International Affairs

Nachtwey was in Somalia in October, and photographs of his visit were the cover story in The New York Times Magazine section on December 6, 1992. Terry talks with him about his trip to Somalia: why he took the pictures he did, how he was received, why he wanted to go, etc. Nachtwey has been awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal three times. He's been to areas of conflict in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank, Sudan, the Philippines, Northern Ireland and more.

Terry speaks with Admiral Ge LaRocque, director of the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C. They discuss the future of the American military: Is the American military becoming a world police force in the post-Cold War era? General LaRocque offers an analysis of yesterday's allied air strike on missile bases in southern Iraq and also sheds light on question of military invervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Balkans. They also talk about the American military and the U.N. and how the military may fare during the transition between the Bush and Clinton presidencies.

Spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Yetta Sorenson. She's based in Zagreb, Croatia. Terry speaks with her from Croatia about the organization's relief efforts in the former Yugoslavia. In May, one of their relief convoys was attacked, and a ICRC delegate was killed. The organization pulled out of the area until mid-July. Last December, in response to the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ICRC issued an unprecedented public statement condemning the atrocities there.

From the relief and development organization CARE, President and CEO Philip Johnston. Guest host Marty Moss-Coane talks with him about the organization's next efforts in Somalia, helping farmers rehabilitate farms, and training village health workers to monitor the nutritional status of mothers and young children.

Wu Ningkun, author of a new personal and political memoir, A Single Tear, talks about surviving three decades of Communist rule in China. Wu was born in China, went to college in the United States, and returned to China in 1951 with hopes that the new Communist regime would benefit his country. Instead, he was labeled counter-revolutionary for teaching works by Western authors and sentenced to serve time at various labor camps and prisons. He now lives in the United States with his family.

Award-winning historian Michael Beschloss just co-authored a new book, "At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War." He and co-author Strobe Talbot were in contact with officials in both American and Soviet governments, and in NATO. They show the close tie between George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, which "eventually caused both men to lose touch with their domestic constituencies."

One of the most respected war surgeons, Dr. Chris Giannou. He was director of surgical operations in Somalia with the International Committee for the Red Cross from February '92 until January '93. He helped set up field hospitals, and taught and performed war surgery. Before that, Giannou spent over two years in a Palestinian Refugee Camp, which was under constant siege. Giannou wrote a book about it, called "Besieged: A Doctor's Story of Life and Death in Beirut."

Journalist, professor, and historian Christopher Simpson teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. Last month the U.N. Security Council voted to create a new international tribunal to try those accused of war crimes in the Balkan conflict. Simpson has written a new book about the use of mass murder as an instrument of state power, beginning with World War I, called "The Splendid Blond Beast." Simpson shows how those who commit such crimes are rarely punished, like high-ranking SS killers from World War II.

Journalist Robert Kaplan has been a foreign correspondent for "The Atlantic," and "The New Republic." In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was the first American writer to warn of the coming crisis in the Balkans. His latest book, "Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History," is a political travel book about his journeys through southern Austria and Croatia, Old Serbia and Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.

Investigative journalist Tom Powers has written a new book about the German attempt to get an atomic bomb, the threat that terrified American scientists and military during World War II. The book is "Heisenberg's War." At the center of the story is German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg. While other preeminent scientists left Germany with the rise of the Reich, Heinsenberg chose to stay to defend what was left of "good science." The program weapons program failed.

Journalist Ray Bonner lived in Africa from 1988 until January of this year. He has a new article in "Mother Jones" about why the U.S. sent Marines into Somalia. He questions our role as the world's "missionary." Bonner also reported from Central America. Just recently he was exonerated for reporting on a massacre in El Salvador. Officials denied the event, but archeologists have since uncovered a mass grave.

New York Times journalist Jane Perlez has been covering Africa since 1988 and has been credited with recognizing stories before the rest of the media. She was reporting on the trouble in Somalia, and the threat of famine a year ago, long before it became the focus of world attention.

Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia Abdulaziz A. Sachedina joins Fresh Air to discuss the recent worldwide rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Peter Schweizer, author of "Friendly Spies: How America's Allies are Using Economic Espionage to Steal our Secrets." He is a consultant for "NBC News," and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Thomas Blanton, of the National Security Archive, a group that declassifies government documents, using the Freedom of Information Act. Recently, they accessed documents indicating that the Reagan administration was aware of human rights abuses in El Salvador in the 1980s. During that time, the administration was required to report to Congress about conditions in El Salvador, with the understanding that if the Salvadorian military did not improve it's human rights record, the U.S. would no longer send aid.

The former New York Times reporter was based in Poland from 1979-1982 during the rise of the Solidarity movement and martial law. Darnton just returned to Poland and wrote about it for the New York Times. He'll talk with Terry about his observations.

Boris Yeltsin may be forced out of office tomorrow when the Congress of People's Deputies meets in a special session. William Taubman, a political science professor at Amherst College, was in Russia this January, and has visited the beleaguered country five times in the last 18 months. He talks about the current chaotic state of Russian politics.

Carlisle is the granddaughter of renowned Russian writer Leonid Andreyev. She grew up in Paris, but travelled to Russia in the 1960s, where she befriended that country's most prominent writers. For 20 years she was exiled from Russia because of her friendship with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose work she published in the west. She returned to her native country in 1989 to find it vastly changed. Her new memoir is "Under A New Sky: A Reunion with Russia."

Foreign Correspondent for NPR, Tom Gjelten He's been reporting from Bosnia. Terry will talk with him about what it's been like to cover the war in the former Yugoslavia. Gjelten just won the prestigious George Polk Award for his piece, "Massacre on the Mountain," about a massacre of 200 Bosnian Muslim men. Gjelten also reported on the Gulf War and on the conflicts in Central America.

Former National Security Adviser to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski has written a new book about the state of global politics, called "Out of Control." He warns we must change our values and realize our global interdependence.