Government & Politics

We check in again with journalist Robert Cullen. He's the former Moscow correspondent Newsweek, and he writes regularly on Eastern Europe for "The Atlantic," and the "New Yorker." CULLEN will talk with Terry about his recent trip to Moscow after the coup and he'll update us on the state of the Soviet military. His new book is "Twilight of Empire: Inside the Crumbling Soviet Bloc."

Journalist and Associate Professor at Hampshire College Michael Klare. He directs the Five-College Program in Peace and World Security Studies. He talks to Terry about Bush's recent call for cutting back of our nuclear arsenal in eastern Europe. Klare says, though, it isn't a sign of disarmament, it's the beginning of a re-armament to fight the wars of the post cold-war era. His 1990 article, "Who's Arming Who?" warned of the growing global violence deriving from the arms trade.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Norman Mailer's new novel, "Harlot's Ghost."

Journalist Molly Ivins from Austin, Texas. She calls herself a "dripping fangs liberal," and believes that by being objective journalists take all the color out of human affairs. She says, "politics ought to be covered the way sports is, as a celebration of heroes and villians." She's taken on Ron and Nancy Reagan, George Bush, and the "bubbas" in the Texas Legislature.

The U.S. Senate begins debate today on confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court; and Senator Biden has called for hearings examining the confirmation process. Duke University Law Professor Walter Dellinger gives his critique of the confirmation process.

Journalist Sam Dillon. Dillon was part of the Miami Herald's team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Iran Contra scandal. His new book, "Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels," looks at the history of the contras during their ten year struggle with the Sandinistas. ( published by Henry Holt).

Private eye Hal Lipset. Lipset's the subject of Patricia Holt's new book, "The Bug In The Martini Olive." That title refers to Lipset's ability to plant secret listening devices just about anywhere. He also photographed adulterous couples and worked for everyone from the Senate Watergate Committee to cult leader Jim Jones. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Political analyst John Ellis. Ellis has recently proposed that George Bush and whoever wins the Democratic nomination for president engage each other in a series of nine Sunday night debates in the weeks before the 1992 election. Ellis says this would counteract the trend toward soundbites that have defined recent elections. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane).

International Lawyer and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace David Scheffer. His writings appear in the book, "Right v. Might," (published by Council on Foreign Relations Press). He's been following the progress of the UN resolutions since the end of the Gulf War. He'll tell Marty how Iraq has been underreporting its weapons and what the United States is allowed to do about it. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Writer David Rieff (pronounced "reef"). his new book, "Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World," looks at how the millions of poor immigrants that have come to the Los Angeles area in the past two decades have changed the shape of that city...changing it from the "City of Dreams" that's long been L.A.'s popular image, to a much poorer, problem-ridden,and diverse, place. Rieff says something similar is in store for many other American cities. (The book's published by Simon and Schuster).

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. He's written a new memoir, called "Koop: The Memoirs if America's Family Doctor." (It's published by Random House).

French economist Jacques Attali (ah-tahl-lee). He'll discuss what lies ahead for the Soviet economy. Attali is a special advisor to French President Francois Mitterrand and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He's also the author of the book, "Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order" (published by Random House).

We discuss the upcoming confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court with New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis. In the late 50s and early 60s, Lewis covered the Supreme Court for the Times. His new book, "Make No Law," examines one of those cases, the Sullivan libel case against the Times. (It's published by Random House).

Arnolds Karklis and Vidvuds Mednis of the Latvian-American rock group The Quags. The guys will play music and talk about their now-free homeland, and their new recording, One Of Us (Plate Records).

In the wake of Baltic independence, we examine the history of the region with professor Walter Clemens, who's just published the book, Baltic Independence and Russian Empire (St. Martin's Press).

Jury selection for the Noriega trial starts today. Los Angeles Times reporter Douglas Frantz (FRANZ) has been following the Noriega story and will review events leading up to the trial. Frantz will also tell us about Noriega's BCCI connection.

Yesterday President Bush voiced his opposition to federally funded needle exchange programs to stop the spread of AIDS. Today Terry talks with activist Rod Sorge (pronounced like George).He's the director of PWA's (People with AIDS Working for Health, Inc.) Harm Reduction Institute, a program that runs a needle-exchange program in New York City. Giving out needles in New York is against the law and Sorge and his group have been arrested for it. Sorge runs ACT-UP's needle exchange program.

Professor of History at Harvard, Richad Pipes. He's written over ten books on the Soviet Union. Including, "The Formation of the Soviet Union," published in 1957 and "The Russian Revolution," published last year. He talks with Terry about the formation of the Soviet Union, so that we can understand the breaking up of the empire.

Political scientist professor William Taubman discusses who wields power in the Soviet Union, in the wake of the past week's events. Taubman had an editorial this weekend in the New York Times saying that the time has come for Mikhail Gorbachev to step down. (Taubman teaches at Amherst College, and is currently working on a biography of Nikita Khrushchev).

Editor Vitalli Korotych (Veh-tal-ee Ka-row-tich) of the reformist Soviet magazine, "Ogonyok" (AH-gone-yuck) He talks with Terry about his own questions about the coup, about the lessons learned from it, and about what he thinks should happen now.