I was raised in an Irish-American home in Detroit where assimilation was the uppermost priority. The price of assimilation and respectability was amnesia. Although my great-grandparents were victims of the Great Hunger of the 1840's, even though I was named Thomas Emmet Hayden IV after the radical Irish nationalist exile Thomas Emmet, my inheritance was to be disinherited. My parents knew nothing of this past, or nothing worth passing on.

I was in the category of people who thought that his [Bernie Sanders ]campaign was worthy, even noble and it would push Hillary [Clinton] to the left.

Twice the Republicans in the California legislature tried to block my seating because of my trips to Hanoi.

What I said was that I was at first supportive of Bernie [Sanders] when he came to Los Angeles for his first rally, I was there, I was supportive.

We ourselves are imbued with urgency, yet the message of our society is' that there is no viable alternative to the present.

Vietnam is unique of all the countries in the world, I believe, in having the longest continuous struggle against foreign aggression of any country that has retained its national identity.

I am the Vietcong. We are everywhere! We are all Vietcong.