one was nixon's role, vice president nixon's role in the 1950s and during his out of office years in the 1960s regarding vietnam. relatively little has been written about these topics, but what we know is that nixon was one of those advisers in the eisenhower administration who advocated u.s. intervention during the dnb and flu crisis in the french phase of the war. then in 1954 and '55 he supported the partitioning of vietnam and the presidency of -- in saigon. he subsequently advocated u.s. escalation in vietnam during the presidencies of john kennedy and lyndon johnson. in other words, kennedy and johnson inherited a war from eisenhower and nixon before nixon inherited it from these two democratic presidents. but a lot of work needs to be done on this period. another big question has to do with nixon's position on the war in the 1968 presidential campaign. and what was his role in the so-ca so-called caper. there's wide agreement supported by evidence that nixon and his campaign organization engaged in a clandestine effort via intermediary to encourage the president of south vietn

nixon sought was loyalty. loyalty to the person and loyalty to that person's ideological commitments and program commitments. in addition to this personnel strategy that richard nixon started throughout the executive branch, he also saw that it might make sense to not give as much responsibility or as much attention or as many resources to executive branch departments and agencies. especially those new deal agencies and great society agencies that were, at best, to be held at arm's length. most times to be distrusted and suspicious about. what he did in response, as we all can remember, is that he began to expand the white house staff and the executive office staff. they not only expanded in size, they also significantly expanded in authority. between 1969 and 1971, for example, the executive office staff, which includes the white house, grew from about 1,200 people to just about 1,800 people. and that doesn't count all the so-called detailees that were borrowed from other parts of the executive branch. more i

we were not, in other words, using this new nixon to supplant other nixons or other new nixons. we were all different people with different takes on nixon's liberalism, and again i won't go into all of the details. we can talk about this in the question and answer. scholarship since the revisionists i think again briefly here two schools of thought. we have what we might call the anti-revisionists who would include ken neth o'riley and elizabeth drew, they talk about his divisiveness and ramping up bussing and the accomplishments in the area of civil rights and domestic policy stemmed from his pragmatism rather than his liberalism. others have used the works of the revisionists to deepen our understanding of specific mixon era policies and i'm thinking of kevin yule and john david skretey who showed urban unrest in the 1960s prompted nixon to adopt an economic development strategy regarding myjority groups that you can see in affirmative action. garrett davis' study of federal education policy showed how nixon's school desegregation efforts were strongly influenced by southern p

nixon library and museum. we're turning now to nixon and vietnam. a tragically timely subject when america finds herself embroiled in an inconclusive war or two and the editor of foreign affairs and the pages of "the new york times" has suggested that president obama model his exit from afghanistan on president nixon's exit from vietnam. we have some amazing, amazingly good scholars to discuss the subject with you today. i'll introduce each one right before he or she speaks. we'll start off with jeffrey kimba kimball, no one has done more to bring richard nixon's exit strategy to life than jeff kimball. he has written two path finding books on the subject "nixon's vietnam war" in 1998 and 2003's "the vietnam war files." a professor emeritus of the miami university of ohio. jeff has had the great scholarly pleasure in the last decade with each new release of nixon tapes and nixon documents of seeing his work proved right, and i have the great scholarly pleasure of introducing him. ladies and gentlemen, jeffrey kimball. >> thank you, ken, and i thank

into nixon's soul. no good comes of peering into nixon's soul, although we're very tempted to do it, because so much was accomplished on his watch and we want to know, did he really mean it, because then of course, after 1971 he turns around and pulls the rug out from under and kind of turns against the environment, so what's going on, and i guess the point i want to make is that nixon's true feelings about the matter really don't matter very much and indeed in many ways distract us from the bigger picture. one of the bigger pieces you want to look at what the accomplishments are of the administration you need to look at the accomplishments of the staff and the activities of a very active staff including john ehrlichman, head of the domestic council, john whitaker, his assistant and the point man on the environment, russell trayne, first in the department and head on quality and william ruckleshouse, first director of the epa, and i could add two others who were active in environmental policy, and reall

so lets take one of the most important issue, what was nixon's role, vice president nixon's role in the 1950s during his out of office years, in the 1960s regarding viet nam? relatively little has pen written about these topics, what we know is that nixon was one of those advisors the eisenhower administration who advocated u.s. intervention during the crisis in the french phase of the war. then in 1954 and 55 he supported the partitioning of viet nam. he subsequently advocated the u.s. escalation in viet nam during the presidency of kennedy and johnson. a lot of work needs to be done on this period. another big question has to do with nixon's position on the war in the 1968 presidential campaign and what was his role in the so-called the caper. there is wide agreement supported by abundant evidence that nixon and his campaign organization engaged in a clandestine effort via intermeadary to get the south viet nam to shun the negotiation of the u.s. there is now new evidence, convincing evidence that kissinger passed information on to the nixon campaign about president johnson's diplomat

. >>> the richard nixon presidential library convened a symposium called understanding richard nixon and his era. this hour long program focuses on the environmental and economics policy and the civil rights record and the expansion of the white house staff and its authority during the nixon years. >> well, as the coordinator of of this event and i say in all sin saincerity that i'm very gld to see you all here. this is one of the panels that i've really been looking forward to, the domestic panel. starting with nigel boll who was educated at georgetown university and oxford university, he's taught at the university of edinburgh and oxford where he's been a lexurer since 1988, his books include "the white house and capitol hill," "nixon's business authority and power in presidential politics" which won the richard e.nustead prize in 26. his current project which we're looking forward to is "the politics of money, president's congress and the federal reserve board 1945-1988" and he's currently the director of the american institute at oxford. we're also pleased to have karen holt. kar

nixon and then the question is so how did he respond? the first thing he did was to seek prior injunction against the new york times to suppress the public press from reporting immediate story, not simply what american presidents typically do in a leak case which is order an investigation for the leaker, but to actually enjoy american society soss eaty from discussing the subject. it was the same kind of an approach to an issue that mr. nixon displayed when he ordered air attacks on north korea when a reconnaissance plane was shot down. now since i thought about this point earlier, i ran and looked for this little piece of paper which happens to be the record of the national security council, the first and only national security council, that mr. nixon held in the context of the pentagon papers' leak. >> it was held at 3 time 30 p.m. on the 17th of june 1971. mr. nixon both opened and closed the meeting. >> he opened the meeting by saying probably, logically from the standpoint of a number of u.s. presidents that if you wanted to get som

and asking nixon -- wanting to ask nixon about vietnam and nixon saying, vietnam is not important, it's a sideshow. china is important. and he wrote a report about it. but what nixon said to safer was, the only person who can do an opening to china politically in the states would be a republican president because he was the one who had credibility with the people who were against it. if a democrat had been doing it, nixon would have been the first one to sort of get on the bandwagon and bait them for betraying taiwan and so on. he was able politically to do it and to sell it to a lot, not all, but a lot of the skeptics on the right by saying, well, this is our great step to counter the soviet union andon side. and therefore, if we have to do certain things. so you have to give them credit. i'm a product of the 1960s, the anti-war movement. i was not exactly a fan of nixon growing up. but he's an extremely complicated figure who had great insights and pulled this off and was simultaneously the most petty, vindictive, conspirato conspiratory -- and when you look at their fear of losing co

nixon's calculation. 60 he talks about having lunch with nixon in hong kong in 1967 and asking nixon about vietnam politically to do it in this is the great step and bringing the chinese in and therefore if we have to do certain things, we have to give them credit. and i was not a fan of nixon, but he is a complicated figure who pulled this off and it was simultaneously pettiy and vindictive and kissinger the same way. it's really a complete split personality. they did this amazing thing with this other side that was not nearly so attractive. >> presumably not pro communist. what was in your head when you were about to go to the land of the anti-christ and bury the hatchet and have your leader, president nixon, embrace these people who we spent decades in opposition to. >> i was pinching myself. i took this as a dream. i have studied chinese in the early 60s. i spent years as a china analyst in hong kong and working with people and the idea that we were going to go to china and now by the way, this took a lot of political will. in both governments. and only people with power were abl

>> yes, nixon on this june 17th meeting that i've quoted you here, nixon adopts all three of the same that he tells him on the telephone the day the pentagon papers leak. >> what about nixon's anti-dissent policy because no one and i think he reacted so sfrongly because he was speaking out and sort of disrupting the way he would like to pursue things. >> i absolutely agree. >> most of the discussion about vietnam is focused on the roles of kissinger and mr. nixon. perhaps less well known are the devil tapes and have any of you looked at the papers? are there surprises in there? are we learning more about his role on capitol hill, he's an as institute politician and turned out to be a bureaucrat particular in-fighter. what insights have you learned? >> yes, i am now looking at the papers. let's remember that secretary laird played an important role by insisting on the de-americanization and that was his plan and it worked in the end of simplifying the argument and that was an important role but at the same time, nixon and kissinger bypassed them. they saw it as part of a solution. that

accepted. >> yes, nixon, in fact, at this june 17th meeting that i quoted to you here, nixon adopts all three of the things that al haig tells him on the telephone the day the pentagon papers leak. >> this fits into nixon's anti-dissent papers because nobody leaks documents unless they disagree with the way things are going. i think he reacted so strongly to it because in his mind this was sort of another case of a dissenter speaking out and sort of disrupting the way e8d have liked to have pursue things. >> i absolutely agree. >> most of the discussion about vietnam is focused on roles of kissinger and mr. nixon. perhaps less well-known is the role of melvin laird. at least with kissinger we have telephone tapes, we have the white house tapes. what about mel laird? have any of you looked at the mel laird papers? there are surprises in there? are we learning more about his ro role? certainly on capitol hill he was a very astute politician and turned out to be i think a fairly good bureaucratic in-fighter. what insights have you learned? >> yes, i am now with bill looking at mel lair

. >>> the richard nixon presidential library convened a symposium titled "understanding richard nixon." this hour long discussion focuses on the president's economic and environmental policies and reviews the administration's civil rights record as well as the expansion of the white house staff and its authority during the nixon years. >> well, as one of the coordinator of this event, you know that -- and i say in all sincerity that i'm very glad to see you all here. so this is the panel that -- one of the panels i've really been looking forward to. the domestic panel. we've really got some amazing scholars who have some very interesting and understudied topics. starting with nigel bowles. educated at the university of sussex, georgetown university and oxford university. he's taught about the university of edinboro and university of oxford where he's been a lecturer since 1988. his books include "the white house and capitol hill," "nixon's business." "authority and power in presidential politics" which won the richard e. newstadt produce of the political studies association of the uni

>> i started with reading nixon's memoirs and then reading the steven ambrose biography of nixon. i thought i knew about him because i was growing up when nixon was president and i remember watergate very well, but when you're a historian you've got to really study it in more depth instead of having vague impressions. i started studying that and i found a wonderful archive at georgetown and it's online and they had declassified or asked for declassification of all sorts of documents including the transcripts of the conversations between nixon and mao and between nixon and kissinger and li, so i started reading all that and gradually stuff was declassified because the foreign relations of the united states was just doing the nixon years and a whole bunch of stuff was coming out, so i began to collect whatever i could in north america and then i don't read chinese, so i got a couple of chinese graduate students to start going through the chinese sources for me and translating those for me. >> did it make a difference? >> it did i think. the chinese still have not released nearly ast

or the nixon estate. eventually it was decided to belonged to the national archives and we got access to in the fall. but you can imagine today an american president and a chinese president having this easy banter. it's a two-hour formal dinner and that's it. and absent a whole week of that, you wouldn't have had quite the same degree of mutual confidence that allowed the leadership on both sides to move ahead with the risks that they had undertaken into the whole trip happening at all. >> so, nick, how do you think meeting with zhou enlai and mao, albeit in a much shorter time frame, how you that affected william rogers, henry kissinger and nixon, what was their sentiment besides their sense of triumph of having gotten there and accomplished something rather significant? what do you think the personal sentiments were that they took away from their trip? >> well, nixon, i think, took away a sense of satisfaction. he told me at one time i had a conversation with him, he said, from now on, you china boys ar

the night that nixon arrived. the chinese gave a very cool reception because they didn't want i think to look excited by it and they didn't know whether mao would give his sort of approval to it. and the night that the nixon party had arrived in beijing, apparently it was a long news broadcast and john frazier from canada told me this, it was all about the model farms and so-and-so and the women workers of szechwan province had hit a new high. and a little item at the end, by the way, president nixon paid us a visit today. i got some color from the canadians. >> "paris 1919" which i have here, you told us that it had sold well. there's a lot in there about the ottoman and about independence of the arabs and palestine. for those who didn't read this book and didn't hear our first chat a few years ago, what's in it? >> it's about the paris peace conference at the end of the first world war, what i did was look at the various issues which those three men, roy george of britain on the left, the middle man is george cl

, who admired richard nixon. and late in nixon's second term, first term, before he ran for re-election, in 1970-1971, the nixon white house determined that hoover was losing his grip. hoover was now past 75 years old. and he dent want to do some of the dirty tricks that nixon had ordered him to do. wiretapping, breaking, bugging. surveillance, stealing people's personal effects and doing it without judicial warrants on the order of the president. so they set up their own bucket shop, didn't they? in the white house. known as the plumbers. houston from the white house made a liaison with hoover's intelligence chief at the f.b.i. bill sullivan. so known to some of his colleagues as "crazy billy," had been working the intelligence beat for hoover since the 1950's. he wanted to take over the f.b.i. when hoover died. and he overreached. and he tried to take over the bureau when hoover was still alive. with this plan, which is known as the houston plan because it came out, originated in the white house but it was writ

in india, he laid out the nixon doctrine. in yugoslavia, he met with

nixon. our panelists will discuss how the tenure of the nixon-appointed women shaped opportunities for later generations of women as presidential assistants and advisers and heads of agencies and departments. i want to extend our thanks to barbara franklin and the richard nixon foundation. ron walker, who is chairman of the foundation, is with us tonight. where are you, ron? was with us tonight. [laughter] a special thanks to him for, um, making this evening possible also. ron was in the nixon white house, and he was the very first director of the white house office of presidential events, and he was the one who was responsible for the trip to china. before we begin the program tonight, i'd like to mention two programs that will take place here in the mcdow wan theater later this month. the charles ambiguitien heym center presents the film california state of mind: the legacy of pat brown. this inside look into political power in the 1960s takes a new significance now that pat brown's son je

nixon.our panelist will discuss how the tenure of the nixon appointed women shaved opportunities for later generations of women as presidential as distant and advisors enhancing agents seized and departments. i want to extend a banks to barbara hackman franklin and the richard nixon foundation for their roles in making today's program possible. ron walker who is chairman of the foundation is with us tonight. where are you, ron? was with us tonight. a special thanks to him for making this event possible also. ron was in the nixon white house view is the very first rector of the white house office of presidential at hand and he is the one responsible for a very important advance in the trip to china. >> before we begin the program and like to mention two programs that will take place during the mcallen teetered this month. tuesday march 27:00 p.m. the charles guggenheim center presents the film california state of lines the legacy of pat around synthetic into political power in california in t

nixon. nixon and reagan always got along quite well together, although they didn't see that much of each other. all of them would get along with ike. ike could sit down at a table with people who had daggers drawn with each other and get them at ease and cooperating. >> who is the smartest of those people? >> oh, ike. i mean, nixon was very smart, very, very smart guy. possibly too smart. but ike was not only a brilliant general, but a very astute politician. always conscious of how to make politics work for him, how to get what he wanted out of congress and how to always make it seem as if it was easy and as if he hadn't done it. the trademark, the grin of ike concealed an icy intelligence. a streak of ruthlessness certainly and a wild temper. ike had a temper just hair trigger temper held back by great, great effort. i mean, ike chain smoking didn't help, but one large part in old age and the heart disease, he spent a lifetime holding back the temper, he would turn red in the face and his

he called her his dearest heart. >> reporter: nixon foundation president sandy quinn, a friend of nixon's throughout, has his favorite among the letters, the young suitor as formal as his quaker roots while writing of his own ardor. >> nothing so fine ever happened to him or anyone else as falling in love with thee, my dearest heart. ♪ >> reporter: when his beloved pat died in 1993, nixon's grief was searing. >> he said, whatever you remember about pat nixon, remember the sunshine of her smile. >> reporter: the smile his letters show so captivated him for more than half a century. mike taibbi, nbc news, yorba linda, california. >>> up next here tonight, a new image for this country as it prepares to welcome the rest of the world. >>> a view tonight of the iconic tower bridge here in london. this is a big time for this beautiful city and for this entire country as the olympic athletes are now just months away, along with the crowds, and of course the eyes of the world. from here in london tonight, nbc's keir simmons reports on the hard work going on for what is hoped to be a moment of glor

that's why we need president nixon. now more than ever. >> bob, we turn to you. >> of one of the findings from darrell's own study of tv ads, which is that republicans were more likely to do ads about international issues and foreign policy than democrats were. now, here, clearly, nixon is taking a situation in which there's a lot of division in the country, a lot of people are upset and trying to move from the domestic controversies out into the wider world, where suddenly, he is leading all the american people, he's the leader of the free world, pointing to genuinely great accomplishments like the opening to china. but in general, relying about as heavily as you can with the proper of a passport, on the power of the presidency, the stature of the presidency, which we also saw in his earlier ad as vice president, he had a booming voice saying, "ladies and gentlemen, richard m. nixon, the vice president of the united states." nixon, once again, is stressing authority and the trappings of authority as a reason to vote fo

. ♪ >>> long before richard nixon rose to power and fell from grace he was just another man in love.hibit features letters that the 37th president wrote to his future bride. fox 5's allison seymour shows us nixon's softer side. >> reporter: on the day they met he told her he was going to marry her someday. >> she wasn't convinced that was the case right away, but as they got to know each other and realized that they shared a lot of the same hopes and dreams for their lives, they came together and became what later was known once his political career started as the pat and dick team. they spent 53 years together of. >> reporter: it began at a community theater audition in whittier california in 1938, a young lawyer, richard nixon, quite smitten by the lovely schoolteacher pat ryan. he courted her with persistence and a series of romantic letters. >> you remember that funny guy who asked you to go to a ladies night about two years ago? >> reporter: some of that correspondence is going on display at the richard nixon presidential library as part of an exhibit commemorating the life of p

he called her his dearest heart. >> reporter: nixon foundation president sandy quinn, a friend of nixon'sghout, has his favorite among the letters, the young suitor as formal as his quaker roots while writing after his own ardor. >> nothing so fine ever happened to him or anyone else as falling in love with thee, my dearest heart. ♪ >> reporter: when his beloved pat died in 1993, nixon's grief was searing. >> he said, whatever you remember about pat nixon, remember the sunshine of her smile. >> reporter: the smile his letters showed so captivated him for more than half a century. mike taibbi, nbc news, california. >>> up next here tonight, a new image for this country as it prepares to welcome the rest of the world. the world. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens,

he met nixon. nixon took him on.s by his side when nixon reinvented himself,, the 112 time in 1966 and he was with him as well in 1968 when nixon won the incredibly close election to go on to become president. than pat was there at the heart of the nixon administration as a speechwriter at a time of extraordinary cultural conflict in america perhaps became the closest to civil war at a remarkable time. he is one of the very few people who emerged out of the nixon administration and out of watergate with a clean reputation and tom braden, your colleague on crossfire once remarked pat buchanan, the only former member of the nixon administration who didn't require a letter from his parole officer to go on tv. [laughter] pat then went on to become one of the nation's first professional tv pundits. he helped invent a show called crossfire which radically change the way in which right wing people appear on the media. in times past conservatives tended to be a bit like william f. buckley, very sophisticated, quite polite, q

to mark the occasion, the nixon librabrary has released some letters from her husband. just say they give us a whole new picture of the man known in for in history for a whole lot of other things. our report tonight from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: to describe richard nixon, who would use the words "playful, corny, romantic"? after all, his boldness and brilliance were matched and overwhelmed by his ruthlessness that led to the water gagate scandal and to these words. >> i shall resign tomorrow at noon. >> reporter: now the letters from the ambitious young lawyer just moved to washington, d.c. and pretty thelma catherine ryan, known to all as pat. he writes to his irish gypsy, he pines to be with her every day and every night, dreams of long sunday rides, weekends in the mountains or just reading together in front of fires. and about love? he told bryant gumbel that like his quaker mother, he never spoke or wrote the word in his public life. >> she never said "i love you" because she considered that to be something very private and very sacred. and i feel the same w

department in the republicans, led, among others, by the likes of nixon. and so the best talent for analyzing china was at the cia. and it's those people that i sought out. and i was largely interested in the biographies of the people that i was likely to be covering so that i could write with some knowledge as to who these people were, who role they had played in the cultural revolution, et cetera, what the relationship might be between zhou enlai and mao and representing different factions of outlook on the world. and insofar as i could tell, they had it pretty right, yes. >> if i could add a point, the cia was quite public about briefing people on the geography and the economy and so forth. i have an atlas that was published by the cia at that time which was an unclassified document, very detailed and informative. i also know from having been an analyst for many years that 98% of the information that we got was based on basically public sources. how we got them was not necessarily unclassified. but this was pretty much public stuff, the really clandesti

richard nixon since watergate had been out of washington had not been back. humphrey called him on christmas and said you're coming back to washington for my funeral and that's how you getting back into washington. >> did he? >> and he said no. and humphrey said, look, i'm a dying man and this is a dying wish and you're going to come back, and he came back, and he was at the funeral and you see it at the end of the film. he said no president, i don't care what he's done, should be banished from washington. you need to be here, and talk about forgiveness, you know? and he's dying. that's says something to his spirit, too. >> got one audio clip because it comes from the book, recording that he did, where he was talking about the way lyndon johnson treated him and we're about out of time, but let's just listen to this and i'll ask you about it. >> and it would be appropriate for me to invite my friends from the twin cities out for a boat ride. so, i told him -- i gave them the instructions. told them to meet me at the marine dock at 5:00. then i put in my reques

that's why nixon had a brief mention in his 67 foreign affairs. in 68, our harvard group. they are trying hard to be the first in china. the democrats were split. the administration was we are in vietnam because china is behind it. on the other hand govern and ted kennedy said we need a new china policy. jim thompson and others who saw the need for this were pushing it. henry and company were trying gingerly to take this issue away from the democrats. teddy kennedy went up in may of 71 to see the new ambassador in the hope of being the first to go to china and before nixon and kissinger. the chinese were not having any, especially because ted kennedy refused to say that taiwan was part of china and under beijing's jurisdiction. had he been willing, he might have had a chance to go. this was part of the democrat republican preparation for the 72 election and it was all part of a rising american opinion for china change. they told a group of us in late 66 it was only the full bright committee hearings that showed american support for a new chi policy. i said to him, you mean

a young lawyer, richard nixon was quite smitten by the lovely school teacher, pat ryan. he courted her with dogged persistence and a series of romantic letters. >> remember that funny guy who asked to you go to 2030 ladies night just about two years ago? >> reporter: some of that the correspondent is going to display at the richard nixon presidential library as part of an exhibit commemmorating the life of pat nixon. >> richard's letters are ardent, poetic at point, very demonstrative in herms of how he feels about pat. >> reporter: they finally got married. >> her letters are a little lighter in tone but clearly very affectionate. one of my favorite lines from one of the letters is when she says if you get done early, come by and i'll burn a hamburger for you. >> nixon calls his wife to be his irish gypsy and refers to himself in the third person. >> when the winds blow and the rains fall and the sun ships through the clouds as it is now, he still resolves as he did then that nothing so fine ever happened to him or nip else as falling in love with three, my dearest hear

the relationship with president nixon, did president ford consult with president nixon on foreign policy, and were they friends? >> i can't answer that because i was -- i was in the campaign and not really in the white house. i was over at commerce for six months, as i said, and i was the acting secretary of commerce, but most of my -- most of my contact with president ford at that time was all on substantive economic issues, and -- and very little to do with foreign policy. in fact, nothing to do with foreign policy and nothing at that time to do with politics. now, i do think that -- that president ford consulted with president nixon from time to time after the pardon and perhaps during the campaign. >> okay. >> what differences did you notice between president ford and president reagan leadership style? >> now, wait a minute. you know something? i've worked for four presidents, and i have one rule that i never violate. i never -- i never compare presidents because the minute you say something good about one, it's taken to be a knock on the other. [ laughter ] so that's the only questi

>> hmm. >> give nixon a grade? >> would anyone like to take a stab at that? no. all right. >> i will quickly. >> okay. >> i will quickly, just because this might spark some constitution. i don't like ranking or assessing whole presidencies or whole presidents. getting it down to policy areas makes it a little bit bitter. on administration i might call governing within executive branch settings. i would give him a mixed report card, "a" on some things, lower grades on other things. the one thing that i do think and have argued in print that the nixon administration was very good at was developing a white house office that when the system worked it worked extraordinarily well in bringing together diverse strands of information including everyone that should have been included in the policy discussion into that discussion, and that putting that information before the president. to the extent he gets a lower grade is that that system wasn't enforced, so it didn't always operate. >> i'll pretend that nixon is a senior and grade him as a fail. i give him a pass on the

. >> the lesson of richard nixon in 1968. richard nixon ran as a competent, experienced, able alternative to the democrats in power. that is what mitt romney has to be. he has to forget it touchy-feely thing. it does not work for him. i agree with my colleagues, the observations made about him, all of which are accurate. the reality is that he is in authentic when he tries to present himself as anything other than what he is, a turnaround artist, but family man. that is fine, but he is a turnaround guy and that is what the argument ought to be exclusively. >> i'm thinking of what joe biden once said -- you have to take a risk when you are running for president. the wrist he did not take this week that he should have was to say something less than complimentary about rush limbaugh. it was a perfect opportunity for what is called a sister souljah moment, to say that i don't always play it safe, i have real values, you went over the line. and to make the optics or is, bain capital owns a clear channel, which is the rush network.

nixon library and museum. returning now to nixon and viet nam. tragically timely subject when america finds herself embroiled in an inconclusive war or two. editor of foreign affairs in the pages of the new york times has suggested president obama model his exit from afghanistan on president nixon's exit from viet nam. we have some amazing good scholars to discuss the subject with you. i'll introduce right before he or

. >>> before richard nixon rose to power and fell from grace, he was another man in love and a brand new exhibit features letters the president wrote had tohis future bride. allison seymour shows us nixon's softer side. >> reporter: on the day they met, he told her he was going to marry her some day. >> and she was not convinced that was the case right away. as they got to know each other and realized they shared some hopes and dreams for their life, they came together and became what was later known once the political career started, the patten-dick team. >> reporter: it began at a community theatre oddnition whittier, california n1938. a young lawyer, richard nixon, was quite schmidten by the lovely school teacher, pat ryan and courted her with dogged persistence and a series of letters. >> you remember the funny guy who asked to you go to a 20, 30 ladies night two years ago? >> reporter: some of the correspondence is going display at the richard nixon presidential library as part of a exhibit commemorating the life of pat nixon. >> richard's letters are ardent and poetic even, dem

>> accept the example and lesson of richard nixon in 1968. richard nixon in 1968 ran as a competent, experienced, people alternative to the democrats in power. that is what mitt romney past to be. he has to forget the touchy- feely thing. it does not work for him. i agree with my colleagues, the observations made about him, all of which are accurate. the reality is that he is ingot into when he truck -- it authentic when he tries to cram so as in anything other than -- he is a turnaround night. that is the argument that are to be exclusively -- ought to be exclusively. >> i think it was joe biden who once said that you have to think of the risks as president. the best he did not take was t with rush limbaugh now. it was a perfect opportunity, a sister souljah moment, to say that i don't always play it safe and you went over the line. on clear channel, the rush network, so to speak. >> look, i am sure that is the liberals' dream, but when the president of the united states apologizes for what bill maher has said about women and this is $1 mill

richard nixon holding a gala at the white house to honor vietnam p.o.w.s. is this an appropriate way to say thank you to the troop who is served in iraq? >> i think it is. i think the president has come out and said it's an initial recognition of the success we've had in iraq, understanding that we're still fighting the war in afghanistan. i'm fairly certain at some point when that's over that we'll go recognize everybody who served across both iraq and aftghanistn afghanistan. >> and as you looked at the developments in iraq today, what do you think the u.s. legacy is and will be? >> well, the legacy that we left behind in iraq is largely depending on what the iraqis decide to do right now. we've given them an opportunity to enjoy freedom and liberty and now they need to decide what sort of form that's going to take for them and their children and their grandchildren. >> colonel, you were in the front lines in iraq. what did you see? what were your impressions about your inwaffvolvement in this conflict? >> well, it was a long process. as we went through a

. >> coming up, a softer side of richard nixon.is personal love letters revealed for the world to see. what he told his wife while they were dating, just ahead. >>> a college professor who says college is a waste of time. we'll take a look at that, coming up. >>> and if you're in the market for an all-electric vehicle a new one rolls out today, partially assembled in the bay area. christie smith.up, we'll tellng the coda.bo >>> welcome back. this morning new fleet of electric cars is rolling down the assembly line. coda automotive showing off its sedans at its plant in venetia where christie smith joins us live where the city's celebrating alongside the company. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. yeah, the first cars are here. they've got two of them out here this morning. this is the final assembly plant here in venetia and this is the car, the coda, really excited about it. all-electric vehicle, a sedan. they finished up a press conference. a lot of folks from the city looking at it, getting ready to take a ride this

poussaint: roy ash was a famous industrialist who had been asked by nixon to head up what later becameouncil. ash: so that led to then in turn the recommendation to the president that there be an environmental protection administration, the epa. poussaint: it was a rare birth. a new federal agency had been born out of the recognition that the environment needed help. the public recognized the problem, and the government was reacting to public pressure. ash: fortunately the founding fathers and our constitution allows for flexibility for government to evolve as society evolves. poussaint: but the evolution of the environmental protection agency demanded that nixon appoint someone to lead the agency who would win the immediate bi-partisan support of both the congress and the public. mister chief justice, ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today for a ceremony in which we will have sworn in the first head of a new agency. poussaint: nixon selected william ruckelshaus, a popular assistant attorney general. [ applause ] i am very honored, mr. president, and i promise to do the best

. >>> and richard nixon showed off his inner kupd.o, and karen for a girls night out talking about activia. i tried it and my body felt so right, for a change. and then there's you... why should i try it? my system gets out of sorts but that comes with age, right? wouldn't you like to feel great? just because we're in that over 50... what does that mean? are we done? activia helps regulate your digestive system when eaten daily. these could be our best years yet. activia we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. hello? [ sea ] hello, this is the sea calling. [ laughing ] [ sea ] what's the last romantic thing he did for you? ohh, i don't know... ummm... did you have to do that to me? what counts as romantic? is somebody watching me somewhere? like emptying the dishwasher? [ laughing ] is

nixon.eel that i should reveal that i had a great advantage in that debate, and i'm not referring to anyone's makeup man. the advantage that i had had was that mr. nixon had just debated with khrushchev and i had debated with hubert humphrey and that gave me an edge. >> how close did he come to beating jfk? >> well, the primary not -- i think he probably lost by 10% in the primary and the west virginia, wisconsin primaries, i think wisconsin might have been worse. but he didn't even really have a chance. but that's another whole story. kennedy's campaign was pretty well financed and humphrey didn't have a lot of money and he was really kind -- sort of bought out i would have to say. and there are stories of people being handed $5 and, you know, all kinds of things that went on during that campaign, that he didn't really have much of a chance. he was expected to win in that state, and that's why you'll hear michael beschloss say that he was expected to win. it wasn't so much that he went afte

now dix-year land has been a republican bulwark ever since richard nixon's southern strategy in 1968 when nixon won by appeal tolling southern conservatives by stressing state's rights, law and order and a solid pledge to hunt down those duke boys. so any republican without wants to be president has to woo us and i'm delighted to say that we've got three very handsome gentlemen callers, along with that nice old man who keeps promising us gold. (laughter) now i like that rick santorum even though he's from pennsylvania. but how can i resist a georgia peach like newt gingrich? he's a southerner born and raised, except where he was born and raised. and mitt romney also exists. (laughter) and mitt has just saved the glowing endorsement of the preeminent chronicler of southern culture, the heir to william faulkner, mr. jeff foxworthy. james? >> mitt romney will be campaigning in alabama and mississippi, with comedian jeff foxworthy by his side. >> m itt is the right guy for the job. >> now if you are's a multimillionaire entertainer, supporting the candidacy of a wealthy financier from ma