eisenhower and mr. churchill. and so we are very excited about this presentation. if you have questions, please feel free to type them in the chat. i'll monitoring the chat to ask questions at end. so please join join me in welcoming mr. packwood. hey. well, hello, everybody. it's great pleasure to be virtually at eisenhower library in abilene, kansas. and i'm just going to share my screen with you, and you should all now be seeing a title slide with churchill and and okay. so my name alan. alan packwood. and i'm lucky enough to be the director of the churchill archive center, which is located in the grounds of churchill college at the university of cambridge in the u.k. and you're you're looking at an image of that now i joined the archive center as a young naive green in september. 1995 brought in as member of a team to catch a log and exhibit the churchill papers after they had been purchased for the nation. and of course stayed ever since. and in 2002 i was i became the director of, the archive cent

and she and mamie eisenhower, and dwight eisenhower had a very good relationship. and, if you look at the letters between dwight eisenhower and richard nixon, again, big surprise, just about every one of them said say hello to pat, i really appreciate her help. does not sound like eisenhower and his wife did not get along with dick and pat. >> a second misunderstanding or myth of the campaign is that nixon and lodge were ill suited together on a ticket, and that lodge was the downfall for richard nixon that year. what do you say? >> on january 7th 1960 draw it as an hour wrote a secret memo to his own file. his presidential pick was richard nixon. his vice presidential pick was henry cabinet lodged junior. it was not so much eisenhower picking lodge. and, at the time lodge was the representative for the united states. and was the main person who talked about the russians being evil, and made a tremendous amount of television time. he had the ability, he was a boston robin. by the way, you might not know the person who wrote the biography on henry cabinet launch jr.

and she and mamie eisenhower, and dwight eisenhower had a very good relationship. and, if you look at the letters between dwight eisenhower and richard nixon, again, big surprise, just about every one of them said say hello to pat, i really appreciate her help. does not sound like eisenhower and his wife did not get along with dick and pat. >> a second misunderstanding or myth of the campaign is that nixon and lodge were ill suited together on a ticket, and that lodge was the downfall for richard nixon that year. what do you say? >> on january 7th 1960 draw it as an hour wrote a secret memo -- was a boston robin. by the way, you might not know the person who wrote the biography on henry cabinet launch jr.. it is luke nichter. >> it was not a self serving question, i promise. third misunderstanding i highlighted about the 1960s on the democratic side. also interesting that on the 1960s senator john f. kennedy, that candidate would not have been elected president without johnson, it was really eisenhower the trip to the south. louisiana and 56. virginia both campaign

and she and mimi eisenhower and dwight eisenhower. had a very good relationship and if you look at the letters between dwight eisenhower and richard nixon again, big surprise just about every one of them said say hello to pat. i really appreciate her help. doesn't sound like the eisenhower and his wife mamie did not get along with -- impact. the second misunderstanding or myth of the campaign is that nixon and lodge were sort of ill-suited together on the ticket and that lodge was the downfall for richard nixon that year. what do you say? on january 7th 1960 dwight eisenhower wrote a secret memo to his own file his presidential pick was richard nixon. his vice presidential pick was henry cabot lodge, jr. it wasn't so much nixon picking. large it was eisenhower were picking lodge. and at the time lodge was you and representative? for the united states and was the main person who talked about the russians being evil and made a tremendous amount of television time. he had the ability. he was a boston brahman. and by the way you may not k

and she and mamie eisenhower, and dwight eisenhower had a very good relationship. and, if you look at the letters between dwight eisenhower and richard nixon, again, big surprise, just about ar>> on janu to his own file. his presidential pick was richard nixon. his vice presidential pick was henry cabinet lodged junior. it was not so much nixon picking lodge, it was eisenhower picking lodge. and, at the time lodge was the representative for the united states. and was the main person who talked about the russians being evil, and made a tremendous amount of television time. he had the ability, he was a boston robin. by the way, you might not know the person who wrote the biography on henry cabinet launch jr.. it is luke nichter. >> it was not a self serving question, i promise. third misunderstanding i highlighted about the 1960s on the democratic side. also interesting that on the 1960s senator john f. kennedy, that candidate would not have been elected president without johnson, it was really eisenhower the trip to the south. louisiana and 56. virginia both campaig

because nixon was vulnerable, and also because eisenhower was not. they did not attack the great man because it was a waste of your time. so you went after someone that they thought was possible to go after. but what is worse than that is, today in newspapers, magazines, television, you have some of these people who are commentators. i nicely called him idiots. [laughs] they will tell you material that makes no sense at all, and one day one thing, one day the exact opposite thing. but, back in the day, in 1960 you had a bevy of famous columnists, newspaper reporters that simply wrote what happened. whereas kennedy had they's great, energetic audiences. nixon had awful audiences. nobody was there. if you saw pictures, kennedy had good audiences. and, surprise, nixon had good audiences. did nixon have people thought he was charismatic? absolutely! did kennedy have people that thought he was charismatic! yes! theater white, for example, and i quote this in the book, goes over nixon's trade in october of 1960s. wearing a win with kennedy lapel button. ho

so he knew exactly where eisenhower was coming from. and eisenhower was his protegee.hook line and sinker top to bottom. so he said, by all means. they went to the various universities throughout america, pulled out outstanding history historians and military historians and put them to work. people like martin blooms, forrest poe, can't roberts, who turned out the 80 volume green serious nosy army green books on world war ii. now the only shortcoming that those two books have, and it is not their fault, they didn't know about it couldn't help it. they don't include anything on ultra. because it was all classified. and it wasn't let loose until around lucy, i love the archives in that 79 so sometime after that. 80, 81, 82. because the british let loose on it. otherwise, it would probably still be classified. so those historians, martin payments and was with patton's third army. and so i knew him very well. he wrote anything you can find that he wrote in the military or history journal. any book that he did is going to be a plus. can't roberts greenfield was a+. forrest

eisenhower was the five star general. you know, planning operation overlord and the invasion of d-day. it's quite a disparity in rank, certainly at that time and in stature and and there are several eisenhower or kennedy conversations and they come through really clearly, because this is a telephone conversation. and unlike some of the others which are room conversations where the mikes themselves pick up the sound, but but they developed a way to kind of work together. and eisenhower is supportive of kennedy throughout the crisis. and let's bring before get back to a couple of phone calls. i do to play another recording. this one is a conversation between president kennedy and democratic senator richard. and this is also. october 22nd before jfk addresses the nation, quote, adamantly, i said, but i would like. i'asking you to be faithful the war all the way and expect to hear and. expect cold. but you're involved in this blockade. khrushchev said that even if it goes start rather than make it forever. and for more inform

eisenhower was the five star general. you know, planning operation overlord and the invasion of d-day. it's quite a disparity in rank, certainly at that time and in stature and and there are several eisenhower or kennedy conversations and they come through really clearly, because this is a telephone conversation. and unlike some of the others which are room conversations where the mikes themselves pick up the sound, but but they developed a way to kind of work together. and eisenhower is supportive of kennedy throughout the crisis. and let's bring before get back to a couple of phone calls. i do to play another recording. this one is a conversation between president kennedy and democratic senator richard. and this is also. october 22nd before jfk addresses the nation, qte, adamantly, i said, but i would like. i'm asking you to be faithful the war all the way and expect to hear and. expect cold. but you're involved in this blockade. khrushchev said that even if it es start rather than make it forever. and for more informat

eisenhower did. eisenhower came out his first time. he wouldn't shake the hand of the man who came and just -- bring me the peace treaty. he found a way to avoid that. >> since we are talking about his character, what about his humor? i have a letter of his in our stock right now, that is from sir roger tubby, a friend of his. this is in 53, and i just want to read it kind of quickly. i appreciate it very much, your first editorial was not enclosed. it instructed me to read it, but i didn't. i don't seem to have had an opportunity. tubby was taking over adirondack daily enterprises. he says, be sure to pay a lot of attention to local situations. parties, weddings, parents associations, the knights of columbus, the masons. be personal and accurate and pay attention to national issues. roger, this is an ignoramus talking to an expert. what was his humor like? it comes through in this. >> his humor was there, it was real. he was great at self deprecating himself. and here is one place where he talks about the people turning out to see the

so he knew exactly where eisenhower was coming from, and eisenhower was his protegee.hook line and center, top to bottom. so he said by all means, they went to the various universities throughout america, pulled out of sending history, historians, and military historians, and put them to work. people like -- and -- who turned out the 80 volume green series known as the army green books on world war ii. the only shortcoming those green books have, it is not their fault, they didn't know about, it couldn't help, and they do not include anything on ultra. because it was all classified. and it wasn't what loose until around, let's see, i love the archives and 79 so sometime after that, 80 or 81, 82. because the british let loose on it. otherwise it would probably still be classified. those historians, martin looming son was with his third army. so i knew him very well. he wrote anything you can find, that he wrote in the military, a history journal, any book that he did is going to be a plus. ken roberts greenfield was a+, forest did the four volume memoirs of general mars

harry truman and dwight eisenhower. and both of them had been in the renaissance and rehabilitation of the reputation after they left office but even then, the rankings and of that impressive if you've the seventh greatest president of all time, then you're not even in the top 20 percent. going on the list, we can see that nixon's average rating is 32 and 425 and others reagan 18 and bush and clinton is 17 and bush, 36, and as we took the average ranking of all of these presents, it is 19. and franklin roosevelt and the average ranking was 19 of the greatest and why is that set the result of their individual fault, ball to some extent sure, over the course, is very critical of jimmy carter and not out of any personal opposition to anything he tried to accomplish. the criticism of his understanding of executive authority and is use of the powers of leadership. carter's ranking as we saw we flipped back here, concord, 25 and 1919 and 27, 25 and 26. and we can identify those specific reasons that carter fell short of great

the president eisenhower has four grandchildren, they are all differently active within but the eisenhower library and eisenhower fanned asian, which is our support arm. it is wonderful to have them as resources. i've had two of them already give educational programs this year, and a third will wrap up our year. so, frankly, to be able to call them and ask for information, to have them share stories and insights on different aspects of the presidential administration, has been really amazing. i am honored that they have been a part of what we do. >> thank you. i think we have one over here. >> my question is sort of a follow-up to that, actually. most of the sites, the presidents were either deceased or soon to be deceased. and so, while there is living family for eisenhower, and as loving family but much, much more distant. but we have a lot of living presidents now. what is the challenge going forward in trying to establish these kinds of sites of preservation when you have, maybe, a conflict between what the family would like, what the president would like to be remembered for, and what

they are all different, active both the eisenhower presidential library and the eisenhower foundation, which is our support arm. it is to have them as i've had two of them already, give educational programs this year and a third will sort of wrap up our year. so frankly, to be able to call them and ask for information, to have them stories and insight on different aspects of the presidential administration has been really amazing. and i'm honored that they're a part of the of of what we do. thank you. i think we have one over here. and my question is sort of a follow on to that actually you most of the sites the presidents were deceased or soon to be deceased and so you and while there is living family for for eisenhower and there is living family but much much more departure distant but we have a lot of living presidents now and what's the challenge going forward in trying to establish these kinds sites and preservation when you have maybe a conflict between what the family would like, what the president would like to be remembered for, and what history and what we want to start ques

i would also point out the appearance of eisenhower. you can see that this is point 1997 as we learn more about eisenhower you can see his rating improve and he starts to emerge out of the bottom of these lists. arthur slash unger junior publishes an article in 1997. he is taking a poll of 32 experts. experts in quotation because they are really his friends. not that they are experts but mostly their prestigious accordions some pride to saying -- paul simon, united states senator. her to say pence are allowed to develop their own criteria for great minutes. in the article he actually uses justice potter stewart definition of obscenity. you know it when you see. scholars will know greatness when they see. all people have to do is rate each president as great, near great, and average or failure. then they will be assigned the appropriate america store which allows us to come up with an average. slush unger's father actually came up with an early system of ranking the president which was published in life magazine. he was kind of following

so eisenhower went up five spots. we have looked back and why the historians choose to look at it again. i think in this day and age when we are in such a partisan divide and everything that we talk about with race looking back at all that he did to hold the country together are really at a pivotal bull -- pivotal time. >> do you think to this day he's known as one of the most if not the most brilliant of american generals. his reputation just overshadowed his presidency? >> yes in part because he wrote his memoirs about his time in really eloquent terms. at the end of his life he leaves the presidency without going chronologically in a different spot that when he leaves the presidency he is trusting a lot of people in his time in office and they burned him a couple of times and that's where some of the corruption comes from. after he leaves the presidency he trust someone else who's part of his family to invest and make some money but then invest more and loses everything. he is poor after the presidency and has to s

as mail president eisenhower renamed after his grandson, camp david. that is how we know it today. >> you describe kempton for a lot of our viewers and listeners who i'm sure have never visited camp david in person. i'm probably will not visit camp david. when you paint a picture of what the camp is like? >> i will try. great partners of ours 1800 feet elevation, on the spring and summer months. a leafy canopy perfectly manicured yards, the road meanders to the camp. in these cabins we presidential walk-through all the cabins have this oak plank siding with the certain shade of green paint. all the roofs are cedar shake shingles. these very rustic, very leafy, very fresh. but at night i find it particularly surreal definitely quiet, no white except pathway light. no noise except for a squirrel in the tree no lights, no noises from below eerily quiet peaceful. inside the campus is called cedar just from the corner from aspen and the president's logic. >> how many cabins are in camp david, how big is the site? >> there are about four guest cabins preside

>> eisenhower did. i think eisenhower came out for his first time the churchill and said, do you hate them now? he was talking about the germans. >> right, exactly. >> yes? >> i'm sorry. he wouldn't shake the hand of the man that came to bring the peace treaty? i have a it's for robert to be, a friend of his. it is 53. i want someone to read this. very much, your first editorial which was not imposed u.s. directed me to read it but i didn't. i don't seem to have had an opportunity, and then he says because toby was taking over a daily enterprise be sure to pay a lot of attention to look at a situation with parties, weddings, funerals, valedictorians. parent teacher associations the politics, it's a national issue roger this is an ignoramuses talking to an expert. how is his humor like coming to this -- >> his humor was -- i think there was one place where he talks about the people turning to see the present when it comes to town. coming out to see the cardiff giant when he shows up. he makes one of hims

but i realized i didn't know about president eisenhower, i knew about general eisenhower. so for me, i talked about that process, i had this team, a researcher going to the national archives. and found literally, treasure troves of historical nuggets. and those were the days in pass is a test. between the opened my eyes to eisenhower and canned the inauguration. moments in there were history that are moments in history either that overlooked or not are overlooked or not focused on enough focused on and so, enough. and then, the so the second book is about second book is about reagan reagan and the and the final summits with -- final summits with and the speech he gorbachev and the speech he gives that moscow gives that moscow state university, which, in the big span state university. of history is an amazing speech and -- if you think about it wasn't focused on the lot of the time. at the brink, it is fdr, churchill and stalin lanning d day at their conference, which gets overshadowed by yalta. something i didn't think was focused on. so one step further, the beginning, mi

or james birds, so he who he never sort of got over and then eisenhower would he let eisenhower have it in when it basically from the from the 52 campaign when i was now a last stevenson? and truman truman and truman who had always they'd always had a pretty well actually a very respectful relationship and then then it all changed truman. i didn't truman was partially more with deeply offended when when eisenhower didn't come to the defense of general marshall when mccarthy attacked him. and then when he code that he would call marshall. i forget the words he used but but the the the essence was morally morally bankrupt and they and they so after that there was no forgiveness possible and and he really let marsh truman have it. i mean as our have it in the memoirs and and and and actually so i actually didn't have it too. but which is a way and and eisenhower was i said, i wasn't they they were not fond of each other. that's it by that time. they it was a sort of a reconciliation not never a real one after that and so on. but anyway, that's the place that's what truman's real voice i

president eisenhower. bay of pigs, cia in u.s. government, others. passed off to the administration, you see a photo in the top right. he's pulled signed. and what is interesting about this, i think, from a human and political point is that president kennedy they are the operation. it was launched and did not go well. hence the name, bay of pigs fiasco. he reaches across the political and personal aisle, invites president eisenhower to come to camp david and help him understand how to get through it. how would you fix the mess? you do. it's a poignant and significant moment. you have the new upstart democrat inviting the old guard five star retired general former republican president there to talk about what to do. it is a very humble and desperate measure. a very humble way to recognize leadership and recognize what a president passes on between administrations. and talk about what to do best for the country. >> you mention this already, mike, some presidents, when you talk about this new book, some presidents and first families visit camp david mor

eisenhower and one of his teammates, i mean, football has vialways been a violent sport so eisenhower would acknowledge because he was the greatest in america and they had one play they had high and low and he would lay low on the ground but he got up, kept playing and soon knocked dwight eisenhower out of the game. eisenhower would later say i tackled him, beat him once in the whole game. [laughter] >> so that came just a few months after stockholm. how did jim thorpe end up in stockholm? >> he was the greatest all-around athlete so not only playing football for carlisle but also their trakstar. and again the track team was also dominant so much so jim thorpe who could compete in events of all sorts, the motto of the olympics involves jumping, running and throwing weights and he could do all those things. he and his teammate who was a long-distance runner could beat entire track teams by themselves. so both of them competed to go to stockholm and they were selected. they went over to their coach. jim thorpe dominated imagine competing in 17 events which is what hein did because it wa

he got up and kept playing and had knocked eisenhower out of the game. eisenhower would say i tackled jim thorp once. >> that came a few months after stockholm. how did jim thorp end up in stockholm? >> well, first of all, he was the greatest all around athlete. s so he was not only playing football for carlisle, but he was also thetb track star. again, the carlisle track team was also dominant so much so that jim thorp who could compete in events of all sorts. the model of the olympics is it involves o jumping, rung, and throwing weights and he could develop those things. he and his teammate who was a long distance runner and could beat entire track teams by themselves and both of them competed in the tremendousouts to go to -- tryouts to go to stockholm and they were selected and they went over with pop warner, who was their coach. jim thorp dominated there and the decathlon is 10 events and pent lon is shorter with five events and won two gold medals during that period and during one period of the decathlon competition, he couldn't find his shoes and

well why is eisenhower trying to insult why he wants to disrupt the negotiations khrushchev gives theolent man, and he himself is heading to red square for the holiday after all. the command down the chain to shoot down at any cost with the verbal addition that if the american flies away, then your heads will fly made the military act faster than usual, but unsuccessfully the fighter interceptors at two did not get too high. and when it already seemed that the american had left to catch up, they released 14 newest missiles. one of them hits the target at this time khrushchev is standing on the podium the mausoleum of his thoughts is occupied by a spy plane in a lousy mood. but when it was reported in his ear that two had been shot down, khrushchev beamed and, unable to restrain himself from a well-worked phrase, he caught the microphone and the masses of workers puzzled for a whole day , what did the general secretary mean? khrushchev is happy . he is sure that now eisenhower sagman is a fact in the corner, he has no choice but to publicly apologize, or at least admit that he did not

eisenhower did not think a whole lot initially of that young whippersnapper, and kennedy thought eisenhowertty christie and said in his ways. -- crusty and set in his ways. they did not get on all that well, though particularly after kennedy first met eisenhower during the transition period, he came away more impressed with ike and his command of the global situation. they had their challenges, they were from different political parties. that in and of itself created tension between the two. eisenhower is the outgoing president, he had served his two terms, so he could not come back. but he was clearly the most important figure in the republican party nationally. he was a force to contend with. here is john f. kennedy, a junior grade officer in world war ii. eisenhower was the five-star general, planning operation overlord with the invasion of d-day, that is quite a disparity in rank. there are several eisenhower kennedy conversations, fortunately they come through really clearly. this was a telephone conversation, so unlike some of the others, which are room conversations where the microph

eisenhower did not think a whole lot initially of that young whippersnapper, and kennedy thought eisenhowertty christie and said in his ways. -- crusty and set in his ways. they did not get on all that well, though particularly after kennedy first met eisenhower during the transition period, he came away more impressed with ike and his command of the global situation. they had their challenges, they were from different political parties. that in and of itself created tension between the two. eisenhower is the outgoing president, he had served his two terms, so he could not come back. but he was clearly the most important figure in the republican party nationally. he was a force to contend with. here is john f. kennedy, a junior grade officer in world war ii. eisenhower was the five-star general, planning operation overlord with the invasion of d-day, that is quite a disparity in rank. there are several eisenhower kennedy conversations, fortunately they come through really clearly. this was a telephone conversation, so unlike some of the others, which are room conversations where the microph