 In April of 2013, the Ford School of Public Policy dedicated a bronze statue of President Gerald R. Ford and invited a very special guest for the occasion. We are honored and grateful to have General Scowcroft here to impart his wisdom and his experience on us as he shares his recollections of President Ford. Please give a warm welcome to General Brent Scowcroft. The last time I was in this building it was brand new and now it's probably my imagination but the aura of President Ford seems to me to be in these halls. Having twice served his country as National Security Advisor, General Scowcroft met with Ford School students to discuss a wide range of foreign policy issues, sharing his expertise and debating the options facing the United States today. If I do identify the three main international security conflicts for my generation, I think they'd be Israel-Palestine conflict, North Korea and Iran. Do you think it's been a failure of American diplomacy? Well we have not made much progress on the Israel-Palestinian issue. We have not made progress with Iran. Iran is an extremely difficult place. Is there some way that we can talk to Iran and say, look, you're a Shia Muslim country in a Sunni Muslim world there. You're a Persian ethnic culture in an Arab world. We understand you have problems. Let's work together to see if we can develop a structure in the region in which you would feel comfortable. President Ford would look at a new problem or crisis that I had brought to him. And the first thing he'd say, the first thing he'd do is sort out what are the U.S. interests that have to be dealt with and protected at all costs, and what can you sort of trade around and so on to get the best deal you can. Consulting closely with General Scowcroft and the national security team, President Ford tackled one of the most difficult issues facing the United States during the Cold War. Bucking the criticism from several quarters, the president went to Helsinki to meet with the leadership of the Soviet Union and 33 other countries. He did a great job at Helsinki and it turned out to be a crucial development in the ending of the Cold War because it gave voice to the growing swelling again in Eastern Europe toward liberalization and escape from the Soviet clutches. He was very much at home with himself and didn't worry about what he didn't know, he would ask and find out. So he was very interested in learning and very interested in asking questions. Do you think that we should be diverting away from the military towards the State Department? What do you feel the U.S. should do beyond providing non-lethal assistance to humanitarian aid? What do you think is a legacy of those events for American history as well as American political and strategic interests? This manufacturing of reasons to go into Iraq was... The students seem enthusiastic, eager, want to understand President Ford as well as the legacy and what the process is of constructing foreign policy. So I've been just delighted and I think if he's looking down from above, he's pleased with what's happening.