James meredith was inspired to go do that courageous thing. David mcculah. People who did very different things. I think we can trace a lot of great governance in the 60s and in the 70s, theres a book we are celebrating that came out by public figures about his significan significance. I wrote an essay arguing that the immigration act can be linked. We will never be the same more do i think we could want to to a country that was more uniform in color and more boring than the multikrematic society. We live in a very exciting society. Think he made it much more exciting than it had been. I think you also have to include the peace corp. I think what ted is speaking to is that an excitement from the examples you have given in Public Service and what Public Service can mean. I think we have lost on some level our confidence in ourselves in a way as a society. I agree with everything you said. One of the things, you can talk more about this in a minute but listening to some of the tapes you worked on, our country knew so little about the technology back then. So when he says that well go to the moon how do you think he had either the presumption or confidence to rally a country . I know if he hadnt we couldnt have made that. There have been so many advantages. How did he do that and rally people at every level . Well, he had a lot of confidence in himself, thats for sure. He was highly accomplished even before he thought he would be a politician. He had written his first book at a very young age. He followed achievement his entire he was interested in a adhooefe achieve achievers. I think thats one thing i honor is the confidence with which he walked across the stage of great thinking and great ideas. I dont want to get into partisan ship at all. I live in washington. I dont want to go there. I think john f. Kennedy was he got the whole country behind it. I think we have something and it is the fight to save your planet which is not so different from the space effort because it was those early photographs of the ef earth as a fragile blue marble in a Dark Universe it would be great to see an effort along similar lines. In fact we recently interviewed kennedys grand children and asked them about their grandfather. The only grandson said if my grandfather were alive today i bet he would have taken this big idea concept and directed it. There have been lots of great examples who have continued that effort. I think we need to do more of that and set a goal that sat at the time seems unreachable. Yeah. I completely agree. I was not aware his grandson articulated that. Starting a moon shot is just always the good idea. I think a lot of the technology that lead to the worldwide remember and the internet came out of that. Not exclusively but the whole earth catalog of later in the 60s included that massive photograph of earth. They were very instrumental of developing that in the late 60s. It leads to a lot of other planets. What do you think . How much of a risk was it at the time . Eisenhower called it the kiddie corp. A lot were broken free from the do colonial rule. There was debate highway big to make it. What do you think where to spend time . What do you think about that . I dont know what ted thinks about this. I dont know that it required a great deal of Political Capital on his part. It had a certain cold war component. In other words it was perceived by him and others as a means of waging, if you will, the cold war. It wasnt all about it wuasnt all born out of motives. I think would young people from all overthe country actually sign up for this thing . What would they find . All of that was an unknown. I think my sons from my research to this point is that he had a faith and advisers around him had a faith that this was an idea that they should pursue. They should do it right away as one of the things that was decided upon in those first 100 days. Broadly speaking at least the results speak for themselves i think. I think there were cold war elements. He was trying to win over the hearts and minds of the world to use a phrase from that time. I think we love the celebration of art and poetry. There were cold war elements to all of that they were very attractive positions. The peace corp. Was an extraordinary idea. Nothing like it had ever come through u. S. Foreign policy which was a world largely of men all from the same background wearing the same kind of suit. I was just the welcomer. The head of netflix is a peace corp. Alumnis. Elaine chow was involved earlier in her life. I think there was actual danger to the young men and women that went to those countries. I think we didnt exactly know that at the time. And to send people out without any protection and we saw that in some ways in our Foreign Policy, you know, there was a wonderful idealism. Interesting. Congressman kennedy, the son of the former congressman who is in the peace corp. Recently spoke and he tells a story of he arrives and he is on a bus going to the town he will be stationed and a gentleman comes up and says are you in the peace corp. He says how did you know that . He said red hair. So i want to thank you. When you think about the ripples of hope, the other thing i have seen is there are about a kwa t quarter of a Million People that have impacted their lives whether it is more than what they impacted the country of the village or less but its clearly an we moenormous impact. There are so many great programs out there. You know, one way we some times limit ourselves in the way we conduct Foreign Policy, we just think about our enemies or we think of the world in very simple categories. There were a lot of people who thought it was the blue part of the world against the red part of the world. It was cold war. I think the peace corp. Helped him. He was already on his way in many ways to see the world in its great complexity. He really thought a lot about latin america. He thought a lot about africa, which not too many have done. He had a lot of visits from the brand new president s of democratic african countries just coming out of colonialism. I thought a lot about asia or the way it department always fit in. He was a real voice for people who didnt have a strong voice, people from strong countries. We are a better country when we hear small voices. I think ted spla referenced it earlier which is the phrase soft power. My colleague basically coined that phrase. I think it has great power in that it explains a great deal about why the United States and the west ultimately prevailed. And the thing we are talking about now seems to me are excellent examples. Not military power, not economic power. It is about american culture. It is american institutions, american ideals. It seems to me in various other ways john f. Kennedy personified that. Again, i come back to my swedish relativ relatives. There is this belief that this was a very special leader who was american and we are going look up to the United States. On some level maybe even emulate the United States. His daughter just returned and she said she met many who were born way after the administration that said the same thing. So it is worldwide. There are so accomplishments. What are some of the things we mentioned . What are either that or anything else you want to address. I think its important not that we idolize that. I think its a clhallenge fo me as we write this book. I think it was a shining moment for john f. Kennedy. I have just gone through the transcripts and im affirmed. It is an extraordinary moment of leadership. It is sort of cliche but we are all here today because of the wisdom that he showed. I want to suggest that john f. Kennedy bears some responsibility for the cuban misl crisis happening in the first place. It influenced his decision to put the missiles in cuba. So there were challenges. Lets remember that the cold war in 1961 is a very tense time. I dont think anybody knew how it was going to turn out. Thats a wondserful answer. Thats a reckoning all historians have to come to terms with at the you asked about chal len challenges. We all live in a fractured country. Politics is really tough. Neither party is very united but the only thing they are united on is they really hate the other side. Some of that goes back to that time. I think peoples faith was shattered in life itself. I think in many ways we are trying to come to terms with our disappointment since that high water mark. Had he lived it is a pretty tall order to say he would have solved all of the orders of the 1960s. So many were coming and politics wasnt up to the challenge of handling all of the problems. Had he lived we would have had a fighting chance. We would have been a more United Country in 1969 when he left officer than we actually were. We have never quite gotten back to the idealism that we had during his presidency. Its not his fault but its just a clhallenge that i think we al have to reckon with. I think his brother and many other leaders changed the way people think in different ways. Lets go back to civil rights for a second. Clearly, you know, when he started he was concerned about southern governors and the votes and that kinds of things and then he changed. Talk about both of you, what you think triggered the change. When he came in a month after he said the testament, lets pass the civil rights bill from a moral issue. What do you think made that evolution . A specific answer is the children who were getting pushed around, later killed but in the spring of 1963 there was a moral outrage that children were being tortured and a bad mayor and bad Police Commissioner in birmingham but it was just growth. He had come and his enemies tried to paint him but he would come from a family of people who were outside of power in the 19th century in boston and a family with a lot of children in it. I think he just saw as his vision improved and his soul deepened he saw these were people he wanted to be on their side. I think his brother was very important helping him get there. I think Martin Luther king was very important. The quality of leadership he provided he writes the great letter which is up there as a great theological statement. I think it was intensely moving to anyone with a conscience. He had one. Yeah. There is a new book on the king j. F. K. Relationship which has just come out. I think everything ted says is right. I think bobbys role in a sense pushing his brother to do this matters. So i think youre right to credit bobby with a role in this. It does speak to something that im trying to ponder. It seems to me that jfk had a capacity for evempathic. I think it also matters here. Both of them i think had that capacity. I think thats part of it. I think thats a wonderful point. We often ask for strength, car r ci think we want that in ou leaders. Excellent point. Talk more about your experience listening to the tape and which ones you chose. What did it teach you about john kennedy that you didnt know before . It was a incredible experience. I had been a clinton speech writer. That was our play book. Blep i was sitting there trying to come you up with something original to say and failing, it happened a lot especially in the hot summer days in washington. We would all start reading jchi speeches. But to hear him talking is a different world you go into. They had just been released, the audio tapes, right before the book came out in 2012. It was an incredible experience to listen to them. They are playing out in realtime, the cuban missile crisis unfolds over two weeks in realtime. Almost all of it is caught in the tapes. It is an incredible experiencemeexperience. They shift around a lot. It seems we are about to invade cuba and there are fears russia might do something to us and then they dont. There are also a lot of humor and levity. It is hilarious. One time i remember he caught a military operation, a very innocent one annexed to a hospital and the expectation and he was such a good poll siitici because he thought it would look like bad pr, that the kennedys were asking them to build a special expensive wing. He screamed at the officer responsible and threatened to send him to alaska. Just hearing him really let loose with his anger. At the very end of the call you hear a little chuckle. It was kind of play acting. There was a moment where a tape that was not one of his tapes but a journalist conducted a long interview with him in january of 1960 just as he is deciding to run. He is going to go for it. It is a dinner party. It is the most raw first draft of history. I want it because its the seat of the action. Im tired of being one of 100 senators. I want to control everything. These are the ways i want our country to change. You really hear how much he wants america to change. And you hear the glasses clinking. It is certainly one of my favorites, which is october 22 22nd. I played this not too long ago and this is a conversation between former preside president eisenhower. What you get is this sense of humor even in this time of intense pressure. You get a sense of his seniority. He is very differential to senator eisenhower. He finishes by saying hold on tight. This is something that the tapes actually to think about it now, theres a calmness in these tapes that i think you want to have there a leader. Lets talk about street flam both based on his role and in the historical question of if he had lived. The mother of all could wanter factors. Yes. I have grappled with this a lot. There is a paradox here. The times is november of 63. It is any western power that fried to take on this vietnamese revolution. I dont think that ever goes away. So when he takes off for dallas on that last trip i think he was still skeptical about any kind of military solution in vietnam and yet here is the paradox. On his watch in those thousand days you have a marked increase in the american involvement i think partly for domestic reasons it was softness on commu communism. It is maybe human nature to put off difficult decisions. Im suggesting in an essay that has written and i recommend that ken burns series thats coming out in september but theres a book that accompanies this. I have an essay of what he would have done. I conclude that though we can never know i think the best answer is that a surviving john f. Kennedy does not americanize the war in the way that Lyndon Johnson did. I think he opts for a political segment. I dont think it would have changed. That of course was key was the ground troops. So i have more questions. So there are microphones on either side. If you have questions please go to them. I would encourage you to make sure it is a question meaning it should end with a question mak g rather that a statement. I may jump in and ask more questions. Lets start over here. [ inaudible question ] speak up a little. He did escalate. It was Lyndon Johnson that was more of the transformational president with the great society. I think its a fair question. There is a larger legislative achieveme achievement. He is the master arm twister. He is very good at it. He also has the great political advantage of he can talk a lot about the martyr dome of john f. Kennedy. I think it with was a very effective Political Tool for Lyndon Johnson. He is working a more difficult political world. He has got southern senators who are not very liberal. He has a pretty mixed house and senate. It was going to be tough to get huge legislation. He proposed civil rieghts and a lot of what he got through was based on what kennedy said he wanted to get through. So i think the premise of your question is true, basic adhoo achievement is larger but i think it is probably larger under kennedy. I think its fair to consider them partners in a way. It was the Kennedy Johnson team that ran in 1960. In my essay i did say immigration, which is one of i mean we often talk about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the votes rights act is the hallmark achieve achieveme achievement. It is huge. It changed our country forever in really positive ways. I tried to argue that was not li linked to j. F. K. s from the time he ran for congress. I would say in Foreign Policy that the transformational figure of the two of them is john f. Kennedy. As i suggested earlier even before he becomes president if you go back and look at the speeches of the campaign and then the speeches even early in his presidency, for example, a speech in seattle of 1961 there are seeds there, there are arguments about a super power relationship that i think were cut short by the assassination. Johnsons problem in part is that he was not at all transformational. He was a cold warrior. I think he believed that as he said in speeches, if we dont fight them in South Vietnam well be fighting them in the streets of San Francisco even though we knowon s johnson had own doubts. So they are both complex in this regard. It seems to me on the Foreign Policy side i would say it applies more to j. F. K. I think it is a question of measure effectiveness. If you measure effectiveness by legislation Lyndon Johnson, you know, a long list of very impressive things. Nixon got a lot of great legislation through. People dont remember that as much. It is the inspiration. One of the other areas i would ask both of you, dnd awant to cover this because of where we are. He and his known for r for what they did in the white house and how it was part of society. If you look at many of his speeches you talked about that from similar poll you can things like having robert frost to the inauguration and other things. Are there other president s you think have had the same level of commitment in recent times . Ill let ted ponder that one. It is by suggesting youre onto something very important. John f. Kennedy said something to the effect that it is a hallmark or absolutely impairtive to a free society. I think it matters. I dont know that he himself personally had deep interest. Jackie said the only song he likes is hail to the chief. He understood the importance. Are there other president s that we would i think again lbj, we dont think of him as the guy giving the speech with robert frost sitting there r, but the nea i think links to the memory of kennedy. It was achieved in 1965. It is a very important institution. We certainly had a lot of arts events previous to the 1960s. There was hardly a few paintings and em pa bbassies but there we great writers of history. We began this with anniversaries. I got an email saying we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth this year. It will probably not lead to a lot of celebrations in washington. Im going to one later tonight. He helped to conceive of the Smithsonian Institution and he wanted there to be a national observatory. George washington wanted there toub to be a national university. And jackie deserves enormous credit. Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you. You precept the sequential aspects of kennedy and lbj. How much influence did lbj have on kennedy while kennedy was alive . I think very little. Okay. I think they were three of the worst years of Lyndon Johnsons life. [ laughter ] their relationship was really complicated even by washington standards. I have been reading the road to camelot, a very good new book. It begins in 1956 the patriarch, joseph din, origining Lyndon Johnson to stafrlt running for president. He promises i will finance your campaign on the condition that you accept my son as your Vice President ial nominee. The twists and turns are incredible in that relationship. And others have done this too. The drama of the direction of Lyndon Johnson is worthy of a big book by itself. At that convention in 1960 and the disagreements between jack and robert about how to do it, what do we actually want lyndon to say . What do we expect him to say is extraordinary. I suppose one could argue. They said that the selection of johnson was, in fact, crucial, that the success was to having him on the ticket. Others suggested if you had him on the ticket you could pick up othe others. Very fas nagt. Yes, sir. We began with all of john f. Kennedys words. One of the reasons he is in our heart is because he did speak the wores. I is hard to remember lots of phrases. How many is the other speech writers who were behind those wofrds wof in. It is crucial. Theres no question about it. Think about this. 1957 he is already running for president. Te its not announced but they know and what it is i think he gave 140 speeches all over the country. Very often its two people flying into some small place speaking before an audience of 12. So sorenson is the only thing i would add and this is something ill talk about in my biography, is that john f. Kennedy has a bigger hand. You can see his scribbles on any of these speeches. It is also the case, and i think the library brings this out, that he quite often departed from his text for fairly long stretches. You foe rp he speaks in full photographs but those are his own words. I think its more of a partnership. I thought it was sorr eric nses i got to do a couple of events with him. He was a kind of hero. We thought we might immerge as the next ted it hasnt happened since then. I do think it is pocht to m you write it with their thoughts in your miepd. Its not like you are exactly the author. Youre wraing for a very specific perp and very specific cause. He basically had a life of unat this particular timed. He is a sort of on they lovered those guys. You dont hear their names as often. They were really important to him. Ty think ted created a nice mix. I think he heard the theological language of civil rights. So theres something that is very important. J. F. K. Wanted him there for a reason. He needed a different element. I think it was a very close working relationship of a type we Vice President seen. It department really go. Think she but i enkounch do you go to the library. We have a few speeches with his works on then. The last panl he gave in massachuset massachusetts he talked apt importance of heart. We is his speech there. You can see the marks on them. So there were a few that were very notable. You may have heard in berlin the spoo speech. Kennedy arrive and was so moved by the crowd in a positive way and so moved by the wall. So the only thing he had zwrin. Sit a great upon toin use he translated his german into german . Yes. Humor was one of his many many elements he was great at. First i want to thank you for this lek dhucture. It has been wonderful. My son was in the peace corp. And then the doe minute can republican. I know how much kennedy was lovered in the latino community. I recently dolores with the screening of her movie and then she talks about what an impact kennedy had president kennedy and Robert Kennedy had with the latinos. There were pictures in moments and entering. I wopderred if there was any research that you come across the impact of latinos had with president kennedy. I havent done any topic on that i think for dolores was with his brother. You know, he really got to know them there a very profound way that wept yopd politics. I think Robert Kennedy certified a lot with catholic social justy movement. There was something really important for that. It was clearly a major initiative. Thank you. Thank you for the question, yes, sir. So president kennedy was not perfect in many shapes or forms, but specifically i would like to ask about his Health Including other imper fbfections he hachd. Maybe you could say a few words about how other leaders of our time can use those kind of experiences to help them lead our country. Thats a very good question. I think the health issue is an important one. He said he had been in pain almost every day of his life. I think it will certainly shape anybody and it certainly shaped him. It gave him i need to treasure each day and liv live day as though its going to be your last. The only thing i would say is it may be possible to exaggerate. It strikes me in 1946 when he runs for congress and is not feeling well some of his ailments Vice President been properly diagnose knowed yet he still ges up at t goes up the crack of dawn. When when he runs for senate, hes all over the state of massachusetts. He starts earlier and works harder. So somehow even with these ailments, and maybe they are somehow connected, but hes intensely driven to overcome them. But theres a lot more to your question. That was news that began to come out around the year 2000. Its always surprising to learn a major new fact about someone you think you know historically. Ands it was especially surprising because he just seems so vigorous, to use a word he loved. Hes always moving, looking good, not wearing a hat. Theres that famous photo of him in swimming trunks, no president had ever done that. Photographed on a beach in california and he is behind the physical fitness test, which i said at a recent event that my decision to become a historian stemmed from the fact i could only do one pull up. So kennedy influenced you too. My parents met as volunteers in 1960. They were college kids here in washington. So very direct impact on my life. But i think a couple specific things, ween dont know but theres a very plausible argument that he ran in 1960. Everyone knew he was too young. He irritated everyone in his own party as well as on the other side. I think he finally had to do it in 1960 because he might not have any other chance. He might get too sick. So i think thats a fact of his life that might be attributable to his health. He was just going for it as a young man. Then i remember reading the book and theres this incredible realization near the end. Most of us have seen these it film and theres a terrible moment where hes unable to duck. And its because he was wearing a very rigid back brace because his back pain was so intense. You just know that as soon as you see the film with that knowledge that hes wearing a back brace he actually cant even duck because this brace is is so strong on him. So i think beginning of his presidency may have come from his Health Matters and the end of it also did. We have time for one final question. My great uncle, i dont know if you recognize the name, but he was part of Kennedy Enterprises and wrote all the checks for kennedy. I was wondering if you can talk about that campaign and what that was like running as b Irish Catholic in 1960 and talk about a lot about the campaign in West Virginia and that was 98 protestant and how that would end the catholic question. He determined that he had to enter the primaries or at least the good number of them. Today we take this for granted, but it was a very different proposition in 1960. That was connected, in part, to his youth, as ted suggested. It was also suggested a function of his catholicism. Its really fascinating. Which i reviewed as a terrific book, but they are quite good on this. And the important gamble really that the campaign took also feeling confident that they could best who had his own issues, but its one of those remarkably dramatic moments in a whole slew of them in this campaign. That speak to the importance of organization, to the importance of finance, i do think sometimes my sense is that he was the favorite, however, on the Democratic Party side. Sometimes we make a mistake in saying how did this guy sail into that convention in los angeles and win this thing. I think if you go back and look at the news coverage, he was because of his campaigning in 57, 58 and 59, the odds were with him more than with any of the others. Lbj diterred, he took too long, zy zymington wasnt going to be the one. Theres no question that West Virginia was incredibly dramatic. His irishness was a wonderful part of the story. In many ways he was the least likely Irish American politician anyone there was an irishamerican politician. Everyone knew what they were like. It was a guy who was sort of older with a reddish face and was like waving his arms all over the place and came out of urban ward politics from a big city. He was from a big city, but he was very different. In some ways, al smith was that kind of a politician, but in some ways this irishamerican was the preppiest politician we have ever seen. Its one of the many ways in which e he challenged all of our known categories. In some ways, very european. He spent significant time in europe and in asia. He was living in london as london was going toward the late 30s. So he challenged almost all of our assumptions. Being irish was incredibly important and the opposition to that was real and hard for him to overcome, but he did it with his power of his language and a e great speech in houston. I think each of these victories strengthened him and opened up who he was to more growth. So it was just one of the many things inside him that was deep then and still seems deep. I think thats just very quickly that what ted mentioned is really important. That desire he had to look to the wider world, which is, again, something we see in him even as a younger man. I think its going to be a theme in my biography. Is really important. This International Sensibility he develops and maintains as president because what he cares most about is Foreign Policy. The other thing i would just say is its interesting to speculate whether the catholic issue help him or hurt him. The fact he was catholic in 1960 cost him more votes than it gained him. Histori historians disagree about this. Its probably in the end maybe a wash. Helped him in some states and hurt him in others. But maybe comes out even. So john kennedy, we all know so much about him. Tonight we have just scratch ed the surface and spent so much more time. I want you to first thank the smithsonian for hosting this and really appreciate it. [ applause ] joining me to thank ted and fred for all they have done and theres so many other books. I also encourage you to look at a great book written in 1958. Its called a nation of immigrants by then young senator named john kennedy. 60th anniversary will be next year and his words about immigration then, as ted talked about in the 65 legislation, are just as relevant maybe even more so today. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. [ applause ] coming up later today, the House Rules Committee will meet to consider a rule governing debate of legislation to extend section 702 of the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, which authorizes the Intelligence Community to target the internet and phone communications of nonu. S. Persons located outside the u. S. Live coverage begins at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3 and you can watch online or listen with the free cspan radio app. Sunday on q a, Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow lee edwards chronicles his 60year involvement in the conservative movement. I met joe mcarkansas think through my father. He was a well met. He liked to drink or two. And as long as you didnt talk about communism, you couldnt ask for a more fun guy to be with. But hes very serious about that. He was also someone who did not take advice very well. He consequently said things and even did things that hurt the cause of communism for some time. Q a, sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Next the Historical Society museum gives a tour of the exhibit high hopes shs the journey ofkennedy, including achievements in office. Well see items that belong to him. 2017 is the john kennedy centennial. He was born may 29th, 1917. So this exhibit is called high hopes, the journey of john kennedy. We made the decision to begin the exhibit with the end of president kennedys life. Everybody knows unfortunately how his