general services administration feels that this is the only 19th century boarding house space that has been preserved like this in washington, d.c., so part of the museum process will be including interpretation about the boarding houses of washington, d.c. because many, many of the people who came to washington knew that their time here was probably temporary and didn't want to buy a house or anything, so they would even generals and congressmen who actually live in boarding houses instead of renting a house or buying a place in the d.c. area, so this is really a pretty significant find. we hope to have a welcome center open on the first floor by the end of this year, beginning december 2012 to january 2013, and -- and we hope that this will keep people's interest while the work takes place, and -- and when -- when they come to the museum finally, when it finally opens for tours, they are going to discover clara

barton's office just like richard lyons did when he came here in 1997. the goal is to recreate the space as if clara and/or her clerks had just left the space for some reason so when you come back, are you coming to the missing soldiers office. this is the first of a two-part look at clara barton's missing soldiers office. the planned museum and reconstructive boarding house is a partnership between the government services administration and the national museum of civil war medicine. you can view this and other american history tv programs at our website. c-span.org/history. david eisenhower and julie nixon famously met as children at 1957 inauguration of his

grandfather, president dwight d. eisenhower and her father, vice president richard richard nixon. julie nixon married david eisenhower in 1968, just before her father took his own presidential oath of office. they recently clan rated on the book "going home to glory, a memoir of life with dwight d. eisenhower, 1961 to 1969." in this conversation at the lyndon b. johnson presidential library the eisenhowers recall ike's presidency and later retirement in gettysburg, pennsylvania. the relationship between ike and his vice president and the reasons that propelled richard nixon to make another run at the presidency after his close loss to john f. kennedy in 1960. this program is one hour and 15 minutes. well, good evening, and welcome to our program tonight. i'm don carleton, and i have to

get my glasses out, or i won't be able to see what i'm talking about. i'm the director of the university's center for american history. the briscoe center is delighted to join with the lbj library in co-sponsoring tonight's program featuring david and julie eisenhower's fascinating book, "going home to glory, a memoir of life with dwight d. eisenhower from 1961 to 1969." it's a fabulous book. lbj director mark updegrove asked if i would be interested in co-sponsoring tonight's program. we always delight in time here here with our friends at the library and our topic tonight dwight eisenhower is an added attraction for us. the briscoe division center includes the sam rayburn museum located up in the north texas town of bonham and in the center is the repository for sam rayburn's papers.

sam rayburn served as the democratic party's minority leader in the house of representatives during the first two years of eisenhower's first term, and he served as speaker of the house for the remainder of eisenhower's presidency from january 1955 until january 1961. although rayburn and eisenhower had more than their share of legislative disagreements basically over domestic policy, they nevertheless had a very warm personal friendship. eisenhower was born in dennisson, texas, which was in rayburn's congressional district and private meetings at the white house, rayburn often joked with president eisenhower about rayburn being eisenhower's congressman. mr. sam, who was eight years older than eisenhower also called eisenhower captain when they had private meetings. more significantly rayburn and

eisenhower had middle of the road philosophies and a strict sense of national duty. and both understood the necessity of legislative compromise. often as the congress had adjourned for the day. rayburn and senate majority leader lyndon johnson would slip out of the capitol and be driven to the white house where out of sight of the news media they would enter the secluded southwest entrance and be escorted to the president's family quarters on the second floor. there over drinks the two democratic leaders and president eisenhower would discuss current issues and they would work out

informal bipartisan strategies for furthering public policy. sam rayburn, lyndon johnson and dwight eisenhower were political partisans from two different parties, but they always put country first and party second. in november 1961, ten months after the end of eisenhower's presidency, sam rayburn died at his home in texas. among the mourners at mr. sam's funeral at the little baptist church in bonham was dwight david eisenhower shown here in this famous photograph with presidents truman and kennedy and the future president lyndon johnson. serving as interviewer and moderator for our program tonight is the director of the lbj library and museum, my good friend marked updegrove.

mark needs no introduction to this audience, but i do want to say something about his work that is particularly relevant to this program. mark who is one of the leading presidential historians in this country is the author of the book "second acts, presidential lives and legacies after the s post-presidential experiences of all the presidents who served after franklin roosevelt concluding with bill clinton. one of my favorite chapters in that book is the one that -- that mark wrote about the years that dwight eisenhower spent after the white house. so mark will be interviewing our special guests, david and julie eisenhower. david eisenhower is the grandson of president dwight eisenhower,

and his father john eisenhower is a prominent military historian. david is the author of the "new york times" best-seller "eisenhower at war" which was a finalist for the pulitzer prize in history in 1986. he currently serves as the director of the institute for public service at the annenberg public policy center at the university of pennsylvania and he's the senior research fellow at the annenberg school for communication. david eisenhower has served on numerous not-for-profit boards and committees, including the advisory committee on presidential libraries. a graduate of amherst college, david eisenhower earned his law degree from the george washington university law school in 1976. our other special guest is david eisenhower's co-author, julie nixon eisenhower, who just

happens to be david eisenhower's wife. she's also the second daughter of president richard nixon. julie is also a best selling author, editor and a recognized public speaker on such subjects as the presidency, women in politics and life in the white house. she began her career as a writer for and then assistant managing editor of "the saturday evening post." julie eisenhower's books include "pat nixon, the untold story," as well as "special people" and julie eisenhower's cook book for children. julie eisenhower has served on several non-profit boards and serves as a trustee of the richard nixon foundation, the nixon center and the eisenhower medical center. after graduating from smith college, she earned a master of arts from catholic university of

america. when david's book "eisenhower at war" and julie's book, "pat nixon, the untold story" were published in 1986, it was the first time a husband and wife each had a book appearing simultaneously on the "new york times" nonfiction best-sellers list. please join me in welcoming mark and david and julie eisenhower. [ applause ] >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> both julie and david, welcome. we're delighted to have you here tonight. actually i should say welcome back because you are among the very special guests of this library when we opened our doors

on may 22nd, 1971, and you accompanied your mother and father here. your father was president at the time. i wonder if you have any memories of that day. >> i remember it like yesterday. linda is here. lizzie is here. harry middleton i think is here. harry, i can't see you through the lights but i'm looking for you, there he is, still teaching at the university of texas. >> that's great. >> that was a great day, and i remember the large crowds, and we saw a picture of it in a holding room just as we were getting ready to come in. the precise date was about may 22. >> may 22, 1971. >> may 22, 1971, and this is eight weeks after i graduated from air force ocs school. i'm getting ready to ship out. >> your hair had grown in. >> it had grown back. >> not that they changed it. >> this is my last leave i think before going overseas. i remember the date very well.

>> i think one of the things that's perhaps not as well known is that the johnsons and nixons were good friends and we saw president and mrs. johnson quite often during the presidency and linda and chuck were living in washington, and my parents used to have the church services, and so linda and chuck were often there, and it -- i just have a very warm feeling for the entire johnson family and really we're here tonight because of linda and lucy. they are very giving and caring people, and i'm just proud they are my friends. >> well, we appreciate that. we're delighted to have you, the friends, the johnsons and your visits. you've been very good to this library and we thank you for that. behind that is a picture of your first meeting. >> uh-oh. >> and in 1957. >> this is a first. >> this is where we met. >> that's where you met, at the inauguration of president dwight eisenhower and vice president richard nixon, and it began a

relationship that seems to have lasted. can you talk about how your relationship evolved from that time. >> well, we really just met as kids, and we saw each other i think twice, and then we happened to get together again when we went off to college because mamie eisenhower is a very romantic person, and she was just insisting that david look me up when she found out -- >> i wasn't going to do it either. >> no. >> i was at amherst. she was at smith seven miles away, and -- and i think there had actually been a news story that we were going to be going to schools somewhat together. i didn't want to put her on the spot. finally mamie did prevail on me to do this, and so i went over, liked her tremendously. went back and called on her about six weeks later and had one of these experiences that suggests kind of the obstacles

that are posed to a relationship like this. smith had a proctor system, and i can remember presenting myself to the proctor, a student, you know, with this horn-rippled glasses and long straight hair. she's a bio major and i walked up to her and said something i'm david eisenhower, and would i like to see julie nixon. she gives me this long look and says my name is harry truman. so i persisted and -- and it worked. >> now, when your grandmother wanted you to meet, did she have an eye towards courtship. >> no doubt about it, from the beginning, oh, yes. >> i had seen mamie at a funeral a month before i went off to smith, and i think -- and i also seen the eisenhowers out at palm desert. anyway, she was a fun person. >> we were secretly engaged. >> charm bracelets, skirts. >> secretly engaged within a year of meeting in college. >> whirlwind courtship. >> whirlwind, and my grandmother was behind it all the way.

in on the secret and the one that provided the ring and everything, so it was -- should i have admitted that. >> yeah, that's good. >> when you did get married, your grandfather-in-law give you a copy of that picture and signed it. what is the caption of that? >> it said for julie nixon who even then seems to have unknowingly acquired an admirer. it was cute. >> you had a shine they are that picture. >> i had a black eye from a sledding accident. washington had a huge snow storm. i lost control of my sled, went into a tree, and i think dave was interested in the black eye. >> lucy and linda would know exactly where this picture was taken. this is the north lawn of the white house war the presidential reviewing stand is during the inaugural. can i remember the inaugural in 1957 very vividly, and it's really the beginning of my -- i would say my engagement with the eisenhower presidency, my grandfather's presidency and all

the people who are involved in it. this was a -- an inauguration staged after eisenhower's landslide re-election in 1956 which coincided with one of the most dangerous intervals in american and international history. this was the confluence of the hungarian rebellion of 1956 and the soviet invasion of hungary which coincides with the british, french and israeli invasion of egypt and the suez affair of 1956. as a result, one thing that i remember vividly in 1957, you can take this as kind of a start point, rocket after rocket after rocket. >> right. >> military unit after another, we put our arsenal on display in what i guess -- kind of like a may day parade. >> just like the soviets did. >> like the soviets did, to

remind the world that the united states was standing tall and that we were standing by our friends, and it was a spectacular inaugural, up of its kind, i think, and every one of them has had a different meaning, but that's kind of where we start, right there. >> you get married, you know that your father is about to become president, and when you get there. your father tries to talk you into a white house wedding. you opt against that. >> he actually just offered. he just said would you like to waive? we didn't have any interest in doing that. wanted one last private event before the presidency began >> i think it was something that sustained us throughout 1968. we made a pact. again, linda and lucy i think would appreciate, that and that was we were going into an election year, and i think that richard nixon had lost in 1960, and he had lost the governorship in 1962. i think that all of us thought that this was an uphill fight. >> right. >> and we resolved in january of

1968 that win or lose we were going to have a great party in december. >> when we got married. >> as the election unfolded, i think we really clung to that, that there's something that we can really look forward to right around the bend. that became important to us, and so i think we were -- we just sort of kept our own word to ourselves, isn't that it? >> right. >> that we would celebrate it a certain sort of way. >> right. >> and the election worked out, but it was a wonderful party before the nixon presidency began as it turned out. >> and the only thing, david, that your grandfather objected to in the union, when you got married, was your hair. >> will you talk about that a little bit. >> he was worried. i think he felt that appearance is sort of destiny, and this is the late '60s, you know, where hairstyles are getting kind of wild. i think he disapproved -- i was pretty conventional, but he disapproved of most of the haircuts that i got, and hi sort of a standing $5, $10 offer as sort of an incentive to keep it short.

i saw so much of him in the period that i never allowed anything to get out of hand. >> president nixon in his memoir i believe says it was $100 and he also says yours was the shortest air among your groomsmen, and he further says your grandfather didn't pay up. >> that's true. it wasn't short enough. >> it wasn't short enough. >> it wasn't a negotiation. he was looking for a buzz, i think. >> so let's talk about your grandfather for a moment. this is a bona fide american hero who happened to be the president of the united states, and he's your grandfather. what was it like to grow up with dwight eisenhower in your life? >> well, i think i tried to convey this in "going home to glory" and i think that julie and again linda and lucy, the question is when do you become aware of the fact that you're in the presence of something very unusual. well, i think you have to recognize two thin. first of all, you have to be around situations that are

interesting, and second, you have to have some sort of contrast, some sort of frame of reference. going to school on the post or going school in alex andrea. and by day going a regular school and by night realizing that i walked into this amazing phenomenon of the presidency. exotic places. vacations in the high rockies and newport. and all of the people surrounding the president of the united states. my first memory, i have a

handful. i have pictures of boarding airplanes in france. i can remember the palace hotel where we spent the summer of 1951. i'm dating myself. but actually i have pictures in my mind of dwight eisenhower boarding an airplane, and this is in france, dressed in his five-star military uniform. i can remember the tree none palace hotel where we sent the summer of 1951. he was commander of the nato alliance at that moment. i think even then i had an intimation that he was very unusual. julie probably has similar stories. the johnson girls, of course, grew up as young children in washington. >> i think my memory was that -- i don't know how old i was, 6 or 7. my father and were reading together. we were looking at a picture book of temperatures. my father was then vice president. we got to abraham lincoln and

under his portrait it said "america's first republican president." i said to my father, was george washington a democrat? i was so upset, very upsetting. >> david, you have chronicled your grandfather's life most likely as don mentioned in "eisenhower's war" nominated for a pulitzer in 1956. what do you find most remarkable about your grand father. >> we have something in common. you wrote "second act." in the post presidency we cover in "going home to glory," i think this is where character is most accessible. a president is surrounded by aides, a wartime commander is surrounded by aides. to get to know my grandfather in that capacity, i had to study his life.

i was drawn to the world war ii subject. sole zen neat sen says that in every life there is an event that is decisive for one's personal convictions and one's future. there is a point in dwight eisenhower's life, the fall of 1943 where everything that happens to him to that point is very interesting. but nothing specifically prepared him for the responsibilities he would undertake between november 1943 and may of 1945, by contrast. what happened to him in those 18 months made it predictable and inevitable he'd be president of the united states. i got to know that eisenhower through the historical record. the word i does not appear in "eisenhower at war." i believe in an introductory statement which my editor made me write, i explained my methodology and explained why i was doing this book. probably used the vertical pro noun there.

but i don't exist in that book. this is a dimension of his life that i had to learn through history. by contrast, a former president and a number of people in this room have known former presidents and have worked with them. this is a person you have access to. and so the person, and these are very unusual people. the person who is driven into national prominence becomes knowable, accessible to you. and i learned so much about that man by being around him in the twilight of his life, the eisenhower of abilene, kansas. the ike -- and born in denison and so forth. in fact, he didn't admit to being born in denison when he registered at west point in the summer of 1911, he listed tyler, texas, rather than denison because i believe it's better to be from tyler.

is that right? switched his first and second names on the entry form. in fact, he became dwight david when he registered at west point, rather than david dwight. and omitted some details as well. omitted to tell west point he played professional baseball in probably the kansas central league in 1909, 1910 which was confirmed to me -- baseball man, pr man, famous man red patterson accompanied eisenhower to a baseball game. he was a hero, he was in uniform. and confronted the general with rumors that he had concealed a past in professional baseball. he said that there were rumors throughout organized baseball that he played in kansas under the alias of wilson. our records indicate there were two wilsons in the league. which one were you? he said, the one who could hit. >> you both collaborated on "going home." you talked about how post presidential chapters are very revealing. i can't agree more.

i think they were particularly reflective of dwight eisenhower and richard nixon. but talk about how the difficulty and the transition for him from the presidency into private life -- >> which is why you would take the subject up, too. dwight eisenhower is actually setting a precedent in this book. in 1951 we ratified the 22nd amendment to the constitution which term-limited the president. i don't think americans fully appreciate how extraordinary that law is. what we are doing with the 22nd amendment is we are telling charismatic, extraordinarily able individuals who in practically any country in the world might rule for their entire natural lifetimes. we're forcing them to step down after a term or two, and we are not only forcing them to step down and relinquish power, we're obliging them to kind of like it. this is enacted -- democrats

teased republicans for a long time. the republicans drove this amendment in 1951 and then suddenly they elect a president who might have won a third term. but dwight eisenhower leaves washington. this is where the story opens. for most americans looking back on january 20th, 1961, the inauguration that day is the opening of a new chapter, brand new. a million people are in washington waiting the bring in the new administration of john fitzgerald kennedy. where julie and i begin this chronicle is with the other story, and that's the president who is going home, going home to a new life and one which is going to reward him with a certain amount of satisfactions.

but i think that i'm proud of the individual in these pages because he carries this role off with a great deal of dignity. one of the things it chronicles and one of the reasons we're so delighted to be here at the johnson library is this extraordinary relationship between dwight eisenhower and lyndon johnson. this is an historic relationship. i can just graze the surface of it in this book. the documents behind the story that i tell are very extensive. this is a way -- a tale in a highly divided, partisan era that we're in now, that it is possible for people to reach across the party divide and to cooperate meaningfully on issues. i think that lyndon johnson regarded dwight eisenhower as a resource in his office as dwight eisenhower regarded senate majority leader lyndon johnson a resource when he was in the senate. it narrates a friendship. mark, why i like it and why i think it drew you to the same subject. julie's father said something interesting once. i just happened to be there. there was a president unnamed trying to organize another gathering of former presidents, and he was not eager to do this. and he just made a sort of throwaway comment, you know, we all represent something different.

i don't know how often we ought to get together, but we all represent something different. and i think that taking that comment and extending it just slightly, presidents, because of our 22nd amendment, never entirely cease being president. they actually fulfill a kind of role. lyndon johnson represents a kind of story, rising texas and the dilemma of the south and the west in civil rights. he's the great law giver in civil rights.