Pat buchanan and the knowledge of your new look acknowledges of your new book, you wrote this is surely among the last to be written by a confidant who served in the white house from its first to its final days over four decades ago. How many others are left . Im sure there are some of the young man around nickel nixon. Who havent written memoirs yet, but im not sure theyre going to. I do think in terms of a written memoir, this is probably the last of someone who was right there and knew it from the beginning. What you put in this book youve never talked about before . The origins of the agnew speech, my memos on that, theres a number of memos in their i got out that ive never published before and there is a description of how i almost defected on the china trip i was so unhappy with it. End of itlso the where you put in that quote, he said he saw shelley and me on the first day of the Inauguration Day looking at the book looking up the portico and saw how it all ended, he said it almost breaks your heart. All of this is fresh and new, others have gotten parts of it. What is that about what is that what that is about is what it was like to be in the Nixon White House and the opposition you faced in the transition the party was undergoing and how nixon operated on how desh held the whole thing together until watergate collapsed held to the whole thing together until watergate collapsed it. Before we go to the clip of the agnew speech, what was it, what role did it play . Nixon at the end of his first year, the massive demonstrations in the moratorium being held on the Monument Grounds and it was quite clear time and newsweek were saying Richard Nixons presidency is in danger of being broken. A liberal columnist wrote that and i wrote the president a memo saying you have got to stand up and we will have to explain to the country by we have to keep those kids over there fighting and dying in vietnam and nixon gave his famous great silent majority speech on november 3, 1969, it was a smashing triumph in 70 of the country back to him and stood with him. The night at that night after the speech finished, the networks receded to trash him. , nixonee Major Networks was angry and halderman told me to write letters and telegrams and i said this is the time we need to take on the networks directly, openly at a high level , the way to do it is a speech by the Vice President of the United States which i will write he came back with a memo were halderman wrote back he has seen, go ahead. It means the president has seen the memo, go ahead and start writing the speech. I wrote it for about three to four days i was in touch with the Vice President. I went through three drafts which is not a big number and i was called over to the oval office and there sat the president with his glasses on, which he never wore. , writinghere the desk in phrases to the speech. Then he murmured and i was thisning and he murmured will tear the scab off those pastors. Off those. Agnew went out to deliver the speech in des moines. We been gathering in midwest conference in des moines and i that abc was going to go live with it and i was nervous so i went out to the University Club and they called nbc and cbs are going live with it. I said to myself this is either going to be a Great Success or a career ender. Agnew delivered the speech on the networks and the reaction was sensational. And agnew delivered that speech on the networks, and the reaction was sensational. Nationwide, telegrams, letters. The whole country stood with us and the sentiment about the networks and television. That night, if you can believe it, i drove out to Andrews Air Force base at about 3 00 a. M. And got aboard air force 2. Agnew had invited me to ride with him down to cape canaveral, and he comes on the plane late and he comes over to me and says, gangbusters. It was just a phenomenal moment, and that moment, i think nixons great silent majority speech, agnews attack on the networks at des moines and the follow up attack on the Washington Post and New York Times in montgomery, alabama, which i wrote with the Vice President , that, i think, was the real making of the president. Not 1968 so much, but the real making of the president. If you can believe it, brian, at the end of that year, Richard Nixon was at 68 approval and 19 disapproval. Astonishing. Here was a fellow, who seven years before was the biggest loser in american politics after he lost the governorship in california to pat brown. Lets see a little bit of that speech, the former Vice President , november 13, 1969, in des moines. [video clip] every american has a right to disagree with the president of the United States and to express publicly that disagreement. But the president of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him. [applause] and the people of this country have the right to make up their own mind, and form their own opinions about a president ial address without having the president s words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of critics before they can even be digested. I remember that that happened right around dinner hour or 6 00 or 7 00 at night. I think it was around 7 00 or 7 30, i believe, at night. Maybe 7 00 at night. Thats correct. And agnew, what hes talking about there is the fundamental point and it exists today, that the president of the United States, in those days, a number of people had custody of how and what would be seen of the president of the United States and how it would be presented because they controlled all three networks. I would say 12 people would make this decision, and so in effect, the direct communication between the president and the people, they were standing right in the middle of it. They had the lens and they would present it as they saw fit and in excerpts as they saw fit and we almost couldnt live with this. The president was constantly on the phone and calling for letters to the editors and telegrams. I said, this is nonsense. You were seen by 50 million people. The network commenting on it was seen by 50 million people. We cant turn this around with letters to the editor, so we elevated that issue and the issue exists to this day and i think that was, that was the first strike. Why did they decide at the time to carry it live . Because they would never do this in those days. Well, i think because well, we put in a phrase at the end, whether what i say tonight is heard by the American People doesnt depend on you or depend on me. They decide what you hear and dont hear and that was exactly right and it was a challenge. Also, i think as i recall in there, we had a quote from Frank Reynolds of abc, had written this horrible thing or said this horrible thing on television during the campaign of 1968, which just astonished me saying nixons retaining his ability to hit his people [inaudible] we had quotes and things like that, which were a challenge in defiance of him. I think they put it on the air because agnew was being trashed as an individual who had no sensitivity and didnt understand the first amendment. That they thought that the public would say, my goodness, these nixon people want to sensor want to censor the news and restrict the first amendment. The American People loved it. It was the real making of Vice President agnew who, before that, as you know in 1968, had been regarded by the press as something of a buffoon. What impact did it have on you when you found out he was taking cash money in envelopes. Envelopes . He had a press conference. And there were these reports and rumors that he was being investigated by a friend of mine in baltimore, u. S. Attorney, and i went up and watched agnew, and ziggler, the press secretary, seemed to undercut agnew, so i called out, al, whats going on . Why are we not standing by the Vice President . He said, come on over, pat. And i went into his office. The chiefofstaff, the Corner Office that haldeman had. He said we have him taking envelopes in the basement, and i was shattered by this. Agnew was a good friend of mine. I traveled with him in 1970. I liked him. We were buddies. He had real courage. And he was just a terrific fellow. Had a lot of fun with him. You could play tricks on the guy and he enjoyed it. And i think, i was really agonized and disappointed with that. I remember writing him a note the day he resigned. Did you ever talk to him after that . I didnt talk about what happened and why. I assumed they had the goods on him and he pled nolo contender. Whenever agnew came to down, came to town, once every year or two, he would call a number of agnews close friends, and in a quiet meeting, bryce would be there and the folks, good earl, buchanan, everybody would have a couple of drinks and talk about great days. He was fun to travel with. There are a lot of Different Things you touch on and im going to jump around but before , to jump around, but before, im going to ask you to do something i dont think you have ever done. I want you to talk about your brothers and sisters because there are eight of them. And you mention a couple, you mentioned henry and crick, and we know baby cannon, but how old are they, how many are still alive, where do you fit in the family and what did they do . My two oldest brothers, bill, he died when he was about 45, so my brother hank died a couple of years ago. So im the oldest now of nine and my brother crick, the one who served in vietnam, hes got six kids and hes a dentist and hes living out in maryland, montgomery county, below him, in age, is my sister kathleen. Who worked with bill kristol for a while and with Vice President quayle. Shes got three kids now and has lost a kid. Shes and then below her is my brother jack. John Edward Buchanan who coaches basketball, and he had been an accountant and a business executive. He lives in kensington, maryland. And then there is bay, who is general mcarthur who ran my campaign. A tough customer. She, incidentally, she was high on romney and she became a mormon. In 2012, and when i was over, i think she was disillusioned by it and got out of politics and is doing very well. Where does she live . Oakton, virginia, and then my brother, brian, he went down to bedford, once he got out of medical school, bedford, virginia, which is down between roanoke, lynchburg and up in the hills there. Got that famous world war ii memorial, you know, where all of those guys from bedford coming i sure coming ashore on the beach and were just wiped out. Then there is my brother tom, who is a managing partner lives on gerald ford drive. Where john mccain went to school. Thats where they are and what they are doing but we all grew up in d. C. I spent i was born in d. C. , my mother used to work at the providence hospital, born and raised on the d. C. Side, they call it chevy chase d. C. Right up the street. Buchanan family field is the name of the football field. And went to georgetown. On the fiveyear plan. I remember you getting kicked out of georgetown. I got this story in the book, when i got aboard the plane with agnew, somebody got aboard after me and i looked over and it was the head of Loyola College or university at the time. He looked at me, and it was instant recognition. Father joe had expelled me from Georgetown University after an altercation with the police when i was a senior in october of 1959. And this was dug up by Jack Andersons deputy, brit hume, when i was in the white house writing speeches about how these kids, we got to crack down on student disorders, and brit hume called me up and said, pat, i want to read you something here. It says you were arrested and this is what you were charged with. You were out on 2,000 bond and all of this, what do you have to say for yourself after your fight with the police . I said, well, brit, i was a head on points until they brought out the sticks. One of my better lines. When you have no defense. Mom and dad, what were they like . My father was very much an autocrat. Very autocratic. His three political heroes were joe mccarthy, general mcarthur and general Francisco Franco of spain, the catholic who finished off the communists. In spain, he was a very devout catholic. He went to gonzaga before i did. He came off out of a broken family. His father had left him and the jesuits came by and got him when he graduated from holy trinity. It was an irish neighborhood in those days and they brought him down to gonzaga, and so when he raised nine kids and my mother, you know, these towns you saw, that trump was visiting i used to go up there after the water. Up there after the war. My mom was one of eight kids. My cousins were telling my sister baw, there is nothing up here in the valley but trump signs. [laughter] and thats where trump won the election in pennsylvania. Out there, take that Southwest Corner of pennsylvania. The eastern part of ohio. Up there at that steel mill in west virginia. Thats where he won the election. There is a quote in your book from Richard Nixon, i have never seen an extremist like you who has a sense of humor. Where did he say that . I challenged hw bush 10 weeks before the New Hampshire primary in 1972. My sister and i went up to challenge the president of the United States in the New Hampshire primary, and when we got there, polls showed bush had about 65 to 70 . Buchanan had 16 and david duke at six in the polls. We went through a really tough campaign against bush up there. Stayed up there. Constantly and we closed the gap from 50 or something points, closed it to a gap of 17 15 points. 5137, Something Like that. It was a tremendous victory. A moral victory and the press played it up huge and we went to georgia and did almost as well but then we had super tuesday and there were eight primaries on super tuesday and i got wiped out in every single one. And so nixon was in new jersey, so i had lost 10 in a row. So i called nixon in new jersey, the president , and i said, mr. President , 1010, not bad . He said, buchanan, youre the only extremist i know with a sense of humor. He said, come on up, bring shelley and your secret service detail. So it was a very pleasant visit i had with him. With the old man, that was just two years before he died. Just before he died, i called him, up in new jersey and i said, we havent talked, he said, pat, im coming down to d. C. He would come down. It was a Washington Hotel on that circle. Over toward washington circle. Exactly. And he would come down there, and he was really so alert and everything, and you sit down, what is he doing . What is he commenting . Who is up, who is down . And it was like the first time i met him. He was so interested, his whole life in politics and personalities and issues. He was consumed by this and ive thought of it from january 1966 when i met him till about the oregon primary, i was the principle one in there for three, four, five hours a day in his office. In the white house, it was haldeman and ehrlichman but the old man needed that, constantly exploring this issue, that issue, what do you think, calling you back in, but its a feature i didnt, you know, my wife was with the Vice President , when he was Vice President , but yeah, when nixon was Vice President but i dont know whether bob who was close to him then was in there like that. I noticed that was a characteristic of him. You were sitting across from him. You had a threehour interviewchat with him before you hired him back in 1966. Right. How old were you . It was november december, i had just turned 27. What was that like . It was not a hard interview because he was asking me about issues. You were doing what at the time . I was an editorial writer. I got a lucky break, six weeks out of journalism school, i went back and applied for an opening there, and the editorial editor said you can write some editorials until we hire the replacement for the guy that left and i was really working so hard, that they kept me in and they moved the other editorial writer out. So we had two editorial writers at the globe democrat. The post dispatch down the street had about six or seven. So i was writing immediately on every issue local, statewide, things i was unaware of. Initially unaware of, Foreign Policy, domestic, everything. And i had been doing this for 3 1 2 years, and writing other pieces as well. So president nixon would ask me about various things in this threehour meeting. I was all settled on it, and i passed the oral exam with flying colors. He said after the three hours, he said i would like to hire you for one year. And he said, heres the reason. I want you to help write the column ive got to write once a month. Get that, do some press work do the other things. Right outside my office. And he said, one year, because im going to go out and campaign for all the republicans in 1966. And if we dont get back some of these massive losses weve gotten in the goldwater campaign, the nomination wont be worth anything. So nixon predicted we were going to win 40 seats in the house and whatever in the senate, and the returns came in, we won 47 in the house. This was november, 1966. We were on our way to the white house. When did you see him in his angriest moment, for you and how did he react when he was angry . You know, he never yelled at me. He never yelled at me. If he got angry, he would yell generically at the wall. Why cant i get some people to do these things . I cant recall him really enraged at me. I dont know why. But in the book, i dont think i have recollections i dont have great recollections of him being enraged but i will say this. I worked for reagan, and i remember reagan coming into the cabinet room and i dont know why he looked at me and said, tip oneill and exploded. He exploded, when he came out of that meeting with gorbachev. Nick, who was a friend of mine, he was the ambassador and reagan came out, he was waving around human events which had denounced the summit, but reagan had this, what i consider a healthy temper. Sort of exploded like a storm, and by the time we are coming home on that plane at night, dolan celebrating the fact that we didnt get any deal. Reagan came back and he was in wonderful spirits. Pat, youre determined, Jimmy Stewart and i, telling story, but president nixon kept it inside himself and he brooded. I mean, when he would call you at night and he was angry at something the voice was low, i want you to do this, do this, do that, and go after them, and he would let these things get to him in a way that i dont think president reagan did. As i say, i think there was a certain healthy thing of sort of an anger and then getting it out of the system. And thats the real difference between the two. During the next administration, watergate, bob haldeman, magruder, chuck colson, they all went to prison. They testified. You testified, ive got a little piece of video from your testimony. You say that you had your brother sit behind you. Right. Why . My brother crick. I had watched all the others up there and they all had these lawyers sitting beside them. You know, and as soon as you see that these guys have got a lawyer, hes got a problem. He must have done something, got some lawyer advising him, and i didnt believe i had done anything wrong but i did need Somebody Just to be with me. So i called my brother crick up on the day i was going to testify, or the day before and i said, can you come over to watergate where i live with charlie and well go to the white house and get breakfast and then we are going to head up to the Big Committee hearing room where john f. Kennedy announced for president. He came up, i said, you dont need to sit at the table with me but i want you to sit right behind me, and in the book i think ive got a picture with my brother right behind me there and thats what he did and when they would take a break he would go back into the room and then we would come back out to the hearing, in and out. So, yeah, you wanted your brother there. I didnt need a lawyer. This video, im not sure if its your brother behind you in this video that we have but lets run it and you can tell us if you know who this person is. [video clip]. The president stand on the issue of defense and welfare and taxes and government and integration and busing were closer to what the American People wanted. Mr. Chairman, we one as well because of the quality an character of our candidate. If one looks back over the political history of this country, there is only one other man other than Richard Nixon, who has been his partys nominee for president or Vice President five times. Thats franklin roosevelt. In those days you couldnt put a camera in front of you, so we couldnt see you frontally. Thats not your brother . No, thats not my brother but there is a picture in the book of my brother right behind me, you can see, its cut off, but he was right there. I could hear him laughing at times. Did you ever think in this process that you would go to prison . No. I never hired a lawyer. I had been before grand juries. I was called over by the special prosecutor. It was a very vindictive hostile crowd. They tried to get you involved in the dirty trick operations. But to be honest, i thought sam dash just didnt understand politics. We had some phrases he was reading to me. Nixon said we had to go to i agreed, i had done this analysis, i said its time to go out to the kennels and let all the dogs loose. So he reads this and says, can you explain this to me . And i said, look, gary hart said if the nixon people underestimate us, well do what was done to humphrey and kill him. I do not think he had physical violence in mind. But, you know, it came off very well. I will say those 5 1 2 hours. I got back, was it nolan of the boston globe. Marty nolan. He said, when buchanan got back, it was like orderly field after lindbergh landed. It was a great day, in a way, because it boosted the morale of the whole white house staff which was very down. And the good news was, the networks decided after i had testified for five hours, they are no longer carrying live testimony. Here you are on your way to china. I dont think you had stopped in hawaii yet. You were on air force one with the president. I want to ask you eventually about the trip back. Lets watch this. [video clip] comments before about joe memoirs, most interesting. Read the first part, too. Talk about, the more interesting part is the evaluation of de gaulle. Its rather fascinating. Thats great footage. I dont recall ever seeing that. What was in your mind as you were making the trip . I guess we were talking about i think we were, yeah. What was in your mind when you were on the plane . I sent nixon a memo telling him i thought he was taking a risk taking this trip and then i sent him a second memo saying, you need to take me along, its my turn. The conservatives looked to me sort of to represent their interest, as bill said, buchanan was the ambassador to the right or whatever it was for the conservative movement. But when i was going there, i mean, the decision had been made, nixon had announced it in july, and now we were in february, before the New Hampshire primary. And it was going to be a tremendously interesting trip. By then, i was reconciled to the idea, they elected the president , not me. We got there, and initially, i was doing fine with it until i read the communique. I had not been allowed to participate at all in the writing of the communique. I think kissinger had done it and when i saw it, rose woods and i were appalled by it. Who is rose woods . The most royal nixonite there was. She came with him right after the case in 1948. Had been with him when i was there. 18 years, was family to the nixons. Great lady. Loyal, courageous, went through every single one of those crises and then some with Richard Nixon. You on your you are on your way back from china . Kissinger had gotten word, i thought the shanghai communication was a sellout of taiwan. And frankly, a shallow piece of work, concessions all through it. And it embarrassed me. It almost made me a shame so he came back to discuss it. He said, whats your problems with the communique . I said look here, chinese open with a statement about revolution what we want and we start off with some examination of conscience. I said, japanese, they say japan is militaristic. We dont defend our own, and the part on taiwan, we accept their position. And so it was a sellout. Badly written. You should have had me in there. I would have liked to have written it. We could have stated our side, they state their side. So then he went forward and he came back and he started, henry started ragging me, your conservative friends havent supported us in the middle east. And then i just got up and put my face about that far from his, and b. S. In the vernacular. And sat down. If you can believe it, i looked over there and it was scowcroft. Grinning away. I dont know if he agreed with me, but he enjoyed the encounter. Why did you say you were going to resign . That is why. I grew up being taught and learning that the worst diplomatic disaster in history was yalta or fdr had signed over the freedom of those 10 countries in Eastern Europe to soviet and joe stalin into their custody and it was a horror show. I always believed it was a horrendous betrayal. I said, if i had been party to something thats going to do the same thing to the people of taiwan, whom we supported, taiwan, we always supported, and the nationalists, and so i just felt ashamed and disgusted, and i decided to resign, and told my parents when i got home, and sent word to florida, key biscayne, that i wanted to come down and resign, and thankfully, haldeman argued against it and rose wood said, dont do it and others said dont do it. The president , according to haldeman, was quite prepared initially. He wanted to tell me not to do it but finally he said if hes going to go hes going to go. It reminded me of my friend dick whalen, who walked out at mission bay after the nixon, after nixons inauguration nixons nomination in miami beach in 1968, and he was a great writer and friend of mine. He walked out of mission bay and sent a letter to the president , shelley picked one up, rose woods, about resigning and i ran to nixon and said, this guy is such a great writer, weve got to get him back. Nixon said if hes going to resign now, let him go. If thats the way he feels, let him go. Very cold about it. That you go now than in the middle of the campaign and have an explosion. So i think nixon had come to the conclusion that if i wanted to go that badly, maybe i could go over to the campaign or somewhere else but i should go. Why didnt you go . You know, i decided by the weekend, i said, i made my case to the president , haldeman, kissinger, to everybody in the building, knows what i belief and what i feel, and i want nixon to be reelected so what am i going to accomplish by walking out . Im not going to have a Big Press Conference or anything. Im just going to slip out and a friend of mine did, left the administration, bill gavin, i think he went over to work for jim buckley after that. This is from your book on page 175. Henry lost it. Minutes later, sally was back in my office. I cannot take this. I just watched dr. Kissinger throw all of the pages across the room. There is a two star general crawling over the floor picking them up. I just got an email from her talking about all those days. What this was is that after the cambodian speech and kent state and the huge explosion that took place, nixon sent the troops into cambodia for 60 days, and 30 kilometers, and he wanted a long paper presented on what we had accomplished with that, and the nsc produced a paper, i guess some 6,000 words, so nixon told me, and haldeman told me through nixon, he wants you to rewrite it. Henry, as was his custom, would hold off his material long enough so that you couldnt get it in. So he held it off and it was 6,000. It was given to me in the afternoon, out at san clemente and sally and i went to work. I rewrote the 6,000 words all night long. It was about 8 00 in the morning when i got it done and i told sally to take it down to kissingers office. I said to sally, take it on down to dr. Kissingers office. And thats what she came back and told me. He had thrown it right across the room, but the odd thing is, nixon as haldeman writes, he loved the job i had done, putting you know these items up, bullet points of all the weapons captured from the north vietnamese or casualties, exactly how many rockets in the borders and the ammunition and really made the case it made the case where the documents and facts and information made it well instead of one of these long meandering things that you got out of the nsc. And nixon said that was i want all the papers done like this in this form after this, and he thought it was terrific. So i felt very good about it and after reading haldemans memoirs. Brian lamb you have got lots of memoirs in here. There is a couple of points i am thinking, this is patrick j. Buchanans revenge. He has waited all of these years to publish all of these memoirs to say, see, i was right back then. Patrick j. Buchanan well were you always right . I mean, i was opposed to the i was stunned by the china trip, but all of these things, there is a certain consistency, but you are right, i have held those for a long time in my files and everything and they really represent what i believed in. There is a thread of consistency certainly on political strategy all the way up through it worked. It worked, the idea of putting the goldwater people together with nixon. The nixon is the center of the party and goodbye to rockefeller and them, and then once you get this block, go after the northern catholics and the democratic party, folks that were raised just like me and nixon raised his catholic vote from 22 percent against jack kennedy to 55 percent and he got this what we call the southern protestants they now call the evangelicals where they denounced as a southern strategy. All of these Natural Alliance of ours, on politics, issues the southern conservatives and put these four blocks together and as i write, i mean, it is going to split the country a bit, but we are going to wind up with a larger half, which we did. I mean, can you imagine . And anybody thinking in 1962 after nixons last press conference, ten years later, he would win a 49state landslide . And then it all and all came apart. But as i said, we rolled the rock all the way up the mountain and it rolled right back down on top of us. Brian lamb when did you first personally think there was a recording system and when did you first learn about the recording system in the oval office and on the phone . Patrick j. Buchanan i didnt think i dont believe i thought there was a recording system . I first learned about it when butterfield Alexander Butterfield testified that was in july of 1973. He came up and testified that there was a recording system in the oval office and i reflected on that and i knew the times that the president had called me and late at night and he had had conversations or joking about various people and he was sort of letting his hair down. And so i wrote him a memo saying, i think you ought to dean had testified, you are going to have to keep the dean tapes, the five tapes of conversation with dean, i didnt think they were going to be that damaging to us and keep the tapes with the press and the Foreign Policy stuff, the stuff you need, you really should tape and i said, take the rest out and burn it and shut down this special Prosecutors Office now before this thing grows into a monster. And i didnt know it at the time, but nixon had called in haig and Fred Buzhardt and entertained this idea that he should burn the tapes and they said, well, it will be obstruction of justice. First, i didnt recommend burning subpoenaed tapes. Secondly, they were his property. There was executive privilege that existed. Everybody knew it and if he simply got rid of them as a fait accompli and then just said in effect impeach and be damned. I think he would have moved right through it. And president nixon said in his memoirs, if he had burned the tapes as i had urged him to do that he would have survived and i think thats right. Brian lamb here is some video and Peter Jennings was a very young man at this time, anchor on abc. Just a little bit back on may 9, 1970. Its the busses circling the white house that you write about in your book. Lets watch this. video starts jennings they stream through every street of washington heading south, bumper to bumper busses serve the silent sentries to guard the immediate area near the white house. The demonstrators kept coming through the morning. The intent was serious. The mood was peaceful and the day was hot. Brian lamb why busses and how many were there and whose idea was it . Patrick j. Buchanan well, this is may 9th. This was the cambodia kent state speech where i had worked with the president on where we invaded cambodia, it was a tremendous shock to clean out the communist sanctuaries in cambodia from which they were attacking americans in south vietnam. And there was an explosion on the campuses and there were riots and out in kent state, there was a riot in kent on saturday night. The National Guard came out sunday. They burned the rotc building. On monday, there was a huge demonstration and the guard fired live ammunition and killed four students and that exploded the campuses in the country and virtually, i mean, there were hundreds and hundreds of campuses that simply shut down and this was early may and nixon was tremendously shaken by this because he had made the statement that a women nixon had come out of the pentagon after the day one, i think it was may 1 right after the speech. And a woman said it was either her son or husband, i want to thank you, mr. President for what you are doing, to keep, you know to help my husband stay alive over there. And nixon said, they are great young people over there. You should see them. They are terrific. On the other hand, there are these bums blowing up campuses. And the term bums was taken by the press for nixon to mean all the demonstrators and all the people who had opposed the war. And then the killing of the four students at kent state and this just exploded and so the crowds came in to dc, coming in to dc and nixon had a press conference there. I mean, he had a press Conference Friday night and anyone out that night i remember the phrase, search lights on the lawn. Nixon was it was 3 or 4 a. M. , went out on the lawn with manolo, the man that worked for him even up in new york and he took him over to the Lincoln Memorial and there were students wandering around, here comes the president of the United States at four or five in the morning and nixon tried to start a conversation with them and some of them said he was talking football. Others said, you know and so nixon sent around to his speech writer a memo of what he tried to communicate, what he had tried to say. But that was the worst period, i call it the gethsemane of the nixon presidency before watergate. He was really down and really broken. I have got the memos in there from pat moynihan. I mean, to me, they were just semipanicked from moynihan you know, saying you have got to take control of all the National Guard units in the country. You are commander in chief and put u. S. Army officers in charge and doing all of these things and so but there is no doubt about it, nixon was affected by this and the staff many in the staff, bill safire denounced the speech in his memoirs as did henry kissinger, although haldeman says, kissinger had heard the speech and complemented the president before he delivered so i guess, tell that whole story and i have got a line in there which is, i am not sure, i believe it was at that demonstration where i told them, i told somebody, i said, i was in the first floor of the eob in my office. I said, i went down to get a pack of cigarettes and ran into the 82nd airborne, but i went down there and there were all of these kids down there, these paratroopers, they were sitting there looking around. And they were about i would say 10 years younger than me, and i would tell you, the demonstrators are lucky they didnt get through those busses and tried to run into the white house. They would have they would have gotten they would have met some real force. Brian lamb how many more books do you think you will write . Patrick j. Buchanan you know, i have people who have asked me to write another book. You know, i am just not sure. I am not sure. I dont know once i got this done, i thought of doing a slim book on with reagan, i just dont. I think as a man said, i have said what i came to say. Brian lamb so you have done everything you wanted to do . Patrick j. Buchanan well, yes. I am i feel i am very fortunate being around still you know. Brian lamb you mentioned, by the way in here that you had open heart surgery at one point . Patrick j. Buchanan sure, it was right after the california primary in 1992 thats why guys said, why are you staying in the race . Thats because the doctor told me i have got to in for heart open heart surgery right after the primaries that you couldnt last this was a surgery i had that made me so nervous when i gave that culture and war speech in the convention whether i could really have the energy to do it, so yes. Brian lamb what was wrong with the heart . Patrick j. Buchanan the heart valve was leaking badly, very, very bad and started to deteriorate. The doctor that described, he said, it will get worse, worse, worse, and suddenly it will take a turn down like that and you get the valve in just as it makes the turn. Brian lamb you mentioned bill safire earlier and i want to show folks bill safire just talking about writing and the New York Times hiring him to be a columnist and i want you to put him in context with your brand of conservatism. video starts safire he is like a layer cake and the top layer is patriot and beneath that there is mild paranoia and beneath that there is very good to people who work with him and thoughtful and not at all abusive. And underneath that, a hard liner. video ends brian lamb he was a wordsmith and wrote speeches and then did his column in the New York Times, where were the two of you on the political spectrum . Patrick j. Buchanan well, bill safire was regarded when he came aboard as a but he had been with nixon in 1960 and nixon was bill was one of the people four or five people when i went to new york, he said, you have got to go see vic klasky, you have got to go see bill safire come down here, see sandy quinn and all of these waldron people who were really loyalists who were considered people that he talked to and they ought to come to know me. My read on safire was that he was basically a new york liberal republican, very comfortable with rockefeller, lindsey and nixon. He had worked for nixon. He was loyal to him personally and he was a wordsmith and a writer, but he was on the other side for me in all the arguments and you know, there is buzzing and things like that, and i was basically very close to being a solid goldwater conservative. When ray price and safire were regarded as, i would say moderate liberal, liberal republicans and i remember when bill safire was hired at the end of nixons first term, frankly, i think partly due to the agnew speech, all of these liberal newspapers were all biased and overwhelming and so the New York Times decided they needed a conservative and so they hired bill safire and sulzberger, said we needed a conservative on the page and so we put that and it was in the new summer that bill had been hired and nixon wrote a little note, buchanan, haldeman, safire a conservative. Somebody tell human events. [laughter] so we all had a great laugh at that, but bill went on to win a Pulitzer Prize but he is a social conservative now. On economics, he was bill was the one who worked on the speech, the famous speech where wage and price controls and all things the big end of brettenwood was going off the gold standard, he went up to campaign and it was a great opportunity and a great moment. Brian lamb here is a moment that you also write about. This is at pat nixons funeral in 1993, its only about 20 seconds. video starts unknown he was really he felt a tremendous sense of loss because he depended on pat. She was a very strong woman and she never did leave him or turned her back on him in any of the controversial things he was involved in. She stuck with him and he leaned on her and depended on her. video ends brian lamb you worked closely with her in 1966. Patrick j. Buchanan oh, she is a great lady. Brian lamb but what did you see in pat nixon that none of the rest of us saw. I mean, what did she do when the two of you were working together . Patrick j. Buchanan well, she was so down to earth. She called herself ms. Ryan and she would answer the and her name was Thelma Pat Ryan nixon, so she was in the same Little Office with rose woods and me and these people would call up. I remember one of them called up and said, i would like to talk to Vice President nixon. And she said, well, he is busy right now. And she said a personal friend of pat nixon and pat went to mrs. Nixon, she would tell us that and she smoked, and i was a chain smoker then and so when i ran out of cigarettes, i would go, mrs. Nixon, have you got a couple of marlboros until i can go get a but she was a wonderful lady. I think she was a very strong lady. She had a good sense of humor and she was a realist and you know, i just liked her very much and i remember after i testified, the watergate testimony came off so well and the president said, come on over to the mansion. You know, right after i testified, about five or six oclock or so, i was having a party in my office and so i went over there and she comes running up and she waltzes me all around the room after i testified. But she was a reserved, but she was a great lady. Julie has a written wonderful book about her, just a wonderful book about her. Brian lamb what did you think of the Media Coverage of her and over your lifetime, when did you recognize that the media is being against somebody in politics . Whats the giveaway . Patrick j. Buchanan what do you mean . How was she treated in brian lamb yes. Patrick j. Buchanan well, i think she was i think it was simplistic and sort of plastic pat that she just stands there behind him and doesnt you know, doesnt move and has the same maintains the same posture or facial expression and that wasnt her at all. When do you discover that the media i mean, when nixon when i first went to work with nixon, it was in early 1966 and as safire says, regularly he would say that the press is the enemy. Now, remember that, you know. And i had to go on to journalism school. I worked at the globe democrat, most of the a lot of the reporters and others were you know, liberals and moderates, and a few conservatives and things, and i just didnt believe they were the enemy. I knew nixon had gotten a horrible press for years, but i think that even all of us, you take ray price. He was with the Herald Tribune and i think a lot of them came to believe they really had it in for nixon. You know, they just i mean, who is that intellectual that i quote in there, the fellow who said, you know, you cannot be an intellectual, member of the intelligence in new york and have voted for Richard Nixon. You just cannot be that. I didnt understand it. I think he was a progressive republican and domestic policy. He did run a populous small c conservative campaign, law and order and things like that. But he was an internationalist, not a globalist and all of these things, they were not that different from kennedys positions you know, Jack Kennedys and in some ways, kennedy was more conservative i think in terms of you know, bury any burden and all the rest of it, and yet, there was just a hostility to nixon that i have never seen before and you know, until we get to trump and of course President Trump fights differently where the press would come and just fights back daily. Brian lamb i have got a piece of tape that i have got to show you. We are close to the end of this. I dont know if you remember this. This is october 24, 1999. See if you remember this. video starts unknown tomorrow, pat buchanan is announcing that he will be a candidate for the presidency in the reform party. Trump i just think its ridiculous. unknown why . Trump i mean, he wrote a book. Because look, he is a hitler lover. I guess he is an antisemite. He doesnt like the blacks. He doesnt like the gays. Its just incredible that anybody could embrace this guy and maybe he will get four or five percent of the vote and he will be a really staunched right whacko vote. I am not even sure if it is right. It is just a whacko vote and i just cant imagine that anybody can take him seriously. video ends brian lamb what do you think when you see that . Patrick j. Buchanan thats when we announced. I thought we can beat trump with the nomination and i think we could. Brian lamb the reform party. Patrick j. Buchanan reform party and we got the nomination, but i look upon those with trump. We found out these are really terms of endearment. I mean, i look at that and i do laugh, but i will say this to reveal something that a number of years ago, i got a call from donald trump and he was very gracious and mentioned some things he had said way back there and he said and regretted and was very gracious about it and so i supported him almost 100 percent. Supported a lot of his positions. I was elated that he came out with those positions. I voted for him in the virginia primer. I voted for him in the general election, and so i hope the president s success. Brian lamb who is more honest in the public light . Donald trump or pat buchanan . Patrick j. Buchanan its what the nuns told me how to behave. What did you say . Who is more honest . Brian lamb who is more honest . Pat buchanan . I mean, when you said what you said, how often were you not telling the truth and how often is he not telling the truth . Patrick j. Buchanan i dont think i dont think trump i think trump says what he believes and twits what he believes. Brian lamb he believes you are a hitler follower . Patrick j. Buchanan no, i would say, i think he was it was what he felt at the time. I think that was partly motivated by the fact that if he had decided on the Reform Party Nomination that he was out of the race and it might have looked like i dont know his motives. It might look like that i had gotten in and he wasnt getting in. Brian lamb he called you a whacko. Patrick j. Buchanan right, and i wish that was the worst thing i have been called. Brian lamb but if you always when you have taken points, i mean, points of view and all, have you always told the truth in politics . Patrick j. Buchanan lets say this. Look, when i worked for Richard Nixon, i am an assistant to the president and ronald reagan, as i have said, what you do is i argue for a policy inside and once the president decides, you have got three choices. You go out and defend the policy that the president s did. You keep your mouth shut or you get out. Now, clearly, i would explain policies like let me give you nixon, i travelled with him through the middle east 50 years ago, almost exactly at the time of the 60day war, we went through africa and everything and he was a critic of vietnam, of johnsons policy. He defended it everywhere he was because he saw himself, i think as almost an attorney for the government of the United States, obligated to defend the policy and explain the policy and it was really something to behold and i think he felt good about that. He was great friends with rusk, or a great admirer of rusk and so i think you i mean, look, let me say this, i dont go out, you dont go out and tell a lie, but you do say, here is why the president is doing this. This is why he thinks the china trip is good, and you dont go out and say, geez, i think this is going to blow up in our face. I mean, you have to i mean, there are certain obligations you have got if you are in effect, we are all attorneys for the man sitting there in the oval office and we are giving it the best defense we can. I mean, i wrote the defense. I got it hanging on my wall, the famous watergate defense, i think it was may 22, 1973. All of these and i argued all night with buzhardt and haig. They are going in and out and i said, this doesnt sound right. But i got a note from president nixon that is hanging on my wall that says, al told me that you were a great devils advocate. Thanks for all you do above and beyond the call of duty. Thats the job. Its a great job, brian. Its not bad at all. Brian lamb this book is called, nixons white house wars the battles that made him broke a president and divided america forever. Our guest has been patrick j. Buchanan. Thank you very much. Patrick j. Buchanan well, thank you. All q a programs are on our website. Later today, mike pompeo and john bolton will speak at the christians united for israel summit and washington, d. C. Benjamin netanyahu will also address the gathering via video conference. That is set for 1 00 p. M. Eastern. Cspan or on on cspan. Org. In 1979 a Small Network had a big idea. Viewers become their own. Journal cspan. Org journal cspan. Org cspan opened the doors for us for all to see. We need content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years. Online, cspannd is your on unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. Brought to you as a Public Service by your cable writer. Representative returns from its july 4 recess tomorrow. They will pick up the Defense Program bill, the Senate Passed a version of the bill last week. The senate is back in session today at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. They will work on confirmation of executive and judicial nominations including the assistant secretary for education and labor departments. The house will be live on cspan. Watch the cspan senate live on cspan two. Conor obrien is a defense reporter. He joins us for the week ahead on the 2020 defense bill. This is an authorization bill. Remind us of what it means and why it is the artan. It is an authorization of a policy bill and does not actually spend any money. It is one of the big bills one of the few major bills that passes congress reliably each year. It lays out what the Defense Budget should look like for the coming fiscal year, how big the military should be