Thank you, jeff. Im honored to moderate this panel with four dear friends and valued colleagues. There is a concern afoot that as a moderator i might let it go to my head and try to interject myself too much in the discussion. So i will sit down there while they make their presentations and will come back up here during the actual q a time. You have the detailed bios of the speakers in your program so i will not repeat those first is professor richard emerman. His bio says he recent retired from temple university. I know richard well. Richard does not know the meaning of the word retirement. We are Close Friends and collaborators and the state Department Historical Advisory Council and he continues to be active as a scholar and mentor and is an active citizen in the guild of National Security scholars and historians. Next to him is a professor mel leffler of the university of virginia. Again, another titan in the field of diplomatic history. I started reading his books as an undergrad