there's this team at the eisenhower center. steve would do everything himself and his son would help him some. i think when you're productive, people are wondering how can you be so productive. i don't hear that anymore. i think at a certain age wk people get use today that's what you do. if anything now, i haven't had a book out in a couple of years, i'm getting the opposite. what's going on? what's happened to you? there are advantages and disadvantages of being prolific. the advantages are i'm always -- i never take a break from one book to the next. and to me, the questions i can never answer like how long does it take. like i'm writing right now a book called silent spring lef lugs on john kennedy, rachel carson and the environmental movement. well, that book began when i long ago did my book on theodore roosevelt. i'm learning how the u.s. forest service works. i'm learning what the biological survey is. i'm learning about the wilderness society or the garden club of america. on and on, i was learning about all of that do

during the eisenhower civil rights bills, he opposed those bills. he later repudiated these views, but it did i think a line national review and the american right with the opposition to civil rights, which i think hurt the movement in the long run by associating it with these legacies of racism and segregation. there were people who resisted joining the right on these grounds. if you think about the later neoconservatives, or some of the figures associated with the philosophy of strauss, they supported civil rights. it was because buckley and national review opposed civil rights that they were wary of joining this movement, even though they had other things in common. it wasn't until later, once that issue was settled with the passage of the 1964 civil rights act, voting rights act, that i think the neocons and some other groups could come over and join. susan: people might find it interesting you observed the era of dwight eisenhower gave birth to conservatism because it was the first time they found common ground. we are hearing that in various p

and i took over the eisenhower center. and that -- we were collecting the oral histories of world war ii vets. now, the "majic bus" doesn't have much to do with the collecting of world war ii vets, but i was able to fold this program into the eisenhower center because steve thought it was a great idea. steve ambrose wrote the book on the lewis and clark trail, and he traveled the entire lewis and clark trail. i went with him on a big hunk of the trail and it was great. >> how did you go? >> we went by canoe. and we went over the lolo pass. we did hiking. you know, steve got very -- i later went the whole mississippi river of steve. you got to get the young people excited about history. >> how did you meet him? >> i met steve at heart, ambrose was a cold war historian. famously wrote a two volume biography of eisenhower, three volume on nixon, and i met him at american university here. i had delivered a paper on the berlin wall crisis. i met steve at that meeting. and then we stayed in touch, and i was teaching at hofstra,

with the eisenhower brand look like he was made to be a hollywood. you know, he spielberg used to say that steve looks like he's you know, john wayne or something in and he was part of a faculty group. that was boo boo and got noticed and they gave him a reprimand and all of this the administration officials. why would they do that? i disrupted the president's speech. did he have tenure? no. and he got left there and it wasn't a very good thing to have on your resume that you've got, you know trying to get a job and you they weren't going to recommend you because she did that your last place of employment but the university of new orleans hired him and so he was very grateful and then he he built this incredible career up for himself. eisenario and nixon who he actually ended up liking except for the war as he matured and girl older, but he caught he was caught up in that. fervor of that era, you know and and so in new orleans they let you be what you are and steve would was eccentric in the sense when he would often wear like when he wrote on mary w

he writes eisenhower is a reluctant candidate dewey had only told eisenhower that he wanted to run forpresident and he was noncommittal. so given no encouragement. dewey was a much better campaign manager for other people then he was of himself which is off to the gate. he knew exactly what button to push. no copy was made or exist, he sat down in hand wrote a letter to eisenhower who was at nato headquarters outside paris and he told him if he did not quit beto and come back in campaign for the nomination then the party was likely to nominate douglas. needless to say that was not a prospect eisenhower was appealing. >> the book on hoover was what year. >> it appeared in my. >> when you're young it is amazing what you could do these books are to your intervals a book of an uncommon man which hoover was mildly annoyed henry wallace a famous book called the century of the common man. >> who was see. >> is the vice president fdr of three vice president from iowa i great agricultural scientist who was not like hoover and he was a scientist he was rational like a scientist which disqualifie

but there were others like francis eisenhower, eisenhower wanted hitler deposed and put on trial along with all the other nazi thugs. >> which leads perfectly into my next question. you know, fdr was our first and only four-time president. >> right. >> i am going to read this. he's a president that ronald reagan once called an american giant a leader who shaped, inspired, and led our people through perilous times. how critical was fdr's four term american stance involvement with the war? >> all encompassing. john patrick wiggins, a friend of mine was part of the free speech movement at berkeley and did battle with then governor reagan over campus protests. then he admired romd reagan. he wrote a book called faith, freedom, and making of history. in this book, this liberal professor says that our four greatest presidents are george washington, abraham lincoln, franklin roosevelt and ronald reagan because they freed or saved many, many people. that was a criteria for greatness, does a president affect the outcome of many, many people. his criteria is pretty good. fdr, although he failed

he writes -- eisenhower's a very reluctant candidate. dewey had already told before anyone else that he wanted to run for president, and ike was decidedly noncommittal, certainly gave no encouragement, so dewey was very shrewd student. dewey was a much better campaign manager for other people than he was of himself, which is often the case, but anyway, he knew exactly what button to push. miss ross told me, no copy of the letter exists for obvious reasons, no copy was made. dewey sat down and handwrote a letter to eisenhower, who was then at nato headquarters outside paris, and he told him that if he did not quit nato and come back and campaign actively for the nomination, then the party was likely to nominate douglas macarthur, and needless to say, that was not a prospect that eisenhower found particularly appealing. >> the book, excuse me, on hoover was what year? >> appeared in 1984. these books came -- again, when you're young, it's amazing what you can do. these books came at three-year intervals so the book called "an uncommon man"

i saw eisenhower wanted hitler deposed and and put on trial along with all the other nazi thugs which leads perfectly into my next question, you know fdr was our first and only four-time president. i'm actually going to read this. he's a president that ronald reagan once called an american giant a leader who shaped inspired and let our people through perilous times. how critical was fdr's four terms in america's stance involvement and victory with the war all all encompassing he is, you know, john patrick diggins was an historian who since passed away a couple years ago. he was friend of mine. he was actually part of the free speech movement at berkeley and actually did battle with then governor reagan over campus protests, but he later this liberal became an admirer of brown reagan. he wrote a book called fate freedom and ronald reagan fate freedom and making of history and in this book this this liberal professor says that our four greatest presidents are george washington abraham lincoln franklin roosevelt and ronald reagan because it makes the academic case because they freed or s

that's eisenhower. anyone who denies working people the right to unionize, a firm essential rights, such a person does not belong in our political system. well, that was the 1950's. it continued for some years into the 1960's. and then we get into the reaction, which escalated under reagan. compare eisenhower with what you hear today from the remnants of what remains of the party that he represented. it is quite a change. it tells us a lot about the regression of the past 40 years. >> let's get some of our collars involved. let's begin with barbara in oak bluffs, massachusetts. barbara, go ahead and ask your question. caller: thank you, peter. think admit -- thank you mr. chomsky for your amazing career. continuing with president eisenhower, his famous statement about the emergence of the military industrial complex. so, we have watched decades of grotesque spending on weapons, but now we see this conflict in ukraine where tiny musicians -- munitions like stingers, javelins, switchblade drums, other typ

thank you for your amazing career and continuing with presidentpr eisenhower and the famous statemente emergence of the military-industrial complex. so we all have watched decades of grotesque spending on weapons but now we see a conflict in ukraine and drones and other kinds of drones and then the tiny micro weapons are able to take out the macro weapons of the tanks and the naval ships. what do you make of this transition. >> thank you. it heralds a new era of warfare which is more dangerous and more threatening to everyone. and we mentioned before that we should be concerned constantly with what we can do and what we should do and one thing that we can do is send weapons. and f there is no argument for atforeign attack for a brutal military force which has no mercy with the right to defend themselves so what is the goal to escalate the war the more ukrainians die? do we want to move towards a peaceful negotiated settlement? one of the most respected individuals in the us diplomatic corps. and respected properly with the individual record and then a couple of days ago came out and s

i would say eisenhower had excellent staff. of course, you're talking about it's apples and oranges because as late as the hoover administration, you know, the staff was half a dozen people. the staff in the modern sense doesn't even really begin. fdr had more but, again, it's a fragment compared to the model white house. i mean when ford became president there were over 500 people who were on the white house staff. that may have been the last administration that made a deliberate effort to down size the white house staff. and, of course, what they found was they needed all those people. >> who in your opinion was the best speaker? >> i would say reagan had excellent staff but jim baker. and chiefs of staff, i mean, it's tough to top baker. but, i'm sorry -- >> who is the best speaker in history of a president? >> again, the thing you need to keep in mind is for most of our history, speaking was something read in the newspaper the next day. so, it's a question of if you mean speaking, for example, jefferson's words are immortal

compare eisenhower with what you hear today. the remnants of what remains of the party that he represented? quite a change tells us a lot about the regression of the past 40 years professor. let's get some of our callers involved here and let's begin with barbara in oak bluffs, massachusetts barbara, please go ahead and ask your question of noam chomsky. thank you peter. thank you mr. chomsky for your amazing career continuing with president eisenhower his famous statement about the emergence of the military industrial complex. so we've all watched decades of grotesque spending on weapons, but now we see this conflict in ukraine where tiny munitions like stingers and javelins and switchblade drones and other kinds of drones these tiny micro weapons are able to take out the elephantine macro weapons of the tanks and the jet fighters and the naval ships. what do you make of this transition to micro warfare, and it's implications. thank you. thank you, ma'am. it heralds new era of warfare which is more dangerous more threatening bu

eisenhower in the civil rights stuff, four or 5 million black people registered to vote down south.ell this story, grandfather, they kicked him off where he wat in tennessee. the fbi came down and told him not to go anywhere. eisenhower set him down to say weda passed a new law to say thy cannot intimidate or hurt yout anymore, you're going to vote my grandfather voted. and i askedat my father why. black folks did what white folks -- even then 80% of black voted for democrat party. people say all of these went republican, all of those, only one switch, only one. black people voted for them. when i started asking, why didho this happen? it goes back to cognitive dissonance, it makes perfect sense. you've been beaten down for 400 years, of course you would take on the characteristic of your master. if they had just been paying attention in the civil rights movement, we were fighting, bleeding, dying eat a hamburger beside them, they go to bathroom beside them, they drink from the water fountain beside them, they go to school beside them. of course when it came to voting we would vote

general eisenhower warned us about this when he was president eisenhower. there isn't much about history that is not going to make somebody uncomfortable. >> that's the point, right? >> and that's how we teach students to step back, ask some questions -- yes. columbus, i learned, in 1492, columbus sailed the ocean blue, which certainly helped me learn some names and dates. this is, overtime, historians asking questions, because the world around us changes. and there were things we didn't think were important 50 years ago. now we do. but we also see new documents that we didn't know about 50 years ago. >> i mention columbus has just one recent subject that i've taken up on my podcast. but the statues that have been in the news, when you are on podcast a few weeks ago for an episode titled charlottesville says goodbye to the confederacy, we talked about confederate statues and their origins. and the assumptions people today might have had about why those statues were put up versus the real reasons. we will get into that in a moment. one more point about the b

president eisenhower, general eisenhower, in farewell address back in 1961, i warn you, war you, againnk or putin apologist. right then and right now. we do not keep to spending more and more money. yes, let's support ukraine but not hand out contract to these defense contractors. >> you and i work in tandem. graphics show with your words visual of numbers and how this is playing out. with the u.s. spending more on defense than the next 11 countries combined. 2017 to 2021 u.s. accounted for 39% of major arms deliveries around the world. providing weapons for 103 nations. more than half of the member states of the u.n. when you mehdi, see these numbers, you have to ask this question. how many influence does the arms industry have incentivizing conflict versus conflict resolution when it comes to diplomacy? >> a great question. i think one of the reasons united states gets into so many war was and advocating a military response to any problem is because we are the biggest arms supplier in the world and don't need to be. we don't need to have the saudi arabian buying 25% of our weapons, b

i sat on the 1st reading between president eisenhower. i'm senator kennedy's has the like, when eisenhower passed over a national security apparatus to john kennedy, how scared we had to be that communism was on the march, and we had to stop it. wherever it was. kennedy loved the idea that american ingenuity, not just big, scary bombs, but different more surgical kinds of technologies could be used to defeat these insurgencies and agent, orange or ur besides. in general was part of that strategic view. the here at the chemical company in midland michigan revolutionary chemical killers are being produced to help us of these costly pess. one of the newest and most versatile weapons and dollars, arsenal of chemical warfare is to for dial. we'd killer to 4. d is a growth regulator. type of we'd kill it. the action is illogical, appearing to upset the plants, growth processes and causing gradually, but certain death. the saigon government in 961 was a vociferous proponents of the use of are besides in vietnam. the government was fighting a com

we have eisenhower in the right who will become president, but many others you can learn about, and these are the american leaders, and we also have the war heroes, and i call this, it could be you, generals on the ground and the every man soldier. we also have the martyrs behind the iron curtain, a very important case that highlighted the oppression of religious freedom and also got into the idea of a psychological warfare and brain manipulation and drugging of people to make false confessions. here, the men who make iron curtains, this is the one big man, the war maker who is ghoulish and green. workers are a very important theme because workers in the soviet union are depicted as slaves. they don't get to have the fruits of their own labor. they can't earn money. the state directs their work. here is a fascinating card on african americans that is -- that somebody can easily write an entire paper on this and there are people who have written papers on the idea of race, not only with the idea of african americans in this card but how race is depicted in other cards. this is the common m

andrew, let's have a listen to this famous quote from president eisenhower. >> we have been compelledunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the american experience. yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. and the councils of government, we must carve and guard against the acquisition of unwanted includes. whether -- , why the military industrial complex. the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists. and will persist. >> andrew you wrote on your subset that if eisenhower gave that speech today he would be banned from twitter and it would count as this information. but in general words, the president's words brings true. it's only been said that we have gotten worse since then, not better. >> yes, it is gone that beyond anything hot eisenhower could contemplate. and, it's become more, he could make that speech, inconceivable that any president would dare something today. their power, their influence in washington has become so all enveloping. and the fact that these gigantic, almost obscene defense budgets a

eisenhower nixon sent him down to pass a law that said we can't intimidate or hurt you anymore.my grandfather voted and here's the thing armstrong he voted straight democratic. black folks did what folks toldov them to do. even then they found 80% of black people had voted for the democratic party. people say all of these democrats switchn, to republica. georgia will wallace and ross barnett all of those southern governorsn only one switched. only one through d the rest of them state democrats reverend people voted for o them. so i started asking the question why did this happen? it goes back to cognitive dissonance. it makes perfect sense. you've been beaten down purported years. if they had just paid attention we were fighting and dying shop by water hoses and bitten by dogs. they go to school beside them id a way came to vote we would vote with them. it makes perfect sense. >> host: why are so skeptical about the republican party? >> a good friend of yours lee atwater the rnc and george bush should just become president. the republican party had power in the house of represen