i think because he's the first president of hungary, president of independent hungary should not be jewish, rather an arcane reservation perhaps a good one in the circumstances. >> okay well, i think people should be allowed to. >> i think on behalf of pen we have to offer a big vote of thanks. [applause] >> christopher hitchens is a country been at "vanity fair" magazine. his books include "why orwell matters," "god is not great" in the forthcoming memoir, "hitch-22". for more information, visit pen.org. >> up next, booktv presents "after words," an hour-long discussion with the author of a new boat. this week former cia officer john kiriakou talks about his service in the agency both e4 and after 9/11. he played a key role in the capture of al qaeda associate abu debate that in pakistan and also a good u.s. officials of the planning of the iraq war. he is interviewed by frederick hitz, former inspector general of the cia and current fellow at the university of virginia center for national security law. >> host: sitting here with john kiriakou, talking about his new book, guerrilla spy. i

which wanted shares of the austrian hungarian empire and romania which wanted to carve out part of hungary. none were going to war for democracy and the idea that the united states could bring democracy to the world was preposterous and in that world we lost 116,000 dead. and, of course, that war ushered in hitler, stalin and mussolini. and the idea that we can create democracy worldwide or something like that, it is a belief system that's not really rooted in reality. and it is the great antagonist of conservatism. >> host: so you do not have an ideology? >> guest: no. they call conservatism an ideology. but russell kirk is right. conservatism is the antithesis of ideology. now, there's socialisms and ideology, libbism is an ideology. certainly fascism is an ideology. we're antiutopian and many ideologies are utopian. >> host: "in a day of reckoning" you dedicate it to russell kirk. >> host: >> guest: he was a wonderful man. not a great political strategist. but he had me up there marching in the st. patrick's day parade in bay city, michigan, which was on st. patrick's day. and after it

were in 1989 the soviet union collapsed and a communist regime collapsed in poland, czechoslovakia, hungary a, romania, yugoslavia. i don't know of a single person who committed suicide. this tells you something, not only of the strength of the germans militarily, but of their conventions. you see, the second world war was worldwide struggle, approximately not precisely, but mainly between three forces. there were the western democracies in scandinavia and so forth, parliamentary, and coordinating by the english-speaking countries, and some western european countries. there was communism, which until the end of the second world war was in coordinating on in russia. that were no communist countries in the world decides the soviet union. and there was a german national socialism which in a way was the strongest of the three. now, in every country, even in china or mongolia and so forth, these three forces existed. some of them were stronger than the others. look at china, for example. in china, there was supported by the british and the americans. there were the chinese communists supported b

for the main committee iii, of hungary, and chile. for the drafting committee, his excellency of iran, and from sweden. for the provincial committee, from an african country, and from norway. if there is no objection, may i take it that the conference wishes to approve these nominations? if is so desired. i would now like to proceed to the election of a vice- presidents according to rule 5. the conference shall elect 34 vice-presidents. i have received the following for the posts. from the group of eastern european states, albania, belarus, bulgaria, the czech republic, macedonia, slovakia, and slovenia -- from the western group, australia, austria, belgium, france, germany, italy, the netherlands, the republic of korea, spain, and one other. from the group of non-aligned and other states, algeria, brazil, colombia, another, egypt, indonesia,, , libya, mexico, morocco, nepal, nigeria, new guinea, sri lanka, your guy, and venezuela, and china. may i take that the conference is to approve this? it is so desired. i should now proceed to

poland and hungary and an ally in slovakia to have an ally in poland and an ally with italy and spain and portugal. in other words, surrounded by friendly countries. so i don't -- i think there might not have been a world war ii. >> host: you do right in charge of it for and the unnecessary war one short sentence could world war ii was a just war. >> guest: there's no doubt it was just. was it necessary? no, i don't believe it was necessary. that's it for -- excuse me, and of hitler. the phrase quote coach unnecessary war" is churchill's. he came in december of 1941 after pearl harbor. -- of yours is what should we call it and he says with a trickle of the unnecessary war because there never was a war that was more easily prevented than the one that we are in right now. and my view is that the fatal mistake was with the british given the war guarantee to poland. people say what should they have done, pat, after czechoslovakia? what should have done is very simple. they should have formed an alliance with france, sent troops to france and all in front of belgium and france and defended

occasion last year, we had a particularly ambitious around the world itinerary that included a stop in hungary to commemorate the fall of the iron curtain followed by working visits with the legislatures of mongolia and indonesia. but unfortunately our delay -- or our arrival in beaut pest was -- budapest was delayed twice by a vote on a major bill here and then weather. by the time we were finally bound for mongolia we had nearly exhausted our air space. we faced the prospect of having to divert our mission and forgo the mongolian parliament. working literally through the night, he somehow managed to persuade an official of the u.s. embassy in beijing to roust a chinese official at his personal residence on a weekend and call in a favor to get us the clearance we needed. that's an he can dote that says a lot about the major -- anecdote that says a lot about the major. he's just been an indispensable member of the house liaison office and he leaves some very large shoes to fill. now, in recognition of his service and leadership potential, he's been assigned to what could only be described as a