Let's begin with a proverb from China that is centered on questions of power.

It goes like this.

It is easy to find a thousand soldiers, but it's hard to find one good general.

Welcome.

I'm John Donvan, host of Intelligence Squared U.S., and that proverb coming from China helps

set up this program tonight, not only because we are going to be debating Chinese power

and what America's response should be to it, but also because to launch this particular

season, we are headlining this program with a conversation with, as the proverb from China

recommends, one good general.

Get ready for a strategic discussion of America's challenges around the globe, really around

the world led by General David Petreas, who will be in conversation with Max Boot, military

historian, and also a good friend of intelligence, who is upcoming book is called The Road

Not Taken, Edward Lansdale, and the American tragedy in Vietnam.

Please welcome David Petreas and Max Boot.

General Petreas is really one of the people I admire most in the world.

I think out of all of the Americans who have served in uniform and served so valiantly,

I think very few have managed to combine the technical side of warfare tactics and operations

with the broader grand strategy and diplomacy and communications and all those other higher

elements of command.

And I think really nobody in American uniform has done that better since the days of White

T. Eisenhower than the man who I am privileged to interview here tonight.

It was a privilege.

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