Very easy to focus on the grand battles of the war but this is a part that people need to know about. This is a part that affected civilians. This is a part that affected the people back home. And in many ways what happened in galveston and in texas was typical of what happened across the south. Particularly in seaports that were blockaded during the war. There was a continual, there was a continual Union FederalNavy Presence offshore, there were regular bombardments of the town. There was, you know excitement when a blockade runner would arrive. But its and there was lots of hardship. Lots of they did without a great deal. But it is, its something that people need to know about. Its another aspect of the war thats maybe not as heroic not as dramatic. Its part of the war thats very hard to glorify but its an important part of the war because it represents, it represents life as lived by a lot of people 150 years ago. For more information on booktvs recent visit to galveston, texas, and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles, go to cspan. Org localcontent. Author van hipp talks about his views on how to effectively deal with terrorism today next on booktv, its for serious readers television for serious readers. [applause] a little bit higher, if thats all right. Smiling faces, we love to see you here. The east room is duplicative, you know a replica of the east room of the white house. Only one difference, it has an opening to the expansion in the back if it gets too crowded in here. And that does happen occasionally. As many of you know the nixons were great travelers because of our heritage in general. We were always encouraged to go places meet people and be quiet. [laughter] dont can, dont say a word dont say a word until you know a little bit about who youre talking to. So i wont say much here tonight because i dont know all of you that well. But i do know that most you have an interest in the topic of the day and the night extraordinarily important to all of us, and i want to encourage all of you to pick up this book that were introducing. Ive, ive traveled, as i said, all over the United States, all the states many times, but theres one state in particular that you just cant get past. Its always stood out there. Its way down south, but among all the states those are the friendly people in the whole country. Theres just no getting around it. Even when i was a student at duke university, wed go down to South Carolina to buy fireworks. [laughter] they were always friendly to us. That might have changed nowadays but the important part is the people. And the people were always hospitable in every which way. You couldnt imagine more friendly people, even those of the opposite political persuasion. They would welcome you hoping that they could change your mind. In our family our mind was made up mostly because the that president on the corner over there was the one that persuaded the nixons way back in the 19th century to change from democrat to republican. And my dad never could get it out of his system. So weve always been republicans in name at least and the rest of it comes naturally. Well, theres a fellow up in the northern part of South Carolina that introduced me to a whole few spectrum of people. Traveling from spartanburg and greenville all the way across the state, through columbia and down to the coast. Up to myrtle beach, places we visited when we were students at duke. The whole state is an aaiz mag amazing amalgam of thinking people. They think. Theyre willing to argue with you, but theyre also willing to listen which was important in our family. Im just, im just amazed when i see these people showing up here tonight. Finish we have our authors family his wife, jane, their two their three children, jackson, trey, sarah camille. I think i got that right. Did i do that right . But youll notice that we also enjoy those double names. All over the south they like two names for a given name. Will[laughter] in our family that wasnt so. Julie and trisha were just julie and trisha. And since we got to this point of meeting somebody in other parts of the south i discovered a very important person who my friends, my former personal assistant in the 72 reelection campaign, tina, and her husband spike. And those folks just gather you in, and you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to meet in this one, you have to meet that one, and you have to get acquainted with them. So i almost became a politician by meeting them, but they did introduce me to this fellow, van hipp. And i tell you, van has hosted me every time i go to South Carolina driving across the state in his fancy jaguar. I dont know if he still has one of those, but doggone, that was a beautiful ride. Anyway, i want you to know that van hipp is one of my closest friends, and i watch him on television every chance i get every time i know about it, ask you ought to get accustomed to doing that yourselves. Van is a very important thinker, and he thinks before he speaks. And when he does say something, pay attention. Its extremely important. And what hes done tonight coming out with this book is extremely important for everybody in the country to read. The rest of the world ought to read it too because were going to wake up. We have to wake up. Its too important to ignore anymore. Van hipp, please come aboard and tell us about what your ideas are. [applause] thank you, ed. And what . I think weve got to get you back down to South Carolina. I know a great Fireworks Store i want to take you to so you can [laughter] were going to get you those fire works. You talk about hospitality, i want to thank the Nixon Library and chris and the staff here for the tremendous hospitality that you have shown me here tonight and all that went into doing this book launch. I really appreciate it. And my dear friend, ed nixon. Ed i appreciate you being here. I think its very appropriate and let me also thank everyone for being here. Ive got so many friends and family. A few years after 9 11 i was i was asleep one night and left the tv on, and all of a sudden they were showing the last interview that president nixon, one of the last interview is the he gave before he passed away. And one of the last questions was, mr. President as we approach the 21st century whoo should americans what should americans be most concerned with . President nixon did not bat an eye, he said the rise of islamic that fanaticism. I got a chill up my spine. But i should not have been surprised, because president nixon in one of his last books seized the moment, wrote, and i quote when he was talking about islamist fundamentalists quote they are motivated by a consuming hatred of the west and a determination to restore the superiority of islamic civilization by resuscitating the past. They seek to impose the sharia, the code of law based on the quran that recognizes no separation of church and state. And i could go on and on. Richard nixon was one of the best Foreign Policy president s this country ever had, and he was a visionary. [applause] it is fitting and proper that the launch of this book, the new terrorism how to fight it and defeat it, is being held here at the Nixon Library tonight. Why a book about this . Those of you who know me, for some time i wrote a lot of articles and did some tv appearances about iran and north korea, the real link between those two countries on their missile technology, their nuclear programs. A good friend of mine who had actually worked in the Reagan Administration helped me a lot to with this book said, you know what van . A lot of books on north korea, a lot of books on rapp, what we need and what on iran, what we need is a book about the totality of the threats to america and what its going to take to keep america safe. And so thats the project ive been working on the last several years, and thats why im here tonight. You know, one of the things whenever youre dealing with terrorism and this world on fire that we live in today you can never take anything for granted. You cant expect the expected. The story is told of thomas e. Dewey who back in 1948 was favored in all of the polls to defeat thenpresident harry truman. Well, on election day went when the latest poll was out predicting a dewey win by landslide proportions, thomas e. Dewey went to his wife and gave her a blank check and said, honey, i want you to go out today and buy the most expensive lingerie money can buy because tonight, tonight youre going to bed with the president of the United States. [laughter] well you know what happened. And she did. And the polls closed the early returns came in. It did not look good for tom dewey, and it only got worse. Well, by about midnight it was obvious truman had won the election. So tom dewey goes up to his hotel suite, the new york waldorf as tore or ya, and there in bed with all her new, beautiful lingerie on just staring at him was his wife. Well tom she said is harry coming over here, or am i going over there . [laughter] [applause] you can never expect the expected, and dont take anything for granted. Make no mistake, make no mistake, the threat of radical islam is the challenge of our time. And were not going to solve it by giving these people a job. The person who kidnapped and beheaded danny pearl was a graduate of the London School of economics. Bin laden came from a very prominent family. And in the book what i do and what i want to talk about tonight, i think its important that we understand the history of radical islam, what motivates islamists and then look at the threats, the real threats to this country from cyber electromagnetic pulse threat, things we need to do to secure our border, you name it. And how can we do this to keep america safe and also do it in such a way that we dont go broke in the process doing it. And thats what i want to do tonight. Its important to understand, like i said the history behind and what motivates radical islamists. Since the 15th century islamic scholars have wanted a return to their version of the good old days the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the caliphate and the first four caliphs. Their belief, the uma which spread its influence to the entire world had come under its way. Infidels would convert and live as second class citizens or be eliminated. The caliphate decline ceased to exist with the destruction of baghdad in 1258. Isis today has declared a caliphate. Over onethird roughly of syria and onethird of iraq. And theyre big on dates. September 11th 1683, the Ottoman Turks were defeated at the gates of vienna. Those kinds of things and thats what theyre trying to do. That meant as much to them, that was a humiliating defeat, almost as much as the in 1492 the spanish when they drove the moors out. Actually palestinen and thats important to realize because 70 of the population of jordan are not jordanians, theyre palestinians. I got to tell you a story. I first met King Abdullah almost 20 years ago when he commanded special forces. Then later on i was invited to go to the palace. When you go to the pala and king hussein was the king at the time. Before you see abdullah theres a family tree on the wall, hanging up, that begins with the prophet moo hamad and goes to king hussein and you see his kids, King Abdullah and so forth. It was put together and researched by a british colonel in the 1930s. I remember sitting there and looking at this, and i looked up and i saw the Prophet Muhammad. And i sue another line over here and you see where some of muhammad reside relatives are marrying other relatives, and i made the comment looks like this line as more of the Prophet Muhammads blood in it to which king an do las aide said you mustnt say these things in the palace. But with him stepping up to the plate, with now the president of egypt, assisi what he is doing we have six moderate arab countries stepping up to the plate, and who better who better on behalf of moderate and reform muslims to take the fight to radical islam than a direct descendent of the prophet. To borrow a line from president nixons book this is opportunity to seize the moment for the United States and show real leadership. We have a problem. Publish the fbi director testified a couple weeks ago that in 49 of the 50 states of the United States right now there are active files, investigations, of people with potential connections to isis. Open cases. Its not just enough to destroy isis militarily. Not just enough to destroy them and defeat them. We have to delegitimatize them so that they do not reconstitute themselves and have the ability to come back. The late general Sandy Davidson was a great fund of mine. The armys best general we had when it came to psychological operations. I never forget a time when i actually there was a humanitarian Christian Organization out of seattle, washington that actually wanted when he pakistan earthquake occurred in 2005, they wanted to get supplies and shelter and so forth to the people there. Long story short, i called up they called me and wanted to donate all this stuff. I called up centcom and spoke to general davidson. He says well get it over here, and i did. And probably wasnt two days later the general said if youre coming over with them to put up the tents. He said i want to see you over here putting up tents so we did. It was great experience for me to work with general davidson and a couple of things happened. I never forget one day we were going to a pretty bad area of pakistan to get there for that days work. And we as we made the turn of this small pakistani village, all of a sudden the van awas in, couldnt guy further. There will 100 people surrounding our van with signs and chants. It didnt look look a good situation. We had a guard with us, who was armed, and and he got out and then got back in. He said theyre doing demonstrations to thank america for what america is doing for them in this earthquake. Something i will never forget. And i learned a lot from general davidson. He was a big fan of the network, a network that our state department has to compete against some of the middle east networks that spew antiamerican venom 24 7. We need to do more to support that network which reaches a lot of young people in that part of the world exposing them to western values and we were ideals. About thing that is interesting, general davidson was fan of a guy named lloyd austin. General austin is the commander of centcom today in 20 2010 we had 90 of isis predecessors organizations, wiped out. General austin want tote leave a small residual force to make sure it diz not reconstitute itself. The president did not listen to general austin and now we have a much bigger problem on our hands. The 9 11 Commission Said that 9 11 was really a failure of imagination. We keep fighting the last war. We keep responding to the last terrorist attack. We have to get ahead of the curve. Isis is a cancer spreading radical islam is a cancer thats spreading. The cia estimates isis has 31,000, 32,000 troops. When you talk to the Kurdish Peshmerga who has been fighting them and other estimates are as high as 200,000. Its cancer spreading. You have to think outside the box. In my book i talk about the country of which has one of the Worlds Largest uranium reserves. What can our rainum be used for . To make muck clear weapons. And in my book i talk about the need to work with france because they got their independence from the french from 1960. The need to work with the french to get those uranium reserves and deposits out of niger. Thats in the big. Two weeks ago guess what happened . Boca haram, direct and basically an indirect affiliate of al qaeda and a terrorist organization trying to mimic and copy isis tactics began border attacks on niger. We have to think outside the box and get ahead of this. What id like to do is talk about these threats. The things we can do, and then also talk about how we do it, like i said in such a way that we dont go broke in the process. Border security is so important. [applause] the fbi director, robert mueller, said in 2011 that 59,000 people were apprehended coming 0 to the United States from countries other than mexico. They included yemen, somalia, iran syria and i can go on and on. 59,000 apprehended. My question where are the ones we did not apprehend . Where are they today and what are they doing in america . Thats why Border Security is so important. And there are things we can do to improve Border Security. The department of Homeland SecurityInspector General several years ago looked at the sense of technology to detect people coming across and bad substances such as radio active substances, they found 96 false alarms. The United States military has great censor sensor technology. They need to direct the pentagon to work with our customs and Border Patrol and get that kind of technology in the hands of customs and Border Patrol so we can have a better capability there. Theres also some Great Technology that has been developed by the oil and gas industry, seismic sensors, that can go a long ways to combating and picking up some of these tunnels, and the tunnels are increasing in frequency. We saw recently the situation with france, and the european the radical muslims get mad about because theyre doing a cartoon of muhammad do you remember a few years ago the danish cartoonist who called for the assassination of actually there was an imam who called for his assassination. Who had been banned from france, who had been banned from canada. Called for the assassination of the danish cartoonist. We caught him. You know where . In the back of the trunk of a bmw coming across the mexican border. Border security is so important to this country. We have to know who is coming in here. Another thing that area i think we can improve a lot is port and harbor securit