I just wanted to mention a couple of special guests. We have our distinguished speaker this evening, i wanted to mention a couple of special guests. We have our distinguished speakers daughter here and her husband. We have betsy hewitt, the wife of newly elected hugh hewitt. Our distinguished speaker was to dr. Kissinger as dr. Kissinger was to nixon. He was with dr. Kissinger during the peace accords in 1973. He was with president nixon in moscow during his first president ial trip there. He was there for kissingers shuttles between arabs and israelis. He was a key actor in president nixons historic trip to china. He was state Department Director of policy and planning, ambassador to the peoples republic of china and assistant secretary of state for South East Asia and Pacific Affairs part he conducted several hours of oral histories of dr. Kissinger on behalf of the Nixon Foundation. He conducted several hours of oral history on behalf of the Nixon Foundation and the collection of interviews cover a variety of subject matter. Strategy andership this highly readable book called kissinger on kissinger reflections on diplomacy, grand strategy, and leadership. It is available for purchase at our museum store. Ambassador lord will be interviewed by dr. Frank gannon. He obtained his masters degree at the London School of economics and doctorate at oxford. He worked with churchill to write the definitive biography of his father, winston churchill. A in 1974, he left washington to california aboard air force one following the early resignation on president nixons bestselling memoir. Nixon. Rviewed president they are all available in digital format. We will see some of these videos in the presentation tonight. Hewitt visited in new york city, knowing that assador work thatked for us to note winston lord is a really good friend. It is my pleasure to introduce dr. Frank gannon. [applause] thank you all for coming and for being here. It is a great pleasure and an to be here. I found one of several references in the various memoirs. I will not be the one about him being a terrible punster. It became one of my best collaborators, conscience and close. He was familiar with my lou my views. Of course, after the association , he went onsinger to a very distinguished career, which could be the subject of another talk. ,ou have an excellent book which is you are in addition of a number of interviews that you conducted with dr. Kissinger. That, we haveing heard some of the things in the book, but it will be openended. Accessibleshort and and interesting. To buyt thing to do is it and read it. You cannot go wrong. Ares appropriate that you at the library because the Nixon Foundation played a part. I have been going around the country, promoting this book nothing else compares with this one. This is about the nixon and kissinger Foreign Policy. Hours of interview. Also very relevant, not it isn the fact crucial and i am delighted. The interview in this book, the interviews that we did give detailed. Interviews,al panels on some of the key events. Kissingervailed upon to do one interview to reflect that. It is extraordinary. On the years. Ng here will be extraordinary for a 30yearold talking about last weeks news. The point i am making is that the foundation, together with National Archives supported interviews, and no one was more jonathan, whothan ran the video was essential in the composition and editing of and worked closely. If it were not for jonathan and jeff, and the foundations that i mentioned in my acknowledgment, we would not have this. , the fact we are looking for ways to make this a bestseller. We have another idea that we are toying with. Presley press release before it was issued. Vocalized. Nd of mine the iphone cut off the last two letters of the book. He got very excited, thinking he calledting a book kissinger on kissing. I have a very short video that was made for dr. Kissingers 94th birthday. Clips fromouple of the interviews. Six two hour interviews. This gives a very brief flavor of what the book is based on. [indiscernible] improvement of their relationship, of countries to each other, balancing of their self interest would promote u. S. And security of the nixon focused on objectives. In terms of experiences that he had with leaders. My approach was very similar to his in terms of focusing on objectives. Wasmaterial for my thinking his story. In terms of the situation that i had studied. Drawing from that. It was to prevent the soviet union from becoming the dominant country. Use of soviet military pressure was a feature of the cold war. Nixon began by opening up control of negotiations. Plan was to create additional incentives in china. We reversed the process and said ok. We will go to china first. What nixon said about china. The pointed it from of view of world order. Involved in the , it wouldnal system be transformed because all other countries would have to consider andimpact of china in terms he calculated that we might review the situation in which andica would be closer therefore had a strong bargaining position. The second day in office, i looked at more plan. The expected consequences of a nuclear war. Up without a strategy in which you could use them. They did not destroy civilization. Summit was a high point of the vietnam war. One of the main themes of the Nixon Administration. The possibility of negotiating agreement for peace. They had to indicate specific them. To combine nature that nixon conducted. View thatays had the the breakthrough in negotiation would come when one of the arab that sovietncluded military support was not the way to achieve their objectives. During the war, we managed to establish ourselves as mediators between the arab and israeli side. Ended, and we be had to do this in conjunction with the soviet union because Thesoviet Union still had main influence in the arab world. People would have said this is absolute madness. The task of taking a society from where it is to where it has never been. Ou need courage [applause] nixon liked to spring surprises. To hisouncement principal advisors ticked all of those boxes. A harvard professor who was a and member ofter the Kennedy Administration was a harvard professor who had worked for his arrival. Consider that i spent years of my life trying to prevent him from becoming president , it amazes me that he chose me to become his advisor. They were a truly couple. Why do you think that kissinger said yes . It was strange. Nixon showed great courage in doing this. He was a conservative from the many. Oast, distrustful of teaching them. They had actually never met. Had read his books. Nixon wanted to dominate Foreign Policy. He was so interested in this. He knew that he needed enable, thoughtful National Security advisor. He put politics aside and thought about the National Interest and what would serve his interest in forging a new world order. He was asked by the president to be National Security advisor. Instead of saying yes immediately, he hesitated. Partly out of misplaced loyalty and partly not entirely sure where he would be going. Him out and said, you have to serve the country. He is taking a chance by thinking you. Henry would have said yes anyways because he would be serving the National Interest. Analyzedmeone who had Foreign Policy all his life, and i am sure that he leapt at the chance. Jfk andeen advisor to consulted with johnson and other president s. These are the main motives. It is in the forward of the book. The common approach to Foreign Policy. Teaching a conceptual approach that looks at the world new term that takes into account the impact of what you do in one just ad does not kneejerk reaction, but ties it together. Shared aear that they worldview, which i think was a major leap. It was clearly why kissinger was happy to join him. They had different strengths. He knew many World Leaders and had studied Foreign Policy. Kissingers strength was philosophical, conceptual, strategic. They had the same interesting strategy. It was a wonderful mix. President ed with the and the president elect wanted to bring the Foreign Policy apparatus into the white house. Very interesting things i have never seen before where they go see the dying general eisenhower at walter reed and he gives them very specific advice. He has a brush with the former general. It is an interesting anecdote. Strategy,y recalls but he punctuates the recounting with anecdotes, some revealing and others amusing. It was early in the administration. Kissinger had the conventional. Istaken view is one of our great president s, and my opinion. They just had a meeting. The very next day, not because of the meeting but there was a leak in the press about what had happened. Outnhower to kissinger saying, how dare you let this get out into the public. If i cani am not sure control this. He gained henrys Great Respect as a result. That was from some of the very first weeks, plagued by leaks. Before we get into talking about the book, i want to talk about you. Student inigh school the early 50s. What did you think that he wanted to be you grew up . Secretary of state. No. I had an interest in Foreign Policy fairly early on for two reasons. My mother was very much in the public service. She was an ambassador to the u. N. For human rights. She had a heart for international and domestic issues. Secondly, i did a lot of traveling when i was young. Vacations was uzbekistan. I wanted to go into this field, but i was not sure of how. I took a lot of political history courses. I went to the graduate school where i wet my met my wife. Weekook notes in my weakct, side to side subject, so i decided to become her friend. You also have a very distinguished academic career. What was the path that led you to kissinger . I worked i worked for a man who ended up suing kissinger. Staff. D me to join his he wanted me to go with him. Join his staffto a month after. But we should not spend too much time on me. We want to spend it on kissinger. It was a great opportunity. It was a 50 minute interview. Concede the chaos. The phone and looking at memos. He said, i want debate, but if you lose the ballot battle on policy, i want you to carry it on. Here is that as i was sitting across the eisenhower we would send him memos, looking ahead. I wrote several memos that were critical on raising questions about some of the things nixon and kissinger were doing. He did not like the yes men or yes women. He wanted debate. He would be brutal. As long as you argued intelligently, he respected that. This was a good example of someone who encouraged debate. He is a legendarily difficult boss. Some of the stories have to be where there is smoke, there is some fire. True or untrue . He was one of his top assistants. It was in the middle of some crisis. He stepped over the guys body to get to the phone. I will give you another example. Unbelievable respect and affection for henry. Even if you dont to him the do not send him the transcript for this meeting. He was extremely demanding. If you read nothing else, read the forward, the personal portrait. I do refer to some of them as attractive aspects. He stretched my nerves and patients, but he also stretched my horizons. I appreciate him for the climb, as well as the view. Speechwriting. I can write fairly well. I do nonfiction. I would give speeches for henry. It would go Something Like this. Just beforeould be the redskins kicked off against the cowboys. That was pretty annoying. That is one reason why i quit about once a week. This is about 90 true. It gives you the flavor. He would give me a topic to write a speech and i would come two days later with a draft. I would go away and do a second draft. He would say, is this the best that you can do . I would say, let me try again. This would go on for six drafts and i am getting a little bit annoyed. Draft,ly say on the six i have looked at every sentence, tweaked every and dust; semi colon. And; he would stretch winston by the way, he would push me on writing memos to the president for him because he knew i could write. Another staff member might be good on research. He had a sense of where to push and where not to push. You recommend reading your foreword. I should have said, this book, it is not only unedited transcripts arranged in a very interesting and useful way, but it has introduction by dr. Kissinger, your set up and then you have introductions to each of the chapters. Winston i framed the chapters. Frank it is not uninterrupted it is not at all uninterrupted reading of just edited transcripts. Winston [indiscernible] [laughter] frank in the book, he has an interesting assessment of the nixon strategic vision. He talks about him as one of his main contributions, so interested in the conceptual aspects of Foreign Policy. Says to you, or he nixon was, except for the Founding Fathers and i would say Teddy Roosevelt the american , president who thought of Foreign Policy as grand strategy. It was an improving of countries to each other in a way that the balancing of their self interest would promote peace and the security of the united states. And he thought about that in relatively long range terms. Is that the way you thought of or think of nixon . Winston absolutely. I am the last remaining centrist in america. I am a flaming centrist. I mentioned that because i have worked for republican and democratic president s. I have voted for both. I was a political appointee of reagan and of clinton. When i say of the seven president s i have served, nixon was by far the most formidable in Foreign Policy, this is coming from a relative objective i worked for him but he is in a class by himself. The man has flaws. Who doesnt . You cannot take away the strategic approach. It is described in this film and also as you just said. Why he hadeason kissinger got along is because they approached things the same way. He not only he did a couple of things. He knew exactly how to work with kissinger. First of all, their worldviews coincided. But he struck a beautiful balance. Some president s micromanage. And for example jimmy carter used to determine who could play on the tennis court. Actually that is a pretty important subject. Not a bad idea. Some others would delegate completely. Have the white house dominate the process. He had to make the courageous decisions with the vietnam war, opening to china, dont know what the reaction is going to be, going to the middle east. He had to back up kissinger, and he had a strategic approach which kissinger could reflect, then he left it to henry to do the actual negotiations and the tactics, and never secondguessed him, and henry always had the confidence. They had enough shared worldview he would be backed up by the president. In china, before the historic visit in october, it is a public visit, the chinese presented a totally different approach how we should communicate totally , different approach from what nixon had approved before we left washington. In those days there was no way to communicate back home. Kissinger knew of the president s view and loyalty that he agreed to the chinese approach, which proved to be successful in the shanghai communique. It shows you how they work together. That was extremely important as well. Frank in addition to the sort of longterm grand strategic vision, there is an axiom that dr. Kissinger quotes i think at least three or four times in the book, so it meant something to him about no half , measures. Winston you got to pay for some kind of controversial policy whether you go halfway or all out. The china visit was carefully set up. We could get into that for two years. Still it was a very bold move to send the National Security advisor secretly to china. God knowing we had enough confidence the chinese had their own selfinterest group and the soviets who they were engaged with. But he could not know how the reaction was going to be back home. But he went full bore on that, taking a chance on negotiating in the middle east versus the soviet influence. Before the moscow summit, which came shortly after china, came about because of the china summit, got there attention, finally launched hanoi launched a major offensive against South Vietnam just as we were about to go to moscow. The president ordered a very tough response, even though he thought it might jeopardize the summit which we had worked on for so well, which had major arms control agreements teed up. It would have been a tremendous loss, but he wasnt about to go to moscow while americans and South Vietnamese are getting slaughtered by moscow allies. By the way, kissinger and i and bombing, even the though it is correct in terms of policy in vietnam, is probably going to sink the summit. I remember going in a helicopter to camp david to write the speech. We were bemoaning all of these late agreements going down the tubes. Nixon said no, the soviets will go ahead with the summit. They have too much self interest in it. He was absolutely right. An interesting episode happened to play out there. When we were in moscow, i was in charge of the president s briefing books, and we were sitting in an office near the kremlin or in the kremlin, and there was a space agreement being signed by president nixon , and then they were going to take a break for half an hour, and we were all going to go out in a motorcade to the statue to talk about vietnam. Even though they had agreed to have us come when we were bombing the hell out of their allies, they had to be tough with us and send a transcript to hanoi to show us they were loyal. Nixon would go out immediately in the motorcade without stopping leaving me behind with , the briefing books. And i frankly knowing henrys god her, i said oh my , was going to be mad even though it was not my fault. Managed to talk to the russian kgb to go out there in time thank god. ,the point here, it led up to a very interesting evening the , question of nixons courage to go over there and the russ