c-span, were history unfold daily. created as aan was public service by america's cable companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. coming up next on american history tv, british house of lords member michael dobbs, creator of "house of cards," and author of four novels about winston churchill, gives the keynote address at the international churchill conference in new york city. this is about 40 minutes. ask that weike to have as a guest speaker tonight, and i would like to ask the very beautiful talented and brilliant lisa to come up tonight, if you would. .isa is a fantastic journalist seven years of fox news,

publisher's foreign desk, and she has the privilege of, no, that is wrong. has the privilege of being introduced by lisa. [laughter] [applause] lisa: good evening. that i am going to be the only person on this stage tonight who doesn't have a british accent. [laughter] lisa: but i do have an accent, so you have to see if you can detect it at some point. [applause] [laughter] lisa: if you asked him, lord dobbs would tell you that he never had a proper job. yet, it was in his restless search, as he calls it, for this ideal job, that he just

happened, happened to stumble upon some of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences that anyone could ever hope to have in a lifetime. presence.honored his ones that called upon him as a crafty in skilled storyteller. ones that demanded his inquisitive mind, and others that we boarded his wondrous creativity and innovation. it all began in a pub or i met a complete stranger, lord dobbs says about his journey. i happened to mention to him that i was looking for a job in current affairs. he bought me a drink and later, i found myself working for a rather exceptional lady called margaret thatcher. [applause] [laughter] lisa: a modest lord dobbs may call it luck, while the rest of us, particularly those of us working in the political and media world, painfully

recognized this wonderful trait as perseverance. and job with margaret thatcher and four years later, he would be the first person to tell her that she had become the prime minister. and the next day, he took her first step with her across 10 downing street. it was in this self-described state of joblessness that lord dobbs also served as did the chairman of saatchi & saatchi, worked as a well-regarded abc anchor, was hired as a newspaper, must working at the well regarded- dbc anchor, and was hired as a newspaper anchor. unemployment could be so fruitful for everyone. [laughter] lisa: a prolific author with many acclaimed novels, and of course, like any lazy man's

profile would include, doctorates from harvard and tufts. and of course, i saved the best for last. what is lord dobbs known for? "cards/?' of lisa: no. sharing a girlfriend with bill clinton. [laughter] they were is while both students at oxford. [laughter] was alwaysdobbs confused as to why she never introduced the two of them. but then he admitted, it to me many years and an entire presidential scandal to discover why. [laughter] lisa: but you guys are right. 30 years ago, lord dobbs wrote "house of cards," a political thriller based on the life of a

politician that was highly adapted as a tv series and took on why netflix, telling the story of congressman frank himselfd, trying to get in a place of power in the political world, starring kevin spacey, as you all know. yes, amazing. [applause] to date, the series has earned 33 primetime emmy award nominations in the series underscored by premises of deceit, manipulation, darkness, power, you know, all of the ingredients of a successful politician, whether in washington or westminster. but all stemming from the genius of a man who is humble, talented, quickwitted, and just plain brilliant. with that, ladies and gentlemen, i am blessed with this amazing honor tonight of presenting to

you lord michael dobbs. [applause] lord dobbs: lisa, that was the most lovely introductions i ever had. thank you so much. [laughter] dobbs: what an occasion. i thought i was coming to a really serious, intellectual evening. now, i hear my girlfriend and bill clinton have been dragged in. [laughter] lord dobbs: but this is a serious evening. i cannot tell you how honored and privileged i feel to be here in the company of so many people , particularly, david petronius.

honored to be in the same room. [applause] a great american. and i wanted to thank the churchill family, who do so much to keep winston's flame alive. cecilia, jenny, oh feel you, and , andll -- jenny, ophelia randall. we thank you so much for the work that you do. and you make our joy of winston so much fun. many thanks so today from michael bishop and lawrence who thanks everybody, but one thing -- but one person they have not thanks are themselves. great ofem a huge thanks. michael and lawrence. [applause] lord dobbs: for having made our

society and our love of winston so much fun and incredibly successful. i cannot tell you, you know, these things don't happen by accident. they happen through a great deal of work. and michael, lawrence, it has largely been your work. so thank you very much indeed for that. you were talking earlier about who is going to say no to a churchill? i was delighted to discover that you have never said no to a churchill. you and jenny are going to be a proper couple very soon, and i cannot tell you how delighted i am about that. [applause] wow.dobbs: have you ever had the feeling that you arrived at the wrong party? i kind of feel like that. i write here, to be surrounded

by some of the finest historians of our age, and the most imminent to trillions on the planet. i simply write works of fiction. and of course, writing novels is not a proper job. was for margaret thatcher, you may remember her. -- he said, iman met this woman and she has the lips of marilyn monroe, and the eyes of caligula. [laughter] well, 30 years ago, i was her chief of staff for the conservative party. we had a tremendous falling out. it happens. there is nothing unique about falling out with margaret. she rather insisted on it. [laughter] lord dobbs: i remember a few

weeks later after the election when i was sitting beside the swimming pool on holiday, thinking that perhaps i should find myself a new job, that ,argaret would rather insisted and i was sitting beside the swimming pool wanting to fill time. and i decided to write a book for no better reason that i have spare time. that book became "house of cards." say thatr was kind to it did to tv what dracula did to babysitting. and its bond two great jobs -- and it spawned two great jobs. [applause] well, it was a hell time with margaret.

[applause] bled --bs: she bled, i so what. but the book that i wrote, it has gotten around a bit. about 18 months ago, i was privileged enough to have a toting with president -- have a meeting with the president of china. i marked the occasion by handing a copy of the original hardback. , and hed at what it was frowned and said what? you have "house of cards" in this country, too? [laughter] lord dobbs: i have written 20 novels over the years. honestly, the,

ones i have most enjoyed writing have been those four novels i written about winston churchill. my relationship with winston, and i regard it as a relationship, i regard him as a friend, as somebody who is very much a part of my life. many, with his funeral. i was sitting there watching it, those fuzzy black-and-white images that we had on television. i was sitting there watching it with my mother. and i remember those images. the gun carriage, the barge, the train, an extra ordinary moment we all remember when the cranes of london dock bowed. their heads in respect. what extraordinary moment. and my mother was grieving silent tears. and i asked myself, why is my

mother weeping so emotional about a man she had never met? began a time of inquiry and questioning, which led me to a fascination about winston church of. h. not the politician, but the man, the flesh and blood man. eventually, i decided i wanted to ride out about him. i had to say, how dare i, novelist, write about the greatest many which history when he has been retained out about -- when he has been written about by great historians over the years? winston, himself, provided me with the onslaught. when his rebel and predecessor and colleague died, winston made a wonderful and beautiful eulogy for his old rival in which he

said, history with its flickering lens, stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes to revive its echoes, and kendall with pale gleams of passions of former days. in other words, no matter how hard they tried, historians and history can never offer you the full picture. which made me think that perhaps, i as a novelist, starting from a fiery different perspective -- starting from a very different perspective, maybe a novelist can fill in some of the gaps and try to capture the flush and blood man, the triumphs, and yes, the fears, too. so, i started to think of winston as a real person, not just as a cardboard cutout, real

person. winston is an old man. i died into something called -- i dived into a publication. i don't know if we still publish it. it was an extraordinary hangups that the winston had, even as an old man, about his father. i wanted to know about winston as the child, so i went to his first school, and discovered extraordinary and horror stories at his school with an appalling headmaster. a man who was intent on breaking winston. was abused in so many ways. he was abused intellectually, physically, emotionally, and quite probably, in other ways,

too. ,inston, being a naughty boy and he wasn't not a boy, he was discovered kid, was with a stolen packet of sugar from the pantry. for the crime, he was taken to the headmaster's study, where he was held, he was stripped naked, held, and thrashed. and he was thrashed and he was thrashed and he was thrashed and he was thrashed not until he was black and blue, but until there boy'sood on that poor body. winston became being very broken at that school. he was remote by his nanny, misses -- he was removed like his nanny, mrs. everest.

she discovered the terrible wounds on his body insisted to his parents that he be removed from that school. he did suffer terribly from the headmaster, but remember that winston was not like most of the rest of us. if i had been treated like that, i would have held my hands up, and say, tell me what to do to stop this treatment. but that was not winston's idea. the next location that he had after that beating, when he was able to find the headmaster away from the school, he crept -- he broke into the headmaster's study, crept to the back of the door for the headmaster kept his ray onhat that he wore officia on official occasions. woods took it down to the

from the school, and he kicked the crap out of it. not bad for an eight-year-old boy who had just been so cruelly abused. winston was an extraordinary individual, even as a young boy. but then, i wanted to know about winston, the father. now, imagine, imagine winston onting at his dining table the seventh of december, 1941, an awesome date. he was there with his daughter -- his daughters sarah and mary and his daughter-in-law pamela. understated hero who was

the american ambassador sitting so wonderfully -- ambassador filling the shoes of joe kennedy. around the table that evening ofe the american friends britain's salvation. also the elements of extraordinary, personal pain. dinner, theng the intrepid valet, frank sawyers, came in to the room, and brought with him a portable radio, and said listen to the news. and that is when winston and the others first heard the news of pearl harbor. the japanese attack on america. statesman,nston's a that was everything he had hoped for. two brought out the war and get

america involved. could you imagine the collusion of feelings that he must've had when he embraced his american friends? because they were great, great friends, and great allies. , and i thinkre sometimes arrogant, was also the lover of pamela. and they, he was helping to tear her marriage to randall apart. and he was in love with sarah. and it was to be an unfulfilled love, which caused them both great misery, and i think, eventually contributed to wine and's suicide a few years later -- winan's suicide a few years later. father, he must have wept.

his triumph was wrapped up in torment. lesh fashions the that was the flesh and blood side of winston churchill. that is one reason i think he "justd a policy of k get on with it." as we heard from that wonderful film [i will get on with a minute, has continuing elements. joe, you make this wonderful film, and it was a real privilege to be able to see an early sighting of it. look, to come and present that film in front of this audience, man, that took courage. [laughter]

lord dobbs: but it also brought up huge personal enjoyment because not only did i love the film as a work of art, it reminded me that you were a historical consultant who was my old professor 40 years ago. it reminded me of elizabeth leighton. i knew her. and want -- and what a wonderful, extort a woman she was. and it got me thinking about how one long it took to make stop on the london underground in those days. [laughter] but this is an era today of kbo. just like it was then. so, how did winston respond? we saw that in your thumb, joe. we saw him -- we saw that in your film, joe.

what he said, we shall go on to the end. not to victory, not to success. but go on to the end because he did not know what the outcome would be. chilling words in many respects. we shall fight whatever the cost may be. we shall never surrender. it is the ultimate expression, at that time, of kbo. it was not, and this is the point i want to make -- it was not simply an expression of blind stubbornness. it was an example of winston never losing sight of the longer term, even at a time when he was surrounded by chaos. never lost sight of that.

i think people call it the vision because he went on to say this, and we saw that last night , the closing words of that film. not so well known, but it is equally important. even ifon to say that this island, or a large part of starting,bjugated and then our empire, beyond the seas , was carried on the struggle until in god's good time, the new world, with all of its power and might, sets forth to the rescue, and the liberation of the old. he knew what it was about. he never lost sight of what he was fighting for. and what was he fighting for? he was fighting for the survival of our values, western values,

d at the time of the new world. timeou know, even at the going through all of those perils, winston won. here ine are back uncertainty and confusion. you know, politics. politics, they say it is the world's second-largest profession. [laughter] lord dobbs: it takes most of its rules from the first. [laughter] lord dobbs: but i think him you know, i really do think that winston would be really, really distressed at what politics has become at this moment. where it seems to be all about volume and then am, and how distressed he would be at the lack -- all about volume and venom. we are like a man bent over,

examining his shoelaces, because they happened to be untied. and to be accessed by the fact that your shoelaces are untied, and yes of course, we have problems, but while you are bending over, you expose your vulnerable parts to the rest of the world, and that is what we seem to be doing. [laughter] lord dobbs: kbo does not mean to keep bending over. [laughter] lord dobbs: now, winston probably couldn't have seen his shoelaces and he would never been down to tie them himself. fullised himself to his 5'5" inches, and was still on the corpses of his political adversaries, and would have looked ahead. he would have looked to the future as he always did, even during those dark days of 1941. and he would have seen, even

today, a western world, which ,till, at its full height towers above the rest. and i don't mean to be unkind to any other culture or part of the world, but i think it is an objective fact that is still are -- the west -- we let me put it this way. i'm a realist. i have four kids. but i'm an optimist because i have four kids. but i cannot think of any other part of the planet where i would have more wanted to have brought up my children, and watched them bring up their children than in this part of the world. [applause] lord dobbs: you know, for the last 300 years, this part of the

world has been the western world, it has had the most innovations. we have the most world-changing inventions. sohave done -- we have been much of the inspiration and produced so much of the culture that is marked the progress of humanity. that sense 300 years, let's say 1000 years. why have we been so successful? is not because we have the best politicians, no. but because we have the finest universities. we have the most vibrant culture. we have the rule of law. freedom of association, ideas, tolerance, even in this awkward age of social media, which allows us to move forward together. course, we have in that time experienced some terrible

setbacks. but the march of progress over all of those centuries has been immeasurable, and we have to put those setbacks in the context. we are right now any kbo, i think. the way ahead seems to be lost in the midst around us. in america, there is more political division that i think it has ever been in my lifetime. in germany, it is supposed to be the strongest part of europe. we have a chancellor who has been humbled recently, but now is much weaker and faces a very difficult time ahead. ,n britain, we have mrs. may who may not. [laughter] lord dobbs: and i give me no pleasure to say so. and so much of the rest of europe is in freefall. spain this week, greece

leicester, greece this year, italy every other year -- it is a very difficult time. and brexit. i am going to impose upon your patience. winston said he only required three things of an audience, that they be well educated, well intentioned, and well oiled. i hope i'm onto a winner this evening, particularly with the well oiled. mentioned, so often i'm going to ask you to take a kb oh andd kbr no -- the short term. what side would winston have been on. .very side claims winston they grab a quote out of context

to say winston would've thought this or thought that. winston had a political life of 65 years. i think he probably said almost everything several times over and the idea we could be clear about what winston would have said or would have thought is nonsense. i do believe he saw europe in its broadest sense. he saw its history, he valued its cultures, its values, not just its institutions. change, and,, they they go. enjoyedyou would have the diversity of europe. how can i put this to applied audience? let me tell you a story. imagine you are in a railway carriage and a young couple sits with you.

as they are sitting there, they start making love. as a frenchman, you would start applauding. [laughter] lord dobbs: as a german you would take detailed analysis. as an italian you would get up and join in. if you are an englishman, you would stare stoically out the window as if nothing was going on. [laughter] lord dobbs: if you came from bigsels you would get out a menu of rules and regulations to make sure they were doing it properly. that is another matter. [laughter] differences that we have in europe, the differences in cultures, have caused much tension and torment over the centuries.

have also beenes a source of an analyst -- an endless outpouring of a wonderful culture, of music, of literature, of art, of drama, of medicine, of architecture, and political thinking. rolewas europe's great until young america came along and showed us there were other ways to do things. i want to leave a thought in your minds over the future of europe. it may have you reaching for your classes. i see my new colleague, we have different views on this matter, you will have to indulge me this evening. the differences in europe have caused tension and turmoil. the greatest turmoil and tragedy

, i suggest, has been caused not by competing nationalism in europe but by the attempt of one authority or ideology or a talk receipt or bureaucracy to bring about one system in europe. that has been true since the days of napoleon. they have all failed. the west has found such great strength in its diversity, not in its uniformity. what side of the brexit issue would winston have taken? i watched it very closely last night, i learned something. you talked about learning something from making the film, i learned something from watching your film.

i think winston would have said, as he did in your friend, do not trust establishments, do not trust elites, trust the people. take a trip on the train, as he did. i do not expect you all to agree with that but i will ask you to think about it. we have so many reasons to be optimistic, if only we could raise our eyes from our shoelaces and remember how good we are. itember the berlin wall, how was brought down. it was not destroyed by military might. down by the bare hands of millions of ordinary men and women who wanted to be part of us, to share with us what we have. , economic advantages, but it was so much more than that. it was our freedoms, our values,

our dreams. i started with winston's beautiful eulogy to his predecessor, neville chamberlain , about history's flickering light. that is not all he said. he went on to say this, words as relevant today as they ever were. the only guide to a man is his conscience. his memory isd the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. it is imprudent to walk through life without the shield because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations, but with the shield, we march always in the ranks of honor. honor, aas a man of

man who never bothered to look at his shoelaces, he was a man of vision, he was a man of dreams, dreams that inspired the world and went on to say it for us. -- went on to save it for us. thank you for listening this evening and may your dreams go with you. [applause] ago, the united states was at war in vietnam and is veterans day weekend american history tv on c-span3 looks back with 48 hours of coverage starting saturday, november 11, we are live from the national archives among the backdrop of three vietnam era helicopters to talk to veterans who through them.

then we are taking your phone calls and tweets live with historians about the war in 1967. 1:00, from washington dc's vietnam veterans memorial, a ceremony featuring remarks five former defense secretary chuck hagel. sunday, the 1967 cbs news vietnam war special report. the enemy'sue to clever tactics or the fighting conditions or the weather or the terrain. it seems clear that the american military offensive along the dmz has bogged down. , on american00 artifacts, we will tour the national archives exhibit, remembering vietnam, and then at the, on the presidency, 1968 lyndon johnson vietnam press conference. what made a statement on

we would do if we had communist aggression in that part of the world in 1954. we said we would stand with those people in the face of common danger and the time came when we had to put up or shut up and we put up and we are there. war, 50 the vietnam years later, next week and on american history tv on c-span3. all weekend, american history tv is featuring sioux falls, south dakota. cities tour staff visited several sites. the city is named for the falls of the big sioux river which runs through the city. learn more about sioux falls all weekend here on american history tv. our visit to sioux falls, we spoke with u.s. senator john thune at a sports complex in the city where his father is