the discussion, we had our discussion, and christopher hitchens, who many of you probably know about, then was working for us, he is a british guy who later became more conservative and left. but he's to wear white suits through the office, and christopher said, i don't think this is an act of sex, i think this is an act of rape. and i think that henry kissinger is forcing himself on this woman. -- the young woman who it you had objected say, i do not agree with you, if you look at her hand on the mattress, it looks to me like the grip of passion. and christopher leaned over to ,he young woman, gripped her and said trust me, my dear, it is not the grip of passion. [laughter] >> integrating meshach sent. so we had the discussion and then i invited david to come back and to have the discussion with the staff, itself. and we went through it a few

i mentioned christopher hitchens. you all were friends, the late christopher hitchens. >> thomas: yes. >> evan: great author. he appears as a character in this book. >> thomas: yes. >> evan: can you talk about the decision to include him? in some ways he sort of stands in for you, do you think? he offers commentary on events in the book. >> thomas: i wanted somebody who could fill the job that in watergate had been done by alice roosevt-longworth. teddy roosevelt's 90-year-old daughter who was still alive duri watga.ongued, very smart. >> evan: right. say whatever she thoht. >> thomas: and i wanted that figure. and i thought i was going to go for somebody very old with this. and then suddenly hitchens was on my mind very much as i was starting the book. christopher died in december of 2011. >> evan: yeah. >> thomas: i was starting to write this book right around that time. and it suddenly occurred to me, i didn't know him in this period. he was in his mid 30s, not too long in america, was writing mostly for political

the first part of the book was actually about christopher hitchens. i signed the contract in 2006 and i said to my agent i think it's going to take me three or four years and she said you can't tell the publisher that, just say two years but we both know three or four years. so i said i will have it for you in 2000 and eight in the back of my head i'm thinking 2010. then i had kids and i had a job and i realize how credibly slow a writer i could be and what a procrastinator i could be and then finally here we are 10 years later with the book. i think the book is a few things. with the most basic level it's the story of the six people who went from the left or the right and progresses roughly chronologically through the 20th century. the first is whittaker chambers who is this structure born in 1901 on april fools' day 1901. he was a communist writer a communist fiction writer in the way 20s and early 30s. he was tapped bye bye the underground to be a spy. he ran a number of spy rings in new york and d.c.. towards the end of the 30s he had a real profo

and david horowitz who i mentioned in family christopher hitchens who is somebody who i probably have more personal connection to and the sense -- in a sense than anybody else in this book. when i was in college i asked my father for subscription to "time" magazine. i was so horrified that i would want this vaguely centrist magazine. he ordered me as in a a city can could have time makes income going to get you the nation as well, a subscription to the left-wing magazine i started reading the nation started reading christopher hitchens and was put away by him. the degree to which he was so salty and the left but took pleasure in exhilaration on -- assaulting his fellows on the left with is a normally exciting and liberating thing for me. .. >> so those are the people in the book and i just want to read to give you a sense of my perspective and how i think a lot about this. i will read from the very end of the book which i presume you have not gotten to yet. >> i am talking about this notion i have of what kind of perspective you need to have to do the kind of writing that i find most

tom: the late christopher hitchens wrote about this years ago, about the uniqueness of northern iraq,rn turkey, the kurdish question. this gets fairly radical for this time of the day, but we are moving to a post -sites middle east and iraq. we are probably looking to a middle east where you have essentially autonomous areas. kurdish areas, various sunni areas, and so forth in places like iraq and in places like syria. tom: and that is anathema to mr. erdogan? richard: absolutely. because once you pull that thread, ultimately the turkish state unravels. richard haass with the council on foreign relations, and analysis from the border of syria. today market's really moving. 123 zero.at about futures up 12, dow futures what -- dow futures up 107. francine lacqua in london, tom keene in new york. "bloomberg surveillance." ♪ tom: foreign-exchange matters this morning. francine lacqua in london. i am tom keene in new york. let's go to the forex report. dollar weaker. you see it in europe with the you want -- you really see it with the yuan. a $1.16 euro. very few people are moving in that

i remember one time "vanity fair's" legendary columnist christopher hitchens once attacked ronald reagan's intellect and did so using, number one, that reagan could have any artist or any musician or any historian or any world leader over at his home at night any night and he chose not to. the fact is ronald reagan and nancy reagan were so self-contained they just wanted to be with each other. of course, they would do what was necessary to be be president and first lady, but it was a love story unlike few others in the white house. if you read the letters, there's actually a book of letters between ronnie and nancy reagan and it was extraordinarily moving, and this was so critical to ronald reagan because ronald reagan is remembered throughout history as a leader, the kidnapper, getting democrats to vote for hem, the very people who seem to be slipping out of the traditional republican party's grasp, but the fact is reagan was a very inward looking man for whatever reason and staffers, world leaders, even at times, even his own children complained about the fact that they couldn't get clos

so, with that as the basis of the discussion, we had our discussion, and christopher hitchens, who many of you probably know about, then was working for us, he is a british guy who later became more conservative and left. but he used to wear white suits through the office, and christopher said, i don't think this is an act of sex, i think this is an act of rape. and i think that henry kissinger is forcing himself on this woman. and the young woman who had objected say, i do not agree with you, if you look at her hand on the mattress, it looks to me like the grip of passion. and christopher leaned over to the young woman, gripped her, and said trust me, my dear, it is not the grip of passion. [laughter] so we had the discussion and then i invited david to come back and to have the discussion with the staff, itself. and we went through it a few times, and david -- he was shown no courtesy. david, in my view, was as good as it gets when it comes to caricatures. you cannot do better and david, quite seriously about his work. you are shown no deference, he was shown no particular respect for