from the beginning of our fight for independence at lexington and concord to the end of the longest war in american history in afghanistan, millions of veterans have risked their lives to preserve the democratic ideals of this great nation. we live in peace and prosperity today because of them. because of you. on this day, we must not only appreciate those great blessings and the veterans who delivered them, we must also remember the terrible cost at which they came. veterans have told us of costs of war throughout history. letters home from world war ii by one described his experience on d-day writing i never in my wildest dreams new such terror could grip your very soul. one senator, a patriot, hero of the war in vietnam and a father of the modern v.a. who passed away earlier this week echoed that sentiment writing war is as close to hell on earth as anything ever could be. sentiments like these have been expressed by veterans everywhere. those who bore the battle of the civil war, the frozen mountains of korea, the jungles of vietnam, the cities, deserts, mountains of iraq and afghan

beginning with the signing of the declaration of independence or more accurately with the battle of lexington and concord but in your book you take the roots of it back not only to the french and indian war but even in the decade before that and you see the roots of this brewing bifurcation as going back long before there was an actual conflict whereas as you also point out for benjamin franklin well into 1775 he was still hoping for reconciliation with the british empire and that an arrangement could be achieved whereby the united states or what would become the united states and that's an anachronism but where the colonies would become partners with the british motherland in a world empire so i found that really really interesting and i was wondering if you could elaborate on that ache as i think that's also a very fresh approach. >> so yes i do start the story in lexington and concord in before the french and indian war because what i'm trying to get at is this question of what causes a person to turn their back on the country and take arms against it? how are these rebels created? i don't