Hour 1
Brigadier General H.R. McMASTER is one of the minds driving today’s Army. He’s been called one of the “warrior-intellectuals” surrounding General David Petraeus who are attempting to transform the U.S. military even as — or especially as — it fights two wars. McMaster has served in numerous command and staff positions in armor and cavalry units in the United States and Germany. In 2005 and 2006, he led the pacification of Tal Afar in Southern Iraq, a success that formed part of the blueprint for the Surge of 2007, and what many perceive as ultimate "success" in Iraq. He is currently serving as special assistant to the commander of the Multinational Force in Iraq. He earned a Silver Star in the first Gulf War in Iraq, and his experience there became the basis for a book of nonfiction by best-selling author Tom Clancy, called "Armored Cav." And his doctoral dissertation, a merciless dissection of military brass lies during the Vietnam War, became a 1997 best-seller called "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam." General McMaster will address an audience at the National Constitution Center next weekend as part of the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution, and he’s our guest today on "Radio Times."

Filed under: author, military, politics, world |

Hour 2
Journalist SANA BUTLER devoted ten years to chronicling the lives of the last living children of slaves in an effort to understand how, with no experience of a normal family, American slaves went on to build their lives and become husbands and wives and fathers and mothers. Butler, the great-great granddaughter of emancipated slaves details her experiences and the conversations she had in a new book, Sugar of the Crop. It’s a story of enormous strength and resistance.

Filed under: author, parenting, social issues |