NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, July 1, 2024. Good morning. This is The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio, supported by you, the listeners. I’m Nick Eicher.
MARY REICHERD, HOST: I’m Mary Reichard, and now we have a world history book. Today we presented America with a symbolic gift, and we’re putting a Bible in your hotel room.
EICHER: But first, American soldiers are heading home. World reporter Anna Johansen Brown reports.
NEWSCAST: At last, America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the third costliest war in history, is drawing to an end.
ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: On a hot July day, a U.S. infantry battalion set out from Saigon. It was July 7, 1969. They were the first U.S. troops to withdraw from the Vietnam War.
For the first four years of the armed conflict, U.S. troops supported South Vietnam in its fight against Communist North Vietnam, but the fighting has dragged on with no end in sight.
CRONKITE: It seems more certain than ever that the bloody experience of the Vietnam War will end in a stalemate.
As the casualty toll rises, anti-war sentiment is also growing in the country.
sound: [VIETNAM PROTESTS]
In early 1969, the newly elected President Nixon announced a new strategy, “Vietnamization.” The plan was to withdraw U.S. troops but increase artillery and air bombardment, and give the South Vietnamese the training and weapons they needed to continue fighting.
Over the next four years, US troops were gradually withdrawn from Vietnam, the final time in 1973. Just two years later, North Vietnamese forces took control of Saigon and the country was unified under a Communist regime, leaving many Americans disheartened and wondering if the sacrifices had been worth it.
We then travel back to 1899 rural America and the time of the traveling salesman.
John Nicholson and Sam Hill met at a hotel in Wisconsin. Both were salesmen who traveled a lot for work. The hotel was full and there was only one room left, so the two shared a room. They soon realized they were both Christians and decided to spend the night together praying.
Documentary: A chance meeting in room 19 of the Central House Hotel marked the humble beginnings of Gideons International.
They felt that God was telling them to begin a missionary effort. Their goal was to unite traveling salesmen for evangelistic work. On July 1, 1899, their group met for the first time with all three members in attendance.
It wasn’t until 1908 that the Gideon Society began what would become their trademark strategy of placing Bibles in hotel rooms.
This is Gideon member Brad Morris.
Morris: The mission of Gideons International is the salvation of souls, and our mission is accomplished through this word, this book, the Word of God.
Today, Gideon has more than 250,000 members. They distribute more than 70 million Bibles each year, an average of two Bibles every second. Every day, the organization hears testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by the Bible.
Morris: There is a need and a hunger for God’s Word all over the world, and that’s why we do what we do.
Recently, several hotel chains have decided to stop distributing any religious literature, including Gideon Bibles, but about 65 percent of hotels still accept them, so the next time you travel and open your bedside table drawer, there’s still a good chance you’ll find God’s Word, travelling salesman or not.
Finally, on Independence Day, 140 years ago this week, in 1884, France formally presented the Statue of Liberty to the American ambassador in Paris.
French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi began work on the statue eight years ago.
But the story goes back even further than that, to the 1860s, when France was a dictatorship and a group of French thinkers and abolitionists met shortly after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, according to Edward Berenson, a professor of French history at New York University.
BERESON: Their idea was to come up with a way to commemorate the life and work of Abraham Lincoln and to make a critical comment on their own government — a subtle critique of their own government by talking about how great the American political system is.
In 1870, Bartholdi began designing “The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.” He enlisted the help of French engineer Gustave Eiffel to create the statue’s framework.
After its official display in 1884, the statue was dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic to New York Harbor, where it was painstakingly reassembled. The Statue of Liberty opened to the public two years later and has become a beloved symbol of hope for millions around the world.
Documentary: When we come to New York Harbor and see the symbol of America, it’s a woman holding the torch of hope and freedom, and that’s why we call her the Lady… because to us, she’s not a statue.
Music: O BEAUTIFUL…
That’s all for this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Anna Johansen Brown.
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