the battle is still raging in europe. buchenwald has been discovered just a month or two before. every day something is big news. the united states is changing radically from being an isolationist nation as it was in the 1920's and 1930's after world war i to becoming a totally internationalist nation at the end of world war two. we sponsored the united nations. marshall plan is going forward to rebuild europe. one congressman whose name escapes me from michigan was drunk on internationalism and proposed an international printing company that would print school books for children of the world. so the children in saudi arabia would receive the same things as the children of the united

states, forgetting local custom, local governance, anything else. that tells you how insane internationalists. we had swung from isolationism to internationalism. host: from americans -- for americans who feel like right now, with the new varied of covid the countries dealing with, war in ukraine, immigration issues, for americans who feel like events in history are moving fast right now and are concerned by that, what is helpful about looking back at 1945? guest: if events are moving at hyperspeed pace -- every day something is happening, with rationing. the national speed limit is 35 miles per hour. can you imagine driving at 35 miles per hour? foodstuff is being sent to the

american fighting men but also to the british and soviets in uniform. so we are feeding not just our own men in battle, we are feeding two other nations. for a time, fdr was in essence president of the world. he was not only managing the united states in a two front war in europe and the pacific and he also has four sons in combat, but he is also feeding the british and soviets. the united states is taking care of everybody in the world, all the good guys in the world. when he dies, the flags in moscow are lowered to half staff for an american president. i find that remarkable.

host: the book "april 1945: the hinge of history." go ahead and start calling in with your commons and questions. republicans, (202) 748-8000 -- comments and questions. republicans, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you wrote "december 1941: the 31 days that changed america saved the world." were you always planning to write it that way? guest: i do not have many long-term plans. sometimes i do not know what i'm going to do for the weekend. it just so happened that way. the reason i wrote december 1941 was that i grew up, like many people, in a family that was deeply involved in the war. i am not saying my family

special because i think they are special, but there were millions of other american families. both my grandmothers were rosie the riveters. one was testing machine guns. it would come down the belt and she pick it up and fire it. then shoe pick up the next one. that was her job. my other grandmother was a bomb inspector. i wish i got a chance to ask her what a bomb inspector does because i am not sure that is something i would sign up for. my mother was 14 at the time. one time i queried her about victory gardens because i thought they were a pr stunt and she got indignant with me. everyone had a victory garden. there were victory gardens and small farms. at one point in 1944, victory

gardens provided something like 25% of all the groceries grown in america for americans to consume. victory gardens produced a quarter of the vegetables. that is remarkable, the level of commitment that shows. my father was a boy scout at the time and the government used the boy scouts to distribute promotional posters, like loose lips sink ships, things like that. he would go around and put up posters in neighborhood bars and restaurants and churches and grocery stores. that is what the government did with the boy scouts. my grandfather was a civil defense captain. he tried three times to enlist and three times he was rejected. they said, you are blind as a bat. you are 42 years old. we are not that desperate.

he became a civil defense captain. my father was too young to serve in world war two but he enlisted years later. his oldest brother enlisted at the age of 17. he joined the u.s. navy, was in the navy for 3, 4 years and was killed in the pacific on his birthday in 1945. i used to sit there every sunday after church. we would go to my grandmother's house. i would be sitting there amid aunts and uncles and parents and grandparents and the conversation always turned to the war. my grandfather might say, i

bought that before the war but did not sell it after, a car made in the 30's and 40's and 50's. so everybody -- the talk -- they talked about you get a package full of dye and add it to make the flavor more palatable because it did not look like real butter. it looks like a pasty white so you got dye to add to it to make it look more appealing. everybody talked about gas rationing and how far you can go on see stamps --c stamps. everybody in america was involved in the war in some way current rationing or some other way. that is how i started getting interested in why i wrote this

-- why i wrote december 1941. >> your family and millions of americans at that time, living through an amazing series of events. run through a timeline for viewers. january 25, it finally comes to an end. the yalta conference takes place. the battle of iwo jima begins. the raising of the flag on mount sarah bocce, the bombing of tokyo happens here and onto april 1, 1945, the battle of okinawa begins. fdr dies. the battle of berlin begins. bonita mussolini is killed by partisans. hiller commits suicide. in amazing series of events that in this book you try to view both big and small. -- hitler commits suicide. an amazing series of events that

in this book you try to view oath and small. guest: i do not write from 30,000 feet. i write from ground level. i want to know -- that is in here, but i wanted to know what the average dog face was riding home at the time. that is in here, not just the generals but the foot soldiers. not just the senators and congressmen but their constituents, the farmers, the car dealers, getting a perspective. i do it deliberately in this way and it is secondly i write in an up-tempo fashion. the pace is constantly moving. some people take a wild to get a handle and then they see my writing style and descendant email saying, i like your writing style. host: craig shirley, a man who

is causally moving as well. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. we will start you on that line for independents. marjorie in ohio. caller: i am looking forward to reading your book. my dad was born in 1915, april 4. he spent his 30th birthday recovering from wounds from iwo jima. he was in the seventh regiment in new york city and they nationalized the tank core. he wanted desperate lead to be a flyer, but 28 was the upper age limit and that was his age, so he could not join, so he enlisted in the marine corps. guest: good for him.

thank him for his service. caller: they called him the old man because he was older. when you talk about putting the coloring in that margin stuff, when i was a little girl and helping my mom in the kitchen, i got the job of kneading that stuff into the margarine. guest: brings back memories, doesn't it? caller: sure dies. i'm looking forward to reading your book. -- sure does. i'm looking forward to reading your book. guest: she hits on an important point, which is that 28 was old for an american g.i.. first they had draft boards and then they started another process, but there were boys that would go before draft boards as young as 15 years of age and convince who was on the

draft board, the local minister, clergy, something like that and convince them to allow them to serve. they would go in and fight. host: let me show you a picture of one g.i. with one russian soldier. this is from the national archives, that image of american and russian troops meeting on the river. in light of u.s.-russian relations today, the soviet troops and u.s. troops meeting on this day, i wonder your reflection on that today. >> the marriage between frank than roosevelt and winston churchill was genuine and affectionate. churchill said that meeting franklin roosevelt was like opening a bottle of champagne.

winston churchill was equally praiseworthy -- franklin roosevelt was equally praiseworthy of winston churchill. with stalling, it was standoffish. it was a -- stalin, it was standoffish. it was a matter of convenience. hitler invaded russia. that is why joe stalin became a member of the big three. he was always a junior varsity member and always suspicious of churchill on roosevelt. that is why he insisted that the conference be held at yalta and not miami beach, where i am sure fdr would have preferred, because he was terrified of being assassinated and he wanted the situation under his control. that is why he insisted on the peace conference young at yalta.

having said that, the russian army did discover shorts -- auschwitz. they did march into berlin. they did provide adequate counteroffensive's against the german offensive. they lost a lot of men. a lot of carnage went on that may be called for some other type of maneuver. he was not a member of the big three. churchill and roosevelt were too much alike. their governments were too similar. they were too friendly. they had history together going back to when fdr was deputy secretary of the navy. host: fdr comes back to the u.s. and reports to the american republic on the results of the

yalta conference. this is from a war department film after the yalta conference and fdr's message to america after the conference. >> the president arrived in washington. 37 days which will leave their imprint on history, history which frank lynn roosevelt lived and made -- franklin roosevelt lived and made. >> i come from the crimea conference with a firm belief we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace. never before have the major allies been more closely united not only in their war aims but also in their piece aims and layer continued to determined --

and they are content -- and they are determined to continue to be aligned with all peace loving nations and the ideal of lasting peace will become a reality. peace can indoor only so long as humanity insists on it and is willing to work for it and sacrifice for it. american fighting men fought and suffered. we failed them. we filled them then. we cannot fill them again and expect the world to survive again. i'm confident the american people will accept the results of this conference and our structure of peace from which we

can begin to build undergone a better world in which our children and grandchildren, yours and mine, children and grandchildren of the whole world must live and can live. host: that was fdr's message to the american people, but the image of fdr there, he would be dead in just over a month from when he made that speech. guest: right. david brinkley wrote a book. it is a terrific book. he talks about meeting franklin roosevelt as a young reporter and meeting roosevelt for the first time and meeting this old man. his skin is not flesh tone like

ours. it is gray. he was only 63 years old when he passed away, but 12 years of heavy duty as president, the great depression, and a true world war and everything. he has a demanding wife. he has four sons in the military. he has the demands of limited resources to go to the navy, army, british, soviets. he is dealing with stalin, who is suspicious of him and churchill. he had a good appetite, not the healthy appetite we will consider today. it was a lot of meat and whole milk and fatty butter and stuff like that and also he smoked 2, 3 packs a day. even with the cigarette holder, he is still sucking in smoke

from cigarettes and he had his drinks every afternoon at 5:00. there is no record of him drinking himself to excess or anything like that, but he had often an old-fashioned or manhattan. those were his favorite drinks. one time i saw a story in which she was with his cousins and serving them tea and crumpets. there is no way he is serving them tea and crumpets. it was alcohol, especially with these two cousins he adored and loved to gossip with. host: it is amazing to see that image and realize he was 63 years old. jeff, virginia, republican line. good morning. caller: i wanted to share a memory with mr. shirley. my grandfather was a civil defense block warden in san francisco at the time and i

remember asking why he did not -- i was just a little kid, why he did not get enlisted in world war i or why did he fight in world war ii. he said, i was two -- too young for world war i. i was 18 at the time. world war ii, he said he was too old for world war two. guest: interesting. the caller proves a point. everybody in america was involved in some way in the war effort. they used to say there is a war on, but everybody sacrificed, everybody gave something to the war. the other thing i would say, i was at the reagan library a couple years ago talking about a new book and i urge the

listeners to please write down your stories. your stories are invaluable to historians, big stories, little stories. absolutely invaluable. when i said that at the reagan library, this woman came up to me and she said, i have a story. my father was at pearl harbor in 1941 and he was in one of the battleships that was torpedoed. the arizona exploded. the other one capsized. he was hanging on a rail in the cold water for 3, 4 days with men around him screaming and dying. finally, the torch cut through the whole hu -- hull.

he got out. all the time the torch was cutting, he does not know whether it is americans coming to save him or the japanese coming to kill him. the other thing is he is stuck in this mental torture for three or four days and he went right back in the navy. he did not get a 30 day furlough or go to agi hospital. he went right back to the service -- to the gia hospital. he went right back to the service. -- gi hospital. he went right back to the service. caller: i am wondering about the juxtaposition of where we are today compared to 1945 and what you think about our leaders today and what we are marching toward and there is nobody fighting back. there is nobody talking peace at all and it looks like our leaders are just marching toward war aimlessly.

guest: i'm hesitant to comment on today. in my opinion, frank and roosevelt was one of our four greatest presidents. there was a book written about 20 -- franklin roosevelt was one of our four greatest presidents. there was a book written about 20 years ago. this liberal who wrote it came to the conclusion that reagan was one of the greatest presidents because like washington and franklin roosevelt heat freed or saved many people. i thought that was a good criteria to judge the success or failure of an american president , that he was able to save or free many lives. franken roosevelt was a superb president, especially in wartime. there are comparisons to today, the way putin is chopping up ukraine reminds one of the way

hitler chopped up czechoslovakia and claimed it was more dramatic in culture. the second thing is american public opinion. before december 7, there was no will in this country -- we had not been attacked, so there was no will in the country for us to get involved in a european war. we already had world war i. there was no desire on the part of the american people to put boots on the ground in ukraine today. those are the two best comparisons i can think right now. host: to tie off your four greatest presidents, i assume your opinion is fdr, washington, lincoln, and reagan. guest: those four, yes. host: the c-span presidential historian survey, the rankings of all the presidents, 10

different categories of leadership, abraham lincoln, george washington, fdr. ronald reagan makes it in the top 10 at nine according to that survey. take a look through that survey on our website. guest: ninth is a terrific position to be in, but the ground has not cooled yet. we are able to look back with history at washington's presidency and judge him in a certain way and same thing with lincoln and fdr but not so with reagan because he just left the presidency in 1989. we need more time to judge him, but that he is in ninth position tells you he is probably going to move up as years go along. host: viewers can see that in the surveys since 2000 and changes in presidential rank.

if you just take reagan, he was originally at 2000 -- in 2000 and 11 in that list and has moved up to the 10th spot and now the ninth spot, these surveys coming out every time a president leaves office. c-span working with historians and other professional viewers for these surveys. atlanta, georgia, robert, democrats, you are next. caller: your comment a little bit ago is a segway for what i -- segue of what i was thinking of. i was astounded to hear there was a 35 mile per hour speed limit. in an era where a certain segment of our political class, mostly the conservatives, gop, trump led folks, have defined freedom as this obnoxious, self-interested individualism,

essentially screw everybody else, i want to do what i want, i am concerned if we were ever to face a situation such as the nation faced during world war ii we will not have the uniformity of the community all working together to accomplish its goal, the victory gardens, collecting metal, women working in factories well ahead of equal rights movements. as a biographer of reagan -- i am wondering if you can comment on that. guest: thank you. you bring up an excellent point. this is one i should have brought up before myself. america in 1945 was far more homogenous than it is today. 1945, we all ate the same breakfast cereal, listened to the same radio shows, read the

same newspapers. it was a far more cohesive society. we listened to nbc, cbs, or mutual radio, those three. there was no tv, no cable, no internet. the diversity of opinion was narrow. it was just in those major newspapers, which then were sent out often on wires. the new york times wire would go out to 1000 different newspapers and about 500 50 daily newspapers in 1941. we were far more cohesive as a society than we are today. it is hard to get uniformity of opinion in today's environment. you look at washington and say, can't they agree on anything?

there is no overlap anymore, no such thing as liberal and republican, as conservative democrats. there used to be and that used to form the ability for the parties. host: is it the diversity that is the problem or the polarization that is a problem? guest: diversity causes polarization. people get dug into their own particular viewpoints on the right or left and are not willing to give them up. host: to noel in new york, a republican. good morning. caller: i wanted to add something to the conversation this morning. my father was a captain on a destroyer during the second world war. he was one of the destroyers that escorted roosevelt to the yalta conference. before the yalta conference.

among other of his deeds. he was a very young man, 28 years old when he was a skipper on a destroyer running convoy duty in the north atlantic, so he had a lottery experience by the end of the war. -- a lot of experience by the end of the war. after a while, he would talk about some of them and major stories, very interesting and that is all i have to say. thank you for writing a book. guest: thank you. happy easter. you make a lot of good points, one of them that your father came back from the war and did not talk much about it. i heard that many times from people, grandchildren and children, about their fathers and grandfathers who served in the war. they came back and they were the greatest generation but they went back to work.

they did not much like talking about their exploits in the pacific or atlantic, so i think that is uniform. also, any stories your father has come up please write them down. there are a lot of repositories, the smithsonian or world war two memorial cannot to collect the stories. host: the library of congress. guest: i should have mentioned that first. i did a lot of research in the library of congress. so please write them down. host: the book, "april 1945: the hinge of history." . craig shirley with us to talk about that book and the early months of 1945. let me go back to another event. this is part of harry truman's

address to congress, april 16, 1945. [video clip] >> with great humility, i call upon all americans to help me keep our nation united in defense of those ideals which have been so eloquently proclaimed by franklin roosevelt. i want in turn to assure my fellow americans and all of those who love peace and liberty through the world that i will support and defend those ideals with all my strength and all my heart. so that there can be no possible misunderstanding, both germany and japan can be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that

america will continue to fight for freedom until no resistance remains. our demand has been and remains unconditional surrender. we will face the problems of peace with the same courage that we have faced and mastered the problems of war. in the memory of those who have made the supreme sacrifice, and the memory of our fallen president, we shall not fail. host: on that first address to the american people as president and who harry truman was before

that moment. host: he was vice president. it was a political decision. they wanted to get rid of henry wallace because he had become an embarrassment to the roosevelt administration so they kicked him off the ticket in 1940 four and put harry truman on, who was more of a mainstream democrat from the state of missouri. he did a good job the year before. he was the head of the wartime profiteering commission. it really went after the illegitimate profits generated by the war department, for guns that were not needed commit munitions that were not needed. a lot of money was wasted and he ferreted out billions of dollars. he did a good job at it. he came from fairly humble beginnings, from the prendergast melitta: machinery -- political

machinery. he served honorably. roosevelt kept him in the dark. he did not learn about the a-bomb until after fdr passed away. they did not treat the vice president in those days as they treat them now. now they bring them in and they are part of all cabinet meetings and conferences, national security, stuff like that. in 1944, they are more windowdressing than they are for substantive reasons. first come he pledged to continue roosevelt -- first, he pledged to continue roosevelt's policies. he kept roosevelt's men and their position. henry stimson stayed there under truman for a time. he wanted to continue the continuity as long as possible.

most people would agree once he found his sea legs he was a good president. i would not rate him in the top four, but i would rate him high, what he did for the military and things like that were nobly handled. host: this is brian, an independent. caller: a different generation, bringing the normandy, the u.s. military cemetery of normandy. more people should know about that. that changed my life as a young man serving in the navy. my father was a world war two marine gunnery sergeant. i did not know that until the

mid-1960's. as a young boy, i found a uniform in the back of a closet. it was clean. i brought it down and my mom said cannot you put that back -- and my mom said, you put that back. i found notes recently from that timeframe and he said, i always knew there was people in the world and remember to forgive. he was a highly successful man, tough, but he was quiet. but every day he worked. he worked hard. he was a good dad. thank you for this talk. host: what was your dad's name? caller: donald haley. he was just top-notch. he raised five boys but he never spoke of those things. he was tough, but he was fair.

when he said something, our heads turned. guest: god bless your father. i would say again i hope you write down these stories. they are too important to history. these things have to be recorded . host: to wayne, pennsylvania, nick in the keystone state. caller: good morning. i wanted to make a comment to what the guest said earlier around ronald reagan. i would not necessarily say he was that great of a president with the death squads in central america as well as various demonizing of gay folks back in the 1980's, but i did want to mention a story i thought the guest and other viewers might

appreciate. i was not a boy scout, but a friend of mine was and i helped him with his eagle scout project and interviewing veterans. one of the veterans ended up serving later in world war two. earlier on, he was a track star in his high school and running in a race for his high school. as he is running, he knocks down a woman. it is just about at the finish line, and he turns back and sees this one guy in a suit chasing after him and the other guy lifting the woman up. he does not realize who it is and the guy does not catch him. he finishes the race. the next day in the paper, he realizes someone knocked down eleanor roosevelt and it was him. i find that to be a funny story.

he goes on to serve in the navy in the pacific and so on. just wanted to share. guest: i have come to admire her vary greatly. she obviously created a modern office of the first lady, but she took on so many. she was in her own sense a renaissance woman. she had her duties and the government. she had her duties doing promotional work. she wrote a day column. she did a radio broadcast every day. she did not operate as if her dance card was all -- was almost filled. she was busy constantly, yet she did so without complaint, with grace and charm. she could have left fdr, especially with the affair. she stood by him. fdr always said after that that

she was his best political advisor. i would like to say one thing but the previous caller. i pushing his memories, but reagan was very compassionate about gay people with aids. in 1984 -- aids was first discovered in 1981 and we did not know what it was for some years. at some point we thought haitians got it and it could be transmitted by mosquito. he was asked 1984 by a reporter and replied he was pouring millions of dollars into research. in his 1985 state of the union address, he committed to billions of dollars in research for its funding, so reagan would never belittle homosexuals. host: for viewers who do not know your background on ronald reagan, how many reagan books at this point? guest: five. i am working on two more. it is endless. this man wrote letters from the

time he was a young man to the time after the presidency. he had a half-dozen successful careers. this was an endlessly fascinating man. most presidents are one-dimensional or two dimensional. a bram lincoln was a railroad lawyer, but reagan was a movie star and radio announcer and president of the screen actors guild and governor and in the newspaper and a president. he had all these careers, so it makes him endlessly interesting to somebody like myself. for obvious reasons. host: the buckeye state. this is nathan, an independent. caller: i had a good story about my dad. he was 16 years old in 1943.

he joined the navy on a brand-new destroyer and i took him -- he had 10 battle stars. i took him to his one and only reunion 58 years since he saved those guys and one guy was there that he wanted to see but jack could not remember dad. that night in the motel room, dad says, jack cannot remember me because he owes me $30. host: did he ever get the money? caller: he did not get his money. the next day they were telling stories, and jack says, i know who you are, you are from arkansas. it turned out dad thought he was the youngest kid on the ship at 16. it turned out jack was 15. i said, what is wrong with you guys?

i came of age in the vietnam war , so i said, are you guys crazy? you quit school, you lie about your age, you get in the middle of a war. and dad said, we were afraid it would be over before we could get in it. jack said, plus they were paying us $50 a month. that is my story. host: the uss porterfield, a destroyer in world war two. in tennessee, republican, good morning. caller: like this guy, my dad come all i know is that he was -- my dad, all i know was that he was in austria and japan. then i have a scroll of other soldiers but as far as presidents i think what george washington did on the battlefield, he is number one.

trump was number two and reagan is number three in my opinion. but if you can elaborate on people in austria or japan, it showed them i guess in a bar with beer cans on a big roundtable. there is limited things that i know about any of this and i may have a brother or sister in austria. host: anything you want to add? guest: just interesting perspective. it reminds me of one thing. i discovered in the research for this book that for fdr's funeral william buckley was part of the army honor guard. here's a man who created a magazine, who spent 30 years beating up on the new deal, and

he had been it -- an honor guard for the funeral. host: that first draft of history, written by the war correspondent at the time, you talk about bernie pile in your book. what should viewers know about bernie pile? -- ernie pile? guest: he traveled with gis on the ground and wrote a column a day until his death in the pacific in 1945. he is the standard by which all other war correspondents are measured. his columns were funny, human, touching. he was a marvelous writer. he wrote a book in between on

the old typewriters, writing out 7, 800 page column a day and working on a book at the same time, which was a new york times bestseller about the war. just the standard by which all other war correspondents should be measured. host: marianne, new york, democrat. caller: thanks for taking my call. it is a real honor to be talking to craig shirley. i wanted to talk about one aspect of how these veterans -- how human these veterans and people involved in world war two were. my father was drafted at 26. his younger brother had been drafted in 1939 and the tour was supposed to be here. before he was discharged, it got extended for another two years

and then he had six weeks to go and pearl harbor happened and all bets were off. he was in the army. he hated it. pearl harbor or no pearl harbor, he wanted out of the army. when my father got to visit him, my father was sent to biloxi. his way of protesting was that he would not salute officers and my father was terrified for him, horrified that he would end up in the stockade or something. my uncle had always loved deer hunting before he got drafted and came up with a formula to prevent rust and field weapons. he presented that to the army

and they were so impressed with it. he was then artillery. they were so impressed with it that he got the second highest medal for that, i think a legion of merit, and a promotion from private to lieutenant, so now everybody had to salute him. this story was told after my father died by my mother, who said it was hilarious. my uncle went on to serve in france with an honorable discharge and a medal. i would like to retell that story. host: did your uncle ever salute your father? caller: my father was a staff sergeant, so he would have had to salute uncle. host: everybody has a different

story and we had a -- my wife and i had a neighbor who was part of west point. he passed away and his wife has passed away as well, but he was in west point and came out. he was flying close air support for the d-day invasion and was shot down, crashed in a belgian farmers -- former's pasture -- belgian farmer's pasture. he was unharmed and was secret and by this farmer into his barn and was kept there for a number of weeks before nazi patrols picked him up. he gave as a gift to the farmer's wife a silk parachute. silk was highly prized at the time because everything was

being devoted toward parachutes and nothing for clothing. his wife found out years later that that wife had taken the silk parachute and made it into a wedding dress for her daughter and that had been worn by all the women in the family for multiple generations up until 10 years ago, so something like 3, 4 generations of women from this belgian farm had worn the silk parachute. host: just a couple minutes left in our program. thanks for waiting, henry. good morning. caller: i am wondering if you could tell me what reagan really did. host: it could be another show if we were to do that. guest: he defeated soviet communism. he revived the american economy,

created 18 million new jobs. he caved inflation down to a tolerable 3%. he reduced interest rates down to a manageable 7%. he restored american morale because he knew that a happy people are a productive people and a productive people can create a growing economy that pleases everybody and created the tools to fight soviet communism, so i think -- i could go on. host: it could be another show if we have the author of five books on reagan. i want to get through one or two more calls. denise, good morning. caller: i am calling to talk about my father. he retired from the military. he served in world war ii and he

was in a segregated unit and talked about his experiences about that. he served proudly. he went all over europe. he reenlisted in czechoslovakia and then went to north africa. he enjoyed his service but did talk about the indignities that they suffered by being black in the military during that time. host: i will give you the final two minutes on that. guest: i dealt with that deeply with japanese segregated units and african-americans segregate units who performed nobly and honorably in the war. they were not treated fairly not pay the same. they did not get the same tools or equipment. they were treated horrendously. it is a blemish -- when you have a great country, there are also

people making great mistakes, like the japanese internment program or slavery or what we did to american japanese. these are not from the homeland. these are people born here, as american as you are i -- as you or me. i hope she writes about it. i hope she writes a lot about it and let everybody know about it because these things need to be known. all the history is important. host: the book, "april 1945: the hinge of history," the author craig shirley. guest: happy easter. host: that is going to do it for our program. we will be back here tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific.

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] c-span's washington journal -- every day, we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up monday morning, we will discuss the g20 two midterm elections. and the new york universities turns of business and atlantic contributor talks about his recent piece, looking at the impact of social media. watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on c-span or c-span now, our free mobile app. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments,

texts, and tweets. >> during discussions over the reunification of germany, u.s. secretary of state james baker told mikael gorbachev that nato would not expand eastward, not one inch. in the lead up to the russian invasion of ukraine, vladimir putin used those words to suggest the u.s. and nato were not interested in peace and could not be trusted. tonight, on "q&a" -- the author of not one inch talks about the comment and the impact nato expansion has had on u.s.-russia relations. >> one of the newest documents said sorry about that language. it caused confusion. drop it, we are not going to use it anymore. the problem is it took mikael gorbachev a while to see that.

that was just a speculative claim. when push comes to shove, what was actually the treaty negotiated, it allowed nato to move eastward across the former cold war lines. >> "not one inch" tonight on c-span's "q&a." listen to it and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including sparklight. >> the greatest town on earth is a place you call home. at sparklight, it's our home, too. we are all facing our greatest challenge -- that is why sparklight is working round-the-clock to keep you connected. we are doing our part so it is a

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