and we'll give the president the eyes of the goat to eat. instead of her eating the eyes of the goat, can't she like dance or something, you know, to show her appreciation. so she wound up dancing also with the native customs in ghana. the ceremony was incredible, like you see in the old movies. everyone is carrying in the subchieftains, and one subchieftain they're carrying in, about a 300-pound white redhead. her eyes got big. evidently, he had inherited the land and wouldn't give it up. his father was a farmer. >> on that visit to ghana in '57, i think it was chief dan, i think was his name, that was the first time that my father met martin luther king jr. because he was at the inauguration. >> right. he was there. >> the independence day, independence from britain. that's when my father's relationship with king began so that was a very historic trip. >> and then from there we went on to the ivy coast, president

boneit and his wife greeted mrs. sadat and mrs. nixon, thousands of people, a great motorcade all the way. it was unbelievable. that was the same time, 1972, not much, but it was just a stopover, so to speak. >> and then just a month later the nixons went to china, on that historic visit. several weeks ago the nixon foundation and the u.s. institute for peace had a day-long symposium marking the 40th anniversary of that trip. and secretary hillary clinton was the final speaker, the keynote speaker at the end of the day. and she made a point of saying, right at the beginning of her remarks, that while this event was celebrating and marking the 40th anniversary of president nixon's trip to china, it was also the 40th anniversary of mrs. nixon's trip to china. you know, most of the diplomats

and foreign policy analysts and academics all think the most important thing to come out of that visit was the shanghai communique. i think if you remember most americans -- if you ask most americans what they remember about that trip to china, two words -- giant pandas. those giant pandas that came to the zoo in 1972 came there because of pat nixon. julie, how did your mother score two giant pandas from the chinese? >> well, it was one of the banquets, and my mother was seated next to joanneli. i actually brought this. the chinese they were heavy smokers. there was a silhouette of panda cigarettes. they were making conversation. she thought he was very intellectual. she enjoyed meeting and talking with him.

at one point, she put her hand out and pointed to the cigarettes and said, they're so adorable, i love them. he said, i'll give you some. my mother said, cigarettes? he said, no, pandas. that was the beginning of the whole thing of giving the american people two giant pandas who came to live in the zoo in washington. in return, the united states gave the chinese two musk oxen who are very dull animals named milton and matilda. not very exciting animals. in loma linda, my favorite thing from the exhibit out there is the cage that one of the pandas was sent to the united states in. and there were two cages. and it's about maybe the size of this table, maybe a little longer. very primitive. i mean, it look its like a dog or cat cage. apparently now panda cages are $1 million each. it's an incredible artifact. and because the gift was to the

national zoo which is part of the smithsonian, the smithsonian kept the crates and that's why we were able to exhibit it at the library. >> and i was amazed that the pandas arrived in the united states less than two months after joe enli promised to give them to us. talk about cutting red tape. we have the video, but they're not working still. she went to the zoo to officially open the panda house. she said at the end of her brief remarks, she said, i predict that pandemonium is going to break out here at the national zoo. and in the years since, more than a million people every year go to see the pandas at the national zoo. there are several other zoos in -- >> nobody visits the muskoxen. it's true. >> go figure. >> jack, you were in china with president and mrs. nixon. >> yeah. >> and mrs. nixon carried out her own schedule during that

time, and you took her around. what all were you doing while the president was in those talks with the chinese leaders? >> he was meetings and mrs. nixon would see various things, mostly, once again, trying to mingle with people. this was difficult. those of you who have dealt in the communist world know that they're very afraid of authority figures. and mrs. nixon, of course, was one. they would never come say hello and were always very tentative. she always found a way to break the ice, sometimes using me as a prop. i recall that to shop, they had a friendship store, that's where you could spend non-chinese currency. usually, eastern europeans would go there. she figured it out, okay, brennan, you're about the same size as ricardo -- ricardo is

the president -- and i want to buy him pajamas. absolutely no respect for the dignity of the united states marine corps, i had to take off my bottoms and put these pajama bottoms on. she laughed and roared so all the chinese people thought this was really cool, you using this guy. >> we looked for that picture, jack, but we couldn't find it. >> yeah, yeah. it's hidden. you can't find it. anyway, i have it. and everywhere we went -- you just saw the picture of her at the zoo with the pandas. and one little side story. always barbara walters -- we had all of the top press people, walter cronkite. the president was in meetings, they didn't want to sit outside so they would go around with mrs. nixon. of course that's what's being projected back to the united states. so these heroes in the media wanted to be with mrs. nixon. barbara walters was especially egregious, always wanted to

stand next to mrs. nixon. mrs. nixon would smile and i'd grab her arm. and mrs. nixon would politely chastise me later. >> i don't think we'd let you loose in the press office. >> in the end, i just took barbara walters by the arm and said, this is it not "the barbara walters show." >> that's why you weren't on ten most interesting people with barbara walters that year. [ laughter ] what else did you see when you were over there? >> well, of course, with the president, we took him along on a couple of the trips. we went to the great wall and the ming tombs. and the dinners. listen to this -- well, she was nice about this. we were so tired -- i was so tired, mrs. nixon wasn't usually. one night we had on a schedule, thursday night, free night. couldn't wait. all of us couldn't wait to sleep that night instead of doing something, going here and there. we left the great hall of the people.

i get in the limo with the president, the interpreter, myself and secret service, president nixon just for something to say, said, oh, mrs. premier, mrs. nixon and i really love chinese food. whenever we can, we go out to peking duck dinner. i thought nothing of it. get back to our room, tear off my uniform, can't wait to crash. knock on the door, in calligraphy, you are invited to the great hall for peking duck dinner. i wanted to kill him. >> did you go? >> everyone went. and we had the four treasure soup which is the gizzards, the heart, the intestines, hot water. >> and you went to a commune as well when you were in china. what was that like? explain what a commune -- it's not like a '60s commune here, you know.

over in china, it's really a city. >> that's right. it's a city, and they just all share everything in the true communist mode. and i think they had one television in the commune that they all shared. you know, living conditions, just living in dirt. it was nothing you'd ever want to do. the incredible change -- i went in '72, '76, and '79, and the changes were remarkable. in 1972, very, very few automobiles except the soviet-made ones that only carried the top people in the government. everyone else was on a bicycle and in the same gray mile suit. every once in a while, you'd see a blue mile suit. you'd say, who is that guy? barbara walters should interview him. in 1976, you'd see more interesting things, then some color, people wearing things. again in '79, this intrigued me, it intrigued mrs. nixon a lot more because people were even more open and available for conversation and to chat. 1972, just party line, chairman

mao says, and everybody had a minder and you had to listen to them and repeat what chairman mao wanted you to hear. but mrs. nixon always knew -- a story happened in the '76 trip. '79 trip. excuse me. chairman mao's wife was madam ching ching, minister of culture. and she had arranged things for us to see. one night we were to see concerts, musicals. we're all ready to go, the foreign minister knocked on my door which is the adjacent room to the president and mrs. nixon. he said, i need to talk to you alone. he said, the fifth song is going to be an anti-taiwanese song. when it ends, madam qing is going to stand up and give a standing ovation because of the

denu denouncetion of taiwan. i thought, oh. i didn't say omg because that wasn't around then. i sat behind them, i counted the fifth song, i looked at the foreign minister, i said, don't get up. just stay down. i'm whispering to them. sure enough, the song ended and madam qing jumped up, applauded. president was like this. at the end, mrs. nixon just grabbed my hand and squeezed it like, we did it, kid. similarly, when we visited chairman mao in 1976, the foreign minister came to my room and said, chairman mao would like to meet with president nixon. i thought, great, give me a minute. i'll get them. this is late in the evening. he said, and he wants to meet with mrs. nixon and with you. i said, me? he said, well, when president nixon came previously, there were 80-some people and now there's just one. we respect loyalty. he wants to thank you for your

loyalty. i told the president this, he was not thrilled because he's the man. he's, all, all right, you and mrs. nixon just come in and meet him and leave. >> that sounds like him. >> we did. we knew our orders. we left. once again, she and i rode back. she grabbed my hand again and squeezed it like we did it this time. and i came back -- and bill sapphire, whose assistant is here in the audience used to always admonish me to write everything down. write everything down. i said, what for? i'm not going to write a book. that night i did. i still have it, verbatim, everything we saw in the forbidden city, what mao's room looked like, what he looked like, the guttural language he used. and i have that picture. anyway, that's -- that's incredible the things she did. and it's amazing how she could

break free, even with people who were so attuned to personal relationships and for touching and talking and hugging, you see the chinese could do that. >> and there was a similar sort of meeting with another very powerful man, brezhnev general secretary of the soviet union who came to the union in 1973 and they went out to san clemente and stayed with the nixons. >> you don't want to hear everything about that. >> tell us how the general secretary wanted to meet with mrs. nixon and give her a gift. >> the kgb back then ran everything. for some reason, they felt my military rank was phony. the kgb had military ranks. and gropev who became head of the soviet union later confronted me once and said, brennan, we know you not the major. i said, what do you mean? i'm a major. they said, no, you are the strongman. they thought i was cia.

>> may i interject? russia, we went to russia, went on the advance. and the one place -- several places, we went to the ballet and also the school for those children who did the ballet. and the thing is, with regard to gum department store, when we advanced it, there were a lot of people, all outside in the shop. and at the time mrs. nixon arrived, the place was deserted outside. i said, what's happening here? maybe it's the wrong day. we walked in. just the people who worked there, all in white coats, and she said to me, don't worry, they always do that. it was -- it was very embarrassing. but, you know, she went in there and purchased a few things but it was embarrassing to me because we wanted a big crowd. >> well, don, you were with them on the kitchen debate in '59, were you not, in the soviet

union then? >> oh, yeah. >> that's why she said to you, bill, they always do these things, because she'd been there in '59, and she knew exactly how programmed every visit would be in the soviet union. >> yeah. >> that was when she didn't really have a set program. >> right. >> but she managed to break the ice with the soviet wives. remember, they never had their wives at anything. and then she -- she broke the ice and had them come. she did very well on that, and she also challenged krushchev when they were talking about the solid fuel for missiles. and the boss asked a question which kruschev wasn't going to answer. and your mother said, well, you ought to be able to answer it, you're the top man in this

place and you know everything. >> right. >> it was great. >> in russia, we also went to a ballet school, also a circus. we took her to a circus, which was a little interesting. except i was quite concerned when they took us down below and there was a bear right there. it was quite scary, but they had it around the neck. and then from there we went to -- i have -- we went to after seoul -- russia, we went -- '74, we went to austria. nen then from there we went to cairo, from there to saudi arabia, to damascus and syria, to tell aaviv, ayman, jordan,

moscow all in 1974. >> when you said saudi arabia, you mentioned saudi arabia twice tonight. it's one of my favorite stories about my mother. the saudis -- the palace that my mother and father stayed in was so cold and there was no way to adjust the temperature, my mother told me later she slept in the bathtub. it was sort of like a little concave space. she moved into the bathtub. she had everything, pillows, on top of her. it was 50 degrees. they had air conditioned it to 50 degrees. >> i said, why did you sleep in the bathtub? why didn't you open the window? she said, i was concerned if you opened the window there would be an alarm. she took the bath mats and what have you and wrapped herself. and slept in the bathroom. >> kreschev wanted to show his great respect for mrs. nixon and while in san clemente, think

being i'm king kong, said he wants to see mrs. nixon alone. he said, i don't know how to do it. he said, obviously, you tell brennan. he's the kgb. i brought him over to the residence. he went into the room with mrs. nixon. and i was there. fist he prefaced it saying, i want you to know my wife did not buy these gifts for you. i personally went and bought these because i have such great admiration for you. he had these embroidered handkerchiefs that he insisted he personally bought these and personally brought them. not his wife. my wife didn't do it. >> i want to take -- we're running short on time which this is going really fast for me and i hope for you all as well. and give everybody just to ask to sum up a little bit. i'd like to start with don. you were with her during the vice presidential years when a

lot of challenges got handled, the travel methods, the different food, the no air conditioning and everything else. how would you summarize mrs. nixon's ability to handle any challenge that was put in front of her while she was overseas? >> do you mind a little plagiarism? >> no, i don't. >> i figured you were going to ask something like that. it's kind of hard to really express it. so i'm going to plagiarize this. i'm going to read something. it says, in later years she'd not lose her touch. she was at home visiting leper colonies or riding in an open-door helicopter to visit combat troops in vietnam. her courage was her trademark, and she stood by her husband in good times and bad. and that sums up the way i feel about her. >> yeah.

>> i used that at her eulogy, at her funeral, that's what i think. >> i just want to assure you, when you're quoting yourself, that's not plagiarism. [ laughter ] and it was such also very please thad you read my memo today all the way that you had that prepared. that is really great. >> don, that was a beautiful eulogy. there were four for my mother and my father asked you to give one of them and it was magnificent as you are. >> it was a great day. >> bill, i want to ask you as the state department fellow in the striped pants. how would you summarize mrs. nixon's impact on u.s. diplomacy around the world? >> she was wonderful. because every place that we had gone to, there were thousands

and thousands of people coming out and they wanted to see the first lady. and i've been involved with state department when these other prime min tisters and presidents came into the united states with their first lady and no one compared to mrs. nixon. she was magnificent and easy to work with. she said to me, why do you have to have such a largen tore roth? large, others came in later. but she never demanded anything from us. except when we want to orphanages, she said no press coming in. i always remember that. she was really wonderful. >> thank you, bill. jack, how would you summarize particularly the trips that you were on my gosh one stop after another and difficult long

schedules going long into the night. >> the insubscription on her gravesite, they can tell when you have love in your heart. as far as her work ethic which was incredible, she kept me going and i was in my 30s. just, never stopped, always did the right thing. never was late, never was as bill says, the only complaint she had was we don't need that. it cost too much money, an amazing lady in my life.

>> and julie, how would you s summarize the importance of your mother's work as ambassador of goodwill? >> i would say did your mother really like political life? and the answer always is, she just so believed in my father and what he was doing and believed in herself and in what she was doing and she knew during the 50s, that she was making a difference and it was helping u.s. policy and when my father was elected in 1969, we had 550,000 young men fighting in vietnam. this was a disaster for our country and the war dominated all of the n icht xon years so she was totally reiner jazzed to do more because she knew it could make a difference.

my father used to talk about i'm trying to build a generation of peace for the american people. that is what they did. i think the trips were important and it was the foundation that were laid at that time thanks to an incredible team that supported them advised. i thank all of you. there are so many here today from the vice praz esidential ys and it is a great american story. i'm so proud of what was accomplished during those years. >> i want to thank everyone from coming tonight. thank our extraordinary panel. they have lived history. and they are very generous to come tonight and share their stories of me men tus timomenton the life of our country and to help everybody learn more about

what an extraordinary woman pat nixon was. we worked for a great team of designers and part of what they did was the design process as they read the book about mrs. nixon and each one came to me and said you know especially the first guy who was old enough to rep t remember the nixon years. he said i shouldn't say this, but i have a crush on pat nixon. she was an amazing woman, as a representative of our country around the world and an amazing woman and did so much and was such a great role model for all of us. i'm sorry about the videos. i hope that we will have them

online at the nixonfoundation.org. one was a tribute to her on the floor of the house and statements from first ladies. so i hope that you will go on to the website to see that video. i'm sorry we weren't able to see that today. >> and barbara bush begins her comments i love pat nixon. so thank you all for coming tonight. >> the life of a sailor includes scrubbing the deck in the morning, working on the sails climbing aloft but by the end of the day you are ready for some rest. but you don't get a full eight ours sleep. on a ship like this it is four hours on and four hours off. >> this weekend the life of an enlisted man during the war of

1812. >> the sailor lived in fear of being whipped. it was carried by an officer in a bag and the thing a sailor never wanted to see was a petty officer who was getting ready for a flogging. it is a phrase we still use today don't get the cat out of the bag. >> also more from the contenders our series on key political figures who ran and lost but changed history. sunday, former new york governor al smith. >> you are an environment al historian. what does that mean. >> environmental history is a relatively new kind of history that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s which tries to see the role of nonhuman nature -- plants, animals, diseases, the landscape, geophysical processes -- in american history

or in world history. it's not limited to -- >> not just recent history? >> all the way back to the glaciers or however far you want to go back. i think the great insight of environmental history, and mark's book is really a fulfillment of this vision, is that we understand the world better, we understand the past better, if we don't treat human beings in isolation from the rest of creation, from the rest of nature. we're in nature. our lives are dependent upon natural systems and our relationship with other organisms. and many, many historical phenomena aren't fully explicable if you see us isolated from those relationships. >> is it your viewpoint that history in the past has been taught as a series of personalities rather than, say, all of the factors, including the environment, the topography, the climate? >> well, certainly if you were to talk about the history of

history very broadly, you could say that the farther back you go, the more the impulse is to see history in terms of the role of single individuals or great leaders. abraham lincoln told the story of the civil war in terms of one person. but i would say over the last 100 years, really, there's been a greater and greater tendency among professional historians to think about groups of people, institutions, large processes. but often, before environmental history, nonhuman things were not much a part of that. so we could talk about the history of the supreme court, the history of the congress, the history of the standard oil company. but we wouldn't always situate them in their larger natural context. that's been the contribution of environmental historians. >> you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. for more information follow us on