Bob Hawke AC worked with two Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush on critical global issues as diverse as the bombing of the US Embassy in Beiruit, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the creation of APEC, the end of apartheid in South Africa and bringing China into the global community. Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister is a loyal friend as well as a friendly critic of the US. His close relationship with Secretary of State George Shultz was a key element in shaping the trajectory post-Cold War Asia Pacific. At this event Hawke discussed his vast experience with, and views on, the US with Australia's leading political journalist Paul Kelly.