1 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:09,400 It was a hard American winter 2 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,150 A tough time for Americans. 3 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:20,995 But out there, beneath the ice, something big was stirring. 4 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:32,155 An awakening of the unruly animal, American democracy. 5 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:39,469 This presidential election isn't like other elections. 6 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,593 Those of us who have lived here for decades 7 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,953 felt the first tremors of a political earthquake. 8 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:58,151 It's not only a war gone bad and an economy on the skids, 9 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,318 but a nationwide loss of faith in government 10 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,392 that has gnawed at the root of the republic 11 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,758 since the dismal aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 12 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:22,035 I promise you, I will lead America in the 21st century and make you proud. 13 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,635 I will restore your trust and confidence in government. 14 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:27,916 That's what their votes are saying.' 15 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,117 Help us to believe in the American future again. 16 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:34,159 MAN 1: Forty-four. MAN 2: Forty-five. 17 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,117 WOMAN: Forty-six. MAN: Forty-seven. 18 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,033 (PEOPLE CHEERING) 19 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,516 In Iowa, I saw citizens going to the polls in double the numbers 20 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:47,397 of the last election. 21 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:54,435 It's odd, in a country obsessed with the new, 22 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,671 that history, its epic figures, its great texts 23 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:00,832 is treated as a living, breathing thing. 24 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:06,396 OBAMA: We are not a collection of red states and blue states, 25 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,517 we are the United States of America. 26 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,149 And in this moment, in this election, 27 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:16,232 we are running to believe again. 28 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:17,912 Thank you, Iowa. 29 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:21,753 It's never been more alive than now. 30 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:26,838 Is there anyone in America who doesn't call this election historic? 31 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,398 A candidate who doesn't reach out to history? 32 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,353 I want to explore this haunting of the present by the past. 33 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:44,353 I want to follow America deep into the conflicts of its history 34 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,993 to understand what's at stake right now. 35 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:00,834 ...standing up for the freedom of my people! 36 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,916 MAN ON MICROPHONE: Check one, two, three, four, five, 37 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:28,834 six, seven, eight, nine, ten. 38 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,959 SCHAMA: It was a year before the election, a wartime election. 39 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,195 Which meant, as so many times before in American history, 40 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:56,798 the arguments about the price America was paying in blood and money 41 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,908 would be fierce, loud, unsparingly bitter. 42 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:08,558 But for one day, the grief was held in check. 43 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:14,473 Instead, America was gathered in the patriotic moment of remembrance. 44 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,194 (BAND PLAYING NATIONAL EMBLEM MARCH) 45 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,156 The world has got into the habit of thinking of America 46 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,196 as the tough-guy empire, 47 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:43,678 trigger-happy cowboys addicted to the rush of military power. 48 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,273 But that's not the way America sees itself. 49 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,757 America may be a country founded in revolution, 50 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:04,873 but we've never been a warrior culture. 51 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,629 We are a democracy, defended by volunteers. 52 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,518 We're a peaceful nation. At times in our history... 53 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,752 I sat there and thought, "Well, that's rich, coming from him." 54 00:05:16,840 --> 00:05:19,912 But the fact is what the Vice President said 55 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,514 is what most Americans believe. 56 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,277 Yet these blessings alone have never been enough 57 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,228 to assure safety at home or peace in our world. 58 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,669 From the days of the founding fathers, right to this election, 59 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,957 how and where America fights to defend its freedom 60 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,630 has been the ultimate question in its politics. 61 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:49,950 The one that triggers rage and sorrow, the one that asks, 62 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,589 is the price of blood too dear for this cause? 63 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,759 We cannot wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close, 64 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:04,353 we cannot wait. 65 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,671 Or if it is to stay true to its convictions, 66 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:13,548 does America have no choice but to put its lives on the line? 67 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,597 We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. 68 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:20,672 It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, 69 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,399 a stain on our character as a great nation 70 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,472 if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people. 71 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,518 The debate is at the heart of this election, 72 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,637 and as with great war elections of the past, 73 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:38,794 it forces America to dig deep and rediscover what it stands for. 74 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:08,718 Amidst the stones of Arlington, there's someone I knew. 75 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,076 Not just a name, but a face, a presence. 76 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:15,914 The son of a neighbour from my small town in New York state, 77 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,635 killed fighting in Afghanistan. 78 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:25,312 It's a classic American story, mother and father Korean, 79 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:27,470 first generation immigrant. 80 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,629 But I look at that and I don't just think of a kid I knew. 81 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:36,916 You think of someone whose story 82 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,833 could only have been an American story, actually, 83 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,669 because it's an immigrant story. 84 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:47,596 It's a story of complete selflessness and of a family bond. 85 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:51,992 And this is a place full of family bonds. 86 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,479 Kyu-Chay's grave is in Section 60, 87 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:00,519 where the fallen of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lie buried. 88 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:07,989 To walk from this spot up the hill to Section 1, 89 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:12,039 where the earliest graves were dug, is to walk through the bones 90 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:16,119 of America's fallen all the way back to the Civil War. 91 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,313 And to one grave in particular. 92 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,276 This is the tomb of John Rodgers Meigs, 93 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,239 who was killed in 1864, aged just 22. 94 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:34,156 His father, General Montgomery Meigs, built this memorial to his son 95 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:37,232 and he created Arlington National Cemetery. 96 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:40,838 He did much more. 97 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,438 During the Civil War, Montgomery Meigs transformed the Union Army 98 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:47,476 from a few thousand men 99 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:52,759 into a military power the likes of which the world had never before seen. 100 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:02,069 For me, Meigs is the story of American war, 101 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:07,029 its steely obligations, its inevitable anguish. 102 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:12,797 In 1832, Montgomery Meigs enrolled as a cadet 103 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,793 in the United States Military Academy at West Point. 104 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,195 Much as they did in Meigs's day, 105 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:35,878 the cadets here still wear the smoke-grey uniforms and short haircuts. 106 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,236 MAN: Anaconda! 107 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:43,348 It was a style considered appropriate for the sons of the new republic. 108 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,149 No knee britches, lace trim or powdered wigs here. 109 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:49,629 There are 110 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:53,080 four minutes 111 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:57,111 until assembly 112 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:01,228 for haircut inspection. 113 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:05,558 It may not look like it, 114 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,269 but for two centuries, West Point has been a war college 115 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:13,399 that's stood against, not for, a military cult. 116 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,755 A place sworn from its foundation to uphold civilian control of the Army, 117 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:25,679 a place where military dictatorship would be strangled at birth. 118 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:34,277 At any rate, that was what its founder, President Thomas Jefferson, wanted. 119 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,232 But then, he was the least likely founding father 120 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,232 to set his seal on a military college. 121 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:47,869 - All right, kids, I'm going to school. - Have a good day, Larry. 122 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:50,349 Jefferson was, in his marrow, 123 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,353 a Virginian gentleman farmer and philosopher. 124 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:58,069 He looked at Europe and its history and saw its standing armies 125 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,835 and its endless wars as the nursery of tyrants. 126 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:08,910 That was never going to happen in the democratic republic of America. 127 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:24,631 Jefferson knew that America had won its freedom thanks to bloody war, 128 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,393 but he consoled himself that this was truly different 129 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:31,109 from the wars of the Old World, fought by aristocratic officers 130 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:33,509 commanding mercenary scum. 131 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,639 Jefferson thought professional soldiers were bad for democracy. 132 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,759 Of course, Jefferson could feel that way about the fighting 133 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:44,638 because he'd done so little of it himself. 134 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:48,998 And his distance from the gun smoke meant he could allow himself the luxury 135 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:53,676 of a little fantasy that it had all been the victory of ordinary citizens, 136 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:56,638 farmers, storekeepers, salt-of-the-earth, 137 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,792 men who wouldn't have dreamt of grabbing a musket 138 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:02,394 unless it was to defend hearth and home 139 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,631 against bestial mercenaries in redcoats. 140 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,796 Not all the founding fathers shared this view. 141 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:19,469 Certainly not Jefferson's political enemy, Alexander Hamilton. 142 00:12:19,560 --> 00:12:23,394 Hamilton was a high-voltage powerhouse of ideas, 143 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:26,438 but even within his own party, there were those who feared 144 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,751 he might become an American Bonaparte. 145 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:34,675 Hamilton reckoned he really knew what made human beings tick, 146 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:37,354 money, lust, battle, power. 147 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,557 That went for Americans quite as much as for anybody else 148 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:41,789 Even if it didn't, 149 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,474 they'd better be prepared to deal with the dirty old dogs 150 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:48,189 of the rest of the world. Pursue peace, Hamilton said, 151 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,273 but do it by always being ready for war. 152 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:58,953 Unlike Jefferson, Hamilton had been a real soldier, 153 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,715 impetuous and brave, often at George Washington's side 154 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:04,995 in the thick of the fighting. 155 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,513 He knew that Jefferson's fantasy militia, 156 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,319 citizen-soldiers with dodgy muskets, 157 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,313 had been the weakest, not the strongest link in the war effort. 158 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:19,030 Without the help of professional soldiers, 159 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:21,554 the war would never have been won. 160 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:30,234 These dramatically opposite visions of the American future were put to the test 161 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,676 in the momentous election of 1800. 162 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:36,194 Jefferson's Democratic Republicans 163 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:41,553 were pitted against Hamilton's party of big power Federalists. 164 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:43,278 The question was this.' 165 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,238 Was America to be a republic that would have an army 166 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:49,232 as big as the continent it wanted to dominate 167 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,880 or would it be a citizen democracy 168 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,396 that would keep its military innocence intact? 169 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:02,832 Though Hamilton's vision endured, it was Jefferson who won the election. 170 00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:07,678 And as President, he put his ideals about the military into effect. 171 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:11,951 In 1802, he created West Point, 172 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,468 not just as an academy for battle, 173 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:18,518 but as a school for democratic citizenship. 174 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,390 MAN: Brigades, attention. 175 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,870 Still got vacant seats, report to the boot camp to pick up floaters. 176 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:26,837 Take seats. 177 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:33,678 Jefferson never thought of its graduates as permanent soldiers, 178 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:38,590 more like tutors to the citizen militia in artillery, fortification 179 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,558 and engineering, the defensive arts. 180 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,514 And this sense of civic duty lives on 181 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,309 among these young men and women who would be just like students 182 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:55,871 at any other American college, except this is wartime. 183 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:03,635 I think one thing that makes it so real for us, 184 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:08,714 and why it's easy to stay focused on how serious everything we do here is, 185 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:13,271 is every now and then, we have an unfortunate event 186 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,794 and they announce a graduate who died. 187 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,919 SIMON: When was the last time you heard that awful thing to listen to? 188 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:22,595 It wasn't that long ago, it wasn't that long ago. 189 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,353 When they announce a graduate who's fallen, 190 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,752 it just becomes that much more real. You never really get to escape it. 191 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:32,474 I think other college students get to open the paper 192 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:34,232 and they get to read the sports page 193 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,914 and, oh yeah, we also have that thing in Iraq. 194 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:48,188 LARRY: I didn't join the army so I could go shoot someone up. 195 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:55,391 If me and my friends of my generation 196 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:58,119 are doing our best to stay on an ethical path 197 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,988 and if we're leading our army in that direction, 198 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:05,550 then we're going to be able to avoid all the negative feelings 199 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,790 that people have towards us. 200 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:15,278 SCHAMA: The struggle between Jefferson's and Hamilton's vision of how America 201 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,433 comes to terms with its wars is waged every day 202 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,193 in the hearts and minds of these cadets. 203 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:29,358 A big piece of them wants to say to the world, as Jefferson would have, 204 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,956 "Behind our uniforms, we're citizens first, soldiers second, 205 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,715 fighting only as a last resort to protect freedom." 206 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:44,274 But then the Hamilton in them says, 207 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,990 "Grow up. There are enemies out there who wish America harm, 208 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,310 "who want to destroy its liberty, 209 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,790 "take the fight to them before it's too late." 210 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:00,873 Sometimes you start one way and end up the other. 211 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,160 That's what happened to Montgomery Meigs, 212 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:10,475 the idealistic Jeffersonian who'd have to turn Hamiltonian to save his nation. 213 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:17,914 Like all other West Point cadets, Meigs was trained in engineering. 214 00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:23,196 Thomas Jefferson had wanted his graduates to do their best 215 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:28,798 for civilian America, not just to build forts, but bridges and roads. 216 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:33,794 So after excelling at the Academy, 217 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,393 Meigs's first job was to survey a section of the Mississippi River, 218 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:42,834 to find a way to protect the town of St Louis from flooding. 219 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:48,350 He worked with another young West Point star, Robert E Lee. 220 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:51,672 They became friends. 221 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:59,988 Captain Meigs quickly won a reputation as a man who got things done. 222 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,191 After building forts around America, 223 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,636 he was called to Washington to help rebuild the city. 224 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,993 In 1852, he settled here with his wife Louisa. 225 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,436 They had a son named John. 226 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,518 The boy was the apple of his father's eye, and it was clear early on 227 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,991 he would follow his father to West Point and on into the military. 228 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,875 Meigs thought of America as the new Rome, 229 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,793 and he was going to be its heroic engineer. 230 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,152 Mighty public buildings, aqueducts. 231 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,799 He was asked to supervise the construction of the new dome 232 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:07,871 for the Capitol building. 233 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:13,193 But he did something you do at your peril in Washington, DC. 234 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:17,034 He became the enemy of shady lobbyists and contractors, 235 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:21,432 got a name for himself as unreasonably honest. 236 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:24,398 1859 was an important year. 237 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:27,677 The dome was well on the way to completion 238 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:31,799 and his son John had been admitted to West Point. 239 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,077 He wanted to become an engineer like his father. 240 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:38,998 But America was on the brink of Civil War. 241 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,435 The South had decided to leave the Union 242 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:43,909 if that's what it took to protect slavery. 243 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,594 The North would go to war to stop it. 244 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,357 Meigs, who had family south as well as north, 245 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:54,115 was as torn up as the country by this division. 246 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,995 Meigs brooded darkly on the fate of his country. 247 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,992 For so much of his life he'd been a builder, not a destroyer, 248 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,640 an engineer of life, not of death. 249 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:16,915 He was in no rush to go to war, but if the price of the Union 250 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,117 was to destroy everything that made America America, 251 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:24,637 liberty, equality, then that price, he thought, was too steep. 252 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:30,792 If ever there was a war of last resort for Meigs, this was it. 253 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,435 He assumed that his West Point comrade-in-arms Robert E Lee 254 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:40,670 would see it the same way, 255 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:42,796 but when the moment of truth arrived, 256 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:47,795 Lee sided with the South as commander of the Confederate Army. 257 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:56,479 And then, in the midst of the crisis, 258 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,552 a presidential election. 259 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,918 Would the new leader be someone who might try to postpone the agony 260 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:10,314 or would he be someone who thought the time for evasion had finally run out? 261 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:20,875 The country elected Abraham Lincoln. 262 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,872 On March 4, 1861, Meigs witnessed 263 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:30,750 the new President, Abraham Lincoln, sworn in on the Capitol steps. 264 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,912 Like a lot of Americans, he didn't think that much of Lincoln, 265 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:38,232 backwoods provincial lawyer, undistinguished first-term congressman. 266 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,392 But then he heard Lincoln speak. 267 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,033 LINCOLN: We are not enemies, but friends. 268 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:49,159 We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, 269 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,277 it must not break our bonds of affection. 270 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,635 The mystic chords of memory, 271 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:59,714 stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart 272 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:03,429 and hearthstone all over this broad land 273 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:07,149 will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 274 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,279 when again touched, as surely they will be, 275 00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:13,828 by the better angels of our nature. 276 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:17,713 Meigs was deeply moved 277 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:23,272 by Lincoln's instinctively noble feel for the tragedy of the moment, 278 00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:28,434 his heartrending appeal for peace, his resolution to prosecute the war 279 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,273 to save the Union, should that be needed. 280 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,155 Though Meigs wanted a combat posting, 281 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,994 Lincoln insisted that he be his Quartermaster General, 282 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:43,751 supplying the Union Army with whatever it took to win the war. 283 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,519 Any illusions Montgomery Meigs might have had about a limited war, 284 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,797 reluctantly fought, disappeared in the nightmare 285 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,553 of carnage that swept over the country, 286 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,311 taking 620,000 lives 287 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:07,438 before its end. 288 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:27,951 And at the centre of it all, 289 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,716 feeding men, horses, guns, stretchers into the mouth of hell, 290 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,075 was Montgomery Meigs. 291 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:46,110 He saw the war as a vision of exploding ordnance, mutilated horses, 292 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:51,193 an immense, grim empire of human straining. 293 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:58,960 Something in which families, mothers, children, babies 294 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,238 were all caught up. 295 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:06,829 It was Meigs's talent for mobilisation 296 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,878 that eventually won the war for the Union, 297 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,714 for ultimately the North didn't outfight the South 298 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:15,791 so much as out-supply it. 299 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,195 Between July 1st and 3rd, 1863, 300 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:40,796 Quartermaster General Meigs's war machine met its greatest test 301 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,390 when it clashed with Robert E Lee's Confederate troops 302 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,153 in and around the town of Gettysburg. 303 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,155 There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. 304 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,437 This is one of them, a terrible place, Gettysburg. 305 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,477 There's just awful silence here. It's so quiet. 306 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,472 You can hear the remorseless thunder of the guns, 307 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,279 the fierce landscape of hell. 308 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:09,352 27,000 people wounded. 309 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,718 8,000 bodies, American against American, 310 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,069 absolute dead-on horrifying slaughter. 311 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,912 Insanely deluded ideas of chivalry, 312 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,913 Confederate infantrymen and horses charging, 313 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,231 gun emplacements up there, up there. 314 00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:34,235 Carnage, limbs off, people screaming, ridiculous military bands 315 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,869 fifing and drumming their way in and out of bloodshed. 316 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,316 It's farmland, it's farmland, it's the heart of America. 317 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,392 You walk along here, you squish the mud 318 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,392 and you feel that bones are going to pop up. 319 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,638 Even the boulders, they feel like burial mounds, 320 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,349 but all these stones seem to be heaps of men. 321 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,950 Men who'd been farmers and tanners and blacksmiths and storekeepers 322 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:06,239 and shopkeepers and dry goods clerks and lawyers just turned into bodies 323 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,276 to try and save America. 324 00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,675 The butchery was a brutal education for the man who engineered the victory. 325 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:27,599 Before the war began, 326 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,593 Meigs had predicted that it would be conducted humanely. 327 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:37,078 But this hadn't happened. 328 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,197 Instead, the country had been drowned in blood. 329 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,751 America had lost its military innocence. 330 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,036 Confronted with all this slaughter, 331 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:33,830 wagon after wagon of mutilated bodies arriving back in Washington, 332 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,629 something snapped in the iron Monty right here, 333 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,157 in the shadow of the home of his old friend turned unforgivable traitor, 334 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:43,833 Robert E Lee. 335 00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:47,794 Where were the Union dead going to find their resting place? 336 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,430 Well, why not right here? In Mrs Lee's rose garden. 337 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,433 The Lee family would never come home again. 338 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:00,479 By the end of the war, 339 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:04,792 16,000 Union dead had been buried on their estate. 340 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:09,274 Their garden would be a charnel house. 341 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,388 Why did Meigs want this so badly? Because it was his own home, 342 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,518 his own family, that had been torn asunder. 343 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,313 His son John, like his father before him, 344 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,834 an army engineer, had been killed, 345 00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:34,117 Meigs believed murdered in cold blood, by a band of Confederate irregulars. 346 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,196 It was as though Meigs held Lee 347 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,239 and all the other West Point traitors personally responsible 348 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,231 for the death of his son. 349 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:51,959 So when he came to commission this bronze, 350 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,474 he made the boy seem like a child, 351 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,989 as though standing in for the murdered innocence of all America. 352 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,991 But Meigs could not deny his own part in this, 353 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:14,593 as the man who'd armed the Union 354 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,195 and transformed the Army in the way Hamilton had advocated 355 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,078 and Jefferson had instinctively resisted. 356 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,920 So in creating Arlington National Cemetery, 357 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,912 Meigs was responding to a personal need 358 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,151 to imbue the sacrifice of the war with meaning. 359 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:42,716 And he gave his country a place to which Americans come again and again 360 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:44,870 to measure the cost of war. 361 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,194 For a while, the flag-draped coffins from Iraq and Afghanistan 362 00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,874 were hidden from the American people, 363 00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:59,793 but now everyone hears the muffled drums, 364 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:02,110 every small town has its young casualties, 365 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:07,433 and more than ever in this election, the demand to know why is heard. 366 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,389 And I am ready to end this war in Iraq, 367 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,438 end this era of cowboy diplomacy. 368 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,755 We will never surrender, they will. I promise you that. They will. 369 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:37,471 If it had been up to me, we would have never been in this war. 370 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,435 It was because of George Bush 371 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,433 with an assist from Hillary Clinton and John McCain 372 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,750 that we entered into this war, 373 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,876 a war that should have never been authorised, 374 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,190 a war that should have never been waged. 375 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,911 In 1900, there was a presidential election 376 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,639 which triggered a debate about the rights and wrongs 377 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,438 of an American war. 378 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,352 Hard-fought and bitter, 379 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:07,434 it revealed how the embattled visions of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson 380 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,717 would march on into the 20th century, 381 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:14,190 as the United States underwent a trial by fire 382 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,556 on its way to world power status. 383 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:20,473 At stake then and ever since 384 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,711 has been America's credibility and integrity, 385 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:30,515 as the carrier of democracy to nations fighting for their independence. 386 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,713 The debate was over a war with Spain, 387 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,634 in which American soldiers fought in Cuba and the Philippines. 388 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,318 Would the United States stay true to its founding idealism 389 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:55,155 and act as the enemy of empires or was it about to create its own? 390 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:05,791 (INAUDIBLE) 391 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:10,672 The antagonists in this debate were two of America's most famous men, 392 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,790 Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. 393 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,479 The most popular writer of his time 394 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,313 matched against a man whose ragtime rhetoric 395 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:24,278 aimed to rouse a whole generation to action. 396 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:41,274 Teddy Roosevelt had made it in politics 397 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,511 by presenting himself as a man of the modern age. 398 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,315 As far as Roosevelt was concerned, 399 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,552 the reality of the new century was not wishy-washy idealism 400 00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:57,153 but raw power. 401 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,029 This is his home, Sagamore Hill on Long Island. 402 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:17,190 It's a monument to the man who had made himself into an all-American hero. 403 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,355 Roosevelt had been a sickly boy with poor eyesight, 404 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,955 who through his own formidably precocious will, 405 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,675 turned himself into a specimen of American masculinity, 406 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,311 fighting Indians and outlaws out west, 407 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,678 riding and hunting, the bigger the game the better. 408 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,715 When he looked in the mirror or at the trophies mounted on his walls, 409 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,429 Teddy felt the need to convert his restless personal drive 410 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,630 into a greater public purpose. 411 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,909 As with the animal kingdom, so with great powers, 412 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,434 you are either the hunter or the hunted. 413 00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:11,437 To seize the future, you had to fight for it. 414 00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:20,955 Roosevelt despised Thomas Jefferson as a weakling in matters of war and peace, 415 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:25,875 but he revered Alexander Hamilton for his unapologetic determination 416 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,748 to make the United States a player on the world scene, 417 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,435 admired and feared for its military prowess. 418 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:39,508 So it was no accident that it was at The Hamilton Club in Chicago 419 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,513 that Roosevelt gave what was, even by his own standards, 420 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,670 an astonishing performance. 421 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:50,473 ROOSEVELT: The 20th century looms before us big 422 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:54,917 with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly by, 423 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,879 if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, 424 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:01,915 if we shrink from the hard contests 425 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,310 where men must win at hazard of their lives 426 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,472 and at the risk of all they hold dear, 427 00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,599 then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by 428 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:16,878 and will win for themselves the domination of the world. 429 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,793 On the 15th of February, 1898, 430 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:30,271 the battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. 431 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,837 266 American sailors died in the explosion 432 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,515 and much of the country howled for revenge against Spain, 433 00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,955 Cuba's imperial overlord. 434 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,108 Theodore Roosevelt resigned from his position 435 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,839 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 436 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,913 to lead a regiment of willing patriots known as the Rough Riders, 437 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:58,353 who were captured on camera in training before they left for Cuba. 438 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:06,192 Also caught on camera was the burial of the victims of the Maine. 439 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:12,750 In fact, it was the media that for the first but not the last time 440 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,354 would stir up patriotic fury. 441 00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:24,511 Once the war began, millions of people in the Nickelodeon cinemas 442 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,434 saw with their own eyes recreations of the fighting 443 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:30,954 filmed in back lots in New Jersey. 444 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:41,230 News of the war travelled round the world, all the way to Vienna, 445 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:46,394 where America's most revered writer, Mark Twain, was on a lecture tour. 446 00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:53,430 When news of the Spanish-American War reached Vienna, 447 00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:55,636 Twain's friends turned on him 448 00:36:55,720 --> 00:36:58,712 and on the bully boy government in Washington. 449 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,798 To them, the war was just naked imperialism 450 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,589 dressed up with sanctimonious guff about liberation. 451 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:07,671 But Twain shot back indignantly. 452 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:14,470 TWAIN: I have never enjoyed a war as I am enjoying this one. 453 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,152 It is a worthy thing to fight for one's own freedom. 454 00:37:19,240 --> 00:37:23,028 It is another sight finer to fight for another man's. 455 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,874 And I think this is the first time this has been done. 456 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,679 SCHAMA: The Spanish-American War was quickly and conclusively won 457 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,911 and the American Navy returned triumphant to New York, 458 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,436 having destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. 459 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,030 The Filipinos expected America 460 00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,839 to liberate them from their Spanish oppressors 461 00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:55,357 in the same way as it had already liberated the Cubans. 462 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,557 After all, hadn't America's President McKinley 463 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:04,316 said that to annex the Philippines would be an act of criminal aggression? 464 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:08,838 But that was then. 465 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,630 There was an election coming up. McKinley did a whistle-stop tour, 466 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:19,078 sniffed the air of the country and found it thick with patriotic jingo. 467 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:23,790 He started to have second thoughts about the freedom of the Filipinos. 468 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,110 McKinley was re-elected. 469 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,474 And Teddy Roosevelt joined him as Vice President. 470 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:41,150 American troops would stay in the Philippines. 471 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:46,150 But a fierce Filipino insurgency began. 472 00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:49,676 And America, having won a quick victory against Spain, 473 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:57,591 found itself waging an ugly, painful war against the Filipino guerrillas. 474 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,196 The conversion of the Philippines War 475 00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,636 from a liberal crusade into an imperial adventure 476 00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:13,156 won McKinley the election of 1900. 477 00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:18,360 But it turned Mark Twain into a merciless critic of American imperialism 478 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,113 and the whole shallow cult of battle. 479 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:27,037 On the 15th of October, 1900, Mark Twain returned to America. 480 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:32,357 Hordes of reporters greeted him at the dockside. 481 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,596 They all wanted to know the answer to one question, 482 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,436 what did he think about the war in the Philippines? 483 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:44,593 Twain had already made his views on that subject crystal clear. 484 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,119 TWAIN: We were to relieve them from tyranny 485 00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:53,397 to enable them to set up a government of their own 486 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:57,996 and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial, 487 00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:02,119 that would have been a worthy mission for the United States. 488 00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:04,796 SCHAMA: What Twain said next 489 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:09,317 has a resonance for those who have lived through Vietnam and Iraq. 490 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:13,679 TWAIN: Why, we have got into a mess, 491 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,399 a quagmire from which each fresh step 492 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,473 renders the difficulty of extraction immensely greater. 493 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,833 I wish I could see what we were getting out of it 494 00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,388 and all it means to us as a nation. 495 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,713 SCHAMA: As the most influential anti-imperialist in America, 496 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:38,116 Mark Twain threw himself under the hard-riding charge 497 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:42,796 of the country's most ardent empire builder, Teddy Roosevelt, 498 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,509 who, after McKinley's assassination, became president. 499 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:51,596 Some time later, Mark Twain went to Yale to receive an honorary degree. 500 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,600 As it happens, Teddy Roosevelt was there, too. 501 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:56,352 The President let it be known 502 00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:01,275 that he rather wanted "the likes of Mark Twain" to be "skinned alive". 503 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:04,839 And Twain let it be known 504 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:09,152 that he thought the President was insane in several ways. 505 00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:15,349 TWAIN: Insanest upon war and its supreme glories. 506 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,991 SCHAMA: But Twain's words were no match for the might of presidential power. 507 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:27,429 More than 4,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Filipinos 508 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,717 would die before the war ground to an end. 509 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,676 And it wasn't just the President who proved more than a match for Twain. 510 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:37,318 It was the media. 511 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:43,032 He was branded a lily-livered pacifist and traitor by the flag-waving press. 512 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:48,752 For the first time in his life, Mark Twain found himself censored. 513 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,398 His anti-war articles went unpublished. 514 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,519 "Free speech," lamented Twain, "is confined to the dead." 515 00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:04,236 Six years later, Twain was dead 516 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,313 and Roosevelt prepared to run once again for the White House. 517 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:20,834 But Twain's example in allowing no war to go uncontested, 518 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,832 morally unexamined, whatever the cost to reputation, 519 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:29,711 lived on after him and became a great American tradition in itself, 520 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:37,237 from the pen to print to the blog to the hustings. 521 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:42,556 What was at stake in the unsparing debate between Twain and Roosevelt, 522 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,279 the moral underpinnings of American force, 523 00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,954 is still at issue in this election. 524 00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:03,078 As the campaign gathered pace, I flew into San Antonio, Texas. 525 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,391 The city has one of the highest populations 526 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:11,950 of veterans and serving soldiers in the USA. 527 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,713 Its nickname is Military City. 528 00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:22,118 I went to the Drop Zone, 529 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:25,636 a diner popular with the city's veteran paratroopers. 530 00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:35,998 San Antonio is a place where the cost and purpose of American war 531 00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,038 resonates in the lives of almost every voter. 532 00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,708 This is a mostly Hispanic community, 533 00:43:59,240 --> 00:44:02,152 who have been part of the story of America's wars 534 00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:04,390 generation after generation. 535 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:18,396 I met the retired General Freddie Valenzuela, 536 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,916 once the highest ranking Hispanic officer in the army. 537 00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:27,919 I was a poor, young kid in the west side of San Antonio. 538 00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:29,439 And the Army offered me probably 539 00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:32,717 the only opportunity I would've gotten otherwise. 540 00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,679 So I went into the army initially, came back to college 541 00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:40,038 and then went in as an officer and stayed 33 years. 542 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:44,669 There's a tendency for one to label a military person as somewhat hawkish, 543 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:47,399 somewhat on the Republican side. 544 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:50,999 If you're a general officer, 545 00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:54,231 we're pretty much in line with what we call independence, 546 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:55,594 we stay independent 547 00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:59,798 until the time we make a decision as to which way we're gonna lean. 548 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:02,634 I'd be lying to you if I told you I'm not leaning, 549 00:45:02,720 --> 00:45:04,233 Senator McCain. 550 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:07,956 I think it's premature to say we'll be out in six months, one year. 551 00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:10,952 The minute the terrorists know that we're coming out 552 00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:14,828 we're gonna be a shooting target, I mean, we're gonna be had. 553 00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:16,558 Having said that, 554 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:23,160 we need an exit strategy and need it quick, with no date label. 555 00:45:23,240 --> 00:45:28,712 But I think the American public, although they want to come out of war, 556 00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:31,030 I don't think they know why we're in the war to start out with, 557 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:32,917 don't know what's going on, 558 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:35,150 they realise that the war has affected our economy 559 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:37,754 because a lot of the money has been put into the war. 560 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:40,400 But I don't think 561 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:44,075 that we fully understand as a country what we're truly involved in. 562 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:49,473 But I think we're gonna have to really politically make some tough choices, 563 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:53,314 but we're making them in an election year. 564 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,834 I am looking at you in the eye, my veteran friends, 565 00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:57,797 at all of you and tell you 566 00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:00,394 I will follow him to the gates of hell if necessary, 567 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:04,359 but I will get Osama Bin Laden and I will bring him to justice 568 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:07,557 and I will get it done and I know how to do it. 569 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:13,549 SCHAMA: Republican candidate and Vietnam war hero John McCain 570 00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:18,077 may seem like the obvious vote for this town's military constituency. 571 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,512 But across town at the Obama campaign office, 572 00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:25,558 I met two veterans with very different views. 573 00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:31,389 How would you both like to see military power used, 574 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,473 if not in the way in which it's being used in Iraq? 575 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,996 Well, I think the message that we need to deliver to the world 576 00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:44,154 is that our military is not primarily set up to do other people harm. 577 00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:45,798 Because what's happened in the world, 578 00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,030 especially since George Bush came to power, 579 00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:49,394 is that there is fear. 580 00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:53,678 Are we going to be the next country that's on the axis of evil list? 581 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:58,231 And we need to communicate to the world that our military is for our defence 582 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:00,788 and the defence of our close friends. 583 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,111 And that we're not going to tell people how to run their country, 584 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,714 partly because that's not our role. 585 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:08,594 - PLYLAR: Good morning. - Good morning. 586 00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,319 - Are you Arturo, by any chance? - Actually, I am. 587 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:13,789 David Plylar. Good to you see you, buddy. 588 00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,077 We're veterans and we're out campaigning for Barack Obama. 589 00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,119 And we've got a real problem with George Bush's policies on the war. 590 00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:25,557 And the promise by the Republican candidate, John McCain, 591 00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:29,189 that he's going to continue the war, if necessary, for a hundred more years. 592 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:32,558 He looks mean. 593 00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:40,273 PLYLAR: This campaign reminds me of 1968. 594 00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,828 1968, young people came out, 595 00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,356 they said we're finished with this war in Vietnam, we need change, 596 00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:50,035 they were supporting McCarthy, they were supporting Bobby Kennedy. 597 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,918 Back then in '68, during the Vietnam War, 598 00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,594 well, we're not having the riots and demonstrations 599 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,593 and the draft-card burning. 600 00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,229 Young America can make a change like they did back then. 601 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,116 SCHAMA: I can see why David and Richard think 602 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:16,715 there are parallels between 1968 and this election. 603 00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:20,716 Then, as now, an American war 604 00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:24,315 destroyed the popularity ratings of a sitting president. 605 00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:26,354 Some have asked 606 00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:30,274 what the gallantry of these Marines and airmen accomplished? 607 00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:35,115 Why did we choose to pay the price to defend those very hills? 608 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:42,358 SCHAMA: Then, as now, returning veterans joined the anti-war movement. 609 00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:45,110 We want our brothers and sisters home and safe, 610 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:46,838 we want that war to come to an end. 611 00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:51,277 And hopefully our country will have a high standing in the world again. 612 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,998 SCHAMA: David must be hoping that these parallels are not prophetic. 613 00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:08,192 Because in 1968, the Republicans won in a landslide. 614 00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,396 Obama! Obama! 615 00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:23,596 PLYLAR: Hola, San Antonio! 616 00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:32,709 My name is David Plylar. I'm an Air Force vet. 617 00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:41,396 As a veteran, I can tell you that one of the things we're looking for 618 00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:43,630 is a new commander-in-chief. 619 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:50,188 Six years ago, 620 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:53,795 when the President of the United States wanted to take us to war, 621 00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:56,997 a few people said wrong war, wrong time, 622 00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:58,718 in fact, it was a dumb war. 623 00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:01,189 And that person was Barack Obama. 624 00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:07,709 So there is no doubt in my mind 625 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:11,759 that you know the person that is going to be the leader, 626 00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:15,913 that will bring good judgment to the role of commander-in-chief, 627 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,911 restore the Constitution. 628 00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,036 That person is here with us tonight. 629 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:24,750 I'd like to introduce the next President of the United States, Barack Obama. 630 00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:28,352 (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 631 00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:34,590 OBAMA: Hello, San Antonio! 632 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:41,594 Thank you. Thank you so much. 633 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:45,598 Thank you. 634 00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,392 SCHAMA: In 1938, survivors of the Battle of Gettysburg 635 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:17,233 from both the Union and Confederate sides 636 00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:21,074 came together to hear President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 637 00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:24,197 commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle. 638 00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:35,675 The possibility of war was very much on Roosevelt's mind. 639 00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:40,552 So he reached back to the Civil War, to this place, 640 00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,712 to remind Americans about moments in their history 641 00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:46,553 when just wars had to be fought. 642 00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:59,230 A year after he had spoken, war did break out in Europe. 643 00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:10,995 FDR knew that for the democracies it would be a war of last resort, 644 00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:16,313 but an inevitable one, for it was truly waged for the survival of liberty. 645 00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:39,589 And like the soldiers of Gettysburg, the veterans of World War II 646 00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:43,434 have become an emblem of the good American war. 647 00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:46,631 Like thousands of young men, 648 00:52:46,720 --> 00:52:50,633 Epifanio Salazar signed up after Pearl Harbor. 649 00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:58,558 At 17, he was too young but he lied about his age. 650 00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:11,671 Salazar trained as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne division. 651 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:13,193 WOMAN: There. 652 00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:41,675 SCHAMA: Two days after D-Day, he made his first jump, 653 00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:44,320 behind German lines in Normandy. 654 00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,596 No one doubts that if ordinary Americans like Salazar 655 00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,274 had not made that jump into the fire, 656 00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:08,552 the world might now be a very different place. 657 00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,269 SALAZAR: We land in some fields. 658 00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:19,591 They were waiting for us. 659 00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,472 They had a machine gun nest and everything. 660 00:54:26,240 --> 00:54:31,792 I got shot, you know, by a German, in the knee and here in the shoulder. 661 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:35,236 It feels awful. Real bad. 662 00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:36,912 SCHAMA: Did your buddies get you out of there? 663 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:38,228 I mean, how long were you there? 664 00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:42,154 No, not too long because there were two guys in a Jeep, medics, 665 00:54:42,240 --> 00:54:43,798 and they picked me up. 666 00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:46,440 SCHAMA: Wow, you had one hell of a tough war. 667 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:49,557 - Oh, I was to hell and back. - Yeah. 668 00:54:49,640 --> 00:54:50,629 That's what happened to me. 669 00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:54,793 You forget after years, but you never forget completely. 670 00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:58,832 - It's on your mind all the time. - Yeah. 671 00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:02,269 What do you think? 672 00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:04,874 I mean, do you think about the wars that America's in now 673 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:06,871 and compare it... 674 00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,316 I think the war in Iraq is not too good. 675 00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:15,310 - It's a political war is what I think. - Yeah. 676 00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:19,911 Because in World War II it took us five years to win. 677 00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:22,912 I mean win, completely win. 678 00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:27,232 And now they've been there five years and they haven't done anything. 679 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:46,991 Salazar had invited me to join him at a gala 680 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:49,719 to honour him and his fellow veterans. 681 00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:53,956 I guess I had assumed that the atmosphere of shared ordeals, 682 00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:58,750 remembered wounds and deaths would preclude any hint of debate. 683 00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:02,318 But I was wrong. 684 00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,637 General Ricardo Sanchez, 685 00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:10,350 who had served as Commander of American Forces in Iraq, gave a speech. 686 00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:12,829 SANCHEZ: Thank you all very much. 687 00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:16,995 I was expecting him to deliver a call to arms. 688 00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:22,592 Instead, we got something more authentically American. 689 00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:25,713 A call to vote. 690 00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:30,233 We are now into year six of Iraq 691 00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,475 and if we disagree with the policies, 692 00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,711 then there are mechanisms for us to express that. 693 00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:40,754 When you're in a time of leadership crisis, 694 00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:45,277 what better time for you to mobilise yourselves and make a statement 695 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,432 than during a presidential election year? 696 00:56:49,240 --> 00:56:51,071 Whether you support 697 00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:55,073 a Republican candidate or a Democratic candidate is irrelevant. 698 00:56:55,720 --> 00:56:58,188 The point that I'd like to leave with you 699 00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:02,796 is that the entire American community must mobilise itself, 700 00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:08,318 get involved in this tremendously critical year 701 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:10,597 and make a statement. 702 00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:15,678 We have to send a message to Washington 703 00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:19,152 because the future of our country is at stake. 704 00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:28,000 I propose a toast to our beautiful ladies. 705 00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:29,798 ALL: To our ladies. 706 00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:34,632 Thank you, gentlemen. The music will continue. 707 00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:40,077 This was hardly a gathering of gunslingers. 708 00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:48,352 It was just a meeting of men who reckon there are times 709 00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:51,591 when the bill for freedom gets paid in blood 710 00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:54,717 and the sorrow of their loved ones. 711 00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:56,791 But if that's going to be the case, 712 00:57:56,880 --> 00:58:01,635 America had better make sure the threat is real and the cause just. 713 00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:08,030 Or the war can never be an American war. 714 00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:13,675 Ever since the founding of the republic this has happened. 715 00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:20,548 When the bugle has sounded, so has the voice of shared conscience, 716 00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:22,995 the noise of the gun 717 00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:27,870 answered by the irrepressible sound of free debate.