the answer was there is no plan. i blew up, not for the first or last time, and said, how can it be the head of the soviet union dies, and we have no contingency plan. it was criminal, said the president. the truth was the united states and the other western nations had very little idea of what was happening behind the iron curtain. two years later at the first summit meeting of the cold war era at geneva in 1955, the united states still did not know who was running the soviet union. they sent four leaders, one tall white man in a white suit with a white goatee who looked like colonel sanders from kentucky fried chicken, clearly, a figure head. the head of the red army, ike s ally in defeating the nazis in world war ii. eisenhower spent his son, john, to do some spying. subdued and shaken, just whispered, things are not as they seem. presidentize president eisenhower found out who was in charge on the fifth day of the conference. the big pier of the nuclear age was a su
woman, leaning and kissing a woman in times square in new york on the third day. or maybe you prefer politics. how about churchville, stalin and roosevelt a filter sitting down together. maybe that image. or maybe you d rather think of something from the america of that area roughly, maybe a little bit earlier, the great depression, to get an image in your mind of the great depression. if you re having trouble, think of it tired him a worried looking at another stare off into the distance with a ragamuffin child leaning on each shoulder. can you find that famous iconic image in your mind? that image by dorothea lange called migrant mother that has come to symbolize the great depression. the images you ve conjured up in your mind have been black and white. very, very likely. so i d like you to do the same exercise but think of japanese imprisonments. think of the imprisonment of japanese americans during the war. so what are you picturing? does it look like this? a bunch of yo
.. the title is taken from a quote from ulysses s. grant. he looked back on his career, and mountain memoirs, he writes frankly about the experiences he had, the good and the bad making for good reading. what he talk about late in life was his role in the u.s.-mexico war in 1846, and grant said, you know, at the time, i do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged on the united states by mexico so i thought at the time as a youngster only i had not moral courage enough to resign. grant, of course, in the war was a young lieutenant, and i found this is really moving quote, and that s why it s the title. the fact of the matter is grant was not alone in thinking that the u.s. invasion of mexico was somehow wicked. one thing that i talked about in the book and i ll talk about tonight is the evolution of the american public in the course of the u.s.-mexico war, not a long war by any means from being really enthuse yays tix and in favor of invading mexico to la
host: we re running out of time. but thanks a lot. it s been a very interesting book. it grabs the reader. i think a lot of people will enjoy it, and it s apropos given where we are right now with obamacare and the liberal ascendancy. seems to be a shift happening. thank you. that was war words in which authors of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalists, public policymakers, legislators and others familiar with their material. after words airs at 10:00 p.m. on saturday, 12 and 9:00 p.m. on sunday, and. richard ruth was interviewed about his book in buddha s company at the u.s. naval academy. this is part of book tv s college series and it s a little under 15 minutes. host: book tvs on location at the u.s. naval academy in a aanapolis. professor ruth, what do you teach? guest: i teach southeast asian history. i concentrate on tie lan and vietnam. host: why is it important for students to know southeast asian history. guest: united state
amy greenberg recounts the mexican-american war in 1846. the author examines president polk s decision to go toward door that congressman abraham lincoln and henry clay played in the debate. this is about an hour. [applause] the mac thinks, to nice. i want to thank everybody who s so nice to meet here at the abraham presidential center. i ve got me to her and seeing that they need to worry stewart. i encourage you to see when there s not some event like there is right now. the relationship between war as in the lincoln is really intriguing. i want to talk about today is my most recent book, a wicked war: polk, clay, lincoln, and the 1846 u.s. invasion of mexico. the title dream to is taken from a quote from ulysses s. grant. from the thinnest i ve come across back in everything he did then in his career and this number as he writes frankly about experiences he s had, the good in the bad and it makes for good reading. but one thing that grant spent some time together talk