Terry Gross

Writer John Balaban. Balaban was one of the very few Vietnam-era conscientious objectors who volunteered to go to Vietnam. Once there, he was overwhelmed with the paradoxes of the war...among other things, he found himself picking up a gun, in order to defend a hospital from attack. His memoir of that time, called "Heaven's Face: A Moral Witness in Vietnam" has just been published by Poseidon Press. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Hot Shots," the new spoof of all those macho fighter pilot movies.

Two Interviews: 1) Film maker Samuel Fuller. Fuller's B-movies of the 50s and 60s have influenced many other directors. His 1982 movie, "White Dog," about a racist who trains a dog to attacks blacks, was considered too controversial to be released in this country. It's finally being shown, along with all Fuller's other works, during a major retrospective of his work at New York's "Film Forum.
2) Martin Scorsese, one of today's most prominent filmmakers, tells us the movies of Samuel Fuller influenced him.

Historian Robert Dallek. Dallek's new biography of President Lyndon Johnson, "Lone Star Rising," has been praised for its scholarship, and for painting a more balanced portrait of LBJ than some other recent biographies. Dallek was nominated for an American Book award for an earlier biography, "Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy." ("Lone Star Rising" is published by Oxford University Press).

Admiral Stansfield Turner. The former director of the CIA under Jimmy Carter, Turner has just come out with his second book, "Terrorism & Democracy."(Houghton Mifflin). Turner looks at the failed and successful policies of eight American presidents in dealing with terrorism.

Time magazine reporter Jonathan Beaty He was covering the BCCI bank scandal months before it erupted, and gives the background on the scandal.

New York Times correspondent Thomas Friedman. Friedman has spent the last decade covering the Middle East, work that has won him two Pulitzer Prizes. Today he looks at the current state of the Mideast, as we approach the first anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Pianist JOHNNIE JOHNSON. For nearly 30 years, Johnson was Chuck Berry's pianist. He played on all of Chuck's great hits, and he gained rock and roll immortality when Chuck Barry wrote the song "Johnnie B. Goode" about him. Now Johnnie Johnson has his own album, called "Johnnie B. Bad." (It's on Elektra/Nonesuch).

Comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks. Brooks has made some of the funniest films in movie history, including "The Producers," "Young Frankenstein," and "Blazing Saddles." In his new movie, "Life Stinks," Brooks plays a billionaire who accepts a wager to spend a month living on the street.

The former president of NBC news, Reuven Frank. Franks looks back on his career, and the evolution of TV news, in his new memoir, "Out of Thin Air." (published by Simon and Schuster).