Home | Live Now! | Try it Now
Nicholas Thompson, author of The Hawk and the Dove
 
11:26
Fred Barbash-Moderator -  Welcome to the weekly POLITICO-New America Foundation chat. Our guest today is Nicholas Thompson, author of the acclaimed book,   "The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War." He will discuss the dueling views on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan -- and how foreign policies forged in the Cold War continue to shape today's debate.

He'll be with us at noon...you are invited to submit questions now. Thanks for participating.
11:28
Fred Barbash-Moderator -  

Nicholas got another rave review this morning in the Washington Times:

This extremely well-researched and accessible book may be the most important political biography of recent memory, and if it does not win at least one of the major awards, that will be because of its unfashionable conclusions. This is a multifaceted story that Nicholas Thompson, an editor at Wired magazine, has produced, a double biography of two of our most important, intellectually creative foreign-policy architects of the past 60 years. "

11:30
Fred Barbash-Moderator -  And here's what the Washington Post said:


"In this important and astute new study, Nitze emerges as a driven patriot and Kennan as a darkly conflicted and prophetic one."

11:32
Fred Barbash-Moderator -  You may submit questions now (but it's not a comment session--just questions)....Our guest will be with us at noon. Please use your name, rather than a handle or "guest." Thanks.
11:47
12:00
Fred Barbash-Moderator -  Welcome readers and thanks for participating.....Welcome Nicholas and thanks for taking the time to be with us. Congratulations on the book, and especially on the rave reviews. Let me begin by asking you this....

You’ve just written a book about Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the Cold War. Are there any lessons from that conflict that apply today?
12:00
[Comment From Nicholas Thompson]
Hi Fred. I'm very glad to be here.
12:00
[Comment From Nicholas Thompson]
There are indeed lots of lessons that apply today, and i hope we can get into many of them. The most important though is that the central policy of that conflict ---containment---can be extremely effective ...
12:01
[Comment From Nicholas Thompson]
As Kennan framed that concept, he believed that the United States didn't need to "roll back" the Soviet Union, knock out Stalin, or take over the Kremlin. We just needed to keep the Soviets in a box, prevent them from expanding, and do what we could to help them destroy themselves politically. Over time, because of the strength of our society, we would prevail...
12:02
[Comment From Nicholas Thompson]
And that argument, and policy, can be applied to conflicts today, particularly the battle against Al Qaeda. Should the goal of the US be to kill all of terrorist leaders, or just contain them? There are of course deep questions within that question, but there's a certain logic to following Kennan's basic ideas.
12:03
[Comment From Alexandra]
What's your view of Obama's nuclear arms control initiatives?
12:03
[Comment From Nicholas Thompson]
I think he has all the right goals. One very interesting point here is the evolution of Paul Nitze on this issue ...
    Page 1  Next >
 
Powered by: CoveritLive  Reader Information