>> this is "the chris matthews show." >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> tear down this wall. >> the time for change has come. >> today, a special edition. the month that made j.f.k.'s legacy. chris: president john f. kennedy with just five months to live, made june 1963 the stuff history is made of. a triple play for the books. an opening on nuclear disarmament, a presidential agreement to civil rights. the peace speech that kennedy viewed as his most important and

the eastern ien berliner speech. and finally, how near to greatness, washington, lincoln, and f.d.r. stand at the all-time top. is kennedy near them? hi, i'm chris matthews. with this very special program we depart from our usually practice. two distinguished students of the american presidency. michael beschloss, author of "the crisis years." and michael duffy, executive editor of "time." with just over five months to live, john f. kennedy shaped his legacy. june 1963 saw him score an historic triple play. three landmark speeches, three enormous events for our country. june 10, he made history at a speech at the american university here in washington startling the sovelts and the war with a declaration of you

know lat alnuclear restraint, then a day later, the president made history facing off with alabama george wallace, enforcing the at mission of two black students at the university of alabama. and at the end of june, that famous eastern ien berliner speech in east berlin. he sent a bugal call that america was on the side of freedom. we're going to look at the speech of the american university, 50 years ago next week. at the time after the face-off of the soviets and the cuban missile crisis, the war was focused on the nuclear threat. you see in this cartoon from the "washington post." just two weeks later kennedy want -- warned that the genie would be out of the bottle if an agreement were not found soon. against that background came

kennedy's historic speech at american university. >> i'm talking about gene win peace. the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living and the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build better lives for their children. peace for americans and for all men and women. not merely peace in our time but peace in all time. our most basic common link is at we inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures and we are their example. >> michael beschloss, an amazing speech. i discovered it years ago but here's a president in the middle of the worst part of the cold a war just coming off the cuban missile crisis saying it doesn't have to be this way. >> that's right, and if you make a case for kennedy as a courageous president, that

speech has a lot to do with it. i think a president would almost have been impeached 10 years earlier during the mcor think era. chris: he said for the first time in history, something that means nothing to us but everything to the russian people. you lost 20 million people in your patriotic struggle and deserve credit for that. >> he reached out to the soviet people and government. he had some reason to think that crush cruz khrushchev needed some help. kennedy got tired of hearing from his own generals in the first two years in office about how we might be able to use 20 million to 30 million people in a nuclear exchange. he thought the rhetoric was way too hot and by the middle of 1963 he was saying why can't we talk about peace instead of war? talk about things we can do

rather than speeches about things we can't do. he goes on this really hot june day and says here's one step we can take and he knew the soviets were ready for something like that. he had indications from chorus chev he might warm to -- khrushchev he might warm to it. chris: michael, i'm older than you guys. i remember mothers worried about giving milk to their children that had the radiation in it. because it was in the airplane those days. >> and kids were told not to eat the snow. but kennedy also knew that saying these things, the russians had been saying privately to him, if you really want to wind down the cold war why don't you say things in public such as that we were the ones that were really responsible for that victory. chris: and this was such a good

speech in lieuing some kind of detente with the russians. >> he gold -- got word from khrushchev quickly that khrushchev wanted to go further. chris: here's the line about testing in the atmosphere. >> to make clear our good faith and colonel emconvictions in that matter, i now declare that the united states does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so [applause] we will not be the first to resume. such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty, but i hope it will help us achieve one. nor will such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament but i hope it will help us achieve it. chris: the extraordinary thing is we got through the cold war without a nuclear war.

both sides had nuclear weapons, lots of them. and this was the most critical period in that time. >> and kennedy figured that if you had a real test ban, if you couldn't test weapons then these arsenals would begin to deteriorate. >> he was also concerned i think about a mistake, a miscalculation. he'd gone through those horrible nine days of the cuban missile crisis five, six months earlier. at any given moment, a false move by somebody way down the chain of command could have changed what was a carefully organized sort of stand off. he needed a confidence-building measure. i don't know that there have been a lot of other examples in the 50 years since where either side made a you know lat alstep like that and in that environment -- chris: yeah, khrushchev wasn't

so bad at the end. obviously a treble tyrant but they ended up with this treaty. >> and irony tath thought they had an alliance. kennedy would have liked to have done this from the beginning of his presidency. always privately new knew a test ban was important and it was that cuban missile crisis that gave him the statue with americans. chris: let's turn to the next historic step by president kennedy 50 years ago this month. one day after his speech at american university, alabama governor george wallace carried through with his pledge of segregation forever and personally blocked two black students from the university of alabama. kennedy sent a gentle down to alabama to enforce the students. take a look another how the huntley brinkley report covered that news. >> two negros were glitted but

only after governor george wallace had carried out his symbolic threat to stand guard in the school hall's door. >> i would ask you once again to responsibly step aside and if you do not, i'm going to assure you that the orders of those courts will be enforced. >> shornltly after governor wallace carried out his promise to block the doorway, president kennedy ordered the secretary of defense then to use military force. chris: on prime-time television that same night against the backdrop of that and the fire hoses and dogs yuse against blacks in birmingham a month earlier, here was president kennedy's speech to america endorsing civil rights. >> any american, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch at a restaurant open to the public. if he cannot send his children to the best public school american, if he cannot vote for the public officials who

represent him. if he cannot enjoy a full and free life which all of us want then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? who among us would then be content with patience and delay? chris: michael duffy, when everybody in the springtime would race down to florida in my day. they still do, college week. used to drive through georgia, south carolina. you saw the white only signs on the men's rooms in the gas stations and the doors. it was still there and he was standing up against it. >> he'd come into the white house with a more custodial approach to civil rights. he was counseling african-americans to be patient and then birmingham happens in may and wallace forces his hand in june and he federalizes the

alabama general guard. it really is his moment when decides to get fully in with both teat. he's under pressure with liberals all through that month. you have to use the powers of your office more. the day after the a.u. speech on the test ban he does it. chris: and right until the day we -- he dialed he was on the phone working people like mayor daly in chicago. anybody he could get to jam that thing through. >> it's one proper trait of kennedy that you do quite elegantly in your book "elusive hero." kennedy's heart was always in the right place but said he didn't want to be a liberal martyr. he wanted to do it when these things could get passed. public opinion had moved then. >> we see this all the way with presidents through history. it took lincoln a while on

slavery. it took clinton and obama on gay rights and other things. chris: he was a real student of history and i think that's one of the reasons why you call him a liberal. not that he's so emotional about doing the right thing but he wanted to to believe in it and go guard. when we come back, we'll talk about the third historic kennedy achievement 50 years ago, but before that jack kennedy was a perfect subject for impersonators. the most famous was vaughn meter. >> if you'd like to ask any questions about anything, we'll take your questions now and give you answers. anyone at all? the one over there, yeah. what am i going to do if goldwater is elected in 1964? i think goldwater is a fine man. i think he'd make a fine

candidate in 64. 1864. the gentleman back there. who?nden [applause] question --] >> how am i going to improve foreign affairs in the next few months? well, we're going to try and keep everyone here. well, i think it was the situation as it stands today. what i hope it does tomorrow. i just wanted to close with this brief statement i was noticing as i came in. the motteo of this school. learning, virture -- virtue, piety. remember, two out of three is not a bad average. [applause] chris: that incredible scene 50

years ago in the streets of berlin. the

chris: welcome back was a -- as we continue the most crucial month in the presidency of john f. kennedy. there it is. president kennedy stood in west berlin to declare america's defiant support for the west and freedom. >> who really don't understand or -- that is the great issue between the free world and the communist world.

let them come to berlin. on -- those who believe that communism ask the wave of the future, let them come to berlin! all three men, wherever they may live, are citizens -- all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of berlin, and therefore as a free man, i take pride in the words ich bin ein berliner. chris: michael beschloss and michael duffy, that was my favorite speech, of course and it was basically saying to the third world are you guys separating us from them? look at the difference. they have to put a wall up to keep anywhere people in >> and there was an irony, of course, because we learned many years later that kennedy quietly in 1961 encouraged the russians to put up that wall. but you sure shaw no signs of

that that day. chris: the power of the connection. i keep thinking we were at war with the nazis in 1945, the bad guys and just 18 years later finding some kind of real friendship with these other people. not even a full generation away. >> a short speech, only 10 minutes. a huge crowd, half a million people. maybe the biggest he ever talked to. after he gave it, the soviets and west would have lots of hot confrontations over the next 30 years but berlin would no longer be a flash point. he'd put his personal stamp of security on the city and the soviets never tested it again. and i think kennedy came away from that speech confident finally for the first time that he could deal with the soviets. he had military superiority, he knew he had the rhetorical power to win the public relations war and as they were flying to air -- ireland that night to visit

his ancestral home. he turns to ted sorensen and said we will never have a day that good for the he's -- rest of our lives. chris: it showed a sort of bifurcation in kennedy's hearts between the peace speech and this one he's saying we have guns. don't mess with us. the same thing where he had the alliance for progress, the quality with south america. at the same time he's arming the rebels against cast roll. >> he was ultimately a politician. he knew that he was trying to get this test ban treaty through congress in the summer of 1963 and convinced americans he had not become a flake. very helpful to give as truck hasn't a speech as this in berlin. chris: i read years ago his concern that in giving such a barn burner of a speech, he would rows up the west europeans and scare the soviets so much they wouldn't want to have

peace. >> it's a nice problem to have as a commander in chief, which speech is going to be the most powerful. we see a president who, like all of them, learn on the job and hit their peak a few years later. chris: 63 it was astounding to me what he was able to do. when we come back, a special look at them kids. [ sigh ]

they have no idea what it was like before u-verse high speed internet. yeah, you couldn't just stream movies to a device like that. one time, i had to wait half a day to watch a movie. you watched movies?! i was lucky if i could watch a show. show?! man, i was happy to see a sneezing panda clip! trevor, have you eaten today? you sound a little grumpy. [ laughter ]

[ male announcer ] connect all your wi-fi-enabled devices with u-verse high speed internet. rethink possible. chris: welcome back. a special prediction this week

from these two students of the american president i -- presidency [november we'll remark the 50th anniversary of the kennedy assassination. my question, what's your gut right now about how the country moves after the end of the obama presidency. retreverage politically, go to the conservative side or move ahead? >> probably go more moderate, a little bit more to the right. that's generally what happens in american history. f.d.r. said to someone shortly before he died i put truman in as vice president because after all this turmoil america is going to need a rest and i think truman will be more moderate. >> i'm with you, i think it will be more moderate because both participants have the same thing on your plate. they're going to have to come up with a way to cut the massive entitlement programs.

chris: clinton or christie would fit that both? >> i think they're both looking at the same problem no matter who is elected. chris: will jack kennedy or ronald

chris: welcome back. presidential historians rank three of our presidents at the top tier. george washington founded the country and stet the model for the presidency. and lincoln, of course, kept the country together. f.d.r. got us through the great depression and world war ii. between j.f.k. and ronald reagan which one is more likely to rank in the second tier under those? >> i think reagan if only because of his role at the end of the cold war. kennedy also had two years in 10 months. had he raiched kennedy for everything he did before the cuban missile crisis, he would

have been a very uninteresting president. >> i agree. i think it's reagan and my source is obama. he reaches back to reagan and says he was the transformational president of his lifetime. so i think for all kind of reasons -- both presidents have great big fog machines still going but i'm going with reagan. chris: so let's hear no more about the liberal media. thanks to michael beschloss and michael duffy for in fascinating show. and that is

hi, everybody. welcome to "on the money." i'm maria bartiromo. my conversation with mutual funds legend and vanguard founder jack bogle. why he says equities still have room to rock and how to invest as interest rates begin to rise. the recovery in housing, is it for real? what it means for the economy and your wallet. plus, giving until it hurts. two men who made their fortune in the world of business on giving it all away. >> you know, you don't get museums and hospitals and schools from poor people. they come from the 1%. >> "on the money" begins right now. >> announcer: this is america's number one financial news program, "on the money." now, maria bartiromo. >> here's a look at what's making news as we head into a new week "on the money." beijing proving to have an appetite for american companies. china's shuanghui international is acquiring smithfield foods for about