get into one of my favorite chapters in the whole year, and that is the chapters, the chapter on richard nixon followed by gerald ford in this presidents and constitution book. the nixon chapter was written by the late stanley cutlery. was a professor of history at the university of madison wisconsin. one of the green scholars of the watergate era. this chapter was one of the last things that he wrote before he passed away in 2015. as you can see from the introduction, richard nixon was a man of many paradoxes. he was born in a modest home in yorba linda california. his father -- his mother was a devout quaker, tried to instill in him a set of moral values. but his father spent his life pretty much as you can see as an argumentative, unhappy man. that set of qualities were also passed along to young richard nixon. after tendering would do your college, a quicker college about 17 miles from his home, he went to duke law school. failed to get jobs at the fbi and the new york law firm which were his tough choices. and reluctantly return to california to practice law. there, he married fell not pa

that was torture for richard nixon. it will never ever be eased by a pardon by a president or by the rewriting of history. so we should keep that in mind as well. what i remember most of all, however, was that in washington in those days, you woke up in the morning, and you had no idea what would happen next, and nothing more stunning than to hear that the president of the united states was about to pardon the former president of the united states. i'm tom brokaw, nbc news, new york. >> i have to tell you that most americans thought that the pardon was the wrong decision at the time. it sent the wrong signal that powerful politicians like nixon were above the law, while ordinary citizens, you or i would have gone to jail for the same thing. certainly archibald cox thought that, too, and he felt that pardonning nixon was the best thing for the country, and that is what he told me the first time i interviewed him in 1995. i want to tell you about that interview. i met with ford in a hotel in new york system it was part of

the time i got to harvard in 1977, he was -- he had become a national hero for standing up to richard nixon during the watergate crisis, subpoenaing the secret white house tapes that would prove or disprove nixon's complicity in the watergate coverup. so i've done a lot of work on this era of american political history. that's why it's one of my favorite topics of all. i know most of your parents weren't alive at the time of watergate in 1973, 1974. i will take you back to october of 1973, during the darkest months of the nixon presidency, when at this time the wounds of watergate are fresh, the wounds of the vietnam war are just receding. the country is being consumed by a growing scandal called watergate. we're going to show this video. >> october 1973, the senate has begun hearings investigating possible white house involvement in a burglary at the watergate hotel and the subsequent coverup. the big question, what did the president know? when did he know it? investigators learned that president nixon has made secret tapes of every conversation in his executive offices. special prosecutor

the first person he saw sitting by his bedside was richard nixon. you'll need an anchor nixon told the recovering mcfarland pointing at the bible next to the bed. after the dedication of his presidential library in 1990, where we are today, nixon told friends who gathered around him afterwards about the time that his grand kids asked him what name he wanted to be called. you can call me anything you want to call me because i've been called everything. this period shows him as a human. it shows him as somebody who struggled through the set backs of a political career and yet came out on the other side of it. nixon in exile is a different man. he's a man who could look back on success as well as failure, on tragedy as well as triumph. on defeat as well as he defiant response. he never gave up. there's a lesson in that for all of us. not even richard nix on could have plajed that he would be back inside the white house giving president reagan advice or going delivering a message important to the bush administration or meeting with bill clinton and becom

we have never known the idea came from a letter from richard nixon. but his real contributions to reagan came on bigger matters of substance. when gorbachev comes to power, nixon meets with gorbachev. he finds this could be a man that reagan, as margaret thatcher said, could do business with. he senses there is an opportunity here to move forward and perhaps end the cold war. he wants reagan to meet with gorbachev but want him to do it from a position of strength. when reagan announces his initiative. he doubts the science, doubts the technology will ever work. but he loves the idea of using it for leverage in a negotiation. almost from the beginning, he sees sdi as a key bargaining chip for reagan. later on, when gorbachev threatens to pull out of any further negotiations unless reagan abandoned sbi -- remember, gorbachev walks out after they essentially strike a deal because he tells reagan this is contingent on you getting rid of sdi and reagan says no. nixon helps come up with a suggestion. he suggests to reagan's national security adviser, quote,

they will pay attention to richard nixon. richard nixon will endure forever. i structured this book from hubris in january of 1973 when he is about to be re- inaugurated through crisis, catastrophe and in the end up setting the stage for the downfall of the president. but as you see there is an american twist at the end. that is different from a shakespearean tragedy for one important reason you'll have to read the book for that. the other character in the book very important is not a human character. it is these tape recordings. that nixon cannot control. and ultimately lead to his downfall. i don't think nixon would have been forced to resign had not been for this tape recordings but there would have been his version of events and of his accusers. it's particularly john dean his former legal counsel. it would have been a he said, she said story. it was only because of the existence of the tapes which nixon was finally forced to release, the smoking gun tape on the orders of the supreme court that really sealed nixon's fate. i argue about this as we can see h

and going to talk to us about his book richard nixon the 37th president and the incidence of watergate "king richard". so my but what can you tell us about king return. >> you very much. for those of you have not seen a copy of my book which came out last week, kids full-time old is "king richard" nixon and watergate an american tragedy that has you can see a rather dark picture of richard nixon on the front cover. i'm going to explain a little bit the structure of the book, why chose to call it "king richard" the first time will tell you little bit about myself and why you chose to write this book. which is usually the first question that is offering my did you read the book. and as can tell from my accent, i'm originally from the uk. funny now and living in the u.s. and it worked for long time for the washington post, for 25 years. and when i was a kid, i don't know if this is typical of everyone but to me, i used to take these rides on the uk and do go through suburbs, across towns and villages and often the houses were very close to the railways. and he is to look inside of the peo

richard nixon the 37th 37th president and incidents of watergate. michael, what can you tell us about king richard? >> thank you very much. for those of you who haven't seen it, this is a copy of my book which came out last week here its full title is "king richard: nixon and watergate--an american tragedy." and it has that you can see a rather dark picture of richard nixon on the front cover. i'm going to explain in a little bit the structure of the book, why i chose to call it "king richard," but first of all tell you a little bit about myself and why i i chose to write ths book, which is usually the first question that is aimed at authors, why did you write the book. as you can tell from my accident i originally from the uk, but i am now living in the u.s. i've worked for a long time for the "washington post" for 25 years. and when i was a kid, i don't know if this is typical of everyone, but to me i used to take these train rides around the uk and it would go through suburbs, past towns and villages, and often the houses were very close to the ra

they are never going to get as close a view of what's going on in the white house as we do with richard nixon even though this was never nixon's intention and horrified when the recordings started to be publicly released because he's completely indiscreet in these conversations. so, now this sort of wealth of documentation causes both the challenge is a blessing and a curse for biographers of nixon because they tried to describe nixon's life from life to death so you don't just have the space to go into detail about what was occurring day by day and minute by minute. so, you access a sort of intimacy that these tapes allow so i, instead of choosing to write about all of nixon's life now all of watergate, i chose to focus on the most dramatic moments of all, which i think for the reasons i will try to explain are the hundred days after the second inaugural from january 20th to 1973 when he seemed to be at the top of his game. he still had a 60% approval rating at that time and he had won the reelection by one of the largest margins of the popular vote in american history, if not the largest. a

host: richard nixon and bb raboso, richard nixon did not have a lot of friends. do you describe that relationship? mr. ginsberg richard nixon did : not have a lot of friends. this is in the he is in the 1950's. hospital for a couple of days and he comes back from the hospital and he says to his assistant it is the weirdest thing, he has no one around him. how can a man in such a position of authority have no friends? if you look at richard nixon 's life, he had bebe as his first friend. he had one or two other friends that he could call but as somebody said, his first friend really his yellow legal pad. that was the object he felt most comfortable with. with bebe rebozo, it was a study of contrasts. nixon was an intellectual, dark and brooding. rebozo was a high school grad whose first job was airline steward. somehow it worked and i think it worked because nixon had enough common sense to know that he needed a friend to break him from his moodiness. nixon could sit in silence for hours with bebe and they often did but bebe often knew just a moment to break in wi

between an american tragedy and it has as you can see a rather dark picture of richard nixon on the front cover. i'm going to explain in a little bit the structure of the book and why i chose to call it king richard. but first of all i will tell you a little bit about myself and why i chose to write this book which is usually the first question that is aimed at authors, why did you write the book. as you can tell from my accent, i am originally from the uk but i am now living in the u.s. i worked for a long time for the "washington post" and when i was a kid, i don't know if this is typical of everyone, but to me i used to take these train rides d around the uk and it would go through suburbs across towns and villages and often the houses were very close to the railway. i used to look inside the house as the train went past and i was so i curious about what was goig on inside ofin these houses. what were the conversations around the dinner table and lunch table, what were the family dynamics so perhaps it isn't surprising that i became a reporter as a profession because it is the professi

but they will pay attention to richard nixon and nixon will endure forever.he's a -- i structured this book as kind of a shakespearean tragedy from humorous in january 1973 when he's about to be re-inaugurated to throw crisis, catastrophe and then in the end the downfall of the president so setting the stage for the downfall of the president. but as a c, there's an american twist at the end which i'm not goingto reveal now but you'll have to read the book . it's not exactly a shakespearean tragedy. it's as i said an american tragedy or drama that is different from a shakespearean tragedy for one important reason. you're going to have to read the book for that . so the other character in the book, very important is not a human character it's the tape recordings . which really kind of developed a life, a dynamic of their own, become a monster but nixon cannot control and ultimately lead to his downfall. i don't think it would have been forced to resign had it not been for those tape recordings because there would have been his version of events and there would

he wants a pardon from richard nixon. for that pardon, he's going to get the teamsters to endorse richard nixon. - and he told me he paid $3 million to get his sentence commuted. nixon commuted it. - but nixon makes it impossible for hoffa to be the president of the teamsters ever again. so hoffa was pissed off at nixon. he wanted his $3 million contribution back. and where was that $3 million? in a little bank in southern california. from dinsio's point of view, he's stealing money that the president stole from somebody else. it's not a crime. - yeah, if you take nixon's money, who's he gonna cry to? he can't cry to nobody. "hey, they stole my money. they stole my money." he ain't gonna say that. you know that and i know that. - narrator: with an eye on the biggest bank heist in american history, dinsio assembles his core team, starting with his trusted brother, james. rounding out the crew are a couple of dinsio's closest relatives-- his nephew harry barber, and his brother-in-law chuck mulligan. - so we had a four-man

ken gormley teaches a class on the constitutional issues that arose during the presidencies of richard nixonwell as the issues surrounding president ford's pardon of rich order nixon. the video of this class which was held online in 2020 is courtesy of due cane university. >> okay. guys, we're ready to start. thanks for your patience and for logging into class again today remotely during this unpleasant

ken gormley teaches a class on the constitutional issues that arose during the presidencies of richard nixon

as you recall richard nixon is called a southern strategy. that was a code word, i think we all know of course that is the -- he won the election. and of course members of congress who look like me were concerned as to exactly where he would be taken the country. as members of congress they saw it to see whether or not there were things they could talk about. in order to chart the way forward. been in pursuit of perfection for a long time. it's the preamble to the constitution. as to form a more perfect union the recognition the unit is not perfect. we know what happened in chicago in 1964. and the person who one he saw an audience were refused. it's fine to not go there individual ways. to chart and get president of the united states to respond to people of color. now you say times are different now, yes. they are different. but the more things change the more they stay the same. today of what we saw back then , it's another four years of presidency which is what we were doing last year. clearly as you noted we've come a long way from even t

richard nixon was a choir boy compared to this.o essentially steal an american election, an election for the presidency using the justice department as a front to do it. it's the most appalling, disturbing thing you can imagine, and the only thing that disturbs me more is that the architect of that is currently the frontrunner for the nomination of his party to run again. imagine if donald trump got this power in his hands again. you know, he was frustrated that he couldn't get justice department officials to heed to his wishes on . i don't think he'd make that mistake again, and that's a very disturbing prospect for this country. >> very disturbing, indeed. carrie, house investigators now have a lot of evidence, documents and interviews, but they're about to get a ton more if this special committee pursues this january 6 insurrection investigation. where do you think all of this will lead? >> my hope, wolf, is that it will lead to the most authoritative account of january 6th that we can get. they will take steps not to interfere

welcome to the richard nixon presidential library. before we introduce our distinguished speaker, i wanted to mention a couple of special guests. we have our speaker's daughter lease, lisa lore and her husband, jack wild. [ applause ] and we have betsy hewitt, the wife of our president and ceo, newly elected hue hewitt. [ applause ] our distinguished speaker was to dr. kissinger as dr. kissinger was to president nixon. he joined the staff in 1969 as special assistant working and traveling the world on on every major diplomatic initiative of the administration in the midst of the vietnam war and greater cold war. he was with dr. kissinger with negotiators in paris culminating in the paris peace accords of 1973. he was with president nixon in moscow during his first president altrip there in may 1971. and he was there for kissinger shuttles between the arabs and israelis after the 1973 yom kippur war. he was a key actor in president nixon's historic trip to china in 1972 known popularly as the week that changed the world. from 2015 to 2

welcome to the richard nixon presidential library. distinguished speaker was to dr. kissinger as dr. kissinger was to president nixon. he joined as special assistant working and traveling the world on every major diplomatic initiative of the administration in the midst of the veet yam war and greater cold war. it culminated in the paris peace accords. he was with president nixon during his first presidential trip there in the historic arms treaty in may 1972 and there were kissinger shuttles after the 1973 war. he was a key actor in president nixon's historic trip to china in 1972 known popular as the weekend that changed the world. ambassador wanted to hold such posts as state department of policy planning, president of the council of foreign relations. from 2015 to 2016, he conducted several hours of oral history with dr. kissinger on behalf of the nixon foundation. can be now found in this highly readable book with commentary. it's called kissinger on kissinger. it's available for purchase in our museum store and ambassador lord will sign copies for you. in 1971. 1

when i think richard nixon was probably rightfully deprived of the presidency by the manipulation of a daily machine in illinois. i love john kennedy, i'm glad he was president. but you know, in retrospect as i've matured, i'm sure that that election was stolen from richard nixon. but that's the last election that i'm aware of in modern history that might have been stolen. and jose comment that nancy pelosi and maxine waters are always calling broad. i've never seen that. i don't know what newspapers is reading the only thing that they've observed is the fraud that has been purch perpetuated on the democrats by the republicans filing these frivolous lawsuits in pennsylvania and in georgia and elsewhere around the country to try to overturn the legitimate election of 2020, that's the only fraud that has ever ever occurred in relation to this election. okay, so simple question for both of you. why did this man have 300 balance? i open balance and it's back. see where did those come from? real simple. where do you think jan? well, i mean, look at, why did he have guns and drugs? i mean,

the convention named richard nixon, senator from california as ike's presidential running mate. a stevenson, governor of illinois headed the democratic team. >> i don't like taxes. i doubt if anybody does. i shall do everything i can to reduce them. but i shall make no promises that i know i cannot keep. >> i campaigned successfully on the issues of reform, government decentralization and preparedness to preserve world peace. from eisenhower's first inauguration through his repeat victory over stevenson in 1956, his administration covered eight years of profound social and scientific growth and change. the new president organized an executive team of cabinet members and advisers on a staff basis. he assigned individual responsibility for administrative action, subject to his final approval and gave increased significance to the vice presidency by delegating to mr. nixon functions from the field of international relations. one this woman became the first secretary of the new department of health, education and welfare. this department has come to sponsor broad programs of researc

richard nixon began their tour of six nations that was to take them completely around the world.ir first destination was manila. the busy capital of the philippines was, like the rest of the country, tense with excitement on the eve of a great national celebration, the 10th anniversary of independence. ♪♪ >> on the afternoon of july 3rd, mr. and mrs. nixon landed following brief ceremonies, mr. garcia accompanied the honored guests to where president and mrs. ramon aa waited them. -- awaited them. this, again, was more than a mere visit. it was an old reunion -- a warm reunion between old friends. on the morning of the 4th of july, a day glorious to both fill filipinos and americans, mr. nixon -- [inaudible] the martyr whose name is known to millions who cherish freedom. the column moment brought memories to all present, for it ♪ ♪ >> by permission of the president, the huge crowd was allowed to surge forward at parade's end, the better to hear the address of vice president nixon. >> i have witnessed many fourth of july parades. i have seen parades with many floats and many bands

presidents lyndon johnson and richard nixon each had two daughters. ational war while their sons in law were serving in that war. the president who's launched our biggest foreign wars did not end them. president roosevelt served admirably. he died in office in 1962 the month before germany surrendered and five months before japan surrendered. when nixon was forced to resign and hand the title of commander in chief to his vice president gerald ford, it became president ford's duty in 1975 to stare helplessly at america's defeat in vietnam and our chaotic and dishonorable exit from vietnam. now joe biden is the fourth president to be the commander in chief of our forces in afghanistan and he decided there should not be a fifth. >> what's happening now could just as easily happen five years ago. or 15 years in the future. you have to be honest. our mission in afghanistan has taken many missteps, made many missteps over the last two decades. i am now the fourth american president to preside over the war in afghanistan. two republicans and two democrats. i

even richard nixon who is vice president, even considered adopting a hungarian child, there was so much feeling for those who had been brave at the time of the revolution. john kennedy, and 1961, said so-called freedom fighters into cuba, in an effort to topple fidel castro. they failed. over 1000 were taken prisoner. and kennedy humanely traded medicine in practice to get them out. >> yes, it's amazing when you think about how many presidents have been defined by these. things will way and see i guess. how joe biden's afghanistan decision defines his presidency. michael thank you so much for your time in your analysis tonight. i appreciate. you as well. >> in 2000, won the vote to -- afghanistan have a mere three days after the 9/11 attacks. it passed with nearly unanimous approval say for one dissenting voice. congresswoman barbara lee. she joins me next. >> however difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. our country is in a state of mourning. some of us must say, let's step back for. moment let's pause just for a minute and think through the implication

of working freedom loving people rated in the photograph that i showed earlier advice present richard nixon meeting with hungarian refugee children was part of that pr campaign and to sell the idea of hungarian refugees to an reluctant american population but many americans were still not convinced. and 20 years later, americans were even more resistant to accommodate southeast asians who they viewed as to culturally different. to be properly assimilated to the united states. the pain of the vietnam war also probably had a great deal to do with that reluctance to sponsor southeast asian refugees. and despite the news of refugee camps in thailand and is by the news that hundreds of people were dying as c-3 to safety somewhere in the world, let them the polls tell us that less than one third of americans were in favor of sponsoring mutinies or other southeast asian refugees on american soil rated but despite this public opposition,e white house always took the lead on refugee policy and a favored refugee admissions for humanitarian reasons but also aa tool of cold war foreign policy. refugee

it was necessary to build up america's defense, had been cut for years since richard nixon time time.ford, jimmy carter, so you had soldiers, gi's in 1980 who were actually on food stamps. we were flying airplanes that were 50 year's old. meanwhile soviets with new technology with bomber which was super sonic and deadly. reagan, that was his commitment because he knew if he can have a stronger defense, everything else is academic. so this was the deficit that was created but it was -- if freeing millions of people that had been in prison in poland or in other, you know, third-world countries and ultimately the soviet and russia itself, then there was -- free the millions of people who had been prisoned behind the iron curtain. >> you talk about his true ideology as being more pragmatic than being credit for? >> yes. >> is that going to hurt his legacy among conservatives? >> i don't think so. i think i wills legacy is pretty well cemented among conservatives, is that his library in simi valley in california is still the most visited presidential library in all america. some people go

and this photograph that you see on the screen we see vice president richard nixon meeting with hungarian refugee children around christmas time . the next humanitarian crisis came in cuba. in 1959, fidel castro in his july 26 movement overthrew the government of bautista and between 1959 and 1973 roughly half 1 million cubans were admitted to the united states. the majority of them through the so-called freedomflights of the mid-to-late 1950s . today this very day september 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the very first freedom flight from havana to miami international airport. the kennedy administration created the cuban refugee program to screen the refugees to find sponsors for them and to help them have a tool for life. by the time the cuban refugee program was phased out in the mid-1970s , the federal government had invested some $900 million into acumen refugee relief. now, as i mentioned earlier, those enrolled into the united states could not become permanent residents for citizens unless congress passed an enabling legislation that allow them to normalize their status and this i