richard reeves? any of it. , thementioned before culture of assassination, the abetted by john kennedy and his brother robert because of their of session with castro and the fact that we had killafter plot to try to the man. but it was our man who was killed. i have spent a lot of time on the site. that -- excuse me. oswald was a very strange fellow. he was a member of fair play for cuba. and other organizations. , areas the danger in dallas very right wing city at the time, and it may be that the events, the kennedy's attempts to eliminate castro did motivate do not think there was any conspiracy. as we know, as walt -- oswald wanted to kill general edwin walker who was a right wing icon in the country at the time. he has been forgotten, thankfully. .ut i do think he acted alone .o many of these theories -- there is the grassy knoll theory, and if you listen to the, there was a battalion of people hidden on the grassy knoll. the grassy know is like a big very smallwn, a setting. i think the conspira

host: richard reeves? guest: obviously, the visit, what i think is most important, in 1954, then senator kennedy went to vietnam and the president of south vietnam was a catholic and had lived in the united states in new jersey and had been supported by the kennedy family. and when young senator kennedy, 1954, there was a rooftop bar at the caravelle hotel, the tallest building in saigon, he was having a drink or coffee with a young american diplomat named edward gallion who became the dean of the tufts school of diplomacy. as they were talking, night fell, and there were flashes across the river and explosions. kennedy said, what is that? and gallion said that is the vietcong. kennedy said, what is going to happen? and he was told that they are going to drive the french out, they are going to come in and beat us, too. so it was not that kennedy did not know france's role. i mean, we were against the french in terms of colonialism at that time. johnson is blamed for vietnam, but we had 1500 men there when

richard reeve has more reaction from u.s.awmakers. >> it is a historic deal, an agreement that president obama says will make the world safer. >> a future in which we can verify that iran's nuclear program is peaceful. agreesr the plan, iran to roll back and freeze its nuclear program, eliminate stockpiles of near grade uranium. after 10 years, an agreement has been reached at this level. >> in exchange, the u.s. and its partners will lift sanctions. kerryary of state john says the deal is not about trust, but verification. >> you don't do this on the basis of somebody's statements to you. you do it on the basis of actions that can be verified. >> the ultimate goal, to permanently cap iran's nuclear program. >> this is hitting the pause button, not the delete program -- button. kerry says this means allies like israel are safer. we are concerned that this deal that came out of geneva is a bad deal and does not attain that goal. >> some members of congress are skeptical. >> we trusted the irradiance before, just like the north

. >> richard reeves, i want to jump and for moment.n cemetery. this is the royal highland regiment, the british bagpipers. they are performing live now at the kennedy gravesite. [bagpipe music] ♪ >> from arlington national cemetery, two british bagpipers, part of the royal highland regiment. we continue our live coverage here on c-span. we are joined by richard reeves, general editor of "the kennedy years." i did not mean to interrupt you. i just wanted to get that moment live here on c-span. back to your thoughts. >> it was a death in the family in a way that was television was in our living room. most of us watched hour after hour after hour and then came jack ruby killing oswald, and we were kind of numb. it was one of the first times we were overloaded with information and with grief. a member of the "washington star" was later a senator from new york, and he said these two irish icons, and mary said we will never smile again. moynahan said we will smile again but we will never be young again. i think that is the way it affected th

so. >> rose: so the legacy of shim, richard reeves? the kennedy years? what's the legacy? >> the legacy i would say --. >> rose: of this unfinished life. >> of this unfinished life, i think among the many things he did well, the fact of the matter is the most important thing about him, because of his health, is that he did not wait his turn. he destroyed the system that would not have made him president. he didn't wait his turn and now in america no one does. >> rose: barack obama being the latest. >> another example. yeah. >> rose: thank you all. back in a moment. stay with us. >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago. vice president lyndon johnson has left the hospital in dallas but we do not know to where he has proceeded. presumably he will be taking the oath of office. >> rose: many americans recall where they were when they heard the news. clint hill remembers. he was there. he is the secret service agent who jumped on to the back of the presidentia

more, you know matthews for writing this bookw claiming that they were overly chummy, in fact, richard reeves wrote a great biography where reagan and o'neill always said 6:00 o'clock we become friends. and they did. and a lot of great things happened because of that. >> rose: chris christie. when you talk about him and when you go look at him, what is it that he has that you think makes him, in part, a model for republican presidential candidate? >> just what i said earlier. like reagan, like ike, he wasn't distracted by the sound from the cheap seats. i loved edwin morris had one of my famous reagan stories going up and interviewing him on the day the la times just completely eviscerated reagan, and iran-contra story on the cover and also had a story about the deficit, they blamed it on reagan, he was one year into retirement he goes up to the ranch, and nancy meets him at the door and she is grim faced and good morning, he is thinking i am wasted my time i will get nothing from this mess so reagan is looking at the la times as edwin morris walks back and he says good morning, mr. president

though -- >> we never had one for a little while -- >> we had one every year -- >> rose: and richard reeves said about the president, obama, he said he is more professor than he is leader. and judgment is something that does not come from -- it is not a cerebral experience, it is something else, i guess, experience. >> i am not sure that judgment -- i am not sure that judgment is what is lacking. i think he has judgment. i think he has made certain decisions about international things, about where to go on certain issues. the question that people don't understand still is he was such a great communicator during campaigns and is it a different communication when you are just in the tell graph and in the telephone, or vice versa you are in the oval office. >> rose: you need to get out of 1912. >> you have a teleprompter in front of you is what i meant, and when he doesn't have an audience, he is an pdr when he did his radio chat he would have people sitting there so he could feel the energy and it seems when president president obama is with people he gets energy and he responds to it, when h

biography richard reeves edited the book "portrait of camelot." >> they were beautiful, they were youngh. >> reporter: theirs was a fabulous picture story, well edited. another joe kennedy quote "it's not what you are that counts but what people think you are." americans didn't see jackie smoking, didn't know that the pictures could lie. >> we the american people saw the john kennedy -- thought that john kennedy was kind of the image of energy and good health when, in fact, he was sick his whole life. it was only later we found out how bad his health really was, that he had received the last rites of the catholic church three times when his family thought he was dying. >> one of the most famous pictures of president kennedy was taken by a "new york times" photographer. if. >> reporter: pete souza is chief white house photographer for president obama. >> the title of the photograph is "the loneliest job." and the reality of that picture is he's standing up and he's got his hands on the table because of his bad back. >> reporter: the job has changed since the kennedys from controlled to n

after that, richard reeves talks about the legacy of john f. kennedy 50 years after his death. also, paul gregory, a family friend of the assassin, lee to my -- oswald, will be morning. it starts our all-day coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination here on c-span. next up, we will take you to some of the senate floor following change and filibuster rules. you will hear from senator chuck grassley and one of the three democrats who voted did not favor the filibuster rules changes. senator carl levin of michigan. -- that we've taken today. thank you very much, leader reid. for your courageous action in making sure that the senate can now work and get our work done. i've waited 18 years for this moment, from 1995 when we were in the minority, i proposed changing the rules on filibuster. i've been proposing it ever since. what's really happened is that this war has escalated, this war on both sides. i said at the time in 1995 that it was pliek an arms race, that if we didn't do something about it, the senate would reach a point where we wouldn't be able to function. we