up next is caroline kennedy, she introduces a discussion about the oral histories recorded by her mother jacqueline, in 1964. they were released just this last fall. >> good evening. you've read the news stories, bought your copies of the book, watched the abc prime-time special, morning television, and even "the daily show with jon stewart." and now, tonight, live from the kennedy library, with us oral history was so carefully housed from the past half century, we'll hear directly if jacqueline kennedy about her life with her 35th president, and from her daughter who has brought this fresh new history to light. i'm tom putnam, director of the john f. kennedy presidential library in museum. and on behalf of tom mcknot, executive director of the kennedy library foundation, members of our foundation board, many of whom are here with us tonight, and all of my library and foundation colleagues, i thank you for coming, and all of you watching on c-span, and acknowledge the generous underwriters of the kennedy library forums, the boston foundation, and our media partners, "the boston globe" an

but most of all what i want to do is to thank caroline kennedy for her comments and for this terrific panel. michael beschloss and mr. donahue. >>> lisa kathleen graddy is the curator for women's political history here at smithsonian. so when you were putting together this latest exhibit, how did you decide how the gowns would be placed and what it would say about the history and the role of these first ladies? >> well, we picked a series of gowns. partly just based on what we thought was pretty, and what hadn't been out in a while. sometimes it's nice to be the curator. you get to just choose things. we also wanted an array of colorened and different styles. it's not chronological. we wanted to maximize the space and really maximize the look of each style and the color of each dress against each other to make a more pleasing picture, and i think that putting things that are far apart in time next to each other as opposed to a slow progression, you really see the amazing difference between, say, lucy hayes, that dress wit bustle and the very tight shoulders. if you look at their shoul

. >> president obama released the names of his 35 campaign cochairs, the list includes caroline kennedyl and actors cal penn, noticeably absent, george soros. let's talk about firing up the base. there was a great piece in the new yorker discussing the soros question and how he has largely stayed on the sideline, it's contended that he is angry about the super pacs and does not want to participate in it and also that the president has not done enough in his first four years. soros has not been invited to the white house. >> there's been a lot of white house drama. i wonder, as we talk about the president and going forward in 2012, unfinished business and so on and so forth. is it prizing that the george soross are staying on the sidelines given where the republican field is? >> there's not a shortage of welt wealthy y on the list. but i do not think it's a big problem for him. it gives indications for soros to say why he is not satisfied with the president, but i think the president will do well with fundraising. >> president's super pac raised $59,000 last month and karl rove raised $5

and also the point was basically to talk about president kennedy, but caroline and i have discussed thistoo. there were things that as you know happened later on, you certainly wish you would have asked, for instance, what president kennedy might have done in vietnam, other issues that weren't so important in early 1964, in retrospect, we now know are very important. >> it seems like by asking arthur, and there was no one else to ask with better skills or training as a historian, a decision was made to take a certain path to the story which was the path of the harvard elites who would come down to the white house. dick, did you feel like there were stories that weren't told? >> yes. and anything arthur was told, because arthur was the greatest author of stories about himself. i know specifically, because denny arthur told me, when dean russ came to visit the president, he had a specific message. would you please get this lesson off the list of people who get my cable? why? because arthur was about the most garrolous party-going person in the whole white house. because russ said, listen,

kennedy. but caroline and i have discussed this too, there are things that since we know what happened late or, we sure wish he would have asked what would he have done in vietnam, and other issues that were not important in 1964 which now are important. >> it seems like by asking arthur and there was no one else to ask with better skills and training as a historian, a decision was made to take a certain path to the story which was the path of the harvard elites that came down to that white house and dick, did you feel that there were stories that were not told in this? >> yes, including anything that arthur told, because arthur was the greatest author or about stories about himself, i know specifically because kenny o'donnell told me, when dean rust came to see the president, he delivered a message, get ar sure schlessinger off the list of people that get my cable. why? because he was a party going person. because russ said listen, anything you get by cable is around town by night fall. and then he said to kenny, no, you better not, i'll have to do it. you are going to come out poorly in his

a young caroline kennedy can be heard in the background, as well as john kennedy jr. we just heard was president kennedy talking about his trip to texas and trying to schedule something for friday, the 29th, and saying instead he needed to do it on that tuesday which ended up being the day of his funeral. guest: that strike, this is the last batch of kennedy takes, and they go up to the last few days before his assassination. -- that is right. he is trying to schedule for the next week, trying to change his schedule to be more manageable. it did provide a very poignant view of the president and the presidency at this point in view of what we now know. at the time, it was monday and scheduling issues, but the point is we know what happened after that. host: we go now to charlie in west virginia. good morning to you. go ahead. caller: my question is, was there anything revealed in the tapes that have been reviewed by mr. coleman that would suggest that there indeed was the concern on the part of president kennedy of secrecy, secret societies in america? guest: i have se

kennedy's name from the book. because that's part of the story. and that's how i feel. people will have their judgments. and they're entitled to them. >> what about carolineint with the fact of this. did you think about, as you talk about, unburdening yourself? the idea that you burdened other people with this? >> well i don't intentionally burden someone else. i'm telling my story. and that is what i needed to do. >> any push-back from the kennedy family? yes or no? >> no. >> all right. mimi alford, thank you so much. >> thank you, ann. >>> back right after this. e park has been here since the early 50s. my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i come to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it