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