eisenhower mattered. to shape modern america in crucial ways and i will tell you why and how here today starting to capture the moment as i set the stage. two minutes before 9:00 o'clock in the morning december 6, 1960 eisenhower on the north protoco protocol -- portico stood with the brown suit and a brown felt hatch. they were starting to carry their hats the honor guard stood at the driveway with a fresh coat of paint. the president could hear the hammering have carpenters with the inaugural parade. i feel like the fellow in jail watching his scaffold be built. at age 59 precisely on who the world attention was focused in the morning of november 9 with the election victory was announced jf kennedy now president-elect coming to meet president eisenhower as they slowed to a stop to open the door to leave out and said good morning mr. president. during the election campaign he attacked eisenhower mercilessly. he accused him of failing to meet the communist threat to accept that democratic nomination in ju

and eisenhower came back, and eisenhower, by the way, was very well read.and he said everything i've read about abraham lincoln suggests to me that he was one of the great compromisers in presidential history, that he, he came right down the middle, and he got pressure from both sides. and warren -- so that was eisenhower's quote. and then i juxtaposed that with warren's quote from his, from his memoirs in which according to warren he had this conversation with eisenhower after he had retired as president. eisenhower by then had been known to be quite critical of warren and the warren court decisions, and he said -- and warren says, well, you just really don't understandment you see, when -- you're a politician. you can compromise. he says, but when you're a justice of the supreme court or you're chief justice of the supreme court, you're obligated to rule on principle. and you can't do a little at a time. you can't do a little of the principle at a time. you have to do it all at once. and that was earl warren. >> well, what about the fact -- suppose i said

eisenhower's first command. we see camp photos and describe how eisenhower's time there shasmede his military career this bram is 50 minutes. >> hello, welcome, everyone, to the great war -- all weekend at eisenhower national historic site in gettysburg. we have on site reenactors as well as programs for the visitors here this weekend talking about world war i and camp colt. this is the 100th anniversary of camp colt. the training program for the united states army was commanded by captain eisenhower. this was his first command. it's an all-weekend program and we're going to have several speakers talking about world war i as well as speaking on camp colt. the first speaker today is palm shepshok. a retired national park museum and history curator. during his career he authored six monographs on cavalry engamements during the battle of gettysburg and wrote an introduction to "company k" the first pennsylvania reserves. for many years he was a volunteer at the eisenhower national historic site as well as on the bo

not as far as eisenhower, however. but i think a bigger reevaluation is looming, and my current project looks at grant as a soldier statesman and tries to put his generalship and his presidency together, and i would ask everybody to think about in whatever you know about or think you know about the gilded, the reconstruction of the gilded age, in 1868 when grant won his first presidential term, the nation was reeling from the civil war, it was reeling from assassination, a $2 billion war debt, impeachment trials, constant turmoil over the southern question. voters elected grant not because he was a polished, practiced elite politician, but because they wanted someone to clean up the mess created by the political class, and landing in him. his first term successful, he was reelected by a mandate in his second term. despite the scandals and issues and controversies and the 1873 depression that shook his second term, what president has a good second term, i don't know, but his was a nightmare, but the interesting thing th

he ran against eisenhower and beat eisenhower. and eisenhower knew it and hated it, one of the biggest political disappointments he said of his entire life was that kennedy won. it's not that nixon lost, mind you. i think he was ambivalent. we'll hear from jack about that, but he was really not ambivalent about kennedy because he understood what kennedy had done to his reputation. and he did not recover from it for 30 years. and only gradually in the as the 1980's materials became available to study eisenhower's presidency in more depth did we begin to see whether we like, agree with respect or others to follow eisenhower's model. nonetheless, there was no question he was deeply engaged in the machinery of governing. i thought i'd say a few general remarks, keeping an eye on the clock. just a few general remarks on the theme of what are the challenges, what are the opportunities of writing a presidential biography. this is the first time i had written about a president. i had been a european historian. i had written a variety of w

eisenhower, there you go. you can pick someone's interests with the title.>> one that does not get said often enough. whenever one works on a president, any president from any are -- time, i found myself in all of health much work a single day of the presidency requires to get through. this is a subject jeremy will return to. i am staggered about the issues and decisions that come across the presidents desk and a single day and the physical labor it takes and i think it strikes me that for some emphases -- empathy that they are subject to making dumb decisions because you have to be warriors -- wise all day long under enormous pressure. if they don't, they get criticism which is what they ask for by being president. i will see to my next colleague but thanks for your time. [ applause ] >>> i am listed in the program as independent scholar which is a nice way of saying old newspaper hack. after i finished my first book on tip o'neill i called my classmate who was a big chat in the government and i said i just w

eisenhower. the impactescribes on the battlefield and the community. this is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> we are at the eisenhower national historic site on camp colt weekend. we are here to commemorate world war i as well as the 100th anniversary of camp colt, which was commanded by the kernel -- by colonel eisenhower, here in gettysburg, pennsylvania. our next speaker is mark snell. he retired from the u.s. army in 1993 and has had several assignments as well as careers after that. he taught history at the united states military academy at west a lecturer atwas the royal academy at sandhurst, in the u.k. he was also a professor of ,istory at shepherd university and shepherds law, in shepherdstown, west virginia, where he was the founder of the center for the study of civil war. he also has written very extensively on world war i and the civil war, especially the civil war in west virginia. book -- he wrote a book on camp colt and gettysburg during 1917 and 1918, the years that the united states was in the great war. up., why don't you come on int

not as far as eisenhower, however. most of these historians were drivenberry the idea that grant was a puppet of the radical republicans. his goal throughout his two administrations, 1868 to 1876 was to punish the south and impose military rule, setting back reconciliation and reunion by several decades, at least. recently, this interpretation is changing, and especially today, it's in regard to grant's record as a champion of civil rights, and that has -- that has deep roots in the late 20th century. it's coming strong, strongly now. the latest presidential poll, i studied all of them, where grant was at the very beginning in 1948, he was, he was 48 out of 49 presidents, and now he's shot up to the middle. not as far as eisenhower, however. but i think a bigger reevaluation is looming, and my current project looks at grant as a soldier statesman and tries to put his generalship and his presidency together, and i would ask everybody to think about in whatever you know about or think you know about the gilded, the recon

eisenhower goes as u.s. commissioner of alaska which remained a territory until it attained statehood in 1959. in 1918, eisenhower, who by now was a lieutenant colonel, faced the most serious problem of his career. ten days before the offensive was scheduled to begin on the western front, and while all eyes were focused on france of 111 soldiers from camp david, massachusetts, an area also referred to. they believed it was achieved by typhoid fever inoculations. some of the men were registering high fevers and were obviously very ill. the camp immediately took fluid measures. because the man had not been confined to quarters and some of them were obviously carriers, the whole camp had to be considered as exposed, unquote. it was. and soon it would spread to gettysburg and the outlying communities. total deaths were estimated at approximately 50 million and were arguably as high as 100 million. historians and scientists have yet to determine exactly where the spanish floor originated, but it probably appeared

named camp colt, its commander was a young dwight eisenhower. >> we're at the eisenhower national historic site on great war camp call weekend. we're here to comememorate the world war i as well as the 100th anniversary of camp colt when it was commanded by colonel eisenhower here at getgettysbur pennsylvania. our next speaker is mark snell. and has had several assignments as well as careers after that. he taught history at the united states military academy at west point. and he was a -- a lecture ur at the royal academy at sand hurst in the uk. he was also a professor of history at shepherd university in shepherdsville -- shepherdstown, west virginia, where he also was the founding director of the george tyler moore center for the study of civil war. he also has written very extensively on world war i and the civil war, especially the civil war in west virginia. he's writing a book on camp -- he wrote a book on camp colt and gettysbu gettysburg. the years the united states were in the great war. mark, why don't you come on up and we'll get your program going. i'm reading the -- also, he

these are the orders they gave to eisenhower. other united nations at the heart of germany and the destruction of armed forces. pretty good huh? mission statement. this was actually about two pages long but it's the mission statement doesn't tell you how to do it and all those things. give me the mission. don't tell me how to do it. let me go for it and that's what they did here. however eisenhower is selected in december of 1943. montgomery who will command and develop plan also collected december of 1943. the plans were made before eisenhower and montgomery were even selected. there was this thing called the guy named general morgan and an american one star raymond who will develop the initial plans for the normandy invasion. when eisenhower is selected, when montgomery comes into this thing the plans have already been developed they inherit all of the work that was done by the staff. chief of command is what that stands for. they did enormous research, 1,000-mile front of research on beaches, the quality of the beaches. they l

both of these men believed that the end of the second term of the eisenhower years, eisenhower had lost control of his own government. mcmillan believed the military had become far too powerful with the cia. kennedy would not come to that conclusion until something called the bay of pigs. they both share that concern, ultimately. they also believed that a leader had to reduce the threat of nuclear danger. committed toply finding ways to reducing the .ossibility of accidental war they didn't always agree on everything around the world. when you look at their relationship, you should think .bout horse trading they gave each other help in different ways. if some of you have seen the queen, you may know of the episode involving queen elizabeth and the leader of ghana. it may be there is a sub story where jackie kennedy motivates this, but i can tell you that the british, particularly harold macmillan, wanted ghana and the commonwealth. on kennedyt pressure to build a hydroelectric dam called the volta dam. kennedy -- kennedy did it largely for mcmillan, because he wanted mcmillan to accept

the eisenhower administration had no such reluctance. but, eisenhower wanted to be able to expand in 10 laments while spending less money. squaring that circle involves signing multilateral defense pacts with vulnerable countries in various regions, and then trying to save money by positioning nuclear weapons rather than more troops abroad. conventional forces are more expensive than nuclear forces. it did not take president kennedy long to realize the extent to which eisenhower's cold war strategy was extraordinarily dangerous. what if your adversary did not mind playing chicken with you. what if they used force against a treaty ally? at what point would you use nuclear weapons? if they took 100 miles from a country, would you use nuclear weapons? if they took 200 miles? the problem with relying on nuclear weapons as your only an d main deterrent was that it had to be used if anyone ever challenged it, lest no one ever take your word seriously again. but the cost of nuclear bluff were enormous, especially when the issue at hand was a co

was very anxious about eisenhower. because general motors had done a very particular kind of corporate structuring, where rather that exporting products they bought companies all over the world and allowed those companies in germany or in england or australia or canada or pretty much every other major country in the world to manufacturer cars for that home market. they had a very different take then on what was good or bad for general motors in terms of international economic policy. they gambled on a noninvestment-oriented approach towards export. so it gets down to the particularities rather than some abstract ideology. so elites have different interests depending on their exact relationship to a whole series of things. >> david, let me just follow up on that. earlier this morning, chris nichols said the way to understand america first is sort of a populist movement against elites. but here you're telling us, right, that there's at least a fragment of the elites, a very significant one, that constitutes sort of a cor

when eisenhower decides to run for the presidency, eisenhower explicitly repudiates the economic messages that taft laid out. he says the united states will have to enable a global economy that will share prosperity for countries around the world if we're going to create a secure, stable environment for the united states as peoples and the peoples around the world. taft is infuriated by the speech and explicitly goes out in front of yup reporters and says he's putting foreigners ahead of americans. he doesn't use the phrase america first, but it's implicit in what he's saying at that period of time. now, most republicans are divided over this issue. and as the cold war heats up, by 1947 as big votes have to come into play where they have to vote on support for the new internationalism, that's built around the ideal of the united states standing off the society union, there's a lot of hedging that goes on within the republican party. taft himself starts to change his positions in some ways. he recognizes the united states will have to play another role. taft is a fierce anti-communist. he

eisenhower, kennedy, johnson, nixon.s cold war logic, the sense that we had at all costs to maintain this pushback against the spread of communism really trapped people. and what's so interesting, fascinating about johnson -- i'm so glad this viewer mentioned this -- he brought us medicare. he created a social security system that allowed people to have a living support. so very complex man. >> the year began with the tet offensive and escalated with political violence and assassinations. and it ended with this photograph in december of 1968, as we view planet earth from space i want to share with you, as we conclude this program, the words of jim lubbell. on board the apollo mission 1968. >> god created the heaven and the earth. and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. in the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters and god said, let there be light, and there was light. and god saw the light. it was good. and god divided the light from the darkness. >> it makes you reali

guest: eisenhower? yes and no.isenhower was so remembered and some of our viewers have indicated this that the military-industrial complex, when he left office, one of the things he did was to warn against the creation of the military-industrial complex. i think those words echoed throughout this time. statementn as a wise -- statesman in that respect. kennedyresident consulted with eisenhower during the cuban missile crisis, but on the other hand, kennedy had run against the then vice president under eisenhower, richard nixon and was harshly critical of the eisenhower administration, including unfounded allegations of a missile gap. there was not i would say very warm relationship between kennedy and eisenhower, and that continued under johnson. it was always going to be consultations on important issues came up, including about vietnam, but eisenhower remained a more revered figure in american society and not so much of an influential political figure. they made reference to czechoslovakia and you just returned f

let's go next to the eisenhower administration, you can show us things there. this exhibit is broken down into 12 different chapters. we are seeing some of the highlights obviously. how long did it take you to assemble all of the archive documents, and collect everything you needed to put it together? >> it took over two years. i had a lot of help. i invited almost 2 dozen prominent historians to suggest documents that they thought were revealing about the u.s. involvement in southeast asia. >> up next, we have a document about a letter from president eisenhower. tell us about this. >> this is a very important point in the story. it is 1954, the country of vietnam has been divided by the geneva accords into north and south. there is a communist government that is rolling in the north, and president eisenhower believes that the loss of a vietnam to communism would be disastrous. so, he wants to help this south vietnamese government establish itself. the leader, or an emerging leader at that time, he was not president yet, but later would become president, was a

eisenhower to trump." actually, john did not cover eisenhower in the white house. he was stationed in the white house under eisenhower and kennedy, doing transcriptions and speeches, and so has come to know them. in addition to covering the white house, he covered the iranian press hostage and many, many international stories. cochran worked for 21 years at nbc as a correspondent both in washington and overseas. he covered nixon, ford, carter, reagan, and the bush administrations. from 1978 to 1987, he was based in london and was the chief foreign correspondent for nbc. he returned to nbc's washington bureau and became chief white house correspondent under the presidency of george h.w. bush. cochran joined abc news in 1994 as chief capitol hill correspondent covering bob dole's unsuccessful bid for the president, and was senior white house correspondent in the final two years of the clinton administration. from 2001 until 2011, he was the network's senior washington correspondent and he retired at that tim

>> eisenhower, you know, yes and no. think that eisenhower we so remember and i think some of our viewers have indicated the military industrial complex, when he left office one of the things he did was to warn against the creation of military industrial complex. so i think those words echo throughout this period of time. he was seen as kind of a wise statesman in that respect. >> certainly president kennedy consulted with eisenhower during the cuban missile crises. on the other hand kennedy had run against the then vice president under eisenhower, richard nixon, and was harshly critical of the eisenhower administration including unfounded allegations of a missile gaffe. it was i wouldn't say a very warm relationship between kennedy and eisenhower, and that continued under johnson. there were always going to be consultations when important issues came up, including involving vietnam, but eisenhower remained a more revered figure in american society and not so much an influential political figure. >> this excerpt is going

>> eisenhower? >> yes and no, i think that eisenhower -- some of our viewers have indicated this, sort of the industrial complex, he when he left office, it was to warn again the creation of the complex, so i think those words echo chow this period of time, and it is seen as credible wide -- and i respected >> certainly president kennedy consulted with eisenhower during the missile crisis. on the other hand, you know, kennedy had run against the then vice president, richard nixon, and was largely critical of the eisenhower administration, including unfounded allegations of a missile gap. so it was not, you know, i wouldn't say a very warm relationship between kennedy and eisenhower, and that continued under johnson. it was always going to be consultations, when important issues came up, including about the -- but eisenhower remained a more revered figure in american society, and not so much as an influential medical figure. >> this makes reference to czechoslovakia have just returned from the czech

eisenhower so you know i am old. familiar with the old axiom -- i wish you to live in interesting times but i'm afraid we now live in a time that's too interesting. [laughter] morning, my wife barbara and i were reading the washington post in bed and we still subscribe to real newspapers. [applause] that was easy applause. i saw a quote from a washington could post reporter that covers national security. he gave a pretty accurate summation of what we have all lived through since january of last year. miller eveneg though he covers national issues, it applies to others. , it's really bewildering not just a story which is the craziest and most complicated than we have ever seen but the fact that while covering it, our institution, journalism is under siege in a way that none of us ever expected. that is true. we would do well to remember that journalism has been under attack before. many of you remember the president and told his vice president spiro agnew to go out and agnewnews media called us nattering nabobs of neg

eisenhower has a great way of thinking about it. democrats out of power for three terms in the 80s and 90s, seemed okay with trimming more of their audiological sales in order to win. republicans lost five straight presidential elections in the 30s and 40s and by 1952 so hungry for a win they nominated eisenhower without even knowing which party he was going to be for. he is popular, people like him, let's do that and then figure out what he stands for and get something out of him. there is a certain sense, i think they were happier winning that election than losing it. eisenhower appointed republicans to important positions in the white house and cabinet, it is less of a win. i would say generally, the reason parties attempt to coordinate and to attempt to narrow voter options to candidates who will deliver more on the policies they care about, you don't see many elections where and eisenhower type election where they just nominate someone popular. one i often use is arnold schwarzenegger's election in california where he was way m

they nominate eisenhower without even knowing party was a member of. the popular people seem to like him and let's do that. so yes, there's a certain sense of that, i think they were happier in that election and losing. obviously eisenhower pointed republicans into important positions in the cabinet. but yes, it's less of a win and i think -- i would say generally and this is a reason that parties do to coordinate and do you narrow voters options a little it's who will deliver more on the policies they care about, you have election where eisenhower -type election where they will not nominate popular. one i often use is an example is arnold's work layers election as governor in california where he was way more liberal than most republicans and notably only one in a very unusual type of election. he would have had a much harder time getting through a republican primary . they were here with him winning then not. the republicans had a little more entry into the state government in power than they would have with grady davidson being in power but it's a te

not coverjohn did eisenhower in the white house. he was stationed in the white house under eisenhower and kennedy, doing transcriptions and speeches, so he came to know them. -- in addition to covering the white house, he covered the iranian press and many, many international stories. nbc ased for 21 years at a correspondent both in washington and overseas. he covered it can, for, carter, reagan, and the bush administration. in london and was the chief foreign correspondent. he returned to nbc's washington and became chief white house correspondent under the presidency of george h.w. bush. he joined abc news in 1994. was senior white house correspondent in the final years of the clinton administration. 2011, he was the senior washington correspondent and retired at that time. i have to give a shout out to graduate of the university of alabama and good friends of the university of alabama. welcome, john. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> my next guest is christy parson. she is the senior editor at the atlantic and director of th

and push eisenhower to say something nice about george. she didn't want her husband to know about this. she could evidently see that underneath the image of the great stoic and that's a reminder that even marshall was not quite the figure. >> you've done a tremendous job drawing him as a full human being and just a tremendous insight into marshall in its history. so congratulations. thank you all for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> join us for a live coverage of the 18th annual library of congress national book festival saturday starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. our coverage includes comments from our site at the washington convention center with pulitzer prize-winning biographer jon meacham and his book, the soul of america, the battle for our better angels. pulitzer prize winning historian with leadership in turbulent times. >> in her book, "rescue board," rebecca erbelding writes about a section of the state department created in 1944 they wrote to save european jews. she talked about the response to the holocaust at a

>>an: eisenhower answers america. >> the democrats have made mistakes, but aren't the intentions good? >> well, if the driver of your school bus runs into a truck, hits a lamppost, drives it into a ditch, you don't say, "his intentions are gd" -- you get a new bus driver. >> what is the most important issue confnting the american people in this election campaign? >> the 1960s presents our country with great opportunitiesle and great ches. >> mann: they were dreadful. i think there was no room for an emotional appeal in a political ad -- that they had to be fact-based, rational presentations. >> probably the most exciting ones involved a jingle, because it was the jingle era on television. >> ♪ ike for president ♪ ike for president ♪ ike for president ♪ke for president ♪ you like ike, i like ike for president ♪es ike ♪ hang out the banners, beat the drums ♪ ♪ we'll take ike to washington ♪ >> sabato: virtually every product was sold with a jingle. so "i like ike" with prancing elephants became the symbol for eisenhower in 1956. >> ♪ ♪ kennedy, kennedy, kennedy nn ♪ kennedy, y, kennedy

and push eisenhower to say something nice about george. she didn't want her husband to know about this. she could evidently see that underneath the image of the great stoic and that's a reminder that even marshall was not quite the figure. >> you've done a tremendous job drawing him as a full human being and just a tremendous insight into marshall in its history. so congratulations. thank you all for being here. [applause]he war refugee board board. >> good afternoon everyone. thank you all for coming. my name is bernard and i'm a bookseller here at the politics and prose. on behalf of the owners and the staff i like to welcome all of you to your favorite bookstore for this afternoon's event. as you may already know politics and prose hosts hundreds of events like this all throughout the year. one such event and this is the one we do

he goes on to lose to dwight eisenhower and they make some change in the rules after that, 10%. 1968 is a much bigger year for a change. that of course is the year famously contested nomination cycle really ugly convention in chicago for the democrats, really violent. one of their major candidate robert kennedy was assassinated that year and the party kind of lumped into the fall election and lost to richard nixon. they made a lot of changes to their rules after that year. that was where they started coming up with rules for how many women should be delegate, how many young people and also created some of the primary caucus rules that we live under today. a very consequential year. on the other hand after 2000, after 2004, there were not many changes made to the rules. the party largely copied and pasted what he had done previously. 1988 comes up as a big year for change here at sort of a surprising one. it doesn't come up in many studies of consequential changes that year. part of what happened is they made a lot of changes about how the parties refuse state delegate selection rules

now, that's an interesting question and eisenhower is a great way of thinking about it. he's one of those, so i talked about, you know, the democrats being out of power for three terms in the 1980's and '90s. they seemed okay with trimming more and more of their ideological sails in order to win. republicans lost five straight presidential elections in the 1930's and 40's and by 1952 they were so hungry for a win they were like, they nominated eisenhower without knowing which party he was a member of. and he's popular and then figure out what he stands for and see if we can get something out of it. yeah, there's a certain sense of-- i mean, i think they were happier winning that election than losing it, obviously, eisenhower appointed republicans to two important positions in the white house and the cabinet. but, yes, it's less of a win and i think if -- yeah, i would say generally and this is a reason that parties do attempt to coordinate and do attempt to kind of narrow voter's options a little bit into candidates who will deliver more on the policies that they care ab

political partisan, one who is more loyal to the two republican presidents he served under, dwight eisenhower and richard nixon, than the two democrats he served under, harry truman and john f. kennedy, i'm sorry, lyndon johnson and john f. kennedy, three democrats he served under. he supported defense and foreign aid programs, aimed at combatting communism and endorsed security. he endorsed the war in vietnam,

eisenhower is a great way of thinking about it. he's one of those, i talked about the democrats being out of power for three terms in the 1980s and 90s, they seemed okay with trimming more and more of their ideological sales in order to win, republicans lost five straight presidential elections in the 30s and 40s. by 1952 they were so hungry for a win it was like they nominated eisenhower without even knowing what party he was a member of. he's popular, people like him so let's do that and then we figure out what he stands for. so yes, there is a certain sense of, i think they were happier winning that election and losing it, obviously eisenhower appointed republicans to important positions in the white house in the cabinet, but yes, it's less of a win. i would say generally, this is a reason that parties do attempt to coordinate and do attempt to narrow voters options a little bit into candidates who will deliver more on the policies they care about. you don't see that many elections where in eisenhower election were the literally

eisenhower's first command. we see camp photos and describe how eisenhower's time there shasmede his military career this bram is 50 minutes. >> hello, welcome, everyone, to the great war -- all weekend at eisenhower national historic

speech oh yeah oh terry bester exactly these are two speeches he should be taught in school as eisenhower a speech about military industrial complex and kofi and on fire a farewell speech that are important because there's this idea like well we must have this this is this whole problem that we're in it's not just about american excellence and this idea that it's like america sobs it's not what anybody trying to say it's that why is there this idea that one nation should rule them all it didn't work well with the ring so you might not want to try it bad enough kind of what he said because we're here we have all of this here he was one of the first to really do something about the aids crisis that made a huge impact here and around the world and that was the general some of the united nations committed to the creation under a non for a fund that there are was a special session on aids in the permanent secretariat of the global fund was established january two thousand and two and since then there's that's been work and that work when you travel around that works made a difference and other

american presidents, dwight eisenhower called "the age of eisenhower," and it's by the professor at the university of virginia. when i was a little boy i had the honor of meeting dwight eisenhower and he's always inspired me and is now rated one of the best presidents in american history. i'm also going to read chris matthews biography, "bobby kennedy." i think that chris matthews has done an excellent job in this regard and of course we commemorate this year the 50th anniversary of the tragic assassination of senator kenned. so these are three books at the top of my list to read thischanf summer. >> send your summer reading lisy that booktv on twitter, instead grandma or facebook. >> host: so, mark mills, what do you do for a living? >> guest: at the manhattan institute i write about policy and energy policy and i'm also a partner at a technical venture fund where we invest in the software companies. >> host: how do you get there? >> guest: i should add i'm also a faculty fellow at northwestern university engineering school. i learn a lot hanging out with those guys. i spent my life wr

president eisenhower felt it was a luxury he did not need.ng a navy vessel, all of the artifacts were scattered. later,, about 10 years our base admiral put out a directive -- i want the piano. amazingly, admirals get what they want. they found the plo in storage in in storage-- piano in washington, had it shipped back to key west, and president truman was surprised to find his old piano in the little white house. this is where the president came to relax. the president told everyone he was on vacation, working vacations, but on vacation in key west. it turns out, it was all a lie. both the president and his staff were lying to each other. harry would get up on vacation at 7:00 in the morning, read the newspaper, come downstairs, have a glass of orange juice with a shot of bourbon. he would then go out walking 10 blocks at a pace of 120 paces a minute. that is cardio if ever i heard of it. then he would take up his position at this little desk. day, day or every other large mail bags would arrive containing correspondence, legislation, someti

eisenhower. interesting back story to him. he graduated in 1915. and then four years after he graduated in 1919, he accompanied an army convoy that went from the west coast to the east coast. and that journey took 62 days. and it appalled eisenhower. he was really in a lot of ways disgusted by it. he saw army vehicles getting stuck in mud. that was the condition of roads back then. just really crude, primitive path ways for vehicles to travel on. and he recognized that this was a real problem. it was a problem for the economy because it hampered economic development. when you have transportation networks that are that crude, it impedes the transportation, the movement of goods and services. he also is a military man recognized that it represented a threat to national security. in case of an emergency, you couldn't move military vehicles very easily along those kinds of roadways. so, i think that experience had a formative impact on him. it stuck in the back of his mind. and then during world war ii, he was in europe. and in germany, he saw the netw

eisenhower, is attending this sapling planting with the first lady. live pictures coming out of the white house. wanted to bring this to you. >>> well, we do have more breaking news. at the top of the hour, the senate is expected to gavel in for the first time since senator john mccain's passing. we can expect some pretty moving speeches to honor the man known as the maverick, a decorated war hero, former republican presidential nominee. hillary vaughn is live for us today in phoenix, where plans are coming together to honor the senator's contributions to the nation. it will be quite the ceremony. good afternoon. reporter: quite the outpouring of support from people here in arizona honoring the life and legacy of senator john mccain. before he passed away, he left a letter of final reflections, a message to fellow americans. we were just inside the state capitol where the family spokesman, rick davis, read parts of that letter aloud. here's some of mccain's final thoughts. >> i have loved my life, all of it. i have had experiences, adventures, friends

also i hope to read a new biography by dwight eisenhower called the age of eisenhower by professor hitchcock by the university of virginia. when i was a little boy i had the out on -- honor to meet dwight eisenhower he is always inspired me and also read chris matthews biography of bobby kennedy. i think he has done next island child in this regard and of course we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of senator kennedy these are my top three books to read this summer. . . . . tomorrow his

. >> and eisenhower visited as well, correct? >> yes, he did. >> and bradley too? >> bradley. >> and what were -- what were think like? >> well -- and mcarthur. it's something about being the superintendent, i think, that they all -- if they had been a cadet they kind of will -- mcarthur really was very polite and, you know, straight and so was general eisenhower. i didn't know general bradley as well as i knew -- i knew general eisenhower and mamie was a very good friend. and jean mcarthur was a lovely friend. >> yeah. you told me earlier that they were all very nice ladies and they would call you and visit. >> oh, yes. when wes was chief of staff, we had -- i turned kind of the third floor into a guest -- and there was an elevator. so people could come and -- >> and you frequently had mrs. eisenhower come visit. >> well, she loved to come because her sister had a one bedroom and she had secret service. so any time she came to washington, she always stayed with us. >> that's nice. >> yeah. and she couldn't believe rip had her robes -- bathroom, she couldn't believ