kissinger about this. he said, yes, if i had known now what know about the documents, i could never have written my dissertation using just documents. i now realize that documents have to be supplemented by talking to the real people. but kissinger was a true believer that it was people, that narrative tale told through people is important. he was once on a shuttle mission in 1974 between syria and israel, shuttling back and forth, and he said to people on his plane, when i was a professor i thought great forces shaped history. but now i see it up close, i see the importance of real people in the process. and so to me, it was looking at the personality of a kissinger, his detachment from the moral strands that underlie american foreign policy that made me want to write about him. he was not exactly thrilled with my book. the day he read it, right as it was coming out -- he got a review copy. i got seven letters in the space of maybe eight hours, like one an hour, hand-delivered to me at the time life build

kissinger about this. he said yes if i had known now what i knew then about the documents i could never have written a dissertation using

henry kissinger, you know, later said the document put forth was a terrible document. the serbs could never have accepted it. i'm paraphrasing it but that's the gist of what he said. we finally what we have to be a smoking gun, which is after the war was over in parliamentary hearings there was testimony from lord john gilbert who was a number two figure in the british defense ministry in the war and was responsible for the british defense but a major role in the war. he testified at length about the war in 2000 supporting the war and when he was asked about the military annex he had this to say. i think certain people were spoiling for a fight in nato at that time. we were at a point where some people felt something had to be done against serbia so you just provoked a fight. with regard to the peace terms themselves, gilbert said, quote, i think the terms put to milosevic were absolutely intolerable.

and so whether it's henry kissinger or hillary clinton or bill clinton or benjamin franklin ronald reagan, i have auld -- always tried to look at what made somebody stand out, what special characteristic that made them different from the people around them. i got inspired by the first real writer i ever knew, walter percy, and i hope his books are still here because i will tell you, i marvel at his philosophical agrees and his understated wit. everytime i pull down the well-thumbed copies of the movie goer or the last gentleman from my shelf. he was the uncle of my best friend, guy named tom cowen, so when we we are young we used to go over lake ponchatrain and party skiing, and nobody quite

need to tell you, too, about henry kissinger's role in this. they go in a room for five minutes, the two of them in detroit, and they come out and reagan tells the guys -- tells peter and lynn and dick allen and others, i can't tell you what's going on but it's not going to work. and so they sit there 11:30 at night and reagan is looking at the aids and he says, well, fellows, what do we do now? he's got no running mate. and finally after a few moments, peter hanford said, i think it's time to call george bush. and he calls george bush is just blown away. had no idea. he was convinced like everybody else in america that gerald ford was going to go on the ticket with reagan. >> so let me ask one more question before i throw it to the audience for any questions they may have and it directly follows on that and it goes back to jack kemp. why did his star not rise at least high enough to be more seriously in consideration for the vice president? >> there was a lot of affection

and kissinger was a pretty tough negotiator.course, he had negotiated the peace with honor, the withdrawal from vietnam. and after these tough negotiations in detroit that day, one of the reagan aids says is that -- is that, you know, for the first time -- you know, after dealing with kissinger all day, he said for the first time in my life i felt sorry for the north vietnamese. [laughter] >> i know we had a few other questions that had some questions. yes, sir. if you could -- i know this is a bit unusual, but when you ask your question, come up to the front and ask us 'cause we just want to make sure we are able to record it on the microphone. >> in the early days, was he well served by his advisors? and it seems to me when he made serious error is when he did not go with his intuition. >> absolutely. absolutely. reagan was at his best when he relied on his own judgment and his own temperament. i think also what comes through in the book and what came through at the time was that reagan was best when he was mad. he really -- d

>> henry kissinger was negotiating the treaty of detroit on the part of, on behalf gerald ford and kissinger was a pretty tough negotiator. of course he had negotiated the peace with honor, withdraw from vietnam and after the tough negotiations in the chocolate that day, one of the reagan aides says for the first time after dealing with kissinger all day for the first time in my life i felt sorry for the north vietnamese. [laughter] i know we had a few other hands with questions. yes, sir. i know this is a bit unusual, but when you ask your question if you could come to the front and ask us because we want to be sure we are able to recorded on the microphone. >> in the early days was the well served by his advisers, and it seems to me when he made serious error is when he did not go with his intuition. >> absolutely. when reagan had his best, when he relied on his own judgment and temperament i think also what comes through in the book and came through at that time was reagan was best when he was mad. wirthlin said he never met a candidate who loved confrontation as much as reagan. he relish

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it is an evil thing question. >> can you name the president of europe? >> [inaudible] i know who wants to be the president. >> he did not get it. >> i know. i think it is not a pressing question because europe is a trusted place in this country. we did not agonize very long about going into a military conflict in europe in the last decade because it was europe. while there were exponentially more devastating genocide committed in africa. i am not taking a position, it is a way of highlighting the deep connections. little think we worry much about europe. as europe -- i don't think we worry much about europe. as they become more powerful i think we made. i don't think the average american thinks in -- thinks of europe in the way europeans want them to. >> the obama administration in europe is that he has taken his allies for granted in focusing on reaching out to some parts of the world where relations have been more complicated. there could be a reaction by europeans. he wi

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. [laughter] >> i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. >> i think it's not a pressing question as far as america goes, because i think europe is a trusted place in this country. they think -- you know, we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade, because it was europe. while we young our hands, while there were exponentially more devastating genocide being committed in africa. and not taking a position, it's just a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time, because i don't think the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> actually, one of the concerns about the obama administration in europe anyway has been that he tended to take his

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. [laughter] >> i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. >> i think it's not a pressing question as far as america goes, because i think europe is a trusted place in this country. they think -- you know, we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade, because it was europe. while we young our hands, while there were exponentially more devastating genocide being committed in africa. and not taking a position, it's just a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time, because i don't think the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> actually, one of the concerns about the obama administration in europe anyway has been that he tended to take his

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. [laughter] >> i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. >> i think it's not a pressing question as far as america goes, because i think europe is a trusted place in this country. they think -- you know, we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade, because it was europe. while we young our hands, while there were exponentially more devastating genocide being committed in africa. and not taking a position, it's just a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time, because i don't think the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> actually, one of the concerns about the obama administration in europe anyway has been that he tended to take his

said he wanted to have a rapprochement with the united states and sent many messages to nixon and kissingerith that. if that happened with kim jong-il i'd be with you entirely. it hasn't. >> i'm very close to ben stein's view. i would try sanctions. i thought my friend ron was being too cavalier about this. this is a terrible man who has done terrible things. south korea has become a democracy with our help. we should be very proud of that. the people's republic of china which wants to be a responsible nation is failing on its responsibility by not helping us put pressure on north korea. north korea with nuclear weapons is a scary thought. >> larry: we thank barney frank, ron paul, tanya acker and, as always, ben stein. >>> african merps helped president obama get elected. how do they feel about him now? that's next. tightness in my chest came back- i knew i had to see my doctor. he told me i had choices in controller medicines. we chose symbicort. symbicort starts to improve my lung function within 15 minutes. that's important to me because i know the two medicines in symbicort are beginni

he was here for his biographies of kissinger, benjamin franklin and albert einstein. in the past he has been the chairman and ceo of cnn and managing editor of time and then i just actually read this this afternoon. in november the past month the couple of weeks ago he was nominated by president obama to be the chairman of the broadcasting board of governors, and that is a body that runs voice of america and radio free europe and other international broadcasts run by the government. in what i felt was an engaging introduction to american sketches, walter isaacson shares the drive he has had since his youth in new orleans to become a great writer. he was in a place where he was soaking up the atmosphere of tennessee williams and william faulkner but he was also there until walker percy's death. but then before he went off to be a rhodes scholar the summer before, he was still on his great writer mission and offered a job as a summer intern by "the washington post" and he turned it down. he turned it down to become a stevedore on a derrick barge on the mississippi and t

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it is an evil thing question. >> can you name the president of europe? >> [inaudible] i know who wants to be the president. >> he did not get it. >> i know. i think it is not a pressing question because europe is a trusted place in this country. we did not agonize very long about going into a military conflict in europe in the last decade because it was europe. while there were exponentially more devastating genocide committed in africa. i am not taking a position, it is a way of highlighting the deep connections. little think we worry much about europe. as europe -- i don't think we worry much about europe. as they become more powerful i think we made. i don't think the average american thinks in -- thinks of europe in the way europeans want them to. >> the obama administration in europe is that he has taken his allies for granted in focusing on reaching out to some parts of the world where relations have been more complicated. there could be a reaction by europeans. he wi

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america? >> i think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. [laughter] >> i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. >> i think it's not a pressing question as far as america goes, because i think europe is a trusted place in this country. they think -- you know, we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade, because it was europe. while we young our hands, while there were exponentially more devastating genocide being committed in africa. and not taking a position, it's just a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time, because i don't think the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> actually, one of the concerns about the obama administration in europe anyway has been that he tended to take his

when the premier and the president of china told a delegation led by kissinger and bob ruben, we don't have any confidence that you're going to be able to deal seriously with your deficits and debt problems, when the imf and the united nations say we ought to look for an alternative reserve currency, i think those are all major wakeup calls that we ought to be heegd. -- heeding. i told the story earlier after i left congress, i was ceo of the american stock exchange in new york. and one of the surprises to me in getting to know wall street was how irrational financial markets can be. and they go on perceptions. they react on where they think things are going. and i think our fiscal situation is something that's being perceived. right now it's not being focused on because all the markets are focusing on the global recession. as they focus on the subsequent issues of fiscal policy, they do not see any serious attempt by the united states to get our house in order. and so what this commission report does is to give us a blueprint to get our fiscal house in order. the perceptions and the l

has anybody answered the kissinger question for america?> i think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. [laughter] >> i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. >> i think it's not a pressing question as far as america goes, because i think europe is a trusted place in this country. they think -- you know, we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade, because it was europe. while we young our hands, while there were exponentially more devastating genocide being committed in africa. and not taking a position, it's just a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time, because i don't think the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> actually, one of the concerns about the obama administration in europe anyway has been that he tended to take his a

has anyone asked the kissinger question?think it's an evolving question. >> can you name the presidents of europe? >> eric can. i know who wants to be the president of europe. >> well, he didn't get it. >> i know. i think -- it's not a pressing question, i think europe is a trusted place in this country. we didn't agonize very long about going in head-long into military conflicts in europe in the last decade. because it was europe. while we wrung our hands and while there were exponentially more genocide committed in africa. not taking a position but it's a way of highlighting the deep connections between. so i don't think we worry much about europe. i think as europe integrates and becomes more powerful, we may over time. i don't think that the average american thinks of europe in the way that europeans want to. >> one concern about the obama administration in europe is that he tended to take his allies for granted in focusing on reaching out to some of the parts of the world where relations have been more complicated. and

caller: obama peace prize is as not as kissinger getting the peace prize.e we headed for a day -- double dip in the media not telling us about these things? guest: we keep seeing more and more reference to commercial real estate and the threats. can you help us understand what is at stake? guest: we certainly have been reporting on the commercial real estate crisis for quite some time and it is something that will hit community banks and smaller regional banks much harder. we are going to see higher bank failures next year as of these loans come due. it is a different cycle of when they reset, so it is kind of layered on top of the housing crisis we have had. i think the caller raises a very legitimate point that there are growing concerns about a double- dip recession. when you look around and see what the drivers of growth might be going forward, you still have a very flat real-estate market, consumption down, manufacturing returning and still a very low levels and there is nothing out there saying this will be the driver that pulls the u.s. economy along

when the premier and the president of china told a delegation led by kissinger and bob rubin we don't have any confidence that you are going to be able to deal seriously with your deficits and debt problems, when the imf and united nations say we ought to look for an alternative reserve currency i think those are all major wake-up calls the we ought to be heating. i told the story earlier after i left congress i was the ceo of the american stock exchange of new york and one of the surprises to me in getting to know wall street was how irrational financial markets can be. and they go on perceptions and react on a where they think things are going and i think our fiscal situation is something that is being perceived. right now it's not being focused on because all the markets are focusing on the global recession. but as the focus on the subsequent issues, the fiscal policy, they do not see any serious attempt by the united states to get our house in order and so with this commission report does is give a blueprint to get our fiscal house in order. the perceptions and a lack of confidenc