lee help says, will you lead the main union army to crush secession? and as lee remembers the story blair tried in every way to convince robert e. lee to say yes. he said blair said to lee, the country looks to you quote as the representative of the washington family to save the union george washington forged, and that was hardly an exaggeration, because here after all, was the son of george washington s most famous eulogist and the son-in-law of george washington s adopted child. and so now only one word separated robert e. lee from the pinnacle of his profession, from command of what would be the largest american army ever raised, from glory perhaps, that no american since george washington had known. and what did robert e. lee say? he said he opposed secession and he did oppose secession. he thought secession was illegal. and equally significantly, he thought george washington would have opposed secession, and that was no given at the time because people on both sides of t
with the united states government to protect case officers while they go about doing their job. host: kris paronto were you? guest: i was in the ad next and i was standing by. i was on the q. r. f. reaction force. basically i was standing by waiting for them to come back so we could call it a night so basically you are on edge but just another normal day for us. there were operations going on and we were making sure people were supported. host: what was the cia annex? guest: basically a facility used to do operations, clandestine operations. host: how far was was that from where the ambassador kris stevens was? guest: three-quarters of a mile. it wasn t real far way. it s a couple of short turns anywhere there. host: and was it a non-facility? guest: and the state department facility in the country are known. our facilities are not supposed to be known but over time it especially for certain period of time you are going to be of the sea bass is coming out of t
next jonathan horn recounts robert e. lee s decision to join the confederate army after being sought by the north and the south. from louisville kentucky, it s about an hour. it s my pleasure to introduce dr. horn. he is an author and former white house presidential speechmaker who spent years researching and writing his robert e. lee biography the man who would not be washington published in january of this year. jonathan has appeared as a commentator on msnbc and nbc radio. his writing has appeared in the new york times the weekly standard and other outlets. during his time the white house jonathan served as a speechwriter and special assistant to president george bush and as a graduate of io university and we welcome him to louisville university. [applause] thank you so much for that lovely introduction judy. as was mentioned i used to work as a presidential speechwriter before i started writing this book. so you can imagine my shock when i learned that the
our way through like every other news organization. we have done something truly impressive and made a real commitment to hard-hitting and investigative groundbreaking journalism and i m grateful for that and i thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen chairman and editor-in-chief of kiplinger publications. [applause] good evening. i am from the kiplinger letter and i will be referred. i am not related in any way to the other nights, including john and james. i wish that i were but i am not our honorary this evening is the first kipping letter award who has never worked as a professional journalist. paradoxically he is one of the most influential figures in this totally reshape the journalism profession too adapted to the new realities of the digital age. and because beneath the guise of the lawyer, a newspaper publisher and a foundation executive while he was never a professional journalist, he was once a student journalist in 1965. a busload of students went down to al
the british. on the other side unionists will say george washington in his farewell address said the price the union of any allegiance. actually robert e. lee is reading a biography of george washington in the months before the civil war and he is hearing these arguments and he concludes that he basically agrees with the unionist position. he believes george washington would have opposed secession. so what else does lee say to francis blair? he says he would would gladly washes hands of slavery. he would gladly get rid of all slavery if it would avoid war rate but then he says how can i raise my sword against my native state? here the blair family position says lee hesitated that is lee told the story he gave the answer once, no biggie turned down the command though he did not turn his commission to the army surfer more than three decades. he returns to arlington house. he soon learns that virginia in fact has voted to secede from the union and there on april 20 the writes a