this is a story which is unique from richard nixon who is the middle class after world war ii finding its place in the sun. dwight eisenhower, the man from central kansas who makes a historic and eternal record, not in central kansas, but in london and in paris, symbolic of this great journey of americans every president represents something different, and each president as they leave office continue in some sense to be president. i think that's why the story plays on. >> julie, president eisenhower goes back to get his title not as president eisenhower but as general eisenhower. why was that? >> he made it be known immediately that he would take his title general of the army and that's because -- although the presidency was a great honor, 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. the bond that i think he felt

with the men that he led. so when you would go to the eisenhower farm and look out over those beautiful green rolling hills, there on the putting green was a little five-star flag. he took -- his stationery had five stars in gold instead of the presidential seal which he could have done. >> actually what that gesture did, and it was early in 1961. in fact, his request to be restored the rank puzzled president kennedy. he is making a statement here and it is consistent with everything that was happening. you have a generational shift and there is no doubt about it.

is that to understand his presidency, and why he was there and what he accomplished between 1963 and 61 it is a period of reconstruction. >> both restless and looking for a way to branch out this becomes a theme. what happens is that the wisdom of the war generation, what they took for granted.

i think we made that very clear towards late 1967, early 68, the world begins to confuse him a little bit. but then he understands that this would work out. one of the great things about the presidential office. we require people to really work hard to get there. we are led by very exceptional people. and we have -- we have been able to rely on presidents to find solutions to great dilemmas that america has faced.

>> you have written about conversations you had with your grandmother about your grandfather. you asked if she ever really knew him. and she replies, i'm not sure. what is the root of that comment? >> my father noted this about franklin roosevelt. it was an admiring comment. here we are at the lyn don johnson library. she is a former student. i know this institution and what a great one it is. what my father said -- was completely -- he was a mystery in his own papers.

i would say that is true of a number of presidents. >> they are very complex. >> they are complex. >> they are driven and extraordinary. >> no, i think he -- i think he w was. >> he was a great family man. i don't know. >> look at it this way. >> politically he wasn't as noble buzz his family was.

>> one of the collections she brings in the book is an maizing cache of letters that nixson wrote from the south pacific in 1943, 44, and 45. if he is not telling her that he's going become president in these letters, i don't know what he is telling her. he was not captain of the football team. he exuded an extraordinary sense of himself. i am sure linda and lucy have stories or something that relatives -- a man of extraordinary drive. my grandfather, my father told the story in 1938 or 9.

they were living in manila. the idea tsh the suggestion is that my grandfather was wasting his time. why are you wasting your time. you had one offer after another. based in manila. why are you wasting your time? and his reply was i believe the war is going break out in 24 to 36 months and when it does i will live in fear. he is a colonel. these are -- i don't want to be mystical about this but they are unusual people. i think there is an element of them that is unnoble.

>> history is full of ref rens to the tensions between eisenhower and nixon. how would you character that? >> the answer is that it is amazing that they fwot along as well as they did. they are taking two presidential personalities. the fact that my father represented something different. he represented a newer generation. he represented a spa tifk outlook. >> eisenhower had his own clash.

same thing, you can draw an analogy. right there. this is a colonel -- or a major. about then, macarthur began to get an idea working with eisenhower that he wasn't going to get along with him. my grandfather was sent on a trip to the united states in 1938 to try to equip the 13th division and return to manila. believing that he had served his

boss well. people say, well, did -- was nixon devoted to eisenhower? did eisenhower buy the services as a subordinate. it has been a year. he is writing in his diary and so forth. when he returns to manila, literally his key does not fit in the lock. >> macarthur is firing him and

recommending him for high command. >> driven the greatest instructor of traumatics that i ever studied under. and so forth. they went their separate ways. what we saw and narrated. this is that my grandfather was a dying man in 1968 and 689. i think he wanted to make it very clear that he had always had a fondness to his vice president.

and then ran for the presidency in 1968. and against all odds, got the nomination. many thought it was an ultimate denial. >> really it was not his vision of how we needed to deal with the rest of the world. and he -- in 67 he wrote in foreign affairs an article called asia after vietnam. that is when he talked about being left in angry isolation and we have to.

i think that -- his passion for foreign affairs and the fact that of all of the -- referred to when i was in high school. constantly traveling sometimes when we would go with him. meeting with as many world leaders who would see him. and calling on all of the relationships that he had developed. it is interesting to watch this there. it was a very uncertain my father could win the nomination in 68 so he had to develop a strategy and it was to enter every primary and win it. and he did. but it was in these are huge numbers when you think of what they are pulling in and then he

went on to nebraska. we were there. >> nebraska -- >> california -- no, oregon. anyway. it was an uphill battle. go out and campaign and win the primaries and then he got the nomination. if he had not won the primaries he would not have been nominated. >> this is the year before -- both were reporting to the democrats adopting. which is, that is a way we chose presidents. then we choose presidents differently today. we have a record of those presidents. we have a record of the presidents we have had recently. i'm not sure it makes a whole

lot of difference. that is a good method. >> it's interesting to note that when he ran, the favor for the nomination was george. >> at the very beginning. >> i love one of my favorite parts of going home to glory. one of my father's aides was a congressman. he was sent out by my dad to basically not scmooze the governor but go out and keep giving him good reports about the nixon campaign, etc. he would go out and call on reagan. you know, it was just great because he kept, you know, trying to influence what was going on with eisenhower and reagan and finally what was -- >> sending people to see

eisenhower to try to convince the general that reagan was not a right winger. >> it was a funny relationship. >> it was a funny relationship. many of eisenhower's friends became members of the so-called governor's cabinet in -- reagan won in 1966 and served two terms as governor. these are prime movers behind the reagan campaigns in 1976. would he be pleased with where they are? >> i don't think he would be

surprised. it died a month before it came out. it was called beyond peace. the title of the book is from his last conversation in 1976 when moa said president nixon is peace the only goal that america wants? you know? is that it? my father said no. we have to build a more just world. that was the title of the book. he predicted in the book that china would be a power house and of course it is today. one bond i feel is that vietnam was such a torturous time for our country. i admired lyn don johnson and you know, his courage and his leadership. he was trying to try to find a

way to end that war. and then, i remember right that i wrote in my diary the day before the election. i just fear that the nightmare of trying to result in vietnam was going to be -- that is what these were on. ar research. >> a very interesting letter from johnson to, i believe walt whitman or one of the very

famous journalists.

>> whoo julie's dad made very clear. the om thing i knew were these people waving red books and these mass demonstrations.

stories at hong kong and the attorney about what an extraordinary area of the world this is. and what he expected. that's his contribution. presidents do contribute things. many of them encounter difficulties. nixon's great vision of asia, mattering to the americans in the way that europe mattered to us between 1941. and soon that arena as the center of development and so forth in decades. was a tremendous contribution

which is remembered and acknowledged throughout china today. >> it was terrible for the nation. just wasn't being -- just wasn't something terrible for the family. but, the whole water gate saga, you know, it didn't -- it wasn't good for our presidency. so that was very difficult.

i think that i wouldn't want to put words in linda and lucy's mouths, but i would think that it -- with a half a million young men fighting vietnam and really just this almost seemingly endless war. and when your husband like lose losy lucy's husband was overseas. you never want to let people down. i think that's what makes it difficult when you go through something like that. >> it was difficult for a president going through that period. not in some way to let the american people down. i want to say that america, we did come through. the interesting thing is just think about this for a second. we had the fall of saigon in 1975 and we do not have an intervening event for the next ten years.

what happens? soviet union collapses. >> i think that is strangely -- the way that wes was interviewed about this. he was asked.

we saw him at a funeral not long ago. i guess it was 2003. he asked what do you make of the fact that you commanded american horses. we had the terrible set back in southeast asia. and soviet union chas collapsed around the globe. the west has won what do you make of that? he says well, i guess it's the walk of the yankees or something. i just don't know. i think the answer is that this was a very tiff cult period. it was a transition period in america. i think sit palpable in the speeches. we are really passing through. they are assuming great responsibilities without enemies and challenges. they are ambiguous responsibilities that you are seeing. so i think that we had difficulties.

i think it is impossible. >> 678% of children are in all black schools.

when he left office, 8%. the way he did it was that he quietly engaged southern officials. instead of saying this is a shame and a scandal and the south is bad and we have got to change this he got the southern officials to be on advisory committees and doing things to make sure this happened and there was a partnership. i really think this made the south the great region of the country that it is today. how could the south be a great region if they had parts of their population that were not treated equally. you have to get rid of that in order to move forward. now it is probably the most tie namic section of our country. i think there are many things that we could talk about. >> there is a memorial that is being planned now in washington.

it's adjacent to the mall. >> i just stepped down as a commissioner. >> i stepped down because i have a conflict of interest. i had become chairman of the presidential foundation. and this memorial is going to raise funds nationally and we're trying to raise funds. it is a general conflict. it's not -- it's -- and alts we have entered a phase where the eisenhower memorial is actually being design ed. brought down all kinds of

differences of opinion. that doesn't surprise me. if you think about how you would do a national memorial to dwight eisenhower, i could come up with a thousand ideas. the way the commission did it is they retained probably the most famous architect in the world. washington is responding to that. i am not surprised with their other designed out there i do not doubt that there will be modifications in the existing design and it will work out all over. >> we talked about misconceptions. you alluded to one. he was a lot more modern than most people think he was. and in fact -- >> the last week for