Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/former-national-security-adviser-assesses-post-cold-war-presidents Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security adviser and author, discusses the successes and failures of the last three presidents as laid out in his new book. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: Zbigniew Brzezinski has been a frequent commentator on this program since the start of the Iraq war. The former national security adviser to President Carter has now authored a book on how the past three presidents have led during the post-Cold War era. In a word, he writes, "badly."The book is titled "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower." And Zbigniew Brzezinski joins me now.And welcome, as always, back to the program.ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, Former National Security Adviser to President Carter: Great to be with you, Margaret. MARGARET WARNER: We are now seeing a serious assault by the Congress on this president's ability and the limitations on him to conduct this war. Do you think this is an expected outgrowth of the 15-year history and the developments that you chronicle in this book? ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: You know, in some ways, it really is, and perhaps even in a truly profound way, because what it means is that there's not only debate over Iraq, as such, or confrontation of Iraq, as such, which, of course, is the focus of the issue.But it's beginning to be a debate about what role the United States should be playing the world, whether the way the president, the current president, defined it since 9/11 is the right way of defining it. And I think that is a fundamental, important debate and a very timely and needed debate.