and he knew that he had appeared weak to kruschev. and kruschev thought he was weak.o it was, it was a terrible, terrible performance. >> and then what -- how did it go on from there? [laughter] >> well, oh, one other thing about the vienna summit. the other thing i focus on is everyone's written about kennedy's womanizing, kennedy's health issues. i think the vienna summit thing may have played a role. he had particularly great pain, and we know that from his doctor, we know he had an injury earlier from a trip to canada. he was in enormous pain. and on the trip he had someone called dr. feelgood. he was the doctor to celebrities, to tennessee williams, to truman capote. and he was shooting him up with a mixture of enzymes and steroids and amphetamines. to keep him alert, to keep him from depression. but if you look at the side effects of these things, the side effects are mood swings, the side effects are nervousness, anxiety. you know, he did show mood swings at the end of the summit, he did show nervousness and anxiety. these are national security consequences. we

he has to stand up to kruschev. >> rose: kennedy and kruschev were... what was it that made kennedy feel like he'd been beaten up. >> it was a two day summit in vienna. if you rewind a bit it was the first year that television played such a role in politics. 1960 you had the first presidential debates live on television, nixon and kennedy. you had the first live presidential press conference and this was really the first live presidential summit with... in vienna. he was told by his advisors don't get into an ideological debate with kruschev. whatever you do, avoid that. so what does he do the first day? he gets in an ideological debate with kruschev and kruschev is just too good at that. it was almost like a soccer player monopolizing the ball and the field. the second day he goes to berlin and has a presummit agreement that nothing is going to be decided on berlin and kruschev dumps a berlin ultimatum in front of him and says "if you don't help me fix my berlin problem within six months, i'm going to do it unilaterally." caught him totally off guard.

-- kruschev, right? you're a third world country, you hadn't yet aligned with the soviets, with the communists or with the united states, and you have to decide, am i going to cast my lot with the united states, or with the soviet union based on how their first ladies look. which one do you pick, all right? it sounds facetious, but i think symbolically there's something to it. the kennedys looked alive and vibrant and stylish, the soviets did not. next, mrs. kennedy meets with kruschev himself. now, again, this is not an official summit meeting where diplomacy is occurring, but she meets him at the state dinner at the palace in vienna. and look at the facial expressions on chairman kruschev's face. again, president kennedy's in the background. here's mrs. kennedy in this lovely beaded gown, and apparently, she said this to chairman kruschev when he began to try to dazzle her with statistics about how many missiles they had and how many cannons they were producing and how many tractors, she supposedly in

kruschev releases captured u.s.ots, reduces censorships, prints the entire inaugural. >> host: the american inaugural. >> guest: right. the great colorful words of president kennedy. he was trying to send a message, look, we want to work with you. i think it was genuine, but kennedy got a text of a speech delivered on january 9, and it was tough rhetoric. it was escalating the war, and it was a speech to propaganda. kennedy saw this as a sign. he totally changes his tone towards the soviet union and turns it into a hawkish direction. he sees that, pulls back on the gestures, and can't afford to expose his own stank and turns tougher as well. at that point, we missed a key opportunity when the two of them might have been anal to find a bet -- able to find a better way forward. >> host: it shows trying to figure out what was happening in the soviet union and interpret the words, and in the end, you had to rely on instincts. the most dray maltic -- dramatic part of your gripping book is a discussion of the vienna summi