This evening I came here to speak to you about Vietnam.

I do not have to tell you that our people are profoundly concerned about that struggle.

In the late 1960s at the height of the Cold War, Robin Bartlett, the young American just out of college, like so many of his countrymen, found himself serving in Vietnam.

Robin provides a detailed and candid look at his experiences in the conflict in his book,

Vietnam Combat Firefights in writing history, about his experiences as a young man thrust into a leadership position

and forced to make life or death decisions on a daily basis only like so many veterans from Vietnam to return home having proudly

served the country to anything but a hero's welcome. Robin, I don't often focus an episode on a particular historical topic just based around one person's, you know,

recollections of those events.

But having read your book, which I found extraordinary and very evocative,

so I'm really excited to have you on because I feel like you have a really nuanced perspective in your book and so from that point let's jump right in

Based on your service in Vietnam and the military pedigree in your family a lot of people might think that it was always just

predestined for you to follow that path.

By reading your book you made it clear that originally you had no

intention of going into the military, correct? My grandfather went to West Point and

my father went to West Point and my brother went to West Point. My father got me an appointment

to West Point and I said no. I've had enough of the military. I went to 13 elementary and

middle schools and four high schools and I said enough already

but as I went through college the Vietnam War started to build up and my family took it very seriously that we were

in service to our country and those words really meant something to us we were in

service. I answered the phone at home, Colonel Bartlett's

quarters, may I help you, sir? That's how I answered the phone as a civilian. I decided to go into

the ROTC program. It was second nature to me and then at the ripe age of 21, you know, with a college degree and being brilliant at the age of 21 knowing everything there was to know. I really

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