army war college. before that, he taught at the air force academy and then at university of southern mississippi. he writes widely on both world wars. he is recipient of numerous prizes and honors for his work such as the tomleson prize for the best english language booshgs in world war i, a book on the second battle of the mar, and the choice outstanding academic title award for fighting great war or american history. he has edited a number of important collections like arms of the man, reference works like the atlas of world war i and the great war reader. dance of the furies, europe and the outbreak of world war i, the end of world war ii and the remaking of europe and the blood of freeman, the liberation of paris 1944 are his books. and making citizen soldiers, rotc and american military service. in his free time, he is a self described service to a dog and three cats and a fan of all pittsburgh sports teams and bruce springste psteepringsteen. the book he is working on now traces our nation's corr

if you go back to what woodrow wilson claimed this was about, the war to end all wars and a war for eternal peace. he would be able to reconcile his beliefs with that notion and he does. and so in a sense i think alvin york, his story sort of represents to many people the things we like to believe how we go to war. that we are reluctant to fight, yet, once we are convinced our cause is righteous, we are fantastic at it. if we end york's story there we miss some important elements what he represents. first of all exactly the kind of poor man that gets caught up in the draft net. he is a few months out of his 30th birthday. probably shouldn't have been drafted. somebody this close out of the purview of the government, yet he comes from this impoverished community in tennessee and he is caught in it. he is not so sure at the end he made the right decision. he has doubts almost his whole life. he is very famous. he makes a lot of money. he builds schools, roads. does a lot of good works in his community. almost like trying to make amends having become famous through the act of taking people's l

entry into world war ii. this is about one hour. >> good afternoon and welcome to the cato institute in exile. we're glad to have you folks here and we're very proud to say that in about two months the construction on our building will be complete and we'll be back in the fay hayek auditorium but for now we're glad to be undercroft auditorium to discuss this book "fdr goes to war." a long time ago, i went to mayfield high school in mayfield, kentucky, and in my senior year i was the coeditor of the high school newspaper, the cardinal, and i think the features editor that year was my classmate anita prince, and she has gone on to bigger things. she got married for one thing to burt folsom. she got two degrees. she worked for president reagan and she was the president-elector and most recently she has directed hillsdale college's free market forum for five years. her co-author and husband is burton folsom, jr., who holds a ph.d. from the university of pittsburgh. i actually visited pitt for the first time last

he have this book war against war. talkshrough 1918 that about the putnam peace coalition before entry into world war i and then what happens to it during the war itself. we also have bill england, a pulitzer prize winning journalist and author of his new ofk march, 1917 on the brink war and revolution. it is amazing how much happened in one month. talking about what is happening in america, europe, how the events intersect. and finally we have ryan ballow, the professor of history at the university of virginia. he is the cohost of one of my favorite podcasts, and if you are fellow history were -- nerd, i suggest checking out back story. gives the background stories of a lot of things happening in the news. it is hosted by a quartet of top historians. hear a greatse national prostitution center welcome for michael kazen, will england, and ryan fellow? [applause] >> thank you, all three of you, for being here. before we turn to what was happening in the u.s., i would like to back up for a moment and think about briefly

the american revolution was a european war and the war of 1812, the war of 1812 was what wilson was worried about as the president. -- as a precedent. he like most historians thought it was a mistake. we were forced into a war we should not have gone into and fought on the wrong side as well. that is what he wanted to avoid. wilson could be surprisingly superstitious. he was worried because he and madison were the only graduates of princeton who became president that history would appear itself. gallery -- rights in hisnel howell writes it in diary/ /. out, it war broke endorsed to the feeling of american nationalism -- exceptionalism. the great turning point in terms of bringing the war home to america was the lusitania. "dead wake"book except it ended on a false and note. it ends with remember the lusitania but there was no lusitania cry back then. times" as every reporter in the country to cable in about public opinion and they got only 1000 people. i like to ask my class, how many do you think one into good to , and they never got close because of the answer was 6%. well what was going

jamesville was part of the sitdown strike in the 1930s, and the domestic war effort in world war ii, they stopped making vehicles and started turning out artillery shells. a big moment in the 20th century, i just like that history. before i knew anything about this community or met anybody here i had the sense i might find some interesting politics. i just thought there might be something interesting about a youth and represented by paul ryan. >> the gaithersburg book festival live on booktv wrapping up with a discussion on the united states expansion into the west. >> a couple routine announcements to begin here. we are being broadcast live on c-span. if you have a problem with that, let me know. i have a couple minutes, right? okay. welcome to gaithersburg book festival. if you're not sure where you are you are in gaithersburg. i am a member of gaithersburg city council and someone who loves reading good books especially about history so gaithersburg is a city that supports the arts and humanities, pleased to bring this fabulous event free, thanks to the generous support of sponsor

not only the first war the nation ever fought but the war in which the u.s. army was formed. the army was formed as a national, federally organized force to fight this war but of course that army has gone on to have global significance and the politics of forming that army were a fraud to put it mildly. george washington wanted a standing army. a lot of people didn't. in the context of this war, the little-known -- doesn't figure in the popular imagine the same way, little-known founding indian war, our army was created and in fact takes place, the warfare takes place largely in the midwest. it was the conquest of what became the american midwest which so quickly after that started to become the industrial heartland, industrial economic driver that helped make america a great force around the world. i thought it is funny we don't talk about this or. i got into it here and it is interesting how the two books in a funny way combine. once we fought the war, it begins to open up the entire conquests of what became the bigger american west. what peter -- epic, sweeping. this is th

war. 1920, he first came to becamence -- or first known in the national theater when he accepted the nomination or vice president as james cox's running mate. that ittorians suggest was a devastating loss for roosevelt, but this was an important time in his political development as it served to bring him national recognition. many people are aware that severe boutffered a of polio at age 39. mellitus, also known as infantile paralysis, caused by the polio virus, causes muscle weakness and paralysis. it is spread by direct contact a by a agent best buy contaminated food -- or by a contaminated food. the cure was not invented until the later 1950's and 60's. than would -- later have benefited roosevelt. roosevelt contracted the virus, and this was one of the rare photographs that we actually have a roosevelt in a wheelchair. es always relied on crunch and heavy still braces. he pours a relationship with the media, that they would not photograph him and any sort of state that made them look g

was about, the war to end all wars, the war for e turn all peace, perhaps he could reconcile his beliefs with that notion and he does. in a sense i think alvin york, his story represents to many people things we like to believe about how we go to war, we are reluctant to fight but yet once we are convinced our cause is righteous we are fantastic at it, and with what he represents, exactly the kind of poor man's it gets caught up in draft nets. a few months you shouldn't have been drafted, out of the purview of the government, he comes from the impoverished community in tennessee, and he is not so sure that the end he made the right decision. he is very famous and makes a lot of money, builds schools, roads, good works in his community, through the act of taking lives. and god will punish them for killing. he put that behind him quite so easily. the last soldier i want to mention is horace pippin, an african-american soldier who fought with the 369th infantry regiment which is one of the most famous african american regiments in the first world war but for many people at home the idea of

laws of war and combating isis. we will hear from indiana senator todd young, who is introduced a bill that would authorize the u.s. to use force against isis. the heritage foundation hosted the event. >> good afternoon, welcome to the heritage foundation. you can join us on our heritage.org website. for those here in house, we ask that courtesy check to see that mobile devices have been silenced or turned off. of course for those watching a mine, we remind you is those -- as well as those joining in c-span that you are welcome to send questions or comments at any time, you know and the speaker at heritage.org us the program on the heritage home page the following today's presentation for -- everyone's future reference. his manager of the national security law program in their senior -- national defense. it's a nationally nice the national. homeland security prime control, drug policy, and immigration. he also writes pictures widely of policy. such as a law firm conflict, terrorist policy and interrogation, the gene

the civil war was not just america's civil war it is also a war from the world.plause] we have time for questions. >> with your opinion would britain have declared war? arms to theling of south -- >> those are good questions, i will take the second first read it is about complicity with selling shares to the confederacy. yes i would say that the british government said they did not know what was going on. also with military grade ships were being used with the confederacy, if they acknowledge that that would have country gained the declaration of neutrality. they said they did not know what was going on but they had a very good idea what was happening. that is why after the civil war with the alabama claim, the government had to face recognition of that fact. the next question concerned the trent affair which we did not have time to get into. that is a fascinating story about two confederate diplomats in the slidell being arrested on a steamer by u.s. officials. really long complicated issue of international law. great britain was up in arms with public opinion w

we consider the second world war a necessary war, one we had to fight. we should consider the first world war just as necessary because we could not have taken the chance that an autocratic german empire might dominate the europeans. furthermore, with peace negotiations, we would not have experienced the success we did during and after world war ii. it took two world wars for the united states to come of age as a great power in an age of instability and an unstable world. those were lessons hard won with the blood, sweat, and tears of two world wars. and now, speaking of myself, todd mentioned i got involved in world war i through memorializing the rainbow division with a memorial in france. i was also amazed -- speaking of propaganda -- that mcarthur went to war -- when the war was declared, was appointed in the office of the secretary of war as director of public relationship and censorship. i absolutely like putting together public relations and censorship. it sort of speaks millions for it. he was definitely a very good propagandist. censorship is al

one of the things that it it, it gives the war -- when president wilson decided to call the war a war for democracy, whether he meant to are not, he did not mean to, he opened up a door. he gave activist for any number of different kinds of rights, women's rights, african-american rights, immigrant rights, a way into charging the u.s. to be the democracy that it is reported to be wanted the world to see it was. it was an international spotlight on the domestic freedom special. african-americans recognize that, they used that and they would continue to use it over the next several decades so that when folks strategically delegitimized white supremacy and world war ii, they are drawing on a strategy that they learned in war -- world war i when the use the spotlight of the cold war to charge american freedom to be something that i had not yet in. they're using a strategy that they had learned in world war i. even more than that, what you see with the african-american soldiers and the people, spamming members, allies who embrace their cause, you see a sort of crystallization of a politica

but lincoln is willing to compromise early in the war if it means avoiding war or ending the war early. one of the measures of radicalism of these four years is the first 13 commitment that goes through the state for ratification would have made slavery perpetual in the states where it are the existed, unless they even the pit of their own volition. so you see a seismic shift in those four years. with the word began, there was a large coalition of northerners and make it very clear that they see the potential for the war to turn into an eye slavery war, and if it does, they would withdraw their support. in july of 1861, there is a resolution passed in congress saying the war is being caught to preserve the union, not to destroy slavery. johnson is andrew johnson, the only senator from a slave state to remain in congress after his state succeeded. so, early in the war, northerners affirm their food desire to remain this a war solely about union -- their desire to remain that this was a were solely about union. emancipation proclamation had not happened yet. it does not come until the na

war." makeg time ago, i want to old high school in may. kentucky, and in my senior year, the high coed of school newspaper, "the cardinal." classmates, anita prince, got married to burton folsum, she got to history degrees and that -- got two history degrees she got two history degrees. her co-author and has been is burton folsum, jr., who holds a phd from the university of pittsburgh. pittsburgh last follows saw something i had never heard of, which i am surprised at -- the cathedral of learning, which is the second tallest university building in the world, the tallest one, as you might guess is in moscow. building things bigger was doing something better, but this is a 42 story building. the first few floors are built like a gothic cathedral. it is an amazing thing. a few are ever in pittsburgh, go if yound some time -- are ever in pittsburgh, go and spend some time in the cathedral of learning. burton folsum serves as a senior historian at the economic of education. he has published sev

. >> congress declared war on germany, entering world war i. a panel of authors and historians looked at what motivated the u.s. to get involved in what was called the great war. that promised mexico territory in the southwest united states. wilson'stalks about decision making progress in asking congress to declare war. his 45 minute event took place at the national world war i memorial in kansas city missouri. >> i am privileged to be one of the commissioners of the centennial commission. help organize to this symposium. i want to thank all of the participants and all of you in the audience for coming this afternoon. this is being live streamed. myould like to introduce moderator and panels. on the far right is rob. he is a well-known author in military historian specializing in american forces. he has written a couple of books. one is for sale outside. i am going to be a shill and encourage you to buy his book. this is the distributor for the park service. is also acting secretary of the abm see. is most important to me as our chairman of the

we call this year's installment, won the war, lost the war. centennial legacy of world war i, to establish this symposium theme to suggest its direction. this morning it is my particular honor to introduce colonel robert dalessandro. connell robert dalessandro, is among relatively small group of world war i historians in america today, having written extensively on american expeditionary force in the great war. currently, colonel dalessandro is acting secretary of the american battle monument commission and former director of the united states army center of military history. colonel dalessandro's special interests is suggested by his celebrated publications include military insignia, especially as worn by the officers and men of the american expeditionary force, and the african-american soldier. his book, organization and insignia of the american expeditionary forces, 1917-23, received the army historical foundation award for excellence in writing, which, okay, of particular note to officers on active duty is his army officer's guide, which h

to war. and with his book judge opens with the continental congress because of thein british invasion congress ordered him not to do so and he obeyed and that takes us through all the wars that followed. 1812, a mexican war, a civil war, spanish-american, world war i, a world were to occur viet vietnam iraq. he criticized george to view bush for being too aggressive and president obama said not to be aggressive enough. but by a recounting of our presence to show these executives get their way without defining congress. i am particularly interested in the section of the book that follows the iraq war and i know there will be a lot of questions on how this applies on the age of the drone with the ada we may not have a large wars in the future like a second world war if they go to get authorization to make that obsolete so his and vice. judge barron is a circuit judge court of appeals for the fourth circuit that includes maine, massachusetts, rhode island and puerto rico and is from harvard law

world war i is that war where that happens. and we suddenly realize, wow, things that we thought were just all good can actually be quite destructive. and lastly, world war i is the time that women really get full citizenship. and the gender revolution that, you know, reaches up to us today in many ways really begins there. in fact, women become soldiers before they become voters. and that's not a coincidence. so, what i'd like to do is just tell you how the story unfolded. i hope i'll inspire you to read the book at your library or wherever, get the book. so, i'd like to begin talking about suffrage, women's suffrage, because that's kind of the backdrop to this, and women's suffrage was a fight that had been going on for decades, for 70 years, and some suffragists said that they felt they were in a rut, that just kept getting deeper with time. and there were a lot of reasons why people opposed women's suffrage and i have a whole powerpoint here to give you images to go with this. this shows that this was a worldwide movement.

war, world wars one and 2, iraq and the war on terror. congress criticized george w. bush for being too aggressive and barack obama for not being aggressive enough. and recounting how our presidents declared and waged wars, baron shows these executives get their way without openly defying congress. i am interested in the sections of the book that follows the iraq war, there will be a lot of questions on how all this is in the age of the drone and the idea that we may not have large war like this in the future, going to congress and making it obsolete. they came here in the 19th century, his advice the american president has more power under the americans don't know it. is that true? judge baron, the united states circuit judge, court of appeals. it includes the district of maine, massachusetts, puerto rico and rhode island, the professor of public law at harvard law school, previously served as acting assistant attorney general of the office of legal counsel, the department of justice, commander in chief, at the lowest end, the books that

i think world war ii overshadowed it and world war i is not the good war. it does not have that feel-good narrative to it. when you say why did we get in? nobody can give you a good answer. when you say what did we accomplish? there is no good answer. we like wars to have clean narrative and this war does not have that. >> in britain and the commonwealth it is called the great war. that name never caught on here. >> it was a european war. >> it was called the war to end all wars. >> wilson never said that. hg wells said that. i didn't say wilson said. >> larry, they are going to bring a microphone to you. >> let's assume that germany had not started unrestricted submarine warfare and the united states had not gotten into the war, which all of you are inclined to believe had that not happened we would not have entered into the war. the question i have for you is what would the likely result of the war have been? isn't it almost inevitable if not likely that the germans would have won and what was the result in europe have been and how would we have countered

i, world war ii, the wars in korea and vietnam. as a writing team of a nurse and a psychologist, co-author dr. evelyn monahan, we have a combined 50 years of experience with the department of veterans affairs. now, you may be as surprised as we were to learn that the agency and the majority of its employees knew little, if anything, about the service of of america's military women any more than the average person on the street. this is undoubtedly the main cause that in 1989 the va published a bulletin for veterans' day that had only male veterans on the cover of that bulletin. it was evident to us that including women in military history had a long way o go. our interest in world war ii history started when evelyn and i were kids. evelyn grew up in new jersey and hearing war stories from world war ii. on a weekly basis, she went to the vfw with her father and listened to the male veterans talk about their military experience in world war ii that they shared with each other. my experience was really different. i had two female cous

somme, ale of the great war for the british in world war i.his next picture shows you men under gas attack repairing the wires. think of the heroism, think of the courage that took of bombs flying all around, running through the trenches and the theers that littered territory of northern france and jumping in and out, fixing the lines. but that is the hardware. is how the signal gets transmitted. but you also had to have somebody transmitting it. the army did not like the idea of women. on the left-hand side you see secretary of the -- secretary of war, as he was called, newton baker. he so disliked the idea of using women possibly as telephone operators, even at home on american military bases, that he did not want to build toilets for them, because they might stay long and have to use them. that is something i learned here at the national archives. i am reading newton baker notes, no toilet. it is that wonderful detail that you don't get without an organization like the wonderful treasure that the national archives is. on the right side, tha

wars always beget more wars.many scores of millions of men and women have died in wars ever since then. the only way to avoid the death is to avoid war. presidents have said the hardest thing they can do is put americans in harm's way. in a sense, that's true. but history also shows maybe the hardest thing they can do is avoid war. the second point i want to make. >> i'm so sorry to cut you off. we're running out of time. there's one tribute we would like to make to some of those that have fallen. stay with us for one moment. i look at the brave men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice. a look a women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice. sunday, the growing russia investigation. new reports that president trump's son-in-law jared kushner tried to set up back channel communications with russia to avoid u.s. monitoring. the reaction? former deputy cia chief john mclaughlin. >> if an american intelligence officer had done anything like this, we would consider it espionage. >> the tru

was world war i probably a land war or a naval war? >> by the time the united states got in the war, it was almost entirely a land war. there had been one real naval battle that took place during world war i, in 1916, the battle of jutland, which is a british attack. the american navy played a significant role more in line with the destroyers, not so much the battleships, as this caller mentioned. both the iowa and the texas were famous battleships during the spanish-american war and both of them also saw significant service in the second world war. in the first world war, when the american troops were going over on transport ships that were former ocean liners that the british had lent us, there was such a fear of the german u-boats prowling underneath the atlantic ocean and that the ships were vulnerable. the u.s. navy provided destroyers and they would travel from the ports along the east coast, primarily off of new york and norfolk and virginia. a two-week voyage to get from the east coast to one of the british or french ports. alo

can see the weapons of war. what you don't see are the thousands of people, the millions of people who answer the call who have small towns and farms and big cities to go thousand says of miles away to fight the biggest war in the history of mankind and prevailed. they gave us the lives that we have today. i call them the greatest generation and i am proud to say that it is a label that endures. so watch with me now, a special rebroadcast of the greatest generation. >> you didn't ask somebody were you in the military. there were 15 million of us in the military and the answer was, wasn't everybody? >> some of my earlier memories are of men in uniform. my father worked at an army base and i saw soldiers on the way to war. i was 4 years old so to me the soldiers looked grown up. i realized later most of them were not men. not yet. >> they were kids. think of them as a bunch of kids on a high school football field. that's how they went to war. it was a lot of fun for many of them. an escape from their families and

was world war i primarily a land war or naval war? >> by the time the united states got in the war it was almost entirely a land war. there had been one real naval battle that took place during world war i that was in 1916, the battle of jutland which was a wish attack. the american navy played a significant role more in line the "w" the destroyers, not so much the battleships that this caller mentioned although both the iowa and the texas were famous battleships during the spanish war. but in the first world war when the servicemen were going over in former ocean liners that the british lent us. there were such a fear of the german u-boats that were prowling underneath the ocean and made the ships vulnerable. so what the u.s. navy did was provide destroyers and they would travel from the ports along the east coast, primarily off of new york but even off of norfolk in virginia and it was about a two week voyage to get from the east coast to one of the british ports or french ports and along the way the destroyers would guard these shi

it starts even in world war i where you see that switch from the civil war to the first world war and world war ii in vietnam and korea, their letters were very different but i think overall, iraq and afghanistan we see a generation of writers who are absolutely brilliant and some have gone off to write their own books or screenwriters or playwrights and it is proof how intelligent and how, i think, artistic, a lot of members of the military are and they don't quit credit for it and they crafted beautiful works. any other questions? >> my dad was in world war ii and i am reading all the letters he wrote and my mom wrote to him. close to 300 from the time he went into the military for training and i have been amazed. the power of seeing my parents's handwriting little and reading what he said. i am in the midst of this and no one would be interested in these. >> we are definitely interested and this is a great opportunity to talk about the project. if anyone has letters we love getting originals, the personal meaning to them it is a double-edged sword. we can't let go of the originals

more from the seven years war until the war of 1812, was one long war. to maintain their territory, to keep the americans and british out of their territory. ultimately losing more. but there were several different points where things could have turned out differently. it's not hard to imagine things turning out differently. one of them is when you are referring to. when the french and americans signed this alliance, americans committed themselves not to negotiate peace with britain. the broke that. they broke that commitment. it's largely because they fought -- they were probably right that the french would try to keep the ohio valley as neutral territory. so americans didn't want that. they got this concession from britain by negotiating a eace.ate p from the canadian perspective, it's a complicated question. first of all there is no canada until much later. it's really british north america. things get reappropriated. not too long ago in the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812 -- the government at the time was mobilizing -- which always made me laugh

after the civil war. that was after the civil war. can you imagine? the wife of edward bannister, one of the leading artists, and she became involved on the underground railroad. she was a proud and consistent supporter of the u.s. colored troops. it is said by many scholars, she was there and helped frederick douglass present the colors to the 54th massachusetts volunteers. even after the war, she contributed time and money taking care of the veterans of the war and the african-american widows. here, we have folks that might have been able to go another way but chose not to. can you imagine, it was her sustained support of edwin bannister, that allowed him to further his study and become one of the foremost african-american artists of the 20th century. the raising of the new capital in 1857. the washington monument would remain uncompleted during the war. the capitol dome would be fairly completed by the time the war came. d.c. was in the process of making, but it is in the capital that i want to introduce you to another young lady. she deserves to b

's subject was the vietnam war. -- his subject but was the vietnam war. had escalated to a bloody conflict of over half a million american soldiers. what started as a small engagement against the communist aggression in southeast asia in the 1950's had escalated into a major conflict that was tearing america part. -- america apart. johnson gives a speech about the war. he looks tired. he looks old. the glare of the television lights did not help matters. at the very end, he lands this bombshell. because of the importance of resolving the war in vietnam and peace talks were already ongoing with the north vietnamese, he says "i do not believe i should devote an hour a day of my time to any personal partisan causes. accordingly, i shall not seek and will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president." so how did we get here? how did lyndon johnson, who had been elected in a landslide victory less than four years earlier, get to the point where he is deciding not to run again for reelection because he doesn't think -- not only does

war is declared, the next that you are at war. the u.s. had a procedure in an impromptu way, brought upon industry. they contacted at&t and sat down and said how are going to do this. battalions,ed bell taking people wholesale to france to do things like this is the paddle of the somme -- i am sorry, i am a professor. you are not taking notes. the battle of the somme, a great war for the british in world war i. you can see them running telephone lines there. this next picture shows you men under gas attack repairing the wires. think of the heroism, think of the courage that took of bombs flying all around, running through the trenches and the craters that littered the territory of northern france and jumping in and out, fixing the lines. but that is the hardware. that is how the signal gets transmitted. but you also had to have somebody transmitting it. the army did not like the idea of using women. on the left-hand side you see secretary of war newton baker. he so disliked the idea of using , women possibly as telephone operators, even at

it really starts in world war i you see the switch from the civil war to the first world war. and then in vietnam and korea there were not censored. but i think overall in iraq and afghanistan we see a generation of writers was brilliant. some have gone off to write their own books and it's proof of how intelligent and how artistic members of the military are. they don't get credit for it. thank you. >> any other questions. >> my dad was in world war ii. right now i'm in the midst of reading all the letters he wrote and my mom wrote to her him. there must be close to 300 from the time he went into the military for training. i have been just a maze. the power of seeing my parents handwriting, let alone reading what he said. there are so many. i'm in the midst of it right now and i figured there so many that maybe no one would be interested please. >> so, we're definitely interested. this is a great opportunity to talk about the project. if anyone has letters and we love getting originals that we understand the personal meaning. it's a double-edged sword. we have families that s

the war was a world war. by the time yorktown was fought, britain was fighting five nationstates, the united states, france, britain, the dutch republic, and the kingdom of mysore in india were all fighting britain. battleary, during this -- during this war, 200,000 french and spanish soldiers and sailors fought, as compared with about 250,000 to 380,000 americans. they were as invested in this war as we were. thatwant you to know america could never have won the war without france, and france would never have fought the war without spain. when i hope all of you take away is this, that america did not achieve independence by itself. as aad, it was borne centerpiece of an international coalition which worked together to defeat a common adversary, that is pretty much who we are today. the centerpiece of international coalitions striving towards a common goal, and that is why we remain the indispensable nation. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] professorl have france offers than berg talk about his book -- fra

entitled "power wars ." charlie savage is a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and the washington correspondent for "new york times" covering post-9/11 legal policy issues since 2003. also a hoosier, he graduated from harvard college and holds a masters degree from yale law school. ," afirst book, "take over best-selling account of the administration's efforts to expand presidential power was named one of the best works of 2007 by the "washington post," "esquire" and other institutions. join me in welcoming both mr. preston and mr. savage. [applause] >> i thought we would start off by going back in time a little bit if we could. the senator gave his three reasons for congress, for congress reasserting what he believes is their constitutional role in the authorization for use of military force against isis. he said that one, it sends a message to the troops that it is their constitutional duty, secondly and third, he thinks that with respect to the more limited issue of guantanamo, it might add more legal clar

that is what caused the civil war. if andrew jackson could have stopped that, that would have been wonderful. if he could have stopped the secession of the south, if he could have helped the south to recognize and perhaps accept that slavery might be reduced and eliminated, that would have been great. but there is nothing -- there is no evidence that andrew jackson believed that the union should stay together and slavery should end. andrew jackson was a supporter of slavery. and there is no evidence that he would have supported the staying of the union and the elimination of slavery. >> i just want to read this, selena, and i want to get your response. cnn's editor at large chris cillizza wrote about it in an article. president trump wants to make the case that if jackson had been president the civil war wouldn't have happened in order to make the case that he like jackson will be able to avert crisis by dint of his unique background. that the facts don't back up the assertion is besides the point for trump. it's real

i saw war action. i almost went to war several times. i want to thank c-span and thank all the people out there. those people that gave the ultimate sacrifice and lose limbs and stuff like that, you just don't know. we love this country. we have volunteer force out. there's no dress up or anything. people ought to put flags out and stuff like that. you pay for a veteran, you see him in uniform. god bless you. thank you c-span. i hope everybody have a happy and blessed memorial day. host: we thank you for phoning in. of the 58,000 names on the vietnam veterans memorial in washington d.c. which opened during the reagan administration, more than 1200 remains missing in action. there are 800 listed here as well. i want to share with you a photograph in has gone viral. it's on a number of websites. let me read to you what the newspaper writes. for memorial day it was the perfect sign of respect. the photo of a sandwich board outside mayberry's bar and grill northern kansas city of washington. it pays tribute to the american service men who lo

the crimean war is the first war that is widely photographed. think about that. early forms of photography -- suddenly, when men go to war, not just officers, but privates can leave images behind. --how did yourd relatives or loved ones look? maybe you had a country painter come by and do something, but suddenly, it is a democratization of memory. so, we have cheap means of communicating over thousands of miles. the cost of the transatlantic journey goes down, the speed increases, newspapers are everywhere. societies are suddenly literate, and by the way, in 1861, at least four states in england 99% literacy rates above for male adult literacy rates. the south does not. north carolina was around 72%. why does that matter? because the modern age is very much about education. wonderful a great, infantry soldier in the army of northern virginia, or in the union armies, take your pick. and be illiterate. but you cannot be a supply sergeant and be illiterate. you cannot be a first sergeant and fill out the roles and be illiterate. there are so many things you need it

we came to vietnam with basically three big wars in our mind, civil war, world war one, and world war ii which were massive mobilization of the entire people for the grand cause and everybody was part of the war. the home front vietnam as we said before, who went over to fight? johnson arranged the economy in various ways to inmyself the economic impact on taxes and other things. one of the decisions made towards the end of the vietnam war which we are living with today and i hear nobody talking about this. president nixon ended the draft and moved to a volunteer army. you see stories every once in a while about young american soldiers who have been on their sixth, eighth, ninth tour in afghanistan. we don't really have much of a citizen aermrmy. if you don't volunteer, you don't have to worry about a military. most americans have been spared since 1969, whatever, whenever nixon ended the draft. >> the first lottery was '69. and the second was '70. >> something you said having to do with johnson and suspicious nature. one thing that he trusted very much was former president eisenhower

so pippin's war is over. he has been wounded to the point that high is never going to be able to fight again and the war torments him for years and years. he just can't get the war out of his head. he tries writing but he is very poorly educated. you can see from this picture i have earlier that pippin, he never regains use of his right hand so the way he actually paints is by putting the brush in his right hand and using his left hand to basically move his hand around so he can paint. he becomes one of the most famous artists of any race that comes out of the war. his paintings are considered some of the the best paintings we have from a front line soldier's perspective of what it meant to fight. a lot of the paintings represent the way in which the combat experience just dominated his thoughts even after he came home. pippin became famous and was discovered by the philadelphia art community and his paintings were brought. in a sense, you would think that would help him readjust but it never left him. i am n

waroughly between the civil and the early cold war. i look at how the u.s. government tried to work with the defense contracting sector to acquire modern industrial weaponry, and oftentimes the the governments' desires to gain technology on the cheap or for nothing came into conflict with the intellectual property interests or rights of the private sector. i am kind of interested in how those really legal issues got resolved how they contributed to the emergency of a security oriented federal government. and a secrecy oriented federal government as well. >> you also look at the origins of the military-industrial complex. what does this term refer to? ms. epstein: it was popularized most famously by dwight eisenhower in his hair we that farewell -- in his farewell address in one author called it 1961. the rorschach test. it means different things to different people. i look at as this arrangement, mutual reliance, mutual dependence between the federal government and private sector defense industry for procuring or supplying advanced weapons to the u.s. armed

never good to war. never deploy one soldier unless you know what it is you wish to achieve, unless you define the pallets that -- the peace that will follow. ultimate victory is not killing all the terrorists. body bags are not a good metric of success. that was a bad metric during vietnam. it is not a good metric today. we can kill you wherever you are, right? if we have that hvt's coordinates and the local nation and everybody else is copacetic, we can find you. did it with bin laden. but stacking them like cord units is not the ultimate measure of success because we can kill one jihadi but what happens when the next day 20 people volunteer to replace him? the most charitable description i gave to for the last 16 years is, exquisite whack-a-mole. but it's whack-a-mole. how do we win? by killing all the bad guy but by making people not want to become jihaddists. that is how we win. how do we do that? take a life out of the gipper's play book, okay? we won the cold war on november 9, 1989, without firin

the mexican war, the civil war, the spanish war, world war i and two, korea, vietnam, iraq and another on terror. they criticized bush for being aggressive and provocative, for not being aggressive enough. but they declared and waged wars of the. i am particularly interested in the sections of the book. there will be a lot of questions with the judge on how all of this applies with the drone and all of the ideas that we may not have a. a. he came here in the 19th century is advised the american president has more power than any emperor in new york only the americans don't know if the. he's the former green professor of public law and harvard law school and previously served as ththeobama administration as the acting assistant attorney general and the article of chief and is the author as i mentioned earlier that one this year's colby prize between congress. he will take questions and open the room for discussion and i would ask those that wish to do so please wait until you get the microphones. the floor is yours. welcome. [applause] for having me here, the last couple of days has been

you never go to war. you never deploy one soldier unless you know what it is you wish to achieve and have defined the piece that will follow. ultimate victory is not killing all the terrorists. body bags are not a good metric of success. that was a bad metric during vietnam and it is not good today. we can kill you wherever you are, if we have the coordinates and the local nation and everybody else is copacetic, we can find you. we did it with bin laden. but that is not the ultimate measure of success. why? we can kill one jihad he but what happens when the next day 20 people volunteer to replace him. the description i've given for the last 16 years is exquisite lacrimal. what is whack a mole? how do we win? by killing the bad guys and making people not want to become jihadist. that's how we win. how do we do that? we won the cold war on november 9, 1989 without firing one shot. think about that. we had thousands of nuclear warheads on either side. not one ak, not one was fired across checkpoint charlie t