Accidental admiral . Guest what a great question at a certain level all of our lives, you can choose to steer a particular course but the sea will come, the wind will come and you will go in a different direction. It comes from a period in my career when i was a four star admiral just finishing up at us Southern Command in charge of all military activities south of the United States and i was very hopeful in going to the pacific as commander of us Pacific Command which is a senior position, robert gates, called me up and said forget about the specific we are going to send you to nato so i became the first and thus far the only admiral, supreme allied commander in nato and it was an accident that did that. From the nato perspective i was be accidental admiral who became the supreme allied commander. Host the navy was an accident as well. Guest somewhat. I grew up in a marine corps family. My father fought in korea and vietnam. I grew up in that environment and went to Quantico High Scho
To tonight at the event, calvin baker talking about a more Perfect Union race integration, and the future of america. Tonights event is part of our ongoing event series, bringing authors during a difficult time. And this event. The you and a button. Included a link to our website. Or you already have a book or would like to contribute to this series, we included in that button. Send to us at this time. If you participated, technical glitches may come up. We will solve any issues. I am pleased to introduce tonights speaker, novelist and journalist, author of four claims novels with the finalists for best fiction and he previously taught at Middlebury College in san francisco. New York Times Magazine and elsewhere. The Senior Editor at world books, New York Times bestselling author michael smith. Before this we would see. A more a more Perfect Union race integration, and the future of america, captivating portrait of the historic united states. Spanning the first conference. Incremental
Our society had trouble with in recent years. That makes us wonder how strong our institutions will prove to be, how we will rise to a challenge like this. You cant help but see it as a time of crisis but because it is the time of testing it is also time to think about what americas strengths are, what we are good at and how we can build on that to address the enormous problems we confront. Host how did we get here . Guest that is an awfully complicated question. Our country has always tried to strike a balance between the dignity and the quality of the individual on the one hand and some form of strength of community on the other. Every free Society Faces that. Our society has in the past century emphasized the individual, emphasize liberty, emphasize freedom and diversity and that has brought some enormous advantages and benefits but there is another side to that coin and the other side look Like Division and fragmentation and isolation, it can look like alienation and loneliness and
And generating policy ideas that promote economic policy, National Security and democratic governance. We are excited to showcase work coming out of our institution. An opportunity to hear from top scholars on pressing issues facing the world during this difficult time. And encouraging to submit yours at the q and a button at the bottom of the screen. Todays briefings from general h. R. Mcmaster, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was the 20 sixth National Security adviser to president of the United States, he served as commissioned officer in the United States army for 34 years before retiring as Lieutenant General in june of 2018. His latest book is entitled better grounds, the fight to defend free world released in september and available for preorder on amazon. Thanks for your service and for joining us today. To be with everyone hr, i know you have been watching these briefings, and the coverage of the aztecs involved with covid19. A lot of this is focused on the pandemic
If there are any veterans or activeduty service men please rise so we can acknowledge your service, thank you. [applause] today is a day that marked the transition of america from an isolationist nation to a global superpower. There are few days like september 7th because of what it meant for the world we live in today. We are fortunate to be able to honor a wonderful program, a new book that has just come out. How many, if you remember, look at that, that is great, thank you, your support makes these programs possible. Because members and trustees like you that we can do these programs. Last year clint lobby was our program manager, we put on 58 programs at the library which is very impressive. [applause] because of your support we can have these programs for free, it is a way to give back to the community because we feel so strongly, fdr loved this area and wanted it used in is a and we are honoring citizen so our speaker today, lew paper, is a journalist, he taught at harvard and wa