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PBS News Hour

A former U.S. ambassador on the state of American diplomacy

William Burns, former deputy secretary of state and ambassador to Russia, may have spent more time with Vladimir Putin than other American diplomat. In his book, “The Back Channel,” Burns discusses how a “sense of grievance” underlies Putin's interactions with the U.S. Judy Woodruff talks to Burns about a "failure of imagination" on Syria and the current state of American diplomacy.