China and india because theyre large, big countries. But theres absolutely no intent on challenging soa. The chinese are building up forces and we have to watch that and asked for greater transparency. But theyre doing too good a job selling it to us. And so while i watch china with great interest as a professional manner, im not up to be china is going to become an enemyfg because it got nowhere been our enemy in the past and have gotten very far by not being counting the enemy. If you read the consequences as interest we need to have a clear idea of who would be taking over to power. With respect to iran, we need to put pressure on them. They are not going to give up their Nuclear Program easily. We have been trying to do this for eight or nine years. They keep insisting that its just for the production of power. But i have seen some of the things that have evolved. So you cant trust them. The solution may well be okay, if all you want is power, lets talk about how you can do that in the most strenuous regime of inspections even come up with. So that if you make the slightest mistake or you are lying to us, it is detectable and he will face the most serious consequences. Now, it means that we will attack and bomb and in my world of diplomacy, the most serious consequence doesnt tell you what well do. Let him worry about what we might do. Dont tell them what youre going to do. You just do it. So he will understand. He knows what we could do to him. The other thing that i am more heretical on the my colleagues in the Academic Community i have been around Nuclear Weapons as a soldier. Close to 50 years now. I was taught how to deploy Nuclear Weapons as a young captain at age 25. I was a Corps Commander in germany guarding part of the nato defense area. We thought we could only think face it for three days. So we calls for Nuclear Weapons. One day we were studying this problem and the battle reached the third day. And we needed a call for the release of Nuclear Weapons. And i said let me see the list that we have these on. They were all in west germany. Elections have come through. And it was so surreal. The weapons were there. I dont think we wouldve stopped the escalation of the take place. I learned from that experience that these things are really not usable. You can deter somebody with you. They are the ones that wanted to put in strategic defense systems. As chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, i have under my supervision some 28,000 Nuclear Weapons. 28,000 of them, all kinds. My russian colleagues and i would talk a lot about this. And i was saying that when the cold war was just about anything, we were talking candidly to one another in one day we were talking about the Security Systems that we had on our missiles to make sure that there werent any accidents. One of the systems we were talking about he had a level of security that was higher than mine. He had one more level of protection to keep them from being used. And i said, how come you have this . And he said we lost 40 Million People in the great patriotic war, world war ii. We dont ever want to take thatw again. O you know it and i know it. And i said that i agreed. The consequences because extensional consequences are as such that it is unimaginable. So when you look at iran, it has 80 Million People and its broke. Its under enormous pressure. People can say that they are crazy. Well, i find that a little bit difficult to internalize. Because we know they will be just what the next day. And they may want to go head and meet up in the sky, but the important thing for them, they feel is to die. You believe that they would defy the law that trent lott deck. I would not rely on a totally, but i would not dismiss it by saying that they are crazy. They are not crazy. They may not be like us, but they want to survive. They want to survive. The first thing is to use those weapons. So i think that the deterrence and containment played a role in all of this. But i dont want their Nuclear Program to go towards enrichment towards a Nuclear Weapon area so i think we ought to put all of the diplomatic pressure on them that we can. Because sooner or later it will cause them to rethink the awful position theyre putting themselves in. I once met with a diplomat and said what do you have to say about smalltalk. And we have to find 600,000 jobs every untrained ear, and not doing it. A great Political Force was at work around the world. And we need to understand here in the United States. The Wealth Creation through economic growth. China didnt get to be successful where it is now. They did it by making things that we wanted to buy. India is going in the same direction. They need to keep going to bring people up out of poverty. They want jobs. They want to get rid of corrupt governments. They want to adjust elect general leaders. What about one got in an argument with local authorities and said enough. And he started the arab spring movement. There are two microphones. We have time for some questions, and we will alternate from one side to the other. We begin with this microphone here. Okay. I am very proud that you are here tonight. I appreciate you being here to talk with us this evening. Since you have been on both sides of alaska was is, do you think that our military forces that it is comparable to anything else in the world . Are we asking to not only to defend them but to understand them . The principles and the reasons for the existence of the military is to defend us and by the states power. That doesnt mean we can do other things. But that has to be the Principal Mission in my humble view. The way the constitution is written, we raise and support onerous. Fundamentally when you look at japan and germany after world war ii, they were not run by diplomats. Douglas macarthur in a series of general is in germany and they were doing peacemaking and peacekeeping and they created Constitutional Government with these people. So the military can do just about anything that they are asked to do. Very competent Skilled Group of young men and women. They exist to fight the nations battles first and foremost. [inaudible question] can you move a little closer . I would like to ask you [inaudible] [applause] well, i did this one go and as robert said, and its in the books, it was an enormously difficult time. Because i felt this obligation that was being put upon these people. They said we dont like you. It was not always an animus is suggested. Well push it over the edge was there was not a single morning i woke up when i thought was the right thing to do. Im still basically a soldier. And there was never a morning where i wanted to get up and go out and do that. I am so glad that we had the obamas and romney is and all the rest of them. And also im not always in favor of it. You see, we have been married this summer 50 years. And we have been a team for 50 years. [applause] the decision was 100 beginning with me. And of course she shared my view. And people say well, you know, shed marry me when im the chairman. She married me when i was a young captain heading off to vietnam for years, leaving her behind. We are very close to serve . There is another part of the book says the best thing about being disappointed if you get over it. [laughter] thank you. Was different . Do you think that educators should allow more choice among the young [inaudible question] this is a fascinating question we could spend an hour on. Must publicschool education, thats what you are suggesting. I know thats what youre suggesting. [laughter] okay. One of the things that i have found, and i only took over this in recent years. I have gone over certain things. In high school i was exposed to stuff the bored me to death at the time. Thirty or for 40 years later, i remember it with vividness. And then we have an appreciation i can still remember the night watch. Canterbury tales by chaucer. All of these things that our children need to be exposed to and not just how i pass this math and science tests. How i get through the next day. It would be a shame we dont expose our children to the right things and give them greater choice with what they want to do with their life. Most of them at that age are not sure. Sooner or later, something will touch them. I know where id be if my life and have been a pattern of 17. Keep looking for the thing that youd do you do well in the thing you love doing. And dont stop. It is not fame and fortune or the amount of money that you make are the titles that you get. Its doing what you do well. I was talking to a group of students not too long ago. They couldve sent me home anytime they wanted and i would have been happy. You have to get kids down from wanting to make a ton of money. The guy who invents facebook or something. You have to get them to find out what they love doing and help them to not stop looking until they find it. Sir . [inaudible question] i was an american with europeans [inaudible question] there were so many things that shocked us completely. Then there was an awful lot of movement there were caravans leaving into syria. Can you say anything about that . I saw those reports and we looked at them pretty thoroughly. A lot of people said well, the weapons were there and they were either buried or sent to syria. I have seen no evidence that either of those things account for that. There were no weapons. When you say that you feel the u. S. Military has significant geopolitical information, some feel that the same level of military spending needs to be maintained to the detriment of domestic spending that could benefit us here at home. [applause] im not sure what the level should be. At the end of the cold war, i dont know that that level is in the cards. I dont think so. But i think the pentagon should be like any other governing department, analyzing to see what we dont really need. There a lot of hardware that will be challenged and the pentagon will have to make further reductions. Should not spend a dollar more for military spending we need to. We have to find the right balance. And i have confidence in the people who understand the strength of the country comes from an economy thats working well. Defense spending is at the expense of domestic spending. We will spend what we think we need on domestic issues as well and domestic programs as well. So constrained spending for that which is absolutely needed, domestic spending should be what is needed for the taking care of people and infrastructure and all the other things that we need. But everything should be on the table. It was a mistake not to accept the proposal they came from simpsonbowles. Everybody had come to the table ready to give up something. That did not pass political muster. And now we are trying to figure out how to live beyond that. Whether its the pentagon or however we do it, we cannot keep spending 3 trillion a year and only taking in 2 trillion a year. The answer is easy. We borrowed money and our grandkids will pay for. Well, we ought to figure out how to their Government Spending down. Which means all of us have to give up something. I can think of several things that you can take with me tomorrow that i can complain about. So there are ways to cut spending and also reform the tax code which is absolutely terrible. So the things we can do that you cant quite find the right combination of Political Support and politicians for whom move in this direction. And it didnt isnt just because of an election. It is those of us here in this country he is examining the examining the issues and what all these books and forth. Not only what they say they will do, but what they will be able to do because of the strength of their party. We are in charge of this right now. Not the super pacs and rich guys writing checks to people. We need to back away from all the Television Commentators and start taking a hard look at where we are now. [applause] are you saying that if the cuts that would take the best but its doable . I think the sequestration is not going to happen even though its on the books. I dont think its going to happen. Because the consequences will be too severe for domestic spending before the defense spending. Sequestration would double that number. The pentagon is not able to take that kind of reduction. Since congress put us into the law, they are just as capable of taking it out of the locked. We have just a couple moments for another question. Yes, thank you, i was wondering if you could talk about the leadership principles. [inaudible question] so what can leadership show us and what advice can you give us cars having a strong personality. Yes, strong personalities. George Herbert Walker bush, the personality was very strong as well. It includes some of the personalities of the second bush of the first term. We got along well. This time around we got along with so many issues. If you look at what we did to expand nato and support the european union, what we did with hiv and aids. What we did to increase the amount of assistance that we give to the rest of the world. A lot of things we did well and in total harmony. The issue of iraq was appealing. But we have different points of view as to how many troops were needed, how we should resolve some of the issues, in early 2004 we realized we want working as well as we should, as a team. It seems like now there are others who have a frequency in regards to this. The president understood the problem. In my view, we were not functioning as a team. So how do you function . Everyone needs to have a common purpose or view. They need to trust with each other. I think we couldve done a better job with that. And as i say, i was probably one of us the most out of sync with the others. The president thought that was a good idea as well. I appreciate your point of view so much. Thank you. [applause] one more question from the audience. My question is about americans saying what is wrong with america. I personally happen to believe that with the land of prosperity and opportunity, in your opinion, what is right with america . So much. We have a wonderful democratic system that is noisy, it looks like its riddled with conflict, but its always been that way. Its been designed that way. But right now it is getting a little harder to resolve. But our democratic system has stood the test of time. We have faced slavery and wars and all kinds of challenges. We ultimately come out the other end in pretty good shape. Its the other guys who fell apart. China realized we have to be friends with the americans. So we have this makeup as a nation and a people that takes us through difficult times. And when you look at some of the Founding Fathers and what they went through, these guys really found each other. [laughter] the two documents i would like to read our jeffersons first and second. In his first inaugural address, it is a beautiful address talking about america and what it means and what were going to do for the people. Four years later when he wrote his second address, he was mostly mad and annoyed. He was mostly annoyed at the press. [laughter] there is a long section where hes going on and on. One of the states lock these people up, he says. Seriously, i am paraphrasing a little, but not much. Saying that they are violating the laws, this and that, and then he pauses and in a typical manner he says given the choice, between allowing people to speak freely or throwing them in jail, i choose the former. And everybody speaks long enough, the truth will win. It will always beat out the lies and overcome. We live by that principle. And we have the best economy. Its the strongest economy in the world. So we have a Strong Economy and military and i think political Wealth Creation is also very important. Above all, we have glue that holds us together as americans. And when i really think about this and see the waves of immigrants that come through the country, it has to do with what it means for americans and how we affect the rest of the world. Even though people are complaining about us, people line up at our embassies and consulate offices. And people say they want to come to america. The japanese conglomerate asp what city was his favorite and he said, new york. He said new york city is the only one i walked down the street, people come up to me and asked questions. [laughter] if you try them in paris and it wont be the same. [laughter] so they were renewed in fresh with every generation of americans and immigrants coming here. Immigrants go to europe to get jobs. And they also come here to be americans. Try that in europe and see it hell works. The final story is walking up park avenue on a beautiful day. I love to look at the shops and churches. I love to admire all the people going by. I always have to stop at one of the cross streets. I always have to have one. So even when i was secretary of state, i would come out of my suite at the waldorf astoria and start up park avenue and have five bodyguards around me and police cars that will alongside me to make sure that nobody whacked me on park avenue. [laughter] and i always stopped. I always stopped and ordered my hot dog. And then he would say you have a green card you have a green car. [laughter] the kind of the something with this. [inaudible] he starts to hand it to me and he says, i know you, i have seen on television. And i think okay. In the end of the money, and it happens over and over. And he says he cant hit me. And you dont have to pay me. He said america has already paid me. This is still the same way that my parents were greeted many years ago. Dont ever sell people short. Thank you so much to everyone. Thank you all. On tomorrows washington journal, a discussion of the car industry with justin hyatt. The Vice President of taxpayers for common sense, Stephen Ellis and frederick kaufman, the author of on how corporations in the financial industry influence what we eat. Washington journal begins live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan. The big discussion that i remember was what is Richard Nixon going to do. I can remember going home at night and being scared of that. This is like a timebomb. You know, its a disaster for all of us. The gener