change. it was one of the biggest strategic blunders in american history. >> james man, sunday night on q & a. this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3, saturday at 8 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, university of delaware professor tiffany gill on the role of african american women. and 10 p.m. on real america, the 1968 broadcast, the nixon answer in michigan and sunday at 7 p.m. eastern t 30th anniversary of a tent meant museum in new york city and former first ladies' grandchildren and laura bush reflect on her life and legacy. watch on american history tv this weekend on c-span 3. up next on american history tv, a discussion on presidential

legacies, with white house historical association president stewart mack lauren and bush's chief of staff and laura mcbride. . good afternoon. . >> good afternoon. good afternoon. my name is bob mcgee. i serve on the board of directors of the white house historical association. as you continue to enjoy your lunch, i want to introduce our program for today. you may have heard that we were planning on having our wonderful

friend of the white house association, but he has been unable to join us. we, however, have a terrific plan b for you and that is a conversation with anita mcbride, mark up degrove on commemoration and legacies and i know anita and mark will take questions at the end. now to our panel, anita mcbride's career related to the white house and president city spans more than 30 years as a white house advisor, chief of staff and diplomatic adviser. currently she is executive in residence for congressional and presidential studies in the school of american affairs at the american university in washington where she directs programming on the legacies of

america's first ladies and their historical influence on politics, policy and global diplomacy. anita served as assistant to president george w. bush, as well as chief of staff to first lady laura bush. she directed the first ladies' travel to 67 countries in four years to support foreign policy in human rights, women's empowerment, global health and education. she is involved in the diplomacy women's network, the foundation and most importantly a board member of the historical association and chair of the committee that organized the presidential site summit.

mark uptegrove is president and ceo of the lbj organization in austin texas. until recent lip he served as the director of the lynne don johnson library and museum. he has authored four books on presidential history, including his newest book, the last republicans inside the extraordinary relationship between george h. b bush and george b. bush. mark is a commentator for abc news, good morning america and this week. and finally, our third panelist is stewart mcfarland. he is president of the white house historical association. his 30-plus career in washington has been a senior role at georgetown university, the american red cross and the

motion picture association. he also worked with the ronald reagan organization to plan and execute the ronald reagan centennial celebration in 2011. please join in welcoming me -- please join me in welcoming today's panel, anita mcbride, mark uptegrove and stewart mcfarland. >> thank you very much. i would also like to recognize gill west and other board member john barrett who was not able to be with us today. anita is on the board and these men and women give leadership and governess to our organization that started by ms. kennedy, nonpartisan partner to the white house and we are honored to be the convener of this sum met this week. what wept to talk about is

presidential legacy. let's start with the lbj. monday would have been the 110th birthday of president johnson. so there is a congressmen ration of sorts, at least a noting of that. and johnson was larger than life as president, larger than life postpresidency and what would he think about his legacy as we see him today? >> well, first of all, stewart, to you and anita, congratulations on this conference. [applause] >> i know how much work they have put into this and it has clearly paid off, because it has been a round of success. congratulations and thanks to all of you for what you do. i mentioned yesterday to the group that convened around lunch that not only historian, but a patron of your establishments and i appreciate so much not only what you do, but the passion that you put into what

you do. so thanks so much for preserving and perpetuating the history of this great country. stuart, to answer your question, i told the story yesterday that i will repeat. lbj, when he was a senator was campaigning for re-election and he convened his speech writers around a stump speech that he wanted to take around the state. and they brought him a speech >> a draft and he starts reading it and he comes upon a passage from plato. and he says, plato, plato. let me get this straight. i'm going back home to texas to talk to just plain folks and you have me quoting plato? he said keep the quote, but start it by saying "my daddy used to say --" i say that because my daddy said things

about lynne don johnson and what he said was very different from what we are saying today. presidential legacies evolve and i think it takes at least a generation and even more than two in some cases to get a clear perspective on how basically a president will be remembered in perpetuity. lyndon johnson took longer. it took at least two generations for passions to reseed around vietnam. but when it did, we got clear perspective, when the dark cloud of vietnam dissipated. we saw what lyndon johnson did. and there is no president, say abraham lincoln that has done as

much as lynne don johnson and finally he is getting due credit for those accomplishments. so to answer your question, he would be pleased. >> we can't talk about presidents without talking about first ladies and anita, you have done a wonderful job focusing on first ladies and you yourself as chief of staff on mrs. bush. and suddenly the passing of kennedy and mrs. kennedy had done so much in our space, historic preservation of the white house, but mrs. johnson continued that. these are 4 or 5 young women who were very unique in their presidencies and legacy. but tell us about mrs. johnson and her role as first lady and what she did in the white house in our space. >> well, first, i think -- let

me put my microphone on. that would help. thank you, stuart, for that question and i want to acknowledge some really terrific first lady historians. katie sibley, and nancy smith is in the back of the room who did oral histories with lady bird johnson and got to know her very well and with the archives for many, many years. i was always struck -- and i happened to live just around the corner where the johnson lived at the elms, where he lived as vice president and they lived for even several weeks, if not almost a month after he become president and she become first lady after the tragedy of the assassination. so i always when walking by that

house >> president johnson still looms in the that neighborhood in washington, d.c. but i'm really struck by the quote from mrs. johnson herself about how she felt about becoming first lady after the assassination of john f. kennedy and she said people look at the living and wish for dead. you just can't imagine really the personal pain, of course, that that exhibited that the whole country was feeling this grief and now here were the johnsons front and center and did take over leadership of the country in such a traumatic time and feeling that awesome burden and challenge to comfort the nation and to help mrs. kennedy through it all, which of course they were incredibly gracious, as we know and told her she could live and stay in the white house as long as she needs to, to get her children packed up

and moved out and to move on with her life. but mrs. johnson, working with laura bush for years, she would say honestly in addition to her mother-in-law, of course, lady bird johnson was her favorite first lady and she learned so much from her, from watching her and being a texas woman herself and sort of the graciousness of mrs. kennedy, how she -- or -- also mrs. kennedy, but mrs. johnson as he presided over the white house and ms. bush loved the outdoors and loved flowers and pants and national landscapes and the national parks always looked to mrs. johnson as an example of someone who so appreciated our natural beauty and mrs. bush would say people would look at

mrs. johnson and say oh >> she loved flowers, but really what she was was our nation's first conservationist first lady. but my memory that is sered in my mind, of course on the defendant's panel linda had called me when i was chief of staff to mrs. bush and had said "i'm bringing my mother back to washington for what i know will be her last time to see some of her friends." of course she had a stroke. he wasn't speaking. she was in a wheelchair, but she was still very vibrant and she said "do you think we can come to the white house?" i knew instipthively laura bush's answer would be "of course."

i knew the answer would be "yes." i said "i will call you back with dates and times that would work." and she was so thrilled to have heifer come to the white house and she took the former first lady through the white house and any of the resident staffs that had been working in the white house that had been there in the johnson time were there to greet mrs. johnson at the diplomatic room door and in addition, one of the butlers who had worked for the johnsons, mr. german was a part time elevator operator that operated the president's elevator and a couple days of week he made sure he was there and he was the one that greeted

mrs. johnson when the car opened. and he embraced mr. german and how he embraced her would make you weep. but there are two things about mrs. johnson's last visit to the white house, mrs. bush wheeled her into the vermay room that had just been repainted under one of the projects mrs. bush had done and mrs. bush had it painted yellow, a perfect compliment that mrs. johnson wears in her official portrait and she moved the port rat to be -- port trat.

port rate. and mrs. kennedy -- mrs. johnson's over the fireplace and eleanor roosevelt. and so mrs. bush said to her, "lady bird -- ". >> maimmy eisenhower. >> yes, may meet eisenhower, i apologize. but laura bush said to her "now, lady bird, i want you to know i had this room repainted in a color that would match your beautiful dress." and she took her up the elevator and her husband's portrait on the state floor and fouer and mrs. johnson, i will never forget it in her wheelchair lifted up to embrace her husband and one of the things as a

staffer in the white house, you are not a principal, you don't live there, you work there, but it's one of those incredible privileges and opportunities that you get to see firsthand that really remind you what a blessing it is to have an opportunity to be there and to witness history. >> you mentioned -- talk about the way in which the johnsons took office, which is through tragedy and you mentioned a quote, which i had forgotten until you recited it yesterday. mrs. johnson ascribed that period after president kennedy's assassination as americans looking at the living and wishing for the dead. that really puts into perspective the difficult situation she walked into as first lady and her husband as president. we talk about death and grooeing and these are important times in our nation's history when a president passes. most of our group will go to the

washington cathedral, which has been the site for many funerals. it's amazing to think about 45 american presidents, 8 of those had died while in office. that's a significant number and there had been elements of their funerals that took place tht white house itself. tonight will be the east room, where lincoln, kennedy laid and we remember reagan and ford and recently mrs. reagan and mrs. bush, what is it about these moments of death and focus on a former president or living president, one of my -- probably my earliest memory of a living president is sitting crossed legged in front of a tv affixed, and scared. what is it about first lady and presidential funerals that bring home who they are to us and what

we remember them to be. >> we are naturally divided as a nation. we were divided from the very beginning when our founding fathers came to philadelphia. they were divided by cultural ideological differences and they found the ground which they planted the seed of democracy. that's the story of our country. we were naturally divided as a nation, but there are moments in our life where we feel as americans drn a death of a president, we don't lose a democrat president, we lose our president. and we think about that time that we become united as americans and there aren't many opportunities for us to have these moments of unity which are so needed in our nation. so that was why i was disappointed that not more was

made of senator mccain's death. senator mccain was one of the few americans we all cherish him as an example of what it is to be american and we can celebrate in his legacy the things that we all hold dear as american values. so i think that's -- we've talked about the passing of george h. w. bush when he was comparisonly close to death and this man is a beacon of character at a time when he need humility and civility and the motion of service over self. so it's what these people represent and what wes a spire to be as americans that we celebrate over the passing of these people. >> mrs. bush's funeral, we were talking yesterday, it was like america's mom had passed and reminiscing about who she was.

tell us your thoughts, anita. you were both at the funeral, talk about the funeral and what does a first lady mean to us at a time like that. >> she was like a mother and a grandmother so the nation and really left an imprint of her example, someone who loved her husband, loved her family and country. lived her life openly and with such great joy to be each of those things, mother, wife, and first lady of our nation. and i think she was also a very gracious second lady and, you know, in the shadows of mrs. reagan, which of course couldn't have been very easy. but she presided over the white house with such joy and really one of the things she said to her staff and people knew this

about her when she became first lady, she gathered her staff and said "i want to do something that helps an american every single day." and that is quite a charge to give to the staff and that's what they set about doing. if she had another four years or he had another four years, who knows what that could have been. but his both presidency and her life with him after, that was again a great example that continued to endear her to the country. i think there is something, too, regardless of what you might feel about george w. bush, the family and son lived through each other's presidencies and those two first ladies have that opportunity to, you know, help each other. laura bush said i learned a lot about being first lady from my

mother-in-law. what a great example. catherine gore knows about adams and she did not have her mother-in-law to ask questions about being first lady and it was just so different. barbara bush left an imprint by just the sheer force of her personality and her character and i wish john, who spoke earlier on the president and press panel, of course, is the only person in america other than barbara bush who has read her full diaries because she kept incredible diaries and mrs. johnson kept credible diaries and of course john was a yule gist at her funeral and captured her wit and humor, very self-deprecating but she could slice and dice too. people liked that about her personality. >> we had george w. bush at the

library, civil rights we did four years ago, fifth anniversary and we were in the great hall, the majestic space with the presidential seal etched in marble and around the perimeter of the hall are portraits of all presidents and first lady and barbara bush was known as the enforcer and george w. bush looked at her portrait and leaned over to me and said if you look carefully, you can see her eyes move. i was relieved at the funeral that it was so short. that's what she -- >> she planned it. >> she absolutely planned it that way and i never forget that a couple years before her death i was -- the bush asked me to do

a fundraiser at the kenny bork library. and i walked her to her car, the bushes came in separate cars and she -- as she was getting into the car, she said, you know, george and i are coming tomorrow. i said "i'm honored." she said tell me about it. i said i will speak for an hour, maybe 40 minutes. she said "make it a half hour and no questions." . >> we talk about the first ladies and their roles, but we have 45 presidential descendents that have been with us this week, going back to james monroe. they are here this week. let's talk about presidential families and descendents and what role they play in keeping or evolving or changing that legacy of the president or first lady. >> i will let mark talk about this because he runs the library and depends on the family to be

involved, but it is a huge factor to be able to. and i think we heard a lot of the panels at our summit this week, i heard in the philanthropy panel the presidential site and the buy in to feel connected, the human side of the person being honored with their name on the building is important and passing these stories along was important. i was really stressed that susan ford is on our panel. she is always terrific about representing her parents' legacy. she brought her tine with her because she wants her daughter to take up this man tell, kind of succession planning for passing on the legacy and the message of your ancestors who

held this incredible role in our history of leading our country. so i think it's hugely, hugely important. >> yeah, i think that's right. i think it's important, though, not to direct history. i talked to george h. w. bush about this and said we are not trying to build a legacy. i will let historians decide what the legacy should be and that's advisable for theed family members too. and i worked with lynne don johnson rob and lucy johnson, the daughters on projects relating to the presidential -- the lbj library and lbj school of public affairs and they are not heavy handed. they trust historians will get it right and it must be painful to them to see their father so defined by vietnam so long. by the way, when president johnson was in office in 1968,

both the johnson daughters were living under the white house roof with their parents and both of their husbands was in vietnam. >> right. >> so they were putting their life on the line in vietnam because of the decisions of the commander and chief, their father-in-law and hearing protesters chanting "hey, hey, lbj, how many kids did you kill today?" and you saw him striving for peacing and how painful this was -- peace and how painful this was for him. so i admire that legacy and having sorted things out in the past. >> and this integrated into our programs and how special was it at the kennedy center to have john tyler there, the grandson -- or lion tyler, the grandson of john tyler, not the

great grandson, but the grandson, spanning over 200 years of american history in three generations. you feel like you are seeing through a window into american history. part of what we do at the historical association is education related, teaching and telling stories, going back to 1972 when george washington selected this peace of land and the young architect that designed the white house and we have these institutions in presidential sites, libraries, that develop education program that unpack and tell the story. let's talk a little bit about the importance of the education process, connecting with the next generation that did not know these young men and women as presidents. how do you put those programs together and do your outreach to take legacy and education to

students of all ages? go. >> well, i think -- here is one thing i would like to add. of course this afternoon our next panel at the archives are on civic education and the whole role this plays in the senate is so important. i think personally we have been chipping away at our civic education in our country for too many years and i think our kids, still have high school kids aren't getting the same lessons that we were getting on the black board. it is a little different, but i think there are so many opportunities that particularly all the sites really have. and even our opening night ceremony at the lincoln memorial when we brought the three actors from the play hamilton to stage, not to sing and dance for us, but say how are you -- how did you feel about this role that you have to bring history to

life in a way that is so engaging and really what responsibility they have to educate our young people and i was really pleased to hear them say the partnership that they have with the guilder institute in new york on middle school and high school education around the father figures, and restore the courage, but also the sacrifice to find the nation. and we have told that message throughout our summit this week, but the libraries with the materials they have, the papers, the artifacts. one of the earlier panel said it's one thing -- i think alan debur, the flan tli pig, he says

it's one thing to have the artifacts, but it's the stories. how do you tell them and keep people engaged. the other people here at university had a new class of students that come in as fresh men. you have heard of real life, okay, this is the next group that you have to teach about 911 or whatever it might be because now they were 2 years old when 911 happened. so what do they know about it? what's their frame of reference? they don't. how the president had to deal with those decisions and how the country changed forever. but you are constantly educating them about their history. >> and my note has the very definition of preaching to the choir. but that's what you do. it's so widely needed because if you can get them engaged in the

stories of your president, they will start to get interested. we have seen with hamilton on a huge monumental scale. i'm looking at joe and donna calvaluso. you get them engaged in michigan, the story of the michiganer, ford, who becomes president of the united states and does something to heal the nation at a very perilous time in our history. they will start to get interested in civics and hs rigg and that will make a stronger country. >> if you want to come to the microphone, but i would like to invite stephen to the microphone. one of the great privileges of my professional career was to work with the ronald reagan centennial celebration in 2011, not that i thought he was a great president, or necessarily what he meant to me, but it was

an opportunity to take the life, leadership and legacy of the 40th president of the united states and to share that with the next generation that did not know him as a living president and to have partnerships and collaborations with eureka college, a wonderful school in illinois that fofrmed him in many kay -- formed him in many ways and high schools, that was 2011 and 2017 is the kennedy centennial and also an extraordinary job of reaching across the country and talk about that, stephen, about the legacy of the president and taking a centennial and sharing that president with the country. >> thank you. it is a time, just like the passing of a president or first lady that we come to think about it.

today 80% of the people in the united states were born after the kennedy administration, 80%. so it's those folks that i try to connect with. i read the report about reagan and really thinking about partnerships. i had 200 partnerships. there are 896 places in the world named after john kennedy and reached out to many of them to the kennedy airport and things like that, not only telling the history but why is it relevant today? you talk about visionaries never go out of style, the peace corps is just as relevant. next year we as a country will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of landing on the moon and today we think about big ideas -- 250th anniversary -- 50th anniversary.

i think it's a way to think about it in a way that brings us together. he made his series of mistakes, but a key point like a centennial or next year's celebration of landing on the moon is. >> great example. >> thank you very much. anybody have a question to raise with the group? while we are waiting if anyone else has a question, i'm going to put these guys on the spot really quick. other than the presidents that you worked with or represent today, give me your two favorite presidents or first ladies or if you had dinner with them tonight, who would you have dinner with? >> well, i'm going to steal this from mark, i think everybody in the room would say abraham lincoln, i would absolutely love that opportunity and also i would love to talk to martha washington. i would like to know what it was like to be the first person to do this job and bear the

responsibility of setting the precedent to be the first lady of the nation, even though it wasn't called that at the time, of course. and i would love to meet the trumans. i really wood. i was so fascinated about the cross country trip they made in the car, ma and pa kettle and now i'm driving and going to every motel 6 that exists. that is so quintessential american, just cool decent people, that they were literally driving. >> steve represents the kennedy legacy so well, so i'm going to borrow from john f. kennedy when he had a number of nobel lawyers in the white house, there had been such great mind since thomas jefferson died alone. i would forego all the other --

just to have abraham lincoln alone. but i would certainly want dolly madison to host it. going back to the trumans, what anita said, there was this great tory about harry truman who goes bounding with his driver/bodyguard mike westwood down from independence for a meeting and truman is in the front seat and spies this woman whose pigs have gotten loose and they are running all around. and truman demands that westwood stop it is car and he -- stops the car and he hops out and helps her with the pigs and the media got a handle on this and

asked if it was true. he said it's true, but remember i was a farmer. >> and these story, one of the things we did a year ago was come up with the idea to take president ford's story standing up for diversity in his senior year at the university of michigan where his traveling roommate because of the color of his skin couldn't play on the football team, our historical group put this pbs thing together and students would fall asleep. we said let's turn it into a 40-minute play. half mill board is ready to lynch me and what am i doing? and we did 10 productions of the play in february. we got a waiting list of schools that wants to go in and do this

play. it's a 40-minute play about president ford in a locker room and his roommate lewis ward talking about why he couldn't go on the football team. we need to share that and make our stories relevant to our audience and that was discussed. and that is the way to do it, is to take a story that is iconic and make it in a format we want to do. so i appreciate that. >> really creative >> that brings to mind in a way the tools we have in partnership with amazon web services and it is a white house tour app. you can download it from the app store, google play, wh experience or just search white house experience. and it takes you through the state rooms of the white house

including including different presidencies that you represent and telling stories and different aspects of white house history. in the meantime we would love those watching from c-span and those download that app and explore the white house with us. we are grateful for all of you and you are on the tip of the point of the spaer in the american history, presidential history and white house history and it's been inspirational to have you here and looking forward to working with you collaboratively moving forward. we don't want this to be the a one year or two year experience, we want to be arm in arm about these great men and women who lead our country into the

future. thank you all very much. [applause] . coming um on american history tv in prime time, we will show you more of the coverage of the white house historical conference, first historian john mecham with the press and how to tell the narratives of former presidents by incorporating women, african americans and native americans and here the white house historical president stuart lauren and laura bush's chief of staff anita mcbride talk about presidential legacies.

. >> new york times best selling author jody peco is guest on our life call in program sunday november 4th at 9 eastern. most recent book is a spark of life, the story teller, lone wolf plus 20 other novels and five issues of the wonder woman comic series. watch in-depth fiction edition with jody peco november 4th, and also next month author brad melter. presidential historian john mecham talks about the relationship between the president and press, the white house historical association host this is