September 12, 2006
Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents - for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

David Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and as a regular television commentator. He served as moderator of World @ Large, a 13-part PBS discussion series for two seasons. He is also a professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and is director of its Center for Public Leadership. In the fall of 2000, he published the best-selling book Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

In the past, he has served in the White House as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Most recently, he served for 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as counselor to the President and then as special adviser to the President and the Secretary of State. He returned to private life in January 1995.

During 1984 - 1993, Mr. Gergen worked mostly as a journalist. For two-and-a-half years, he was editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.

A native of Durham, North Carolina, he is an honors graduate of Yale University (AB, 1963) and the Harvard Law School (LLB, 1967). He is a member of the District of Columbia bar. In addition, he served for three-and-a-half years in the United States Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.

Gergen is active on many non-profit boards and he is chairman of the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government. He frequently lectures here in the United States and overseas and holds 14 honorary degrees.

He has been married since 1967, to Anne Gergen of England. She is a family therapist. They have two children, Christopher and Katherine. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Previous Speakers:

• Donna Shalala
• Robert Reich
• Charlie Rose
• Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu, M.D.,
• Dr. Waleed Abdalati
• Chris Viehbacher
• Lindsey Graham
• David Gergen
• Ken Thompson

Provost Larry Nielsen


Speaker: David Gergen

"Its a pleasure to come home to North Carolina."

"Let me suggest five lessons (from 9/11) I think we can all agree on."

"Even as we talk about Americans as becoming couch potatoes, heroism is still alive and well in this country."
"Five more (lessons) that I believe we should have learned but to my sorrow we have not."

"Even though we are the worlds greatest power, it is now clear that we cannot win this struggle by acting alone."

"It is now clear that we cannot win this struggle against terrorism simply at the point of a gun."

"As one student pointed out earlier today here at NC State, one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter."

"How much more we will help our grandchildren after all, how much will we really help them if we are so preoccupied with terrorists?"

of David Gergen's speech.