Sid   James   Rittenberg   Di Eugenio

Jack Girardi

Guest: Sid Rittenberg
“The Revolutionary”
Website: http://revolutionarymovie.com

Sidney Rittenberg, Sr. is one of very few living men who has personally known Chinese leaders, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, the notorious "Gang of Four," Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Zhu Rongji. (As well as the last Emperor, Pu Yi.)

Mr. Rittenberg went to China in World War II as an idealistic young GI, after training by the US Army in China Area and Language Studies at Stanford. After his honorable discharge, he spent many years helping to train Chinese journalists in English, and working on the translations of major documents, including the "Collected Works of Mao Zedong." He was the only American citizen to be admitted to the Chinese Communist Party, until his withdrawal after the Cultural Revolution. Of his 35 years in China, 16 were spent in solitary confinement in Chinese prisons, wrongfully accused of being an American spy.

Today, Sidney Rittenberg is president of Rittenberg Associates, Inc. He and his wife and partner, Yulin Wang Rittenberg, currently help companies such as Prudential Financial, Colgate/Palmolive, Warner Music Group, MASCO, and Blue Marble in China. Among their leading clients have been Intel, Hughes Aircraft, Korean Air, ClearWire, Microsoft, AIG, Prudential UK, Nextel, Levi Strauss, ARCO, PricewaterhouseCoopers, InFocus, and many others. In addition, he has been a consultant in China to his close friends, Mike Wallace, and the Reverend Billy Graham.

Mr. Rittenberg has spoken to The Aspen Institute; the Brookings Institution, John Thornton China Initiative; CLSA (French Asian investment banking group, with Credit Agricole); Worlds Presidents Organization; Young Presidents; annually to Goldman Sachs Chief Investment Officers Conferences; the Templeton Group; and numerous universities and business clubs, etc.

Sidney Rittenberg has held the Frey Distinguished Professorship and Bernstein Professorship of Chinese History at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where an endowed chair in Asian Studies has been announced in his name. He is now Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Pacific Lutheran University, where he teaches Chinese Philosophy.

Sidney Rittenberg is well known as the co-author with Amanda Bennett, of The Man Who Stayed Behind, the highly acclaimed account of his 35 years in China. He has written for, or been interviewed by, virtually every major American publication and TV network, and is also a noted lecturer in China.

THE FILM: “The Revolutionary”

The Revolutionary first began in 1983 when Producer Lucy Ostrander was making her Masters film titled "Witness to Revolution - the Story of Anna Louise Strong." The subject had been a radical journalist in the United States in the early 20th century and had then gone on to document the revolutions in the Soviet Union and China. She had interviewed Mao in the Yan'an caves where he first used the term "paper tiger" to describe the United States. Since she did not speak Chinese, she needed an interpreter while in Yan'an—and that interpreter was Sidney Rittenberg.

Ostrander discovered that Sid was living in the United States and interviewed him for the film. At the time, the producer just concentrated on Anna Louise and had no idea of Sid's extraordinary life.

Twenty-one years passed until until Ostrander's husband and filmmaking partner picked up the New York Times and discovered an article on the front of the Sunday Business section featuring Sid titled "A Long March From Maoism to Microsoft." The article revealed that Sid lived about an hour away from them. Ostrander contacted him and he asked to see the documentary on Anna Louise Strong.

During that meeting, Sid gave Ostrander his autobiography, The Man Who Stayed Behind, and the filmmaker was overwhelmed by his unique experience and unparalleled perspective on Mao's China.

Determined to make a film on Sid Rittenberg, Lucy Ostrander approached Irv Drasnin, an award-winning television journalist and documentarian, who, during almost 20 years at CBS News had produced the acclaimed Misunderstanding China, the first American documentary to seek a broad historic understanding of US-China relations for an American audience. Irv had also served as Lucy Ostrander's academic advisor at Stanford graduate school. Her husband, Don Sellers, had worked with Irv on a half-dozen documentaries for the PBS series Frontline, including Looking For Mao.

In 2005, Sid agreed to allow the filmmakers to tell his story. In all, four separate interviews produced 26 hours of material for the film and an invaluable oral history of Sid’s life and times. Knowing that Sid taught at Pacific Lutheran University, the Producers contacted PLU's President Loren Anderson seeking their support. Anderson and his wife MaryAnn enthusiastically agreed to help. In December 2006, philanthropist George F. Russell, Jr. hosted the first fundraiser and generously gave the project a jump-start. The next five years were devoted to raising funds, shooting and editing the feature-length documentary film. The Revolutionary is an important document of an important period that few Chinese are aware of, let alone many Americans.

Guest: James Di Eugenio
“Destiny Betrayed”
Website: http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Betrayed-Garrison-Second-Edition/dp/1620870568

James DiEugenio is cofounder of two organizations, the Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination and the Coalition on Political Assassinations. He was coeditor of The Assassinations, a book on the deaths of JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X.

THE BOOK: “Destiny Betrayed”

If you thought you already knew everything there was to know about the Kennedy assassination, think again.

If you enjoyed the chilling reading of In Cold Blood and were at the edge of your seat while watching Oliver Stone’s JFK, you’ll love this investigative look into all the facets of one of the top conspiracies of the twentieth century and beyond. DiEugenio, who has spent decades researching the Kennedy assassination, takes both an analytical and conversational approach to his fascinating exploration of the pivotal historical events and scandals surrounding that day.

Twenty years after the first edition of Destiny Betrayed, DiEugenio is back with his ever-expanding investigation into the life and death of JFK. But this is no simple reissue. It is a greatly revised and expanded version of the original book, including updates on all the topics it introduced back in 1992. DiEugenio has used the declassification process of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to obtain the most current information on topics like the Garrison investigation and Clay Shaw; the newly exposed fallacies of the Warren Commission; U.S.-Cuban policy from 1957 to 1963; Kennedy's withdrawal plan from Vietnam; Kennedy's challenge to the Cold War consensus in 1961, and where those ideas originated; the ARRB medical inquiry demonstrating conspiracy and cover up; and the problems with the investigation of the Kennedy case. DiEugenio’s primary focus is on the Garrison inquiry, the New Orleans aspects of the Kennedy murder investigation, and the revelatory new information that bolsters Garrison’s case and has been withheld from the public.

All of this and more is contained in the narrative of this complex crime, with twin focuses on the victim, John F. Kennedy, and the investigator, Jim Garrison.

Jack Girardi, Partner at Girardi Keese, is one of America's Finest Trial Lawyers and our Co-Host, as always, brings out the most important key elements to the success of today's guests. He and his firm have been dedicated to working hard and getting the best possible recovery for its clients.

Girardi Keese's mission is to provide aggressive representation of individuals and businesses who have been injured in sous way, whether by physical harm, property damage, damage to business, or damage to economic interests. Girardi & Keese has two offices in California: Downtown Los Angeles and San Bernardino. www.girardikeese.com

Hosted by Steve Murphy.

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Guest: Sid Rittenberg
“The Revolutionary”
Website: http://revolutionarymovie.com

Guest: James Di Eugenio
“Destiny Betrayed”
Website: http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Betrayed-Garrison-Second-Edition/dp/1620870568

Jack Girardi
Co-Host
213-977-0211
Website: www.girardikeese.com

Steve Murphy
Executive Producer and Host
Website: www.lbishow.com