[applause] the applause was a little longer for him. [laughter] i was about to say how special this natives i am the executive director of the Jfk Library Foundation to call the colleagues we are thrilled but tonight is a treat the beginning of the centennial weekend we literally thought food could be the best air the speaker moderator we could get and this is what we have got essaouira. They are both here. [applause] before i introduce them for someone to thank our underwriters and sponsors bankamerica, and our media sponsors we are kicking off this centennial with information when you leave over the next few days were doing i hope there are opportunities with over 100 items including 40 that have not been seen on saturday and sunday we will have a master not here as part of our tribute to nasa and on monday we will have musec and the navy to honor president kennedys service said it 3 00 p. M. 100 years to the minute he was born to fet and flying overhead to honor president kennedy we need help eating cake to serve 1,000 people designed by the same company that did dedicate for their engaged in many years ago. These are some of the activities. But tonight literally a standing room only in this auditorium and overflow in the other auditorium were thrilled that we are stream this and watching parties in places and could be dead j. F. Kennedy museum in hyannis port and cspan well appreciate all of those that are here in participating online we have many distinguished guest i do want to highlight a few at the risk of offending some the Board Members we appreciate their leadership because it is our centennial we invite representatives with us from the president ial library or the foundation from roosevelt roosevelt, truman carter, h to be bush, and bill clinton and libraries former United States senators here tonight and former ambassadors and several members of the new england corporation. [applause] after the first hour of dialogue there will be a question and answer period or you can tweak to us at jfk library to stay in your seat. Well answer as many as we can. David mccullough has graciously agreed to sign books the bookstore has them if youre interested go out at the end. If you have not read this this, if it did say treasurer, the american spirit who we are and what we stand for if i had an hour i would only ask questions but i would not do that. [applause] the guys speak for most people here we feel we know him even though we just met one i know i learned from listening to him on the news over the years a carrying abc world news said cohost Good Morning America i he interviewed everybody including nine u. S. President s we are honored he and his lovely wife are here tonight. And David Mccullough he is not recognized very much everybody has to Pulitzer Prize and National Book awards and the president ial medal of freedom it has been recognized by 54 honorary degrees. [applause] we will do a colloquy for about an hour then you can ask questions those will be concise. [laughter] the most famous in the world probably is not watching. [laughter] i doubt we will get one of those. [laughter] this is a treat for before somebody to have a chance to talk to somebody like david that is something of a legend. I am so pleased there are representatives here as to gather in the Kennedy Library that leads me to wonder how many books you they will be in the trump president ial library . [laughter] [applause] in an interview with the Washington Post said he never read a book about a president or an autobiography. He might some day he said but he doesnt read books because his mind reaches beyond that if you think about the great president s over the years who are avid readers of history in many of them wrote history including kennedy and even those who did that have the benefit of a College Education like truman realized it is essential to the role of a leader whether presidency or leadership of any kind. History matters if i have one message of a bike to get across in my work is that it matters a lot. [applause] and we are slipping in and our responsibility of teaching history to our children and grandchildren in has been going on a long time. A number of us have become of invent evangelical preachers of the importance aisle lecturer colleges and universities and i am astonished how much these wonderfully young people dont know when young lady came up to me after a talk in the midwest and said it thinks for coming to the campus because she had no idea the original 13 colonies from the east coast [laughter] and in the question and answer period a university of california aside from truman and adams how many others have you interviewed . [laughter] so there may not be many books in the president ial library of trump. So as a historian what specific steps could enter jackson have taken to prevent the civil war . [laughter] we can go all night at this rate. [laughter] so i dont have any more than. [laughter] can you believe it . I want to restore our recognition of who we are and what we stand for. I take more and more as grade school and highschool and College Universities it is how we are brought up at home and raised to be dave. [applause] t treating people with kindest and and if the empathy it is hard work. They grow up in pennsylvania people worked hard but if you were a good worker and you were appreciated by a other people my father would say he drinks too much the he is a good worker he exaggerates it tells stories but he is a good worker. If you were a good worker that forgave all of your feelings that is how we got to where we are by working very hard like the right brothers. Two young men who never had a chance to go to college or finished highschool but brought up to half purpose and use the english language so they are humbling of their vocabulary to express themselves superbly never get too big for your britches one of the things that impressed me at the time given the situation we are in now is john kennedy almost never talked about himself. Firstperson singular never about anything. He could have gone on and on with justification. You mention that in the book and say that first person singular to contrast to so many others since. But it has become of what youd do and many cases it is justified but i will turn to the book. You have to ruth dead many speeches many extemporaneous the a. M. Curious why you wanted to do a book of speeches now and why you chose these 15 . My book about harry truman to love the idea he went for a walk every morning so i thought maybe i should try that has a way to total appear headed then you start thinking in a way that if youre not walking so last summer with the comments made by those republican dates not only appalling but under nationally at a place i thought what can i do to provide some Counter Point of view to this . I started to think about the speeches that i gave such as the 200th anniversary of the anniversary of the white house or committees Memorial Service which i was asked to be the speaker and those that i have given the importance of history and found there were many i was voicing what really matters to me and history is so fascinating it is the experience of being alive so why should we have this little bit of time when we could have access going back hundreds of thousands of years . So i set to work to see which of these might be appropriate and had the help of my daughter who were raised all the stocks that i gave think of the record of what i said. But the first time i thought he is picking these features because they are apropos to the current times but historians basically dont have a role to talk about current politics the youre talking current politics. That was before the cable on the cnn of these were written. I read them the second time thinking what is the paragraph for the point he tries to make that could be taken to heart for people that are in politics right now . I read it a second time each time i looked what is the 1. Taken to heart that maybe somebody is elected president . So we picked out if you i will not do all of them but that first speech in the book from 1989 to look to have the best to rebuke joe mccarthy she was a republican to rise to political victory out of fear and ignorance and bigotry so why did you think at advantageous . You would be perfect if you only had a sense of humor. [laughter] could you imagine somebody reading that and the current political cry climate . Wouldnt that be wonderful . She is a rare case of women in the senate as our point in history many people dont know who Margaret Chase was. Bin not any republicans. Naughty that. 1998 not as wellknown perhaps as other patriots of that time original signers of the declaration but he said i include candor and gentlest to listen with attention to everybody and did you added that was why is more than ever. One of my favorite characters a remarkable man someone who is interested in almost everything and they accomplished musician one of the first people to encourage the humane treatment of people and was extremely courageous in his ability to go into places with the yellow fever epidemic and was one of the signers of the declaration of independence he was all of 30 years old reefer get how Young Jefferson when he wrote that was 33 imagine washington took command of the Continental Army was 44 years old they were not that way they were very young and they think that this is the encouraging fact of the story. Idle they greeted never know enough of the American Revolution the new museum has just opened in philadelphia is a must for all of us and in particular for your children and grandchildren to get caught up on history. It is brilliantly organized and spectacular handed it is right in the center just a few steps down the street but we who lived in the boston area take the reality of our environment well loved kennedys profiles of courage in my regard for john quincy adams. I am not here to comment but what i like that is a lost art in the Public Discourse in that sense of comedy those that share the common goal is on. But in many instances have deep chasms in this country with politics trumps policy that since those national goals. Leaders to have the courage to stand up on their convictions with the backbone to do what is right with their political future and it has to come mainly from the people with those three segments of government but there is a fourth factor, the people so when we stand up to say we would go get behind the that attitude becomes decisive the subbase says thats what i will do. It will happen now and of necessity to survive. We are a centrist nation day country where those that are in the middle. We aid to doing it. It doesnt mean that we want very hard times are happening that our pessimistic with those inappropriate behavior times very often when we do the dark clouds guide times were better for having done it. That was a simpler time back then things have never been so bad or foreboding the yes they have. In view dont understand that you dont understand the reality of our story. What our parents went through 500,000 americans died of that disease that they did not know where it came from if it would never go away or how to cure it now given today with our population proportionately proportionately, the people would die in less than a year . And we would be even more terrified but with that depression since civil war but we came through because he had the faith that we you could those consequences for never accomplish alone. In the introduction with that good hardness than 90 percent america negative share those values how does that square with what they did last november . This is not an answer read part of the answer so lets not forget the popular vote Hillary Clinton won by almost 3 million votes. [applause] donald trott borne by a narrow margin. We have several major problems batf that they are dialing for dollars to become a nation of spectators watch television or athletic events let somebody else do the performing to amuse us to help solve these problems that is not true for everybody there immensely a philanthropic working with the fervor of education to be proud of what we achieved in the last 200 years with the greatest universities in the world yes they have had problems but there are no institutions of Higher Learning anywhere on earth comparable but in all of history it is admiral admirable to make advances that have ever imagines to say yes and politics with the political upheaval the look what was happening with medicine and just in our lifetime with those diseases is in the new exhibit that rose kennedy those that had infantile paralysis of scarlet fever not to mention in dna or were successful transplant of organs we are spoiled we should be grateful to be making our teachers he rose. [applause] we should have major awards and statues for the Great Teachers who have shaped the lives of so many people i feel they are doing the most important work of any of us to our understand were all for them. [applause] been married to an educator i will second that. Before i leave the subject of our current president , what would john kennedy think . We all know he would be appalled. We have never had anything like this happen so virtually every day he made sure we know the worst. [laughter] so with says if somebody is in the privacy of somebody was never flown the plane and doesnt think it is important to know how he is surprised at how complicated it is. The fellow that will solve all of our Health Care Problems decided it was complicated . With economic historians and demographic historians but whatever prison you are looking through so what kind of history and are you . I am not a history of. I have now advanced degrees in history i have never studied it as if i was an academic. I am a writer so my job is to tell that accurately as possible with the conviction