as things got more and more dangerous in the century. >> the problem is that armed forces were being made weaker and weaker. i don't think we should be the policeman of the continent, but you don't have diplomacy unless you have military force. that is what we have got to understand with china and russia. the understand force. they don't understand words. they'll listen to words. >> we will have to leave it there. i want to thank my panel. [applause] thank you so much. thank you. would also like to thank our audience for your thoughtful questions and we would like to thank you for your thoughtful answers. we like to extend a big debt of gratitude to the national world war i team and liberty memorial for hosting us here. to history channel and to the

national world war i commission for making this event possible. thank you so much for joining us. >> you're watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span three. follow us on twitter at c-span ourory for information on schedule, upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. all weekend long, american history tv is joining our charter cable partners to showcase the history of casper, wyoming. to learn more about the cities on our 2014 tour, visit c-span.o rg/localcontent. this american history tv on c-span three. >> all production led to the rapid growth of casper wyoming.

>> up until watergate, the teapot dome scandal was the largest in american history. members of the cabinet were implicated. it could have implicated president harding if he had lived. it became a notorious event, even today as he are preparing to sell off the teapot dome naval petroleum reserve. soon after the turn-of-the-century when the u.s. navy was starting to shift from those clunky coal burning battleships to oil burning ships, it occurred to various

officials in the government that we might run out of oil. what would happen if suddenly in the middle of a war with a fleet that is being powered by and sadlyfired ships we don't have any oil? >> the decision was made by the department of the navy to go out and find on public land some known oil reserves that were still on public land, set them aside from exploration and development and in essence save them in case of some future need that the navy might have in the event that there is a war and we run short on oil. the teapot dome oil field is located north of casper, especially -- essentially in the center of wyoming. this is a structural map of the

salt creek region of wyoming. here is the salt creek field that was an active field at the time of the teapot dome affair. here is teapot dome naval petroleum reserve parity you see it outlined here in yellow. way andreek flows this down here is the spot where teapot rock is located. teapot rock is how the dome or the -- got its name. they selected that location because very nearby was a very major oilfield. the salt creek oilfield that was one of the largest oil-producing fields in the entire united states if not the world. that was in the early part of the 20th century. when this particular reserve was set aside, there was a belief

area thatneath this was named for this rock that looked like a teapot at one time , nowadays it sort of looks like a chimney rock. at one time it had a handle and years, i and over the think it was in the 1920's, the spout got broken off by lightening -- by a lightning strike and a handle disappeared, too, from erosion. now, if you say it is by teapot rock, people say how does that look like a teapot? it doesn't anymore. it once was a teapot. on that location, before 1920, that location was simply fenced off and left in the public

byain and sort of watch over officials from the department of the navy with the expectation that the commercial developers would steer clear, because this was federal land we are talking about. 1921, albert fall was new mexico's first u.s. senator. he had had a career in the southwest as an oil developer and minor, more or less as a land minerals respecter. when war and g harding was elected president in november of 1920, he announced that albert fall, one of his poker playing buddies from the u.s. senate, would become his secretary of the interior. what is interesting about the

albert fall did not have authority over the teapot dome naval petroleum reserve. of course, that was the property of the u.s. navy. that reserve was, like two in california, set aside by the purposes. the naval secretary, also a poker playing buddy of warren harding, a fellow by the name of edwin denby, was somehow coax theconvinced to transfer authority over the naval petroleum reserves, the three reserves, to the interior department. very handily, albert fall had a plan. he was later convicted of accepting bribes from a couple of oilmen for allowing them exclusive access to these naval petroleum reserves.

andas done under the table the evidence at albert fall trial indicated that he had received substantial amounts of cash from harry sinclair and from edward o haney in exchange for allowing them this exclusive right to drill in an area that was essentially set aside for drilling. it was not to be drilled on. what the essence doing interior department was specifically banned from doing. that is leasing out those oil fields to anybody and even worse , if they were to be leased out, they should have been leased out on a competitive basis. there's a man named wesley miller who is an independent oilman down in cheyenne. leslie miller started hearing all these rumors from his friends upper casper that

sinclair oil company trucks were seen going in to the teapot dome naval petroleum reserve. it appeared they were going in there to actually do drilling and oil exploration. he is very curious about this curious-- he was very about this because he felt there were a lot of us in the business who would love to drill deep -- teapot dome. it happened he was visiting with his old friend up in sheridan, senator john d kendrick. kendrick was a democrat who represented wyoming in the senate. mentioned to kendrick, can you look into this and see what is going on? something is happening at teapot dome. they would question albert fall as to how this occurred, fall was very foggy about how this particular activity had essence and in president harding was up to this

-- obtuse about how this occurred. when the senate started investigating the activities of albert fall and the interior department with respect to teapot dome, they discovered that albert falls head -- albert fall had not issued any formal official opportunity for competitive bidding at teapot dome. just suddenly there was this contract signed between the interior department and these on developing the resources on these naval petroleum reserves. it was a very interesting legal aftermath of the conviction of albert fall for excepting bribes from the two oil guys. what happened was that heclair's company that organized, calling it the mammoth oil company, the mammoth oil company continued to develop the oilfield at teapot dome.

they claimed that he had every right to do it because a contract that it been issued to him by the interior department was still a valid contract. the federal government would have none of it. clearly, this contract was obtained through fraud and bribery. the federal government brought an action in district court in wyoming. kennedy had a very contrary in view of how that contract was arrived at, apparently. claimsmemoirs, kennedy that when that contract decision came up before his court, he took the position that a contract is a contract. sacrosanct.

unless there's overwhelming evidence to indicate that the contract was somehow obtained through fraud or bribes, then it should be enforced. what we have here are copies of an unpublished manuscript written by t blake kennedy. he wrote it late in his judicial career. the last paragraph sums it up, where he says -- i close this chapter with this suggestion of curiosity which is operating in my mind involving the query as to whether or not the naval petroleum reserve number three is eventually opened up, any substantial amount of oil will be found there. while it is largely speculation, i'm of the opinion that a substantial portion of oil in the formation, especially in the upper sands, will be found to have been drained off to the

intense operation of the adjoining salt creek field. the circuit court of appeals overturned t blake kennedy's decision because they clearly found that there was bribery involved in obtaining that particular contract. sinclair toal by the mammoth oil company to the supreme court of the united states, the supreme court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court of appeals and allowed for the government to rescind the teapot dome oil drilling contract with mammoth oil. there has always been a question as to how much resident harding knew about the teapot dome affair. it is pretty clear that albert fall had to get president harding's authority in order to shift jurisdiction from the department of the navy to the department of the interior. harding must've known that there was something untoward about

that kind of a request and making a kind of a switch. it,as good luck would have in the case of warren harding, he traveled west the summer after this scandal started -- this -- question started to be asked. he went up to wyoming and alaska and became the first president to visit alaska. he came down to seven cisco and rampantly and rather suddenly died in seven cisco. the investigation was just heating up at that point. there are a lot of people who questioned whether or not warren harding had more direct information about this scandal than he had led on previously, because albert fall was so close to him personally, and so was

enby. a lot of historians will always remain curious as to how much the president knew and when did he know it. fall became the first cabinet officer to be convicted of a felony while serving in the u.s. cabinet. pun here, but his fall from grace was pretty hard and pretty dramatic. he went off to federal prison. he eventually got out of federal prison. in the early years of world war ii, some 20 years after the teapot dome affair, he died in essentially in poverty in el paso, texas. what happened at teapot dome was the mammoth oil company sinclair

was told to remove all of their mature dutch all their materials in all their trucks. that is a way the teapot dome yearsset for the next 80 until the federal government started using it for various experiment of drilling and various other energy related believe in the 1980's. significantly later than what one would have expected with an oilfield of that scope and located where it was located, so good producing oilfields. >> threw out the weekend, american history tv is featuring casper, wyoming. our local team traveled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about casper and other stops on c-span's cities

tour at c-span.org/global content. you're watching american history he does all weekend very weekend on c-span3. >> here's a look at our lineup. each night starting at 8:00 eastern. on c-span monday, genetically modified food. tuesday, spotlight on general motors safety recalls. wednesday night, highlights from this year's new york ideas forum. thursday, we will look at the issue of climate change. friday night, we will visit important sites in the history of the civil rights movement. tvday on c-span2, it is book with a discussion about fracking. tuesday night, afterwards on the history of money. technologyy, new will fundamentally change everyday life at 8:00. thursday night, a discussion about the future politics with former maryland governor robert

ehrlich. on friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, in depth with writer and religious scholar. >> a look at the overland campaign. the only battle in washington, d.c., the battle of fort stevens. the battle of the crater. the capture of atlanta and herman's march the city. let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. atl us or e-mail us c-span.org. join the conversation and like us on twitter. >>