>> thank you so much. >> you're watching "american history tv." all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. this weekend on "the presidency," james rosebush, former deputy assistant to president reagan, talks about the 40th president. mr. rosebush is the author of "true reagan." museumhard nixon library hosted this event. >> before we start the

discussion, i would like to introduce someone will introduce our speaker. ken served in both the nixon and reagan white house is. he joined president nixon's campaign in 1968, in the midst of going to law school at columbia university, and served as a deputy assistant to president in. clementeoined san after he retired and helped research and write his best selling memoirs. he returned to politics in the reagan administration, where he served as a speechwriter and senior adviser. he has been active in many state and national campaigns. he's a supportive member of the nixon foundation board. [applause]

>> thank you, jonathan. note i'd like to add a relative to this setting. having worked so closely with both presidents, i think you would like to know first how much they respected each other, and worked very closely with president nixon and president reagan, and president reagan had an extraordinary and deep respect for president next and for his insight and depth of experience in foreign policy. he also looked to president nixon for political advice from time to time. i live in san clemente. for obvious reasons. i worked with president nixon on his memoirs. i worked with him for four years and sat for many hours with him as he prepared his memoirs.

as he watched the 1976, and later conferred with him as he watched the 1980 and 1984 thations, i can assure you nixon star ronald reagan as a political practitioner of the highest ability. he had great respect for president reagan's skills all around, as a communicator, as a politician. anyway, it is nice to introduce a former colleague of mine in the reagan white house. there have been hundreds of books written about president reagan. i haven't read all of them. many of them were written from the inside. saw, or whatt i they say about reagan the man,

or the real reagan, the truth about reagan. the fact is, there are only a people, people -- few and few of those books written by people who had close personal exposure to the president. frankly, we would fit in a pretty small room. jim has written one of those books. few who can say he was there to observe the president personally. while he was the point man on sectorsident's private initiatives program, he also became at the request of one of our mutual friends, chief of reagan, nancy which gave him more insight. i thought some of my strongest insights into president reagan

came from mrs. reagan. she taught me a lot about how to deal with president reagan and help him to be a better communicator and help me be a better person to work with them. i'm sure you will hear that today. benefit of not only president, bute working with mrs. reagan. he had the benefit of foreign travel with the reagans and assisted in negotiating trips to china, japan, korea, france, england, and germany. he was very privileged to be at the very historic bilateral meeting between reagan and whichhev, the account of in this book alone is worth the read. jim isalso observe that very insightful regarding the

president's communicating skills. jim is going to have to wait for my book for another view. in this book, there's an excerpt that many of the best speeches of president reagan, an element of research that is very valuable to reagan scholarship. jim was there, working with mrs. reagan, when she did the "just no"no and trunk --"just say drug campaign. it was not in the oval office, but the west hall of the white house. i also did a little personal research into jim that he is not aware of yet. i have my own sources in the white house. i did find out that jim was

asked to do a lot of things, impossible things from time to time, he was asked to pull a lot of rabbits out of the hat when he served the president and mrs. reagan. 1984 torip in april of beijing, china, there was a very important state dinner given for the chinese premier. president reagan was the host for the premier. it was the reciprocal dinner. the premier had given a dinner before that and now the president was hosting the premier. it was at one of the brand-new american hotels. it was called the great wall hotel. the reagans were hosting the dinner. what they wanted to do was to have an orchestra play american

music for the chinese. the orchestra was all chinese and the conductor was chinese. out that the chinese orchestra knew only three western songs. they played these three songs and that was it. after they played the three songs, they stopped. jim, being partly in charge of the arrangements for the dinner, knew that this wasn't very good. he went over to the conductor, who speak only chinese. jim did not speak chinese. they looked at each other. turns out that jim spoke a little german and the chinese conductor spoke a little german, so they communicated somehow in german and jim said, i know you only know three songs.

you need to play those three songs over and over again. jim, welcome to the next and library. [applause] james: thank you, ken. i've got to know your sources. where did you find that out. i'm tremendously honored to be at this beautiful library, which i have to say is managed even better than the white house. the floors are buffed to a high shine and the old organization really just sings. it is beautifully managed and i appreciate the invitation to be here. i was going to say how much i appreciate the introduction, but the story about china, i have to add a few details. i want to say how important it is to me that my friend ken did

this introduction tonight and i want you to know that ken was not only noted for having been an important part of both administrations, which is a tremendous part of history to participate in, but ken was two things. he had the confidence, directly, of president and mrs. reagan. he was sort of an untouchable. if you didn't like what ekn was writing in his speeches, you could never touch him because he had the direct confidence of the president and first lady. everyone knew it and he commanded a tremendous amount of respect. the other thing you have to know is, just like ronald reagan, he never sought the credit. he always gave the credit to his boss. that was just one of the great characteristics of ronald reagan that i want to talk about tonight. we have to start with the east room.

i was used to sitting where you are in the east room, arranging what was going on, but coming into it tonight from this vantage point is a little unnerving. the east room, during the reagan time, was the scene of these grand press conferences, which you don't see anymore. reagan spoke to the american people more than any other president. ,e gave his oval office talks more than any other president. he inaugurated the saturday morning radio address. and he gave these massive press conferences that we haven't seen in a long time. he prepared for them in the family theater. on the ground floor of the white house, there were theatrical film screenings and that was where he practiced. he practiced for hours. the press conferences were

officiated by helen thomas, the dean of the press corps. end, begin orer end without helen's ok. if you knew helen or watched helen, you knew you couldn't have a debate. she was the one who ran them. she was the one who would say, thank you, mr. president. ronald reagan had a problem with this. it had to do with the east room. honorableing an gentlemen, wouldn't really take helen's comment as the actual end. if you remember, it was a contest on the part of every media outlet to get that last question. in truth, reagan, who was quite programmed and set apart perhaps too often from the casual encounter with the journalist or

the media, they wanted to get him in an offhand comment. when helen would say, thank you mr. president, and he would start to walk off the stage, you would have at least a dozen questions being yelled. was, the gentleman that he he couldn't quite get himself off the podium. it caused what we considered a very messy situation reagan it would put the president in the situation of not knowing what to do. after going through this are about a year, he came up with a solution. that was to shift the side of the room. previously, it would be the east wall to my right. that is where the president was set up. he had to navigate, walking across the east room, to get back home, back upstairs.

he called it the quarters, like truman did, living above the store. we decided to flip it and put the dais for the president on this side of the room so the cameras could see the president walking in and that was a very effective way to begin the press conference and it gave reagan am n out. all he had to do, turn around, say good night, and walk off into the distance and back upstairs. that was one of the interesting things that happened in the east room. of how thelematic white house worked and how the said, it wasn't that i was a great communicator, it was that i communicated great ideas. he always linked himself with great ideas and the concept of

america as less of a place, as he called it, as an idea. i recall the staging that we set , forccupying half the room the american ballet theater. we hosted a series of performances at the white house. there were tremendously interesting and fun, memorable occasions. the reagans hosted more state visits from heads of state than any other president. there was always entertainment after dinner, as was the case with every president. one evening, we had people like sinatra, and it was really marvelous and the reagans loved

planning it and being part of it. one night, we asked robert goulet to perform, but his performance took on a slightly different tack when perhaps before dinner he had a few too many beverages. when he got up to perform, and the entertainers usually would mix with the crowd, he fell into the lap of the lady sitting in the second row. it brings back a lot of memories. , thinkingsay that about the relationship between our presidents, i recalled correspondence between these two great leaders. i could see the importance, the important role that president nixon played in the development of ronald reagan as a great international leader. reticent nixon was not

to share with president reagan once he came into office his views on personnel, people that would serve him well. letters passing between the two of them, largely on personnel issues, and on ni xon's advice about our leaders and heads of state. the largest contribution president nixon made to president reagan as a head of state, and working with other nixon of state, was that mixo sent reagan on several official visits, representing president europe, where reagan had an opportunity to meet with heads of state, foreign ministers, and the head of nato.

this is including ireland as well. this was a country that the old reagans came from. i think this helped give reagan a deepening understanding of how he might handle these leaders later. this is a tremendous benefit that nixon accorded reagan as a future leader. he also sent the reagans to the philippines. that had its own interesting story as well. i like to think of these two leaders. opportunity, an writing this book and talking to audiences, to think about what true leadership of character really is. i've come to see that, and this relates to president nixon, that a great leader of character is a person who has the ability to discern the future and lead people to it and threw it.

i think this is a characteristic that was shared by both presidents. they had the ability not only to discern themselves and the united states in its destiny to be the shining city on a hell bringing -- on a hill and light to the rest of the world, share this unique system of ours, this american exceptionalism, which they both believed in, to help lead people through it. if you look at the top five residents in american history, where president reagan resides, with washington, lincoln, fdr, and kennedy, you can begin to see those that were in this top five, the ones that have both the ability to discern the future and lead people to it and threw it, and also have the kind of character which i've come to define as a belief in standards or principles beyond yourself. today, we have this crisis of

leadership, not just in this country, but globally. reagan was a force of character. so many political leaders today are a force of personality. reagan was reticent to ever live her to himself in any context of leadership. he always expressed the responsibility for anything he was able to accomplish. he gave credit to the people. in aways referred to that way that what he was able to accomplish was the result of what the people were able to do. he had that much love for america and americans. i thought i would just share a comment before i get into four vignettes that illustrate the points that i bring out in this book and my personal relationship, as reagan himself

the me and opened up secrets in the mystery of his character. today, we are talking and thinking about egyptair flight number 804. it made me think about something i discuss in the book, how reagan handled korean air flight 007, which was shot down by the soviets. this was a 747 airliner which had over 200 people on board. slightly into soviet airspace and was shot down. reagan decided he would hold off on making any public statement. back from the ranch, to the silver situation room, and everyone was clamoring to have him come out and make a bold statement immediately.

reagan, true to his character, which was not to always follow the advice of his advisers or bureaucrats either in the state department, defense department, he always listened to his own conscience. he was a brooding strategist. he had an idea that everything was happening for a purpose. he felt that in this case, there was a purpose to this, and the purpose was to allow him to turn this into a lesson about the defeat of any kind of control over what he called his god-given right to liberty. hours to makes 20 any public statement. his advisers were very impatient about this. when he did come out and make his statement, which was very definitive, this is what he had to say. here, comingout of

over to the library this afternoon. we're listening to what we think was a terrorist act last night. here's what reagan says about the korean air incident. make no mistake about it. this attack was not just against ourselves. this was the soviet union against the world. and the moral precepts among people everywhere. it was an act of barbarism, born of a society which disregards individual rights and the value of human life and seeks to expand and dominate other nations. he concludes this way. by the way, reagan always communicated, and ken knows this very well, but reagan always those thatrds of were already commonly accepted

leaders, people made his speeches glisten by not just reagan's authority, but their authority. he quotes from the scriptures, 96% of his speeches contain quotations or references to bible parables. 96% of the time. reagan loves to do this. it is a tremendous communicating to. it is not as if i'm saying to you this is what i believe. let us have faith in abraham lincoln's words, that might makes right, and let us to the end there to do our duty as we understand it. if we do, if we stand together and move forward with courage, then history will record that some good did come from this monstrous wrong that we will

carry with us and remember for the rest of our lives. who was this man? who was this mysterious ronald reagan who could stand up and talk about man's god-given right, that man is made in the image and likeness of god, that can put within historical context this mission and this destiny for this country, in a way that recent presidents and our current president don't frame the american experience in american exceptionalism. how can we raise of a standard of faith and character in our leaders so that we will not lose this last, best hope of the world, as reagan always referred to america. here are four different vignettes from my experience that illustrate where this man to theom and how he came qualities and the faith that

made him this effective leader of character. i've written this book from the standpoint of showing proof of what character does. are not verynials much interested in history at all. only interested in history for its impact. how is history impacting me, or how will knowing history actually change the course of the future? that is why i say i've written this book for the future. the biblepoke at college of l.a. speaking to these college students, not even born close to the time of reagan, yet they are so earnest about wanting to understand what made reagan great. they also want to know how they can use this in their own lives. this is the standard we need to raise up. reagan always reminded us, not

only that our best days were ahead, but that those of us in this room have the ability to start the world over again, or as he loved to quote from ulysses, come, my friends. it is not too late to seek another world, to seek, to strive, and to never give up. he was constantly telling the american people that we had the hope, capability, destiny, and responsibility to keep that light shining. how did i come by this? 1981, i was taking my first solo limousine ride, motorcade ride, with the president. i was there to, basically i thought we were going to a speech, and i thought i would start briefing the president on his speech. he didn't want anything to do

with that. he wanted to use this opportunity, which ended up being about 20 or 30 minutes, to explain the roots of his character to me. i was responsible for running his favorite domestic policy program, a little initiative in which we looked for private sector solutions to public problems. education, of public public housing, garbage collection, anything that had been done solely by the taxpayer and the government, we felt it was important to create -- the first time we coined this term, public-private partnerships, or to see how the private sector could do this better than the government working alone. this was so close to reagan's heart. he wanted me to know where his character came from. another similarity with mixed, xon, he talks about

his mother. it is often asked of me, would president reagan have assumed this high office if it had not been for nancy reagan? she certainly contributed, but it was another woman, his mother, who made him read the bible, made him recite the bible, made him act in morality plays based on the bible. she had him accompany her when she went to minister to the poor and sick in local hospitals, people never even owned a house while reagan was growing up. context of into a his mentor, his minister. he was expected to marry the minister's daughter. yalensidered going off to divinity school with one of his best friends in high school. he went to a church school.

he drove 100 miles every sunday to teach sunday school. 25% of his life was spent in and around the church. he developed this spiritual context based on the scriptures. when reagan talks to me this way, i begin, because i think i yad extraordinary curiosit because i did not come from california, was not part of the film industry, so i had to learn. we had to really learn our client, why they thought the way they did, why they acted the way they did. we had to understand it to be able to serve them in the best way we possibly could. this was reagan in 1981 opening up to me and showing some of the insight that he never talked about. there was a famous interview

that he gave. the reporter was determined to make a news story and figure out what was going on inside that quiet interior. president, to the you talk a lot about clearing brush and cutting wood at the ranch. what do you think about when you are cutting the wood and clearing the brush? he says, without skipping a beat, the wood. that is as much as he would actually reveal about himself. i felt for a long time that it was to his detriment. he was being portrayed in the media in a way that didn't resonate with me. now i know it was his genius. if he had talked about his face, his belief system, he never would have made a movie in hollywood and he would have been

marginalized in the political world. there was a nine-year-old boy who attended one of my speeches and said to his parents on the way home, he had it all figured out. he said, now i know. if reagan had talked about what was going on inside, it would be as if he were a knight going into battle without his armor on. i thought in a split second, that is what was going on with reagan. if he had exposed it, it could have worked in the opposite direction. now, this is the first book. as nancy reagan said, this is the book romney couldn't write about himself. this is the book we need to know what a leader of character is thinking on the inside, for the future, like so many presidents have not had revealed about

them. the second vignette has to do with his arrival at the brandenburg gate, that famous speech where he gives the six most iconic words of the last century. you all know them. mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. those words were almost not spoken. one of the brilliant young speechwriters went to germany and did focus groups. he talked to the german people in small groups and said, the american president is coming. what do you think he should say? they said, he should call on gorbachev to tear down the wall. they love it. they think this is vintage reagan. he has the credibility to say it. they put it in the speech draft. reagan loves it. his speech goes around and every single speech draft, it is whited out. it comes back and he said, what happened?

he puts it back in. the speech goes around again. whited out again. even his own chief of staff whited out. he gets to that iconic brandenburg gate, gets out of what was an armored van that day, and says to his personal boys at thed the state department aren't going to like this. so here is reagan listening to his own heart, to his own advice. not only does he say those six iconic words, but read the rest of the speech. reagan talks about his opposition to any walls that would separate a man from his god, from his right to live free. reagan was a freedom man. he was an evangelist for freedom, for human rights, for fledgling democracies. he believed that was the mission

and the role of america and by building up the u.s. presidency, this was not for his own embellishment. this was to consolidate the power of the united states based on its values, principles, constitutional form of government, and he believed that if that light went dim, we would have turmoil in the rest of the world and that is what we see today. had to do withe our discussion in front of a fire in a villa on the shores of lake geneva. reagan had decided that he would approach gorbachev in this meeting on the basis of their shared faith. he had been tutored by a woman named suzanne massie in the ande house, off the record, distinctly different from the

briefing he was provided by the state department. she was tutoring reagan on russian culture as opposed to soviet policy. this was a wonderful backfilling for reagan. he began to appreciate the russian culture and suzanne massie was an expert on gorbachev. she explains to reagan that she believes or a child was a man of his -- she believes gorbachev was a man of some faith, having been influenced by a christian mother. reagan sees an opening. he's going to develop this relationship based on shared values, even though gorbachev often lectured reagan on the extraordinary values of communism and socialism. that is a whole other evening of stories. approach togan's

this meeting. so we are waiting for gorbachev to arrive and reagan and i are sitting in front of this fire, said,alk, relaxing, and i turning to a serious note, mr. president, what do you think death only bring soviet style communism and eastern locke totalitarianism? he said, jim, the way it will be done is through the people's own desire to know freedom, the people's own desire to know god. bit, that was a little startling for me, but another revelation about reagan. even while we were pursuing this strategy of assertive military buildup, economic sanctions, and aggressive diplomatic moves with

the soviet union, and by the way, i didn't run out after that evening and tell the press corps, there's a new strategy. of course we had to support that three-point strategy and policy. mee, reagan is revealing to that he sees this whole struggle in a different context. he sees the march of humanity into its inevitable music of progress and the ultimate achievement of freedom and prosperity. this is where he sees it going. he has to handle incident like the korean airline or downing, just like we have the egyptair downing today. but he sees it in a larger context. this was another indication to me that reagan was this brooding strategist, though he never

labeled himself as a strategist, nor did he ever say, this is my strategy. he always told us what the outcome was going to leave. that is why he could say he was the eternal optimist. that is why he gave us hope, confidence, all based in his belief system. finally, the fourth example was the day that i was with him when he was going in for surgery. know when we went into bethesda naval hospital -- we thought it would be an outpatient experience, but decided to stay the night. the president asked me, would i go back to the white house and get a change of clothes? said, i'd be happy to do anything the president asked me to do.

i ran out, got in one of those small sedans that was part of the white house motor at the time, raced back, and went into the family quarters where i had been many times. i went to his closet. i have never been in his closet before, but i passed it many times. bedroom, between the which had hand-painted bird wallpaper, and the president used to say, he would sit in bed with a slingshot and try to hit the birds off the wall. that is pure reagan. it was also pure nancy reagan to have the birds painted on the wall. so i go to the closet, which was very different than nancy reagan's closet, several rooms full of beautiful clothes. i drew the doors back on this ,loset and i stand there and

i've got to figure out something to take him, and it just hit me. this is a man of simple midwestern taste, not at all the way he was being portrayed in the media. i thought, if only everyone could see in this man's closet. it wasn't about clothes. it was about what it stood for, the image, one black suit and one blue suit and one brown pair of shoes, and so forth. i thought, well, here's a president who has no vanity, no sense of person. he's a very impersonal person. he never saw accolades. he had no enemies. he saw no one as an enemy. he didn't have any acute sense

of anger or need to prove himself. the kind of person you would like to be, but you can't imagine achieving it. errand, wentd my back to the hospital, never imagining that i would have this wayrience -- it was in a looking into reagan's soul. i get back to the hospital. he was getting ready to be wielding for surgery. i say, mr. president, one more thing. my daughter drew to a get well picture. born right before we went into the white house, and by the way -- this was a state dining room story. the other side of the white house, was crawling around on

the rug, and as young children are prone to be, she had the something that she threw up on that run the reagan she was one person who made them have to take the rug out to be cleaned. anyway, claire draws a picture for the president. she says, mr. president, get well, i love you. she drew a picture. i give it to the president, thinking that is a nice thing for him to carry into surgery. he was on the gurney. he says, jim, can you hand me a piece of my personal stationery? president was allowed to use it. hand, thank, in his you so much. your get so much for well wishes. i love you too.

--i go with the president another little insight that is a mosaic in my experience, and i hold in my heart, of ronald reagan really was. so we go down to the operating room and my responsibilities are and ind i turn left thought i was just going to go home. i opened these swinging doors and there were at least 500 cameras, lights, and reporters. my the first time in experience with the reagans, i could say i understood them. it was the perfect moment. 500 journalists wanted to know what was going on on the other side of the door. what i was able to do, just like i was doing in this, is to really explain the heart, the

soul, the spirit, the strength of ronald reagan from the inside out. and its critical importance to his ability to be that kind of leader that we look up to so much today. that little letter that claire wrote played in every major newspaper in the world that afternoon. it began to explain and illustrate the heart of ronald reagan. i want to take your questions and hopefully provide you with some answers and have a little discussion here. maybe to share with you one brief passage from one of my very favorite speeches that the president gave. illustrative of his personal belief systems. it had to do with the speech that he gave at an agent castle

from the 14th century. it was at a gathering of high schoolers and college students who were meeting on the subject of democracy. reagany, everywhere went, he was a freedom fighter. he wanted to support anyone else who was fighting for freedom and democracy. i decided to stand in the audience. stand next toan the president anytime, but i want to gauge the reaction of the audience. there was so much enthusiasm. i think they took the speech very seriously. i can imagine myself thinking, how many of these young people are going to be freedom fighters? how many are going to participate in uniting germany? i imagine that many did take up this charge. this is what he said.

among other things. your future awaits you, so take up your responsibilities and embrace your opportunities with enthusiasm and pride in germany's strength. understand that there are no limits to how high each of you can climb. at us ask ourselves, what is the heart of freedom? in the answer lies the deepest hope for the future of mankind and the reason there can be no walls. look up reagan references to walls. he talks about walls a lot, as i mentioned from the berlin wall speech. the reason there can be no walls around those who are determined to be free. each of us, each of you, is made in the most enduring, powerful image of western civilization. we are made in the image of god.

the image of god, the creator. then he ends by saying, the future awaits your creation. friends, believe me, time to beonderful alive and to be free. remember that in your hearts are the stars of your fate. remember that everything depends on you and remember not to let one moment slip by, for as schiller has told us, he who has done his best for his own time, has lived for all times. i believe that reagan did his livedor his time and he for all times. thank you very much. [applause] thank you, jim. jim will answer your questions.

he will be available in the lobby to sign your book and meet you. books are available for purchase. i would like to ask the first question. is what we are seeing with donald trump anything like the reagan revolution? james: well it is a revolution, that is for sure. there are two similarities. there's one similarity between trump and reagan. every speech, i'm asked this question. our whole system, our whole way of life is convulsed by this disruption that started in 2008. it should be no surprise to republicans. it should be no surprise to members of congress that this has happened. the united states congress itself, that great deliberative body, has had an 11% approval rating. why should they be surprised that the american people are dissatisfied?

reagan calls himself a citizen politician. trump thinks of himself as a citizen politician. the comparison stops there. they are parallel universes. of thes the product social networking, the social media platform of the last decade. he helped create it. he acted in and he acted out in it. why should we be surprised? reagan is the product of the founders, the faith, the context that came to him through his mother and his training in the scriptures and in the great literature that he read and the role models he adopted for his own life, having been a young boy, suffering under the complexities of an alcoholic father. he had to rise out of that in a way president lincoln could

never. those are the values he brought. he was a completely selfless person, whereas i think trump comes out of this promotion, self-promotion. i'm not saying -- this just happens to be a product of where american culture is today. i think we have to decide what the best path we can take for america at this time, but i do know one thing. aside from what happens in the political results we have, i do know one thing. with all of the leadership training going on in the world today, even leadership institutes at the elementary school level, there's one missing component. that is why we have less leadership today, despite the fact that we invest more, and that is we have lost the element

of character. another question? question toward the back row. >> you mentioned the president indicated his philosophy on a wall. what would he be thinking of a wall on our southern border? , we are on the subject of walls. i think this is fascinating. i've been asked before. reagan wanted to tear down walls, but trump wants to build one. this is not me conjecturing about reagan. this is what he said in his own words. in his last address in the oval office, when he talked about that shining city on a hill, i don't think i explained what i meant when i saw it. part of reagan's skill, when you go back to his first job being a sportscaster, when he was reporting on those chicago cubs

baseball games, he wasn't even there. room withan isolated a microphone. he was getting telegraphed the plays. he had to turn it into a fiery, exciting game. he had to make his audience believe that he was actually there. so reagan is talking about his shining city on a hill in his last address to the american people and he says, i see it as a city with no walls and a city with its doors open to all who would enter and enjoy our way of life. so i know that reagan, having been a two-term governor of california with the agricultural economy, he knew the defendants at that time of the california economy on immigration. he would have supported anyone

who wanted to come here on a legal path. at the same time, he was a fierce opponent of anyone who would threaten our way of life. that is why they want to come here in the first place, to enjoy that. to answer your question, he was definitely a person -- but he always thought about these things happening on a day-to-day basis, immigration or any of the issues that came up, whether they were on the side of terrorism or the economy. he a lways reflected on them in a l context.hysica >> thank you for stepping up to the plate and being a stellar example of american exceptionalism. i feel strongly that you communicate the power, the presence, and the godly heart of

one that could be a great president. james: thank you. that is very humbling. another question? there's one here. >> i would like to know, why did president lincoln -- president reagan not try to groom a successor to carry on his legacy? james: i'm so glad you said that. i think about that all the time. you see in corporate america so , publicere is a crisis or privately held company, the leaders don't seem to invest enough in their successors. i think it is a responsibility of every american president to leave their party stronger and in better hands than they found

it, yet i think very few presidents to that. i'm not sure i believe reagan do that either. but it was very hard for him to establish relationships on the base of sharing his personal values. when a member of our cabinet said to the president one day, i think we should start every meeting with a prayer, reagan turns to him and says, i already have. reagan was a person who did it all, and in every oval office say,ss, sometimes people why are you slumped down? he was slumped down in his chair. is he ok? oh yes. that is how he handles every oval office address. he prays first. but he doesn't tell you to pray. he doesn't tell you how to do it. that was part of his genius, but i think also not actually

grooming future leaders, that is why we have to do it. it is falling on our shoulders. we have to find out what made reagan great and go out and be the champions and demand not only of ourselves, the way i was talking with these young people today, they were asking me a similar question. i said, before you can train others with character, you have to have it yourself. you have to know what you believe in. but i'm with you. i believe that a leader, part of your responsibility, maybe 50% of it, is to not only leave the institution better, but to train people to take over. the american political system not in some ways support that. >> how influential was nancy reagan in the administration? james: now we are getting around

to what people really want to talk about, nancy reagan. i go out and give a lot of talks about ronald reagan and his policies, but it always gets around to nancy reagan. of course, nancy reagan was a sayon who was in a way -- i reagan was uncomplicatedly uncomplicated, but nancy reagan was complicatedly complicated. controversialore figure in a way. how important was she in the white house? to was used really as a ploy a certain extent by the media, who would have liked to -- watch this now, diminish the authority and the power of her husband by making the public try to think nancy reagan was more powerful than she was.

ronald reagan was stubborn and believede on what he and to get him to change his view, yes, nancy reagan brought in people to help either perhaps moderate the president's view -- most notably on u.s.-soviet relations, but she was never really in a position of power to change his view. they were so embedded in his character that he was stubborn about it. nancy reagan was, as i call her, the best -- the taxpayer's best deal, because she worked so hard on behalf of the american taxpayer and she took care of her husband, this important success in american history. i give her tremendous credit for that. having been a person who traveled millions of miles with her, and having spent millions

of hours with her, and knew her very well, i can say that she never wanted to be in a position of power. she wanted to do the best job she could for the taxpayer, but also primarily for her husband. she wanted this to be his story and his success. >> what was the funniest thing that happened to you while serving reagan? james: where do you want to start? you learn a million lessons from the reagans. among the funniest i think among the funniest things that happen to you -- i of them. of two i told nancy reagan monday, i familyu up in the kitchen cooking over a hot stove with an apron on. wasnt to show nancy reagan

a human. a stove.ok in front of she said, absolutely, i'm not doing that. i said, yes, you are. i said i want to bring up the white house press corps and cameras. it will show your humble side. she said, no, i'm not doing that. i said why not? she said because i never cooked a meal in my life. [laughter] james: the point i had to learn -- unless you are authentic, it's not going to work. these are all foibles -- you say funny things that happen to me, i remember abut time we went to switzerland. i think this was part of the gorbachev trip. i will tell you two things about this. one was a little scary. i go to geneva. whenever we traveled with the reagans, we wanted to show their interest in the culture of that country.

not like some presidents who galloped through a few countries in a day, shake your hand, and leave. we were also part of a big global anti-drug abuse campaign, as you know. findught we would go and an effective drug treatment center and celebrate their successes, right? so, i go to geneva and i ask the which weree embassy, usually put it our disposal, i said fine for me the best drug treatment center in geneva. they came back and said, no, no, you can't do that. i said, yes, i want to do that. they said, you can do that. i said why can't you do that? they said swiss officials said that there is no drug problem in geneva. those of you who have been to geneva, you know there is a park called needle park.

bying known this -- not personal experience, but by that there -- i knew were drug treatment centers. i said to the embassy, get me a car and driver and forget everything else and i will drive until i find one. and i did. drugnd a wonderful treatment center. blacklist.n a by the swiss government. do not let this guy in this country again. bilateral these meetings between reagan and gorbachev and nancy reagan and raisa gorbachev. we pull up, the motorcade pulls up into the soviet compound -- this was always the case -- when a motorcade came to a stop, the

agent wouldservice radio the other agency was going to get out and it was ok to unlock the doors. otherwise, you were law inside the armored car -- you were armor garver the securit secured he reasons. immediately i think, oh, there is trouble. gorbachev, not where she is supposed to be. as we pull up in the car, she is standing at nancy reagan's door and she is wearing a white blouse and a black tie like this and i thought to myself, just nancy reagan and myself in the backseat and i thought, what is she doing? it's what you call an unforced error, right? i'm sure some secret service agents were fired for this. the lead agent unlocks the car door. grabsyanks the door open,

nancy reagan, and races are into the house, into the compound. the lead secret service agent and i were supposed to be in there with her. the door slams shut like that. and we are left outside. about -- of think course, we are point to lose our jobs. how are we going to explain this to the white house press corps? and this story would dominate what good the president was going to achieve on his side with gorbachev. and it would have, believe me. it seems like an attorney. we were pounding on the door. in.us in, let us no, we could not gain entrance. we go back to the limousine. we are trying to figure out what to do about this. a member of my staff came up and said, you know, this sounds far-fetched, but there is a novel that just came out about a soviet first lady being replaced

by a look-alike who looks like nancy reagan. could it be they took nancy reagan inside and they're going to replace her with a soviet operative? someone who looks just like nancy reagan. ok, it's laughable now, right, but it was not then. we were like, that's just fantastic. i could never happen. but those were the days of the big life. and those were the days -- those were the days of ory and the the clandestine operation. we go back not amador and we say, let us in. and they go, mr. rosebush, what are you doing here? you are supposed to be inside. aha. that is how they handled it. we go to be predetermined site for this bilateral meeting andeen the first two ladies i will never forget the look on nancy reagan's face. it was like, where have you been? the wholeachev spent

time lecturing her about the values and supremacy of the soviet state. i think i will stop at that. thank you all very much. >> thank you, jim. jim will be available in the lobby to sign your book. gift, you go as a parting it is appropriate to give mr. rosebush a leather bound copy of one of president nixon's books on leaders. bealso just happens to available for purchase at the store. thank you very much. we will see you on memorial day. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> you are watching and american

history tv, 48 hours of american history programming every weekend on c-span3. file was on twitter, @cspa nhistory, to see our full schedule and keep up with the latest history news. television and the senate will undoubtedly provide citizens with greater access and exposure to the actions of this body. this access will help all americans be better informed of the problems and issues which face this nation on a day by day basis. >> during the election, i had the occasion of meeting a woman who had supported me in my campaign, and she decided to come and shake my hand and take a photograph. a wonderful woman eurydice was not asking for anything. and i was very grateful she took the time to come by. unexceptional moment

except that she was born in 1894. her name was marguerite lewis, an african-american woman born shadowsiana, born in the of slavery, born at a time when lynchings were commonplace, born at a time when african-americans and women could not vote. our country from the time of its founding to the mid-1980's to build up a national debt of $850 billion, which was the size of the so-called stimulus package when it came over here. we're talking about real borrowed money. >> 30 years of u.s. coverage of the senate on c-span2. coming up next on american history tv, immigration attorney renee redman discusses essilor

law in the united states. 1980,gues that prior to refugee status was based on foreign policy rather than internationally-accepted humanitarian criteria. this de-minute lecture is part symposium sponsored by the u.s. capital historical society on the history of immigration. >> our first speaker is renee redman. we had two people who went to some obscure school in ann arbor for their law degree, so now we have someone for michigan state where written a did her degree. importantly, she was a french horn major and played for the jerusalem symphony orchestra before coming back to