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- [00:04]
Hugh Hewitt
Read along with Hugh and Dr. Arne and enjoy Winston Churchill's My Early Life on a deeper level. Purchase your very own copy of My Early Life at the Hillsdale College Bookstore. Just visit Hillsdale. Edu Radio. Learn about the fascinating first 30 years in the life of one of the most provocative and compelling leaders of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, in my early life, Hillsdale. EDU radio radio. That's Hillsdale. Edu Radio to buy your copy of My Early Life.
- [00:46]
Podcast Announcer
Every week, Hillsdale College President Larry Arne joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss great books, great men and great ideas. This is Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio.
- [01:11]
Hugh Hewitt
Good morning glory and evening Grace and Erica. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That music means it's the last hour of the radio and video week, and that means the Hillsdale Dialogue. I began Last Week with Dr. Arne talking about Winston Churchill's book My Early Life. We return to that conversation now. This is part four of our discussion of the Winston Churchill book My Early Life. And it's the Malachan field Force now, Dr. Arm. We did not read that. That was his first book, and his first book was quite successful. But he's in England and he's out of Sandhurst, and he hears that his buddy, Sir Blynden Blood, has been introduced to us in the first chapters, is going to be dispatched with three battalions to take care of a mutiny on the Indian frontier. And the first thing he does, he's on leave from his hazar. He gets back on a boat and goes because he wants to go to the war. This is not an uncommon reaction among young warriors, but his is unusually strong and always present wherever there's a war, is where he wants to go.
- [02:18]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, he had an instinct, you know, for the action. What he did when that when he went to Afghanistan, he got on a train and went most of the length of India up there and didn't have any arrangement when he got up there, when he, when he left. And by the time he got there, he went and found Bended Blood and he got to join up and then he's up there, you know, and he, when he was up in Afghanistan, he doesn't tell the story very well because he's. But, you know, if you're a young soldier, you want to get into the action, if you want to get promoted and especially if you want to go into politics, you want to get your name in the paper. And so he did that by walking up and down exposed to gunfire behind the British lines, which were. It's rocky up there, and they were hiding behind rocks. And he would walk up and down and expose himself to gunfire and got mentioned in dispatches, which is a big thing.
- [03:12]
Hugh Hewitt
Well, let's tell people a little bit about how one gets advancement in the British army of the late Victorian age, because although Churchill leads the west to victory in World War II, he's a soldier under Queen Victoria, he's a young hussar, he's a cavalryman, he's a dashing figure in red with a sword and a Mauser, and he's doing whatever he can to get to Afghanistan. In I don't know what year this is, the Malkan passed. But what had happened is one of the tribes had attacked a British little fort at Chekdarra, and the Malacan field force was underway. Going to be 12,000 men, 4,000 animals. They're going to cross a little wire bridge. And all he wants to do is get there. So the travel. I don't want to take one of these trips, Dr. Arne. I don't ever want to travel this way. But it reminded me of those young men at Hillsdale who came up to you after you returned from India, what, last year? And they wanted to go off to India right away and you wouldn't let them go.
- [04:16]
Dr. Larry Arne
Gotta go.
- [04:16]
Hugh Hewitt
Gotta go.
- [04:17]
Dr. Larry Arne
I just did a podcast with Erik Prince, who's a graduate of the college, our college, and he's an adventurer soldier. And I've had a bunch of kids I want to work for, Eric Prince. They're all coming up and saying it's just exactly the spirit of Winston Churchill, and I'm sending him their names.
- [04:39]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, good.
- [04:39]
Dr. Larry Arne
For.
- [04:40]
Hugh Hewitt
I hope they go there. You've got Hillsdale for the benefit of our new audience, especially in the afternoon, and new affiliates that we picked up. Hillsdale runs Washington, D.C. you may not know that, but they do. They are the new Ivy League. If your kid hasn't figured out where to go to college yet and they're smart and they're willing to work, have them go look up Hillsdale. Edu. You might want to watch some of the courses there if they're new to Hillsdale. Larry, what should they start with?
- [05:06]
Dr. Larry Arne
You want what you will learn here? Half the curriculum is the same for every kid, and it's a comprehensive look at the humanities and the natural sciences. And that means you've got to read a lot of fundamentally important books. And so you will learn first to read those books, which you can start on now at Any age. And then you will learn to like them and eventually love them. And that's the thing that we talked about earlier in the program. At some point it captivates you. You know, you'll do it. Most people do it out of duty in the beginning, and that's a very good thing to do. And it's a sort of form of suffering. But at some point it becomes a compulsion, and then you're on your way and then you can learn. You can learn anything after that.
- [05:52]
Hugh Hewitt
What number of people are you now graduating from Hillsdale who are going into the uniformed services? Because our friend Mel was up there teaching this week. And you have Marine Corps general, retired, wandering through there every now and then to teach leadership and teach courses. I'm curious if it's remained constant or increased in recent years, the number of graduates who are seeking to serve the military.
- [06:17]
Dr. Larry Arne
Well, as far as I can tell, it's, you know, so we graduate about 350 a year and there might be 10 to 20 going to the military. It's a big number for, you know, and we don't take the ROTC stuff because it carries the federal strings. So we have our own professional military training program that we fund ourselves. And there's usually 30 kids in that or 40 kids in that at a time. And we've got, you know, faculty members who are retired military. And the immediate past commandant of the Marine Corps is a Hillstock College parent, Brent Kneller. And he comes here and teaches and some other ones, too. And so we, and, you know, they do PT at 6 o' clock in the morning, suffer. And there's, you know, I'm having lunch today with some students in my class and one of them is going into the Marine Corps. And he's just the kind, you know, when you talk to him, he's not required to salute yet, but he'd like to.
- [07:19]
Hugh Hewitt
Is he a senior or is he doing his first summer Quantico in the two summer program?
- [07:25]
Dr. Larry Arne
He did it last summer.
- [07:26]
Hugh Hewitt
Okay, so he's a senior. So he's going to commission and go to ocs.
- [07:30]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, that's right. Good for him. He'll commission on the day. We have a plan now to build a war memorial to our war dead and the war dead more generally in the north quad, which we're spending a lot of money on right now. And we'll be able to have the commissioning ceremonies under that war memorial.
- [07:51]
Hugh Hewitt
Who is the sculptor? I asked because Victor Davis Hansen did a podcast for the Salem Podcast Network not long ago. I haven't listened to it yet with the sculptor of, I believe, the World War I monument that was recently unveiled in Washington D.C. yeah, that's right. And it's a beautiful monument. I haven't seen it yet. I've been told by Victor and I trust Victor. It's a beautiful monument. What is yours like?
- [08:18]
Dr. Larry Arne
Well, ours is going to be a structure, open air, kind of large. Ish. It's going to be designed by Duncan Strike, who designed our chapel. And Saban Howard is busy right now. He's a buddy of mine and he's busy right now getting ready to do something for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year. And when that's over, he will likely do something here at Hillsdale. And but so we'll have a sculpting.
- [08:47]
Hugh Hewitt
Have you resolved yet on a plan for the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Revolutionary War in April?
- [08:53]
Dr. Larry Arne
We have. Okay, doing. Thank you. We're doing, we're doing something for the Battle of Election Concord next month.
- [08:59]
Hugh Hewitt
Excellent.
- [09:00]
Dr. Larry Arne
And we're working on a movie to be released on Memorial Day, probably on Netflix or Fox now or something. And we got a fancy producer and director and, and we got a bunch of scholars working on it. And we're probably going to make a movie here in the next four or five months, six months. And it'll be a 10 part series. It'll start on Memorial Day and end on the 4th of July. And it'll be about the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the country.
- [09:30]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, that. You know, I make my law students watch Adams because Paul Giamatti is Adams. It's the best television made about it. But it could be better because it doesn't, it moves so fast. It does not tell the backstory of Sam Adams or the backstory of, of the resistance to the Declaration or the backstory of Franklin or the backstory of it's just, it moves too fast. It has to. It's just 20 years old. Let me go back to. Go ahead.
- [10:00]
Dr. Larry Arne
You're right. It is very, very good. The thing we're going to do. And can we do it? Well, probably our online courses are good. And we got a big online course released this fall to be released this fall. It goes Colonial America to the Founding. And we think that's going to be very good. And this will be our thing will be a mixture of scholars explaining the story and actors playing the story out.
- [10:28]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, very good. Docudama. That's going to be good to look forward to. Lots over at Hillsdale. Edu, all the previous Hillsdale dialogues, including the first three episodes dealing with Churchill's My Early Life, are all found@hughforhillsdale.com Hughes Hugh for hillsdale.com or head over to Hillsdale. Edu for applications of the college, information on the college, all the video courses, eventually that movie as well.
- [10:53]
Mark Levin
Hello America. I'm thrilled, thrilled to announce my new 10 part podcast series, Liberty and Learning with Mark Levin and Larry Arne. Join me and my dear friend Dr. Larry Arne, President of Hillsdale College, as we dive deep into the founding principles of our great nation. In these challenging times, understanding our history and the ideals of self government is more crucial than ever. We'll explore the core of America's current crises, the changes in our government and what it means for our lives and liberties. From education to borders, citizenship to the separation of powers, we'll cover it all. Tune into Liberty and Learning with Mark Levin and Larry Arn of Hillsdale College. So subscribe now and join us on this wonderful journey to rediscover the principles that made America the freest, most prosperous nation in history generated.
- [11:41]
Podcast Announcer
Listen right now to Liberty and Learning with Mark Levin and Larry Arn at podcast hillsdale.edu. that's podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio. Hey there. It's Scott Bertram, host of the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Anniversaries play a key role in this week's episode. We start with Mark Moyer, William P. Harris, Chair of Military History at Hillsdale College. We discuss the legacy and the lessons learned from the Vietnam War 50 years after the fall of Saigon. Meanwhile, the Great Gatsby turns 100 this year. Benedict Whelan from our English department joins us to discuss the themes in that book. And Julianne Hillock, founding principal at hojo Academy in New Mexico, talks to us about the unique challenges of running a school in a remote part of the country, plus being honored by the Hillsdale College Alumni Association. All that this week on the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Find it at podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you get your audio.
- [12:58]
Hugh Hewitt
Welcome back America. The Hilltale dialogue is underway. I'm talking with Dr. Larry Arn about my early life, but I also have been doing some Millsdale dialogues when he's been away with other people. As I refer him to when you were gone for a week, Professor McClay filled in for you, author of Land of Hope. What a wonderful man. You mentioned earlier about teachers who you are like your grandpa and he used a phrase which it was now stuck I'm going to tattoo it to my head, which is I am objective but not neutral about my country. Isn't that a wonderful phrase?
- [13:36]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah. He's of course, one of our best guys and very fine man. He wrote that excellent book. And Roger Kimball, a friend of mine, Hillsdale Parent Encounter Books got him to do that, which I regard as one of Roger's greatest among many great teachers.
- [13:50]
Hugh Hewitt
I agree it should be in every classroom in the country. I make my law students read it because law students don't know anything. They know how to pass the bar and they know cases, but they.
- [14:01]
Dr. Larry Arne
When I read the book, I called Bill McClain. He was a professor at University of Oklahoma. Famous guy already. And I said, how are you? And he said, I'm great. He said, a big admirer of Hillsdale. I said, thank you. I said, because you're coming to work here.
- [14:21]
Hugh Hewitt
Was he surprised? Because that's a switch. Yeah, Oklahoma to Hillsdale is a switch.
- [14:28]
Dr. Larry Arne
It's a really great story because he does then come and he has a son who's got an excellent classics professor from PhD from Berkeley, wasn't ruined by that. And so I'm standing, talking to Bill McClay and his wife Julie, whom I'm meeting for the first time. And I said, and Bill said, you know, I know you talked to me about working here. He said, but I want to talk to you about my son. You know, he's got his PhD, he's a Hillsdale kind of guy. He's a superb Greek and Latin teacher. And I said, and he wants a job at Hillsdale College. We got the best classics department in the country. He said, yeah. And I said, well, there's a problem. And he said, what? And I said, I really only hire on the family plan. And Julie reached over and took Bill's arm and I pointed her hand on his arm and I said, and I see that that can be done.
- [15:33]
Hugh Hewitt
Well, you know, that's why you want the wife and mother around. Conversations like that, they're attuned to things like that. Let me go back to Churchill.
- [15:41]
Dr. Larry Arne
That's right.
- [15:42]
Hugh Hewitt
He's writing about the Malakan field force. They're going up to the Afghan frontier where the Brits have not fared well for 200 years. And he wrote, elaborate codes of honor exist among the tribes. But the 19th century had brought the breech loading rifle and the British government to the frontier. The Brits used both the rifles and subsidies. Churchill kind of approves of the way they fight these wars, but it is a point of honor on The Indian frontier. Again, we're on the Afghanistan border. Not to leave a wounded man behind. Death by inches and hideous mutilation are the invariable measure meted out to all who fall in battle into the hands of a Pathan tribesman. So he's not going. It's not unlike the wars of our west against. Again, you introduced me to the book on the Comanche Soldiers of the Harvest Moon or something like that.
- [16:34]
Dr. Larry Arne
Children.
- [16:36]
Hugh Hewitt
Children of the harvest moon. Is that what it was?
- [16:39]
Dr. Larry Arne
Children of the summer moon.
- [16:41]
Hugh Hewitt
Children of the summer moon. They are violent. They are incredibly punishing of their captives. Where does that come from? Churchill notes it, but he doesn't explain it. It's not in the Greek and Roman society, is it?
- [17:01]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, yeah. You know, war is very fierce, and every people can be very fierce. The. And it. But two different degrees, I would say. You know, the Comanche were a tribal people. Right. And the difference between them and us is more fundamental than in a country where we claim all men are created equal and so that those doctrines ameliorate war somewhat. But we, too, can be very fierce and have been.
- [17:39]
Hugh Hewitt
When our dander gets up, you don't want. You do not want to be up against us. When that happens. Hopefully, it doesn't happen. I talked to Secretary Rubio this week about the ChiComs, and I don't know that they believe we are the same people that won World War II, and that's a problem. That's why I'm so interested in Yalta right now. And I wrote a couple of columns this week on fdr, Churchill and Stalin versus Hitler. Now we've got Trump and Netanyahu versus Xi and Putin. And we're lucky to have Trump because. And we're lucky to have Netanyahu because Biden was not the guy to go up against those guys. And you've just got to be able to match your state's people against their state's people.
- [18:24]
Dr. Larry Arne
That's right. Yeah. Well, you got, you know, you need to be tough. And Trump's watchword this term, this administration, has been common sense. And so he brings common sense along with toughness to this thing. And he's trying to make a deal, and that seems right to me, and I hope he can get one done.
- [18:45]
Hugh Hewitt
Now, it's interesting about the deal that goes back to Churchill. He's in the Mammon Valley with Colonel Blended blood, and they've got to put down this Afghan tribe that's massacred some people. And he writes, when, however, we had to attack the villages on the sides of the mountains, they resisted fiercely and we lost for every village, two or three British officers and 15 or 20 native soldiers. Whether it was worth it, I cannot tell. At any rate, at the end of a fortnight, the valley was a desert and honor was satisfied. That's a very pregnant paragraph, Dr. Arndt.
- [19:23]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, yeah. And the last paragraph of his Malachi Field Force is called the Riddle of the Frontier. And the question it asks is a question that we have faced in Afghanistan and that is, what the heck are we going to do? Because Afghanistan is these mountains, right long. The mountains sort of go through Afghanistan. They sort of go what, north east to southwest down toward India and in between the mountain ranges there are these valleys and they're kind of isolated, this valley from the next one over. And it's a very insular place. Right. It can be five miles to a valley on the other side and it can be a one week journey to get there. And so what they do is they live in their little villages and they farm and they raise some whatever they raise. And then once in a while, and they're very fierce people, and once in a while they go right over the border into India, burn and pillage and steal. And so what are the British going to do about that?
- [20:33]
Hugh Hewitt
We'll come back and find out what the British are going to do about that. Stay tuned. I'll continue my conversation with Dr. Arne after the break.
- [20:43]
Read along with Hugh and Dr. Arne and enjoy Winston Churchill's My Early Life on a Deeper level. Purchase your very own copy of My Early Life at the Hillsdale College Bookstore. Just visit Hillsdale. Edu Radio Learn about the fascinating first 30 years in the life of one of the most provocative and compelling leaders of the 20th century century, Winston Churchill in My Early Life. Hillsdale. Edu Radio that's Hillsdale. Edu Radio to buy your copy of My Early Life.
- [21:21]
Welcome back to the Hillsdale Dialogue America. All things Hillsdale at Hillsdale. Edu at the break, Dr. Ahn, you were talking about what the Brits would do on the Indian frontier when the Afghans would cross over to loot and plunder.
- [21:35]
Dr. Larry Arne
So there are three policies and one policy is called the policy that Churchill took part in, called, he called it Butcher and Bolt. Go over there and kill a bunch of them back and that'll deter them somewhat. And then getting ready, you're going to have to go back again another time. And then they think, let's take the passes. The Afghans come over these passes into India and will deny them coming Over. Well, then you got a bunch of soldiers living up on top of a mountain that's kind of hard. You got to supply them. And it's cold up there. And so then they. That's the. That's the middle policy. And the third policy is called the forward policy. And they let's go down to the other side and control the approaches from the other side. Then you got a bunch of soldiers on the other side and they're all.
- [22:27]
Hugh Hewitt
And it's the same problem that Alexander the Great ran into, that the British ran into, that the Russians ran into, that the Americans ran into. It is not a place for civilization as we understand it. It's a place for trial, as they understand.
- [22:42]
Dr. Larry Arne
As they understand civilization. It is very much, yes.
- [22:47]
Hugh Hewitt
My friend Steven Pressfield, the novelist, has an entire website devoted to. It's the tribes, stupid. And to a certain extent, the Middle east is also the tribes. And we are not that people. There were tribes when we got here. There are still tribes. They've been reduced in their sovereignty to their original reserves. But I want to conclude this way before we run out, because Churchill and the Press appears in this first book. Now, Churchill deals with the press. You explained in the last couple of weeks, he's always writing for someone. He is both a soldier and a journalist for the first 35 years of his life, for 25 years of his life. But he's engaged by the military to suppress a story and he doesn't even blink in doing so. He's writing for the Telegraph. His book on the Malacan Field Force comes out. The Prince of Wales sends him a letter saying, that must be nice to get the Prince of Wales saying, I like your book. He's playing polo. He gets appointed to the staff of the Generalissimo, a guy named Sir William Lockhart. I became the close personal attendant to the Captain of the Host. And then the Captain of the Host is mumbling because some journalist is writing about the expedition in the Fortnightly Review. And Churchill solves the problem by sending the editor a note. Because one gentleman won't disparage another gentleman. That's from a long time ago, isn't it?
- [24:14]
Dr. Larry Arne
Oh, yeah, yeah. But, you know. And Churchill was up against the edge of the protocols of that time because he was, you know, he had a lot of trouble. You know, they. He writes these books and the books are very interesting. If you read the very first ones, they're not quite as mature as Churchill at his peak, in my opinion. I think the River War maybe, but, you know, he's A young man learning how to do it. And he goes out there and he sees these things and he's got these immense powers of articulation. And he tells the story of the war and it's very popular and people read it like crazy. They're bestsellers. And he's highly paid for columns about battles in which he's taking part. And darned if he doesn't talk about the generals and he's the second lieutenant. And so what, you know, they think you can't do that. Well, he does it quite a lot.
- [25:10]
Hugh Hewitt
You know who did that as well? Our friend Senator Cotton took up the pen, I believe, from Iraq, it might have been Afghanistan, and wrote disparagingly of some. Both. It wasn't both. I wonder, do you think he was, I've never asked him, was he moved by the Churchill parallel? You know, I've got to speak up.
- [25:34]
Dr. Larry Arne
Oh, yeah, he knows about it. I've talked to. I've talked to him about it. What he was doing, his memory serves, was defending the military effort there against journalists who were decrying the army and the effort. And see the effort. Both those wars, in my opinion, first of all, we fought. We probably fought as well in Afghanistan as anybody ever fought there. My quibble at the time was with the war aims, right. You know, the CIA got a videotape of a dinner where Osama bin Laden is explaining how he organized the attack on the Twin Towers, right. So we know he did that eventually we killed him for it. But so to go there, Afghanistan has attacked the United States of America. We can attack them back. But then. And we should have, and we did, and we did it well. And at first, we had a very elegant strategy where we pitted one bunch of Afghans against another, mostly Special Forces.
- [26:41]
Hugh Hewitt
Okay, pause Right there. Dr. Arm. We're going to come back and continue what we did right and what we did wrong and what we didn't learn from Churchill's my early life and what we might want to learn from my early life going forward. Stay tuned to the Hillsdale Dialogue, all of them@hugh for hillsdale.com welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. The Hillsdale Dialogue is underway with Dr. Larry Arne. When we left it, we were talking about what America did after it was attacked. And I remember it very well. The Northern alliance and General Mattis came in to the middle of the desert with the Marine Expeditionary Force behind him. It was over. In three months. It was done.
- [27:19]
Dr. Larry Arne
That's right. That's right. And then, you know, the question about all that war is the attempt to stay and build a new kind of civil society there. And, you know, I know that many of the people who made that decision back in the day, we talked about this at the beginning. They thought that they were following in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, but Winston Churchill specifically did not try to do that. As a matter of fact, in his whole life, Winston Churchill never proposed the addition of anything.
- [27:50]
Hugh Hewitt
Yeah. One of the bad things I've learned, I talked about it with Lord Roberts, is that George Marshall was so successful in rebuilding Europe and MacArthur was so successful in rebuilding Japan that it created a mythology that American will succeed in rebuilding its enemies into its own image. And it ain't gonna work that way.
- [28:08]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah. And, you know, it hasn't really worked that way. You know, it just turns out that democracy is a form of government that you cannot do for somebody else. And look, we. I once heard a great lecture by D.C. watt, a late historian who was a serious big time historian, like Andrew Roberts is today. And he talked about why it worked in Japan and Germany and why it didn't work in Germany after the First World War. And his answer was, we leveled the place, we reduced it to rubble. And they saw then that their way didn't work. They picked a fight and they got hammered. And the same thing with Japan. And so the opportunity to start over was prepared by that.
- [28:59]
Hugh Hewitt
Let me close today by telling people, you and I, you've been gracious enough and Hilstel's been gracious enough to invite fetching Mrs. Hewitt and I to go along on the hillsdalecollegecruise.com has that sold out. By the way, I don't do cruises anymore, but I'm going with you guys because you do all the work and I get to hear some great lectures. Supposed to give them all, but if we have time, I would love to interview you about Churchill for that group. I think we are in a pressing moment now where we have to educate people about Winston Churchill. We've been doing it accidentally. We got it backed into it on the Hillsdale dialogues, but it's become a pressing need because he is a statesman and we need statesmen.
- [29:38]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, that's right. And he's this, you know, like, building democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, in my opinion at the time, is too much. Pretending that we can live of our own here without questions of freedom of the seas. That's too much in the other way.
- [29:58]
Hugh Hewitt
That's too little.
- [30:00]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, that's right. It's like mortar fire. Right. We go too far now. We've gone too short, I think. I hope we target now. But what you can learn from Churchill is a blessed discipline called strategy, which is in Churchill, the way he uses the word. It's frequently a synonym for economy. You've got to find the cheapest way to get the job done. And that because especially if you live in any country, you have to do that because resources are not unlimited, you know.
- [30:38]
Hugh Hewitt
Two weeks ago, Dr. Ahn, the annual report on the Chinese military capability was published, and you and I, in an earlier Hillsdale dialogue series covered the world crisis. At the beginning of the world crisis, a land power, Germany, decides to embark upon an expansion of its naval power, which sets in chain a series of events that leads to the world Crisis. World War I. China is a land power, and they've always been a land power. They've always had a million people in a standing army. They have set about doing what the Kaiser did. And I fear this. It's. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes and it sure is rhyming right now. Have you noticed this, that a land power in Asia is building a naval expeditionary force like the Kaiser did in the turn of the century?
- [31:28]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, sure. That's the. And see the questions, you know, I support the current administration very much. I'm going to go tomorrow and watch them sign a bill, an executive order. But they're trying to repair the manufacturing base of the country and trying to make the military lethal and nimble and dollar for dollar, better able to defend the country and hurt its enemies. And that's the thing, right? That's a general redirection of the government of the United States. And they're trying to make the government more economical. Right? And that's, of course, the struggle of the age. And we have to win that struggle in order to get ourselves in a place where we can deter China. And, you know, another thing that's going on is I had Peter Thiel say to me one time years ago, and he's a very smart guy, as you probably know, and he said. I said, how are we going to compete with China? And he said, well, we can't beat them with technology. They're really good at that. We can match them. He said, but. And they're a lot bigger than we are, but they're not a lot bigger than the world. And so we should get the world, you know, because as a rule, countries that dominate other countries are not popular in those countries. And that's China's way. It has been our way a little bit. Our imperial sort of policy with our transgender flags and very religious countries is a little bit smacks of of intrusive imperialism. But if we go back to our way, which is we just want people to be free and elect their own government and live the way they want to, and we want Europe to get itself in order and build up some military so they can defend that.
- [33:20]
Hugh Hewitt
And they need to do that. Absolutely need to do that. When I come back for the conclusion of this week's hotel dialogue with Dr. Larian, I do want to remind everyone, if you go to hillsdalecollegecruise.com I don't know if they've sold out. They're close to selling out. I'm going to go on the cruise with Dr. R this year. Hillsdalecollegecruise.com will give you all the information about this remarkable journey we're taking. Begins in Portugal. It ends up in London. Also want to remind you everything Hillsdale is found at Hillsdale. Edu and all of the prior Hillsdale dialogues, and there are hundreds of them, can be found@hughforhillsdale.com that's hughforhillsdale.com but if you want the application for yourself, your son, your daughter, your grandkids, or you just want to enjoy one of the video courses, you're tired of the garbage on YouTube, head to Hillsdale. Edu. It's all collected there. It's a magnificent website. Every college should have a website that well designed Hilldale. Eduardo coming back for the last part of this week's Hillsdale Dialogue with Dr. Arn right after this.
- [34:26]
Podcast Announcer
Hey there. It's Scott Bertram, host of the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Anniversaries play a key role in this week's episode. We start with Mark Moyer, William P. Harris, chair of military history at Hillsdale College. We discuss the legacy and the lessons learned from the Vietnam War 50 years after the fall of Saigon. Meanwhile, the Great Gatsby turns 100 this year. Benedict Whelan from our English department joins us to discuss the themes in that book. And Julianne Hillock, founding principal at Pojo Academy in New Mexico, talks to us about the unique challenges of running a school in a remote part of the country, plus being honored by the Hillsdale College Alumni Association. All that this week on the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Find it at Podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you get your audio.
- [35:27]
Hillsdale College Narrator
Hillsdale College is a small Christian classical liberal arts college that operates independently of government funding. And we want you or your son or daughter to apply. At Hillsdale, students grow in heart and mind by studying timeless truths in a supportive community dedicated to the highest things. Hillsdale College costs significantly less than other nationally ranked private liberal arts colleges and receives regular recognition as a best value. And nearly all students receive financial aid. Our robust core curriculum, vibrant student life and 8 to 1 student to faculty ratio make for an education like no other. For more information or to fill out an application, visit Hillsdale. Eduardo that's Hillsdale. Edu Info.
- [36:21]
Hugh Hewitt
Welcome back, America. The Hillsdale Dialogue. Final segment here. And at this point with Dr. Arne, I tell him a little bit about Richard Nixon. Have I told you what Richard Nixon's summary objective was when I was a young man and worked for him? The ongoing expansion of liberty, ongoing incremental expansion of liberty and literacy in the west and countries allied with it. That should be the overarching objective of American foreign policy. I agree with that. We may have, I may have been too enthusiastic about Iraq, but I did believe they had WMD and I was it was after 9 11. When we return, we're going to pick up with chapter eight, difficulty with Kirchner, but I believe in between, we're going to get an update on your visit to Washington and we're going to do a scorecard in the first 100 days. I think we'll be about 100 days or about 90 days in last two minutes. You Dr. Arndt, are you an optimist about how the administration has begun?
- [37:17]
Dr. Larry Arne
Oh, yeah. It's a fight. You know, I'm a Churchill optimist. Churchill always thought it's going to be a hell of a problem and then we'll win. And I think that's what's, I think that's what's happening right now. I think it's going to be a, it is a struggle about the kind of government and life we are going to live. It affects everything. And so it's gonna be like that. And sure enough, you know, I mean, gosh, they're burning Teslas and terrorism. What's that about?
- [37:47]
Hugh Hewitt
And we've got Republicans in the House who want to impeach district court judges just because they're ideological extremists and wrong. We do not want to make impeachment. We don't want to ratchet up impeachment back to the days of when Jefferson tried to get Sam and Chase off the court.
- [38:03]
Dr. Larry Arne
There's, we need a bill. I mean, first of all, there's, you know, you're softer on the courts than I am, old Hugh Hewitt, because you're a lawyer and can't help it. But the truth is, all you got to do is read Alito and Thomas on whether these district judges, they cannot.
- [38:18]
Hugh Hewitt
Do these injunctions anymore. They can't.
- [38:22]
Dr. Larry Arne
And the point is, you can do that with an ordinary bill in the Congress.
- [38:25]
Hugh Hewitt
Yes.
- [38:26]
Dr. Larry Arne
And they should do that.
- [38:27]
Hugh Hewitt
Yes. We don't need to impeach anyone. We weaponized the Department of Justice. We impeached Donald Trump twice. We need to lower the volume and up the smarts in this. And what you just said is. Exactly. And we can control the jurisdiction of the federal courts. Perfectly constitutional to do that. It requires using the muscles that the Congress hasn't used for a long time. We're out of time. Dr. Arn, I want to thank you. My early life. We will continue then. We're going to go to Marlboro. Now. Marlboro is a big book and you got to go get it and get ready for it. And then Dr. Arnold and I can talk about whether or not we do World War II to save Churchill from the Coopers out there. My gosh, that guy is. You're much less.
- [39:06]
Dr. Larry Arne
We can think about doing that next.
- [39:09]
Hugh Hewitt
Before Marlboro. Before Marlboro.
- [39:11]
Dr. Larry Arne
Yeah, maybe. I don't know. You're running this railroad. I'm just the talent.
- [39:16]
Hugh Hewitt
You're just. You are the talent. And I admit that. Hillsdale. EDU Dr. Larry Arden, thank you. Safe travel to D. D.C. i think that's very funny. He is indeed the talent. And if he wants to do Winston Churchill's six volume history to World War II, I would encourage you to go and order it now. There are gazillion sets of them. They're not expensive. You can get them in paperback or hardback. Go to Amazon and go to the used bookstore. Two things the Churchill World War II books and Marlboro by Churchill, which is a little bit harder to find. Meanwhile, all things Hillsdale at Hillsdale. Eduardo.
- [39:52]
Podcast Announcer
Thanks for listening to the Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio. For more information about Hillsdale College, head to hillsdale. Edu.