billionaires, i have probably stepped on their toes a number of times over the years who decided i have to go. i was outspent over 10 to one and i know of now. it might be a lot more. by people who are worth billions of dollars and don't live in california. conversations with retiring members of congress tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span and c-span.org and listen with the free c-span radio app. senator and presidential candidate bob dole grew up in russell, kansas and attended ku. the dole institute of politics is here on campus. we will take you there to learn about the senator's life and career.

>> bob dole received the congressional medal of honor, the highest medal anyone can bestow on an american. it tells the story of the person receiving it, a kansas soldier-statement, and on the other side we have wheat in honor of kansas, his home state, and the quote is, greatness lies in not went off as you hold, but how honest you are, how you face adversity, and in your willingness to stand fast and hard places. that was a quote from his speech for the republican presidential nomination in 1996. i cannot say it more clearly than in plain speaking. your nomination to lead our party once again to the presidency of the united states.

[applause] adrienne: the dole institute was founded in 2003 under richard norton smith. archives, history, museum components and a robust student culture. and the exhibits tell the story of senator dole of his roots in kansas up until almost today. born in russell, kansas and 1923 and lived through the great depression and the dust bowl in north-central kansas, russell county. his mother worked in the home and did sales, anything to support the family, while his father worked in a grain elevator and a creamery. anddole worked at dos drugstore as a soda jerk, and his experience dealing with

people, greeting people, joking with people, is credited with being the atmosphere in which he cut his teeth and developed his sense of humor, which he took after his father. senator dole went to the university of kansas in 1941 and joined a fraternity and was active socially, as he will tell you. working a lot of time as hard as he could on his studies. but we know pearl harbor happened later that year and the overer of war was dominant his years at ku. there were less parties and social gatherings as they bid farewell to many friends as they went to fight the war. senator dole went through several years of officer training before being called to and 1945, in the waning weeks of world war ii. he served as a replacement in two liter and it was in italy where he was wounded, almost mortally. he laid on the ground for all

over eight hours, a medic came by and wrote am on his four head in his blood and gave him morphine, basically he was left for dead and spent the better part of three years recovering. he was paralyzed completely from the neck down, ultimately recovering full strength except for his right arm and shoulder. and he came back to kansas was not wearing his military uniform, people did not understand he was a wounded veteran, and was seen as someone with a disability and expectations were not high erie he knew what his own potential was at the time and he started to come watch us of the fact that there was a huge section of people who would be more involved in democracy and needed assistance to realize their potential as people with disabilities. at washburn university in topeka he went to law school.

an interesting artifact at that time was a disc recorder he took to record his lectures. he couldn't write with his right hand so the recordings helped him. he would listen to lectures in and the recorded lectures made him a popular guy with classmates, they spent a lot of time together studying erie you can also understand the impact of -- together studying. it you can also understand the impact of going to law school in the mental rigor he developed at the time and serve him well in state and later national leadership. pursue national office in 1959. during his time as student he served as a member of the kansas state house of representatives. in the 1950's he went back to russell and served as county

attorney. is when he became acquainted with the republican party leaders who encouraged him to run for national office. the materials here are from his 1960 campaign, memorabilia, much of it handmade, and he had a real challenge in 1960. his first opponent was philip doyle, so you can imagine with name recognition and whether it -- dole ordelay all, doyle, you better come up with so they served dole pineapple juice to help people remember that it was dole, not doyle. i have a selection of materials collection that

documents the legislative legacy of senator bob dole. ins is a letter to bob dole 1945. the first sentence of that letter, daddy called to tell me we had a letter from you and i knew something was wrong. this was the first q received after he was wounded, from his mother, sent overseas when he was in the hospital. this is one of my favorite pieces in the archives. is a typed, personal statement by bob dole written in the early 1950's. is, "how i overcame my physical handicap." i possessed the feeling of security and pride which accompanied the wearing of the the transformation

from soldier to civilian left me with a helpless feeling. he goes on to talk about that feeling of having a visible disability and diminished expectations from society, and his life animated him to do more for himself and people with disabilities. this press release from 1969 is an important piece. it is announcing his first speech on the senate floor. he was elected to the senate in 1968. as a freshman senator, the first statement he made was to advocate for people with disabilities. and he says handicapped persons represent a group which knows no or religiousc boundaries, a minority group no one joins by choice, composed of infants, children and the elderly, and he goes on to say

all these people have a right to life,to build a participate in our democracy, and that sets the stage for his advocating senate for people with disabilities and culminating with the americans with disabilities act. fromext pieces are also senator dole's early career and advocacy for families of pows and mias during vietnam. this is a promotional poster for the appeal for international justice. is one of the whosest allies of wives husbands were reported missing in the war in vietnam. have publicdid not support from the government or the community because they were asked not to talk about the situation.

senator dole was one of their earliest advocates in the senate , something we credit him by bringing bipartisan awareness for these women and their co -- and their cause. the poster there is a collection of folks from congress and going democratic minority leader mike mansfield sponsoring this event. to havely would go on women participate in the release of their husbands. another area where senator goals spent much -- senator dole spent much time was to help people acquire the means to nutrition. one of those programs is what we now call snap, the food stamp program and others.

and when we are talking about bipartisanship, senator george mcgovern, a democrat, was a longtime ally in that project. i am proud to be involved in nutrition programs. someone mentioned that earlier. i remember working with senator mcgovern, and that crops up now and then in conservative articles, saying i can't be a conservative because i know george mcgovern. george mcgovern's always been to gentlemen -- always been a gentle man. dole was obviously for -- obviously for nixon, but they are able to come together and find that there are

their agricultural economies. this talks about senator dole's career in the senate in the 1980's. he becomes the republican leader, republicans are in the majority. a wonderful letter from longtime ouye of hawaii.in they would back together a long time, patience together after they were injured in world war ii. there is a great story where uye says to bob dole, why didn't you just get that thing cut off, like i did. so the two soldiers bonded together and discussed great plans for themselves, and they said, we will see you in washington, see who gets there

first. uye actually got there first and sent him a telegram saying, i am here. where are you, bob? ronald have president reagan signing social security amendments into law. 1981, social security was in crisis and senator dole and other folks worked together on the greenspan commission. of a lotill take care of the mail received from people saying, if members of congress aren't covered, how can you understand the problem? members of congress and the social security administrator would be included, and the president, vice president? don't leave anybody out. [laughter] >> i thought you were going to

try to enunciate the whole executive branch of government. i would argue -- >> i would argue the universal means universal. i'd like to make clear certain members of congress don't have any advantage. itrey: they almost didn't do . it wasn't until the waning weeks of 1982 that bob dole and pat , behind thet rogue scenes with the gang of seven as they called it, to come to common compromise to get the work done to make the solution, and they were successful, they did it and they presented the social security amendments of 1983 and the president signed it. the last item i will speak about is a clipping from "the wall 1982, journal" from documenting senator dole is a compromise agent in saving the

voting rights act in 1982 and promoting the renewal. it was not a foregone conclusion that the voting rights act was going to be renewed in 1982. there was a lot of republican resistance. again showing his leadership, he was not yet the republican leader at the time present theble to voting rights act renewal as something palatable to republicans in the senate, and the renewal passed 85-8. room are in the processing at the dole institute of and this is where we do a lot of our hands-on work with the collection. we will process collections as they come in, catalog them so people can use them, work on andicating exhibits,

occasionally we will teach classes down here. our collections are extremely large. recently we measured the shelf space occupied by our collections, and that equals about two football fields worth of material if you lined it all up. we have several thousand boxes ofpaper, in the neighborhood 7000 objects and textiles, 25,000 photographs and negatives. and our collections are still growing. senator bob dole is still sending us things, probably a couple of times a month. i have pulled a few of my favorite items. you have already looked at things that show off his legislative accomplishments. these show more of his personal side.

bearly abel, a teddy bear in our collection. for the first few years i worked here i had no idea who he was. and when we were doing research on the 1976 election, ♪ when dole ran as ford's vice president, i found stories in our oral history collections and pictures. that, on about him is all the campaign stops dole did in 1976, he would start out reading the crowd, and go in and tell this bear joke. >> at bear walks into a bar and they have a beer. the bartender gives him a beer.

he drinks a beer and says, how much is that? says, wait ander minute. he goes into the back and tells the manager, there is a bear out there, he just had beer and he wants to know how much to charge him. says, he won't know any different, charge them for dollars $.50. so the bear puts five bucks on the bar and says, i will have another beer or it he has another beer and puts done another five dollars and takes change and starts to walk out. and the bartender says, before you leave, i'm just wondering, weyou don't mind my asking, don't get many bears in here. the bear said, at $4.50 a beer, it's no wonder. audrey: and with the ground, it was a new joke, but the press that traveled with him heard this joke at every stop,

sometimes multiple times a day. so attribute to that joke, the press got a teddy bear and gave him his own press credentials able.med him bear lee he traveled around, and we have photos of senator dole with the it showshe plane, and up senator dole's humor as well as the humor of the press and the relationship he had with them during the campaign. we are looking at a letter from senator george mcgovern dated january 18, 1980. my favorite part is halfway down it is no secret around this office or with the national press corps that i have developed a genuine admiration and affection for you, bob. with the passage of time, old

realsan divides seem less to me. so much of what we do as senators, and in our lives as a whole, has little to do with party labels." this letter is one of my favorites because it shows the dear friendship they developed working together over the decades on important issues, and also shows friendship across party lines. this is a letter from resident george h w bush to senator dole, and you can see that it is dated november 10, 1992, late at night. this is written shortly after in 1992, the election but he took the time to write a handwritten note to senator dole , and it shows their friendship and the help he received through

the election. page, itown the starts, "you have been a true ly noble leader, and as i leave washington i will take a friendship i value, a respect for a true leader. bob,l always feel thanks, george. terra-cotta tablet that depicts mountain 913, the mountain where senator dole was wounded in italy and world war ii. this plaque was made by someone and he still maintains a friendship with the town and the people there. he made several trips back, the most recent in 2015. there is a wonderful message from the town on the back of this. the message is in both italian

and english, and it says "to .obert oh, with great merit the friendship originated 60 years ago during the dark years of the war, lives on, strong and unchanged." senator dall: ladies and gentlemen, delegates to the convention and fellow citizens. i can not say it more clearly than in plain speaking. to lead your nomination the party once again as president of the united states. [applause] in 1996, senator dole decided to pursue the presidency for the third time. he tried in 1980 and again in , with a in 1996 republican majority in the senate, he decided to put his hat in the ring and the party supported him in becoming the presidential nominee for the republican party.

things did not go as planned. president clinton himself had moved to the center and the last couple of years of his first term and that worked against senator dole. also, senator dole's personality, while we celebrate him for his humor and warmth, it did not come across very well in tv appearances and debate the way they would have hoped. many folks remember more the commercials from the 1996 campaign. dole, and ofb always spoken to you frankly no matter what the subject. that's why i am eager to tell you about a product that put joy back in my life. it helps me feel youthful, vigorous and most importantly, vital again. what is this amazing product? little, blue friend, an ice cold pepsi-cola. viagra, and showcased

his sense of humor. he did not come through during the campaign season, unfortunately. remarkably though, one thing that is interesting about the campaign, that senator dole modeled this behavior in 1976, was that he campaigned relentlessly. crisscrossing the states come the states, sometimes crisscrossing estate three or four times in a single day during he wrapped up his presidential campaign with a 96 campaign camehe to a close, and he was in his 70's at the time, so that would have been arduous for anyone, let alone someone who might be in the 70's. but he showed us what he was worth and gave it his best shot. >> i was thinking on the way down the elevator, tomorrow will be the first time in my life i don't have anything to do.

day 1996, bill clinton was the victor and bob dole had to reinvent himself. he was no longer a leader in the senate, but he didn't rest. he was and remains an advocate for veterans and veterans issues, continued to work for food insecurity, the end george mcgovern jointly won the world food prize in 2008. these days he spends a lot of time at the world war ii memorial. he was chairman of the committee that sought to have that memorial built. effort one years long his part. he greets veterans at the world of thememorial, most traveling through honor flights, so he has stayed active. he still works. right now he works at a firm in d.c., he has never left d.c.

since he went there in 1960. staff travel tour to lawrence, kansas to learn about its rich history. learn more about lawrence and other cities on c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span tv. 16, 1773,mber american colonists dumped tea into boston harbor to protest taxes imposed by great britain. next, nick bunker talks about his book, "an empire on the

as he examines the importance of the boston tea an impetus for war. we recorded his remarks at the new york historical