could break through especially during this time of the budget deficit and how we're going to rearrange our government spending, i think there might be a way to actually win some of these battles even given all the influence that these companies have. but it's really going to take, you know, i think a major public education campaign. >> host: it's going to take the kind of light of day that your careful history of the lockheed business from the start with stunt pilots and $5 rides for thrill seekers, you know, to the mega corporation, you know, that's causing us to think about wanting to fight regular wars with nuclear weapons and causing us to invade iraq and causing us to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons that don't work and that the country doesn't need. that's why people immediate to read your book to -- need to read your book to understand how that works. ..

>> thank you very much. it's a great pleasure to be here. i greatly salute to veterans and the people in the armed services who are still in uniform. i have been introducing many different ways. that's about the best introduction i can think of. they been great friends.

as i told you and david i think their next venture should be in skin care products because i've known them since 1973 and they don't look one day older than they did then. something is going on here. today is veterans day. we remember the men and women who fought our wars. every single one of them in every single war in every single battle. day, not the actors and actresses who live a few dozen miles west of here, are the stars who keep america brought. and the battles they fought and still put out what determined man's fate. of all the battles americans have ever fought we have never fought a bigger war than the invasion of nazi occupied europe. one of the great military ventures of all time, certainly one of the very most consequential because of its dramatic effect on victory and europe and because of its meeting at keeping the major countries of western europe free of communism after the d-day. the key figure out that can be was the angle american fighting men. but of all of these the key man

was dwight david eisenhower. david has chronicled, as a classic of history and biography, right here over the ages more leeway riley called the crusade in europe. general eisner went on to become with the great, great presidents of american history. peace, progress and prosperity was the republican slogan in 1956 and was a great summary of the nation at eisenhower led from 1953-1961. he kept us out of work when would've seemed inevitable. he kept a tight lid on government spending and government deficits are either new or tiny on his watch. most of all we made a u-turn for the most explicitly racist nations on earth in 1954 toward immigration and racial equality act in 1954. this was a turbulent time for

deep passion for neither could could lead to real national catastrophe. the fact that the nation may change fairly smoothly is what i believe to be righteously subtle and strong moral leadership by president eisenhower. other leaders talk the talk. ike walked the walk. i was just on cnn with larry king, a good friend of julie and david, and some were saying is president obama a better campaign or a better president. and while the content on the show said of course he's a better campaigner because all your to do with your campaign is talk. when you're president you have to actually do something. but i -- [applause] >> this is not a knock in president obama. other leaders talk the talk, trammell and walked the walk. he didn't just talk on he got them done. without hype, without dramatic, without grandstanding. he left us in 1961 and nation in

better shape in many ways than it would ever be again. but what did president eisenhower want to be called after he left office? what does he do after he left office? that's what david into his book you're talking about today is about. it's a biography in a memoir of what a beloved general and statesman did when he left office, had he appeared to this grandson and what he was like as a man, elder statesman, husband, father, grandfather and human being. no man is a hero to his ballets. but while trammell and was a hero to david into the whole world, david and julie does a great biographical service of letting us in on some ways to dwight eisenhower's more of a suburban dad and granddad, more like ozzie nelson, than a five star general. his taste in literature, he famously loved westerns. everyone knows that. but only those who have women in them, his obsession with bridge and his own embarrassment about not playing at a in an

perfectly. it's a fascinating to see how ike worked with such extraordinary gentlemen but in a way above party and personnel as. i won't say anymore about the book. this is david and julie shuja. this is a series book and the fact it hasn't always moments. genuinely laugh out loud moments as at present i have dealt with flattery makes it all the more serious. this is a portrait of a man and a hero. this was an uplifting book to read because it described a genuinely great man. it was all to to me a disturbing but because we don't seem to have many men or women of ike's moral character on the scene right now. he is a man-made of greater stuff than we seem to have now. from greater times when we have now. perhaps we can use this book as a yardstick to measure president bashing present and future national leader. if we do i'm afraid they will look pretty puny. our sad loss, but what a gift to

a general eisenhower. now that introduce you to too great friends and great biographers, david and julie eisenhower. [applause] >> thank you. it is so wonderful to be back in your -- yorba linda. and to be here with so many special friends with my uncle and my aunt, and ron walker, sandy quinn, my beloved honorary sister, maureen done, and also to have carl anthony here with us. he is the foremost a story on first lady. and when dave teaches his classic universe of pennsylvania, karl anthony is the first one that knows he can

produce on first lady's console. but most of all, me, aren't we lucky? in many things in life, but you have someone like ben stein as a friend. [applause] that he is the best. through thick and thin, and we loved his parents, mildred and herb. when we signed her book to translate when he we sent him an early copy that we need is going to build come to yorba linda into the introduction, we inscribed in memory of herb and mildred, because there in the nixon administration they were part of the whole group of extraordinary men and women who serve the country so well in those years. and i think they represent so many great qualities about this country. as ben said nsa and he said so eloquently, it's late. it is veterans day, and to david and i would like to dedicate our talks to all the men and women serving today who make us so

proud to be americans every day. [applause] >> of course you know that eisenhower and nixon were wartime presidents. when ike was elected in 52 america was at war and korea. when my father was elected in 1958, we were deeply at war with vietnam. more than half a million, 550,000 young men, were fighting in vietnam when my father took office. and believe me, not one day went by during my father's presidency until the war ended in january of 1973 that my family didn't think of the troops, and didn't think of the 591 pows who were suffering in north vietnam, and to my father to abandon. i think that you can understand why one of the most moving

things that happened, has happened to me since my father left the presidency was to meet a former pow from san diego a few years ago. and he told me that whenever they had their unions, that he and his comrades, quote, we always set a place at the table for your dad. [applause] >> the book that we presented a, "going home to glory," is about five star general dwight d. eisenhower. this is an individual who knew better than anyone the pain and agony of sending men into battle. and i think one of the most moving stories in the book is how in 1963 ike went back to normandy to me walter cronkite and to recapture the day 20 years later. he was getting ready to go out of their to the american cemetery overlooking omaha

beach. you know the scene. row after row of markers and crosses. and he told ccps producer fred friendly, you know, tomorrow i got to go out there and speak to these families who lost sons and husbands and fathers at normandy. icon who came out of the war, with enough going to carry me on to other things, and he was agitated, he was humbled. and somehow though in the morning when he did go back to those beaches, this is what he said. and i think he captured it well. he said id that we hope that we will never again have to see seen such as these. these young men gave us a chance and they bought time for us so that we could do better than we have done before. so any day i think about that day 20 years ago now, i say once more, we must find some way to work to gain in eternal peace for this world. [applause] >> those are the words of dwight

eisenhower. he was an incredible figure, and that's why i'm so glad that i had an opportunity to work with david on this book. and we've had a partnership and marriage for 41 years, but i have to say that the highlight so far has been the opportunity to do this book together. so i feel a little bit sentimental being here at the nixon library because this is the community that gave my father the chance to serve, that committee of 100 that picked richard nixon still in his navy uniform in 1946 to run against an incumbent. doesn't sound familiar? kind of an almost tea party few in the sense that people were at the end of the war, they were fed up, they wanted change, they wanted to people. richard nixon was in that class. the reason i say i feel sentimental being here, and the book, let's face it, david and i are together because of that

little magical picture politics that were sprinkled over our lives. we were eight years old when we met. it was 1957 inauguration of dwight eisenhower and richard nixon. and there are even photos of us taken that day to prove that we were there. there's a picture of david staring at me because i had a great big black eye. i had been in a sledding accident a week before. there had been a big snow in washington. i was out sledding and i lost control of my sled and i went into a tree. so i really had a beautiful china. when the photographers gathered at the inaugural parade to take a photograph of the president and his grandchildren, with his vice president and tricia in may, president eisenhower leaned into me and he whispered, now julie, you look this way, and they won't see your black eye. so i look this way and i saw an extra in a cute eight year old. [laughter] they took the pictures come and when david and i were engaged in

his letter to president eisenhower gave me a framed copy of that photo. and here's what he inscribed on it. to julie nixon, who even been unknowingly seems to have gained an admirer. but it really wasn't until we went off to college, that we got together. that was because mamie eisenhower finally wore her grandson them. you've got to look at julia. said david came over to call on me at smith college. and he took me out for a digitized them, discovered he spent all his money on the cab ride over. i had to pay for his chocolate and my strawberry. [laughter] so than a week later he got his courage to come back and he is one those experiences that almost derailed the romance. david recalled that even he felt a little bit sheepish when he present himself to the young woman on duty at my dorm and said, hello, i'm david eisenhower and i would like to

see julie nixon. and the girl gave him a long look and she said, yeah, and i'm harry truman. [laughter] >> by the way, we been fighting all week about who gets to tell that story. but he persisted and so here we are in yorba linda today to present "going home to glory." it's several things, this book. it's a history of the '60s. it's a story about a grandfather and grandson. and it's also i think a fascinating look at how a president who is the most powerful figure in the world because the american president is still that figure, how do you surrender power? how do you do it gracefully? how do you grow old gracefully? that's what we are writing about. what i decided to do today was to just share with you just a tiny bit of ike's wisdom because he wasn't shy about sharing his little maxims on life with his

grandson, or with me or any of the young people he came into contact with. so i had fun gathering for of ike lessons of life i called and as you listen to them i think you'll agree that their great lessons on life but they're also good for relationships. and partnerships. and after all of ike entry to were married for 52 years. first, lesson from ike. stand firm. and stand for something. have principles. he called them the building blocks of character, hard work, worthy ambition, commonsense, integrity and moral courage. here's the example of dwight eisenhower standing firm and going home from glory. two weeks before david and i get married ike from his hospital bed at walter reed offered david $100 if he would cut his mop of curly hair for our wedding. i have to take of $100 is a lot

of money in 1968. day did get a light trim but it was a short enough for ike and he didn't take. stand firm. [laughter] second principle of life from ike. green and fight. eisenhower box at west point. is also an all-american football player. is a great athlete. and his his political life he often used metaphors about boxing to talk to his supporters. he also talked to dave through boxing. he likes to tell the story of an encounter at west point with a very fine boxer was actually 40 pounds heavier. and ike describes how he got knocked down and kept getting knocked down and staggered back up, and finally and ike's words, he looks kind of rueful. his opponent took off his gloves, student in the corner and said, well, i'm done boxing with you. and so ike asked why in the

boxer said, if you can't smile when you get up, not down, you're never going to let an opponent. now eisenhower made that lesson part of his life, telling republican supporters if you see someone irritating you, just grin. once in a while in life than he continues when nato haymaker at you, so what? you don't win a campaign in one battle. you win a campaign by sticking everlastingly to it. grin and fight. eisenhower lesson number three on life. forgive. forgiveness is one of the most powerful forces in life. in going home to glory, david describes the summer that he turned 13, and he was hired to work on his grandfather's farm. he had a great job of painting defenses, weeding the vegetables. he also had a two day a week job at gettysburg college, and he

was much more interested in that jet. he was a teenager. he admits it's several lapses of concentration when he was working on the farm. he because particularly one lunch hour when he and a friend kept going honeymoon bridge in a small den of president eisenhower small dent at the farm. they had mistakenly under the impression that ike had gone back downtown. so 1245 time that became one, and one became 1:15, and 1:15 became 1:30. and all of a sudden the office door crashes open. the general appears. his lips were moving by david was so paralyzed with fear that he could only process three words. you are fired. [laughter] ike and david had a golf game scheduled for the afternoon. at 4:15 the generals black chrysler israel grinds up to the door. ike is at the wheel.

it gets in the car. they go to gettysburg article. they play the first hole in total silence. they play the second hole in total silence. on the third hole near the green, putting green, the general we hired dave. [laughter] spent illustrating alexander pope maxim, to err is human, to forgive divine. last lesson on life from ike, face life with courage. i don't think dwight eisenhower was afraid of much in life and that's perhaps why he was so formidable, and sometimes unapproachable. but that doesn't mean that ike like the rest of us didn't wonder and reflect upon that great unknown of life, namely death. and it's the way that eisenhower met his death that personifies to me the lesson, the last lesson i want to share with you, which is courage. it was election year 1968, and

dwight eisenhower lay at walter reed army hospital. he had suffered seven heart attacks at the last one following the speech he made from his hospital room when he exhorted the republican convention to nominate richard nixon. between campaign stops, david and i tried to visit his grandfather as often as we could. and i would never forget the evening that we came into his hospital room. we were also bit late arriving at the hospital because our plane had been delayed and the nurses told us that agenda was quite anxious for us to get there. and when we went through the double doors into the presidential suite, we saw that the nurses had proper general eisenhower up on the bed, in the bed a little bit with some pillows. he was so thin and so frail, and the stark white of the sheets made his mesmerizing blue eyes seemed even bluer. and the moment he spotted us, --

[inaudible] he stuck a nixon sticker and agnew sticker. [laughter] he had spirit and courage to the very end. in the eisenhower family graveyard in elizabeth hill pennsylvania not far from the gettysburg farm where i can name he spent their retirement years, as they still visible instruction on 1874 tombstone of ike 37 year old aunt, lydia eisenhower. it reads, i'm going home to glory, a golden crown to where, oh, meet me, and meeting over there. dwight d. eisenhower did go home to glory in every sense of the world, and it was a privilege for me to help david tell his story. and it's a privilege to be back in yorba linda with so many wonderful friends. thank you. [applause]

>> julie, thank you. we've been arguing about which stories to tell and so forth that she told a lot of them. [laughter] >> nixon, ron walker, sandy quinn, ben and karl, thanks for having us here today. i will give you some background on this book. "going home to glory" is the title of the book proposal that we circulated to new york publishers in the summer of 1976. julie and i had moved to new york from washington that summer, and ben stein, our host today, encouraged us to start considering some publishing interest that he had encountered

about us. and we circulated this proposal entitled "going home to glory" and we did so at ben's suggestion. we were seeing a lot of ben in those days, both in new york and in washington when he was a young editorial writer for "the wall street journal," one of the youngest and their history, one of the best. he authored an article that made a big impression on us. i don't know if he remembers this but we do but it was an article entitled bunkhouse logic, and while i do not remember the particulars of this article, the gist of it went sort of as follows. you can't achieve or win anything in life unless you were at the table. now there are other ways of phrasing the more of this article. it means don't step back from challenges and opportunities, for if you do don't bother others talking about it. don't talk about it. do it, do it of course when it

is possible for you to do this. i doubt there are very many people out there with ben stein's ability to live a life of the bunkhouse logic. the versatility of this man, his genius for writing, fiction and nonfiction, about society, about economics, about grand strategy, we can all go out and pursue ideas in quite the way ben has. but i think the bunkhouse logic was very important, and in our approach or it was a good company go to set yourself the task of doing that which sooner or later simply has to be done. ben give us encouragement. we have gotten a lot of encouragement along the way. one of the way this book opens, "going home to glory," as i said to myself as a young person i was become a teenager in the opening pages of his book but i digress. to the age of 10, which is when a couple things happen.

first i am admitted to the family business which is our farm at gettysburg second, i received a family bible to record the death and things like this. third, i get an accordion over the short stories that plan to write that year. i always wanted to be a novelist. thanks to the records of presidential records keeping, and we are here at the nixon library and foundation with a fabulous collection, probably the greatest collection on a the presidency and so forth. while there are similar records in abilene kansas, thanks to im with with a few published authors in america can produce a copy of the first novel i ever wrote. [laughter] spent this was when i was 10 years old. i was in the white house and i have a cousin in chicago by the name of janet thompson. she made a huge impression on me so i wrote the novel in the summer of 1958 and seven jannette stinks. and according to the and whitman records, and whitman was dwight eisenhower secretary, she sat in

the oval, next, next to the office, she knows that on july 15, david, came in bearing the manuscript of the short story. and i walked up to the present sector and i said please type this up. [laughter] and so she went to work and type of the manuscript of this, and it turned out july 151950 it was a great day to have a copy, a printed copy of your first novel auditor or walked over to a xerox machine and ran off a number of copies because the rains were landing in lebanon the mortgage so you can picture in the west wing of the white house of the cabinet meeting in in processing, national city council meeting in recess and. so we put it on sale for 15 cents a copy outside the oval office and saw the first printing in about 25 minutes. [laughter] and i got the thing that is precious and eerie, there's no substitute for. that was encouraging but i had

to heroes. as a pointer a major book at him of the now and that was mickey mantle and richard nixon. i thought i was sure that richard nixon would succeed my grandfather in 1960. i was looking forward to that. i was interested in every aspect of the. this is the first time, july 15, 1950 and india. he walks up to me in a gray suit. he says, what is this what i said this is my first book. it is how much does it cost her i said 15 cents. he didn't have 15 cents but an aide reach for. two days later i get a letter from the vice president of the united states. that said to david, and family gather to to read your book. mrs. nixon and was all agree that you're one of our very favorite authors. [laughter] [applause] >> aside from impatient there are other reasons to do this book. beginning with the subject matter. i think the subject matter which is a present in retirement has been shortchanged and if you

think about the topic, and not to be one that a lot of writers take a pic one of the best books that julie and i have read in recent years is river of doubt. which is done about the restless theodore roosevelt who, to the shock of his defeat in 1912 by hashing an exploration of her unchartered regions of the amazon basin, almost dying in the process. this is a recurring story of american national politics, this is the separation of a national leader from actual power. this is something that occurs in accordance with law begins with dwight eisenhower who is the first president to be term limited under the 22nd amendment. if you think about it this is an interesting topic. powerful, charismatic individuals lay down the mantle of the presidency, who in most

places in the world would rule perpetually. they are obliged under our system to study democratic example here at home and to fashion sort of a new constitutional order. i think that there is a lot of drama in that. i also think it is possible that as the president surrenders power, to know this individual far better because the layers of official and the staff are being peeled away in what is left is the character, the individual who has made his impact on history. in going home to gore dwight eisenhower is not undertaking to theodore roosevelt in quite the same way, but he probably had plenty to doubt as he left washington in 1961, the defeat of the republicans in 1960 came as a very unpleasant surprise. dwight eisenhower had few illusions of what the defeat in 1960 minute for his political

legacy and for the republican party. it was not quite as crushing or as direct in prc in 1912, but in many ways you could argue that it was more insidious because the setback to the i.c.e. our presence event was unexhausted they could get away without really acknowledging, yet this was a very real thing and it drove him forward as a former president. he did not navigate the river of doubt in this period either because he was older man than teddy roosevelt was in 1913 and 14, and his otherworldly. has "going home to glory" opens at the very start, by the spring of 1961 he is a general. he reemerges in partisan politics in 1962, and i narrate that. but truly throughout this book he becomes granddad and he becomes a farmer, and he becomes my boss, and he becomes my

neighbor. spiritually what he's doing is he's moving back in times. spiritually he becomes a cadet and he returned to his origins in applet and as he does that, my sisters and i are growing up. he grows old in this book, and we grow up. we worked for him. julie told that story also. [laughter] about my adventure in 1963. just keep this in mind. he did to the eisenhower farms got at my defenses. i painted defenses five times. [applause] >> so i painted fences and yes, i did overstate that welcome. i played golf with him a lot and we would tell a lot of golf story. are ideal a lot of cost was in this. these a holistic golfer. he had a huge temper, so for good he did not i do think fully appreciate the effect of his temper on others.

however, his most i was a outspoken rounds were often some of his best, and so forth. he is somebody who took golf and everything very, very stressor. i know him and we describe them in this book as a painter, as a hunter, as a farmer, as a former baseball player. in fact, one of the stories that i enjoyed retreating was one that we encountered out here in california. and that was julie's dad and i went to that big a and number of times, until we got to know of their was read patterson who is former director of public relations for the california angel turkey told me about the company generalized out in 1947 but i think he said the polo grounds. and confronting him with evidence that organized baseball, dwight eisenhower had played professional baseball in

1909 and 1910 in the league based in kansas under the alias of wilson. and patterson said, general, would you illuminate? according to our records there were two wilson's nle. which one would you? and he said the one that could hit last expert he was a ballplayer, a golfer, and gradually as he became more confined and as his health failed he becomes not only all of these things, grandfather or whatever, he becomes a friend. and it is in this era deadly dwight eisenhower's character really comes through. there are other reasons to look at the 1960s as well. early to middle 1960s is the hour before daylight for the republican party, when eisenhower leaves office in 1961 there was a feeding and my grandfather acknowledges this in the papers, and feeling among

politicians and pundits in washington at the eisenhower presidency had been a complete anomaly. he would live in going home to glory to see richard nixon elected in november of 1968 on and he would die going that he was not an anomaly, that he was a first, not the only republican president in a line of republican presidencies that would dominate the white house for the next 40 or 50 years. the early 1960s is an intense phase of the cold war. the cuban missile crisis is indeed perhaps the most dangerous moment of the cold war. and i show here how presidents and dwight eisenhower and so forth rallied for two, at present kennedy's requester bipartisan sport, we find ourselves segueing into changing times, a tremendous move in civil rights as well as the rise

of conservatism which segues into the vietnam war. and as we segue into the vietnam war suddenly this question of dwight eisenhower's republican party activities and his ambitions for the republican party, the future of richard nixon begins to merge. this is the point at which julie and i meet in our stores began to emerge. and this entire story comes together, a story told in part, a story told in part in abilene and a store that exist and are much but i want to second julie's observations about how special it is to be here in yorba linda. i think of the friends that we've spent time with today. i look back on the dedication of this institution 20 years ago and i remember it was almost a held areas event because everybody who had been vetted of the new hampshire campaign and so forth, we got together for one more event, one more rate

rally and we remind ourselves what a wonderful thing we're all part of. the supporters of the nixon library and birthplace foundation, had been part of nixon campaigns or they are related to people who have i think all of us who had anything to do with it would not trade those years for anything. so we have a lot in common. and putting important parts of the story. we have these things in common. i think of the accident or the fate that drew julie and me together. and smith and at amherst in the fall of 1966. she's right, i was not going to call on her. i was on a bus. i heard someone say did you hear that ike grandson is at amherst and nixon's daughter is over at smith? whately get them together. there will be some sort of funny thing. i did get up the nerve. my grandmother insisted, and i call on her, to is why i forgot my money, that i spent all my money on the cab so she paid the

first time. i kept getting up the nerve to go back. i realized that we had so much in common, and i realized, and it was really through julie that an entirely new world opened up to me. that was the world of ideas and experiences in a national campaign. i think also when i'm here today, this plays, and amazing association that a true. looking back to the first time i visited the nixon library, this was in the late '80s, and i was with maureen today, jack, just the two of us drove out here shortly after the nixon foundation had acquired this site with the idea of creating the institutions that is here now. and we walked through the nixon birthplace, and i was stunned. i had an experience that absolutely knocked me out. and those i realize i was

walking through a replicate of almost a perfect replicate of the dwight d. eisenhower boyhood home. it was the same building. the same furnishings, the same brothers, the same personalities of mother and father. i had always thought of richard nixon and dwight eisenhower as succinct individuals but it was then i came to appreciate what similar american stories they represented with a similar imaginings which were captured in poetry by richard nixon, who described the sound of trains at night leading to the wider world beyond. i also want to say how special it is to be in the east room today. is better than actual east room as far, far as i'm concerned. this is a creation made possible by catherine blogger who has been the scene of so many events and we're very proud of as members of the family, including the special and that we are having today on veterans day. and i want to thank you on behalf of our family, the

eisenhower's, or dedicating this day to the memory of dwight eisenhower. november 11 when i was growing up was called armistice day. it was actually that different celebration, but i think the ideas the same and that is we set aside a day to acknowledge our history and to try to understand our history better, to admire the qualities of our veterans and to acknowledge the debt that we all owe them for defending freedom of both at home and abroad and are long and glorious history. better things run throughout in "going home to glory" did my father -- grandfather was and is very conscious of the importance of appreciating, the sacrifices of american gis, particularly the ones that fought overseas in the 20 century and americans wars were fought overseas in the 20 century. in "going home to glory" we are in gettysburg, pennsylvania. grand dad's choice was to associate himself with this sort of that great battle.

and so i grew up surrounded by the history of armed conflict in america and a great story of the american civil war. it comes up in correspondence. we reproduce as a correspondence between me and my grandfather, mostly letters he wrote to me. actually quoted from one, actually to go elsewhere in that same letter, i was talking to the hugh hewitt is a wonderful guy and he has been slow involved in the nixon library. talk to him the other day and he mentioned that his day and first that came to mind was an admonition from dwight eisenhower to me on september 26, 1962 eric he says the date above does not mean you, you because you're a young man but this is the date of the opening of the offensive of 1918, exactly 44 years from now. you're too young to appreciate the significance of the state but it is important for you do so, and you will do so in time.

i believe that i did so in time. a final note that we would say about this book that we all have in common i would say, is that this is a family story. politics, my grandfather was involved in politics in the 1960s to a degree. it's about politics but it's really a family story. julie and i had an interview about it not long ago in our home, and the reporter from "the philadelphia inquirer" showed up in his bearing that copy of a book that he and his brothers and sisters had written about their grandfather. and it was in that moment i think i recognized that i think it's human nature people need to make a record of the people who are special in their lives, perhaps of h.r., perhaps a great woman and so forth. and this sort of the generations is something that gives people an awful lot to say.

we had all this on a mine and we wanted to sit back in 1976, so we finally found a way to see. there's no effort in "going home to glory" to alter the image of historical figure who was the commander in the european front in 1944-1945, or his image as presidency, argued earnest anyway at least in this light i think the record of progress in the 1950s in civil rights, space, the creation of a national highway program and so forth. it is instead to expand understanding of him, to make a record of the days that we feel he should be remembered for as well. the days in gettysburg, where it was possible to know him, and to receive his advice and tips for healthy living, to receive his guidance and support, to receive as many guests in the form of time and attention and above all, to observe the example he set of serenity, a religious

state that is frank acceptance of his limitations and affirmative, by his optimism, his love for other and his ability to shoulder responsibility in his profound faith of america's future. and so we made a record of it, and the record of it, publication of it is a chance for a reunion. ben has published 30 odd books. you know there is an easy way to have reunions. but there could not be a more meaningful way than to have a reunion. today is very meaningful. we have returned to a site that has inspired us at every step along the way, and we are glad to have this opportunity to present "going home to glory." thank you. [applause] >> we have time for a couple of questions. if you have a question go ahead and raise your hand and i'll

come by with a microphone. >> we would love to answer questions. >> if you have a question just go ahead and raise your hand and i'll come by with the mic. >> i just have a story, not a question. i happened to be with president nixon. i was with president nixon as a military aide on the day president eisenhower died, and we zoomed up to walter reed hospital. he went into this week, came out of the suite in tears, sobbing and sobbing. i had never seen him cry again for many, many years until mrs. nixon died. it was a very significant friendship. >> that was a jack brennan, who was my data military marine paid in the white house, served his country with great distinction. and after the resignation, jacking up and was chief of

staff for my dad, and i remember my father crying, too. >> i was going to say something to the eisenhower nixon relationship is actually of interest to historians in a big way julie and i have been talking with a man who is going to base a book on them. the scenes that you're talking about, jack, i was that i remember. if the answer to everybody. not only, here, there was a clash between the two that one might expect. one of the relationships we covered in "going home to glory" is a clash between dwight eisenhower and douglas macarthur. and the reason they clashed is eisenhower and macarthur, now serving together at an early point in the career could not have recognized that macarthur had the stuff of the commander of an entire war front in world war ii, and so did eisenhower. it's not surprising that these people have differences of

opinion. in dwight eisenhower you have a two-term president. richard nixon, two-term president elected on his own power. it's amazing that these people did not clash more than they did. and what stands out in my mind is the warmth between the two, and appointing. i'm not talking just mystically about a perfect opener which in every respect is a replicate of the eisenhower birthplace, but also talk and i shared an added expense about how. the groups from europe that were forebears, they just intersect one point after another. we are not quite cousins, we don't think. [laughter] >> we are doing a genealogy. we will find out. >> we got along really well. >> david and julie -- >> go ahead.

>> you are both a story thank you both observe the world at large, big picture. is there any hope in afghanistan? is there any hope of a satisfactory resolution of that situation? >> resolution of what? >> of the situation in afghanistan. [laughter] >> hot potato. >> you know, to be honest,. [inaudible] [applause] >> i think there is something, you know, in principle i think that people do not want to be converted at the point of a

bayonet and they resisted the use of force and the principles i think that her intervention in afghanistan and iraq are very troubled. by the same token, you look back over 100 years, you look at events in iraq today, what has not happened since the end of our combat involvement in iraq was announced several months ago, and so forth. and one wonders, dwight eisenhower really believed that the united states had tremendous amount to share and an obligation to share with the world. and he saw the example of america to make such an extent as a is dead. i think they'll both be known by the way as people who made a great deal of difference in america's relations with the world, principally foreign policy presidency. that's another thing that eisenhower and nixon have in common. i don't think that, i think that

afghanistan in 1959 and 60 as dwight eisenhower said existed quote sufferance with nikita khrushchev. this would've been a problematical theater to invest troops, but the soviet union is gone. the united states has made a great difference in the way it is anything around the world. and it could well be that we make, may make a difference here. i think it's going well. i think it could be sustained a long time. i think the afghans are not going to give us satisfaction of saying that we have converted them to your point of view, and in particular they will never give us that satisfaction. karzai has made that clear but i think the intervention will, over time, prove to make the world safer. [applause]

>> david and julie, in my four years with jack at the white house, i did a lot of funerals. the very first year i was asked to do was president dwight david i -- dwight david eisenhower, and is one of those moments i will never forget. struck ron, thank you. [applause] >> that's exactly where this begins. that was my 21st birthday, march 31, 1968. >> nine start 1969. i was 21 on that day. and so this is the trajectory, this book, suddenly dwight eisenhower is coming home to gettysburg. former president who become a general, a grandfather, a pharmaceutical. my sisters and i are going out. and literally became the page age that day. but the story that comes through

here is what it was like to grow up around a figure like this. i've been asked this question all my life, so here is the unified answer. what was it like, but above all, to appreciate the character of this individual who made such a difference, what kind of person was that, and it really came through in the years what was possible to know him in the end. ron, exactly where you and jack brennan and all of us got together at walter reed on march 28-march 31, 1969. spirit and our last question. >> i love the book, and the question i have is, when he went off to high school, your grandfather wrote you a letter because sergeant mooney had indicated that he wanted you, his grandfather to give you possibly a portrait of you to bring to college. what was your decision?

>> a painting of my granddad or sergeant mooney to hang in my room at college, he was always giving me little pins that he got and ike ties, and he's giving me these things to give to growth to impress the girls and so forth. [laughter] as this comes through, and looking back over the correspondence, you know, my first reaction was like and cringed a little bit because i remember not passing these things along and being a little embarrassed by the suggestion. but then i thought, you know, we are grandparents, and you just want us to be proud of him. and we want our grandchildren to be proud of us. [applause] >> so i thought, i think he had the satisfaction of knowing that -- i carried his name very proudly, and now all these years

later, in the way that people assemble the family histories, i think we express our appreciation to him. and here we are, julie has done this for her family as well. and pat nixon acknowledging the people to whom we owe a great debt and to whom we admire going forward in our lives. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> for more information on david and julie eisenhower, and their work, visit davidandjulieeisenhower.com. >> hello everybody. i want to thank the host for their gracious hospitality. especially peter earnest. i'm honored to be here alongside

dr. levine and others. my name is reza kahlili. of course, that's not my real name. and i hope i'm not scaring anyone with my appearance here, the face and the voice. i was a student here in the '70s, and after the revolution i went back hoping that i could help my country. my best friend was in the revolutionary guard. and i joined the revolutionary guard. they thought that my expertise would help with the establishment. but shortly after i witnessed horrific events. i witnessed torture, rape of

girls in prison just because they do not agree with the clerical establishment. i witnessed execution. i witnessed this respect for human dignity, and i could no longer take it. i decided to travel back to the u.s. and i thought to myself that i can take my family and go back to the u.s. it was a second home to me. i had studied here. i had frontier. -- i had friends here. but i thought i could not remain silent in the face of all the horrific things that this regime was doing to its people. and i thought that by contacting the u.s. authority i could help bring change to the government. and if the americans knew what was going on there, they would help me, help the iranian

people. so i contacted the fbi, and it put me in touch with the cia. after several meetings of the briefings come in one of my meetings the cia case officer asked me if i was going to go back to iran and become a spy. become their eyes and ears, as he put it. i agreed. i was sent to europe and i were strained over there to receive coded messages over the radio and write invisible letters, transferring information from the revolutionary guard. i had expected to get multitasking watch, a magical pen and perhaps the james bond car. but none of that happen, unfortunately. i was in with codebooks and some pens and paper. throughout my years of working

in the revolutionary guard, i had to battle a lot of mixed emotions because i had to repeatedly lied to my family about why i was being loyal islamic force. and i couldn't reveal to them what my true nature was, what my purpose is was. that would be endangering the whole family. i think the biggest shock to me was when i realized that the west was not getting the message, that the west is not realizing the dangers of this regime, that the west was willing to cite its principles, and for what? for greed, for oil, for more contracts, even though not only do i reins were being hurt and

their blood being spilled, but it was the americans being hurt also. the beirut bombing, over 241 servicemen, u.s. servicemen were killed. and many other incidents. so my hopes was that the west would finally realize that this regime is a dangerous regime, and it proves grave danger to our to iran is but to the region what your very own national security. the reason i wrote the book was out of frustration, but even to this day of your try to negotiate with such regime, i suppose helping the iranians with her aspirations of freedom and democracy. so i guess the point want to get