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Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

When Migrants Wanted To Be Americans | Victor Davis Hanson & Max Nikias

Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

Jennifer Hayne

News, News Commentary

4.81.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Victor Davis Hanson interviews former USC president and engineer Max Nikias about his memoir, “American Trojan,” tracing Nikias’s journey from a poor village in Cyprus to U.S. citizenship and academic leadership. Nikias recounts studying engineering in Athens during Greece’s military dictatorship and witnessing the 1973 Polytechnic uprising, then returning home as Cyprus was invaded by Turkey in 1974, displacing his family.  He describes arriving in America with $1,500, earning a SUNY Buffalo scholarship, navigating H-1B and citizenship standards, and building a career in engineering and classified U.S. Navy work. 👉America is worth preserving. Do your part and act now by going to https://www.heritage.org/beautiful 👉Go to My Patriot Supply to see exclusive winter time deals before offers end! https://www.mypatriotsupply.com/ 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest editions of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words” by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1   👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2iOoN0xoOoSNvDFlpLLYGY?si=5a9f369acc874c6e 👉 Apple Podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/victor-davis-hanson-in-his-own-words/id1566731706 👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/VictorDavisHansonInHisOwnWords?e9s=src_v1_sa%2Csrc_v1_sa_o  👉 Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My undergraduate studies at the Polytechnical Bathes, the study of engineering.

0:04.8

I went in 1972 and Greece was under military dictatorship.

0:09.9

In 73, there was another coup where Iuanidis took over.

0:15.2

But the event that occurred first in which I experience as a student is that there was a rebellion of the polytechnic students against the military honda.

0:26.9

And they occupied the campus.

0:28.9

I just remember we were walking, we were walking down there, and I had a colleague who had hair to his shoulders.

0:34.5

And a Greek policeman came up, and he said to us, normally I'd cut your

0:38.8

hair off on the street. I'm needed down at the Polytechnie. And so then we kind of followed him

0:43.3

because we didn't know if we could get there or not. With all the work that I have done for the

0:48.6

United States Navy and the U.S. government technical work, which was a big part of it was fully classified.

0:55.8

And also making possible giving the gift of education to students from all walks of life,

1:03.1

all my years as dean, provost, and president.

1:06.1

And training the talent that American exceptionalism needs for technological innovation,

1:11.6

I felt that was my giving back to America.

1:16.6

Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed, but some things never do.

1:37.4

The commitment of husband and wife, the importance of passing along our values to our children,

1:44.2

the faithfulness of God.

1:46.9

Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive.

1:50.7

As long as we keep first things first, we've only just begun.

1:55.9

America, the beautiful.

1:58.4

Vickr Davis-Hanson, his own words.

2:00.6

This is the first time since I came back that I'm doing our solo interviews, and I'm very

...

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