[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> to mark the 70 of anniversary of three in europe today the pioneer institute hosted a forum. qeuros and historians david kennedy and rick atkinson -- keynote speakers and historians david kennedy and rick atkinson discusse how it has changed histor. may offer ideas for improving how the subject is presented -- they offer ideas for improving of the subject is presented. >> good morning. good everybody please take a seat? it really is a good morning this is one of the first

mornings of the year in which spring is something other than a rumor. welcome to one of all. my name is tom birmingham in i am pioneer institute senior fellow in education. this is the third forum that i have hosted since joining pioneer. given the lineup this morning i believe you are in for a real treat. as is usual we can expect a robust and free exchange of ideas varied opinions when we have the presentation on teaching world war ii in public schools. will you express your warm welcome to c-span which is joining us -- we would like to express a warm welcome to c-span which is joining us this morning. the timing could hardly be better given that this week marks the 70th anniversary of

victory in europe today. several guest speakers are heading to europe to celebrate. but me our sponsors. program of education policy and governance at the harvard kennedy school of governance. we the people, the national association of dollars, the association of world war ii boston, and the new england churchillians. i would like to announce exciting news related to ongoing work to support u.s. history in schools. the pioneer institute's second annual frederick douglass prize in u.s. history encourages massachusetts public and private high school students to explore

the stories behind the state's many historical landmarks and museum exhibits. for this year's contest we received over 70 essays from across the state, from public, charter, parochial, and private high schools. students chose from historic sites and had to develop essay drawing -- an essay drawing on primary and secondary sources. the place prize is $5,000. second places $2000 in third place is $1000. honorable mention is $500 each. the prize-winning school receives $1000. the judges selected four

honorable mentions. signature created of university park campus school, courtney cassidy of st. mary's high school, mary erickson of norwood high school, and yusuf sezer of grafton high school. i would ask you will acknowledge them. [applause] -- you all to acknowledge them. tom birmingham: we are pleased to have the top three prizewinners with us this morning. when i call your name i would like you to receive your certificate along with your check. [laughter] tom birmingham: the third place winner is abigail long from bishop feehan high school for her essay on the maria mitchell house in nantucket. abigail? [applause]

tom birmingham: the second place winner is matthew tormey of pembroke high school for his essay on boston's goudey gum company and the silver age of baseball cards. [applause] tom birmingham: congratulations. and our first place winner is julia ruderman of minuteman career and technical high school in lexington for her essay on the old schwamb mill in arlington. julia? [applause] tom birmingham: congratulations to you. let's give the top winners a hearty round of applause. [applause] tom birmingham: well done and

congratulations to you all. in addition to sponsoring the writing contest, in recent years pioneer has hosted u.s. history events. with these events, we hope by highlighting the major arrows of history, all is the maker's will better appreciate the need for future generations to understand heritage. sadly, in massachusetts and across the country, this is not happening now. for instance, on the civics portion of the 2010 test, the nation's report card, only 7% of eighth graders to correctly identify the three branches of government -- who correctly

identify the three branches of government. unlike in english and math and science, in which we are internationally competitive when it comes to u.s. history and civics, massachusetts students are no longer the exception but just the role. -- ruklele. for example, in 28 years of a civics contest, our students have never finished in the top 10 states. students are routinely outperformed by counterparts from california, oregon, indiana, virginia, and even alabama. this is one reason why we favor restoring the u.s. history mcat is a requirement for graduation from massachusetts high schools. this is what the education reform act originally required by the patrick administration

jettisoned the requirements in 2009. to a significant degree, studying war is studying human nature in conflict with itself. war has always existed and will likely exist as long as humans do. which is why better understanding war is to better understand ourselves. 20,000 years ago, the athenian history. -- the opinion historian wrote his history of the peloponnesian war. -- the of thing me and historian wrote his history of the peloponnesian war. his words remind us of the nature of war which is as true today as it was two millennia ago. the whole of the hellenistic war

was convulsed by war. in the various cities these revolutions were the cause of many calamities as always will happen while human nature is what it is. in times of peace and prosperity sunnis and individuals alike follow higher standards because they are not forced into a situation where they have to do what they do not want to do. but war is a stern teacher. in depriving them of the power of easily satisfying dearly wants, it brings mines -- they really wants, it brings m to the level of actual circumstancesinds -- minds to the level of actual circumstances. these dark realities do not mean that we cannot learn well go into what lincoln called the better angels of our natures.

just like the era of world war ii and the holocaust produced some of the worst horrors humanity has ever witnessed, so too did the time of global conflict produce some of history's most heroic moments. roosevelt's historic leadership, the dramatic conquest of berlin, and the quiet, inspiring, and courageous words of a teenage girl, and frank. -- annde frank. there are so many elements of world war ii that no one event and cover them all but by enlisting to pulitzer prize-winning historians, a biographer, a world war ii museum director, a holocaust survivor, and several educators we're hoping we can open a

larger policy discussion of the need to get history back into schools and into the lives and minds of our students. i would like to introduce the first keynote speaker, david kennedy, who is the donald history professor emeritus at stanford university. professor kennedy received the dean's award for distinguished teaching in 1988. it was awarded the pulitzer prize but -- he was awarded the pulitzer prize for history. is "over here" export america's political, economic, and domestic life during world war i -- explored america's political economic, and domestic life during world war i. he received an abma in history.

i know present you professor david kennedy -- now present you professor david kennedy. [applause] david kennedy: thank you tom. thank you for being here and to the pioneer institute for organizing the discussion of world war ii. i would like to begin on a personal mode that will strike you at first is completely unrelated to the subject but i will try to demonstrate that it has some relationship. i do a lot of bicycle riding in california, where i live, and a couple of years ago on a foggy saturday morning i found myself in the parking lot of a hotel in carmel california getting ready to ride down the picture coast -- big sur coast. i knew virtually nobody in the group of 100 people so we are

milling around. you can picture in your mind's eye, hundred middle-aged people in spandex. his fellow writer introduced himself to me and said my name is jack and i am a lawyer in san francisco. how about you? i said my name is david kennedy and i teach history at stanford university. these of drama you historians, i know all about you guys. you make up these what if scenarios. i would be course of events run differently? -- how will the course of events run differently. i thought that was a reductive description bit before -- but before i could muster a defense he said i have one for you. what if our november 22, 1963 it had been not john f. kennedy but making a crusade -- nikita

khrushchev would fall into the b -- fallen to the bullet? i had never thought of that. and he said, i will tell you. one thing we can say with certainty, if it had been khrushchev and not kennedy aristotle onassis would not have remarried. [laughter] david kennedy: now, it is very gratifying to me to see that many people in the room get the joke. there are people sitting down here who are staring at me blankly. this among other things illustrates that humor is generational in character. if you do not have a picture of mrs. khrushchev in your head you

do not get it. jaclk, the original version of the story goes back to a conversation between the australian premier and mao zedong but that is differ ent. the pulses on me and if you reflect this as a serious -- the colts this on me and if you reflect on those he has a serious point. history is not a hard science so we often indulge in thinking exercises about what if something had gone differently and how might be course of events have taken shape differently. here is a serious version of the question that jack pulled on me. what is the united states had lost world war ii? how would be course of subsequent history have been different? that is a strong form of the

question, and more historically responsible version. what is the united states had emerged victorious but had gone to war on a different timetable with a different force composition? how will the outcome have differently shaped the world we have lived in. i do think the shadow of world war ii recasts itself to the present century. -- casts itself to the present century. we are going to illuminate america's grand strategy in the war. there is a promise that underlies these remarks, that world war ii was a dramatically transformative event in history. that is the premise. the proposition i want to urge on you this morning is that the transformations did not just happen in the case of the united

states. they were the result of dramati -- deliberately chosen strategic decisions. and thirdly, the events of the war, the result of the grand strategy, created the platform or the infrastructure on which subsequent history has quite measurably built. ok, so how transformative was world war ii? when i did about this a go back to a sentence that i read in a speech of winston church hill's, when he was reflecting on the announcement which was only 24 hours old or less, that japan intended to surrender. in august of 1945, about to surrender as well. and churchill took to the floor of parliament and gave one of his more sustained speeches.

there is one sentence that jumped off of the page at me for a number of reasons, not least of all he rendered to the united states in a fashion that has long since gone out of use in american english boat is still common in british english. he rendered the united states as a plural noun. "the united states stand at this moment at the summit of the world." mid august 1945. "united states stand up this moment at the summit of the world -- the united states stand at this moment at the summit of the world." that was true at that moment and has remained true ever since. from a historian's point of view what is so arresting aside from the grammar is that from the vantage point of five years earlier in 1940, that statement

was just wildly improbable. so something happened between 1940 and 1945 to make the statement that would have been improbable in 1940 accurate in 1945 and of course what happened was world war ii and that is the subject. let's guess our minds back briefly -- cast our minds back briefly to 1940. the 11th year of the great depression. we believe that as late as 1940 45% of all white households and 95% of all african-american households, applying the metrics of poverty developed a generation later 45% of white households and 95% of african-american households lived below the poverty line in 1940. one hoover administration and to roosevelt administrations had as of 1940 failed to find the exit from the greatest economic

crisis in history. the country was about to launch itself into a sustained generation long period of economic growth that gave us the affluent society we have had ever since. return to the international arena and asked what are -- if we turn to the international arena and asked what are the differences they are even bigger than the domestic sphere. the united states was a country that had refused to join the league of nations even though it was the brainchild of an american president in 1918 at the conclusion of world war i. it was a country that for the first time had imposed a cap on legal immigration, a country that insisted on the repayment of u.s. treasury loans to allied governments after world war i, an insistence that badly disrupted international capital

flows and some would argue contributed not trivially to the crisis we know as the great depression. the country that had passed the highest protective tariff in its history in -- history but as the strongest neutrality standards in the 19 -- that passed the strongest neutrality standards in the 1930's. the country was experiencing the most deeply isolationist moment in its long history. if you walk down the streets of any major american city, boston, let's say and you heard a street corner speaker saying something like "my fellow citizens, i am here in this year 1942 tell you that this economically stricken country -- 1940 to tell you about this

economically stricken country and deeply isolationist country will five years from now stand on the threshold of economic growth and what is more of the isolationist country will not only simply join the league of nations, it will form a new international organization called the united nations domiciled in the city of new york. we will take the lead in creating international organizations and so on and so forth and believe the globe into a. -- leave the globe into -- lead the globe into a period of growth." anybody who made that speech have been certified as completely detached from reality but we know, looking back with the storm lantern of historical

insight -- stern that lantern of historical insight that that is exactly what happened. that makes it entirely plausible and we realize that in this interval, the answer is world war ii. so how did this happen? my students at stamford, when i can get them to speak candidly about attitudes about studying history, has more than once told me, the problem with the study of history is that it is just one dem thing after another. [laughter] david kennedy: and if you take nothing else away from the discussion this morning i hope it will be the thought that in this case, the result that we got in 1945, it is not the story of one dem thing after another is the story of deliberately

taken discussions -- literally taken decisions. -- deliberately taken decisions. we are coming to the point where the united states enters the war so let me take you to that point and share with you observations made by major historical players in that crucible moment just after the attack on pearl harbor, december 7, 1941. the first of the remarks comes from adolf hitler, who when he heard the news of the pearl harbor attack, he herded away virtually the entire world -- and it the way for truly the entire world did, "now it is impossible for us to lose the war because we have an ally that has never been vanquished in 3000 years ago that the japan. -- ago." that is japan.

was in few minutes winston churchill gets the same news and the same with -- within a few minutes winston churchill gets the same news in the same way. we do not know what he said but we do know what he wtorrote in his memoirs. because to make the reader understand what was his state of mind -- he tries to make the reader understand what was his state of mind. this is the passage that is the most interest to us. "united states was in the war up to the neck so we had one after all -- won after all. i slept the sleep of the saved every thankful. -- and the thankful." we have cw principal actors during the same -- two principal

actors during the same news and making different appraisals of what will be the strategic value. hitler thinks it will save the nazi cause intertel thinks it will save and went. we know -- england. we know who was right. it was at least conceivable if you were a serious strategic thinker to make a different conclusion because it was not known widely exactly what kind of war the united states was going to fight and where it would place the principal strategic emphasis and on what timetable it would muster a forced to make a difference. two other remarks that help us understand. in the mid december, 1941, 10 days after the attack, the german foreign minister prepared a long memorandum for hitler in

which you tried to offer his strategic assessment of what it meant that the united states was in the war. he said the following. he said "we have just one year to cut russia off from her military supplies. if we do not succeed then the munitions potential of the americans joins up with the manpower potential with the russians and the war will enter a phase in which we will only be able to win it with difficulty." that turns out to be a much shrewder assessment then hitler had blurted out the day that he heard of the pearl harbor attack. one last remark and i will break the timeframe of december 1941 for what i hope you will agree is a legitimate reason. the last remark came from the pen of admiral yamamoto, the

commander-in-chief of the japanese navy from a document he wrote in september of 1940, 15 months before the pearl harbor attack in a memorandum to his prime minister, the u.s. civilian prime minister of japan before the tokyo government came to power -- tojo government came to power. he said "if i am told to fight," japanese-american relations were going sour at this point so yamamoto said "if i am told to fight regardless of the consequences i will run wild for the first six months or a year, but i have utterly no-confidence for a second or third year. i hope that you will endeavor to avoid a japanese-american war." and extraordinary document coming from the pen of the

person tasked with starting the war at pearl harbor and the senior strategist at midway. yamamoto knew something. they knew that the first principle of warfare was laid down by sun tzu. the first principle of warfare was know your enemy. and they knew something about the united states. that if it had time, to fully mobilize down to the depths, is the most industrial economy -- this behemoth industrial economy that it possessed, it would crush any adversary. in the minutes that remain i will tell you a parable which i will give a title, a tale of three cities. if we understand what happened in these three cities we will understand the contours of the american grand strategy.

both three cities are all on rivers as it happens. the first is in france seine -- on the sseine, the third is in america on the potomac and the third has had its name changed, golvulgenrod, but it was known at the time at stalingrad. this unfolds from august of 1942 to february of 1943. in those cities, things happened that if we understand the nature we will have a grip on american grand strategy. chapter one, france, august 17, 1942. not a day edged into memory