Want to segregate themselves . Arent they all trying to to, you know, form their own clubs or their own cliques . Well, some of thats true. Thats true of asianamericans. Its true of many groups. And if we want to really have a racially diverse, integrated society, we have to fight our own tendencies to do that. But partly, theres a difference. Your grandchildren are going to be my grandchildren. Theres going to be intermarriage. And and we have a shared future here. But if whites are anxious about being a minority you know what that shows . It shows two things. It shows theres some advantages to being white. Theres a hierarchy, theyd have to to give something up. And second, it shows were not yet really color blind because whites could never look around the room and say, whoa, im a minority. But thats not how it works. We may aspire to that, but we dont have that reality. Cspan your brothers, nelson and carson, what do they do . [laughter] guest theyre writers. Tear twins. Themson edits nelson edits an englishlanguage magazine in taiwan. They both moved to taiwan. Nelson married a girl whos from taiwan, and then carson well, because theyre twinses, twins have a, i think, a special bond, he moved over there too. Can so that leaves me, to my shock, the only member of my immediate family residing in the United States. Thats im amazed that my brothers did this, because my brothers were born in detroit, you know . They lived their entire lives here. For them to make this transition, its not one that i envy. I would not headache a transition. Make that transition. Cspan you went to university of Michigan Law School . Guest thats right. Cspan any other schooling before you got to harvard where you teach . I practiced law in San Francisco for a few years, just long enough so i know what im talking about in the classroom. Cspan and next year where are you going to be teaching . Guest im going to go back to the law school that i went to, looking forward to that. Itll be very different. Cspan chairman of the d. C. Human Rights Commission . Guest thats right. Thats Something Else that i to because i believe this these causes, and i want to make sure that im involved. Im not just writing and talking. Cspan want to run for office . [laughter] guest if youd vote for me, ill think about it. Cspan is that something thats this the back of your head . Guest well, people ask me that every now and then. Im flattered. Im tremendously flattered. I dont think thats where my strengths are. Im here to talk about these issues and try to cultivate leaders. What im trying to suggest is every one of us has to see this as not a burden, but as our responsibility. We cant just wait for someone to emerge to say i will be the leader, i will be the spokesperson. I always turn down that role. I say, no, its not me. Its all of us. Its every one of us. Its a shared common cause. Cspan this is the cover of the book, its called yellow, and our guest has been frank wu. Thank you very much. Guest thank you. The redesigned book notes web site features over 800 notable authors interviewed about their books. You can view the rams and use the searchable day a base and find links to the authors blogs, web sites and twitter feeds. Book notes dog with a brand new look. Org with brand new look and feel. A great way to watch and enjoy the authors and their books. Youre watching booktv on cspan2. Heres our prime time lineup for tonight that all happens next on cspans booktv. Booktv continues with hugh wilford. Mr. Wilford recounts the cias early forays in the middle east in the 1940s and 50s. The operations were led by Theodore Roosevelts grandson, held of the regions covert actions, who was assisted by his cousin, Archie Roosevelt, chief of the beirut station. The author reports that these mens actions would inevitably lay the groundwork for current Foreign Policy relations between the u. S. And middle eastment this is about an hour. [applause] thank you so much for that kind introduction, and like to add my thanks to everybody here tonight for coming out in these conditions. If you hadnt already guessed from my accent, im originally from england, and ill be heading back shortly, so this happens, perhaps, preparation after Southern California for a british winter. Just like to begin by saying a few words about how first, how i came to this subject before describing some of the themes of the book. Now, as youve already heard, my previous book, the mighty wurlitzer, was about cia front groups in the early years of the cold war. These are, apparently, private, nongovernment organizations made up of anticommunist, private citizens engaged in cold war prop began da overseas. Propaganda overseas. It later emerged these groups were, in fact, being secretly funded and to some extent managed by the cia. Now, one group i didnt really engage with in the mighty wurlitzer was the american friends of the middle east. Mainly because its purpose didnt seem to be so much to do with the cold war as with promoting the arab world to an american audience. And also it was antizionist, battling the influence of the emerging israel lobby in 1950s america. And this just seemed so sort offed. And i think odd. And i think i didnt really know quite what to do with it. I mentioned it, but put the american friends of middle east to one side, as it were. After the mighty wonderful litser, i came back to this story and ban beganning into it further. And soon realized the main cia officer involved in the creation of the american friends of the middle east was none other than kermit Kim Roosevelt. Now, this name might already be familiar to you before this evening because he is known as the cia officer who led the 1953 coup operation in iran that toppled the nationalist government of the Prime Minister and restored the rule of the shah. And also, as weve just heard, Kim Roosevelt was sort of an american aristocrat. He was brand son of Theodore Roosevelt. Grandson, and head of the, an early head of the cias middle east division. Thus, his field command of the 1953 coup which, of course, is a sort of, has sort of been cited as a classic case of blowback. It high averted a cold war crisis at the time, but it led to years of u. S. iranian hostility. So i guess right away, even before i started out, i had really two questions. First of which was what was the cia doing funding this proof arab, antizionist group, not perhaps what one would expect the cia to be doing. And why was Kim Roosevelt the enemy or man known as the enemy of nationalism in iran . Why was he backing this group which, among other things, advocated for Arab Nationalists like the egyptian gamal. Well, i did a lot of research in government records. Not so much the cias own records because they are, they remain classified or have been destroyed. But if you sort of snoop around many other record groups, especially those of the state department and also go to British Public records as well, you kind of learn a surprising amount of information about cia operations in this period, also collections of private papers and interviews with surviving Intelligence Officers of the day and family members of my main characters. What emerged from this research was an account of cia in the 1940s and 1950s, and this is at moment really birth of cia comes into existence in 1947. And this is also really the beginning of official u. S. Involvement in the middle east. Theres been very little official presence there prior to this period. So what emerged was this history of the cia in the middle east during these crucial decades, but with at its core Kermit Roosevelt, its partly a biography of Kermit Roosevelt, but its a group biography. It also includes Archie Roosevelt, kermits cousin, another grandson of t. R. And this somewhat colorful, rambunctious personality from a very different background, from the aristocratic roosevelt cousins, Miles Copeland. Hes from the south, from alabama. Compared with the roosevelts, i guess sort of the wrong side of the tracks. And he later becomes this very sort of indices crete discreet, gaer louse [inaudible] hes left the agency on intelligence affairs. Hes also probably the father of stuart copeland, the drummer for the police, in case you didnt know that. Now, together these three men, archie and Kermit Roosevelt and Miles Copeland helped shape the cias Early Program in the middle east. And as Kim Roosevelts involvement in the iran coup of 1953 perhaps suggests, this involved creating quite a lot of disorder in the middle east, various attempts at various coup operations and attempts at coups that left a legacy of of antiamericanism, still troubles u. S. Relations with the region today. But at the same time, these men were arabists; that is, they knew a great deal about the arab world, and they were surprisingly sympathetic towards it. Sincerely believed that they had its best interests at heart. So what this book attempts to do is capture this surprising moment when the cia was most definitely proarab and ask where did this impulse come from, this arabist impulse come from, and where did it go . Why did it eventually become eclipsed by other impulses in u. S. Foreign policy . Well, just to sort of sketch the answers to these questions which emerge from my research, first, as to where this arabism originated, well, to some extent it came from the british who were, of course, the dominant western power in the middle east righter the u. S. industry into the entry into the region in the early years of the cold war. The roosevelt cousins in particular were captivated by the example of earlier british arabists, in particular t. E. Lawrence, lawrence of arabia. They both read up, they both grew up reading his account of his involvement in world war i, the seven pillars of wisdom. Kim roosevelts father actually knew lawrence personally and corresponded with him. So they imbibe sort of tradition of the romantic british attraction towards the arabs. This was also where the concept of the great game came in. In addition to lawrence, they read rudyard kipling, the british bard of the British Empire and the author of this adventure story about a young angloindian spy in india at the time of the rajj which really shaped Kermit Roosevelts childhood in particular, his imagination and his childhood. Its where his nickname of kim, which stuck with him through his adult life, came from. And i think its from this sort of this british influence that the roosevelt cousins in particular get this notion of the middle east generally, the orient as sort of place of potential adventure, for heroic espionage games. But this isnt the only influence on them. I hi its also important i think its also important to realize that there was another tradition on which they drew, a distinctively american one. And it was a sort of nonofficial one. Its the legacy left by a generation of american missionaries in the middle east, missionaries that first started going to the arab world in the early 1800s, hadnt succeeded in converting many of the nonchristians there to christianity, but nonetheless, they had left this important legacy in the region, founded schools and hospitals and, in particular, universities. The American University of way route is the most Important Institution in the arab world prior to the 1940s and 1950s. And it was a creation of these missionaries who identified with arab nationalism. There was this clear relationship between institutions like the American University of beirut, aub, and the creation of nationalist ideology in the arab world. So in addition to this British Imperial tradition, the cia arabists are also drawing on this history of missionary, hearn missionary engagement american missionary engamement with the middle east which is transmitted to the young cia through a number of people of missionary stock who ran the u. S. espionage effort in the middle east during world war ii. Characters like William Eddie and his biographer, thomas litman, is here tonight. So i think this really is the explanation of the puzzle that i started this research with, which is what was the cia doing funding an organization like the american friends of the middle east. And it also explains this sort of arabist element within the young cia, helps explain why it was that Kermit Roosevelt also organized a covert backing for gamal nasser in egypt. So at the same time, thats kermit at the same time Kermit Roosevelt is overthrowing the nationalist Prime Minister of iran, he is aiding the cause of the Arab Nationalist leader of egypt, a government that was created in the wake of the 1952 egyptian revolution against the british monarchy of king farooq. And Kermit Roosevelt dispatches a cia team led by Miles Copeland to cairo. Copelands cover at this point is that of a Booz Allen Hamilton employee, and that name might be familiar to you because it was also the company employing Edward Snowden at the time of his revelations about, this sa surveillance. Nsa surveillance. And the Miles Copeland and the Booz Allen Hamiltons involvement in cairo suggests theres this kind of element of advertising and Public Relations. Americans sort of Public Relations know how is conveyed to the nasser regime through not just copeland, but he has a friend, james eick l burger eichelberger, whose actual background is with the american advertising company, j. W. Thompson. So i call this chapter in my book mad men on the nile. [laughter] theres this sort of mad men performing these secret operations in cairo element to my story at this point. So i wont go into any more detail about the forms that cia arabism took. You can read about those in the book. But i do want to say a few words about the decline of cia arabism, whys it is that the arabists, proarab, antizionist agenda ultimately failed. Because, clearly, fail it did. Nasser became estranged from the United States and really became quite antiamerican. After 1956 the u. S. Throws its weight not so much behind Arab Nationalists, as behind conservative, sort of British Colonial era leaders in the middle east. Meanwhile, at home the american friends of the middle east, that cia front group that is advocating on behalf of nasser and the cause of arab nationalism generally and attacking american zionists suggesting that the u. S. Shouldnt be so much behind israel. Afme and nasser and the u. S. Identification with arab nationalism increasingly gives way to support for conservative regimes and proisrael Foreign Policy. The cia arabists themselves as a group split up by 1958. Kermit roosevelt has quit the agency, so, too, has Miles Copeland. Theyve both gone to the oil industry for somewhat more profitable employment. And Archie Roosevelt, meanwhile, he stays with the cia, but he is moved to another region. Now, there were various forces undermining the cia, cias arabist program from the outside. John foster dulles, secretary of state at the time, takes a strong personal dislike to gamal nasser. The british prove very effective at securing american support for their, basically, antinationalist agenda in the u. S. , excuse me, in the middle east so that the u. S. Starts to rally around british client regimes in the region. Conservative arab leaders themselves also contribute to this move within u. S. Foreign policy. But i think that there is also a big internal problem as it were with cia arabism, and that is that they are so attracted to that tradition of lawrence and kipling and the great game that they resort too readily, too easy to covert operations in order to address u. S. Policy challenges in the middle east. I think this is particularly true of Kermit Roosevelt whose nickname, kim, conjured up the great game. And i think its just a return to that initial sort of conundrum that i started out with, why is it that Kermit Roosevelt, the friend of arab nationalism, is working to overthrow a nationalist Prime Minister in iran. I think if you study papers and you read his memoir of this event, you know, its clear that the cold war, u. S. Coveting of iranian oil fields, these were important considerations for Kermit Roosevelt as they were for other americans involved in the planning of this operation. But for him personally i think the, what really caused him to run this operation and see it through to the end was this desire to play spy games, to sort of act in the tradition of lawrence and the hero of the novel that had inspired his nickname. Kermit roosevelts memoir, the 1953 operation countercoup which was published rather unfortunately in 1979, the year, of course, of iranian revolution, Kermit Roosevelts memoir reads almost like an oldfashioned british adventure story. In the tradition of kipling or john bucken in partic