Alex kellner . Guest alex kellner was the name that my uncle, alexander korda, was born with and which he changed when he moved to biewd past as a University St as a University Student, because it sounded jewish. At first he spelled the new name crda, then changed it to korda because it looks hungarian that way. Host who was sir alex korda . Guest he was the prototypical film producer, also film director. He directed his first film at a teenage age in 1914 and directed at least 100 or twice that many movies during the course of his life and produced i dont know how many. Europe, the United Kingdom, hollywood when he was fair, he was an affable genius and being his nephew was a fulltime excitement. Host what was his influence on you . He and your father and your other uncle . Guest and enormous respect for talent of any kind. He was that making films and recognizing all sorts of talent even if they dont share it themselves. Secondly although they were in tense at making the best possibl
Good generation. He entered the Foreign Service immediately on graduation from yale. His education was essentially in the humanities, not International Relations theory. He felt the most viable course he took in college was in economic geography, which is not hot anymore come either in colleges or high schools. He was required to yield major to take a course in dealing with the english civil service. No one pays attention in which english constitutional history. And when he entered the Foreign Service, whose first assignment was in hong kong in 1960. Hong kong in 1960 is hard to remember this was the place that existed in almost total isolation from china. There were millions of refugees in hong kong, but no american could go to china. And there is no trade. It was a listening post, but not a very informative one. But the experience that he had their used to be typical of the experience that Foreign Service officers had. He was assigned to interview these applicants. He learned that th
But it is not about that. Host max schuster did not publish the autobiography. Guest no he did not. I remember telling him what a great historical document took this book to those elections in what that said was it is a masterpiece but i do not want my name on the same book as albert. It is wrong but we will not publish a new book is not easy for a publisher to say that i am not saying random house i dont want to publish a separate probe. Host indiana please go ahead with your question or comment. Caller yes mr. Korda i have a question about the wars. With your work as a writer and they have presented but it appears 9 11 was the inside job. Guest i will not comment on that. It does not look like that. I think it was an act of terror. Host arlington virginia. Lhe groundwork for the modern, hightech world we live in by investing a tremendous amount in science and technology. The creation of the first satellite and the Defense Advanced Research products agency, darpa, and other endeavors
Obamas decisions on afghanistan, including up to the decision to seek the strategic agreement with the afghans that would keep a residual force there after the end of this year. But there were two aspects of the war in afghanistan that troubled me. One was the president s suspicion of the motives of the senior military, particularly when it came to the recommendations on afghanistan. And the second was what you describe. As i told rahm when i met with him, i dont mind that the president speaks out on exit strategies and so on, but the troops need to hear from their commander, the person who is sending them in harms way, that their cause is just and noble, and the mission is important for the country and, therefore, their sacrifices worthwhile. And into two and half years i worked for president obama he only did that once or twice. And i think thats one of the responsibilities of the commander in chief when he deploys men and women in harms way is that he would be willing to speak publi
Host Dana Goldstein is the author of the teacher wars a history of americas most embattled profession. You are watching booktv, television for serious readers. You can watch any program you see here online at booktv. Org. In dont wait for the next war a strategy for American Growth and Global Leadership, wesley clark lays out his plan to preserve u. S. Leadership in the world over the coming decade. During this event by the Commonwealth Club, general clark is in conversation with the hoover institution. Good afternoon and welcome to todays meeting of the Commonwealth Club. You can find us online at commonwealthclub. Org on facebook and twitter and our youtube channel. I am the moderator of this conversation. I was the director of Defense Strategy and the National Security council on the Bush Administration and Senior Policy Adviser in the 2008 John Mccain Sarah Palin campaign for president but the reason general clark asked me to moderate this discussion was i had this distinguished ch