michael bohn served as director of the white house situation room under president reagan. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you for taking your seats, we will get started in just a moment. welcome. i am the acting dean of the school of government and international affairs at george mason university we are delighted to have robert guttman one here to a presentation based on his latest book, and we talked about it, some excellent work. and his experiences as well in the situation room in the white house. on will introduce the director of the center for politics and foreign relations and there's a formal introduction for a speaker. >> i will show you the book if i may. i will get your thoughts on the presidency from jfk to obama to use for my next few classes. what i like about his book -- "presidents in crisis: tough decisions insaide the white house from truman to obama," at the end of each crisis, decisions of the making problem in the white house, from truman through obama he doesn't assess it which gives it an interesting background. you see wh

i'll introduce the author, michael bohn. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for coming. it is an interesting beginning of this book. part of it is because i was at the white house and i got to see how president reagan handled crises and then i started writing about other crises that have been. it occurred to me that people on the sideline and there are plenty of them, don't have a clue how hard it is to manage an international craze says that comes after the 3:00 a.m. phone calls and unanticipated crisis. everyone on the sideline, mostly opposing politicians and pundits who oppose the president's policy don't have a clue. they get to say anything they want to without any consequence of their ideas. and it's both sides of the aisle. they don't have any skin in the game so they don't have the worry if their idea doesn't go well because nothing happens to them. my initial message is that it's harder than it looks. this is the cover. i want to open with a little bit of an anecdote. during the iran hostage crisis as jimmy carter in the team's 79 it ended the minute that ronal

michael bohn. [applause] >> thank you for coming. but i visit the white house and got to see how president reagan would handle a crisis. in it occurred to me people on the sidelines don't have a clue how hard it is to manage international crisis that comes after the 3m phone call. the unanticipated crisis in those on the sidelines of opposing politicians and pundits that oppose the president's policies don't have a clue and can say anything they want without consequence of their dumb idea and it is both sides of the aisle with no skid in the game so that all have to worry if their idea does not go well. nothing happens to them. so my initial message is, it is harder than deluxe. -- get looks. i will open with an anecdote during the iran hostage crisis and ended the minutes mcgregor and finish the oath of office in the iranians but the hostages go. et was a difficult situation for president carter because if he was too aggressive to solve the hostage problem he would kill the of hostages so he tried to be cautious. andy was generally