We continue with james corden who is in the film into the woods and will replace or succeed Craig Ferguson at the late late show on cbs late night. In a sense its a destructive fairy tale in a way, in that at the very start of the film, all of these characters are longing for something, the very thing that they think will make them happy. And the message of the film is sometimes the very thi that you want is not what you need. And youve got to be careful what you wish for. Rose we condition include this evening with Sylvia Jukes Morris, her new back is called price of fame the honorable clare booth luce. She was so multifacetted. She was very good at everything that she tried to do. And that was starting out for the Olympic Swimming Team when shes with just a teenager and going on to have all those fantastic careers of not only war correspondent, playwright. Diplomat, ambassador, congresswoman. David martin, james corden and Sylvia Jukes Morris when we continue. Funding for charlie rose is provided by the following additional funding rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. We begin this evening with the president and his announcement of the resignation of his secretary of defense chuck hagel. Last month chuck came to me to discuss the time quarter of my presidency and determined that having guided the department that you this transition, it was an appropriate time for him to complete his service. And as the president noted, i have today submitted my resignation as secretary of defense. Its been the greatest privilege of my life. The greatest privilege of my life to lead and most important to serve. To serve with the men and women of the Defense Department and support their families. I i am immensely proud of what we have accomplished during this time. We have prepared ourselves as the president has noted, our allies, and Afghan NationalSecurity Forces for a Successful Transition in afghanistan. We have bolstered enduring alliances and strengthened emerging partnerships while successfully responding to crises around the world. I interviewed chuck hagel last week at the pentagon towards the end of a wideranging conversation. I talked about rumors that the president planned to make changes in his National Security team. Hes looking at his last ta years. And maybe he wants to change his National Security advisor. Maybe he wants to change his secretary of defense. Maybe he wants to change other elements, is that true . Well, you would have to ask the president. But do you concern yourself with it . No, first of all, i serve at the pleasure of the president. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity ive had the last two areas to work every day for the country and for the men and women who serve this country. I dont get up in the morning worried about my job. Its not unusual, by the way, to change teams at different times. Rose so you would expect him to change . I didnt say that. I didnt say i expect him to change. What i am saying is that it wouldnt be unusual to do that, first of all, historically. But second, i have got to stay focused on my job, charlie. And i do. And i am very fortunate that i have some of the best people in the world to work with. And whatever the president decides, hes the president , he makes those decisions. Rose are you convinced you have the confidence of the president . Well, i dont think i would be here if i didnt. But you would have to ask him that. I mean i see him all the time. Rose he would tell you if he didnt . I would think so, yes. Rose what would you like your legacy to be . What im not thinking about that. Not worried about it. Actually, ive always just done every job the best i could, as honestly as i could, as straightforwardly as i could. And then ill let the rest all sort it out. Rose joining me from washington david martin, the National Security correspondent for cbs news, and im pleased to have him on this program. Welcome, david. Thank you. Rose so what happened to the secretary of defense . Well, if you play the Old Washington game of did he jump or was he pushed, i think you would have to say the secretary of defense was nudged over the side. There were all these stories attributed to Anonymous Sources that there were going to have to be changes in the president s National Security team. And he starts having a series of meetings with the president , that talk about the next two years, the remainder of the obama administration. And during these meetings, the president never asks him to stay. So i think chuck hagel who is certainly a veteran of washington politics saw the handwriting, and tried to leave on his own terms, and submitted his resignation. Without being asked. Without being asked, yes. Why do you think the president didnt ask him to stay . I dont think it was his views. I think if anything, it was that the white house was disappointed that he wasnt more vocal in his defences of administration and National Security policy. They did not see him as a great spokesman for their cause. But i think there was also just the imperative after the shell acting that the democrats took in the midterm election, that there had to be some changes made. And when you looked around the National Security establishment, chuck hagel was kind of the guy holding the short straw. What was his relationship to the National Security council . Well, the reputation he had was that he was not very forceful in those meetings. He did not speak up at length in those meetings. His story was that the reason he didnt speak up at length in those meetings was because you could never be sure that it wouldnt leak. And what he had to say, he would say to the president directly in one on one meetings. Somewhere i think it was in the New York Times today someone said that when the president appointed his friend and former colleague in the senate, chuck hagel, he did not want another high Profile Defense secretary in the mold of bob gates. Does that resonate with you . Well, he got one. Rose yes. You know, bob gates was high profile because at the time that was it was an oddity to have a guy who had served republican administrations to be the secretary of defense for a democratic president held over from the bush administration. And because the stake approximates were so high at the time. I mean that was the that was the time of the troop surge into iraq. And that was the time of the great battles over whether there would be a troop surge in afghanistan. And it would have been almost impossible for bob gates not to be high profile. Not to mention, the raid on Osama Bin Laden as well. Rose leon panetta has written a book which i assume you have read, about his own life and about his wrip relationship with the obama team and about how he felt about his tenure as secretary of defense. Is there any similarities between what he said and what chuck hagel experienced . Micromanagement, micromanagement, micromanagement. That is that is everybodys complaint about the white house. In fact, i heard one military officer refer to it as nanomanagement. The white house just plays it very, very tight. And is all over your case on even the slightest matters. And sometimes arranges things without telling the secretary of defense. And i think that was true for every secretary of defense under president obama. Thats just the way this crowd rolls. I do not see that as a cause for resignation. Thats just one of the things you have to live with if you ares going to be secretary of defense in the obama administration. I talk to you, i hope you dont mind me saying this, because i respect you so much, talked to you before i did an interview with chuck hagel and the secretary of defense about policy issues and other matters. And not because of my conversation with you, but because i read a bit, and i asked him pointblank, did he have the confidence of the president. Give me the time line of that. That interview was on thursday, as i remember. Late last week was the was the time in which he made the decision to hand in his resignation. Although he actually went through the procedure over the weekend. It was late last week that he made the decision. So when he said to you, i dont wake up in the morning worrying about whether im going to keep my job as secretary of defense, he was telling the truth because by that time, he probably already knew that he wasnt going to keep his job as secretary of defense and that it was his joyce that he was leaving. But he didnt have did he or did he to the have the confidence of the president when he said to me, if i dont have the confidence, im sure the president will tell me. I think he had the confidence of the president. You know, its its impossible to penetrate those oneonone meetings between secretary of defense and the president of the United States. But i never saw any evidence that he didnt have the confidence of the president of the United States. A lot of attention has been focused on this memo he wrote about the inconsistencies in u. S. Policy towards syria in which, you know, he basically said there is a disconnect between trying to defeat isis and insisting that assad must go because of course in defeating isis you are solving one of assads major problems. Well, he wrote that memo and almost immediately there was a big white house meeting to discuss it. Yeah. So people were paying attention. Rose yeah, because in fact, in my conversation with the secretary of defense, you know, i raised that question, as you know, socalled holistic memo that they needed a holistic policy was in his words, and asked him what he said, he explained to me that he wouldnt that it was not his point to tell me what he wrote to the president or to the National Security team. But what was interesting, is that he said clearly that if, in fact, the bombing has an impact, it weakens isil. An if it weakens isil, it strengthens assad. I think its a fact of life. And they havent figured out how to square that circle yet. I think theyre going to try to do it through the cia by ramping up the covert training and equipping of the syrian moderate opposition that they can perhaps put more pressure on assad. But it is a disconnect in the policy. And the fact that hagel is leaving is not going to change that disconnect. Can i just i mean, what pervades all of this is whether the president understands hes got a real problem with isil. Hes got to do something because its a real threat. And hagel said to me the number one priority for him and for the president , as he looked at National Security issues, i mean, and we also, the question has come up in different places, are they reviewing the options . Is there under way on the part of the United States government a serious look at where we are, what were doing, and what we feed to be doing and how do we get there . Well, if you mean a reassessment by the president saying hey, this isnt working, weve got to go back at this from square one and think this whole thing through again, i dont think theres that kind of reassessment going on. I think there is the obvious reassessment. They have meetings on syria all the time. And theyre always trying to figure out how to make it work better. But you know, the basic strategy is iraq first and that is coming along with a slower than anticipated. But its coming along. And if you look at the number of air strikes that are conducted daily now, the majority of the air strikes are now beginning to happen in iraq. And what that means is that the iraqi army is beginning to make some movement that requires air support. So the policy is creeping forward. But the end game in syria is still a mystery to everyone. And i think that the president understand its all this in much greater detail than you or i because he sees all that classified information. But his problem is to somehow solve the issue of syria without getting sucked in more deeply into that civil war with these proposals of, for instance, providing a safe haven in Northern Iraq or some sort of nofly zone. To which hes been resistant up until now. Are there any is general dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs and secretary hagel essentially on the same page about all these big military issues . Or do they have competing views of a serious nature . Well, i would bet that secretary hagel wished that general dempsey would not be quite so forth coming about his his desire to have Forward Air Controllers call caing in strikes when the fighting gets hot and heavy in iraq. But theres really not a lot he can say to dempsey about that. Because dempsey is saying this when he testifies before congress and hes just required by law to give congress his best military advice. So hes up there sort of establishing himself as an independent source of military advice. And its kind of hard for either the secretary of defense or the president of the United States to say hey, knock off the independent advice. Rose when you look at the record of chuck hagel, what are the as secretary of defense, what are the big successes if. Hes been secretary of defense for less than two years. And in an organization as large as the department of defence, you cant do much in two years. So all of the stuff that he has sort of initiated, his Nuclear Reform program, hes got a whole bunch of initiatives on sexual assault. He just wasnt been around long enough for the results to come in. You know, my experience is that secretaries of defense end up being judged as successful depending on how successful the president he serves. Yes. Is judged. So you look at bob gates. He came in for the iraq surge. Iraq surge works at least in the short term. And so he was viewed as a successful secretary of defense. Chuck hagel came in in time for this major strategic reverse when iraq came apart and isis ran across half of iraq. Almost none of that can you blame on chuck hagel. But it happened on his watch. Rose and therefore the last question is, who is likely to replace or succeed chuck hagel . Well, the name on everybodys list is michelle fornoway who was the undersecretary of defense for policy which is the number three job in the building earlier in the obama administration. Shes highly regarded by everyone. She has a family. And children. And so she she left and to take a job that was had a little more reasonable time demands. And so now she is on everybodys list. She would be the first woman to be secretary of defense. But look, youre talking about somebody who has a life in the civilian world and youre asking them to give that up for the final two years of the administration when almost everything is already set in stone. So thats a big ask of anyone. And then you have to look at the call ep der and realize that the confirmation hearings are probably not going to start until next year which means john mccain will be chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee and the republicans will be in control of the senate. And that could be a whole different ball game. Rose anybody else on the list other than mish snell. Well, you always have to throw in his deputy, bob werk it there are people who have been named in previous gorounds on choosing a secretary of defense like Richard Danzig who was secretary of the navy during the Clinton Administration and has done a lot of work for ot bama administration. But these, i got to stress, charlie, these are, this is the buzz in the hallway. This is not inside thinking in the administration. Rose and with confirmation, going to be a difficult confirmation, might they as they did with secretary of state want to go to someone who might come out and even though chuck hagel came out of the senate as well because of the confirmation thing, and the reason that leon panetta was perhaps chosen previously because he had a Good Relationship with congress . Well, thats another one of the lessons ive learned over the years, charlie, is that political skills are more important in this job than anything else. It doesnt matter how much you know or dont know about defense. Its how well you can work in the political process. And somebody who is a part of the political process as a senator, i think would have a better chance. Rose david martin, thank you so much. Sure thing. David martin, my colleague at cbs, chief National Security correspondent. Well be back, stay with us. James corden is here, he is a tonyawardwinning actor. He was recently tapped to replace Craig Ferguson as the host of the late late show on cps. He also stars in a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheims into the woods. Heres the trailer for the film. The i wish, i wish, i wish i wish you wish to have the curse reversed . Go to the wood and bring me back a cow as white as milk. A cape as red as blood. Oh dear, how uneasy i feel. The hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold. Go to the woods. Into the woods, who knows what may be lurking on the journey. Good day, mr. Wolf. And what might be in your basket . I must find that girl. Sneath into the woods into the woods. All will come to a happy end. Not always. Why would you run away . Not dwight what i expected. Quite what i expected. Maybe i shouldnt have strayed from the path. Dont you knows whats out there in the woods no one has to shield you from the woods. Its because of you there is a giant in our midst. It is not what i wish, its what you wish. We have one chance. Dont you see that . If were going to get through this, were going to do it together. If you love me, why did you stray . I was raised to be charming, not sincere. Stay a child while you can be a child with me. Look, this is a m