william seward took a ton of heats for it. people thought it was an expensive bad deal for america, they called it seward's folly. now of course we're quite psyched to have alaska. you know who's not psyched we have it now? russia. they have seller's remorse. they haven't been grinding their teeth a bit for all 150 years but they are now. this is a russian magazine called military industrial career which i promise i do not read on the regular. this got picked up in the "new york times" yesterday. this paper is called the alaska we've last. darn you, william seward for snickering us on that deal. yesterday vladimir putin was at an international forum in the arctic where he was not only complaining about alaska, he was complaining that the united states is unfairly using alaska as part of our plot for world domination. he said, quote, what we do is contained locally, while what the u.s. does in alaska it does on the global level. the united states is using our unfair toehold in alaska for turpz of global oppression. obviously. yo

william seward took a ton of heats for it. people thought it was an expensive bad deal for america, they called it seward's folly. now of course we're quite psyched to have alaska. you know who's not psyched we have it now? russia. they have seller's remorse. they haven't been grinding their teeth a bit for all 150 years but they are now. this is a russian magazine called military industrial career which i promise i do not read on the regula this got picked up in the "new york times" yesterday. this paper is called the alaska we've last. darn you, william seward for snickering us on that deal. yesterday vladimir putin was at an international forum in the arctic where he was not only complaining about alaska, he was complaining that the united states is unfairly using alaska as part of our plot for world domination. he said, quote, what we do is contained locally, while what the u.s. does in alaska it does on the global level. the united states is using our unfair toehold in alaska for turns of global oppression. obviously. you

william seward took a ton of heat for it. people thought it was an expensive bad deal for america. of course, we're quite psyched to have alaska. you know who's not psyched we have alaska now? russia. they have seller's remorse. they haven't been grinding their teeth about it for all 150 years, but they are sort of grounding their teeth about it now. this is a russian magazine called "military industrial courier" which i promise you i do not read on the regular. this got picked up in the "new york times" yesterday. this article is called "the alaska we lost." darn you, william seward for snickering us on that deal. yesterday vladimir putin was at an international forum in the arctic where he was not only complaining about alaska, he was complaining that the united states is unfairly using alaska as part of our plot for world domination. he said, quote, what we do is contained locally, while what the u.s. does in alaska, it does on the global level. the united states is using our unfair toehold in alaska for purposes of global oppression. obviously. you wouldn't expect this sort of

secretary of state william seward reached an agreement to purchase alaska from russia for $7.2 million. originally dubbed "seward's folly," that was retracted when gold was discovered. up next, "alaska highway," a 1944 u.s. army film documenting building highway from the lower 48 states to fairbanks through the canadian wilderness. the highway was gradually approved and opened to the public in 1948. [video clip] ♪ narrator: when the japs bombed pearl harbor, they made people think of a lot of things. most people when they thought of alaska, they thought of a cold, rugged wasteland. now suddenly, it seems to have considerable value both to us and the japanese. its strategic position was not comforting. ♪ from alaska, the aleutian islands stretch out invitingly. the great japanese naval base is only 750 miles away, and japs in alaska would be a direct threat to america. alaska's long and broken coastline was weakly defended. our bases were few and far between. our only means of supplying them was by sea or air. ♪ with no overland connection across the wilderness of northwestern canada, n

[applause] robert: william seward, known for the purchasing of alaska. during thed be known civil war. he had agent all across europe. one of the successes he had was having an agent co-op the operation in belgium. there were prounion stories and thereby promotes the union cost. seward was a target. one of the three targets. lincoln was the vice president. seward, when he was when he was attacked, it was a stabbing attempt. bloody, loud scuffle at his home. his two sons were also attacked by lewis powell. powell thought he had killed the secretary. in fact, he had not. , butl got out of the house didn't know washington was lost. wandered around for three days before he was captured and eventually executed. but seward survived. from thatal of seward attack was probably another one of the reasons that it did not succeed. the united states government was not decapitated as both johnson and seward survived that awful evening and that spy plot. valequez was a cuban born lady who purported to be loyal to the union, but remained a confederate spy. included work

[applause] robert: william seward, known for purchasing alaska -- he really should have been known forning lincoln's spy operations during the civil war. ,e had agents all across europe and one of the successes he had was essentially having an agent co-opt the principal newspaper in belgium to then print prounion stories in its promoter and thereby the union cause. seward was one of the three targets of the booth assassination plot. lincoln was, vice president johnson, and seward. seward, however, when he was -- it was a stabbing , loud,, and a bloody scuffle at his home. his two sons were also attacked by lewis powell. howell thought he had killed the secretary. in fact, he had not. andll got out of the house then wandered around for three days before he was captured. .ut seward survived the survival of seward from that attack was probably another of it did not that succeed. the united states government was not decapitated because seward survived that awful spy plot. a double agent for the union wasn't.except, she this cuban born lady purported to be loyal to the union but d a confede

received an e-mail from a walter starr who you may know is the author of a recent book on william henry seward and is presently working on a book on edwin stanton. well, he insists that it's much more complicated than that. what he discovered was that sherman also took and sent some of the surrender terms to some southern newspapers, for example the columbia, south carolina "phoenix" of april 24th, 1865. and that newspaper quoted it as saying that this peace treaty would bring peace to all the united states and the confederate states. sherman believed that he was exactly doing what should have been done. so it's possible that he may have sent information or planted information in a newspaper to put pressure on the administration to accept the terms. the problem is, however, that he never said anything about it. nor did anyone else say anything about such plans until walter starr found this information. it's difficult to know for sure. but we wanted you to be aware of that. we do know, however, without any fear of contradiction, that sherman thought he had done the right thing. he told his quar