The Imperial Cruise  James Bradley Author Thursday, December 3  Hilton Americas Grand Ballroom, 4th Floor 1600 Lamar  Registration: 6:00 p.m. Program: 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.  Members: Free  Non-members: $20 Online registration for this program is closed.  To RSVP, please contact the Council.  Drop-ins are welcome. Email: rsvp@wachouston.org Phone: (713) 522-7811

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous twenty-one year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name. In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission and discovered what had transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul. James Bradley is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers and the son of one of the men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. He lives in New York.