Firing Line Videos, Hoover Institution, taped on September 23, 1968, uploaded to YouTube on February 9, 2011.

Guest: Zbigniew Brzezinski

Summary:

A splendid discussion of the Cold War with a man whose views are informed by his Polish upbringing, his academic studies, and his experience at the Policy Planning Council of the State Department. One sample: WFB: “I should like to begin by asking Mr. Brzezinski whether he anticipated the Soviet Union’s crushing of Czechoslovakia.” ZB: “… Back in June, I thought they would invade … I thought at that time that the Soviet Union could not afford to let Czechoslovakia go the way it was going. By August I was inclined to feel that … the Soviet Union had developed certain internal incapacities for deliberate brutal action…. On the eve of the actual invasion … I thought that rather there would be a change of leadership, rather than an invasion….” WFB: “Now, might a careful student of your writings infer that [the invasion] took you by surprise as a result of your own apparent recent addiction to a thesis of deideologization which in fact history isn’t validating?” ZB: “A sloppy reader might infer that.” WFB: “Well, would the careful reader of your writing be careful not to read certain of your books?” ZB: “No, but a sloppy reader might skip passages, and just find the ones that confirm his view.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVdYBPsKJc

Online:
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