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[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> this nature to the court.

the real, the treatments to the the great leaders. that means a great impression of me. and then for 15 years i learned a lot there. as people said the law right of you write a book. we don't need another autobiography. then i realized that i had something unique. and i understood the situation. a written two books before. i thought i could tell the story and make it something that could really make a difference. >> what is the most significant quality?o >> the first one, you have to be authentic. you can't be a phony. you have to walk the talk. you have to be vulnerable. sometimes you're wrong. you have to not -- when it comes

time to do the tough and hard things that our hon. you have to lean in. you have to have the courage should do what you need to do. you know, i have to cut myself sometimes to have the courage to do what i ought to do. >> they think in those terms of what you think of it will affect other people? >> i'm looking at what i know the standard is to know what integrity and character is. a firm doing that and they're probably going to respect minister with. i still have to pay attention. the want to develop people a better than me. throughout to go be great leaders summer, and they're in my place for summer. >> have you pow experience

helped the? >> obama when i came home had been on five and a half years. i had been incumbent. but never been in operation unit . i got promoted because of what had done in the camp. it was the stuff that i learned about that enabled me to stay out. so something about that experience came in the understanding. i was able to do the technical stuff. >> pows. >> eight and a half years. >> incredible. incredible.

>> well, we aren't loyal to each other. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> congratulations. >> great to see him.

>> i was signing books. this guy's it, this book to carol, read the damn book. they should never done that. we bring together at the union appear. i remember. you were on my left. >> years ago. >> many, many years ago. >> and the base. >> we all needed. >> entertaining. >> always entertaining. yes.

>> be dominated by boat a little too much. it was the day. >> i have the story. when you first moved in the state. >> of member that. >> he told them so accurately. he said he had worked in a movie theater drilling of enhancing these movies over and over many times. you told the stories. the part of hud jack lemmon find the leaker in the greenhouse and rolling around. it just blew me away.

>> sunshine jackson. >> yes. i wish i had his iambic pentameter . but you know, every day, it is coming home 11 more. >> i have it somewhere and will. >> i have it. you gave me permission. i want to be able to put it on my website. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we have been home runs and driving down interstate 85 and i see this old couple driving a yellow impala 64 convertible. i pull up beside them and fight them over. they did. they thought they were being hijacked. they get out. i said, are you from new jersey. yes.

i live with jerry in hanoi. >> it was his parents. in their work going to mount a camera to see. >> somebody else. >> told the story for years. >> the remainder of the career . >> eleven on virginia. >> of the gate. >> will live with him. >> usually. >> i have to circulate. you know what the story of ron putnam and his wife. where he is right now.

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[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> did you need my wife? here she is. the pleasure to meet should. we were forced together. it went to bubbles will together >> i got shot down. i have a couple of favorite

memories. and though he remembers miss. he died in hanoi. lee and i were good friends. we played go. >> i remember. >> oh, yes. >> the next thing i remember after weeks with up and years passed, we have the first real the. that is why we have a big party. >> the association. >> north of the red river. yes.

>> we really appreciate you being here tonight. my body would have been here if he had not come to kansas. for sure. in one of our peers, general richard myers, chairman of the joint chiefs. he regretted that he could not come. he flew f4 set the same time you and i did. he went along higher than we did >> wrote, that depends on your point of view. >> yes. you're right. coincidently he is chairman of the board for the uso.

his office is in my building upon the 12th floor, much loftier than mine pit he stopped by the end the day. >> you tell him we thought about him. i appreciate his service we flew together again. i went back. you might not remember this. i went back to my second tour. his squadron. we did not fly close together at that point. we were stationed together several times over the years. he lives right down the street from us. we see him on occasion.

we have a good deal going for a while. he was chosen because of medical reasons. it -- i said, well, i'll drive down if you drive back. no, of drive. you drove last year. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to come by your house to pick you up we dollars in lost. >> could seeing you guys. a one to say hi. he thought highly of him. >> a great man. >> you will have to go. everyone gets a copy with the

placards signed by myself. and you can go to bars and nobles. leading with honored. i am going into this picking business. we don't change. we're all hard-headed. i figure if he could get one thing, each person get one thing out of the book or the speech will make a difference thank you for coming. my pleasure. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> how are you doing. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> these moves came from a lot of places to be. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [applause] >> ignore the managers walked in. and going to make this very quick. we had better people to talk that night. i went to georgia tech. we have not beaten university of georgia but one time in the last ten years. lee is a fine guy, rather uneducated because of where he went to school. on the other hand, and a super fine guy and very educated. a group of americans, many of your contemporaries of us, we

had the pleasure of going to graduate school and a terrible place. it took us over six years on average to get out of there. a lot of it had to deal with academic prowess. most of all we were in a laboratory. we learned leaders. repossessed it to a certain extent. of senior engineer, but nobody quite captured that experience in the light of what it was. they apply to every situation never been in. the book characters see today, he took the experiences that we all shared on a very different

-- difficult circumstances and blended them into lessons from hanoi. they knew each other early on. it is always an honor to introduce someone and needs no introduction. my dear friend, the hon. john mccain. >> thank you for being here. thank you very much. kissinger said once, a man who needs no introduction and kissinger said, yes, but i always enjoy it. at thank you for being here. it's nice to see old friends. always a bit nostalgic for me to be with my old friends and compatriots. we went through very difficult

times together, but we also went through times that forged bonds of and honor and dignity that i don't think you could replicate in any other way. i always look back on our experience as a great honor to have the privilege of serving in the company he runs. one of those just introduced me. the funny thing about marines, they're not very smart. they can be pretty standard. the vietnamese found that out. i often have a phrase that i use. when flintridge went from the naval academy at trend to get into the marine corps, but my parents were married. i always get a little bit of a chuckle.

they used to go over well for a long time. then i wonder, my son joins the marine corps at age 18. cirque one year. a lance corporal. and i texas a&m. he said the marines are part of the navy department. it then men's department. i don't tell the joke anymore. written a remarkable, and it is about. the world continues to cry out for american leaders. as we once thousands of people being slaughtered in the absence of american leaders, conspicuous by its absence.

the beliefs believes that the united states is withdrawing. it cries out for leaders. you know, one of the famous stories that may be in a total, a television prisoners being interrogated by an american officer. you have to watch, we have the time. very interesting commentary on the lack of american leaders. i think that the articulates in his book the examples of heroism . that means that so many of us remember who inspired us and inspired us to the degree that we were able to do things that we otherwise would not have been able to do.

that is what lee is all about. that is what his life has been all about, and that is what this book is all about. americans always the heroes commend we have so many. it took the american people long time to recover. those of us who came back saw a very changed military than the one we had been end in. so i'm happy that today we have the finest men and women serving in the military that have seen. the successful all volunteer force that has produced leaders like general david patraeus and others of his quality. most of them cut their beginning

in trial by fire in vietnam. i no there are many of my old frontier, and many you have served their country with honor and distinction of all is on it to be in the company of those of you that have. it inspires me to try and do the right thing, stand up and and and women who are serving all recommend this book. congratulations. think you for being here. got plus. [applause] >> i have six pages of notes which and not going to use.

thank you for coming. as i look around the room i see people from my high-school class to the united states senate and everything in between the crust my path of the years and have inspired and encouraged me a long way. i think you for being here. i hope i have the opportunity to speak with each one of the. we are celebrating the launch of the book. thirty-nine years ago senate routine and myself and others can move from the war. it was a long time ago, with the lessons that we learned there are as relevant today as they were in the camps. what makes them special is the fact they were tried and tested and the most difficult circumstances. we had some rhetorical leaders.

it went all the way them. their example set the pace for me, a junior officer in camp. have been so much. i was there five years for months and two weeks. it sounds like a long time. tavares was the longest held pow eight years six months. he returned with honor and has had sent a remarkable experience in the years since. wish you were here. i would love to have him stand up and let us honor. there are others with us tonight several of the hamas seen in a while. one that i want to mention especially because he arrived the same day i did.

[applause] we read the truck in together we were going -- we don't we like palin -- we thought we might be going to the slaughterhouse. a sell about the size of this will buy from. it was our bathroom. we had a 3-gallon bucket in there. it was not just germany. and as for ross in this room. six and half by 7-foot cell was our bathroom, a living room, are better command our dining room. that is generally the way our live ones. in the winter it was cold, very cold. never seemed to be enough food to stay warm. in the summer it was so hot we had heat rash helen and sometimes we did not get to take

a bath and it cleaned up, and it was not exactly fudge. many of the guys had terrible injuries. it was probably the most seriously injured evolves. he came home with honor. the stories of the opportunities he had to come home or earlier in the book and the great courage she shed by staying and killing home. well, it was a long time, long time. some of those who did not get the medical help, who was my great. for the first four years there was always torture going on. we did not ride home for several years. no, i'm telling you this up because we want pity because

that is the last thing peon ws want. and telling you this because i want you to consider the leaders in a situation like that. that is an example where they have to go under the gun every day. you can look and really learn some great lessons. we were able to endure because we have resources. we have a heritage of freedom. we had great leaves that have been well trained, and we were well trained. we have to work, commitment to each of the. there is no better example than that of two air force fighter pilot. john had been tortured, and been on bread and water. he would not given the statement that it wanted. he was tortured.

he finally gave them something that was nothing, but to put him back in his cell with the food because they wanted to break him a little more. percy found a out of it and sent the message by tapping on the wall and said, a top job to be looking for a bread drop today. john did not know what to expect that day when all the guards, kirk and turnkey's go to condemn , he heard something rattling a round in his ceiling. all of a sudden his light bulb hanging down dropped down. there was a grinning percy who had gone through the ceiling in his room through the barbed wire in the attic and was above john and drop some bread. he had taken the bread and righetti in mall but it and

dropped it down for jaunty. that is the kind of support and teamwork. the lessons we brought home, the legacy of honor, it's important today. never more so, i believe, then for our country today. we need a revival of that kind of honor, and we can have it. but there are couple of things that it takes. character. in the book chapter two is guard your character. a share a story of someone it did not. it takes courage. to do the right thing to do the honorable thing is not easy. it's very difficult. it is painful.

you have to lean into the pain of your own fear. i know that everyone has doubts and fears, and that is what's banks them. you have to if you what's going on, and sometimes you have to back up and good counsel . we had tough arguments and discussions about things like should be gone on hunger strike. should we have, to recall that? the moratorium. we had tough discussions about that. the decision was made and we all fall of and supported it. takes a lot of courage to make those kinds of decisions. that is what we need to the. from the pta to the high-school

principal, the city councilman to the big building over here. we need leaders who will leave with honor by having the courage to do with the mill is right to where her to not. at night that is not easy to doom. and telling me, it's not easy. i'd like to close with pulling from a great, one of the great movies of all time, one of the best sellers of the world, lord of the rings. in the trailer it comes on the screen in big words. there is no freedom without sacrifice. there is no victory without walls.

there is no glory without suffering. and i want to add one more to the list. there is no honor without courage. the one thing that can turn this country back to the way that we think it ought to be. that is the message we want to get out. to the right thing for the country. to the right thing for guard duty. lean into the pain and just go into it. don't be afraid to do it. just to it and you will all be proud of you. we are all hungry for that kind. well, tonight i want to thank you for being here and i want to ask you to continue your efforts to spread the message for the pows we note that our message was returned with honor.

the story of senator mccain and heavy did not come home early the returned with honor has always been a great inspiration to me. thank you for that example. thank you for being here with us tonight. that message, loves twisted just a little bit for all of los. lead with honor. lead with honor. when we get that message in our mind this country will return to honor and will all be blessed britney bynum. god bless you all, and thank you for being here. [applause] we have several pow's here tonight.

where is my list? who is the other one? there he is. who is the other pow? he's gone. come on up and it will take pictures. [applause] [applause] >> thank you.

[applause] >> thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, again. >> i have a special patch for you. >> they are the hearings. [inaudible conversations]

>> you're watching 48 hours a nonfiction authors and books on the c-span2 book tv later today live on book tv, in depth with economist julianne, a former columnist and president of bennett college for women will take your phone calls to me mills, and tweets beginning at noon eastern. >> what i try to do is take a look at this and a larger perspective and go back and see how we got to where we are today , the main causes, any trends and themes that run through our relationship in the ultimate goal of trying to write as an objective account of what transpired. >> medleys analyst on 30 years of hostility between the u.s. and a wrong.

>> up next, after words with guest host new york university professor and author charlton make away. frederick harris and his latest book of the price of the ticket. barack obama's election to the presidency undermined the civil rights movement that made it possible by shifting to race into politics. the shift he says his weekend the movement that is still needed to eradicate racial disparity. >> from the very beginning tell me a little bit, what is this book above? >> the book is about many things. primarily about an intimation of black politics in the age of obama. one of the curiosities the really motivated me to write this book is actually a piece that was written in the new york times magazine during the summer of two dozen big.

the title of the article was the in the black politics. it provided this generational explanation about why it is that uc this crop of black politicians so for someone who had been riding on these issues for more than a decade i think a wanted to have my say. in this book what it is really about is providing a historical context for the verizon barack obama and looking at the various campaign strategies that racially neutral black politicians have been using it talk about the consequences of those strategies. >> you were saying more than about obama. instigator. >> what a way more. i think history is very