Kurt graham. Im the director of the Truman Library. Welcome to the Truman Library. Always a great pleasure to welcome and an eager audience. And we feel like just kind of in some ways getting back into swing of things here and having some great opportunities in the post pandemic to get together again. We as we used to and as we look forward to doing again. So thank you for being here. Were just delighted tonight to have this very special. Its such a unique opportunity, us and and for all of you everyone involved, to welcome Garry Kasparov to the Truman Library is a world chess champion, an author and a master of strategy and a great humanitarian who is concerned about the state of the world. And youre going to hear a little bit about that tonight. Someone whos spending his fame, his energy, his resources to try and make the world a better place for everyone in it. And i think there are only a handful of people who ever get to do Something Like that. And im very proud and happy to have him here. And its wonderful to be associated with him even these brief contexts. Gary is the author of three books, how life imitates chess winter coming why Vladimir Putin and the enemies the free world must be stopped and deep thinking where Machine Intelligence ends, human creativity begins. Hes also a contributor to many publications, including the wall street journal, the washington post, cnn and the new york daily news. He was born in azerbaijan, the soviet union, in 1963. By the age of 12, he became, the under 18 chess champion of the ussr. At age 17, he became the under 20 World Champion in 85, he became the youngest world chess champion in history at 22 years old in 2005 still ranked number one in the world. He retired from the profession, from professional chess. In 2012, kasparov was named chairman of the new york based Human Rights Foundation, which promotes individual worldwide. He knows a little something, the importance and how precious individual is because facing imminent arrest during putins crackdown, he moved from moscow to new york with, his family in 2013. In 2017, he founded the renew Democracy Initiative dedicated to promoting the principles of the world through education and advocacy, bringing together leaders, representatives from across the political spectrum, rti has become a leading voice for political reform and up for Democratic Values against regimes and influences. In 2022, in response to, putins all out invasion of ukraine kasparov cofounded the russian committee. The committee has published a plan, a russian transformation to a parliamentary democracy post, including abandoning all claims on ukrainian and other foreign reparations to ukraine, accountability for russian officials and the decentralization of power of russia. And of course, thats just on the side. I mean, hes known the as the chess guy, the us based Chess Foundation is a nonprofit that promotes teaching of chess in education around the world. And im delighted we have i dont know if some of them are here tonight, but had a local chess club over in the atrium earlier. After we toured the exhibits with garry, we able to walk through and see some of the kids playing chess. They didnt break their concentration. They didnt even look up as the World Champion by. They stayed they stayed focused. It was a real thrill for them, as you can imagine, to even be in the same room with with someone of his stature in a field that they themselves are interested in. Before i invite garry out, i just want to ask you to silence your cell phones, not to take any flesh photos or any recording during the during the presentation, the event is being recorded and therell be a link it later, so youll have a chance to, to do that. Im also had on the way in a chance to write a question on a, on a three by five card if you, if you have just done that now you can pass those the side the at the end of garrys talk dr. Sam rush our supervisory archivist will present some of those questions to garry so he can answer them for you. And well well that during the time that weve weve allotted for for this so i hope you i hope you have some questions and i hope enjoy tonights presentation. So without any further ado please help me in welcoming to the stage into the Truman Library, mr. Kasparov. Thanks to director im not as tall as your. Lets let be my last blunder tonight. Thanks to director kurt graham for this kind introduction. Its a great honor to be here. I can only imagine what my diehard communist grandfather have made of this miss here today, but instead i would rather speak today of my die hard anti communist father because of him. Its very special for me to speak the president ial library of my illustrious namesake. Yes, believe it or not, harry truman is not one of my personal heroes, but hes also the origin of my name which was quite unusual in the ussr my father named me for harry truman, but its a hard, good sounding russian. So its also garry truman and that famous wizard, gary porter. But when my name first started appearing in the western newspapers after my early chess successes at age 11, it was often incorrectly as the most common. Harry in english. But harry or gary, its an honor for this man from baku to bear the name of the man from missouri and to be here with you and with his spirit today in independence and there is no better time than now to remember harry truman and the berlin and, to remember everything. Both truman. And that bold plan represented because we desperately need people like him and both thinking like that today. We hear all the time these days about what supposedly can and cannot be done. Harry truman instead cared about needed to be done, and then found a way to do it. He was famously man of few words, but when those words are like the four he said about berlin, we will stay, period. He didnt need many four words can change the world and they did. This is the wrong audience for me to go on about a technical of the berlin airlift the astounding details are well known if hard to believe. 75 years later. Today we have a supply crisis. Every time there is a ship stuck in a canal or there is flag on the other side of the world. For over a year. From june 26, 1948, to september 30, 1949, american and, British Air Forces flew all quarter million flights to bring essential supplies to the people of the blockaded city the big american cargo planes alone flew over. 92 million miles. It was one of the grandest peacetime efforts ever. If you can consider pre cold war period to be peacetime Joseph Stalin and the ussr had been allies against the nazis just a few years, but truman had no illusions about the global threat. Stalin and communists represent it. He also knew that stalin had been hitlers only ally sharing responsibility for starting World War Two. Both were aggressors bent on conquest. The two monsters couldnt agree on how to divide world, ended up fighting each other, but there could be only vigilance against such a man. And yet imagine making decision to rally war weary america to cause of the berlin airlift, the most costly, horrific war in Human History had just ended and here was truman saying there was no time to relax. Not only was there there a dangerous new enemy, a former ally, but the us was going to send aid to germans imagine having to defend that on news every night had it exist. Honestly, i dont think truman would have killed. He did what he thought was right and what was necessary, not what was popular or easy. Today, russia is again on the march. The neighbor, the independent nation of ukraine. It is as clear the war of good versus evil as had been seen in generations. But some of the excuses given to avoid doing Everything Possible to support sound especially ridiculous. When we look back at the courage values expounded by president truman 75 years ago, america is tired of intervention after iraq and afghanistan compared to World War Two in 1948, compared the level of investment. It is absurd. The balance of power is also completely different today and much more in the free wars favor led by the us and later the democratic world has every advantage economically and militarily militarily. 5 of the us military budget could destroy every Russian Force in ukraine in less time than it took to fly a few thousand tons of aid into berlin. Our hesitation is matter not of limited Technical Capability or economic capacity, but lack of political will. All but putin has nukes and stalin not in 1948, is a popular reply promoted by kremlin allies and appeasers. There. There are several responses to this fallacy. The first is moral do we want to live in world where a murderous dictator can do whatever he wants . Because weapons now exist . That was not the choice of the leaders of the free world generations from truman, eisenhower, from kennedy to reagan, the ussr had nukes too as early as 1949, but america understood it was essential to stand up to communist aggressions everywhere. Stalin was never given a reason to doubt truman resolve. Second is the historical fact that putin, like most dictators advances escalates against weaknesses and retreats and bargains against, ranks making concessions to putin would make things more, not less. She doesnt need a deal or an off ramp. He needs a highway to help. Where this perilous point because warnings were not heeded when putin first invaded ukraine in 2014 showing more weakness would make Nuclear Confrontation more likely, not less. This is what history tells us and what truman understood well. We have forgotten. We must remember. The vocabulary of negotiation. Is it pleasant and one it is difficult. Argue against civilized concepts like, diplomacy and engagement. In contrast, deterrence and isolation. A negative theme that evokes the dark time of the cold war and its constant shadow of Nuclear Confrontation. No would like less a return those days than me or anyone else. Born and raised behind the iron curtain. The question is how best to avoid such a return. If the postwar of harry truman demonstrate understanding of any one thing . It is this just as there are good wars and bad wars, there is a difference between a good and a bad peace. Truman understood that there are things worth fighting, that there are enemies wars having the price of nevilles chamberlain infamous peace for all time was hitler in 1938 was incredibly high. We are seeing the price of years of engagement ceasefires and diplomacy was Vladimir Putin everyday in ukraine the price of a dictator always goes up with every delay, with every hesitation hesitation. The peace mongers favored strongmen. Is that the only alternative to appeasement is war, which makes sense when there is an already and escalating war in progress. The alternative diplomacy isnt war when it prolongs or worsen existing and gives the real warmongers a free hand. Deterrence is the alternative to appeasement. Isolation is alternative to engagement that has fueled more aggression. Perhaps its because i grew up in a communist country that i cannot so casually ignore the suffering of the people being left behind as these deals being made. Ronald reagan was called a warmonger by the same crowd that praised the bomber to skies. And yet reagan is the one who freed hundreds of millions of people. Commies york not the Richard Nixon and jimmy carter. People makes jokes about president bidens age. But he remembers the cold war, maybe the civil war. Saw. I couldnt resist the. But remembers the moral clarity of good and evil much more be done for ukraine and much quickly. But biden understands that its vital to be right on the things unlike his to obama and trump. If for very different reasons. Obama thought he could declare peace with everyone. Cuba, iran, russia. But he forgot that it takes two to make peace and they were not interested and to advantage trump, meanwhile, didnt want to make peace with. He wanted to befriend them and to imitate them. She sees the world the way putin does everything is for selfinterest and quid pro quo. Part of being right on the big things is believing that there is no moral equivalence between the free and unfree world. Stop about respecting cultural differences and traditions of cruelty. Misery in, the vigil. Freedom is better democracy is better. Equality under the law is. Better take it from someone who grew up without them. The free world must not apologize or make excuses for doing the right and necessary things. Yes, america made mistakes, but you are not punished for talking about them. America is not perfect, but it is still viewed by billions of people around world as a beacon of hope because it believes it is possible to always get better. This is why in 2017 i founded the renew Democracy Initiative to connect the fight for democracy at home with the fight against authoritarianism abroad. Our goal at rti is to remind americans how, in spirit all your values truly are to those us who have experienced life, the unfree world never take it for granted. When america is content to play the role of a just another bystander, it has a powerful ripple effect. Freedom house 2022. Freedom in the world report found overall drop in freedom for, the 17th consecutive year. It is no coincidence that this has happened as greatest defender of freedom, the United States abdicated role four years ukraine is where the trend can must end the response of the free world been strong, but we must not grow fatigued. Putin said zipline and the other socks. Hope we will. I reject tired premise of whether or not the United States should be the global policeman. Global leadership is what is required, not a cop on patrol occasionally shoots a few bad guys. Leadership means inspiring, aiding and influence and not being afraid. Use force when necessary. Courage is the quality that guarantees all the others. As trumans friend churchill wrote, but is not enough on its own. The free world must also use its advantage in strategic thinking. Something else truman demonstrated. Well beyond the berlin airlift airlift, even the most long leave dictators ready to look beyond tomorrows battles, its hard to look into the when you are always looking over your shoulder. Putin example may well be too deep in ukraine, but he slow down at all he needs more action, more conflict and more muddying the waters instead of pausing to clean up his messes the more crisis in congress can be very to act tactically due to their layers of political alliances, public and governmental accountability and checks and balances, not to mention the cautious evaluation of public opinion. The strength of the free world is strategic, not tactical. Common goals, political, economic stability and strong allow for long term planning and continue it after World War Two, Harry Truman Administration recognized need for a new set of institutions mostly to counter stalins aggressive assaults. The 1947 trumans doctrine established a principle opposing soviet advances wherever possible. A few short years saw the birth of nathan, the National Security council and the cia, as well as transforming voice of america from a wartime network into state department. This organization served their roles well for decades. They are still exist today, of course, but to different degrees. They lost their focus in the postcold war world. Neither wont act beyond letter of its mandate, although its finally beefing up its defenses along. The russian front, due to the demands of justifiably enormous former soviet works nations like poland and lithuania, whose all shortcomings need has become a far more effective guarantor of global security. The Franklin Roosevelts brainchild the united nations. The u. N. Puts, saudi arabia, cuba and russia on the Human Rights Council and would probably be happy to have russia on its Peace Council if existed, created preserve a tense bipolar status quo at the end of World War Two. The u. N. Lost its direction in 91. At the end of the cold war. It has turned into the ineffectual frozen awards and a cockpit in a tower of babel that churchill warned it might become in his famous sinews of peace speech in 1946, 143 miles away from here in to. The end of cold, cold war necessitated a new of institutions, or at least a serious revamping of existing ones, our institutions. Maybe out of date. But the principle is they were built to defend are not in amongst the overlook speech in 1951 dedicated the four chaplains chapel in philadelphia. President truman defended us military involvement in korea and elsewhere. He compared to the attempts to bring law and order to the early days on the American West and frontier. He said a man who wanted to see law and order prevail, had to combine the outlaws. They had themselves at they had to fight. Truman also understood that conceding in small faraway places would only bring greater conflict later. Quote, our men are in korea because we are trying to prevent a worldwide war. The men who died in korea have died to us from the terrible slow down destruction which another world war would surely bring, end quote. Trumans paternalistic attitude toward world order and his for the need for American Leadership communism are a little dated. Of course, and typically democratic the way not neoconservative. The actors, american role after World War Two was created and then expand by democrats truman and john f kennedy, while republican eisenhower to slow wage growth. Jfk is 1961. Inaugural is an unabashed statement of strengths, including the memorable line we dare not tempt them was witness. Truman spoke of alliances and partners. But in 1951, everyone tha