a historic not in central kansas, but in lon and central paris. every president represents something different. and each president continues in some sense to be president. >> julie, president eisenhower goes back to gettysburg not as president eisenhower but general eisenhower. why was that? >> he made it be known immediately he would take his title, general of the army, and because although the presidency was a great honor of the highest honor that america can bestow on an individual, and he honored the presidency, the defining time of his life as dave said earlier was world war ii, and the bond that he led.

so when you would go up to the eisenhower farm and look out over the beautiful green rolling hill hills there was a little five star flag. it had five stars in gold. instead of the steel. >> what that gesture did and as early as 1961, in fact, his request to be restored puzzled president kennedy. it's consistent with everything happening. you have a generational shift. there's no doubt about it in 1961. richard nixon was younger than obama was in 2008. this was a generational shift, and the wartime generation is making way for a new group in

america. and so what eisenhower is saying by restoration of rights is that to understand his presidency and why he was there ha he accomplished between 1953 and '61, it's a period of reconstruction. like the reconstruction that followed the civil war. he's very underestimated. this is what the eisenhower presidency is in many ways. and then in january of '61 he was going to be succeeded either by a republican or a democrat, both under 50. both looking for a way to branch out. and this becomes a theme. what happens in going home to glory is the wisdom of the war

generation. what they took for granted is constantly challenged and in dealing with johnston and kennedy is that he can offer support. he can offer advice, so forth, but in the final analysis, the generation of the power is charting the course for the nation and perhaps responding to something he doesn't understand completely. and we make it clear to late '67 and early '68. then he understands that this will work out. we require people to work hard to get there. so we are led by exceptional people. we rely on presidents to find solutions to great dilemmas that america has faced.

>> you wrote about a conversation that you had with your grandma. what is at the root of that comment? >> my father noted this about franklin roosevelt. it was an admiring comment he made. here we are at the lyndon johnson library. julie is here, a former student. i send students to the johnson library every semester. i know the institution. i know what a great one it is. and the great story told here. presidents are sort of mysterious in a lot of ways, and this is more obvious in certain libraries than it might be in others. what my father said with admiration is franklin roosevelt was completely unscrutable.

he was a mystery in his poun papers. that is true of a number of presidents. there are people who -- >> they're very complex. >> go ahead. >> i agree with you. i think they're very complex and they're driven and they're extraordinary. >> no, i think he was more normal. >> your father? >> no? i thought he was such a great family man. the way i knew him. politically maybe. i don't know. never spanked. i wouldn't do that. >> i think these people have -- people with that kind of drive develop a sense of what they're going to be rather early in life. and the thing that makes me smile a little bit listening to julie is julie wrote this

wonderful book. and one of the collections that she brings in the book is an amazing hash of letters that richard nixon wrote pat nixon from the south pacific. if he isn't telling her in these letters he's going to be president, i don't know what he's telling her. it's there to see. as the story goes, bill clinton's class pamates were sag his letters and little things he wrote at the age of 15 and 16. he wasn't captain of the football team. but he exuded an extraordinary sense of himself. i'm sure they had stories about lyndon johnson. my grandfather, my father told the story in 1938 or '9 they

were living in manila working for mcarthur. douglas mcarthur. and my dad confronted my grandfather with the suggestion that my grandfather was wasting his time. why are you wasting your time working for douglas mcarthur as an assistant liaising with the government when you have one offer after another from large shipping concerns and businesses to go into business and his reply was, i believe war is going to break out in 24 or 36 months and when it does i will lead it there. he's a colonel. i don't want to be mystical. i'm just saying they're unusual people. i think there is there have an

element of them. >> history is full of tensions between dwight eisenhower and richard nixon. you were there and saw the relationship up close. how would you characterize the relationship between the two of them? >> the answer is it's amazing they got along as well as you did. because you're taking two presidential personalities bumping along together. in other words, we have dwight eisenhower who is president and then richard nixon who is going to be president and for these two people who both have ideas and agendas and for them to get along as well as they did i think it developed into a warm friendship. the fact that my father represented something different from eisenhower as well. he represented a newer generation. he represented a pacific outlook. >> eisenhower had his own clash

with mcarthur. same thing. and you can draw an analogy. when you see pictures of douglas macarthur and dwight eisenhower bent over a desk going over some document relating to the first division in 1938, you are looking at the man who commanded u.s. forces in the pacific and the man who commanded u.s. forces right there. this is a major and a general who is, in effect, retired. you have no idea that these people are the figures that they are. and about then mcarthur began to get an idea that he wasn't going to get along with him. my grandfather was sent on a trip in 1938 to try to equip the division. in return to manila, believing

he had served his boss well. when talking eisenhower/nixon. was nixon devoted to eisenhower, and did eisenhower value nixon's servants as subordinant? finally the general's come up with an assignment. it's been a year or so forth. he's writing in his diary and so forth. and when he returns to manila. literally his key would not fit in the lock. his sec seuccessor has been appointed. he said i will not give him the satisfaction of knowing i'm being fired. what he's simultaneously telling the war department is that this finest that i have encounterred in the united states army, and the moment war breaks out in europe, he should be detailed to high command immediately. mcarthur is firing him and

recommending him for high command. that means he understand he did not have a staff officer on his hands. eisenhower, as much as he wanted to, he will never be a staff officer. so this thing generates into a series of misunderstandings. he's finally drifen to call him the best clerk i ever had. eisenhower is driven to call him the greatest construct tor of dramatics i ever studied under. >> yes. what we narrate in going home to glory is my grandfather was a dying man in '68 and '69 and i think he wanted to make it clear he always had a fondness for his vice president. there were always going to be stories on how they related. it was rooted in the kinds of

people that they were. he wanted us to all know there was genuine affection there. and i think there was. >> your father ran for the presidency in 1916 and was defeated. he ran for governor of california in 1962 and was defeated. and then ran for the presidency of 1968. jumped right back into the arena and against all odds got the nomination and ultimately presidency. what drove him to seek office gens? which many thought was his ultimate demise? >> well, really it was his vision in how to deal with the rest of the world. in '67 he wrote in foreign affairs an article where he talked about china can't be left in angry isolation and we have

to take steps to bring china into the family of nations, and i think that his passion for foreign affairs and the fact that this wilderness you refer to is when i was in high school. and my father was constantly traveling. sometimes we would go with him. meeting with as in world leaders as would see him. and calling on all of the relationships he developed when eisenhower sent him to president on the good will trips. that was his passion. he felt he could serve the country. but it's interesting to watch the primary. it was very uncertain that he could win the nomination. he did. but in '68 the first primary was in new hampshire. he won 70%. these are huge numbers when you think of what romney and gingrich and others are pulling

in. then he went onto nebraska and we were there. nebraska, california. oregon. anyway. so it was an uphill battle. but the way he did it we just to go out and campaign. and win the primaries. then h got the nomination. it wasn't the choice of the republican party. >> this is the year before both republicans and democrats adopted the bipding primaries and were awarding delegates. it was to influence delegates in the states. that is a way we chose presidents. then when he choose presidents differently today. we have a record of those presidents. we have a record of the presidents we've had recently. i'm not sure makes a whole lot

of difference. >> it's interesting to note that when he ran, the favorite was george romney. >> at the very beginning. then rockefeller and then reagan. there was a lot of formidable people in the party who wanted that nomination. one of my favorite parts of going home to glory is one of my father's aides was a congressman named bob ellsworth. he was sent out by my dad to -- not schmooze him, but give him reports of the campaign. so he could call on reagan. it's just great because he kept trying to influence what was going on with eisenhower and reagan. and what was your grandfather --

>> he was sending people to see is eisenhower to convince the general that reagan was not a right winger. it was a funny relationship in the fact that many of dwight eisenhower's friends in palm springs, palm deserts became members of the so-called governor's cabinet in 1970 -- reagan won in 1966. and served two terms as governor. these are behind the ratings campaigns of '76 and '80. >> julia mentioned you father's views on china. and opening china to the west in 1972 with his visit to beijing was a triumph of his administration. would he be surprised at china's rise in the world? would he be pleased with where they are? >> i don't think he would be

surprised because his last book that was actually publish eed after he died. the title of the book is from his last conversation in 1976 when he said president nixon, you know, is peace the only goal that america wants. is that it? is that the goal? my father said no. we have to go beyond peace. we have to build a more just world. et cetera. that was the title of the book. and he predicted in that book that china would be a power house and, of course, it is today. u i admired lyndon johnson and his courage and leadership.

he was trying to find a way to end that war. and a way that he was in negotiations, et cetera. i remember that i wrote in my diary the day before the election, i said, you know, if daddy is elected president i just fear that the nightmare of trying to resolve the war in vietnam is going to be almost -- and that's what these two presidents is have in common. i spoke to him many times when i came here to research. he was lyndon johnson'sed advis.

there's a very interesting letter to one of the very famous journalists. and the senate foreign relations committee. and what johnson explains in the letter is that he believes unlike many of the critics in the senate that the american interest ran equally strong towards asia as it did towards europe. the reason he was waging the vietnam war was to demonstrate america's commitment and interest to asia. it was that interest and commitment demonstrated by two presidents that opened china. there's no way in the world that china facing 45 rocket divisions deployed in manchuria by the soviets is going to take a chance on relations with a nation that does not value asia.

so persisting. as difficult as though types war, he did bequeath a chance for the united states to achieve larger aims. and one was persuading the asian governments that the united states cared about the and it's a building block to our relationship with china. as a teenager and somebody just turning 20 the only thing i knew were people waving red books and so forth. remember in record breaking time and so forth.

and he came back from several trips. this was very early in the courtship. and he would regale us at night with his stories in hong kong as an attorney and his consultations with people in the far east about what an extraordinary area of the world this is and what he expected these nations become. he made that very clear in the period. i thought it was interesting. i had never heard it before. i think that's his gift or contribution. and nixon's great vision of asia mattering to america in the way yeerp mattered between 1941 and 1945 and seeing that arena as the center of development and so forth in decades to come was a

tremendous contribution, which is remembered and acknowledged throughout china today. and they often talk about the pain of watching their father go through vietnam and the white house. you've written about the pain you've experienced watching your father go through watergate. your father who julian david lived on the front lines of watergate and they suffered the brutal assaults every bit as much as i did. what was that experience like for you during the latter years of your father's time in the white house? it was difficult because it was terrible for the nation. it just wasn't something terrible for the family. but the whole watergate saga one

good for the presidency. so that was difficult. so i wouldn't want to put words in their mouth but it must have been difficult with a half million young men fighting in vietnam and really this almost seemingly endless war. and your husband, the sacrifices people are making, you never want to let people down. i think that's what makes it difficult when you go through something. and not in some way to let the american people down. i won't say america was ungovernable in that period. we did come through. the interesting thing about vietnam is just think about this for a second. we had the fall in 1975. we did not have an intervening event anywhere involving the

united states for the next ten years. what happens? soviet union collapses. not one intervening event. we did things right. in that period. vietnam, what does vietnam mean? does it mean that america lost a war, or does it mean that the united states is such a dynamic country that they sustained an effort on behalf of a minority in southeast asia. 8,000 miles away. what lesson did countries around the world derive observing the united states in this period. i think what they saw was an extraordinary effort. and that is strangely -- william westmoreland was interviewed about this. he was asked about this 12 years ago.

commander of vietnam. had a funeral not long ago. i saw bob hope, 2003. and he was asked about what do you make of the fact that you commanded american forces in vietnam, and we had this terrible setback in southeast asia. and the west has won. what do you make of that? he says, well, i guess it's the luck of the yankees. i just don't know. but i think the answer is that this was a very difficult period. it was a transition period in america. that's pal able in the speeches of that period. that we are really passing through a transition. america is assuming great responsibilities without clir cut enmys and challenges. the am biggous responsibilities that we're assuming. and i think we have

difficulties. i think it's impossible anywhere from '61 all the way to '80 for a presidency not in some sense to disappoint america. >> anyone who lived through the nixon administration has deep impressions of your father. what is the most popular misconception about your father? >> i haven't thought about that. i tend to think of the positive. i've kind of retired from that whole thing. what i mean is, his -- i'm so proud of his record. that's what that has te be focused on. not just the foreign policy. but the environmental protection agency. the desegregation of southern schools. that was really -- tom of "the new york times" columnist said that was his greatest achievement. when he took office 68% of black children in the south were in all black schools.

when he left office, 8%. and the way he did it, and it showed his leadership is that he quietly engaged southern officials. instead of saying this is a shame and scandal and the south is bad and we have to change this, he got the southern officials to be on advisory committees. they were doing all kinds of things to make sure this happened. and there was a partnership. this made the south the great region of the country it is today. how could they be a great region if parts of the population were not treated equally? you have to get rid of that to move forward. the south is now the most dynamic section of our country. so there are many things we could talk about the with nixon presidency. better not get me started. >> dave, there's a memorial that's being planned now in

washington to your grandfather. it's adjacent to the mall. but there's a great deal of controversy around that. can we talk about the current plans for the memorial and why your family -- >> he stepped down as a commissioner. and that was not because that i had what transpired between me and the commission but i did not -- i stepped down because i have a conflict of interest. i had become chairman of the eisenhower presidential foundation. and this memorial is going to raise funds nationally. and we're trying to raise funds. and so it's a general conflict. and also, we've entered a phase where the eisenhower memorial is actually being designed. and the fact that it is being designed has brought out all

kinds of differences of opinion. and that doesn't surprise me. if you think about how you would do a national memorial to eisenhower i could come up with a thousand ideas. and the way the commission did it and they had the most famous architect in the world. and they solicited designs from him. and i'm not surprised at all there are other designs out there. i do not doubt that there will be modifications in the existing design and that it will work out ultimately. >> we talk about misconceptions about your father. you alluded to one, which is that he was a lot more moderate than most people think he was.