic Convention protests and the escalation of the Vietnam War 50 years ago today on March 16th 1968 U.S. Soldiers attacked the Vietnamese village of me lie U.S. Troops arrived at 7 30 am local time even though the soldiers met no resistance they slaughtered more than $500.00 Vietnamese women children and old men over the next 4 hours and what became known as the may lie massacre the soldiers raped women they burned their houses they mutilated the villagers bodies one U.S. Soldier said he was ordered to kill anything that breathed memorials have been held today and me lie to mark this 50th anniversary survivors gathered to describe the horror of what happened March 16th 1968. 170 people and they shot them all day they shut them all the shot ones they took one minute break and open fire for just a 2nd then the 3rd time my father who was in his eighty's was injured and tumbling down crawling I laid very still in as if I was dead and they glanced at him I saw him but I dare not speak to him and feared they might hear me and shoot me I wanted to yell at him to lay down and maybe de won't shoot again but they noticed him and shot half of his head that way after the massacre the U.S. Military attempted to cover up what happened but in November of 1969 a young reporter named Seymour Hersh would reveal a 26 year old soldier named William Calley was being investigated for killing $109.00 Vietnamese civilians in 2015 psi her she appeared on Democracy Now and discussed what the U.S. Soldiers did on the day of the massacre. But that Morty they got up at the thinking they were going to be in combat against the vehicle and they were happy to do it Charlie Company had lost 20 people through snipers etc They want to pay back and they've been taking it out on the people but they've never seen the enemy have been in they've been in country as they said in Vietnam for 3 or 4 months without ever having an set piece war that's just the way it is and guerrilla warfare which is why we shouldn't do it but that's another story and they went in that morning ready to kill or be killed on behalf of America to their credit they led that there were just nothing but women and children doing the usual as you said in your intro cooking warming up rice for breakfast and they began to put him in ditches and start executing them Kelly's company Kelly had a platoon there were 3 platoons that went in they rounded up people put him in a ditch the other companies just went along and then gather people just went from house to house and killed and raped and mutilated and it just went on until everybody was either run away or killed 400 and some odd people in that village alone of the 5 or 600 people who live there were murdered that they all by noon 1 o'clock 1 point one helicopter pilot and wonderful man named Thompson saw what was going on and actually landed his helicopter he was a small combat had to go door to gunners he just landed a small helicopter and he ordered his gunners to train their weapons on Lieutenant Calley and other Americans and they were there Kelly was in the process of apparently going to throw hand grenades into a ditch where there were 10 or so Vietnamese civilians and he put his guns and Kelly and took the civilians made a couple trips and took them out flew about the safety he of course was immediately in trouble for doing that that was Seymour Hersh on Democracy Now his reporting on Eli and the military's cover up altered how many Americans view the war in Vietnam he would win the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting only one soldier was convicted for the mass killings Lieutenant William Calley he was initially sentenced to life in prison but only served 3 and a half years under house arrest this is an edited excerpt of the Vietnamese documentary The sound of the violin and the line. The only American casualty on that day was a soldier Herbert captor who could not stand such men killing he shot himself in the foot so that he could not have to take part in a massacre Robert later related I saw an old man standing in the middle of the right squealed waving at us in a friendly manner but this shocked him I saw no bit got me to villages only poor farmers running away from the burning huts and then they shot them that Mrs Lee is lucky she was one of the rare survivals of the massacre this is the memorials their love for $102.00 people mostly women and children who were killed along this route that they have those nervous system must have been made of steel to be able to take these pictures a baby was skilled still hanging on is that mothers breast Mrs Lee and her son were spared because they Burrage themselves under the bodies of 3 or 4 villagers nearby honey field children born was laying on top of his brother chill numb to shield him from the bullets both of them work here. Mrs Newman and says the Yang also survived those of the massacre but there's the Beigel were somewhat special they were saved by the helicopter crew he would Thomson Larry called Bernie and Glen and you know. We survived because these Americans waved to us and took us on their helicopter thanks to them I'm still alive today. Yeah. That would not have. Gotten you my bad I thought they sucked like met them when they came I ran for the shelter I look up to London yes men rage and we came out when they pushed us onto the ship and to me we would deck scared you like we were going to drop us into December like you after some time had a cop who landed in this signal just to run away it was only then that we knew we had been seen out as a lot of anger. And anger. Directed at the Vietnamese but it was directed at myself soldiers who. Went crazy that. Is Real sorry my crew could not have done more I think stream was sorry for myself or Americans for what happened. It was a right it was or. A pretty good something like this never happens again an excerpt from the Vietnamese film the sound of the violin and the law in the film was directed by a trombone tweet and produced by the War veteran Mike Boehm who is in the light today for the memorial with other veterans who became peace activists another vet who returned to Vietnam for this 50th anniversary of the mainline massacre is Eric hurt her story is true to her career what happened here. In America is. Whatever you call it here. It's from a show strong and it was to be deeply deeply wrong and. I don't think you think you know it should be out now more of that or an error occurred or speaking today on this the 50th anniversary of the may lie massacre when U.S. Forces slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese women children and old men the date March 16th 1968 the war would continue for another 7 years some scholars estimate as many as 3800000 Vietnamese died during the war up 280-0000 perished in Cambodia another 1000000 in Laos the U.S. Death toll was 58000 when we come back we'll speak to 2 Vietnam War veterans and a peace activist who traveled back to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the ME line massacre today Stay with us. And. Play. The Universal Soldier of by Buffy St Marie of 1st Nation creasing or This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org I mean the good men today marks the 50th anniversary of the may lie massacre when U.S. Forces slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese women children old men a group of Vietnam War veterans and peace activists have traveled back to Vietnam to mark today's anniversary democracy now is one solace and I recently spoke to 3 members of the delegation that are in Vietnam today Vietnam veteran Paul Cox who later co-founded the Veterans for Peace chapter in San Francisco Susan Schnell former Navy nurse who was court martialed for opposing the Vietnam War and longtime activist Ron Carver who's organized an exhibit honoring the G.I. Antiwar movement at the War Remnants Museum and then City I began by asking Ron Carver about what happened 50 years ago today and me lie well 504 civilians noncombatants were mowed down by soldiers and he said it was horrific but it was not an isolated incident it was part of the culture of the war that had been created and fostered and it was. Largely a product of the Pentagon's. Insistence on high body counts in order to justify their continued war effort and their continuing escalating insistence that the US Congress give them ever more money and ever more troops. This is what led to these kind of massacres. The significance to to me however is is of people like Hugh Thompson who. At great risk landed his helicopter had his crew training their guns on the soldiers who were committing this massacre and telling them that they had to stop or they would be shot themselves. And that's part of what has led to the development of this exhibit that will be held in Saigon in city today it's called on the 19th. Of March 3 days after the anniversary of the ME line massacre. Call waging peace the U.S. Soldiers and veterans who opposed America's war in Vietnam and it is to give credit and honor. The folks who took great risks to oppose the war some of them. Went to jail in this country like Dr Howard Levy who refused to train green Bray troops in. Medical techniques there are people in this exhibit armor or those who refuse to pull the ploy to Vietnam like J.J. Johnson and. The 2 others who made the Fort Hood 3 people who went to Vietnam like Paul but then confronting the horror of what they were doing stopped going out in the gays in combat some of them like Bill short. Ended up being charged with conspiracy to mutiny because he refused to engage anymore in combat and was sent to the stockaded. In Vietnam others who deserted and so a lot of these folks will be on the tour in March from annoy to the lie and then to Saigon and the exhibit will have photographs of them. Information that they said and feature the underground papers that they produced telling other soldiers about what was going on exposing the horrors and the injustice of that war Paul Cox You enlisted in the military during the Vietnam War Could you talk about your personal experience why I decided to enlist what you what a consciousness of the soldiers were you know I joined in 1968 I got my draft notice for 2 years draft enlistment in the army but. I wanted. I had no consciousness about the war. Against it or for it but I thought I had a duty to my country so I joined the Marine Corps for 4 years not a deep thinker but that's what I did I spent 18 months in Vietnam a 2 and a half. Most of that time I was up on the D.M.Z. In unpopulated areas fighting North Vietnamese regulars but with no contact with the Vietnamese civilians but the last 6 months of my tour I was down in the rice paddy south and west of the nagging. And got a much much different view of the war and saw how poorly to put it mildly we were treating our so-called allies the South Vietnamese whose hearts and minds we were supposed to be winning. And that's not what we were doing at all we were operating in free fire zones. I was involved in a small massacre of about 15 people in May of I'm sorry April of 1970. And that changed my entire view of the war can you talk about the massacre you said you were involved with we were running what the generals call pacification programs essentially we would go out from our base and sometimes only for a few hours and we would sweep into a village. And round up everybody and put them on trucks or helicopters and evacuate them to the strategic hamlets and we did that many times this particular incident we had been out for 4 days in old abandoned rice paddies it had been all over grown and in elephant grass we started down the elephant grass created a company size perimeter. And just sat there for 4 days running a cloverleaf of patrols to the in each of the 4 directions. In the same patrol each day on the same route which is not smart visually on the 4th day. And the squad that was in charge was doing the northern loop. Somebody sniped at them nobody got hit but the squad unwisely decided to sort of pursue. Sniper they hadn't gone far until they found a booby trap located it somehow the thing went off killed one man wanted 3 others and. And that was it that was the only action we had in those 4 days the next day we were going to pull up stakes and we were going to hike to. A bridge Liberty Bridge and be taken back to the base but to get to Liberty Bridge we had to go through a village. The rest of that afternoon before we left. There was a Piper Cub flying over this village with loud speakers yelling at them in Vietnamese presumably telling them they needed to evacuate because this was after all a free fire zone. The cannon the company commander this is an Bravo Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines. Did an unusual thing he told our lieutenant he wanted the squad that had lost the men the day before to walk point and these guys were very angry not just at the they should have been angry at themselves for finding a booby trap and then being so silly as to set it off but they were angry at the Vietnamese. So they walked point and when they got into the village they passed the word back past my squad. Are there any friendlies in this area. The company commander responded up the line no this is a free fire zone immediately afterwards there was some firing. As I got to the 1st . But there was an old woman who had been got shot who was dying the 2nd one we went to there was a pile of 6 or 8 people these were children and women and old man and the 3rd there was another pile of people who had been shot dead. And then we just passed to the corner of the village. It When we got everybody in the whole company walked past the same scene that I did and when we got to the other side the company commander asked for volunteers to go back in his search the rest of the village. None of the officers volunteered I mean there's a chain of command he should have said Lieutenant take a squad or whatever but he asked for volunteers and so a staff sergeant and and some volunteers decided to go back and there was a little bit more shooting. Most of us were kind of in shock these people had been gunned down this was not a battle and none of us participated in my squad in that. So the squad came back we left they called in air strikes on the village which is not the way you're supposed to use tactical air. A few days later apparently some of the survivors of this massacre had carried the body of a of a child and a woman to a nearby base and filed a formal complaint there was an investigation nothing happened needed the guys needed the men who pulled the triggers on those folks. Were relieved of duty the company commander who said the whole thing up was not relieved of duty and life just went on. But that turned my head about the war and and I was not. Not going to participate in that any longer and I left Vietnam in August to 70 very very angry at myself at the Marine Corps. At the American people at the US government and and in really determine that I was going to do what I could to help in the war I still had 2 years left due in the Marine Corps. And so I was a bit of a late comer to the anti-war movement in the G.I. Movement but I tried to make up for it by working very hard we put it I was stationed at Camp was unit for the last 2 years of my tour and we put on an underground newspaper called Rage. Was not an example of high journalism but it was it was the best we could do and we were really working hard to. Tell the truth about the about the Vietnam War and about militarism in this country what was the reaction of the base commanders and their forty's to your publication when we were we were underground as best we could be for a very long time I don't even have a photograph of that period because we were afraid to take photographs as evidence . But the I mean I do have copies of the newspaper we put out. We used to distribute the newspaper in the middle of the night we'd get 3000 copies made. And bring them on to base in a couple of cars and we would go through the barracks This is a camp Lagunas an infantry base and we would we would just walk through the barracks at 3 am in the morning and drop off these papers on people's racks and after 3 or 4 or 5 of these suddenly we'd see M.P.'s swarming towards where we had been earlier and we just said OK that's enough for tonight and we would leave. It freaked them out it was not something that they were. Willing to tolerate and but we never got caught on base like to bring to the conversation talk about your situation as a as a nurse and as a lieutenant in the Navy what happened with you and your court martial to you. I went into the Navy to take care of the wounded to help them heal and to get back to their families and to their communities as a part of the Navy I saw what was going on and I heard stories from the guys that came back I was stationed at all Naval Hospital in Oakland California and took care of the casualties and heard their stories I didn't hear in quite the same detail that that Paul is related because at that time I think the war was to freshen they didn't want to talk explicitly about what they had seen but I heard their nightmares in the middle of the night I heard them yelling and screaming and yelling out their bodies I saw as some of the guys who had open wounds having their arms and their legs held up by a butcher like contraptions with infection coming out and I as I said I heard them in the middle of the night and heard some of the stories that way I went in as a healer and I felt at one point and it was after about a year in the military that I had become a part of the United States military and I had help perpetuate the war in Vietnam and I just thought I had to live with myself and and speak out against the war I had heard about the United States dropping fliers on Vietnam on the Vietnamese urging them to go to protective hamlets to get away from this spring which we now know was Agent Orange and to get out of harm's way and I thought again we were going we're organized G.I. And veterans March for peace in the San Francisco Bay area and we had difficulty getting publicity out we posted fliers we hand we put posters up and they were torn down on the base so I thought if the United States can drop these flyers on the people of another country why couldn't we drop flyers a military base publicize. Veteran smarts for peace in the San Francisco Bay Area I had a friend who was a pilot and we rented a single engine plane and loaded with flyers announcing the demonstration we dropped them on Okinawa Naval Hospital where I was working on Treasure Island on Europe way an island on the Presidio the army base and then we flew into the Alameda Naval Air Station because the U.S.S. Ranger was stuck there and we dropped the Flyers on the deck of the aircraft carrier I wore my uniform and I had a press conference afterwards you were a Navy lieutenant I was a lieutenant junior grade Yes I was. Were you afraid. It was all it yes yes I was I was concerned about what the military would do to me but I looked at that in proportion to what was going on with what we were doing with young American soldiers and how we were sending them in harm's way to hurt and kill and destroy people from another country thousands of miles away and I thought about the terrible destruction and damage being done to Vietnam and for me it was an issue as I said of living with myself and just saying I'm in the military I stand against the war and there are many many thousands of other soldiers sailors and Marines who will stand with me. So we drop the Flyers and have the press conference I was issued this order to not wear my uniform in a public demonstration expressing bipartisan views publicly and I thought you know General Westmoreland goes in front of Congress asking for more men and more armaments and more money to fight this war why can't I wear my uniform as a member of the military and stand up for peace so I wore my uniform in the anti-war demonstration and spoke out against war and you were court martial to what happened. That was 6 months later I actually worked full time in the military had an article 15 the captain's mast went on to a full general court martial was tried for 2 charges one was intent to destroy the morale of the United States troops and the other was disappearing in general maybe regulation then conduct unbecoming an officer I was given a sentence 6 months forfeiture of all pay and allowances. To be confined the trial counsel wanted 5 years confinement at hard labor and the court martial board gave me 6 months confinement and did. From service and where were you confined to and what did you have to do there I actually was sent back to full duty because that time the military also had a regulation that said if a woman received a sentence of under a year she didn't necessarily have to serve it and since I received a sentence of 6 months which I think was deliberate We have a lot of publicity about the case I was sent back to the hospital to full duty. And reported and was then the signing to the women's units in the children's unit and we put out an underground newspaper but handed it out from person to person. Isn't she a former Navy nurse who was court martialed for dropping antiwar pamphlets from a plane over U.S. Military bases around San Francisco Bay will return to our conversation with her Paul Cox and Ron Carver All 3 now in Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the mainline massacre Stay with us. Then on to. The next. I feel like I'm fixin to Guy ride by Country Joe and the fish here on Democracy Now I mean the good men with Juan Gonzalez says We continue to mark the 50th anniversary of the mainline massacre we return to our conversation with 3 longtime peace activists who went back to Vietnam to mark the anniversary the now more veterans Paul Cox incision shell and longtime organizer Ron CARPER I asked Ron to talk about the G.I. Coffeehouses which became a hotbed of G.I. Resistance during the Vietnam war civilians who were supportive of the soldiers in the effort to bring them home alive. Came up with the idea started with for a gardener. Who lives in Alameda California who opened up the 1st coffee house called the U.F.O. In Columbia South Carolina out of sight of for Jackson and his vision was to have a place. In these army towns were filled with exploitative. Businesses trying to just fleece the soldiers you know sleazy bars. Jewelry stores whorehouses and he had the idea of setting up. A. Nonprofit coffee houses were picked she could come listen to rock and roll watch movies about Vietnam and talk with each other where particularly soldiers back from Vietnam who were feeling bitter and betrayed that the war wasn't what they had been told it is going to be and were resentful they could come they could talk to their recruits who were not yet had not yet been sent to Vietnam but also they could write the their stories in create these underground newspapers that we civilians would then take to have printed bring back to the coffee houses thousands of copies of these which the soldiers would then smuggle back on to the base at great risk to themselves and therefore spread the word in many ways those coffee those underground papers were the equivalent of the social media today they were a method where the soldiers who knew the truth about the war in Vietnam could pass it along in pretty close to real time. They would also talk about the burgeoning protest by soldiers and other bases leading peace marches deserving in involved in acts of sabotage and other efforts to end the war. I want to turn to a clip from the 2005 documentary Sir No Sir. But on the nose propped up at several army bases these days the so-called underground G.I. Press which consists largely of I wore a newspaper military authorities are clamping down are on the papers. Traveling backward and Georgia last forever as Washington. Airports for your bombers Fort Dix New Jersey Fort Hood Texas. Is published by a group of radical soldiers stationed at this Army base and we used to distribute it clandestinely on base we. Only point is our barracks is it goes to barracks at night. If you record distributing literature and. Court martial despite the military's best efforts the underground press became the life blood of the G.I. Movement as the Army's own recruiting slogan fun travel and it. Turned into the popular G.I. Expression. There was close to $300.00 anti-war newspapers written produced published on bases throughout the world it was worth every beer or. 2 guys in the world that was a clip from the 2005 documentary Sir Ron Carr I want to ask you because a lot of attention is devoted has been devoted in in studies and reminiscences of the anti-war movement in Vietnam but not as much to the resistance within the military of the soldiers themselves and to what degree that affected the decision of the U.S. Government that he could no longer continue to pursue the war in Vietnam one of one in your thoughts on that the impact of that resistance. Well I mean you can have my thoughts but the Army's own internal studies noted the breakdown in morale the breakdown discipline. The large number of. Frontline soldiers who are refusing to fight or would go out but found ways not to engage with the so-called enemy. By 968 every major antiwar March peace March in the United States was led by active duty soldiers and veterans and 597172 it became clear that the United States no longer had the capacity. To continue the ground war and that led to the Pentagon's decision to move toward an air war that wasn't dependent on ground troops and then soon after that you began to see sailors on the. Destroyers the I'm sorry the aircraft carriers are refusing to board or beginning to sabotage their own ships and the. Air Force Navy pilots. Refusing to continue going on bombing missions not enough to bring the war to a halt just yet it continued to 75 but clearly. The that shii movement of active duty soldiers backed up by a veterans and then the general peace movement was a key factor. Along of course with the Vietnamese own. Incredible spirit and determination to fight for the liberation of their country but but I believe in a lot of historians now are beginning to believe that this movement was a key factor in ending the war the problem is that today most people don't even know that there was an CIA antiwar movement surely the Ken Burns and Novick film just glossed over this as they thought and in significant part but it was that it was a major reason that the U.S. Had to pull out Paul 7 Cox talk about how the G.I. Resistance materialize for you in Vietnam while you were fighting what were you seeing around you how were you workin izing Well I don't know a lot of organizing basically we were trying to stay alive we used to sandbag patrols that was a term we called for when we were sent on a patrol that might have 10 checkpoints and we would go out to checkpoint one and sit there all day and then good checkpoint 10 which was on the way back in and then come back in at the end of the day not having actually gone down the trails that we were supposed to patrol. We. Lot of people who managed to get sick now and then and not go out into the field. They there were fragging not a lot of them but there were some of them that I knew about in that last unit I was in when we came in from the field they took all our grenades away from us explain why they would take their grenades away and the whole issue of what fragging is. There was a study done later by the army and they admitted to 1600 frags that is a attempts or actual murders of officers or senior enlisted men by the lower ranking troops it's called a fragging because a common tool of murder of a an officer would be to throw a grenade under his rock and instead of fragmentation grenades so whether they would shoot the man in a in a during a battle or shoot him in the middle of the night or fragging that was all the same thing in the army admitted to 1600 of those. There were as I was aware of 2 of them in my last period of time there so they would they got they got paranoid they didn't trust the troops any longer and so they took our grenades away from us if we really were is reminiscent of what we hear in term in in Afghanistan I suppose the soldiers allied with the U.S. Troops turning on the U.S. Troops are supposed to leave their allies I want to turn to a clip of what John Kerry speaking in 1971 at the time Kerry was a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War he was testifying before the Senate in 1971 when he discussed the atrocities on earth in the Winter Soldier Investigation where over $150.00 veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia they told the stories of times that they had personally raped cut off ears cut off heads tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power . Cut off Liam's blown up bodies randomly shot at civilians razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan shot cattle and dogs for fun poison for in stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of soffit in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal. And very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. That that was John Kerry speaking in one thing 71 to the United States Senate. Paul Cox just wondering and. He was a member of the same G.I. Resistance movement against the war that that you were a part of. John Kerry yes when he was at that point he was a veteran he was out of the military. And so I don't know that he took actions while he was in the military but but the but the veterans' movement was very important and certainly after I got out I was active in the veterans' movement in support of the G.I. Movement for a number of years after I got out. Working on an additional paper called up against a ball kid came out of San Francisco Bay area I've told you the story of my one horrific day. And John Kerry was relating the results of the Winter Soldier Investigation to Congress of numerous G.I.'s talking about what had happened to them at their time this thing or that thing or the other thing when you put them all together it really formed a pattern of how. Shabbily we treated the Vietnamese who are allies. And he also made a very important point which was the air power not considered a war crime such as cutting off an ear might be but it certainly did tremendous damage to the Vietnamese people in the countryside and the environment along with Agent Orange which continues to as a legacy in Vietnam today and the unexploded ordinance which is a tremendous problem in Vietnam and as Ron pointed out. Burgess glossed over and said the land in Vietnam is largely healed itself well it hasn't healed itself they'll never get rid of the unexploded ordinance. Or they are very much plagued by the dioxin contamination from Agent Orange So these things continue to it's a gift that keeps on giving we talk about everything happening 50 years ago as though it's the end what Paul was just mentioning is the issue continuation of Agent Orange dioxin that continues to contaminate the land and the people in Vietnam we have both been on a couple of trips to visit the people and to see the children who are born with these terrible birth defects who will never be able to lead any kind of normal lives and the issue of that war 50 years ago is that that like it's it continues and that death and that destruction continues today Paul mentioned the continuing problem of unexploded ordinance children and farmers who are trying to fill the land if they come upon a scrap of metal that can explode it can kill them it can make them for life so that war 50 years ago continues to harm and I'll mention also that we know that the children of American servicemen who were in Vietnam have also been born with very similar birth defects to those of the children in Vietnam the worst part for the Vietnamese is because the land is contaminated with dioxin babies continued to people or an and to be affected by this problem when we want to commemorate and to respect the terrible terrible massacre and the sacrifice that the Vietnamese suffered those years ago and to come as as service people as veterans to say we're sorry we take responsibility and we will. You to work for peanuts and we will continue to work with you to try to heal some of these weapons of war Paul Cox how with the veterans that you've known after you came out. Of the military how have many of the veterans of Vietnam dealt with these issues that they of their participation in most of the rest of the world continues and I'm just imperial war but it is still regarded as a tragic mistake by many leaders in this country well I think there's a range of responses my own response to witnessing such a thing was to turn against the war and I've been an activist ever sence other people have a probably talked about it at all some people have drank themselves to death shot themselves jumped off of bridges. Other people just shut it down. And then the few probably are still proud of what they did in Vietnam the vast vast majority of G.I.'s that went to Vietnam neither witness nor participated in anything such as this although you know you have to say the pilots that ran those B. 52000 the guy that pushed the button the dope in the bomb bay doors and dropped B. 52 bombs did far more damage than any individual. Who looked his victims in the eye while he shot them. So the war itself is. An indictment of our country and in should be seen as such and the air war in the artillery and the naval fire should all be seen as equally as horrendous and is criminal and as inhumane as as the men that pulled the triggers in me liar the ones that in my unit to pull the trigger on those civilians. That was Vietnam War veteran Paul Cox Susan Schnall former Navy nurse who was court martialed for dropping antiwar pamphlets from a plane over U.S. Military bases around San Francisco Bay and longtime peace activist Ron Carver all 3 are in Vietnam today to mark the 50th anniversary of the mainline massacre that does it for today's special if you'd like to get a copy go to our website at Democracy Now dot org Special thanks to Mike Burke Sam now coughing that need him Brandon Allen and Chelsea for real democracy now will be in Washington D.C. On Saturday March 24th for a live multi hour broadcast from the March for our lives led by students survivors of the Valentine's Day massacre at the Marjorie stone then Douglas High School and Parkland Florida tune in that democracy now is produced by my birth really felt guys there near me in shape Carla wills Laura got its dinner Sam out John Hamilton Robbie Cameron How name a suturing and endure and not need a mike to fill up on the helmet care and Huckabee our engineer special thanks to back to Staley Julie Crosby Hugh Grant David proved best to good to ours hallmarks are an aerial Happy Birthday Arielle you can go to our website at Democracy Now check or for our video and audio podcast send transcripts and check us out on Roku and Facebook and Instagram I'm Amy Goodman This is Democracy Now thanks so much for joining us. Exhibition. Is through to preserve one of the most talked about exhibitions of the year says portraits of one kid to prove 20th century art without understanding the significance and genius of Paul says all the interviews with curators. Ready from the National Portrait Gallery. In New York the National Gallery of Art. Washington and the music d'Orsay in Paris the film takes audiences beyond the exhibition to the places says on live and work and sheds light on the artist who is perhaps the least known of all impressionist until now screens March 26th and 27th at a selected Lumley theater near you get more info at Langley dot com and call 818-985-2711 extension 4 pair of a bill passes if you are a film club member or to subscribe and join the keep you safe from club and then enjoy the fun. Welcome to K P F K established in 1059 on the Pacific Coast Radio Network a broadcast service of by and for the people 90.7 F.M. 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Of Me Lie The story of the infamous 1968 massacre of 500 Vietnamese people in the village of me lie by American soldiers and it's just that I recently saw the the the opera and it just blew my mind so I'm really looking forward to talking with them about that and opening the show up I'm really pleased to have this person back to the show because it's been way too long his name is pled and he's We're going to talk with him about Israel's incremental genocide against the Palestinian people he's the author of the book the general's son a journey of an Israeli in Palestine and injustice the story of the Holy Land Foundation and Nico was born in in Jerusalem in 1901 into a well known Zionist family he is a writer and human rights activist born and raised in Jerusalem and he calls for justice in Palestine support of the Palestinian cause for Boycott Divestment Sanctions and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights on all of historic Palestine Nico Welcome back to the show man it's been awhile thank you it's great to be here again yeah definitely Well let's jump into this because I want to get as much in as we can there's a full scale assault on the Palestinian people right now that a lot of people don't even know about because it's kept quiet and secret from the rest of the world in February alone at least 1301000 Palestinian people with the team by the Israeli occupation forces and other assaults continue unmitigated yet so little is known to the rest of the world what's your assessment of the situation today it's hard you know because people always say to me so our things. Like it's really nice and quiet there not nothing to go not thinking how I would the world if anybody reach that conclusion what in the world makes people think that everything is fine. Bleeding like an injured human being bleeding to death bleeding to death and I'm doing.