>> good afternoon i am the director here at the washington d.c. office we will have a discussion today from the latest book all of the

official papers are at the archives and obviously when he was writing the book to make the point there were some things that he discovered maybe he had lost or discovered to suggest talking about the book what was it like to go through your archival papers things that you had completely forgotten about? [laughter] >> was i that stupid? left left left mac. >> so one of the great historians of the conservative movement writing over 25 books

about barry goldwater and the history of modern conservativism of the heritage foundation and how i have gotten to know him over the years and then to come to full fruition week is the board chairman of the victims of the communism fund that is a memorial here in washington and as you read through this you will see anti- communism preservation of liberty is the true passion you can see the captive nations ever the years have appreciated what he has done.

with a major program library of congress to examine 100 years since the revolution if we get all aspire to read something behind with that type of legacy but despite trying to avoid those connections with the ivy league connections. [laughter] he is still associated with harvard law school. >> it is so typical you are so generous i appreciate them to be at that the office at hoover i did put my papers at

the hoover archives because there are so many other conservatives and anti-communist at the hoover as well so it is a rich trove so if you are interested in writing about or learning more about communism or anti- communism the place to go is the hoover institution which was founded by herbert hoover in 1919 so you should know the president's essay at the heritage foundation will be over another month or so side and helping to research and learning self -- learning so much who was a most admirable man but was saddled with the idea he was personally

responsible somehow through the great depression that is not the case but ladies and gentlemen's what i have tried to do with what i have written and if you think about it they really were conservative giants who walked the earth of the 20th century. those giants were ronald reagan, barry goldwater and buckley. as a matter of fact a rope biographies of all three of those and study them so what do they have in common? they were charismatic leaders who could inspire an audience to action and the belief free

enterprise brings more prosperity more than any other economic system for guidance and inspiration to be practicing men of faith and they hated communism that is one reason i wanted to write about them and every other form of tyranny over the mind of man and to use the constitution as their north tarp. they didn't do that just on their own. but with very goldwater if they said who is very goldwater they could have a vague idea of who he was but he was essential to that conservative movement or that revolution but he sparked that

conservative revolution and was the grandson of a jewish immigrant born in poland and made his way to san francisco during the gold rush and that did not pan out so well and then came next door to arizona made his way down winding up in phoenix turning his operation into a leading department store in phoenix. goldwater was a college dropout freshman year but his father died early unexpectedly he had to go back and help run the business although a college dropout he had the book conscience of a conservative if you have not read that i encourage you to do so.

3.5million copies have been sold. published in 1860 still holding up very well. 3.5million copies i would even settle at 100,000. [laughter] never smoked a cigarette never had a cup of coffee, but he did keep a bottle of old crow in his senate refrigerator for his after 5:00 o'clock sipping. so from those to sit down and talk over things to be in those relationships or

friendships and how i wish we could have more of that today. there are many what if's in politics but consider this if there was a president goldwater we could be sure that the vietnam war would have been one in 12 months to use whatever force was necessary no nuclear weapons and said we will win this war or we will come home and certainly no land war. in general macarthur said as a matter of principle america should not get involved in a land war in asia and barry goldwater took that counsel.

so that 1 trillion-dollar experiment would not have b been attempted i was the director of communications for the goldwater for president committee but before that i was also the news director for the draft i was hired late in the year as a matter fact consider this my first day of work, my full day, november 25, 1963. but november 22 came first the day kennedy was assassinated i

ran back to the committee headquarters and i was in the eye of the storm handling inquiries from the press after kennedy was killed so for two hours there was no knowledge of who did it and one tv anchor said this was the heart of goldwater land we had people banging on the doors yelling at us. assassins. murderers it was a bomb threat we had to bring in the police and the dog. we were under tremendous pressure then came the announcement that we were so

relieved because of pro- castro pro- communist cuba front so we could say it was not one of ours that one of theirs who was responsible for the death. barry goldwater who spoke very directly and i can remember the first time with the first formal meeting with senator goldwater as director of communication of the comprehensive campaign talking how he had flown food and supplies to the navajos who may have otherwise perished. as a member of the urban

league and naacp in phoenix. talking about how he went down the columbia river and that also was dangerous during world war ii. i was two minutes into my presentation when all of a sudden this big hand comes out to say stop. if you try any of that madison avenue craft in my campaign i will throw you out of this office and out of the campaign. is that clear? he was a two star general and i was a corporal and i said yes sir. yes sir. he said this will be a campaign of principles.

marvelous. but wrong. wrong. because if we were able to talk about the human side or the nonpolitical side it is possible people would have said he doesn't sound or look like a warmonger to destroy social security, but that is just how barry goldwater was. he would offer a conservative choice not a liberal echo in that campaign. another thing to talk about is what happened the last week. to a particular tv program called the time for choosing. a number of california republicans had decided to buy time on the tv network and to

present a time for choosing by ronald reagan. so the day before goldwater calls reagan and says my staff isn't too happy about this tv talk of yours with social security we would like this to run something else or rerun this half-hour of me with ike at gettysburg. ronnie says everybody seems to like the tv address i have been giving it i cannot help you. talk to put up the money for it. but then he said have you heard it? he said no.

actually i have not. he said i will call back. so they ran the audio version goldwater says what the hell is wrong with that? run it. so they said go with it. that program made ronald reagan a star nationally overnight and easily had $1 million within 24 hours to change thousands of votes leading to a bunch of republicans coming to reagan to say we want you to run for governor the following year. that is how important it was. and they could say without candidate goldwater there is no president reagan. that is how important that speech was.

extraordinary. ronald reagan, my first meeting with him, serious meeting was october 1965. he spent the last several months testing the waters to see the people of california who pretty much made up his mind i said i was working on a profile of him for readers digesting can i visit? so for two days, myself and my wife, traveled with him. she was active in new york politics and i invited her judgment as an editor and fellow co-author. there were four of us in the

limo there was a driver and in the front seat with me in the back and in between me and reagan was my tape recorder. it was this big. it was like a piece of luggage. wheels to wheels and that was between us. a great big microphone and asking reagan questions. i asked about his political philosophy and i will share with you in 1965 in a 1947 interview he said, what comes from management or labor or government to whatever imposes

on the freedom of the individual is tyranny and must be opposed. that was his philosophy over years of study and reflection. at the end of the second day of course we were convinced he's got it. and he said come up to the hous house. so we went up to pacific palisades. very modest home not a sprawling mansion he went into the kitchen and put us in the library done which was very small. i looked over and hear were the shelves of books so what did i do?

i began looking at the titles. history. politics, economics. volume after volume. and then the titles, servant of classics, four books in particular. the road to serfdom, witness, an extraordinary autobiography of a neck soviet spy, economics in one lesson. a classic in its time, and a book that i had not read, the law. i learned later the 19th century economist somebody who would influence many people

including ronald reagan. okay. maybe he had not read them so i began to take the books off the shelf. dogeared. underlined, he had read, i'm not saying he read every book that closely but those classics, yes, he had and here was a thinking and reasoning person doing it the old-fashioned way one book at a time. i said right then and there that reagan is an intellectual. he is comfortable with ideas and understands the power of ideas and with that kind of intellectual foundation, a

political leader can do marvelous things which as we know is exactly what he did. in my last book, i talked about various qualities with his courage and sense of humor and i would like to share with you a bit of humor at a summit meeting with gorbachev. arguing about the freedom in their countries american said i could go into the oval office pound on the president's desk to say mr. president, i don't like the way you're running this country. russia said i can do that too. you can?

he said yes i can go to the kremlin look at the general secretary to say i don't like the way president reagan is running his country left. [laughter] that is a great story but there is a lesson that reagan tried to communicate to gorbachev of freedom of expression and we must break down those barriers between us , as you know he had a rare ability to see what others could not called the quality of wisdom. with the early '80s liberal intellectuals likes listen to her junior who were visiting moscow after being over there

for weeks and weeks with those economic accomplishments of the soviet union we now know the soviet union was an economic basket case. when gorbachev came he was horrified at the shape of the economy spending so much money in the arms race. what did ronald reagan say at the same time? he was telling the british parliament that marxism was headed for the ash heap of history. he was absolutely right and by the end of that decade the berlin wall was down in the soviet union was no more. that sense of humor in

decembe december 1981i wanted to present a copy of my book to him and my publisher said be sure to have a chapter of the attempted assassination so i did. and then said will they do something special on the cover? so in big black letters on a yellow background, complete through the assassination attempt. very tacky. i don't like that but think that would be great for sales. we went back and forth. so i come into the office and there is reagan who almost

died in march this was december. a big smile building up his body was strong and made you feel so good and i said mr. president here is a copy of the biography. they are taking pictures and he looks down at the cover complete through the assassination attempt and says i'm sorry i messed up your ending. [laughter] who but reagan could make a joke out of somebody trying to kill him? amazing. bill buckley rescued me from myself. occasionally going to class

and spending a lot of time doing research at the café and testing the alcoholic content of various drinks. but i was also writing thinking i would be the next scott fitzgerald or ernest hemingway. but i kept getting back rejection slips. a novel, short story, poem and i got very depressed. i came back home sitting in my parents home thinking what will i do? right another novel? more short stories? so to say unless they elected a strong leader they were

headed for the bottom. i sent this to national review i never met buckley but he accepted and published it. i said the market is telling me something. that was my first publication. first professional publication to national review. so i put aside the novels and short stories and poems and began writing nonfiction. and i will say one more thing about bill buckley. one important lesson to be taken is this.

we need to practice fusion is him. he deliberately included masthead conservatives libertarians and anti-communist those were the three major strains at the time then welcomed people like richard and others of the new right and social conservatives. . . . .

>> that is how i got into conservativism. living in paris i was there in october 1956 when the hungarian revolution occurred. was so excited because these young men and women my age were standing up against the soviets. then two weeks later the troops came back and killed thousands of young people my age thousands and tens of thousands of hungarians fled and i kept waiting for my government to do something and they didn't. no some matter-of-fact statement. i resolved that whatever i could do for the rest of my life to support those opposing communism and tierney i would do what i could. coming out of that we founded in

dedicated that memorial in june of 2007, decade ago we were very fortunate not president bush was there to accept it for the american people. it wasn't easy, it took us 14 years ago 24 steps that you must negotiate to build a monument. we went through all of them since that time a decade ago dozens of national leaders have visited the victims to larry reid and say a prayer. this past june 22 embassies laid wreaths at her annual ceremony were joined by 20 ethnic groups

particularly those from china, korea cuba, laos and vietnam. we will continue to disseminate the truth about communism particularly about the five communist regimes, china, vietnam, north korea cuba alas. one week from today will have an anniversary, marking up the 100th anniversary of the bolshevik revolution. the god that failed and we invite you to it. look forward to the day when the remaining captive people and nations are free and independent. we're sure they will come because we know the truth will make you and keep you free. thank you.

[applause] i did not realize that phd had was something he pursued and acquired later in life. they were living a life as an activist in the conservative movement but then decided to get a phd in history. >> politics give us background on that and also when you got into the thick of that, was there anything writers or thinkers that you had not become aware they suddenly became acquainted with. >> it was a critical journey. i have my a public affairs firm

in washington only working with conservatives clients and candidates. i did the presidential campaign and bob dole is a client of mine the white house, there is a great fun but i was burned out frankly. after 20 years. i said no no more. that's enough i've always wanted to teach. i have been writing despite ghostly brothers and i said if i want to teach i must have a phd. i give a lecture catholic university in the 1980 election. i predicted right in madmen. some of from the politics departments have i don't you come get a phd here and through

that encouragement i did. another reason is that our bookkeeper embezzled us, stole from us several thousands of dollars. people said you had to declare bankruptcy and i said no i will not do that. but that persuaded me that perhaps the time was to close down the door of lee edwards and associates which is what i did. intellectually had an opportunity to read in such depth. for the first time i read seriously the conservative my the constitution of liberty another classic conservative text. and then an array of books like form policy and so forth.

i just loved it. from that i began to think what kind of classes can i put together. i got that degree in 86 and began teaching and 87 i just completed my 30th year at catholic university as an adjunct. i'm going to do the politics of the 80s in the spring i was during the politics of the 60s but i will try the 80s in the spring. >> i admire that during able to make that transition. >> it would be impossible except for my wife who let me do it in her daughters. i was doing things on evenings and weekends. they back me up, particularly and, things got a little tight

there a lot of hamburger helper. return to her audience for questions will have the microphone in the back. i was injured you telling us your stories about political conventions which you were 11 years old. so i like to hear political conventions first in 1948 when i was 15 or 14 in philadelphia my father was with the chicago

tribune the cover washington d.c. from the fdr tonight said. covered a critical convention from 1940 - 1972. what i remember still quite young how noisy it was, how smoke-filled it was. this convention home philadelphia he could get high just on inhaling. there's always something going on. it was bright and vibrant something vital going on my own convention 1960 when walter

jared almost impeded the convention with his keynote address almost first richard nixon to take them as a running mate if he had to may have one. conventions are important because platforms are important. that's my argument. they inspire they inform, they lay down a foundation for the workers of the party, whether the democrats or the republicans. platforms are important. therefore data convention. you do not have the smoke-filled room like i smelled a 1948 because today we have the primary system. so much of what is determined data convention is already been determined by who is when this so that primary. frankly i wish there's more of about balance. to bring in the collective wisdom of political leaders is

important. i don't want people to sit around and make the choice but i think there should be input from them. this idea that it only determines how my primaries determined is going to far. >> thank you so much for your bodywork and what you have done in the pursuit of liberty. i want to talk more about fugitive some is a new group that is formed that includes bill kristol, david come up to josé support the meal investigation. how do we come back together as a conservative movement there so

many factions. will people want to kick out everybody in congress and it seems to be very divided. >> fusion is him is easy 4050 years ago. when bill buckley first conceived the idea with the help of frank meyer because they're only three strains. then along came the conservatives and social conservatives give you five. today you have maybe ten, who knows, bill kristol might do a new one tomorrow depending on the reaction but that's all for the good. i don't mean to make fun of that because of my mind although the

movement has more elements and strains on that's an indication of vitality. people want to be in a position to lead and direct this movement in this or that direction. they're fighting over the control of something important. was vital in the first case with the original futurism, there was charismatic principal leadership and bill buckley, intellectually and ronald reagan, politically. then there was a dual threat, next terminal threat which was the soviet union and an internal threat which was liberalism. what we need today for the new

one and i've written about this in national affairs it will be in the next issue or two's to focus on one or two demonstrab demonstrable, visible threats. i think we were reminded the external thread today is radical jihadists him. so what happened in manhattan a few days ago. the heritage foundation did a study published in the last week or 298 terrorist attacks since 9/11. ninety-eight have been prevented by her measures coming out of the patriot act. increased intelligence, more visible presence of please.

the fbi getting involved, and so forth. the internal threat i take bernie sanders' appeal very seriously, particularly among young people. young people think socialism is just one more political philosophy. it's far more. it's a direct threat to our way of of life in our system of living looking at economics. i was asked what to do about it and i said the next 70 a person says, i don't think there's anything wrong. socialist city, would you like to give up the right have anything personal that you? you no longer can have anything personal to you can call your own. are you willing to believe the

individual is not important and only the group is important? are you willing to give up your rights to the group in the country? and finally, are you willing to give up god? any belief in a transcendent being. those are the things that socialism and communism are about. there against the individual and against god. those are the two threats. the other thing is we need charismatic principal leadership. it's not exactly obvious right now but i think that personal persons will come to light because i don't think we can just sit back and expect the conservative movement to do

nothing. quite the contrary is being challenged right now to come together, to fuse itself into begin to do it it has done in the past. >> is a pleasure to meet. [inaudible] >> i was a gap or an undergraduate school. it's an honor to meet somebody if maybe you could speak to the events that led up to the famous document in connecticut. >> the pictures 1960 and if you're young conservative in 1960, what are your

alternatives? you have john kennedy was a liberal democrat for the republicans you have a moderate, it is sometimes conservative and moderate richard nixon. so if you believe in limited government what if you truly believe in individual freedom and responsibility. a strong national defense. all these compromises going on within this or that party, which you need is an organizatio organization-making conservatives. bill buckley said that make sense to me. i'll make happy to host a meeting. said 90 of us showed up at sharon, his home in september of 1962 found young americans for

freedom. it's not the phrase that god given rights you should be in the statement. there was a vote taken on them and the vote was 44 - 40. to keep out votes. there were libertarians over to the libertarians too? do they walk out? no. they stuck around they said this is where it's going. were going to see where it goes and they did not walk out. the other debate was over the name.

two possible names were young conservatives of america. americans for freedom and we wanted to be inclusive. with that we were too limited. that at that time as i said earlier we were quite full of ourselves. pretty arrogant and we could change the world. perhaps we made a difference in american politics. >> i have a three-part question

my name is heather, are you the one who came up with a bumper sticker, a you h2 zero. that came out early by semi new at a scientific background. people loved it because it was so different in their bumper stickers and things. >> i was eight years old that was the beginning of my learning. the word conservative has taken on a terrible distinction. the liberal media has made it come across that way you we now have this new world for liberal called progressive. any idea of how that happened? >> those call themselves progressives going back to woodrow wilson.

they like and adopted with fdr. wanted to go back to the origins i have to respectfully disagree with you, we worked hard for 50 or 60 years to make the word conservative acceptable. i think it is and i think we should not give it up at all. it's a very honorable word. you talk about the founding principles of our country and western civilization. you have to get out of washington. >> my final question why haven't i ever heard of you?

>> g but, i will that you answer that. >> that is unanswerable he is also the right, a lot of it is behind the scenes and very modest. it's not a sharp elbows type he has accomplished what he has accomplished with grace and style and modesty. [inaudible] >> i'm waiting for my invitati

invitation. >> my question has nothing to do with what you are talking about today, pardon me for that. but i cannot help, president trump is leaving to asia pacific for a trip that is very important. if you have any opinion on the this kind of vague but i would appreciate it. >> i have visited asia quite a few times over the years. walter jared was a very important advisor on u.s. asian relations for many years to a number of presidents from truman to reagan is a very important

trip. we can see what they're doing in china he's being very aggressive and challenging us. we have to be prepared to answer firmly and not belligerently. for example this cannot be permitted. the idea that we might be weakening our support of taiwan taiwan and the republic of china is an important actor out there it's necessary we need to encourage japan to develop the appropriate weapons to counter north korea. i see the president of south korea said he's against developing nuclear weapons for south korea. there needs to be an open debate about that in korea.

i think it's an important trip. we need to be concerned about europe, but we are a nation power still. what happens out there can have an influence not only for today but tomorrow as well. >> of the middle the i just finish my phd. my question is, what this great conservative of the past we have democratic values. [inaudible] we spoke about the nation and populism butter valleys in the western world. more than the today we have a

big solution and we often talk about this so what is the great issue that you could imagine what they could say about these and what we should do to fight against this? >> we have to be very careful about over overreacting to certain actions that have taken place. in places like hungary and poland they're comfortable as they define it.

then criticism for example from hungry that the people of hungry have given a two thirds majority in the parliament to the present party. the same thing and poland. think we have to be careful about dismissing nationalism. nationalism within the democratic context is permissible. here at home, the same thing. it's so easy to be distracted by mr. trump. it is so easy to get caught up in what i call the twitter game.

with regard to mr. trump of the president we should follow two tracks. one track is to look at what a story. as a conservative i like very much the gorsuch nomination. i like him standing up against isis i like very much his deregulation campaign and what he is carrying out. i like his tax cuts as a conservative. those are good things. some of the other things on trade and so forth, immigration that's not something but on the other hand is the twitter track and you cannot and ignore it but you cannot allowed to subsume what's happening on the other

track. let's focus on the more important parts of the administration. what's been done and accomplished i may be a little less on the rhetoric. maybe sit back and try to enjoy it is some sort of game to make you smile and the outrageousness of it. >> there have been some scholars turkey is an example maybe the philippines and so on, is the role -- one of the few federal programs that heritage supported in one is not to resist any attempts to grow with public diplomacy elements of our state department and other agencies is

there any kind of soft public diplomacy role to help citizens not see them fall under the sway of authoritarian type you're talking about previous leaders, if i were to ask goldwater reagan or walter jared what they would say today, they would not before in america first. say isolationism is not possible. there is a because of freedom concerns us we should encourage it and promoted wherever and however we can. then needs to be done through the specific programs but also by our leader.

at the same time, he's reaching out going to asia he's going to ten days there. he's had meetings with other leaders of countries so he is not ignoring the world. there must be a balance there in which we say let's be concerned about what affects us first. but what affects us is also the state of freedom around the world. let's speak up when we see dangers to their freedom. whether your operation or africa, it's a heavy burden. we are still the one superpower in the world that carries very

psalm responsibilities. >> thank you for your buck in your career. back to buckley, his only child, chris buckley what many see as a devastating book of his parents. what was your reaction to it. >> i wish that chris had not written a book. i think it added little to the life and the career and the impact of bill buckley. he had to write it. he had to get off his chest and mind. so he did.

although it was a devastating portrait, in the last year of his life chris and bill buckley, father and son were reconciled. chris moved into the home and stanford in the last year he was with his father night and day and was there the night he died. passes perhaps more about chris than the book that he wrote about his mother and father. >> with that, please join me in a round of applause. [applause] >> i will sign books until my arm falls off. >> thank you for coming. [inaudible]

>> here's a look at current best-selling books according to masson. topping the list to fire. the trump voice white house. his father by oprah winfrey's insights from her most info conversations. the life-changing magic of tidied up. >> retired navy admiral william the craven's next about a

self-help book, making his bed. most of the authors have appeared on book tv. watch them on our website at booktv.org. >> of money or face a new scre screen. ed henry of fox news, we think of you when it comes to politics in the president. >> or baseball or anything else. i have a lot of people ask way we write about baseball. i believe you have to have a passion for something else. and it's awesome but you have to have another passion. baseball is something i've loved since i was a little kid.

ten years ago i was at a dinner party and i thought i would get some political gossip. the ambassador served pigeon which was disgusting. so what's going on? the next to me said you can eat those. it's called squad. it's a delicacy. world series was going on i'm in leave early she said my late father-in-law had a major role in baseball history but the story has never been told. i sat back down. her father-in-law was a minister in brooklyn in 1945. they knocked on his tour in despair and secretly was thinking about pulling out of semi jackie robinson, the first black player.

no one had told the story and she told it to me. i set out as a journalist to confirm it. i needed to be in your presence in god's presence to know is the right thing to do. so i set out on a journey to confirm it was true. also to dive deeper and maybe more partly -- severance, baseball, and the movie 42 which was a big kid. as i was researching and writing i think about paul harvey, he would say now you know the rest of the story. there's space bar in here but i think they was a secret ingredient that helps him overcome discrimination.

had almost nothing in common. they both loved baseball and had a deep faith in god. people have been meeting reading it it's a story about coming together. >> was jackie robinson become a part of the dodgers visit politicized at the time? >> it wasn't necessarily politicized. not that many people noticed it at first. similarly days to hear people say their millions of people saying there at jackie's first game. thing is like 25000 people. what i want to be at that came. but it wasn't a sellout. as i researched it there other

players were bookies who said they were really sure if he was going to make it. and he wasn't just about baseball. he changed america for the better. >> you are watching book to be on c-span two book tv, television for serious readers. >> morning before we begin to ask you to turn off your self on and any other electronic devic devices. >> good morning. emjoi myers, director of public affairs program. on behalf of the