please join me in welcoming andrew scott cooper. [applause] >> thank you, geir, and thank you to the gerald r. ford presidential library for hosting me and for mistaking my -- making my research and this wonderful event possible. you may have heard the expression it's good to be king. well, tonight it's good to be an historian with an interest in oil diplomacy and oil fence si. this in this morning "the new york times" published an op sed, and "the wall street journal" published one on the importance of history studies in creating a competitive dynamic work force. our bid tonight seeks to bridge two compelling and vital areas of public interest. it's a rare and wonderful thing for a historian to watch as events that were only speculated about a generation ago finally come to pass more than three decades later. five years ago when i began my research into u.s. oildiplomacy in the 1970s, i was puzzled by references made in documents from 1976 that read like something out of a financial thriller. there was talk of a sudden increase in