- JoAnne Garrett: The following is a special presentation of Wisconsin Public Television, Follow the Flag.

- In unison: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible... ♪ You can stand alone ♪ ♪ Or with somebody else ♪ ♪ Or stand with all of us ♪ ♪ Together ♪ ♪ If you can believe in something bigger than yourself ♪ ♪ You can follow the flag forever ♪ - Students: One nation, under God, indivisible.

♪ They say it's just a dream ♪ ♪ It's a dreamer's dream ♪ ♪ That it's an empty thing ♪ ♪ That really has no meaning ♪ ♪ They say it's all a lie ♪ ♪ But it's not a lie ♪ ♪ I'm going to follow the flag 'til I die ♪ ♪ Into every life ♪ ♪ A little rain must fall ♪ ♪ But it's not gonna rain forever ♪ ♪ You can rise above it ♪ ♪ You can rise above it all ♪ ♪ We will follow the flag together ♪ ♪ We will follow the flag forever ♪ - Students: With liberty and justice for all.

[solemn piano music] - I'm Dave Iverson.

Patriotism usually brings to mind the imagery of summertime: baseball fields, the Fourth of July, Middle America.

But patriotism is also a complex topic.

Witness the debates over things like loyalty oaths, the Pledge of Allegiance, and most recently of course, flag burning.

For the next hour, we're going to explore this complex phenomenon.

We'll do that with stories we've assembled from around the Midwest.

We'll start with a story about a traditional display of patriotism, a Loyalty Day parade in a small Wisconsin town.

It's produced by JoAnne Garrett of Wisconsin Public Television.

[marching band playing "God Bless America"] - Patriotism is when you see the flag go down the street, you stand up and hold your hand over your heart, or you salute it.

And when that flag becomes tattered and worn, you replace it.

[announcer speaking] [siren blaring] - I would say the flag is the symbol of patriotism.

- Officer: Ain't no use in looking down!

- Group: Ain't no use in looking down!

- Well, you respect the flag.

- Group: Ain't no discharge on the ground!

- Officer: Ain't no use in going home!

- Group: Ain't no use in going home!

- Officer: Jody's got your gal at home!

- Group: Jody's got your gal at home!

- Officer: Ain't no use in going back!

- JoAnne: The occasion is Loyalty Day, an annual event organized by Wisconsin's VFW posts, The Veterans of Foreign Wars.

[people chatting] This year's Loyalty Day was celebrated on April 29 in Waterloo, Wisconsin.

The festivities began at the Krause-Langer VFW Post 6641, just off of Main Street.

The place with the posters in the windows, banners around the door, and flags just about everywhere.

[people chatting] - We're gonna try, old-timers gonna try to make the long trip.

- We're behind you.

- We're getting old now.

We can't make it no more.

[chuckles] - JoAnne: The actual date of Loyalty Day is May 1, same as the Soviets' May Day.

The VFW decided to celebrate a little early.

Congress declared the holiday in 1958 as a sort of rebuttal, a not-so-subtle response.

A battle of days.

- Woman: Howdy!

[people chatting] - JoAnne: The centerpiece of the day is a parade.

[participants laughing] [circus music playing] - Child 1: Two of 'em?

- Child 2: Yes, two.

[bagpipes playing] [marching band playing] - Well, hey, I'm not even dressed yet, geez.

If you're gonna be taking pictures, wait 'til I get the uni on here.

- Keep your lines straight, watch your guiding.

I want the snap outta the flags.

I want everything looking good.

- JoAnne: There's great joy in this gathering.

- Man: C'mon, Dad, smile!

[camera whirring] - JoAnne: But also a great seriousness.

- Yeah, are we all set to go down there then?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- JoAnne: Perhaps because this parade is primarily about military service.

And military service is essentially about sacrifice.

"Greater love hath no man," is the old line, "than to lay down his life for his country."

And soldiers have.

6,824 in the Revolutionary War.

2,260 in the War of 1812.

1,733 in the Mexican War.

140,414 in the Civil War.

385 in the Spanish-American War.

53,513 in World War I.

292,131 in World War II.

33,629 in the Korean War.

43,321 in the Vietnam War.

- When you're engaged in a war, it's something that crystallizes a country and people have a very easy excuse to feel patriotic, and they bond together.

- JoAnne: Waterloo, Wisconsin in April of 1989 was a long ways away, distance and time, from any war.

Crowds were sparse for Loyalty Day.

There were plenty of blank spots on the sidewalk as the parade went by.

Perhaps because a hard rain was falling in the northern part of the state.

Perhaps that dampened enthusiasm, the need for ritual and remembering.

- I want to thank you all for coming to this kickoff of the Korean War Memorial Association of Wisconsin.

- JoAnne: In the same week as Loyalty Day, a group of Korean War veterans and supporters gathered in Wisconsin's State Capitol building to kick off a fund drive, a fund drive to build a memorial for the veterans of that forgotten war.

There was a prayer.

- We give you thanks for all those persons who sacrificed their lives.

- JoAnne: And there was a speech.

- Society has delayed too long in honoring the men and women who fought in Korea.

- JoAnne: And there was a small crowd.

Chauncey Dunday, Korea, 1951 to 1955, was one of the principle organizers of the event.

- I always have been a patriot.

I love this country very much.

People have asked me time and time again that if I would've been in condition, would've I gone to the Vietnam War, if the country asked me?

My answer is very simple; yes.

Y'know, I spent over 11 years in the military, almost 12 years.

And it was out of love for country that I did it.

I guess what I love most about this country is it's one of the freest in the world.

- My freedom.

- Freedom.

- It's freedom.

- It's gotta be freedom.

'Cause that's what we all fought for.

That's the reason we win.

- JoAnne: Freedom: that is what they fought for.

Symbolized by red and white and 50 stars on a field of blue.

This love of country, patriotism, is a revered emotion and a contested one.

- And I hope people don't think that I'm questioning his patriotism.

- Of course the Vice President's questioning my patriotism.

I don't think there's any question about that.

- JoAnne: It is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the 1988 presidential campaign, that two public servants who have given the best years of their lives in service to their country should have their patriotism questioned.

That either should feel forced to retreat to the flag.

But these sorts of battles over proving one's patriotism have been part of our country since its beginning.

Part of a struggle to give meaning to this symbol so that patriotism is something more than simply following the flag.

[marching band playing "God Bless America"] [solemn piano music] - Before every sporting event, Americans stand and sing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

It's a ritual that arouses an emotion in most of us, but how do we respond to people who don't revere the flag?

That, of course, is precisely what the flag-burning debate is all about.

Actually, any kind of unconventional flag display can sometimes provoke fierce emotions.

That's what happened in Chicago early in 1989, a story covered by producer Royal Kennedy of station WTTW in Chicago.

- Crowd: One, two, three, four, take that flag off the floor!

- Royal: Last March, veterans groups staged a vocal protest outside the Chicago Art Institute.

They were angry about a controversial student art project called "What is the Proper Way to Display the American Flag?"

A display that involved laying a flag on the floor and allowing people to stand on it while they wrote their comments about the exhibit.

- This bit of cloth, this bit of colored cloth, I think Napoleon said it, is the symbol of everything that we believe.

And yet, in an attempt to make a point, in an attempt to use what we believe in to laugh at us, an individual decided to throw this on the ground and say, "Please, step on it."

- Royal: The veterans tried to get the Art Institute to shut down the display.

The city council even passed a resolution condemning what they called "the defilement of the American flag."

But art critics stood up to support freedom of artistic expression.

- I feel very strongly that to veer in the direction of censoring images that may be very personally offensive to some is veering towards the direction of Iran, of fundamentalist Iran.

- Student artist Scott Tyler was similarly unapologetic.

- This piece represents the hopes and aspirations of the oppressed minorities both here and internationally.

People who claim that I started all this controversy, and well, basically, I'm completely unapologetic.

In fact, I think I'd do it again if I had the opportunity.

- Royal: The dispute even played itself out on the Chicago airwaves.

- Caller 1: He's entitled to what he believes.

- Yes, he is.

- I happen to reject it totally out of hand, but my values and my beliefs are not threatened by this guy at all.

- Caller 2: Yeah, Don, I'm sitting here listening.

I'm a veteran also.

- Mm-hmm.

- Caller 2: And I'll tell ya, to me, the flag is like the mother of the country.

And if you put my mother's picture on the floor and stomp on it, I'm gonna get mad.

- Royal: Finally, the battle over the flag became a battle of purse strings.

The finance committee of the Chicago Park District held up consideration of tax support for the museum until they heard an emotional presentation from Art Institute Vice President Robert Mars.

- The need for these freedoms is what guided our founding fathers, and the fact that this country has always supported this view is what gives this nation its strength, its vitality, and its toughness.

And I'm not being very tough right now.

[chuckles] And made it a magnet for people seeking freedom throughout the world.

The bad news is that the flag doesn't mean to the Scott Tylers of this country what it means to so many of us.

And an incident like this forces us to confront that fact.

The good news is that our system worked.

- Royal: In the end, the committee decided it didn't have the authority to withhold funding and voted to continue financial support.

- Commissioner Nesh?

- Aye.

- President Bartholemy?

- Aye.

- Commissioner Bass?

- Aye.

- Motion carried and is adopted by the committee.

[applause] - Royal: The flag display continued until its scheduled closing.

But the question it raised still remains.

What is the proper way to display the American flag?

[solemn piano music] - During the last presidential campaign, Michael Dukakis didn't exactly step on the flag, but sometimes you got the feeling he might as well have.

What he did do was veto a piece of Massachusetts legislation that would've made the Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in the state's schools.

He did so because, along with the Supreme Court, he thought such a law was unconstitutional.

And thus began the great pledge debate of 1988.

Well, where exactly did the Pledge of Allegiance come from?

It was actually written by a socialist preacher who wrote it in order to heal the wounds created by the Civil War.

Here now is more on the history of the Pledge from social historian Hy Berman of the University of Minnesota, a story produced by Brendan Henehan of station KTCA in St. Paul.

- In unison: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

- Bush: Thank you.

[crowd cheering] - Hy: The Pledge of Allegiance was a major campaign issue during the last presidential campaign.

It was a long, long way between the presidential campaign of 1988 and the origins of the pledge in a little schoolhouse like this.

And it was a long, long way between the pledge and its use during the campaign and the intentions of its author, Francis Bellamy.

Now, who was Francis Bellamy?

He was a Christian socialist who early in his life was a Baptist minister, but left the ministry in protest against the church's unwillingness to come to the aid and assistance of the American industrial worker.

In the year 1892, when he wrote the pledge, he was working for a magazine called The Youth's Companion.

But before that, he had delivered his most famous sermon, "Jesus the Socialist."

[stately marching band music] In 1892, an upcoming, the upcoming Columbian Exposition, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was in fact the instigation for the effort at creating a Pledge of Allegiance.

The magazine decided, in conjunction with many educators, to make of the celebration a celebration that would include all of the nation's children in a single day, Columbus Day, raising of the flag and pledging allegiance to that flag.

Except that a pledge didn't exist.

It was for this purpose that Francis Bellamy was asked to write the Pledge of Allegiance.

[triumphant marching band music] After that first Columbus Day event, the Pledge of Allegiance took off like wildfire.

It became, in fact, a new secular religious rite.

It was no longer a pledge only for schoolchildren, but became a public affirmation of loyalty and devotion to the American flag.

Now, of course, a secular prayer has its place, and when it becomes, in fact, so deeply ingrained in the political consciousness of the nation, it would have to be changed during times of crisis, particularly when divisions appear in American society.

Now, how was the pledge changed?

The simple affirmation "I pledge allegiance to my flag" was changed in 1923 to "the flag of the United States of America."

Why?

Well, with all of these immigrant kids coming into the United States, someone, the American Legion to be exact, felt that these kids saying a pledge to "my flag" could be saying a pledge to the red flag or to the black flag, or to who knows what other flag?

So it's the flag of the United States of America.

The pledge remained highly popular in the United States in the World War II-era of patriotism.

However, changes had to be made.

Can communists truly take a secular prayer in a pledge?

No, if the word "under God" was put in.

And the word "under God" was put in during the last years of the McCarthy period.

- In unison: One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

- Thank you very much.

[crowd cheering] Thank you; this is great.

- Now, the Pledge of Allegiance is not an old institution in American life.

It only goes back less than a hundred years.

But yet, it has become so deeply involved in American life that we treat it as if it was simultaneous in terms of its age with George Washington, with Abraham Lincoln, and with the American flag itself.

The pledge has been fraught with controversy, and will continue to be fraught with controversy particularly if our nation and if we return to the original intent of its Christian socialist author.

[solemn piano music] - In the 1940s, the mandatory Pledge of Allegiance law was successfully challenged before the United States Supreme Court.

Though of course, the practice remained traditional throughout the '50s and '60s.

The 1940s was a time when loyalty and allegiance mattered.

That was particularly true if you happened to be an American of Japanese descent.

Often, those individuals were sent off to internment camps.

But despite that discrimination, there were still remarkable stories of loyalty, allegiance, and patriotism amongst Japanese Americans.

Here now with one of those stories is reporter Boyd Huppert of station KETV in Omaha, Nebraska.

- Boyd: The fertile fields of central Nebraska, home ground for one of America's great war heroes.

[plane engine roaring] As an Air Force gunner, he flew 30 missions in Europe and 28 more in the Pacific.

He won the Distinguished Flying Cross and the respect of a nation.

But it's his heritage that makes Ben Kuroki stand out among American war heroes.

Ben Kuroki is Japanese.

With his military service and a long career as a newspaper editor behind him, we found Ben Kuroki retired, living in the hills outside of Los Angeles.

- That's a good one.

- Boyd: California offers Kuroki pomegranates and year-round golf.

But he has not forgotten his Cornhusker roots.

- I follow the team just religiously.

[chuckles] And feel all the pain when Oklahoma beats 'em.

[plane engines roaring] - Boyd: Ben Kuroki was a young man, working on his family's farm near Hershey, Nebraska when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

One day later, Kuroki and his younger brother Fred drove to North Platte to enlist in the U.S. Army.

- That's one of the things I appreciate about my dad too.

He urged us both to go because this was our country.

- Boyd: But the North Platte recruiter would not enlist the Kurokis.

Not for a war against Japan.

So the brothers drove 150 miles more to Grand Island, where standards apparently were not so rigid.

He says, "Heck yes, I'll take you.

I get two bucks for everyone I sign up."

[chuckling] And away we went.

- Boyd: As American warplanes flew into battle, Fred Kuroki was sent to a ditch-digging detail.

Ben did stateside clerical work in KP for the Air Force, and had to beg his supervisors to hold onto even that.

- I knew if I ever got transferred out, probably like my kid brother, I'd never get to go overseas and I'd never get a chance.

And that's why I wouldn't even go into town because I was afraid of the insults and I might get in a fight, and then that would be it.

I just would, I would never get a chance to go overseas.

- Boyd: And that's what you really wanted?

- Well, sure.

I knew that's the only way I was gonna be able to prove myself.

- Boyd: The uniform that brought respect for most servicemen could not shield the taunts and insults aimed at Kuroki.

He was an outsider in his own country.

- Afraid of the insults and stuff.

And I used to cry at night in my own pillow.

- Boyd: Kuroki had never known such prejudice growing up in Nebraska.

His parents brought up ten children in a house that still stands on the family farm.

Ben's brother George stayed at home during the war, running the Kuroki potato business, reading letters from Ben that never hinted at the difficulties he was facing.

- George Kuroki: He was a very courageous person.

[airplanes firing] - Boyd: Finally, Ben got his break.

The Air Force was short gunners for its B-24 bombers, a high casualty position.

Kuroki volunteered.

- Ben: Once I became a gunner, everything changed.

You know, you're right there where the fighting goes on.

The attitudes are altogether different.

You just...

I was one of the gang from there on.

- Boyd: Kuroki flew 30 missions in Europe.

On one, narrowly escaping death when shrapnel blew a hole in his gunner turret.

His Distinguished Flying Cross was won during the famed raid on the Ploiesti, Romania oil fields.

Nine planes from his squadron started the mission.

Only two returned.

[planes roaring] Kuroki came back from Europe a hero.

Hoping to recruit other Japanese Americans for combat, the Army sent Kuroki to three Japanese internment camps.

He was stunned to find Japanese Americans behind barbed wire, surrounded by guards with machine guns.

Guards wearing the same uniform he wore.

- Ben: They lost all their property.

And you lose your dignity.

And I'm just surprised that they didn't lose their faith in their country.

- Boyd: How could you not have lost faith in the country?

- That's the one thing that I'm grateful for, being a Nebraskan.

I think I had some pretty solid foundation.

My patriotism never really became a problem.

- Boyd: But Kuroki's patriotism continued to be challenged.

On a visit to Denver, a man refused to share a taxi with him, despite Kuroki's uniform and medals.

- And he slammed the door in my face, says, "I won't ride with no lousy Jap."

- Boyd: Kuroki realized, to prove his loyalty to America once and for all, he'd have to fight Japan.

But Army regulations prohibited Japanese Americans from fighting in the Pacific.

Kuroki turned to Nebraska Congressman Carl Curtis for help.

- After you talked to him, you knew he was sincere.

That it wasn't a show with him, just pretending he wanted to go knowing they wouldn't let him.

He felt that he was just as good an American as anybody else, and he was.

Because Italian boys got to fight against Italy, and German boys got to fight against Germany, and it just wasn't right.

- Boyd: With Curtis's help, the Army rules were waived.

This was Kuroki's battle ticket: a letter from the Secretary of War.

He carried it on 28 missions against Japan.

This time, no one could question Kuroki's patriotism.

His story was told in TIME magazine, Reader's Digest, a biography called Boy from Nebraska, and even in a comic book.

But a more important measure of a changing American attitude came more than 40 years later, when Congress approved formal apologies and cash settlements for Japanese Americans interned during the war.

- It just couldn't have happened anywhere else, in any other country in the world.

- Boyd: The pages of Kuroki's story have faded over the years, even in Hershey, where he once played in the schoolyard.

You ever heard of the name Ben Kuroki?

- No, I haven't heard Ben Kuroki.

Heard the other Kuroki.

- I think I've heard of the name, but I don't know anything about him.

- boyd: But Kuroki's slip back towards anonymity cannot diminish his contributions to America, to the war effort, and to this nation's tolerance for Japanese Americans.

Ben Kuroki can enjoy retirement with his wife and never again have his love for America questioned.

A man who didn't lose faith in his country, even when his country lost faith in him.

[solemn piano music] - War sometimes unites a nation.

That's what happened during World War II.

But in the 1960s, a different kind of war almost tore our country apart.

The war in Vietnam was a time of bitter disagreement.

A time that tested the meaning of patriotism.

Our next story is about an American woman named Judy Ladinsky, who is now trying to rebuild a bridge between the United States and Vietnam.

A journey back to Vietnam now, as produced by JoAnne Garrett of Wisconsin Public Television.

[gentle music] - JoAnne: With flute and guitar, two musicians present a part of their culture, their country, in a concert at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dinh Tien and Nguyen Chien Hau are from Vietnam.

In his past, Dinh Tien played his flute to entertain the troops.

North Vietnamese troops, hiding in the extensive tunnel system that they had built during the war to hide from the Americans.

They were brought to the U.S. by Dr. Judith Ladinsky, a woman with a sense of service that has taken her well beyond the borders of America.

Ladinsky is the chairman of a national organization called The United States Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam.

- [speaking Vietnamese] - JoAnne: At home, Ladinsky is a professor of preventative medicine and the director of international health for the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Her work here, with the United States committee, has brought her to Vietnam some 28 times.

The last was in January of 1989.

- [speaking Vietnamese] This is the x-ray film for your hospital, and those are the medicines also for you, okay?

In that box is all antibiotics.

- JoAnne: During each of her month-long visits, Ladinsky consults with officials, arranges visits, coordinates the exchange of supplies and scientific information, the exchange of scholars and scientists between two countries who have had no diplomatic relations at all since the conclusion of the Vietnam War 14 years ago.

A war that led to a united Vietnam and divided America.

A war that signaled a final victory for North Vietnam and America's first defeat.

Both countries in conflict over patriotism.

- Judith: The people of Vietnam have fought for many years, first against the Chinese, then the Japanese, the French, the Americans, the Kampuchians, then Pol Pot, to have an independent country.

They are really a fiercly independent people.

But it's that feeling of nationalism, of patriotism as you call it, that to some extent has sustained the people of Vietnam.

[solemn flute music] - JoAnne: Vietnam may have won its war of independence, but this country still remains crippled by an economic crisis in part, they say, because of a trade embargo initiated by America and imitated by other Western countries.

Whatever the cause, Vietnam remains one of the poorest countries on Earth.

- Judith: The U.S. government is more than willing to help countries when they win the war.

But we're not used to losing wars.

And so what we did essentially is to walk away, almost like children.

And say, "We want to forget that country even exists."

Well, how can you walk away for a country of 64 million people?

[gentle music] It is the people, not the government, that are suffering.

- JoAnne: This hospital is in Can Tho, in the south of Vietnam.

It is one of Vietnam's better hospitals, and it is crowded with people, furnished with antiquated equipment, and dreadfully low on supplies.

- Vietnam right now is short of almost everythin.

Because of the economic situation in Vietnam, because of the economic blockade, it's very difficult for Vietnam to purchase anything.

They have no foreign currency.

It's very difficult for them to purchase anything on the open market.

What we throw out in one day in an American hospital will sustain a hospital there for eight months.

- JoAnne: In hospital after hospital, it is a similar story.

- These are the instruments that are currently being used because they don't have enough.

And so they have to use, here in the operating room, essentially broken equipment.

- [doctor speaking Vietnamese] - This incubator is not hooked up at all.

They just have them here, they're just breathing straight air from this.

It's just like having 'em in a bed.

It's not hooked up at all.

All one has to do is to be here for about 15 minutes and you can see what these people lack, the great needs that they have of the most basic commodities.

This box is all antibiotics, and underneath is a variety of different medicines.

- JoAnne: They can't afford medical supplies, and they certainly can't afford scientific periodicals or reasearch materials.

This lack leads to a kind of intellectual isolation for Vietnam, an isolation the committee tries to combat by bringing the Vietnamese to the U.S. and scientific visitors to Vietnam.

- Did she have any hemorrhage, any petechiae on the toe?

No?

- No, no, no, no, no.

- So you have no idea what the cause?

- The cause, maybe... - I feel very strongly that the boundaries between countries are artificial, political lines on a map.

That scientifically, that those kinds of boundaries are not necessary.

- JoAnne: Ladinsky has been working around these diplomatic blockades, through these political boundaries, since 1980.

All told, with the time spent traveling to and in Vietnam, Ladinsky has spent over two years of her life in this country.

- He doesn't like that one.

- Aw, he liked it before.

Maybe he likes this one.

- Oh!

Want the car?

[child crying in background] [adults chuckling] - JoAnne: In January of 1989, the Vietnamese presented Ladinsky with a plaque and planted a small tree to commemorate the work of the U.S. Scientific Committee, this international effort at cooperation.

The war has been over for 14 years.

Ladinsky believes that it is long past time to forgive our former enemies, and that the healing starts by helping each other.

It is a brand of patriotism that looks beyond the borders of our country.

- Patriotism is "My country, do or die."

And as I said, my philosophy is that "My country as part of the world," okay.

For many years after the war, the basic philosophy was that we left Vietnam, we don't need Vietnam, and as far as we're concerned, it can drop off the face of the Earth.

We went away as if Vietnam does not exist.

Well, one can't really do that.

It is a country, it is an integral part of the world.

- JoAnne: Part of the world, part of a shared world.

The world that exists beyond the borders of any country.

A world that is bridged by communication and cooperation.

- Thank you, brother.

- You're welcome.

- JoAnne: A world that is connected in some unusual ways.

In the fall of 1988, Ladinsky arranged for four Vietnamese wildlife specialists to travel to Baraboo, Wisconsin to the International Crane Foundation run by Dr. George Archibald.

[crane whooping] They came because of this bird, the sarus crane.

A bird native to Vietnam, presumed to have been driven out of the country by the years of war.

[scientist imitating crane whooping] But an isolated population was found, and so the Vietnamese came here to learn how to save it.

For the Vietnamese, the sarus crane is both a symbol of good luck and friendship.

For both countries, it can be seen as a symbol of cooperation.

Of sharing knowledge and ideas.

Putting the past to rest by this bridging of the borders between countries.

[solemn piano music] - Judy Ladinsky's life is about service to country.

It's the kind of patriotism a famous Illinois politician probably had in mind when he said this: "Patriotism is not about short, frenzied outbursts of emotion.

It's about the steady, tranquil dedication of a lifetime."

The speaker was Adlai Stevenson, who also said that "It's sometimes easier to fight "for one's principles than it is to simply live up to them."

Our next story is about living up to principles in two small Iowa towns.

It's a story produced by Frank Cervarich of Iowa Public Television.

- Frank: Patriotic actions are those that benefit the community and the people living in that community, and are carried out by community-spirited individuals.

Take, for example, the case of Paul Johnson.

Paul Johnson lives in Centerville, Iowa.

When he retired as principal of the local high school, the people of Centerville decided to rename the football and track field in his honor.

Why would they do such a thing?

- We kidded Paul.

We said, "Not very many people get complexes named after them during their lives," you know?

They usually have to die first.

But in Paul's case, we were very happy to name it while he was very much alive and very much a part of the community.

When he retired from his school position, he didn't retire from the community.

He does so much good.

All his life, you know, he's been a positive example for people.

For young people, old people, and everything in between.

The Citizen of the Year Award is a very prestigious award here in Centerville.

It's not given out lightly.

There have been years that it was considered not to be given because they thought there wasn't anybody who had worked hard enough or deserved it enough for it to be given.

But Paul, there was no problem giving it to Paul.

As a matter of fact, the people who consider it, the committee, had said, "Gosh, why didn't we think of Paul before?"

You know, he's just, everybody just kinda takes him for granted because it's, y'know, if there's something to be done, you can ask Paul, and Paul'll do it.

- If you want to gain your life, you must lose it.

And then you are able to develop your potential.

- Frank: Ramon Hinde is a retired backhoe operator living in Pocahontas, Iowa.

He and his wife were not blessed with children, so they decided to serve their community in a unique way.

They purchased this building and converted it to a senior citizen center.

They did this with their own money and have deeded the building and the property to Pocahontas, a town which has been kind to them over the years.

- Truthfully, Pocahontas had been good to us.

Coming here the way that we had, and we had a nest egg saved up of about a quarter of a million.

And with no kids, you can't do that.

So we decided to build this.

And we did a lot of arguing about it, and my wife agreed too because it's joint common, in common, see.

- Frank: Ramon Hinde didn't just provide funds for this project, however.

He helped in the construction of the building and now runs it.

He and his wife were honored this year by receiving the prestigious Governor's Award for their work.

- Well, all I wanna do is see the people have the things that they're entitled to in their old age.

Why put a citizen, first-class citizen, in a downrated place?

And there we are.

Clean, pretty, I hope.

And we're happy with it.

I don't want any praise.

Hell no, why would anyone want praise?

I did what I wanted to do.

[solemn piano music] - The movie Field of Dreams is set in Iowa on a baseball field.

It's a quintessentially American movie.

But what about the new Americans?

Those who come here with traditions other than the Anglo-Saxon?

The Hmong people are some of those new Americans.

They arrived here after the war in Vietnam, and they are trying to reestablish their culture in a new land.

Our story is produced by Mark Weller.

- We begin this afternoon with the presentation of the colors.

[soldier grunting] ["Taps" playing] - To those who never made it home from Vietnam, both the living and the dead.

And to the people who love them so very, very much.

To this, we dedicate our conference.

- Narrator: This conference is called "Vietnam Remembered: A Celebration of Unity" held at the University of Wisconsin Center in Sheboygan.

It's a time to heal, a time to remember, a time to honor American warriors and those other, more distant veterans of the Vietnam era.

- This will mark the first time in the United States' history that a group of Hmong veterans have ever participated in any way or stature event.

- Announcer: The Hmong came to this campus to stand with their American allies and remember their collective dead.

They came to be recognized for their contributions in aiding America during the Vietnam War.

They came to renew an old friendship.

- It was a good friendship.

A friendship that we have to pay a great price for.

For many of our friends, you lost the war.

But for us, we not just lost the war.

We lost our home and our country.

- Narrator: Their country was Laos.

Their mission, to help America fight the so-called "secret war" against the communists.

To disrupt the Viet Cong supply line running through their country.

Few Americans are aware of their contributions.

Conference steering committee member and Vietnam veteran Will Gilmore.

- They were recruited to fight a war for the CIA, to help us prevent supplies from being brought through their country, Laos, into South Vietnam.

They were also charged with the responsibility of rescuing downed pilots.

And of course, they undertook all of the combat actions that any of the U.S. warriors undertook.

[birds calling] - Narrator: From a replica of the Vietnam Wall, we are reminded of the faces of war.

Those who gave everything until they had no more to give.

So too with the Hmong.

A monument carved with the names of their fallen soldiers, the fathers, sons, and brothers who fought for America, no less brave, no less missed.

Bruce Brown is the creator of the Hmong monument.

- When we were setting this whole thing up, I said to the vets, "Where do you want the Hmong wall?"

Because we had it in our scene shop, which is where we built it.

And we could basically put it anywhere here on campus.

And I assumed they would want it off to the side of it or next to it or something.

And the vets themselves said, "We want it facing the wall."

- Narrator: We are told the two memorial walls face each other because friends never turn their backs.

Friends like Richard Johnston and Robert Stork.

Friends like Thao Nhia Sue and Thao Ger.

- This is my father.

My father, his name is Thao Nhia Sue.

Thao Nhia Sue.

And this is my uncle.

His name, he's Thao Ger.

[speaking Hmong] - Narrator: Chong Neng Thao pays tribute to his relatives killed in the secret CIA war.

He leaves flowers, "Gift special for Thao Nhia Sue.

Your son, Neng Thao."

He also seeks out Will Gilmore to pay honor to the more than 58,000 names carved on the other monument.

- To give this flower for the American soldier who die for the fighting Vietnam.

- Narrator: In a gesture of friendship, in a gesture of unity, the two place the flowers at the base of the Vietnam wall.

Each trying to mend the terrible memory and loss of war.

- This is unity, you know.

These people were our allies over there, and they were fighting our war, and they were patriots fighting for their country, but also doing our bidding, basically.

I mean, they were involved in that whole secret air war.

And so when we brought them here because the war failed, we owe it to them to do reverance.

- Woman: Yeah.

- Narrator: Yet few Hmong are treated as allies.

These are not the British or the French of World War II.

Of the more than 18,000 that have settled in Wisconsin, many have struggled.

Ber Lee.

- Suffer, suffering.

Because we don't get the kind of help that we want to, and especially for the young people.

40, 50 years old, they cannot get help from the government anymore, and they kind of feel frustration in this country now.

- They're expected to assimilate, to become Americanized almost overnight.

And the tragedy in that is their parents and their grandparents are literally watching their culture come to a screeching halt.

There'll be no one to carry on the culture in the next two generations.

- Narrator: Executive director of the Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, Song Yang.

- For the Hmongs, we always dream of a home for ourself.

I think if we cannot make it in United States as a home, a new home, then we will probably not be able to make it anyplace else.

[family speaking Hmong] - My house all the way back over here.

- That's where your house was?

- Yeah.

So anytime the airplane landed and departure, it was pretty noisy.

- Yeah.

- In the day, you couldn't sleep.

Or you couldn't, any time you're working hard, you try to sleep on the day, it's no way.

Pretty noisy.

- Narrator: The Hmong say we should not forget they fought on our side.

Moo Ya Yang is a vet who speaks no English.

He lost an eye in battle and asked us to remember his sacrifice for freedom.

- I ask all veterans to stand up, please.

All veterans to stand up.

Hmong and U.S. [applause] - Narrator: The conference ended with a traditional Hmong healing ceremony, a string tied around wrists to keep the body and soul together.

The mark of a healthy person.

- Will: We're a country that's premised on the philosophy of equality, yet we have such a difficult time in seeing that carried out.

And I think the Hmong epitomizes where we're at right now.

We've still got a long way to go.

- As refugees, we have nowhere to turn to but our friends, the Americans.

The United States is one of the few countries which give us a chance, a new hope for the future, and a place we could probably call home again.

[solemn piano music] - The Hmong people are only the latest arrivals to a country that has always merged identities in what we call the Great American Melting Pot.

But people in this land of ours have always wanted to maintain a part of their identity, a part of their past.

That is really what America is all about, the struggle to cope with and accept diversity.

Some last thoughts now on what makes an American.

- I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and the republic for which it stands.

- I don't think they're doing the right thing, letting all these people come in and sponge on us.

- One nation, under God, indivisible.

- And today, I feel that America is the best country in the whole world.

- We got people starving of our own.

And I think it's about time we took care of our own.

- With liberty and justice for all.

- Dave: What makes an American?

Whether we came from far away or were here from the very beginning, our national identity has always been shaped by diversity.

Professor Roberta Astroff studies nationalism at the University of Wisconsin.

- We certainly are a great example when you try to explain that everyone has multiple identities.

It's almost taken for granted in the United States.

When I've been outside the United States, and people wanted to know who I was or where I was from, New York wasn't a satisfactory answer.

They meant, no, no, they meant, basically what they meant is, we're all hyphenated Americans.

And they wanted to know what my hyphen was.

- Dave: Irish Americans, Black Americans, Native Americans.

And yet of course, what links us to America is more than just a punctuation mark.

- The glue of nationhood, for us, is the American ideal of individual liberty and equal justice.

- Dave: Senator George Mitchell of Maine.

His comments came during the Iran-Contra hearings, a confrontation in many ways over what it takes to be patriotic, over what makes an American.

- Before I entered the Senate, I had the great honor of serving as a federal judge.

In that position, I had great power.

The one I most enjoyed exercising was the power to make people American citizens.

These are people who came from all over the world.

They'd gone through the required procedures, and I, in the final act, administered to them the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, and I made them American citizens.

To this moment, to this moment, it was the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life.

- Dave: In many ways, it is diversity that makes Americans.

People who gave up part of their past in exchange for a dream of the future.

People who pledged their loyalty despite discrimination.

- Drill Sergeant: Your right, your right, your left, your left, your right, your left.

- Dave: Proof of loyalty has always come through service.

Americans from every background have always served, even though the service itself remained segregated until the days of Harry Truman.

There were men like Crispus Attucks, a Black soldier and the first man killed in the Revolutionary War, and Prince Whipple, who helped row George Washington across the Delaware.

And Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima.

Diversity is what makes Americans, but we haven't always valued diverse points of view.

- Protesters: [clap] Freedom!

[clap] Freedom!

[clap] Freedom!

[clap] Freedom!

[clap] Freedom!

- Dave: And when the uniform comes off, we have struggled with diversity even more.

The civil rights movement, in part, was a demonstration that being American didn't require a uniform or a uniform identity.

- We no longer talked of the melting pot after the civil rights movement.

We weren't all going to march into this pot and come out as Americans.

- Dave: For the last three decades, we've struggled over what it takes to be an American.

The diverse and dissenting voices of protests, from the civil rights era to Vietnam, to the Iran-Contra quagmire, all raise the same question.

What is the American, the patriotic thing to do?

- And in America, disagreement with the policies of the government is not evidence of lack of patriotism.

I want to repeat that.

In America, disagreement with the policies of the government is not evidence of lack of patriotism.

- Dave: Patriotism: to follow both the flag and its ideals.

A final definition of patriotism from veteran Will Gilmore, given at a recent gathering of Vietnam vets.

- I think patriotism is hope.

It's hope for change.

You saw today during the color guard ceremonies and the saluting of the American flag, there's a group of Vietnam veterans here who will, sitting in a saloon over a tap beer, will be vocal as hell about the mistreatment that they got when they got back from Vietnam.

Yet every one of 'em had a chill up and down their spine and a tear in their eye to simply have the privilege of saluting the American flag.

Patriotism isn't something that goes away.

Patriotism is almost the constitutional makeup of Americans.

Being patriotic and being Americans, we have the right to complain.

We have the right to create change, to demand change.

That's why we can remain patriotic.

- With liberty and justice for all.

- With that, we conclude Follow the Flag, our program about patriotism, brought to you by stations from around the Midwest.

I'm Dave Iverson.

Thanks for watching.

♪ It's just a dream ♪ ♪ It's a dreamer's dream ♪ ♪ That it's an empty thing ♪ ♪ That really has no meaning ♪ ♪ They say it's all a lie ♪ ♪ But it's not a lie ♪ ♪ I'm going to follow the flag 'til I die ♪ ♪ Into every life ♪ ♪ A little rain must fall ♪ ♪ But it's not gonna rain forever ♪ ♪ You can rise above it ♪ ♪ You can rise above it all ♪ ♪ We will follow the flag together ♪ ♪ We will follow the flag forever ♪ [solemn piano music] [bright music] - Announcer: This is PBS.