thank you very much I'm delighted to be here at the at the Naval War College and this is a very difficult subject to wrap up in a short period of time but I'm going to do my best I have my wife and timekeeper over there I want to talk for a half an hour and when I go over that I always go over she's going to signal me and then I'm going to spend the rest of time answering your questions and receiving applause and stuff nobody nobody disagrees with me anyway the title of this book is revolution on the Hudson New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence but the book itself is about the entire war because in my estimation the Hudson influenced the entire war the war hinged on on the Hudson just as General Washington thought it would just as King George thought it would one thing that the British and the Americans agreed on was that the Hudson was the key to the war and I I'm going to start by by pointing to the two key battles of the war one saratoga which there were really two battles of at Saratoga the last one was october seven 1777 and the second battle is the Battle of Yorktown which are also familiar with and that was October 19 1781 now it's obvious that the Battle of Saratoga is pi it has to be part of the story if it's about if it's about the Hudson in the American Revolution it's not so obvious that Yorktown is also linked to the Hudson very substantially so I'm going to try to make out the case that the British obsession with the with the Hudson River Valley played a key role in their losing your town so my book it won't be released until June 14 I'm waiting for my critics because this is a new way of looking at the war there's a lot of guys out there who who study and write about the war so we'll see what they have to say about this a landish point that I I am making okay so let me go back and explain why the Hudson was so important New York City and Hudson was so important it's because it was the start of a land sea cara de from from New York to Canada and when the British war planners in London were looking at the map they said they thought well we just cut off the colonies the northern colonies in New England from the south and we've won the war because the most radical part of the revolution the radicals are concentrated in New England so if we can create a sort of barrier from New York City up to Quebec then we will have we will have won the war and this is going to be easy to do because we already control Canada we already have the the Royal Navy and so the plan was the above the award plan was to to have two armies 11 coming from New York in the South up to Albany and one coming down from Canada to meet at Albany so these two armies were going to meet at Albany and this miraculous II was going to cut off New England from from the colonies to the south which were not so rabidly anti-british as as the New Englanders were and this would end the end the revolution simultaneously with the with the meaning of these two armies the British Navy would have it imposed a tight blockade along the along the New England coast and really seal off New England this was there this was the vision now interestingly enough all of the policy makers in Britain and all of the policy makers in the United States thought this was true that the British could do this and it would indeed win the war not only that every historian writing about the war and they began writing about it almost almost when it was it when it was finished till this present day have thought that yeah if the British were able to do that they would have won the war one of the people who was most most influential in agreeing with this was our own Admiral mahaan who in his in his thinking simply agreed with with everybody else so in my book I'm saying that this was never possible was never possible for the British to to do this for lots of reasons but primarily because there was no political dimension to their strategy and New York was divided politically the the counties around New York were pro-british not a hundred percent but a majority of the people were pro-british that Staten Island was probably ninety percent British Westchester County was probably half half so once you went north of Westchester County these counties were very similar in their political thinking to to New England and so the strength of the defendants let's say was going to come from these anti British colonies just as they had at Lexington and Concord and in large numbers so if we come to the Battle of Saratoga for instance what defeated Burgoyne the British the British general was the fact that the whole countryside was up in arms against him and that hundreds then thousands of militiamen whir whir whir turning out to be come join the American army the American army at Saratoga when the decisive battle was fought was 15,000 Burgoyne's army had dwindled to around 6,000 these these numbers of more or less okay we never have any exact figures on on these any it with anyway don't that's a separate subject of mine but anyway be skeptical of all historical numbers but anyway this is roughly what it was and very going wrote back to to London he said I don't have any support here we were looking for some loyalists to join my army they never appeared but the Americans appeared appear by the thousands he said this is Burgoyne this is the British general this is why he thought he got defeated and this is why he he did get defeated so what was missing from British strategy was was it would there was no political element to it they thought they could they could take over this area and defeat the Americans with military force alone it was too big a territory there were too many of us and addition they wanted to do it on the cheap they never wanted to commit the force is necessary to accomplish what what I don't think they would have ever accomplished they could never have defeated us with just an army and navy alone with no with no political dimension okay I want a fast forward to yorktown and I'll fill in between if you want but Yorktown is October 19 1781 how is this brute flawed British strategy connected with your town to me yorktown had two key elements one was a naval battle September 5 1781 off the Chesapeake capes the other was a land land battle and that was the final one October October 19 now the British lost the the the naval battle to the French on September five and I believe the reason they lost the battle is because they didn't have their best best Admiral who was George Romney in charge of the fleet where was Rodney Rodney of course was in Beth what was he doing in bath having a good time what else do they do I mean not bath mean but Beth you wouldn't you understand Rodney Rodney the previous year had been in in New York and i'll come back to if you want why i thought were on he would have won the battle off the capes of chesapeake avis against the against the french but why wasn't he there he should have been there because he was at that moment he was head of the British fleet in America and the West Indies both as a combined was a combined come in in 1780 he had been in New York in September of of 1780 he he just appeared in New York with ten with ten ships of the line they weren't expecting him but it gave the British then unexpectedly a overwhelming force right in New York right then and guess what was happening then general Arnold was turning over West Point right then so Rodney arrived just as Arnold was about to about to turn over West Point to general Clinton who was the head of the British Army in North America headquartered in in New York now good old general Clinton was a difficult man to to get along with I'm not going to call him a note difficult he had a work with another Admiral is his naval counterpart called abith not and if Clinton was difficult to get along with you never met abbath not the two of them hated each other terribly so here heey Clinton is wondering what the hell's going to happen when Arnold turns over West Point and he cannot get his troops from New York up the river because abith not isn't cooperating how do you like that and that was a that was what was going to happen until Rodney showed up and when Rodney showed up it saved Clinton it was going to make the whole turn over West Point possible now for 40 Clinton Rodney had no idea any of this was was in the works and when he landed he was overjoyed to find out all of the stuff that was happening because he was now going to win the whole war of independence he was going to win the war he thought that he thought that the old British strategy of cutting off New England was absolutely the right thing to do Clinton thought so too and they thought if they captured West Point they would then control all of the Hudson and somehow or other miraculously they would control the hold Lancey cara de all the way up to canada okay Rodney bought that completely all right and he's all set to go I mean he's he's all pumped up and and they have the troops and everything in Arnolds ready and you know capable Arnold was I know Anna was very capable so I know you you know that Arnold got captured O'Donnell got discovered but Washington couldn't catch on O'Donnell go back to New York so this is in September now of 1780 when Arnold gets back to New York what's the first thing he wants to do this guy is a great political operator Arnold he wants to make friends with Rodney and he wants to make friends with with Clinton which he does very quickly Rodney falls in love with honor Rodney loves Arnold so Rodney says okay well let's go nothing has changed let's go and attack West Point and we will win the war seemed seemed reasonable and Clinton himself had been advocating this for a very long time and then all of a sudden Clinton says no I'm not going to I'm not going to go ahead this the whole businesses is ruined Washington's going to be be able to have enough strength via to foil less so Clinton stops this whole operation that Rodney thinks would have would have won the war because he he was totally a believe a believer in the old strategy of cutting off New England okay let's go back to Yorktown now okay because Rodney goes back to us to the to the West Indies very very mad and angry writes a lot of letters to to to London saying you've got to get rid of Clinton you got to get rid of Abbott the north get some better leaders there ok so now Yorktown is only the next year and Rodney is thinking that that the British fleet and the West Indies has got to come up to the Atlantic coast again just like he did the previous year and and they believe that the way things have configured that there's going to be a showdown finally with the French in 1781 Seether going to be in the Chesapeake or in New York and Rodney should be leading the British fleet ok Roddy decides he doesn't want any part of this ok he's not coming he's not coming so he creates a what I think is a phony excuse and and is allowed by the Admiralty to go home and he leaves command which results in leaving command of the British fleet in America to a guy who under the circumstances really cannot defeat the French he just doesn't have the ability to and he doesn't and the British lose the battle off the Virginia capes which result in the loss of of Yorktown Rodney himself when he reads about what does what his replacement did at the battle in September 5 is furious I wouldn't have done this I would have done it differently and so on so on any would have his is he in my estimation what of defeated the the French admiral and the whole war would have would have gone differently so Ronnie didn't get mixed up with all of this he went home why because he had bought that the whole mythology of the of the Hudson River Valley that the British had that if they took West Point that they'd win the war they control the valley they control the corridor to Canada which in my estimation is an illusion so this is the connection I make between saratoga and Yorktown so there so I how we doing all the time fine okay what time is it actually 12 Trinity okay let me just a little bit more on on the wise in this book I start really in 1776 I also go back and have something to say about 70 1775 to so the book and I have something to say about what happened after Yorktown so the book is a book about the whole whole war but the British the British learned the lesson in 1775 and 1775 they got the tail whipped as you know in a number of battles lexington concord was was just the beginning the reason they did is they didn't commit enough troops they always thought they were going to defeat the the american patriots on the cheap to begin with in Lexington and Concord they had less than 4,000 troops in in Boston and half of them had to be used to keep the people in Boston down so they had they had like two thousand troops they were sending into a countryside that that turned out twenty thousand militiamen okay so they they the King learned his lesson he thought in 1776 and he committed 32,000 to the end asian of New York which began in august of of 70 1776 and the Canadian Army that was coming down from Canada was 10,000 says 42,000 general Amherst who had would won the french and indian war for the british here thought you needed at least 75,000 I don't think 75,000 was enough Benjamin Franklin that would net fun anyway it turned out that the getting together the 40 2010 from the North 32,000 from the south it just wasn't going to do it and and the the tube the two commanders British commanders in New York recognizes Admiral Admiral how the the navy chief and General Howe who was the the army chief they originally thought that yeah this number will be enough they weren't enough the full fleet wasn't big enough either so but as they got into it they could see that that this was this is there was woefully inadequate so at the end of seventeen seventeen seventy-six General Howe sent sent home a new plan a new strategy for 1777 1777 he thought that he now knew how to win the war you know the in those days you didn't fight in in the wintertime and besides which he'd like to have a good time in New York which he did and and so he came back out in to do battle and in the spring of 1777 but the king was having no pot of increasing the army anywhere near the extent that how believed he needed and I think how was how was right and the the First Sea Lord the guy who ran the the Navy for the British he thought that the fleet was just fine the way it was and they they they didn't need any more and so the whole operation in 1777 which was a replay of 1776 for the British failed guess who the King blamed not the strategy he blamed the general in the Admiral and he blamed the people carrying it out not not his his his vision so so far as the strategy the strategy is concerned it's sort of it sort of put on the side because the French came into the war because of cereth the victory at Saratoga in 1777 the French come into the war and so it becomes a world war and so the strategy changes nonetheless there's all these people including Clinton and then later Rodney who still a saying if we only carry it out the old the old strategy he never disappeared it wasn't was in it wasn't still had a lived on they thought if it only we had gotten to Albany can you imagine getting to Albany would anyway so once the French come in it makes it possible for for the United States to actually defeat the British which because of their own internal feuding was accomplished at at Yorktown if you knew if you knew the the American army and what uh what it had deteriorated into by 1781 you would wonder how could we possibly carry on without the French were we couldn't and the British the British simply if they had stayed here and waited us out would have we would have would have won I can't say won the war because the war would have stopped and there would have been a negotiation between the French and the British and blood notes how that would have would have turned out but if if the British divided the territory somehow or other with the French whatever Britain controlled sooner or later later on they were going to make the same mistakes that had brought about lexington concord and the whole thing was going to start up again finally George Washington I've studied George Washington for a very long time and he in my estimation was one of the greatest leaders in world history if you have asked me to name the six most important figures in world history he'd be one of them if you if you examine what he did up close during the revolution all this time not to mention what he did afterwards but just just that holding all of this together I mean he was holding it together he was amazing and he was a great writer he had written so many letters that he had developed a great facility with the language and hit all of his correspondence during the war boils down to ten ten volumes we've had three versions of them I have the first one of that was published in the 1840s and I've read them on Star nishtha what a great great writer he he was and his wife I want to kill if this if there's anyone I want to dig up and shoot again it's her because because naturally he wrote wonderful letters to her and they were a wonderful couple you know and she even joined him every every year in the wintertime and the most awful circumstances in the battlefield she then goes and burns all of the letters every blessed one of them except for two and the two of them of fantastic so she I'm going to get I don't know how all right so I'll stop there an answer answer open-ended questions shot see no questions that answered all the questions do you address the various battles around the New York area will ya many and they lost of all I mean remember below them all of it i do i go through i go through every battle yes but doesn't nothing original that i have to say about those battles I hope I'm accurate but there were guys who have studied them in great detail and if you want to know specific battles my my summary might be a refresher course for you I have spent really over 20 years studying this business I'm a grind and so I think I have a very good summary but that's what it is ok like the Battle of Brooklyn which is one of the great battles of our of our history which we which we lost i described that but there are other many other people who described it in in greater detail one of the things that I emphasized in the book is a prisoner's how the British treated American prisoners and I have a I have a nice section in the Battle of Brooklyn about what they did with those prisoners but there are other books not too many about the prisoners we're so close to the British that we don't like to think about what they did to our prisoners and what they did was a war crime were there were 30,000 American prisoners and they killed half of them and this mean there's no blinking it you know this is this tap in Washington was after them to stop it right from the beginning letter after let it didn't it didn't have any effect Johnny Adams you name it so i have i have attached that every every year battle what happened to the prisoners yeah if you say that peugeot little bit down there was both tactical and strategic mistake both are losing and frustrate even bringing the friendship what would you have done with those 8,000 troops and you if you don't think the hudson was very value what would you've done those 8,000 troops um i would have brought him home i would have I would have I would have brought all the troops home in 1775 they had 4,000 troops in Boston I would have brought those 4,000 troops home one of the great English states and William Pitt who who ran who ran the French and Indian War in England and won the French and Indian War when when the time came crunch time came in 1775 when the government was making up its mind about whether or not they were gonna go she ate with the Americans or they were going to go for for force of military military option he said he said to the king take the troops out of Boston and talk with them the the issues can be resolved if you go to fighting it's going to be very iffy there are a lot of them they know how to fight they fought well during the French and Indian War despite with you what your British officers will tell you they're not afraid of your troops and there's just you know there's tens of thousands I mean how many Americans would turn out so that was his advice and it was good advice and and we never would have had that then we would have had a British America happily the the people who fought the British at lexington concord okay those those guys and women the women were a big part of that story they had the highest standard of living in the world okay of any ordinary people and in the whole world they did not want to fight they were living quite well if it would it would have been very easy to negotiate with their Continental Congress which they which they produced this was a war that never should have been fought there I was like that as you know we won't get into that but but so that's not what you wanted to hear here's what here's what here's what we're going thought Burgoyne thought that he would get to Albany quickly he thought that he that all these loyalists these this mythical army of loyalists would come to join him he might get together 15 even 20 thousand troops himself you know without reference to the army coming up from New York he based himself in Albany he'd have plenty to eat there and he would take that army and march into Massachusetts and Connecticut there will be loyalists that would join them and he would win the war on his own and he thought in 1777 that by Christmas time anyway that he would be the victor and the great date you know he would be the Nelson in the Wellington and so on the great hero of that so that's that's what he thought I think that was a pipe dream can you imagine if he took these people into Massachusetts and you had hello the farmers coming out again and from Connecticut and then the farmers from new york and all the all the all of them north of Westchester County and how big though that ami would be he'd be fighting for a while there yeah yes sir sighs later kind of leapfrog you know on the first question so it sounds like when you if I follow what you said you're suggesting that although this a central premise of your book is that the misguided strategy of control of the Hudson would we do winning the war was it was a fallacy I think you're applying perhaps that there wasn't a better alternative strategy that would have worked but in fact he waging a war in the first place was the wrong tool to achieve the political objectives they wanted that about absolon that's a William Pitt thought and who could disagree with William Penn yeah it's not it's it's it's it's hard to think of that you know in all the waste on both sides and it's like brothers fighting it was some people call it a cousins war and so on so it's hard to think that it was on just unnecessary it was stupid leadership but and comment on Burgoyne's pipe dream is the problem of course is that loyalists pay taxes to the king for the King to hire an army to protect them and I kind of volunteer to go out and fight after they pay taxes exactly exactly that's a very good point they the British found out all over in the south same thing you know what do you mean we gotta fight for you what do we have your foot my question was I was wondering if you look forward to the war of 1812 and the same strategy that look at during the war of 1812 well I wrote a book on the war of 1812 you've got to get that book it's just interesting just keep the wrong then well that was that was four years ago and and even even John hadn't off stayed awake for that so so so you never know I hate to get off in the world of 1812 but but the the British it seemed you know emotionally were mad at us we they never got over the war of independence and the the war of 1812 almost seemed inevitable at some at some point but the whole the whole inability to respect us militarily which was very evident at 1774 and 1775 strangely continued on up to the up to 1812 I mean all the things that they did to us leading up to the war to make us angry enough to actually declare war on on them was was an outgrowth of the fact that they didn't they didn't respect us militarily well we had been debating ourselves whether or not to even have a Navy for all of this time our navion in the in the Revolutionary War had done very poorly there was no Navy after the Revolutionary well until 1794 and then there was a great debate in this country about whether or not we ought to even have a navy and the the irritation with the British was primarily on the on the water so they didn't respect us because we couldn't make up a mind that we want they a strong Navy that we want a strong army or not you know because a lot of our political thinkers thought that having a strong military would be dangerous it would it would you know man on horseback would become a book on dictator so the war of 1812 surprised them that we did so well particularly on the water even with the miniscule Navy we had and the British leadership of that time the Prime Minister was Liverpool and the foreign minister was castle rate they were they felt towards the Americans as everybody else did they had no respect for them militarily but during the war during the war and I could mention number places where the Americans unexpectedly one but New Orleans is a good example Castle way said that you know if we don't make a real peace with these people we're going to be fighting them for the next 100 years I just think of it the whole border with Canada we're going to be this you know you can how about the southern border how about the sea and so on all these all these things so he he got Liverpool Liverpool wasn't was a he should he should have been running today he was a kind of politician who know exactly what button to push to get public support so he got he got Liverpool to sub to support a total revolution in British policy towards the United States at the end of the war of of 1812 and from there then on they treated us with respect and guess what James Madison who was the president and who had been one of the people back in 1794 who did not want a Navy and wanted a very small army he had changed his mind to he thought if we don't have a respectable force look what's going to happen to us okay he thought we need a respectable force in order to protect the Constitution it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a threat to it so the American military for the first in time well anyway the American military was not disbanded at the end of the war and certainly not the Navy we kept the Navy and that's really a lot of guys in the Navy amaral Admiral granite who loved my book thought that the war of 1812 was enormously important in the history of the Navy because of our country finally agreed we need this wrong maybe that's that's pretty long-winded answer to a very simple question right I'm sorry can you imagine being married to me I mean she's already yeah so you're saying ammirati was committed the strategy of dividing Hudson yeah and he didn't know anything about it you know anything about the United States but he he bought that whole thing and you know who was encouraging him Arnold I know when I got to New York he made a point of getting close to Rodney and Ronnie Ronnie fell in love them literally and Arnold convinced him that this whole strategy would would work so he was commuted to strategy but he still didn't want to have anything to do gauging the French fleet case whoa no he wanted to engage the French fleet but he didn't want to do it personally because he'd be working with Clinton Clinton was the guy in 1780 who who stopped him from taking West Point Rodney thought that he and Arnold would easily take they had the troops there they had them on the transports you know the Americans were discombobulated by what happened with with Arnold honor was a great general he was and he was a guy who I mean it was a strange character in love i was i would say in love with money more than anything else but he was he was a very very good military leader and Rodney had a lot of respect for him rotting himself was one of the greatest fighters ever so yeah they would have probably taken West Point I know thought it would have taken about 10 days and then what would happen you know beyond that what happens well it gets a little fuzzy but West Point they thought that was the they really thought that once they took West Point Washington would just give up that was what was the hope yes sir all cases that they were thinking about them and made this so compelling an idea were they looking back in history whether it was back to classical period oh no no no no lord knows what they were looking at I by Qi I can't answer that question it the distance between New York City and Albany and then distance between albany and montreal and and and so on and so on and the size of the the royal navy and one one of the great greatest naval leaders was Admiral Lord Howe who was the fleet commander here at that time he will he didn't say so publicly but he he thought he thought that whole strategy was foolish you know he never he never wrote about it so this is a supposition of mine but he wasn't surprised in any of this had happened they let him go there was a really odd thing they're really the best Admiral Nelson called how the best Admiral they ever had Nelson and and the the the first the first seal or the head of the the Navy sandwich didn't like how okay he didn't like him how for a lot of reasons but he made life difficult for how and how how went went back home and salmon sandwich was very happy to have him go back home in in the fall of 1778 okay if how had been kept on he probably would have want he would have been better equipped than Rodney even to win the battle off of Chesapeake Chesapeake cakes the the war leaders in London were so smart they were happy to have how come back so but how was never in love with that strategy no but if you ask me to give you evidence of this then I would be too busy for you or something I can't yeah yes ma'am what Lord Howe had when he first came in 1776 he had about 70 warships total but they were coming and going all the time you know they're breaking down you had to fix them and so on we had limited facilities here Halifax was was very very limited what it could do some of them often had to go back to hit back to to England 72 was not not near enough I list in my book the things that the Admiralty tasked how to do with the 72 ships it was ridiculous and at no time in the ward that the British more than 90 warships here and it just wasn't enough you know it seemed to be enough you know that's a lot of a lot of ships but it just wasn't this is a big country it was two and a half million people five hundred thousand of those were slaves but still there's two million people and the slaves as the war went on became part of our armies except for places like South Carolina South Carolina would never have slaves become part of the army but the other the other colonies would so the the the sheer size of the military to do what they wanted to do over here they just didn't want to come to to grips with that it's like Lyndon Johnson trying to think how many troops were actually needed what was actually needed to fight the war in Vietnam I'm the Vietnam War like hero okay don't get me going on that one that's another story but it was it was similar that it shouldn't draw parallels like these historical barrels but Johnson never ever wanted to face the political consequences of having having the size of the military that he would have needed to do what he wanted to do for you guys must study the video study the Vietnam War here yeah okay good yeah what trigger your interests focus on so much time the Revolutionary War well my wife and I were in business for a long time she's an artist and I i was a college professor up until the age of up until the age of 40 when I was totally burned out and I went into her business and after 20 years of that I I decide I wanted to spend my time writing again when I was a professor I'd published three books and I wanted to go back to it I got over being being burned out and she wanted to she could tide of the business and wanted to to spend full time with her painting but but I I knew that it was going to be a job it was nice to have some money in the bank you know when you're a professor you're broke I mean what they pay you was mind-boggling anyway so we had the money and so we that's what i did i studied i studied for years and years and years and then my first book came out in 2008 and I this is my fourth book my fifth book will be out at the end of next year will be on lexington and concord when I was a professor I wrote three books one of my first book was on the Cold War and we sold a million copies a million copies is a lot you know and this this day and age 44 New York publishers will only interested in money I shouldn't be so harsh on them but the benchmark for for a history book like I write is like 10,000 copies 10,000 they cover all expenses and they'll cover your advance and so on a million is you know David McCullough has sells a million know anyway so the publisher thought whoa I'm going to you know so the next book didn't do so well 75,000 we saw which is very very good he still made plenty of money so he's going heart and the next book was on world well one and he he printed this among this number in anticipation of big sales he couldn't we couldn't give him away I mean literally literally couldn't give him away no one was it thrust in those days in Rover when I know what the but anyway after that defeat I decided I didn't want to go out that way I had to come back sorry but the the when I get into studying early American history the thing I noticed right away was Wiz the Navy Navy's not in it when the when historians think about those ships and all the things they have to learn about them they get stomach acid they think they have to they think they have to learn a new language which they do a navy is not in these histories and it's amazing and a little bit that is is is just you know would make you cry and so our kids grammar school all the way through learning their history without the Navy in it so you wonder why people don't know about the Navy and don't appreciate all the things in navy has done so i began to focus on on an avian integrating the old story that we tell with the with the naval story but it's so it's an uphill battle because the amount of ignorance about the navy and of course the it would make you cry how little is known about how important the Navy's mentions since to the world since World Watch oh you know so anything we can do to to in the area of public awareness is is worth doing because of sherl and it's very dangerous that the people don't know how important the Navy is very dangerous because there are things like budgets not least people cutting budgets and so on and cut the wrong place what do we got you all right five minutes anyone want to want to refute what I'm saying not about the Navy and public relations that drives me crazy that subject yeah what was the influence of the Continental Congress very similar to the Congress today it would drive you crazy the politicians politicians of politicians they don't they don't change they they represent the areas where they come from and so far as the immoral character is concerned don't expect a high level of in that category they represent what they represent them they may think that these constituents are mistaken but you never know that you might hear it privately there was a congressman who was a friend of mine from Iowa and John Calvin lady became a senator and Jon Kovel was was in the House of Representatives he was a big proponent of foreign aid foreign aid was was was always controversial but one guy from I don't know I will know what state i think it was Alabama one guy gave him a particularly hard time always in the house when the bill foreign aid bill came up this guy was three hundred percent against foreign aid but foreign aid would all would always pass nonetheless but foreign aid got progressively less popular so each time it was voted the vote got closer so in this particular year I forget the year the foreign aid bill came up and they were they were discussing it and the vote was about to happen and this guy mr. three hundred percent against the farne comes rushing up the cova and says to him join you might not pass and and you know kalva who was about as cynical as the rest of us couldn't believe this one and he loved to tell that that story so anyway Congress back then is a mystery and it's a mystery too it's about as I understand about as much of it as I do current Congress the way we treated our military in those days I have a little bit of it in the book you would not believe okay you just you just wouldn't believe how badly we treated and particularly our enlisted men and and this was all simply political you know these were the kids who fought the war all the way through sacrificed everything and the way they treated treated well they didn't pay them and all these these things it's a long awful story you know but so no I don't think the I don't have any great admiration for the for the Congress and I place a huge emphasis on on Washington and they always had Washington you know who would do the right thing but don't ask them to do the right thing well look at well I'm yes anything else you all right
