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International Summit Audio Recording
View Summit Highlights:

Hear President Clinton and Bono in a question-and-answer session with 200 students from around the world, moderated by Sam Donaldson.

William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to two full terms in office. During the Clinton administration the United States moved from record deficits to record surpluses and enjoyed the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. In foreign affairs, he fostered the historic peace accord between Israel and Jordan, and helped promote the peace process in Northern Ireland. President Clinton dispatched American military forces to enforce the peace agreement in Bosnia and to avert impending genocide in Kosovo. On his orders American force was also used to disrupt terrorist activities in Sudan and Afghanistan. Prior to his election as president, he served five terms as Governor of Arkansas, a position to which he was first elected at the age of 32.

Born and raised in Dublin, Paul "Bono" Hewson was still in his teens when he answered an ad posted on a school bulletin board to join a fledgling rock band. It became one of the most original, best-loved rock groups of all time: U2. For many, U2's success came to symbolize a new prominence for Ireland in Europe and the world. Bono and U2 lent their support to African famine relief, to Amnesty International and the campaign against apartheid. U2 still fills arenas all over the world and Bono has continued to speak out for Third World Debt forgiveness and to raise global awareness of the AIDS epidemic ravaging Africa. Unlike some artists who lend their celebrity to public causes, he has maintained his credibility by being scrupulously well-informed and articulate, and by keeping his sense of humor.

[ Audio ] Quicktime






Bill Clinton

The Honorable William J. Clinton
42nd President of the United States
Dublin, Ireland, 2002

Bono

Bono
Award-Winning Musician and Humanitarian
Dublin, Ireland, 2002


The Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard University, David Herbert Donald has also taught at Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Oxford, and Columbia. He has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, in 1961 for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, and again in 1988 for Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, a study of the great American novelist of the 1930s. Professor Donald is best known for his works dealing with the era of the Civil War, especially the monumental Lincoln (1996), the first biography of Lincoln to draw on the complete collection of Lincoln's personal, presidential and legal papers. The enthralling biography remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for 14 weeks. He has continued his examination of Lincoln's life and character with We Are Lincoln Men, a study of the 16th President as seen through the eyes of his closest friends. Speaking at the International Achievement Summit on the eve of the 2000 United States presidential election, Professor Donald discusses the qualities he believes voters should look for in a presidential candidate.

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David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.

David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
London, England, 2000


When Katie Couric joined The Today Show in 1991, the oldest of America's morning news programs was floundering in the ratings, but her cheerful personality and unpretentious charm quickly made it the most popular morning show in America. As Co-Anchor of Today, her in-depth interviews with U.S. Presidents and other world leaders have become news events in their own right. The millions of Americans who start each day with Katie Couric and The Today Show, have come to see her as a member of the family. When her husband died of colon cancer in 1998, the whole nation grieved with her. This heartfelt connection with the American public has made her an invaluable spokesman for cancer research and detection. Her multi-part documentary report, "Confronting Colon Cancer," was recognized with a Peabody Award, the most coveted honor in television news. Katie Couric is the highest-paid newswoman in the world, but beyond the recognition of the industry and the respect of her peers, she has won the affection of a nation.

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Katie Couric

Katie Couric
Co-Anchor, "The Today Show"
New York City, 2005


An exceptional journalist may be honored with one Pulitzer Prize in a long career. Thomas Friedman has already received three: two for International Reporting and a third for Commentary. Over the years, he has covered a coup in Turkey, the Iran-Iraq War, the civil war in Lebanon, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and terror attacks in Israel and America. He joined The New York Times in 1981 as a business reporter. Since then he has served as Bureau Chief in Lebanon and Israel, Chief White House Correspondent and Chief Economics Correspondent. He is now the paper's Foreign Affairs Columnist. Television audiences know him from his frequent appearances on current affairs programs, including the PBS News Hour, Face the Nation and Charlie Rose. His book on the turbulent Middle East, Beirut to Jerusalem, won the National Book Award in 1989. His international bestseller, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, has been called "the best book ever written on globalization." Here, he discusses his 2005 book, The World is Flat.

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Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman
Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting and Commentary
New York City, 2005


In novels such as the modern classic, Beloved, Toni Morrison has fused history and legend, realism and fantasy, to craft an epic saga of African American life. Although her work is steeped in local history and folklore, the fundamental human values of her art have captured the hearts of readers around the world. She completed her first novel, The Bluest Eye, while raising two children on her own and working full time as an editor at Random House in New York. She received the National Book Critics Award for her second novel, Sula. Her third, Song of Solomon, attracted an international audience and received the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, Morrison was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is the first African American to receive this honor, and the first black woman of any country. Now a Professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University, her novel, Love, appeared in 2003. Her opera, Margaret Garner, had its world premiere in 2005.

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Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize for Literature
New York City, 2005


For two months in 1994, Paul Rusesabagina held insanity at bay as he watched his country fall into the grips of genocide. A Hutu manager of a luxury hotel in Rwanda, he sheltered over 1,200 people, including his own Tutsi wife and children, saving their lives at a time when extremists massacred more than 800,000 members of the Tutsi tribe, along with more moderate Hutus, in just 100 days. While militants threatened and surrounded the hotel, he spent hours on the phone, pleading with influential leaders, his international connections his only defense against attack. He bartered luxury items-such as money, gold, cigars, and aged bottles of wine he had hoarded in the hotel-for the lives of strangers seeking refuge in the chaos. Miraculously, no one housed in the hotel died. His wrenching story was chronicled in the critically acclaimed film, Hotel Rwanda, a riveting account of a man finding courage within himself to save others in the midst of his country's darkest moment.

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Paul Rusesabagina

Paul Rusesabagina
Hero of "Hotel Rwanda"
New York City, 2005


At age 44, George Tenet became the youngest man ever to lead the CIA. He studied at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Columbia's School of International Affairs and took a job on the staff of Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz. Two years later, he became staff director of the Senate Intelligence committee where he helped create the independent audit unit which oversees the CIA's secret accounts. He left the Senate Intelligence committee to work on President Clinton's national security transition team. After the inauguration, he was the principal adviser on intelligence in the National Security Council. In 1995, President Clinton named him deputy director of central intelligence. Two years later, he was nominated for the top job at the CIA. The U.S. Senate approved his nomination without a single dissenting vote. As Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet enjoyed the trust and respect of both political parties. Though it has become customary for incoming Presidents to replace the sitting CIA director, George Tenet was considered so essential that President George W. Bush gladly retained him in office. When he returned to private life in 2004, Director Tenet was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Here, we hear George Tenet in conversation with the host of MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews.

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The Honorable George Tenet

The Honorable George Tenet
Presidential Medal of Freedom
New York City, 2005


One of the most beloved performers in the world, Julie Andrews starred in the original Broadway productions of My Fair Lady and Camelot, and won the Oscar for Best Actress in her first film, Mary Poppins. Perhaps the greatest triumph of her career came with the leading role in The Sound of Music, one of the most popular motion pictures of all time. Her crystalline singing voice, wholesome appeal, natural elegance and sly humor made her a top box office draw around the world. She has enjoyed continued success on the screen in films such as The Princess Diaries. Over 30 years ago, she embarked on a second career as an author of children's books. She was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 for her extraordinary career, and for her service to charities such as UNIFEM, Save the Children and Operation USA.

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Dame Julie Andrews

Dame Julie Andrews
Legend of Stage and Screen
Chicago, Illinois, 2004


Kenneth Behring is the modern incarnation of a great tradition, the self-made man who applies his fortune for the good of all society. He began his career selling cars at age 17, and opened his own dealership at age 24. His enormous success as a developer of planned communities in Florida and California allowed him to become active in philanthropic causes. He established the Museum of Art, Science and Culture in partnership with the University of California. His $100 million gift to the Smithsonian Institution was the largest such donation in history. Here he discusses his latest project, Wheelchairs for the World, addressing the desperate need of more than 100 million disabled people around the globe.

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Kenneth Behring

Kenneth Behring
Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Chicago, Illinois, 2004


Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Maureen Dowd has made a national reputation as a sharp-eyed -- and sharp-tongued -- observer of the capital scene. The daughter of a city policeman, she graduated from Washington's Catholic University in 1973, and went to work for the town's oldest paper, the venerable Evening Star. Since 1995, she has written a regular column for The New York Times. One of the most admired and imitated of the younger columnists, she is noted for her acerbic style and for her even-handed toughness with all players in the political game. Every President since Ronald Reagan has felt the sting of her criticism. She was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for her commentary on the impeachment of President Clinton. "A pathological truth-teller," Maureen Dowd has called herself. Her journalistic motto: "No one is safe."

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Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
Chicago, Illinois, 2004


Burt Rutan has been called the most influential aircraft designer in America. A former project engineer at the Air Force Flight Test Center, he founded the Rutan Aircraft Factory to develop light aircraft. His unorthodox designs were adopted by a small army of homebuilders who revered him as a populist of aeronautics, bringing aviation to the masses. He made history with the Voyager, the first plane to circle the globe without refueling. His latest cause is the most dramatic of all, a new space program, completely independent of government funding. In view of the long decline of public sector support for space travel, Rutan argues that private individuals must step forward to fulfill mankind's historic mission of exploration. Within days of his address to the Academy, Rutan made good on his plan and launched SpaceShip One, the first privately funded space flight.

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Burt L. Rutan

Burt L. Rutan
Aeronautical Engineer
Chicago, Illinois, 2004


Antonin Scalia was the first American of Italian heritage to be appointed to the Supreme Court. A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, he has taught at the University of Virginia and at Stanford. When President Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1986, the Senate approved the nomination unanimously. His forceful personality, sharp wit and manifest love of legal debate have made him an unusually vivid presence in the traditionally somber atmosphere of the United States Supreme Court. He is frequently characterized as the most conservative justice, but he has always placed adherence to the letter of the law above political ideology.

Justice Scalia is heard here in discussion with 200 students from around the world, moderated by Chris Matthews, newspaper columnist and host of the MSNBC program Hardball.

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Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Antonin Scalia
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Washington, D.C., 2003


Hamid Karzai has won the support of the world community for rebuilding a stable, peaceful Afghanistan. He was born to a prominent position in his society, but he won his present role by fearless dedication to the cause of Afghanistan as a free and united modern nation. In October 2001, Karzai raised an armed revolt against the Taliban. He had a single satellite phone for communication, his troops lacked basic supplies, and he had no certainty of outside support. He narrowly escaped capture by the Taliban, and was himself wounded by a stray American bomb, but by December the Taliban were beaten. Rival factions set aside their differences and in June 2002, the traditional Afghan Grand Council -- the Loya Jirga -- overwhelmingly ratified the choice of Hamid Karzai as Head of State.

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His Excellency Hamid Karzai

His Excellency Hamid Karzai
President of Afghanistan
Dublin, Ireland, 2002


Within a year of earning his doctorate, Donald Johanson made news around the world with a discovery that dramatically altered our understanding of human evolution. The fossilized bones of a creature Johanson called Lucy constitute the oldest, most complete specimen of an extinct species which was not human, but from which the human race may be descended. Johanson has become one of the dominant figures in the world of paleo-anthropology, and his books and television appearances have given a mass audience a tantalizing glimpse of the mysterious origin of our species. Today, Donald Johanson is Director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

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Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.

Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.
Discoverer of "Lucy"
Dublin, Ireland, 2002


Olivia De Havilland is one of the greatest stars in motion picture history. Born into an illustrious English family, she was brought to San Francisco at the age of two. While still in her teens, she created a sensation in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and won a long-term contract with Warner Brothers studios. She became an immediate success in motion pictures, starring in a well-loved series of romantic adventure films: Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Santa Fe Trail and They Died With Their Boots On. Over the course of "a dazzling cinematic career that spans four decades," she earned five Academy Award nominations, including one for her unforgettable role as Melanie in Gone With the Wind, and received two Best Actress Oscars for her performances in The Heiress and To Each His Own.

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Olivia De Havilland

Olivia De Havilland
Two Oscars for Best Actress
Washington, DC, 2001


Frank McCourt taught in the public schools of New York City for 27 years before publishing his first book at age 66. That book, Angela's Ashes, a memoir of his impoverished boyhood in Limerick, Ireland, shot to the top of the best-seller lists and remained there for over a year. It also won McCourt the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Angela's Ashes has sold over 4 million copies, has been published in 27 countries and translated into 17 languages. His second book 'Tis picks up the story of his life where Angela's Ashes left off, with his arrival in America at age 19. It shot to the top of the best-seller lists as soon as it was published.

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Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt
Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Washington, DC, 1999


America's leading designer in the classic tradition, Ralph Lauren grew up in the Bronx, son of a Russian immigrant mural painter. He showed a flair for fashion while still in his teens and earned his first commission at age 15, designing warm-up jackets for his baseball team. He dropped out of college at 22 and became a tie salesman. In 1967 he broke with the prevailing fashion for dark, narrow ties and launched his own line, Polo, introducing unprecedented color and variety to men' s fashion. He quickly progressed to a complete line of Polo menswear, and moved on to womenswear, boyswear, girlswear, fragrances and home furnishings, all part of a unified vision, exemplified by his flagship store, a sumptuously restored mansion on New York's Madison Avenue. He has built hundreds of Polo stores around the world, and continues to defy trends and fads to remain true to his own vision of freedom, comfort and timeless elegance.

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Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren
King of American Sportswear
San Francisco, 1989


Owner of Chez Panisse, "the nation's most widely-acclaimed restaurant," Alice Waters has transformed modern cooking. She first became inspired by great food and the culture surrounding it on a trip to France at age 19. After earning a degree in French Cultural Studies at the University of California, she traveled throughout France, then returned to Berkeley, California. At first, she intended to be a teacher, but she soon found she preferred cooking to teaching, and decided to open a neighborhood bistro like those she had loved in the south of France. It was eight years before Chez Panisse showed a profit, but in time, food lovers sought it out, and restaurant chefs in other cities began to imitate her approach. Her interest in serving the finest produce in season taught her that foods grown organically, in environmentally sound conditions would produce the best flavors. Today, she encourages American families to eat together and take an interest in what they eat, how it is grown and prepared.

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Alice Waters

Alice Waters
A Culinary Revolution
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1998


Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Color of Money, GoodFellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, Casino. A list of films directed by Martin Scorsese is a roll call of some of the most exciting, powerful, personal motion pictures ever made. By his own account, Martin Scorsese was a "sickly kid" with asthma who watched the world unfold from the window of his parents' small apartment in New York's Little Italy. His parents hoped he would become a priest, but he left the seminary for film school. Today, he is acclaimed as the most talented director in America.

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Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese
Master Filmmaker
New York, New York, 1991


The oldest son of a Marine Corps fighter pilot, Pat Conroy recalled his father's strict discipline in his novel, The Great Santini. His education at the South Carolina military academy, the Citadel, inspired another novel, The Lords of Discipline. Both books were made into outstanding motion pictures. Conroy's struggles to teach poor black children on an isolated island community while fighting the indifference of an unsympathetic local school board is recalled in a memoir, The Water is Wide, which became the film Conrack. A recent novel, The Prince of Tides became both a best-selling book and a major motion picture. Again and again, Pat Conroy has transformed the rich experiences of his own life into stories that have captured the imagination of the American public.

[ Audio ] Quicktime



Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy
Award-Winning Author
Glacier Park, Montana, 1993


Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman ever to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Yet when she first graduated with honors from Stanford University Law School, third in her class, the only job she was offered by a law firm was to work as a legal secretary. She found work as a deputy county attorney in California, before moving to Arizona, where she opened her own law firm. She was elected to the Arizona legislature and became majority leader of the Arizona Senate. She served as Attorney General of the State of Arizona and was elected Superior Court Judge in Phoenix. In 1981, President Reagan appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Scottsdale, Arizona, 1987


Chairman of Adolph Coors Company of Golden, Colorado, William K. Coors oversees a $1.7 billion business that includes the Coors Brewing Company (the nation's third largest), Coors Transportation, Coors Container (the largest single can plant in the world) and the Coors Food Products Company. He has led the way in making the Coors Company energy self-sufficient. Under William Coors's leadership, the Company pioneered aluminum recycling. At times, it has recovered and recycled as much as 85 percent of its cans, while handling as much as a third of the nation's recycled aluminum.

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William K. Coors

William K. Coors
Chairman, Adolph Coors Co.
Dallas, Texas, 1981


Barbara Walters made history in 1975 when she became the first woman ever to anchor a network new broadcast. She had already earned the respect of the television public as co-host of the Today Show, where her professionalism as an interviewer broke new ground for women in broadcasting. She has won international fame for her exclusive interviews with world leaders and is today widely regarded as "the most influential woman in television."

[ Audio ] Quicktime



Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters
Broadcast Journalist
New York, New York, 1991


Larry King is a member of the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame and host of CNN's Larry King Live. He is one of the most respected and honored personalities in the television industry. His father died of a heart attack and his mother found work in Manhattan's garment district. He was traumatized by his father's death and neglected his studies, but dreamed about becoming a broadcaster. At age 23, he took a bus to Miami with the hope of starting a radio career, but only got a job sweeping floors at a station. His first break came when a disc jockey suddenly quit, and he was asked to replace him. King soon attracted the attention of larger radio stations and in 1978, made his debut with The Larry King Show, where his unique and often controversial style quickly attracted a large, faithful following of millions. In 1985, he agreed to a similar program for CNN that is now the only live worldwide phone-in television talk show.

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Larry King

Larry King
Broadcasters' Hall of Fame
Sun Valley, Idaho, 1996


Charles Krulak commanded a platoon and two rifle companies in Vietnam, was Commanding Officer of the Counter -Guerrilla Warfare School in Okinawa and Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. He was serving as Deputy Director of the White House Military Office when he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1988. He served as Commander of Marine Forces in the Pacific until 1995, when he was promoted to full general and became the 31st man to serve as Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1999 and is now Chairman and CEO of MBNA Europe Bank Ltd.

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General Charles C. Krulak (USMC, Ret.)

General Charles C. Krulak (USMC, Ret.)
31st Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
Sun Valley, Idaho, 1996