what you have to understand about liebling and kennedy, liebling himself had been a war reporter and had been extremely frustrated by what he had seen. and that article is an expression of the frustration that he was seeing, not just -- kennedy becomes an exemplar of the problem he had been seeing for so long during the war. so he's defending kennedy, as by the way i think he should have, because he thought kennedy was finally resisting what had happened, what the government had been systematically doing, and had become so willing to be compliant, as he put it, that they were constantly saluting, that they had gotten out of the habit for thinking for themselves. the book, the manuscript, that julia's brought forward, her father's book, is -- there's quite a large number of books that are written by war correspondents during that war and some of them are very well-known. this book deserves to be up there with the best of them. there are two reasons for that. one is, it's actually a very good -- a very good expression of what it's like to have been a war correspondent during that time.

but the thing you need to understand about liebling and kennedy, he was extremely frustrated by what he had seen and that article is an expression of the frustration he was seeing -- not just kennedy becomes an exemplar of the problem he had seen during the war. and so he's defending kennedy the way he should have because the government systematically had been doing and so willing to become compliant, as they were constantly saluting, that they got out of the habit of doing it for themselves. the book, the manuscript that julia has brought forward, her father's book, is of -- there's quite a large number of books written by war correspondents during that war and some of them are very well known. but this book deserves to be up there with the best of them. and there are two reasons for that. one is it's actually a very good -- a very good expression of what it's like to have been a war correspondent. during that time. he was everywhere, as you pointed out, in the beginning. he was in europe before the war started. he was a hell of a good reporter and was given a lot of responsibility

i think what liebling is expressing, what kennedy was expressing, was months of frustration. >> if i could ask either of you just to talk about some of the early coverage that made his career and then, if it's not too much to ask on the other side, what happened in the post-ap career. >> well, even today there few people in the diplomatic corps or anywhere else who have had the breadth of experience that ed kennedy -- we've talked a little bit about it, but he covered the middle east, he covered the balkans, he was based in cairo, he had enormous war experience. he got there in i think 1929 and stayed until his pockets went empty and he had to come back to the states. came back again in the '30s. covered the spanish war and right on through. so there were a few people who knew as much, who had experienced as much, and who could report as well. he was the guy and he was on the front line time and time again. i want to point out that his successor, the man who took his place, was a guy named wes gallagher, who was also a predecessor of wine, and wes' son brian is with us tonight. and w