Landing. We will hear from two former president ial aides who were in the oval office when president nixon spoke to Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin when they were on the moon. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As people continue to wander in, were going to get started because we have a hard cue at 8 48. Hello to our audience watching at home as well. My name is hugh hewitt, im the president and ceo of the Richard Nixon foundation, it is my honor to well you here tonight to our east room. Please rise for the presentation of the colors and the singing of the National Anthem by tim kepler. O say, can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming . Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming . And the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh, say, does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [ applause ] please be seated. We have a lot to do and a lot of special guests to thank before we get going tonight. You will hear in a couple moments from Rhonda Johnson who is the president of at t california. At t is the cosponsor with their Nixon Foundation at todays event which have been going on since the 5k race for space this morning right up to this moment, celebrating 50 years ago. Ive heard the National Anthem a lot of times but i have never actually reflected on home of the brave ever being so perfectly incorporated as when Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and buzz aldrin took off in that capsule 50 years ago this week. We are also pleased to welcome from at t this week richard for ris. We have a very special guest, id like to introduce you to kia eisenhower. The great granddaughter of president and mrs. Nixon and the greatgreat granddaughter of president and mrs. Eisenhower and our honored special guest tonight. Welcome. I hope i got that right. I get the generations all wrong. The greatgreat granddaughter of dwight and maimy and the great granddaughter of president nixon and pat nixon. Sandy quinn, he is a member of our board, former Nixon Foundation president. Also mike elsie is our library director. Mike also makes the trains run here in the National Archives records association. A terrific partner with the foundation. Alberto sa alber alberto sandoval, thank you for being here. Bill long, legendary disney promoter, friend of the Nixon Foundation, now on the anaheim transit authority. Glad to have you. Supervisor don wagner and his wife judge megan wagner, please stand up and say hello. [ applause ] we have with us sara catalan the chief of staff to the california senator. And my friend lucy dunn from the Orange County business council. Where are you, lucy . There she is. If anything happened to tim she was going to do the National Anthem and she didnt even know it. I want to thank francis french, an apollo historian who spoke earlier in the Library Theater today about the personalities of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and buzz aldrin. Buzz will be with us on tuesday night thanks to american happenings. Its great to have francis here today to discuss them. Jason silverman is a senior Dragon Development engineer at spacex and he spoke about the future of space travel today. Now he is not here with us now he was here earlier today. I want to acknowledge doug paul. He was the at t plant manager general control in new york. He had a key role in making the connections from the earth to the moon that we are talking tonight and he actually saw the live feeds even before nasa did. Doug played a crucial role in making the longest distance phone call in history possible so we thank him and want to give him a round of applause. [ applause ] i also want to thank or president Society Members who are here or in the library watching on our overflow room and i want to thank as well a few people before i ask up rhonda from at t because this event began a few months ago with a lunch in d. C. With jim cicone and jim for a long, long time ran the washington, d. C. Office of at t and he is the vice chair of the George Herbert walker bush foundation. I asked him given that this was the most memorable phone call in history, do you think at t would be interested in being involved and he said, i will get back to you on that. He called Randall Stephenson who is the visionary leader of at t and randall sent me a leader saying you really want to talk to Nicole Anderson and jaralin turner and we did talk to them at length. I cant tell you how pleased we are to have partnered from the start to the finish with at t. Id like to introduce to you Rhonda Johnson, she oversees all of at t in california. She lives in san francisco, sadly not in Orange County, but she is down for the day. She oversees and directs all of at Ts Government affairs, public policy, philanthropic giving and social engagement activities throughout california and they have 33,000 employees in california alone. Rhonda is a veteran of the communications industry, she spent more than 30 years with at t. People dont leave at t. But she actually comes from the finance world, having begun her career in chicago with the Federal Reserve there. At t is one of our leading job creators and innovators in the United States and in forming Community Engagements and celebrations. We are so pleased that they have joined with the Nixon Foundation tonight and, of course, the connection they made 50 years ago watched by a billion and a half people is indeed the most famous phone call in history. Please, Rhonda Johnson, would you come up and share a few words with us. [ applause ] thank you so much, hugh. I must say and for those of you i havent met i am Rhonda Johnson from at t. I now have the job of president of at t california. I must say we are so proud and pleased to be part of this event and this day, working in collaboration with the Nixon Foundation library. This has been a phenomenal day, i was able to participate a little bit earlier this morning, see the crowds, see all the people that came through and then myself personally to take a tour. I have been so impressed by what i saw in history that this president did and, again, with not only the apollo 11 landing, but everything in the history in this museum is something you all need to see. At t has been and is playing a role a little bit in what happened 50 years ago. We are all here today to remember that historic event, when president nixon and billions and millions of people around the world watched two american astronauts step on to the moon surface. To make and have that first step on the lunar surface in the sea of tranquility. We at at t played a role and we did have one of our former employees who actually was part of that participate here today. We were involved in the transmission of that Television View that we saw. I was a small child at that time and in a rural farm in illinois, sat on the living room floor with my family watching the black and white tv vision of people stepping on to the moon. I will always remember that. And, you know, when i think back about what it means to make that happen, we heard from doug paul this morning, our employee, about what happened traveling 240,000 miles from satellite dishes around the earth, from nasa and in the case we will talk about the phone call in a minute, but from the oval office up to the moon. It really is a phenomenon. You know, when we talk about the transmission of the telephone call, that was something that was a historic event. I have now seen documents from the 60s that talk about how nasa first reached out to at t and asked us to work with them, the air force and usgs to make that call possible. It took a lot of brain power and a lot of people dedicated to the mission to make that phone call happen. It was the longest distance phone call ever. From the oval office in this lovely olive green push button phone where the president of the United States called the astronauts on the lunar surface. And, you know, that call traveled those 240,000 miles up to the moon, to the apollo, you know, station there on the moon and then on to the backpacks and and ttennas that were attached the astronauts as they talked to the president. And you can see the transcript of the call in your program. You know, at t is all about using our technology to make a difference in the world, connecting people. Well, a little over 100 years ago it was the first transcontinental phone call, Alexander Graham bell called from new york to san francisco. 50 years later we made a call to the moon. We also in 1983 at the worlds fair in new york had the first videoconference phone call. Then we developed the unix operating system, the precursor to things like windows and all that we use today. Then we had the first wireless commercial telephone call in 1983 and from there we now all carry around those devices that we can use and do marvelous things with, whether its connecting to family and friends or things that may involve, you know, telehealth and other things that frankly are autonomous cars, flying cars and things of our future. So no matter what it is, at t is there to help support technology. In fact, we have one of the most prolific libraries of actual portfolios of patents, over 12,500 active patents at at t. We receive approximately five patents a day. We continue to innovate and i think as i look back 50 years ago of the power, the bravery it took and the dedication to the mission, whether it was landing on the moon, the transmission of the telecast or that phone call, it took people who believe in accomplishing a mission, were dedicated to it with perseverance and made Amazing Things happen. It was changing history. Its all about connections. And that is what at ts mission is about, connections. So were so proud to be here, to be part of this program, and i really want to thank you on behalf of at t for having us here and participating. And now i want to bring back hugh hewitt. You all know hugh, he is the president and ceo of the foundation, but hes an author, a lawyer, he is a tenured law professor, he is a columnist and he is a nationally known policy commentator. You probably have all heard him. An amazing man so accomplished and hes going to lead us through a wonderful program. So join me in welcoming back hugh hewitt. [ applause ] what you people dont realize is rhonda just did the rn trick, which is to stand with your hands before you, speak without a note and deliver a message flawlessly. So that many of us have seen president nixon do that many, many times. Lets get started. Id like to welcome up and i will introduce them when they are up here, Alex Eisenhower, dwight chapin, Lawrence Higby and john price. [ applause ] so i want you to know that theres only one hard break in this program. We can go wherever the conversation takes us, but at 8 48 were going to the tape because its 50 years ago to the minute that president nixon called the moon at 8 48. So ive got a clock in front of us here and youve got a clock up there and if i miss that i have screwed up. So were not going to do that. On my far left grandson of president and mrs. Nixon, greatgrandson of Dwight Eisenhower and maimy eisenhower please welcome Alex Eisenhower to the library. [ applause ] seated to his right is dwight chapin. Dwight is one of the moving forces behind the redo of our museum, if you havent seen it yet, but he has been a moving force in the nixon world for as far back as 1962, he served in the white house as deputy assistance to the president and he was there on the night of the phone call, dwight, welcome. [ applause ] next to dwight, another longtime nixon aide, also in the administration from the first day, larry higby, Deputy Assistant to the president. He worked very close will i with hr bob alderman and is a member of our board and one of the driving members of the foundation for many years. Larry, welcome back. [ applause ] and immediately to my left a man i just met for the first time tonight, i have heard about him for years, john price was the special assistant to the president and executive secretary of the domestic urban Affairs Council and one of the true movers of domestic policy in the white house along with Daniel Patrick moynihan and john ehrlichman. I want to begin if i could because the moon landing and the moon phone call is for many of us a received memory. Now, i remember it, i was 13, im 63 now, and i remember being woken up to watch it on tv and to listen to it in warren, ohio, at 11 48 or whatever it was to be there. But most people learn about it from their parents or their grandparents because we werent alive then. Alex, i had occasion to call your aunt tricia last week to talk a little bit about the family moment and i know youve talked to your mom julie about it. Would you tell people what the family was doing that night. Yes. Well, my mom told me that she was on the second floor of the white house and they were looking out over the rose garden and they could see her father, the president , talking on the phone to the astronauts and she said that it was actually the most exciting moment of all of her time in the white house, that moment, watching him speak to another man or another planet sorry, on the moon. It was, you know, just so momentous that she actually, you know, said it was it was the best. It was the most exciting, electric atmosphere of all of her time in the white house. You wont be surprised, you probably talked about it, Tricia Nixon Cox told me they would look from the television to the oval, to the oval to the television back and forth because they really couldnt quite believe what they were watching. Right. The other part, and i wonder if julie or your father mentioned this to you, when it was done your grandfather arrived back they went down to greet him and he was completely humbled by the event, totally overwhelmed by the courage of the astronauts and staggered by the history of the moment. Has that come through to you from your mom as well . Yes. Yeah. She said that he was really excited about it, actually. He saw it as a great opportunity to actually bring the world together. Even in his speech he spoke of talked about the gray surface of the moon and the earth, the beautiful earth, and, you know, he saw it as a moment to bring everybody together in the country, in the world, and i think he just saw it as such an amazing opportunity. Were going to talk about the context first before we get to the phone call. I want to begin with some comments about the soviets because as you all know this began in 1957, i was a year old, it wasnt my fault, the russians launched sputnik 1, which i dont think anyone is actually old enough to remember on this stage. John, do you remember sputnik 1 . Okay. Lets get the reaction to sputnik 1. John, go ahead. Sputnik 1 was a slap in the face to american complacency. We were in the eisenhower presidency, it was a benign era of good feelings, the country felt comfortable because they were confident they were being led by an intelligent, competent man who knew arms and armies. All of a and armies. I was at grenell college, a small iowa cottage. With the naked eye you could sisee it circle the earth. I phoned my grandmother, wife of a dairy farmer in southern iowa, i said grandma, i watched this soviet satellite circle the earth in the heavens. She said it is not possible. God would not permit it. But hermit at t permit it he. Your recollection of that, too . My recollection goes back to the fact that i think it probably was the biggest wakeup call the United States could have or any of our Space Programs, what resulted from the first time over the next succeeding number of years was phenomenal, and were here celebrating it today. It did kick it off, dwight . It kicked into motion a chain of events the United States was not used to being second in anything. And the fact that the russians got the sputnik up there and so forth was really a Public Relations black eye to the administration and they determined quickly that it couldnt be this way, that we had to make a change. Early on the Space Program is rightly identified with president kennedy. I have been in touch with the Kennedy Foundation director. We hope the apollo 11 exhibit can travel there. I hope you can get a chance to see it. It is remarkable. President kennedy announced in houston september 12th at Rice University that we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things not because they are easy but because theyre hard. Dwight, ill start with you and come back. When you reflect on what president kennedy said, the 60s descended into chaos. Maybe what held it together was the Space Program. Yes, i think that was an important moment. We hear it referred to quite often today that it would be a kennedy moment, for example, if somebody today set a goal that we were going to accomplish something in the next decade. America was ready for this call to arms, so to speak, and president kennedy put it out there. President nixon was behind it a thousand percent. He never wavered on it. He thought kennedy made the right decision, and the president was very supportive. Larry, do you recall it shaping your college years, ucla guy, was the space race in the background the whole time . Too many things were in the background all the time. Including several classes i didnt quite get to. No. I think it did shape and begin to bring focus, which is the word i associate with it, whether you were in high school or college. It is one of the things that captured the imagination and concern of the world, not just the United States, the world. And i think our ability to react as dwight pointed out to that and come back strong and accept the challenge and beat the challenge is really what makes the u. S. Such a special place to be. John, you want to add to that about the backdrop of the 60s divided by conflict, change, and the Space Program. Very much so. And what the latter did was to give a sense of common purpose, of shared purpose, and finally a sense of accomplishment and national competence. Larry, dwight, you were on the campaign. John, were you on the campaign . I was. How long did the Space Program come up in the campaign. The president had one of the narrowest victories, lost one in 1960, whats the Space Programs role in the campaign, if any. Dwight, you want to start . At one point in the campaign i believe it was in early october james webb, head of nasa resigned, and one of the reasons he resigned is that the Johnson Administration which would include humphrey, the candidate that was running against nixon, that they wanted to cut back on the Space Program. And the president put forth, the president being candidate nixon, put forth a statement saying it was imperative, he used the word imperative that the administration go ahead with the program, fully fund apollo, keep it going. There was a moment in time where it was becoming a campaign issue. Larry, do you recall it being shut down . Was it a conversation inside the rooms . A very brief conversation. What happened with the Space Program in general was really more of a backdrop issue that the president saw had value in terms of so many other things he was trying to get done, whether it was weave together an alliance throughout europe or Southeast Asia or bring new people into the alliances we already had. It was a great calling card that allowed you to get in and do other things. Domestic policy, he had a lot to do. It was very expensive. Was there ever question over the expense of the overriding importance of the mission . The expense was like 4 of the entire federal budget. Does anyone know that . Staggering if you think about it. Larger than the defense budget. It was ramped up and willingly and bipartisanly. And only after as the joy and feelings slowly dissipated were the attacks back on for budgetary reasons, as with the peace and growth dividends coming from winding down the vietnam war, why shouldnt we take these monies, apply them to other things. The Space Program is something thats always subject to people saying why are we doing this and not spending money on earth on projects that help the citizens of the planet and particularly in the United States. So the important factor is that there were 400,000 people employed putting together what happened here. I mean, it was a huge, huge industry. That helped to care for the 4 of the budget. Christopher, can you imagine the United States without a Space Program . Youre one of the younger generation. Can you imagine growing up without all of this around you . Well, my generation takes it for granted, so you know, by the time i was born, man had already walked on the moon and we had already seen this. It is part of being an american, thinking we could do the impossible, but there have been a lot of times they talked about cutting massive funding for nasa, now talking about private industry, taking the helm, going into space now. So times it felt like there wasnt much of a Space Program and wasnt going to be, but its exciting to see Companies Like spacex and renewed interest in space because i think it is one of the most interesting things. It is important to remember it was a choice. You had to make a choice to go, you had to make a choice to continue, you had to make a choice that night. President nixon was inaugurated january 20th, 1969, exactly six months before the lunar landing. In his inaugural address he referred to the Christmas Eve 1968 mission of apollo 8 and to astronaut William Anders who took a picture near the lunar surface which he later called earth rise. That picture featured prominently in president nixons oval office, a view of it by the way hangs in the oval office in yorba linda, california, and the president then actually spoke about the mission in his first inaugural address. Lets listen to that excerpt. Only a few short weeks ago we shared the glory of mans first sight of the world as god sees it, as a single speer, reflecting light in the darkness. As the apollo astronauts flew over the moons great surface Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth and in that voice so clear across the lunar distance we heard them invoke gods blessing on its goodness. In that moment their view from the moon moved a poet to write to see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful. And that eternal silence where it floats is to see our self as riders on the earth together. Brothers in that bright loveliness. Brothers who know now they are truly brothers. Riders on the earth together. Dwight, was that the mood in the country january of 1969 . The country had been largely divided by 1968. And in 1969 what you hear the president doing is working and starting to put in place the important job of bringing the country together again. And the rhetoric that he uses is to inspire and to have people have that magic ingredient of dreaming and thinking that things can be better. And the moon program was if nothing else a denominator of spirit, spirit in the country. And he knew that was coming. And he brought it to the forefront of the American Public because he thought it was so important to lay it in there. Our late friend, ray price, was very proud of the phrase the lift of a driving dream which appears in the inauguration. Do you think that was specific to the moon program or just generally about our end wapnted to accomplish. John, then larry. I think it was more generally what he hoped to do and what he hoped to restore. Further to the point of how horrible things were, there had been Something Like 125 urban riots in cities across america, small and large in the prior year. At that place where he was giving his inaugural address, most of us were sitting in front on the east side of the capital building. There were 50 caliber machine guns mounted on either side of the stairs, manned by armored units. At 14th street, a few blocks down the road in washington there were still gutted smoldering fires left from problems there. On his way back from inaugural to review the inaugural parade, debris was thrown at his car. These were tense times. Larry . I think the whole idea of the dream is very nixon. Hes always talking about dreams, he is trying to lift the country up and move the country ahead and bring it back together again to dwights point. And i think he works very hard at that. He also had an uncanny sense of timing of when to take something thats sort of out there and make it the issue, and he clearly used the moon program more than once in that regard. Very much unique to this president. Dwight. Hugh, i want to mention that i was with ray price and with the candidate, mr. Nixon, when the words were uttered in New Hampshire at the launch of the president ial campaign in 1968, and he talked about what america needed was the lift of a driving dream. So he was into that rhetoric at the very outset of the campaign. I also want to talk to you three about the Space Program and the soviet competition. Our end would come to be remembered as the greatest foreign diplomat as president , doing diplomacy. When 69 arises, it is not long after invasion of czechoslovakia, in the war where men and women are shot and killed by soviet weaponry, by the soviet satellite state, and the soviets are trying to get to the moon, too. So how much of the super power politician is politics and the dream if nothing else one of the ways we can define president nixon is he was incredibly prag n mat i can. The lift of the driving dream was important, beating the soviets was equally important. And real. He was both. The quaker impulse was in him, unlike in Herbert Hoover who was the only other quaker president to serve. The emblem, the logo on the president s grave out here is that it is most important to be remembered as peace maker. Pat buchanon says in his book about mix ons white house wars, one of the most outstanding and remarkable features of this man was the reality of his commitment to finding peace. He was a quaker. He believed in peace at the center. Did we begin to talk to the soviets in 69 . I dont recall. I dont believe we did. Im a domestic guy, i think they started to put out feelers. Does anyone recall the soviets reaction to this . I dont, no. What nixon did, and well get to it perhaps is brought back soviet metals, conferred by the soviet union on their cosmonauts for acts of bravery, often death trying to get into space. And nixon instructed that those medals be taken on apollo 11 and left on the moon as a gesture to the soviet union. I didnt know that either. Lets talk about the tension approaching launch. Was there ever any doubt in your mind on launch day or week, dwight, that it was coming down . We got used to in the challenge challenger to having delays. Was there a countdown you were stuck on, knew it was taking off on the 16th, landing on the 20th . The president s attitude and position on the launch for july 20th, pardon me, july 16th, and landing on the moon on the 20th was that it was one thing over which he had no control. The president had delegated authorities and people that knew the technologies and everything involved were the ones he was relying on, and this did not involve consideration by the white house in terms of postponements or anything else. If they needed to be done, he would have absorbed them and agreed with what the authorities said needed to be done. Was there a science adviser, larry, to bob alderman or the president or was it the nasa director . I think it was with the nasa director. He had a science adviser. When we get closer and closer to launch, no president ial event is accidental. Everything is planned weeks, months, sometimes years in advance. When did the planning begin for the night of launch and night of the landing and the phone call . Well, the planning recommendations from nasa probably were generated back in the later johnson years. Once the president took office, we had an assistant to the president , peter flanagan, became the point person with nasa. And then president nixon had struck up a friendship with astronaut frank borman. He was brought in the inner circle with flanagan and franks assignment was to keep the president posted on all of the technical stuff he needed to know about the launch and what was going to happen, and help make some decisions. Inside baseball, franks role, he was in the white house the night of the phone call. Did he have entrance and access as he needed it, how did an astronaut fit in with a bunch of staffers trying to keep the president on schedule and doing a thousand different things. The president liked being with him. They watched the landing together. Had he not wanted to get into private life, probably would have been a significant factor politically in the United States and Republican Party and probably significant adviser for the president on an ongoing basis. July 16th, when the launch took place, the only person with the president was frank borman. That occurred at 9 32 july 16th that people dont know. Lets watch that footage to remember. 30 seconds and counting. Astronauts report it feels good. T minus 25 seconds. 20 seconds and counting. T minus 15 seconds. 12, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence starts. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engines running. Liftoff. Liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour, liftoff of apollo 11. Oh, boy. Building is shaking. I see people younger than me, how many of you went through the experience of having a television rolled into the Elementary School classroom to watch the launch. Every launch. That happened on challenger by the way, traumatized a generation of children, but how nervous were you three guys when this thing went down . You mean when it occurred . Yes, when the launch took off. As opposed to 72 seconds after the launch of challenger. Yes. I was there. You went to florida . Yes, i was there. We were seated in bleacher Like High School football stadium stands a distance, good distance from the actual launch site because of the power of the 7. 5 Million Pounds of thrust. And president johnson was there, he was in the front row. He had been brought there, thanks to richard minixon who st a newly refurbished air force one to pick up president johnson and his wife as gesture of thanks for what johnson had done for the program. When the actual ignition occurred, being at the distance we were, you heard nothing. There was no audio, only video, and it took awhile. Then all of a sudden the ground began to literally thump under your feet, shook like it was rolling. It was only a moment later the air was literally slapping you against the face. How about back at the white house . I felt personally like i had a split personality. On one hand, you were trying to figure out what do you need to do now. As dwight said earlier, it is out of control. On the other hand you think about all of the other things that could go wrong and chain of events taking place over more than a number of days. And you couldnt get it off your mind, but didnt want to think about it sometimes. It was very unique. As you walk the corridor in the west wing, you could hear from room to room every television was on by every staff person in the white house. Theres been a lot of attention paid to william sapphire writing a memo to your boss, larry, called in the event of moon disaster, offering suggested remarks in the case of Mission Failure and that the apollo 11 astronauts did not survive. Has that been overstated a bit . Was there more worry than we have been allowed to understand . I think it was the white house operating as it tried to, covering every eventuality. It was something that was discussed, went through it, and shelved it, said were going for it and went for it, and the rest is history. It is interesting that the memo, this has gotten a lot of attention in the last ten days, but it has gotten more attention in the last ten days 50 years later than it did ten days around the actual landing on the moon. I mean, this was not something that was talked about. The day of the event itself of the landing i do not recall being mentioned once. I think it was on a shelf, probably in aldermans office. If something had gone haywire, they would have gone and gotten it, but it was not top of mind, it was way down. This was a positive were going to do it type experience. There was a lot of suspense in it. But there was no focus on this. Constant drum beat going on what about. That was not there. Prepared a memo to the troops or the world accepting responsibility for failure of the dday invasion. Have you ever talked about that with your father, whether or not your grandfather was impacted by your great grandfathers sort of Contingency Planning for the worst case . Honestly, not too much. Its been a miracle the mission was a success. And they just moved forward from that. He had so many decisions that were life or death that he had to make in his life, you know, sending people off to their deaths constantly. It was one more success. I dont know how he handled it. I want to talk a little about the day of. Switch to the day of. Dwight chapin, sunday Church Service on the day of lunar landing, later buzz aldrin would hold a Church Service on the moon not allowed to be broadcast because of concerns that the aclu would object. Tell us about the Church Service that the president went to and why and how it occurred. The president and mrs. Nixon established when they came into the white house sunday Church Services in the east room, nondenominational. On this particular sunday, the 20th of july, 1969 they had as the presiding minister the minister from Whittier College where the president had gone to college, a quaker. One of the featured parts besides the prayers of a safe landing and safe return, one of the featured little talks was by frank borman who read from genesis, he read what he had read around christmas time of 1968 as they circled the moon, and he read genesis back to earth, and that got incredible amount of attention at that time, and it was repeated at this Church Service. I read today in preparing, madeline ohare objected to the reading, and buzz aldrin who is a presbyterian elder had requested to receive elements of the presbyterian communion on the moon, and he did, in fact. But they went radio silent because of objection to Frank Bormans reading of genesis. They didnt want that. I can say this, that if anybody had objected to frank borman reading genesis, president nixon would make sure he read that genesis. Probably twice. Backwards. Bosh haldeman wrote that president nixon intrigued with the moon landing. Whats that mean . How does that translate . You knew bob. He was a fairly serious man. Didnt suffer fools or anybody else lightly. He was really focused on the president and what we could get done in the time that we had, and looking at the whole thing, it became pretty obvious we needed to move very strongly to try to integrate the Space Program and other things we were doing. It is one of the few times i talked to him afterwards, there was glee, absolute glee on the part of the president , clearly on the part of bob, and clearly one of the reasons because bob was so pleased to see the president was happy about the whole thing, and it really set up for the next several days just a tremendous amount of joy throughout the white house and i think throughout the nation. Dwight. Yes. It is very telling in the diaries what larry cysays is tr, bob was a serious man, but he chronicles that the president , when neil stepped on the moon, the president was ecstatic the language bob was using reflects significantly the president s attitude. Now, we have a special treat. I dont know how, you couldnt get a super 8 camera into the white house today, dwight, but you got your super 8 camera into the white house. Yes. How often did you take a super 8 camera to the white house . I took a super 8 camera into the white house every day, and bob haldeman had one, i had one and we used it. Heres footage. Theres roger aels, technical adviser that went on to notoriety at fox. Theres bob haldeman at his desk, working on some papers. Youll see in a second that hes conferring with roger ales, this is during the day while we were waiting. There was a lot of waiting time this particular day. Theres frank borman, he is in the president s office off of the oval office, thats the set on which president nixon watched the lunar landing. Theres frank on the phone, probably with nasa. And these are home movies we took. And theyre 50 years old. So the quality of it, theres the little tv that the president watched it from. I think thats frank reynolds. Ron zigler. This is the press room. That was the official photographer, the guy with the cigar was bruce wheelahan. The guy with this cigar was me. Dont ask why we smoked cigars, but we did. And we really staked ourselves into the cabinet room throughout the day. You can see the windows were dark. Again, were into nighttime. The module landed at 4 15 in the afternoon, then the astronauts did not walk until later. This is a still shot of the cabinet room, the oval office is down through the doorway. Theres a Little Office area. Then the oval office. Were all sitting around there waiting. The president at this time is over in the executive office building. But this was right ahead of the actual moon walk. I note a lot of ashtrays here. Yes. A lot of ashtrays. This was a different era. Thats a lot of ashtrays. Usage declined as the administration went forward. I also noted, can we replay that home movie . Is that possible . I want to replay it. Cigar smoking in the white house is really i dont think thats allowed by law any more. Here we go. Thats bruce, he worked for ron ziegler. Roger ales, television adviser and basically got the president prepped as to exactly how everything was going to work, what the queues were. Theres bob at his desk, roger again. Roger is close but no cigar. Again, you can see the windows, it is dark out. This is later in the day or evening. Frank again probably on the phone with nasa. He was constantly getting updates and trying to check to make sure everything was working the way we had been told it was going to work. And then frank would give queues to roger ales. And again, thats the little tiny set. The president never watches television larry is saying. The official white house photographer and bruce. Again, to self promote. Walk me through what you three did that day. Obviously you ran around with a camera. My right hand was lifting a cigar. You were too . I was, and i had hair. I dont smoke any more and i have no more hair. That evening, again, thanks to dwight, i moved into the oval office. Hugh, the staff people, it was a waiting process. Hurry up and wait. We got there in mid morning, waiting until 4 00 for the landing. Then waiting until late evening. Theyre sitting around chatting, trying to figure out, talking to frank borman. You look at the phone log, i got six or seven calls from the president that lasted about a minute or 30 seconds or something because he was in his office, hes antsy, wanting to know whats going on. It was a hurry up and wait type thing. A lot of people were in their offices. The one thing you didnt want to have happen is any communication breakdown, you wanted to have something in place so boom, you could switch to another line or another office immediately. As dwight said, it was sort of hurry up and wait. Now we have media circuses where it is considered enormous event if 25 to 30 million watch something. Super bowl is bigger, but there were a billion and a half people watching this thing. What was the media doing that night . Well, the media that night, lets go back. Were talking abc, nbc, and cbs. I mean, it was a different media world. This was going to be covered by a pool which meant there would be a representative of media people there that would feed the information to the others. It was not the bigg, elaborate media circus it would be today. The media had its own specific area in the west wing, a lot of offices had to be manned for any eventuality. Yes. In the oval office you had Network Television cameras and some of the print press there, and still photographers came in later. The mood was fascinating. Media folks like the rest of us were subdued. There was an extraordinary mood after we settled down and the moment came near. This is a completely noncontentious thing. Theres no one going on thats questioning why this is happening, why are we spending money or anything. This is suspense 101. What is going to happen next. Is it going to go against plan and not, you know, some gotcha, get ya type thing. Walter cronkite was proadministration. Tell us what it was like to be in the white house when man landed on the moon. I will say simply a roar went up from our group in the cabinet room, just a raucous scream that was probably echoed in living rooms, bars, railroad stations all over the world. It was a moment of absolute excitement. Larry . I agree with that completely. It was amazing to me. There was kind of a hushed calmness after the roar. People were just transfixed on the whole issue and what we had done as a nation, what this meant to the world, and sort of asked you to think again about your place in the world and where you really were not part of something that was so much bigger than you dreamed. I think well see footage in a few minutes, let me speak to now briefly, that is when you the overall feeling of the white house is exemplified by the president , is rivoted looking at the television. Youll see it in a second. He starts watching whats happening on the set. This is the technical crew getting ready. This is once he was advised there will be that were getting ready, roger, frank, the president. It is interesting for sound reasons, his whole top of his desk we covered with brown felt, trying to keep the noise level down. Here he is, he is starting to look at the tv and watch whats happening. Hes getting interrupted by roger there. But hell come back to it in a second. He just kept his focus on what the men were doing. Right now, roger is explaining what nasa said, he is asking about the call. Frank is on with nasa. Thats the pool camera that fed all of the networks. Theres ales again. I want to cue it again. Preface it by saying he spent the early evening in his hide away. When did he come over . Walk us through one more time, dwight. He came over to the Little Office right before armstrong stepped on the moon. And haldeman and borman were with him in the Little Office when that happened. Once it happened, he came into the oval office. Theres roger briefing him, frank, the president wiping the moisture off his lip which was a constant thing. Felt on his desk there. He is watching that. I thought there was more footage of this part but theres not. Hes just looking at the tv set. It is interesting there were two sets. One on the right, one on the left. We didnt know how nasa was going to put the picture. Roger devised if the astronauts were on the right, nixon would be on the left, looking at them. But he would switch over the other way if the astronauts were on the left. Nixon would have been on the right. There isnt any makeup person in the room. No. Didnt need makeup. Probably, let me think. Maybe under our formula, maybe he had spent the weekend before in key biscayne. One of the tricks with Richard Nixon that we learned, that he learned early on from 1960 and jack kennedy was that he looked a heck of a lot better when he had a tan. Therefore he spent a lot of time in florida. All of you would know, alex, youll know, the modern media world is nobody goes anywhere without hair and makeup. They would have been all over him today in 2019, 50 years later, you dont talk for 30 seconds without hair and makeup if youre a public figure. Talk to me a little about tension about the phone call as we approach the ten minutes to go mark. We had gathered earlier today, talking about this extraordinary technical event. Were you worried about at that point, the big thing is work, theyre on the moon. The little thing, the phone call, is an amazing technological achievement. Who was running the rope line at the white house. My answer would be White House Communications agency. Thats part of the department of defense. And when their sheet came in, it is the one that says the president s call, puts the time and says to, the call to the sea of tranquility, the moon. We have those notes in the exhibition. It says call to the sea of tranquility on the moon. How much time did he spend prepping for what he would say to the astronauts . Do any of you know . I dont. I would say probably considerable time, knowing him. I can envision that he was over in the office with his yellow pad on his lap and that he wrote out several different thoughts that he might have on how he would do it. This is a man who always prepared. He loved to tell the story about Winston Churchill. How churchill, one time somebody came up to Winston Churchill and said how in the world, the spontaneous remarks of yours are so special. Theyre so great. And Winston Churchill said some of the hardest work i do is writing those spontaneous remarks. Just to add to that, he often came out with paperwork and gave it to me. One of the things we did is we had special remarks for anything he might be speaking about ahead of time. He would literally, the process was the same. He would read them, turn the page over, write his own remarks. Look at it quickly. Toss it in the out box, and sit there and give those remarks word for word for word perfectly with no notes in front of him. If you notice there, theres no note in front of him here. Could i bring it back a moment to him sitting at the desk and dwights point earlier, intensity with which he was watching the three consoles. When the astronauts were out on the moon and about to talk to him, they lifted a flag through a lanyard, it extended as if the wind were blowing it. At that point, nixon clapped and saluted. You speak of the press and dwight said the wonderful mood. At the end of the talk, some wag in the president press and he said i would like to see the charges on that call. He said let me make it collect. Let me ask if you have any memory, president and mrs. Nixon are buried and do you have any recollection how she approached this evening and the Space Program in particular. I dont. In fact, when alex was talking, the girls watching through the window, and i dont know whether they referenced whether mrs. Nixon. She was there. Patricia said she was there. When he finished, your mother and dad and aunt went to the rose garden, and when he got done doing the assimilation for the photographers, after the call, there was a press opportunity for the photographers, and then he got up and walked through the rose garden doors, and thats when your mom and dad and aunt greeted him in the rose garden. Mrs. Nixon was in the mansion. In terms of the number of people in the room for this, i counted six. Thats not a normal was that a normal . Did he keep his office staff small and in the room . When this happened . Absolutely. Absolutely. Rule 1a was staff, unless you needed to be there, you werent there. Larry, how many people were in the cabinet room . The cabinet room is different. The cabinet room is totally different, it is someplace where the staff is gathered. 20 bepeople in there . No, i would say six or eight like it showed in there. You have to remember for a good portion of this, most of the staff needed to be in their office. The other part, larry, is it was sunday. A lot of people just werent in. Dwight said, you could go down the hall, see the tvs on. Usually at least one staff person if not more manning the office. I cant imagine someone not going to the white house on the day theyre landing on the moon. Did someone say they had Something Better to do that day . I dont think so. What was bob haldeman doing, so central to the presidency, what was he doing during this period of time . He was with the president through a good portion of time, also was along with frank, providing information and we were getting ready to leave on a trip, werent we . In his diary, he says that he for part of the afternoon, he went back to the hotel. He was still living in a hotel. They had not moved permanently to washington, he was packing for the trip. It was a tight schedule for those guys. After this is done, well watch it in five minutes, 50 years to the moment, how long until he leaves the white house to go and greet them, splash down is in three days, right, after this . How long does he wait until he leaves . The walk was on the 20th. He stayed at the white house the 21st, and on the 22nd, he flew to san francisco, the 23rd to Johnson Island, from Johnson Island out to the uss something, arlington. Spent the night on the arlington, then at 4 00 a. M. The next morning he by helicopter went from arlington to the uss hornet. When the splash down occurred, the helicopter that picked the capsule up brought it to the hornet and the president was on the hornet when the helicopter brought the astronauts to the hornet. So the whole world was watching, and stayed watching. John, i remember in my prep for this, you traveled with a french person down to cape canaveral. Who was that . John was my seat mate on air force 2 going down. We chatted amiably, raised in French Colonial service, was in vietnam, living in hanoi when the japanese invaded, was imprisoned during the war, then saw ho chi minh visiting with american officers. He chatted with me, later sent me a book he had written. What i did not know, what was meant not to be known, this was a cover for him. He was director of air france. Had been in the government as minister, and was going down to watch the space launch as air france director. State owned airline. Ps, the reality was as dwight knows, he had come actually into see nixon and kissinger the day before because he was the intermediary between Richard Nixon and ho chi minh. He was the guy opening the path to the negotiations and it was the first meeting they all had together. Carried a letter from nixon to ho. Then the next meeting was held in his apartment. Where were dr. Kissinger and secretary of defense layered and the Vice President. Playing gin rum ee together. Henry was in new york. They had a long conversation that day. The Vice President is not on the phone log that day, nor is secretary of state. I dont know where they were. As we get there, there are thousands of people involved in this, two minutes away from 50 years ago. Thousands of people have got to execute. Was he nervous at all . Was he nervous . Nervous is not a word i anticipatory is the word that was used in one of the films we did. And i think that there was just this high degree of expectation of Something Big transpiring. But i would not use the word nervous. Focus coming closer to it. With expectation on top of it. Were now at 8 47. And the phone call occurred at 8 48. Im going to just walk into the break. We can anticipate the president waiting. This is a replica of the green phone, the real phone on our exhibit. Put yourself in the mind of Richard Nixon, waiting to talk to people on the moon in the longest phone call in history. It is frank borman that gives him the cue. Oh, he does . You dont see it. Thats what happened. Neil and buzz, the president of the United States is in his office now, would like to say a few words to you, over. That would be an honor. Go ahead, mr. President. This is houston out. Neil and buzz. Im talking to you by telephone from the oval room at the white house. And this certainly has to be the most call from the white house. I cant tell you how proud we are of what youve done. For every american, it has to be the proudest day of our lives. For people all over the world, i am sure that they, too, join with americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. What did he do immediately after he hung up . Did he walk out to the rose garden to meet mrs. Nixon and the girls . Immediately after what you just saw, there was a pause and the white house photographers came in and they did the still shots that ended up in all of the newspapers and so forth. That took five minutes, then he went to the rose garden to see trisha said he was humbled by talking to these people, it was not a celebratory, he said in this moment of being incredibly proud to be an american. Wonder if you three have a reflection on that. Yes, im sure in his heart of hearts he was feeling tremendous pride in what happened for the nation and what the men accomplished. That was true throughout the white house. Yes, and it is so indicative of the kind of role the president can play at a moment like this, understanding the breadth of the peoples interests whom you represent. Alex, remind us what your mother said about that night. It is on the quote on the wall of the museum. Just remembered it being the most electric moment of her time in the white house. It was the most excited she was the entire time. Another thing her grandmother told you is when they went on the goodwill trip, Operation Moon beam, and were traveling around, hundreds of people that came up to nixon and pat, they were calling them moon king and moon queen. Which i thought was very interesting for their role in the whole event. That must have been pretty interesting. I want to talk about this splash down now. Bob haldeman writes the splash down happened in spectacular fashion in the south pacific. A fireball rose from the horizon, arched through the sky, turning into a red ball, disappearing. Dwight, we have more footage. Can you describe whats going on on the u,ss hornet . The helicopter has the astronauts, they landed on the hornet, picked up in the water. The band is playing columbia, gem of the ocean, the spacecraft was called columbia. The helicopter is going down below. The men went below deck and were taken out of the helicopter through an air chamber. And they went into, well, well see it in a minute. The president is with tom payne, the head of nasa aboard the hornet. On the left, the image of the secretary of state rogers who was there. This is where the president talked to the astronauts, theyre in this basically airstream holding area which they had to stay in how many weeks, two weeks i think. On the right is admiral john mccain, john mccains father, chief of the operations in the pacific. Heres the president. The astronauts had now gotten into the unit from the helicopter and theyre at this window, and they are talking to the president. This is super 8 footage. I think we have some actual footage coming up of the voices, but thats the president very animated and really getting a kick out of this. I mean, and theres buzz aldrin, getting a kick out of it too. We will have dr. Aldrin here tuesday to honor him with the Richard Nixon greatest come back award ever on tuesday night in the east room. From here the president goes on to guam. Why is that . What is the purpose of going to guam . Had the ambassador of germany to talk about the address he gave that day, but why then onto guam . Guam because we are in the process here of adjusting body clocks and getting ready for a launch from guam into manilla. First stop was manilla, and in fact this is the motorcade lead leaving the airport in manilla, see the landing on the moon. This is along the way. All of the kids with the flags, and there we are. There are the astronauts on the moon. This is the start, the first stop on the goodwill trip that the president did after the moon landing. And the goodwill trip, you can see here, the philippines, indonesia, thailand, india, vietnam, pakistan, romania, great britain. Huge, huge crowds everywhere we went. And of course, this had all been timed to be immediately after the moon walk. And had been done with the idea it was going to be a successful venture. And this was with the vietnam war and everything, this is a way of trying to bring back United States prestige. How much planning went into this . Lots of planning. This trip was incredibly complicated, particularly the romania stop and pakistan stop, both were complicated. Both of those countries ended up, they had leaders who had ties to the chinese and it was part of the strategy that eventually led to the president going to china. Lets go to the dinner because were wrapping up here. The astronauts have to be in quarantine a long time, they make a triumphant return to the United States. The dinner august 13th. Before they leave on the goodwill tour. What was that like . Mean, the president was in euphoria, ecstatic to have these men going around the world on their good will trip to represent the United States. And it was accomplished. It put another way, it was harvesting all of the greatness that had been accomplished. I dont know if people know this, but when they visited mexico city, seven Million People lined the road from their landing to their seven Million People came out to see them when they landed. They were really extraordinary celebrity in the age before celebrity buzz and that might have been the most famous men on the planet. And if you had to put one word to describe them, they were authentic. I would say that is a good definition. The rock stars of the world. They get back to the white house todays after after the silent majority speech. What was the impact of having them back after the round by this time, its july, august, september, november. Its been four months and theyre still superstars and rock stars. How important is it when they come back . They come back and they give back. Thats very interesting. I never put that together. The silent majority speech was very famous speech that the president gave where he called on the great silent majority to speak up on the vietnam war. So i believe that the great slet majority was further impacted by this picture you see here and by the president being with the astronauts on the south grounds. I believe what you said coalesced into United States being proud americans again. You lived it. You tell me, john. I think as bill sapphire has said of Richard Nixon, hes a layer cake. And i think one of the elements that was probably in his mind and heart is one that struck people all over the world, whether theyre religious, secular and summarized by the airmans sonnet which goes the first and last phrase goes Something Like this, i have slipped the bonds of earth and danced the skies. I have ready to the untrespassed sanctity of space and put out my hand and touched the face of god. At one level i think people felt that. And another level, bringing closer to earth, down to earth, english was the language spoken in that one sentence by Neil Armstrong. English was the language spoken in this phone conversation heard by a quarter of population of the earth. So there was definitely a moment of american an american moment. That sits in moscow now. There the are so many layers to this. They start with a deeply spiritual one. He gave all the leaders both parties a little part of the moon rock also despite the fact that nasa wasnt really excited about that whole thing. The thing i think about the silent majority to connect it is i think that is the first time he really felt he broke through. And really had established a unique and separate group of people that really were more pro american and more proud and willing to speak up about what we had done and whether it was the moon rock or anything else. The name, the silent majority, i think, really resonated with him and a lot of people and gave him a path to move forward. Ultimate question or comment, dwight, about the impact of the mission. I want to close. The. I would like to say that the kennedy assassination and 9 11 served in each of its own way to bring americans together. They brought the whole world together. I guess i want to say the world could use another event like this. Is this the shot to go after the tech nick logical difficulty. What is the reflection watching this tonight. Its always interesting looking at him as a historical figure. Especially since i didnt really know a lot of what he did as president. I sort of shy aied away from politics when i was younger. I looked at him as grained father. Its fascinating just seeing how much of an impact he has on the world. I mean, his signature is on the moon right now. That blew me away when i heard that. Its amazing he was able to a part of this. I cant think of a better way to end on that except perhaps to have tim kepler come up and lead us in God Bless America if we would all stand. Land that i love stand beside her and guide her through the night from above from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam God Bless America my Home Sweet Home God Bless America my Home Sweet Home america from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam God Bless America my Home Sweet Home ladies and gentlemen, id like you to please join me in thanking our panel for their recollection tonight. It was truly extraordinary, gentlemen. And once more if you would join me in thanking at t for making this possible tonight. Rhonda, thank you so much. Good evening and safe travel on your way home. Drive safely, friends. Good night. All week were featuring American History tv programs that are available. Lectures in history, american artifacts, real america, the civil war, oral histories, the presidency, and special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. And heres a hook look at ou prime time schedule. Remarks from Richard Trumka on the state of the Labor Movement and involvement in the 2020 elections. Cspan2, book tv with authors that have written recent best sellers. On cspan3, American History tv with programs on marijuana regulation in the u. S. Saturday, 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, a discussion about Abraham Lincoln and nativeamericans. Sunday, at 4 00 p. M. On real america, the 1950 army film invasion of southern france. And monday, labor day, at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of virginias first General Assembly held at jamestown. Americans trufrtsted their Congress American but they did not trust the congress. Many congressmen were routinely armed. Yale history professor and author Joanne Freeman will be our guest on in depth sunday. Her latest book is the field of blood. Her other titles include the essential hamilton. Hamilton writings and affairs of honor. Join our live conversation with your phone calls, tweets and facebook questions. Then on afterwards, in the latest book the immoral majority, ben howe examines whether evangelicals are choosing political power over christian values. I think the lesser evil argument is tempting but dangerous. I think it contributes to keeping a system in place that takes accountability out of the system. And i think it also is an easy way to bring in Something Like evangelicalism or any other faith and then use that as a way to get votes which seems like about the worst possible way you could use faith. Watch book tv every weekend on cspan2. Next, valerie neil head of the Space History Department at the smithsonian air and space museum shows us artifacts that tell the story of Space Exploration from the moon to mars. Each week we take viewers into museums and Historic Sites around the country. Next, we visit the smithsonian air and space museum located on the National Mall in washington, d. C. Our tour guide is valerie neil, head of the Space History Department at the museum. Show shows us artifact that tell sto the story of Space Exploration from the moon to mars