History

Singer and actor Kris Kristofferson. His hit songs "Me and Bobby McGee," and "Help Me Make it Through the Night," earned him acclaim as a country singer. His musical success led him to films, and he went on to act in westerns ("Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"), comedies ("Semi-Tough"), and musicals ("A Star is Born"). In the past few years, he's appeared in the TV mini-series "Amerika" and "Blood and Orchids."

Book Critic John Leonard reviews two new biographies of Roy Cohn, the counsel for the Senate committee conducting the McCarthy trials, and McCarthy's aide and confidante.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nick Kotz. His new book, Wild Blue Yonder: Money, Politics and the B-1 Bomber, is an in-depth examination of how cost over-runs, politics and s basic pork barrel mentality has compromised the making of the B-1 bomber. Kotz's study of military leadership won the National Magazine Award for Public Service. He also authored the highly acclaimed book, Let Them Eat Promises.

Peter Sichrovsky. His new book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Young Jews in Germany and Austria Today, is an exploration of the lives and motivations of the European Jews who either stayed or returned to to live in countries whose people brought on them the horrors of the Holocaust. In the introduction, Sichrovsky says that his central question in researching the book was, "What does it mean for a Jew to live in Germany today?" His latest book Born Guilty: Children of Nazi Families explores "the other side."

A song about apartheid from Tony Bird, a white African singer who grew up in the country of Malawi.

Helen Suzman served as an Opposition Member of the South African Parliament from 1953 until 1989 . Suzman was a pioneering political leader in the fight against apartheid and anti-semitism. For thirteen years she was the sole representative in the Parliament to reject race discrimination. She's been twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She'll discuss post-apartheid South Africa. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane).

Actor Zakes Mokae. He now appears in the film "The Serpent and the Rainbow." He began his acting career in his native South Africa where he and playwright Athol Fugard founded the Serpent Theater. They shocked audiences by becoming the first black and white actors to appear on stage together. Mokae continues to appear in Fugard's plays, in addition to his film career.

Walter Polovchak. Polovchak was a 12-year-old Ukrainian immigrant living with his family in Chicago, when he refused to return with them to the Soviet Union. His decision provoked a storm of controversy from his family and authorities in both countries and attracted worldwide media attention. The court battles continued for five years until Polovchak reached his 18th birthday in 1985 and was sworn in as an American citizen.

Military historian Clay Blair. His new book is titled The Forgotten War: America In Korea. As a reporter in the Fifties, Blair was the Washington correspondent for Time and Life magazines. He later wrote for The Saturday Evening Post. For the last 23 years, Blair has been writing military histories. In The Forgotten War, he tells how warfare changed during the Korean War, and how this war, a war that the United States didn't win, affected our military strategy.

Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who for the past 20 years has been at the forefront of the peace movement. He has been arrested and spent time in prison many times for his acts of civil disobedience. Berrigan was one the Catonsville 9, who protested the Vietnam war in 1968 by destroying draft records, and a member of the Plowshares 8, who damaged nuclear warheads in 1980. He now works at an AIDS hospice in New York City. Daniel Berrigan recently completed his autobiography; it's titled To Dwell in Peace.

Jazz pianist Sumi Tonooka plays an excerpt from "Out From Silence," a work inspired by her mother's internment in a camp for Japanese-American during World War II. Tonooka is joined by Ronnie Seldin, playing the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese flute.

Film Director Louis Malle. He made his mark in French New Wave Cinema with such films as "Murmur of the Heart" and "Lacombe Lucien." More recently he has been working in the U.S. making films such as "Atlantic City" and "My Dinner with Andre." His latest film, "Au Revoir Les Enfants," is a reflection on his childhood.

Peter Kornbluh, an information analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Kornbluh is the co-editor of Low Intensity Warfare, an analysis of the numerous counter-insurgency operations the United States is engaged in around the world. Low Intensity Warfare looks at the future of American war-fighting capabilities as they are reoriented toward unconventional conflicts in the Third World.

Black South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin. She's led many groups and has also recorded with her husband, composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, also known as "Dollar Brand."

David Aaron, former deputy director of the National Security Council. His experience as an arms negotiator in the Carter administration provides the background for State Scarlet, his novel about terrorism and nuclear weapons.

Novelist and translator Richard Lourie. His new novel is titled Zero Gravity and follows his successful debut First Loyalty. Lourie has been closely involved with the Russian and Polish underground intelligentsia and the emigre communities in America.

Book critic John Leonard reviews The Year of the Barricades: A Journey Through 1968 by the English journalist and historian David Caute.

Novelist Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, Something Happened and No Laughing Matter, his 1985 account of being stricken with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological disease in which the peripheral nervous system is attacked. Within two weeks of the first symptoms, Heller could hardly breathe or swallow. It took him two years to relearn his basic motor functions. Heller's best known work is still his first, Catch 22, a satire of the military bureaucracy and the madness of war.

Exiled South African singer Miriam Makeba. At 20, she became the lead vocalist for a top South African band. And when her performances brought her international acclaim, she used her forum to speak out against Apartheid. She was subsequently banned from her native country, and then later from America for her marriage to the radical Stokely Carmichael. For the past 20 years, she's toured with her mentor, singer Harry Belafonte, and last year she toured with Paul Simon's Graceland Tour.

Adrian Cronauer, the airman disk-jockey whose stint as a rebellious Armed Forces Radio Network announcer during the Vietnam war is the basis for the movie "Good Morning Vietnam," starring Robin Williams. Cronauer, 49, is a former announcer for WQXR in New York and is now studying communications law at The University of Pennsylvania.