nixon's tapes, nixon's papers, and ultimately nixon's legal prospects. now, for whatever it is worth, gerald ford believed that if the process went forward, nixon would be indicted, tried, and convicted at least for obstruction of justice. and then it would obviously come back to them. so, all of this is going on and he concluded quite independently, in my opinion, that he had to find a way to change the subject. the media were -- this is the greatest story. remember famously when edward viii abdicated and you may even call it the greatest story since the resurrection, well, wi this was a close second. certainly as far as the washington press corps whether concerned, everyone was obsessed, the country was obsessed. critically, ford didn't do this without consulting. he secured through back channels -- kaufman -- leon, the special prosecutor had a suite in the hotel jefferson, which happened to be the same hotel where phil buchanan and his wife were staying. which facilitated backdoor channels. between the trusted phil buchanan, who had become white house

he told nixon. and it complicates the whole situation by undercutting the president's support on capitol hill and sowing fresh doubts among the public and press throughout that summer. and into that spring and into the summer months. ford maintained his zigzag course deftly, if not always gracefully, navigating between extremes. he insisted that nothing in nixon's conduct justified his removal from office. yet this seemed grudging to some nixon loyalists, none more fervent than new hampshire's famously abusive manchester union leader, which assured its readers with characteristic subtlety. jerry is a jerk. nixon himself was forced to deny to his vice president a newsweek story that he had welcomed nelson rockefeller to the oval office by pointing to the chair behind his desk and asking, rocky, can you see jerry ford sitting in this chair, by the way? i don't know whether nixon said it. if he did, he wasn't putting down ford. he was buttering up nelson rockefeller. as washington basked in the summer

nixon. and this shall include any interest i may have the estate of my parents or any other estate i direct that my funeral be as simple and inexpensive as possible. i appoint my wife as executive without bond. she is to have absolute discretion in settling my estate and. most interesting the remarriage of my wife after my. let's see. i think it's just after my deceased. so i believe it's what it says. or after dead shall have no effect whatsoever on her rights under my will. i believe that such action by her would be for the best, i mean, extraordinary document, very selfless. so wanted to start with that as we get into his time in the south pacific and we'll keep that up just a little bit. so when he arrives, when -- nixon arrives in the south pacific, he first goes to new caledonia and he's assigned to south pacific air transport command. he preps flight plans here and manifests for cargo and transit for planes. he's ultimately to hop around and work at a number of different places in the

because nixon's assistant attorney general at doj henry peterson had told cox that nixon had insisted he was innocent and kind of blurted out, you can listen to the tape. that always stuck in archie's mind. so bob, in the book, the final days, a fabulous account of this time period, you tell the story, inside the white house, nixon tried to deceive his own lawyers on the subject of the tapes. what can you tell us about that? >> first of all, nixon's main lawyer, for the final days we did 17 interviews with him. a really full unraveling of these relationships with nixon, and that nixon would like to him, he felt very much that nixon was the most transparent liar. but i think you have to ask the question, what is driving nixon? , obviously covering up, but if you'll allow me to go to the day nixon resigned, famously a grievance filled farewell address. and then at one moment he turns to the cameras and nixon just says, always remember , others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. and then you destroy yourself. we now know from the tapes, that we knew from

nixon. he was born in 1923, and he was born and raised in germany, loved not playing soccer as a kid. very very good in school, but was jewish. his family were jewish. and so as the nazi persecution, the german jewish community escalated in the 1930s, the family eventually took the decision to emigrate. and of course, by doing so, they almost certainly their lives. so he was 15 when he came to the united states for the first time. he became citizen during world war two. he joined the army because he was perfectly fluent in german. he was a valuable person for the american army's fighting in europe. he was involved in the battle of the bulge. the german counterattack against the americans in, the winter of 1944 to 5. briefly, as a private soldier, he had the job of organizing a newly liberated town in germany from the from the nazis. and his organizational abilities made him and made his superiors look favorably upon him. when the war had finished, kissinger went to college first at harvard a

nixon. well, for these two remarkable women who became friends who encouraged each other to live their best lives in the pressure of public life and the glare of the white house. well, with us to give deeper insight into pat nixon and betty ford, we have some distinguished people on this stage, susan ford bales only daughter of president and mrs.. susan is the sponsor, the aircraft carrier uss gerald r ford and recognize one of her extraordinary service as the ship's sponsor. susan was named an honorary aviator by the united states navy, becoming only the 31st american ever to receive this distinction and the first woman ever to be so honored. she is the recipient of three honorary doctorates and is the author of two novels set in the white house. i'm waiting for those novels. get on tv now, because the netflix we need to clean up next looks a little. edward cox next to susan, the son in law of president and mrs. nixon. many of you recall that the hauenstein and the ford held a joint program

i also wanted to thank the nixon foundation and the nixon library for all of their help facilitatingresearch and a special shutout to jason schwartz, the head archivist for the foundation for all of his help. so thank you all for that and i'm excited to jump in and talk about the world war ii period and the nixon story during that era with you this evening. first, i want to start with a little world war ii context in case you've forgotten about that. just very basic things. world war ii was declared in europe september 1st of 1939. the u.s., as you may recall, declared war later on december 8th of 1941, just a day after the bombing of pearl harbor. the war ends september 2nd of 1945, so that's the time period we're talking about, and within this frame, i want to talk about a little bit about the nixon background, pat and dick nixon and i'll be calling them pat and dick since this is pre-presidential time and talk about their life together as a couple. they were married on june 21st, 1940 at the mission inn in riverside, california, and that was followed by a two-week honeymoon in mex

nixon son- in-law, mr. ford's daughter. watch american history tv saturday's on c-span 2 , find the full schedule online or watch any time at cspan.org /history. >> weekends on c-span 2 are an international feast. every weekend international tv documents america story. and book tv brings you the latest nonfiction books and authors. funding comes from these television companies and more, including comcast. good evening. i'm nina totenberg. welcome to the national press club. i covered as a very young reporter, a baby >> good evening. welcome to the national press club. i covered watergate as a very young reporter, a baby reporter, they just let me come in diapers. i covered from the hearings to the trials. i am especially elated to be here this evening i went like to welcome c-span and the c-span audience . this is being filmed for c-span's american history tv. our program tonight marks the 50th anniversary of the saturday night massacre that ultimately led to president nixon's resignation in the scandal. it was a significan

in any event nixon wasted no time. agnew resigned two years later in a somewhat garish celebratory event and in the eastern white house be on for a national television audience with the scrolling's screens performing. nixon introduced gerald ford as his choice to succeed agnew. and with that the starting pistol was fired. the fbi undertook the most extensive investigation of any candidate for office. 350 agents made it their business to investigate ford's finances and friends. the worst they came up with was a former ohio state halfback who had been tackled by ford in his college days and ford was penalized for unnecessaryroughness . the all ohio state player volunteered to the fbi that it was a clean hit. all immediately everything accelerated. within days ford was engulfed in the watergate trauma. and this is eight days after he has been announced as nixon's choice the news is superseded by the saturday night massacre so-called which the president fired watergate special prosecutor archibald cox. on the sunday mornin

nixon.his shall include any interest i may have in the estate of my parents or any other state. direct my funeral be a simple and inexpensive as possible. i appoint my wife as executive without bonds. she is just absolute discretion in settling my estates. and most interesting the remarriage of my wife after my or after death shall have no effect whatsoever on her rights under my will. i believe such action by her would be for the best. extraordinary document very selfless. wanted to start with that as we get into the time in the south pacific.t when we will keep that up for just a little bit. so, when he arrives in the south pacific he first goes to new caledonia and is assigned to south pacific air transport command. he preps plans and manifest for cargo and transport planes.wo these are ultimately going to hop around and work at ar numbr of different places in the theater of the south pacific. during this year away from each other with pat in san francisco and dick here in the south pacif

nixon. well, for these two remarkable women who became friends who encouraged each other to live their best lives in the pressure of public life and the glare of the white house. well, with us to give deeper insight into pat nixon and betty ford, we have some distinguished people on this stage, susan ford bales only daughter of president and mrs.. susan is the sponsor, the aircraft carrier uss gerald r ford and recognize one of her extraordinary service as the ship's sponsor. susan was named an honorary aviator by the united states navy, becoming only the 31st american ever to receive this distinction and the first woman ever to be so honored. she is the recipient of three honorary doctorates and is the author of two novels set in the white house. i'm waiting for those novels. get on tv now, because the netflix we need to clean up next looks a little. edward cox next to susan, the son in law of president and mrs. nixon. many of you recall that the hauenstein and the ford held a joint program

nixon's tapes, nixon's papers and legal prospects. for whatever it's worth, gerald ford believed that if the process went forward, nixon would be indicted, tried, and convicted at least for obstruction of justice and it would obviously come back to him. so all of this is going on and he concluded, quite independently, in my opinion, that he had to find a way to change the subject. the media were -- this is the greatest story. remember, famously when edward the 8th abdicated and the greatest store since the resurrection. this was a close second, as far as the washington press corps was concerned. everyone was obsessed, the country was obsessed. critically, ford didn't do this without consulting. he secured through back channels. leon jaworski, the special prosecutor had a suite in the hotel jefferson which happened to be the same hotel where phil bukan and his wife were staying, and back door channels between phil and white house counsel jaworski, the president was assured at least one year and quite probably two years before nixon cou

this is another great find from the nixon library, as one adviser wrote to him, he said nixon's biggest challenge in 1968 was the fact that people had a gut instinct that they didn't like him. so the mission was, how do we change this? we need to make him more likable and if we make him more likable, people might trust him more. and so he revamped his political career by, by trying to turn himself into a celebrity. the same way that kennedy had, he started appearing on entertainment shows like the jack parr program where he didn't talk about policies. he played the piano. he then went to the mike douglas show, a daytime entertainment talk show where he met producer roger ailes. before appearing on that program, nixon grumbled to ailes that he had to engage in gimmicks like this in order to get elected. and ailes shook his head and he said television is not a gimmick. you need to take it seriously and make it a centerpiece of your campaign. and then he brought ailes on board to his campaign and with ailes' help he did. that's why he went on laughing in a very awkward 12th clip. and i wan

i also want to thank the nixon foundation and the nixon library for all of their help facilitating my research with a special shout out to the head archivist at the foundation for all of his help. thank you all for that. i am excited to jump in and talk about the world war ii. and that nixon story during that era it with you this evening. first of all i want to start a little world war ii context just in case you have forgotten about that. very basic things. world war ii was declared in europe september 1 of 1939 that u.s. as you may reason call declared war later december 8 of 1941. just a day after the bombing of pearl harbor. the war ends september the second of 1945. that is the time. we are talking about and within the frame i want to talk about a little bit about the nixon background, pat and dick nixon i will call them pat and dick tonight's. since this is pre-presidential time. when talk about their life together as a couple of the mission inn in riverside california that was followed by a two week honeymoon in mexico after a glorious trip the newlyweds return home to californ

nixon had discussed how nixon's laugh-in stint had actually hurt the former president. he called it undignified. and actually, in the first year of ford's they emphasized that he is the president he is not to. they wanted to really distinguish as something different from what nixon had done. but then he goes on the show and public statements where he's crediting laugh-in as giving nixon that win is ultimately it contributing to this growing political belief that media image mattered more than anything else in american political life and entertainment could make a difference. it also really elevates visibility of shows like saturday night live. again, whether or not this actually did make a difference, that didn't matter as much as this growing belief that we need these types of shows in order to get elected or get elected and to govern. and indeed, that year at that moment, ford was not alone in his search for free media. and the use of political entertainment to advance presidential aspirations. at that exact same time, a former actor, ronald reagan, was launching a su

and that nixon would lie to him he felt very much nixon was the most transparent liar but.i think you have to ask the question what's driving nixon in his obviously covering up but if you'll allow me to go to the day nixon resigned famously a grievance filled farewell address and then at one moment he turns to the cameras and nixon just says, always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. and then you destroy yourself. we now know from the tapes but we knew from ever tense that was available at that that nixon was a hater. and in end, if you want to simplify it, that hate was the poison that destroyed and archibald cox, a symbol of everything nixon, hated. and part of that harvard in independence in the social nation with rick richardson and a as we know from what's come and nixon was just spun up and vibrating about these were the people who were investigating he could not accept that could not tolerate it in in any way so that that hate was driving him into a series of additional the the final one for cox is firing him and in

and nixon's mind, this helped deliver the election for him. he truly believed that his transformation from loser to victor in 1968, is on prioritizing television, and controlling his images through these types of appearances. i want to hammer home a point here that this was a belief. there are many reasons why nixon squeaked out a victory that fall, in a very close election year, in which the democratic party erupted in chaos at its convection in august, and george wallace was running as a third-party candidate. but nixon, is media advisers, and journalists chronically in the campaign repeatedly pointed to a shift in media strategy as the determining factor. and it altered how politicians ran their campaigns in the 1970s, as they sprinted to media consultants like elves and a variety to create their own nixon miracle. this belief in the political power and necessity of television also shaped how nixon then governed. a story that is at the core of my new book, 24/7 politics. while it is not available here, you can preorder it online. shameless

nixon. julie eisenhower and tricia nixon cox have both been so wonderful sharing their memories with me. and it is so critical that you talk people directly who knew that person and i preferably in person, spend a lot of time traveling so i can meet with people who knew the subject and i got to give the east wing a shout out mrs. nixon's posse. they love mrs. nixon and they have all been so wonderful to me and so without the women, since, you know, i'm really focused on mrs. nixon and women's history, they really know going on they were watching. they observed relationships that is crucial. and i in person is always the best but when that failed due to covid telephone calls emails texts you know whatever takes to get the story while second that it's better talking to somebody in person than over the phone or you know some other venue so indeed indeed well he you know, i have to close it out here are wonderful questions that are that had put forth and i want thank you so much for sharing abou

so nixon went public and revealed everything. about a week everything was quiet then the vietnamese put out two explanatory points and all hell broke lose again. why don't you answer. so when it was all over i said, tell me what exactly did the two explanatory points explain? they'd say nothing. we needed to two points so we put them out. >> this went on for four years. on october 6th, 1972 they suddenly accepted the proposal that nixon had made publicly may 8 of that year, dates don't matter. we went into a crash negotiation and those proposals no matter what beam say today were far better than anything that had ever been seen before and that anybody thought possible, so we were literally negotiated 22 hours at a stretch for 3 days and completed that -- completed. then we traveled to saigone and we sent new conditions and they accepted those. south vietnamese for understandable reasons. everything we had put forward had been approved by the south vietnamese but they didn't think the north vietnamese would accept it. when they ac

when nixon came in nixon had already said before you tube of us send a message to the north vietnamese that he was eager to to negotiations in the third week of the nixon presidency. they started an offensive in which every week. 500 up to 500 americans were killed in many of these attacks. more than half of these attacks came from the areas that were occupied by those four divisions into cambodian territory and the after had suffered. 1500 casualties, nearly as many as we'd severed in ten years of war in afghanistan. nixon ordered an attack on the base. within five miles of the vietnam border. that very centrally unpopulated. so when the phrase carpet bombing is used it is i think, in the sides of, the attacks probably less than what the obama administration has done in similar areas in pakistan, which i think it satisfied, and therefore, i believe that what was done in cambodia was justified. and when we eventually wiped out the base areas, the casualties went down by 80%. and and so don't really decisions and i would bet that sooner or later any president would have had to do it bec

of course, it ended up on nixon's desk, and nixon asked 10 rates. and then, and of course, henry told his president, who was a difficult man. it's like a logically what he wanted to hear was actually a goodness of some one day of the recording of his conversation caps. you'd make some quoting french and dom kissinger, greed adding frank was lazy and this nice, right? but the real tension between fully bryant and the americans ran deeper kissinger hop and his social political jealousy, appearing the germans would become too cozy with the russians. the that includes experience of us because we thought it could be the beginning of a separate driven approach. and lead to a new kind of to them. and that's, and that is the politics in henry's view. and i think with some justice sliced underneath henry's attempts at what, what was the term we call we were describing, they, tod brant, pursue his policy openly. something to send you a couldn't afford to do. he had to circumvent the public tie when reaching out to the communists or else the backlash and the y

for nixon. the phenomenon of castro was a particularly because he believed he was defeated in 1960 because of the fact that kennedy was free and to talk about castro that he was being vice president and knowledgeable of what was big. so he believes he was defeated because of testers existence. then in 1962, he's felt he was defeated for calvin in california because the cuban meta tags, it's of good to prejudge moment of the legs. and so that to prevent the motions of another cast was a degree of face. 2 with an x and then an issue in which he, it was more active than on any other single issue that i dealt with. that it was a mixed nightmare scenario in 1970 and there was elected president with a raised in majority. white house officials got to work to prevent enticing regression or we didn't mind the thought of monday not being elected. he was left, this is some of the recent writings that have come out of the k g b, right out of their files have to confirm that he worked for them was paid by th

versus nixon.taff and in washington when that case was decided, and the decision was that the president doesn't have absolute immunity. and in that case, of course, nixon was required to hand over the tapes and then, of course, resigned shortly thereafter. you know, this court has occasionally strayed from precedent, but it would be really shocking if they did so in this case. >> ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas, was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. do you think justice thomas should recuse himself in this case? >> well, i do. thinking back to u.s. versus nixon, justice rehnquist recused himself merely because he had worked in the department of justice and he knew some of the individuals who were the subject of the inquiry. obviously, there is a lot of public, well, ms. thomas came before the january 6th committee, we had her texts and showed her involvement with some of the principles that were being prosecuted. i think it would be prudent for the j

relationship with china and russia since the nixon administration. [applause] >> thank you very much for being here. i must say i am very nervous and i don't usually get nervous. when i called doctor kissinger in the fall and asked if he would be here in april you are my hero. we are booking nine months out last september. think everybody here wants to know what is your secret? >> we are surviving. [laughter] >> i wanted to thank technology fitting the sponsor of this really, really awesome opportunity to hear from one of the great statesman this country has seen. if you don't mind with youror personal story because that seems to shape so much about how we view the world. you were born in 19203. you arrived in the u.s. in 1938 at age 15. he went into the army at 1942 and served until 46. given that experience especially serving in the war or you were an intelligence officer how did that experience shape your world view as you into your professional career? >> i came to this country in 1938. i lived in new york i'm going to school at night. though my

nixon and the nixon daughters to make it a very happy occasion for mrs.ennedy and her children to return to the home that they remembered living in with their father. and obviously mrs. kennedy was very nervous leading up to it but was just so grateful at how warm the nixon family was and what a great tour guide president nixon was showing john the ovall office and i think the desk where john used to hide if you have notd seen it, what i would suggest you seek out at the nixon library are the beautiful letters that jacqueline kennedy and both caroline and john wrote to president and mixes nixon following that visit and what it meant to them to be there at the white house. really, mrs. candy's letter is beautiful she was a beautiful letter writer. she wrote a letter like no one else could but john and caroline's notes are also particularly sweet those letters are available nixon library archive. >> did former presidential families have things in the white house theyso returned the families who preceded the kennedys to they have anything they just returned?

nixon and another case, nixon v. fitzgerald. we're joined now by former watergate whis blower john dean. who better to give us perspective than you, john. this latest filing from the special council once again cites u.s. v. nixon as precedent for a swift decision. as evan pointed out saying, quote, here the stakes are high if not higher. do you agree with that assessment? >> i think they are higher actually than u.s. vuvs. nixon. what we're seeking in the nixon case were 64 secretly recorded conversations with aides. there were about a half a dozen defendants who were about ready to go to trial, and the prosecutor wanted that set of tapes, 64 tapes to use in the trial. he had no knowledge that, for example, it would force nixon to resign when the information was released in those tapes. but he was just preparing for trial and went directly to supreme court as evan mentioned, and got a ruling 60 days later. so it was a -- it is a powerful precedent. and smith is relying on it. >> in your view is the supreme court likely to get ja