>> welcome tohe broadcast night. tonighjules kroll once the worlds most famous slu now the man going into the business corporate ratings. >> we want to go to the person or various people who might know. were also looking for people who have reason to ge informatio they either have a beef wh mebody, they're antagistic. maybe they have had a dispute of someone beg fired from aob, or maybe they have reached the level of suing somebody, or mayb somebody has written about them thats, you know,he will negative. looking for se basis or other where somody would have an effect, a motivation, for sharingnformation with you. that's really theartform. >> and we conclude this evening th gore vidal. >> had friend iived with for more than 50 years, and i never collect pictures or anythi else about myself. anybody else but did. sudden i have this great stk,lways in nd of dusting. he sd, i said what are you gointo do with it it's just -- i usetor kindling, to light fires with. he said, wl, it ght be worth doing one day. >> gore vidal next. announcer: funding for chaie rose has en provided byhe llow: captioning sponsored b rose communitions fr our studios in new york city, this is chare rose. >> charlie: les kroll is herethe chairman and founder of k2 global partns the next genetion intelligence a curity fir for cades he has bee regded as the "private eye." in 1991 he was responsible for tracng down millions of dollars hidden by saddam hussein. a forme colleague sa of him as a optimist es a glass as lf full, the pessimist as half pty jules see it it -- i'm pleased to have him here at this table. welcome. >> thank you, charlie. >> charlie: our interest was peed a piece by the new yorker mazine. a profile with ainteresting phograph of you called "the secret keeper, jes kroll and the world of cporate intelligence." what would you now be dng in terms this credit agency siness. >> okay. well, for many years there have be numerous instruments, coorate itruments, products labeled trip-a. have learned triple-a doesn't mean triple- wh i try during my career identify public poli problems susceptle to a prive stor. we're setting up a initutional investor owned rang system where we're doing things difrently than the current cdit rating agencies have been doi. for exame we will conct due dillence as we he for years in the financial worl and we're going to do things in a way that looks underhe hood and make sure we understand at is under the hood. >> charlie: what iour ce exllence? >> we're basicly fact finders that's what the business has been about. as we go throughach decade sincehe 70s i apply fact nding. the work i close to a investigative rorter. we do it wh former journalists, lawyers, law enrcement peopl intelligence people, and peoe who are jus curis. that i would say is the corp competence of the group. >> charlie: yoknow how to access informatn that others can't get . to. >> me than access it's the analysis of the information today wi google and other sech eines and world databases there isoo much informion. the questions how do do the propernalysis. >>harlie: you sold a company for 1 point something billn llars? >> 12.1.9 billion, yes. >> charliewhy did you do that >> we were a public company when you run a public company your job is to maximize the value to people cald shareholders. weot a very good price. it'shat i'm in the job for. anwe joined fces with a grt partner with a great ceo named jeff genberg. unfortunaty 90s days lat e thenttorney general spitzer put th company out of business. fr then on it was help the company to survive. >> charlie: so, you decided you needed a new career and looked awhat happened in credit rates and said i'm going toreate a new company to vestigate? >> wl i wa with kroll for five yearsafter the sale. >> charlie: right. >> just in the last tee months after stuing ts for quite awhile i felt the one aspect of the final csis we phaoeupbt be able to d something about is establish new credit reporting agencya agency to give institutions such as eowments, corporate and pubc pension funds andothers a true understanding of the likelihood of deflt which is rating imarily about. what we did is announced on october 1st that we would set a first edit rating of it's kind owned by the investors and now dot know what they can trust because of the unfortunate creditating debacle we have had. >> charlie: that's n up to speeyes? yet. >> that siness will open at the end of q1 beginning of q2. >> crlie: so the history. what's the most interesting story to understand about corporatintelligence and the le the play? >> probably the best known story is the wo we did involvg the investigion of saddam hussein in 1991, 1992, 199 >> charl: yes. >> what was important was not the ney he secret outside of iraq, it was procurement network he setp based on the nazi system of world war ii where they required war materl on a secretasis wheretheyet up literallhundreds of companies pryer to world war i/world war ii that was in most respects the most intriguing cases we ever had. >> charlie: triguing because it involvedhim or other reasons? >> it was the stake the stakes involved were very high. there was a ca by workingn it we couldelp prevent some of the reurces from being deoyed. as wbegan toncover more and moret had a domino effect. as a result we re feeding all of that infoation right bk into the working group consisting of the inlligent agcies that didn' really kno much at theime. d not know much about what he had going on. felt -- >> charlie: the u.s. intelligent agencies. >> u.s. and others. >>harlie: french and brish? >> yes, there was varying degrees of knowledge. there was not much cooperation between them which is not unusual, althohthings have improved since 9-11. the st frustrating caseas when wwere hired by the new governme in russiato investigate what happened wi the kgb money. that was, that was one of the most disappointingases of my career because we never found so much moneyo quickly, but the informatiowe turned over to the new gornment was used blackmail members of the old governme. so, we felt prtysed on that one. >> charlie: nowow did that client cometo you? >> well, i got a call from a partner from a law fm here in town. >> charlie: yes. >> a vy much of a ter nationalawirm. they were representing the central bank of russia renegotiating eir debt. onne of the issues was missing asse. >> charlie: th federal resee so to speak. >> correct. this was back inmarch of '92n madrid. met withthehen deputy prime minister. charlie: right. >> a great reformer, thinker, econist. it was a incredibl frustrating case. >> charlie: what d he say to you, find the money. >> he saidwe needo do something about this iredible leakage. we're reallyhurting for funds. need to find where the money has gone,we need seem to be reforming the system he was a completely honorable guy. >> charlie: yes, later r for higher oice. >> y. it washe peopleelow him. they couldn't get much done. they were dendent on the former kgb people. >> charlie: wal me through is. you're givenhis assigent from t central ba of rusa to find money leaking from the kgb. the first thing we typically do is ke the easy path. we like to see what is out there -- charlie: in the publi space. >> -- in the public space. open research. the send thing we d hereis we nted people to know we had been hired. they had information sources would co forward. it was theame thing we did whenakistanhired us to look in buto and her husband, t current president of the cotry. >> charlie: th aigations of fraud. >> he was p in gail originally because of the work we hadone finding payoffs b swiss and other comnies. so in some cases you wan it known you' doing the work. this happened th the rusan case. here is where we ran into the problem. we had to have a working gup to operateithin russia. we d fine outside we resulted to a series of people, al former kgb people. i owed up with team a rmer secret service fello another manho wked for the israeli fbi and secret service, a former senior fbi offial and form cia official. >> this is the team you assembled for this project. >> they were already full time members of my staff. some in london, somin the unitedtates. we used our prop names told our ck grods. theeople we m with, counr partieon the russian se used phony names. one s statis in seattle, silicon valle one i washington. so, e game that got played is to thwa anything we would do. this is the group we had t work with. there are looking in the open source trying gain t cooperatn from these other ople, where we got absolutely nowhere. they played with u but what did work is a lot of people came rward with information. some accate, some inaccurate. so youave to parse through it. >> charliewhat was the most inresting information that ca forward? >> the sileost intriguing were a series of commodity related businesses that trad off getting commodities out of russ. things like a moa pneumonia, fertiler. theseere basic money laundering opations for them. they operated all over the world. when these thing happen some of it always sticks to the fingers of the pple responsible for distributing it. it doesn't all go to the place intended. so what happenedss the soviet union began to fall apart it was every man for themself and people began to sal it we had the usual information coming fromisgruntled partne, coming from former colleues. that wasery, ver fruitful. >> charlie: what intrigues us all is t people yo have reprented and how you get information. the cia has website. a lot of the data isgenerated. there how do you go aer stuff t there. >> as logic would indice we try to identify if mething was known at a particular time who woulof known it. basic common sense. then comes the more tricky part. at that point it's how do you elicit t informion as to what is goin on. e easiest way is to find a trusted,ou know, a usted indidual who somebody would talk to. we al have a tdency to want to tell somebody else what is ing on. by the way typically i find that women a better at this then men. >> crlie: better at? better at developi informatn because people are more lely to trust them. at least wit secrets orhings thathey think -- i don'tean to be deceptive. i think women are much mor capable of being empathetic, uly empaetic. and people feel less, ls threatened by men typically. alsot helps when the people doing the interviewing are not wyers. people don trust wyers. they don't particularly nt t want to expose themselves. because they, lawye make them nervous. we're looking foreople with ghy notion al intelligence, so to spea >> charlie define thafor me. >> sebody whorelates to somebody ee. somebodyays attention to h does a person loo at them. are they an arms-open pson welcominyou or an arms-closed pers. the body language we're cocience of or not as conscice of. so we want to go to the pern or various people who might know. we're also looking for peopl who have a reason to give informatio they either have a beef with somebody. they're antagonistic. maybe they have had a dispute that's reacd a level of someone being fired from a job, or maybe reached the point of having sued somebody, or maybe somebodyas written about them that very negative. oking for some basis or another whe somebody would have in effect a motivation fo aring information with you. that'seally the artfo. first fiingt, then developing the idea, and getng somebody to open up. notlways successl. >> charlieand you need a go listener. >> and you need a good listener. just as iortantly youneed to have people who are gd at looking, at lookg. we have always told our people give the -- one of the secre weapons is to be qui. lien to at somebody has to say. give thea chance to, to speak. always p a lot of attenon to what is said in the first minute of a conversion, and the last minute o a conveation. because typicallyhat is on pele mind either comes out at the ve beginning ces out thathe very end. whether it's myhildren or people who work for me, or we work with, ask them to pay attention to th. >> charl: you hav devoped a reputation for looking for money. you did marcos millions didn't you? >> that was the first case. former congressman stevesolar called me. he had information from filipino. it washe first case had oking atormer heads of state. ste wasan active ctic of maos for many years, the on one. ultimately it turn out he wanted to investigate he had all of this infortion. he had nev done a instigation would i help him. >> charlie: this w a step commite investigation. >> yes he and lee hamiltowere viewed as the most infoed pele in the house. we did the investition. the local agentof th marcos show up. it turned out they were representeby stewartse isenstaff. it was a interestingtwist of ith. they were novery cooperative steve threatened them with a contemptf congrs. l of a sudden thr lawye chged and we were dealing with edward bennett wliams. >> crlie: you don't go any hire than edward bennett williams. >> he was a fabulous lawr and grt guy. we covered 300 million in u.s. property holdings. the only money returned to the philippinefor ten years. >> charlie: they had hses in new york too. >> apartment houses, a building on wallstreet. this is wn 300 million was seriousoney. >> crlie: you didothers? >> yes. charlie, what devalle would do iso to the checkbo of the hatian treasurand writ trump towers apartment, $3 million. >> charlie: take 3 million >> take $3 million in a cck. that'she easier case we h looking at aormer head state. the tragy there was there were three changes of government. even though all theoney h been frozen i don't think a money ma it back to one of the poorest countriesn the plat. >> charl: there is the bank of robert calpry, god's banker the pwafrpber of the vacan. died a tragic dth. >> yes. >> charlie: at happened him. >> he was murdered. >> charlie: inrison. >> no. >> charlie: b hun off a brge. >> found hanging off black fryers bridge. godfathe2 was loose based on what happeneduring that time. he was very involve wit very bad peopleike thetalian mafia. he had stolen from the bank and, and his family, his family came to us ten years later. th is ten years after it was ruled a suicide by the metrolitan police. they hired us to determine and provehether it was aurder or not ten yrs later. we were able to through a variety of means, equipment not avaible at the time dermine he had bn killed eewhere, that he was dd before he wa-- >> charlie: how didou determine he was killed elsewher i think wl, one of the things th happened. this was almt comical. he had a bag of rocks. he had a bag -- rocks in the bag ed tois legs, and what happened was the bag of rocks was fro ten miles or 15 miles uupstream. it had nothing to do with the rocks in thatrea. >> crlie: right. >> in addition the tides we su. >> chaie: -- brought the rocks down. >> yes. years later we could detmine the degreeof moisture in his shoes thatidn't fit wh the tides at the time. there was a serie of things. the case was reopened reluctantly by the metropolitan police. it w reopened. the killers were eventually found. they were arrested in italy. they spent many years in jail, and ironically earlier this year they were all acqtted. th had been in jail probabl at this point 10-15 years. >>harlie: how much cporate intelligence by tt an effort to find infortion that isot publicly availab is goingon all the te? >> you have a spectrum. on one end o t spectrum you have open resear and open sources. today with the internet there is a lot more outhere. that's completely legitimate. all the way to the other end of the spectrum which is illegal. we are getting information that you're absolutely not entitled and you are paying people for it in a what that is illegal. charlie: people tel me in the law enforment business, military business, a in war, even the iraqi war. wh they were looking fo counter terrosts,ounter insurgce the thing they needed most was somody from the neighborhood to lk. >> i think the sources the man intelligencefactor that we lt in ts country in the 70s, 80s and 90s. when these groupsere over run with lawyers. >> charlie right. >> -- because of the excesses of the past it hobbl u as a couny. what you see n in places like new york ray kellyand david cohenuilding up a tremendo capability. we have to be careful because civil liberties implicions. have to keep a balance. ey're developing sourcein these countries. there is no substitute. you n tell that story of any placin the wld. ok how little we knew aut iran and the economy in russia. how little we knew abouthat was goi on in --in, in these other places. we just didn't have the human intelligence to do it. sources are the key, sources are e key. >> crlie: the name of this new compan the credit rating investigation is uer written by a series of investors is called? >> the holding company is k2 global partrs. the critating business wl be kroll bon credit rating. >>harlie: the other businessesou will continue to do d eage in wh we hav been talking about? >> yes. 's kroll redux for the 21st century. >> gore vidal is here at 84 years of age he has witnessed o-thirds of the unitedtates. he has wtten e as, plays and unt less movie and television scripts. his newest book captures k monts and artifacts. it's called "gore vidal snapshots? history's glare ." i'm eased to he limb back at this table. welcome. >> thank you, charlie i'm weomed to glare at your table anytime youould like. >> charlie: tell me abt the motivation of tting thi togeer? >> well, it wasn't mine. a friend that i lived th more morehan 50 years, and i never collec pictus or ything else about myself. anybody se, but he did. suddenly he i have this great stack. always in ne of dusting. he said i sd what are you gog to do th it, it's just, i use it you know for kindling to light fires with. he said, well, it mighbe wort doing one day. it's a full record of yourife. i wa beingphotographed as a child, and i flew an airplane at ten, i was the most famous young boin the country. so much so tshow you t pettins of the literary world ich i think you enjoy knowing about, from the outside. >> charlie: yes. >> at tenmy father was roosevelt's direct of a commerce. he ran civil o aviation for the president's administration my fathe was always ting to get a plane that was so simply put gether that any kid, any idiot really, couldly it. he got me out one sunday in washington. he w separated frommy mothe then, and said you kno you want be a movie sta i didn't want to b a movietar i wanted to be mickey rooney, literally. i didn't care about e rest of it. i like that. i likedmid summer night's dream." parents if you're ting to get children interested in reading akespeare go out and get a copy of mgmsmid summer night's dream" withickey roomy. i was en amered with shakespeare after it i saw i could do what mickey did wh means bkwards. iidn't do it butnyways. >> crlie: tell me about t pictures here. >> the i am 9 or 10 on my first trip to europe with a group ofoys from the school i was attending in washingto d.c. >> charlie: still exists and ill there? >> stillhere, still there. and we ended up first of a for the summer weere near ver si perfecti our french. mine g worst and worst. then we went down to italy. we were on the last train out of italy fore the border was aled and the war had begun. so, my mher was in with these variousecretaries of state and so o hamilton fisher' grason was with us. we we all conessional children. so we wereiven a great order. either kill them on thepot probably came out from one quarr. the other was, better get them out they maybe heldor hostage. so we were sent up to the rder at, between france and italy, and all of ese guy in black shirts, chewing on garlic. it was very excitg. i thought where is this story going. i was use to movies. i was in the middl of a movie, nobody told me what thending was. so, we all sataround devising a nice ending for this thing. well, we ended up in london in september 1939, meanwhi hitler had marched in poland. charlie: -- poland. >> and we marched into the house of cmons just as neville chamrlain th prime minister ented the house. we watched him get out o wning street, as prime minister. i heard the strangest snds from a crow i had everheard in my le. only abo 50 peop and 30 or of us. he came out he just had come back from germany wheree h done badly with hitler >> charlie: got off the plane and wavedhe paper. >> -- i have here in myhand a sure peace -- >> charlie: -- peace at hand or something. >> the crowdew differently they were brs whoived rough world war i and wer not happy with world war ii. >> charlie:including churchill. >>e wasn't in yet. he w about toe in, in ten minutes in power. therowd didn't sigh or cheer. they moaned. (moang) imagine a hundred pple making thatound, it knocks you over. we went into thehousehe prime nister said,ar is at hand. have done all we could so on and so forth. a ship had jt been sun in the irish sea by theoer mansby the u boats. it was called the a s athenia. ere was a sister ship called the tonya. while e people we swimming away from the athia they were loading precious, physical children. >> charlie: they wer moving from the athenia to the boat you were on? >> no theyere moving onto long boats. was a little more movie tha i wanted to see really. i didn't know how it s going to end. there was no popcorn. we were told the chocolate was limited on the sp going home. >> charlie: i'm gog to show ese quicklyoo. i wa to get to currenty a. fares. is is you and your dad. >> my grandfath. >> charlieblind. >> he brought oklahoma into the union in 1907. he was also at the opening up the ad from here atthe plaza hol. >> charlie: oh, three blocks away. you read to him. >> i rd to him all through my childhood which seemed to last forever. and he -- had a library of so 14,000 books whichhe rented t house wle he -- he had si years off when the voters rejected him in oklaha. cause he was opposed to wod war i. he said there was no reason to fight that war which most americans cameo believe that. we got notng out of it. there were a lot of people killed on both sides whi wasn't worthile. we weren fighting adolf hitler or bismark. so in his retirement he built a beautiful house rock k park. neby is the great cemetery that surroundthe park. in the cemetery is the monument th henry adams me for his wife when she died. she was a suici. nry adams th gre historian, fourthistorian from the great president adams. and i- we dug a he. m at one end o of the hole. howard austin who colleed the picturesas on the other send. so it comes to ps. >> chaie: you will beburied rock k park. >> yes. there is a picture. >> charlie: next to howard. >> yes. >> charlie: you ve planned your funeral? >> silen. >> charlieyouaven't thought about the music and who will speak. >> no, no, no. >> charlie: do y think about death? >> no me than anhingelse does. which is quite a lot from what i catell from tv ads. everyone is trying to get a pill to postpe that terrible event. >>harlie: but you haven't thought abt this? >> yes, i know it's over. ihink really aut time. 84 i not, you kno the beginning a new page. >> charlie: so,ou're ready i don't know if anybody is ready. if, if there were anything up ahd and i know they can't be. if they are watch out f me. have a great deal of complaints t make about ro service down here. aughing] >> charl: and scores to settle. >> no, i will let the score be settled. most of people i have sapproved of have gone t the other place. >> charlie: like whom. >> like, don't know where he is now but i haven seemhim lately. >> charlie: you'reuch -- >> you know, arlie. yo know, theaughty thing that isoay. [lghing] >> charlie: well setimes naughty comes, somemes you can't resist. but what askin is interestg abot this. the love of yo life was not howard but mr. tremble who died very young in the war. >> we were brought up together long before i met howard. >> charlie: he w thelove of yo life. you have said, written about it -- >> it's like saying my brother wathe love of my life. he was aold en bo at school. the greatest athlete in their history. he was offered two contracts to a professional basebal player, a pitcher. th sent him to duke. two seball leagues. >> charlie: right. >> they wod sen him, then when the war was ove he would go to work for which one who h paid f his schooli and jimmy. >>harlie: jimmy tremble. >> jimmy tmble he was fr kentucky. his mother i knew well. his father i didn't. he disappred in middle passag he was on his own in school. we were in the dormitory. and we me to. we were both polical kids. we were bh out of the south. i think you will unrstand that, and there we a. >> and he had a career, righ in front of him. a big one. highly paid. and i w already writing my firs book. neither jimmy or ipent one mite inking what a we going to. do life foe was strong win us. >> charlieyou were going to bethlete. you were going to be a writer. >>es. >> crlie: did you want to be president? >>f course iid. grand faer came close. cousin albert s elected president and wa not able to rve. that's questionnairey tale in our fami, and another cousin was elected, jimmy carte >> charliethe person you were closest too was jac kennedy. >> yes. i wa happier being close to hi than in e job. there was noing about the presidency, ce i saw it u clos is nothing you would want foyourself unless you were a mass owe kweuft. >>harlie: why do you say that. >> there are problems bore you re whether oorn and you are arrg as everything ce to full boyle. >> chaie: now he's the president, obama is looking at afghanistan, still iraq, looking at althcare, lking at a series of issues, global economic crisises tt began w before he was in potics. >>es. i wavery eager for him to b elected. i was delighted wh he ran. originally was for hillary. she ew how to dot, having been there. experice does cou every w and again. he's eluent. he's very superior man. we don't get them ite often at that height political life. >> charlie: you havesaid inllectually he's smaer than jack nnedy. >> more an anyther since saoefpb son and maybe brighter than stevenson. e of the reasons people have difficulty, unrstand and remember i hope you're listeni closely in t dark. remember one tng until oba, the average amerin, has never heard a y intelligent man as president of the united stas. i make an exception for jack who was bright but not intelligent in the true sense that he knew a lo obama knows a lot. but what doesn't know since he's got into politics uted states has been turned into an empire, to a wartime ste constantly provoking wars wh other country. i'm wartime president i'm rtime president. ya, i'm wartimeresident. this crazy little mutt from someere in texas preening himself. he h nomore business than being presiden the supreme urt explained one y why ty pickedim. it on their head. >> arlie: back to president obam the smartest president in long, longime. he has a realchance to successful despitethe number of challenges he has because of intellect, becau of? >> i was going t add experience. oncee became "world pire and once we got a bunch of craze he's in the white hse. "i'm wartime president, i'm wartime presidt." you can'be until congress declareshe war, can you. nody told him about that. never got that part in the nstitution. it's0 pages long. that's a lot of work for himo read. no, he was, theye all flying blind. and now obama comes along. the rst thing he said after he was securely elected, first tim around. well, heaid, nurally the key to erything was going to be afghanistan. the d kgdom of bactria never subdued by alexander the great. that's where the real war i going to be. 's going to send 1700 deploy these troops. w we have already wrecked the army. i was born a cadet hospital in west point. i serd three years in world war ii. was i a distinguished soldier? no i wa't. i know about distinguhed and extiuished. >> charl: now we're talking ouing about iraq? >> iraq. i'm willing t fill-in any name you wato throw there. >> charlie: korean war? i think so koreawas a series of mistakes tt should of never been made. i'm not a expert on e korean wa i know something abt the vietnam. i certnly know the world me than i want know about iraq. which a bunch of gas and l men from you secon of t unitedstates. aughing] >> charlie: you never give up. >> i never givp, god. [laughing] >> charl: can we talk about cultureoday? what do you thinkf -- >> where i it hidg. >> charl: exactl where is culture today. whis shapg our culture? >> i think whais shapi is failure. united states is fled cotry. it's a fail ste. it's a failed constition. in fact the constitutiohas been taken away. >> charliewait a nute. you just sit here and said with great clarity homuch you admireheresident for his intelligence. >> i didn't finish my sentence. right my sentence is: he takes for granite that war is our normal ate. well, i'm not saying heikes . i rather think being an intelligentan who s read a bookr two doesn't like it. but he's up against a media that is going o about our boys a in has way. we can do anything to disturb them in harms way. all of is jk being fed to the people has made us a jky pele. theyon't know anything. don't you get the estion i get all th time. who,do you read that? w do you know what is going on? i id well i had the luck to live five orix years in europe. the newsper are betr abo american news than os. you never ar when you he generaelectric owning nbc. khafrplt of. charlie: ey're selling the war. >> they're sellinghe war. you never getruth out of them. >> charlie: prident gets criticis from some places because heas not yet s described tohis notion of amican exceptionalism. i know yomust becheering abt that. you ver bought into the idea of american exceptionalm. >> i think it's eeptional in it's staou stupidity. every very great by the governmenteople supportedas just dumb, dumb. wod war i i could go on for urs it wil put me to sleep fore it does your audience. it juseverything you could stupid. >> charl: turn it aund for me inerms o what is great abt america? >> welle were not all powerful and could not extend our t much beyon home. that we didn't have t power to governurope or the middle east or asia. >> charlie: our instinct would of been to gern rath than leave and come home after the war. >> never falinto the generous good natn that only does ings for other peoples gd. >> charl: no, i don't fall to the trapthat there is nothing a good nationcan do or has do no matt the criticism yo can findhings about sacrifices and you can find good deeds the long histo of this nation. >> well in the long historyf this nation or any nion will you find boys like jimmy trimble who never complained abouteing kill. will you find critics abo me saying why we were i in the war. >> charlie why wer they in worlwar ii. we shouldn't of en in that war. >> you know w it started roosevelt trappedhe japanese into attacki us. roosevelt was a political geneio. i'm not saying i like what he did. i certainly lidow he fought. every other leader in the world excluding the windbag church. boom, boom, boom. he never listene to his own speeches. yo can't blame him either. >> charlie: you're no an admirer of churchill? >> of course not. i don'know anyone whonows about politics w does. i speak om the btish point of sraoufplt let them judge you. i'm an outder. >> charl: what would of haened to hitler if therwas no churchill. >> he might of done better. >> charlie: he might done better. that's the point. no churchill was a blunder and so was hitr. leave tler alone to blunder. >> charlie: blunder into failure. >> yes, he would of. theia had a great plan to knock himff, and a lotof very intested people. you ought to get them on your program. >> crlie: the o.s.s.? >> o.s.s o.s.a., cia. tryingo shorthand it r the listeners. >>harlie: i need all the he i can. >> they tried t kill him off. finally took the brings who re better in intelligence on the kopbtd then e of europe th we were. they said leave hitler alone. leave him alive people said he horriblehe's killing masses people. th said yes, is his general ship that is destroying germany. we are taking a advantage of th. they were told to cool it. >> charlie: plosophically it would have been better if they kill hitler. >> i'm not a romantic and put things to one man. that m was good we could of saved him. >> chaie: that man was so d we should of killedim. >> it's the same same aument, two sides simultaneous. hihitler was a one letr. the attack on russia he was finished. >> charlie: naleon too. >> they dn't askap about that. >>harlie: you callimap. >> yes a grea g, wonderful bridgelayer. >> charlie: i want to te this moment to sumup your o writing. you mentioned creatio aery goodlace to sta. wh are those youre mo, i wa to say pud but both looking at, admirin-- >> you're write certain books for the pple. you know they don' know anythi. you dot know what you tnk ey ought to know. the schools w't teach it. why do you think bothe tellin this story of lifof the united states. charlie: washington.c. would one of those books? >> yes. creation. creation was the fif century of what came along and there was no lor at work at that time. >> charlie: you have not changed since e first da i met you. noone. >> no, i hadmy incisors taken out. younow. >> chaie: they didn't take out yo spiri no, i gum it i don't bit it anymore. [laughing] >> charlie: oh that candor either. so gore vidalreat writer. i'm not figing you. [lauing] >> charlie: ll, mment on that. we lookt gore vidal lerary cari and say wha >> one othe few people who took the united stateserious as subject. i didn'tpendmy time writing about how i tried to get tene that smer at an arbor and i lost it because my wife ran o with the oak pearirl or boy. >> charlie: you dot do that? >> i don't do that. so many othe people are willing to filthat gap. i love to know abouthe private lives ofeople. >> crlie: where would you but breckenrid? >> it's meg. >>anthony: is time for people to thk about it as w kn. to experncet. >> chaie: did you oe say that two thingshould you always do if you're asked go o televisi and havex? >> i said that to diane swaye >> charlieright. >> the camer man oppite us ran into wall when he heard at. there was a crash. [lauing] >> she jumped back out o her chair. said well, maybe i bettero now. she said no, n n th i got a you a letter from her at t end of the day. she said,ou certainly brightened my d. >> charl: at the end. wh's the first line of the obituary. >> oh, no. has come to pass. [laughing] >> charlie: and the second line is: gore vidal novelt or re vidal writer? >> gore vidal h a sharp eye and it's sll on you [laughg] >> charli it's, as i have said many times before, a pleasure to see y always. a very handsome young manere. there u go. alwaysood. thank you. good heah, long life. the book i cald "gore vidal snapshots in histors glare" yowill see lots of htory pictur with president kennedy and many, my other people. thank you for joining us. e you next time. captioning sponsed by rose cmunications captioned by media accessroup at wgbh cess.wgbh.org you've had a co in the last 20 yrs, ( screams ) you've had aand in giving collegscholarships... and support to thousds of our nion's... most promising sdents. ♪ ( coca-cola 5-note mnemoc )

Related Keywords

Vietnam , Republic Of , New York , United States , Irish Sea , Ireland General , Ireland , Japan , Philippines , Germany , Texas , Iran , Afghanistan , Kentucky , Madrid , Spain , Russia , Washington , District Of Columbia , London , City Of , United Kingdom , Oklahoma , Iraq , Israel , West Point , Poland , France , Switzerland , Italy , Rusa , Moskovskaya Oblast , New Yorker , Americans , Filipino , French , Iraqi , Soviet , Swiss , Russian , Israeli , Japanese , American , Jac Kennedy , Henry Adams , Howard Austin , Mickey Rooney , Jimmy Trimble , Gore Vidal , Jes Kroll , Abt America , Hitler Charlie , Edward Bennett , Edward Bennett Williams ,