mrs. eisenhower invited the actress, lucille ball and her husband and the other cast members to come to the white house to perform at a benefit for president eisenhower's birthday. this was just days before ms. ball was scheduled to appear on capitol hill. several weeks later, at the vice president dinner, a traditional dinner held annually in those days, the entire united states senate was always traditionally invited. one senator, however, was not invited by mrs. eisenhower. that was senator joseph mccarthy. as lighthearted as the anecdote may now seem, at the time, it sent a political message. it was the use of her role as a hostess by the administration, not so much by mrs. eisenhower, to make a statement that was not quite coming out against mccarthy. mccarthy was of the same political party. but it still made its point. from the very beginning, first ladies assumed public projects, or what we later called special projects. martha washington, for example, during the american revolution, had sown closed for revolutionary war veterans and then later, as first lady, developed the idea of

mrs. eisenhower invited the actress, lucille ball and her husband and the other cast members to come to theer's birthday. this was just days before ms. ball was scheduled to appear on capitol hill. several weeks later, at the vice president dinner, a traditional dinner held annually in those days, the entire united states senate was always traditionally invited. one senator, however, was not invited by mrs. eisenhower. that was senator joseph mccarthy. as lighthearted as the anecdote may now seem, at the time, it sent a political message. it was the use of her role as a hostess by the administration, not so much by mrs. eisenhower, to make a statement that was not quite coming out against mccarthy. mccarthy was of the same political party. but it still made its point. from the very beginning, first ladies assumed public projects, or what we later called special projects. martha washington, for example, during the american revolution, had sown closed for revolutionary war veterans and then later, as first lady, developed the idea of allowing them to come to her personally if they had any fin

hatching one bizarre and destructive cia scheme after another whispered in eisenhower's year that you're going to the summit soon, mr. president, but just before that, how about one more spy mission over the soviet union with the cia's spy plane. eisenhower thought that was a little bit provocative and dangerous and thought that maybe it would be a risk in view of the summit just weeks away. and bissell assured him, mr. president, they don't know what we're doing. a you to is a safe mission. besides, if it happens to be scrambled or shot down, it's designed to disintegrate. the pilot has a poison hypodermic needle to kill himself in the event that he might be captured. there is no way that anything can go wrong, says the cia until this morning. and i will come back to that. and eisenhower apparently reluctantly said, okay. we will have one more mission. you recall what happened. what he had not told eisenhower was that the preceding plane had already been picked up on soviet radar and jets had been scrambled but could not reach the high altitude. the cia already knew that it was not a safe operation but did not ment

mr. obama's approach to the hidden hand style of dwight d. eisenhower who often steered events behind the scenes without being public. on immigration, the ambitious legislative effort in his second term. he's kept this to a minimum to avoid alienating republicans. the white house says, make no mistake, we are involved. we may be behind the scenes, but we have our hands on the specific could tspigot. >> i thought that was interesting. this emerged after the fact. for years eisenhower was one of my favorite republican presidents and for years people said he didn't know how to speak the english language. it turned out he often did that on purpose when he didn't want to take a position. >> something george w. bush adopted but anyway, i digress. >> so he didn't get credit for it until after the fact so we won't know about the obama hidden hand until this is over. but by going on spanish language media the present sent a not so subtle message to republicans. he said, look, we've really defeated you guys overwhelmingly in the last election among latino voters

mr. goldberg. we have eaten this before not only in president obama with bush the younger, dwight eisenhower golfingile the sof soviets are moving across poland whatever. justified? >> i think the analysis that you just played is absolutely correct. the optics are terrible. the president of the united states of america is playing golf in short pants and a polo shirt while one of the most important countries in the arab world is unraveling, yeah, that's a bad picture. but, i don't think those optics were a mistake as bad as they were. i don't think it was mistake. president obama was sending a message to president morsi and the message was, i never liked you, i don't like you now. in many ways you are worse than mubarak, the dictator that you succeeded and playing golf says: i am not going to lift a finger. i'm not going to say a word publicly that will save you from being thrown out. so i think that's one strong possibility. the second one has absolutely nothing to do with diplomacy or politics. and it's pretty simple, bill. i think it may actually be the real reason. president obama just lane likes

mr. black, in trenton you dedicate it to for loyal american friends in particular. tina brown, harold evans, ann coulter, julie nixon eisenhower, henry and nancy kissinger. rush limbaugh, peggy noonan. et cetera, et cetera. why were you specific about using the word loyal in the dedication? >> guest: well, in sort of crisis that i went through, the onslaught against me, some people went out of their way to be supportive, and some just went -- and if you really defected, became somewhat antagonistic so i wanted to show some recognition to those who have been supportive. because for the latest system works and this is not confined in the united states, when that degree of official is focus on a person, there is the intent by those targeting him to ostracize and isolate him. so all those, since i was writing about the united states i thought i would focus on americans in that. all those who resisted that, army of the once there tended to visit me when i was a guest of the american people, including henry kissinger. i thought it's the least i could do and i was proud to do it. and i have many american friends, those and others, an

eisenhower at all. >> i love this story. her mother lived in the white house, and her mother lived on the second floor. >> like mrs. obama's mother. >> this was a little different. her mother would get up. the general did not sleep in that room, and she would phone her mother down the hall, and they would each be served a breakfast tray in bed, and they would talk on the telephone. >> not in the press room. there are different ways of negotiating. >> also keep in mind this is right after the war when the whole american ethic was pushing women out of the positions they had been in, trying to push them out of the public eye. >> it seems like whatever was going on in the background, women's rights were popular in the country, yet when rosalynn carter tried to take power, the public did not like it at all. >> betty ford. >> the republicans were beside themselves. >> he said, i just knew i would be in so much trouble. he was fighting his party. they were saying, it is not popular with republicans. >> one sees this after the 19th amendment. dwight eisenhower has a certain similarity. maybe because wars create all sorts o

eisenhower at all. >> i love this story. her mother lived in the white house, and her mother lived on .he second floor >> like mrs. obama's mother. >> this was a little different. .er mother would get up the general did not sleep in that room, and she would phone her mother down the hall, and they would each be served a breakfast tray in bed, and they .ould talk on the telephone >> not in the press room. there are different ways of negotiating. >> also keep in mind this is when theer the war whole american ethic was pushing women out of the positions they had been in, trying to push them out of the public eye. >> it seems like whatever was going on in the background, inen's rights were popular the country, yet when rosalynn carter tried to take power, the public did not like it at all. >> betty ford. >> the republicans were beside themselves. >> he said, i just knew i would be in so much trouble. he was fighting his party. they were saying, it is not popular with republicans. >> one sees this after the 19th amendment. dwight eisenhower has a certain similarity. because wars create all sorts of social change anxiet

eisenhower story. her mother lived in the white house and her mother lived up there in the residence in the second floor. every morning -- >> like mrs. obama's mother. >> exactly. this was little different. mammie's mother was down the hall and she will get up in her pink bedroom, the general didn't sleep in that room. she would phone her mother down the hall and they would each be served a breakfast tray in bed. they would talk to each other in the morning on the telephone down the hall. mammie eisenhower. >> not in the press room. >> never in the press room. >> sort of ways of negotiating. >> also keep in mind the series. this is right after the war or soon after the war when the whole american sort of ethic was pushing women back out of the position they had been in during the war. trying to push them back into the home and push them out of the public eye. >> that's the crux of my question. it seems that throughout our history whatever was going on in the background, women's rights came and were popular in this country in the early 1970's. when rose lynn carter tried to take power, the country didn't like it at all. >> betty ford

mr. president, that would be about $500 billion. now, that meant almost 50,000 miles of new highways. there are still ideas out there we should do. eisenhower, along with roosevelt, did some things that were new and uniqu unique, but k back at what good they did. look at the good of social security. look at the good of our interstate highway system. now, with the highway bill back in 1956, the bipartisan vote wasn't even close. thereon this. it passed the senate 89-1. and it was approved in the house of representatives by a voice vote. forty years later -- fo about 40 years after president roosevelt decided we should do something about taking care of people in their golden years here in america, president harry truman envision add program that would protect every senior citizen from illness and need. well, 83 republicans helped lyndon johnson and democrats in congress to create medicare. democratic president, roosevelt, preen presidentrepublican presi, eisenhower, democratic presidents truman and johnson were the reason we have medicare. since the law was enacted in 1965, poverty among seniors in this country has decreased and life expectan

sure this marriage survives and it doesn't interfere with eisenhower's command of the other forces in the europe. any other questions? >> all right, mr. persico, thank you. but it did not answer my question. [laughter] >> i was always concerned about the this decision in the pacific command where after the gawptless surrenders, but at that point they then expand the command further down, and when wainwright vendors -- surrenders, he loses over half a million men, places they haven't even begun to fight. who makes that decision to expand? >> well, mcarthur assumed that after he was plucked from the philippines that wainwright would carry on almost to the death. wainwright sees his forces essentially starving, outmanned, and he surrenders nothing like the figure of half a million, but he surrenders them. and mcarthur publicly says thereafter that wainwright carried on a heroic battle to the very end, but as he makes clear to his inner sickle, he is -- circles, he is outraged that wainwright surrendered in the philippines. anybody else? >> time for two more questions. >> i want to play off the relationship further between fdr and mcarth