There was a moment, listening to Dennis Haines’s story, that shook me. It began one life-changing night in December, 1968 in Viet Nam as first told by his buddy John Miller. “Our mission was to encircle a village. We called it a cordon. Our squad, moved farther down the road to a point where there was a pathway that led...

Historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin knows presidents. The Pulitzer Prize winning biographer has written on the Kennedys, Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt and her book on Lincoln, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln was the source material for Steven Spielberg’s latest film. Washington Post writer Lillian Cunningham recently asked Goodwin for her thoughts on presidential leadership. W.P.: “You’ve done several interviews lately about...

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” – Lincoln, April 1864 What stands out in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is how different this man is from everything we think we know about him. He has doubts. He fights with his oldest son as well as his troubled wife. He battles his own cabinet to get what he wants, and he’s willing to...

James Burke, the Johnson & Johnson CEO whose leadership during the early 80s Tylenol scare elevated ethics over profit, died last week. In giving a talk to a group in Boston, I emphasized his story as an example in ethical leadership that we need to see more of today. In 1982, when several poisonings had been linked to Tylenolcapsules, Johnson &  » Read more about: Integrity Matters...

So, I had this whole follow-up to the Better Angels piece underway to my July 30th question using my own thoughts, as well as additional wisdom from Steven Pinker’s 2011 book,The Better Angels of Our Nature. On August 8, I received a message that Matt Sanchez, former gang leader, and good friend – who not only turned his own life around,  » Read more...

Washington and Lincoln could not have come from more different backgrounds. And yet, in spite of vast differences, both men not only attained the highest office in the land, but the admiration and respect of generations. Both consistently rank as the top two presidents by most scholars. While Lincoln was born dirt poor in Kentucky, Washington was born to a...

Of all the stories concerning the attack on America September 11, 2001, I’m always drawn to stories of firefighters. 343 firefighters died in the World Trade Center towers 10 years ago; many after charging up 110 flights of stairs. 60 police and 8 paramedics died, as well. Cary Sheih was working in the towers on a project for the Port...

I first spoke with vascular surgeon John Baldwin in March of 2000 when I was collecting stories for my book, What Do You Stand For?  That initial contact led to an eleven-year friendship. Before going to Vietnam, John specialized in open-heart surgery but decided upon the broader fields of general and vascular surgery, he says, “to give my people skills...

Yesterday, a House panel found New York Democratic Representative Charles Rangel guilty of 11 ethics violations stemming from improper solicitation of fund-raising and failure to accurately report his personal income. After reaching a verdict, the subcommittee now sends the case to the full House ethics committee to determine how the 80-year-old will be disciplined. Punishments range from a formal reprimand...

“Bienvenido a la vida.”  “Welcome to life.” That’s what Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said to Victor Segovia, the 15th miner to emerge from a rescue capsule after being trapped more than 2,300 feet below the surface for 69 days. “We always knew that we would be rescued,” said, Mario Sepulveda, the 2nd miner brought to the surface. “We never lost...