Episode 91: Lee Hamilton

Lee Hamilton was a member of the United States Congress from 1965 to 1999, and in the entirety of his 34 years in Congress he served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, eventually becoming the committee chair. He's served on more national advisory board and commissions than I could possibly mention, but the big ones include the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group

In November 2015, just a couple weeks before we recorded this interview,  he was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom  for having been "one of the most influential voices on international relations and American national security over the course of his more than 40 year career."

In this episode we discuss much of that career and beyond. Hamilton reflects on his childhood, growing up the son of a methodist minister, the influence of his first trip abroad, which was to Germany as a student in the early 1950s; and how a trip to Vietnam as a congressman in the late 1960s convinced him to oppose the war.

We have a gre…