As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it.

Anytime it was advertised that I was going to be at a particular place, the radicals would be there, the cameras with TV news.

I haven't yet figured out how I was made first captain, because I was not an outstanding student. I was an adequate student.

By the end of the summer of 1973 I thought it was virtually impossible for South Vietnam to survive. How in the heck could they?

Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.

As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it.

The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.