there are books for sale. i recommend you pick one up and perhaps get a signature on it. with that, i will turn over the introduction of our speaker today. thank you. good to be here. welcome to the seminar. it is wonderful to have them back. he is an alumnus. spent part of the work on his book here. we are delighted to have them come back with the final product. let me just say by way of introduction, he is entering director of the east asia program at syracuse university, and the former vice president of the foundation. in that capacity he has done a lot of good work and research and is also a trustee, us china relations. he graduated magna cum laude from harvard college concert with the u.s. army in vietnam, holds ma and phd degrees from stanford. his book is already been reviewed, and we are very much looking forward to his presentation today. thank you very much. it is a special privilege to be here. this is where the project started. i wanti want to take this opport
geopolitical events, and i wanted to hear a bit more about the impact of politics here in the united states. this is an election year. what effect, what impact that will have on the economy? because there was quite a lot of economics in the presentation. i understood most of it but, i mean, part of it not most of it. i m not an economist. but i wanted to understand the impact of the politics on the economy. so i m now in my fifth year. i m one day, frankly, into my fifth day at the fed. so this will be my third election cycle and i can say that politics plays absolutely no role whatsoever in our deliberations or in our decision. so we you know, the focus inside the fed is very much not partisan politics or elections. it s very much economic fundamentals, so it can be very jarring to emerge from the fed and talk to people who think of politics think of economics in political terms, which i referred to earlier. honestly, it has no effect. you know, we announced a quanti
these other folks that make sure these sessions come off without a glitch. [applause]. indispensable to our success, as is a number of individuals and institutions. they have generously underwritten the seminar for a number of years now as have the george washington history department. this is essential for the programming, feel free to join their ranks should you see fit. after our session today, there will there will be a reception outside of these doors. there are books for sale. i highly recommend that you pick one up and perhaps get a signature on it. with that, i will turn turn over the introduction of our speaker today to christian. thank you eric. it s good to be here. welcome everyone to this washington history seminar at the center. it s wonderful to have terry back. he is an alumnus of the wilson center and spent part of his work on the book here at the center. we are delighted today and welcome him back with the final product. let me just say by way of introduct
at the end of the war, towards the end of the war as the japanese were withdrawing their forces towards the north, birch moved from south ofchina, the area here, up to this province which really was behind japanese lines. and many in this area the nationalist forces were primarily in the southwest where they d been, they had to retreat, withdraw after fighting so long and hard with the japanese. the communists were forced up to the area after the long march, but their power increased through the course of world war ii. so when birch yets up there gets up there, he is in contact with communist forces from time to time, and the policy of the united states government is a very pragmatic policy, and that is to cooperate with the communist forces if necessary when there s a good reason to do so. he didn t have any particular sympathy for the communists or their cause, nor did he have any sympathy for the nationalists. his loyalties really were wit
[inaudible conversations] good afternoon everyone. i would like to welcome you to this afternoon s session of the washington history seminar and for those of you who don t know the seminar is a joint project of the woodrow wilson center s history and public policy program and the american historical association s national history center. my name is eric arnesen and i m from george washington university. i m the cochair on behalf of the national history center of the seminar. as is our custom i want to thank two people whose behind-the-scenes effort makes the seminar possible on a weekly basis. at amanda monies and pete. it s their logistical work that allows us to pull this off. i would also like to express thanks to shafer the society of foreign relations whose generous contributions support the seminars activities. today s speaker is bartholomew sparrow who is a professor of government at the university of texas. he is the author of multiple works including from the outsi