you can imagine how this is happening in places like china. >> [applause] i know it has been very hot and i appreciate it. i would like to talk over 30 minutes about the book "the savior generals" then have questions from you if that is okay. there is a whole sean rush of general's, leadership and the terms of what succeeds and one fails so the great captains by a man named dick dodge, the great battles of

the world and we were supposed to learn across time and space wellington or napoleon have particular characteristics and are audacious or column under fire or schooled in military history but in a matt -- a magic ingredient and then there was the other john anatomy of folly all of the losers of history history, westmoreland and waterloo and we were supposed to learn what not to do. not only that but also models of leadership very popular in the 19th century but the more i read these and i notice in a lot of cases napoleon won when he had greater numbers or organization for not fighting the entire alliance

of europe for in world war ii of george patton and do cave in to commands there is no greater fan of pat and and myself that had pat not been there we would have found somebody else who could assume the role of leadership because there were other factors, the genius of george marshall and the hitler stupidity that would make a victory still possible so i try to look across and see what happens with the war was lost? not only tactically or strategically but the people whether mostly in a consensual society gave up as well and then the of war was not lost. who came in at the 11th-hour? there were dozens of people

people, and they said it wouldn't work and then again i was looking for general's when there was no hope if you take the individual out of the equation it is clear that would have lost and i try to look at the personal characteristics of the level of experience they had so i took themistocles from afghanistan by would talk about the trades that were comment remember there was none they were burned to the ground in the occupied with the largest invasion of europe until the day they swept all the way down to northern greece there was no greece left just 17 city-state's and athens was the demarcation line every

buddy wanted to retreat and give up. one man said no. and with the allies with those figures that you believe and to make that stand for the last 10 years rob everybody have been advocating the marathon model was a way to protect one man said know we have to invest in ships for radical democracy and he was not just the savior everything after was a victory and single-handedly saved

western civilization in the embryonic form he was a maverick and iconoclastic and contrarian, obnoxious, he lied and a typical politician and demagogue and slandered enemies and an absolute genius for what was wrong with persian everybody said you cannot stop and he said way to minutes we are at home they are seven headed miles from supplies by any empirical or logical calculus they are in trouble but yet to he could sway the spartans in the corinthians tuesday and they went on to

defeat the most lethal sea battle in history but the second person i looked at if you fast forward we don't know much about him anymore but maybe you have read the great novel but otherwise we don't know who he was. he was very obscure. talking about five pager 25 and was on the ropes for a century had lost the west vandals and overrun and occupied north africana and with good greek segment with the areas of constantinople and with the persians and

this is right before the rise of islam with the iconoclastic keying in the byzantine complex at a wild idea that much of the western empire to retake it and this twentysomething young man began to win a and defeated the persians going all the way to iraq and the peace fortified the holy land and the most spectacular of all to send the armed armada about 800 miles all the way toots' to meshach and libya that was overrun by vandals some of you were fans of

st. digestion may be where the vandals overtook in that was the first in rhode and very tragic to read but then took back to reclaim for to proclaim and did the same thing in sicily and then in a nation of greek speakers he really did well in the west and like most byzantine commanders he was not corrupt he had to maintenance because there were always outnumbered and rely on discipline and mercenaries but he said he had to be a fish that swam in a local pond they did not

loot or steel but he included local populations to help been used tactics and is able in a period of 25 years to reclaim over two generations the byzantine power in the data of wes and and when he finished it was 80% so so there was the plague that wiped out 1 million when that land was lost to the rise of islam but lo and behold for most

people thought the greek speakers would fall around 680 there lasted 900 more years they did not fall until black tuesday all because of the efforts but this is when the church was built and he was a man of his time but i thought is there a modern counterpart? one case i made exception was william tecumseh sherman. most of you remember gettysburg july 4 through 6 of 1863 that is where the intent gave that "gettysburg address" but the union

juggernaut of technology and greater resources had just worn down the south and he would never go north again but fast-forward one year later but cold harbor, petersburg, and in that horrible summer of northern virginia ulysses s. grant destroyed the army it was a revolving door were immigrants came in and when did and replaced by others. grant had been the hero march 1864 devein the spectacular victories in the west of shiloh, lincoln thought he would plow right into richmond and as they left he turned over the army and they had an interesting

exchange and to summarize their letters at the time the grant was to take richmond which is only 70 miles away the other city was atlanta. northern virginia was settled so from number tennessee it was wild and sherman had taken our may not just to amanda but had to do not fit -- navigate through swamps entrails they had an army 70,000 and they were led by joe johnson in the west so what happened? within 90 days mary todd lincoln said ulysses s. grant was a butcher and greeley's said the question is not whether lincoln should be elected in the fall we should not nominate in june on the left wing to

say he has abandoned the cause not promoting the interests of blacks and on the right george mcclellan said i will have a negotiated peace we lost 300,000 people for what? we have a status and a there that are be an autonomous and it looks like it was almost impossible if you look at the newspapers at the time you could not find hardly anyone who supported lincoln. horace greeley became at 1.his greatest supporter then it was his greatest critic when grant said i intend to fight it out all summer people said he really mean says that he was destroying the army so they

both went out in may and wild grant slowly grown down his own army, in the sense of tender 12 miles but could not get the city then sherman started to outflank and everybody in the east covering the war in virginia but nobody knew what was going on in tennessee and georgia. communications were pork pork, sherman had problems with the rail lines and there was one slashing at his flanks and sherman began to develop a philosophy that we can have one grant but not to. lose the army but the public will not stand losing this army so he delivered the outflanked johnson to make go wide circle around atlanta and a first people criticize because he would go right toward richmond then they begin to appreciate what sherman was

doing and when the south became so exasperated when they're on the home ground come on the terrain be a losing were men trying to fight against sherman who was avoiding direct confrontation but they did a fateful error to bring in their reckless and the audacious and john heard to begin to fight head on and sherman lot -- a lee lost 30,000 casualties vs 100,000. september 2nd, a sherman walked into amanda to say it was almost amazing the national reaction not one person in the united states who was ever against abraham lincoln. now suddenly sure man who

was a net magnanimous fashion said no, no, no. he was doing something necessary to grab bobby lee by the ankles. it was complementary and then as soon as the election sherman would take off through georgia of the same thing he had done to go to savannah, a stop for christmas and i give you them as a christmas present and then come up behind and to it was because he came with the army of the west. >> they were mostly armaments of michigan michigan, iowa, illinois, in diana, ohio. not from new york or massachusetts but growing up on farms and like to care about sova tactics of rapid mobility and camping out to avoid direct confrontation

they got bigger and better the more he went into the deep south. so in some ways, had there not then a sherman, a lincoln may be would have been nominated but would win the election he went on to win 50 her -- a to 6% of the popular vote and george mcclellan had a lot of women to come and was writing letters to sherman and others as if he expected to become the president of the united states and suddenly sherman took the atlantic and did not say one word for one week. what did he say? you shouldn't? i am angry? said he praised it shows the lincoln's strategy was right and abraham lincoln just smiled and as you would say he went into one whole and he came up another and all is good. william sherman save the union effort and i cannot

think of anybody at the time who could have done that and they were probably the best bahau the you chin army i want to skip the fourth person but go to the most controversial, david petraeus win after the disastrous election of 2006 with the resignation of rumsfeld the idea is something that had gone wrong there had to be a new strategy the group was ambiguous to do something different, troops coming get out out, a small group of scholars at the american enterprise institute and some luminary names but around the group of scholars and soldiers one name would pop up, david petraeus, a new counter insurgency strategy.

would bush dare to gamble and surge when 20 percent of the people supported the war at this point* and if you think that is normal, 73 percent supported when this statue fell in 2003 so the mood could be summed up as my brilliant three week takedown of saddam hussein is your terrible five-year occupation. with every think about the war there are aberration of the people on the left you took the blame when the statue fell and they looked ridiculous and i have a law of the federation who said we have to change the middle east but the majority said we have to go in and know it is somebody else's fault. nationally when but he was

appointed at the end of 2006 and went into iraq with about 120 casualties, excuse me deaths, per month and when he was done he finished in september there was no to iraq -- americans killed in iraq. but he had more troops and he changed strategy build and hold to win the hearts and minds with the idea of uphold belisarius that you have to consider the population now lives and applied it you have to feed them so he encouraged electrical development, social outreach but we have been doing that but there had to be something else and here is where the controversy is today. because there are six or seven criteria that we know

work. we have been fighting for years and tear of the criticisms deflecting enormous casualties on the insurgents and that some critical mass that started to turn the tide there was simple -- simply people were getting killed and i would see people with tattoos and they would come up as he went to for lucia to say my son was killed was with the insurgents and you get the impression that they were getting very tired of this. another reason is everybody thought we were leaving but bush said not until we win, that was the word you were not supposed to say it. so there was the idea to deal with the americans because they will not leave. obviously killing more soldiers was day political

dilemma. you remember the body bags so when petraeus said he is not interested in body counts and interested in building bridges at the same time standing near crystal takes the enormous the school told like. , who says i don't like the bush protocols while he increases the drone tally by than knowing he would not be criticized in the way bush was or the way petraeus talk to up counterinsurgency the more the bill they could be also the awakening where popular suny tribal leaders stood up and said we are sick of al qaeda and they are not representative of is long. but more troops or something coalesced and momentum built and david petraeus saved

whenever iraq will be thomas something, but not anything had he not conduct did a search. but my favorite chapter and i think in the history of the american but let's get matthew ridgway. you looked at me like to was that? but colin powell said every american soldier knows this man. a very unlikely person, 53 years old, he had a heart attack and if you know, world war ii history the three most seminal battles conducted on the western front belgium, and normandy normandy, the normandy invasion, of rage too far and the battle of the boat load negative polls known as

a commander even in his late forties. he was he was a jay space he wrote and he did none achieve a of the notoriety but he was a reason why the united states won world war ii but then became counsel to the mediterranean and had a heart attack and thought his career was over so they shipped him back for a desk job as the deputy chief of staff to the army and he should have ended up two years and that would be its. he is watching the military and you might remember what happened. people, 30 million americans were in the military we ended the war not by invading japan but dropping to atomic bombs. the airforce said this is the new way of four, it is nuclear.

nuclear. nuclear. we need chats and strategic air command, submarines but old-fashioned assets like that marine corps what is the use? now they will go nuclear it is outdated. but but we have as if no no. you don't understand. >> you have to build up the they could always escalate after world war ii we but the fastest german to turn

into allies spent all of our allies have gone communist and so had russia and they had the path to say we always thought the japanese and italian stand americans now they joined the americans we are here to liberate and lost 20 million and they lost in million we carry the burden and now american is betrayed this is the fault line across europe and asia at a time when we were dismantling of our forces when the north korean army went across the parallel and the very few americans knew with their but all that america was was a parameter there is a big fight a cemetery people who wanted to to go to nuclear

war event but in terms of political history, led to endless macarthur he had a wonderful lot the non negative reputation to be cut blind to lose all assets and making enormous. >> then there was a brilliant idea of eating -- sending american troops. >> and then they say that we can he said now is the time to finish it for could.

spinach huge eastern van but one man have more orange fate but people as the as a stooge but as you go north you creek mine negative it gets wider and wider and further from american bases and closer to the chinese and it is getting cold, it is october, no matter it is brushed off and people weren't was superior to the sundays this be here to and

really having between 500,000 people would rush across the border. we never but what ensues from the vacating number of the largest in history history, 4 miles. we had a word called bugout the first time people use it in the military conflicts where bugout they put down the but bin and ran back to the 30th parallel pursuits by north korean troops that were trained in china and the ever give force of 500,000 people in the dead of winter. at the reservoir, you remember these great names but 15,000 americans were killed in this retrieved over three times what is lost with tenures and also

afghanistan. one day 790 americans were killed. a complete disaster and there was panic she said we didn't tell him to do that it was wrong how long dash house, wrong war, wrong time nobody believed the chinese was given the green light but and i need to but to expand though for in the reason i can do is i have communist and state department for who lost china or korea. . .

those areas that reward us with enjoyable feelings for doing the right thing by our bodies. >> guest: boy, there is, there is no word the processed food industry hates more than the a word, addiction. and i do try to use it sparingly because they can rather convincingly argue that there are some differences between food cravings and narcotic

cravings, certain technical thresholds. however, when they talk about the allure of their foods, again, their language can be so revealing. they use words like craveable, snackable, moorishness. and i was rathe