wounded independents began asking the government to take bell to cot der titrt laws the way it had standardt president theodore vail sent at&t vice president nathan c. kingsbury to washington. he set up a deal that would create what vail called "a natural monopoly." we asked picard wagner of at&t what was in the kingsbury commitment. the key part of it, of course, was the commitment to refrain from buying up any more independent telephone companies, that it would provide long distance connections to the independent, which means the non-bell companies, which then existed. mr. wagner, what do you think prompted theodore vail to give up the fight, so to speak, and decide to go into an agreement with the federal government? at&t got the government off its back. and with the kingsbury commitment, we were able to go ahead and set up the long distance network. and we were assured that the government was not going to come in and take away from us that long distance network. schoumacher: henry geller, former general counsel of the federal communications commission, was one of the government's key te