nixon is such a gigantic character. he appears in 1949. we shared nixon. then michael focused on ford and the president after. >> nixon first reaches out to reagan who was one of mine in 1947. he says i want to have you come to washington and testify in front of the house. eisenhower, who was one of nancy's, was involved in the 1968 republican convention. he was behind the scenes helping reagan get organized as a supporter of reagan and as a candidate. they positioned themselves for 1968. that suggested the club had relationships long before some of the members were in the white house. >> how did you write this together? how long did it take? >> we had been working on it for better than four years. we could easily spend another four years. the stories are so rich. in a way, it is hard to stop the research and trying to get these stories onto the page. we would both pushed each other to set deadlines. i would draft a chapter and send it to michael. >> what about your personal situation? >> we have day jobs. i am an editor at "time" magazine. one thing we fo

nixon sits down. goldwater starts out with what nixon later called rubs salt and vinegar in the wounds of any moderates who were lingering. and nixon carefully, in that spotlight did not applaud that line. he -- was very much -- i had come to know him by then. he was very much starting to plan, a '68 comeback and just couldn't -- he had to -- he wouldn wouldn't -- would and did support the ticket but was not going to be drawn into that radical conservative. got into a very heated conversation. sitting next to him. just look at the tape. nixon always wanted to play to a broad party base and to include, as inclusive as he could, and sometimes his lack of spontaneity made that an awkward shift. reminds me of a current kennedy trying to do that. >> when you said transition to, i thought, i wanted to ask, but not on the campaign trail, following many republicans around, but especially our soon to be nominee, and, of course, there are questions about mitt romney's past positions and past governance of massa

nixon uses that eulogy as a way to with nixon back to the -- to get nixon back to the sensible center. "may the day of judging richard nixon by one event alone come to an end." >> i know i'm jumping all over. people come by this book and get chronological. >> it is not pure friendship or pure enemies. one of the most amazing arts is -- arcs is between truman and eisenhower. the great global hero of the world, the men's parade in washington. -- the immense parade in washington? -- washington. it is an honor just to meet him. they proceed to work very closely. he makes eisenhower chief of staff. he helps oversee the reorganization of the military. as truman is trying to put together a postwar security structure, he absolutely needs eisenhower to help sell congress on the idea that stationing american troops in europe, he and eisenhower offers eisenhower -- as 1948 approaches, truman offers eisenhower to step aside if he wants to run. i will serve as your vice president. they have a cordial and formal and cooperative relationship. when eisenhower does decide to run in 1952, truman wishes

but nixon, my wife and i were there, and nixon told my wife how delighted he was i was going to be on the ninth circuit and he told me how delighted he was. and a week later the deputy attorney general called me on the phone and said, larry, has the president offered you a seat on the ninth circuit? i said yes. you can't have that. i said, i don't understand. he said it's already been committed to ronald reagan, governor of california, would have the choice. and shortly thereafter ehrlichman called me and said this is really embarrassing, this is a real mess. would you be willing to take a seat on the district of columbia district court with a promise that you would get the first seat on either the d.c. court of appeals or the ninth circuit? i said, no, john. i think -- i was annoyed at this point, and i said, no, i'll just go out in the law practice. at that point george schultz called me and offered me a post of undersecretary of treasury, not the number two, not the deputy, comparable, but the number three position at treasury. i thought about it for only a moment and i thought, yo

nixon sits down. goldwater starts out with what nixon later called rubbing salt in the wounds of any moderate who were lingering and nixon carefully in that spotlight did not applaud that line. he was very much -- i had come to know him by then. he was very much starting to plan a '68 comeback. he had to -- he would and did support the ticket but he was not going to be drawn in to that kind of radical conservatism. he got into a very animated conversation with goldwater's son who was sitting next to him if you look at the tape. nixon always wand to play to a broad party base and to include -- to be as inclusive as he could and sometimes his lack of spontaneity made that awkward. reminds me of a current candidate who is trying to do that. >> that's a transition to -- dan on the campaign trail following many republicans around but our soon to be nominee. of course there are questions about mitt romney's past positions and past governance of massachusetts, how much he's a moderate. but i also want to may

nixon could not pass on that legacy. obama cannot cite nixon as an example. there is a whole tradition that is off-limits. i think that is another of cosa cost of watergate. >> that brings to mind the comment made by evans or he said there are only two things i do not like about nixon, and domestic policy and foreign policy. [laughter] >> that is a great example of one of my ideas, the homogenization of the party started with the democratic party first. you mentioned broccoli. he is alarmed at what happened to lyndon johnson. buckley is alarmed at this, too. milton said it passes in the house and dies in the senate. ronald reagan i discovered oppose it and lobbied against it in ways that surprised me. the left was against it. it was not enough, right. you cannot even discussed this thing now. then you get to the mcgovern years. it turns i -- turns out mcgovern was not really a mcgovernite. you point out the direct primary has empowered extremism on both sides. if you had the old smoke-filled rooms that we want to get rid of, you deserve a bigger breasts in th

>> mine was nixon. >> what about the relationship between richard nixon and john kennedy before? >> what i have not understood is those men were friend in the 1950's. they had come to washington at the same time. they shared a sleeper berth on a train at one point. nixon was invited to tender the's wedding. -- to kennedy's wedding. it was one of those rare occasions when eisenhower invited him to play golf. they had a fairly cordial relationship. the 1960 costs and wound up -- the election wound up being incredibly close, we did the 1960 election world of being incredibly close, and many were convinced kennedy had stolen it and were telling nixon to challenge the results. just a few days after the election, richard nixon spoke to herbert hoover and eisenhower, two who had no desire to see kennedy and the white house, and both of them told nixon not to challenge, that it would not be good for the country. it would not be good at a time when all over the world you have a emerging democracies coming out of a colonial period and looking to the united states as a model, so that was a

i think nixon was one person and "watergate" was one side of nixon. it wasn't just china that was the first reduction in arms treaty of the nuclear age with the soviet union but mideastern policy. it was so many things on the domestic side it's hard to list them all. we have a class about nixon in part that lists 29 domestic initiatives people have forgot energy. beginning with the first real bold environmental legislation. people can say others initiating this or nixon was delegate together advisors or had to do it. he embraced it. school segregation went miles down the road during the first two years of the nixon administration. nixon could it tom wicker in his book describes it's a rowing with muffled ors and not making a big fuss but getting it done. 80 percent of dual school districts where a single race districts. single school districts after two years. so-so spending. human resource spending exceeded the defense budget for the first time since world war ii under nixon. those were things that he got done. the whole revenue sharing. federalism s

yes, that president nixon. the anti-semitic criminal president who sacrificed more than 20,000 american lives in vietnam for no reason. >>> and celebrity chef mario batali gets the last word tonight as he and his family complete one full week of eating only what they could afford on a food stamp budget. mario batali joins me from one of his restaurants. that's coming up. time out. sweet. [ female announcer ] with charmin ultra soft, you can get that cushiony feeling while still using less. designed with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent and you can use four times less. charmin ultra soft. ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. let's see what you got. rv -- covered. why would you pay for a hotel? i never do. motorcycles -- check. atv. i ride those. do you? no. boat. house. hello, dear. hello. hello. oh! check it -- [ loud r&b on car radio ] i'm going on break! the more you bundle, t

yes, that president nixon. the anti-semitic criminal president who sacrificed more than 20,000 american lives in vietnam for no reason. >>> and celebrity chef mario batali gets the last word tonight as he and his family complete one full week of eating only what they could afford on a food stamp budget. mario batali joins me from one of his restaurants. that's coming up. ...which helped students and teachers get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. we have product x and we have product y. we are going to start with product x. the only thing i'll let you know is that it is an, affordable product. oh, i like that. let's move on to product y, which is a far more expensive product. whoaaa. i don't care for that at all. yuck. you picked x and it was geico car insurance and y was the competitor. is that something you woul

and i cannot imagine, i cannot figure out why nixon, president nixon and malik would have known that henley was jewish. it was not a jewish name. >> in response to these concerns from the white house about the statistics from omb -- >> not about statistics about the press releases on the statistics. i don't think there was a concern about the statistics. >> but i just wanted to ask because george shultz at the time the omb director undertakes a review of statistics, government statistics, as could the four departments that produced most of the statistics, hew. you recall this? >> no, i don't. i didn't recall this at all. but it would be census, bls, and who else? >> well, it was agriculture and commerce. >> yes. >> the census being commerce. and so -- but the first part of it was a reorganization of bls. >> oh, i do remember that. >> but what's interesting about this is that after this review, bls gets responsible for even more statistics than it was. >> yes, right. yes, i mean, george, of course, is a first class economist, knew the statistical business quite well and had enormous r

he then became a journalist, he met nixon, nixon took them on, pat was by him aside when nixon reinventedmself for the 112th time in 1966 comanche was with him in 1968 when nixon won that incredibly close election to go on to become president. pat was there at the heart of the nixon administration at a time of extraordinary conflict when america came closest to civil war to act on for 100 years. remarkable time. he is one of the very few people who emerged out of a nixon administration and out of watergate with a clean reputation. tom braden, your colleague on crossfire once remarked that pat buchanan was the only former member of the nixon administration who didn't require a letter from his parole officer to go on tv. [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] pat went on to gone as one of the tv pundits, he helped invent a show called "crossfire." in times past, conservatives tend to consider it like william f. buckley. quite polite, very much dealing with that kind of high realm of ideas. buckley was likely to talk about -- you can almost imagine him doing an interview with ancient gr

with nixon. but it wasn't just china. it was the first nuclear, first reduction arms treaty at the nuclear age with soviet union. this middle eastern policy. it is so many things on the domestic side that it's hard to list them all. i have a class about nixon in part at least 29 domestic initiatives that people have forgotten, beginning with the first real bold environmental legislation, how people can see others initiative or nixon was delegating to advisers which he did or he had to do it. but nonetheless he did 30 embraced it. school segregation went miles further down the road in the first two years of the nixon administration. nixon called it -- tom walker in his book, one of vice, and describes it as growing with muffled oars, not making a big fuss, but getting it done. the dual school districts were a single array is districts, single school districts after two years. social spending, human resource and phoenix needed the defense budget for the first time since before world war ii under ni

and who would have known that pat nixon had a delicious sense of humor. the first couple of months of the nixon presidency, the president and his staff had just come back from europe, the first overseas trip, and apparently there were what lucy characterized as a couple of evil individuals in the west wing who thought it was the height of sophistication to return from paris with a large blowup doll. female doll for purposes we'll leave to their imagination. in anywhere event, word got back to the first lady who for some reason thought it would be appropriate to requisition the doll. she and lucy send it to the white house carpentry shop to be blown up. turned out the daughters of the american revolution were coming to the white house the next day, and president nixon, not knowing what was going on, had run into the secretary general of the der and said oh, listen, why don't you come early. you can come upstairs to the second floor. we'll show you around the private quarters. so cut to the picture of mrs. nixon and her social secretary getting off the elev

well, along comes richard nixon because he is richard nixon. and he figures it out. first of all, it was always the democrats they got saddled with losing china, never the republicans, because richard nixon compared to satellite program at that. he had freedom of action there. he realized what was going on, the clock was running out on him domestically, the draft, all volunteer army. right? richard nixon is too smart to think that a war that 500,000 americans were sent into because the vietnamese were losing it, would suddenly be successful if you put the vietnamese backed. but he was buying time. he was buying political space. at what he did with that, how much -- how early he came up with it, it was a trap. he played the china card. suddenly, you can do it. you can step back in vietnam and not have a worldwide prestige victory handed to the soviet union. it is not the whole of richard nixon. it is not all the things he did. it isn't the plumbers, it's not the paranoia, it's not that expletive deleted. when you look at history from the vantage point of our own time,

we just talked to dan rather who nixon famously called a bastard.ckets to your sexy liberal show at the pantages theatre. he wrote the wrong date. it is july 28th, not august 28th. check your tickets. did you know that richard nixon broadcast his famous checker speech from the pantages. i did not know that. yeah. the sappy speech about his dog that saved his political butt and led directly to watergate. >> you better wear a republican cloth coat. when we're teabagging. wear a respectable republican cloth coat and nothing else. >> stephanie: i just got a visual of a drunken pat nixon naked except for a coat getting teabagged. you know what, jim? thanks a lot. [ buzzer ] >> someone in the chat room thinks it might have been the ghost of richard nixon who put out the wrong date because republicans are good with dirty tricks like that. >> i got you! from beyond! they don't call me tricky dick for nothing. >> stephanie: since we're both ex-catholics how about we found a defrocked priest to get rid of nixon's ghost. we have our personal comedy jesus. >> h

nixon had said, well, remember what nixon said? >> well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. >> okay. the reagan update on that was essentially, if the president does it and it's about national security, that means it's not illegal. even though reagan had done both sides of the hyphen in this scandal, both the iran side and the contra side, even though he had done both sides secretly, hoping nobody would find out, the reagan administration's after-the-fact justification for what he had done and why he had done it was that under reagan's commander in chief powers as president, it was perfectly legal for him to do anything he wanted to do, no matter what the laws were of the united states, because he was president. it's crazy, right? i mean, this was a disaster. there were high-level indictments, administration officials went to jail. amazingly, reagan himself avoided impeachment, but when it came time for congress to investigate this scandal, it was pretty much a slam dunk. they condemned not just what rea

it's interesting because while the tapes of richard nixon are a blemish on the nixon record, they condemn richard nixon, the telephone case of lyndon johnson, we did know these existed. it was not revealed that it actually existed until after lyndon johnson died when his assistant let the then director of the lbj library, harry middleton, know that they were in a fault. so when the johnsons, when mrs. johnson consented to open event in the 1990s, they have no idea what was on the states, absolutely no idea. and as you listen to them, i think they should very positive light on the johnson legacy. >> when you look at the johnson legacy, i think at the end of his administration people were preoccupied with vietnam. it was a big fact of our foreign policy as was domestic policy, but how do i think civil rights is as vietnam received an emmy, the legacy of civil rights is ever clear, ever more present in the daily lives and what led to his, not only we assessment as vindication, there's one conversation that's in the book where he's given the johnson trade in person to george wallace, alabama

richard nixon has a quote about george bush that you may know. it's complimentary because it has a reference to sports. when nixon liked something, he would use that. he says, everybody underestimates george bush. but when it is necessary, he makes the big play. i think there's some truth to that observation and there are a number of big plays we can talk about today and tomorrow. >> i guess i should start by complimenting bob on his presentation as an administrator, as a political scientist and as an historian. it is a friday afternoon. i want you to have compliments from every direction. i enjoyed that. i was very much involved in that and learned from a number of things you had said. i'd like to thank the miller center for not only this opportunity but the time you spent on this project. i'm not quite as appreciative for being asked to follow three professors in an academic setting. beginning to understand what is meant by the observation that everything has been said, just not by everyone. so i'll see if i can add a little bit at this point a

richard nixon and truman were rather crazy in ways. i want you to listen to bobby kennedy describing what he called or what we might be called johnson's dodgeyness. >> he's mean, bit ir, vicious -- bitter, vicious. i think he's got this other side that makes it very difficult. he's able to eat people up. chris: i have a problem with the coverage. i never knew this about johnson. i thought it was grandfatherly type of guy. and this courseness, the drinking, the crudeness never got out. >> it's true. lyndon johnson could be quite a bully. it's true that he drank. he didn't have a big drinking problem. remember he came to the presidency after the assassination of president kennedy. the country wanted to like a president. it seems like a long time ago. it was right after the assassination. for whatever his flaws and failures were r seaved or otherwise weren't, lyndon johnson got things done. as far as the press corps was concerned, it was a different era in the same way that the president never reported things in president john kennedy's p

and eventually thanks to president richard nixon, it became law. and the united states shifted to a different system, which has really been a great benefit to our country. there is no question but that the armed forces today, the men and women, every single person is there because they want to be there. they raised their hands and said send me, and god bless them for it. but it was that concept of milton friedman's that he pushed and pushed early on. of course the flip side of that is that i also was involved in something that was quite apart from a conservative tradition. richard nixon went up to camp david back in 1970, i guess, and when he came back down, he had decided to impose wage price controls on america and i remember george schultz came to me and said i want to run the wage price controls for the united states of america. and i said i don't believe in them. and he said i know, don. that's why we want you to do it, because it's such a bad idea. sure enough, they were imposed, and what we did was try to manage them so they didn't distort o

it's like a slave plantation, basically. >> nixon is serving 15 years for third degree murder.for robbery and battery with a deadly weapon. but he's had plenty of trouble inside prison, as well. >> marcus young has approximately 25 disciplinary reports in his history. disorderly conduct. theft. disobeying orders. fighting. possession of weapons. possession of narcotics. assault or an attempted assault on inmates. lewd and lascivious exhibition, telephone violations. several spoken threats. >> nixon has also seen his share of trouble. >> i came here for a ride, the whole, it was a big ride and they emergency transfer everybody to this unit. the officers kept on just bugging us about oh, you won't do this. you won't do that. y'all scared. y'all kids. and they just always mess with us. so everybody got tired of it and we just tore up the dorm. >> in confinement, the men have little to do when they're not working on the labor squad. but young hopes his new book will open a door to his future. >> i just wanted -- one of the first books i ever read right here on the stock market. abo

he was here in 2009 for his oscar-nominated roll in "frost/nixon."e has a memoir of the people he's met and worked with. the book is called "dropped names." famous men and women as i knew them. >> travis, great to see you. tavis: when you were here last, you were doing media rounds for "frost/nixon." wyou weryou were here. when our guests leave, we give them a mug. it has our show logo. frank langella leaves here. we gave that and some parting gifts. he goes to his hotel room. a bungalow you were staying at. you go and take our mug with you. "new york times" magazine does a photoshoot of the nominees, a great spread of yourself and other nominees. neil calls me at home and says, "have you seen new york times magazine/" ?" he said, "weir're in it." i open it up. he says, "turn the the page featuring frank langella." there's a picture of you in your room, and my mug is in the shot. >> do you know how unimportant it is. tavis: but you know how important it is to me. i looked a >> i looked at it a dozen times and never saw your mug. i was looking at my m

and then six first ladies at the reagan library dedication with pat nixon. i think this was the last public appearance that mrs. nixon made before she died with lady bird, and then at the george bush library opening. this is -- hillary is first lady, and they were all watching the presidents talking and at the ford funeral where president bush and those three first ladies. this was in palm desert. thank you. [ applause ] >> great job. >> well, this is unfair that i have to follow you, david. >> i intended it. thank you so much. >> clearly one of the most memorable events for mrs. bush was her commencement address at wellesley. aside from all the brouhaha and protests that were stirred up, it was a great success. i'm sure everybody remembers the quote that at the end of your life you'll never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, closing one more deal, but you will regret time not spent with a husband, child or a parent, and i think this is a code that she lived by. there she is with mrs. gorbachev who came with her to the even

but richard nixon, in one of the biggest landslides in the united states, which meant most americans who voted in that election voted for him. yet, when facts came out, suggesting that laws were violated, the american people, and including the overwhelming majority that had supported richard nixon said congress, you have to investigate and you have to have a special prosecutor. the laws have to be enforced no matter what. in the end, when they asked him on a bipartisan basis to go for the impeachment of richard nixon, the company overwhelmingly supported a verdict. and what did that tell us? that more important than any political party, and more important than any president of the united states, and more important than any single person and any ideology, it was the bedrock principle of the rule of law and the preservation of our constitution. and americans united on that theme, regardless that they had voted just about a year and a half before that. people put behind them their own partisan views and send what is good for the country and the rule of law and one standard of law was cr

nixon. and this was a very nasty campaign. you may remember that this is also the time of the -- the beginning of the rise of the red scare, and so one of the things that nixon accused helen gahagan douglas of was a voting record that was leaned towards the extreme left in the communist party and this is called the pink sheet. this was issued by the nixon campaign committee. accusing her of many votes against the committee on un-american activities, and votes against the loyalty and security legislation. votes against california. and tying her voting record to a congressman in new york, and casting both of them, really, as communists. you'll note down here in the corner, the lipstick, which we believe is from helen gahagan douglas, was her response to this pink sheet that was being put out by the opposition. she was unsuccessful. richard nixon did win that campaign, and she did not run for another elected office after that. so her primary tenure was in the u.s. congress. the center has wall exhibit space where we have rotating

johnson and nixon. finally to light in a way scholars can use. it's one of the most important basic research projects in american history underway in the united states. tim was the founding director of that project. after his service on that project and continuing to publish other acclaimed books, he now actually holds his job as the collector of the richard nixon library out in california. as the director of the nixon library, tim has not only been organizing world history projects of his own, he's actually set precedents in almost setting the model of how to run a presidential library under the most difficult possible circumstances. it's a tribute to his abilities. then to tim's right, your left is bob strong. i know bob strong principally through his scholarship. bob works in that strange netherworld where you study american politics by understanding its political history. some days he looks like a political historian and could be an exemplar of both. i think he's probably the single most prominent and important historian of the carter preside