daughter, julie nixon eisenhower offers her recollections and insights. this is about 90 minutes. >> good evening. it's a pleasure to welcome you

this evening. for this even's program celebrating pat nixon. a special welcome to our c-span audience. before we begin, i would like to tell you about two programs coming up later this month. on wednesday, april 18th, we'll have a special discussion on slavery freedom, to observe the 150th anniversary of the d.c. emancipation. the next week on monday, april 23rd, we'll host the nixon legacy forum called waging peace. nixon and geo politics in the middle east. to learn more about these and all of our programs and exhibits, consult our monthly calendar of events and our sign-up sheet is in the lobby. where you can receive it by regular mail or e-mail. you'll also find brochures about other national archives exhibits and programs. another way to get more involved is to become a member of the foundation of the national archive ls. the foundation supports the work of our agency, especially our

outreach programs and their applications and membership. another way to support the national archives is to visit our archives shop. you can do that physically or virtually. and our number one sales item is this photograph of president nixon and elvis presley. where is it? it's gone. sorry. there it is. [ applause ] this is truly our number one item. which is very nice. we are very pleased to be partnering with the richard nixon foundation and presented this panelled discussion. and we're honored to host our panelist, the nixon's marine corps aide. william narcodist. lieutenant general don hughes. military assistant to president

nixon. i encourage all of you, if you haven't been to yorba linda recently, please visit. and a very special welcome to an expert on pat nixon, julie nixon eisenhower. julie serves as a member of the board of the richard nixon foundation. pat nixon was admired and liked by a broad spectrum of people at home and abroad, regardless of their political leanings. she had a talent for connecting people and putting them at ease. no other first lady traveled so much until pat nixon set out into the world. sh traveled to over 75 countries, most famously china and russia with the president, but also on her own libera,

venezuela, southeast asia and more. in 1970 her immediate and heartfelt trip to peru after a devastating earthquake earned her the gratitude of the people and the government. with a greeting heads of states, introducing herself to children, pat nixon was always a caring and gracious lady. now i will turn you over to sandy quinn, the vice president of the nixon foundation. he was an assistant to richard nixon, and later served on the staff of governor ronald reagan and u.s. senator george murphy. he was head of marketing for walt disney world in florida through construction and its opening. and several years of operation. later joined the corporation as a division vice president. he was president of quinn and brian marketing and communications and for many years served blue chip corporate accounts throughout the united states. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, sandy quinn.

[ applause ] well, i can't miss this opportunity to raise some money for the richard nixon foundation, which is privately supported because david was so kind to present that photograph of president nixon and elvis presley when they visited -- when elvis presley visited the president at the white house. now, i know all of you are elvis fans. you're nixon fans. so you can get magnets and mugs, t-shirts, and that photograph, too. and that photograph in several colorful executions on t-shirts. you can do that on www.nixonfoundation.org. great gifts. thank you, david.

and thank you, david for embracing so much of our programming. we've had several nixon legacy forums here on this stage. nixon legacy forums tell the story of what happened in the white house and all of the arenas of innovation and vision that he -- that he insisted on. in energy, and health care, law enforcement, supreme court justices and diplomacy. we have seven more planned this year, some of them we hope will be on the stage. and if you check our website, you'll know when and where they are. we are in pat nixon's 100th birthday year. her centennial. and because of that, on march 16th, we opened a spectacular pat nixon exhibit, a centennial exhibit, themed to people were her project, because they were. that exhibit will be up all summer long and into the fall.

then next year is richard nixon's centennial, and we'll do the same for the 37th president. now tonight, however, we're focusing on a particular aspect of pat nixon's extraordinary contributions as first lady, and that was as ambassador of good will, and our panel will address that. but first, i would like to show you a brief video, a short video, with some comments from well known americans that we're very proud of. let us view the video, please. and now the sound.

well, let's not view the video if it has no sound. so maybe if we can work out that technicality, we'll come back to it. but now let's go into the panel. so if we could have the lights back on, please. i would like to introduce the panel, starting with the moderator, bob bostock, who was the curator of the pat nixon exhibit. he was one of the principle architects of the exhibitory that you'll see at the nixon presidential library in yorba linda. bob worked closely with him, and we're delighted to have him here as moderator. bob. [ applause ] . bill was the assistant chief of

protocol in the state department. he was assigned to mrs. nixon, traveled with her on so much of her travels. later he was director of the office of international visitors for the united states information agency, bill codus. jack brennan was the marine aide to president nixon from 1969 through '74. later when the president went to san clementi after the presidency, he was his chief of is it a fact. he accompanied the president and mrs. nixon twice, including the original trip. hughes was the military assistant to president nixon. he was also his military assistant as vice president. he was commander in chief of the pacific fleet, knew the nixons very, very well, and we're proud and delighted to have him here. and of course -- and of course

julie, who's author of the biography of her mother, entitled "pat nixon: the untold story", and also worked with her husband david eisenhower in writing "going home to glory: a memoir of dwight d. eisenhower 1961 to 1969." ladies and gentlemen, your panel. [ applause ] >> well, i hope we can get that video working before we're done because it's really good. we take it for granted these days that senior government officials travel all around the world, but that hasn't always been true. so i think a great place to

start today would be to ask julie, who although she was only 5 years old when her parents went on their first international mission in 1963, because she's an authority on her mother, and her biography of her mother, "pat nixon: the untold story", the definitive biography of pat nixon. >> where might we buy that? >> it's available as an e-book now. be sure to find it for your kindle or nook or any other reading device. but julie, if you would start by talking a little bit about the context in which that first trip that president eisenhower asked your parents to make 45,000 miles, 10 weeks, 17 countries. >> well, it was 1953, and eisenhower, when he was elected, i would say it was probably the height of the cold war. the war was still waging in korea. the french were fighting in vietnam.

there were a lot of countries all over the world that has declared themselves neutral. they've been colonies for a long time. and now they were neutral. and the soviet union and the united states were vying to become their friends and their protectors and their advisers. and my mother wrote a letter to her dear friend that summer of 1953, and she said, they had talked together, and she said helene, i guess we're not going to be able to see you this summer because the president said to dick after a meeting, what are you doing this summer, and dick said, "nothing, mr. president", and the president said, i want you to go to asia, and i want you to take pat. that was the first of what became the good will trips all over the world. all four continents, 53 country. and the reason that that first trip was such a success was articulated by the secret service agent who was with my

parents. his name was jack sherwood. and there were only two secret service agents on that detail, by the way, who traveled with my parents. they had a staff of five people. my mother had no assistant. they were gone 70 days. they were in 17 countries, including vietnam, korea, iran, pakistan, afghanistan, 12 other countries. but, anyway, jack sherwood wrote in his diary, you know, the nixons are really shaking things up because they're not doing what is expected diplomatically of these usual trips. they're stopping their motorcade. they're getting out. they're shaking hands with people, rich and poor. they're meeting with labor leaders. they're meeting with agitators. they're meeting with communists. they're mingling. they're mixing. and that was that people to people contact of the good will trips that made them so effective. and that's why eisenhower sent them to all four continents in the next eight years. so that's the context of how my

mother started out as the ambassador of good will with my father. >> dawn, you -- julie mentioned five staff members in the first term they traveled with. you joined the vice president's staff as a military aide early in his second term as vice president. i wonder if you could tell us a little bit about how you came to that position and kind of what the role was, and what was travel like for the vice presidential party during those years? >> well, i would like to first of all straighten that pacific fleet thing up. i had a fleet, but they were a fleet of airplanes. this is the air force. but, i would like to key off julie's story for that particular trip. because that resulted in my getting over there. rose woods was on that trip, and they used the admiral, the

chairman of the joint chief, they used his aircraft, and he sent his senior officer, his senior exec along. and of course rose woods was on the trip. so when he finished the 70 or 75 days, rose had worked him over pretty good about how small the staff was, and he was watching her do all of these things. and when he reported back to the admiral, he said if anybody ever needed a couple of military aides, it's the vice president. so i started to get some unusual phone calls. and i was a very unhappy captain flying ing ing a deck in the pe. i would have done anything to get out. so when i got the phone calls, i wasn't sure what would be the result of them, but i went. pretty soon i talked to the admiral, and the next thing i know i had been selected to be one of the first presidential --

vice presidential aides, kernel pushman from the marine corps was the other. and i have to admit that when we got over there, the president -- the vice president and mrs. nixon, too, didn't want us around. they weren't used to having a military. after much persuasion from the admiral, the vice president agreed to take us for three weeks on a trial basis. and we were going to africa. well, being the senior, pushman went with the president, the vice president, and i went on the press plane with rose, and i would then be an aide to the -- when we got in africa. well, i didn't know anything about it so when we first got along on a few things, nobody

knew who was the aide and who was the aidee. but she was a teacher. and she quickly picked up on fact that she had a lot to teach. and first it was very formal. but then we gradually got to know each other. and we got along fine. then when we came back from that trip, the day of decision came. and our little cub by holes in the office building. and pushman went in to see the president about our fate. and he came out, and he said, well, i'm going to be the national security adviser, and you can go back to the air force. so i grabbed my phone and started to dial the air force to say that the vice president wanted me to go to georgia air force base to fly f100s. and about that time rose got up

and stormed into the office, and she came out about three or four minutes later, brushing that red hair back, and she said, put the phone down, sonny. she says donny cox is pregnant. you're the new appointment secretary and military aide. so that's how i got there. >> now don, on those trips during those years what were the conditions you were working under on travel. what kind of aircraft were you on? >> well, in those days the vice president did not have any of those trappings or whatever you want to cull them. if we had a political or something nongovernmental, we would rent an airplane. but if it was official business, the white house would give us an

airplane to go do it. and interestingly enough we got stuck one night coming back, and we were all stacked up going into washington. and this is with a government airplane. so it was quite annoying. and colonel drapeer heard about it. he was the white house aide. he said now on when you're flying on the military airplane, you're air force two. that's how air force two came about. but when we first started, they were strictly prop airplanes. the jets were coming into being, but we didn't have them. in fact, we didn't have them until we took the trip to russia. >> jack, you were military aide during the white house years. were conditions quite as primitive as they were during the vice presidential years? and after a couple of years,

everything part. the 707s, the helicopters. we got spoiled. and we got to the point to say when we take a 707, we don't particularly want one of those who don't have windows in it. he was getting a little tired of it. he said, we'll teach you a lesson. he didn't say it out loud. but we went in advance to make the arrangements for mrs. nixon to go on the africa trip, three countries in africa. we didn't get a 707 with windows. we didn't get a 707 without windows. we got the column bko columbine. a four engine plane. we finally got to africa. >> it was president eisenhower's plane. it had prestige. >> right. very prestigious junk. >> dropped an engine in bermuda. and i had just gotten my yellow fever shot. and i was sick as a dog. when we got to africa, i didn't want to leave africa.

i'm not going back in the plane. i was going to stay, but they wouldn't accept me. overall because of jgeneral hughes, things significantly improved. during the transition, general hughes wrote a note to the president to sign, maybe it's called an executive order, saying the white house communications agency came under his cognizance. there are more than 2,000 people directly reporting to and supporting the president. and they all came out to general hughes. it he said, we need this and we need this. so much so, a very quick story. the soviet planes broke down. i insisted we had a backup plane. and that communications be put

on it because the president is required to be in communications with the congress at all times. the plane broke down. we tick off and helen thomas, who we'll talk about a little bit later was a you can't have communications on this plane. i said, call kent davis. i said, yeah, helen. nancy was there with bob holderman's wife. you remember that? >> jack, you know, talking about all this white house communications in 2000 and all, it just seems alien to even hear it because my mother, why wasn't she sick from the flu shot or whatever the yellow fever? in other words, she was a one-man band. when they went to china, she took one aide with her. that's the way she always traveled.

they didn't want want you hired on. you're most effective if you don't have a big entourage. you have to get out and meet people. of course, the presidency today has changed. i understand there has to a lot of security. but it's most effective when, you know, you go to the markets and you meet the people and just don't have the shielding. >> and don, you were in africa with mrs. nixon in 1957. but that was the trip that we went to to commemorate the ghana

becoming a nation instead of a colony of great britain. and we went through a great deal ceremony there. but then we went on up to liberia, which i don't care to return to. but the amazing thing about it was that that place is just terrible. the heat and and all that goes with it. the humidity. strangely enough, pat never showed it. by the time we got there i was fairly well acquainted with her. we made a lot of side trips because the vice president was going one way, and we were going the other. he was going to some of the diplomatic pass. but we went to the schools, to the hospitals, and the people just loved her because she

didn't go through as -- visit. she was talking to the people in the bed. she was talking to the kids. she loved the children, and they responded to her. the one thing that was a little tough is when we went down to the market. the farmer's market. it was about, i would say, maybe a half mile of farm that extended out to the ocean. and it was covered. and you could smell it a mile away. and it was their market day. and they had all the vegetables and fish and meat in the 100-degree heat. meeting the people. they were handing her little presents. maybe an orange or something.

i was loaded by the time we got half way through. but she stepped across dead rats and she avoided the debris on the dock and just did it beautifully. >> don -- >> i was just going to say, you might have not liked liberia, but she loved it, because that's where she went back in '71, '72, and represented the united states for the ining on ration of tolbert, whose grandfather was a slave. just a historic thing. and that's the great picture where she's wearing the turban. but you're so right, during the vice presidential years it was really primitive conditions of travel and all. my mother told me on that trip in '53, the 17 countries had air-conditioning one night. it was in saigon, and the

american ambassador gave up his bedroom. but that was the only time they had air-conditioning that whole tripe. >> yeah. >> bill? >> can i carry on with liberia? we advanced liberia, and with ten men and one lady. and the lady is here. mary shields, who worked with us. >> and she was on the trip? >> on the advance. mary lou, can you stand up? >> she was in charge. do you want to tell a quick story, mary lou? >> no. well, anyway, the eisenhower is playing, and we had ten men and one woman. and the one woman was mary lou. which is quite interesting. and we did drop an engine there. but getting into liberia. of course, he invited president

nixon, of course. president nixon couldn't go. so he sent his best. >> i want to stay on one more thing from the vice presidential years. we have great pictures to go with that. can you talk to us about where the nixon motorcade was attacked. >> that's the centerpiece of the whole vice presidential years. it was a trip that the vice president really didn't want to do. but the state department and president eisenhower asked him to do it. so he did.