were impossible and that didn't simply strung german power. there were many historic german lands that were cut away during the peace conference. munich was all about. that was the opening shots of world war ii. so the allies were -- were motivated more by anger and some kind of crazy combination of vengeance and self-righteousness and believe and ability to

create a just world. i mean, that's a big, big thing to do, and nobody has figured out how to do it but woodrow wilson thought he knew how. basically what he was happening was setting all these land mines from 1919-1930. yeah. i'm sorry. sure. >> i was just wondering what churchill's relationship was with general montgomery? >> that i don't know too much about because montgomery during the period of my book was a divisional commander. he hadn't got on the core level yet, but i can say that during the battle of france he -- his

third division really, really was one -- he was able to move that division out of extremely difficult spots where it would be surrounded by two or three divisions, german divisions or coming in from both sides and he could move his men out and move them out in a night march. he showed great skill in that and that caught churchill's eye and caught the eye of general, who became the chief of staff, but the other thing about him, which you probably know, he was -- he preferred set peace battles, you know, he -- that kind of thing. when it came to dash, the only thing -- the only battle he fought that really took -- rolled the dice was market

garden. you know that, we know how that ended. i mean, that was nuts to do that, try that in a week and think you can go right into germany with no, you know, line of, logistic line to support your movement. >> i think that's all the questions we have. if you have any lingering questions, please feel free to ask john while signing the book. >> thank you, thank you, i really enjoyed this. [applause] >> an intelligent audience, what more could one ask for?

[inaudible conversations] >> next week is author's week on the washington journal with the featured nonfiction authored monday through friday in a one-hour conversation with you, starting monday december 21st, former missouri state senator jeff smith on mr. smith goes to prison, what my year behind bars taught me about america's prison crisis. tuesday december 22nd at 8:30, on his book battlefield america, the war on the american people. university of georgia law professor is our guest on wednesday december 23rd at 8:30 eastern talking about her book, how the other half banks,

exclusion exploitation and the threat to democracy. at 8:30 a.m. eastern on december 24th, political scholar joins us to talk about underdog politics, the minority party in the house of representatives, and friday december 25th, also at 8:30 author, historian describes his book, the final years of ronald regan. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal during author's week starting december 21st. ♪ >> john ferling is the professor at west georgia university and the author of several books of history. the book whirwind. what is the greatest misconception on the u.s. victory independence war? >> probably the greatest misconception that many people

think that it was an uneasy victory or ene visit able victory but it was an eight-year war and to the very end in 1781 we were very close to losing the war, john adams was riding home from france and say if you don't score a decisive victory in 1781 then france is going to pull out and we won't get independence, fortunately for the united states, we won the war and, in fact, because when john adams was reflecting on the revolution, he made the comment that the war had nothing to do with the revolution, and i think it had everything to do with the revolution in part because we

declared independence in 1776 but we didn't have it, we weren't independent until we actually won the war, but also i think the war affected everybody, people lost loved ones in war, people served and sacrificed in the military during a war, people paid taxes for the war, so everybody was impacted in some way or another by the war and great many people were radicalized were as a result of that so that i see some of the changes that occurred in the 1790's particularly moving from just republicanism to democracy as a result in part of the war itself >> what was the role that british loyalists played throughout the war? >> well, they played several roles, actually, great many of them enlisted in loyalists units

that were raised particularly from 1778 on, and in fact, about 1780 there may have been more americans serving with the british army than were actually serving with the continental army, and then in addition to that, they provided intelligence information for the british army. they wrote pamphlets, trying to keep up, keep britain interested in the war and it was kind of a multifaceted role that the loyalists played. >> we celebrate every july 4th, how precarious was it after 1776? >> my wife and i celebrated on july the second because that was the day that independence was actually declared and two days later the declaration was --

john adams wrote a letter home saying july 2nd will be celebrated from now until my wife and i always cook out some hot dogs and hamburgers but it was very precarious and took several hits in new york campaign and france didn't come in as an ally until 1778 and without france we couldn't have won the war. as i mentioned earlier, we almost didn't win the war. ..

[inaudible conversations] we are honored to have at our guest, douglas waller, their discuss his new book "disciples the world war ii missions of the cia director who fought for wild bill don von." waller is a veteran magazine correspondent, author and