the ford and the nixon white house, that relate to this physical nightmare that gerald ford inherited, the papers and tapes of richard nixon, which were stored in closets, under stairwells. the famous white house tapes were apparently kept under a series of white house house, boh the ford and the nixon white staircases and were in the very real process of deteriorating, plus they are a nightmare of legal nonsense. suppose richard nixon is charged , andsome sort of a crime suppose that leon jaworski decides he is going to subpoena some of these tapes from the white house? then it is gerald ford's decision whether the spiral -- special prosecutor gets the tapes. this nightmare is just not going to go away. ford's inclination is to put it all in a truck and said it out to san clemente. at that point in time, it was the legal understanding that the papers were the president's personal property. that is no longer the case. papersnald reagan, the of the american president is the property of the american people, stored in archives, and those

that is the best i can count maybe others got on but everybody who worked at the nixon white house knew the difference between right and wrong. and we have a great leader in our bet everything that i thought was wrong when i pulled up the lawbooks was wrong. so to me the lesson is that it feels wrong probably is. double check. we have an interesting situation. >> and if you are in your 30's and a lawyer in the white house major hand, bang down the door, maybe it takes extraordinary amount of courage for somebody to do that. >> i blew up one break-in at brookings and they never thanked me for saving their building. [laughter] >> that is one lesson. we have good sense. >> for lawyers what is a result of watergate there is a set of rules and have never existed it is interesting because they developed real world ethics and in my situation you have to report to the top person if necessary. >> eight clear that up it is a fascinating conversation. the white house counsel the president is not his client is a big difference he has to protect the entity and not to the occupant this is true like c

house felt. and the public felt a part of this.kk4g in time, the settings of the kennedys inside the rooms were replaced by museum collections, assembled by president and mrs. nixon. the nixon whiteuse is really the white house today in the sense of the furnishings. the -- what they did was they put history back. that truman had torn away. as a presidential complex, the white house served the purpose well as an office adjacent to the residence. it's very crowded. and the office staff of some 3,000 people spills over into the historical state, war and navy building. that beautiful second empire m! building to the right of it or west of it. and across the street from there to the new executive office building, a large office -- modern office building. crowded office conditions for nearly everyone are tolerated because they have to be. being in the complex is paramount for one who works there. when one says, i work at the white house, it can mean a lot of places. a big fancy office or a broom closet. but sounds good.$÷h÷ but the residents always remains the central focus, the defining place. here the president lives.e2; here we imagine here every day. contact in a political system

many that worked at the nixon white house knew the difference between what right and wrong. you have a great leader in a test of things. everything that i thought was wrong and later pulled out the law books was wrong. to me the lesson is when it feels wrong it probably is wrong. doublecheck. we also have an interesting situation. >> host: if you are in your 30s only and you are the white house knocked the door down and reach her hand. maybe even go out. it would take an extraordinary amount of courage for somebody to actually do that. >> guest: i blew up one break-in which was the brookings bern the brookings never thanked me for saving that building. >> host: i doubt if they are going to. >> guest: i think you are right but anyway that's one lesson. >> host: is this writer is this wrong? >> guest: exactly and for lawyers as a result of watergate that came out a set of rules that had never existed before largely because my testimony. that's why it's interesting to do these continuing education programs because they develop real-world ethics rules. if you are in my situation

who worked in the nixon white house. also the autoer of the "the greatest comeback. says no. the more i think he's read your book and he's following a the script set by nixon in the '60s. what are you watching. >> i see the same thing. nixon lost in 1962 and said i'm all through with politics. and in 1966 michael, which is comparable to this year for the 2016 campaign, nixon went out after l.b.j. day and night on that campaign. 35 states, 80 congressional districts. nixon was on johnson's case. he campaigned for liberal, conservatives moderates and everyone. at the end he engaged lindon johnson. i think governor romney seems to be pursuing this strategy and it is exactly the right one i believe if he wants to run for president. and i don't have any doubt that mitt romney would like to be president of the united states and believe he would be a good one. >> do you think he's going about this in a manner to set up a draft that having run and lost twice he doesn't want to announce candidacy in the conventional way. he goes out and pays his dues and sets up a circuit whe

nixon. when the helicopter departed the south lawn of the white house, what happened? > as they were leaving, knicks season seeing -- nixon is seeing faces in the crowd. the only voice that breaks the silence is pat nixon, and she says, it's so sad. >> john farrell, the upcoming book richard nixon, an american tragedy, thank you for sharing your insights here today. >> my pleasure, really a pleasure. >>> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. top joint conversation, like us on facebook. >>> next, history in american studies professor joann freeman discusses how the 18th century concept of honor help shaped alexander hamilton throughout his life. the desire to maintain his honor so was strong it led to his dual with aaron bur that ultimately killed him. the alexander hamilton

of nixon and he was a decent guy, a decent man, a good guy from michigan and ohio, having a partiality for midwesterners. but he was no sparkling figure and i described the scene here in the white house when nixon was going to announce who is going to be his vice president after they got rid of spiro agnew for accepting cash and the vice presidential office from some contractors like that. so he was out. and i remember and i described the scene at as he was talking in sort of building it up and people stand up and applaud and i thought, there has to be a mistake. he must be confused and sure enough it with him. and he turned out to be just right for this. he was steady and he set the right tone and it was right to say let's put this behind us and keep going and there was a big discussion, a big argument as to whether or not he should be prosecuted. i don't know what would have been gained by that. i don't know how the man could've been shamed anymore. but his impeachment was closing in on him and he said some of the greatest quotes from jail. but i don't think there was anything there or towards that. >> i just wondered if you had a theory on why nixon was so paranoid. >> i stayed aw

of nixon and he was a decent guy, a decent man, a good guy from michigan and ohio, having a partiality for midwesterners. but he was no sparkling figure and i described the scene here in the white house when nixon was going to announce who is going to be his vice president after they got rid of spiro agnew for accepting cash and the vice presidential office from some contractors like that. so he was out. and i remember and i described the scene at as he was talking in sort of building it up and people stand up and applaud and i thought, there has to be a mistake. he must be confused and sure enough it with him. and he turned out to be just right for this. he was steady and he set the right tone and it was right to say let's put this behind us and keep going and there was a big discussion, a big argument as to whether or not he should be prosecuted. i don't know what would have been gained by that. i don't know how the man could've been shamed anymore. but his impeachment was closing in on him and he said some of the greatest quotes from jail. but i don't think there was anything there or towards that. >> i just wondered if you had a theory on why nixon was so paranoid. >> i stayed aw

this over with and they're one of ford in there so we have this iconic nixon defied to get under the helicopter in the western white house to never be heard from again. so we thought. that is not my nixon. he was understandably deeply depressed and had worked for decades to get to the highest place and he had done a fair amount to bring along the people out do get him the train components and enemies and this became a big problem. but he was not well he took to the yen to the he had never given up all his life as being treated as lesser and lower than others and he was for but this was served really a dysfunctional family. but they usually don't grow up to tear up the constitution but he was awkward and read a lot he never really had friends but he was so determined about everything. this would not be the end of richard nixon. that he would work his way back into respectability. this is a situation that would have crushed most people so he dropped a plan. number of aides were sent out to california. then to throat -- draw up a plan with the resurgence of richard nixon to be smart enough to know how you get to be a states

but nixon wanted firm policy directive from the white house. kissinger described the johnson administration process that i talked about as lacking focus. there was not a lot of preparation in the staff were, and decisions were made, more or less, on-the-fly. the administration became hostage and prisoners to the events of the day, and were not able to formulate how they were strategically able to deal with things. nixon thank you figure did not do it all alone, despite what their memoirs might have said. -- nixon and kissinger did not do it alone, despite what their memoirs might have said. he is a national recognized scholar at stanford university when nixon tapped him. once nixon became president, richard allen came the deputy director of the national security council. john lehman, sitting next to him, joined the campaign staff in 1968. laymen became the national security council staff head of affairs, and often had a very testy relationship between the white house and congress, particularly during the vietnam war. john lehman personally gave

house felt. and the public felt a part of this.kk4g in time, the settings of the kennedys inside the rooms were replaced by museum collections, assembled by president and mrs. nixon. the nixon whitey the white house today in the sense of the furnishings. the -- what they did was they put history back. that truman had torn away. as a presidential complex, the white house served the purpose well as an office adjacent to the residence. it's very crowded. and the office staff of some 3,000 people spills over into the historical state, war and navy building. that beautiful second empire m! building to the right of it or west of it. and across the street from there to the new executive office building, a large office -- modern office building. crowded office conditions for nearly everyone are tolerated because they have to be. being in the complex is paramount for one who works there. when one says, i work at the white house, it can mean a lot of places. a big fancy office or a broom closet. but sounds good.$÷h÷ but the residents always remains the central focus, the defining place. here the president lives.e2; here we imagine here every day. contact in a political system. the kenned

former white house counsel and his latest book the nixon defense. in the book the man his congressional testimony presents a more in-depth look based on newly released on the tennis. this program is about an hour. >> it is great to be here. recalling coming in here today. loudobbs@foxbusiness.com you suspected but you did not know. you had no confidence and then those tapes came out and they vindicated almost 100% exactly what you said. there was an anchor that i ran into, one of the tv anchors that reminded me he was six years old when you testified and for those who weren't around, the first thing i would ask is, what was watergate? >> guest: while i suspect at this table there is probably more collective knowledge between you and i on that subject than any table that could ever be set to address the matter. you and i know that subject well. you know it from your reporting. i know it from living it and taking a second look, a third look and a fourth look in a study. watergate is defined in most dictionaries as abuse of high power occurring during

and then nixon gets to the white house, establishes and, again, on the tapes, he says there are thingsthat i have done and i can't talk about those. and the same group of people who eventually break into the watergate. so you have a criminal presidency. this is what bob was talking about in that review. we've had presidents who have abused power, but this is something else. a criminal president of the united states, a criminal president from the beginning to the end. so the term watergate begins in those first days and goes to what we see up here. and there is one great triumph. and we need to say it. and that is the opening to china. and there again we see nixon's brilliance and how it could have been different. >> but what i see as a war that totally obsessed this politician from the very beginning, as you were saying. how you end the war, how you continue the war, the bombing. all of this in his mind was at a level of obsession. driving out other stuff. what do you think about that? >> i think he was a true cold war president. he didn't really learn the right lessons from johnson's

of nixon and he was a decent guy, a decent man, a good guy from michigan and ohio, having a partiality for midwesterners. but he was no sparkling figure and i described the scene here in the white house when nixon was going to announce who is going to be his vice president after they got rid of spiro agnew for accepting cash and the vice presidential office from some contractors like that. so he was out. and i remember and i described the scene at as he was talking in sort of building it up and people stand up and applaud and i thought, there has to be a mistake. he must be confused and sure enough it with him. and he turned out to be just right for this. he was steady and he set the right tone and it was right to say let's put this behind us and keep going and there was a big discussion, a big argument as to whether or not he should be prosecuted. i don't know what would have been gained by that. i don't know how the man could've been shamed anymore. but his impeachment was closing in on him and he said some of the greatest quotes from jail. but i don't think there was anything there or towards that. >> i just wondered if you had a theory on why nixon was so paranoid. >> i stayed aw

go back, that incident is a metaphor for the city richard nixon came in to, the first president since zachary taylor to take over the white househ both houses of congress in opposition. the media at either loathed or detested richard nixon by and large. the bureaucracy had been built up in the new deal and the great society and was overwhelmingly democratic. it was a hostile city that richard nixon came into that had just broken the presidency of lyndon baines johnson who after winning a magnificent landslide in 64 had stood down in 1968. that was the america of basically of mad men if you will, the america we saw in that film mad men. look at what happened in those years before richard nixon. 1963 we had john f. kennedy assassinated. 1964 you had the first uprising at the campus disorders. folks out here will remember the worst race riots of its time since the civil war. at the beginning of the revolution i was a young man, an editorial writer in st. louis. i drove back to washington to hear martin luther king delivered his famous speech in the lincoln memorial. i was up in the memorial with him. it was a magnificent moment. o

the '70s, everybody got a kick, on the left at least, driving around the white house, they would blow their horn if you wanted nixonresign. but this isn't the first big security scare at the white house in recent memory. in 1994, a man flew a stolen cessna airplane through secure airspace and crashed it right outside president clinton's window. the president wasn't in residence at the time. also, a special report about this man, unloading 29 rounds from an assault rifle aimed at the white house. watch this. >> we have some amateur videotape obtained by wcr tv, you will see it in the corner of your screen, a man in a rain coat who fired the shots, the sound you heard just then was the shots being fired. he was subdued and arrested by the secret service. >> anyway, november of 2009, "the washington post" reported a couple of aspiring reality tv stars frnorthern virginia appea to have crashed the white house's state dinner tuesday night, with no invitation, to mingle with the likes of vice president biden and white house chief of staff. you could take the 33 bus right past the white house. but there's a bus stop in fr

nixon came into. he was the first president since back retailer to take over the white house with both houses of the congressopposition. big media either low or detested richard nixon by and large. the bureaucracy had been built up in the new deal, the fair deal and the great society and was overwhelmingly democratic. it was a hostile city of richard nixon came into that had just broken the presidency of lyndon baines johnson who after winning the magnificent van slyke and 64 had stood down in 1968. that was the america of basically of madmen if you will. the america that we saw in that film. take a look at what happened in those years before i got to meet richard nixon. 1963 we had john f. kennedy assassinated. 1964 you had the first uprising at berkeley at the great campus disorders of the 1960s. this was the beginning a few of the revolution in the 65. folks out here will remember the worst race riot of its time since the civil war. we had the beginning of the revolution. i was a young man, an editorial writer in st. louis. i drove back to washington to hear martin luther king delivered his famous speech

nixon is afraid of freedom. that characterized the maniacal activities at the white house before karl and during watergate. the whole thing about it is, poor mcgovern, you could have taken anybody and beaten the poor man. where did he win? >> massachusetts. >> orange county. north carolina. [laughter] >> and northampton. >> to answer your question, it is like a windshield. it just kept going and going, that crack, until john dean said the famous thing. he asked the president you know , there is a cancer in the presidency. you have seen it. that did not take with nixon if you recall. he ignored it. as dean said, he said those folks did not want to face reality down there. i have been on a couple of radio programs lately. somebody said we ought to impeach obama. i said, wait a minute. i don't believe obama has sat at the table at the white house, the desk in the oval office, and said, how much will it take to pay them off? will $1 million do it? break in that place. there's a bit of difference, a tiny bit of difference. the caller into the last show said, i don't care. you picked on nixon. >> it is interesti

white house, what happened? >> as they were leaving, knicks season seeing -- nixon is seeing faces in the crowd. the only voice that breaks the silence is pat nixon, and she says, it's so sad. >> john farrell, the upcoming book richard nixon, an american tragedy, thank you for sharing your insights here today. >> my pleasure, really a pleasure. >>> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. top joint conversation, like us on facebook. >>> next, history in american studies professor joann freeman discusses how the 18th century concept of honor help shaped alexander hamilton throughout his life. the desire to maintain his honor so was strong it led to his dual with aaron bur that ultimately killed him. the alexander hamilton awareness society hosted this event. it's about half an hour. >> now i have the pleasure of introducing joann freeman. she is a long history with the museum and long we are alexander hamilton. now 25 years ago, john herzog approached a young woman working at the library of congress where the hamilton papers are lodged, and this woman not even

nixon -- >> guest: indeed. >> host: any other presidents? >>ing first at usia and then at the white house. and i've got to tell you, one of the -- not one of the, the greatest expert of foreign policy i have ever, ever known. i was very, very fortunate to work for that guy. magnificent man. the world thinks -- i shouldn't say what the world thinks, but he has received so much negative things thrown at him through the years and each lately. and even lately, that i just cringe every time i hear it, and i think what do they know? for god's sake, what do they know? most of them are so young, they're talking against it that they had to get it from another generation, and that generation got it from abc, cbs, nbc, washington post, new york times, from all of those elements that just hated him. and so naturally this generation, having heard it from the last one, they just believe it because they hear a lot of very good people speak negatively about him. and that bothers me a lot. >> host: bruce her schoen soften, you got involved in electoral politics. >> guest: i did. >> host: did you win? >> gu

helicopter to go to san clemente, his western white house where he would retire and never be heard from again. and so we thought. well, that is not the nixon that i know. when he got to california he was understandably deeply depressed. he had worked for decades to get to the highest place that he possibly could that anyone can in his country, politically. and it was a dog on smash. and he had done a fair amount to bring it on. but he always believed that people were out to get him which is what really brought about his downfall and this became a big problem for him. he was depressed. he was not well. he had a trip that he took toward the end. but he was not going to give up. he had never given up all his life. he had been seen as lesser and lower than others. he was poor. his family was dysfunctional. there was no word back then about this, but they were a dysfunctional family. but they admired the constitution. he had been down upon as a kid, he read a lot and he was not popular. he never really had friends. in a strange person to go into politics, but he was determined about everything. so he was determined that this would not be the en

white house was relatively short. the fords came in in august of 1974 pob the resignation of richard nixon -- upon the resignation of richard nixon. ford didn't win a term of his own right, so they were out in 1977. betty ford had been a model. she had worked in the fashion industry in department stores. she had a very innate understanding of what looked good on her and what looked good on others. one of the things that she did that was really important because those of you who are old enough to remember, you will recall that our economy when ford took office was in terrible shape. our interest rates were going from 10 to 11 to 12 to 13%. ford attempted this campaign called win, whip inflation now. it didn't whip inflation but it was his effort. betty ford felt that one of the things she could do is make a fashion statement about how you could look great and not spend a roth of money. so she found a designer by the name of -- and i hope i get this right. albert caprerra, who designed for a 7th avenue house in manhattan. the price range for his garr mets ranged from $50 to $300. and these are the types of fashions that betty

nixon ultimately was driven from office partly through his second term for the crimes and other abuses of power he committed as president. during his first years in the white house, he surprised the left with his diplomatic openings to the country's leading enemies, china and the soviet union and the acquiescence to a wide range of environmental, feminist, civil rights, and other domestic reforms. by reducing draft calls and eliminating the draft, nixon took much of the wind out of the campus-based antiwar movement. at the same time, he courted wallace's support by honoring their cultural fears and concerns. if you think of the people in the 90's and city election who felt left out by the choice between nixon and humphrey weather on the left or right, nixon and the democratic congress spent much of the first term reaching out and bringing them back and giving them a sense that the process of government and politics could work for them. on capitol hill and congressional democrats push nixon leftward it on policies and became a vehicle of which opponents of the war in vietnam could advance their cause. the democratic and republican parties opened up the presidenti

nixon, reagan, bush, bush, and, of course, obama. pearson was asked about these bullet holes that went undiscovered by the secret service until four days after they were fired by a gun into the white house in 2011. and they are embattled because of the 2012 incident when a dozen agents were punished after a night of debochery, heavy drinking on the list of transgressions. >> we're humans and people make mistakes. >> of course, it's a job with little room for mistakes. joining us now, the chairman of the committee that held today's hearing, darrell issa. congressman, thank you for being here. we appreciate it. so look, this is a mess. we have the incident with this guy getting into the east room, the cardejena incident, the salahis. what's the problem? >> this is an agency that has a very large budget, thousands of employees, plenty of time and money for training but appears to have low morale, questionable training being done. an example is, the officer that was supposed to lock the front door thought she had locked the front door but in fact she was not trained on how to lock an old-fashion door that had little pegs at the top and the bottom. since that time, they put an electric lock

nixon. what, tell me? >> robert gibson. >> robert gibson. you know, like a pipeline of gibson he was tough on obama. do you think carney is is going to do that? >> the white house house press secretary is cnn's intern program, all right? they work a lot better and bring them up to the mother ship. >> very good line. you will become a white house spokesperson next stop cnn. martha maccallum on deck. president obama's conflicting statements on terrorism. right back with it. past statements that he has made on terrorism. for months, i your humble correspondent have been criticizing the president for not doing enough to fight the islamic jihadists. >> the isis people, they control parts of syria and northern iraq. and we have known that for a long time. summing up the iraq deal, u.s.a. should begin bombing the al qaeda army as soon as possible. we don't need any more meetings. let's send a message that terrorists remain targets. al qaeda is our enemy. you know, i feel like i'm lecturing fourth graders here, that's how bad this iraq mess really is the president should have been way out in front of this. >> with us now to help this segment move along fox news anchor

nixon rose from defeat." what part of the president not realizing if you behead americans and you're saying we'll see you in new york and we're going to raise the flag of islam in your white househat part of that not being a war does this president not understand? because that sounds like war to me that they're at war with us. >> no doubt when you behead two americans like that and do it on video and send it to the americans and taunt them, that is not only an insult to the united states, it's an outrage and atrocity. and we should really hammer them hard. as soon as that happens, sean, and the severe and extensive in our attacks. now, they're a threat to the united states however i think is much more like the al qaeda threat. it's a threat of individual acts of terrorism of people that have been over there being moved out and moved over here. so i think there's two different kinds of threats. >> you know, pat, you and i, we even had one or two knockdown dragout fights over the issue of the iraq war. but once we were in it, you said this, we've got to win the war. the president in a post-vietnam era -- here's my concern. is that we have now politicized war to the point where we

nixon. if that's what she needed to do, she needed to do it. i've always said, presidents should be able to golf, do what they need to do. obviously he made some very clumsy mistakes. the white houselways said they don't do theater. they do theater they want to do. they don't do theater they don't want to do. i was glad, it was good to hear the president say. i'm not really good at it. i probably should be a little better at optics. that's hard for him. >> it's important to note, i -- he's basically saying i messed up the optics. he's not saying i shouldn't have done the golf. he's saying, look, i deal with this all time. you guys just had a different picture. >> they have had this problem, particularly the last few years since the election. it's been a systemic problem for the administration where they don't quite understand these things matter to people. it does matter seeing the president being serious, leaving something like that and not being out laughing and joking with his friends. i think most americans get he can compartmentalize, this doesn't necessarily impact doing the job. it matters still for them psychologically. >> to win elections. this guy has -- he's been attack

nixon: an american tragedy." this program is about an hour. >> the white house has been home to every president since john adams in 1800 and 40 years ago today it was the scene of a dramatic transition from the resignation of richard nixon to the first and only appointed president, gerald r. ford. for the next hour we're going to continue with yaur calls and comments here on c-span3's american history tv and our guest is john farrell coming out with a new book "richard nixon: an american tragedy." you said this dwarfed any other political skand ideal in american history. you really try to put the entire nixon presidency in context. how so? >> there's sort of a talking point over the years that