History

Former Tuskegee Airman Robert Williams. He was with the Army Air Corps "Fighting 99th" the first squadron of Black fighter pilots in World War II. Now, after 45 years of trying he's gotten a studio interested in making a movie about the squadron. The new HBO movie, "The Tuskegee Airmen," stars Laurence Fishburne; Williams is the co-executive producer. The film debuts August 26th.

Author and Historian Richard Rhodes discusses the Cold War battle for the Hydrogen Bomb. His latest book is Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon & Shuster August 1995) Using recently declassified files in the United States and the Soviet Union he details the escalation of the Superpower arms race. He won a Pulitzer Prize for chronicling the Manhattan Project in The Making of the Atomic Bomb. He is the author of several other books including Nuclear Renewal: Common Sense about Energy, A Hole in the World, Sons of Earth, and Looking for America.

Paul Beaver is the editor of the British magazine Jane's Balkan Sentinel. The Sentinel is published by Jane's Information Group, which also publishes Jane's Defense Weekly. Beaver discusses the magazine's investigation into tracking the clandestine arms supply routes into Bosnia and the Balkan states. It has been reported that all of the warring factions in that region have been receiving weapons illegally. The United Nation's currently has an arms embargo on the six republics of the former Yugoslavia.

This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. We talk with James Yamazaki, the Japanese-American pediatrician who was sent to Nagasaki four years later to study the impact of radiation on children. Yamazaki has written a memoir about his life and work in Nagasaki called Children of the Atomic Bomb. He is currently clinical professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine at the University of California. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Nurse Christina Schmitz. She volunteers with the international medical relief organization, Doctors Without Borders. Schmitz was in Srebrenica when it fell. She has also volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Croatia, Liberia, Kurdistan, South Sudan, and Chechnya. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Croatian journalist, critic, and feminist Slavenka Drakulic. She is the author of How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, and The Balkan Express. Drakulic will talk about the recent developments in the Bosnian conflict: that is, the Croatian Government's assault to reclaim the Serb populated area, Krajina, which broke away when Croatia established its independence. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Craig Cuny son of Fred Cuny, the founding president of Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation in Texas. Fred was on a humanitarian mission, conducting an assessment of Chechnya for the Open Society Institute. He has been missing since April 7th. Craig has spent the last three months searching for his father.

Reporter for New Yorker magazine David Remnick. He recently traveled to the Republic of Chechnya where he toured the devastation, talked to survivors and officials of the Russian Army and the Chechen Army. His article, "In Stalin's Wake," appears in this week's edition of New Yorker. He also covered the Soviet Union for The Washington Post from 1988-1990.

Psychologist Robert Jay Lifton. His new book Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (Grosset Putnam), which he co-wrote with Greg Mitchell, assesses the political, ethical and psychological impact on our nation of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. August 6 marks the fiftieth anniversary of this event. Lifton is the author of many other important books including the Nazi Doctors and The Protean Self.

Stephen Engelberg of the New York Times. He is a former Eastern Europe correspondent and is presently an investigative reporter in the Washington bureau. Engelberg will reconstruct the story of the turning point in the Bosnian war: how the U.N. and Nato decided to bomb Serb headquarters last May, and then stop after the Serbs took peace keepers hostage.

Award-winning Israeli journalist Danny Rubinstein. He has a new book called The Mystery of Arafat (Steerforth Press) which looks into the image of the P-L-O leader, Yasser Arafat. Rubinstein is a columnist for the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz and has been writing on Palestinian issues since 1967. He is also the author of the book The People of Nowhere. Rubinstein presently lives in Jerusalem where he teaches in the department of Middle East History at Ben-Gurion University.

Correspondent for the New York Times, Roger Cohen. He will talk with Terry about the five weeks he recently spent in Sarajevo where he covered the war.

Playwright and satirist from South Africa Pieter-Dirk Uys. He has a television talk show in South Africa with an unusual twist: instead of hosting his show as himself, he dresses in drag as an Afrikaner dowager named Evita. His guests have included such leaders as Nelson Mandela.

Mackenzie commanded the United Nations Peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslavia until he retired in 1993. Since then, Mackenzie has been critical of the UN's ability to command and control its forces. He talks about the state of humanitarian efforts in Sarajevo.

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, fell in love with Roald Sagdeev, who worked for the Soviet space program. She details the start to their politically fraught relationship in her new memoir, "Breaking Free."

Journalist for the New York Times, Roger Cohen. He speaks to Terry from Sarajevo, where he has been covering the war.

Member of the Exile Tibetans' Parliament, the Assembly of the Tibetan People's Deputies, Tendzin Choegyal. He is the youngest brother of the His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He talks about the selection of the Panchen lama -- the second highest leader in Buddhism -- and China's efforts to interfere with the process.

Alison Des Forges is a consultant to Human Rights Watch Africa. Last month, the Rwandan Patriotic Army opened fire at a refugee camp. Human Rights Watch says 2000 people were killed. Des Forges visited the camp following the massacre. Des Forges is also the Co-Chair of the International Commission on Human Rights Abuse in Rwanda. She is a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Hanan Mikhail-Ashrwai, former spokesperson for the PLO from 1991 to 1993. Ashrawi was the chief spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation at the Middle East peace negotiations. There are two books about her life and her role in the peace process: her personal account, This Side of Peace, and A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East by Barbara Victor.

We speak with two veterans about their service during World War II. Tony Varone remembers V.E. DAY 50 years ago today. He served in the 9th Infantry Division which fought in Europe. He now is Commander of VFW POST in Long Island, New York. Donald Pearce fought in Europe in the Canadian Army. Pearce kept a diary during his tour of duty. His 1965 book Journal Of A War: North-west Europe 1944-1945 chronicles the battles fought in Belgian and the Netherlands.