ms. albright: thank you. good afternoon and welcome. i am truly delighted to be here with all of you and to celebrate public service and the legacy of harry truman. as someone who believes passionately in the importance of america's global leadership, i have a natural love and affinity for harry truman. but my affection for him is rooted in something more basic. he was my first american president. my family and i arrived in america november 11, 1948. a week after he narrowly beat dewey in 1948. all of this was some time ago. in fact, i tell my students now that i went to college about halfway between the invention of the ipad and the discovery of fire. [laughter]

ms. albright: so, it was much later when i became secretary of state and the question arose as to where to hold a particular ceremony. the event was to mark nato's decision to include poland, and my native hungry as nightmares -- hungary as new members. i cannot think of a more appropriate place than the truman presidential library in independence, missouri, a place devoted to the man whose vision was responsible for nato. as i stood there, i was so help tothat i cannot use an old czechoslovakia expression, hallelujah. [laughter] ms. albright: i was equally excited to hold a ceremony in washington to formally rename this building in honor of president truman. in 2002, i was honored to be asked to serve this foundation.

harry truman was both a remarkable president and a remarkable man who spoke often about the importance of promoting young leaders. he wanted this foundation to be a living memorial, encouraging educated citizenship and political responsibility. for the past 40 years, thanks to the generous support of congress and the american people, that is precisely what this foundation has done. surveying the problems facing our country, i think we can all agree its mission is more vital than ever. it is a great pleasure to be about to convene this symposium and to have a conversation on the past, present, and future of public service. to get that discussion started, it is my pleasure to introduce the executive secretary of the truman foundation, andy rich. [applause]

mr. rich: good afternoon. thank you, secretary albright, the vice president of the truman board and to all of the officers and the trustees of the truman foundation, to the many distinguish guests. welcome. for almost five years it has been my privilege to lead the day to day management of the truman foundation. i am a 1991 truman scholar myself. i am so pleased you can all be with us today to celebrate the truman foundation's 40th anniversary. the truman foundation is the presidential moral to public service in the united states. how important our work is at a time when public service is all too often extraordinarily difficult and undervalued. the truman foundation was president truman's idea. toward the end of his life, he

told his admirers he did not want a brick-and-mortar monument, he encouraged a living memorial, an institution that would support new americans from every single territory that value service to their communities and this country as much as he did. that is what the truman foundation has been doing for 40 years now. we have selected more than 3000 public service leaders in the community in which they can be helped and make an even bigger difference in the life of this country. 40 years into our work we have a wonderful track record, and so this afternoon we pause to take stock and to celebrate. i want to thank secretary of state john kerry and everyone here at the state department for hosting us this afternoon, and i want to extend special thanks to the dalton briscoe center of american history at the university of texas, alston for sponsoring this event with support from the bernard

foundation. we could not have found a more perfect sponsor in the real partner for this event. as many of you know, he was the governor of texas in the 1970's and served in the legislator when harry truman was president. the center at ut austin holds his papers and also those of such revered public service figures as former house speaker sam rayburn and former vice president john garner. they were contemporaries and in some cases good friends of president truman and each embodied his same spirit and commitment to public service. so, that will be the subject of our first panel, and we have four distinguish historians with us. h.w. brands is a history professor and professor of

government at the university this university of texas, austin. he has written books including a bestseller on franklin roosevelt. mark updegrove is the director of the lyndon johnson library and museum at the university of texas next to the center. he is the author of four books and is an expert on lbj and the presidency. nancy beck young is the professor of history at the university of houston. she is also an expert on the presidency and presidential congressional relations in the 20th century. she is currently writing a garner.y of john nance finally, we have an author who has written books on many of the leading public figures of the 20th century. he has been a tremendous partner to us on this symposium. our sincere thanks again to him

and i want to turn it over to don in our fellow panelists for the first discussion this afternoon. [applause] >> well, it sounds like -- can you hear us ok? all right. we are on. thank you, andy, for that introduction. it is a great privilege and an honor for us to sponsor this celebration of the 40th anniversary of the truman scholars program. i also want to thank andy rich and secretary albright for really the outstanding job that they have done in pulling together this program. it has been about a year since we were talking about this and i am delighted we have reached this point today. i also want to acknowledge this, i want to repeat it, we received

really substantial funding for this program from the artery and -- audrey and bernard foundation in waco, texas, and i just want to have a shout out to them as well before we get into the program. i want to add that the decision for us to support this conference was very easy to make, primarily because the truman scholarships over the 40 years have made such a significant contribution to the public good with all of the gifted individuals, students who the truman foundation's support has made possible for them to go to school and to enter public service, and so it was easy for us to sponsor something that was going to celebrate that. also, it gives us the opportunity, the center the opportunity to bring to attention our own work and furthering knowledge of the research and teaching we support and facilitate.

it is also a fact that andy mentioned that we have the sam rayburn library and the john garner museum. we also have a very, very close working relationship with the lbj library, our next-door neighbor at the university of texas, austin. we have three experts, as andy mentioned, who will join me in discussing the relationship harry truman had with three texans who were among the most influential and well-known political figures of their day. cactus jack garner was speaker of the house of representatives and he was later vice president , for the first two terms of franklin roosevelt's administration. his protege, cactus jack's protege, john garner was sam

rayburn, who was the longest-serving speaker of the house in american history, and rayburn's protege was lyndon b. johnson was vice president and then president of the united states himself. so, let's begin the discussion today, turning to dr. nancy young who will start the discussion off about john garner and harry truman's relationship. >> harry truman and john nance garner were cut from the same cloth in many ways. they were born and raised in rural backgrounds. they did not have the formal education of a john f. kennedy. they both appreciated the experiences of a common man and woman. that is what drove them to public service, i believe. don already mentioned garner was

fdr's first vice president. last vice fdr's president. they shared skepticism about that office both held with garner once observing that the vice presidency was not worth a couple of warm spit. that is a sanitized version of the quote. there is a less sanitized version, and i will let your imagination take you wherever it will. harry truman, not to be outdone, made a similar observation about the vice presidency, that it was like the fifth tit on a cow, no way to really change that one around that i could think of. [laughter] >> hopefully that will suggest to you the common bond of the two men. garner was truman's senior and garner was in the vice presidency when truman came to

the senate, so he was the presiding officer in the chamber. garner gave truman the same advice he gave all new members and that was to be quiet and learn how things work for a while. garner did serve as a mentor to truman when he was a young senator, and if you went to truman's washington, d.c. home, you would see on his small bookshelf a few books, a two-volume biography of andrew jackson, the bible, stories of great operas, and a biography of john garner. there interesting combination of books. interesting combination of books. garner and truman did not always think alike and perhaps the most important moment where they disagree was with fdr's plan in 1937 to expand the size of the

supreme court. the supreme court had been deciding against new deal measures and fdr did not want the trend to continue with pending court cases, so he hoped that expanding the size of the court would solve that problem. truman was happy to support the president in that regard but garner said, "i will oppose it with all of the strength that remains to me, but i do not imagine it will be any good. why if the president asked congress to commit suicide, it would do it." so a little frustration there. not that long after in the 1940 presidential election, garner made a brief challenge to fdr that did not work out well for him, so he left washington, dc, saying he would never go back again and he never went back again.

some have mistaken that statement as a resignation from politics overall, and that would not be true because garner remained very involved in politics until he drew his last breath. when truman became president, he said of garner, when garner was vice president, there was hardly a day when at least half the members of the senate did not see him in his office or talk to him somewhere in the capital. in the past four years when henry wallace was vice president i doubt if there are a half a dozen senators all told who have been in the office. you can draw your own conclusion. garner provided a model for truman in how to approach is increasing role in public life. fast-forward to 1948 when truman saw reelection to the presidency in his own right, he made a

series of tours throughout the country. wasregion he did not visit the south giving up on any hope , of carrying southern states with thurman splitting off into the dixie party. truman did get to texas and he made a special point of going on a whistle stop and meet with his old friend, cactus jack garner. truman needed texas to win the white house. he campaigned very well in texas and throughout the country. sam rayburn said he was one of the folks very good from the back platform, a crowd of 10,000 people showed up to greet truman at the train station at 6:50 in the morning, and the high point was a breakfast garner have for truman served on the back porch of garner's home and the crowd cheered. they could not care so much

about truman's civil rights agenda, but a friend of john garner and that is all that mattered to them and he did indeed carry texas. truman came back to visit garner one more time in 1958 for a celebration of garner's 90th birthday. truman's airplane was delayed with mechanical problems in dallas so he did not get there until late in the evening passed garner's bed time of 8:00, so they agreed to talk the next morning after agreeing that they were a sight for sore eyes. i think that sums up nicely the garner-truman relationship and i will turn it over to my wiser and more learned colleagues. [applause] >> you want to talk about rayburn? >> sure. i would love to. >> i would add that 8:00 was pretty much truman's that time -- bed time as well.

they did not miss out on much. harry truman and sam rayburn had a lot in common. they were both small-town southerners. they both prided themselves on their plain speaking, straight shooting character. they would tell things the way it was, the way they saw it. they did not feel inclined to mince words for political benefit. perhaps most important at least for the relationship between the two, they were loyal democrats and they would stand by the , democratic party. there was a lot in the background of the two that might have made them friends, but the fact that they became important political partners was less fore-ordained. in fact, it was largely a matter of accident. the accident was the death of franklin roosevelt.

sam rayburn came to real political power before harry truman did. he was speaker of the house starting in 1940. truman was a member of the senate. he developed a certain reputation during world war ii in terms of keeping an eye on government spending on the war. that brought him to national attention, or at least the attention of franklin roosevelt, and when there was a revolt in the democratic party in 1944 against henry wallace, roosevelt was looking for someone that he could talk into the vice presidency, and who would not create another revolt in the party. harry truman was sufficiently regular that the party accepted harry truman. truman's appreciation of the vice presidency from the moment it was actually elected.

moment hed from the was elected. he shared john garner's low opinion of it. while he was try to find what to do with himself, he used to hang out with sam rayburn. rayburn had this hideaway deep in the bowels of the capital where what he called the board of education used to meet late in the afternoon. they would share their favorite drink, and they would ruminate on politics in washington and the state of the democratic party. harry truman was in sam rayburn's office on a momentous day in 1945 in april when he got word that a call had come from the white house and it was important he called the white house. he called the white house. the first thing he said, according to somebody that was there, he puts on the phone and he said, "jesus christ and general jack." this is what harry truman said. he knew that something was up.

he went to the white house and discovered franklin roosevelt had died and he was now president of the united states. he would realize that his relationship with sam rayburn all of a sudden had become very much more important. it is a surprise for both of them. when harry truman became president, he had no idea that he was about to launch two revolutions in american affairs. a revolution in domestic affairs that did not go as far as he wanted. it would take another 15 or 20 years. harry truman was the first president since reconstruction to believe that the president needed to take a positive role in improving race relations. harry truman, for example, was the one that issued the executive order to desegregate the military. that is one that hung fire while truman was still president, but it was essential to the

relationship between truman and rayburn. the other, perhaps more far-reaching revolution was that that harry truman launched an american foreign affair and in both of those areas, truman made rayburn uncomfortable. rayborn like many of those in the united states had an idea that after world war ii the united states might gradually proceed from responsibility for world affairs that it had taken after pearl harbor and but somehow approximate the previous attitude of the country toward the rest of the world. truman realized this would not work. the world would not remain peaceful unless the united states continued to play a large role. one of the moments in which harry truman had to call on sam rayburn was when truman was presenting congress with what became the marshall plan. i will let truman tell the story.

he invites sam rayburn into his office. "i called in sam rayburn and when i told him what we had in mind, he would not believe it. his first reaction was just like everybody else. he said, we cannot afford it. he said, mr. president, it will bust the country. and i said to him, sam, if we do not do it, europe will have the worst depression in its history and i do not know how many hundreds or thousands of people will starve to death and we do not want to have a thing like that on our conscience. not if it is something we can prevent, no we do not. if we let europe go down the drain, then we are going to have a bad depression in this country and you and i have both lived through one depression and we do not want to have to live through another. do we, sam?

rayburn says, no we do not. he said, harry, how much do we figure this is going to cost? truman says, i looked him right in the eye, i never told sam anything less than the whole truth. that is the kind of relationship we had. i looked him in the eye and said, is going to cost about $16 billion, sam. but then, truman went on to say, he had worked on behalf of saving the government money during the war. now, sam, i figure i save the people of the united states about $16 billion with the committee of mine. [laughter] >> you know that better than anyone else. now, we are going to need that money and we can save the world with it. rayburn says, harry, i will do my damnest.

it will not be easy. you can count on me. did,n remembered that he too. there was another moment when sam rayburn essentially came to the rescue of harry truman. he describes this from the perspective of john garner when truman is running for election in 1948 and his stance on civil rights has prompted a revolt within the democratic party, and strom thurmond has led and is about to lead half of the south out of the democratic party. into the states rights democratic party as they call it. truman is trying to shore up support in the south. he goes to texas. jack garner holds a breakfast for him and sam rayburn rode on the train with him. sam rayburn invited him to texas

where he holds a reception and he says that, everybody, nobody is going to come so we are going to make sure texas turns out for our democratic president. rayburn himself has some questions whether the timing was right for civil rights reform that truman proposed. he was a good enough democratic to say, this is our president and we are going to stick with him. he invites all of his friends and they all show up in the gets a speech on his behalf. he emphasizes not civil rights, because he knows that it's going to be divisive in texas but he , emphasizes foreign policy. speaking of truman's foreign policy and is a candidate, his shoulders are broad enough, his heart is big enough and his mind is keen enough. i do not know if all of the

texans who came to the reception were listening but this was sam rayburn, so they were going to come. margaret truman went along on a journey, and she recalls to the guests coming to the rayburn's house, they came in droves and they kept coming. they kept coming in such numbers that they alarmed the secret service. the secret service, i should point out, that harry truman would be the object of a n assassination attempt and the , secret service was worried and so they wanted to make sure that everybody that came to the reception, and sam rayburn stood up and said, i know every man, woman and child here and i will vouch for them. the secret service kind of granting their teeth. inding their teeth. rayburn was willing that everyone should come and face

truman. he did not want to give more of a party necessary when he realized some of the guests were coming through the eating line twice. he turned to the texas governor and said shut the door, they are coming through twice. anyway, his support for truman was absolutely critical in holding half of the south for truman, and that is what gave truman the victory in 1948 and made possible the completion of truman's revolution in foreign policy, including the north atlantic alliance, the korean war and so on. it was this partnership that made truman the president that he was. again, rayburn did not agree with everything, but he believed truman was somebody he could see eye to eye with. i will leave rayburn the last line and this is something truman would have endorsed, "any

jackass can kick a barn down but it takes a carpenter to build one." [applause] >> very good. very good. >> thank you. let's hear from mark about his relationship with lyndon johnson. >> you bet. let me start by adding lbj's contribution to despairing the vice presidency. he said with very earthy language from texas, johnson said that the vice president was like being a stuck pig a screwing match. like the gentleman nancy and bill have spoken about, lyndon

johnson and harry truman were very much cut from the same cloth. both were born of modest means in small-town america, what we might call flyover country today. they never forgot where they came from. truman never went to college although he read every book in , the independence, missouri public library. to collegenson went at southwest state teachers university. both men were accidental presidents, stepping into the outsize shoes of their eloquent harvard educated predecessors. truman assumed the presidency upon the death of the titanic franklin roosevelt and lbj after the assassination of john f. kennedy. when truman took office, the washington post did not have a high opinion of him, riding that

we would be less than candid if we did not recognize the great disparity between mr. truman's experience and the great responsibility that has been thrust upon him. lbj said of kennedy, he was a great public hero, and anything i did, it was not approved of, it was always said that president kennedy would do it better. he would not make mistakes i made. both truman and johnson became near great presidents. they shared an acute sense of social justice, while truman and johnson never forgot where they came from. advanced the cause of civil rights despite growing up in places where racism was be relied -- virulent. truman desegregated the military and pushed in vain for civil rights laws. a trilogy ofd

transformational civil rights legislation, the civil rights act of 1964 to break the back of jim crow, the voting rights act of 1965, and the fair housing act of 1968. they shared a great personal bond. lbj rose from the house to the senate during truman's tenure in office. he eventually became the senate minority whip. johnson admired truman and considered in a mentor. had sam rayburn, and he also considered truman a daddy. hen lbj became president, paid tribute to harry truman, perhaps anticipating his own post-presidency.

he lavished them with praise and attention, showing truman that while he was gone back to this modest life and independence, missouri, after leaving the splendor of the presidency, he was certainly not forgotten. conversationephone of lbj calling truman after truman had called him to express his congratulations after victorywon a landslide to the presidency in 1964. you will hear truman and lbj. clearly. toman brings on his wife speak to the president as well. asmr. president, i love you everybody in america does. i'm so honored that you would take the time to call me. >> will never be equal. record, whenh your

they start going to look at the truman doctrine and nato and the marshall plan, i know it -- that is one good thing about me. i have the sense to know it. >> you are all right in my blood. i want to congratulate you. always been more for the party and other folks than you have been for yourself. there is not a privilege of that office or a purpose of it that you cannot share. your bedroom is up there waiting for you. need,ng else you want or -- >> for the first time i'm able to get around, i would like to. >> tell ms. truman we love her.

anything you want or need. >> you tell her. >> we are so happy. >> i know you are. responsible for the wonderful work he has done. >> it is wonderful of you to say that. >> he has always had time for me. it is true. he has always thought more of his party and his friends that he has of himself. you make him watch himself. he is no spring chicken. [laughter] >> while that was very magnanimous on lbj's part, my suspicion is that it was a tad self-serving and that lbj hoped that his successors would take care of him in the way that he

was taking care of his predecessor. medicare intod law in 1965, he insisted on doing so at the truman library since truman had tried and failed to pass similar adulation when he was president. at the time, lbj paid tribute to truman for planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flower into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful. first two medicare cards to harry truman and his wife. daddyled truman the real of medicare, and was in all likelihood painter g -- paying tribute to one of his own daddies.

a turbulent and consequential time. 1968, during a trip from the west coast to washington, lbj insisted on visiting truman in independence on the way. when lbj called the truman house to propose a visit, his wife decline, saying that harry had company recently and was worn out. lbj was not one to take no for an answer. she did noter that understand that he was coming to independence, and he wanted to call on her. he insisted that they ask again. she reluctantly consented. she had conditions. no ordered that there be

more than 10 people in the presidential entourage tramping across the lawn and on her living room rug. the president was supposed to show up at the house at 2:00, and a little after 3:00 finally the presidential entourage arrived. up the steps to the porch of the hall, thrust , and said hello, mr. president, sorry we are late. be,an replied, you ought to it is your own damn fault, if you left on time, you would be here on time. there is also the size of the presidential entourage. they began counting those standing on mrs. truman's rug. he stopped counting when he got to 20.

wisely, he declined to introduce himself to mrs. truman. his visit wither the 30 president, i feel stronger when i leave them. my guess is that harry truman felt a little stronger, too. >> thank you. [applause] we have been talking. i was referring to cactus jack. do you want to explain where that comes from? >> sure. before john nance garner went to the house of representatives, he served as a judge and in the state legislature. he used his seat in the texas state legislature to draw his own congressional district, one he would be sure to win. which he did multiple times

over. when he was in the state legislature, the lawmakers were debating what the state flower should be. most people know it is the blue bonnett. was a proponent of the cactus. he lost that battle gained the name of cactus jack. i can only imagine what parents would think if they have to take their children to a field of thats for the photo op happens instead in fields of bluebonnets. >> i will put in an advertisement. we produced a documentary on the life of john nance garner. pbs has broadcasted the last

couple nights. , warnerlled cactus jack lodestar on capitol hill. becauselso mention that , i amyburn's library interested in truman's relationship with the sam rayburn library. i think it is sort of providing most of usinto what probably already know about truman's love for books and reading. won a civicyburn achievement award, i think it was from reader's digest, he received this cash award. who diedwho -- rayburn with very little money, kind of like truman, he did not really know what to do with this money

because he was against -- he did not like to take money from lobbyists or anyone else. truman suggested to him that it would be a great idea to have a library. -- truman suggested to rayburn that we do not have enough libraries. why don't you take that money and set up your own library someplace. seed that maya rayburn go on and create the sam rayburn library. in doing so, one of the things that came into play was that truman saw to it that when rayburn provided absolutely critical support in the congress and led the house, as you were pointing out, on the marshall

plan, the government prevented -- presented sam rayburn with a base that was more than 2000 years old. it is incredibly valuable. it is an amazing piece of ancient art. they presented it to him. , ifan suggested to rayburn you get that library built, that would be a great place to put that vase. he was not sure where a 2000-year-old greek vase would sit in his office. intoprovided some impetus creating this wonderful resource also play a truman role in connecting the national archives with rayburn to plan the library and set it up. he told rayburn that he would come and dedicate the library and museum when it was ready to

open. truman, who was now a former president, made the trek to texas, for those of you who do not have the geography of texas that well, that is between dallas-fort worth, just northeast, near the oklahoma boarder. thean went down and gave dedication speech for the sam rayburn library. we have film of that. it is a great moment. the other thing i want to mention is, we have already talked about how important it wasthat john nance garner truman's campaign in 1948 in texas. as you may recall, the odds were strongly against truman being elected in 1948. everyone expected thomas steely

to win that -- dewey to win that election. withe democrats were split the dixiecrats and strom thurmond. it was critical that truman carry texas, but nobody gave him a chance. that is when this visit with garner, as you are you mentioned, was so important. there was some question -- garner was not, he actually left the new deal, split with roosevelt when he left washington. he was a guest social security. he was against labor unions. he was very unhappy with the second video, the so-called more liberal new deal. he was very supported of the reforms of wall street and banking in this country. he was a small-town banker himself.

there was some question about whether garner would be that active in supporting truman because of the democrats coming back to the white house. there was never a question. huger was absolutely a fan. governor brisco was the host. he was in the state legislature at this time. they concocted this harebrained scheme with garner, this is she and goat country in southwest texas. they were all sheep and goat razors. they did not raise cattle. they put clothing on the go that dewey's that read goat.

when they came into town, they were going to have this breakfast. they decided they would take the goat with the press therefrom san antonio. they would have the president of raisers take goat the goat. this is a different world. they would walk up to the president who was sitting in the back of the convertible with john nance garner and present dewey's goat. truman.ident there was some question of whether this was in good taste or whatever. they did do it. they brought it out. there is film of this. you can see the shock on his

face when they take this goes up and dump it in his lap. they say they are going to get dewey's goat. here it is. john nance garner starts laughing, and he says dewey's goat is probably going to have a call from nature any minute here. maybe it ought to leave. the other story is that when truman told garner that he would be back for his 90th birthday, he was there, and as everyone in texas new, john nance garner like his bourbon. you have to have a couple of glasses of bourbon with cactus jack when you visited him. truman liked bourbon also. they drink together the night that truman spent, and president

truman actually slept in the brisco home that night. president truman had a couple of glasses of stiff bourbon. it was time for them to go to bed. they both went to bed at 8:00. , listen,t up and said i need for you to call bess and tell her i am fine, but i have gone on to bed. he went and lay down. later on, the reason he did is because bess forbade him to drink. he knew when he got on the phone, she would be able to pick up he had been drinking. he did not want to deal with it. so, i think we have about three minutes. things i wanted to mention. you mentioned a modest means truman had upon leaving office.

he went to the same home he had lived in before going to washington in 1934, which had been owned by his in-laws. he did not have a lot of money. if not for the sale of family farmland, he would have been broke. lyndon johnson and some of his colleagues in the senate knew that. in those days, there was no , nothingial pension for former president of any kind. truman had sold a book to make a little bit of money. given the draconian task out at the time, he lost much of that in taxes. people would send him the book design and not give him a return envelope. he spent about $35,000 by his own estimation in postage alone. for formere

president approved by lyndon johnson and some of his colleagues allowed for a modest presidential pension, about the same amount a ceo would get at the time, allowing him to send things out in mail, and some things like office space. it saved harry truman from financial management and benefited lyndon johnson, too. funny thing. [laughter] >> join me in thanking my colleagues. [applause] >> again, i want to say what a privilege it has been for us to sponsor this conference, and how much we appreciate you being here. we have more wonderful things happening this afternoon. thank you again. appreciate it. [applause]

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washington university in st. louis hosts the second presidential debate, leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump taking place in las presidential coverage on c-span. of the coverage presidential debates on c-span. watch them anytime at c-span.org. tv airs on history c-span3 every weekend, telling the american story through events, interviews, and visiting historic locations. visit the college classrooms across the country to hear lectures by top history professors. we take a look at the treasures of the store sites and archives -- historic site and archives. we journey through archives and newsreels. we hear about the civil war and reconstruction. we focus on u.s. presidents and

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the main mission is to tell the story of the cable industry. that tvout of the fact signals cannot get into the valleys. up thea was to put antenna on the hill, collect the signal, send it back down to people's homes. 1973, the inventor of the teleprompter and the cable company, he demonstrated at the anaheim cable tv show that you station to portable distribute the signal. if you get that signal, they sent it. that totally changes the business. satellite distribution. cable is in tune and in touch. it gets better with commercial free entertainment. >> that is why you get the start

bs,the superstitions like wp transition. third-generation in the mid-1990's is the start of the broadband era. cable modems show up. broadband internet services for data is a big thing. that is in the mid to late 1890's. phone services is also coming as well. the question is are we at the end of that, is there a fourth generation coming, as the technologies converge. >> we are down here in the technology archive. items here.t 2500 this is a unique arrangement. the equipment is in signal order. curator of this

arrangement thought of this. that means that where the signals are collected is at the front, then moves to the line equipment where the signals move through the cap, and here we cable,y have the coax and then it goes to the set top boxes. and then we have test equipment. overarching arrangement to this. some of my favorite pieces, we have coffee can and requires. -- amplifiers. we have all this great analog tube equipment. we have homemade test equipment like this piece right here. they have added a bold and amperage meter to the top.

these are the items that we are going to scan for our virtual reality project. you will be able to look at these and handle them and interact with them in our virtual reality online exhibit. tv and cable tv companies are seeking the right to charge you for the very programs you get for free. >> the cable industry has faced a lot of challenges. early on, the broadcasters thought that their signals were being stolen and did not want cable to exist. you had to overcome that. you had to overcome regulatory hurdles. like were monday things pole attachment. mundane things like pole attachment. threat? vcr, is that a

you have more competition coming in. and then there was satellite. direct broadcast satellite. at each time, they have to face these huge challenges that affected the core of the business. now is the same thing with the over-the-top. as you see how people respond and what cable has brought to society. >> cable-tv provides personal choice so we can go together. i like that. >> imagine a world with three or four networks. cable brought choice. there is a lot of change. a lot of changes currently going on. some people think cable operators will turn into broadband providers. there is movement where some of the smaller cable companies,

they're talking about wanting to be broadband companies, not specifically offering television. they want out of the television business. they provide you the technology to get whatever you want. they do not want to be the ones passing the price increases from espn or whatever. it is up to you to negotiate the price. i think a lot of change, a lot of regulatory changes are coming as well with title ii coming in and regulating the cable companies, the internet providers. arehis weekend, we featuring the history of denver, colorado, along with our comcast cable partners. learn more about denver at citiestour. you're watching american history

announcer: we continue now with another session from the 40th anniversary of the harry s truman scholarship foundation. madam albright speaks with historians to discuss harry truman's commitment as president and vice president. this begins with remarks from his eldest grandson, clinton truman daniel. this is about 55 minutes. >> it is my privilege to introduce the newest member of the truman board of trustees, someone who is no stranger to the foundation or to president truman. clifton truman daniel is the oldest grandson of president harry truman. he is the honorary chairman of the truman library institute, a nonprofit partner to the truman presidential library in independence, missouri. he is the author growing up with my grandfather, memories of harry s truman, and dear harry, love bess.