lyndon took the oath of office.ost: julia sweig that is lady bird johnson reading her dire -- her diary entry from 1963 describing the scene after the assassination of john f. kennedy. you've just published a new book based on her diaries, " lady bird johnson: hiding in plain sight." tell me about these diaries. when did she make them? guest: thank you very much for having me, susan. her very first diary entry recording her experience of the fascination on november 22 1953. -- november 22, 1963 of john f. kennedy. she made this recording eight days after the assassination. she began with that moment and she continued throughout the johnson presidency until the very end of january, 1969 after nixon was inaugurated in until the 31st of that month. her recordings, and as we say, she is dictating from a variety of sources that she has arrayed in front of her, that she is synthesizing and telling her story from. in a way this is her first draft , of history. she is recording it and for the most part, is not going backwar

-- we know lyndon talks about this a great deal. think when she came into office she was very committed to leveling the racial playing field. there are two components of that from her formative years. one is growing up in alabama over the summers with her family members and are being exposed to the sickness of white supremacy there. the other one was, as you say, driving back and forth with her african-american staff and seeing the jim crow laws affect their lives so directly. year after year. host: lyndon johnson proposed right after he met her. why did she say yes? what did she see in him? guest: that was in 1934. i think she saw a charismatic, ambitious, sort of overwhelmingly -- a man that took up a lot of space but who saw her and elevated her. she always talked about the fact that he proposed to her on the day they met and that this took her aback, but at the same time, it made her feel like her intellect was being recognized by men of great ambition. host: he was a congressional aide at that point. i was surprised to read in

vips coming to the space just as they did to lyndon johnson's day but is not open to our visitors on a daily basis. the remarkable thing about this space is it truly a living, breathing artifact. it hasn't changed at all since president johnson died in january of 1973. there's a document in the quarter of the shrimp signed by among others that then archivist of the united states and lady bird johnson telling my predecessors, , myself and my successors, that nothing in this room can change. so this is just as president johnson would have seen it in his day. there have been a number of luminaries in this room, seven presidents have striated through these rooms. 61st 61st ladies, the queen f england, prince philip, prince charles, princess diana have all been in this room and it looks exactly as we see it now. there's a famous interview that lbj did with walter cronkite in the early 1970s in which lbj is sitting in that chair and walter cronkite on that couch, and you see exactly what you see right now. the president was alive for about a year and a half when this library was built. it

this is one, lyndon johnson, ñ clear that lyndon johnson, lyndon johnson had much of a sense of humor so stories were told about lyndon johnson rather than stories told by lyndon johnson. but here is one that does capture the essence of lyndon johnson. and it's told of the 1968 democratic campaign for the nomination for president. and lyndon johnson has thrown his hat in the ring. and the other two principal candidates are stuart symington, a senator from missouri, and john kennedy, a junior senator from massachusetts. and the three men are sitting in the green room ahead of this debate, they're about to have a debate. they're sitting in the green room. why green rooms are called a green room, i don't know, i've been in lots of them and none of them has been green. nonetheless, they're sitting there making small talk. and kennedy says, stuart, lyndon, i have to tell you something, something very strange that happened to me. my dream, god reached down from heaven and tapped me on the shoulder and said, jack, you're my boy, this is your year. you are going to win the democratic nominati

so stories we're told about lyndon johnson, rather than stories told by lyndon johnson.ut here is one that does capture the essence of lyndon johnson. and it's told of that 1960 democratic campaign for the nomination for president. and lynda johnson throws his hat around and the other two principal candidates -- as senator from missouri, and john kennedy. or junior senator from massachusetts. and the three men are sitting in the green room, ahead -- about to have a debate. they're sitting in agreement, one of the green is called green rooms, i don't know. but not one of them has been green, but nonetheless, they're sitting there. and they're making small talk. and kennedy says, stewart, lyndon, i have to tell you something, something very strange that happened to me. i had a dream last night and in my dream, god reached down from heaven and tapped me on the shoulder and said, jack, you are my boy. this is your year. you are going to win the democratic nomination. you are going to be the next president of the united states. what do you think of that? so, stewart simon --

first of all, where was lyndon johnson? he was not at the white house, he was in austin, texas at the time of the cronkite program. he was there to attend a black type birthday party, a 50 firth -- 51st birthday already for a political ally. the governor of texas at the time. when cronkite was intoning his downbeat, pessimistic intention about the war being stalemated, johnson was not lamenting the loss of cronkite, he was offering a lighthearted toast to john connelly -- conally on his 51st birthday. he said, today you are 51, john. that's every number that every man of politics prays for, simple majority. this probably isn't the greatest joke ever told by a sitting u.s. president, for for lyndon johnson it was not bad. in any case, the point here is that he has not lamenting the loss of cronkite. he's not even in front of the television to watch the cronkite program. he's in austin, texas at a black-tie birthday party for a long time political ally. it's important to keep in mind that in the aftermath, and the days and we

and that came as a sharp surprise to lyndon johnson. so the so the wise men and their council effectively turn johnson's thinking against the war. and he announced on the 31st of march. 1968 that he was not going to seek re-election. so these wise men these informal informal advisors really turned johnson against the war be it on it and to meet courage to change his his view his war effort his war policy. so in wrapping up our discussion about the cronkite moments, i'd like to ask for your views your opinions your impressions as to what makes war a particularly fertile time for media, mythmaking we've discussed the yellow journalism and the spanish-american war period and here's another example of a media myth. related to war the war in vietnam and lyndon johnson's decision not to seek re-election and cronkite moment. what are some of the reasons why that in your view war is such a fertile time for myth making why does war give rise to media myths? fox comments observations a lot, please. you know, i think that war. wartime you don't ge

and in two hours 30 minutes lyndon johnson, robb and lucy baines johnson the daughters of lyndon and lady bird johnson share their white house memories with moderator and journalist susan page. i was born and raised in a small town called gettysburg, pennsylvania, very historic place very small town. my whole family was there aunt's uncle's grandparents. so it was really easy to have a family relationship. it was my mom and dad and three girls. i was the middle of the three girls. my dad was in world war ii he was in the army corps of engineers served in

lyndon johnson before president obama -- lyndon johnson was the last president to have a second cook for the family. most presidents have the white house chief executive chef do everything. cook for the family and four guests and state dinners. >> including recommendations for replacements? >> no, sometimes they will make a recommendation, but typically somebody on the staff may be elevated or somebody the president knows. i'm sorry, most cases it's someone the president knows from their prior life before the presidency that they bring into the white house kitchen if they will make a change. but most, since 1960, most presidents have kept a holdover on the previous administration. so for instance, a guy named henry holler big -- hail or. who is a swiss born guy served from johnson all the way to reagan. and there was a reagan chef and people generally have the same chef. then walter tsai came in with the clintons. served till the end of the first term of george w. bush. then the assistant chef already who came in under the clinton administration got elevated to white house executive

many of them felt less threatened, they said, why lyndon johnson.ght have been by a president who is not southern, and maybe a president who is a northeastern liberal. >> i was thinking about this idea when we saw right before the state of the union president biden announced a pay raise for federal contractors. now the world's most momentous thing, but it will give an average of a 3000 dollar annual raised to 390,000 americans. it's going to make a difference in a lot of people's lives, peoples families. no reaction whatsoever from the republican party. when president obama did exactly the same thing, proposed a pay raise for federal contractors on the eve of one of his state of the union's, the republicans denounced him as literally a socialist dictator and described this as the hallmark of the opening of american empire and him as the head of the imperial presidency, the end of democracy. it was lawlessness. part of what's going on, there is them reacting to having a black president, but also what's going on there is that they don't feel they can

. >> lyndon johnson in his first ever address to a joint session of congress, that was just five days president kennedy's assassination. and with the benefit of hindsight, it seems sort of unremarkable to see lbj called for the passage of a major civil right bill. he would go on to sign the civil rights act and the voting rights act. he also created medicare and medicaid. he over saw the biggest expansion of the safety net since fdr. even though it had only been five days since president kennedy's death, the morning after his first address to congress, "the new york times" led its front page with johnson's call to pass the civil rights bill. and it shows you what a surprise it was to hear that from him. the reaction to his speech was one of surprise. you know, in hindsight, we think it makes sense. but up until that point, johnson had a reputation as a moderate. he was a relatively conservative democratic vice president to the liberal firebrand jfk. he had a career as a moderate. spent his career brokering deals between liberals and moderates and conservatives in congress. but johnson

now in 1964 president lyndon b johnson signed in an executive order officially establishing the office of the curator as well as the committee for preservation of the white house which helps to advise on acquisition. let's head to the next slide. now the white house collection has more than 65,000 objects that are stored both on and offsite the early white house collection was mostly comprised of presidential portraiture donated by descendants of presidents or commission by congress. but today the white house collection includes fine arts decorative arts and furniture presidential china services and more. the collection and preservation of art at the white house is far more streamlined today too new additions are made in almost every administration and those are spearheaded by the curators who select paintings and art based on historical and cultural significance. the white house historical association now the curator's office oversees the selection of works for display in the public areas of the white house those that you might see if you came on a white house tour, but the first fami

a commentator was saying, lyndon b. johnson

and then in an hour the daughters of lyndon b johnson and lady bird johnson share their white house memories in a white house historical association. now i'm pleased to introduce our featured speaker today kurt graham became the director of the harry s truman presidential library museum in 2015, dr. graham has an extensive experience in the librarian museum world. he directed the mccracken research library at the buffalo bills center of the west in cody, wyoming the leadership position of the church history museum in salt lake and prior to that. he was a member of the history factor faculty at cal state university, san bernardino kurt. are you with us? i'm here. hey patrick horrific. how you doing today? right. how are you doing? all right. all right, and how's everyone there doing with everything? we're dealing with the staff of the museum and the library. we've been we've been teleworking primarily since you know the since the pandemic started we've been undergoing a major renovation. of course, we're going to talk about tonight and and fortunately a lot of that has been able to continue a

the lyndon b johnson presidential library and

next on the presidency linda johnson, robb and lucy baines johnson the daughters of lyndon and lady bird johnson shared their white house memories with moderator and journalist. susan page the joined by lloyd hand who served as chief of protocol during the johnson administration. the lyndon b johnson presidential library and museum co-hosted this event with the white house historical association. first lynda johnson robb for more than a half century. she has been an activist on behalf of children's literacy. she is also a former first lady of virginia the wife of charles robb a former governor and senator welcome. thank you. i'm glad to be here. next lucy baines johnson has worked for decades in business and philanthropistly on issues of social justice health care and the environment. thank you so much for being here. i am delighted to participate. that's great and lloyd hand when nothing was senate majority leader. he hired lloyd hand then a guy in his 20s a recent ut graduate as an assistant when lbj was in the white house. he hired him again as the usc protocol lloyd hand. thank you f

host: in this chapter you have a description of her as lyndon johnson in four inch heels. guest: you can see some pictures that remind you of lyndon johnson where she is stabbing her finger at someone she is trying to persuade. there is a famous one with donald trump and the last time they had a real conversation at a white house meeting in october of 2019. there is one with barack obama, her dabbing her finger at him intently. in this picture, barack obama has put his hands on nancy pelosi's hand. it is not clear whether he's trying to calm her or protect himself. host: we have another clip. it is about the passage of the affordable care act. march 21, 2010. this is nancy plessis speaking just before the vote. speaker pelosi: we will be joining those who established social security. medicare. and now tonight, health care for all americans. [applause] >> on this vote, the yays are 219, the nays are 212. [applause] host: a seven vote difference. guest: not really a seven vote difference, she told me. she told me she had some votes in her pocket, that she had some democrats

a commentator was saying, lyndon b. johnson

and lyndon came in as majority leaders -- majority leader, and it was a remarkable thing. i don't think we would have had the civil rights laws. richard: was it invective worl'' is greatest deliberative body, or was that oratorical? mr. mondale: it can be the world's greatest deliberative body. most parliamentary institutions cannot be, because of their rules. but i don't think it is as much as it should be right now, and the nation, in a desperate way, needs to have issues debated fairly, completely, in front of the american people, and only the senate can do that. i have been around when the senate has performed that function, and it is the most unique, special parliamentary institution in the world, by far. almost every upper body and parliamentary systems, like the house of counselors in japan, they become somewhat atrophied with less jurisdiction, and without the same power as the lower house. only america in the united states senate has the upper house become stronger over the history of the country. and that gives them that special stature. but i think it should be

and in two hours 30 minutes lyndon johnson, robb

he will be fondly recalled by four previous presentations on presidents harry truman, lyndon johnson, richard nixon and ronald reagan. he's truly a pleasure to introduce one of washington's most distinguished professors, doctor steven farnsworth. >> there has never been anyone like johnny carson and there never will be. from 1962 to 1992, more than 5000 episodes over 30 years, johnny carson walked through the rainbow colored curtains as he hosted america's top late night show. he tucked americans in at night with his signature mix of mostly gentle barbs, directed at the leading lights of politics and culture and his curated lists have always interesting guest. he offered a non stop parade of the key personalities of the sixties and seventies and the eighties and the nineties. they were the leading lights of film, television, music, books and politics and more than a few amazing animals and their trainers. he introduced the nation to many comedians all the way up and reminded them of people who were already at the top of their game. to say he dominated the television off his era is act

. >> reporter: lyndon patterson prepared for the last year of high school tennis pandemic style.orking at her home court. there's a couple of rackets out here. >> just a couple. >> reporter: that's where she noticed that more than ten years of her career was piling up. >> i realized that people that i play with all the time must have the same problem or same just rackets sitting on out. >> reporter: turns out she was right. so she created love all tennis, serving up rackets and other equipment to under served communities. patterson has donated more than 2,000 rackets with help from friends and the u.s. tennis association, now you are collecting them on the road too, huh? >> yeah, i can kill two birds with one stone. i can go and play tennis and work on my game and at the same and picking up boxes. >> hi! >> reporter: we met up with patterson near atlanta as she delivered her latest batch. to an organization for lairs with special needs. >> if it was not for her, i would not know where i would be. >> this one is for you. >> thank you. >> reporter: the usta said that 3 millionnew p

delegation from mississippi to democratic convention in 1964 convention that, you know, nominated lyndon johnson for president. by summer, and again this comes just weeks after the killing of the murders of the workers in mississippi. so you can pound all of that with the sense of betrayal betrayal by people who were considered friends and allies. who wanted a compromise, who wanted, you know, some way of smoothing over because they were so committed to getting lyndon johnson elected president over go order that you know this was seen worth it to them. and -- now the young people it is not just young people but people have been working very hard in mississippi to bring this challenge above. were deeply i think hurt disappointed and the reaction, again not just a party as a whole. but of the people they thought would be on their side. i think that begins to shift, the -- actually only a few months after that that you got the beginning of the selma movement and selma mobs, you know, something like just nine or eight months after and, of course, formation and learnlings project in lawrence

he wants to be bigger than fdr he wants to be bigger than lyndon johnson and bigger than barack obamanot going to be good for the economy at all. listen -- that meeting with the liberal historian does kind of give it away. but -- right now i say mr. biden wants to develop kind of the great society on steroids you know the great society to the 50th power something. one of the most disturbing aspects of this stimulus bill that just passed so-called stimulus bill and what he's beginning to try to get passed on the infrastructure stuff which they think will go for two packages, it is a massive expansion of child care tax credits dependent care tax credits, food stamps, and number of welfare programs, which will not be temporary. they want to make the expansions permanent which will run in trillions of dollars over the next ten years and more. further more, they are completely unraveling the welfare reform of the mid-90s with bill clinton and newt gink retch it was bipartisan which instituted crucial work requirements able-bodied people must seek work and get work to be eligible for any of

i mean, actually lyndon johnson who you said less about in your opening was in a stronger position, wony a landslide in 64. i think we must remind ourselves that the mandate is much less compelling, less powerful. and we should also remind ourselves that the crisis is completely different from the great depression that roosevelt inherited from herbert hoover. we're coming out of the pandemic, a much shorter duration crisis on the back of vaccinations already, and the vaccination program is one of the legacies that the trump administration, that the biden administration is very happy to take at least some credit for. that is the thing that is going to drive a very rapid recovery, actually regardless of whether there is additional stimulus and infrastructure spending. and finally, let me add one more ca caveat. it's yours, fareed. i completely agree with the point you made at the outset. this is not the federal governments of the 1930s or indeed the 1950s which i think jon meecham is right to allude to. this government has become less effective at delivering whatever it tries to deliver a

will be appointed to the federal bench the first black woman to sit there appointed by president lyndon johnson. these are the women who today still grapple with the legacies and the fact of voter suppression in our own time surely, but they do so with a new sort of access a new sort of influence and do so as a force in american politics. so with that i think i'll end and say thank you again so much to all our hosts for convening us yet again in this wonderful series of conversations, and i think i'm going to invite back jane campbell if i'm not mistaken. jane is going to join me for some conversation and i think for some question and answer, so, thanks jane for for doing this with me. well, thank you so much martha for that informative presentation. it really is. so much to think about and so much to understand i i have a couple of questions myself, and then we're starting to get some questions from our audience and i would remind the audience that you can put your questions in the q&a box and i will try to make sure that we get as many asked as possible while we have dr. jones with us

he was the last living member of lyndon johnson's cabinet. was credited as being a key architect of the voting rights act of 1965 and the fair housing act of 1968. he served as attorney general from 1967 to 1969 during which time he ordered a moratorium on federal executions and opposed j. edgar hoover's wiretapping of martin luther king, but he was also involved in the prosecution of anti-war activists. after leaving office, ramsey clark became a leading critic of u.s. foreign policy. in 1972 he traveled to north vietnam in defiance of the u.s. government to document u.s. war crimes -- it was one of many trips ramsey clark would take to meet the victims of u.s. militarism. also in 1972he successfully defended the harrisburg seven, a group of religious anti-war activists led by the former catholic priest philip berrigan and his wife elizabeth mcalister. he would go to defend members of the plowshares, the anti-nuclear arms movement founded by philip and daniel berrigan. in 1989, clark traveled to panama to document the devastation brought by

how much of that was lyndon johnson's personality? and how much were the instruments available to majority leader in those days? walter: well i think you have to give linden a lot of credit. he was the master of the senate. he knew the rules, and he was absolutely tireless. he would set an agenda and he would work that senate, and work that senate and he got things done that no one else could do. the senate had almost become comatose, before he took over. it was so wedded to its rigidity, that hardly anyone could put enough of it together to do business. linden came in as majority leader, and i think did remarkable things. we would not have had the civil rights laws, at least within the next 10-20 years without him. and we had to do that. >> was in fact the world's greatest liberty of body or was that oratory tradition beginning to fade. walter: i think it can be the world's greatest deliberative body, i don't think most parliamentary institutions cannot be because of their roles and numbers. but i do not think it is as much as it sho

how much of that was lyndon johnson's personality? and how much were the instruments available to majority leader in those days? walter: well i think you have to give linden a lot of credit. he was the master of the senate. he knew the rules, and he was absolutely tireless. he would set an agenda and he would work that senate, and work that senate and he got things done that no one else could do. the senate had almost become comatose, before he took over. it was so wedded to its rigidity, that hardly anyone could put enough of it together to do business. linden came in as majority leader, and i think did remarkable things. we would not have had the civil rights laws, at least within the next 10-20 years without him. and we had to do that. >> was in fact the world's greatest liberty of body or was that oratory tradition beginning to fade. walter: i think it can be the world's greatest deliberative body, i don't think most parliamentary institutions cannot be because of their roles and numbers. but i do not think it is as much as it sho

editing people know that robert caro has spent more than 40 years on his multivolume biography of lyndon johnson, and i'm not on that plan but it did take me about five and half years to complete this and there were thousands of documents that i reviewed, not just at the carter library in atlanta but at other libraries, and interviewed about 260 people including president and mrs. carter and ten other members of the family. and all of the people around president carter who are still alive. i had to kind of do it in reverse action real order because some of them are quite old and if i think about people like zbig brzezinski who was his national security adviser or harold brown to it then president of california is the technology in making this defense secretary, they both died shortly after i interviewed him. it felt like i had a ticking clock on this particular project, and it still took me quite a bit of time. >> you mentioned, you talked to several people in the family and quite a colorful family was. why don't we start with his childhood as you do come his childhood and his family, th

you have to go back to 1965 when lyndon johnson came in, after being elected in 1964. big presidential land slide, overwhelming democratic majorities in the house and senate. and he said i want a war on poverty. i want to give aid to education. i want to pass medicare. i want to do all these things that not only will help the economy and help suffering people, but also will change and improve the political and economic system so that this kind of thing will never happen again. >> leigh ann, as we mentioned, joe biden has attended dozens of joint sessions of congress as a senator and as a vice president. he will be the first president to speak to that body after an insurrection, at least certainly in the modern era. how different will the house chamber look when he walks in as a president tonight, also in the middle of a raging pandemic? >> reporter: yeah. there's going to be a lot of differences tonight, ayman. for one, there are two women who will sit behind him. it was 14 years ago when then president bush said he was the first president ever to open his speech by sa

and the german rock legend who both lyndon back was a 911 fan. i bought a porsche with the dough from my 1st gig at the on call person hamburg in 73. even state premiers like you have been told to try to tame the beast. accelerations fantastic have to fix that but loved it so when the noise forgets like getting to know a new girl as far as my collection goes when it comes to cars my technical bride so to speak it's definitely the sexiest models for. a truly sorry that's the 1st time i've stalls it's a movie to. 11 percent of all 911 are bought by women claudio drives a car ride g.t.s. answer company car. because it was like the fun of a porsche has always been in the back where the engine is if there's a sports mode but only here and then the engine sounds even better. cool drives 40000 kilometers a year pro career it takes the headhunting agency lawyer from appointment to appointment in the blink of an eye. when some one of the nicest things in life is striving to do something for early in the morning if i've got an appointment at 9 i'll hit the

some more friends lyndon bitter over the rear by. a policeman shot me. and i shot 3 policeman jacks also being shot in short here. when i just tell him he will want to remove it risky in the open and they might cut and there was something on i'll probably lies or something so you can look at it. jack says he's working more and more with his former rivals to evade the police who. told him. he looks for gun or several guns middle of a come to a good place on ice and then one of time comes we will have come what are we get 50020000 or 30000 with him with his will split. between them these gang leaders have spent nearly 20 years behind bars. so what i do know is i see the small ones. coming out i tell them. you do this and. it will inflate if we do an operation successful and i will get into iran and. the polish investigation and they apprehend one of us you'll have to be silent if we open our mouth and give information and when you go up to present. papa new guinea's government came to power promising to fight systemic corruption but facing the country's le

it is sunny and lyndon sunny in the south bay and right in along the coast and streaming to the golden gate we have a real healthy marine layer but setting off a total different situation if you are near the water or inland you can barely see the top of the sales force tower from treasure island and meanwhile from dublin in livermore there's not a cloud in the sky but temperature -wise on daytime highs emitted 74 in santa rosa and livermore not far at 72 and oakland didn't get out of city and heyward made it to 62 if we take the marine layer from where it is now coming in through the gate and play this forward overnight, here is why we may have some issues to see those stars. most of us wake up to gray in the south bay looks like it could hold on and it will take a while for this to melt back and it will be a lot like this morning it was great for most of us and we got to late morning and we had to see it. >> the morning those go back into the mid-to upper 40s for most spots in daytime highs will warm back up and we will see any big differences on temperatures but we will this weekend

roosevelt, perhaps lyndon johnson to see one major bill after another. the times were so different then than now. there's no question about it, the president's got the public behind him a lot more he has republicans in congress. >> absolutely, larry gerston thanks for being here today. >> pleasure. >>> let's get back to our coronavirus coverage now. michigan has become the nation's covid hot spot. in the last two weeks, it's recorded 91,000 new covid cases. experts blame the surge on more contagious fatigue. rural areas are being hit hard which have mostly avoided those severe outbreaks until now. those 91,000 new cases are more than california and texas combined during that same time period. >>> after the johnson & johnson covid vaccine was given the green light to resume, thousands of people showed up at the indianapolis motor speedway to get it. a stream of cars pulled up to the iconic speedway all weekend to receive the vaccine. indiana health officials say that they hope more people will see that the j&j option is safe and that appointments will inc

and in two hours 30 minutes lyndon johnson, robb and lucy baines johnson the daughters of lyndon and lady bird johnson share their white house memories with moderator and journalist susan page. i was born and raised in a small town called gettysburg, pennsylvania, very historic place very small town. my whole family was there aunt's uncle's grandparents. so it was really easy to have a family relationship. it was my mom and dad and three girls. i was the middle of the three girls. my dad was in world war ii he was in the army corps of engineers served in alaska his brother john deardorff was a physician and he served in the european tour in belgium and in rhineland and also in the korean conflict and then my mother's brother uncle his name was jim slabaugh and he served on the aristocony oriskany, he's i went to call it something else for a long time. so so i did have service people in my family one of the real highlights of gettysburg is memorial day when i was a little girl they had the grade school kids march in the memorial day parade caring flowers, and we would march in our cla

in 1965, president lyndon johnson's vice president former minnesota senator hubert humphrey said he thought the vietnam undertaking was exhilarating. he said, quote, we ought to be excited about this challenge because here's where we can put to work some of the ideas about nation building. now, the phrase nation building is a semi oxy moron. as churchill knew, nations, like orchids. they're not to be disassembled and reassembled. as churchill also knew, leaders who are not steeped in interest, not marinading in history are apt to blunder. by blundering they'll make bad history and more ruins. 200 years ago this year on our nation's 46th independence day, july 4, 1821, john quincy adams delivered a lucid statement of what he considered america's proper stance toward the world. i want to read you a portion of one paragraph from it because it's in anticipation i think of a version of churchillian realism. wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled there will america's heart, her did he know addictions and prayers be. she goes not abroad in search of monster