The landmarks of washington dc are familiar the world over. There is the national monument, the lincoln memorial, the jefferson memorial. In there other landmarks area about our nations capital, which are also familiar, but to a more specialized audience. Here, for instance, scarcely 12 miles from the white house, is maryland. Here are a few miles to the northeast lies the naval ordnance laboratory. Towering over washington suburbs, in bethesda, maryland, is the National Naval Medical Center. To the south of washington, d. C. , lies the huge naval test center. Proper, theict Naval Air Station is located on the east shore of the anacostia river. Across the river, stretching across 25 acres in the heart of washington, lies the u. S. Naval gun factory, huge industrial plants of 200 buildings. Here is the headquarters of the Potomac River naval command, coordinates communication, transportation, personnel a distribution, construction and repair, and civil matters. Now for a closer look at
This week on q a our guest is erik larson out with his book dead wake. With world war one being fought in europe, the lusitania liners sailed to liverpool, england with 2,000 passengers and crew on board. Cspan erik larson, your new book, dead wake, you start off first sentence, on the night of may 6, 1915, as his ship approach the coast of ireland, ccaptain William Thomas turner left the bridge and made his way to the first class lounge. What are you talking about . This is the night before the lusitania was torpedoed. The ship was that day, on friday the next day on friday, may 7th was going to enter the socalled the zone of war declared by the german navy. The water surrounding the u. K. Had become this they had designated this a zone of war. So the night before, captain turner was going into the lounge to actually talk to passengers during the intermission in the talent show, the nightly talent show, one of the features of transatlantic voyages. And he had some sobering news but al
We dont credit with torpedo capability, although they may have it. Washington and Lyndon Johnsons view and mcnamaras view, could wanted to shoot. They wanted to be tough. They are in an election season. They have to be seen to be tough. False reports gave them an excuse to do something they wanted to do. You see, some of the back and forth, and i give mcnamara some credit on this, because mcnamara actually paid attention when the ship captain harrick sends him the 1 00 message. Mcnamara already advises the president were under attack, were going to shoot back. Were going to do that. Mcnamara gets the followup where the ship commander says, dont think so. Mcnamara goes ballistic. He is a pretty powerful, forceful follow, robert mcnamara. Among other things, he calls up the admiral in charge of Pacific Command and says, what is this . They dont think you dont understand that were already in motion here. Weve already had the meetings with the principals. President s already signed up. Wer
News anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. Thats this Christmas Day on the cspan networks. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. About 50 years ago on august 10th, 1964, president Lyndon Johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution, which in lieu of a declaration of war gave him broad powers to wage war in Southeast Asia. That resolution was passed by congress in response to an august 2nd attack, and an alleged august 4th incident in the golf of tonkin involving u. S. Destroyers and vietnamese torpedo boats. American history visited the National Security archive at George Washington university to learn about numerous declassified documents that have shed more life on the gulf of tonkin incidents. Im tom blanton, the director of the National Security archive. Were here on the top floor of the main library at George Washington university, which is where we live. And were in a room full of boxes of declassified documents. Its really an artifact beca