Wilson was at the center of a major political maelstrom involving the White House, the C.I.A. and the second gulf war in Iraq. In 2002, at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney, Wilson was assigned by the C.I.A. to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger for the purpose of advancing his nuclear program. When his investigation turned up nothing, Wilson reported back to officials in Washington that there was no basis for the claims.

At the podium, Wilson lays out his side of the controversy in an enlightening, incisive presentation. Drawing from his new memoir, The Politics of Truth, he takes audiences inside two decades of world politics — from facing down...