2017 Lịch sử Việt Nam-VN war

http://www.buudoan.com/2013/01/bo-phim-ve-chien-tranh-viet-nam-bi-giau.html


Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 1/8

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Vuc6frI553w

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 2/8

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=nkBCGa_MfB4

 * Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 3/8http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=wN4DwEVpf_w

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 4/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=s-wGchg2Iew

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 5/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=FstwbKGsCps

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 6/8http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=f5mDxBpcUaE

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 7/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OIKFIF3LpKI

* Việt Nam! Việt Nam! Tập 8/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UcbfLE45XvQ

Lịch sử Việt Nam trong hơn nửa thế kỷ qua cho thấy chế độ nào cũng có người bất đồng với chính sách của lãnh đạo. Nhưng cách nhà cầm quyền đối xử với thành phần đối lập nhiều khi rất thô bạo, thiếu tính văn minh và dân chủ.

Dưới chế độ Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hoà, ngoài Bắc có vụ Nhân văn Giai phẩm trên mặt trận văn hoá, chính trị; có nông dân nổi loạn chống chính quyền qua khởi nghĩa Quỳnh Lưu, có vụ án Xét lại chống Đảng.

Nhiều người phải đổ máu khi phản đối chính sách cải cách ruộng đất, nhiều văn nghệ sĩ bị trù dập, giam tù vì có suy nghĩ khác hơn tư tưởng chính thống của Đảng Cộng sản dưới sự lãnh đạo của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh. Nguyễn Hữu Đang, Hoàng Cầm, Phùng Quán, Hoàng Minh Chính, Nguyễn Chí Thiện, Vũ Đình Huỳnh đã phải vào tù vì bất đồng với nhà nước.

Thời Việt Nam Cộng hoà, trong Nam có nổi loạn Bình Xuyên, có vụ án trí thức Caravelle, có nhà văn Nhất Linh bị giam khiến ông uất ức tự tử và Ngoại trưởng Vũ Văn Mẫu cạo đầu, từ chức để phản đối chính sách của Tổng thống Ngô Đình Diệm.

Những năm cuối thập niên 1960 và đầu 1970 có Ngô Kha, Huỳnh Tấn Mẫm, Lê Văn Nuôi, Nguyễn Công Khế, Ngô Lập, Tiêu Dao Bảo Cự và nhiều người khác đã mất mạng hay bị giam tù vì bất đồng với cách cai trị của Tổng thống Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.

Sau khi đất nước thống nhất vào năm 1975, dưới chế độ Cộng hoà Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam cũng có phản kháng bằng bạo lực, như vụ án Vinh Sơn, vụ án Hồ Con Rùa.

Trong khi đó, những phát biểu bất đồng dù trong ôn hoà cũng được nhà nước đáp lại bằng xách nhiễu hay án tù.

Thập niên 1990 có tiếng nói của Đoàn Viết Hoạt, Dương Thu Hương, Trần Xuân Bách, Phan Đình Diệu, Nguyễn Thanh Giang, Trần Độ, Nguyễn Đan Quế, Nguyễn Văn Lý, Thích Quảng Độ, Tiêu Dao Bảo Cự, Hà Sĩ Phu...

"Bế tắc chính trị hiện nay nằm ở chỗ người dân thực sự không có cơ hội đóng góp vào sinh hoạt chính trị vì mọi chuyện đều do đảng quyết định từ trên đưa xuống"

Kế tiếp là Lê Quốc Quân, Lê Thị Công Nhân, Nguyễn Vũ Bình, Lê Chí Quang, Cù Huy Hà Vũ, Nguyễn Văn Đài, Lê Công Định, Phạm Hồng Sơn, Điếu cày Nguyễn Văn Hải, Nguyễn Tiến Trung, Tạ Phong Tần, Hồ Thị Bích Khương, Đoàn Minh Hạnh...cũng đã phải đối diện với những án tù nhiều năm vì lên tiếng đòi các quyền căn bản cho dân, vì có quan điểm bất đồng với nhà nước.

Hai điều 4 giống mà khác

Khi đất nước còn chia đôi, Đảng Cộng sản với quyết tâm giải phóng miền Nam, thống nhất đất nước nên mọi tiếng nói đối lập đều bị dập tắt ở miền Bắc.

Tại miền Nam, tuy nhiều thành phần chống chính quyền được hoạt động công khai nhưng không được ủng hộ hay tuyên truyền cho cộng sản.

Ai hoạt động cho cộng sản thường bị an ninh theo dõi và nhiều người đã bị bắt, bị giam tù nhiều năm ở Tam Hiệp, Chí Hoà, Côn Sơn, Phú Quốc.

Điều 4 của Hiến pháp Đệ Nhị Cộng hoà ban hành ngày 1-4-1967 ghi:

"Việt Nam Cộng Hòa chống lại chủ nghĩa cộng sản dưới mọi hình thức"

“Việt Nam Cộng Hòa chống lại chủ nghĩa cộng sản dưới mọi hình thức. Mọi hành vi nhằm mục đích tuyên truyền hay thực hiện chủ nghĩa cộng sản đều bị cấm chỉ.”

Điều này loại bỏ sự tham dự của thành phần cộng sản vào sinh hoạt chính trị miền Nam lúc bấy giờ.

Tuy nhiên, những người ủng hộ cộng sản đã nhân danh quyền tự do phát biểu, hội họp, tự do báo chí ghi trong hiến pháp để xuống đường, để công khai đòi hỏi các quyền căn bản trên các phương tiện truyền thông.

Các vụ án gọi là “tuyên truyền cho cộng sản” hay “làm phương hại đến an ninh quốc gia” của sinh viên, của ký giả đã khiến chánh án khó xử vì họ chỉ tố cáo tham nhũng trong chính quyền, kêu gọi hoà hợp hoà giải, đòi quyền dân tộc tự quyết, đòi chấm dứt chiến tranh. Tạp chí Đối Diện của linh mục Chân Tín, các nhật báo Sóng Thần, Điện Tín, Đại Dân Tộc đã phải ra toà nhiều lần.

Sau ngày đất nước thống nhất, Hiến Pháp Cộng hoà Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, 1980 và 1992, lại cũng có Điều 4, nhưng mang một giá trị pháp lý ngược hẳn với Điều 4 của Hiến pháp Việt Nam Cộng hoà.

Điều 4 Hiến pháp 1992 ghi:

“Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam, đội tiên phong của giai cấp công nhân Việt Nam, đại biểu trung thành quyền lợi của giai cấp công nhân, nhân dân lao động và của cả dân tộc, theo chủ nghĩa Mác - Lê Nin và tư tưởng Hồ Chí Minh, là lực lượng lãnh đạo Nhà nước và xã hội.”

Điều này mặc nhiên loại bỏ sự đóng góp vào tiến trình xây dựng đất nước của những thành phần cộng đồng quốc gia, chiếm đại đa số trong dân không phải là đảng viên cộng sản, không theo chủ nghĩa Mác-Lê.

Như thế trong lịch sử dân tộc đã có thời gian những người hoạt động cho cộng sản không được tham gia vào sinh hoạt chính trị của đất nước.

Và ngày nay, với Điều 4 của Hiến pháp 1992, những người không phải đảng viên cộng sản không được tham gia vào việc lãnh đạo đất nước.

Bế tắc chính trị hiện nay nằm ở chỗ người dân thực sự không có cơ hội đóng góp vào sinh hoạt chính trị vì mọi chuyện đều do đảng quyết định từ trên đưa xuống. Ai không đồng ý thường bị sách nhiễu, trù dập hay trong nhiều trường hợp phải chịu án tù.

Gần đây nhà nước phát động góp ý sửa đổi Hiến pháp 1992, nhưng không muốn thay đổi Điều 4.

Đã có nhiều góp ý cho rằng hiến pháp hiện nay lỗi thời và Việt Nam cần có những cải tổ chế độ chính trị cho hợp với xu thế và nhu cầu phát triển thời đại.

Nhưng làm sao để có một hiến pháp mới tổng hợp được nguyện vọng toàn dân. Để có điều này, người dân phải được tham gia vào việc thảo luận về hiến pháp, về các tu chính hay được quyền tham gia chọn một hiến pháp mới, qua trưng cầu dân ý, hay qua một cuộc bầu cử quốc hội lập hiến với sự tham gia của nhiều khuynh hướng chính trị để soạn một hiến pháp mới cho Việt Nam.

Chưa xứng đáng?

"Có nhiều người Việt, trong cũng như ngoài nước, yêu nước mà không yêu chủ nghĩa xã hội, nếu không có đảng nào khác hơn Đảng Cộng sản thì ai sẽ là đại diện cho họ?"

Đây là tiến trình dân chủ mà người dân Việt xứng đáng được hưởng sau bao năm đã đổ xương máu giành độc lập và xây dựng đất nước.

Để nguyện vọng của mọi thành phần được phản ánh, người dân cần có quyền phát biểu chính kiến mà không sợ bị giam tù; cần có quyền tự do báo chí để truyền đạt thông tin, quan điểm; cần tự do lập hội và tự do ứng cử để tham gia vào việc lãnh đạo và điều hành đất nước.

Tiến trình này nên được bắt đầu bằng việc bãi bỏ hay sửa đổi điều 79 và 88 luật hình sự để tránh trường hợp bắt giam những người chỉ vì bày tỏ chính kiến bất đồng mà bị ghép tội “chống lại tổ quốc Việt Nam” hay “âm mưu lật đổ chính quyền nhân dân”.

Một lộ đồ dân chủ hoá cũng cần được đặt ra với việc quốc hội ban hành những đạo luật dân chủ cho dân được ra báo, được hội họp, biểu tình, lập đảng chính trị, tham gia ứng cử.

Thời hạn một hay hai năm để dân chủ hoá đất nước là khoảng thời gian hợp lý để đưa Việt Nam hoà nhập với xu thế thời đại.

Thủ tướng Võ Văn Kiệt khi còn sống đã từng phát biểu:

“Chính kiến khác nhau, ý kiến khác nhau là bình thường, và điều quan trọng là cần phải có đối thoại, nói chuyện với nhau một cách sòng phẳng.”

"Có hàng trăm con đường yêu nước khác nhau. Tổ quốc Việt Nam không của riêng một đảng, một phe phái, tôn giáo nào".

Ông Võ Văn Kiệt đã nói thế trong một cuộc phỏng vấn với BBCVietnamese.com ngày 19-04-2007.

Tôi tâm đắc với phát biểu của ông. Có như thế nhà nước mới tìm được sự đồng thuận của dân, cũng như của Việt kiều, để đóng góp vào việc xây dựng quốc gia.

Vì có nhiều người Việt, trong cũng như ngoài nước, yêu nước mà không yêu chủ nghĩa xã hội, nếu không có đảng nào khác hơn Đảng Cộng sản thì ai sẽ là đại diện cho họ và chỗ đứng của họ là ở đâu trong sinh hoạt chính trị.

Điều mà cố Thủ tướng Võ Văn Kiệt nêu ra cũng chính là nền tảng cho sự hoà giải dân tộc đang rất cần có trong lúc này.

Tác giả dạy đại học cộng đồng và hiện sống tại vùng Vịnh San Francisco. Bài viết phản ánh quan điểm của riêng ông.

2012 AMERICAN HISTORY2

AMERICAN HISTORY: The Great Recession and the 2008 Election

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week, our series brings us to the events of two thousand eight. It was a year that combined one of the nation's worst financial crises with one of its most exciting elections in recent history.

(MUSIC)

In two thousand six and two thousand seven, the American housing market began to collapse. Home values had been going up and up. Now the balloon burst.

People started losing homes they had bought with money borrowed on easy credit terms -- loans they were then unable to repay.

The hope was that the crisis in the housing market could be contained, and that it would not spread to the wider economy.

Traditionally, local banks would have suffered the losses on the bad loans. But times had changed. Big investment banks had been buying those loans. The investment banks then resold them as securities offering high returns.

Credit rating agencies working for the investment banks had told investors that the securities were safe. Selling a financial product based on a large group of loans was supposed to limit the risk if a few loans went bad. That was the idea. But that was before millions of homeowners stopped paying their mortgage loans.

(MUSIC)

Mortgage-backed securities became known as toxic assets. No one wanted to be anywhere near them.

AP

Bear Stearns was the first major investment bank to fail in the housing crisis

In March of two thousand eight Bear Stearns became the first investment bank to fail as a result of the crisis. Others followed.

In September, Lehman Brothers, the nation's fourth-largest investment bank, sought protection in bankruptcy court. Its failure only deepened the fears in credit markets.

Toward the end of two thousand eight an international credit freeze developed. No one wanted to take the risk of lending money to banks or other companies that might have owned toxic assets. Some people feared that there could even be a global depression, the first since the nineteen thirties.

The United States economy -- the world's largest -- started shrinking at the end of two thousand seven. The unemployment rate started rising.

President George W. Bush's administration, Congress and the central bank, the Federal Reserve, took extraordinary steps to deal with the growing financial crisis. Their efforts included loans to banks, automakers and other companies. The aim was to rescue businesses that officials considered "too big to fail."

The bailouts from Washington were a decision that not all of the American people agreed with. But the people also had to make a decision of their own in two thousand eight. It was a presidential election year, and the candidates were some of the most diverse in the nation's history.

The Republican Party nominated Arizona Senator John McCain. At seventy-two he would have taken office as the nation's oldest first-term president.

JOHN MCCAIN: "So stand up with me, my friends, stand up and fight for America, for her strength, her ideals and her future. The contest begins tonight!"

(MUSIC)

Senator John McCain at a campaign event in 2008

John McCain had been a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-seven, the North Vietnamese shot down his plane and took him prisoner. He was tortured and held for more than five years. He returned home a hero.

During the presidential campaign, he spoke often about his experience as a prisoner of war. His campaign message was, "Country First." Senator McCain quickly secured the Republican nomination to succeed George Bush.

The Democrats needed more time to choose a nominee. The race settled on two leading candidates. One of them was Hillary Clinton. Her husband was former president Bill Clinton. They spent eight years living in the White House. As first lady she held an unusually public role in her husband's administration. Later she was twice elected as a senator from New York. Now she was trying to return to the White House -- this time as the first woman president of the United States.

Senator Hillary Clinton campaigning in 2008

HILLARY CLINTON: "So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl!"

The other leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination would also make history if elected. He was a first-term United States senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. He was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. If he won, he would be America's first black president.

Blacks in the United States had been slaves until eighteen sixty-three. They were not permitted to vote until eighteen seventy. Women in the United States did not have a constitutional right to vote until nineteen twenty. And not until the nineteen sixties did federal civil rights laws bar discrimination against either group.

(MUSIC)

During the nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a lot of discussion and debate in America about gender and race. Some talked about the problems that women still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a woman as president. Others talked about the problems that blacks still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a black man as president.

PEOPLE: "I think we're ready. Oh, I hope we're ready." "I just hear people's comments that that will be the day when we have a black man running our country." "I'm not sure. I'm really not sure."

Candidate Obama gave a speech about race in America.

BARACK OBAMA: "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.

Senator Barack Obama at a campaign event in 2008

“I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

“I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

“It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional of candidates. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.”

Many political experts predicted that Barack Obama would lose the nomination. For one thing, he was still new to many Americans while almost everyone knew who Hillary Clinton was. Also, she had many wealthy supporters donating to her campaign. But political scientist Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia said those experts did not understand the country's mood.

LARRY SABATO: "They underestimated the power not just of Barack Obama, but also the yearning for change and the antipathy toward dynasty -- the idea that the Bushes and Clintons would essentially control the presidency from 1988 to potentially 2016."

(MUSIC)

"Hope" and "Change" became the messages of the Obama campaign. Barack Obama won enough delegates to secure his party's nomination, which he accepted in August, shortly after his forty-seventh birthday. His choice for vice president was Joe Biden, a longtime senator from Delaware.

But Mr. Obama's nomination was not the biggest news story for long. The next day, John McCain had a big announcement of his own. His running mate would be Sarah Palin. The Democrats had once nominated a woman for vice president, Geraldine Ferraro, but never the Republicans. Neither party had ever nominated a woman for president.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008

Sarah Palin was the forty-four-year-old governor of Alaska. Few Americans had ever heard of her until she spoke at the Republican nominating convention. She referred to herself as a “hockey mom.”

SARAH PALIN: "I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull. Lipstick."

Some women said they admired her ability to balance work and family as the mother of five children.

ANGEL VOGGENREITER: "I feel like she really speaks for me and represents me."

During the campaign, Barack Obama raised a record amount of money for a candidate -- about seven hundred forty-five million dollars. He became the first candidate to reject the modern system of public financing of presidential elections. Instead, he accepted smaller contributions from hundreds of thousands of supporters. His campaign made extensive use of the Internet to collect donations, connect with voters and organize volunteers.

John McCain did not have as much money to spend. Something else also set him apart from the Democratic nominee. John McCain supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama said he would bring the troops home from Iraq within two years of becoming president. But the top issue in the campaign was the economy. Again, Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia:

LARRY SABATO: "The fundamental issue in most presidential elections is the economy. It really is the economy, stupid — the old slogan from the 1992 Clinton campaign. When an administration has a positive, strong economy, they're tough to beat -- even if it's a non-incumbent running. But when the economy turns sour, they're halfway out the door."

Barack Obama and John McCain agreed on at least one thing in dealing with the economy. They both supported President Bush's call for the government to bail out the financial industry. Many Americans disliked the idea of helping banks that had acted irresponsibly. But Congress agreed to let the government buy bad loans from banks and temporarily became part-owner of some rescued companies. Supporters argued that the bailouts were needed to save the economy from collapse.

In November of two thousand eight, Americans elected Barack Hussein Obama as their forty-fourth president. He received fifty-three percent of the popular vote. He won some states that had not chosen a Democrat in many years. A little more than sixty percent of voting-age Americans cast their ballots, the highest percentage since nineteen sixty-four. Support for Mr. Obama was especially strong among young people and African-Americans. Many voters were emotional on election night.

CALIFORNIA VOTER: "I'm speechless. I'm trying not to cry right now. I'm thinking of my great-grandfather, my grandmother. Man, this is amazing."

BARACK OBAMA: "Because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

But the election of two thousand eight was not the end of America's economic problems. What became known as the Great Recession would officially end in June of two thousand nine, six months into the new president's term. But its lasting effects would continue to be felt all the way into the twenty-twelve election season.

And that brings our history series to a close. We will start over again. But over the next several weeks, we’ll be presenting a special “best of” series. Each program will be a time capsule of life in America from the decades between the two world wars through the end of the twentieth century.

We’ll look at social trends, the arts, music and other areas of popular culture. We hope you'll join us for this special series, before we begin our new series of programs. You can find all of our programs online at voaspecialenglish.com.

2012 American history1

American History: Terrorists Attack America on 9/11

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
This week in our series, we begin the story of the presidency of George W. Bush. His first term came to be defined by the worst terrorist attack against the United States in the nation's history.
(MUSIC)
George W. Bush had been in office for less than eight months when the events of September eleventh, two thousand one, took place.
SOUND: “A lot of smoke in lower Manhattan.”
“A plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center”
“Good lord, this is just a horrific moment.”
The day is remembered as 9-11.
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On that morning, nineteen al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four large passenger airplanes on the East Coast. The planes were flying to California so they were heavy with fuel. Each group of hijackers included a trained pilot.
American Airlines Flight 11 had just left Boston, Massachusetts, when five hijackers seized control of the plane.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: “Is that American 11 trying to call?”
MOHAMED ATTA (HIJACKER): We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport.”
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: “American 11, are you trying to call?”
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: “Number three in the back. The cockpit’s not answering. Somebody’s stabbed in Business Class, and I think there’s mace that we can’t breathe. I don’t know – I think we’re getting hijacked.”
MOHAMED ATTA: “Nobody move. Everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves, you’ll endanger yourself and the airplane. Let’s stay quiet.”
Shortly before nine o'clock, the hijackers crashed the Boeing 767 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
KATIE COURIC (NBC TV): “A plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. It happened just a few moments ago.”
NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHER: “The World Trade Center Tower Number One is on fire. The whole outside of the building – there was just a huge explosion.”
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Five other hijackers seized United Airlines Flight 175, another Boeing 767 also on a flight from Boston.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER #1: “Hey, can you look out your window right now? Can you see a guy at about four thousand feet, about five [miles] east of the airport right now, looks like he’s…”
CONTROLLER #2: “Yeah, I see him.”
CONTROLLER #1: “Is he descending toward the building also?
CONTROLLER #2: “He’s descending really quick, too. Yeah. He’s at twenty-five hundred feet. He just dropped eight hundred feet in one sweep [of the radar].”
CONTROLLER #1: “That’s another situation.”
VOICE: “Another one just hit the building -- hit it hard. The whole building just came apart.”
They crashed the jet into the South Tower of the World Trade Center a short time after the first plane hit the North Tower.
DON DAHLER (REPORTER): “Oh, my God.”
DIANE SAWYER (ABC TV): “My God.”
CHARLES GIBSON: “That looks like a second plane. We just saw another plane coming in from the side…”
DON DAHLER: “You did…”
CHARLES GIBSON: “Yes, and that’s the second explosion. You could see the plane come in. So this looks like some sort of a concerted effort to attack the World Trade Center that is underway in downtown New York.”
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The twin towers each had one hundred ten floors. They were the tallest buildings in New York and among the tallest in the world. They stood a few streets away from the New York Stock Exchange in the heart of the Wall Street financial district in Lower Manhattan.
REPORTER: “Oh, my goodness, there’s another one.”
The planes exploded in fireballs that sent clouds of smoke pouring from the skyscrapers. Thousands of people were in the buildings. Many workers on the floors below where the planes hit were able to escape. Others on the floors above were trapped. Some apparently felt their only choice was between burning to death and jumping. News cameras showed disturbing images of bodies falling from the towers.
The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed just before ten o'clock, after burning for almost an hour. The North Tower came down about thirty minutes later. It had been hit first and had burned for one hour and forty-two minutes.
DON DAHLER: “The second building that was hit by the plane has completely collapsed. The entire building has just collapsed, as if a demolition team set off--when you see the old demolitions of these old buildings—down on itself. And it’s not there anymore.”
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Investigators later found that the intense fires from the jet fuel, burning for as long as they had, had caused the structures to fail.
The ruins of the two buildings quickly became known as Ground Zero.
Several other buildings in the World Trade Center complex were damaged or destroyed as a result of the collapse of the twin towers.
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Another group of hijackers took over American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757. The plane had taken off from Washington Dulles International Airport.
MILITARY RADIO COMMUNICATION: “OK, American Airlines is still airborne. He’s heading towards Washington. I think we need to scramble Langley [Air Force Base] right now, and I’m going to take the fighters from Otis and try to chase this guy down if I can find him.”
KATIE COURIC: “[Jim] Miklaszewski has some new information at the Pentagon. I hope you’ll stand by and continue to talk with us, Mike?”
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: “Katie, I don’t want to alarm anybody right now, but it felt – just a few moments ago – like there was an explosion of some kind here at the Pentagon.”
The hijackers crashed the plane into the Pentagon, the Department of Defense headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Virginia.
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: “We’re on the E Ring of the Pentagon. We have a window that faces out toward the Potomac, toward the Kennedy Center. We haven’t been able to see or hear anything after the initial blast. I just stepped out in the hallway. Security guards were herding people out of the building, and I saw just a moment ago, as I looked outside, a number of construction workers who have been working here have taken flight. They’re running as far away from the building as they can right now.”
The plane exploded a hole into one of the five sides of the huge building.
And four hijackers seized United Airlines Flight 93, another 757. That plane had taken off from Newark, New Jersey.
CONTROLLER: “United 93, that traffic for you is one o’clock, twelve miles east on three-seven-zero.”
UNITED 93: “Negative contact. We’re looking. United 93.”
People on the flight learned about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington through phone calls to loved ones.
CLEVELAND CENTER CONTROLLER #1: “Looked like he descended there.”
CONTROLLER #2: “I don’t think so. United 93, verify 3-5-0 (compass heading).”
CONTROLLER #1: “United 93, Cleveland [Center]”
CONTROLLER #2: “Do you have United 93 south of Chardon?
CLEVELAND CENTER:  “We hear some funny noises we’re trying to get him. Do you have him?”
CONTROLLER  #2:  “No.”
Some of the forty passengers and crew members fought to retake control of the plane from the hijackers.
CONTROLLER: “United 93 was waving his wings as he went past the VFR aircraft. They don’t quite know what that means. Rocking his wings.”
Air traffic controllers and law enforcement officials struggled to make sense of the events taking place that morning.
WOMAN: “United 93 – Have you got information on that yet?”
MAN: “Yeah, he’s down.”
WOMAN: “He’s down?
MAN: “Yes.”
WOMAN: “When did he land?”
MAN: “He did not land.”
WOMAN: “Oh ... he’s down? Down?”
MAN: “Yes, somewhere northeast of Camp David.”
MAN #1: “OK, there is now on that United 93 …”
MAN #2: “Yes.”
MAN #1: “ … There is a report of black smoke in the last position I gave you, fifteen miles south of Johnstown.”
Flight 93 crashed in a field near the small town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The intended target for Flight 93 may have been the Capitol, the building where Congress meets.
No one could be sure if other airliners were involved in the terrorist operation.
PETER JENNINGS (ABC TV): “The Federal Aviation Administration has actually gone even further than it did a few minutes ago. It was asking all planes not to take off. Now the FAA has ordered all aircraft currently in the air over the United States to land at the nearest airport.”
Air traffic controllers began the complex job of getting all planes across the country – and those heading in over the Atlantic – onto the ground safely.
MIKE McCORMICK (AIR TRAFFIC MANAGER): “So this meant, at very early in the morning, as flights were halfway across the Atlantic Ocean to land in the United States, we had already initiated protocols to shut those arrivals off from the oceanic areas. And they had to make tough decisions, such as either turn around and go back to Europe or go to alternate destinations, which many of them did in Canada.”
Canadian officials assisted. They allowed flights from across the Atlantic to land in eastern Canada, including at airports in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Gander, Newfoundland.
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Almost three thousand people died in the 9/11 attacks.
WOMAN: “You got it coming into building number two on the ninety-seventh floor. People trapped.”
FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHER: “We’re all around the building. We’re completely around the building. We’re into the building now.”
Most of the victims worked in the World Trade Center.
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The victims also included rescuers, among them three hundred forty-three New York City firefighters. They died trying to save others.
SOUND: "They’re going to have to get a different elevator. We’re chopping through the wall to get out ... Tower One.”
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Pictures of missing persons began to appear in the city as loved ones waited and worried.
Three days after the attacks, President Bush went to Ground Zero. He spoke to the rescue workers and promised that the attacks would be answered.
GEORGE W. BUSH: “I want you all to know, America today is on bended knee, in prayer for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn. This nation stands with the good people of New York City, and New Jersey, and Connecticut, as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens.
“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people… And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
CROWD: “USA, USA, USA...”
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Each day, thousands of visitors came to see the site and to honor those who died.
At the Pentagon, people left flowers and messages of sympathy near the heavily damaged wall. One hundred eighty-four people died in the attack on the Pentagon, including the victims on the plane.
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It took months to clear the wreckage of the twin towers.
The attacks in New York changed the distinctive skyline of Lower Manhattan. The twin towers -- completed in nineteen seventy-three -- were gone.
The economic effects of 9/11 were felt far beyond America's largest city. The New York Stock Exchange stayed closed until September seventeenth. When it reopened, the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- a measure of leading stocks -- fell by what was then its biggest point drop ever in a single day.
Among the companies most affected by the attacks were airlines and other businesses that depend on travelers. The nation's skies were empty of commercial flights for three days after the hijackings. And when flights returned to normal, many people were too afraid to fly.
Thousands of hotel workers and others in the travel industry lost their jobs.
The shock and sadness of the 9/11 attacks brought Americans together less than a year after the disputed presidential election. In a show of patriotism, more and more American flags began to appear on homes, cars and businesses. Small American flag pins were worn by many Americans.
The attacks pointed to the work of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization. On September twentieth, President Bush went before a joint session of Congress to declare a war on terror.
GEORGE W. BUSH: "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there.  It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."
The War on Terror, and America after 9/11 will be our story next week.

AP

Thick smoke and ash filled the air following the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York

AP

An emergency worker in a Pennsylvania field looks at the crater made by the crash of a plane hijacked by Islamic terrorists. People on the flight had rebelled.

One hijacked plane struck the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters

AP

A second hijacked plane flies toward the World Trade Center