conference before the golf weekend, this is how president reagan responded when he was asked about jesse helms filibuster and his objections to the proposed king holiday. >> mr. president, senator helms has been saying that martin luther king had communist associations, was a communist sympathize er. do you agree? >> we'll know in about 35 years, won't we? >> we'll know in about 35 years about this alleged communist sympathizer that they want to make a holiday for. after the we'll know in 35 years and after his letter to the john birch society despairing dr. king president reagan had to call coretta scott-king to apologize for the comments he made. he had to make the call before teeing off at the whites-only golf course. he didn't want to cancel those plans. he went ahead with the augusta trip. the signed the legislation that created the martin luther king holiday which the nation observed today. it's often forgotten now how reluctant he was at the time to do it. >> it's official now. the dream of his family friends and followers was realized today when president reagan not an enthusiastic sup

you mentioned jesse helms and his position to the memorial day. and how this played well with his right wing conservative supporters. you also mentioned some sort of tobacco deal that might have persuaded him to give in on this. is that based on evidence? it sounded -- >> i am they can about it because it was reported in the press. i have not been able to substantiate it. actually, people who know helms' career and his papers, i have gone into them to attempt to get something. but people may know more about that. people are working on helms. i do not know. >> just media rumors at the time. ok. >> hi. georgetown. i was wondering -- part of the book i enjoyed the most is when you talk about the gathering together of what would become the black political caucus -- convention. you talk about meeting in little rock, which i think is really significant. i was wondering if you could give us a sense of how people ran on king. how black politicians ran on kings of legacy before the foundation of the holiday as something to run on. i was wondering if you fo

valued my regular appearances before the senate foreign relations committee, and headed by senator jesse helms. he and i did disagree many things that we respected each other and build an effective partnership we both believed because america had a unique role to play in the world. and i believe still shapes my worldview, and informs the perspective that a bring to our discussion today. it doesn't take a seasoned observer of international relations to point out that we are living through a time of monumental change across the world. we are reckoned with new forces that are pushing humanity down the path of progress, while also unleashing new contradictions on the world scene. one of these forces is globalization which has made the world more interconnected than ever before, but also added new layers of complexity to the challenges of statecraft. with globalization it is impossible for any single nation to insulate itself from the world's problems, or to act as the lone global problems over. another force is technology which has unleashed unprecedented innovation and benefited people the world

when bill clinton nominated me to go to mcs a ambassador and senator jesse helms thanked my ship it wasn't really because he thought i would be soft on drugs in mexico. it's because he hate everything i stood for and starting with being pro choice and pro gay rights and worst of all having gone to harvard. thank god uncle nelson didn't go to harvard. >> where did he go to college? >> dartmouth. >> let me mention just a couple of things here before i move on to another point. one is i'm glad larry brought up barry goldwater's famous words when he spoke and said let me remind you that extremism in defense of justice is no vice, and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue. the interesting thing about those remarks is, if you take them out of the context of that superheated moment they're actually ideas most of us might agree with. for instance if we were looking at the days of naziism or stalinism we would say, or if we're trying to stop the ebola crisis,'d say maybe we should go as far as we can go. the reason i mention that is i spoke with the author of those words -- anybody know who

valued my regular appearances before the senate foreign relations committee and then headed by jesse helms, he and i did disagree on many things, but we were respecting of each other in building an effective partnership that we believe because america had a unique role to play in the world. and that informs the perspective that i bring to our discussion today. it doesn't take a seasoned observer of international relations to point out that we are living through a time of monumental change across the world and we are reckoning with new forces that are pushing humanity down the path of progress while also unleashing new contradictions in the world team. one of these forces of globalization which has made the world more interconnected than ever before. also adding new layers of complexity to the challenges. with globalization it is impossible to act as the global problem solver, another force is technology which has released unprecedented innovation and benefited people the world over and also amplifying their frustrations and empowering networks of criminals and terrorists. globalization and

every time i see strom and jesse helms i feel like the little kid in the sixth sense. i don't know why. [cheers and applause] i see dead people! oh, man! you have to be careful with those old boys. they hang in there a long time. and then you got pat buchanan tillman and the christian reich -- right. you know what i mean. pat, i loved his book, but i liked it better in the original german. it was so much better. it is so hard not to go out there and say pat we got it. i guess the bottom line is we are here tonight because of the shrub. you know who i am talking about. george w. bush jr. the w. stands for where the hell is it? you look at george w., and you realize some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some get it as a graduation gift. [cheers and applause] i just want to ask the secret service, is it true that his secret service code name is gilligan? is that really true? gilligan is on the move, little buddy. keep going. it is always frightening to me. i hate to see him in a debate. he kept asking if he could use his life line. no. you can't call your dad.

at the press conference before the golf weekend, this is how he responded about jesse healms filibuster. >> senator helms was saying that he was a communist sympathizer, do you agree. >> we'll know in about 35 years, won't we? >> we'll know in about 35 years about this alleged communist sympathizer they want to make a holiday for. after that comment and his letter to the john burkes society disparaging dr. king, he had to apologize to his widow for the comments he made. right before teeing off the whites only golf course. ronald reagan did ultimately sign the legislation that created the martin luther king holiday. it is often forgotten now how reluctant he was at the time to do it. >> it's official now, the dream of his family, friends, and followers when president reagan, not an enthusiastic supporter of the bill, signed the bill to make it a holiday to remember martin luther king jr. >> there was a under lying tension in the white house. today, mr. reagan did not repeat his recent statements that raised the possibility that he was a communist sympathizer. >> traces of bigotry still mar america. so eac