mr. mandela left prison and you were 10 when he became president. do you remember? >> i remember. it's funny, i remember those moments more than some of my life stories. madiba. that was wow. that was an entire country just jubilant. an entire nation feeling a change. it wasn't man being freed. it was a nation being freed. even as a kid watching it on tv and seeing the footage of him waving and driving through the streets. you and your parents are cheering in living rooms. you know that man meant everybody was free. and every single black person in the township felt the magic in the air. it was like i guess when i watch the footage of the o.j. verdict, but with no downside. >> i was wondering where you were going with that. >> it was that feeling. that's the only thing i can complain. imagine everyone feeling it. when 1994 came around, the first democratic election to see people embrace an election. lines stretched hundreds of miles. people who never cast a ballot for the first time. i didn't know what was going on. i know how proud people were to have the ink on their fingers to

the building of a true pan african movement -- no less than nelson mandela himself said the building of a true pan african movement. mr. kennedy: let's turn on this side. right up front. >> hi, ross johnson, wilson center. comment question and then a real question. it should not be a surprise that it took the united states to 1953 or something to crank up this effort, given the general demobilization of not just information but everything after world war ii. it is only the korean war that starts the military mobilization and all that. so it's not necessarily a surprise, i should think, and i wonder if -- i wonder if you are not reading too much into the so-called truman doctrine, which , to my mind, it is a comment, but i appreciate your reaction -- to my mind, it is not a worldwide doctrine. it is a doctrine about greece and turkey and not much else, actually, whatever the words are , so that is not necessarily a catalyst that one should look for immediate action. the question would be do you feel then in the book also specifically, in the voice of america, which starts cranking but europe-focused, and incorporated i