it's great to see everyone here at the first scholarly conference. it's great to see the library b buzzing with scholarly conversation and activity and we are the first conversation. and i'm going to make introductions for all four of these gentlemen. they're all going to speak for about five to seven minutes, raid i raising some of the big questions and research areas that have yet to be explored and then we're going to open it for audience conversation, because we really want to invite you into this discussion. so, let me start with the introduction. up first will be my colleague at whittier college. joe is an associate professor and field librarian with special expertise in nixon material at whittier college's wards and libraries. his most recent article "under the table, michael wilson and the screen play for the bridge on the river quai" which appeared in the spring 2009 issue focused on the politics of

the hollywood blacklist. the second speaker earned his master's degree at the university of illinois, chicago, under the direction of richard freid. after completing his graduate work, the professor has taught at various universities and colleges in chicago. he's now at the college of due page and he has researched and written about the career of richard nixon, concentrating on his career in congress. his dissertation topic was nixon in the '50s. our next speaker will bement irv gelman, he's written on the presidency of franklin d. roosevelt, published in 1973 "good neighbor diplomacy" published in 1979 and "secret affairs," published in 1995. he's embarked on a multivolume biography of the life and times

of richard nixon. the first volume is "the contender richard nixon the congress years" published in 1999. he's currently finishing the second volume "the apprenticeship, richard nixon the vice presidential years 1952 to 1961" and he expects it to be published this year. the final speaker will be perspective from someone in the nixon administration, frank gannon. and frank received his doctor of philosophy from oxford university. he won a white house fellowship and served in the nixon white house from 1971 through 1974. he accompanied president nixon to san clemente aboard air force one on august 9th and he organized the researching and writing of the president's memoirs. so, i'll turn it over first to joe. >> all right. good morning, everybody. first of all, i'd like to thank

the nixon library and the staff for all their hospitality in welcoming the group today. also i want to acknowledge mel small, the editor the "companion to richard nixon project" which i think was a work that turned out very nicely. i was to assess the biographical coverage of richard nixon's pre-political years from 1913 to 1935. i focused on the accuracy and the reliability of the work and looked to see if bias was apparent in the author. in the early works statements or direct quotes were with publication dates spanning from 1952 to 2009 for the "companion." i'm looking at trends in biographical coverage of richard nixon. the first full length biography

was called "fighting quaker" written in 1952. gardner was a former nixon publicist and whittier college honors graduate. it was never published. the only available copies are at whittier college special collections. he cooperated with gardner and members of nixon's family. there are significant topics covered for the first time. this included frank and hanna nixon's personal biography and background, the tragic death of two brothers, arthur, who died in 1925 at age 7, and harold, who died in 1933 at age 23. gardner also discussed the religious background, the quaker heritage of the nixon family and explored nixon's wartime experience in the united states navy. "fighting quaker" was a useful resource for a number of future nixon biographebiographers. during the vice presidential years richard nixon received surprisingly favorable coverage,

he was friends with several journalists and allowed access to his office and files which helped the biographers. earl mazo wrote "nixon a political and personal portrait" game out in 1959 and there's new information about nixon's active duty in the south pacific and it's where he claimed that poker winnings financed the first congressional race in 1946. i'd like to point out the memoirs came out in 1978 and this is important work. released four years after his resignation. served as an instrumental step towards his rehabilitation. only 27 pages out of 1120 were dedicated to the early years. and so this is still an essential starting point for biographers. in the early 1980s we had academics who came into the picture, professional historians now provided access to extensive citations, notes, list of references and bibliographies.

their research was scattered over a wide variety of sites and they used primary sources such as manuscript collections from presidential libraries, national archives including the main branch and the regional branches such as the vice presidential papers that were formerly in laguna niguel. library of congress had special repositories at colleges and universities. i'd like to focus on julie nixon eisenhower's work "pat nixon" the untold biography of her mother. she had access to materials not available to other beingiograpb. she provided outstanding coverage of her parents' courtship and then in 1945 she detailed the story of how whittier banker herman perry contacted the nixons while they were in baltimore and that's september, 1945, and asked if richard was interested in running against the incumbent

representative. and julie verified that her parents' savings, $10,000 went into-th presidential race. i'd like to talk about another biographer, morris who was an ivy league educated historian. he resigned in protest from the national security council after the cambodian incursion. he showed a strong underlying bias against nixon. at the same time he was actually a very methodical researcher, so you have to kind of weigh -- kind of proceed with caution these types of coverage. just to focus on the law firm days when nixon was working as a lawyer in whittier, his first case was morris portrays that as being saddled by nixon where he

represented marie shee and the citrus frost accompanies richard nixon to his first and last business venture. he was president of the company. it went down as frozen orange juice and they ran into some technical problems. in 1993 jonathan atkin wrote "nixon alive." he's a british politician and associate to richard nixon since the mid-'60s. it's not an author rised bying on gragrap biography. in 1926 freshman year of high school for richard nixon in fullerton, they took an x-ray and he had a spot on the x-ray. they took him out of contact sports for the rest of his high school days. that's the only place i'd heard about that.

richard nixon's girlfriend, he knew her during whittier high school. jonathan atkin had access to both her material, interviews with her and interviews with richard nixon, so he got both sides of the story which i think was very useful. and then last i'm looking at another family biography, this is ed nixon and karen olson, the nixons' family portrait and he described the story before he was born, of course, that frank nixon filled in the birthplace home that we have right here on the grounds, no sewer, no electricity, no gas lines. they had to pump water from a well. and they cooked with a stove using white gas. they had what they cal a california cooler which is a screen in the shaded area for the produce. and in the early days the workers harvested ice from lake arrowhead. i' i find that quite fascinating and told the story of how he

drove back with his family from law school at age 7, 1937, traveling with elmira, and she was then 87. and then joined richard in 1939 for a train trip to michigan to pick up a new car. this is something that frank nixon also was in the habit of doing and richard brought a friend's automobile and drove it home. this was a wonderful bonding opportunity for the two brothers. so, in conclusion, richard nixon attracted local partisans garnering more individual votes as a candidate in national elections than any other american politician. conversely, he had a legion of detractors. nixon biographers often split into opposing camps as well, offering highly subjective perspectives. objectivity is not a character ri characteristic. okay. thank you very much.

>> ladies and gentlemen, i've got news for you. richard nixon was no new dealer. having studied the congressional and the vice presidential periods of richard nixon's political career, a question crossed my mind or a thought crossed my mind. it does happen once in a while. what are the true roots of nixon's -- or at least the young richard nixon's political ideology? i've got a few ideas. one, it was the new deal era, that roughly eight-year period between 1933 and 1941 which encompasses the great depression, the new deal, and the beginning of the second world war. this period formed a crucible

upon which richard nixon, jack armstrong, all-american persona, you see that as a young man certainly. as well as a belief in sturdy self-reliance, was tested and challenged by, well, a few things. the mass deprivation that one saw during the great depression. that was no picnic certainly. the relatively radical efforts by the new deal agencies to intervene, some would argue, in the lives of individual citizens. and finally, polarization of much of the citizenry in response to the new deal in general. okay? second, the company you keep. the young richard nixon's association with various political mentors, advisers, handlers, fund-raisers, donors

and supporters helped further this what i call, quote, a conservative education of richard nixon. you look at his influences like any good musician. if anyone would ask me, who are your influences? well, i will tell you, carpenter, barry manilow when i feel like telling the truth. his maternal grandmother, elmira milhouse, was known as a lifelong republican, and maybe his own parents. he said in his memoirs, frank nixon disdained republicans like harding and coolidge. in fact, frank nixon may have voted for fdr back in '32 and '36. hanna nixon herself according to melvin small voted for woodrow wilson in 1912. maybe it's recreational reading. he read in addition to "the l.a. times" as a young man, "good

housekeeping" and "the saturday evening post" both of which may have praised 1920s america, hoover's america, to some degree. some of the members of his committee of 100 who helped push his 1946 and 1948 campaigns, frank jorgenson, he said i didn't trust fdr. i distrusted him. a lot of the stuff he had been soft on communism. i think he was befuddled a lot of time and fooled by stalin. john francis nyland he was a big fund-raiser in the san francisco bay area for richard nixon in many of the elections between 1952 and 1968. he told his own employer william randolph hearst that governor fdr who he had met in late 1932 or early 1933 did not understand the fundamentals of the national economy or the u.s. stock

market, quote, when the two of us got to economics, he seemed to think that all industry consisted of stock market operations, end quote. earl c. adams, a san marino lawyer, he said, quote, the new deal, the fair deal, the new frontier, all that's just hogwa hogwash. it's a lot of rhetoric, builds up a pie in the sky for people. people get up their hopes and ambitions, and i mean their goals never get that. so, these are some of the people that nixon surrounded himself with in this phase of his career. steven ambrose calls, at least in terms of the committee of 100, rotarians, lawyers, realtors, insurance men, auto dealers in the old 12th district. south pasadena, el monte, whittier.

by 1938 richard nixon had registered as a republican. up to that time melvin small claims nixon was a nonideological centrist. yet in 1936 or in retrospect, one of richard nixon's roommates from this period 1936 and on at the end of his law school career at duke claimed nixon believed that individuals should push back against big government, big society, and big business. and americans could never be free if he or she abdicated his or her personal responsibilities to someone else. so, finally, nixon did pledge in a letter to herman perry, the first political mentor, dated 6 october 1945 to practice, quote, practical liberalism as opposed

to, quote, that particular brand of new deal liberalism, pushed by nixon's opponent jerry voorhees in the 1946 campaign. well, this is a topic that i believe deserves further research. that's something i will work on. that's something i wanted to share with you folks today, what are the true roots of richard nixon's conservative political views of this period. those folks who believe in small government, low taxation, and no state intervention in a free market economy. something that needs to be worked upon. thank you very much. >> ladies and gentlemen, normally i'm a little irreverent and i'm standing here just so she can't get the hook on me, but i'm sure she'll grab me, he' she'll find a way. i want to be serious and say

without mel small, this conference never would have happened. he has his hand over his head. and we all owe him a thank you. and what he's done, knowingly or unknowingly, by bringing the archivist of the united states and having some of you that i've talked to that are on the program, i mean, it's just been a pleasure just in a day where i've learned from dean calotsky and civil rights, and having a chat with keith olson and other of you folks here, has really been an honor for me. and to be on platform with these four people is really my honor. and hopefully the nixon library will keep this kind of tone to have serious symposium on nixon and his life and times. and in my spare time, i spent a lot of time here and sitting right in front of me, who helped me and did a mammoth job on the

richard nixon campaign is beverly lindley, and she was just a sweetheart. the other young lady who i've asked to run away with me, l lo egan, has been working for nixon since 1951? since 1951. and then finally, sitting in between the two musketeers is susan nolte, the third musketeer, who did more work for me, pulling papers, getting documents, helping me out, far smarter than i ever hoped to be, you know? and, susan, i really do appreciate it. you've been superb. finally, in back, the guy with the large part with the beard is greg cummin, and he has pulled records for me and been helpful for me. lastly, i'd like to thank tim nefta neftali, sally quinn and all the rest of the people who have

worked on this project together. what you've done has been beyond the call of duty, and i praise you highly. now, my work on the volume i'm now my work on the volume i'm finishing up allowed me to say they're publishing my volume is that the whole story of richard nixon's vice presidency and his relationship with dwight eisenhower has been told with the basis that they didn't like one another, they detested one another, they hated one another and they had ana ambivalent relationship. none of thosor true. i've looked at about 3 million pages of documents thanks to susan helping me and others helping me and basically, what you find out is that richard nixon and dwight eisenhower had an a-minus relationship.

they got along fine together. they not only got along fine together that dwight eisenhower used richard nixon in a superb way. eisenhower never, ever got nailed. he never got criticized for the things that he told other people to do. whether it was massive retaliation or brinksmanship by john foster dulles. whether it was sending troops allegedly by richard nixon. whether it was farming affairs by taft benson, all of this stuff never stuck to dwight eisenhower. i spent several to not enough minutes talking to dean codlowski talking about civil rights. now just a taste for you all i started out with three paragraphs on richard nixon and civil rights. i now have three chapters on richard nixon and civil rights. he was the lead person and

public affairs under dwight eisenhower pushing desegregation and pushing equal job opportunity. he was next to linden johnson in 1957 bringing republican senators onboard from the civil rights act in 1957. the story about lbj and richard nixon not getting along. i have their letters. they got along fine. they worked well together. richard nixon, taking all of these goodwill missions abroad to get them out of town so he wouldn't be around. every time with one exception. when richard nixon goes abroad the first person that sees him before he leaves to brief him is dwight eisenhower in the white house. the first person that richard nixon sees when he comes back is dwight eisenhower in the white

house so the whole nature of how richard nixon is viewed and how he operates under the presidency of dwight eisenhower, in many ways he becomes a sponge where he absorbs dwight eisenhower and how he fits into his life and times and how richard nixon moves forward in his political career. was he conservative? sometimes. >> was he a liberal? such a terrible word. sometimes. was he a moderate? sometimes. it really happeneded whdepended what the issue was. i know this is going to surprise you, was a terribly complex individual. dwight eisenhower was equally, if not more so. the man was absolutely brilliant in how he bureaucratically managed his government. so the nature of this incredible relationship and how nixon rises to power as the foreign policy

president, how he becomes fascinated with civil rights, and how he works towards that how black americans move into democratic party irrespective of what the gop does. all of these are stories that have been voided or vacuumed or whatever during the period of the 1950s. so i hope that you enjoy the rest of the seminar and i hope that you've enjoyed meeting my colleagues and i hope he doesn't have his hand in front of his face that he does accept my appreciation. mel, a job really well done. thank you.

i'll talk about nixon's early life and i was only informed on arrival that i was to comment on the previous speakers and this would be like barry manilow commenting on beethoven. so at best i have a smattering of figgorance on these things. i did speak with the read on the researching and writing of his memoirs from '74 to '78 and then i worked with him in 1938 on producing and conducting about 38 hours of interviews which were to be a video biography based on his memoirs. but that was a long time ago and

so i'm not really an expert as you're about to see, in 83, in those interviews the president told me two things that are relevant to today's panel. one is that he didn't have much -- wasn't much interested in psychohistorians because all psychohistorians are psychos, and so -- the joo the excellent remarks and before i go on i should say thanks certainly to mel small for writing this -- or collecting and editing this important book and to the library in lower center and to the archives for making all this possible. joe's comment, the 27 pages of

the 111 and 20, in writing memoirs we didn't have access because the paper his been nationalized. and so the president's lawyers advised him. a provision of the law was that he could have access to the papers, and he challenged it and his lawyers advised him that it didn't serve his best interest to avail himself of the provision of the law that he was challenging. so for the first two years we worked on the early life and wrote three-are the kwaers erqs of a million words on it. richard nixon had a life in full before he became president and he used to say that he thought the most interesting period of his life were the wilderness years.

'62 to '68 which were abject defeat within six years. he was president and as joe says, the biographies of nixon range, i put them on a sort of scale from a geography that he was one step short of canonization to positive which would be the -- the -- the geography would be like bella cornitzer which is worthwhile because he had access to hannah nixon and he got all of the family stories. so nixon could do no wrong. not to demean or dismiss the book, and then sort of the positive books for jonathan ache ins' book neutral books in which i would put conrad black's recent biography in which he

knew nixon and was sympathetic in many ways and he was extremely critical of both his personality, his policies and his conduct and then there are the negatives in which roger morris' book although it is finely researched i think it's hobbled by the fact that he tends to see everything in a bad scompliet then there are the books that can only be described as rabid and that would be sadly, brodie's book and anthony summer's book. these are the authors who nixon could do no good deed or have no decent thought. he was -- he was evil as his bone down to his dna and the mark of the beast on his forehead. that's my -- that would be my assessment of some of those books and it surprises me and disappoints me that a lot of nixon scholarship