Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chief executive officer of the george w. Bush president ial center, ken hersch. [ applause ] thank you and welcome to the engage series presented by highland capital. Im the introducer in chief. Our goal is to provide content you cant get anywhere else. Were honored today with this session to launch a wonderful insiders look at president ial retreats and a glimpse of what life looks like for a president outside of the white house. Its a fascination that so many people. Were delighted to take a deep dive into camp david, crawford, kennebunkport and the lbj ranch. Tonight, we have a series of guests who can also give us that special insight. To kick us off, i would like to introduce the 43rd president of the United States. [ applause ] thank you all. [ applause ] thank you very much. [ applause ] so this is a special moment for laura and me because we have such fond memories of the president ial retreats. One of the things about the presidency tha
Good afternoon and welcome to the aspen institute. My name is nick burns, executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group and the aspen security forum. Its a great pleasure to see this crowd. You all again cspan so be on your best behavior. And we are here to launch a a y important book on the future of the u. S. China relationship called the struggle forth powe. I agree friend could not be here with us but hes very much part of this effort. I want to pay tribute to our former secretary of defense and good friend of mine, secretary bill and mister janet , secretary , janet, welcome. In i also want to pay tribute to i think one of the people for me and bodies bipartisanship. Hes involved in every effort to bring peopletogether across partisan lines and thats steve hadley, our former National Security advisor here as well. Our director is jan and 90 well, we you will be seeing anja as one of the people doing the interviews. The subject is china. I think all of us agree our relationship wi
The aspen institute. I am the executive director of the Strategy Group and formed and its a great pleasure to see this crowd. You will all be on cspan so be on your best behavior. We are here to launch an important book on the future of the u. S. China relationship called the struggle for power u. S. China relations in the 21st century. I want to say a word about that but first, recognize distinguished guests. I want to recognize the cochair of the organization, former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice whos here with us. And youl you will be hearing fm secretary rice and about half an hour she will be one of our conversationalists. The harvard emeritus professor could not be here with us but is very much part of this effort. I want to pay tribute to the former secretary of defense and a very good friend of mine, secretary bill and mrs. Janet calling. Welcome. [applause] i also want to pay tribute to one of the people who form the embodies bipartisanship was involved in every effort
Cspan2. Former state department and National Security officials testified on the Trump Administrations iran policy before the House Foreign Affairs committee. Secretary of state mike pompeo declined an invitation to testify on the president s decision to kill iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Committee chair representative eliot engel threatened to subpoena secretary pompeo in order to obtain information on the u. S. Drone strike. Subject to limitation in the rules. Before i begin, i want to make the big announcement that todays mr. Mccalls birthday. So happy birthday. Im 35 years once again. Me, too. Pursuant to notice were here today to examine Trump Administration policy towards iran. I welcome our panel of distinguished witnesses. Welcome to members of the public and the press, as well. We had hoped to hear from secretary pompeo today, as well. After we invited him, he announced that he would instead be in california. Thats unfortunate whether you agree with this administrations ap
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