nikita khrushchev was waiting, also, for talks to explore such issues as berlin, nuclear testing and >> tell us what you think about this meeting between the young president and khrushchev? >> well, i think it was long overdue because the world needs peace and the world needs disarmament. >> for khrushchev, it is a chance to test the new president on a subject of berlin, khrushchev is tough and blunt. >> khrushchev said west berlin is a bone in my throat. and we must extract it. >> berlin, of course, is divided at the end of world war ii but berlin is 110 miles inside of the east german zone. khrushchev is threatening to force the integration and take over west berlin and kennedy says to him, berlin is part of our western commitment and world war ii. don't challenge us there. >> after two days, the talks end. >> kennedy did not do well. he allowed himself to be caught in an ideological argument with khrushchev. he'd been warned against it. he did it anyways and khrushchev bullied him and pushed him around. >> khrushchev has made the first move in the chess game. and the president kno

. >> nixon's not scared of the russians as soviet premiere nikita khrushchev finds out at a moscow trade> it wasn't supposed to be much. it was supposed to be just a meeting, but it turned into a confrontation. >> there must be a free exchange of ideas. >> capitalism versus communism. back and forth, back and forth, jabbing with the fingers. the words didn't matter. it was the images that mattered. he was presidential. he seemed ready for the white house. >> meanwhile, traveling through the bleak wisconsin landscape, there is another man who believes he's destined for the white house. he's young, he's inexperienced, and he's almost unknown. his name is john f. kennedy, and he aims to win the wisconsin democratic primary. >> how are you this morning? >> and you would stand right there. my job would be to shake hands with jack kennedy. shake hands with teddy, bobby. >> bob kennedy. >> we worked hard. >> i come here today as a candidate in the wisconsin prima primary. >> kennedy is smart. he knows that if he can prove himself a vote winner here in the primaries, the democratic party will ha

jfk would have loved to have a back channel to nikita khrushchev during the cuban missile crisis.tried to figure out how to get in cleaner communication and be understood. and so that's where credibility, personal, presidential credibility is so enormously important. it is conceivable that there would be a president who wanted to have a back channel to russia or some other power not particularly friendly to us, especially in times of crisis. but this administration can't be trusted it seems with anything like that kind of back channel. >> we're stuck with an enormous contradiction, lawrence, where we're trying to ascribe to president trump rationality, strategy, logic, perhaps seeing an opportunity and a strategic rapprocheme rapprochement. and the bottom line is this is not what this guy is. increasingly, those inside the white house and those critics outside. but even his allies see him as a 70-year-old impulsive, needy adolescent who does not know his job and has no sense of strategy. i interviewed interview michael hayden yesterday about many of these issues. and he said there

embassy in moscow talking to nikita khrushchev's brother or son, something like that.e it was a back channel to avoid a war, but you're quite right. go ahead. >> actually, there was a secretary of state who could have done that too. but my point is the russians were gathering incredibly sensitive intelligence watching robert kennedy's face. i wish we were getting the same in moscow. so i think mike flynn, if he was in the room when kislyak suggested that, should have said, no, right there. now, on this business was jared kushner or anybody in the transition wrong to be talking to the russians? absolutely not. or the british or the french or the chinese or the x or the y or the z. that's what transitions do. they're trying to get ready to take office and be up to speed. every embassy in washington during that transition period is getting cables from their foreign ministries at home saying what's the new administration going to do -- neil: right. >> it's perfectly natural. people in washington need to get a life about this. neil: let me ask you a little bit about the pre