at the time richard nixon, i think in the johnson/nixon area became the idea of self determination that's act was passed to really give the tribes more responsibility rather than the federal government doing all these difrp things for us. different things for us. that's when we seen this transition into empowerment. of tribes to live self-determined, in other words xtd -- today we're in an area of self-governance where tribes basically contracted for the funding that they basically ran these programs themselves. they just hired their own people. they hired whoever they wanted to hire. didn't have to really use indian health service, you know, employees to really -- and some tribes still do that today. our health care really seems self governance funding. we run the health center ourselves with certain amount of federal funding. we do that. i think we've come a long way. our strength is we're located in the city. all we have to do is buy properties and bring the businesses into the tribe. in rural, nevada, may not ruin businesses even if you were to buy piece of land. so the strength of us

and because of watergate, because of the war in vietnam during the kennedy johnson nixon period, outsidershad some advantage. they could be very critical of the national scene because they had not been a part of it. >> betty ford and the rest of the family would all pitch in. together, they reached out to touch the nation. the president had yet to receive the mandate that comes a victory at the polls. it was a goal he hoped to obtain we. election night, 1976. >> that's the way it stands. electoral votes president ford 137, carter 270, to more than he needed to be the next president of the united states. >> then at the end, he fell short by less than two percentage points. yet he had one far more than he had lost. on a crisp january day in 1977, the new president's first words expressed profound gratitude to the man from grand rapids for healing a divided nation. in two and a half years, gerald ford has restored the presidency to the people of the united states. and it is no exaggeration to say that he gave us back our government. in a season of doubt, he restored our faith in our leaders a

before previous presentations of presidents harry truman and lyndon johnson richard nixon and ronald reagan. he's truly a pleasure to introduce one of washington's most distinguished professors. they are stephen fransworth. >> they are has been anyone like johnny carson and there never will be. from 1962 to 1992 more than 5000 episodes over 30 years johnny carson led politics and culture and has curated list are almost dies interesting. offered a nonstop parade of the key personalities of the 60s in and the 70s and 80s and the 90s. they were the leading likes of film television music books and politics and more than a few amazing animals and their trainers introduced the nation to many comedians on their way up and reminded them of people who were already at the top. to say he'd dominate the television is actually an understatement. by every measure he was not only first but he was so are ahead that it did not matter who was second. careers would rise and fall on the basis of whether performer to get a booking on the tonight show and if the set went well and the comic had a chance to

because pat nixon -- lady bird johnson wore a fat, famously, to her husband's 1965, the or integration, it was a swearing in ceremony, when she was the first actually told the bible. pat nixon decided against it. she did not want to wear a hat. and that set a precedent. i'm glad you mentioned it. there's only so much you can mention but there's a lot of little things that mrs. nixon did in terms of her choices of what she wore that indicated this really, frankly, independent street that she was going to do things her way. and actually, the hat started back again with hillary clinton, but it was as a sun protector. so, so it's sort of funny. hillary, who is associated with being with policy rather than with clothing, with fashion, brings back the had four first ladies, but as a form of some protection. >> we will take one last question, and then afterwards i will ask that you follow are docents down to the east wall where we'll have lunch. down to a last question. >> who will you consider the best dressed first lady overtime in terms of dress, and second, who would you consider the one

so it is easy to forget, of course, the nixon and ford years like the johnson and kennedy years that were truncated. but had pat nixon and bettie ford served in the white house at timef enormous change and they were agents of a gentle change towards the future. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> well done. thank you, carl. carl has agreed to take a couple of questions and so we will do that now. so raise your hand, but i want to ask the first onem as i mentioned before, carl is the author of more than a dozen books, and his latest this one "why they wore it" done in collaboration with the exhibit in the series, and it is also available for sale in museum store, and carl would sign it for you if you buy it. but this is done in four months. can you tell us a little bit about doing this book in four months? >> i don't know if i should, but it was insane. it was insane, and yet, everybody was doing their part, and i would send images and photographs and they would say, well, we have to find one that is public domain, and so there were various staff members here who were diligent in trac

candidates were never actually in attendance at the white house easter egg roll, neither were the johnson,'s or the nixon's. but, that did not stop the kids in the kennedy years from wanting to be techs and macaroni, a family ponies, and wanting to play on the kennedy's swings that, or meet the kennedy kids. the usher at the white house and the policeman that were providing -- unfortunately no caroline and john john we're not there to meet them, this and there were regrets. >> and the pony. >> i'm sure a lot of photographs exist after all these years. you told us the story of the path into from the carters. let's move forward to the reagan administration, there is a wonderful, personal connection between first lady nancy, reagan and the white house easter and roll. what is it? >> she actually attended the easter egg roll as a small child. >> no kidding. >> yes. >> she must have been keen to continue it. >> absolutely, the reagan's were the family that introduced the commemorative eggs, not the official white house keepsake. also they really brought the easter egg roll into a modern era by introducing an al

remember, we talked about that in the andrew johnson chapter. nixon took the gamble, but there were political consequences for him that he did not bank on. his firing of archibald cox, because it was viewed as so honest and a man of integrity, it backfired at least a firestorm of public protest. nixon was forced to hire a new special prosecutor leon juul ski, who is subpoenaed over even more tips. then, the supreme court agreed to hear the case of u.s. v. nixon, to decide the monumental constitution once and for all. what exactly was the legal claim that nixon was making regarding the tapes? why did he say that these tapes were constitutionally protected? yes, eddie? >> the president should be held to a different constitutional standard because they are in charge of so many important issues that they should be held to the same subpoena power. >> and he was talking about this notion of executive privilege in suggesting that there was an absolute privilege. and, so, what does the supreme court say? do they agree that there is such a thing as executive p

because pat nixon -- lady bird johnson wore a hat, famously to her husband's 1965 inauguration, swearing in ceremony when she was the first, actually to hold the bible. pat nixon decided against it. she did not want to wear a hat. and that set a precedent. i'm glad you mentioned it. there is only so much you can mansion. but there are a lot of little things that mrs. nixon did in terms of her choices of what she wore that indicated this, really, frankly, independent streak that she was going to do thing her way. and, actually, the hats started back again with hillary clinton. but it was as a sun protector. so it's sort of funny. hillary -- so associated with being involved in policy rather than clothing and fashion, brings back the hat for first ladies. but as a form of sun protection. >> we will take one last question. and then afterwards i will ask that you all follow our doe cents down to the east room where we are going to be having lunch. with that, our lest question. >> who would you consider the best dressed first lady of all time in dress? and second, who would you consider the o

there is no question if you listen to the nixon tapes and if you study the johnson administration aswell, there is no question the antiwar movement, domestic opposition to the war constrained the military from doing more intense options, more serious invasions of north vietnam, of using more weapons of war, potentially using tactical nuclear weapons, which was on the table at one point. there is no question that the antiwar movement was at least partly responsible for lyndon johnson's decision not to seek another term in 1968. during the period that we are talking about, the spring of 1971, that was the time when nixon and henry kissinger decided to soften the terms of their secret talks with hanoi. the u.s. had insisted that no date for a pullout of u.s. troops could be set. they drop that demand during this period.\ the juxtaposition suggests that the antiwar movement had something to do with that decision. all the marching the antiwar movement did, it was not just people in the streets -- polls showed that most americans thought the war was wrong. a plurality of americans thought

of him as a klutz, his lack of vision, the pardon of nixon, all these things can fit under what i believe is one large umbrella, image. lyndon johnson once said, i'm going to use the uncensored version of this, just so you know, gerald ford is so dumb he can't walk and fart at the same time. in other words, ford was an intellectual vacuous klutz. and what i think the nation came to see during ford's tenure as president was not someone who was physically and intellectually vibrant, not someone who had played football, gone to yale school, swam and skied, instead what they saw was someone physically unsteady. and that physical unsteadiness became tied to an intellectual unsteadiness that led ford to make bad -- led ford to make bad decisions and make bad comments. hence the lack of a vision, his refusal to clarify himself when he said there's no domination of poland, the pardon of nixon, his inability to find the economic downturn, the willingness to find the recognition of this all along, all these things are tied in with the image of a president who was made, who was not physically steady, who was not intellectually steady and made

i mean, i think there's no question if you listen to the nixon tapes, if you look at the documents, if you study the johnson administration as well, there's no question that the anti-war movement, the domestic opposition to the war constrained the military from doing more intense options, you know, more serious innovations of north vietnam. of using more, you know, weapons of war, of even potentially using tactical nuclear weapons which was on the table at one point. there is no question the domestic opposition got in the way of that. there is no question that the anti-war movement was, you know, at least partly if not largely responsible for lyndon johnson's decision not to seek another term in 1968. during the period that we're talking about, the spring of 1971, that was the time when richard nixon and his national security adviser, henry kissinger, decided to soften the terms of their -- in their secret talks with hanoi about how to end the war. up until that point the u.s. had insisted that no date for a pull out of u.s. troops could be set unless north vietnamese troops also would pull out of vietnam a

nixon than the two democrats. he served under harry truman and john f kennedy. i'd say too linda johnson suv and john f kennedy. excuse me, democrats to served under. policy wise he tended to strongly support defense and foreign aid programs aimed at combating communism and protecting us national security. he endorsed the war in vietnam though. he felt that johnson should have relied more heavily on air and naval support unless on ground troops. he was less supportive of social programs believing the encouraged people to rely on federal assistance rather than pull themselves up without government help. because of his loyalty to the republican party ford, sometimes had to take positions differently than he had previously and this especially became the case after became minority leader in 1965, which will say more about here in a minute. for instance ford had opposed lyndon johnson's great society great society programs believed in the encouraged people to live off of government assistance yet. he endorsed richard nixon's family assistance plan, even though that would increase the wealth the nor people on the wel

past we have seen -- and whether it was ronald reagan or richard nixon winning huge landslide victories, or on the other side lyndon johnson winning a landside and 64, winning in 48, 49 states, winning big percentages of the vote, toward 60%, that cannot happen now because each party has a higher floor because they have got so many people that are going to vote with them no matter what. but a higher ceiling because of people just like that on the opposite side. so our two parties are just -- they are locked in with high floors, low ceilings, and small things that can happen can shift that little slice of independence, push them over one way or the other. i friendly see that what -- think that is what we saw for the last election. it certainly looked it was headed toward a certain outcome, and then i think for the independents, they don't trust politics or political parties. they are thinking -- they are at home talking about a democratic wave. and democrats building up a bigger majority in the house, taking on a big majority in the senate. and taking over the white house. they started thinking, what was this i heard about

president johnson said we are not going to enforce this law. president nixonaid it should be argued in court. i argued as a friend of the court. one of the strange things that happened, arguing in defense of the federal statute, the administration refused to defend the law even though there were strong arguments on its behalf. that set the stage for the ruling against it. if the clinton administration had sent their solicitor general, i think things might have come out differently. susan: there is a bit of what chief justice william rehnquist wrote. "we hold that maranda, being a constitutional decision of this court, may not be overruled an act of congress and we decline to overrule miranda ourselves." susan: jeffrey: it is a remarkable decision. chief justice rehnquist has said that miranda is not a constitutional decision and he would come to the edge of overruling it. he shots everyone by upholding it. jeffrey: why does he do this? one thing he says is that maranda has come to be accepted by the culture. this causes justice scalia -- his head almost explod

seen and whether it was, whether it was ronald reagan or richard nixon winning huge land slide victories, on the other side, lyndon johnson, winning a land slide, '64. whether it is 49, 48 states, and winning big percentages of the vote. toward 60%. that can't happen now because, because each party has a higher floor. because they've got so many people who will vote with them no matter what. but a higher ceiling because of people just like that on the opposite side. so our two parties are just, they're locked in with high floors, low ceilings. and we're small things that can happen, a little slice of independence in the middle. push them over one way or the other. i think that's what we saw in the last month before the last election. it certainly looked like it was headed toward a certain outcome. and then i think for these independents who again, remember they don't trust politics or political parties. they're thinking, they're all talking about a democratic wave. and democrats taking over everything. and building up a bigger majority in the house and taking on not only the senate but a big majority in the senate. taking

those thing, i think created a very difficult circumstance for lyndon johnson and the united states of america. >> in 1968 richard nixond and he conceals and ask you to take on the office of economic opportunity, one of the crown jewels of the great society very popular with republicans and nixon who basically wanted to dismantle it. on a great career move for you i think but you did it. what was your rationale. >> i voted against the legislation. sergeant schreiber who recently passed away, had a mini person who headed up the office of economic opportunity. in the started under president kennedy. and he and his brother bobby kennedy and the justice department had fashioned a program to try to assist the country and then president johnson came in with his big texas approach and enlarged it and became the war to eradicate poverty. and if you define poverty is a certain percentage of our population, and they try to eradicate it, it is not possible because there's always the certain percentage that sits or fits in that category. they immediately started a program, there was job corps, head start, migrant programs, program

nixon. it was eisenhower before that and johnson after that. this was the american way of doing war. without actually doing war. and until church and pike made that explicitly illegal, there was nothing -- we're using hindsight to say that is a bad thing, right. it is the way we did things and we did it very successfully. iran was still going well in the 1960s, until '79 when we shouldn't have gotten moss deck out there. and when we went to -- we blessed off on that also if vietnam. that was a smart move. and so knocking off leaders was a legitimate foreign policy decision. and it was a choice that we could make at the time that made some sense at times. and, look, again, like i said in the very beginning, if we killed castro at beginning, it could have ended things before they even started. by '63, '64, not so much and certainly after that. but if you have taken castro out and build his government, it could have fallen. again, it is counter factual history, who the hell knows. but there is an argument to be made that the cult of personality at that time was so strong that it was all

johnson. warhol. streisand. dope. black power. goldwater. hippie. dion. woodstock. the pill. james bond. tiny tim. hair. >> brant. bobby. wallace. golda meier. ecology. the supremes. apollo. psychedelic. wyeth. joe namath. malcolm x. armstrong. nixondira gandhi. demonstrations. l.e.m. but no name, no single word repeated itself as often on the pages of the 1960s and with so much controversy as the name "vietnam." >>> it was a strange mixture of peace and war. a battlefield nowhere and a battlefield everywhere. life during the day, death at night. an ally at one moment, an enemy the next. a lush jungle mixed with the rust of barbed wire. it was all of this. those who wanted to find the war might have had to hunt for it. those who didn't want to find the war often became the hunted. and around the world, and particularly the united states of america, there was another battle. a battle of words, of politics and debate. the question was who was the hunter in vietnam and who was the hunted. who would define aggressor and defender. and there was the larger search for a definition of the word "peace." did peace mean only the absence of war? or the absence of war and fear and oppression? this film is a story of the 1960s in two parts. the

nixon presidential library. look, i guess the good news, tim, for trump, is that he was ranked above franklin pierce, james buchanan and andrew johnsono of whom indifference led to the civil war. so trump has that going for him. >> to debut in the basement of american presidents is just awful. he is the first to debut in one of the surveys at that level since warren g. harding when the rankings of american presidents began by arther schlesingers earth early in the 20th century. donald trump who loves superlatives should not be happy with this outcome. and the historians represent scholars of many backgrounds and many political persuasions. so donald trump managed to strike out with conservatives as well as liberals. >> what does it mean exactly? how is this judged, what does it mean that donald trump is nearly the worst president ever according to historians. >> well we were given a list of ten characteristics of presidencies and asked to rate each president according to a standard of one to ten on each of the characteristics, moral authority, foreign affairs, administrative capabilities, and when everything was tallied, abraham linc

vice president nixon and his party escorted by deputy premier, vice president devotes a good part of his tour to handshaking. company news manner mind of a typical american election johnsonsians were started by u.s. campaigning tactics. in some places on the vice presidents, on the streets it and they factories encountered partyline hecklers. mostly crowds approved big, friendly and demonstrative. many thousands of russians got mr. x is a message of despite the official press. ♪ ♪ a high spot of the day and leningrad was inspection of the soviets nuclear power icebreaker. given a superficial to her. the admiral rickover who commands america the atomic submarine program demanded to be shown just as much as he'd been permitted to see at savannah. after a hard showdown debate, nixon won the point. the admiral was the first american ever to see the reactor. he spent two hours aboard on the vice president mingled with the shipyard workers. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ mr. nixon told the crowd the soviets in the state of alaska were only 40 miles apart. very little ice on the powerful lead and that he and two nations must work together to break the ice between them. one of the most effective momen

johnson wanted that kind of credit and cultivated pearson. he was criticized a lot as a senator but determines the column would be on his side when president. host: richard nixonas the final president he covered. let's watch pearson talking about the reputation in washington. >> are people fearful of you in washington? >> they shouldn't be. some of them are, i guess. >> in a room, if two people go, there is pearson. >> usually it's the other way around. i look around to see if there is tom dodd in the room and if i should get ready to give him the cold freeze he would surely give to me. i do not think people are fearful of me. host: where was his career in 1969? mr. ritchie: at the end. he died that september. he had been opposed from the day nixon was elected to congress and they had a terrible relationship. then he was elected president. for the first six months of the administration, he did not go on the attack. but before he became president, nixon told his chief of staff that no one was allowed to talk to pearson. but we will read the column every day to make sure no one is talking to him. pearson was the first person on the nixon enemy list. then he died

nixon learned well. a lesson that led him straight to watergate. that's a story for another time though. as we know, johnson kennedy got what he wished for. he became the 335th president of the united states. on january 20th he was handed this plan that had been developed under the eisenhower administration. kennedy did know something about it by the time he got into office. he been briefed by dulles and bissell after he won the election. so he knew something, but still it came as quite a shock to discover, first of all, how big the operation was, and secondly, that he had to deal with it immediately. the cia told him that the cubans were about to get a large arms shipment from the soviets, including mig fighter jets which would make it much more difficult to get rid of castro in the future. this was true, by the way. so from day one the pressure was on kennedy to decide what he wanted to do and to decide quickly. that's fair to say that john kennedy was not thrilled by the cia's plan. his main concern was that the involvement of the united states would not be hidden enough. and if it were not, it would pro

johnson wins the nomination. opposing him is a republican who had been around the political bush more than a few times. richard mill house nixon. nixon lost to kennedy in 1960. he lost his bid to become governor of california 1966. richard nixon is not an easy guy to make disappear. he comes back from the political dead. he winds the republican nomination and he does something tricky, i won't be able to say much more today, but he does something very interesting. no nixon has made his bones politically as a fierce anti-, communist as a guy who said we always must stand up to the threat of soviet communism. but by 1968 the war in vietnam was wearing thin with again, not just radicals, not just young people, but more and more americans. they did not want to be trade the troops or give up on their vision of with the united states stood for. they did not have a radical critique of the american foreign policy, but my gosh, the war had been going on now for more than three and a half years when election day came. nixon offers something interesting. he did not say we will win no matter the cost. we will defeat communism no matter wha

past we have seen -- and whether it was ronald reagan or richard nixon winning huge landslide victories, or on the other side lyndon johnsonng a landside and 64, winning in 48, 49 states, winning big percentages of the vote, toward 60%, that cannot happen now because each party has a higher floor because they have got so many people that are going to vote with them no matter what. but a higher ceiling because of people just like that on the opposite side. so our two parties are just -- they are locked in with high floors, low ceilings, and small things that can happen can shift that little slice of independence, push them over one way or the other. i friendly see that what -- think that is what we saw for the last election. it certainly looked it was headed toward a certain outcome, and then i think for the independents, they don't trust politics or political parties. they are thinking -- they are at home talking about a democratic wave. and democrats building up a bigger majority in the house, taking on a big majority in the senate. and taking over the white house. they started thinking, what was this i heard about democr

johnson, warhol, streisand, black power, hippie, dion, woodstock. james bond. tiny tim. king. hair. bobby, wallace, ecology, the supremes, a poll, psychedelic, you check, quiet, join amy, malcolm x, armstrong, nixon, endure gandhi, demonstrations. but no name, no single word repeated itself so often as the pages in the 1960s and with so much controversy as the name, vietnam. >> it was a strange mixture of peace and war, a battlefield nowhere, and the battlefield everywhere. life during the day. death at night. an ally at one moment. an enemy the next. a lush jungle mixed with a brushed barb wire. it was all of this. those who didn't want to find the war might have had to hunt for. it those who didn't want to find the war often become the hunted. around the world and particularly the united states of america, there was another battle, a battle of words. politics, and debate. the question was who was the hunter in vietnam, and who was the hunted. who would define aggressor and defender? there was a larger search for the definition of the word peace. did peace only mean the absence of war or the absence of war and fear and oppression. this film is the story of the 1960s in two parts. the story of bo