i'm not reading it in the u.s. press but i've never seen it on cnn and the other bastions of truth. and so i went. that's all ahead. i didn't get paid for this but i didn't go to a publisher and get an advance that i did this out of my own hide, you know. and i must say it cut into my drinking time. there were sacrifices. >> let's get another question in. do i see some hands? there's a hand in the back. ..

and you can disagree with that or a greek but the question is if they legalize drugs today, how will that affect the death rate in juarez a year from now? >> okay. i don't think there are dark stifel and white souls because they are people like us. its behavior in this city what's happening that's barbaric. i will give you the short answer. if you legalize drugs, violence will increase in short term and will be bankrupt in the short term. you can't fool the rug out of

50 billion people in a struggling country without a consequence. you think hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country in the drug industry are going to say i just lost my high-paying job i'm going to become a wal-mart greeter? we know what would happen when we ended prohibition. the bootleggers didn't go down to the five and dime and get a job robbing banks. but i do think is there is no consequence personally, and i speak to a person of a very close friend from drugs, there is no consequence of legalization that is as damaging to the american people as the mexican people as this war. there are no silver bullets. we have a country that uses drugs. it isn't going away. they also drink booze. it isn't going away.

we have taken at most public health issue and needed a criminal issue. we treat addicts -- if you have a cardiac you don't say send me a homicide detective, you want a doctor. we have had addicts and send them police. this isn't going to work. i live in a country where there's not a major politician with enough guts to say let's discuss legalization and i think that is a disgrace. the highest prison population per capita on the planet earth. we build a huge police force and spend 40 billion a year just on officers. we have the legal, in my opinion, search and seizure of our vehicles and everything else because we are trying to tell our fellow citizens what they shut in just. our standard should be what we have on alcohol you can train colin you want but you start

driving drunk or attacking people we throw your ass in jail. you're own damn nation you have to be nice and polite. just like people each big macs, we don't force feed them tofu. this war has to end, and eventually it will, it will bankrupt us. as a byproduct, and so far 23,000 mexicans have been slaughtered. the general now running the war says don't worry, i will wrap it up in five to ten years. they are going to kill more people than we lost soldiers in vietnam and i guarantee you the day the ec peace has broken out in the war there will be just as many drugs in this country into will be just as cheap and just as available. why can't this penetrate the heads of political secures? if i were drug policy were a ship they would call it the titanic for god sake. it's time to have a piece

moment. it's a war against poor people in mexico and chemically dependent people in my own country. [applause] >> charles, thank you so much. he's been to be signing books outside, so please join us. >> thank you for tolerating me. [applause] >> charles bowden spoke as part of the los angeles public library's evin nseries. for more information, visit lfla.org/aloud. up next, robert shogan explores franklin and eleanor roosevelt's decision not to intercede on the part of europe's jewish population during the lead up to world war ii, despite having close jewish and fighters. the author contends that these

advisers had political thinking and hesitation to stir resentment among american jews kept fdr from acting on the police coming from the larger jewish community. robert shogan discusses his book at politics and prose bookstore in washington, d.c.. the program's love all over 15 minutes -- 50 minutes. >> i want to thank those of you who are here for coming and i want to thank looking ahead those of you who are attuned and on the model public surface television c-span. thank you for watching and i hope you will find reason to stay with us. i also want to thank another institution, politics and prose bookstore, for hosting this event coming and i want to say a special word of appreciation for carla cohen, co-founder of politics and prose, who has many of you know, lost her brief

fight against cancer only about ten days ago along with her partner, barbara meade, carla tikrit dewolf energy bringing reading and writing in to this city and i think barbara tells me they hope they will find someone to carry on the tradition and its good work. she told me speak to the property heads of the neighborhood. [laughter] and i don't doubt that that is the case. this book was inspired so to speak by a story in "the washington post" on the anniversary of one of the first protests by american jews may well have been the first. in march of 1933 only days after power, some 4,000 jewish veterans of world war i assembled in downtown manhattan to warn that the threat the nazis pos were not only to the

jews of the countries they the veterans had fought for. could they carry the stars and stripes and banner with the star david and the city where they called upon the new york mayor to get the u.s. government to protest, to help get the u.s. government to protest the anti-semitic violence, which was well already underway and hitler's germany. a few days later there was some 50,000 new yorkers of various faiths fought to protest in the garden and meetings around the city. at the when the demand of the jewish than what they called for an economic boycott. as time went on even as hitler's war against the jews mounted intense become a public protest against american jews for the most part faded. american jews, who at that time were the richest most influential jewish community in the world, commerce in the art.

but some jews feared that even in america the so-called golden land most americans might for their own special cause. others were worried about threats for retaliate against german jews because of the protest of american jews and others became discouraged by the difficulty of getting attention for this cause in the great myths of depression. so instead of protesting, and many american jews decided to put their trust in the nation's new president, franklin roosevelt. if hitler represented the greatest darkest might wear, roosevelt was the brightest hope. the jewish judge said that the time the jews now have three worlds, this world, the world to

come and roosevelt. [laughter] as the noted, roosevelt dalia and as you well know, by the time roosevelt died, 6 million european jews had been murdered by the nazis with neither fdr for the american jewish community lifting much more than a finger to help them. how did roosevelt, the country he led, and american entry permit this to happen? that's the question this book tries to answer. of course there were a perfect social renditions that made worse by the great depression and anti-semitism was spreading like the plague and the threat from the axis powers particularly from germany made it seem less consequential. yet for all of that, people have free will and decisions to act control the fate of the european

jury were made by human beings and the judgments that need to be held accountable. to analyze these judgments, the book tries for the first time tries to look closely at the behavior of a handful of jews come so close to roosevelt the could be considered the presidential, the president's jews, a term coined by a distinguished israeli scholar. their actions and often their interactions help explain the conundrum on pos before, and they helped illustrate one of the great dramas and dilemmas of america's politics. the conflict between conscience

and self with principal on one hand and expedience on the other hand. now, to help understand what happened it helps understand the reasons underlying the jewish faith in fdr. though he was in office in 1933 he was something of an old friend to jews, where he had succeeded and would begin to incorporate juice's into american politics particularly the american democratic party. he would run for governor, roosevelt, in 1928 against the republican candidate who was a candidate and yet he defeated him any way. and also it bolstered their allegiance of jews by promoting economic and social reforms that embody the jewish cultural or religious traditions. and it's all the good feeling

during the seven years fugitive's seem to take note. they spoke out directly on what were considered jewish issues and in time semitism and over the years rarely mentioned the excess and exceptions that came on kris pollack the might of the shattered glass when he pronounced himself deeply shocked by what was up to then hitler's forced program. they share with fellow americans the tendency to project onto the politicians to believe and attitude they wanted them to have. we see some of this today and all through history. there was tangible evidence of roosevelt and a number of jews the new deal brought to washington. this was a big change in the past years when there hadn't been any judicial appointments

and to washington and roosevelt recruited an unprecedented input of jews. so many that anti-semites began to call the administration the jew deal. but for all that, the jews struggle off such an influence because they felt they had friends at court. and having the people like called the president's views in the white house or near the white house or access to the white house gave them hope at a time drudgery faced the worst threat since the czarist. and so the president's views were not -- didn't get into

roosevelt's inner circle because they were jewish putative he certainly knew of their faith but that was incidental. he brought them because they were men they thought could be useful and helpful to them and was only leader as roosevelt went on and the jury became - five and so critical that the significance of the jewish became enhanced. now what was the president's view? the first to mention that because he was first prestige was louis brandeis who woodrow wilson made the first justice on the supreme court. the next most prominent was felix frankfurter who at the time roosevelt took office was a harvard law professor and adviser to the president and he would join the supreme court

years later. then there was sam who was officially a new york state judge courtesy of employment by then governor roosevelt whose significance reflected his role as the speechwriter and the leading overall at pfizer. the next importance overlooked by jews was the only cabinet member, treasury secretary henry morgenthau. and finally a relative newcomer to roosevelt's inner circle who would gain access to the oval office because his skill -- his skill as a legislative craftsman he drafted the most economic reforms of the new deal can't and brandeis was an ardent zionist it was in the early new deal the depression raging at home and hitler's presence ever

more threatening the president's views became a potential influence on the american jews. as it turned out, the high hopes the american jews had didn't work out. the president's views specifically the most reputedly influential, brandeis, frankfurt and rosa men were not with the outside government wanted them to be. instead of serving as conduits they served chiefly the president buffers shielding from the pleadings of the increasingly desperate jews outside the government. the explanation for the conduct stems from their experience growing up jewish on the precarious late 19th and early

america. as much as jews felt comfortable and wanted to feel at home in their new promised and they were still uncertain. it brought home to me when i was a kid in my grandmother whose leader emphasized as jacobs and she had a pregnant question and ask whenever there was a great event when the stock market crashed, when roosevelt was elected, when the japanese bombed pearl harbor, she asked one thing what does this mean for the jews? and it was a question that reflected the concern because they were afraid at some moment memories of the programs under the czar might loom so this in part explains the resonance and the response of the president's

views. in addition they all had a particular aspect as you might expect to their character and background that helps explain how they acted. as i said, louis brandeis was senior prestige among the president views and was regarded by fdr with such respect that roosevelt referred to him as isaiah as the old testament prophet. no wonder american jews look upon them as a potential ally in the struggle to get roosevelt to check the excess. but as it turned out, brandeis was reluctant to act. indeed he sometimes used his influence not on roosevelt put on the issues urging them to let the president be. an early exit came in 1933 when in the midst of the permanent jews here in america were

planning a visit to roosevelt to protest and the nazi tactics but they were advised, quote, florence cord, the name of the residence used as a kind of code word for brandeis himself counseled against the idea so the visit was scrapped. brandeis misgivings although he never explained them were selected from his own life experience of being shunned as he was in boston when he first began to crack the law and by the anti-semitism that emerged when he was nominated for the high court by wilson in 1960. brandeis' wasn't reluctant for social and economic reform, however controversial as he viewed them they were intended to benefit society generally but to argue for a cause that

specifically benefited jews at the expense some would argue of other americans which a high your risk proposition which has brandeis' salles placed american jewelry and brandeis own exulted status and jeopardy. is the case of the protege felix frankfurter. while frankfurter did not quite match in the pan the on of jewish political leaders he was actually closer to fdr. frankfurter closeness to brandeis in his words as half son half-brother created the potential for the two profoundly gifted comments working hand in hand for the jewish cause. this the sign was told by one troublesome reality. frankfurter ultimately became clear was just as reluctant as brandeis to jeopardize his own

relationship with the president and so brandeis' frankfurter connection said the providing a mechanism for jews to pressure and control the president became sophisticated apparatus fending off such efforts the way it worked when brandeis people would please to get the president to help the jews he would explain the reckless and what frankfurter what do to get past the requests on that almost never to the president who was secretary of labor and jury sympathetic to the jewish cause and some other assistant secretary of state or undersecretary of state, anybody but roosevelt. which made him apparently he was uncomfortable doing. frankfurter in a life earned the reputation as a liberal lawyer and now made discretion as once

were and his attitude sometimes his response was a mixture of apprehension and ambition sometimes exceeded even his considerable gift. for once in my life, i wish for a brief period if i were not a jew he wrote with characteristic to perkins. then i wouldn't have the appearance of being a secretary and in writing you a diagram. while the jewish leaders are arranging a meeting with fdr to discuss easing the visa restrictions, he said he would be unwilling to act as, quote, a conduit because it would create wholley war and implications about unwarranted implications about his relationship with the president. this idea was exquisitely nuanced. he wouldn't join such a delegation as had been proposed, though he would be willing to a company at providing the

president himself ask specifically for frankfurter to attend so he got out from under that. the next was sam rosen who had been more than an albany political journeymen and franklin roosevelt became his chief speech writer and a of course coned the term. rosen and was determined to protect his status with the president telling him what believed he wanted to hear. this was relatively easy for frankfurter because in most cases this term to be with frankfurter believed anyhow. frankfurter belonged to one of the conservative groups of jewish political activism in the group called the american jewish committee as opposed to older more established which are more vigorous and active.

his answer to the problem was through educational efforts to improve the public attitude in the long term and was tantamount to the booker t. washington approach to combating racial bigotry. he had an educational foundation, which showed -- aimed to show the issues the right way to prepare for the life and the christian community. so there was little room in brandeis's filibuster for kind of agitation that might upset that community. the rabbi stephen wise, the most common american jew outside the government circle at the time, wrote a friend i am sure that [inaudible] his influence, meaning rosenman

is bad. he had reason to suspect that early in the spring of 33 only a few months into roosevelt's first term when hitler's of rage were at the height. rosenman told a group of political leaders they didn't need to borrow the president because you knew that fdr was concerned over the german situation what that meant it was never explained fdr took no action but following rosenman's lead off. five years later was let reporters perpetrated by hitler without being asked he would urge them not to make any change in immigration to permit and he

said any move and direction toward refugees would produce a jewish problem. what exactly was that? i don't know why suspect it worked. as for benjamin, he was a young council and was often asked by the jews outside the government circle to pressure fdr when we or another and he refused to do it. he didn't discourage them but he said he wouldn't do it because there was no point in trying to ask fdr to do something. he wasn't interested in doing it and which was -- so what he called at he was not only a zionist but he devoted himself to helping britain which at that time is 1940 was the only country in the field to concern me and he conceived legal

lashing out for a plan and constitutionality to treat a british destroyers and return to naval bases. a was helpful and as he foresaw patrick moynihan later suggested roosevelt could have impeached for pulling this thing off which he did. but he must have known this plan, the big impact would be on the shift that of the war against hitler would ultimately lead to his destruction. it did, all that worked out but it was too late for the 6 million jews in europe, but that is the course he took.

there's a great emergence in this book and that was an unlikely hero. this is henry morgan fall, treasury secretary, longtime friend and neighbor of roosevelt to the perceived as his colleagues among fdr so they didn't ask him to pressure roosevelt because they didn't think it was that significant. he could be considered rodney dangerfield of the president but once he got involved in the struggle he provided a striking contrast hypocrisy that undermines the hope by the jewish community to the president's views. he took with of the skipper which was the president's name for roosevelt apparently to an article.

taking advantage of that gave him the confidence to overcome his insecurities and to take on the u.s. sponsoring in the south to be he was drawn into the fray by a proposal 1943 by the remaining government which saw the handwriting on the wall and thought they would be trying to save themselves a criminal act. to offer ransom some 70,000 jews for a considerable sum of money the deal was that the money would somehow not go to the axis on till after the war. the treasury secretary morgan -- morgan fall was in charge of making the financial arrangements, but as hard as he worked he found every move he was frustrated by this the department whose key officials

involved were suspected of anti-semitism and did a lot to support that. anyhow, morgan fall carried the fight to likely to roosevelt himself and wasn't afraid, reluctant to do that, unlike some of his colleagues and he said roosevelt had one of his aides to roll up a report reports on the secretary of the acquiescence of this government and the murder of the jews, in def quote. roosevelt's tension and helped gain a president's approval for a broader goal in the mansion was the creation of a war refugee board which ultimately helped save the lives of about 20,000 jews, and sorghum 200,000 jews mostly from romania and hungary. in addition to his rescue efforts the proposal for the american jewish leaders to bomb the gas chambers of auschwitz the war department refused even though the planes were repeatedly hitting military targets near the switch.

but the main problem with the board has set leader it was lead and little i would say. in a remark he provided the best epigraph to the labors of the president's jews. he urged morgan will not to take the case against state department to roosevelt where it might leak to the press one as i shrugged off the advice. he said what i want is intelligence and courage, courage first and intelligence second. more of his colleagues more of the formula of the history of the jews in the 20th century might not have been quite as tragic. in a way the attitude of the president's views with the notable exception to morgan fall and many american jewish slave

leaders can be illustrated by a joke that made a around some agitated for action on behalf of the jews trapped in hitler's europe. they're facing a firing squad and the nazi sergeant comes forward to offer cigarettes but the terror the blindfold off and spent in the nazi's face. please come he digs, don't make trouble. [laughter] this attitude simply represented the latest element for all their time that was behind my grandmother's question what does this mean for the jews? the had to easily to their identity in the melting pot and not make trouble. even as the holocaust moved

abroad and yet there was the call to conscience and concern which in point some to spit in the executioner's eis. the question arises what else could they have done? what might have done some good? here are some of the mistakes were things they didn't do that i think might have helped. first of all the undersold the jewish case. the idea is the didn't press hard enough for the economic boycott because they claimed it wouldn't make a difference because to the contrary the nazis reacted they were caught up in the great depression, too and the idea that they might lose or hurt buy potentially market in america was enough they were willing to turn the whole thing around but it would

slow the deadly juggernaut. another strategic error is in a casting of the nazi persecution of german jews in the narrow terms as another outbreak of anti-semitism. it would have been more restrictive than the long run more realistic to get other early bortolotti against the jews as a tip of the military and political weisberg which apart from endangered to jews threatened all of the western civilization and the connection between fashion and a jew hatred is not accidental. fascism having nothing for sale but dictatorship and those selling point but the necessity requires civil rights in order to advertise its good so we are trying to complete the sale. welcome the "fortune magazine" can to that conclusion in the 1930's and that idea could have been spread it propagated against another american and may

have helped reduce the feelings. the apprehension you're pleading for a special cause when they were pleading for a broader cause that affected the nation and we saw the nation plunged into world war ii. the most fundamental error is the underplayed the jewish political man. the field to take advantage of their electoral strength. now it's true that the jews were relatively few in number at the time three or 4% but the happen to live in key states, just a little bit of arithmetic. in 1940 election, fdr to meet new york then the nation's most popular state by 225 calls and votes. it would be linked to the state's jewish vote.

some argue the jurors always worked against him because it allowed them to take support for granted and deprived leverage, but the labor movement was just as loyal to roosevelt and yet when the labor leaders are like john l. lewis and said the homeland call for action roosevelt listened. bigot the mechem mccardle to collect and in the midst of the sit-down strikes the middle class in 1937 roosevelt took action because they didn't want to disturb the labor leader. then there's the strategy of randolph leading civil rights spokesman of the day cuss spokesman for a group even more isolated and downtrodden than the jews. black americans are roosevelt not only did they take no action apart from what he did for the

americans generally against discrimination, racial discrimination in the early years in the new deal and the defense program began there were still left out in the cold randolph is in 1941 announced the march on washington expressed as it devotee 50,000 people demand fair treatment for blacks. to avoid a national embarrassment he defied the southern barons who control the party on capitol hill and got randolph to call the march by establishing the fair employment practices commission to curb racial discrimination in war plans and to some degree it worked it was a step in the right direction. for jews the potential payoff is such tactics was the impact of the palestinian peter bergsten

one of the leaders of the campaign to rescue the european jury who was very effective organizer and pressured congress to adopt resolutions calling for immediate action to the crisis and burks and's tactics as much as morgan fall a lot of morgan paul's bet persuaded roosevelt to create the war refugee board rather than face the embarrassment of having congress act in an area. incidently, perhaps not incidentally for those of you interested in the subject there is an excellent film, documentary film about burkson called idly by.

but holocaust american jews showed the lesson for political action and fought openly in the political arena for the u.s. recognition of israel which made profitable the new states survival. there was driven in the white house by a presidents jew truman was president and a key aide who was assured political office and he sold that truman if you favor the idea and have something for zionism he also had a partner but understood the realities and politics as he said during the battle over the u.s. who political battle and he said one of hundreds of thousands of constituent for the zionist purpose. i do not have hundreds of

thousands of arabs as constituents, so the opposition to the u.s. recognition brought by george c. marshall thought would be a threat to u.s. securities and you can see we get along with the arabs so well today hardly anything, but nonetheless, for the jews and blacks the significance which i believe and what i think our experience in the country is that this is a political ne on the democrats and interest groups are supposed to and allowed to if they know it's good for them make their case legitimately and honestly that for them not to sort of an abdication not only of the responsibility to their own

members but to the country has a large and to the whole idea. there may be some some callers suggested the various strategies i've mentioned might not have saved a single life. we do not know that because they were never tried to read what we do know is that it is impossible to imagine a more terrible result in a holocaust. the brutal efficiency of the nazis pervasive anti-semitism and military burden of defeating access it's true all stood in the way of helping the jews but there was another more subtle endurance and that is in difference. the government, the media, the public along with most of the president's views have higher priorities in the lives of the european jews. as edmund burke put two centuries ago all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

thank you very much. [applause] the microphone is they're waiting for somebody to huckle or conjole. >> i heard it described a meeting with frankfurter he had a skip from poland and he really gave the first reports on the holocaust as it was unfolding and this is a footnote in your book and frankfurter said i am unable to believe you. did frankfurter do anything at all because he did get to meet with roosevelt also nothing came of it and i wondered frankfurter fall the one that at all? >> i've talked to people about what that meant because i am unable to believe that i can't

believe you come in your story is that, i don't know what it meant but what it really amounted to is the rejection. here is a guy who has pointed out was an eye witness to these horrors and that wasn't some second hand account. but frank fervor seemed to be saying is you probably found the truth but i can't accept that. i don't know why he couldn't. it seems clear he didn't want to do anything about it and he couldn't say yet that is a sad story but roosevelt ended up making a big headache it wouldn't do anything good. that's what people said at the time. i know that to answer your question i'm sorry, he didn't do anything about it. he didn't respond. i wouldn't say i didn't inouye denier would be the case with this believer, other pe