Remembering Vietnam

A newly released motion picture called "We Were Soldiers," stars Mel Gibson as the U.S. infantry commander at the 1965 battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. The movie is based on a true story and adopted from the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young" co-written by war correspondent Joe Galloway, who risked his life to cover the battle, and Lt. General Harold Moore, played by Mel Gibson in the movie.

We heard a lecture given by author Joe Galloway at Boston University in May 2000 on military history. In this lecture, he spoke of his life as a combat correspondent and specifically of the Ia Drang Valley battle as a turning point in his life, and in the lives of the other men who survived it. During the lecture, Galloway also read from the prologue of the book on which the movie "We Were Soldiers" is based.

Following the excerpts from Mr.Galloway's speech, we presented a conversation about their Vietnam war experience with two veterans of that war: former US Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich, who is now a Professor of International Relations at Boston University, and former U.S. Navy Marine Sergeant Carlos Durante.