Good evening, when. My name is jim byron, im the executive Vice President of the Richard Nixon foundation and it is always a pleasure to welcome you all here to the beautiful Nixon Library in orange county, california. I like to thank all of your president Society Members for joining us and if youre a remember, would you please stand up and be recognized. Come on, theres couple of you here. There we go thank you. [applause] the president society is an exclusive group of members that supports the ongoing works of president nixons foundation which applies to the legacy and the vision he had to opportunities facing the nation or world. If you are interesting in joining me, track me done on an associate and anybody can get you signed up. Want to tell you but a few special events. On august 20th, well host Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino for the new amazon number one best seller, justice on trial, but the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings. On september 11th, well host two programs, the first is an annual commemoration of patriot day, and then well host Supreme CourtJustice Neil Gorsuch that evening for a discussion with Nixon Foundation president , hugh hughity, hewitt and then jams mattis will appear in congresses with hugh hewitt from the stage. This evening were pleased to host the author of a new book on the post president ial years of Richard Nixon. Its very important and little studied period of Richard Nixons life of achievement, setback and come back i deserving of a book of its and probably series of books. Not one to be written off, Richard Nixon rose from the worst of defeats to become americas elder statesman. In his 20year period of 1974 to 1994, he reinvented what it means to be a former president. Servings a advicer to every one of his successors he made 29 foreign trips and work with World Leaders across the globe. To tell this remarkable story we are by ka kasey pipes. He served in the administration of george w. Bush as a speech writer and later a fellow at the Eisenhower Institute at gettysburg college. Join me for welcoming after the fall, kasey pipes. [applause] thank you for being here and thank you for heying me, jim, thank you for the kind worded. Want to thank jonathan and which is and she internixon staff and after hearing aberdeen coming up i want to come back i want to her neal gorsuch as well. Thats awesome i want to thank hugh hewitt the president of the foundation who was indispensable to me in writing the book and had me on the radio to help promote it. You could not be in better hand with anybody else than hugh. I want to thank a couple of the archivei that work with me when i was working on the book. Greg cummings and Pamela Eisenberg who i understand is now retired. Did great work in helping me get the file i need. So many people helped. Sandy quinn, ron walker, fred fielding, just a tremendous number of people helped make this possible also want to say hello to drain and larry sarlos, the parents friend our inning for worth, kirk is the pitching coach at tc and we live around the corn and from kirk and christian, you guys get the award for traveling the farthest. They came two and a half hours to be with us so thank you very much for being here. Hope the book is worth it. Let me know. And thanks to all after you for being here as well. Gosh, its great to be back if the fir time i came to Nixon Library was in 1995, an intern at the Ronald Reagan president ial lie area and Richard Horton smith the director of the reagan library, brought me down his friend john taylor was runnings and john hed us around it and was beautiful to be here. And then i came again in 2007 with the lease of the eisenhower back. And then of cures in 2010, once the book was out, i began once the book was inked and i had a dale okay here and went through the files and spent a number of months near 2010, 11, 1, 13, doing he research, so, its been amazing. When i first started the project i wonder, there is really an audience for is . Do people and they we were the snub one new arrival ahead of ahead of bill oreilly. This is awesome. I did an interview last week in the dale dallasfort worth area with the under one morning show and he a can core if a football play by play guy and i wanted to he the mixon sports stories and he intent 15 minutes running through the postpresidency and i send him an email and said appreciate you have michigan on and he wrote back and said nixon is one of the most fascinating people. Ive always been a fan of nixon. So its amazing how there are nixon people all over the world, and we dont even realize that sometimes. An amazing command an amazing career. My story as historian has been to try to tell at the stories this are untold bud knee to be told, and to focus on stories we know something about but we need to know more about. And so for me the road less traveled in historical scholarship led me to the story of eisenhower and civil rights in a book called, ikes final battle, which came out in 2007 in con justification with the inch anniversary over the Little Rock Central High School crisis, and of course, the road less travel has also led me to the nixon post presidency. This is a story that needs to be told and its a story that need thursday be in other words a way it has never been fully understood before. We have an idea of what nixon was doing during the period. We have an idea he was activity. Hopefully after you read the book you will agree he was more active than you thoughtful. We have an idea he was somewhat successful and hope any after read the book youll realize he was even more successful but before delving into the book and ill taker questions enwomen have to understand how high he climbed as president to appreciate how far he fell at the end of his presidency. You think about Richard Nixon in 1972, opened the doctor to china, closing in on a deal to end the war in vietnam, he has day taunt with the soviets and he wins 49 states in the largest landslide in american history. On top of the world. And let yes than two years later, public Approval Ratings in the 20s, hes forced to resign and finds himself as he says, really fighting for his life as he talked about in his diary. There have been entire libraries of books written about nixs life and entire libraries of books one about his presidency. Even the vicepresidency and certainly watergate, but theres been precious little written about the last 20 years of his life. We have the monica crawly enter slurs detailed. We have the book which cover this first few years in exile. Theres over in been a 20year volume that covers the entire story of what happened to him after watergate. Now, historians will always debate whether nexton was a great president. I think this book makes clear theres no debate he was a great expresident. Nixon is one of the Great Stories in president ial history, and the history of his post president ial years is the greatest nixon story thats has never really been told. So why a book about nixons life after water gait and if its so important, nye why has no one doesnt with . Nixon is a shakespearean figure. We aller andend triumph and tragedy, all suffered setbacks but none will experience professional set baecks the way he did. So in a sense the story is about us. Its bow how we all come back and all find or way when we get lost. But the other reason this story has not been written is because the papers are privately owned by the families, theyre deposited here and i was able to secure the cooperation of the family in writing the book and so not only is this a new book but a new federal, of life for nixon but has new material it in so i think that makes is interesting and makes it worth reading and think can about because this is a very extraordinary period in at the life of a very board man. When richmond inningson left the white house in august of 1974 he had no money no future, and he indiana no obvious way to make a living. Within weeks of moving back to san clemente he faces a health scare that almost claim is his life and after thats faced years of litigation and battles through a case of what was almost certainly depression. Heres what he wrote in his diary in late 1974 but hoe he might climb his way out. Write books. Make speeches. And try to put things into context. This is the road map that he would use for 20 years. Writing books, giving speeches, television where possible and putting things into perspective for the people and for history. And its amazing how well he did this. Does so it well and becomes so effective and so wellknown for his books and his speeches and his appearances that people begin to accept him back again. The president s do, too. Part of the story in the book is his relationship with three president s, reagan, bush and nixon, and his advice and council to all three of them and how it helped change policy and change history. Let me quickly mention three changes youll read about in the book. Two change that occurred because of nixon, and one change that occurred because of nixon. And i think this is really the heart of what this book is about. It change. First, nixon in the post presidency changes the very nature of the postpresidency. When nixon becomes Vice President there are no other postpresident ,s. They odd dial. John john died in 73. Truman died in 2. Eisenhower died n69. Nixon new all of the men but had watched what they did in their retirement and that they did is very different if. They basically retired. Eisenhower goes palm springs half of the year, gettysburg the other half. Write thursdays his memoir and thats it. He becomes a doting grandfather. Johnson goes to his ranch. These men accept retime and go away. Nixon has no such choice because he has to make a living. He has no money. Has to esign from the were in california, has to resign from the bar at the Supreme Court. Wants to resign from the bar in new york and they wont let him because they want the privilege of kicking him out sew cant practice Law Enforcement no way of making a living and has to find a way, and what he does with no temp plate in front of him, what an expresident should do, he invents invents the tempt all president s to this day molter follow. He writes books, travel this country and world gives speeches. Stays in contact with other world lead he. Stays in contact with political leaders in washington. Talks to president s. Uses the power of his ideas to influence events in washington. You think but the postpresident s today. You think about clinton with the clinton found george w. Bush with his own think tack. Barack obama riding backs, following nixon model. Nixon didnt have the option of retiring. He wanted to remain activitiful told john taylor that he had to remain active for his own health. And to keep his mind as sharp as he wanted it to be help spend years writing book after book on his main area of expert tress, foreign policy. And he becomes a trusted adviser and confidentant to three president s. He doesnt just write becomes. He writes books that matter, that people read, and people on soand they Pay Attention to. He didnt just say something. He had something important to say. When he was writing the books and when he was speaking, and he showed through this process he still had an Important Role to play as an outside counselor. Ronald reagan read the real understand 1980. Inspire by him. Confirm his own view of soviet union and carried it around with him at one point and this led him to have an even closer relationship with nixon, and nixon relished the chance to use the only thing he had left, the only power he had left, his mind and his idea to influence policy. He gives counsel to president s help influences them with his ideas on things big some small. m something small that nixon dade. Neverrics certainly after reagan becomes president , once defined ways to take advantage of reagans ability. Nixon has great admiration for reagan. They had a complicated relationship but nixon said i have great mind, reagan as a great gut. He can speak to to country,al the country and nixon sees this and wants to take advantage of it. So early in the reagan administration, nixon sends a memo to mike disease dr. Eaver urge the creation of a weekly tenminute radio talk to allow the president to dominate the monday papers. Nixon suggests they do this on sunday. He tweaks it and the sad morning radio address is born. It lasted from 1982 to 2018 when trump discontinuedded it. We have known reagan started and never known the idea came from a letter from Richard Nixon. His real contributions to came from other matters. Ben e when gorbachev comes to power, rig rig senses theres an opportunity here to move disburden practices ins the cold war and wants reagan to meet with gorbachev but from a position of strength. And so when reagan announces intentions to build a strategic defense initiative, nixon immediately doubts the science of this. Doubts the technology will ever work. But he loves the idea of using it for leverage in negotiations. And am from the beginning he sees sdi as a key bargaining chip for reagan. Later on, when gorbachev threatens to owl out of further negotiations unless reagan abandons sdy. At rake reykjavik, gorbachev walks about because he said is contingent on you getting rid of sdi and reagan says. No nixon suggests the bud mcfarland, quote, i feel very strongly that the president could pull off a real coup by formally offering to mutually share with the soviets the results of our research on sdi. This, he wrote to mcfor dan, would undercut gorbachevs position hitch was right. Reagan took the advice, offer to shared the technology with the soviets publicly and booked gorbachev in and brought him back to negotiating table. This maneuver helped get the soviets to agree to inf treaty where an entire class of Nuclear Weapons were eliminated. Witch president bush, nixon privately went to china after the tianimen square cath, take can advantage of the good will that people had for him in that country met with chinese leadership, including ping and spoke brutally. He said tianimen would be the, quote, death of the relationship with the u. S. If it happened again. Upon returning home, he reported back to the president , who was faced with a political crisis in washington, democrats and men republicans wanted to put sanctions in place on the chinese, something nixon want to see help and the president didnt would to do. The fact that nix wherever thread message helped diffuse the situation and help the president out of a deep crisis. And with president clinton, politics makes for strange ped folioes. Richard nixon and bill clinton working together assist Boris Yeltsin and assist the fledgling democratic, and clinton said it was the best meeting ive ever had as president clinton marveled at the wisdom that nixon gave him as he urged him to be brave and sport the Democracy Movement in ways that frankly he didnt believe president bush hads done enough to do. So he changes the postpresidency. Changes pollsive with his work with reagan and bush and clinton, and this book shows in many ways nixon changed himself. During the 20year period he comps to terms with all he had achieved, and all he had lost. The conventional wisdom says he accidentally confessed during the watergate section of the interview with david frost this has been a myth that frost and others have perpetuated for some time the reality is quite different, they talk about it in advance, whan he wanted to say when the question came up and the apologized for his moral failures and says i screwed it up but never admitted to wrongdoing. This would be the message he would use the rest of his life when he was asked and it okay. Not during an accident, it came as a planned answer to a question that he and ken had wordsomething id together the moral failures weighed on him. And the dealt with itself in his own way. Began to reveal himself more and more could become public with people. When hubert humphrey, from. The 1968 election called him to let him know he was dying of cancer, nixon coal sold his former rival. Consoled his form are arrival. When they hung up nixon turned to this ace and said im going to his funeral. Start working on it humpfully hung up the phone and turned to his wife and said, no former president should have to live in exile. He wanted nixon to be seen in public at his funeral. Because they knew it would give him a sense give the country a sense there was forgiveness, there was grace, if humfully was okay with nixon, would people should be as well and the funeral marked nixons first public appearance in would since watergate. Ten years later nixon emerged another another funeral, these to deliver the eulogy gore his friend, woody hayes. This us what nixon said to in his eulogy of his friend. He was never satisfied with success and he was never going to be discouraged by failure. Theres a rule in life, nixon said of hayes, if you take no risk youllll suffer no defeat but if you take no risk you will bin no victories. Nixon certainly you will win no victories. Nixon was describing woody hayes and almost just as certainly describing himself. And when reagans National Security adviser, bud mcfarland, survived a failed suicide attempt, when he woke up in the hospital, the first person he saw sitting by his bedside was Richard Nixon. Youll need an anchor, he told theving mcfarland, pointing at the bible on the night stand next to the bedle. Your strong faith will get you through this. Finally, after the dedication of this president ial lie flare 1990 where we are today, nixon told friends who gathered around him afterwards about the time that his grandkids asked him what name he wanted to be called. And you can call me anything you want to call me,ed sacker because ive been called everything. This period of his life shows nixon as a human. It shows him as somebody who struggled through the failure odd life, through the setbacks of political career and yet came out on the other side of it. Nixon in peel is in exile is a different man, man in full, man who can look back on success as well as failure, on tragedy as well as triumph, on defeat and his defiant response. He never gave up and theres a lesson in that for all of us. Its remarkable to think in august of 1974 when he left in disgrace and arrived a few miles from here, not even Richmond Nixon could have imagined that he would be back inside the white house giving president reagan advice or going to tianimen square delivering a message that was important to the Bush Administration or meeting with bill clinton and becoming friend with bill clinton to the point that in april of 1994, about bill clinton arrive tide funeral to deliver a imagine steeral eulogy in which he says, may the day of judging Richard Nixon only by watergate come to an end. Nixon himself said only to the who have been the deepest valleys can appreciate how michigan nave sent it is on the highest mountaintop. In a life spent constantly navigate thing political peaks and valleys, nixon and his last 20 years could finally look back on his entire life and for once enjoy the view. Heed a made it back. Thats the story of after the fall. I hope you raved it and hope you like it and i hope you know how grateful i am you came. With that im happy to take questions or comments. [applause] well take questions if youll just raise your handful i want to city the first one. I want to ask the first one. Can you give me what you think Richard Nixon would think of the Current Media arena and what i mean by that is in this day and age we have media that is so instant so quick, and spread viral instantly with social media, can you give me your take of what he would think of that and how he would use it to his advantage or might be a disadvantage to him. Well, he certainly would be more diplomatic about it than our current president but i know he thought much more highly of them than our current president does. Theres a story in the book in 1990 the New York Times runs a favorable review of a new biography, a book about nixon and Richard Norton smith, one of nixons favorite historians, wrote a review it ran to the New York Times and very positive about nixon, and nixon reads the review in his office and says to his staff, the New York Times once a decade will write something nice about my. Guess because its 1990 they wanted to get the decade out of the he way. Always had very skeptical view of the role of the media, and i dont think that improved over time. Obviously the media environment today is very different he with all of the different platforms, the social media platforms, i think he was an innovator. This whole concept of him developing the idea of the saturday morning radio address. He wanted to find ways to communicate more effectively. So i think he would be somebody looking for ways to use the tools to his advantage and to the president s advantage, whenever. I just think he would probably be uncomfortable with how this president goes about that. I just cant imagine he would enjoy reading some of the trumpan tweets. Thank you for coming and telling about your book. I was wondering if nixon every acknowledged in publicly acknowledged the sacrifices that president ford made by giving him the pardon and completely short circuiting any legal process, no doubt about it, it cost ford quite a bit. It did and theres a scene in the book where ford comes to see him in the hospital in october of 1974, when nixon has his health scare with phlebitis and its an emotional scene its probably as close as he ever got to thanking him. The whole concept of the pardon was a very difficult thing for him because it he did feel bad but it, as i mentionedded before, publicly expressed remorse for what hat happened but also didnt feel like he had broken any laws and he didnt like he had directly as he said to frost my mistake was i wasnt a very good butcher. Get rid of people when they do things he was trying to help highs people so he had complicateed feeling and i dope know its something he would have ever thought to sit down and talk to gerald ford. It was a formal relationship, but i think the scene in the hospital in the book between the two men is probably as close as i can get to it and its worth reading, and he certainly he was in an emotional state. Almost died. And here comes the president of the United States who is just issued a pardon. Its a great scene and i would recommend that, but thats other than that it dont know there was a lot of direct conversation between the two. They were all very different. The relationship has been well documented and they written a book about this. And how the two men jockeyed for different impulsive competence. It was a obligated relationship for sure. I think his relationship with some of his aides was a little more personal and again, he felt their suffering very personally particularly going to jail. Mitchell, these were things that weighed on him. And their stories and there were he occasionally reaches out when he gets out of jail and they call him, its a pretty emotional conversation. He felt their grief, very personally. So there are a lot of those stories and a lot of conversations. The heart and soul of the book by design is really to show him emerging from this emotional state and 74 and 75 and focusing his policy objectives and taking them fiercely of the next president of what he is trained to achieve. Most of the book tends to focus on those relationships, reagan, scholz, a island and bush, and bill clinton, those are described in more detail and theres certainly a good amount of him reaching out to the former aides, visiting with them and you get a sense through the dialogue and some of the conversations of how much it weighed on him. You definitely felt the burden for each of those men. Hello, im a republican woman from Northern California and they want to do no amend naturalized american originally born in taiwan i have two questions for you. Number one, i was here for my sons sports activity and when i was going through the museum i was very puzzled, why is it that president reagan and president nixon later on we go to china and establish that relationship with china knowing that china is a communist country when i saw an exhibit in 1947 in the memoir he said it was clear that we have come to a continent on the brink of starvation and chaos, europe would be plunging into anarchy revolution and ultimately communism. That tells me, he was very uncomfortable with communism. Why he would feel so comfortable with communist china. My second comment, growing up i dont think goes top properly in the public education, i really feel after going through the exhibit i nothing president nixon did anything wrong. [applause] i dont feel that he needed to resign, i wish you wouldve stayed on and let the world know what kind of person he really is. A real criminal who broke into the building. He is the president , i wonder if he felt compelled to do what he did. Because of National Security . Because we were dealing with communism that came from left over world war ii, problems. Those are my two comments. Lots to unpack. Let me start with the first one. You mentioned nixon being a cold warrior and he was. In the china play was a part of his cold war strategy. I think its misunderstood and some places that nixon was naive about china or he wanted to have relations with him and bring pandas factors you get the photo up. This was realpolitik, this is a man trying to driver which between the chinese and patrons. In that sense it was a brilliant strategy. Another piece, as nixon himself said at the time, you cannot simply ignore 750 million. You have to have some engagement to influence the events. There is a story, i cant remember where i read it but about reagan visiting with leaders around this time in reagan saying somebody was going to recognize china sooner or later and youre better off it was nixon. Theres a lot of truth to that. He was doing this from a position of a warrior. He was not naive to what the chinese were doing and as i mentioned was capable of being truly honest with them even in later years. He viewed it as a cold war strategy, as a way to separate them from the soviets and people can debate the wisdom of that. That is what youre trying to do. In terms of watergate, i can only tell you what he himself said which he certainly felt that he had made mistakes, let people down, he said he often screwed it up. But you are right, he viewed his role in this is essentially trying to cover for his friends who were doing these things. He resigned because he did not believe he had enough support to sustain himself in the senate. And i think you resign because the news of the country. That was part of the factors. That factored in. Those are questions that historians will take forever and hopefully this sheds new light. Can you please share the role that nixon had in the reinvention and the rise from the ashes and what was your perspective of him going back into the political arena . She was his rock as she was as president. She was his biggest cheerleader and biggest fan. She felt he had been dealt a bad hand in always felt that way. And they remained enormously close during this time and she had a series of setbacks the only bring them closer. Including the stroke and 76 and its interesting, theres a fascinating story turned into the book where she is watching Television One day in the late 80s and shes watching the show of all things, and who shows up on the show as the main guest but new york businessman donald trump. She watches the show and she tells her husband i watched donald trump on television and to answer all these questions, he is actually kind of good. In nixon rights trump letters. He is taking his wifes work for. My wife said she tell saw you on television in your great and if you ever decide to run for office you be a winner. Its one of trumps price positions. It is interesting, nixon never quit handicapping he never quit looking at recess and potential leaders even all the way through his death, he obviously wants bill clinton to deliver eulogy and realizes the symbolism of that. And deliver this tribute to him. But he also wants pete wilson to deliver eulogies. Those were the two people he thought would run for president in 96 and be the best candidates and have a national audience. In doles speech is magnificent as well. If you recall. So he stated that essentially that they would get this platform and wilson does run for president , he does not run well as recall but ends up getting the nomination which is basically what he predicted it was going to be. Fascinating how his mind worked in always thinking several steps ahead. Hi, i appreciate your scholarship and i want to ask with all due respect because i know im in the Nixon Library after all. I did a biography on general eisenhower and i just finished edward smiths biography. And in that there is all tidbits about nixon and it does not seem like nixon was very well regarded by president eisenhower. I know that one question was asked of generalizing her, what has Vice President nixon done to contribute to ministration and he said give me a week ill think of something. Theres legacy with dirty campaigning against helen douglas, and habitats, and tape during the watergate scandal. Somebody ways a checkered and dark character my question, what is the heart of nixon, what kind of a person was he really. What was he aiming for because i cannot quite make out what his objective was in life . Let me tell you my favorite story. It is a story about eisenhower and civil rights 2009 after the birth demonstration was over i went over to dallas to see my former boss in his office in dallas and i took a copy of my book and ill never forget i handed him the book and hes a very blunt man and he said what is this. Its a book about eisenhower and civil rights. He said im surprised is not a shorter book. [laughter] i said thats why you need to read the book he did more than anything. In terms of getting to the heart of nixon and what can a part did he have, i think you have the same one we all do. Good and bad. Thats a human condition. Thats why so fascinating because this. The last 20 years of his life is very humanizing. The book starts after watergate. So i dont spend a lot of time focusing on that because i did not want that to be a part of the story i wanted it to be watergate happen, by bruce of books written about it will happen after that. How did he deal with it as a man and a human. He dealt with it like any of us, successes and failures along the way, he shortly wanted to reestablish himself or he never used come back or anything like that but he wanted to be useful he wanted to have a role to play in the one thing he still had after he lost the tracking of power in the leverage of power he still has the power of his mind and ideas. Its a tribute to how effective that mind was and how effective those ideas were that he was able to persuade president including the president of a Different Party that he had something worth listening to. This is an achievement that no one would touch in 1974 and by the end of his life president s are calling him and asking him what to think about this. That is quite a comeback. What his internal motivations were, i cannot get inside his mind any better than anybody here. He was human and wanted to be relevant in the last 20 years of his life and do something meaningful. This book argues that he did. Just as Richard Nixon, it has not been stated that much, reagans not been studied, theres more than alzheimers, he left office in 1989 in november of 1994 when he realized hill reese the letter. You think that would also be a good topic for a book . There are a couple. Craig has a book on the reagan post presidency, bob spoke which is a credo grave has a lot of new material. There is an amazing story about reagans doctors coming back to the house and bel air to talk about the diagnosis and while theyre talking, he gets up and goes over to the table in starts writing the letter after the doctor just told him and he later gave between eight and said one you clean this up and send it out. He said its perfect the weight is. So they released it as it was. It was an amazing story. But i think in general post presidencies are fascinating. You are looking at with president ial biographies the use of power and with the post presidency the loss of power. In adjusting to life without that power. In this case in a much more dramatic way having to take it from him. I think its a fascinating topic and we know how president s who are living longer lives, george w based on his genetics will live well into his 90s and 70s now. And i think its in different interesting error of scotia in a soup spect will see more of it. A couple questions, did he reach out to the former president correspondent and ask if they need help . One or two things did you really learn, this man is a visionary he was at the cusp of 70 different things, did you learn anything in your book where he was ahead of the curve and how was he compensated . Paid as a consultant . How did that go . The finances are difficult to track down. Obviously his books were bestsellers and he made a lot of money doing that. The interviews were paid as 600,000 on again, there was money out there but in terms of his relationship with the president he never that i saw, ever called and said let me help you out. It was usually in the form of a memo or letter that says in the case of reagan, you did great in the election, here are some things to think about, building your team. It usually came in writing and that builds the relationship a little bit and the phone calls start. The phone calls are typically on the white house to him. They are calling him asking for advice. Its bill clinton who reaches out to him in 1993, so its a very subtle process and again, the thing that is driving it, he is saying things that matter, he is saying things that no one thought about before. The example i gave earlier, or even the saturday morning radio address, hes offering ideas that these president and for the most part their staff fine very useful. Its a real tribute to how he used intellectual abilities in the last 20 years that he became a trusted confidant for these men. China on the world stage today is extremely ambitious and aggressive, should president nixon be alive today. What kind of advice or comments do you think nixon would have offer . It is hard to say, nixon viewed it first and foremost he viewed china in the context of the cold war. That context has gone away. So its very difficult to judge that because that was motivating so much of what he wrote in what he said. But in some ways the episode is kind of insightful, and shows him not willing to speak and tootough language to them and kk it off on occasion when theyre out of line. He believes that the nation of more than a billion people cannot be ignored. They were a player on the world stage and not going away and we might as will have some kind of relationship for our own sake. He would try to preserve the relationship as best you could but with tough love spring golden as well thats as best i could do on that. Great question. I am from texas anyway, i was curious with chuck colson becoming a christian after watergate if he had contact with nixon and the other one, i think im right in nixon and carter came to the country hearings and whoever was speaking said carter was all over the place not organized but nixon that has stuck with me for so many years that he was a brilliant man, very organized in his thinking, you have anything like that in the book . On the question first, they did remain friendly, he remained a defender of nixon to the very and but he was preoccupied but there is some relationship thats documented in the book. It is fascinating and i write about this in the book because nixon had a unique perspective on scandal, i dont know if this is the exact story but its in the book where he is delivering a speech to republican senators in the washington post, i write a story about this, he basically says to the republican senators you need to have reagan back on this. You need to stand up for him. He wasnt trying to do anything wrong and dont cut and run from him on this. Its fascinating to watch him reflecting on his own experience and speak to that. Im not aware of the carter story at all. Carter is not somebody nixon thought very highly of thats well documented in this book. He is mortified at the hostage crisis and how they were treated before that. He senses this is setting the stage for reagan and for big things to happen in the 80s and of course he is right about that. Carter does appear in the book but not terribly flattering light. You were a couple decades after Richard Nixons becoming irrelevant and relearning to become relevant diplomacy and policy, you have any feeling that he had any sense, this is not Public Knowledge in his lifetime but to be satisfied that he was irrelevant or not. I think he certainly sensed how far he made it back. I dont know that a person without intellect innovation, i dont know the satisfy is ever the word i would use. You always want a little bit more but he certainly realized he had come a long way. And he realized the policies he had been a part of as president , mainly in fighting the cold war and the policies he helped craft with reagan or advise reagan on in the post presidency. He lived to see the tramp in the cold war. Theres a story in the book that they told and i retell it, he says remember when i had the kitchen debate and they said we will bury you. And at that moment realizing he had been on the right side. He got to live to see the and that was pretty remarkable for him and he enjoyed that. And in terms of his personal comeback. I dont know if satisfy is the work, he certainly believed he had become relevant again and he enjoyed being able to use his expertise and intellectual powers and i imagine he probably wanted even more. Thank you for giving us that insight. None of the things i noted about him he came from very humble beginnings. Unlike most president and he had great support from office in nixon drove rapidly through the ranks and great thanks for domination. But his perceptiveness i believe the men had vision that was so far out beyond what we were thinking at the time. I think he saw 750 million chinese which we ignored for 25 years, no spokesman has even gone to that. He saw them teaming up with the soviets wouldnt overpowering force and he saw the opportunity to talk to china at a very important time in that scared the russians into saying we better talk about the defense moderation. I also think when the gold standard, we lost many tons of gold at the end of the 60s thanks to too much spending during the 60s so we had to take it off the gold standard. My question is, dont you feel that he felt very satisfied at the changes he made because of the contribution he made which is still asking including epa and clean air. I cannot believe the man was not totally satisfied and wished he could live longer. I think again recently appreciated how far here come and offer the country had come. I think i had the privilege of being around some elected officials who work for the president and theyre wired a little differently than you and i as a general world. They get up in the mirror and say i want to be president. Not a very rational thing to do. [laughter] my sense is he wanted a little bit more. If nothing else this is in the book, he talks about his term being abbreviated in his presidency being abbreviated and not being able to finish. Some of those feelings, and he wished he would have been able to finish it. But this is the next best thing. And he could help others, again its a remarkable story. Thank you very much. Lets give them around of applause. [applause] i think i heard a halfdozen times, that book is available for sale and pick up a copy on the way down the hall and he will be up in a front lobby to autograph. They stand for coming see you next time. Tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on after words, virginia democratic governor talks about his book beyond charlottesville taking a stance against white nationalism. I think its a signal to people that the president came out and said the stop i too. And thats why they felt comfortable coming to charlottesville. If he can sit publicly so can i. I make the point people used were hopes. And they used to do this at night. They dont think they have to wear hoods anymore and in charlottesville they came out this is the big Comingout Party and they got hurt badly and charlottesville. Watch after words tonight at 9 00 p. M. After words on book tv on cspan2. Focus on the families recently spoke at the Heritage Foundation in washington, d. C. Where he argued embracing values will restore americas political climate. Here is a portion of the program. I will hear the following from liberals and conservatives. From democrats and republicans and all of the above and none of the above depending on what day of the week it is. Heres what they say. I have never been more concerned about the direction of the United States of america. Secondly, they will say i am particularly concerned about the country that i am leaving for my children and my grand children. And thirdly and most of portly, i dont know what to do. There is a palpable sense of discouragement and despair. As a christian i believe very strongly that discouragement and despair is a sin. Because it negates the hope of god itself both in the light of an individual and of an extraordinary country like the United States of america. To watch the rest of the talk visit our website booktv. Org and type his name in the search box at the top of the page. Welcome to the book company, estate 3677 of us being a business. [applause] and its time for tonight speaker. Veronica is an awardwinning Communications Specialist formally host of several shows of Wisconsin Public radio. She is also a producer and contributor to Wisconsin Public radios to the best of our knowledge. She conducts Media Training and National Media outreach at the university of wisconsin madison. Her blue book outspoken by womens voices get silent and how to set the