>> host: and there's a lot about your brother of richard nixon but the period between 1961 and 1968 when he lost the presidency to john kennedy you quote in the book whitaker chambers. who is the? >> guest: the key witness in the perjury trial that turned out of algiers yes and that really gave the spotlight to this man who the only thing he could see was the perjury aspect that had to be addressed. he agonized over a long time before he decided to pursue it and he won the case. and he won the case. . .

i proudly accept that nomination for president of the united states. [applause] >> but i have news for you be this time there's a difference. this time we're going to win. [applause]

>> host: how did he prepare for his win in 1968? >> guest: well, it was a preparation that began many years before and i'm not sure he was really aiming to be the president, but later on it became quite apparent that was the target. and he just felt that he had a mission to carry out and the most unforgettable keynote speech i ever heard was walter judd in a 1960 convention which convinced all the family and all the people i knew this man is on the right track. so following the thoughts he had from that convention in the intervening years, there was a lot of preparation, foreign travel, foreign attention, of course, president eisenhower had put him around the world on the tour that really opened the eyes of many people who otherwise would never had known what was going on out there. >> host: our phone lines are open. you can also sends us an email or send us is comment or a

question at twitter, twitter.com. what kind of relationship did you have with him? >> guest: he was, of course, a brother but 17 years older, he was also a mentor and a real teacher. in fact, i answered one of his questions once when he asked what do you think is the most important feature that a leader of the nation should have? i said, well, i think it first has to be a teacher, and he was surprised at that answer but i don't mean just an ordinary teacher. one that's committed to educating his constituency to follow his lead. >> host: you included an excerpt following his inauguration and let me show you what you wrote.

>> guest: that was the way the family ran. we were quaker, of course, in our upbringing. and that is the one religion where you have your own commitments, your own decisions individually and nobody is really telling you how to decide or think about issues. and the idea of listening was my mother's greatest trait. she was considered almost a mother confessor in the store and in the growing up years. arguments would erupt in the grocery store and my dad, who's quite the opposite, responded vociferously with an opinion that was his own and occasionally he'd say too loudly what his opinions were and my mom would say, frank, you just have to be quiet. listen for a while.

people are hearing it. and he would say, they need to hear it. it was the kind of relationship it was. >> host: did your brother enjoy people? >> guest: he really did. especially, younger people and those who were unassuming and willing to talk and listen with an open mind. >> host: what did he think of john kennedy? >> guest: they were good friends, really. they had a different approach to the political potentials, but even after the -- after the election in '60, they met at key biscayne and their farewell address is not recorded, of course, but he wrote down some of what they thought in his book "6 crises," which was the book he wrote before he became president. >> host:. >> we're looking at some of the film from some of that 1968 debate. there were four of them. did that hurt his bid or is that

political lore? >> guest: it's a feather weight on the balance scale. you think about some of the reports that came back following that first debate where he declined to have his face did you said and he was already tired and broken up, the people who watch it on television had one reaction. those who listened to it on the radio had the opposite. >> host: let's get some viewer calls. first is joe on the phone from dallas a republican line with ed nixon. good morning, joe. >> caller: it's john for dallas. >> host: go ahead. >> caller: you look so much like your brother, gosh. had nixon -- had it not been for watergate and had he had a successful second term do you think he would have been one of the greatest probably presidents mao since teddy roosevelt or thomas jefferson? 'cause i know the first term he had a successful first term 'cause his trip to china6ññ was

ñ successful >> guest: yes, that's one thing people have asked repeatedly. if he had succeeded in his -- completing his second term, he had many missions in mind and that's what's setting me on a course now to try to look at those things that were uncomplete, unfinished and i hope i can still have some impact talking to younger people. i was down in missouri yesterday and spoke to a group of middle school students, and they responded very interestingly. i was pleased by that reaction and i think i should probably do some more because there are many, many issues that should be covered by his unfinished business. i think he would have been a great president in all respects and is in my yard. >> host: did his decision to go

to china and open up relations surprise you by your relationship and his ideology? >> guest: not really. his decision to go to china was part of his mission he formed many years before, even 1954. and my grandmother was the one i remember as being the one to encourage us to study the world, meet the people, not the leaders but the small people, the ordinary people that make it run. and he did that so well all through the vice-presidency is that it became a real plus on his calendar. >> host: andrew is next from new york. good morning to you. >> caller: good morning. i just have a few comments on some things that were accomplished during this administration. number one, i was of draft age. i was petrified for going to a

war and he ended that war is the only processor way to get out. the second point is the trips to china and making the world aware -- at least a little bit what they had gone through. most importantly, 35 years later, we are just now reaping the benefits of the epa's clean air and clean water act and no one seems to understand when we swim in beautiful oceans and we have landfills and laws that protect us against environmental polluters, this came from this administration. and in my own mind, it was one of the reasons possibly why the watergate scandal was so strong against him because really he went against these huge corporate corporations and forced them to stop the polluting. and what people don't realize about timelines is it's 35 years later that we're starting to see what these laws came about and how they helped us. thank you. >> you got a response?

>> guest: well, it was -- it was certainly my position in writing this to point out the domestic policy issues that he succeeded with as well as the international. he's usually regarded -- when you have a first opinion a great foreign policy expert. and that's probably true because he had great exposure but domestic was also very important. >> host: mark is joining us on the independent line from san diego. good morning to you. >> caller: yes, i wanted to ask about civil rights. the picture that we have of civil rights today has been something led by the democrats and it's -- back in the 1950s, it was really a battle that was led by eisenhower, by nixon and by the republican governor of california who became the supreme court chief justice. the filibusters that were being

led in the senate was blocking viekts legislation that was being pushed by eisenhower and filibusters were being led by johnson and johnson's cohort on the judiciary committee, eastland, who was a segregationist and he had put the segregationists on the committee specifically to block and kill civil rights legislation as someone who has seen this transition what he thought when weary al gore's father and he's a democrat and the mess has represented him as beingñ÷ñ civil rights but he vo against the 1964 civil rights act. this transition that occurred from the '50s to the '60s i wonderxsm his view would be on that as far as whether corruption in the press misrepresenting what the

republicans were doingv;ñ force the republicans to abandon civil rights. >> guest: i don't think they abandoned at least from my brother's perspective. he was -- he was the one who actually got the schools in seven southern states with the help of george schultz to open their doors by getting each side to sit down, black side, white side and get them to sit down and agree on what's going to happen in this state with respect to public education. so it's still not finished 'cause prejudice is still out there, but if you read the book, i think you'll see where that all came from. abolitionists in our family are so abundantç4ç it's hard to bele anybody would sayl÷ we abandone anything in favor of recognizing to fill out a form that has a race. we are human. >> host: let me ask one of the pictures in the book you were

not in the photograph 'cause you were not born yet. it's your brothers, donald, richard, harold and arthur is right above in yorba linda, california. >> right down in the tire. >> host: what was your relationship with president nixon and his brothers and you and your brothers. >> guest: they all respected him because he could argue anybody out of their position. but he was -- he was one who insisted on following the rules, a football game or whatever. a lot of stories have propped up. they respected dick. we all did. because he was really a bright, bright respondent. >> host: do you want to share one of his stories. >> guest: ah, let's see. there's so many.

dick was one that was convinced that although i had been educated up to a junior in high school in california, my first grade picture shows the wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, a black girl in front of me, two japanese, many mexican kids and we went along as children do until they are taught by elders there's something different. so dick, when i was about to go to college, finishing high school in west york, pennsylvania, i wanted to go back to cal tech or stanford but stick convinced me by a little trip to duke university in north carolina that i should expose myself to more of the social structure in other parts of the country. and indeed it was different. but the effect of that is it made me a much broader -- a much broader field of interests and

opinions because it's difficult. civil rights problems have gone on and on yet you have to accomplish that. getting burned for celebrities to get burned who acquire due to the nature of political competition. guest: >> it has a profound effect and i think mcgovern's daughter and many others who wind up in difficult undesired reactions and it really hurt. my own family -- there's a story that no need to tell, i think, but it's too long. it reveals the effects it had on my daughters and we still greatly admire and love the family aspect, but it's a beautiful story about a family

that can survive all the difficulties and the opinions that come to us from people who really don't know. they don't know all the answers so they talk before they think. i hope journalists will always report facts that they know and report all the facts if they can find them. and then judge. that's for commentators, not journalists. >> host: one of the questions from william benjamin who is twittering how would edward but his brother in the political column using today's metrics? >> guest: conservative to the ultimate in some respects but not on all issues. there are some things -- the main thing is from the training my father gave us, always referring to the simpler aspects, the more condensed aspects of how we treat government. government should be small.

it should be limited. and it is really a -- it is a republic unless we let democracy overwhelmed the ideals of the constitution. i'm just convinced dick nixon was -- some called him a new dealer, in fact, 'cause he did so many things. whether president has a congress behind him or not will usually determine whether the government grows or holds its own. that's the whole point. limited government will succeed, and we can't printed our way out of debt. >> host: michael jones with a family question. mr. nixon i live in southern indiana where there's a historical marker about your mother being born here. i know president nixon visited jennings county once. she moved from there as a child; correct. >> guest: yes. i visited several times. in fact, three years ago i

think. my wife and i toured from paducah, kentucky, all the way up the ohio valley and stopped by in jennings county. the little town is called butlerville and it's right across the fence from indiana. the house is gone. it burned down several years ago. it had many sentimental memories. >> host: how did your parents meet? >> guest: my dad was a single man driving as a motorman on the pacific electric line in whittier. los angeles to whittier was a big line back when we had public transportation. and he wanted to find as young men will do, find a suitable partner for life. so he went to churches. where do you find a decent woman at least in a church. at least they're taught something of value and he

spotted in the choir at the whittier friends church my aunt jane who had a beautiful face and a magnificent voice and dad asked somebody in the congregation, who is that woman? and that's a milhous girl. you might want to meet the family, you should meet them. my mother was a little bit taller and taller than him. there was a conflict because my dad had a fifth grade education and my mom was brought into the study to teach greek and latin. he interrupted that and started a family. >> host: is this the house pictured in your book -- the photo was taken back in 1950 but the house that is at the nixon library? >> guest: that's the one at the library where dick was born. four of my brothers lived there. i never did 'cause by the time i came along, they'd already gone back to whittier. >> host: next call is dan

joining us from bane meadows florida for edward nixon. good morning to you. >> caller: good morning, gentlemen. when i first heard that this book came out what hit my mind big time, oh, my god, this is a smart man. either he planned this or he's just got good intuition. the fact that this book is coming out right at the end of the bush administration, i hear people compare watergate, which definitely was the fact that nixon was brought down as a child's play compared to the bush administration and, you know, the torture situations. i think it's going to make, you know, the bush administration being compared to the nixon administration it's going to make look nixon a real good man as far as i'm concerned because bush just destroyed the republican party and i'm part of it. it just breaks my heart. >> host: we'll get a response. thank you, dan.

>> guest: actually, comparing presidencies is something that everyone will try to do. who was better than whom. but when you think of the positive side of any president's administration, you can put them up pretty well. above most other people. decisions are made in all of these administrations that sometimes come out negatively in favor of the other side. as it's reported in the media. you can take it or leave it. but most people will take it as they see it. that's the danger. i think when you realize presidents, former presidents, getting together are in a very close knit club, it's almost a rule they don't criticize their predecessors until maybe recently. well, the story of my brother's

funeral in the book points is out because president clinton greeted me at the door as i went back in after the burial ceremony. we started talking about this and that. began to get a little on the political side and president bush, h.w. bush took me by the elbow and took me aside and said let's talk navy. so they defend one another even in adverse conditions. >> host: and at the funeral ceremony president clinton said this, quote. knew great controversy as well as history. he made mistakes, and they, like accomplishments are part of the record. he never gave up being part of the passion of his times, and today judging him on anything less in judging him on his life and career, comes to a close. >> guest: i chose that from his eulogy that he delivered at the funeral. it's right on target. i thought it was very well put

and i thanked him for that because it was beautifully written. >> host: there's this from gary who says. >> guest: i think when you -- anybody -- when enough people gang up and start criticizing and picking on him, their reaction can even destroy the most self-disciplined person anywhere. and he was -- he was expensive because he had this mission to carry out and people were picking on this break-in at the watergate as the focus of his whole administration which was so far off track. so many things to do. extending the possibility for world peace and so on which was really his main mission. it was sad to see the attention given to an issue that he had no

need to get involved in, really. none at all. >> host: one of the moments from your brother's presidency came one year after he was reelected in 49 from 50 states from november of 1973, this from president nixon's news conference. >> i have never profited, never profited from public service. i've earned every cent and in all of my years, public life, i have never obstructed justice. and i think, too, that i could say that in my years of public life, that i welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. i've earned everything i've got. >> guest: that's the most quoted anti-nixon. it's for amusement of those who don't like him in the first place, but the haters will all

come around to realize that in the long run, this man was not a crook or anything like it. he was -- in fact, when he resigned, he doesn't resign in disgrace, he resigned in honor of office which was above any man as he loved it. he had loved the constitution, the nature of america as it had come from 200 years before and wanted to pursue it in that same direction. that was it. >> host: over this next call we'll share with what ed nixon writes about watergate in the book and we'll listen becky, democrats line, good morning, becky. >> caller: good morning. what an honor, sir. it's so hard with this new way of doing things i've got to close my eyes 'cause i can't figure out what's going on. i just wanted to tell you that i was raised republican, born back in 1949, and my mother and my

grandmother were staunch republicans. they used to debate politics all the way to church and back every sunday. and my mother just loved your brother. and it wasn't -- i was a republican myself all the way up through -- i think it was bush, sr., bush, sr., that's when i switched over to the democrats. i guess, you know, i look at watergate with all what's been going on since and i think of it as just being the stupidiest reason in the world, you know, to lose a good president. >> guest: well, i happen to agree. i think, first of all, democrat or republican, keep in mind, first we're americans. you make a judgment on evaluating candidates and however you come out will still mean that you're an american.

if you lean this way for a while and lean that way for a while, well, think of this. my father was in an all-democrat family in ohio until he met william mckin in a parade -- mcconditim mckinley in missouri, he would have been a democrat, and in 1986, my dates will go off -- i'm off-channel right now. but anyway, i know that opinions change but don't let it change you from being just what you think you should be. figure it out yourself. study the characters carefully and the consequences of going one way or the other will really tell you what's the best thing. that's the way we vote. we all need to be americans first, then make a decision and

support the side that does come closest to your beliefs. >> host: president nixon talked about the highs and lows, the peaks and valleys of life in politics. what was the lowest day in his life, the lowest moment? do you know? >> guest: i think probably the day -- was it august 9th, 1974, where he had agonized over what to say and ray price, who wrote many of his drafts of speeches can agree that was really a rough time. there are many. i think the other one, of course, was -- the only time i ever saw him break up was at pat's funeral. that just got the best of him. that was a down-day and resignation, of course, was also overwhelming. >> host: his comments from the

east room of the white house on august the 9th, 1974, as richard nixon said farewell to his staff and talked about his mother. >> guest: nobody will ever write a book probably about my mother. well, i guess all of you would say this about your mother. my mother was a saint. and i think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in order that she could take care of my older brother for three years in arizona and seeing each of them die. and when they died, it was like one of her own.

yes. she will have no books written about her. but she was a saint. >> guest: that was a rough day. he didn't really recover from that day for a long time. the thing that put him through it, of course, was focusing on his memoir, which really summarizes the whole thing. like his almost 1,000-page volume and that began the following books -- he felt free then to sound off on many, many different issues and eight more books after that memoir was written. >> host: philip is next from durham, maine. good morning to you. >> caller: hey, thanks. i guess what i'd like to ask is a little bit about nixon's quakerism and how it affected

his life and political philosophy as well as affected the entire family. and the other thing i've noticed about nixon is that you have on the one side a real peacemaker, somebody who is very committed toward world peace and on the other side he reads some of the transcripts and just the way he carried out the presidency and the war, a real brutality for lack of a better world. >> guest: it seems that way when you listen to his tapes. the oval office tapes. but i think you're listening to someone who spent a lot of time in the south pacific in world war ii. he was confronted many times with so many people that hated him that eventually he had to react in an appropriate way as my mother would say. >> host: did you hear him swear growing up? >> guest: rarely. very rarely. he was pretty well

self-disciplined as i am pointing out. he just avoided it. but when he got into a place like -- who knows? the bohemian grove in california or places like that, you let your hair down and that's when the weakness -- the weak side of the human comes out. and maybe it's therapy. maybe it's cathartic, i don't know. he did do it. >> host: did he have any prejudices against religious groups or ethnic groups? >> guest: not really, no. we were often accused of that, but that's because we sometimes don't stand up for one side or another because quakers simply say it's yours. you decide. and you're on your own and no minister between and you god, you just do it as you best -- as you see best fit. >> host: harry is next from norcross, georgia. good morning to you. >> caller: thank you very much. and i just want to thank c-span -- this is -- i'm so

pleased for this moment. i have so many)k memories of richard nixon and my father supporting richard nixon and, of course, it takes years for a man to understand how smart his father was. my question for mr. nixon here is, did richard nixon, after his long post-presidential life feel satisfied that he had vindicated himself? i feel that he did. i always admired the man. i tell that he was probably one of the last honorable presidents that we've had. >> guest: interesting. i think the last face-to-face meeting i had with dick was after pat had died and i visited him in -- no, no. she was still there in new jersey. and that was the only -- >> host: saddleback,

acknowledge. >> guest: yes. historians will record it and keep it alive for a long time but the balancing on the other side will be a mass understanding of what we were trying to do. and that he thought would be the vindication that would eventually come. and i believe it's coming. it's really showing up now that he had some foresight that many people just can't reach for. >> host: let me share with you another moment in the watergate era and this is the speech delivered a month after your brother resigned from office on a sunday afternoon in september of 1974 when then-president gerald ford granted a full, complete, and fair -- not fair but a full and complete pardon to richard nixon. >> i feel richard nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will continue to suffer no matter what i do.

no matter what we as a great and good nation can do together to make his goal of peace come true. >> host: ed nixon? >> guest: i did watch that. it impressed me as being what an american should do for a fellow countryman. and gerald ford knew that he wasn't doing it for richard nixon. he was doing it for the country. why drag it through -- why drag it out. it's too inconsequential when you think about the better world we could make by focusing on a free and open review of everything. >> host: the book is called "the nixons: a family portrait" and our guest is edward nixon, 17 years younger than the former president. the book now available at bookstores around the country and daniel is next from woodbridge, new jersey. good morning. good morning, daniel. >> caller: hello. this is an absolutely great

honor to have a brief conversation with you. i'm a foreign here. i have been here since 1979. but i did study watergate crisis and i just want to ask you -- you may have gone through so much pain and suffering because my brothers and i are different people. we want to sympathize -- if that's the right word, i don't know. in any case, i want to -- i want to go -- as soon as i finish the conversation and listening to you, i want to go out and buy your book and i hope you have made other contributions to the united states policy on politics and so on and so forth. one of the things that i wanted to ask you, because your brother, what did you really think of the taping of the white

house because in that world we have sometimes sounds crude and difficult to listen to from commitment groups and so on. >> host: let me ask you why he had the taping system in the first place? >> guest: that was -- that was his love of history. his reaction to it initially was, what are you going to do that for? it's been done before. he thought well, you know, in the future, 75 years from now, we'll have historians pouring over the recordings and they will see a direct view inside the oval office and by the time, vernacular, manner of speaking and so forth will be completely different. and historians will have a direct line into a piece of history that's recorded. unfortunately, that could have been kept 75 years and we'd still be waiting to hear it. but now we've broken through the

watergate mess, they opened up the tapes, alex butterfield let it be known that it existed. and so in the interest of history he decided to let it go. hindsight would always say, should not have done it or perhaps i should have done it but burned them when i got through with it. >> host: you write in the book and we showed this earlier that the watergate era was a bad time for the america but >> didn't the nixon presidency, the watergate scandal disillusion a generation of americans and create skepticism that continues today? >> guest: it did. sure. it did. my appeal now -- i thank you for the comments there. but i am not a politician. in fact, i decline every opportunity to run against a local congressman because as a geologist people tell me i have rocks in my head but i see missions that go beyond what the political experts can say.

energy independence, thing like that that got me off the road. i'm convinced that the general population will be affected by big news like the resignation and the scandal. it's gone on with -- in the clinton administration, same thing. many others through history have gone through trials and think of the teapot dome scandal in the early '20s. they put a man down but the office will stay, and that is good. and i think young people have to take heart, look at the constitution, appreciate what it offers us and what it's provided us through all these 200 years in making this country so strong and so much admired by other countries and they have their immigrants coming in and attempting to change it. that's not a good idea. don't change too much. not too rapidly, anyway. >> host: in february of 1992,

richard nixon appearing on two-hour "booknotes" interviews and in part of that interview he talked about how people treat him and what surprised him about that. here's part of that interview from 1992. >> i want to ask you are you surprised about how people treat you today? and what i mean by that, just take your visit here and you can't walk outside here. there are cameras waiting for you and people surround you and they want your autograph. are you surprised after being out of the white house since 1974 and what you went through that people are approaching you the way they do? >> well, people are -- the american people are sometimes for the underdog. and maybe i'm gaining a little from that. and also the american people like so-called celebrities, celebrities -- whether they're celebrities for good reasons or bad reasons and maybe i'm a benefit from that. but i would say to me what is -- what means the most is when

somebody came up to me -- comes up to me as one did just recently, just today, and said -- he was a little bit older. he was a little younger than you are, and he said i just want to thank you because of what you did, i got home from vietnam. so that's what makes it all worthwhile. >> host: that was two years before he passed away. >> guest: yep. brian lamb does such a super job. and all of c-span, i'm just glad we got it. he looked back on those -- those encounters with tabloid media people and so forth and regretted that it kept coming up. but he was the first -- i mean, the first day after he was in office, he began pulling the troops out of vietnam aiming to make it a vietnam-vietnam war if it's going to be a war and get us out of there. but nobody would understand that

or even try to quote him on that until it's over. so i think the people that he met afterward and especially after reading the books that he's written, everyone should read those books. it's a fascinating chain of thoughts on why we have to be strong and responsive to young voters especially -- they're learning how to vote. they're learning why to vote. and he doesn't want it to be a discouragement. >> host: laura is next. she's joining us from baltimore with edward nixon. good morning to you. >> caller: hi, mr. nixon. i just wanted to make a couple of comments and then ask a couple of comments if i could. i'm sorry but i came of age during watergate. i was taking current events. i think i was in eleventh grade. we described to the "washington post." i read all the president's men

several times and i do agree that it was the tip of the tip of the iceberg. that turned me off in republicans in general and i felt that way since then. and i do think that your brother was involved, i'm sorry to say, and i really believe it was the populist anger -- a lot of people refer to america as the second front during the vietnam war. i had a stepbrother and stepsister who were very active in demonstrations. but having said that, my father, especially, detested your brother. he thought he was the worst president that could ever be but looking back at your brother, i'm so mystified by him because obviously -- it's obvious he was very intelligent. but i also get the feeling that he desperately wanted to be liked but wasn't especially in foreign countries where you would hear accounts of people throwing stones at him. i think really what i want to say is, i think i was influenced a lot by my father in thinking

that he was the worst president ever. he certainly was not. that was more than proved by bush. and i think your brother, as you said, as you've indicated, was to a large degree misunderstood. >> guest: he didn't want to be liked he wanted his image respectable to the point where he could have his points and have them respected and judged fairly. it's difficult to get that kind of information that you need to make clean judgments based on real facts. a person who has a reputation for being a scoundrel will not have much to say to young thinking minds. and respect for the person is what's important to the leader. he has to get their attention and march on down the road

bringing as many as he can with them, hopefully, a majority which will make it a greater country. >> host: our last call is from caylee from hawaii. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i shared this statement with my best friends of over 20 years after this past the election and the statement is, the first and last time i voted was for richard nixon. i was a 17-year-old boy was in the draft when along came a man saying he will get us out of vietnam. then a few years later, there was what i thought was the worst situation a president could do. now i know after the bush administration, nixon was mild. aloha. >> guest: aloha. what is the worst president? what is the best president? moot points. you'll never get it that way. you can't just compare

presidents with one another or with anybody else for that matter to decide who deserves credit, who deserves respect. there's so many aspects of an individual thinking in terms of the nation's health, strength and longevity and that's got to be foremost in any young voters' mind. how do i make a good decision? and all of these media that use things like all the news it's fit to print which would be all the news that's bad enough to sell, we get the wrong impression from reading headlines. you have to read much deeper and find the thesis of the writer before you understand what he's trying to say. >> host: finally, when he passed away in 1994 he suffered from a stroke and linger and then he died. did he die a broken man or was he at peace at himself. >> guest: no, no i think he was at peace with himself. julie noted as she left his room

for the last time he was -- he couldn't speak but he gave her a thumb's up and that proved something to me that's what we all do if we're really on top of it. feeling right about it all. >> host: edward nixon, the book is called "the nixons: a family portrait" cowritten by karen olson. >> guest: karen olson, yes. av very interesting story on he. she was -- i should really not tell that story it's too long for me to get in it. she only lived 20 minutes down the road from me where i am in seattle. she was well trained in journalism at the university of washington. fluent in spanish. mostly because as she says it, because of richard nixon's visit when she was crippled and he was visiting with his family to the world's fair in 1962. she's been my researcher, very, very good writer. >> host: thank you for joining us. >> guest: thank you, steve. good to meet you.

>> edward nixon is the co-author of "the nixons: a family portrait." he's served in advisor to companies in the field of earth science. for more information on the author, visit this website. ♪ >> book tv is asking, what are you reading? >> former house historian ray smock. what are you reading? >> right now i'm reading richard bernstein's book on the founding fathers, the founding fathers reconsidered, which is a new book that's just out and richard is a wonderful writer who characterizes the founding fathers of this country, looks at them with a fresh eye and it's just a wonderful book. and another one that's closely related is also by richard

beeman who has a new book on the constitutional convention and the men of the constitutional convention. those are the two books i'mvñ reading simultaneously right now. >> rick pearlstine author of nixonland. what are you reading? >> the culture of narcissism which came out in 1979. it was a surprise bestseller even though it was a dense piece of argumentation. it's supposedly informed a speech carter gave in which he argued america was suffering this crisis of confidence, and i'm reading it because i'm doing research on the 1970s for my next book. >> what are you learning from it? >> a lot about psychoanalysis and abject relations theory and theorists like melanie klein. it's a dense and difficult work even though it's a bestseller i can't imagine too many people actually read it. >> for schedule information and descriptions of our programs, log onto booktv.org. you can click on the viewer

input tab and email us, tell us what you're reading and what you think of our programs. >> paula kamen, who was irish chang? >> she was most known for her 1997 bestseller that was -- that was the book the rape of nanking and it did its best to raise awareness of the japanese awareness in world war ii. she wrote in great detail about the massacre there but it raised atrocities throughout asia. >> was she a historian? >> she was both a historian and a journalist, so she didn't see them as mutually exclusive. a big tool of hers was archives. she spent days and days buried in the national archives and

other archives but then she also went out, confronted people face-to-face so she used all those methods. >> where was she from? we met in illinois at the university of illinois in the mid-'80s and we were friends since then. >> what kind of relationship did you have as friends? >> yeah, first i didn't know what to make of her. she was always many steps ahead of me. there was very few internships and every time there was one she would get it. before i even thought of applying to it she would have already gotten it. and that's a lot of people thought of her. she was always so far ahead of us and she had the idea to write for the "new york times" as the u of i correspondent. she just called them up and soon she had stories in the front section of the "new york times." and we're thinking who does that? you know, what to make of her. but then i saw -- i was her editor there and i saw what real

talent backed up this incredible nerve and i tried to emulate her instead of seeing her as a rival. and through the years both of us wrote books and we were both sounding boards and she became a huge role model of what it meant to be a successful author. >> what happened to her? >> this is the reason why i wrote the book because it was one of the most shocking things that i ever experienced. that she committed suicide, which seemed for no apparent reason in 2004 when she was 36 years old. and there were lots of rumors that were swirling everywhere that the right wing japanese had assassinated her. she had a lot of enemies. >> because of her book? >> yeah, she was very vocal in criticizing their history books and their political leaders. there was also rumors that the u.s. was somehow behind it. that she was very active in

trying to get veterans of the baton death march to sue japan for their enslavement and the state department wasn't so happy about that. but it turned out that she fit -- that she fit a lot of patterns of manic depressive illness or bipolar disorder that got worse after she had her son, which often happens with women. and it was exacerbated by a lot of real pressures that were all around here. >> so what was your last conversation with her? >> she called me just -- just three days before she killed herself. that was the first time that i ever sensed something was ever really wrong. i realized it was a goodbye call. then it just seemed like a strange, you know, bizarre -- bizarre thing. i didn't know what to make of it. that was the first time i ever noticed her as really depressed and disconnected from reality.

she was so depressed it was hard to get the words out. and in retrospect i see she was explaining to me why she was about to do this. she talked about a lot of guilt in ways that she had raised her son. she talked a lot about fears that she had. and said i had been a good friend to her. yeah, it was -- it was very, very disturbing but as disturbing as it was i didn't think that her life would end a few days later. >> so what did you find about iris chang? >> that she was very, very complex. that there was a lot behind this venear of perfection of all of us basically saw her as having the absolute perfect life and being the perfect person to the extent that we didn't want to share her problems with her that she wouldn't understand having problems and, you know, what that was like. that she was incredibly driven and that's what helped her to

uncover, you know, all these really tough parts of history and atrocities in japan. and i think with the mental illness she didn't know when to stop and she didn't know about any kind of limits that she had. so she was inspiration in her drive not seeing limits but then ultimately it was a weakness. and not getting treated for the mental illness, you know, she refused to accept that she had it. >> is there a stigmatism with mental illness and asian-americans? >> yeah, in every culture there's a huge stigma but in asian culture it's really, really extreme. thatations are much less likely to get treated with therapy or medication. when they do go for treatment, it's usually at the eleventh hour when they're already at the psychotic change, you know, when it's really hard to reverse what happened. so that's what happened with iris. she didn't get treatment -- she didn't see a psychiatrist until

two weeks before her death and that was just because her family forced her. and then she wasn't compliant with him, you know, what he was telling her to do. >> what changes have you made in your life because of iris chang's suicide? >> no one ever asked me that before. i appreciate living -- a lot of is corny. i appreciate living in the moment. i'm having my second child in several months. and just -- i'm looking a lot toward the lighter things in life and enjoying them. i mean, i'm going to return to writing about tough topics, but just to know my limits and it's okay to take time off and not be so driven, you know, every second of the day. >> besides this book, what other books have you written? >> i've written three other books. the one before this was all in my head about an 18-year

migraine. and i blogged it on the new york times.com and that's about women in chronic pain and how it's been seen all in our heads and more recent research showing it as neurological. and then i wrote two feminist books when i was 24 called feminist fatale. that was known as like the first -- the first post-boomer feminist book. and then one that was related to that called her way, young women's sexual attitudes about having more status and education in society has affected their personal lives. >> well, we've been talking with author paula kamen about her book, finding iris chang. ♪

>> coming up next book tv presents "after words," an hour-long interview program where we invite a guest host to interview the author of a new book. this week from bookexpo america in new york city, joe score bro on his book, the last best hope restoring conservatism and america's promise. the current host of msnbc morning joe presents his thoughts on the bush administration, the current state of the republican party and the obama presidency. joe scarborough discusses his book with peggy noonan, a which is for "the wall street journal." >> host: joe scarborough, anchor of the morning cable news show morning joe on msnbc, which you cohost. you are a former congressman. you represented -- you represented florida's first district in the house from 1995 to 2001. you were elected in 1994, a

member of that famous clasp won republican control of the house for the first time in, i think, two generations. >> it was a very long time. >> 40, 50 years. before that you were a practicing attorney and i think a school teacher. >> uh-huh. >> you're a former house of scarborough country you have a radio show on i think wabc in new york. >> right. >> you have a new book out called the last best hope published by crown books. i think it's your second book. >> uh-huh, it is. >> all right. joe, how do you anchor do all the prep for both shows require, make speeches, appearances, help charities, see your family, a friend and write a book? how do you do that? >> i have no idea. >> do you get up at 3:00