i think the lesson is it will be difficult to predict which groups lineup with each other in order to actually support such an initiative. i think it would be surprising to see who actually aligns with whom. lisa: it is not just the issue, it is also the question of whether you think the constitution is the best vehicle. people who might align in one way, might align another way about the strategy. jeffrey: on that note of caution, i have to thank you both for a superbly engaging and spectacular discussion. thank you so much. [applause] jeffrey: ladies and gentlemen, let's go see the exhibit. c-span viewers come to philadelphia to see it. let's have some great drinks. thank you. [applause]

>> you're watching american history tv on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. next, dixon white house alumni talk about richard nixon's post-presidency. they discussed their roles in the nixon/frost interviews, the writing of his memoir, and his return to public life. we hear about his relationship with ronald reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign and has lasting impact on american politics. this is just over an hour and was hosted iv next and presidential library and museum in california. >> many of you will have it your place setting an envelope. you will find a record or two we were able to find about you.

the staff that we have, the great staff inside the foundation had more fun. imagine if they would uncover something that links something and they would say wow. i can only share with you that it was a great discovery process. think we are reproducing for them to have at your table. we thought that would be fun. [applause] tos a great honor for me introduce our first panel of the afternoon. we have two very significant up panels. near to 2:00. i am delighted to you are here for the dedication today. the alumni reunion, i trust you would think of this as

your home away from home. we want you back. are delighted to welcome the many c-span viewers all across america and around the world who are dedicating -- watching this dedication. some of you were here for our opening ceremony in october. the film was representative of that. i think it's a credit to all of you. we asked many of you to contribute. the next generation of the nixon family was represented by two new board members that we have. it was a very special day for all of us. president next and in the first lady for their memory. the new exhibits are in and they are excellent. there is a new standard we have

set for objectivity and presidential libraries. arenumbers of visitors giving us enthusiastic thumbs-up for being interesting, educational, entertaining, and relevant. i think we have arranged an interesting panel for you this afternoon. you know the protestants. i'm surentroduce them, you can tell as many stories about them as they will be telling about president nixon. the subject is the final come back, nixon in the post-presidency. they will talk about its earliest stage in the years that they spent with the president and misses nixon in san clemente. storyegins as a very sad with the presidents brush with mortality that almost became a tragic story. before long, it becomes a true and truly inspiring nixon

narrative of resolve, resilience, and return. our moderator is qqq it. -- hugh hewitt. he began working as a researcher. he was the first director of this library. congratulations on the launch. stagese earliest landing until 1990, he has forged a brilliant career as a teacher, lawyer, talkshow host. author andt-selling a pundit of national prominence. his latest book is a conservative playbook for lasting gop majority. it was published three weeks ago. please join me in welcoming our good friend, our old friend hugh hewitt. [applause]

hugh: thank you very much. this is such a wonderful celebration of the 60's and 70's. i came dressed as the hathaway man today. i wanted to explain what that was about. can i welcome my panelists up. presidentan was nixon's friend. come on up, jack. thek gannon, leader of wonderful memoir. come join me, gentlemen. please come have a seat there titled -- ia book am in your chair because of the hathaway patch. ken, come over here. about woodrowk

wilson's last years. it's an amazing americans like. that book is not yet been written about richard nixon and his retirement. these three general into my left could easily write it and perhaps all of them will combine out it. it begins with a clip that will bring back some memories to each of them. if we could roll that please. >> the question is what role will i play in the future in the political field at home and abroad? politically, my political life is over. and as you know, no one can be elected to the office of president more than twice.

i checked with him and he said i'm too old to get into oxford. i can't run for president of the union. when i hear what a spicy election you have, even though i had some tough elections, even i don't want to try that one. politically in that sense, i plan to play no role in the party as a candidate, for a candidate, anything. while i have retired from politics, i have not retired from life. playind of role i will would be in the public arena. , intend to speak on occasion when the form is a proper one. i will do some writing. i have another book i am working on. never agreed to write a book. it takes so much time. it's a book on the future. happen by the end of the century? the challenge to the west and

not just consulting our fears but how we can build a better world. it in addition to speaking and writing, i will from time to time when individuals can find their way to san clemente on a private basis, i will talk to them and give them free advice. it will be worth what it costs. president nixon in 1978 projecting how he would spend the next many decades of his life. did he forecast correctly what he would do with the rest of his life? jack: very much so. i want to comment that he did , never did he accept a nickel for all the talks he made. extended toty misses nixon, when she was the

only former first lady to ever give up secret service. i argued with her. its cost and the taxpayers money and we don't want to do that. i think it did what he said he would do. deliberate were each of the steps he took along the way? how deliberate was the plan he rolled out? had nothing to do with the memoirs. beginning, it was not a time of elation. all of us were a bit down on the very first day. inshowed the way by coming and a coat entire at 7:30 a.m. my job i thought was to make sure they were never exposed to catcalls or people harassing him.

anyway, we my mind, don't put him in bad circumstances. that was my job. frank and can contribute significantly to that. hugh: let's ask about the beginning of the medawar and the oxford speech. frank: jack and ken went to oxford with them. as you can see, it was a very unfriendly audience. there were major demonstrations outside the room. -- won them over with his candor. he addressed all the questions. humor,ed a sense of which i think surprised people. i was sort of in the memoir loop, which was separate.

can ran everything. he was in the frost nixon loop. i was not involved in a lot of that planning. year, he was understandably a man at the end of his emotional and physical tether. having to deal with that and then he got very sick. as bill said, he had to brushes with mortality. the first year was really healthy,o getting getting back into form, which then turned out to be fighting form. the interesting thing we were whenng about downstairs, he owed inthe plane,

half $1legal bills million. this source of income head ceased -- had ceased. he knew that in order to pay the bills and keep his lawyers going because his legal problems that only just begun, he was going to have to raise money. workbvious ways to do that to write a book and do some television. i still have trouble calling it frost/next in. i think that billing is wrong. beingaggerating and grossly unfair to lawyers, but somebody has to do it. is oncelistic version the bill had been paid in the lawyers were not given advice, the best advice was don't write

a book and don't do anything on television. became the national -- nationalization of his papers, whatever it's called. the presidential recordings and materials preservation act, which kept all of the presidential papers in washington. a provision of that law is a president can contest in the , if he chose to contest it while he was contesting it, he could avail himself of access to the papers. his lawyers said rightly you undercut your case if you avail yourself of a provision of the law you are trying to get overturned. it was an exquisite existential

dilemma. how do you write a memoir without any of the papers? it was a risky decision on his to access the papers. hugh: you went to oxford. he projects out the next 15 years. that is a remarkable clip. it's almost incredible that he would say that. what was the room like? the event itself was extraordinary. for the trip.d what theme sense of room would be like and what the audience would be like. awayd no idea that 10 feet behind the oxford union was another building where there was a mob of about 100 protesters

that were yelling and screaming throughout the entire speech. there is no microphone to broadcast in the oxford union. everything is done just your normal voice. hours, all during his talk, they were yelling and screaming epitaphs and he was talking without notes through the whole thing without any pause or anything else in answering questions, tough questions. it was the most extraordinary thing to see him standing there giving forth data and exposition on salt and détente and foreign policy. it was a classic case of the

andident in the preparation i don't think he anticipated necessarily all the questions. we try to anticipate the foreign policy and domestic questions and some the local questions. i don't think he thought about asking him what his future would be like. i think he had been thinking about that all the time in writing the memoir. that was very much part of it. if i could go back a little bit and add on to what frank said earlier, i came out for about 10 resigned. he in addition to legal bills, it was pure survival. he was broke. they were trying to get back taxes from him, which they claimed he did not paid. they tried to get money from him for improvements on the houses in key biscayne. he not only had no money, he had

all of these bills. one of my assignments was to find economic survival for he and misses nixon. it was a very difficult time. it was an extraordinary pathway of four years. hugh: i want to play a clip now to four years prior to oxford. this is the president in the east room. this is 1974. >> thank you.

you're here to say good night to us. good word for it in english. the best is all for. we will see you again. we think that when someone dear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election, we think defeaten we suffer a that all has ended. not true. it's only a beginning, always. the young must know it.

the old must know it. not whenness comes things go always good for you, the greatness comes in you are tested. knocks, some some disappointments. when sadness comes. only if you've been in the deepest valley, can you ever to beow magnificent it is on the highest mountain. so, we leave with high hopes , in good spirit, with deep humility. gratefulness in our hearts.

i can only say to each and every one of you, not only will we always remember you, not only will we always be grateful to always be in our hearts and you will be in our prayers. thank you very much. hugh: you with the military aid to the president. he served as chief of staff for four years. you were in the room that day. how deep was the valley he was referring to? jack: rather. save my desert. i will be back. you've all heard this since then, the military aid sat across from misses nation.

lifted off the white house lawn and she looked down and everyone was in tears. she said it's so sad. that's about all that was said on the helicopter. we got on the plane and a lot of people were sad. a lot of people were thinking, what we do now russian mark how do we make it work? there was activity going on. then he came out and talked to all of us on the plane. when we got to el toro, there was a marine base of course. there was a large number of people cheering. they provided helicopters rest come down to san clemente and we started life all over again. hugh: ken, what ryu thinking? ken: how could this be happening to us? this is the saddest day.

statewe had one that 49 landslide victory and worked so hard to have an all come crashing down, i was part of the watergate defense team and was fighting until the end. that the nickname based on japanese soldier who had hidden in the jungles of the philippines, waiting 30 years thinking the war was still going to go his way. abruptly, wondering what was going to happen to all of us and wondering what he was going to do. it was beyond sadness. clemente 10o san days later, when he was president, you would come down that long driveway you would see

shinyarine helicopter all . the day i drove down after his resignation, it was a tennis court and some coast guard people playing tennis. it was the saddest thing i never seen. hugh: frank, where ryu that day? frank: those of us who were on the plane could not be in the east room. only the swells made it onto army one. i watch that speech in the president's cabin on air force one sitting next to diane sawyer, who was part of the group that one out -- went out. , the captain came on and said to look out the window as we were coming in toward el toro.

lineup, a five mile line up on the freeway trying to get to el toro. that was the point at which you realize it happened. i think everyone was numb on that plane. , it was the first time a concrete thing. it was very moving. -- severaland people , it was people spontaneous, you have stories about that. the president wasn't expecting it. he wasn't prepared to have to make a public speech. spontaneously people started standing around. there were bleachers.

there were some stands that people were standing and sitting in. they began singing "god bless america." that was very moving. thee were not prepared for crowd that would spend all night up and down the boulevard to come into the library. hugh: were you? crossesial crisis, legal -- crisis, legal crisis. is -- i was in the room. richard and slapping him to bring him back to consciousness. misses nixon had health

crisis. jack: she had a stroke and the president called me at home, very early in the morning. he said jack, come down here. i know she has had a stroke. i called my old office in the white house. andid call can't pendleton tell them to send a cardiologist right away. andnt down to the house misses nixon is german irish and a bit stubborn. she said there is nothing wrong with me. he was trying to talk to her into going to the hospital. i have a doctor from camp pendleton.

if we go anywhere we're going to long beach hospital. .he had a stroke her arm wasn't working. i whispered you are either going or i am carrying you. she got in the ambulance and president nixon got on the back of the ambulance. he rode with her to long beach hospital. hugh: dennis from their to the various crises to sitting down with mao in 1976. in how does that trip come about? what does president ford think about it? how does evolve? the first china trip after the resignation? the person ins charge of that. the chinese invited him. was in february and it

wasn't convenient for the 40 administration. -- ford administration. there were some problems there. invitation, it an the chinese sent a plane for him and wanted him to come. i think he was torn between not wanting to do something that would not be helpful to president ford, but not wanting to do nothing that would offend the chinese. he made the decision to go. it gave him the opportunity, a second opportunity, to see chairman mao shortly before he died. on the next trip, he was able to a briefly tenured chairman. with dengt in don't

xiaoping. with deng xiaoping. was really maintained by him going for that second , that fourth anniversary in 76. hugh: how did you advance it without the white staff around to do it? who jack: let me go back there in -- back. i would occasionally go back to washington. i would visit the chinese embassy. like tod to me we would invite president next and back to china on the anniversary. this is way before we knew there would be a fight between reagan

and president ford in new hampshire in february. to send a boeing seven of seven. that was impressive. you have to guarantee that i see mao. the decision-maker is only one who says what you are doing. i was not dealing with chairman mao. i couldn't guarantee anything. i think there was overreaction sayingident ford's staff we were trying to disrupt something. we had no idea it would be a fight. trip, barry the goldwater asked what he thought about. this is the goldwater for whom president nixon had campaigned so heavily in 1964 and defended

against all of the attacks about being a crazy right-winger. the best thing nixon could do was stay in china. he made those awful comments. i think president next and thought his way through the political fallout. this is the time when he was starting to look forward to things. he was going to persevere and have his life move on. we sense that in our discussions with him, even while we were writing the book. he talked to us about the book. he would take hours talking about politics, talking about the future, talking about what he should be doing. it was a mixture of lifelike this. this.e like

he still wanted to be engaged all the time. all sessions we would have for hours and hours in his office. hugh: he used to say that if we were writing the book in new hampshire, we would have finished a year earlier. it was too nice. the other thing, it they kept the file of the supporters. people who went above and beyond the basic level of support. she kept it up and brought it out. they had kept up this list of supporters, which was about 150,000 people. the president said that for as

many of these people who support me, there are an equal and opposite number that despise me. this book will sell 300,000 copies. was thatration spending four years on a book for 300,000 people as opposed to doing television where he could reach millions with less preparation, although with his great preparation, he could reach millions in an instant. he was frustrated by that. once he got better, he was champing at the bit to get back in the arena. david andrked with was hired on the staff. i do everything. i had just graduated from college. i thought you were crazy to take him to kentucky.

tell us about the first speech in a little town in kentucky. what were you thinking? jack: go someplace where people are not going to be harassing and jeering. we got a lot of invitations. were going to name a school for him in this little town in kentucky. they are the heart of the earth. we decided to go. bit morelittle emotional. bit ofet's show a little a clip of the kentucky speech. all of the very distinguished guests on the platform behind me, all of the distinguished estimate audience in front of me, and all of those outside who were unable to get in, may i first say how deeply grateful i

am for your very warm reception. jack: every local authority and beauty queen and band played. hours inere for four an on air conditioned gymnasium in kentucky in july. he was a democrat, a dirty trick sky. the republican convention was in miami. he arranged for a number of pregnant black ladies to walker and in circles carrying a sign

saying nixon is the one. they had a parade in the sky runs up with a book saying sign it for me. he always signed with best wishes. he insisted didn't say from richard nixon. it said love, richard nixon. it's kind of like the fake news we are getting today. to the meetingck with chairman mao, jack has a wonderful story about that. one that is a particular favorite of mine. jack: president wanted to make sure he saw chairman mao in 1976. i was rather anxious for this to

happen. fortuitously, the first night the foreign minister came to my room, which was adjacent to the nixon's room. he said chairman now would like to see president and misses next in. i started to put on my jacket. i would into the room and told the president. he was ready to go. seeould also like to brennan. why me? we respect loyalty very much. when president nixon came in 1972, he had a staff of 80 and now he has a staff of one. chairman mao wants to meet you. [applause]

introductions, president nixon dismissed misses next in and i. she and i got in the car and went to where we were saying. -- staying. hugh: there was a moment became afterwards when he went with jonathan aiken to the british parliament and you met the conservative party leader. tell the audience about that and if that made the trip a success and began to reintroduce the president to the future world leaders. maggie thatcher was soon to be prime minister obviously. i think she made a great impression on him and he made a great impression on her. there was one other twist about the speech at the oxford union.

before we went there, he assigned me the names of all the well-known american officeholders who had been rhodes scholars. i provided the list. while he was there, i want to tell you that many of the same folks who have been in this room who have been rhodes scholars ended up in significant positions in the united states. one is a supreme court justice area -- justice. i will predict that before the end of the century, a rhodes scholar will become president of the united states. bill clinton became president of united states. we never were sure about his predictions. he was always predicting. that is one that came true. hugh: let's go to the frost/nexen interviews.

i loved the movie. i never asked you what you thought about the movie. what you think of the movie? frank: i thought it was not accurate. i thought it was inaccurate as history. i thought it was terrific drama. there were some accuracies and to his credit, ron howard the director paid a lot of attention to trying to get things right and the atmospherics he got right. events, thethe main phone call, the shoes didn't happen. spirit.tured the if those things had happened, they would've happen that way. i thought it was a good movie. passable history. jack: i didn't like that i was

played i am. am -- a ham. all i can say about the veracity is that it was aced on an actual event. the events were not true at all. frank: i was very disappointed there were very negative scenes in the movie, especially one. when ron howard game to seamy see me. -- seamy -- they had sent me the screenplay and they wanted to know what i thought about it. you know that never happened? peter morgan looked at me and said it is entertainment. hugh: let's talk about the real

event. how important was it to get this right? presidentid the prepare? how important is it? ken: this was extremely important to him and to all of us. we started preparing separate weeks -- seven weeks in advance. i was taken off the book. was at the end of january. the taping started march 23. that was 1978. assignment to be preparing reefing books as he had done for press conferences. books as he had done for press conference. had 24 hours to

prepare in terms of the contract. we had a lot to cover, domestic issues, foreign policy, watergate. we had to anticipate. i began working with one of .heir policy guys we started covering some of the issues they wanted to talk about. i started working on that. diane sawyer came off the book to work on the watergate portion. ray price work on several elements of the briefing books. we did a lot of it in a q&a format. narrative, was also just a lot of facts. he wanted all of this prepared. he knew it would be a grueling process. it was a very strenuous day and night, six days a week.

we went through a lot of effort to get him ready. the reputation that he had in law school, he did it in preparation for this. tv was one thing. it's not like the book, you can rewrite the book. he had no power to edit this television. hugh: he wanted for more hours at the end. there are so many stories about this movie, how we had to get over the lack of trust to begin with. let's get to what actually happened. the contract was for 24 hours. david frost sent his reducer -- producer down to see me. he said we've got nothing. this is a disaster. president nixon has taken over everything.

we need more time. we need him to open up more. i said we made a deal with you. i sent him on his way. i first confided in ken. he said screw them. we made a deal. then, frank and diane came to me. diane did the talking. she knew i would pay more attention to her. if this thing airs the way it is, the world is going to say there goes richard nixon stonewalling again. it's a disaster. this is bad. nixon andpresident one of the few times he was gruff with me.

but are you proposing? take as much time as you want and we will set the date. decide what you want to say and we will give them more time. that's how they got the extra four hours. i will bring this to a conclusion. in any event, he really prepared. he knew what he wanted to convey people, saying i'm sorry without saying i'm guilty. he planned it all out. we got to the point and agreed upon it. i would always ride with him up to the place where we were doing the screening. this morning, i looked at him and he was so uptight. i called ray price. i said you ride with him and

tell him how good he is. we got to the screen. david frost started off. president nixon was so ready. i was so frustrated. all of us were so frustrated. i made a sign and it said let him talk. said he his book, he thought it said let us talk. he saw the sign and he took a break. president to his room. he can tell you how uptight he was. i talked to frost like a marine. i let him know that all he has

sentence,end out a just welcome him. don't be confrontational. nice, be pleasant. ask him and he is ready. hugh: before i come to that he wanted to say he was sorry without saying he was guilty. would you expand on that? what does that mean for people? you are his lead guy. what does that mean? frank: i think we have to ask diane and i would listen to her more than i would listen to me. we were not part of that. i'm not just being diplomatic. we weren't part of that loop. diane was. i was not.

memoirs.working on the ray came out and later point to help. was this waseeling going to be the first time the president had spoken to the nation since the resignation. questions,e basic did he lie, did he tell the truth, how did he feel about what had happened, not just what had happened to him, but what had happened to the nation as a result. this, theaddressed nation would be waiting. it was the other shoe the nation was waiting to drop. adopted -- watergate was going to come of the last taping session.

was antely, there aggressive relationship. frost became a prosecutor. the next questions were about .ambodia and he adopted frost was extremely aggressive. his legalent as was training, responded in kind. that was their frustration. they felt nixon had run the clock out. he had dominated the conversation because he had been there. he had more information. from frost's point of view, this wasn't good at. it didn't make frost look good. they were concerned it wasn't going to make great television. they knew and we knew the people

waiting next and to address what had happened. minutes, what 10 are you talking to him about? the way we got to 24 hours is we had agreed to 12 two-hour sessions. we were recording on our end and timing all of the sessions. frost would go on and on. to hoursion would go and 18 minutes or two hours and 14 minutes. hours by the 11th session. when he was talking to frost, i was talking to the president. we were addressing two key points. frost wanted the president to say that he lied and that he was guilty of a crime.

those with the two essential elements they were really looking for. frost backedso away enough to let the president , for lack of a better term his me a call to without him going to the edge without actually having to say that he lied or committed a crime. we had a midway point that satisfied both parties. that worked very well. hugh: i want to talk about the memoir before we talk about him in 1980. greategarded among the presidential memoirs. you are the lead on this. what is his objective with the memoir? was he thinking long-term? how did you get it done?

they told everyone off your staff. ken: it was to pay the bills. frank: it provided that function. do twoinally wanted to volumes in the publisher said no, it had to be one volume. watergate had to be mentioned in the first volume. that was the decision to write a one volume book, which worked against it in many ways. a 1038 page book. when dick cheney got an advance copy of it, he was in the hospital and the doctors told him the book was too heavy for him to lift and read. against aat worked volume of that length. he wanted to get it down.

watergate was not his favorite topic. those two reasons. it was to fill the time until he got better physically. it and the television interviews were boxes that had to be ticked. he decided to tell the story of his entire life, which i think was important. it was more remarkable that we only got those presidential documents in july of 76. for the first year and more, we were writing very interesting stuff about the pre-presidential life. were immenselye and particularly talented and devoted and we ran a 24 hour

operation. distinguished naval historian and i asked him if he had a couple of graduate students. two people and they had access to the library and they provided basic research packages. the president would assimilate these. and we had pre-presidential documents because they were already out there. we would give him the research the documents and he would go around for two or three 100,000 wordsate or more on a particular topic. his dictation would become the basis. we would fact check the devastation -- dictation. it worked very smoothly. hugh: did it satisfy anything in

the president's need to explain himself? i think to an extent it was. we cut two thirds of the book. it was edited out. we had leftpages if everything. i think it told the story. get it behind to him. he wanted to get it out there. the main thing was to get it finished. that was the ultimate goal, to get it done and behind him. i think the story was told. the narrative was out there. the president is a good writer and an excellent editor. i do have one more reminiscence about the frost interviews. back and he wanted to

wind down and do a postmortem. ray price was in the room and diane. i do know if jack or frank were there. we were just talking visiting and he was winding down. he was talking to ray about doing speeches at the white house. he is talking about really graham. he always used to get god in our speeches? getting hell of a time god in our speeches. we all looked at each other. did he just say that? what other things i tell people is that after frank and diane left and you are helping president reagan launches campaign, president and some of the commonly man.

he would always invite the pows to come. you are managing a back story that i don't think many people get in that gap. tell people about that. jack: i was appointed to the advisory board of the california angels. i did -- the owner of the team was jean ottery. autry. would you invite president nixon to a game? i think i had had it few beers. he said absolutely, i would do anything for the great man.

i finally convinced him to go to the game. we went to the private elevator. the elevator operator wanted to hug president next in. he had cataracts and couldn't see. he had a television on the third tier. owner,est of the president nixon had to sit next to him. i sat in the first row. the first time we went, nolan ryan was pitching. a foul ball came up and i did one of these. i caught it one-handed and the crowd cheered. jack caught a foul ball. got up andixon walked down to the front row and signed the ball. you could hear them murmuring in the audience. he got feeling good. we would go to ball games quite

often. almost any sports celebrity i could bring in, he would love it he was a frustrated athlete himself. we spent a lot of time doing and tell himme in how wonderful he was and statistics and all of that. >> after the move to new york you made a good move by sitting in the front row. and everyonethem comes to the box to pay their respects and steinbrenner and the president stand up the whole game. what about the move to new york and the planning of it? how did it come about? told me he was going back to new york to be near the kids. one was in pennsylvania and one was in new york city. the grandkids were starting to come. he was going to have grandchildren and he said mrs. nixon wanted to go back to new york.

he really wanted to get back in the action also. i went back to new york to make the arrangements. i met with the deputy director guy in charge of office space. it took been to the federal office building. he showed me this great office overlooking the city. penthouse, beautiful. i said, that's what we want. i told president next in. no, jack. you see what criticism we were getting if we took the penthouse? the federal office building. later the same character said nixon wanted to be in the penthouse and we forced him. i have a whole chapter in my notes saying media malpractice. it was a miserable office. the presidential campaign was underway.

the principal speechwriter and strategist. what was the presence relationship with soon-to-be president reagan? what's the back channel like? traveling with then governor reagan. the third week of september 1980. by that time president nixon had already sent one memo to governor reagan about the debates. october, thek of andf of staff called me said there was another memo that he had for governor reagan. he wanted to get a meeting.

at this time it was very sensitive. because of the sensitivity in ,he press about president nixon appearances or connections with any candidate -- they didn't want anybody to know that he was sending any messages. up and he set up a secret meeting. he gave it a secret codename. we had a private meeting in kansas city in the way somewhere. he sent me this long memorandum strategy for governor reagan. i think the contents of it -- the strategy wasn't exquisite or terrific. the main thing was that it gave governor reagan a lot of confidence. it made them feel good.

they talked about how much better a candidate he was than jimmy carter and his appearance would be much more important. i think reagan took a lot of cash gave him real self-confidence and strength during the rest of the campaign. there was one element of that memo that did bother me. i was writing speeches for governor reagan at this time. i thought i was doing a pretty darn good job. in that memo he says, in this period use your best chair lines even if you are tired of them. the time has passed for using important but dull lines preferred by speechwriters. [laughter] >> there's a great book to be written about that. six years into his retirement and he becomes the dominant counselor of the era.

i'll start with you. what was his contribution after that decade and a half to the world? >> i want to take one minute. an unsung hero of the comeback in san clemente was ron ziegler. he came out and stayed with us all his time and all his papers to us for the preparation of the memoirs. he is gone but not forgotten. [applause] and his granddaughter who are keeping up the usc tradition are here. thatn't really involved in

post after he moved back to new york. we had dinner in the house surrounded by packing crates with jimmy roosevelt and mary roosevelt about the week before he left. i only saw him occasionally other than the interviews in 83. in the east room speech, is only beginning always. this whole postpresidential period is an exemplar of the nixon resilience and spirit and discipline and dedication and patriotism that he felt he had a mission and mrs. next without that. they had something to contribute. it's meaningful that six weeks before he died he was in russia. that very moving picture with his photograph of him standing on the charles bridge in prague looking into the distance and a

month before he died he was in the white house making this report to president clinton. the morning he died the galleys of his most recent book which was then published posthumously had been put on his book in his office waiting for him to come in. it was really part and parcel of his life which was one of dedication, devotion, resilience and patriotism. >> i would add loyalty. the shah's funeral with sadat. i found my successor. i handed him the sword and i didn't interfere again except on those rare occasions where i would be invited to something. staff andalked to his was always very pleased it was

always moving forward, always accomplishing something, always doing the next right thing. those of 84 campaign you who might recall the first hadte that president reagan with walter mondale was sort of a disaster. he didn't do very well. she looked old and disoriented. stu spencer who was the chief strategist of the campaign told me to call president next and up and said, get a message from him to president reagan. so i called president nixon and me a personalsent note that i transmitted to president reagan. it was that personal message from president nexen to president reagan that gave him uplift and strength and spirit and self-confidence. had greatreagan respect for president next in. when we opened the library in

1990 the day before i took president next and in to see president reagan, it was the most congenial meeting i had ever seen. two people who had extraordinary respect for one another. >> the library opened in 1990. president nexus chief of staff, john taylor who was also my successor at the library after i took over from john whitaker. the month before president nixon looks up at john taylor and i and realized they were going to , firstur presidents ladies and tens of thousands of dignitaries and taylor and i hadn't really put it together very well. he said, call up ron walker. ron walker called all of those guys who stood of earlier and they blew into town and at the end of it we called it a goat rodeo. a presented ron walker with

bull whip the library opened on time with a magnificent day and four years later when the funeral happened, ron stepped up . i just want to end by saying ron walker is so central to what happened. why don't we give ron walker and and walker a salute. [applause] >> you're watching american history tv. all weekend every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. on august 4, 1781, american militia colonel isaac kane was hanged by the british for treason in south carolina.