Show. He has received several awards for his work. He is an Award Winning correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. He spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times as a foreign correspondent. He has been shot at, jailed, beaten by the police, and bombed from the air. We are pleased to provide sanctuary tonight. He is a senior fellow at brown university. They will discuss his new book, the true flag. It is a subject that seems strikingly important. He focuses on the dawn of the 20th century. The debate involves two of the most influential minds of the time. William Randolph Hearst on one side, mark twain, and booker t. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie arguing. Hopefully it will shed light on the condition of america today. It is my pleasure to welcome him. [laughter] robin thank you. This book was thrilling to read. Here is an example of why. I try to highlight the moments i remember. I went through two highlighters. It is thrilling to hear that our past history. It was also dispiriting in many ways. It was dispiriting to read what a joke Teddy Roosevelt was. He is buried in my family cemetery. We always joke about that. Lets get right to it. I dont think many people know about it. Youve got Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, Richard Kipling, william Randolph Hearst. Set the scene, late 1800s, what was going on in the world . Spain colonized cuba. What was going on . All my projects are efforts to uncover stories that were important in history, but have been forgotten. 1898 was a moment of great change in the United States. It was the year that we decided filling up north america wasnt enough and we would continue expanding and jump from being a continental empire to an overseas empire. So the story has been told many times, one with which i have been familiar stephen this familiar. Stephen this was not an automatic or easy decision. The United States was caught up in a Huge National debate over whether this was the right thing to do or not. All of the arguments that we made about whether to get into vietnam, central america, or the middle east all originally were made at this time. The United States signed a treaty that we took control of the spanish colonies and that had to be ratified by the senate. That battle riveted the entire nation. The senate met for 32 days, every Major Political and intellectual figure took sides. We have forgotten this debate. In fact, the decision to to pursue this course, to begin pushing American MilitaryStrategic Power around the world was very narrowly taken carried. It was carried by one more than the required two thirds and the Supreme Court had to rule on whether it was constitutional, and they ruled it was ok by a 54 vote. One of the things i try to point out in the book is those of us that question this idea that the United States is the indispensable nation are not coming up with these ideas new. In fact, the debate is over 100 years old. This in the history of the American Foreign policy is truly the mother of all the debates. The only difference is how articulate they were, senators on both sides are so sophisticated, in ways you would never expect to hear senator speak today. Robin mark twain was a little off the stage at the beginning, but enters later. You have the expansionists talking about how it was the white mans burgeoning. You have Richard Kiplings poem to that effect. These countries were not mainly people of color and savages, but when the antiimperialists argue d what you talking about, they said it wasnt. Stephen the argument is our country was founded against the foreign domination. The constitution begins with the words we the people we are dedicated to the principle that all legitimate government is from the consent of the governed. So how can we go and impose our will on others . I will quote one of the massachusetts senators on the antiimperialist side. He said you have no right at the canons mouth to impose on an unwilling people your declaration of independence, constitution, and notions of what is good. The other senator from massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, had an answer that is the rhetoric we still hear. I do not believe that this nation was raised up for nothing. I have faith that it has a Great Mission in the world, emission of good, a mission of freedom. It takes is to George H W Bush to set the United States had to dominate the new world order because it was up to us to do the hard work of freedom. So the terms of this debate are all repetitive and they find the roots in their original conflict that shook the u. S. 1898 to 1900. Robin Richard Kipling in writing the white mans burden, he writes yes, sorry, he writes, take up the white mans burden, send forth the best, serve your needs to wait in heavy harness. Speaking of the filipinos. This is what someone wrote in a newspaper in response, and antiimperialist. We have taken up the white mans burden, but will you tell us how we may put it down. This is the way they discussed this in the newspapers, but take us through the chronology. There was war in cuba, even after the treaty. Stephen the cuban rebels were fighting to overthrow spanish rule. As that war reached peak, William Randall first began a campaign about atrocities in cuba, another trope we still go through. Americans are compassionate people. We hate the idea anybody is suffering anywhere and when they want to intervene or invade, they always cloak it in this humanitarian garb, so looking for people who have suffered and are tortured, so hearst gave us a steady diet of that, including graphic stories of people dying while reporters watched. It later turned out the reporters had never been in cuba. Hearst also played a huge role in whipping up american sentiment by falsely reporting that our worship in the havana harbor had been blown up by the spanish, and even published a diagram on the front page showing how the mine had been attached. 70 years later, the navy convened a review committee to find out it was only an accident. But whipped up into this fervor, the americans decided to send troops into cuba to overthrow the spanish. The cuban rebels were not so sure they wanted that. They feared what the americans would do once they were in cuba, so that u. S. Congress passed a law promising that as soon as the spanish were overthrown in cuba, we would allow cuba to become fully independent. The cubans welcomed american troops. Teddy roosevelt had his famous day on san juan hill, which he decided qualified him for the medal of honor, and the americans easily defeated the spanish in cuba. At the same time, the spanish fleet happen to be parked in the philippines, then an American Fleet was to destroy the spanish fleet, then we found ourselves in possession of the philippines, didnt know what to do with it, but suddenly president mckinley, after getting down on his knees and having a religious vision in the white house at night, said he had been told by god that it was his duty to take over the philippines and christianize the people there. Apparently he wasnt clear that they were Catholic Party after several centuries of spanish rule, but god at that time sounded Like Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt. That became the crux of our debate. When we signed a treaty and forced the spanish to surrender these islands, the philippines, guam, cuba, and puerto rico. We paid 20 million for the philippines. Andrew connick he announced he wants to pay the u. S. Treasury 20 million to buy the philippines so he can set them free. Carnegie wrote this essay saying how can we hang the declaration of independence on the wall when we have made it illegal in the philippines to advocate filipino independence. So a huge war broke out in the philippines. Only the antiimperialists had expected this. Mckinley and roosevelt and the others believed the filipinos would simply accept this, so for the first time in our history, the United States wound up in a war in which we had to shoot down people who legitimate felt that they were fighting for their own independence. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in that war but it we have largely forgotten it, but it was a huge moment in u. S. Asia relations that reflects to the present day, because some of you may have noticed the president of the philippines made a startling announcement he does not want to be friends with the United States anymore, but what was hardly reported is as he made this announcement at a press conference, he was holding a photograph of u. S. Marines standing over a pit full of dead filipino civilians more than 100 years ago. And that is the reason, he said, why we are still angry at the u. S. , so while we forget these interventions, they fester and burn in the minds, hearts, and souls of the people in those countries in the blowback reaches us. Robin when you think of Teddy Roosevelts incursions in cuba, it is our most conical. He was so excited about killing someone. He was jolly. Some reporters had never been at war, it is almost comical. By the time we get to the philippines, it is heartbreaking. U. S. Troops burning villages, murdering civilians, performing water torture, waterboarding, something the spaniards had done. I love your quote from mark twain saying, water torture, torture . To do what . They wont tell you the truth. They will say whatever you want them to say. It was chilling to hear him saying that 100 years ago this is in my way, can you tell . They dont tell you the truth. Before we get to the end of the story, go back to Teddy Roosevelt wanting to kill the buffalo, kill someone in war, stay with roosevelt for a while. Stephen i do use Theodore Roosevelt and mark twain as the main figures in this conflict. Roosevelt is the epitome of the imperialist and expansionist, and mark twain is the antiimperialist. Roosevelt grew up in a sheltered environment and never went to a classroom until he got to harvard. He was fascinated by war, the navy, ships always wanted to get himself in combat. He believe war was the only really Noble Pursuit for a man, and those who pursued peace were jellyfish who had no idea with the vigor of life was. His father had paid a substitute to fight in the civil war. He wanted to redeem the family honor. He was desperate to kill someone in the spanishamerican war, and finally managed to do it. Later on when he sent his sons off to world war i, he says i hope they come back missing a few legs and arms between them. So he was a person who had a fascination with war. Mark twain was exactly the opposite. He had traveled the world, had been in places where europeans were brutalizing local citizens from south africa to the South Pacific islands. And he became a bitter antiimperialist. This is my second biggest discovery in writing this book. The first was this debate ever happened. What a huge story we have never been told, but my second biggest discovery was figuring out mark twain was not the person i had been brought up to know. He wasnt just the gentle, wisecracking grandpa everybody loved. He was in antiimperialist. He wrote that that it was clearly insane and undoubtedly the worst president we have ever had. Roosevelt returned the compliment by saying he would like to scan mark twain alive. [laughter] robin i am at that page right now. Between said roosevelt was the most formable disaster that has befallen the country since the civil war. When roosevelt was talking to kipling about antiimperialists like mark twain, the racism is astonishing. He said, for instance, they think any group of pirates and headhunters need nothing but independence so they can be turned into a dark new england town meeting. It was completely dead and this dismissive. Mark twain was rapid about the expansionist. But we are missing one piece here about why there was the expansionist movement. It had to do with the fact that the u. S. Was so productive at the time. American workers were making so many things that they had run out of americans to sell them too. Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge were clear, we need to take other countries so we can subdue them, set the lies them, then sell them things. Stephen absolutely. I did research so i could understand what was being discussed at the time. One of the things that comes forth was what was called glut, so american manufacturers and farmers had completely mastered the techniques of mass production that they were producing far more than americans could consume, and this was producing trouble in america. Thats when we have labor strikes and they were shooting strikers in various parts of the country. We felt that there might be serious of people coming in the United States. The solution was to take foreign countries. You could not export to europe, and european colonies were protected. They existed to give exclusive trade to their mother countries. At my if we could take a wife, that would be a step to the philippines, and then we could take the philippines, but then it could be a springboard to the china market. There is article after article speculating on what it can mean to american industry and American Workers if the chinese could be made to eat beef instead of vegetables and rice. What about kotten, metal nails to build their houses. How many nails could we export . The specter of these giant new markets and the resources that would come out of them, as one senator came home with a negative gold from the philippines to show what we could get, were important factors enticing us into this new imperial career. Robin it starts to unravel in different ways. The u. S. Conquers cuba not a big accomplishment at that time. Stephen as i pointed out, we promise not to do that, then came this big question, we will not let cuba become independent because the rebels want to limit the amount of foreign goods, take over the giant plantations. We cant keep the promise we made, so we passed another law that said we will give you independence, but only if the u. S. Can veto everything you do. Robin roosevelt and others who have this fight found out that many cubans are black, and they recoiled from that. Wait a second, we dont want black people to be part of the United States and spoiling white america. Stephen absolutely. When we read the stories about the valiant cuban rebels, everybody loved him. They were heroes. Then the soldiers got there and found these people mostly black, so they were assigned to do the ditch digging and carry the supplies to the american soldiers, and they did not react so well to that. We also have a lot of reports that the cubans did not seem grateful to us. Why werent they grateful for coming in and saving them . Not realizing they had been at war for years. That had not been in the american press. You can actually trace some of the photos of one black commander of the cuban rebels. When he was first pictured in the u. S. , he was pictured as he was, black, but as the war proceeded, he got lighter and lighter, so it is true the shock of learning that black people were involved in government in cuba, if we allowed cuban independence, was one reason why we decided cuba cannot become independent. We had this view that, as one senator said in his speech on the treaty of paris, the opposition tells us we ought not to govern the people without their consent. High answer, the rule of liberty , and all just government derives its authority from the consent of government applies only to those capable of selfgovernance. We govern our children without their consent. This is the same attitude we took towards people who are not white. That is the real under text. White people can govern themselves, dark people cannot, therefore we have to go in, even though they are not asking us, and president mckinley had to square this odd circle, how can americans justify this . He made that speech in boston, the biggest banquet ever staged in history the United States, over 2000 people, and at that speech, mckinley had a great line, which you can hear again today. He said about the filipinos, did we neither consent to perform a great act for humanity . We had it in every aspiration of their minds and hope that their heart. So here he is saying the people who most need to be dominated by the United States are the ones who are so backward that they dont even realize they need our help. Robin in inter booker t. Washington. He stepped to the podium and says what . Stephen he was the leading africanamerican figure during that era, and he was focused on the struggle of colored people inside the United States, but as you see from reading africanamerican newspapers, they had a great interest in cuba and the philippines, and a great sympathy for the natives, much more than the mainstream american press. Booker t. Washington stood up at his speech when mckinley was giving an address in chicago and pointed out there was a cancer growing in american society, and that as long as we were oppressing people in other countries, we would then view with apathy the idea of doing that at home. It bears notee that the judge on the Supreme Court wrote the decision saying that it was other lands and also voted for the decision in which the court certified segregation as legal. Robin roosevelt makes his way to secretary of the navy with the help of lodge. They maneuver their way to the vice presidency, roosevelts