To learn more about each president and the features. Order your copy today, however books and ebooks are sold. Good afternoon. Thank you for coming to our last panel, 4 00 panel. World war ii. In this will last about 25 minutes and we have about 15 minutes for q a. Responses for our panel, First Commercial Bank representatives, do we have any in the room . Lets thank them. I have the pleasure [applause] now i have the pleasure of introducing our moderator, james a peden. Not only an attorney with the Jackson Law Firm but recently retired as general, Mississippi AirNational Guard. Thank you for your service. [applause] welcome, everyone to this final panel of the afternoon. We want to extend our special open to those watching us on cspan. Im not sure how i ended up being the moderator here, the owner of the bookstore whom i purchased many books on world war ii suggested i might be an appropriate moderator so i think john for this. I was born april 24, 1944 during world war two. I was born six weeks before dday inside product was serving overseas as staff sgt. In the Army National guard. Im sorry, u. S. Army. World war ii has always had a profound influence on my family, upon my childhood and upon my entire life. Just a moment, i will introduce all three of the distinguished authors who constitute our panel this afternoon. Before i do that, i would like to recognizei anyone in the audience who may be a veteran of the United States armed forces. If you served in the United States, army, navy, air force, coast guard or National Guard or reserve, please stand and be recognized. [applause] mightve served during world war ii and a veteran of that conflict. Knowing start the introduction of our panelists, i will call upon each of i them to say a few words about his most recent book for other books about world war ii and we will then have a general discussion on significantic aspects of the wa. I know everyone in the audience is anxious to hear the perspective of our panelists and we will try to save a few minutes at the end to receive your questions. Let me introduce our panelists alphabetically, i was told to keep the introductions brief, that is difficult to do. Our first panelist is michael, British American was born in Northern Ireland in 1950, his educated at the 1 university of england where he was awarded bachelor of arts degree in economic and social history in 1972. He completed fellowships at harvard and became an american citizen in 2010. He spent much of his career as a correspondent, covering the collapse of communism. He served as the correspondent for orders news agency in the 1970s, he joined the Washington Post in 1980 and served bureau chief is the post your and served as bureau chief for the newspaper in paris and in moscow, hes now a staff member of the u. S. Holocaust memorial museum. He now lives in maryland, the author of numerous books including one minute to midnight about the missile crisis in 1962. His most recent book is entitled, the unwanted, america and village in between. Jewish families in a small German Village of oppenheim in the southwestern portion of germany, french borders during the 1930s, saw was coming and said we were increasing power. Many of these families attempted to escape to america, some were successful, some were not and ended up being murdered. The immigration policies the United States during that time, it raises troubling questions about immigration policy of the United States government onto president roosevelt. Our second author is alec kershaw sitting next to me, he was born in york england in 19 1966. He attended the university, he studied politics, he taught history for a whilele before becoming a journalist a for several british newspapers including the guardian and the sunday times. His article appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines and hes worked as a screenwriter and in television, including think the narrator for the historyra channel, the last of world war ii. He slowed several battlefields tour to europe, National World war ii in new orleans, he is the author of several books on world war ii including the longest in the battle of the bulge and the bedford boys about sacrifice an extraordinary large number of soldiers from virginia. His latest book is the first wave about dday. In this book, he focuses on the experiences of the very First American british and canadian soldiers who landed in normandy june 694, 1944. Our third author at the end is samuel klein are raised in tucson, arizona, he holds a bachelors degree from northwesternlo university, a doctorate degree in International Relations and the university of oxford where he was a marshall scholar and holds a law degree from yale law school. He served as judge gerard on the u. S. Court of appeals for the Second Circuit and advisor on International Trade negotiations in the office of the trade representative. Hes not an attorney with distinguished new york city law firm. His writings have been published in the Atlantic Los Angeles times. His most recent book is entitled flying tigers, the untold story of the american pilots who waged a secret work against japan, this was published just last year. I think most of you know its the adventurous t name given to the American Volunteer Group, American Military pilots led by the enigmatic and flying tigers brought the japanese in the skies and the skies of china before and after pearl harbor. The flying tigers with those approved with president roosevelt and the American Government under contracts with the Chinese Government led by shanghai trip. You completed that. Id like to each ask each of our panelists to Say Something about your recentne book and some of e challenges you faced in writing that book. Thank you very much. Its wonderful to be here. My book is about u. S. Immigration policy under president roosevelt during the years leading up to the holocaust and world war ii. The controversial subject, others defending him. What i wanted to do was to integrate the story of what was happening in washington the politicalni struggle going on in those years over immigration and refugee policy with the story of a specific group of people with whom we could identify. People worked trying to reach the United States from germany whose lives were in danger and who were trying in order to survive, they needed to obtain what the american journalists called a piece of paper with stamp. Whether he lived or died frequently depended on whether you could obtain this document. I looked at one Single Community in the southwest germany, the jewish families in this village, particularly the horrifying balance november 1938, they all understand their only option is to get out of germany as quickly as possible. They all apply for american jesus and i describe the challenges they faced in getting the visas, some succeed and some dont. The people who dont, most of them end up being deported in 1942. Im trying to connect this political stories, bureaucratic story and make it a human history. As a journalist in Eastern Europe and soviet union, are struck by the factk that the political debate in washington had very little to do with whats actually happening on the ground. I tried to connect the political story to the human story. On one side the obsession of National Security, if we let refugees into the country, they could pose a threat to u. S. National security. The germans could try to s infiltrate calmness. Not the agents into the u. S. Another book i read about world war ii, is about not the agents who landed since hit by some rain in 1943, think landed in florida and another group landed in long island. There were attempts by germans to infiltrate the United States. This wasnt just a fantasy, it wasnt just a political rhetoric but the question is, i try to examine in the book, i think it still topical question, whats the right balance between humanitarianism and National Security policy . I think if you float read my book, youll come away with your ,own ideas on that. Thats enough for now though you think you. We saw the 75th anniversary the date more than two months ago. Mr. Kershaw has written about dday in the first wave, telling us a story of paratroopers, commandos, rangers and other soldiers led the invasion of normandy. Tell us about your book, mr. Kershaw and challenges you faced in writing it. Its great to be here. Its only 98 degrees. [laughter] it was 53 on dday, it was cold. I think i prefer that. Im a hero worshiper, i dont care. I spent 25 years of myer life celebrating and spending a lot of time with mostly working classes liberated in a place that we all love. For the 75th anniversary, is unashamed, have to make a living about world war ii and i thought one of them has an opportunity on the 75th anniversary to celebrate the guys ive always worshiped most of the most important jobs. So i took 12 and six american, four british, two canadian, is that 12 yet . Added one frenchman. Actually, French Commando is in the first with. My idea was to take 12 combat commanders can you hear me . Was going to tell a story of these amazing combat commanders who had the toughest missions, highest stakes who are most likely to die if they didnt succeed, dday would have failed. The First American to come to shore in utah, 28, from maryland. Oh, this one. Okay. Anyway, its about dday, thank you. [laughter] coolest guys on dday. Hes written about the flying tigers, band of american pilots who fought the japanese in the early days of the war. The exploits were highly publicized. 1951, when i was a 7yearold boy, living in fort knox kentucky, i was stationed there and i first saw television on those local stations. Saturday morning, theres a program entitled flying tigers and the television program, my own flying tigers ring, sponsoring the program and i remember as a boy, sink the movie, starring don wayne. Please tell us a bit about your book. Thank you so much. Its wonderful to be here in jackson and to see so many friends here. My book, as you mentioned, its about this very famous unit, at the beginning of world war ii, actually, before pearl harbor, president roosevelt secretly authorized spinning american pilots and these planes to help the chinese were fighting against the japanese and i tell that story through the lens of the men and some women part of that unit. As led by the backwoods of louisiana, young guys who sign up, really for the sense of adventure. They find themselves in training in a remote place in burma, when pearl harbor happens if they are stuck on the wrong side of the world and they quickly become the First American pilots to fight back against the japanese after the devastating attack in pearl harbor and they quickly become one of the h most Iconic Images in American History of americans at work. Hollywood recognized the good story and they see it and rush out in 1941, the john wayne movie based on their story and they quickly became some of the worldamous americans in war ii and what i wanted to do, was really to write the truth story of this unit so got to meet the last survivor still living in georgia, his name is frank. I got to meet the family of so many of these pilots were going to the flying tigers reunion and through assembling primary documents, letters, diaries, combat reports, looking at Old Newspaper clippings, i put together the true story of what it was like to be one of these flying tigers in the content of these key 40s in burma, china in the early days of world war ii. For me, the book is dedicated to both of my grandfathers what i believe are watching on cspan right now. My grandfather, otis miller who was a doctor during the war and my grandfather criner, a navigator on a fee 25 in the pacific and i would get to go to see a lot of the claims in the pima airspace museum in tucson, where i grew up. I wanted to acknowledge with that generation had done. Thats the theme for all of us here, this is a really important moment in history wherever he were in it truly was a global war and the globe, theres a lot of heroism and a lot of important stories are still worth remembering so many years later. Thank you. World war ii was the most cataclysmic event of the 20th century and perhaps of all time. The war was unrelenting and in persons all over the world. No one knows many people died in world war ii. The best estimate ranges between 55 Million People and 60 Million People. Including many civilians. There were approximately 30 Million Deaths in the soviet union alone, two thirds of both being soviet civilians. There were approximately 15 million 1 chinese killed, approximately 6 million killed, many of them murdered by the nazis because they were jews. Yugoslavia, approximately 2 million. Germany lost fourth million, japan lost 1 million dead. Italys casualties were about 300,000. Some 400,000 soldiers and civilians. After the United States entered the war in 1941, approximately 405,000 americans servicemen died before the japanese surrendered september 2, 1945. The war forever changed American Society and made the United States the most powerful nation in the world and the war brought United States on the world stage is the leading player. The effects of world war ii were still being felt today. Odmore than 5000 have been published on world war ii and books continue to come off the presses, illustrated by the books our offices just published. I like to ask our panelists to discuss the current state of world war ii historiography. You had a lot of secret government archives opened in recent years and information is not available i would not have been available ten or 15 or 20 years ago. Would you like to comment on this and any problems youve had in finding sources to your work . In world war ii, its no longer the most important because the people who participated in dday, most have passed away and fewer and fewer survivors of the holocaust. By contrast, theres still a huge amount of one can discover new things. Whenever you go to the archives and dig in the archives, it gives us a better understanding of what actually happened. I think we are getting to a more balanced view of the events of the war. I was a reporter for a long time in the soviet union. A lot of those who wrote about the work from my friends Washington Post, talked about the liberation trilogy, the American World in the Second World War. I think we are beginning to explore the role of the country, the role of the soviet union. We are beginning to integrate, the last few years, a huge demand of material has come from archives of the soviet bloc. We are trying to integrate their stories with the stories of what we are being familiar with in the west. I think theres a lot more to be done on that. I think theres more to be understood about the places of russia and america. In historiography, a place of phase where they have their own history. There is the phase where there is questioning those accounts. Then theres a phase of a sense of this and trying to draw on all the evidence and i think thats the phase we are in at the moment. Come close to the microphone. Thankfully, several institutions including the one he worked for now have done amazing jobs in the last 20, 30 years. Knowing that think officially the year is 2023 when the u. S. Government accepts that world war ii exist. We are at the end of this socalled greatest generation, which is a books title, a marketing term by the way. I worked for quite often the imperial war museum, the list is very long. Ive done a fantastic job of putting down endless oral history. The participants were not there anymore tragically, very sadly for me, i will havee to move on, its my great pleasure talking to the people actually there but i read a book called a liberator about the american office, the first guy to command americans when they liberated between 1945, that was the first concentration cap in germany, very symbolic. He interviewed at great length and no one has interviewed in that book. 2012, i spent one half hours going through and there were Amazing Things in there. We had a treasure trove thats yet to be explored is being given to us by vigilant historians in terms of what we havent explored yet. Youll notice theres a wavee wf nonfiction from world war ii, because her in spring, the soa files for being declassified now, youll see a wave of books about escape ovulation. Its the topics of world war ii, for example, if i told you this, this is amazing. Over 2000 americans did what was called a homerun in world warar ii. They went into aom pub 1943, 44, early 1945, they had a drink they were under Bombing Mission in the got cut down. They made a homerun from there went through at least 15 or more people must they take them from where they were shut down, through france, into spain and taken back by the British Americans to be air force base. I was called a homerun. All of those in terms of the support, they came back and they were interrogated for often weeks because it was a highly suspect, with the british and american paper turned by the gestapo if you spent a year on the run you couldnt happen arrested by the gestapore and st back. They were interrogated when they came back. They were classified until mid 2000s. You can only read those the last ten years. The reasonhe was because in the cold war, 1945, the cold war had already begun. It ended inhe europe began. We knew we had this network of guys from her resistance workers all over who helped. If the work became a work, they would immediately use that network. All of that was classified. He had over 2000 americans who performed a miracle who couldnt talk about it for almost their entire lives. Many of those guys whof escaped never talked to their family or anybody about it because it was secret. Stuff like that we are consciously discovering. Amazing stories coming out and will continue to come out. Thank you. Seventyfive years after world war ii, i think we are nearing where people are willing toou engage in different types of narratives about the war, less interest in the first wave of history after the works of the flying tigers, which im writing about were extremely popular going all the way back to 1941 and the first wave of writers did straight up hero worship, these are often from a number of things planes they shutdown, roughly inflated. Were not really engaging and broader history and i think now we are at a time when people are willing to evaluate a more transnational and global scope of the war so in my book, i talk about the chinese they are working with and the british were therey because burma was a british colony so we are starting to see more of the global scope of the work and also, i think theres much more interest in different types of narratives from to the has been much earlier books in the flying tigers but they never touched on one of myg favorite characters for my book, a womanou by the ne of eminent emma foster who was a nurse from pennsylvania who joined the unit, she studied abroad and learned some chinese and was interested to join this unit and she had a remarkable story in the unit falling in love with one of the pilots infiltrated letters back and forth when they were separated during conflict. Thehe letters were in the basemt of an archive of the university where i was studying for my thought degree and that was one of the first breakthroughs i had in telling the story and no one had looked at them for the purpose of telling the story of the flying tigers and over the course of a k couple of years gt to know different families, some of them in their private collection would have a trove of support which had off minute by minute, letters stashed away in the attic or closet so i think theres a rich amount of history still out there and hopefully being centralized into museums so historians many years from now continue to tell these stories at the museum he works at, the Holocaust Museum is one of the most important places in the world foretelling and m preserving most stories if i could have a quick, my fiances grandfather was a survivor at the concentration camp and survived through the war, carrying a ring that one of her friends had given her and the ring is in the Holocaust Museum and those kinds ofth things need to be preserved for many years to come and its important work museums are doing. Thank you very much. Nk as i was growing up, i learned the lesson that came out of the work, the dangers of appeasement. Let me ask, a broad question, what lessons have we learned and what lessons are we still learning coming out of the war . I think one of the important lessons from world war ii, something ive been thinking about recently is the importanco of alliances and this is something touched on earlier, we think of world war ii and apart only american context, if you read o alex kershaws book on dday, he will read not just about american but the canadians and british and french commander who were there. Im writing about Americas Alliance withme china, which is not something we typically think of during world war ii in the context of world war ii but china has been called the forgotten allies of war so is about carefully was navigating alliances all of the world to defeat japan and germany and italy had to navigate alliances with soviet union, china, Great Britain and a whole host of other countries and he would do that summit and having ambassadors working on these diplomatic relations so i think right now, you hear a lot about, i want to get political but you hear about America First right now and that rhetoric was from the 1930s, the isolationist movement before world war ii 13 want america to get involved in what they saw european war, America First committee. That rhetoric is in many ways opposed to how we won the war, esich was through establishing a series of alliances that allowed us to form a coalition that would go on to win the war. We need to think carefully about the apartments of alliances an entire series of International Institutions we build in world war ii which is worth preserving today. What about lessons from the war . Some of the beliefs the foundation of modern civilization is the alliance between u. S. And north america is not they establish that without any question and i think its the most important thing that we have, its a very profound one to the futures of my son and other generations. Artsy 138,000 americans, mainly workingclass died to the right europe from 1942 to 1945. Their legacy is a western democracy, 75 years of peace, never in european history has not happened before. Seventyfive years is a long time when you look at the murders and killing happened. As a democracy in western europe now. We were allies with an evil. Three quarters of the dying and fighting in europe, the germans were basically beaten by the red army, soviets, humanists, barbarism. If you want to germany in 1945, they acted by berkeley, if youre a woman, you had a good chance of being raped wherever you are. The ages of eight to 80 raped. One every 12 minutes. There were barbarians but we tend to forget that. Youd could vote in france, in western because of ally sacrifice and in particular, towards the end of the war, american sacrifice in europe, dday around 5050, 1944, majority of americans are fighting on the western front in europe, Eastern Front but the dwest. Over 70 of the killing and dying with gunfight americans in europe e and the break question here. You entered the war after pearl harbor, way too late if your efforts, ended up finishing the job in western europe. If you hadnt been there, we wouldnt have had the protecti protection, the democracy and the civilization weve enjoyed as europeans and without that great sacrifice and contribution from all allies and in particular, toward the end of the war in europe by americans, there would not be democracy inn western europe. It would have been completely communist. They were going to be communist anyway. I agree with everything you said. On the one hand, the importance of the western alliance but weio shouldnt forget, as you mentioned, the Eastern Alliance and i think we are forgetting the most sophisticated understanding of the Second World War, in order to defeat hitler, United States and united kingdom. In subsequent years we tended to suppress the fact that most of the killing of the wehrmacht was taken place on the Eastern Front. There was a moral ambiguity at the heart of western strategy in the Second World War we beat the nazis because we allied ourselves with communists and theres no getting around nap and somehow we had to grapple with the fact that central, moral ambiguity of the war when we think about fighting rules. In the 1930s the United States was a nation divided mr. A kleiner mentioned a moment ago the american person was about half the nation was isolationist and wanted to stay out of the war and the other half of the nation thought we would be drawn into the war. President roosevelt walking a tightrope. I believe he wanted [inaudible] a lot of other things were done by the United States government to help h britain and its allies fighting the nazis. After the japanese attacked pearl harbor the division in the country went away overnight we were a united nation. Would you comment upon that, mr. Kleiner two. Thats a great question and a atlot of the focus in my book because roosevelt was very focused on taking what he called measures short of war and there was a need to keep america out of the war, roosevelt had made very vocal statements condemning japanese and german aggression before pearl harbor, including the quarantine speech in 1937 where he talked about the need for a quarantine against aggressors but found that, by and large, there was not public support f for america getting entangled in what they saw as another european conflict and there was a lot of opposition on capitol hill from a public senator like robert taft and Burton Wheeler who did not want to see america involved inin ths european or the asian conflict between japan and china and roosevelt really was taking measures where he could to aid the allies and so what im writing about is this program to assist china and it may have been invaded by japan in 1937 and particularly the secretary of the treasury, henry [inaudible], a fascinating individual took a great interest in china to ensure that no one could get loans for large armament purchases and then took a step which is extraordinary of authorizing sending american planes and american pilots who were released from their service in the u. S. Military to go over and fight against the. Japanese and morgan in his diary chronicled these incredible meetings talking actively about sending over american planes and pilots to china to fight against the japanese as a Covert Mission where you would have plausible deniability because if any of these guys were shot down he would be able to sayio these wee an official American Military forces. There were pretty extraordinary steps taken to do that and i think roosevelt deserves a lot of credit for his efforts to help the allies before america entered into world war ii and in some ways to prepare america for adventure he into the warbird the arsenal of democracy was important to speech he gave before pearl harbor talking abouth the allies. Mr. Dobbs, would you like to comment on that . I think fdr studied the altered conscience. Fdr in the First World War was assistant secretary of the navy and he saw how public opinionga turned against Woodrow Wilson at the end of the war. Somehow, wilson did not manage to deliver this piece. Im sorry, could you move closer to the microphone . Woodrow wilson did not manage to deliver the lasting peace that he had promised. One ofe roosevelt central ida when he went to yalta was to set up a system of International Institutions, particularly the United Nations that would make good on failures from the First World War and the failure of the information. It was very important to him at yalta in these negotiations with stalin and churchill and it was less important to stalin but roosevelt it was absolutely essential but these International Institutions would be set up, you know, to persuade the American People among other things that the war had been worth all these sacrifices. Mr. Kershaw, i am sure the british people were impatient with the United States to get into the war. Churchill wooed frank and roosevelt and what you talk about that . From the first day that churchill enters ten downing street, i cant do much but never before, no, i cant do a very good posh accent, michael is w better at it that way. I can do a boorish impression but anyway, that black door, i think it was black in 1940 . Was and it still black at ten downing street . Anyway, if you sick see the pictures of boris ruffling his hair he doesnt apparently before he goes to speak publicly so he looks like anyway, in 1940 churchill entered ten downing street and i think it was the 14th of may, 1940 and never in modern british history did things look so bad. The news from europe was disastrous. Almost all of europe by the end of june 1940 was under the nazi boot and we were alone during the battle of britain, we were absolutely alone. In fact, i wrote a book about the 11 americans who flew into battle of britain in the summer 1940. Churchill like to be naked a lot even around his underlings and the under mentioned around him, his secretaries and his son. One day in may 1940 he was shaving and his son was talking to him and he was completely naked, i will let you imagine what that was like but anyway, he threw his razor into the sink and his son was there and churchill said ive got it. It wasnt a drink but he had gotten ant. Idea. He said or his son said what have you got and he said ive worked out how we will win the war and his son said how and he said we will drag the United States in so from the very first day that Winston Churchill was in power as Prime Minister he did everything, everything, begged, borrowed, there was nothing he would not do to bring you guys into the war because if we did not do that it was done, we had no chance, no hope. Everything was about that. He was celebrating when pearl harbor came around. It was finally, thank god, thank god. It took pearl harbor to bring you in but everything the british could do they did to persuade you guys to come in. Mr. Kleiner, would you talk briefly about the relationship between the leader of the flying tigers and general shack and Malcolm Chang who was educated in the United States . Yes, it was a fascinating story and real honor to tell it in the book. Hes one of the most fascinating commanders from world war ii and he was a basically an Army Air Force stunt pilot. He grew up in the backwoods of louisiana and he became essentially a predecessor to the blue angels preheated group called the flying trapeze that was stationed over at Maxwell Air Force base or army base in alabama and they would travel the country doing these acrobatic performances that were rysome of the most wellknown acrobatic pilot acts in the country which was a very big deal at the time and at the miami airshow in 1935 he was approached by a Chinese Military officer who said how would you like to, fly for us in china and that was a pretty extraordinaryr entree and he had first declined it. Hed wife and seven kids but over the course of the next couple of years he saw that his career in the Army Air Force was getting stalled and he was concerned about what he called, ending up flying a desk. He butted heads with Commanding Officers and so he accepted the invitation and went over to china in 1937 and never having left the country before and ended up becoming a very post advisor to shaq who was the commander of the nationalist forces and his wife, madame chiang, was educated in the u. S. And spoke fluent english and she thought chinas position as they were fighting the japanese and started in july 1937 as being tied up with getting roosevelt to come in and support china so not to similar from churchills posture as they were thinking about how would they get out from underneath the massive Japanese Invasion and the Chinese Air Force was destroyed in the early fighting in that war and in cities like shanghai in china was pushed back into a very small corner, basically up against the himalayas in what they called free china cities like [inaudible] close to the city border of burma. He was given the extra memory task of madame chang in 1940 of going back to washington dc and trying to lobby the Roosevelt Administration in concert with chinese officials to set up this group which was officially noted the American Volunteer Group and later became famous in supplying tigers and so he was an extraordinary figure who wrote to gross prominence during the war was on the cover of life in Time Magazine and his personal story is are markable getting to see his diary in one of his papers through the family has been a fun part of writing this book and he ultimately came to feel more at home in china that he did back in the u. S. And he returned to louisiana after the war and went back to his wife and saw that that was not the life he wanted to live so he returned to china and marrying a chinese woman who was fascinating in her own right and spent the rest of her life working for Chiang Kaishek and madame chang up through the 50s when he passed away. We are just about to get to question time. I want to ask our panelists if they would like to say any thing else before we go to questions. Mr. Kershaw. Thank god for the first wave on dday and the first wave and how many invasions in the pacific, i dont know how many there were altogether in the pacific but americans alone in europe were six [inaudible] and not aside before or for before dday and then two days ago you invaded operation on water so thank goodness for all those guys in the first wave and all those previous invasions. To remind our audience that just a few weeks after dday a massive American Fleet in the pacific landed marines on saipan to begin the liberation of the islands. We were mounting multiple major invasions around the world. But the Second World War really boiled down to one thing. The pacific and europe. The landings. That is what eisenhower said the famous higgins vote was the guy that won world war ii because he made all these landings crafts. Any final thoughts . You know, there are so many more stories to be told about the Second World War. You think the subject is exhausted but then every year produces books that break new ground and i mean, its amazing. The Second World War holds fascination and only comparable to the civil war in this count mountry. Im a specialist in the cold war but i have to admit that it doesnt have the same fascination as the Second World War seems to be inexhaustible. Mr. Kleiner, final thoughts. No, just on what mr. Kershaw said this wonderful story of so Many Americans staying at home in the story of higgins Landing Craft was built down in new orleans and its the kind of ingenuity and industrial might that the United States country fitted to the war and that was so important and theres so many wonderful storiesf of what americans did at home to contribute to the war effort. If you have questions, would you please go into the microphone. Ue the microphones are in the middle of the room. The microphone at the podium in the middle. Was there a difference in the accuracy and degree of detail in the maps available to the allies . As opposed to the Pacific Theater . Wow. [laughter] i could be asked because im good at that but i do know if you look at the dday maps they were extremely impressive, very detailed in deeds. We benefited from the air force in particular, believe it or not, they had 3d aerial photography. No not you had three dimensional scale but they were very accurate maps for dday. If you look at omaha beach, 900 americans killed there but eight sectors in each rifle squad, each platoon knew exactly where they were going and had very, very detailed maps of where the defense of installations were. We headed infested intelligence job. I cant tell you specifically in the specific but in the dday it had great intelligence. In theour opinion, uboat war in the atlantic would not have been successful and do you think the war might not have progressed if europe would not have been cut off from their supply line . If you look at the north atlantic in 1942 had the uboats war, had the uboat campaign succeeded in the launching pad for all of the american operations in europe would have gonene down would not have had a dday. So yeah, very, very critical time and the defeat of [inaudible] showed allied ingenuity and corporation because americans were on the eastern seaboard and youve written about that to the full extent and then the british we both cooperated very carefully on that and intelligence obviously with the decoding ultra was again far from the battlefield but so showed that we could put our brains to best use. So yeah, world war ii for four years thats almost as long as President Trump spent in power. You want two wars three, 4000 miles from where youre sitting right now and in 1941 you had a federal law that limited the u. S. Army to 125,000 men. Its a miracle. Amazing. Did you want to Say Something mr. Dobbs . I think thehe uboat war, we understood that in the last few years why we won the uboat war which was [inaudible] why suddenly would all these uboats being sunk in the atlantic and was because the u. S. In the uk knew where the uboats were and they were able to sink them so without the cracking of the german code and that shadow intelligence that simply would not have happened. I think we have a final question from robert. I should confess that he and i were baseball teammates in 1950 fine and Fraternity Brothers and roommates at ole ms. And he is not an extinguished distinguished attorney here. And we meet monthly so we did discuss all our american wars. On the technological side since the flying tigers operation was covert, did they, unlike the non covert operations in the pacific and in europe, have a sunk technological disadvantage in getting up to date equipment, planes and having the more modern stateoftheart planes and supply to work within china . Great question. The flying tigers, as i said, were officially set up as a covert unit called the American Volunteer Group and the p40s were sent over inboxes on freighters and they were essentially on the wrong side of japan when pearl harbor happened and so they were left with supplies with them and talking this last surviving mechanic who is with the unitur is remarkable to hear what they were able to do trying to keep these planes flying when they did not really have many supplies but the entire supply operation in the china burma india theater of flying the hump and having to get the supplies into forces in china by flying them across the himalayas is a remarkable story and one of the more amazing feats that america accomplished during the war. We have time for one more question for anybody wants to go . If not, this has been a memorable and most informative session. Please join me in thanking our panelists. [applause] we stand adjourned. Tonight, on the communicators. Mark randolph, cofounder of netflix and author of the book, that will never work shares his experiences starting the online streaming service. On april 14, 1998 our cto hit a few keys and we were live. It did not take long till we got that first being and we cheered and began opening bottles of champagne and then two, three minutes later ding, ding, ding, three more orders and we were so excited and then we got two more orders and in all the excitement we lost track of things until someone noticed that its been a while since the bell rung. Was it unplugged . Was there a problem . In the first 15 minutes of being online we crashed all our servers. Mark randolph tonight at 8 0e communicators on cspan2. You been watching a special addition of book tv now airing during the week while members of congress are in their district due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight global history, first, Brown UniversitysPeter Andreason talks about the relationship between six drugs. Harvard University History professor, vincent brown, chronicles the 18th century slave revolt that took place in jamaica known as techies revolt. Later, the history of latin america at the wisconsin book festival in madison. Enjoy book tv now in over the weekend on cspan2. Television has changed since hes a man began 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspan Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. Be a part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feet. Cspan, created by private industry, americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming outha to or new store. We been open for just about two months so welcome it tonight we are excited to have it with us