issue and is it thus true that those such as presidents will never move as quickly as those championing an issue want them to? >> the answer is yes. i was present when kennedy, the joke about franklin roosevelt, a big move needed to be made. he said i agree with you completely. now go out and do it. he gave them the bad news and said they would not be introducing the ledge police station and it was a major moment and they argued. king never made kennedy comfortable. will kins did although he may

have pushed harder than king did. it was a remarkable exchange. kennedy said reno there is no chance for the bill to move. the southern opponents have far more votes to make it impossible to pass. to push it now would lose our capital for ourselves. it doesn't make senz. we need to do everybody we can do short of legislation. king pushed for a new emancipation proclamation of the boldest kind and kennedy wasn't ready for it. when we left, kennedy said, martin luther king, said you know, i had hoped that he was going to be the president that would have the understanding to

understand this problem. the kill to solve it and the passion and urgency to see it through. he said i'm convinced that he has the first two and we'll have to see about the last one. hamilton said the constitution wasn't adopted because of the argument because of the federalists. he said it was because of the events. you can say that the kennedys started toward ground zero. by the time john was killed and far more by the time robert was killed, they were way up there and were committed in ways that no president had been on the firing line. committed before. >> but there was a thing in that

ad administration that in the beginning they were dumb. i mean just really almost eger. now wait, wait. >> i think so too. they thought, they started talking to me, but they thought i was roy's kid. they didn't know roy didn't have kids. that i was roy's nephew. they have sent messages to roy. i have to say to try it too and they came to me and they said why are they doing this stuff in birmingham? kids are out of school and going

ahead with -- beating them. and so a major domestic issue in civil rights guide came to me at a party. i barely knew him and he said is there anyway to talk to roy will kins he said to your father. and to get them to release -- stop this in birmingham. he said to me, it is a terrible thing. he said it is a terrible thing to put those kids in the streets. they should be in school. i said you know something, these kids are learning self involvement. they are learning that they can control their own world. they are changing the world and

it is more than any lessons they will ever treat those kids in those segregated schools that they prepared for them. >> i'm telling you. that was the way that they were. [ applause ] >> let me ask you this question then. because i have to get johnson's name in this conversation. before we end. that is, is it fair or accurate that johnson receives i would say most of the credit for civil rights president associated with civil rights if kennedy came around and teed up the legislation?

they made them cautious and it was their assessment of what the white backlash in the north and west would be. >> i'm going to ask you that question. >> when he signed the civil rights, the first act. he said something like we democrats have lost the south for the next three generations. he knew what it was like in the south. the kennedys were scared. and south boston's reaction to segregation was not as violent as birmingham. but it was shocking. they -- >> is it fair?

>> i think it is not. johnson was wonderful but he coasted on the tragedy of kennedys with all of his skill. he deserves the most total respect for the achievement of piloting it through. it was all of those events that happened including. >> roger if you would answer that. we are at the end i'm going to ask you to be brief. >> is it fair or accurate or both that linden johnson pretty much gets the credit for being the civil rights president that was teed up by the kennedys some would say? >> it happened that my uncle was with me in washington. he said, this is going to be

good. i said are you kidding me? what do you mean? this old south earn guy. i said that guy -- he said you are wrong. this man cares, i've work ed wih him through the civil rights big that we've got. and he is heart was in it and he cares. he cares. my uncle rarely says you are wrong. this man cares he has a heart and he can be mean to get what he wants. >> so it is fair that he should be called the civil rights president? >> i think it is very fair. >> all right. >> i would say for slightly

different reasons. >> johnson was a prag mattist like kennedy and i don't think that johnson would have moved with kennedy. i would give johnson have for his ac lament. of course, as most people know, it took a lot of work to get the 64 act group. he had to get it amended to death. you had to get it through the senate where no filibuster had ever been broken with a closure motion. he had to accomplish that. and johnson worked tirelessly to

accomplish that. he met with richard russell. upon taking office and said russell i'm going to run over that. he never said that. so, i would give johnson credit not for the additional commitment. but i think for having the thing passed and it was really, really hard to get the thing passed. five months of debate to get it through. nothing else was going to be considered and he did it. >> well, if i may, we are at the end and i want charlene hunter's voice to be the last one. how did what happened to you shape your decision in years to

come and your career? >> it is all in this book. but i will say, it has shaped me, i couldn't be an activist as a journalist but i could be a reporter for the things that i was seeing and black people were being portrayed in, inaccurate way ways. on linden johnson in my book, it is written for young readers, it is for you to understand everything that we have been talking about. it is in terms that you can understand and the speech is a wonderful piece when he passed the civil rights act.

i would encourage you to read it because you will get a sense of the heart that he put it into it. i think to go to your point he believed in this but like all of these politicians, you will learn that word google it. >> thank you all. we shall overcome. [ applause ] >> you are watching american history tv. wherever i week we feature the lives and legacies of presidents of the united states.

when immigrants start to show up in significant numbers, they are showing up into a political environment in which they are already qualifyed to vote in which they are qualified to become american citizens. this is just after election time and it shows a saloon and a polling place. you had to go into the door in the back to vote. this weekend, university professor talks about the roots of pleuralism in the united states. this weekend on c-span3. as the presidential campaign enters it's final months, american history tv will air the

contender contenders. we will air the series every weekend on sunday's at 8:30 am. all here on american history tv on c-span3. join us as historians preview the series. >> i work a lot now on sort of the site with this younger generation of digital natives. they feel like old media is fact checked. one of the things that drives them crazy is anything that doesn't have a link to the source. being inaccurate with your sourcing is harder online. i think the internet community keeps you a lot more honest.

>> our coverage on a panel of journal i journalism media was most watched. watch it online anytime. all at c-spwww.c-span.org/libra. college of the ozarks professor discusses the origins of the cold war. the college is located in point look out, missouri. >> good afternoon folks. quick question.

>> all right where did i stop last time? >> we dropped two atomic bombs on japan correct? today we are going to talk about the post world war roughly defined 1945 to 1960. we are going to try to get through the 50s today if we can. the focus today is the cold war. that is sort of an odd term. but we are talking about roughly 1945 up through 1989. when were you born? 1992. you have no concept of the cold war. this is a term that is applied to talk about the conflict between the united states and

soft yet union. we are going to emerge and this post world war is a struggle. it is a cold war because we the united states do not come into direct conflict with the soviet uni union. we are going to battle them for supremacy. but never directly. this is the most important foreign policy issue in the last half of the 20th century. it encompasses all kinds of topics that we will talk about over the next couple of weeks. we are going to talk about what is going on in the effects of the cold war here at home.

we will talk about the second red scare and how the united states will be gripped with all things communist. so, a lot of ground to cover today. all right, so, we are going to start with the origins of cold war. where do we start? >> let's go back to 1941. the last class period when we discussed the war itself. hitler invaded russia in the summer of 1941. he tried to get in and get out and knock them out of this war. it didn't happen. early winter, he gets bogged down and eventually, in december of 1941, the russian red army

gets up and begins to attack. one of the things about the invasion led me to this interesting quote. look at this for a second and without the author, tell me who you think it can be attributed to. winston churchhill. we are going to have strange bedfellows here in world war ii. and the ally is going to be joseph stalin. war makes strange bedfellows. we have the united states, great britain long ties, long time connection to history and culture and now we also have the

soviet union as an ally. so the leader is joseph stalin. what we know now is in prison, more of his people into camps murdered more of his own people than hitler killed jews. he is a ruthless, brutal, paranoid dictator of the soviet union. now, when i day paranoid, i mean sort of schizophrenic kind of paranoid. she paranoid about the safety and security of this country. two times now, they've been invaded from the west by germany. world war i and world war ii. there is no natural boundary that separates. there is no division on his western front that would be an obstacle, that would prevent other nations from invading.

so twice now his country has been invaded and his people have suffered the consequences. he is very paranoid about the safety and security of his western front. he is also paranoid, again, about his own position of power. we have on the one hand democracy, capitalism, free enter prize in the west and this you tall tearian dictatorship in the east. he's very paranoid about attempts to solidify his power or attempts that he would be thrown out of power. and that he would be thrown out. one of the things he is going to make known early in the war. bogged down in russia and the russian people are suffering. he wants to open up a second front and draw hitler's forces to allow his army to gain

some momentum, try to drive them out of their country. he wants a western front. another demand he has or a consequence of this first demand is when we do attack, he doesn't like that at all. he wants a european front. in his paranoid ways, he is thinking that we do this intentional any, we don't attack in western europe to help him in the east. we actually are attacking in north africa which is very little of concern or help to him. he thinks we're doing this almost intentionally so that the nazi forces in russia will continue to wear down the russian forces in the east. now, that's not the case. we talked about this last time where we're trying to stretch

hitler's forces thin. we're trying to make him stretch his resources until something snaps, fighting a three-front war instead of a two-front war. but in stalin's mind, our third front in north africa was intentional to punish his people. we don't like communists. and so this is a way that we're trying to destroy them. and the other thing that he's going to make known to the west, to churchill, to roosevelt, is that he wants protection. when this war is over, and we are victorious, we, meaning the allies, are victorious, he wants a buffer zone of protection. he wasn't very specific. that is, he wants to be able to protect his country from any further invasions. does he want 50 mile, 500 miles, part of a country, all of a country, more than one country?

he is not specific about what he wants in terms of this buffer zone of protection. he will get specific later, but here early in the war, we are sort of uneasy allies to defeat this common foe in hitler. we know a little bit about stalin and we know his demands and philosophies and we will learn more about him as time goes on. so, what's roosevelt's response in president roosevelt guiding us through the great depression, now into war, roosevelt believes that the best way to win this war is to ccooperate with stol . if there is one term that i can give you that is synonymous with roosevelt's foreign policy with the soviet union, it is simply cooperation. don't antagonize stalin. our democracy may be different. capital lymph and communism, we may be very different in terms of our political and economic systems and institutions.

but we have to cooperate with each other to defeat adolph hitler. that is going to be the driving force in roosevelt's foreign policy in dealing with stalin. we're going to go along, get along. as far as we can and as far as that will take us. well, the first time that roosevelt, churchill, and stalin meet is in 1943 in tehran. they have communicated with each other with tale grams and the like, but never face to face. they probably have already developed some predisposed notions of what the other guy is and looks like and what he likes to do. the first face-to-face meeting of the "big three," stalin, roosevelt or churchill, is in tehran. they are going to be talking about several items. foremost on the list is the progress of the war and, by

1943, the war is going well. if you remember from last time, by 1943 we have driven the german forces out of north africa and invasion of sicily and invasion of italy by now. the russian red army is pushing the nazis out of their country. we are also in the planning stages of operation overload, d-day. all of this is happening by the time these guys meet in 1943. so it's a pretty friendly meeting. it's a cordial meeting. they are getting to know each other and exchanging pleasantries and telling jokes. it's sort of a very cordial atmosphere. roosevelt even commented, this guy stalin is not bad after all, thinking that, i can cooperate with him. we will be able to get along. so the pror progress of the war really dictates that this is a fairly pleasant meeting.progres really dictates that this is a

fairly pleasant meeting.gress o really dictates that this is a fairly pleasant meeting. they want to figure out what peace will look like. one of the things that comes out of tehran is stalin is just operation loeover lord, this insisting this invasion on the western front, i have been asking for is going to happen, right? in exchange for that, stalin informs roosevelt that once hitler is defeated, his nation will declare war on japan. that hasn't happened yet. the soviet union has not declared war on japan. stalin tells roosevelt, you guy goes ahead with d-day, we defeat hitler. and wng three months, within three months of hitler's defeat,

the soviet union will declare war on japan and help you, the americans, defeat this nation.m soviet union will declare war on japan and help you, the americans, defeat this nation.t, the soviet union will declare war on japan and help you, the americans, defeat this nation. it's a very friendly cordial meeting. the next time they get together, it's a little bit different. in february of 1945, the big three meet for a second time. it's known as the alta conference on the black sea. this time things have changed. if you remember from the last class period, by the early part of 1945, the red army is driving deep into germany by now. they have already pushed the nazis out of their country all of the way through poland and into germany and they're knocking on the door of berlin. the american allies, americans and british, well, we got slowed down a little bit along the way. why was that?

>> the battle of the bulge. >> the battle of the bulge. okay. that will slow us down in our race to get to berlin. they get there first. we talked about that last time. so what i'm getting at is, when these guys meet again, the situation favors the soviet union. they are closer to berlin, they are going to get there first. stalin uses that as leverage. he is no longer sort of going to cooperate with the americans and british. he's going to start making demands. this is what i want in the postwar world. he begins to get more specific with his demands. one of which is poland. his buffer zone of protection is not 50 miles. he wants all of poland. i want a few other eastern countries, not all of them, he said. i will allow for free elections to be held in some of them. but he is starting to define what he wants in terms of