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Gary Nardino was a very close friend of mine,

a one-time agent of mine. He was running Paramount Television.

He called me one day and he asked me

if l'd be interested in doing The Winds of War.

And l had to admit l didn't know what The Winds of War was.

And he told me it was a novel by Herman Wouk, who l greatly admired.

A messenger delivered this 20-pound book.

l couldn't believe the size of it.

A thousand... 1 ,1 00 pages, whatever it was.

And l called Gary and l said, ''Are you out of your mind?''

He said, ''Just read it, and then we'll talk about it.''

l guess this is it, then.

- Tumbleweeds blowing apart, huh? - That's right.

Tumbleweeds blowing apart.

l pray for Natalie and your son, Byron.

l know you do, Dad.

Thanks.

The Winds of War was the creme de la creme de la creme of a book.

Everyone wanted that.

lt was the one that you thought, ''lf l could get this one particular property,

''l could make the greatest miniseries of all time.''

So everyone lusted for it,

and Herman Wouk basically had no interest

in making it a miniseries whatsoever.

Herman Wouk never wanted to sell The Winds of War...

...to television, or to anybody, for that matter.

He was vastly unhappy with the work that had been done in the past,

translating his novels to film.

He did not like The Caine Mutiny.

He hated MarJorie Morningstar.

l don't even think he would look at YoungbIood Hawke.

He was...

...thoroughly disenchanted with Hollywood.

MarJorie Morningstar and YoungbIood Hawke were just trivialized,

and that wasn't going to happen with The Winds of War.

lt just mattered too much to me.

So that was out of the question.

Once it became a bestseller,

a number one bestseller, Winds of War,

then naturally the offers came, and we just turned them down.

The Winds of War is a, really, almost perfect book for television.

And l'll tell you why, in my opinion.

lt's about a family, and family stories on television are always the best.

And it's a family in crisis as a result of a war.

So you have a family that's evolving and changing and growing,

and relationships shifting throughout the course of their life,

set against this backdrop of action and suspense and fear,

so you had the perfect combination of elements

to make an extraordinary saga.

- Are you OK, sir? - My glasses, they're shattered.

That was quite a commotion. Close call there, wasn't it?

What Herman Wouk has done that is unique

is that he manages to put

the average Joe and Jane into the picture

as if they were living then,

and they were breathing the air of 1 939 to 1 946.

And by doing that, he immediately attracts everybody's interest.

l was a Naval officer for four years in World War ll,

served on destroyer minesweepers

very much like the USS Caine in The Caine Mutiny.

That's my naval background.

And out there, it occurred to me that sooner or later,

somebody was going to write a big book about this war.

And l didn't think it could possibly be me,

but it was a dream.

And it never quite left me.

Well, Herman Wouk's story of The Winds of War

is a sweeping study of the history of that period and those events

leading up to World War ll and, of course, the Holocaust.

And it has a great importance.

lt's a period of history that l've lived through.

So has Dan Curtis and so has Herman Wouk,

and we all remember

some of the mistakes that all of our governments made

and the horror of that war

and how those years of the 1 930s, when Winds of War begins,

affected the whole world.

lt's one of those stories that must never be forgotten.

When l decided to take a shot at writing this book

intended to throw a rope around World War ll,

l realized that l was in for some very serious reading.

And l found myself with a list of 300 books that l ought to read.

And l read them.

Started the research,

l would say, maybe about 1 960.

l finished writing War and Remembrance in 1 9 7 7,

so all that is... Now there's 1 7 years,

and another about three years on the miniseries,

so a good part of my life, the central part of my life.

- This is the famous Pug Henry, dear. - Oh, what a pleasure.

Pug...

...will the British hold out if France quits?

l don't know much about the British, sir.

Would you like to go there for a spell as a Naval observer?

Possibly after you've had a month or so back in Berlin?

Mr. President...

...is there any chance of my not going back to Berlin?

- You go back there, Pug. - Aye, aye, sir.

You'll get your sea command in due course.

l think the most interesting thing about...

...how the books developed was the German general

Armin von Roon's memoirs or analysis of the war,

which really is the spine,

the historical spine that runs through both novels.

lt was my concept

that the story could be told entirely

through the experiences of my characters.

l was about a year into the writing when l realized that would not work,

because they did not have the overview.

ln the middle of a war, nobody has the overview of what's happening.

And this character, General Armin von Roon, just walked into the book.

And one day l was trying to write some scene or other,

and l needed the historical background,

and this character walked into my room where l was working

and said, ''l'll take it from here'',

and he started to describe the war from his viewpoint.

That worked, and that was the essential missing piece.

AII previous studies inadequate.

Assumptions about Soviet Union,

in view of the proposed AngIo-Soviet AIIiance, are highIy hazardous.

We are going out on very thin ice.

Von Roon is the only fictional German officer in this story.

Mr. Wouk wrote him as a military diarist.

So he didn't have a family.

He was never apprehended in secret meetings or anything like that.

So the best l could do was try to infer

a certain ambiguity about his loyalty to the Fuehrer.

More important than ever to do your background reading

and see if you can pick up some tips,

maybe even suggest something about the character,

which is to augment the character in some way.

Research, nothing to beat it.

Tell me, Victor...

...what is all that smokescreen about

lending and leasing?

There is legal precedent for the leasing of American military property.

But the lending of ships and weapons is a novel idea.

Of course, they have to be returned in good repair after the war.

lt's poppycock.

lt's politics.

Check.

l started with Pug Henry because of this...

His...

The centrality of a figure

who would be close enough to the president

to see a lot of the aspects of Roosevelt's decision-making,

without his being, in any sense, a heroic figure.

Just a run-of-the-mill, obscure Naval officer.

ln the story, nobody's ever heard of Pug Henry,

and nobody ever hears of the Pug Henrys of real life.

They are the ones who get things done

and never have the 1 6 minutes of fame.

They serve.

Goodbye, Pug.

Goodbye, Mr. President.

Goodbye, Mrs. Roosevelt.

l read the book...

...and of course, l loved it.

But l instantly realized that it was half a story

because it ended at Pearl Harbor.

And the story was just getting started.

Without counting pages, l just wrote and wrote and wrote,

and finally, l got to Pearl Harbor,

and then l went back and counted the pages,

and l saw that l had written a 1 ,000-page novel, pretty near.

And l told this to my wife. l said, ''What am l going to do now?''

And she says, ''Well, l don't know. The story's just beginning'', she said.

And l talked to my editor then,

and we decided there was nothing for it

but to tie it off and publish The Winds of War by itself.

And indeed, that's what l did.

lt was Barry Diller who came up with the idea of making a miniseries,

which was the correct form.

l mean, then you have all of the room that you need to tell the story.

We thought that was impossible because of the commercials.

Herman finally agreed

to let it happen, but with all kinds of provisos.

He limited the amount of commercial minutes that the network could have.

He put restrictions on them that they never dreamed of,

and they all bought it.

The restrictions covered things like what sponsors would be allowed,

how many commercials would be allowed,

what the commercial positions would be,

how many would be connected to each other.

Herman had creative approval on the writer,

creative approval on the director,

he had creative approval on the cast.

So he was loaded with clauses,

which were about 4 7,000 pages long that none of us could understand,

which had to do with his control over the production itself.

But with that, we got the rights.

Don't marry Slote.

How young you are.

Promise me?

You know what Lenin said. ''Promises, like piecrusts, are meant to be broken.''

Forget about Lenin, just promise me.

You idiot, don't you know how much l love you?

Most of our role was to find the right people and to support them.

The hard part of it, of course, was that it was all over the world.

l mean, this was going to cost a bloody fortune.

This was going to be the biggest thing that television had ever seen

in the history of the business.

Because the book was so massive and it involved extras

and it involved attacks and it involved explosions

and it involved shooting in all these different areas,

so the production side of it was really, really difficult.

However, actually taking that script, mounting it,

putting it on the air, making it happen, making it real,

and not just a little eI cheapo production,

but a big, mammoth saga,

which is what was really needed

in terms of the book and in terms of Herman Wouk,

that was a tremendous challenge. Tremendous.

l come to the house...

...and l'm greeted by Herman and Sarah.

Right away, l know Sarah takes an instant dislike to me.

She thinks l'm Mr. Hollywood.

And Herman and l have this long dialogue, and l said to him,

''You don't understand.

''l'm my own boss. l have my own company.

''This is an interview. l've never been... l don't need this job.

''l have grave doubts about doing it anyway. l've got problems with it.''

And l told him about the fact that l thought it was a half a story,

and he allowed as how he would not ever let anybody

get into the second half,

which turned out to be War and Remembrance,

until he knew they could do the first half.

We talked about it again.

We got into a huge argument because l said, ''OK, l will do it,

''but l won't do it unless l can do the whole thing.''

Dan started out by saying,

''The book is the Bible of the miniseries.

''We're going to follow the book.

''When in doubt, we go to the book.'' This is what he said to me.

ln attempting to write for television, l did some ad-libbing,

and he said, ''No, go back to the book.''

That was the first thing l learned from him,

which was music to my ears,

the idea that all l do is stick to my book. lt just couldn't be better.

The first thing l determined

was that we would adapt the book while l was in preproduction.

So, what l did was sit down...

...and do an outline

of the major sequences

that l was pretty sure were going to end up in the picture,

so that l could then start to look for these main locations.

At the same time, we were going to start casting.

The writing process and preproduction took probably a year and a half.

l was traveling all over the world

while Herman was working on the screenplay.

l was also drafting some sequences that l would send on to him.

And l brought in

my good friend Earl Wallace, who was a wonderful writer,

who worked as story editor and also worked very closely with us.

So we all worked very closely together on the screenplay...

...with Herman having final word on everything.

Because of our previous experience, we knew practically better than any...

Certainly any other network or anybody in the business,

what you had to do

in order to get everybody into the tent on opening night.

We had every single day of the year

mapped out on the walls of this conference room,

and we met once a week with the public relations people,

the photography people, with the on-air people,

with the advertising people.

And there was a meeting for one year

prior to the air date of Winds of War,

where we would discuss what was going to happen on every single day,

366 days before the premiere night.

We ended up, as a result of this kind of attack and this kind of detail on it,

we ended up with 1 7 magazine covers for The Winds of War.

We covered absolutely every base everywhere.

So we had to take it and turn it into

a major monster television event, which we did.

With an actor in the White House, it wasn't surprising to see

the super powers of Hollywood

mingling with Washington's power brokers

at a special preview screening of the upcoming Winds of War miniseries

here at the Kennedy Center.

This is a very extraordinary and unusual film.

The character that Robert Mitchum plays, Pug Henry,

is kind of an omnipresent character who is on the spot with Mussolini,

with Hitler, with Roosevelt.

And so, all of a sudden, you create those years

that a good many of us remember with some nostalgia

and some sorrow.

l think Winds of War is a piece that is historical,

a piece that's important for a lot of people to see

who really have forgotten or were born after World War ll

and really don't realize what went on at that time.

And it's obviously a bipartisan war. Everybody seems to have shown up.

l think that Herman Wouk's and Dan Curtis' movie about World War ll

is an enormous antiwar document without being didactic.

l think this is enormously instructive. lt's interesting. lt's fast-moving.

And l think all of us can always learn from history.

When l got the part in Winds of War,

l had no idea what a big deal this job was. l just really did not.

l knew l was doing a big miniseries,

but l don't think anyone knew how popular it was going to be,

and that on the week or the ten days when it was airing,

you could drive through the town, and there wouldn't be a car on the streets.

l mean, it was amazing.

There were areas of L.A. that were like a ghost town

because everybody was home watching television.

lt's hard to describe the rush that you feel when you get those ratings,

but it certainly is extraordinary, and it's also nice to know

that you're actually probably going to keep your job until lunch of that day.

l give credit to Brandon Stoddard of ABC for taking this enormous gamble

on the notion that the attention span of the audience could be held

three hours a night straight through six nights of prime time.

l don't know if it could be done today.

l don't know that the audiences today would stand still for it.

Herman Wouk and Dan Curtis

were able to tell their story

and to have their story impact on the lives of tens of millions of people.

And that is surely a lasting contribution

to Holocaust education and remembrance.

l definitely think that Winds of War

and War and Remembrance,

it's anthology of the wartime,

l think one of the best documents ever made

about this war.

l didn't know whether l could do it.

l didn't know whether

people would be interested in the Second World War.

l wrote them during the Vietnam War

with marchers outside

and the kind of turmoil in the country that we now have with lraq.

That was going on then when l was writing the books.

Many a day, l looked out of my Washington, D.C. window,

and l could see marchers going by.

l said to myself, ''Who cares? Who will care about this book?''

lf you've got a theme in which you believe...

At least this is the way l've always worked...

You do it, and then you see what happens.

The fact that the books...

...worked the way they did

and the way that the miniseries worked the way they did

is just enduring satisfaction to me.

But l put in the time and l put in the effort,

and l stand by the outcome.

l can remember Brandon saying to me,

''OK,

''l'll get them in the tent.'' He promoted the hell out of it.

The promotion on The Winds of War was gigantic.

''After that, it's going to be up to you.''

l says, ''OK.'' l says, ''What kind of a number do you want?''

He said, ''Anything with a five in front of it.''

Six o'clock in the morning the telephone rings,

and it's Brandon, and l said, ''Yeah?''

He said, ''64 share,

80 million people.'' Something insane, right?

He was so happy, and l'm jumping up and down.

When that thing ran that week,

it was...

lt averaged a 64 share throughout the entire week.

l remember being in the supermarket buying something,

and people in the line are yelling at people in front of them to go faster.

They have to go home to watch it. The restaurants were empty.

Matteo's was a restaurant l used to go to.

The guy who ran Matteo's said to me,

''You're killing my business. Nobody's in here.''

lt was, like, a just national experience.

The world was watching The Winds of War.

lt was the most unbelievable experience.

My wife called up Chasen's because we had a little party,

and she wanted to get some chili.

She heard that the chili at Chasen's was great, right?

So Maude Chasen gets on the telephone and she says,

''This isn't a takeout place. We don't send out chili.''

And then she says, ''Who did you say you were?''

And she said...

...''Mrs. Dan Curtis.'' And she says,

''Winds of War Dan Curtis?''

And she says, ''That's right.''

She says, ''How much chili do you want?''

lt was an incredible experience.

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