c-span3, created by america's cable television companies. today we're brought to you by these television companies who provide american history tv to viewers as a public service. next on the presidency, camp david insiders offer their recollections of the presidential retreat in the maryland mountains. it was president franklin d. roosevelt who first used the hideaway and who set the precedent for hosting dignitaries there when he invited british prime minister winston churchill to be his guest. we hear first from the 43rd president who shares his own camp david memories. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chief executive officer of the george w. bush presidential center, ken hersh. >> thank you, and welcome to the

engage series presented by highland capital. i'm ken hersh, the introducer in chief. our goal here is to provide content that you can't get anywhere else. and we're honored today with this session to launch a wonderful insiders look at presidential retreats and a glimpse of what life looks like for a president outside of the white house. it's a fascination that so many people have, and we're delighted to take a deep dive into camp david, crawford, kenny bunk port and the lbj ranch. tonight we have a series of guests who can also give us that special insight and to kick us off i'd like to introduce the 43rd president of the united states. >> thank you all. thank you very much.

so this is a special moment for laura and me because we've got such fond memories of the presidential retreats. one of the things about the presidency that is kind of hard to explain is like what it feels like to be in a bubble. and you're kind of in a bubble, particularly in washington, d.c. so the presidential retreats, for any president, are very important in the life of the presidency. and so i want to thank ken and holly and the team here for opening up the presidential retreats and a lot of the stories of presidential retreats for the people here in dallas. i -- we had three presidential retreats, which is kind of unusual. one of which was kenny bunk port, maine. it was really my dad's presidential retreat, but laura and i would go up there on occasion. and when we went it was all family, which was incredibly

important part of our presidency. i think -- i don't remember -- i think we entertained sar cosy there and putin. i'll never forget dad said to putin, do you want to go on a boat ride? he had this boat with three, 300 horsepower engines and putin is kind of a macho dude at this point, yeah, i'd like to go, he said in russian, of course. but he had this interpreter who was kind of a strange little guy who was nervous. anyway, dad gets out in the ocean and opens that thing up. and putin of course was just in heaven and the interpreter thought he was going to die. so walkers point was an important part of getting out of the bubble. but not nearly as important as crawford and camp david.

crawford is a place laura and i love. it's a place that we went to in august, which made it kind of uncomfortable for a lot of the people on our staff from the east coast. i loved it. i mean, i would get outside and usually before we owned a bulldozer would chop down cedar. it was like unbelievably therapeutic. i would ride bikes. but mainly i rested. now here's the thing about these retreats, though, you never escape t escape the presidency. the definition of getting outside the bubble at crawford meant there were probably 150 staffers of some sort or another down there, which made it fun because it meant there was a lot of other cedar choppers

available to help. laura and i entertained a lot of world leaders there. and we've got a lot of fond memories of conducting personal diplomacy on the ranch. it became kind of a way for us to give some of these leaders a special look and it really did open up the dialogue in a much easier way than had we been discussing things in the white house. i remember coyzumi and i sitting out by the pool talking about japanese history, laura and i took a great walk across the prairie with angela merkel and her husband. putin came. we had a press conference and rather than have it on the ranch i decided a cool thing to do would be to go to crawford high school, crawford is a town of 600 people. there's 31 people in the senior class and three were allowed to

ask questions. then of course we had to answer questions from the press. but we had a lot of world leaders there, israeli prime minister, crown prince of saudi arabia. one of the interesting stories from the crown prince of saudi arabia was when he came and he was angry because -- had occupied ramala, and he was madder than heck about it. and one of the first things he said to me was, tell the pig to get out of ramala. that is about as great an insult as you could possibly issue in the middle east and, you know, frankly, i wasn't about to allow a foreign leader to dictate our foreign policy. and i said now, look, just give me some time. that wasn't the answer he wanted. and our interpreter, who's a friend of mine, and col inpowell's and condies, came into where we were sitting, he

wanted to be alone with his people. said he's going to leave which would have been a disaster for a young presidency to have a major ally bolt the scene, and it would have been something we would have been dealing with for a long period of time. so i said to colin powell to go in there and fix it and he came out and said i can't. he said only you. i said, okay, so i walk in there, i don't know what i'm going to tell the guy. he's in there smoking butts like mad in our living room. and so i said i hear you're going to leave and he kind of grunts yes and i said before you do i want to talk about two things. religion. and i said let me talk to you about my faith. i said i quit drinking because of religion. and described the relationship i had with billy graham and all that. and i said i'm curious about your religion. nothing, the guy wasn't interested. smoked a cigarette. so that didn't work. so i played the ranch card.

i said i hear you have a farmty outside riyadh and that you love it there. yes. i said i love this place. i'd like to give you a tour before you leave. can i give you a tour? he reluctantly said yes. so there we are in the ford 150. i'm driving. which is unusual. and abdue la and the interpreter leaning over the backseat. we're driving along. these are live oaks, couldn't care less. these are cedar elms, these grasses, we're restoring our native prairie. couldn't care less. he didn't say anything. i thought this goiis going to b disaster. at the far end of the ranch, a turkey is standing in the middle of the road. he said, what is that? i said that's a turkey, your royal highness, at one point it

was going to be the bird of the united states, and that's what our leader suggested, but instead it was bald eagle. he leaned over and said it's a sign from allah, my brother, and i said that's damn good advance work. and we got back to the house. and i said do you want to eat? he said yes. we got back and said we're going to have lunch and the relief on the foreign minister's face and the ambassador's face was palpable. dallas's bob jordan was there, by the way. the reason i tell you that is the ranch was a great place to get to know leaders, and to establish a bond with them. as was camp david. now, camp david was initially called shang gri law, which means heavenly place, which it is. it's tucked in the -- mountains, thankfully only a 25-minute

helicopter ride from the south lawn, which means it's extremely accessible and so laura and i accessed it a lot. we went there as often as we possibly could. you're going to hear from one of the base commanders from camp david, the whole deal is, it's a military base and they've got a lot of other military functions and duties. but when the president's there it's to like pamper the guy. and they do a really good job of it. dwight eisenhower changed the name to camp david, and my brother marvin lobbied for a while to get me to change it to camp marvin. thankfully i didn't. we've got a lot of fond memories of camp david, a lot. and, you know, again, it's a place where laura and i invited a lot of world leaders, tony blair's first visit to the united states, we took him to

camp david. laura decided to have a movie there. they've got a nice movie theater there, called "meet the family --," oh, meet the parents, yeah, i was asleep. if you like to exercise, it's a fabulous place to get outdoors and exercise. we had mountain bike trails. wonderful gym. i think the thing that i remember most about camp david was christmass. it's big enough for our big family each to have their own cabin, and so mother and dad would come, jeb and his family, neil and his family, camp marvin and his family, and doro and it was spectacular, a spectacular time. the reason i emphasize the family aspect is because during the presidency, you know, sometimes there's not -- it's kind of hard to count on certain people but you can always count on your family to bring you comfort and love. so that's one thing we're going to hear about tonight is a true

shang relay. holly kuzmich is going to interview geor interview giorgione, she's going to interview stewart mclaurin, president of the white house historical association and finally my chief of staff josh bolten, one of the coolest guys i know. will be on stage as well. but beforehand one of the real treats for laura and me was to have a beautiful little chapel there called evergreen chapel. and a preacher there had a huge influence on us. and his name is stan fornea. thankfully stan fornea has agreed along with his wife belinda has agreed to join us tonight. so please welcome the right reverend, navy something

captain -- huh? i know chaplain. navy captain, stan fornea. >> thank you very much, mr. president. what a privilege it is for me to be here. this evening, thank you for the invitation. on january 22nd, 1963 news reached camp david of the assassination of president kennedy, who had just been a recent visitor to camp david. there was a contractor working at camp at that time by the name of kenneth plumber, and mr. plumber noticed that in that experience there was nowhere for people to gather to pray, to think, to be quiet. there was no sacred space

whatsoever. and so mr. plumber began the process of saying that he wanted to see a chapel built at camp david. it took him some time but through his persistence, he was able to form a nonprofit. he raised the money to build the chapel. and ground was broken by president reagan, who is the first contributor. and then the chapel was dedicated during the presidency of president bush 41. it was also during that time that president bush decided that he wanted a chaplain there. and so i have had the privilege of following in the legacy of chaplains david ever since that time. if there is any one thing that i would want you to know about camp david it is that there is a very unique climate of community there. there's a small group of people.

a lot of people do not realize it is a military installation. and those who are there were chosen because of their desire to serve their nation by serving their commander in chief. and this unique climate of community, and even maybe so far as a climate of family that exists there, to a great extent is made possible by the presidents and how they use and serve. and i'm a little prejudice because of my time with president bush but i would suggest to you that there's no one who has contributed more to a climate of community and family at camp david more than president and mrs. bush. and that is evident by many different things that they did. president bush was always connecting with people there. and that connection with people

helped create this unique climate of community that existed. you may know that president bush enjoyed mountain bike riding when he was at camp david. and my first day there i had one of the lean and mean marines tell me if president bush asks you to ride bikes with him, tell him no way. and i said why? and he said because nobody can keep up with president bush on these trails and on those bikes. and so he said i know it's hard to say no to the president but you've got to say no if he asks you. and one sunday after chapel we had lunch with the president, and he was beginning to set me up and i knew it. so he said chaplain, do you ride bikes?

and i said no, sir, no, sir, i've never had really the chance to ride bikes very much. and he dropped it and i got out of that experience. but he connected with the young marines and the others there in doing that. there's no way the president connected more with people on the staff at camp david than through evergreen chapel. i had the privilege to conduct over 100 worship services for the president and mrs. bush and the family and the staff of camp david. and it was always the most marvelous experience. the president would always be faithful. in my almost four years there the president never missed a worship service, even if we had week long services during christmas or easter or holy week, they were always there. and the camp community gathered with the president and mrs. bush when we worshipped together.

mrs. bush, i remember, would every christmas and easter bring gifts for all the children of camp david. and during our christmas pageants and other things that we would do, she would distribute those gifts to our children and she did that faithfully, event after event, and year after year. it was just the most marvelous climate of community that existed there. president bush also did something very unique for us, and that is he asked me one time, let's gather all the camp community together, their spouses, their children, and let's invite them all to a town hall meeting in the chapel. at which time the president spent almost two hours standing before us talking about the presidency, his leadership skills. and opened the floor for people to ask questions. and it was so successful, and

because everyone could not get in at one time, the president said let's do it again and we had all the camp staff come once again and the president gave duohoutwo hours of just standing before us and talking about what it means to be the president of the united states. so the president and mrs. bush did a great deal to create this wonderful climate of community at camp david. i think maybe he may have learned some of that from his father. it was christmas one week. and president bush was there. and president bush 41 and the extended family. we had had a service in the chapel that sunday, and we were distributing t-shirts that had something like evergreen chapel christmas on it. and at the end of the service everyone left, i was left in the chapel by myself and the phone rang and it was president bush 41. and he said to me, he said

chaplain, is there any chance that barb and i could get a couple of those t-shirts and i said of course, mr. president. so i got in the golf cart and took them some t-shirts over at their cabin. always gracious, he invited me in and i had a cup of coffee. when i got ready to leave, president bush said do you know why we wanted these t-shirts? and i said no, sir. and he said, well, he says we've stayed here a little longer than we anticipated this year. and we're running a little short of clean underclothes to wear. at which time i said well, you know, mr. president, there's somebody here that can take care of that laundry need if you have it and yet he looked at me and he said, chaplain, this is christmas week. i wouldn't dare ask someone to do that for me during christmas

week. and then he looked and said to me, don't forget, it's their christmas too. and i always thought that spoke so much about the way the bushes felt about the staff at camp david and how much appreciation they had for the climate of community that existed there. but, you know, sometimes even in a close knit community there can be some challenges. and i'll close with this story. but i was sitting in the chapel one weekend, the president was there along with prime minister abe of japan. and it was a saturday. i had sent my chaplain assistant home because nothing was scheduled. and i was sitting in the chapel by myself that saturday and i heard the door open and in walked president bush and the prime minister. and i thought that was nice that the president was showing the prime minister around.

and the president looked at me and he said can you do one of the history briefs that you do for the prime minister? now, that involved a screen and projection equipment, none of which was set up. i had never set it up in my life. and i said of course, mr. president, we can do that. i said it will take me a moment to set it up. so he sat down on the front pew, and i went back in the back and pulled the screen out and set it up and then ran up in the balcony to turn on the projection equipment and this may come as a surprise to you but i noticed the president looking at his watch every now and then and so i eventually got it done. i was sweating. i was proud of myself for getting it set up so quickly. and i finally said, mr. president, we're ready to go with this. and he said just a minute. and he looked at the prime minister and said, he's good at doing worship services. but he's not very good at

handling technology. i was proud of myself. i thought i had done very, very well. and i'm not saying that the president's greatest virtue is not patience. but he is prompt. now, which reminds me, i need to stop talking and move on. but i do want to tell you, in all sincerity, that the four years that i spent at camp david was the absolute highlight of my entire 35 years of ordained ministry. nothing else has ever come close to it. and i don't know if there will ever be anything that can top the fact that i had the privilege of serving our nation in the military, and especially the privilege that i had for four years of serving president bush, mrs. bush and their family, especially during a time of great turmoil and war in the

chapel at camp david. and for those experiences, mr. president, i thank you very much. and now you know, you've already heard, but you would welcome me and join me in welcoming our guest stewart mclaurin, the president of the white house historical association, joshua bolten who was chief of staff had to endure a lot of those worship services at camp david as well. ear admiral michael giorgione, a former commanding officer at camp david and holly kuzmich, the moderator tonight, the executive director of the bush institute. join know many welcoming them, would you please.

>> well, thank you all for being here. and our job tonight is to demystify a place that most people will never get to visit. and you all obviously have some great background and stories to share with this crowd about camp david and to try and bring that to this audience. so let's start there. stewart, president bush mentioned the name shangry law. that was its original name at camp david. tell us how it came to be, how the site was selected. where that name came from. >> president and mrs. bush, it's wonderful to be here at this strierd presidential library with all your guests tonight. president hoover had a wonderful fishing camp called the rap a dan camp. when fdr became president he tried it out but he had asthma and it was a damp climate out there. he didn't like it. his doctor said get a place that's a little higher

elevation, so he asked the national park service to select three different sites as options. one was back in the shenandoah, 30,000 feet out toward the blue ridge, two others were in maryland, and one was the site that was eventually selected to be shangrila. he took a small motorcade up there of three unmarked vehicles and decided he liked it. built in the 1930s, ten years prior by the works product association, it had rudimentary government buildings on this site that were functional so he decided this would work so they decided this would be shangrila. the name -- there was a popular british novelist named james hilton, and he wrote

took -- started shangrila as a presidential retreat. things went along really well for a couple of years until the secret service got nervous about the safety of shangrila, that it might be vulnerable to air attack from the enemy so roosevelt started looking for an alternative to this place, a place a little more secure, a little more safe from air attack. so there was a place, a little more tropical, little more remote, and just think what would have been had president roosevelt followed through and moved the presidential retreat from shangrila to guantanamo as he called it. >> so mike, you were the commanding officer at the end of president clinton's term and the start of president bush's term. you got to run the place. tell us a little bit about what that entailed and tell us about the place itself, what's there, what is camp david like. >> thank you, holly. and president bush, mrs. bush, great to see you again, thank you for this honor.

200 acres. the mountain park, as the president said worked with the national park service. it's a rustic retreat. single story cabins, shingle shake rooves. just enough amenities, very pleasant place to go. >> talk about your role and the staff who's there. >> it's run by the navy, been that way tins the roosevelt years. he took the sailors from the yacht that stewart talked about, plus the marines to guard it. it's a navy command that operates and maintains the facility for the president. but on the weekends it takes on that whole aura of being a place where the president and his family and guests can go and get away. for personal use or diplomatic purpose. >> and so presidents use this partly as a recreational retreat, to get away. they also use it to entertain and host world leaders. tell us a little bit about what

goes into a world leader visit. >> big pucker factor first, and a lot of work with the state department but a fascinating time to stand on the sidelines and watch our president work with world leaders. we talk about building relationships before you need them but when you stand on the sidelines and watch presidents actually do that, as i saw president and mrs. bush do that with the blares, just weeks after inauguration they invite just a couple with camp david, and getting to know someone on that level it's very impressionable. really affected me. it's great to be a part of that. you're not of that world but in that world for a brief moment. >> how many staff? >> 200 sailors and marines that work there full-time. >> josh, you were there on a variety of roles, went first as deputy chief of staff working for president bush, then omb director -- >> i never got invited when i was budget director.

no. nobody wants the budget director. >> so you -- when you were chief of staff part of your role was really helping to host and entertain these foreign delegations, they would come. he tell us about that role and what that entailed for you. >> well, first, thanks to president and mrs. bush for the privilege of being here. and it's a special privilege to be with reverend stan fornea and his wife belinda whose just listening to his voice a few minutes ago brought the same kind of comfort that i think reverend fornea brought to all of us on a regular basis with his sunday sermons. i mean, i -- it's not even my faith, and i always looked forward to going to chapel to hear him speak.

yeah, it's not just about the president. and not just about the visiting prime minister. there's typically a whole delegation that comes with, and as important as the opportunity that camp david provided for building a warm personal relationship between the leaders, also important was the opportunity it provided for an opportunity for those serving just below the two leaders to get to know each other and establish the kind of relationship that becomes critical, especially in a crisis. so i had the -- especially when i was chief of staff, i had the privilege of basically hosting my counterpart or counterparts

for a wide variety of world leaders. and the relationships that were established there in many cases turned out to be extremely important in the months and years that followed. >> so let's talk about the more -- we have a photo of one of the more informal moments of hosting a delegation in the bowling alley. tell us about this very posed photo. >> yeah. well, my score, or -- >> who else is in it? >> well, the person on the far rightsh i guess, as we're looking at it is the president's military aid but the two others were the top two advisers to crown prince mohammed bin zayad

of the united arab emirates whose relationship with president bush was very important to the united states' relationship overall in the gulf region. and so while -- you know, while president bush and the crown prince were off having a walk or something like that, there wasn't much for others to do or maybe they'd already gone to bed. and so i said, you know, who wants to bowl? and to this day -- well, the guy who's to my right is now the emirate ambassador to the united states and the guy on the left is the guy who runs the abu dhabi wealth fund. when i see them they bring up the time we went bowling at camp david. it creates a special bond, even with something as pedestrian as

bowling -- or maybe precisely because it is so pedestrian. >> exactly. were these two teams? do you remember who won? >> i'm sure i won. i got to visit camp a lot, and i'm going to tell you my average was good by the time the administration ended. >> so stewart, one of the most consequential things that happened at camp david, were the camp david accords. tell us about that. how that -- those meetings came to be and what that entailed. >> sure. well, this was, of course, during the carter presidency and earlier that year president and mrs. carter had hosted the president and mrs. sadat without the prime minister bagan at camp david and that was a very farm and friendly meeting several months in advance when they were contemplating bringing both sides together for a summit,

very contentious time, multiple wars fought over decades between egypt and israel. the time came to plan this summit, and there were conversations between president carter and the national security adviser, where should this be, they looked at spain, portugal. president carter wanted a confined intimate space away from the eyes of the press where they could be driven to talk to one another. they set aside initially three days for this summit at camp david with protecting four additional days should they need them. they ended up spending 13 days there, ten of which bagan and sadat did not talk to one another at all. there were similar scenarios to president bush's story where they were going to walk, going to leave and they had to be pulled back and stay and finally it resulted in the accord, which camp david may be most famous for is the camp david accord and that famous picture on the south lawn of the white house of the three leaders celebrating that

achievement but it was a very tedious time but camp david provided the perfect cramped comfortable but uncomfortable setting to drive that dialogue to a successful completion. >> mike, president bush mentioned that tony blair was his first visitor there as a foreign leader. you got to see that. and experience and understand the role of camp david in a casual retreat in foreign diplomacy. say a little bit more about that and what you saw in terms of why that setting sort of lent itself to those kinds of meetings. >> it certainly made sense to me and president bush, knowing from his father, what the charm of camp david was for floem diplomacy. i believe this was the first time they were meeting the blairs. instead of a white house dinner and formality, they come to camp david. the couples are dressed casually

and respectfully. it said so much to us, set the tone. he did the same thing with prime minister kwazumi in july, open collar, get to know each other. talk about history and our relationship. watching the two couples spend a light hearted weekend together, watch that movie he talked about, hold a press conference off camp, brief one, much more calm time in our world was so impressionable so us and it really resonates why presidency at a place like camp david. >> mention when gordon brown visited, we have a photo, the contrast in the photo between gordon brown. >> the president's wearing it well, and he's, i'm sure, striking up a relationship as a great leaders do, they figure out a way to connect differently with leaders in their own personalities. >> he showed up in a suit and tie. >> some were very formal. that happened with president olan of france during the g-8

summit under president obama, very formal and the president made a joke about it to kind of relax everyone, and so some people don't understand the purpose of camp david and i think once they let that guard down it provides the right setting and decorum to talk. >> did you all know he was going to show up in a suit and tie sh. >> did not know that. >> what did you have to do when that -- >> we're dressed appropriately all the time anyway, but you just react. >> yeah, but i was staffing that, and there was a scramble to find neckties when we got there. the military, they always look good. not the staff. >> so josh, you have an interesting experience when you were there, and i want you to tell this story about a world leader meeting that only partially took place at camp david. because of where you flew president bush to to have the other side of the meeting. talk about that. >> one of the most complicated and delicate things that i did

as chief of staff, and my predecessor andy card did was figure out how to get the president out of the united states and over to iraq without anybody knowing it. at any given moment there are literally hundreds of people who know where the president is, are protecting him, watching every movement and so on, and president bush several times during his presidency made the courageous decision to go basically into a combat zone and either visit the troops or in the case of the one that i organized in 2006, to meet the new prime minister of iraq, president bush thought that once

the prime minister had finally pulled together a cabinet that represented all of the various factions and ethnicities in iraq, it was important for the president personally to show up and to -- and to, you know, meet face to face on their, you know, in their offices, on their territory. and making that happen logistically is really, really hard to do. and there have been a variety of ruses used for the trip to iraq and then afghanistan in 2006. and by the way, you can't let anybody know that the president is coming because then the bad guys will be there with rpgs or whatever to knock down air force one as it's landing. and so the -- when we started the planning for it for this

trip, i believe i came up with the idea. and now it could have been -- it could have been deputy chief of staff joe hagan who served almost the entire eight years in that role in the bush white house. i'm pretty sure it was me. >> you're the only one here so you can take credit. >> you may want to credit joe. but the idea we came up with was that, okay, let's get the president over -- out of washington from camp david because as these gentlemen know camp david is one of the only places the president can go where there are no press watching, nobody -- you know, there's a perimeter there. and so it's a relatively secure place from which to disappear. the president's ranch being really one of the other only

other places where you can spirit the president out without a lot of people knowing it. we started with that frame, which was let's get him to camp. and then we thought, you know, how -- how do we get the whole iraqi cabinet assembled to meet him? and so the brilliant idea was that we would organize a cabinet to cabinet meeting so that the iraqi cabinet would be in baghdad with prime minister malaki and the relevant counterparts from the u.s. cabinet would assemble at camp david. and they would -- >> with president bush. >> with president bush. and we would have a joint cabinet meeting by video conference. and so that was what we advertised to the iraqis, what we advertised to the entire world was that president bush and his cabinet would be at camp

david, and all of the iraqis would be in baghdad and they would have a meeting by video conference. we invited the cabinet members, and i think there were about six or eight of them who were relevant to come up to camp david and the chairman of the joint chiefs, a couple of other people and we all -- there was a big dinner. and in laurel, the big -- the convening place that has a dining room. there was a big dinner for all of the # cabinet members there with the president and vice president cheney and our plan was that president bush and his national security adviser steve hadley and i would slip out

before dessert and we would leave dick cheney to make small talk with the cabinet. by the way, this is where the plan almost failed. because we needed to keep everybody there at dinner while the rest of us scooted out on golf carts and went to the helipad and got onto a helicopter that had no lights and took off from camp david. but as i was leaving i vaguely remember the vice president saying, anybody read any good books? so i was really worried that somebody would going to spot us and blow us because we had not told the cabinet about it. you know, we couldn't tell anybody because word spreads pretty fast. anyway, we flew from camp david

by darkened helicopter to andrews air force base where we -- the dark helicopter drove in to a hangar in which air force one wer it wasn't outside where anyone could and air force one took off from st. andrews late at night without any lights. and they flew the to baghdad. and just as we were landing, the iraqy program minister staid yes, there will be a video conference but president bump will be here in baghdad. and so, oh good, this photo here is a photo of the president and i'm the guy, i always have the end seat, i don't know why, but

i'm at the end there. what you see up on the screen is all of the members of the u.s. cabinet being video conferenced in from camp david 37 the way that the protected an confidential nature of camp david they exhibited to a very successful operation that could not have been done on the way this is. >> we talked about the kamp david according. talk about some of the other events and meetings that happened throughout history. >> winston churchill was the first to go to kamp david.

but they enjoyed fishing there and talking. they talked about sicily, they had other visitors. helicopters for travel. so i said can i give you tour. he liked that american made helicopter so much that he talked eisenhower into letting him buy two that he took back to the soviet union. another great story and they are coming up to camp defd.

and even though he had been there, he says he didn't know much about this kamp david place, he was a little suspicious. he also had the car, and he liked cars, so he relished this. and he went around camp david in a golf cart. they go down, and he is saying

slow down, slow down, and they stlam on the brakes around the curve. he holds the automobile. so i think he liked that. so i think the sort-livhort-liv tradition of presidents getting automobiles at camp david was over. they have more ekuational getting away from the white house. >> yeah, i was a regular visitor in the last three years when i was chief of staff, as they were in the proceeding five years.

but it was it wasn't common for people other than the chief of staff, the national injury staff, but they were getting an under to bring, to come to camp david with their spouse because the ethos they always spread was that service in government and in the administration is a family affair and everybody is serving. so that was a really important perk and a way of building the community. earlier building that kind of community around the white house and the rest of the administration. there was two assistants to the

president at the time, i think, who were unmarried. it was me and ari flescher. so we did not make the list very early. finally we both got invited on the same weekend, no spouse, so we concluded this must be jewish singles weekend. and so i was disappointed to nand it wa find that it was just me and ari, and i imagine ari was disappointed, too. but it was a really important way to establish more of a personal relationship and we didn't need camp to feel that way, but i think it contributed

a lot to the family at momosphe. >> so, mike, you lived there with your wife and two daughters and that had to be a really fascinating experience to raise children at camp david. what was that experience like? to be there with your family? >> we are the only family that lives inside of the camp. so think about us every day families and transplant yourself to you and jr. family living in a cabin called cedar. a modest house with a great yard. your neighbors happy to be the president and camp marvin sometimes and others. but you're still a family. so there is a different dynamics. lots of highs, a few lows.

>> there was a no pets rule at the time. >> but you broke this? >> my wife broke the rules but for good reason. and i'm sure the president's would find this so comic kal. there was a no pets rule, but one day michelle and the girls went to the fair and they came home with fish, they came to the gate, and our very duty bound marines salute, and stuff, and she says do i need to call someone. and they said no, ma'am, and the tears are rolling down the eyes, and michelle is saying well, they're for dinner.

i think the marines thought yes, ma'am, carry on. and then they caved. >> and you have another great story about when the palestinians were there about being observent. >> yes, rose bud was a cabin across from cedar. and we briefed the girls about how to dress, it was the summer months. don't expose body parts, don't wear a bikini, so we're very respectful, we shut the blinding. he is went out to water flowers and across the way was rose bud

but a bunch of palestinians in their open robes, but it was just that kind of thing you learn to react to things like that and keep it very low key. that happens in your neighborhood everywhere you live, right? a common thing. >> the president is not the only one to leave a mark on the presidents. >> not unlike like at the white house where the first lady and the first family leave their mark as a legacy in an important way to be remembered at the white house. we had wonderful projects with mrs. bush in the lincoln bedroom, green room, the library. at camp david the same is often true. the first lady will make a few

changes. they came into a military government issue, and this would not due, so the camp quickly became colored in green, yellow, and pink. she brought in a navy reserve decorator to transform the lace. that's why the cabins got their name after the trees. aspen was given to the president's cabin. so it bake the aspen lodge. [ applause ] nixon, like in the white house, was really unhe recallralded wi transforming some of the french influence to american influence. did quite a bit at camp david as well. they heated the swimming pool just as other amenities that have been added. eisenhower did the three hole

golf course there. other recreational things. mrs. bush, i love some of the things she did in bringing, for the first time the directors of the presidential libraries to camp david. all of their bosses spent time at this important place, but none of them had seen it. a day there having lunch, understanding the place was very important, and another wonderful touch they love is she had pictures collected of all of the world leaders that her husband method with and leaders going back to fdr and put those in places going back to camp david, and a nice special legacy piece. she had an artist go with her around camp david and select certain plants, flowers, and the originals are still at camp david and there are

reproductions here available so you can take home a little piece of camp david here with you tonight thanks to mrs. bush. >> mike, we heard about the bush's and how they spent the holidays. so between the two presidencies there was 12 family christmass. what was it like to be there and serve in the holidays? >> again, you see a typical american family come together as family if is wonderful to watch and know that you have a role in providing that calm, vserenity. so when they leave on that sunday or when ever they're happy and restored. to watch the bushes during christmass for 12 ye christmases for 12 years it was phenomenal to witness. >> as you all know you all get to see a special sneak preview of our exhibit across the way.

it covered camp david, but also ra prairie chapel ranch. make sure you take time to walk across the courtyard. we that mike's book for sale as well as the thisr,smc÷ one. we have great things in the exhibit. we have the original sign, we have correspondence. we have a chainsaw that president bush used. hopefully you a few more down at the ranch. i hope it is not your only one. so please take a visit there and please join me in thanking our great panelists tonight.

>> j. >> you're watching american history tv every weekend on c-span 3. explore our nation's past. american history tv created by america's cable television companies. j. >> flid a tfriday in a two-part tour, we go through the exhibit of alexander van humbolt. here is a preview.

>> this is a german naturalist that was one of the most widely recognized and admired men alive. we want today you to see thompson jefferson. frederick douglas. carl sagan, rachael carson. teddy roosevelt, john muir. as an active homage to a man that was one of the most widely and profoundly admired men of the 19th century. he wrote over 30 books. he corresponded with over 20,000 individuals. he said he slept four hours a night. he called coffee concentrated sun beams. he said what happens in the alps

predicted what you see in the andes and the rockies. and where you found plants and what altitude you found them could tell you a lot about the local ecosystem. so what does any of this have to do with american art and culture? in 1804 after spending five years traveling, he was on his way home and he made a pit stop to assemble. he said you think american democracy could be a model for the future. you want to meet thomas jefferson. he convinces him to take a detour. for six weeks humbolt will be in philadelphia and washington hanging around with some of the leading artists, metascientists,

and politicians and it shapes our history for the next 50 years. >> learn more here on "american history tv." >> each week american history tv's reel america brings you films that provide context for today's public affairs issues.

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you can watch the films in it's entirety on "reel america" here on american history tv. >> during the peak of the baby boom, they produced a film called "in the suburbs." it shows families in leisure activities at home. they hoped the film would lead to an increase in ad sells.