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Sen. Hagel’s brother: ‘It’s just a matter of time’
GREGORY: Well, Tom, let me ask you this. You’re a Democrat.
T. HAGEL: Yes.
GREGORY: So, this is going to serve some of your - be a little bit self-serving. But you’ve talked to your brother. Your brother’s an astute political analyst, as well as a senator.
How hard does he think it’s going to be for a Republican to win next year?
T. HAGEL: I mean, he has not confided in me any great details that probably are not available to everybody else.
But I don’t think he is even focused on that. I think he is solely focused - to be real frank with you right now - I think he is solely focused on doing what he can to provide leadership to get out of this war.
GREGORY: Right.
T. HAGEL: Secondly, of course, I believe - I’m not, I don’t have any inside information - but I believe he’ll ultimately throw his hat in the ring. And I think that is going to be the primary, leading subject, if you will - goal, maybe - of coming up with some plan to get out of this mistaken war that we’re in.
GREGORY: You talk about war. Your life, your brother’s life, very much defined by your service in Vietnam.
T. HAGEL: Yes.
GREGORY: Take me through that, serving with your brother, and your experience in Vietnam and how it has colored both of your views about this war.
T. HAGEL: It can’t help but color a person’s view, regardless of what their service was.
But our service was, we were infantry riflemen in the Mekong Delta in 1968 - a bad year over there - and we saw a lot of the worst of it.
And that’s why I think his position on the war deserves so much more credibility than most other of his colleagues. Because when they talk about the war in Iraq, putting it on ground level, the best they can do, and rightfully so, is look at it in the abstract.
He is maybe the only person in the Senate who actually knows what those folks are confronting each and every day.
GREGORY: He’s been in the mud .
T. HAGEL: Yes, he has.
GREGORY: And seen the hard reality of battle. He saved your life there, didn’t he?
T. HAGEL: Yes.
GREGORY: Tell me about that.
T. HAGEL: I don’t know if I want to get into all that.
GREGORY: It was a tough period.
T. HAGEL: Yes. Very difficult.
GREGORY: It was remarkable, wasn’t it, that you two were even serving in the same place.
T. HAGEL: Yes. Neither one of us can explain it. We were in, in fact, totally different ends of the country, and we end up not only in the same infantry division, but the same battalion, the same company and the same squad.
And we were tighter in the field, I think altogether about seven or eight months of our time over there. So, we saw a lot of awful things.
GREGORY: And you both came out with different views about the war in Vietnam.
T. HAGEL: Initially, yes. When I left, I was absolutely frustrated and angry, because I felt that we had been lied to and misused, and that a lot of people lost their life and were affected through various types of wounds that would affect them the rest of their life - for nothing.
And Chuck took the other end. And he believed that it was a justified war, justified conflict, our involvement was justified. And he held that position for a long time.
But as he may tell you - I know he’s talked about this with other people recently - that he has changed his mind dramatically on that.
GREGORY: Just in case people are just looking up now, I just want to be very clear.
Your view after this announcement today that left some people shaking their heads, is that this was just a precursor to your brother, Senator Hagel, getting into the race for president. That’s your view, that that will happen in time.
T. HAGEL: My gut tells me that is correct. I don’t have any inside information. But knowing Chuck, I think that he is - it’s just a matter of time.
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