author night. she is promoting her new book life of maxi. >> maxi is a long it'll long haired chihuahua came into ochi seven years ago. we had to move to a condo and it is all about life with maxi and that move and the impact she has had on our lives. such a special dog. >> what are the changes maxi had to become accustomed to? >> he wouldn't walk on a leash. so i had to push him in a stroller before we left the house. and i was the one getting all

the exercise. we made moves to the condo. finally learned to walk. he has become friendly. he used to nip that people. now he is a friendly dog in the world. i could have brought a dog tonight and he would have gone up to everybody. >> what inspired you to write about maxi? >> i was speaking out in salt lake city, utah. the publisher heard me speak about maxi and two weeks leader he sent me a letter asking me to write a book. what could i say? so i wrote the book and signed a photographer and to photograph and there we are. >> next, biographer ron turnout

discussed his one volume biography of george washington. he took questions from the book fair audience following his remarks. this is 45 minutes. >> washington was dignified, stoic, heroic and fiercely devoted but was also a slave owner. and unyielding tax master, somewhat vein and a failure at business. unlike his peers, jefferson, hamilton, madison and adams who were all college graduates, washington had orally the equivalent of a seventh grade education. ron chernow is an honors graduate of yale and cambridge. he is one of the most distinguished commentator on politics, business, finance in america today. the st. louis post-dispatch has hailed him as one of the most

preeminent biographers of his generation and the new york times calls him an elegant architect of monumental history we have seen in decades. in 2004 his biography of alexander hamilton won the inaugural george washington book prize for early american history. he brings political perspective to the politics of today. listen to his words. president washington like president obama enters office hoping for reasonable and sensible discourse, hoping to enjoy period of non partisan politics. the tree 2-party system emerges rapidly from his own cabinet. hamilton and jefferson heading up different wings. 4 two years there seems to be a political honeymoon due to his stature but once the attacks start in the opposition they are

ferocious and relentless. washington is actually accuse of being a british double agent all along during the revolutionary war. sound familiar? ladies and gentlemen, let's hear more about george washington from his biographer. please join me in welcoming ron chern chernow. [applause] >> thank you for that wonderful introduction. it is always a thrill to be here at the miami book fest. in february of 1789, two months before george washington was sworn in as the first president he received a fascinating letter from gov. moore's, reporting for the first time on the sudden madness of king george iii.

in the king's delirious state he, quote, conceal themselves no less a person than george washington marching at the head of the continental army and added facetiously you have apparently done something or other that sticks terribly in the king's stomach. washington indeed had. who is this commodore judge who was such a legend in his own time and ever since. that he actually managed to engage the feverish world of the royal george. and hamilton after a quarrel lake in the war that led to hamilton quitting washington's staff. in these letters hamilton described working for washington saying he was moody, irritable

and temperamental and a powder keg. he said the great man and i came to an open rupture and he shall relent his ill humor. ill humor? that hamilton meant to imply this saintly father of our country was the sulky, volvo boss? this was in -- and lavish phrase to washington's courage and fortitude, integrity and a thousand other wonderful traits. this is not a debunking the book. is an effort to recreate for the magnetism that so excited

washington. having said that, hamilton became perspective for people, keep a window into george washington's in motion. kept in check with formidable self control. i came to learn george washington was not this kind of worthy figure, bland but boring who has taken up residence in the american imagination. revolutionaries are not made of such stuff. i began to wonder there were so many books about washington weather george washington's seemingly is the most familiar figure in history. perhaps at bottom of the least familiar figure and i thought perhaps there were other significant dimensions of his

personality that would enable me to bring him to a vivid and 3-dimensional life that would make him immediate as comprehensible to people. i am here to report after six years of intensive work on this book that i found a george washington who is passionate, complex, sensitive, a man of many moods and strong and fiery opinions, a hard-driving perfectionist who cloaked the immense force of his personality and stoic facade that we know so well. what happened in the course of american history is in our laudable desire to venerate the father of the country expanded the rough edges of his personality and turned him into this impossibly stiff and lifeless figure like the standing gilbert stuart portrait where he is standing with his arm rigidly thrust out. it stands to reason that that

wouldn't figure could never have defeated the british empire, the mightiest military machine of the 18th-century, could never ask presided over the constitution or forge the office of the presidency. the man who was able to do all those things must have been a force of nature although he kept that force carefully under wraps. to fashion a fresh portion of washington, it has to begin by taking up a sharp machetes and hacking his way through a very dense jungle. date -- undiscovered that even very well-educated americans's mind the still cluttered with all these tales so let me retire the most egregious errors however trivial they may seem to this highly cultured audience. you have heard the cherry tree

story was true invention. invented after washington's death by an itinerant book teller when washington -- there is a tremendous hunger for personal story that would humanize him. all of these fictitious tales. the most obvious it has been used to terrorize americans will children for 200 years. it also created a very misleading image of george washington as this cold and priggish character if he was anything but. it was digested -- george washington started losing his

teeth. very brave and lonely lower left bicuspid. there was a little round hole where the bicuspid was. you can imagine how painful they were to where they would be scraping incessantly against his broad guns. and in 1784, he bought nine teeth from slaves, fit into those ivory frames. in the 18th-century, it was routine for people to advertise that they were buying teeth. often the ads, washington was we

had the egalitarian. it was aged and cracked and stained to the eyes of later generations look like wood. they were connected by curved metal springs. what this meant was every time he opened his mouth to speak it relaxed the pressure on this spring's and there was always the possibility that the tees would come flying out of his mouth. weather it is coincidental or not as president washington he gave a large number of speeches that were two or three paragraphs in length. another common myth that is almost universally as george washington wore a wig. so how did he get that very

strange and distinctive hair do? he flushed out the hair in twin wings on either side. and grace powder on his hair, very common at the time. if you look at some portraits at the time wearing a black velvet suit you would see fine gray dust on his shoulders. the portrait artist shouting that the portrait sprinkled onto his shoulders and most significantly he took the remaining hair which he drew straight over his neck and tied in a black satin bow. the style we would call a ponytail was called a q and even the washington's hairstyle look to us very quaint and genteel, the queue in the eighteenth century was considered the manly and military look. anyone seeing washington go down the street goes to the general.

everyone repeats that george washington was 6 ft. 3-1/2 and i discovered as i looked into this that this all rested in a single piece of evidence which was after washington died, he measured 6 foot 3 and have. that would settle the controversy, right? wrong. when you go home tonight, why down on your back and just relax. your feet will fall forward, your toes will point out and if rigor mortis were to set in you would add three inches to your height. in the course of doing the book i collected 40 quotations from contemporary letters. people commented on washington -- guessed correctly that he was 6 feet tall. then came the the real clincher.

before the revolutionary war washington like most virginia planters ordered his clothing from london and every six months he sat down and gave a concise description and described himself as a man six feet tall. you can lie about your height to a tailor unless you want to look like a laughing stock. you should consider in the case closed. george washington was six feet tall which was relatively tall for that time. we tend to associate washington with a revolutionary war but he spent five years fighting in the french and indian war. washington was really so precocious he was kind of a prodigy. by the age of 23 he was a colonel. he was put in charge of all the military forces in virginia. at a time when virginia was the most populous and powerful state

in the union. his perseverance and bravery were already the stuff of legend but i must warn you when you start reading the book the young washington is not the wise paragon of later years. he is crass, dogged and even pushy in his pursuit of money, status and power. washington first rebelled against the british not for idealistic reasons but personal reasons. the british deny him the royal commission in the army that he covets. the british sell him shoddy and overpriced goods from london. the british band settlement west of the allegheny mountains at a time when washington is amassing real-estate. the british are bad for business. the british are a bad for your career. there are sections where you are yet in the company of historical greatness even though there are a lot of admirable and extraordinary traits that push

out wonderful of things to come. the bane of washington's reviewed was not will george but someone more formidable, his mother. mary ball washington. she was frankly a very difficult woman and a very querulous and self-centered, look no pleasure in her son's career. we have no comments about her praising the commander in chief or if she was even still alive when he became president. we have no evidence that she attended the wedding of george and martha washington, we have no evidence that she visited them at mount vernon although she lives in fredericksburg which was not very far away. historic rumor has even tacked her as a possible tory during the war. george's father died when he was 11. george was the eldest son. mary felt that george should be

taking care of her rather than pursuing his career. so even when he was in his 20s in the western frontier he suddenly received a letter from his mother one day saying she urgently needs a new dutch servant as if he is supposed to drop his regimental duties and fetch his poor mother some butter. late in the revolutionary war, washington receives a letter from the speaker of the virginia assembly who says dear general, something has been going on in the virginia state capitol at richmond that no one has had the courage to tour your about. your mother has been here for a couple months. she has applied for a special petition for emergency relief claiming poverty and hinting at abandonment by you know who, the commander in chief. washington was a dutiful son. he bought his mother a beautiful house in fredericksburg and had

given her a lot of money and that was his reward. i speculate in the books that the first grade general said george washington never had to do battle with was his mother. it is a difficult mother to deal with and a father who died when george was 11. it is no wonder he doesn't start out as a saint. then what happens is fascinating. in the 1760s with the stamp act and the intolerable acts and the boston tea party washington begins to realize that all of his personal grievances simply reflect a larger political problem in that the deck has been stacked against the colonists. and then suddenly and rather gloriously all of his feelings about the british are elevated into the universal principles of freedom and liberty and justice, rather miraculous to behold. he begins to find his political voice and that political voice

is very strong and very militant. if ever there was a man who was noble by circumstances, if ever there was a man who was fired up by a just and righteous cause of that man is george washington who is you shall see transfers in a way that has few if any parallels in american history. all of us if we know any events in the revolutionary war, washington crossing the delaware and valley forge. those events are little misleading. washington deserves full credit in crossing the delaware and surprising trenton. but i argue in the book that washington was a middling general. he lost more battles than he won. hy also argue that you can't judge this man by the usual scorecard because this was a rare case in history of what he is doing between battles is more

important, and for eight years, constant shortages of men, money, clothing, muskets, gun powder, on and on. only george washington had the strength of character, query of vision and tenacity of purpose to maintain the cause. we all know about the bleak winter at valley forge. there were many other winters at valley forge a. to hold this in general, meant holding the cause and filling the american nation together. if there's not a grain of truth for the great man a great woman of history, please read this book and write me a letter, and

there were other generals from a strategic standpoint who are his equal. they are sidetracked by petty disputes. if you gave him a goal to pursue, all the energy and fortitude in his nature to achieve it. a focus and discipline and drive that were truly unique. whatever his shortcomings as a politician washington was a genius and as a politician was a genius. consider this stunning record. he was commander in chief of continental congress and unanimously elected president of the constitutional convention. he was unanimously elected president of the united states by the electoral college. obviously that will never happen

again. he does all these things without the benefit of a single focus group fourposter or political action committee. he is just responding to his own instincts. never seemed to be grasping for power with that much more eager to give that and the country clamored to have an out of retirement and the more reluctant he was and the more people wanted him. washington's presence in 1787 in philadelphia was filed. the constitutional convention was held behind closed doors. washington's position as president of the convention reassures the skittish public outside the doors that no sinister cobol is being hatched inside. it is washington's assumption of being the first president that emboldens the delegates to create a powerful office of the presidency at a time after the revolutionary war and there was a quite understandable fear of

excessive executive power. if you look at the constitution, article i of the constitution by design is congress. the people felt that was the people's branch of government. that should be preeminent. article ii about the presidency is by design very short and vague and general. washington has spent eight years dealing with an internally squabbling congress realized no legislature could provide coherent and consistent leadership. washington realized it is going to be the executive branch particularly the presidency that will spearhead domestic and foreign policy and we are still living with washington's legacy. we assume as a matter of course that the president will be find a political agenda.

there's also no mention of the constitution in the cabinet. washington creates the first cabinet. there were only three members. it was alexander hamilton, secretary of the treasury, henry knox, secretary of war, thomas jefferson, secretary of state. everyone in the room can agree pound for pound the best cabinet we will ever have by far. it assembles the american all-star team. washington was not afraid to hire people who were smarter than he was volvo he was very smart indeed and felt fully confident to be able to control these had strong prima donnas. we are all gazing back at this year and it is right to do so in terms of the brilliance and integrity of these people. it was a nasty political period. i did a piece in the wall street

journal last summer on the founders. for instance, john adams, benjamin franklin, his entire life was one continued insult to decency and good manners. franklin said of addams he is also an honest man, often a wise man and in some things absolutely out of his senses. this was kid stuff compared to adams and hamilton. adams called hamilton the best scotch peddler and hamilton had a superabundance of secretions which he did not find cause enough to drop off. doesn't get any stronger than that. hamilton -- hamilton gave as good as he got. i shall soon be lead to say that john adams is as wicked as he is mad. the only one who really rises above this partisan name-calling

and mudslinging is george washington. at the beginning of his term he had a political honeymoon for a year or two but the two party systems brings up and the opposition party attacks him relentlessly for plotting to restore -- he was actually accused of having been a british double agent for the entire duration of the revolutionary war. you think some of the charges today made in the press are preposterous. i was struck in this book, many things surprised me. one is how ambivalent washington felt about his own fame. wherever he went he was faded and lionized. he was not a backslapping personality. he was not extemporaneous speaker. wherever he went he had to give a few well chosen words so you could see when he was president he made a tour of all the states. they would send a delegation of

dignitaries on the outskirts of town. he would always arrive an hour or two earlier in order to bypass them. it was actually right in his diary that dignitaries were supposed to escort me out of town at 7:00 a.m.. i woke up at 5:00 a.m. and left before they arrived. also i found the aphrodisiac of power in full force in the eighteenth century. washington had beautiful women swimming around him. he was doing trip of 13 states and wrote every night in his diaries a number of women. there was able in my honor, 62 handsome and well-dressed ladies in the town. then the next idea dried out in hartford. there was bitter in my honor. there were 73 fashionable and elegant ladies in the town. it was happening with a tiny

entourage. a nice head count of the ladies was the father of our country. even in the privacy of his home he becomes a form of public property. a prisoner of his celebrity. he is warned after the war that he should get a special expense account to entertain people. he doesn't listen and hundred and finally thousands of people depend on mount fern in. washington is an impeccably slight man. he sees them all and houses them. the saddest line in his voluminous correspondence, june 30, 1785, he writes this headline in his diary, quote, dying with only mrs. washington which i believe is a first instance of it since my return from the war. he had been back from the war for year-and-a-half. first time he dined alone with martha and had been away for eight years and only went back to mount fern and wants for three days. i said earlier that george washington was not the cold and

priggish character of the cherry tree story. nathaniel hawthorne once said washington was, quote, surely born with his clothes on and with his hair powered and made a stately bout on his first appearance in the world but there is nothing puritanical about washington. not simply referring to his face this infatuation with sally fairfax on the eve of his engagement to martha. let me give you one story. washington have a friend named joseph ward who remarried and the age of 47. washington considered 47 an advanced age of 4 marriage. .. friend. quote: i'm glad to hear that my old acquaintance, colonel ward, is yet under the influence of vigorous passions. the he then went on to suppose that ward had reviewed his strength, his arms and ammunition before he got involved in action. [laughter] wait, it goes on. let me advise him to make the

first onset upon his fair lady with vigor, that the impression may be deep if it cannot be lasting or fre [laughter] >> it's not a lie that i'm suggesting for inclusion in the school textbooks, but it does give us a different take on george washington. the marriage to martha, i didn't get the feeling it was the lustiest marriage of all time, but it was a warm, productive and happy one. hap she gave him financial security. she had been the richest widow in virginia. she gave him emotional support. washington was rather repressed and needed an emotional confidant. she was immensely skillful, and washington was a cordial host, but a rather detached sort. so she gave washington the warm, stable home life that i think he needed to accomplish these monumental tasks. and i try in the book to give ae complete portrait of this o marriage because the two of them made indescribeable sacrifices

for their country. it's always mentioned that martha visited george during war. in fact, she spent a full halfl of the war, those so-called winter with stays would lengthet into the spring and typically lasts five or six months. now, also, to flesh out thisthis private man behind the public th facade, i devote a lot of time in the book to george washington as slave holder. earlier generation biographers seem to think it a trivial fact that he owned 300 human beings. washington was deeply conflicted over the whole issue. he opposed slavery in theory, but he was never able to make an issue of it in public. n you know, even in the founding era, slavery was the most divisive issue, and washington being the embodiment of national unity knew that this was a subject that he broached at his

peril. i wanted to write a book in which washington's slaves are not simply faceless names mentioned in passing, but to the extent the documentary allows it, really emerge as full-blooded human beings. so, for instance, i talk about his man manner is a availability -- man servant, billy lee, who was a greatack hunter and rider and who accompanied washington every single day during the revolutionary war and was actually very proud of it, likei to reminisce in later years to about the battles. i talk about ona judge who was martha's favorite slave. she was a young seam stress who finally escaped to freedom in new hampshire in plater years -i later years and most of all the program in buoyant hercules who was the master chef at the presidential household in philadelphia who also slippedild off to freedom in the waning days of washington's second term.sl slaves constructed every inch of

mount vernon. they formed the basis of washington's fortune, and iton' thought that they deserved to have a central place in hishave saga. what i love about george washington, this is not the story of a perfect man. there are plenty of defects as a slave holder and as a hisman. but -- businessman. but this was a man who was capable of constant growth and o constant self-criticism. he's born in the 1730s into a world in virginia where slavery is both v commonplace and unquestioned, and his last and i think most visionary act in thei his will -- in this his will, he frees the slaves.lose i just want to close before thee q&a with one fascinating story. therewe were, as i said, about 0 slaves at mount vernon.n. 125 of the slaves were under thr direct legal control of george n washington.ingt the other approximately 175 slaves were so-called dower slaves brought to the marriage by martha and legally pledged to

her children and grandchildren. so it happens in his will washington says that the slaves should be freed, those 125 slaves he controlled should be freed after martha dies. and washington had thought this through in immense detail. he provided funds to train and educated young slaves who woulda suddenly be free. he created a fund in order to take care of any freed slaves who were too old or infirm to work. wer he thought this through in t immense details, he just ju overlooked one big, glaring thing which was that the moment that he died, his will was published. everyone knew the terms of the will, and every slave at mount vernon knew whether he or she was one of washington's slaves or one of the dower slaves. and what it meant was that evert time 125 slaves looked at martha washington, they said the second that that lady is dead, i'm a freeid person. martha was so unnerved by the

situation and really felt that her life was in danger that she consulted george's nephew who was an associate justice of the supreme court, and he said, you're right to be afraid. yo and he said, just go ahead and s free those slaves now which is exactly what she did which was a very smart thing to do. so a year after george. washington died but a yeareor before martha died, those slaves were freed. okay. i'm just touching the, you know, the surface of a very rich and eventful history, but no speech on washington last as long as the rev ruse their -- revolutionary war, and i'm sure you are all brimming with questions. [laughter] so i thank you for coming, and i'm happy to answer questions. thank you. [applause] thank you. >> i think if people have

questions, there's a microphone. so, please, just line up. >> mr. chernow, did you run across in the archives information regarding washington's view of extending the franchise x in the his later -- and in his later years did you run across any of his feelings on how the results of the revolution turned out,ing did he have any misgivings?o >> did he try to extend the franchise? no, that was not notable. you know, what he did do, we know that at the constitutional lal convention that the one -- constitutionalbe convention that the one pointeut that washington proposed andfray that did pass was that there should be one congressman for 30,000 people instead of 40,000. he felt that then the house would be more numerous and, hence, more responsive to the people. but washington, you know, share, a certain federalist elitism

that the people should, you know, elect the most intelligent and prosperous members of the community who would then lookthn out for their, for their interests. there are many different places where washington says that there must have been a special bethe providence not only overseeingcs the revolutionary war, but the constitutional convention and even his presidency that things. turned out so well. >> excuse me. would you care to comment on george washington's religious feelings?feel and while doing that, can youyou either confirm or dispel the myth of the prayer that was supposedly done during the valley forge winter? the young private writes that he came upon washington and his horse, and washington's kneeling in prayer.

>> yes.elin you've all probably seen pictures of washington, you know, praying on his knees in valley forge, and that was, unfortunately, an invention similar to the cherry tree story. it's an implausible storywas because washington was very private in his devotions, would never have rather os ostentatioy in public in full view, possibly,sl of of his soldiers have been praying in that fashion. in terms of washington's religious view.'s this, of course, has been a hota controversy about this. washington before the war was an anglican which meant that aftern the war he was an episcopalian. washington, there were a number of things about washington'ss christian beliefs and practices that were atypical. he always talked about providence or the supreme author of our being.efer he only referred to jesus by name two or three times in his

entire career. he would, at church he would pray standing instead of kneeling, genre constituting the mason -- generally refuting the mason story. for he did not call for a minister on his death bed which, again, martha did.that i had the feeling that washington was deeply religiousu there is not a battle in the revolutionary war that washington does not, you know, claim that divine providence had been looking out for the country. and so his papers are saturated with references to a providence that is closely following american events and seem to be watching over the fortunes ofy. the country. but it's very hard from a kind of denominational or theological point of view to pin down with

precision exactly what his religious views were. you >> thank you. >> in alexander hamilton you went to an extent with the march key delafayette's relationshipoh with mr. hamilton. how did washington take the marquis and kind of the french outlook in help with the war to the extent there was any, and how did he accept foreign support -- >> how did he accept foreign support? you know, with difficulty. all of these french officers who came over during there revolutionary war, many ofvo tha cameme over for veryested self-interested reasons, you know? they wanted to win battlefieldd glory, andgl they felt they wout then go back to france and get a promotion. and a lot of them couldn't even speak english. and so washington really felt that it was, you know, the banee of his life as commander in in chief that he had to placate all

of these french officers who w came over. in fact, the story with lafayette is very interestingesi because lafayette comes over at the age of 19. he quips a ship with provisions and munitions. armedmedo philadelphia with a letter from ben lin franklin, and franklin writes to the continental congress, youow know, please treat the young marquis rather well because he's very close to louis vi, and he could be politically useful. u the congress without consulting washington makes lafayette a major general. this 19-year-old kid who's just arrived.-old makes him a major general which was the highest rank belowene commander in chief.omma but they did it as an honorary title. lafayette then goes and meetse georgeet washington.ton. washington writes a priceless letter to the congress saying i

don't think that the youngoun marquis understands that the t title is merely honorific. he's kind of looking, you know, for a regiment to command. [laughter] amazingly enough, lafayette becomes such a resourceful and really fearless general that her becomes one of the major generals in the continental army. and one thing that i found, you know, the historic story aboutn, lafayette being a kind ofhe surrogate son of washington turns out to be true. point in the book washington, being a very formal man, did not like to be touched. and we have eyewitness accounts that when lafayette would see washington, he would, quote, throw his arms around him and kiss his face ear to ear. [laughter] only a young frenchman could have gotten away with that with washington. [laughter] >> i was wondering about why martha married george washington

as a rich widow.eorg i'm suree she had many suiters and, also, that she would be reticent of men wanting her just for her money. >> oh, i don't think it was surprising that she wanted to marry washington at all. youma know, you have to remembei said he'd been in the french ana indian war for five years, he had been the commander of all the military forces in virginiaa when he was 23. the he then meets her, i think he was 29 at the time.as he was a military hero in virginia, and he was famous for his bravery. he was starting out, he seemed toee be a, you know, prosperous and successful young planter. pl and then he became a member of the virginia house of burgessess for 20 years. he was very closely connected with the fairfax family. his brother had married ann fairfax whose father was theos agent for something called the northern neck proprietary that n

control five million acres in virginia. the fairfax family is the most powerful, richest family inest virginia. and george washington is their young protege. and washington was very, you know, tall and strapping. youap know, we tend to think oft him from the gilbert stewart pictures as very kind of stiff and rigid and craggy. heri was, jefferson said he was the greatest horseman of his day, he was legendary as a dancer, he was a great hunter. he was a very, you know, very social and very, you know, genial personality, and so i find it completely understandable that she would havesh been attracted to him. and he was, and she had two children, and he seemed very eager to have children. >> no cherry tree, huh? >> no cherry tree. sorry. >> oh, my gosh.sorr

[laughter] i want to thank you so much for coming. [applause] this is wonderful. >> thank you all for coming.than i really appreciate it. thank you to the fair. >> this event was part of the 2010 miami book fair international. for more information visit miamibookfair.com. >> host: booktv is now joined by two authors. the book, "seagull one: the amazing true story of brothersl to the rescue," lily prellezo. >> guest: it was formed by jose and many pilots that rescued the cuban rafters escaping communist cuba in the 1990s.rmed

>> host: why did it have to be formed, mr. basulto?prov >> guest: well, when government doesn't provide or doesn't suffice, then -- and you have a community-oriented necessity, you have to takcte action on yor own. and this is something that it's called self-help. so i organize a group of pilots to go to the straits of florida and fly missions in many tandem so that we would locate the rafters coming out from cuba seeking freedom in the united states and fleeing disaster of that island. >> host: what was the governmen> policy that set brothers to thec rescue in motion.he >> guest: well, the government -- there was no gov really government policy thatm sets them in motion. >> host: what happened that set? this all in motion? >> guest: well, it was all a result of cuba's failed government policies probably, andie people were leaving by any means that they could possibly come up with.wa and there was all of a sudden a surge of rafters leaving cuba.

and one day one young rafter, 1 years old, the coast guard filmed the rescue, and he died in the arms of the coast guard agent. jose basulto's friend billy saw it on the news, and he calledmeh them and said we have to do something about this, and that's how brothers to the rescue got started. >> guest: and as i say when government doesn't provide -- it was the coast guard that, by tht way, was extremely helpful tond us. without them, we wouldn't have been able to do our job. our but to find the rafters, that t was ourhe job. that was our community's interest. and we implemented brothers to the rescue as a tool to provide for that need. t >> host: how did you train the pilots, where did you find themt and what is seagull one? >> guest: okay. seagull one, i'm gonna start --l [laughter] it's my call sign as a pilot.as i was seagull one when i make the radio calls to the other p pilots in the formations that we flew to locate the rafters. the other pilots were pilots from 19 nationalities that

joined us, and their interest ti help others is a matter of humaa solidarity, what was involved. they came for brothers. some of them maybe came to gaino hours, you know, as pilots.e believe me, after you flew one or maybe two missions there, you were hooked with the idea of saving lives, or you simply left. and we're fortunate to have three brothers from argentina which were, to me, the originaln brothers to the rescue, the brothers laras. alberto -- >> guest: guillermo. >> guest: guillermo and hover say laras. they were the first pilots to help me organize the group and locate the other pilots like themselves who were young men and were part of the communityre and were pilots already. so we, what we did was recruit pilots and recruit some observers, also, because in the

rear seats of the plane we used to carry members of the press. and there was no mission we didn't carry a member of the pressar with us because we wanto today tock unit what was -- document what was happening there to, you know, makeenin everything that was happening in cuba and the reasons they were leaving the island.d so so no better image to say that than the image of a rafter, of a person floating in the middle of nowhere in an inner tube. i mean, more eloquent than that? couldn't be. so that's what we were doing. >> host: what about the clinton> administration? did they not assist brothers to the rescue? >> guest: well, brothers to the rescue never asked the u.s. government for help, monetary or otherwise. of course, the u.s. coast guard was instrumental because theyhe were the ones that would lift the people out of the rafts ande save their lives.ut but the clinton administration, whatat happened after the exoduw of 1994 was that the policy changed, and the wet foot/dry foot came about.t and then it was not, no longer

viable to be rescuing, to beescu flying missions to rescue people that were just going to be returned to guantanamo or to cuba. g >> explain briefly the wet foot/dry foot policy. >> guest: well, it means that if a cuban leaving cuba were to make it on a raft and be touch dry land, he would be allowed to be processed through immigration. but if he was intercepted at sea, at first they were returned to guantanamo, and now it's -- if they're found on the seas, they'll just return to cuba. >> guest: the clinton administration was with essential in terminating t brothers to the rescue. in 1996 three of our airplanes,a and i was flying one, flew in this a search and rescue mission, and migs from cuba came after us and shot down two of the planes, and i survived in the third plane. well, that was known to the clinton administration. they were perfectly aware that the attack from cuba was going to take place.

all they did was document theme attack, and what they could have done which was given us a word of, a notice that this was intending to us, all they did was document it. and not only that, they interrupted a regular proceduree of the defenses of the south florida in which aircraft from homestead air base would take off to intercept migs coming out from cuba. and that thing which was automatic, standing operatingopr procedure was interrupted, andtr it had to have been from the white house. they were put, they were told to stand down battle stations at sa the precise moment that brothers to the rescue needed those airplanes there to prevent the shootdown. so i am pointing my finger both at castro for the shootdown. he's our natural enemy of all our life. and to the clinton administration for having aidedd and abetted the shootdown of the brothers to the rescue planes.

>> host: now, were now in ifere international air space, cuban air space at the the time?ce, >> we were in international airo space, and no matter where we would have been, there's no reason for a mig airplane tot go after a cessna, especially when they had been notified that we had a search and rescuere mission. we had contacted them by radio. they know what we were doing there, we had been doing it fory years, and theyea chose to kills at that time, and the u.s. government having previousnt knowledge of what was coming to us did nothing to prevent it. >> host: now, there was a flight over cuba, is that correct? >> guest: there has been, we took flights over cuba probably three or four occasions in the past. ti one time the previous year i flew over havana during a flow flotilla that was taking place there as a demonstration in solidarity for the cuban people. democracy flotilla, it was called.

but that day, nothing. and we, of course, we had dropped leaflets from international air space to cubay this may be hard to comprehend for somebody that is not an engineer or a pilot, but when the air are in favorable conditions and you identify those conditions, you can put leaflets on the other side of cuba if you want from international air space on this side of the island. >> host: lily prellezo, how did you find this story?or >> guest: well, the story was always there. it's how the story found me is how it happened. a mutual friend introduced me to jose, and i found out that he had been looking for somebody to write the story of brothers to the rescue, but he never felti comfortable with anyone. i interviewed over 100 people ts try to tell their version of hov it was like to be a brother or a sister to the rescue. many people were>> lost in this rescue operation? >>

>> guest: wow. you mean -- >> host: brothers to the rescue personally. >> guest: well, four people werd murdered when the planes were shot down, so four men lostn. their lives. >> host: and what about the rafters? how many rafters do you estimate that you helped? >> guest: well, by 1994 we hadre already rescued 4,200 raftersnig run our missions.d and then after that we helped i, the rescue of 30 some thousand e more. by assisting the coast guard when the boat, when the 1994 exodus from cuba came about. but from our open efforts, i'd say 4,200 were saved by the th efforts of brothers to the rescue. >> host: were they returned to cuba? >> guest: those 4,200, no. and the 0-some-thousand -- 30-some thousand that we assisted later, most of them weren't. but from then on the policy

changed to the wet foot/dry foot policy, and they were, the government started repatriating them back to cuba. s they renamed them migrants. theyhe were, they were refugees, actually, because conditions ins be cuba made them refugees. but it was convenient that the situation was handled with semantics as usual. that was very sad because the united states had been involved many of the circumstancesance that made it necessary for those people to come back from the, to come to the united states. on 1942 i think it was -- 62 i think it was, '63, lyndon johnson proclaimed a law of -- i'm forgetting the -- which madt it possible for the cubans to stay here if they arrived to the

united states, and the law had not been repealed or anything. it was just a mandate by thee clinton administration to return them which has made, so far, the return of the cuban refugees possible. back to the island.en w >> host: mr. basulto, tell us your history. where were you born in cuba, how did you get to the states?at's what's been your involvement in, essentially, fighting the current cuban government. >> i was born in cuba, and as a young man i was recruited by th cia, if you may, because we were working at the time with an organization in cuba called the mrr. and the cia promised to us that they were going to give us all the help we needed to change the government of cuba into a democratic goth. those were only words.ow

that ended up in what was latery called bay of pigs. >> host: you were involved in that? >> guest: yes. i was sent back into cuba as a radio operator to send back information, intelligence to the u.s. on what was going on before the invasion.sion and everything that theyised promised and said wuss going to be done in our behalf was simply betrayed. the that included the ip vegas. >>st -- invasion. >> host: now, what did yourto family i do prior to you coming to the states? >> my father worked in sugar sales. they were a u.s. company. the irony was the president of that company, and fidel castro coming to power was something that we didn't like at all. >> host: lily prellezo, tell us your background.

>> guest: well, i was also born in cuba, and i came to the united states when i was 4 years old. and it's an interesting story because my father was involved in the counterrevolution, so my brothers and sisters, my older brothers and sisters had already come here, but my mother wanted to get me and my little sister out. so she actually put us on a by plane by ourselves. i was 4 years old, and she was 2.h >> host: was that the peter pan -- >> guest: no, it wasn't. this was in 1960, but it was so urgent, the need to get us out of there, that she found that u she had to do this. of course, it's only a 90-minuta flight, but, you know --when >> host: when's the next time you saw your mother? >> guest: i think a i few months after that. >> host: she managed to get over? >> is. >> guest: yes. they would come back and forth, my father and her.fath >> host: how strong is the cuban-american community now in south florida? i mean, is it still loyal to ths overthrow of fidel castro, or have generations succeeded that it's less in that