Host author and also, was september 1, 1939 a surprise . Spirit. Guest a surprise to everyone but nazi germany. The day hitler marched into poland and it was a surprise attack. I think most of the world expected but hoped it would not happen but it did. And that really it launched world war ii. Host was poland prepare . Guest it thought it was but it wasnt. Nazi germany was the mightiest military up to that point. Poland has a sizable army, small air force and navy. It is basically a poor country. It did not have the financial wherewithal that germany did. It did thing it could hold off germany for a while but the germans went right over them. Host you say it wasnt really a surprise. Was the rest of your preparing for war at this point . They suspected war was coming. Was countries hoped it wouldnt happen. At least half were neutral. Some prepared for war to a certain extent. But none were ready for what was about to happen. They all hope somehow something would happen to prevent germany from embarking on what hitler have been preparing for. Theyre keeping their fingers crossed. That did not work. Why were they prepared . If they were aware. You have to remember 1939 was only 20 years after world war i which was the greatest bloodbath in history to that point. Many of those countries lost if not millions of people including the two biggest western allies, france and the u. K. , england. They were not prepared, they dont want war emotionally, financially. The idea of doing that, as a result there is a sense of appeasement from the time world war i ended until world war ii broke out. They really wanted to keep or pay. Host you talk about half the country is being neutral, what were some of them . Guest the netherlands, belgium, norway, luxembourg, france and britain wanted to be neutral but they were pushed into an alliance. They started preparing for war and 37 or 38. But not the way in which youll prepare for war. They didnt want war. The Prime Minister of england to make clear he would rather appease hitler them prepared to fight him. Very few in britain were saying you cant do that. Churchill knew that hitler was a threat not only to europe but the world and he kept saying we have to get ready. The government basically in norton. But nobody really paid much attention to him. France had lost 1. 6 million of their young men. A huge percentage, and world war i. They had been invaded by germany and they suffered terribly. They lost much of their industry. A country that to not bounce back well. They were desperate to avoid war. There was a spirit throughout europe that we cannot have it happen again. Host in your book you write that more people died in warsaw alone during the war than did americans in both european and pacific combat. Guest thats correct. Poland was hit terribly hard in world war ii. The First Western country to be invaded by germany. At lost 6 Million People i believe, 3 million jews, by far the highest loss per capita. More than 20 Million People were killed in the soviet union. The polls lost about 20 of their population. Your book, troublesome young men, what was going on . May 1940 was probably the most important month of the whole war. For europe, the u. S. , for everybody. May 1940 was the culmination of the appeasement policy. It had a work. Germany had invaded norway in april 1940. That had not been prepared. It was a huge defeat for chamberlain. Some a 1940 was this amazing debate within the government particularly in parliament about do we continue to appease or do we finally stand up. That debate lasted two days i believe, at the end of that debate chamberlain wanted he won very narrowly and she knew his days as Prime Minister were done. He did not have the support of many members of his party. An incredibly traumatic debate. Churchill was part of it but not leading the charge. He was in chamberlains government was defending chamberlain in front of his fellow parliamentarians. Meanwhile members of parliament who are anti appeasement basically thought they had to get chamberlain out and bring churchill to power. This debate was dramatic and exciting. You have churchill arguing saying you have to get chamberlain out or you will lose. The upside is chamberlain was forced out and churchill became Prime Minister on may 10, 1940. The day that hitler launched in western europe. For drama, i dont think you can beat that day. Once churchill took power he started to rally the british. But hillary was making mincemeat of the countries he was going through. His belgium, holland, luxembourg and then into france. Once they got to france everyone thought he met his match. They were supposed have the best army of all in europe. But they were mowed down within several weeks. By june france was about to fall. Now we have one small country standalone against this german behemoth. That was london and britain. It was an incredible month. Host when the british troops first enter mainland europe . Guest they came in before west creek started. Once england and france declared war on september 3, 1939, the british did send to divisions into france in preparation for an event so eventual that time from september 309 until may of 1940 became known as the phony war. There is no fighting at all. Supposedly france and britain declared war because of poland because germany invaded poland so than the allies declared war but they didnt do anything for poland. Nothing happened. Nothing really did happen until april 40 when hitler invaded norway and denmark. Then it really took off in ma may 1940. By the end of that theres a few neutral countries in europe. The restaurant or german occupation. Took place may 1940 in the first part of june. As the german troops are coming in they cut off british and belgian and french troops that were in belgium. They crossed into france. Nobody was expecting them to do that. They were given free reign at that point. Those troops 30s realized there they cut off and imprisoned and killed if they take it out. Pretty early on churchill in the military started making plans for this. Were talking less than 20 days from the time of may 10 when germany marched in to western europe until the evacuation started. Is a very brief time. Churchill did not tell them this was going to happen. They made plans but the french were not notified until the evacuations have begun. They made no provision in the beginning. The partnership between britain and france which already have been unraveled was totally gone by the time french realists their allies were leaving them. Going back home. Is a, to think that the germans had they pushed on the dunkirk invasion could change the course of the war . Theres a lot of kudos. Why hitler stopped tanks from advancing its not really clear why that was true, but he did. Historians believe if the germans had been more aggressive they could have cut off the evacuation more than 200,000 troops were evacuated, most were british. So the british army was saved. It will go. If germany managed to take them down. Host most of your books about world war ii or europe, how did you get into that . Guest and serendipity. Im a journalist by training. Spent 12 years as a journalist. Advisement interested in history. I never thought i would write books of history and world war ii. It happen because i left journalism and i got tired of the deadlines. I like doing research i wanted to do more. My husband is also former journalists. They were looking for a book to do together. And so couple of biographies about have been written so we dont do that. We decided to do a book about the correspondence before and after world war ii. Some of the Research Involved london because thats where he made his name in the 40s reporting the battle of britain back to cbs listeners in the United States. A foam over the place and the time, with everything about it. So one booklet to another network, going. I had no thought that would happen before it did. You wrote that i rely heavily on the human angle in writing. Guest yes, i do. Part comes to my training as a journalist write about people. As a child i remember history classes of snowboarding. I remember memorizing dates, events and thats what you were tested on. It was so dry, i didnt like it. My husband work for Time Magazine in time was very big on writing about people as news anchors. My training is a feature write writers much more interesting to write about people because people make history. I want to bring whatever i write about a live in a way i do it is to the people were making the history. And then why did they decide this and not the other, people like reading about other people. The human angle is important to me. When i decide on a book topic it has to have really interesting characters. Host who were the miller boys . Guest a group of extraordinary journalist that merle started to hire when he went over to london in 1937 for cbs. Radio journalism had not been invented back then. Its basically commentators who are pontificating. Cbs for example their idea of journalism was to record, they would do Nature Programs or choirs. That journalism the way we know it. Tomorrow was sent over there to arrange talks. He had no training as a journalist but he wanted to be a journalist and hire others who could report the news from europe. Europe was on fire them. It was clear hitler and mussolini was a threat. She hired the best journalists he could find. The first one was william scheier, before he did that he was hired as the cbs correspondent in berlin. ~ terrible voice. If you ever see a picture of scheier, he was a spectacular reporter but had a terrible voice. He wasnt looking for guys with great voices didnt matter what they look like because he could see them. They started out in paris was named that that resonate to people who watch television 50s and 60s. He was looking for the best. The best people who could report the war as it was going on. Host what was their impact on the worn u. S. Policy . Guest they had tremendous impact on the or. He probably had, im going out on the limb, but probably the most prominent american war correspondent. Yet a huge following. For example, he thought we needed to get into the war. We didnt until december 1941. Britain was on the brink of disaster and defeat. It was the last country hold not against germany. So he was on the air over and over can say we had to get into the war. Not so many words but it was clear from the tenor of his broadcasts. We cannot let britain go down. It had an enormous impact. A lot of people give him credit for the change in public mood in the u. S. From isolationism to at least sinking we had to come to the aid of great britain. That continue throughout the war. Cbs was by far the best in terms of broadcast realism and war reporting. They had an amazing influence on what was going on. Host was the u. S. Prepared at that point . Guest no. They were about as badly prepared, not as prepared as some of the European Countries. In 1940 the American Army ranks 17th in the world next to portugal and bulgaria. The army was pitiful. A few forces. The equipment, the aircraft was not the buildup that came later. We were in bad shape in terms of defenses in 1940. It began to gear up. By the time we got into the war is better. The big mobilization came after pearl harbor. In one of your books, those angry days you write about America Firsters. This is a blog entry. John f. Kennedy, joe four, potter stewart, sergeant schreiber, all household names in mid and late 20th century america. Earlier in their lives had Something Else in common. In the late 30s and 40s there passionately opposed to the idea of american involvement world war ii. Guest thats true. That was the most interesting things. I didnt know that when i started research about those angry days. There is a story of how america flew from a strong feeling of isolationism and started gradually thinking thinking that maybe this is our war. The book is about the fight in this country whether we would help britain are not. One thing that surprised me was to find that a lot of College Students basically said, this is not our war. Were supposed to make the world safer for democracy and we got hitler. Why should we fight . All those men from john f. Kennedy to schreiber were students. They were part of this. In fact many of the people you mention were founders of America First. It was yellow College Students who founded this. All of them left by the time there were happens they had enlisted. Virtually everyone you mention was fighting for the u. S. Many with incredible war records. Many of them realized it was going to be our fight. I want to play a clip in this is charles lindbergh. I come before you at this time to enter a plea for american independence. Theres no division among us about the defense of our country. We have always been ready to fight against interference of foreign powers in our affairs. If need be, we are ready to dive for the independence of america as our forefathers have died before us when necessity arose. On an American Issue we stand the united nation. It is only when asked to take part in the quarrels of Foreign Countries that we divide. Host that was in 1940, did he ever changed his mind . Guest no. He always thought we should stab of the war until december, 1941. And then with pearl harbor instantly stopped. Now that war was upon us he backed roosevelt who he fiercely opposed up to that point and he said that now were in the war. Host up until december, 1941, was see in the majority . Guest thats a complex question. In the beginning he was. And 39 he certainly was in the majority. Americans as a whole felt the same way. This was not our war. We had fought it, it had not worked. Americans have british tricked us into it. So they were determined it would not happen again. The mood in the country from 39 until the fall of 1940 was heavily isolationist. The two began to change, a number of factors one was that with some london, the constant bombing in the bottom of britain and the fact that the brits survived and said were not going to give up and many people saw these incredible scenes of london and the british people trudging through the wreckage of their jobs. The courage of their people was extraordinary. Also the Prime Minister for his defiance of hitler. So the reporting on the began to change peoples minds. Also there is a America First fighting for isolationism, their groups in the United States advocating interventionism. They started having an impact on the country. This backandforth was going on. By 1941, certainly by the time a pearl harbor nobody wants to go to war. Most americans as weve seen in the polls were ready to go to if it meant as the only way germany would be defeated. They were resigned to the fact that we were going to go. There was a huge shift in American Public opinion. Host between december 1, 1931 and december 7, 1941 rose the communication link between fdr and churchill . Guest they started writing letters to each other. Roosevelt was president and once churchill became Prime Minister there was a regular exchange, sometimes phone calls between the two. Churchill was pleading for roosevelt in the u. S. To get into the war. And roosevelt say will do what we can short of war. Roosevelt was very wary about the mood in the country and particularly of congress. Congress tend to be isolationist. He was concerned, he was a political guy. 1940 was a president ial election year. He was running for a third term which was unheard of. He was particularly concerned about the reaction of him doing what people thought was too much to help britain at the time. It was an interestingly. Year, certainly in europe it was but also the u. S. For the allies to win, the u. S. Had to get in to the war. For britain to survive the u. S. Had to get in. The question was, are we going to get into the war it was extraordinary year. Host youre watching the tv on cspan2. Invite one author on in this yeamonth it is lynn olson. Heres a quick look at her books. Freedom starter which we have not talked about yet, the unsung heroines of the Civil Rights Movement in 2001, the question of honor in 2003. Troublesome young men came out in oh seven, citizens of london the americans who stood with britain in its darkest finest hour. Came out 2013 and her most recent book, last hope island. Britain occupied europe and the brotherhood that help turn the tide of war. We will take your calls and social media comments. You can call area code 202, you live in the Eastern Central server [inaudible] we have set aside the third line this one for world war ii veterans. With like to hear your voices as well. If you cannot get through on the phone lines but want to make a, theres other ways. Twitter, instagram, facebook, all have our handle for all of those is that book tv. We will school grow through those on the screen. Finally you can send an email will begin taking those calls and comments in just a few minutes. From your book, you write that by 1936 it was clear that hitlers Propaganda Campaign was wearing considerable fruit. In certain circles is considered the head of fashion to be pro nazi. Theres a large contingent of german aristocrats. The upperclass was heavily pro german. Very fashionable to go to germany and hobnob with the nazis, the famous one went to berlin and became an associate of hitler and killed her since, shot herself in the head when britain went to war against germany. He survived for a few more years. Is very strong pro german sentiment in the chattering classes in england. Some of the royal family as well. What about the u. S. Ambassador to britain. Embassy in this . Kennedy was loathed by the British Government because he was also was a pro german, he was a businessman and he thought germany was going to go to war against britain and britain could not possibly survive. It was clear that bring can stand up to the might of germany. He was a friend of chamberlains and he thought there is no way britain could survive. Therefore, we had to appease hitler. And thats the way kennedy thought to. Till he went home and 40 he was publicly espousing appeasement saying britain cannot survive. As you can imagine the british people went nuts. First of all, america was not h