and now more on the world of political books with peter osnos founder of public affairs books. well, mr. osnos, you have been in book publishing for 40 years, but prior to that. you're a journalist for many years. how did you make that transition? well, i'd reached the point where i thought i had sort of fulfilled whatever plan i could have in journalism. in the sense that i've been a foreign correspondent a variety of places. i've been an editor and the president chairman of random house said, you know journalism is really not a fit profession for growing and if you ever get serious, call me. so i did and they found a position for me is a senior editor at random house, which was obviously a great place to go and so i sort of made a lateral move. out of the washington post into being a first book editor and eventually a book publisher. so it was a mid-career move. i brought with me all the experience. i had in journalism, which turned out to be very valuable and connections. so i i know one of the last thing i realized almost as soon as i got there that the difference is in the

peter osnos. peter is the founder of public affairs books. was a vietnam correspondent for the washington and post and is the editor of robert mcnamara's. in retrospect. peter, i extend to you a warm welcome to george washington university. way. thank you. hi. looking around, i realize that when we said we were going to start this at 9:00 in the morning on time, we lost the students. those of us who are here, as i look around, have probably very kind of direct experience with the vietnam era. and the vietnam war. war is almost always have a name. there's the revolutionary war. civil war, good war, forgotten war. however, else the vietnam war is portrayed. it's almost always associated with some version of tragic or tragedy, for that is what it was. the american war in vietnam, the years between the early 19 oh sixties and 1973, when the last gi and p.o.w.s left the country still at war, was meant to prevent a communist takeover in southeast asia. barely more than a decade after mao tse-tung communist victory in china and the war in korea, whe

and now more on the world of political books with peter osnos founder of public affairs books. well, mr. osnos, you have been

many of with with peter osnos. thankfully. and so i've kind of feel like i've come full circle, but i have a lot more to say about this war. it's an amazing revelation and it reminds us of mysteries of all kinds that you don't anticipate in our lives. but i guess the question therefore, is how has it affected your work since? well, now i have to learn how to write a memoir. so that's affected it. i, i think i don't know. i haven't done anything except the memoirs since this discovery re i mean, it's affected my personal life in some strange ways. i was all alone. my adoptive sister died, my adoptive mother died, my adoptive father died. and now i have nine brothers and sisters, 101st cousins. so and they know nothing about this war, even though most of them were in the military. so i. i i'm learning more about the war to tell them and i'm more about my father through, his photographs and through his letters and through his diaries, my outlook as a historian hasn't changed. i don't think when i first wrote the memoir, i did sev

thanks to my newest battle buddies, dan weiss and peter osnos, dean wall, back in the entire colombian college of arts and sciences, family and friends, the technical people who made this happen, sincerest heartfelt thanks. the carnegie corporation of new york, whose generosity allows the project for media and national security to exist and who supported this amazing program today. i sat here all day trying to think, what does it mean to win a war? and again, having spent of my adult life traveling along with military, something that bob kerrey this morning that rings so true, militaries cannot wars militaries at best defeat other military eyes. only governments can win wars by sealing the and we forget that all too often in our history because you define every problem as being, you know, a nail, then the hammer is your only tool. and it just is so painful to see the military as heartfelt and as well organized. it is sent off to do things as it was in iraq and afghanistan that it was never designed to do the phrase hearts and minds came up several times today. that was the mantra from

thanks to my newest battle buddies, dan weiss and peter osnos, dean wall, back in the entire colombian college of arts and sciences, family and friends, the technical people who made this happen, sincerest heartfelt thanks. the carnegie corporation of new york, whose generosity allows the project for media and national security to exist and who supported this amazing program today. i sat here all day trying to think, what does it mean to win a war? and again, having spent of my adult life traveling along with military, something that bob kerrey this morning that rings so true, militaries cannot wars militaries at best defeat other military eyes. only governments can win wars by sealing the and we forget that all too often in our history because you define every problem as being, you know, a nail, then the hammer is your only tool. and it just is so painful to see the military as heartfelt and as well organized. it is sent off to do things as it was in iraq and afghanistan that it was never designed to do the phrase hearts and minds came up several times today. that was the mantra from