khrushchev not using rhetoric.o with military assistance. >> many latin americans were shocked to find out how much communistic weapon castro actually had. >> the sense was that kennedy has to do something about castro. >> when kennedy comes to the presidency he's briefed on the fact there was a plan in place to topple castro. >> but the plan that's presented to him is not what he wants. it's a huge invasion on a noisy beach. it's going to look like a u.s. invasion of cuba, so he says to the cia, he can't be associated with this. i want something that's believably cuban. >> this is ron oppen in miami. i'm standing in one of the many anti-castro recruiting places scattered throughout the city. >> they were into communism and we found there's something against castro, we learned where there was a recruiting center and we just approached them and joined. we had no idea it was the cia. >> since 2:00 this morning, men and boys have been filing through this door behind me anxious to join the fight in cuba against fidel c

it was all about nikita khrushchev. as imperfect as he was he said i am not luck lastering the fact he was a loyal lieutenant but he deannounced stalin and allowed the country to move a bit forward as much as it could. that was a very important process because it brought us to where we are now which is nowhere. but we tried. and khrushchev was declared a mentor and predecessor. it was an important moment in soviet history when it tried to divert from its authoritarian and open up the borders. so it is all about him because he took down that grade idea that power is always right. power could be wrong. i could be wrong he said. and that was important for the soviets to hear and the russians to here. and i think putin is saying, no, no, that is wrong. power can't be wrong. or it is that power who said it could be wrong that khrushchev in '56 denouncing stalin and in '54 giving kiev to ukraine and look at it now. suddenly after of the things we russians know we say oh, okay. i want to conclude with a small story that i use

i'm not channeling nikita khrushchev anyway possible.se recently some members of my family said because of critical of putin, participate in the anti-russian campaign. i don't feel this way in america and actually thought and russia until very recently we are in a free country so we can agree to disagree. but apparently we can't. and that's the subject of my book. it's the gulags of the minds in the gulags of the russian mind is that the state is more important than any individual. it unfortunately, it does until the day, and the point that i'm making is that we don't need barb wire to keep us in check. we will build it all on our own and that actually explains vladimir putin support, 80% of the population really feels that he's doing the right thing in ukraine. at the gulags of the mind. i would like to read a few lines from the beginning of my book. i actually, the reason i do is because i myself am very fascinated that it happened to me. i guess if i read it out loud i may feel better because i still cannot believe it. so just bear wi

her name is nina khrushchev and she is the lost khrushchev. that's the name of her book. this is live coverage on booktv on c-span2. now if you don't feel like watching history and biography today you can turn to c-span. we are covering the science pavilion all day long on c-span as well. so you have two channels from the national book festival this year. thanks for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning. it's great to see you all this morning. we are very very excited to be here at the national book festival. my name is mike riser and i head the community relations for wells fargo. i'm very proud to say this is our fourth consecutive year for sponsoring this wonderful event. [applause] thank you. letters and education are very important for wells fargo. in fact in 1997 we found it an initiative called reading first. in that we are pleased that our company go to classrooms, they take a book and they read to the class and they leave it behind to help supply the school library library. in just the 17 years that we have been doing that we have donated 1 million bo

and khrushchev wrote, what is this nut? he is willing to sacrifice his entire country. the soviet communist were not crazy. they were evil. they were not crazy. the middle easterners are evil and crazy. >> a couple of points to follow up. i agree with you on the chinese. they're very thoughtful and delve brat -- >> going to be around for a long tile. >> but they may push the question of the 200 miles simply because they think we'll cave, and that's the danger. the one big danger that has not been mentioned is that of pakistan. we talk about iran getting the bomb. pakistan already has the bomb, and who can be 100% sure the fundamentalists in that country have not infiltrated the army, maybe the units guarding the nuclear stores. the prospect of an al a.l. -- al qaeda type group getting ahold of a number nuclear weapon is scary. >> that cheery note to start q & a. given the shortage of time, those who have a question, you can state in 15 seconds or less, i'll give you your first opportunities. then those that have 30 second questions, then up to those who have minute ques

that kennedy and khrushchev made a secret deal was not the public perception.the public perception was that testosterone won. they back down. the same thing was being applied to hanoi. what is fascinating now that we can look through the historian'' work, the inside historians' work, at the national security agency who pursued the story, had access. d the basic fundamental work that intelligence analysts should have done at the time, which was to put all of the intercepts in one pile. and go through them and see what did they say? where did they contradict each other? and especially where did they contradict this highly selective chronology of have become the internal secret official story? wrote at historian highly classified article, because it is full of intercepted singles --signals intelligence that showed the capabilities of u.s. government to listen to the north vietnamese as they are ordering their boats around off the coast. we can look through the historians' work, the inside historians' work. the text of the intercepts of the north vietnamese convers

and khrushchev wrote, what is this nut we have over there? he is willing to sacrifice his entire country. the soviet communists were not crazy. they were evil, they were not cozy. the middle easterns are crazy. >> i agree with you on the chinese. their vary thought. and deliberate, but they -- >> they're going to be around for a long time. >> but they may push the question of the 200-mile simply because they think we'll cave. and that's a danger. >> that's right. >> the one big danger that has not been mentioned is that of pakistan. we talk a lot about iran getting the bomb. pakistan already has the bomb. and who can be 100% sure that fundamental lists in that country have not infiltratedded the army, maybe even infiltrated the units guarding the nuclear stores. the prospect of an al qaeda-type group getting control of a nuclear weapon is very unsettling. >> on that cheery note, begin the q & a. we have a very few minutes for questions. given the shortage of time, those of you who have a question you can state in 15 seconds or less, i'll give

and khrushchev wrote, what is this nut? he is willing to sacrifice his entire country. the soviet communist were not crazy. they were evil. they were not crazy. the middle easterners are evil and crazy. >> a couple of points to follow up. i agree with you on the chinese. they're very thoughtful and delve brat -- >> going to be around for a long tile. >> but they may push the question of the 200 miles simply because they think we'll cave, and that's the danger. the one big danger that has not been mentioned is that of pakistan. we talk about iran getting the bomb. pakistan already has the bomb, and who can be 100% sure the fundamentalists in that country have not infiltrated the army, maybe the units guarding the nuclear stores. the prospect of an al a.l. -- al qaeda type group getting ahold of a number nuclear weapon is scary. >> that cheery note to start q & a. given the shortage of time, those who have a question, you can state in 15 seconds or less, i'll give you your first opportunities. then those that have 30 second questions, then up to those who have minute ques

and khrushchev wrote, what is this nut? he is willing to sacrifice his entire country. the soviet communist were not crazy. they were evil. they were not crazy. the middle easterners are evil and crazy. >> a couple of points to follow up. i agree with you on the chinese. they're very thoughtful and delve brat -- >> going to be around for a long tile. >> but they may push the question of the 200 miles simply because they think we'll cave, and that's the danger. the one big danger that has not been mentioned is that of pakistan. we talk about iran getting the bomb. pakistan already has the bomb, and who can be 100% sure the fundamentalists in that country have not infiltrated the army, maybe the units guarding the nuclear stores. the prospect of an al a.l. -- al qaeda type group getting ahold of a number nuclear weapon is scary. >> that cheery note to start q & a. given the shortage of time, those who have a question, you can state in 15 seconds or less, i'll give you your first opportunities. then those that have 30 second questions, then up to those who have minute ques

and the other question is what is khrushchev -- gorbachev now thought of in russia? >> well, for gorbachev that was maybe a moment of triumph maybe with the crimea. and he went public saying i told you so, i told you. you didn't listen to me 23 years ago. that what happened maybe didn't happen in 1991, it's happening now, and the reason it is happening is because of the dissolution of the soviet union happened in such awful way, and the people were put in the situation where they had to face the facts. because gorbachev was advocating the old union referendum at that time. so that was his last kind of position. so that is on gorbachev. in terms of belarus and belarus being possibly a last european dictatorship, well, if you are either in position of putin -- [inaudible] who run quite authoritarian regimes themselves, i don't think that the way that a dictator really registers much and influences your decision in that, in that matter. in terms of other reasons, it's first of all gee political -- geopolitical position of belarus. certainly being on the border with e.u.

first ran for office in one thousand nine hundred fifty four that's actually the year when nikita khrushchev decided to you know hand crimea are over to your cranes and last week as we mentioned the people of crimea decided to rejoin russia and in justifying their stance they're citing all sorts of what they see as international precedents in cost of war the upcoming referendum in scotland and so on and so forth but the response that they're hearing from the west is that you know you shouldn't make those things what you're doing is illegitimate but what we've been doing is totally right and i wonder if you could help our viewers understand what is so strikingly different about all those examples. that this way from the very big. getting the united states is regarded to self as a exceptional nation as a nation that better than all others that has any ever gone to war to fight for the freedom of other people or that's not really true if you look at american history america feels it can break international law that what america does is right rules are made for other people for countries like ru

forbid if they should be any changes to the boundaries of ukraine i mean they're suddenly you know khrushchev's arbitrary handover of crimea to ukraine. is written in stone how can anyone possibly undo that the arbitrary border that was a created in the east you know the a chunk of ukraine was a chunk of russia was just handed over to ukraine after world war one with no real respect for the ethnic. groups that were living there that also must be absolutely set in stone so anything that is adverse to the interests of. the west that must stay in place but everything else well hey let's just the toss those boundaries into the wastepaper basket i.v.e. if you. really interesting because we came up with these principles after the first world war but great powers to continue to do whatever they wanted anyway and i think this is what conses so much friction here because when you look at the arab world after the first world war all the way to the present they're not given much choice and self-determination is modifying the west to first dictators they can control their people you know i agree with georg

at the height of that castro had sent a message to khrushchev that he should just go ahead and launch and if that cost them cuba, that is fine. he wrote what is this nut we've got over here? weiss willing to sacrifice his entire country. the middle easterners are evil and crazy. >> a couple points to fom up. i agree with you on the chinese. they're thoughtful and deliberate. >> and they're going to be around for a long time. >> but they may push this question of the 200 miles simply because they think we'll cave and that's a danger. the one big danger that's not been mentioned is that of pakistan. we talk about iran getting the bomb. pakistan already has the bomb and who can be 100% sure the fundamentalists in that country have not infiltrated the army, maybe infiltrated the units guarding the nuclear stores. the prospect of an al qaeda-type group getting control of a nuclear weapon is very unsettling. >> well, that's a cheery note to begin the q & a on. we have just a few few minutes for questions. given the shortage of time with questions, those of you who have a question, you can s

presidents, nelson mandela, nikita khrushchev, fidel castro, and mahmoud ahmadinejad. the press club is known as where news happens. i would like to thank the world affairs council for partnering with us today to bring president sassou-nguesso here today. please join me in welcoming president sassou-nguesso here to the press club. [applause] >> madame president of the world , mr. president of the national press club, i thank you for the honor you have extended to me in inviting me to in this you today hallowed hall. you must allow an african voice, mine in this particular instance, to be heard and to communicate with the american people on a major subject, an issue that is universal in its very nature in peace and security. the universal nature of peace and security is in itself obvious and undeniable. rooseveltfriend when -- president franklin roosevelt had broken so correctly with such insight when at the beginning of the second world war he stated "wherever peace is broken, it is the entire world that is threatened." distinguished guests, ladies and still in, today,

. >> khrushchev certainly did. my father was in the bay of pigs. we were blocking russian trawlers, a couple miles from the havana coast erchlts you just brought up a significant point. it depends on how you use your power. we have not done a good job of using our power in the right way. we don't have the political will to do something like -- >> what do you think is the right way? we need to threaten military, but only if we're already using diplomatic, and let's face it, we are not very strong about using our economic influence. we could paralyze russia, but we ain't gonna do it. if we really wanted to we could make our influence felt economically, but we don't have the political will to do that. >> people want to say, you want to bomb people. i'm not saying -- >> i'm not opposed to bombing people, either. >> there's a difference between losing influence and deciding not to utilize it. i'm not talking about militarily, right? it is also economic. we mcdonnell's, you know, things are different than they were. to your point, a very well-regarded on

the parallel, nikita khrushchev was out offed less than two years later. so putin has to figure, he would have been better off probably taking crimea. but by going bigger he is gambling a bigger political loss. >> ambassador good to have you with us. >> thank you antonio. >> now for other stories around the world. we begin in pakistan where clashes erupted as an estimated 20,000 people who were marching towards the capitol of islamabad were attacked with rocks and possibly gun fire. imran khan. pakistan's first democrat transfer of power since gaining power in 1947. but khan says they want supervision under a new provisional government. but sharif, will block roads with trucks and bashed wire. >>> africa, world health organization is warning the ebola outbreak is much worse than initially thought. 2,000 have been confirmed infected and 1,140 people have died. vast reply underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak. the w.h.o. did announce a scaling up of support for hardest hit countries but on friday doctors without borders says the outbreak could last ano

author of the lost khrushchev. nina, good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> as i've said, russia has moved military trucks into ukraine. >> all along the crisis without providing any proof of their allegation. >> so again, the russians denying that they're doing this. why would vladimir putin do something as blatant az moving russian artillery into ukraine. >> we didn't know it was moved this time or some other time that he was accused of doing this. because all this military equipment has been -- it has been documented they've been moving back and forth. so it's probably may not necessarily be this time around and probably not associated with a convoy. because i do believe that the white trucks are going to be the white trucks and exactly what putin says they are intended for humanitarian aid because this is also his pr campaign. he is helping the ukrainians, those who are now in humanitarian distress. while poroshenko the ukrainian president is actually supplying the humanitarian disaster. that's how the he w

i already sent congratulations to khrushchev and the man who was involved. >> the space race wasn't justut space. it was about our own sense of security. it was this new cold war battle ground and so it wasn't very hard to realize that if they could put a man in orbit, they could also put an atomic bomb in orbit. suddenly the sky was menacing. >> it means they are getting ahead of us and we certainly need to start working hard to catch up. >> i think it's about time america woke up and did something about it. >> i believe it is very impressive for propaganda purposes. but i think if we put our minds to it, this country can top that in six months. >> from my perspective as a kid, we were in a race against the russians and the russians were the bad guys and they were winning this race and that meant they were superior to us and yet, they were the bad guys. >> in 1960, we had astronauts, we hadn't had anybody in space yet, but we were knocking on the door, we were ready to go. we wanted to catch up and be the leaders. >> do we have the stuff to do it? would you say? >> the united states spa

united states at the time, dwight eisenhower, and the leader of the soviet union at the time, nikita khrushchev, they did in 1960, did for a while seem like they were trying to thaw relations between our two countries. and to that end, those two leaders had planned to meet in paris for a one-on-one superpower summit in 1960. a meeting to talk face to face, man to man, about relations between our two countries. these two cold war enemies. that meeting was supposed to take place two weeks after that parade. that summit meeting in paris never happened. the reason it never happened is because on the same day as this peace-themed may day parade in moscow, on may 1st, 1960, an american u2 spy plane on a reconnaissance mission was shot down over the soviet union. an american plane went down in russia. the pilot, a 30-year-old american, named gary powers, he was captured alive by the soviet union. captured alive. >> in moscow, nikita khruschev, gary powers of the downed american reconnaissance plane was alive, and russia seized spy photographs 14 miles inside the soviet borders. the plane was brought d

. >> khrushchev who was premier at the time was saying, no, we know we have a pilot and president eisenhower would say, i dont know what you're talking about. so in politics, on a very, very important level, as long as you deny your actions, they do not happen. and i think putin is very much relying an that. >> that was your grandfather? >> my great grandfather, yes. >> so great to see you nina. >>> more on men behaving badly on capitol hill and those revelations from senator kirsten gillibrand's new book when we come back. stay with us. i had 3 different 401(k)s. e*trade offers rollover options and a retirement planning calculator. now i know "when" i'm going to retire. not "if." thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. when folks think about wthey think salmon and ener

their result against the soviet 1947.army continued until will, president khrushchev threaten and sent plague germs for pregnant women and children. ukrainian nationals, or get out of the forest, or your women and children die. that ended that. there has been this hostility. but when you start the cold war, the soviet union takes the eastern empire as a protected area against invasion from the west, particularly the threat of germany, which is dead in 1945. however, what happens then is -- many americans aren't aware of this. former soviet union atomic missiles are still in the ukraine. by the fact that we are trying to toy with the ukraine and support them to get into the eu, this has been part of russia for centuries. so putin is right. of cuba and the united states in 1962. excuse the people in the press, but i don't believe the press, because half the stuff they say is absolutely below me. what you have got to understand that the soviet union considers .kraine very vital to them in fact, their entire navy consisted almost all of ukrainian sailors. so we start playing and trying to

presidents, indira gandhi, yasser arafat, nelson mandela, nikita khrushchev, fidel castro, and mahmoud ahmadinejad. the national press club is truly known as a place where news happens. i'd like to thank the world affairs council for partnering with us today to bring president sassou-nguesso here today. please join me in welcoming president denis sassou-nguesso to the national press club. [applause] >> madam president, mr. president, i thank you for the honor you have evtended to inviting me in this hallowed hall. you have a loud and african voice to be heard -- allowed an african voice to be heard. the universal nature of keys and insult. in an roosevelt hadthe with such insight at the beginning of the second world war and he stated and i broken,herever he's is it is the entire world -- peace is broken, it is the entire world that suffers." today still in europe and latin , peopleand in africa are at each other's throats. e bombs that fall stifle the voices. [speaking french] center in the mecca of the america. peace and security in central africa. this is a region of the hemisphere,