International affairs

Israel's first ambassador to the United Nations and the United States Abba Eban. In 1948 he was elected to Israel's Knesset and worked in the cabinets of many Israeli leaders. Eban served with the British in the Middle East during W.W.II. He has been president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, a professor at Columbia University and worked with the Center for Advanced Studies at Princeton. His latest book, "Personal Witness," is a political memoir about the past five decades of Israel.

Anthropologist and documentary filmmaker David Feingold talks about the Peruvian Shining Path guerrillas, their connection to the drug trade, and their impact on the elections in Peru. His new film, "Washington/Peru: We Ain't Winning," is about U.S. efforts to stop the drug flow from Peru.

Patrons was among the 30,000 Argentines who disappeared during military rule in the mid 70s. She was imprisoned for almost three years, released in 1979, and forced to leave the country. While in prison, her poetry was smuggled out by human rights groups. The U.S. granted Partnoy refugee status. She is the author of 'The Little School," and edited "You Can't Drown The Fire," an anthology of exiled Latin American women's writings. Her new collection is "Revenge of the Apple."

In addition to his literary work, Tharoor also works at the United Nations, and is currently heading up the U.N. peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia. His newest novel, "Show Business" is about the Indian film industry.

British journalist Xan Smiley has been covering the U.S. election process -- beginning with the primaries -- for the Sunday Telegraph. He gives his impressions of the campaign and makes comparisons between American and British styles of politics. He says Americans are much more "decorous and dignified" than British politicians.

Head of the National Security Archive Tom Blanton helped research "The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962," scheduled for release today, thirty years after the incident. In the book, newly released documents and top-secret files reveal how close the U.S. came to a nuclear entanglement. In 1987, the National Security Archive filed suit against the U.S. government for failing to produce the documents they requested. Since then, there has been more compliance with the archive, especially since the Russian government has agreed to allow the U.S. to release the Kennedy-Krushchev letters.

Holland made the critically acclaimed and controversial film, "Europa Europa." Her latest film is "Olivier, Olivier," about a woman reunited with her son six years after he disappeared at the age of nine. Many of her movies deal with the life of Polish Jews, especially during World War II.

Kremlin insider Georgi Arbatov. His new book, "The System," is a memoir of his long political career as Director of the Institute for the USA and Canada, the Soviet Union's most influential foreign policy think-tank. He was not a dissident or an enemy of the system; rather, he worked within it. His book begins with his World War II career, chronicles the repressive Stalin era, the Cold War, the August 1991 coup attempt and its aftermath. He's been an adviser to every Soviet leader from Khruschev to Yeltsin.

Simic won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990. He edited a new anthology of Serbian poetry called "The Horse Has Six Legs." He came to the U.S. when he was 15. He'll talk to guest host Marty Moss-Coane about poetry, growing up in Yugoslavia, andt what it's like to witness the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Riklis's new film, "Cup Final," takes place in 1982: the Israelis have just invaded Lebanon and the World Cup soccer games are taking place in Barcelona. Riklis makes a point of humanizing Palestinians and painting a complex picture of Israeli-Palestinian relations.