By host Tom Ashbrook:

Francis Fukuyama was a big dog in the pack of neo-conservatives that pushed for years for the U.S. to get tough on Saddam Hussein. The celebrated author of “The End of History” was a big-name thinker in the neo-con clubhouse.

Now, Francis Fukuyama is bailing out. Somewhere, he says, the neo-cons went off the rails. And this longtime neo-con tells us where: the war in Iraq was wrong, he says. The chest-puffing embrace of pre-emptive war – wrong. The comparison of Saddam Hussein to Hitler, and the war on terror to World War II — wrong. Now, says Fukuyama, “we have unleashed the maelstrom”.

Hear a conversation with Francis Fukuyama on the legacy of neoconservatism.

Guests:

Francis Fukuyama, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University, author of the new book, “America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy”