our coverage begins with a preview at 8:00 p.m.. callsthat we take your and have reactions from members of the congress. history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. this week on "q&a" author and

wall street contributor a.j. baime. brian: you have a book called, "the accidental president". when did you first get interested in doing a book like this? a.j.: i was raised in a household where truman was a hero. i grew up thinking that truman was a man of integrity. i never understood the trajectory. in that book, there is a chapter where senator truman goes to detroit to investigate the car companies and their failure to produce airplanes and other military pieces during world war ii as fast as i said they could.

it struck me that this obscured senator truman should be the one to become the most powerful man in the history of the world in 1945. brian: in your notes, you talk about a new session. what does that mean? a.j.: when you are researching a book like this, you end up traveling around the country and eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly's images and spending time alone sifting through documents. are essentially looking for treasure and those eureka moments. means, you are trying to find documents that have not been listed. the great truman documentaries came out in the 1990's. so, i knew that if i found these thenents, if they had not

available to biographers in the 90's, i cannot look you in the eye in the same time and say i found documents that changed history. there were more elements of color that i could drop in that -- that i as a narrative writer meant a lot to me. he had the whole package. was theis for months most challenging that any president has faced to this day. --man becomes accident president by accident in 1945 and we solve the third reich fall. japanwere firebombings in that killed thousands of civilians. the fall of berlin, the beginning of the cold war, first nuclear explosion, first atomic

bombs dropped, the beginning of the nuclear arms race, all of that began in a performance. . months. in a four -- months period. onan: i have put some dates the screen so everyone could put it into context. -- thee the conference three conferences. how do they fit together? first twofrom -- were secret. the most important thing is that we brought together the three leaders. winston churchill and frank roosevelt.

-- of their most breast trusted leaders as well. there were many secret agreements. when roosevelt died, the new president coming in had no idea of these secret agreements. truman has to figure out how to handle churchill and sullen and all ofs that there are the secret agreements and has to secret -- decide whether they should be upheld. with withs is mostly andn and altered -- tehrain alta.

-- yalta. immediately after his ,naugural, a light -- arriving president roosevelt met again with churchill. brian: how cordial were those three men? a.j.: they all got along fairly well. roosevelt is very good at getting along with people. get probably killed more people than hiller did but he was good at it. no you to pot stand, truman is now president and he has no international experience. three month into this

presidency, he does not know whether the bomb will work and he has to sail across the atlantic. by this time, the war in europe is over and the whole world knows. the whole world knows this is going on now. the american people are really expecting their new president to bring something home to them. there is an enormous amount of pressure. truman goes to sit up these -- sit at the table with these two themen to essentially map out te future of the world. brian: how much did he know about what was going on in the war? a.j.: let me frame it for you this way. she was an expert on the home front. he knew as much as everybody what was going on. in terms of the international emergency, he probably did not know much more than the average

person. he did not even know of the existence. he knew of some existence of some strange government program going on. brian: right now, the vice president lives in a big mansion off massa set -- massachusetts avenue. a.j.: where was trip -- brian: world's truman living? a.j.: roosevelt's life is often thought of as an aristocrats. truman lived in a small apartment on connecticut avenue. there were two bedrooms and he shared one with his wife. the other bedroom was shared by margaret, their only child, and mrs. wallace, truman's what -- mother in law. you can see the pictures online.

it was very modest. telephone which was exciting. that is who he was. brian: how much money did he have a? -- in those days? a.j.: not a lot. in my quest to be able to find the details that would really illuminate who this person was, i managed to sift through his bank records of the time. in the book, i could quote exactly what his bank balance was. something like 3000 and something dollars. brian: how much was he paying for his apartment? a.j.: i don't know but he had a loan out at the time from the bank. brian: what was his relationship with mrs. wallace, his mother-in-law? a.j.: interesting. wonderful question.

--. wallace, this fall is family comes from independence, missouri. the family is considered aristocrats. the trumans were farm people. mrs. wallace, throughout harry's , wasship of that, -- beth never in favor of this farm boy because he was never going to go anywhere. white house, the she still looked down at harry. brian: how much education did harry truman have? a.j.: again, a great contrast to roosevelt who had gone to columbia and harvard law. truman never finished college.

the family was broke when he finished high school. he went and worked in kansas city for a little bit and at some point he took some more classes at night. he never finished. no college degree, no law degree and this is the man who took over for fdr. brian: what did he ever run in his life? a.j.: it is interesting to think, when he became president he had never been mayor or governor of the state. innk about that, following roosevelt's footsteps. he was the chief executive of a county. much of which was rural. it had kansas city and it. -- in it. besides that, he had never been chief executive of anything.

brian: how did he ever get elected to the united states senate? , is amr. pendergast fascinating figure. he was a larger-than-life man and had a ball from head. -- bull frong head. we do not have city buses like like we- bosses now had then. he picked this seemingly random man named truman with no political experience and gave him a political career. the thing about it essentially is harry truman at 38 years old had been a head of a hadrdashery which -- --

just failed. and askd them up created a career for him. the reason why it worked is because mr. pendergast was involved in many you legalities. activites. truman was thrust into these offices. how rigged these elections were and jackson county we do not know? we do know that eventually, these people were convicted of voter fraud, health harrylly when the election. harry goes to washington and when truman gets a washington, he has a pretty that reputation because of mr. pendergast. before the 1940 election, sir

pendergast is an prison -- mr. pendergast is in prison. this is one of the most fascinating senatorial elections i've ever come across. brian: why? a.j.: because no one expected him to win. he had no allies. pendergast was everything in his career and now he was gone. 'sarts term in the -- stark term in the governor's office was of -- up. he won miraculously and ran this campaign with no money. the only thing he could say is, "hey, i am harry and i am an honest guy."

brian: how did he become vice president? a.j.: let's tackle the first part. they did not know each other very well. roosevelt was even quoted as when they would talk about who would be the next vice -- saying, "i barely know him." officially, they met twice. there is a wonderful picture i have in the book of the two men sitting under a tree. they are having tea. they are talking but the election. it is a great photograph because there are so few of them that exist that show the two of them in the same room. they barely knew each other. year: this is the first

that the inauguration was on anywhere 20. it was -- january 20th. fdr died on april 12. how much does harry truman know about the fall -- bomb,. . a.j.: the truman committee came across the secret site. truman, wasked for going to go up there and investigate. the secretary of war called mr. truman on the phone and said, " please do not investigate this." i found an actual transcript of

that conversation. i know exactly what was said. "mr.ecretary of war said, truman please pull the investigation away from this. it is a secret project." war says, "byof president there is a secret project on on and it is so secret that that is all i can tell you as of now." the transcript says he was left puzzled. it was not until his 13th day in office that he was fully briefed on the manhattan project. he went into the white house for a secret meeting.

it was announced that within the next four months, the united states will have a bomb strong enough to destroy an entire city. a.j.: stinson is a fascinating character. he was the only republican in roosevelt's cabinet. he had been an government work since early in the century. he was 77 years old. he was in different positions in the administration. he was secretary of war when truman took over. he became this amazing character because he is the point person in government that is supervising the manhattan project, which is a military project. he is the one that does more than everybody. he is directly advising the president. he comes to see the president and stinson kept a marvelous diary about his meetings with

the president. brian: here is some video of stinson. see what he looked like an sound like in 1943. >> and mobilizing hitler's troops. for us, this would be a military victory of tremendous magnitude. it would be a military catastrophe of staggering proportions for hiller. -- hitler. brian: how important was he for the rest of truman's time as president? a.j.: the way i put it in the book, he was a character. he was a relic. he was of another generation. he was the man who interestingly

, when not entertain people in his home who had not been -- who had been divorced. that is how much he was a man of the previous generation. he was an incredible present to be able to put in perspective what the science was. he stuck with truman until the end of the world -- war. he resigned in september 1945. him as the point by -- guy. you see the narrative unfolding and the sort of mystery behind it. they really do not know until they knew for sure that the thing was going to work. brian: where do you live? a.j.: i live in northern california.

i do not live there when i started the book. brian: what were you doing in chicago and new york? a.j.: a journalist. -- for?our? a.j.: many publications. a.j.: i was an editor for playboy magazine's. articles editor for playboy magazine for 10 years. it was a wonderful job. i will tell you a funny story about it. did not care. i made a good seller. -- salary. at the same time, i could keep the job while watching -- launching a career with books.

i left there five years ago and finished the last book and started this one. for some one who is writing books like this, i think it may be surprising to people. tome, i just felt blessed have a job that maybe well enough and to give me enough time to be do what i wanted to do. brian: what else besides labor? -- playboy? a.j.: i have been writing for the washington journal since 2009. brian: where did you get your degrees? a.j.: university of new hampshire and a masters in journalism rum and what you. -- in nyu. brian: i have a book about a racehorse. when i was in the first grade i wrote this book.

we had this wonderful teacher who allowed us to make these books out of cardboard and staging. -- stitching. i remember telling her that i love this project. she told me that i would grow to be an author. i said, i do not want to be another i want to write books. , i want to write books. i'm one of those lucky people who knew what they wanted to do and is able to do it. everybody growing up in my family calls me something different. by father calls me jim. my mother calls me heard -- bert. my sister used a commie jamie. i do not know where aj comes from. we really do not know. we are from eastern european,

jewish immigrants. a talk at i was given the library and a woman showed up saying i live here and i have the same name as you. there are very few of us. we cannot quite figure it out but there is not a lot of baime 's of their. a.j.: two books that you have written. those were wonderful projects. a.j.: it was my first book but it is a book about a rivalry in the 1960's. it captured the imagination of the world. two extremely powerful men, probably the most powerful executive chief.

probably the most fascinating character i have ever been in which to write about. he spoke poetry. everything he said was controversial and strange and wonderful. the rivalry between these two men were played out. brian: the other book i want to ask you about is, "big shots." a.j.: that is my first book. wrote when ik i was pretty young. the history of liquor. each chapter is the real-life story of someone who's name is on a bottle. being? --e real jim beam? through that, i tell the story of what real bourbon is.

the whole idea is, you really get a history of liquor and where it comes from. brian: going back to the book about german, -- truman, when fdr died, harry truman admitted he was scared to death. most yes, i think the important thing in this book is that it is a human portrait of a man who becomes the most powerful man in the history of the world by accident. i really tried to paint a portrait of him so the reader butd feel what was going on i wanted to have the reader understand what he was feeling and thinking. yes, he was terrified. even his wife. even in conversations with his

wife, she was doubtful of his chops. brian: here is video of four days after fdr dies. he has become president and is in front of the congress. tell me what you see about a man who says he was scared about this job. >> both germany and japan can be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that america will continue to fight for freedom into no no vestige of resistance remains. brian: how did he look? a.j.: pretty good. let me put this in context. this is an extraordinary moment in our history. truman was terrified to give a speech. he talked about it. the night before he laid in his bed and he prayed to god that he would not mess up. he climbed the stairs and he

sees his wife in the crowd. she is crying because roosevelt instead and the nation is in shock and she never wanted to be the first lady and she never wanted her husband to be the president. meanwhile, he has to get up there and inspired confidence in his administration and the whole world. the whole world has to understand that america will continue. that the war will continue. everything seems in question because america does not know who this man is. roosevelt had been president honor than any president ever. a lot of people serving in the military were not old enough to remember any other president in their lifetime. truman is a stranger and he has to get up there and inspire the world. one fact that i love is that after this speech that he gives, the stock market source. he does -- soars.

he does a great job by sending the right message. thise do not realize that is someone that americans can relate to. americans felt like he was one of vice president about what was

going on, the secret agreements whatlta, preparing him for was going on a culture. brian: it's difficult to blurt whatout without context -- were the most important secret agreements? them it stifel to blurt out without context. we had convinced the chinese of the things about the soviets. the biggest thing about the secret agreement was be chinese concessions. the biggest thing is they had to form the chinese. the chinese were going to give up all of these things to the soviets so the soviets would .oin the war against japan so, truman finds out about this.

and he now says, i have to tell the chinese how they are going to give up all of this stuff to russia. seriest occurs through a of diplomatic relations with ambassador and china and it does not go well. so, the chinese refuse. our state department realizes something was going on. the soviets wanted to spread their influence east. brian: hooded president truman washingtonhim to from kansas city, and who was around him from kansas city in the white house? of.: there was a whole bunch guys who, at the time, people were concerned because they did not note truman. he had all of these missourians

around him. he had john schneider, who he made federal loan administrator. there was a guy -- i am spacing he is name -- inconsequential -- his buddy ed. brian: ed cancel? a.j.: no, -- brian: eddie mccann? they were mortified by the fact that roosevelt was no longer president. one of the narratives in the book is how staffers come to realize who truman is. you see their opinions started form. of course -- at first, they are

concerned because they see these weird missourians walk around. man ofalize that he is a terrific integrity. though he had no college degree, he was very well-educated. brian: who was harry von and where was he from? the whitey vaughn, house just are. he was in the reserves. he was not an important general, and suddenly you have harry vaughn wondering around, keeping truman entertained. brian: a couple people that you write about and there's a whole bunch, as you know, james burns -- where was he from? a.j.: south carolina. brian: what was his job? a.j.: he was one of very few all three served in branches of government. he was essentially in charge of the home front. a controversial figure, as it

turns out. >> we have the enemy on the ropes. his knees are buckling. this is the time to face the job. nine -- thatas 19 was 1944. was he right? a.j.: essentially yes. the japanese less than germany, obviously. truman is a fascinating figure. one point to make about him -- burns was absolutely convinced he should have been the vice presidential candidate and he was absolutely convinced he should have become president and not truman. of the very first day of truman's presidency he meets and he says privately, i can't announce this yet but i want to make you secretary of state. and very quickly, burns becomes truman's most important advisor. it's complicated.

he becomes very important in the decision to drop the bomb. brian: how? spell this how to out? burns and simpson were the key advisors in terms of who had truman's year. it really came down to pot stem -- truman had to make the potsdam,-- pot stem -- truman had to make the decision. there was an ultimatum to japan ,aying, you need to surrender or we are going to do something really, really dark. and the language is clear as you read it in retrospect. they are talking about the bomb, but of course, the bomb was secret. "unconditional surrender" is in that document. we know truman was reading the

altar of documents. we were intercepting japan's secret documents. they are in the truman library. we know the truman was reading them. truman knew exactly what the japanese were thinking. and they were thinking that "unconditional surrender" meant that we were probably going to curse rate and execute their emperor, so if unconditional we werer were in the -- going to incarcerate in a cuter emperor, so if unconditional surrender was in the document -- the adviser said let's just drop the word unconditional. it is amazing to think that these two bombings hinged -- this is debatable. we could put historians around the table and debate this for hours -- but it's probable be one word, unconditional, if we , and burns was the loudest voice.

brian: going back he became president on 1835. victory in europe day was may the eighth. how much did he know that the war was going to be over soon. a.j.: we were closing in from one side and the soviets were closing in from the other. what i find fascinating, on his wast day as president, he briefed by his marshals and he was told that there was a lot of war left to fight in the far east. i think truman knew the war in europe was going to be one.

he was also told there would be a lot of war left to fight. i am going to put some more dates up on the screen. we moved to august. hiroshima, the bomb was dropped on august the sixth. the soviet invasion of manchuria on august 8. nagasaki, august ninth. victory in japan day was one month later, september 2. what are the circumstances that you talk about the b-29 on its way to japan to drop the bomb and it was covert over the city and they moved on to hiroshima. hiroshima was the primary target. there was a second bomb -- night a sake was not the primary target. who would have gotten it --

in the book,t it the people on the ground -- hundreds of thousands of people on the ground, they had no idea cloud cover saved to their lives. not a sake was the target. there was a tremendous amount of debate over which cities should have been the target in the first place -- aki was the target. go in depth about the firebombings. very controversial firebombings in japan leading all the way up to the bomb. to ask you about that. march 9, 1945, we killed something in the order of 170,000 or more -- with e 29 -- b-29's, that number was huge.

what was that not as big a deal as dropping the bomb on hiroshima? a.j.: essentially the answer is there is such a psychological factor to the discovery in the time of warfare, atomic technology. i take issue in the epilogue of the book, all these people came out of the woodwork criticizing human later for dropping the bomb. all the way up to the bomb we were firebombing the cities and killing women and children. that killed collectively far more people than the atomic bombs did. so, why did that not get debate? , again, there is is such a psychological factor to the discovery of atomic science. it mesmerize people. clifford, a huge figure in the truman administration, at the time he recalls learning about learningc bombing and

this was going to be the most important event of the human century and that is how we think of it today. brian: more video of the potsd am conference. churchill is there one day and gone the next. this is july to august 1945. ♪ handshake --wayne handshake. now taking over from churchill germany, even more severe than the versailles treaty. a sharp reprimand for franco of spain, now barred from the united nations. now the new prime minister in the middle of this -- did he know anything?

politicians been a for a long time and he had been at the conference the entire time. brian: why? a.j.: there was no election. when the conference begins, everybody knows -- there had been the selection and they did not have the final results. churchill does not know he is going to remain prime minister. and in fact, he loses the election. right smack in the middle of the conference, he takes over. this puts a real damper on this because everybody loves churchill. even the soviets respected him, even though they might not have liked him. they were used to negotiating with him. they were comfortable with him. and here's aptly. in people are mesmerize -- this is the man. the man the british chose to represent them at this conference and before the world -- they are very surprised, the soviets in particular, and it changes the mood of the conference in a dark way.

soon after the conference in's without any major agreements that every -- ends without any major agreements that everyone hoped would occur. brian: what happened when the conference was over? what happened to harry truman? where did he go? king he goes to meet the of england. i love this. the king of england asks him to sign some autographs for the king's daughter who becomes, of course, the queen. there's a fascinating scene at that lunch. they are sitting around. admiral william leahy is the chief of staff of the white house and the very close advisor to truman. brian: hold it right there. of william2 seconds leahy, the admiral who was his chief of staff. part of the national defense.

and this evidence of the president's confidence in me is a high honor indeed. brian: continue. what was his impact by the way? a.j. a.j.: they are at lunch. and leahy claims to be an explosives expert. he is insisting the bomb is not going to work right up to the point that it does. potsdam, i mean, after they are having this lunch with the king of england and they are amazed to the king knows as much as he does. it is still a secret. the trinity test had gone off, so we know -- brian: what does that mean? that was july 16. the day that churchill meets him , the explosion goes off. brian: what if they call it trinity? a.j.: it was a reference to a john nunn poem -- john donne

poem because of an heimer loved poetry. thesits there and says to king of england, i don't think this atomic bomb is going to be a big deal. the king turns to them and says, do you want to lay a bet on that. truman leaves. we have all of the communication. all of the communication going back and forth between his office on the ship and the white house munication's room. so truman is -- by now, he wants to know, he does not know when the mission is going to be flown. brian: why? a.j.: because it was a military secret. why wouldn't he know? he's the president of the united states. a.j.: that's the level of the security. brian: he did not make the decision deck of -- he did not make the decision? for where andsion when was up to the united states

military. he wanted it to be dropped after he left potsdam. brian: so he gave permission -- a.j.: he did. we have the documentation, too, which is interesting. i found these wonderful documents where one of his aides sends a message to the white house asking for information about the manhattan project, which would have been a great violation of secrecy, security. it was so secret that the military map room, the map room were all of the military theyents were sent -- cabled back to the ship sank, we don't even know what this manhattan project is. truman's eight aboard the ship rights back and says, you know what? please don't look into this. they realized they have made a mistake even by inquiring about the bomb. so it's not until august 5 aboard the boat, august 16 japan, august 5 aboard the boat

when truman learns -- again he is at lunch -- that the bomb has been dropped. brian: here is august 6, video harry truman on the ship. there is a porthole off to his left, announcing to the american people -- it's not live of course, but announcing to the american people, i assume on film about the bomb. a short time ago, and american airplane dropped one bomb on hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. that bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of tnt. it is an atomic bomb. it is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. it has been loosed against those who brought war to the far east. we have spent more than $2 billion on the greatest scientific campbell in history, and we have one -- scientific

gamble in history, and we have won. brian: you don't by chance know what to billion dollars would have been today? a.j.: i don't have that number. it cost more to develop the weapon system that dropped to the palm than the bomb itself. the campaign to realize the be 29 bomber -- to be 29 bomber cost more than $2 billion. and of course, there was more than one of them. interesting fact. brian: i assume that was on the radio live. been onat would have the radio live. the information was shot out to the world in many different ways. there had been a press release that the president approve to be released in his name before this. amazingly, the assistant press secretary described in his diary

what it was like to find out what the bomb was and when he had to announce to the press at the white house -- truman is still aboard the ship at sea -- what that scene was like and now the reporters responded, and the system present greater said " it's an atomic bomb. it's the first time it has been done." that's exactly what he said. do you remember who was the captain when they dropped the bomb on nagasaki? a.j.: i do. brian: different plane -- a.j.: he did fly on the second mission. brian: here's some video of what it looked like at nagasaki. where did more people die? hiroshima or nagasaki? a.j.: i believe a roshen the. of course, we can never know the exact number, especially because of all of the people who paris

due to the after effects but even as recently -- who perished due to the aftereffects, but even as recently, the department of energy has put up the numbers for just the hiroshima bomb. brian: what happened with the japanese after these bombs were dropped? a.j.: let me set a scene for you. amazingly, when the bomb was dropped, truman did not know when the mission would fly. he had given no order for a second bomb. he is back at the white house. he has been gone for a month. checksound all of these he signed. he is literally going through his mail as this is happening and he is riding checks for checks for- writing literally white house groceries. he was responsible for that. his wife was not there to open the mail. he did not know this was happening. soon after this, the japanese conceded. again, it came down to this

whole notion of unconditional surrender. the japanese agreed to surrender after the second bomb under certain conditions. and they were very concerned about their emperor. out how toto figure connect the dots. i believe it was the navy secretary who had this brilliant idea -- like if the emperor himself surrenders sendingionally, thereby a message to the japanese that we are not going to incarcerate or execute this man, we will accept their surrender. and that is exactly what happens. put on thent to screen the two bombs, the replica of the to bombs. the first one was dropped -- little boy, and then the second one would be fat man. there is little boy on the screen there. anything we should know about why they named them this? fat man was the one dropped, i believe, over nagasaki?

a.j.: correct. brian: the difference between the bombs, anything you have spent time on with these? a.j.: here is an interesting fact. you can see these at the air force museum in dayton. one thing about little boy that is fascinating, the trinity shot used a certain firing mechanism. the trinity shot is july 16. it is the first test of an atomic bomb. the only test of an atomic bomb. it used a certain firing mechanism that was different than the hiroshima atomic bomb. when that little boy bomb was dropped on hiroshima, we still did not know for sure it was going to work. fat men was different. it did use the same firing mechanism as in the trinity shot. we were quite certain this was going to work. brian: and it did obviously. a.j.: yes. truman.ere is harry

we are near the end. pres. truman: i have received this afternoon a message from the japanese government forwarded by the secretary of state on august 11. it is a full acceptance of the dam declaration, the unconditional surrender of japan. brian: as you watch this, how do you feel he handled his job? how i can, it are is answer. this book is about the first four months of the truman administration. when truman left office in january 1953, he had miserable approval ratings. brian: do you remember -- a.j.: 24 percent. something in the low 30's. of course, it would very according to which poll. one of my favorite parts about righting this book is it is a story of a guy who comes out of nowhere, is expected to fail, and doesn't.

his approval rating at the end of this for months is 87%. it is higher than roosevelt's had ever been. i think that answers your question how did he do? this moment we just showed on screen is such an important moment in our nation from history because he is the one to announce the end of the greatest catastrophe our human race has ever faced to this day. the estimates -- we never know , butpeople died in the war the soviets lost the most civilians and military and its estimated somewhere around 25 million. the soviets alone. that is one of the reasons the soviets made so many demands. they had lost so much blood. 25 million from one country. truman made this announcement. it's next-door very moment. even the drama leading up to this announcement. the secretary of state, an official comes and handsome the document. he races to the white house, gives it to truman, truman calls the press in, or truman's press secretary does. :01 p.m.

he makes this announcement. his wife is in the room. people go nuts. he goes outside. gather --0 people 75,000 people gather outside the white house chanting "we want harry." he makes the v for victory symbol. people chamfer him to come out again. he comes out of nowhere. of course, after this, everything goes wrong. the people you researched, who would be another person you could write a book on? a.j.: curtis lemay. brian: why? think curtis lemay -- he is the architect of these firebombings of cities that kill all of the civilians, and he to me faces, in a way, how do i say this? he embodies the struggle between good and evil more than any

figure i have come across in my life. because he makes the decision to fire bomb the cities, without approval from anyone. brian: and at low level. a.j.: at a low level. he knows women and children are going to die. but the reason he does this is he thinks that this will win the war and save american lives. brian: how concerned were you when you took on this subject that you're up against a tremendous number of people who have written about harry truman? a.j.: that's a great question. the book is dedicated to my father. when i called him, he is this truman fan. he has had a truman portrait on his office wall for 45 years. he said, you cannot write a book about truman. i said why not? "mccullough." of course that is one of the great biographies. book.s a very different

it's putting a lens on for months. it's not just about truman. have of the book is about truman. half of the book is about what else happened. i thought i could pull it off. it was a gamble. and i was very nervous during the four years i had written it. but it has come out and people seem to really like the book. the amazon reviews are great. that's good. brian: how did you check yourself on the facts? had to in the back this be factual. how did you ensure yourself you have the right fax? who read it in advance? a.j.: i had a whole bunch of readers read it. of course, my publisher. but really, it's on me. everything is on me. i can't rely on assistants, because if an assistant makes a mistake, it's my mistake. i relied on no one except myself. during the process of fact checking this book -- i've been doing it with a blood pressure on.

sentence after sentence. you write a book like this, you're out of , especially when truman has been written about by people like david mccullough. you cannot make an error. fact checking this book was probably the most grueling part. brian: do have a book scheduled your riding? a.j.: i have some ideas. brian: you have not started? a.j.: i'm not even convinced i should write another book. it's a very grueling process. brian: it took you how many years? a.j.: four. been aj r guest has baime. the book is "the accidental president." thank you for your time. a.j.: thank you for having me. ♪ >> for free transcripts or to

give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. q&a programs are also available as a c-span podcast. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] today is martin luther king day and this evening on c-span, speeches from members of the congressional black caucus honoring the civil the -- honoring the civil rights leader. day, 15 years old and in the 10th grade, i heard of martin luther king jr.. i heard of rosa parks in 1955. the action of rosa parks, the words and leadership of martin -- of dr. king inspired me to find a way. two years later, i wrote a

letter to dr. martin luther king jr. in 1957. and i told him in this little letter that i wanted to attend a state supported college called troy state, now known as troy university. it did not admit black students. dr. king wrote me back and sent me a round-trip greyhound bus ticket and invited me to come to montgomery to meet with him. in the meantime, i had been accepted at the little college in nashville, tennessee. but dr. king got back in touch with me and said that when you are home for spring break, come and see me. in 1958, i boarded the greyhound bus and traveled from troy to montgomery. lawyer who had been a lawyer for dr. -- for dr. king and rosa parks met me at the first baptist church headed by

the reverend abernathy and took king.to see dr. and martin luther king jr. said, you are the boy from troy. are you john lewis? , i am john dr. king robert lewis. but he still called me the boy from troy. this man inspired me to stand up, to find a way to get in the way. >> you can watch the rest of this speech and more speeches on martin luther king from members of the congressional black caucus tonight on c-span at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> sunday, on c-span's q&a, author and harvard law school , thessor -- and his book three lives of james madison. >> the constitution is madison's monument and in that way, the

constitution is all around you when you come to washington, d.c. the x -- when they exercise free speech. all of that is madison's monument. withof as with the case st. paul, he says if you seek his monument, look around you. >> q&a, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. holcombna governor eric delivers a state of the state address at the statehouse in indianapolis last week. he talks about his plans to expand educational opportunities and high skilled labor in indiana. [applause] mr. speaker, mr. justice,, madame chief