Diplomats – Now I've Heard Everything

How World War II Could Have Ended Without Hiroshima

August 23, 2025Bill Thompson

Today, August 6, is the 80th anniversary of the day the United States became the first – and so far, only – nation to use a nuclear weapon in war.

The Enola Gay dropped a bomb codenamed “Little Boy” that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

It was soon after the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki three days later that Japan surrendered. But could that surrender have happened without those two bombings?

We now know that in the spring of 1945 an American intelligence officer was tasked with getting messages to Tokyo, opening the door to a peaceful surrender.

That officer was then-27-year-old Martin Quigley, who was with the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS — the forerunner of the CIA.

Through complicated diplomatic maneuvers that sound like something out of a spy thriller quickly accomplished his mission.

So what happened?

Quigley explored that question in a 1991 book that he wrote, called Peace Without Hiroshima. He and I talked about it one summer day in 1991 when he was on a book tour.

So here now, from 1991, Martin Quigley.

Martin Quigley died in 2011. He was 93.

Bruce Laingen’s Recollections of 444 Days in Captivity in Iran

November 6, 2024November 3, 2024Bill Thompson

On November 4, 1979, a group of students and militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking everyone inside hostage, including the chargé d’affaires, a career diplomat named Bruce Laingen.

The militants were demanding the return of the exiled Shah of Iran, who was undergoing medical treatment in the U.S.

But diplomatic and even military efforts to free the hostages failed, and they ended up being held in Iran for 444 days. It was only on Inauguration Day 1981 that the hostages were ultimately freed.

Years later, Bruce Laingen wrote a book, based on a journal he’d kept while in captivity. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1992, Bruce Langan.

Bruce Laingen died in 2019, at age 96.

Historian Deborah Lipstadt Takes on Holocaust Deniers

September 23, 2024September 21, 2024Bill Thompson

For the better part of four decades historian Deborah Lipstadt has been combating Holocaust denial.

She has found that there is a sizeable share of people, both in the United States and elsewhere, who are convinced the Holocaust never happened

Some have even offered so-called “proof” it Was a hoax.

Get your copy of Deborah Lipstadt’s book

In 1993 Lipstadt put her findings in a book she called Denying The Holocaust. That’s when she and I talked about it.

So here no0w, from 1993, Deborah Lipstadt .

Deborah Lipstadt is 77 now. For the last two years she has served as a special U.S. envoy against anti-Semitism

In 2023 Time magazine named Lipstadt one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Samantha Power’s Insights on Genocide

June 21, 2024June 15, 2024Bill Thompson

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led many people to use a very strong word as they discuss, debate, and protest: that word is ‘genocide. ‘

One of the strongest voices for human rights in our time is former UN ambassador Samantha Power A former war correspondent who then entered public service, Power has been a champion of the rights of the oppressed.

She’s written several books, the first of which was a 2002 volume called A Problem From Hell. It was a study of how the United States responded to genocides around the world in the latter half of the 20th century.

And even though this is an interview From more than 20 years ago, its relevance to today’s events cannot be overlooked .

So here now, from 2002, Samantha Power.

Samantha Power is 53 now. She is currently the administrator for the US Agency For International Development.

The End of the Cold War: Ambassador Jack Matlock’s Inside Story

February 28, 2024February 25, 2024Bill Thompson

More than three decades after the breakup of the Soviet Union, many people today fear a return to a Cold War with Russia. So it’s important to understand how the first one ended.

Today we’re going back 20 years , to a conversation with the longtime foreign service officer, and one-time U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock.

His 2004 book was called Reagan and Gorbachev: How The Cold War Ended.

As a top ranking career diplomat, Matlock was at the very center of the U.S.-Soviet relationship. He was there for everything from the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 to the Breakup of the Soviet Union almost 30 years later.

His book was packed with the kind of details and insight that only a key insider would have.

So here now, from 2004, Ambassador Jack Matlock.

Jack Matlock is 94 now, and lives in New Jersey.

Alexander Haig

March 30, 2022March 27, 2022Bill Thompson

Today is March 30th, and it was 41 years ago today that a young man tried to kill President Ronald Reagan.

And one of the most controversial things that happened that day happened to a man with a long and distinguished military and public service career, general. Alexander Haig.

Haig was a graduate of West point m. He served in Korea, served in Vietnam, earned the silver Star and the purple heart. And by 1973 was the youngest four-star general ever in the US army.

In 1973, Haig became President Richard Nixon’s, Chief of staff just as the Watergate scandal was turning up to full boil.

In fact, many say that Haig was instrumental in persuading Nixon to resign the presidency in 1974.

In 1980, after being elected president in a landslide, Ronald Reagan chose Haig as his secretary of State. And it was the following March 30th, the day. John Hinckley Jr. Tried to assassinate the president, that Haig made a comment that will haunt him.

In 1992, Haig wrote a book called inner circles. And that’s when I have the chance to meet him. So here now, from 1992, general Alexander Haig.

Alexander Haig died in 2010. He was 85.

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George Shultz

May 19, 2021May 16, 2021Bill Thompson

George Shulz served in various positions under three U.S. presidents — in fact Shultz held four different cabinet-level posts over the years.

An economist by training, Shultz came to Washington as Richard Nixon’s first Labor Secretary. He became Director of the Office of Management and Budget a year later, and a year after that Nixon appointed him Treasury Secretary.

Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. and in 1982 chose Shultz as his Secretary of State. Shultz became a key shaper of foreign policy during the Reagan’s administration.

I met him in the spring of 1993, when he wrote a long memoir of his years at the State Department.

So here now, from 1993, George Shultz.

George Shultz died this past February at the age of 100.

Bruce Laingen

January 20, 2021January 17, 2021Bill Thompson

In early November 1979, a group of students and militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking everyone inside hostage, including the chargé d’affaires, a career diplomat named Bruce Laingen.