>> that's what i felt such urgency about asking president johnson. i knew he would have so me thinks piling on them. he would not give priority to the committee for pennsylvania avenue. that's why i take him to receive them. he did. you can ask and how surprised they were to be among the first. here comes the hard part. i gather someone has letterheads reason to feel uncomfortable

with you. i don't know the reasons but i can guess them. i just want to tell you with all my heart this is one thing that really meant something to jack. love, jackie. so teddy as a result result is differences with moynihan, and as the only state he found a way to make it happen. in so many ways both private and public she defined the role first lady for the modern age. she straddled two eras, the when she describes in the oral history when women stayed home and a few opinions that differ from their husbands, and the coming age when women broke free to become independent and self supporting. she lived fully in both. as first lady she took the traditional woman's focus on the home and transformed it into a full-time job and a source of national pride. in doing so she created her own identity, as an independent woman. she became an international sensation, a new kind of american, speaking the languages

of the country she visited with my father, and traveling abroad to india and pakistan on her own. most of all my mother was a patriot. she believed her time in the white house was the greatest privilege, and worked hard to be worthy of the honor. she loved my father, and her courage help this country together after his death. when it was over, should resume the life of a private citizen, a status she cherished. she found the strength to create a new life for herself and embraced new worlds. although john and i would have preferred to stay near the penny candy store, she remarried, took us to greece and expand our horizons immeasurably. she devoured everything she could about ancient civilization, and renewed her unsuccessful efforts to teach us french. [laughter] then like so many women of her generation she went back to work with her children were grown. she took tremendous satisfaction from her job as an editor.

and from the fact it was a job she could have gotten if she had never married at all. she loved her colleagues and for authors. she enjoyed the chase for the next big seller. she was excited when she landed michael jackson's autobiography, and she was proud to bring literature to a wide audience when she was the first to publish the works of the egyptian nobel laureate, in english. the love of history continue to inspire her. she published an early book about sally hemmings, and was always trying to get us to read the only known diary of a napoleonic foot soldiers, which she discovered an obscure library. she continued to advocate for historic preservation, she led the fight to save grand central station and secure the victory with a landmark supreme court decision. though she rarely talked about herself and gave almost no interviews, her evolution as a public figure and her life as a

private citizen inspired millions of women to live life on their own terms, and continues to do so today. when i was going up she often used to say that she thought american history was boring because there weren't enough women in it. i'm proud that she helped to change that, and make possible the world that we are fortunate to live in today. now i'd like to share a few of my favorite excerpts with you. first, you will hear description of my father's reading habits, then a section on the cuban missile crisis, and finally a brief description of the white house restoration. i hope you enjoy them. [applause] ♪ ♪ during these times, he kept up

reading. how did he do that? >> he would read walking, he would read at the table, he would read in the bathtub, he would read, prop open a book while he was doing his tie. he would just read a little, some book i would be reading, you know, just give our it. he really read all the time.eú spanky would read in short takes? come back and pick up the thread. >> and everything you wanted to remember he could always remember. he would see thing he would use any speeches. >> was most history books the? yes spent why not novels,

disposed? >> he enjoyed looking for something in books. he was looking for something about history, something to quote. he was reading mao tse tung and he was going that to me. i think he was looking for something in his rating. he wouldn't just record a version. >> the president commented on whether or not there should be a raid, a blockade or want. >> that was never told to me. until much, much later. he did tell me about this crazy telegram that came through from khrushchev one night.

i guess he took the nice one first. and then this crazy one came through and jack was really upset about that in deciding they would just add to the first. i also remember him telling me about one, how we talk to him and everything they said. that he really want to put him on the line. not giving anything away. i said how could you keep a straight face. how could you not say you rat, sitting there. and i remember another thing, which a man will be a letter, how one of the worst days of it all, the last day. how a you tune -- how a u2 plane

got lost over a last oreú something. all, my god, then the russians might have thought we are seeing. that would've been awful. and then i remember how anderson at the pentagon was mad. i don't know if that was afterwards were before, but all that. in a room just waiting the blockade. it was like an election night weight, but much worse. but, you know, ship was coming in one big freighter had turned back. all these ships cruising forwa forward. and hearing that the chesapeake energy was there, and i was safety jack, did you send that? if he said no. and just remembering, and then pilot some ship turned back. it was boarded or something. and i can't remember, you know, the day finally when it was

over, and saying to me later that if it had just gone on, maybe two more days, because all those men had been staying. i really write something to say here and then i wrote a letter to mcnamara afterwards which is sure to check. everyone had worked to the peak of human endurance. ♪ eú ♪ >> how does the president feel about the restoration? >> the restoration? >> of the white house? >> oh, well he you know, he was interested in a. he would always get so interested in anything.

he was nervous about it. i mean, he wanted to be sure it was done the right way so he sent clark clifford to see me. i think clark clifford was really there because he tried to persuade me not to do it, which jack never. he said you just can't touch the white house. he said, it's so strange. america feels strains about it. if you try to make any changes it would be just like that. and i said it won't be like the truman balcony come and i told him all about how i would do upon and all the people i hoped we would get. it's how you would set this committee up and certain things come and clark is very good about setting up a guidebook. so once jack thought was going along with good counsel, i think him he was so excited about it. >> was there ever any criticism about what you did in the white

house? >> no. the most incredible interest. then the tourists would start going. and every night he would come home saying we have more peopleú than the eisenhower's hat in the first two years. coming, the guidebook was selling. so he was just so proud. i was so happy that i could do something that made him proud of me. because i tell you, one wonderful thing about him, i was really, i was never any different once i was in the white house than i was before. but suddenly everything has been a liability before, your hair, that you spoke french, that you didn't adore campaign or you didn't bake bread. them got to the white house and i did all the things i had done and suddenly became wonderful. and i was so happy for jack that

he could be proud of me been. because you know, it made me so happy. it made me so happy. [applause]

>> good evening. can you hear us all right? in her foreword to this book, caroline said the gathering of the most pressing people you could ever hope to meet. thank you for these remarkable interviews which we can hear as well as read. we are privileged to attend a gathering of fascinating people of the past, people ranging from edmund burke to onion work. and at the center of this gathering is the family living in a home that is famously not been welcoming to its inhabitants, been likened to prison. mike, i want to start with you. you studied many presidencies, franklin roosevelt, lyndon johnson. were you struck by how may times

the word happy came up in these conversations? >> i was, in something, yeah, she's nothing if not frank throughout these interviews. and one thing she says more than once is that when the husband was elected in 1960 she had a novel reaction, very unlike most incoming first lady's, she was terrified and she was depressed. partly because she just given birth, and partly because she thought it would wreck their family life, that would be such a fishbowl and so many pressures, and she was amazed as she says that action had the opposite effect. during their marriage since 1953 john kennedy had run for vice president, run for reelection to senate, run for president. and so was gone she says almost every weekend, very much a part. the first time that they were there in that house, they were together in physical proximity a lot more. so i think there was an exhilaration find that contrary

to what she suspected that they really were the happiest persons. >> we heard about her interesting campaign in wisconsin -- >> she just loved wisconsin. >> a good thing no one is running there this year. >> i don't know if these proceedings are being televised in wisconsin but i don't number a lot of pro-wisconsin speech all, she is extremely fond of wisconsin. [laughter] >> is awarding a transcript. i always wondered how to spell. you described in the winter and she said ewww. >> i think she says she didn't like a single person that she worked in wisconsin except the people that worked for jack. and in west virginia she like almost everyone she met. >> she obviously brought great charisma to the art of campaigning, and was an asset from well before the election.

in the hard worker daily politicking, and how did the staff feel about her? >> she's great. i am sorry that she was not as happy about wisconsin as i saw her. because we were in the main street and, broken down storehouse, and that was the headquarters. and i remember her being there with, writing, and things, at least entertain the people who came. they found out who she was and he wanted to visit with her, and they did. so i do not remember her back part of that. i do remember that there was a pestiferous salesman for some

newspaper, and kept bothering her and bob winger. and eventually she was riding with the president, kenny o'donnell told the us, and she said you know, that fellow, i bought an ad, and he said what nature? and she said i voted. and he said oh, that's my money. it's not what they had hoped it to be. but thereafter, i mean, in west virginia of course she was gre great. and she was marvelous. the best part about her was if you got an assignment for her, it was done completely and fastidiously, and as beautifully as it possibly could have been. so that if you were on the committee you better make sure that you did everything proper. but she was very good in that. >> one of the fascinating thing was there was a film crew doing a documentary of the wisconsin

primary which i'm sure many of you have seen, just to give you a sense of how far she came in such a short period of time, she stand in a grocery store with a microphone almost begging people to come over and say hello if they are still shopping, not paying her any attention. i think i may have had some influence on her wisconsin to her. [laughter] >> when the book was published on the 14th of september, there was a huge media attention, and the media got some things right and something's not the right. a lot of attention was paid to her remarks about the obligation of a wife ascribed to the political opinions of her husband, fairly controversial statement. glad someone laughed, thank you. [laughter] and yet on the same and is in beta that was come into existence in the '60s, and as you mentioned betty, feminine

mystique, obviously she has very independent thoughts. she's aged sharp judge of human nature and of all the people, populating the white house and actions happening all around her. and she later did work, and so where do you see her as a feminist in evolution? >> i'd say she was an unwitting feminist in early 1960s, and she explicitly said in her oral history i'm not a feminist like her social secretary. but when you read and when you listen to her, someone, as caroline said very well, she came to the white house. yes, she decided to do it her way. she found herself an enormous project which was restoring the white house, which was probably three careers at the same time. at the same time she had young children. she did the job of first lady in a way that was very much her own choice, and she made other

choices on her life, too. so i think by that definition, that we now suggest i think she was an early feminist, but her political instincts would've cost her in the states to say no, i'm absolutely not a feminist. >> is that track with you as will? >> yes. there's no question that she was a feminist. she just basically took over and did a job that, under others somebody might have assigned it to a man, because when she undertook the remodeling, the remaking, refurbishment of the correction of the mistakes that have been made in the white house, she did it with a strength and a verb and intelligence that captures everybody. so it is not coming you know, i would not dismiss her on any count, but certainly not for her lack of some wishy washy miss.

but that's not, that wasn't her style. >> one of the observations that jumped out at me reading this book was the extraordinary degree of physical pain president kennedy was in for much of his adult life, including much of his presidency. deck, if i can continue with you, as someone working in the campaigning and congressional liaison, was at constant pain something you picked up on as a staffer in the white house? >> no. he never complained of pain. he complained about lack of having sufficient hot water or something, to get a bath to relieve back pain, but he did not complain about what was happening to him. and, indeed, i was really struck by the book because the doctor was sort of offering herself as the director of all illnesses,

including with sam rayburn. and it obviously was not giving him the relief that he should have had. the latest thing with the doctor that taught him straining and stretching was what gave him relief. but he was not a complaint about anything. >> he was historic. and mrs. kennedy tells to things that illustrates this. she talks about after the two back operations in 1954 and 1955, one of the most poignant things she describes what torture it was and how he went through this, and then she said we later find out it was absolutely unnecessary. and she says the following summer he went back to the senate. she says he looks so wonderful in his gray suit and he was strolling around the senate floor as if there is nothing want, he would go back to bed at

night in a hospital bed. and the other thing was when he was president, i think dick would confirm this, the number of times we now know he was in agonizing pain, you never saw it. one image of that is in spring of 1961, their first foreign visit which was to canada and he planted a tree, and he'd been told to been disease, not to activate his back time and he just forgot to do it so he went over. and potential almost ripped his back, put himself an absolute unbearable pain, but if you see the video of it, he goes like this but he's so historic and accustomed to not making people uncomfortable, but even the people who are close to him didn't quite know what had happened. >> you think any of the president was ever such constant physical discomfort? including franklin roosevelt? >> hard to think of one, i think

for instance, robert kennedy says in his preface to the memorial edition of profiles in courage, 1964, that at least half of his days on earth were spent in physical pain. if that's the truth i think more than franklin roosevelt, absolutely. >> you must've been think about arthur's question as you're researching this book and he was a friend of all of ours. were the questions he didn't ask that he wished that he had? >> i did can put everything is always 2020 in hindsight, 47 years later. as caroline mentioned for instance, and in those days most historians would not have thought to ask her a lot about her own experience. a first lady in those days, with sort of a side event so there's less on her. and also the purpose was basically to talk about president kennedy. i caroline and i have discussed

this, too. there's thing since we know what happened later on, we sure wish he would've asked what president kennedy might have done in vietnam, of the issues are not so important in early 1964, but in retrospect we would like to know more. >> it seems like by asking arthur, and there was no one else to ask with better skills and training of a historian, a decision was made to take a certain path to the story which would see the path of the harvard elites would come down to the white house. dick, did you feel there were stores that were not told in the? >> yes, including anything that arthur told. because arthur was the greatest author of stories about himself. [laughter] and i know specifically because kenny o'donnell told me when dean rusk came to visit the president, he had a particular

message, would you please get arthur schlesinger off the list of people who get my cables? why? because author was tasha arthur was about the most garrulous parter -- party going person in all of white house. listen, anything you get by cable has around town by nightfall. then he said to kenny, no, you better not. i'll have to do it. you're going to come out poorly in his book as it is a. [laughter] spin and one thing she says in here is how in many ways compartmentalize president kennedy's life was, and she explicitly mentioned success. >> you know, one of the things that i found remarkable, was real, and nobody on the staff really did business in the most.

we communicated by phone and conversation and that's it. so there are not great records. >> one reason the oral history broke them. >> that's right. and it made it very refreshing when you could know and that's something i'd seen or done was not recorded, but you could also see -- >> was there anything particularly you would have -- >> no. [laughter] spent it's not too late. >> no, know. i have saved up for my book. [laughter] no. the thing that i remember best about all of that was when they became -- it was really about

getting some stuff done at the white house, and everybody would get all excited. why so-and-so writing a memo? why are they doing that? we don't need a memo, we just get things done. i think dave remarked that we should have no historian. we should have just three people to give a report of what went on. that was his personal blog at the president, presidents attend to do with people on staff. people on the staff dealt very, very generously with one another. i mean generously, not so generously, but critically. you bet. but not in the sense of, not

where we are offensive to one another, although i could have been. [laughter] but the most important memory i have of the thing was formation of the campaign for the presidency. and that really began with fight for the control of the democratic state committee in massachusetts. >> that's onion burger, not -- >> yes, onions berg. i think because they have an onion patch out there spinning it was an onion farm as well as a bartender. step one of them was not untypical. leadership was a part. [laughter] >> hasn't changed. >> but it started because that was when we determined that this

guy who just been elected to the senate, and should take a shot at getting control of the mechanics of the party. now, that is really where you get recognition nationally. nobody cares who was chairman of the democratic party in new hampshire or anyplace else. but you were the officers. by getting ready for a convention, people who care about who are the party leaders, want to know who's in charge, even though they find that being in charge doesn't put you in charge of much. but they did. so that's when we started the campaign for the control of the democratic state committee. and it was a tumultuous event that went on and on and on, although i remember only clearly that it was on mother's day in the year in which the election

was held when we were in the hotel park plaza, in copley plaza, and the president was entering the people, the state committee and asking if they support him or not. and if they did without ever wonderful people. and if they seemed a little hesitant, we wanted to find -- >> and you remembered years later he was for you and who is against you? >> oh, yes, you knew. [laughter] all, you remember, yes. and if you wanted to get a ticket to go to the white house, you better have been on the right side. >> in 1956. >> yes. but that's when it began, and it was a crucial campaign. i'm member we didn't have onions berg and juicy speak to was a

juicy? >> had not been part of her previous life like a juicy and another general has referred to as the china doll. tell us about them. >> is really goes back to the hotel bellevue him and the hotel hotel bellevue which a parent longer exist but was at that time a block from where the president's apartment was. and right across from the statehouse. it was the buzzword of all who are around, and they went in and out, and we didn't have -- [inaudible] >> perhaps, but, you know, it was not a place where you don't have e-mails in twitter and all that type of thing.

because you just met. we have a fellow at home we called whispering eddie smith. spent why did you call speed whispering, because he whispered. [laughter] >> thank you. they would spread rumors as quickly as you could spread a disease. [laughter] and they frequently did what they did was spread a disease. but as we were getting ready for the fight for the control of the state committee, we had lynch from somerville which was our champion and they had onionsberg was the champion of the mccormick's. but not mccormick, who was 80 mccormick's father was also on the state committee spent. [inaudible] >> yes. and narco was about as different as a speaker as you could make.

he was coarse and rough and tough. and i remember when his son was withdrawing from a campaign for the attorney generalship with something of that nature and the father stood in the middle of the aisle in the mechanics all yelling at his son, sit down, that's a stupid thing to do. [laughter] so he was a what would call a wise counselor. but we got through this fight, and everybody was convinced that there were big piles of money a cousin the kennedys were going to buy this thing, and how much are you getting? you know, so i went home and said she, i hope there's something waiting for me. [laughter] dinner was waiting for me. but that was -- who was good and

who is bad. but i continued on, and everybody is correct, people will recall where were they in the fight for lynch and o'neill, and they never did get it solved because people were still mad, much, much later. and they never would stop that spent i think they were still mad about 1980 or so. >> yeah. spent i had high hopes talking about andrea but it is really fun to talk about onionsberg. there's some passing what is in the story, michael. there's the hand and opening to china wasn't displayed in the mid '60s, voting of mao at a trip to russia.

tibet strike a surprising? >> i suspect it was the first time we really had more solid evidence from the prime witness, john kerry essentially was beginning to plan his second term and to the things he was planning to do was go to the soviet union, would've been the first time a president had been there, believe it or not. and also an opening to china which in retrospect given what our world is like today was enormously passionate users and private,. [inaudible] >> and lyndon johnson doesn't fare that well. there's a story how he went one night. does not track with your sense of where lbj was? >> i think mrs. kent it should read this letter on would have thought she was a little hard on

lbj. this was the spring of 1964. lbj had just become president. she was not happy he was beginning to overturn a number of her husband's intentions. and i think if you hear the one caution enough that perhaps she would have wanted emblazoned on the front of the book would be this is a snapshot in time, wished me a thought in the spring of 1964 may not have tracked with her feedings later on. and later on she sit in oral history, she came to resume her old fondness of lbj. choose very close to lady bird. so i think one thing always have to remember when you're reading this book is that some of the more fascinating opinions, she didn't always keep them years later. >> one interesting insight into the political temperament, dick, this is almost the opposite about the story of onionsberg were everyone remembered which side you're on a 1956. but she said he had a remarkable

magnanimity, that he forget i don't get it was a little bit self-serving because you never knew he would meet in the next fight but often it proceed from a general inclination for forgiveness. was that your sense of how he did politics? >> no one could understand how he could ever forgive the senator from florida, his dear friend, who stabbed him in the back every -- >> whose administration voting record was about 2%. >> yes. and then you would find the present inviting him to the white house for dinner. and we frequently complained about it, which it did is actually no good because he continued to entertain him. and happily, he determined that his career was not going to be furthered in politics and he got out. now, there were those come you

couldn't really understand why he could be so charitable to them, but he was forgiving and his modus operandi was, if you main event tomorrow, so you better not stab you in the back today, or things of that nature. and he was very, very fair about this. >> in these times it just about so much for me because she says i used to tell him why are you being so nice to that guy? i've been heading into the last three weeks for what he did to you. the president said oh, no, he did such and such last week which was actually very good. and the things he says to her is never close off the relationship so there's no possibility of reconciliation. and i do hope that everyone in washington right now will read that sentence and take it to heart. [applause]

>> michael, the term soft power has been invoked for about a decade. i believe caroline use the phrase in her forward, and i don't know if there ever was a first lady before or since who had that kind of ability to change people's attitude around the world towards the united states. even if she doesn't talk about her political thoughts as much as we would like, there's clearly a sense of getting a great deal done to support the administration, even in her choice of countries to visit, her choice of how to present herself, although cultural work she did. wasn't there anyone like that before her? >> she really could see around corners and see things others could not. one of them was latin america which later on got very short trip from american presidents. she thought it was important they went to costa rica, they went to mexico, they traveled

there. one of the most poignant things in the book is she talked about a newspaper headline that mrs. kenny was nice enough to actually shake hands with little children who are from a latin american country because that was so unusual at the time. one thing both john and jackie both that was back to what you're saying, ted, one test of american power about nuclear weapons and so on, but oftentimes just as important is now people think about americans in their hearts. that's what the peace corps was about. >> there's some wonderfully undiplomatic statements in this book. spent one or two? >> one or two, thank goodness. i learned she named her poodle de gaulle in the 1950s. and in dear condi. >> that was my footnote. she should not be held. >> did those surprise you? >> when she says, she came to

have an opinion of french people as you did as people in wisconsin. and i think sort of for the same reasons because wisconsin did not ultimately vote overwhelmingly for john kennedy, and the french, particularly charles de gaulle, was giving her husband a great deal of trouble. so i think you can see some of these things. there's a beautiful image as well in the middle of the account of the cuban missile crisis, just a throw away line, it was no date, no night specter difference between sleeping and being away. when the toughest things i think in the story always had to do, we talked about this a little bit, is to find out what someone, two things, one his or her religious beliefs, particularly the president, and also the true nature of a marriage. and she described the cuban missile crisis that they were together and probably more during that period than perhaps

any other time during that presidency. he would call her and then go for walks on the lawn, spent a lot of time together. that does tell you something because you mentioned franklin roosevelt, he admired eleanor but when he was at a moment of great anxiety, i don't think he would have found her restful or supportive company, probably would not have spent a lot of time with her in a crisis like this. in the case of jfk, who does he turn to? jackie. >> whether any part of this cd set and book that surprised you? >> not really, but i must say that i was marveled at her concern about, for instance, the remodeling of the white house. the detail that she went to and that she had researched that she did, and then her ability to

administer it is really overwhelming. i just don't, can't believe a person could do it on such short notice. like she had been planning it much longer than we know. spent and i think it was a depth of her reaction when she came to the white house, had a lovely experience, we will have to read in the book if you haven't seen it yet. but she was shown to the statements, and she said that they look like bad convention hotel. and it was a reason for that which i'm not sure she knew, which is that when the white house was reconstructed during the truman administration, they left the four walls on the other side, scooped out everything on the inside, the floor since the war, they ran out of money so harry truman quite characteristically made a deal with a department store in new york, they just furnish the whole ground floor of the white house, and it looked that way. [laughter]

she fell to do. but dick is right, but sometimes the restoration of the white house is sort of written off as a pure declaration or sort of superficial. she had to raise this money, which was not easy. she had to keep particularly to three advisors, architectural advisors from essentially colliding with one another. and so if anyone doubts her political career, the factions able to do all this, get in on time, under budget, and for the white house to look the way it was today, if it were not for i think the white house would still look like a bad convention hotel. >> the eisenhower the eisenhower still come off terribly well at present eisenhower is walking around walking right into sculptures putting holes in the floor. and mamie eisenhower is not a very sympathetic figure, but i felt a little bit sorry for her because to have been succeeded by jacqueline kennedy must not have been easy spent i think

not, but as mrs. kennedy said, things would drift to hurt your such as mrs. eisenhower sing on the restoration, i hear they have made the red room purple, things like that. spent we are at an interesting moment in the history of publications, because i wasn't sure whether to listen or to read and which would be faster, and really between the two you get so much more from hearing her speak, although i had one funny moment in my car. i had them all flowed in and i had one cd from keith richard. it took a little understanding. >> i think she loved about. >> where do you think, do you think your readers and her readers, or should people listen to this? >> clearly both. you get different expenses. when you read it i think you can perhaps restore what he said a little more. but when you listen i think

you're right, ted, this is probably true from most tapes from this time. you get a sense, in fact i've heard caroline talk about this, you hear her tone of voice, that you just can't possibly get just from reading the words. >> we are not at the part of this event where we are taking questions, and i have a few just to begin. this is for you, dick. she talks about joseph p. kennedy and rose kennedy. you must have known those two individuals. to her impressions match with your memories of them and their interactions with them in public? >> yes. [laughter] >> and you see why dick had a very long career in political life? [laughter] and distinguished. >> well -- [laughter] >> know, mr. kennedy was very

much a dominant figure, and almost everything that went on in the political life of john kennedy. his mother was even more dominant on their prayer life, and and kept after them for all of the reasons that good mothers do. i mean, to make responsible children. but they can't have a very track of what each was doing -- kept very, very close track of each was doing. i would not disagree with anybody who would think they were enormously influential. the only thing i am conscious of, however, is that ambassador kennedy could not influence certain people in the democratic party. i mean, people that we were

supporting, he frequently did not. spent who are you thinking of? >> well, i'm just really thinking about one fight that we had, and he just was not responsive. i mean, well, bobby was the responsible one. and what happened was that bobby had indicted the brother of a congressman from new york. and a congressman who had been very, very responsive to us wanted desperately for the indictment to be withdrawn. body refused -- body refused. and it was the talk to the ambassadors who said no, he will do what he's going to do anyway. so it cost us something, but not a great deal. but it's the type of thing which

they would differ, and if he differed, he differed because he was one strong rascal. spent i think around that time ambassador kennedy used to joke that he was roberts have to democrats. >> lot yes. >> michael kohn what surprised you the most? it any other assessment of the key players differ from yours? >> sure. in all sorts of ways, but i think in a large since the thing that really surprised me was that if we were talking a year ago i would have said that she was a large influence during that period, but i would have particularly said that she was a large political figure of this administration. and i think if you read this book you have to say that because a number of times she talked mainly about people, but not always only about people. and you notice that the people she very critical of she wound up not doing very well during the administration, and vice

versa. to some extent i think she was absorbing her husband's views but she does talk about a few cases where when she was in pakistan which was added to her trip to india to bounce it off for political reasons. and two things happen actually. john culberson was the ambassador to india whom john king had known since the 1930s when he was at harvard. the ambassador to pakistan did not have that kind of relationship, so for diplomatic reasons they thought it was a good idea to imply that walter in pakistan had not an equally, some relationship with president and mrs. kennedy sort of implying but didn't think very well of ambassador and so on. that's funny, i've only met him once when i left to take this job two weeks ago. so that didn't work terribly well. but not as result of this, but having been in pakistan and washington in action, she went right back up and wrote her

husband a memo saying this is exactly the kind of ambassador we should not have a job like this. and it went to the state department, and ambassador haqqani served until 1966. so maybe a comment spent she didn't seem to get involved in domestic politics, digi? >> well, i don't know that she didn't get involved in domestic politics because, for instance, there was the talk about the monuments from the s-1 dam flooding. i remember going to see john tesh that what the heck was his name? congressman who was in charge of appropriation. >> now, would he have been politically very eager to help egypt at that point? >> no, he was not. he was politically, he was not at all anxious to help the president, because he fancied

himself in opposition to strengthen him domestically. >> john? >> yeah, tight. but he was -- i went up to call him off the floor, ask him to please vote the thing the president wanted, and he mentioned he said yes, he would, but he never forgave me for it. spent another question for michael. as a presidential historian are you aware of any first lady prior to jacqueline kennedy who provide a candid public revelation of her experience in the white house? >> no. and one thing when you study her life, she always broke the mold. she was always innovating, and perhaps maybe pretty near the most important, this idea that she would be asked for eight and a half hours their personal

questions in great detail about her time as first lady. that had not happened before, and since then it almost always happens. first ladies even write books. >> not a page of this book that isn't defused with her wit and a sense that she and president kennedy were sharing -- >> there's a wonderful story if i can interject for a second, where a state dinner, his not very repetition has preceded him but they're trying to make the best of it. so oftentimes she says when there was a leader who is coming to the white house, the president would bring to lead upstairs to meet the first lady a sort of a special thing to do. and he was said to publish his art collection, actually published by the chinese, so mrs. king is with the kind of detail she went into a copy of the collection of the book from the state department about 20

minutes before he arrived. she was able to read before he got there, mrs. kenny him once uncommon to present on on the other, oh, if one of the art collection. and virtually every page was a topless woman and he would pick through it and there was my second wife. it was my third wife. and she said jack and i had to make such an enormous effort to keep from laughing. almost didn't make it. spent day, could you tell how funny she was? >> well, i'll tell a funny story about her family. she was very close to her sister who was married to the prince of poland, and he came here during a campaign and he was very big in the polish crowd, but he was not an american citizen. he was a polish citizen.

and the drive was to get him out and see the people, and this fellow who named -- who worked in the state department was a very, very powerful political figure in the polish world. so he definitely wanted stash to come to his district, or the campaign. i said, we can't do that. we can't have a foreign dignitaries campaigning in a domestic election. well, he says, let me see what i can do. so the next thing i remember is i get a call, last night stashed was a smash. [laughter] do you hear me?

last night stash was a smashed. thank you, stashed. spent and pennsylvania went democratic of that year by a larger margin than in expected. we now know the reason. [laughter] >> michael alluded earlier to the toxic political climate we live in now. take, how do you think president kennedy would negotiate with that type of the climate? how would he have help our system recover? >> i really do not know with this system as we have it today, where people refuse to tolerate the other person's view, how he could possibly have honed up to it. when i left washington, which was exactly a week before the president was assassinated, i had been working on the civil rights act bill. now, we've put together, we've done a lot of work and a lot of days, a real coalition,

republicans and democrats prepare to support a real civil rights bill. it was, and i left washington with a certain assurance that it was over, there was no need to do it here i used to be able to name the republican congressman that i could line up on almost any given matter, because they had respected president kennedy and they respected the things he stood for. you don't have any of that today. no one respects anyone else. no one shared with anyone else. so i do not know how he could have fit in today's world, unless he could have bombed them or something. >> one thing which does it for me is, when he went to congress and did i'm sure was a part of this, and said i think a moon landing before 1970 is essential to national security. a lot of republicans didn't want to spend the money said if i'll

present healthy national security is at stake, i'll vote for it, which they did. >> well, i think we should all take from this book a measure of optimism about ways that our system can perform well. and on that note -- >> said even though we're not american idol, there's no phone number for you to call him, pleasure boat, but our bookstore does report directly to the new york times bestseller list. so if you'd like to keep track into head ahead of dick cheney on that list -- [laughter] we encourage you all. [applause] and to buy a copy or two or three of the book at our bookstore. i ask you to remain in your seats, if you will. we will get caroline, the book signing will be right outside this door. those of you in the satellite, there'll be a line come in from the front. those of you in this room, a line will form around the back of this wall.

but most of all what i want to do is to thank caroline kennedy for comments, and for this terrific panel. [applause] >> this event was hosted by the john f. kennedy presidential library and museum. >> when i got into public finally sold my books, every person i worked with i had a rejection letter from. which was kind of cool c. go to meeting and we love your stuff. i was like what about this? [laughter] spent in his nonfiction, he questioned the motivation, ethics and rally of brilliant people, his account of mark zuckerberg integration of facebook was adapted for the screen as "the social network." bringing down the house for a group of mit students who won millions in las vegas, and displays, sex on tracks a possible after a candidate as he