that runs against the whole current of history. >> watch the full program easternat 10:20 p.m. here on american history tv. next, an interview with abraham lincoln interpreter george buss. [applause] >> fellow citizens of the senate and house of representatives, since your last annual assembly, another year of health and bountiful harvest has passed.

while it has not pleased the almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on guided by the best light he gives us, trusting in his -- in his own time and wise way, all will yet be well. >> george buss, that is from c-span's archives of you portraying abraham like him. what is the value to understanding history of the reenactment? >> it reaches a population that might not pick up a book, but they want to have the experience. that is what they have reported over the years. that they are not readers. they are not picking up the written word, but they went the

experience. >> how many years have you been portraying abraham lincoln? >> 33 this year. started extremely small, but i wish i could tell you there was a grand plan and it is certainly not mine. >> how did it get started? >> i was on the board of the illinois education association. one of the board members came up to this skinny man with a black beard and said, you know if you dressed, we could all come on the floor of the convention and they would know illinois had arrived. i was intrigued. i said let's try this. that was the only thing i did in 1986. work at freeport with a debate site. >> people will not understand the reference. will you tell that story?

>> of lincoln and douglas iesco with stephen douglas? my whole life was a parking with a bolder dedicated by teddy roosevelt. a longtime resident and insurance executive said at the coffee shop we can do better. the group assembled. we turned that into an acre of green space and interpretive signs and a life-sized statue of lincoln and douglas in debate. >> in 1994, c-span went to all the towns in illinois that had hosted the lincoln and douglas debates and asked if the towns put on the debates, we will bring the debates -- we will bring the cameras and televise the debates. how many of those debates did

you play lincoln? >> two of the seven. >> what preparation did you need to do for a three hour debate? >> the essential question, who are lincoln, who are douglas and why? why was that so pivotal? you have to get right with lincoln according to senator paul simon and i have done my best. >> is betraying lincoln a full-time job for you? >> it is now. >> was it for most of the years you did it? >> it was as things could be scheduled. that was all word-of-mouth, marketing as such. that could work into other travel schedules. and was far enough in advance that could be scheduled handily. >> from that first experience of the illinois education meeting,

how did you inhabit one can? how did you learn enough to be able to be comparable in your portrayal? >> as lincoln said, work, work, work. that is the thing. everything that has been published in the last 30 years, i have had good fortune to even meet the authors and ask those critical questions. to also go back to the primary source documents to understand what was happening in the times. 2010 why lincoln reacted to why -- to understand why look and reacted. how those two met. lincoln in his times. >> how much of his repertory can you interpret? >> it started small with the lincoln and douglas debates. then i had calls.

will you come and talk about the war? will you talk about the indiana years? lee talk about the final months -- will you talk about the final months? you find that written work and you consume it. then it comes forward. somebody said it is a gift. someone else said if you do not share the gift in its pure form, it is not moral. i took that very seriously. >> how did you become like an physically and how you -- and how do you do it today? >> the coat fits. the vest fits. the voice, the central illinois twang. we climbed the hill and made it to the top. >> let's go back and watch a little more of that event and listen to the voice specifically. i would like you to talk about how you captured something that was not captured by any devices at the time. >> we shall nobly save or lose the last best hope of earth.

other means may succeed. this could not fail. the way is plain, peaceful, generous, just. a way which is followed, the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless. december 1, 1862, abraham lincoln. [applause] >> so what did you have to work with to interpret his voice and how it might sound the echo >> i -- sound? >> i did underground at ball state. i was at a hotel in springfield, illinois years back.

years later, brought coffee. he came to the table and said, you want coffee? i was stunned. i said, where are you from? he said, springfield. i said, how long have you lived here? he said, my whole life. this is what i have waited for. it was the descriptions of the letter writers at the time. when i met david donald in gettysburg for the award of achievement, he wanted to hear it. i thought, what do you say to an author of a lincoln biography that was just awarded the pulitzer? i thought about that a while. i gave him the voice. he smiled that smile which is ever so david donald and he said, it is as i expected. don't ever change it. >> can you give us a full line right here in the voice as you

interpret it? >> if we could first know where we are and whether we are attending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. >> that is very nasal. the descriptions of the time described it as being high and very nasal. >> high-pitched and a nasal nasal, reedy twang. howard lincoln today, most god-awful voice i ever heard but his message was pretty good. they said it was the falsetto voice, but when you do it in quincy, illinois on the block of washington square -- do you remember that? we saw no grass from the plymouth. somebody said, how did that work in your day?

without microphone, we spoke to 2500 people on the square. even the policeman on the other block could hear it. >> because the voice rose above the crowd. >> and it carries. >> what other physical characteristics do you share with lincoln? >> 6'5", 175 pounds. this beard does not do him justice today, but with a little work as we saw in the clip, -- and i think when the hat comes on at the end and you are ready to go out the door, he is there. i have never had the experience that suddenly lincoln is among us because it is an academic assignment. what is it that what we need to do.

i am constantly aware of that. when we are ready and the beard is right and the other set of glasses is right, we see what it looks like. >> how long does it take you to become lincoln? >> an hour. i have tried to shave the time down. i just cannot do it. there is a methodology. it is step-by-step. it has to be the same every time. >> what is the most poignant place you have played lincoln? >> i have got to say since i have been asked to do gettysburg at gettysburg, to stand on that dais and -- if you look past the crowd, you can see the stones of the cemetery. that is a consuming moment.

you contemplate the death. all that meant. it has to be right. i greet the crowd. i thank them for coming to the commemoration. it is not a celebration. it is not high-fives and let's have pictures taken. it is solemn. we have got to get it right every time. >> just as there have been more books that have been published about lincoln than any other president. people are surprised to know there are many people in the field doing this. approximately how many? you have an association. >> there is an association. i believe there are about 100 throughout the country. that keeps that memory alive. >> when you gather together, what do you talk about? >> getting it right. and, where the venues have been.

what the next steps are repeated -- what the next steps are. what the new publications are saying. if there have been issues brought up in the past, how has it been handled? it is a collaboration. everything is put on the table and hashed back and forth. and we go and again. >> when we do question and answers as abraham lincoln, what is the most often asked question of you? >> they want to hear gettysburg. and think about all of that means. i would say nearly every time in that q&a, will you give us gettysburg? >> would you say over the course of the 30 years you have been doing this, the interpretation

has changed or become nuanced? are there any issues we are dealing with as a society you have had to rethink? >> actually, it has deepened it. in the current politics with the division, it parallels those times prior to the war. i am not suggesting that we are on the cusp of that, but you talk about divided politics, it is the 1850's all over again. when folks say how did you do it in your time, what was that? we need to work together. we must not be enemies but friends. >> we wanted to spend a few minutes with you on this presidents' day weekend. in closing, as we think about abraham lincoln on his birthday week, what is the essential lincoln? what do you think is his message

for our time that you most want people to be thinking about? >> let us bind up the nation's wounds. i think the population -- the anger that we see and hear, and i run into it like this. not necessarily lincoln. that working together. that is all right to reach across the aisle. as lincoln did a team of rivals. democrats and the cabinet of a republican administration. the quote to finish, and enemy is only a friend i have not made. if we agree to reach out to one another, have a discussion about what we agree on, work on what we do not agree on, that will take us to the next step. >> we have known you at c-span since 1994 when you helped us put on the lincoln-douglas debates. thank you on this presidents

weekend for talking to us about abraham lincoln and how you bring him to life. >> thanks for bringing me back. >> you are watching american history tv with event coverage, eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures in college classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places, all weekend, every weekend on c-span three.

>> c-span has round-the-clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is all available on-demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials with interactive maps, watch on-demand any time at

c-span.org/coronavirus. watch the full address tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 p.m. pacific. >> good evening, my fellow americans. 10 days ago in my report to the nation on vietnam, i announced the decision to withdraw an additional 150,000 americans from vietnam over the next year. i said i was making a decision despite our concern over increased enemy activity in laos, cambodia, and south vietnam. i warned that if i concluded that increased enemy activity in any of these areas endangered the lives of americans remaining in vietnam, i would not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal with that

situation. warning, north vietnam has increased its military aggression in all of these areas and particularly cambodia. consultation with the national security council, general abrams and my other thators, i have concluded the actions of the enemy in the last 100 days clearly endanger the lives of americans in vietnam right now and would constitute an unacceptable risk to those who would be there after withdrawal of another 150,000. to protect our men who are in vietnam and to guarantee the continued success of our withdrawal programs, i have >> tonight, in april 30, 1970 address from president richard

nixon and announcing that u.s. and south vietnamese forces would attack north vietnamese basis in cambodia. a newnnouncement led to wave of antiwar protests on campuses. >> next on american history tv, the national constitution center in philadelphia hosts a virtual town hall about george washington's influence in shaping the constitution after the revolutionary war, and as president, his role in making it work. the center's jeffrey rosen moderates the conversation with white house historical association historian lindsay chervinsky and pulitzer prize-winning author edward larson. this and other constitution center programs are available on their website and as podcast. jeffrey: it is now my great pleasure to put on my constitutional reading glasses -- you can tell i am not actually outside because i have ut