hovering blob of organizations and really became individuals and relationship. what stuck with me after my time there was the power of gestures large and small. so here we are in afghanistan walking with president karzai right outside of the presidential palace. we were there for just a short time, and over the course of our visit i was really struck and touched by how people responded to us in the street, how informal meetings that were set up, sort of the gravity of the moment for everyone. but i was just absolutely blown away by a visit that we took to a dormitory, a new dormitory for a university for young women, and how they were awe-struck by mrs. bush. they were mesmerized by her, and i think -- i just kept trying to process what it meant to them to have her there listening to them talk about their dreams and their goals. that just circles back to what i

was mentioning. that it comes down to relationshi relationships, right? that happens behind the photo-opes here. we're arriving in china. i think everyone has been beaten up in china, carol. and just really learning from mrs. bush about what it means to listen and to engage and to do that with grace in the private and the public sphere, to acknowledge the effort into the meetings. here we are in normandy on the beaches, which was such a beautiful moment and so powerful. i think everybody that was there that day. to the mundane these are the sweet little cherry blossom princesses around the nation coming in their matching pink suits. they were mortified with their ten seconds to mrs. bush. they're trying to prepare to say hello, or the generosity of

taking five minutes for a photo op in the heat of the sun in texas. it was relationships that happened around moments like this. it was smt spring of 2003 when the president of uganda was visiting and he brought with him the ugandian children's choir, which is a choir made up of children orphaned by aids. they set up chairs in the rose garden. i have a syndrome where i can't not cry if kids are singing. they can be singing anything, and then i cry. i try to photograph when they sting a singing. mrs. bush stayed, and the kids just swarmed her and hugged every one of them. it was this moment of incredible love and joy. she led them upstairs to the state floor where they had a little treat of juice and cookies and they brought out barney to play with her -- to play with them. i just think back to these kids, to the women in afghanistan, and even to the cherry blossom

princesses and think about the ripple effect that this moment, this chance to have a relationship had on them. those were the moments that were powerful to me, to be able -- and a real privilege to witness. this is one that sort of blew my mind. when i think about it, it's kind of rad, especially the day after elections now in russia yesterday. this is during the national book festival, and here's mrs. bush out of the limousine with mrs. putin and holding hands walking across the national mall at the national book festival, an event dedicated to the idea of an open access to information and freedom of speech. just being able to be there and witness that sort of moment was very humbling. i learned a lot about what it means to be respectful and present in the moment. mrs. bush could always have this great talent for creating a special aura around the people she was meeting with here. she was meeting with a navajo

elder in arizona or this little boy from the make-a-wish foundation whose wish was meeting with mrs. bush. it was playing with kaleidoscopes with his little center ray he chel, or goofing around with troops in tampa or visiting the wounded at walter reed. as a white house photographer, i was always aware of the fact that i was part of the gray area between public and private. i was there as one of the witnesses and to honor, but i was also sometimes an intruder. i felt very responsible for how i went about trying to document and what i did with the privilege of being there in those private times. i tried really hard to get it right and to show the multi-faceted people and make the pictures about the individuals that were there. here's the president blowing a kiss to mrs. bush as we leave to

go back to the united states, and he stays with his delegation in mexico. just a quick moment after the state of the union with family. flying home for christmas, you know, when your guard is down. coming back from europe with jenna. i would say it's not always a seamless thing to be a white house photographer. nobody tried to strangle me, though. it's not a seamless thing. i don't believe that you're ever a fly on the wall as a photographer. you go in there to look and shape and image and you have a camera and you crawl around where you shouldn't be. you change the balance, and again, that's all about the relationships. i think you really have to have a good sense of humor and a heavy dose of humility. and in the photo office we had this sort of the small running joke of pictures of who had been thrown out of which meeting which way, but when you

inadvertently become part of the event and you shouldn't, it's a photographer's nightmare. here we go out on the east floor, and the president just said, no more pictures, right? stepping out of the limos in front the of the house and having the dogs rush me. i didn't know what else to do except lift my cameras to protect myself. talking the president and first lady into a dawn photo-op and have the dogs go in an unmanaged way. it's a lot of fun, because you're around everybody for so much time. >> that's a good shot, isn't it? >> you're around everyone for so much time it's about the relationships, it was an amazing first hand education for me to witness and document the relationships that have become our collective memory that our government that are the white house, that are the west wing, that are the east wing and peace talks. it just shifted everything and how i think about what i do.

it had a huge impact, the ripple affect on me has affected how i work and parent. it was a great time. i was a first-time mother in the white house and it was amazing whatever mrs. bush sdz to do in the policy speeches and the way i participate in our democracy and the way i thing about the future. thank you. >> this is an extraordinary body of work. susan, i wanted to pick up on what you talked about, the life-changing experience that's being a white house photographer. you're all pros at the art of photography. i wonder, did you have to change the way that you approached your job being in the white house? after all, you're recording history, and it is for the

public record. so does that change the way you approach the art? >> eventually it does. when i first started i came in wanting to make the document of the century, and then i rlszeald i needed to take a deep breath and just watch and be attentive and do my homework. i think it made me a better and more deliberate photographer. >> carol. >> i think it took me a while to get up your nerve. my first assignment was to drive with mrs. bush from the national observatory where the vice president lives to the white house, and then to photograph them moving into blair house. not the white house, but to blair house. i think i took three photos. i was so nervous. and it just -- you don't want to intrude on private -- on their private time, but you do have to intrude on their private time because it is for all of us.

eventually you have to think 10 years, 20 years down the road, and this is telling history. >> david, you won the pulitzer prize at age 25, and you were in the white house several years later. did you approach the job differently upon landing in the white house? >> i had -- i got to know it before -- the day i photographed president ford to soon-to-be president ford, the day that spiro agnew resigned, i like to say this in this room and most of you know who i'm talking about. i give a lot of lectures aat school, and it's a little dicey. i even have to explain who president ford is sometimes. i had an ongoing relationship with him starting the first "time" cover of him when he was designated by nixon to be the replacement for agnew. then "time" had we covering him. i got to know the family really well. i went skiing with them and taking pictures.

it was back in the days when the magazine paid for my skiing lessons in the good old days as we would call them. but i got to know them really well. by the time he became president, i had really got along well with everybody including the kids. mrs. ford was always, you know, a big proponent of having me work in the white house. the night that president ford was sworn in, he had been president for about eight hours, and my background is i'm from a little town in oregon. i have no background in journalism or anything else. my dad was a traveling salesman, and how i got to that night sitting with president ford, the only person in the room, and he wanted to talk to me about the job. he hadn't offered it to me, and said, how do you see the white house photographer's job? shouldn't he be talking to kissinger and some of these guys?

i knew lbj's photographer was the absolute role model for me. he had "total accestotal total didn't have much access at all. it's not what nixon wanted. i thought what do i say if he asks me. there are only two things i'd like? one is total access, all meetings all the time and to work for you directly, not for the white house chief or staff or the press secretary. he was puffing on his pipe and looked at me and said, you don't want air force one on the weekends? but it started well, you know. it started well, and it never let up. it was -- i was so respectful and loved those guys, and they gave me a tremendous opportunity. i'm a pro. you know, i work 16 hours a day, and they let me into their life and i respected that to this

day. i really am blessed to be able to do that. >> alita black was talking earlier about the fact we just get lucky sometimes in american history, and i think we were extraordinarily lucky to have the three first ladies that were in the white house while you all were in your jobs. like lady bird johnson, betty ford took the role of first lady under extraordinary circumstances, david. you talked about -- >> that's a great title for a book, actually. wait, it's the title of my book. >> that's a shameless plug. >> all benefits going to ut austin, by the way, the center for american history. >> you were there at the ford house in alexandria, virginia, the night president ford took office and the first night that mrs. ford became first lady. that was an extremely unusual situation. talk about being in their house that evening and what america was feeling and what the fords

were feeling at that time. >> i think they were just -- one of the reasons i think i got along with them is they -- i've never met like more normal people. they were -- i think president ford respected i'd been in stram a vietnam and i was in a combat photographer for two years and came back. he was in the pacific as a navy officer. you know what, looking back on that i think he was only 60 years old when he took that job, but i thought he was like 93. i look at the pictures, because my dad was like 21 older than me. so i just had a -- i always refer to him even in private conversation to this day, mr. ford, when he was in congress or mr. vice president or mr. president, i've never -- he never said you can call me jerry, and i would have never dreamed of doing it. it was formal to the degree i

have real respect for my elders. 60 years old is nothing now. i think that was it. i just -- we hit it off. it was that kind of relationship you can't explain. you could not ever create that kind of relationship, and i -- and each white house photographer -- by the way, those were terrific photos, because you get a sense of who they are and that's why we're there. you're right. we're kind of the eyes and the situation where you can't go normally, but hopefully we bring a true picture back. that didn't answer your question entirely. needless to say, i was in the loop the whole time and never was out. >> the same with the bushes for 41. he was very cognizant of the fact that he looked down the road and he saw that he would have a library. he knew he would have an archive, so they were both incredibly open to us

documenting their lives. never once, never once said, for me anyways, you know, stop. that's enough. get out. why are you here? it was always an open situation. >> carol, you talked about the welsley speech mrs. bush gave, and that was a defining moment in a lot of ways for mrs. bush's tenure as first lady. give a little context, if you would, to that speech and why it was so important. >> i think it's multi-layered. every time i go back and read it, it's so incredible because of the time, what i called and i think what mrs. bush referred to as the brouhaha over her speaking, and what the ladies there thought was a successful woman. i would love to go back 20 years later and talk to like a half a dozen of them and find out where

they are and what their ideas are now about what a woman's role is and what's more important for your family, for your -- you know, it starts with your family. and i think mrs. bush embodied that, and i think that that's the message that she was trying to get across, was, yes, we want diversity. yes, you want to go out and live your dreams according to who you are, but unless you love yourself, your family first, you can't really do for anybody else. >> susan, certainly 9/11 was a defining moment in mrs. bush's tenure in the white house. talk about the -- she speaks -- writes very eloquently about her role changed post-9/11. tell us about your experience on 9/11 and what you returned to when you came back to the white house. >> when i started with the white house, i was six months pregnant. my son was born in mid-july.

when 9/11 happened i was at home with the television on. i had family in town. i watched everything live, and i was -- i mean, you know, i was as stunned as could be and paralyzed. i didn't know how to respond. i just wanted to hold onto my baby. i just wanted to, you know, making lots of phone calls, making sure family members were safe that traveled that day and that sort of thing. and then either the next day or day after i called into the photo office and i spoke with a woman named marilyn. i said, marilyn, tell me what i need food? do you guys need help? what's the workload? i was worried about everybody. she said, no, you need to be home with your baby, and that's where -- so i stayed home. i stayed home, and i was -- it was a real emotional time to both not be there and then to go

back. one of the first things i did going back was to travel to crawford, and i photographed mrs. bush as she was delivering the radio address on afghan women. i think everything had changed. i mean, how can everything not have changed after 9/11? what was so amazing and wonderful was sort of the powerful that came from that to recognize that women -- discussions about women's rights need to be part of our discussions about democracy and moving forward. that had a big shape, and it was all leading towards going to afghanistan and making -- working with women's health and status. >> one of my favorite quotes is from groucho mamarx. the secret to life is sincerity. once you can fake that, you have it made. one of the most difficult parts of being first lady is you always have to be on and be in the moment.

you spoke about the laura bush bubble. talk about that a little, susan. >> i think, for those of you who have had the chanced to with mrs. bush, it's a wonderful thing. everything from the letter she spent out to families and children which was so moving. i met so many people that felt that that letter was written to them. and then in the individual moment, i just have to say the second time i was pregnant -- i spent a lot of time pregnant in my job. the second time i had sort of a nightmare, other than dogs rushing me from the limo or the chinese security. i was at home trying to get cuff lin links into a maternity blouse when my cell phone and pager went on. i pick it had up. it was mrs. bush's aide and she said susan where are you? what's wrob? you have a photo op in three minutes in the diplomatic reception room. i threw everything up and my husband to drop me off and

grabbed my cameras and went running in and tried to act like i meant to be there like that. what was so sweet was mrs. bush could tell i was flustered and we got through the photo-op and everything was fine. that day she took me upstairs to the kitchen and looked at this little catalog of new baby furniture that was out. just kind of -- 45 seconds calmed me right down. okay, we took care of the photo-op. it's all done. here's what the priority is. how are you, susan? check in. it's okay. let's go forward. it was great. >> carol, what is the -- you've seen the first lady up close, the role of the first lady up close. what do most people not appreciate about the role of first lady? >> oh, gosh. to help -- >> what might surprise us about the role, those of us looking at a distance at the first lady in

her role? what would be most be surprised by? >> one thing is the amount of work, the amount of travel, the number of speeches, the shaking hands, the meeting with people. there's not -- first of all, there's -- i'm sorry. i'm talking about my first lady. there's nothing better than a hug from barbara bush. i had to plug that. but it's so hard, and i mean, just being a photographer, i was exhausted. it took me a year to recover. mrs. bush never tired. 5:30 in the morning she'd be out swimming, but i don't think people realized that -- for a photographer, people say, oh, were you like hanging out in the residence with them? it's a very structured job. these are the events. this is what you have to cover. this is what you have to take care of. so it's a balance between how

incredibly intense it is and how hard you work and then the fun parts. mrs. bush made it incredibly fun. >> we have about three minutes left, and i want to ask you all an impossible question. if you had just one photograph that you could take from your days as white house photographers, what would that photograph be? we don't have the photographs themselves, but maybe give it in a thousand words or less, because we have limited time. i'll start with you, david. >> you know, there's a picture of mrs. ford in my mind, and there's so many. actually, i tried to find it to put it in here, but i couldn't. we were going to indonesia or some place over the time line, and she was given a king neptune crown. it's like -- it was so much her personality. it was on air force one, and

she's poking her head out. when i think of mrs. ford, i think of somebody who had a lot of difficulty in her life and did so much for so many people. we know her story, but i've always thought of her in the cabinet room table pictures a great example of that. the fun-loving, mischievous person that she was that did so much good for particularly women and equal rights across the board and having a loving husband who not just put up with her but was her partner. when i see her facing i see a smiling happy person. >> carol, what would your image be? >> i think the final day was -- would be my picture for me saying good-bye. it was so hard on everybody, and mrs. bush just made sure everybody understood that life would go on.

you know, that we had wonderful times. she did such a fantastic job, and she just kept us all moving forward. >> it was such a graceful exit. >> it was. >> susan. >> i have a series of pictures that i'm thinking of where we flew out to arizona, and we met with a family of the soldier who was the first navajo woman who was killed in the iraq war. it's actually a really joyful picture of her. it's a really joyful picture because it's just mrs. bush being mrs. bush with her family and with the kids. it's a sweet moment that was bittersweet. >> yeah. i want to thank all of you, again, for your recollections and great work. i want to thank the two first ladies for not only being here

but their service to this nation. thank you all very much. >> thank you. bra bravo. >> good job. >> we did it with time to spare. this year marks the 75th anniversary of the hin denburg when on may 6, 1937 it caught fire in new jersey. 35 people in the airship were killed as well as one member of the grounds crew. the hindenburg regularly flew passengers between europe and the united states. up next is a five-minute newsreel about the accident. >> the german zeppelin

hindenburg as it sped over new york to its tragic end at lakehurst, new jersey nows lies at the air station, a twisted mass of metal. shortly after these pictures were taken on the first trip of the season, the huge craft exploded while docking and blazed to it a fiery end taking the live of almost half its 99 passengers and crew. hours late on its trip from hamburg because of head winds, the zeppelin had to ride out a thunderstorm on the jersey coast before heading the to the air station. the wind is back and the docking is a ticklish one, but it's all a thrill for the crowd of happy passengers eager to land after their transoceanic trip. slowly the big ship warps in, and the grounds crew rush to it. in another ten minutes or so it would have been snugly docked. as the passengers crowded the windows to watch, a roar and

burst of flames near the tail fins turned the ship into a flaming inferno. >> passengers and crew, the fortunate among them fell our jumped and were dragged to safety before the fiery furnace took their lives. heroic work around the white hot skeleton snatched more than one gazed and half-burned passenger from the blazing wreckage. for the most of those incandescent tangle there was no hope. it's the greatest of miracles that anyone came out of the disaster alive.

seven million cubic feet of inflammable hydrogen gas placed up in less than a minute. the hundreds of tons of fuel oil burns for an hour or more with its dense black smoke making a paul over the tran logic scene. in all the history the air disaster, this is the worst, the most terrible. hailed as the luxury liner of the air, the hindenburg's horrible end has shocked the entire world. the pride of the skies reaches its journey's end. >> a twisted, tangled mass of seared girders and bits of black fabric are all that remains of hindenburg that likes at the

lakehurst naval station. the death list is 35 with 10 including the captain on the critical list. the naval inspection board inspects the wreckage as others search for a possible clue that might yield a key to the mysterious disaster. the remains will not be moved until the arrival of germany's expert with the department of commerce. german ambassador hans luther was the first reich observer to arrive. he refused to comment on anything connected with the disaster. as soon as possible the injured moved are carried to ambulances transferred to new york 60 miles