WEBVTT 00:00.999 --> 00:03.931 - [Voiceover] He was both a humanitarian and a warrior. 00:03.931 --> 00:06.017 - [Voiceover] He's kind of like General MacArthur, 00:06.017 --> 00:08.723 people loved him or they hated him. 00:08.723 --> 00:12.890 - He had the vision to see a great future for the Navy. 00:14.706 --> 00:18.039 - He gave dignity to the enlisted ranks. 00:21.815 --> 00:24.492 - The overwhelming factor shaping Zumwalt's character 00:24.492 --> 00:26.681 ^was his relationship with his dad. 00:26.681 --> 00:28.514 ^He really admired him. 00:29.155 --> 00:32.072 He was a role model, a real leader, 00:32.395 --> 00:34.539 very much looked up to in the community 00:34.539 --> 00:36.372 of Tulare, California. 00:36.439 --> 00:38.146 - [Voiceover] After leaving California, 00:38.146 --> 00:40.773 Bud Zumwalt attended the United States Naval Academy, 00:40.773 --> 00:44.814 graduating early in 1942 because of World War II. 00:44.814 --> 00:46.845 He began service aboard USS Phelps 00:46.845 --> 00:48.998 serving in the Solomon Islands. 00:48.998 --> 00:52.081 His next ship was USS Robinson DD-562 00:52.782 --> 00:55.139 where he earned a bronze star for valor. 00:55.139 --> 00:58.472 - He had a bold, hard-charging character 00:59.115 --> 01:01.032 and sense of adventure. 01:01.471 --> 01:03.359 ^- At the end of World War II 01:03.359 --> 01:05.656 ^when his ship had captured a Japanese gun boat 01:05.656 --> 01:09.449 and my father and Tim Saylors were put as prized crew 01:09.449 --> 01:12.293 on this ship with about 200 Japanese prisoners. 01:12.293 --> 01:15.953 My father ended up commanding the first ship 01:15.953 --> 01:18.134 to come into Shanghai flying the American flag 01:18.134 --> 01:19.928 at the end of World War II. 01:19.928 --> 01:21.326 - [Voiceover] Part of Zumwalt's mission 01:21.326 --> 01:24.068 was to meet and coordinate with Admiral Milton marry Miles 01:24.068 --> 01:27.036 who had run the navy guerrilla war in China. 01:27.036 --> 01:31.203 - After a couple weeks, three of us Annapolis classmates 01:31.780 --> 01:33.590 came up to him and said that they had been 01:33.590 --> 01:36.178 invited to a dinner at a Russian home, 01:36.178 --> 01:37.815 and they understood there were going to be 01:37.815 --> 01:40.777 four single Russian girls there and they needed a fourth. 01:40.777 --> 01:43.546 He described the first one as a statuesque blonde. 01:43.546 --> 01:46.196 He said, "I saw the second one and my heart stopped. 01:46.196 --> 01:47.784 "I never saw the other two." 01:47.784 --> 01:50.235 The second one was obviously my mother. 01:50.235 --> 01:52.717 - Married on October 22, 1945, 01:52.717 --> 01:56.586 Mouza Coutelais-du-Roche was the love of his life. 01:56.586 --> 01:58.420 - During the Korean War, 01:58.420 --> 02:01.503 he was navigator of the USS Wisconsin 02:01.526 --> 02:05.287 and very heavily depended upon by his skipper, 02:05.287 --> 02:08.147 Captain Bruton, who was a submariner 02:08.147 --> 02:12.314 so Zumwalt's surface ship experience was very helpful 02:14.051 --> 02:17.473 during the shore bombardment in Korea and what have you. 02:17.473 --> 02:19.331 - [Voiceover] After service aboard Battleship Wisconsin 02:19.331 --> 02:21.113 during the Korean Conflict, 02:21.113 --> 02:23.624 Bud Zumwalt had a variety of commands. 02:23.624 --> 02:26.313 In 1959 he became the first commanding officer 02:26.313 --> 02:29.675 of USS Dewey, the first ship designed from the keel up 02:29.675 --> 02:31.702 as a guided-missile destroyer. 02:31.702 --> 02:34.369 - He particularly was interested 02:34.609 --> 02:38.144 in any submarine warfare against the Soviets. 02:38.144 --> 02:40.714 This was still part of the Cold War 02:40.714 --> 02:44.372 and this means dealing with the Soviet submarine threat 02:44.372 --> 02:46.261 which was quite numerous. 02:46.261 --> 02:47.530 - [Voiceover] In 1962 02:47.530 --> 02:49.863 he published a pursuant article in Proceedings 02:49.863 --> 02:51.755 that foreshadowed his strategic vision 02:51.755 --> 02:54.222 not following the advice of fellow officers 02:54.222 --> 02:56.660 but took a position with Paul Nitze 02:56.660 --> 02:58.343 under Secretary of Defense 02:58.343 --> 03:00.484 for international security affairs. 03:00.484 --> 03:03.317 ^- Paul Nitze was Zumwalt's mentor, 03:04.539 --> 03:07.156 ^and what he taught Zumwalt to do 03:07.156 --> 03:11.323 involved a breadth of understanding, and an analysis, 03:11.449 --> 03:13.140 and bringing a political acumen 03:13.140 --> 03:15.540 to situations that he didn't have 03:15.540 --> 03:18.072 before he started working with Nitze. 03:18.072 --> 03:21.405 - Captain Zumwalt was Nitze's naval aide 03:22.009 --> 03:24.017 both when he was in Secretary of Defense 03:24.017 --> 03:26.161 and later when he was Secretary of the Navy. 03:26.161 --> 03:28.925 Obviously gave him a broad perspective 03:28.925 --> 03:31.342 on views throughout the Navy. 03:31.401 --> 03:32.598 - [Voiceover] Promoted to Vice Admiral, 03:32.598 --> 03:36.765 Zumwalt moved on to command naval forces in Vietnam. 03:38.069 --> 03:41.030 - It's very easy for leaders to stifle dissent 03:41.030 --> 03:44.574 or stifle people from speaking out once a consensus is built 03:44.574 --> 03:46.447 but Admiral Zumwalt was one of these rare people 03:46.447 --> 03:49.038 who encouraged that in a number of environments 03:49.038 --> 03:50.679 and so he told his staff, 03:50.679 --> 03:53.380 "Don't be afraid to ever bring me an idea 03:53.380 --> 03:55.079 "no matter how absurd it may seem, 03:55.079 --> 03:58.880 "and we're gonna call them the Zumwalt wild ideas." 03:58.880 --> 04:01.351 in Vietnam in particular, ZWI's, 04:01.351 --> 04:04.018 if Zumwalt had never become CNO, 04:04.488 --> 04:05.688 we would be talking about 04:05.688 --> 04:08.964 how he changed the strategic environment in Vietnam. 04:08.964 --> 04:13.131 ^The Navy had been in Vietnam in the brown water arena 04:13.241 --> 04:14.779 ^for quite some time, 04:14.779 --> 04:17.940 but things had kinda stagnated by the time he got there. 04:17.940 --> 04:18.963 When we first got there, 04:18.963 --> 04:21.292 we cleared the rivers of the Viet Cong 04:21.292 --> 04:25.459 and took back the pasture, get the rice to the market, 04:25.821 --> 04:27.355 and that sort of thing. 04:27.355 --> 04:29.643 At that point things kinda stagnated 04:29.643 --> 04:32.381 because they had given us the rivers, 04:32.381 --> 04:33.700 but they had gone up into the delta 04:33.700 --> 04:36.003 and were using smaller waterways to come in 04:36.003 --> 04:39.769 to infiltrate South Vietnam through the Mekong Delta. 04:39.769 --> 04:42.998 What he did was he consolidated the various forces 04:42.998 --> 04:46.165 into a new thing called Task Force 194 04:47.122 --> 04:49.830 which was the Operation SEALORDS. 04:49.830 --> 04:52.008 What that did was, by consolidating these things, 04:52.008 --> 04:54.851 he was then able to go deep into the delta, 04:54.851 --> 04:58.638 establish a barrier, which of course was a front line. 04:58.638 --> 05:00.412 One of the ironies of all this 05:00.412 --> 05:04.579 is that casualties went up among the American forces, 05:04.664 --> 05:06.164 but so did morale, 05:06.178 --> 05:07.701 because for the first time they felt like-- 05:07.701 --> 05:09.083 for the first in a long time, 05:09.083 --> 05:11.473 they felt like they were really accomplishing something. 05:11.473 --> 05:13.851 - To protect the river aim forces 05:13.851 --> 05:16.226 from being fired on from the shore, 05:16.226 --> 05:19.549 Admiral Zumwalt ordered the use of a defoliant 05:19.549 --> 05:21.029 called Agent Orange 05:21.029 --> 05:25.196 that wiped out the trees and so forth along the banks 05:26.065 --> 05:27.404 and made it much harder for the enemy 05:27.404 --> 05:29.904 to have places of concealment. 05:30.296 --> 05:31.705 - [Voiceover] This effective tactical decision 05:31.705 --> 05:35.788 came at a price to be paid later for the Admiral. 05:37.653 --> 05:41.514 - Admiral Zumwalt got the attention of Richard Nixon 05:41.514 --> 05:44.757 among others through his efforts in Vietnam 05:44.757 --> 05:46.899 and ultimately wound up being jumped over, 05:46.899 --> 05:50.532 I think, 33 Admirals to become the Chief of Naval Operations 05:50.532 --> 05:52.393 the youngest one ever at that point. 05:52.393 --> 05:55.810 - Project 60 was an idea that Zumwalt had 05:55.982 --> 05:57.832 with some of those closest to him 05:57.832 --> 06:00.288 to essentially hit the ground running 06:00.288 --> 06:03.690 when he became CNO in the summer of 1970. 06:03.690 --> 06:05.857 ^- When 60 came in he said, 06:06.451 --> 06:10.618 ^"Within 60 days I'll have a piece of paper on your desk 06:11.184 --> 06:13.811 "or a stack of papers on your desk 06:13.811 --> 06:17.376 "to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense." 06:17.376 --> 06:20.626 It took in naval strategy and so forth, 06:20.768 --> 06:24.093 construction, what kind of ships we would need. 06:24.093 --> 06:25.780 He practically unloaded all his thoughts 06:25.780 --> 06:27.363 in that Project 60. 06:29.177 --> 06:30.594 - [Voiceover] Out of Project 60 emerged the concept 06:30.594 --> 06:32.132 of the high-low mix 06:32.132 --> 06:34.832 and a plan to quickly eliminate obsolete ships 06:34.832 --> 06:38.165 to counter the modernizing Soviet fleet. 06:39.760 --> 06:43.446 - I remember being on a naval reserve cruise in 1970 06:43.446 --> 06:44.568 onboard a destroyer, 06:44.568 --> 06:48.617 and the skipper showed me some messages called Z-grams 06:48.617 --> 06:51.747 and these were the policy initiatives. 06:51.747 --> 06:52.740 - Through the Z-grams, 06:52.740 --> 06:55.449 Admiral Zumwalt revolutionized the Navy. 06:55.449 --> 06:57.459 ^- The stereotype of the enlisted force 06:57.459 --> 07:00.626 ^was not necessarily an upstanding one. 07:00.773 --> 07:03.094 Stereotypical in the enlisted force, 07:03.094 --> 07:07.261 I think people expected less of an enlisted person. 07:07.277 --> 07:08.990 They weren't expected to be educated, 07:08.990 --> 07:10.471 ^and by and large they weren't. 07:10.471 --> 07:11.785 ^- Bear in mind that at that time, 07:11.785 --> 07:13.714 in the minority community, 07:13.714 --> 07:17.208 we had the lowest number or minority officers. 07:17.208 --> 07:21.035 We had a tradition of segregation, the remnants 07:21.035 --> 07:23.751 that were still there all the way around. 07:23.751 --> 07:25.948 How could we quickly change it? 07:25.948 --> 07:27.632 - Here comes Admiral Zumwalt, 07:27.632 --> 07:30.796 and all of a sudden he's putting out these Z-grams 07:30.796 --> 07:33.205 that says you can do this, you can do that, 07:33.205 --> 07:36.872 and I'm gonna expect you to conduct yourself 07:37.188 --> 07:39.105 in such-and-such a way. 07:39.586 --> 07:42.981 - It covered a vast array of topics, increased opportunities 07:42.981 --> 07:44.690 for women in the Navy, 07:44.690 --> 07:48.857 increased opportunities for minorities, African Americans. 07:49.455 --> 07:53.597 He had things about making life better for sailors 07:53.597 --> 07:55.764 so that they would have more morale. 07:55.764 --> 07:58.681 - We're not trying to create a Navy 08:00.422 --> 08:03.005 in which any group, any segment 08:04.271 --> 08:07.196 was anything other than an integral part. 08:07.196 --> 08:09.743 - My father did so much for all the minorities, 08:09.743 --> 08:12.076 Filipino, African Americans. 08:13.220 --> 08:15.398 He saw those barriers were there 08:15.398 --> 08:17.556 and he wanted to bring 'em down. 08:17.556 --> 08:19.204 ^- The changes had to be made, 08:19.204 --> 08:23.371 ^and we now have not only African American at all ranks, 08:24.517 --> 08:26.970 but we also have Filipinos in all ranks, 08:26.970 --> 08:28.942 and in the enlisted categories, 08:28.942 --> 08:32.109 the restriction of those ethnic groups 08:32.903 --> 08:36.420 to just the housekeeping rates was eliminated 08:36.420 --> 08:39.458 and they now are doing wonderfully in all the ratings. 08:39.458 --> 08:41.402 - He was trying to get across a message 08:41.402 --> 08:44.985 that regardless as to how good our hardware 08:45.376 --> 08:47.043 and our systems are, 08:50.412 --> 08:51.662 we need people. 08:52.973 --> 08:55.854 - The last act of office for my father 08:55.854 --> 08:58.604 was to get rid of the 121 Z-Grams 09:01.233 --> 09:04.259 because he felt that that course change had been made 09:04.259 --> 09:08.183 significantly enough that the ship wouldn't go back 09:08.183 --> 09:09.516 to its old ways. 09:11.150 --> 09:13.517 - The use of Agent Orange saved, literally, 09:13.517 --> 09:16.576 thousands, and thousands, and thousands of lives. 09:16.576 --> 09:17.493 In wartime, 09:17.972 --> 09:22.087 a commander makes the least worst decision he can make 09:22.087 --> 09:24.964 and clearly based on what he was told 09:24.964 --> 09:27.945 at the chemical companies, that was the right decision. 09:27.945 --> 09:29.386 - The first two or three months, 09:29.386 --> 09:32.562 our casualties were running at the rate of 6% a month 09:32.562 --> 09:34.252 which meant that the average young man 09:34.252 --> 09:37.952 had about a 70% probability of being killed or wounded 09:37.952 --> 09:39.361 in his year's tour. 09:39.361 --> 09:41.384 We used Agent Orange to defoliate the banks 09:41.384 --> 09:44.237 and drive the enemy back from the boats 09:44.237 --> 09:45.699 as they ambushed them, 09:45.699 --> 09:48.058 and the casualties promptly dropped 09:48.058 --> 09:49.995 to less than a percent a month. 09:49.995 --> 09:52.052 - The downside was we didn't learn 09:52.052 --> 09:54.040 until well after the war was over 09:54.040 --> 09:56.562 that the chemical companies had lied 09:56.562 --> 10:00.437 and unfortunately the bitter irony for our family 10:00.437 --> 10:04.604 is that one of those who fell victim to that was my brother. 10:06.441 --> 10:10.608 - His son, Elmo, was commanding officer of a swift boat, 10:11.110 --> 10:14.992 got into the water that was infested with the Agent Orange 10:14.992 --> 10:19.159 and later came down with a couple of forms of cancer 10:19.232 --> 10:21.887 and eventually died as a result. 10:21.887 --> 10:24.378 ^- I have known of no father/son relationship 10:24.378 --> 10:27.378 ^that I think has the incredible bond 10:31.109 --> 10:35.276 that has been honed by the searing events that we've shared. 10:37.368 --> 10:41.285 It's a relationship that is incredibly lasting. 10:44.304 --> 10:47.547 - As he said, even knowing today what the consequences were 10:47.547 --> 10:50.297 the immediate impact was so great 10:50.692 --> 10:53.275 that he would've done it again. 10:53.873 --> 10:56.896 - Instead of one out of every 10,000 coming down with cancer 10:56.896 --> 10:58.145 in a normal population, 10:58.145 --> 11:01.522 in the Vietnam population, probably 15 or 20 11:01.522 --> 11:04.485 of that 10,000 will come down with cancer, 11:04.485 --> 11:06.842 but in that same Vietnam population, 11:06.842 --> 11:09.168 7,000 would've been killed or wounded 11:09.168 --> 11:10.751 had we not used it. 11:11.416 --> 11:12.950 - [Voiceover] the tragedy of Agent Orange 11:12.950 --> 11:15.657 led Bud Zumwalt to work tirelessly to get veterans benefits 11:15.657 --> 11:19.555 and compensation for those ill from its use in Vietnam. 11:19.555 --> 11:20.905 He also became a founder 11:20.905 --> 11:23.388 of the National Bone Marrow Directory. 11:23.388 --> 11:25.618 For this work, Admiral Zumwalt was awarded 11:25.618 --> 11:29.517 the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1998. 11:29.517 --> 11:31.934 - Yes, he is a former sailor. 11:33.249 --> 11:36.156 He is also one of the greatest models of 11:36.156 --> 11:40.073 integrity, and leadership, and genuine humanity 11:42.449 --> 11:44.866 our nation has ever produced. 11:47.849 --> 11:49.385 - [Voiceover] Admiral Bud Zumwalt passed away 11:49.385 --> 11:51.135 on January 2nd, 2000. 11:52.183 --> 11:54.683 - His legacy is alive and well 11:54.863 --> 11:58.613 and this ship obviously gives it a big boost, 12:00.101 --> 12:04.149 but it's my belief that historians for many years to come 12:04.149 --> 12:06.142 will recognize what my father did 12:06.142 --> 12:10.026 in the short four years in office that he had to do it. 12:10.026 --> 12:12.752 - This ship, the steel, it didn't bend itself. 12:12.752 --> 12:16.026 ^That men and women of conviction and intellect 12:16.026 --> 12:20.193 ^have used their brains and bodies to bend this steel 12:20.897 --> 12:22.600 and Admiral Zumwalt was the guy 12:22.600 --> 12:24.196 who bent the institution of the Navy 12:24.196 --> 12:26.096 toward a more just institution. 12:26.096 --> 12:28.936 ^- I think it's a great ship, it has a great future, 12:28.936 --> 12:31.465 ^and I think just like Admiral Zumwalt when he was CNO, 12:31.465 --> 12:35.632 it will make a huge difference in the United States Navy 12:36.203 --> 12:37.953 for the 21st Century. 12:38.004 --> 12:41.534 - I think it's gonna be a transitional vessel. 12:41.534 --> 12:44.553 I think it's going to sort of be the vessel that takes us 12:44.553 --> 12:47.239 from the kind of ships that we build today 12:47.239 --> 12:51.406 into ships of the future that are gonna be a lot different, 12:52.533 --> 12:53.886 they're gonna look a lot different, 12:53.886 --> 12:56.659 and they're gonna carry weapons that are a lot different, 12:56.659 --> 12:58.947 they're gonna be propelled differently, 12:58.947 --> 13:00.900 and they're gonna be operated differently 13:00.900 --> 13:02.731 than the way we do things today, 13:02.731 --> 13:05.614 and what better legacy could you have 13:05.614 --> 13:09.509 than having a ship named after someone like Admiral Zumwalt 13:09.509 --> 13:13.676 that brings that all home, 'cause he changed everything. 13:15.141 --> 13:17.724 - When our historians look back 13:17.986 --> 13:20.736 on the century we have just left, 13:22.994 --> 13:25.326 they may well record that Arleigh Burke 13:25.326 --> 13:28.743 was the spirit of the United States Navy. 13:29.768 --> 13:31.935 They will certainly recall 13:32.511 --> 13:35.511 that Bud Zumwalt was its conscience. 13:50.581 --> 13:54.498 ^(inspiring instrumental music)