President and c sow and thritted to welcome all of you to our beautiful robert h. Smith auditorium this Evening Program is presented in con generation with our exhibition the vietnam war in 1945 to 1975. Which i hope youve had a chance it see. But its not, it is on view through april 22nd so i hope youll return during regular museum hours to see it. Our program edward and a the american tragedy in vietnam is the lecture on leadership. We created this series five years ago as a permanent way to honor two great americans roger and David Petraeus who won our history maker award in 2013. I would like to thank mr. Hertog for incredible for chair of New York Historical and general petraeus for his leadership and generous participation over past four years in this lecture series thanks so very much to both of you. [applause] thank and recognize some trustees who were in the audience this evening above all our chair pam i would like to thank pam for all shes done on behalf of this great institution. Thanks so very much. Pam [applause] and a also a the chair of our chairman counsel suzanne i lost sight of suzanne but thank you suzanne. Of course general what it is look to thank my great colleague or vpght for Public Programs from whom yo will you hear at the close of tonights program. This Evenings Program will last about an hour and it will include a question and answer session the q and a will be conducted via written note cards. You should have received one from one of our colleagues when you enter auditorium this evening if not theres still colleagues around in the auditor july to distribute them. So note cards will be collected with your questions later on in the evening. Okay so one of merck leading military historian and Foreign Policy analysts i should have said first that there will be a book signing with boot following the program. And yes, ill say it again were thrilled to welcome him become to the New York Historical society hes the patrick and fellow Security Studies at the counsel on foreign relations. And hes a regular contradict tore to usa today, new york times, and many other publications. Hes author of several widely acclaimed books of military history, his welcometured on behalf of the u. S. State department, with at end at many military institution and hes advisorred commanders in iraq and afghanistan. His new book is road not taken, edward dale and american tragedy in vietnam. Its an honor for us to welcome general david h. Petraeus back to the New York Historical society as moderator for this Evenings Program. General petraeus u. S. Army retired is currently a partner in Global Investment firm kkr, and chairman of the kkr global institute. Hes also the judge with me professor at the university of southern california. General petraeus served 37 years in the u. S. Army including as commander of Coalition Forces in iraq and afghanistan and commander of the u. S. Central command following retirement from the armed forces he served as the director of the cia. During which tile agency play central role in a number of important achievement it is, in the global war on terror. And now as as you help me to welcome our speakers tonight i ask that you make sure that anything that makes noise like a cell phone, is switched off. And now please join me in welcoming general petraeus. Thank you. [applause] well thank you very much. It is wonderful to be back it is particularly wonderful to be on stage with someone for whom i have rpght and admiration and it is a special treat when someone with from whom you have such regard writes about somebody for whom you have such regard that is, of course, edward lance kale someone many of us studied over the years a somewhat tragic figure and certain respects in that he had great achievements in one arena and provide brilliant advice in another that was unfortunately largely disregarded. Max is everything what he said about him hes truly a distinguished scholar a bril yajt thinker a forth wright observer, and a lyrical writer. Someone whose thought, advice counsel, i sought during commands in iraq, afghanistan and director of cia still do now at kkr hes one of the rear individuals who every essay i read with keen interest mowing hes, of course, one of the admirable individuals who is not want to leave something left unsaid. That is a quality of particular virtue and contemporary time is a privilege especially tonight to be interviewer o opposed to the interviewee and role reversal impair interrogator no advance technique so i have long stood against him for a variety of Different Reasons thank you for all of you being here tonight thankfully bomb deep freeze evaded this time for everybody to come here without too many layers. Ben, its also truly a privilege to be on comparable stage here at the New York Historical society one of the top two i would contend centers of intellectual Critical Mass in this extraordinary city. The other one being, of course, on other side of the park that 92nd street y wonderful to do this in presence of rornger in his wife susan who have done so much to revive reinvigorate and sustain a wonderful organization that is striving to preserve to help us not only record and remember history but learn from it as well. Again, that is hugely important at a time when someone ailment of society seem to want to consign the past to the ash bin of history rather than informed by earlier generation experienced stop again great to be back here to roger and decision to the societies extraordinary president release only person i know with two ph. D. From stanford not just one and then also thanks pam, for your ship of this great organization. I also want to applaud all of you upfront for all of that youve done. Thank you. [applause] well congratulations this has been a Long Time Coming weve within looking forward to this well over a year. It is truly a monumental achee. You know thank god for e readers nowadays but books of that stature it does double, as a paper weight and barbell about of course not but not just about him but to a degree of about challenges and tragedy of vietnam and i would contend challenges of contempt it rare situations that are similar in the minds of some at least again to vietnam. Road not taken book the best month before it was available and how fitting i think this is evening of the day in which was first actually on sale in bookstores in online. A lot of great reviews about this the phil describe road not taken as as nateing portrait of edward and a maverick in the moted of tv lawrps and much more than a biography it begs comparison he noted with monumental narratives like neil a bright shining light. I also added the best and brightest giving us compelling look back at the vietnam tragedy showing that it was by no means inevitable report of forcing yongd control of our political and leaders and draw max out on that to some degree. I wrote about it a brillianting buyingty of the life and a rivet aring description of the times tiles of edward one of the most significant figures in the polls were world war ii philippines in vietnam and by the way son ed is here with his wife it and daughter. And welcome to each of you. In attendance and we do and it tells edward a story with novelistic verb it also situates it wonderfully in context of his experiences and does indeed offer lessons for present day so with that max lets get started how and when did you come to focus on this keenly interesting individual . J well first let me say thank you very much for doing this event, and volunteering to do it. Theres i wanted to do this. I appreciate and hoping it was not in spirit of revenge for conversations in past. Right. Higgs of war through ages and it was really my editor bob amaze hadding editor at norton live right who said you ought to make a whole book about ed an picially i was reluctant because i said ive done him what more is there to say and he had intuition there was a lot more to say and he turned out to be dead right because i was lucky enough to acquire a material that previous writers and wrote about atlanta he was legendary operative who has been written about by everybody from graham green to ugly american today but and neil, everybody who is written has written about him so in the 1980s but unin of the folks really had access to all of the dms documentation and due to generosity of the family who willingly sharedded with me correspondents between their parents between ed and the first wife helen and then i was lucky to meet the grandchildren of his second pat kelly who you know close your ears, but pat kelly also a long time mistress before becoming his second wife after the death of eds mother, and they shared the correspondents that pat and ed shared over years i think im first person to read both sets of correspondents after ed himself and then, of course, there was also a vast amount of newly declassified information which youre former agent the cia is very slow o about releasing but what that means is that a lot of this stuff is information that im first historian with a chance to look at it. So for example if you want to know how to win an election in developing country theres no better source no better source than the top scrt report that ed wrote to alan, explaining how he got ramon elected president in 1953 and im one of the first historian with a chance to read that. So theres a lot of new information i think it really gives the most complete accurate indepght picture of d that weve ever had. A wonderful one. A publisher editor more than you said before. He also i think turned out to be a pivotal figure but hes the story but really using his life to tell the story over involvement in vietnam. And he tushed out to be it a wonderful character upon whom to hang that larger history because he was there in the beginning. He was there creating South Vietnam in 195 had and he was there as everything was going south in the fence in 1968. I cant think of anyone like him actually aside you mentioned, there were other o figures, of course, neil wrote about one of those. Jean paul van didnt start until early 60s as a i recall. I mean he was really there on the ground floor, and meal called him probably with a little bit of exaggeration but called hill creator of the state of South Vietnam. Uhhuh. I think theres a lot to that and get into that. Up front two questions very broad upfront and go in and start at the beginning with upbringing so forth. Just in a general sense how do you describe him when people say tell me about edward lance dale and two or three sentences or less. Fnlings he was engaging character who had a passion for american democracy. Who lovedden gauging in dirty tricks but overall had a passion for helping asian friends in philippines to achieve a measure of independents in autonomy and selfworth i think his ideas and his being has often been caricatured but i think, in fact, he was a much more complex person who was much more in tune with local societies than hes sometimes made out by democracy rival and hostile journalists. Huge believer in governess. Significant. This is not not a new insight for you, of course, because i mean you wrote the the manual but you have to remember that in the early 1950s a lot of these ideas were billion dollar and fresh and he was one of the pioneers and he understood the basic truism that i think you with acted upon in iraq and also which is that you know you cant defeat by killing insurgents but outgovern and this is what he said time and again. But the second of the biggest big ideas which you contributed to over time is you cannot kill or capture your way out you have to reconcile as many as you can it is interesting how that jumped off the page. You noted at some point that he was a figure not mount not mentioned in the counterinsurgency but not one that was doing manual. Part of that is because he did not set down his ideas more of a practitioner than a writer. Not as good at promotions. There is a few of those. But the road not taken, we will come back to this do you believe is advice from prior to the 1963 to . That the course of vietnam would be clearer . We can say we pretty disastrous. So to tell the Kennedy Administration please do not overthrow him. Yes he has problems and we need to sidelight his brother, and yes he is in the unfortunate confrontation but there is no better alternative. I know all the generals. They will not do a better job but they ignored him and sponsored the coup that overthrew and killed him on the very day that he was retiring from the air force because vietnam disintegrated with one coup after another then in 1955 lyndon five Lyndon Johnson felt he had no choice but to send troops into vietnam to rescue it. He never wanted to see those troops flashing around through the jungles. And he always said the vietnamese had to defend themselves and we had to help them but much more but there is a chance of the philosophy was followed things could work out quite differently. That is it just me but the National Security adviser later said it was a tragedy his advice was disregarded. You cant say then the war would have been one but you cannot prove that but one thing for sure that we would not have lost in the catastrophic fashion that we did, 58000 americans with this terrible tragedy. With those repercussions at home as well. Lets talk about his upbringing goes to ucla but doesnt graduate. He was from a fairly modest background. He was not part of the postwar elite and did not look out of place about big law firm but much more conservative sometimes the family did well and sometimes they did not but he grew up in detroit became a general but wanted to get rid of protocol so he was kind of like Silicon Valley because he had that ethos decades earlier. And pointing out from his background from people of his racial prejudice. Even asian americans. Slitting chinese immigrants and with california there was horrible prejudice but he was never infected with that type of prejudice. He saw them fully equal and that was one of the keys to his success that what he went to the philippines in 1945 or South Vietnam in 1954 he did not think he was surrounded by lesser people but those who became his friend and conrad to treat them in an equal fashion. He genuinely liked them. And to have benign sympathy. So again he goes to ucla, and goes into advertising. He hoped to be a playwright and at the height of the Great Depression it did not work out, did meet helen who he would marry and then had a successful advertising career in San Francisco when the japanese attacked pearl harbor he was eager to enlist although in his late 30s. So he got into oss the civilian intelligence agency. And very highly decorated. And to share some characteristics with those mavericks with whatever war. It was selfdefeating but it was assigned. We will come back to that. So this does have the influence. And then to interview travelers were the allied troops will be landing. So then he gets into the army but then to be deployed to the philippines. But then to eventually transferring to the air force as the Intelligence Officer and Public Affair officer but i would say doing the job that is not in the normal army chain of command he was a Cultural Affairs ambassador. Not enough soldiers or diplomats do, he tried to learn about those he was surrounded by. Then he struck up a romance with pat kelly and she became his cultural guide because there was a budding communist insurgency at the time. And pat kelly hopped in where a lot the hooks were from from. So she guided him into those areas and then h amended his romance was struck up. A lifelong romance and she became his interlocutor. Was a second life. It is a fascinating story and im sure that is not comfortable for the family because he came back and asked his wife for a divorce, she refused and they stayed married but eventually they broke up and toward the end of his life him and helen reconciled and had happy years together but at the end of the day helen died 1972 it within one year pat kelly was a retired grandmother who came to the United States and married him and was his second wife and they lived happily ever after and tell his own demise 1987. He becomes a pivotal figure in the philippines. Think of the number of years he spent deployed. There was the outline of hardship for the family because he was deployed for much of their childhood. But like a lot of military wives held the family together and had to be a single parent and raised the kids pretty well as you can see here. A colonel in the air force. I dont know how in the world this ever happened a non aviator never has a air force assignment. So those were the days and it is interesting. Those that arose to be three stars to be one of the great linguist of all time and a translator for the president of the United States with a bunch of different languages. He was an infantry officer but that could never happen today. And to have someone that his assignment was personal assistance to the ministry of defense of the philippines. I am not aware of any assignment like that these days. So tell us what is pivotal. That is the making of the legend. Because communism was on the march. Russia acquired the nuclear bomb that we were losing this battle and here was this versioning rebellion that was on the verge of a long time u. S. Ally but they were so committed there were no troops to spare. And to send multiple Army Divisions but instead of doing that the operations chief of the office of policy coordination folded into the cia sending divisions to the philippines with a handful of assistance in their job was to rescue the philippines from communism. So they did that by latching onto the young defense minister because he perceived he was the guy going to turn the philippines around. He was honest and effective to do the right thing but he didnt know what that was. So he became like a brother they were roommates for a while. So they developed population centric counterinsurgency. He convinced him to issue orders to say do not bombard the ba