Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency First Lady Pat Nixon 20240713

Tonights program is exciting. We are honored to partner with our good friends at the Richard Nixon foundation. I would like to welcome dr. Jim cavanaugh, the chairman of the board of the nixon foundation, his wife, esther, in the front row. [applause] q, the president of the nixon foundation, who you will hear from in a few moments. We have many distinguished guests, many former officials from the nixon and other administrations and staff and friends of the nixon foundation. We are honored to have you here tonight. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Patricia Nixon becoming first lady of the u. S. Under her leadership, the white house collection added over 600 paintings and furnishing elements to the white house collection, which is the most of any presidency. The significance of this will be discussed in tonights program but it is important to us at the White House Historical association, as a core part of our mission, which was inspired, as most of you or all of you know by first Lady Jacqueline kennedy, to be the private, nonpartisan partner to the white house for conservation, preservation, restoration of beautiful state rooms at the white house, the acquisition of items for the Permanent Collection at the white house as well and for our education programs, programs like this where we teach until the stories of the white house and its wonderful history going back to 1792 when George Washington selected the site across the street, where the white house is today and hired the young irish architect. To commemorate the occasion of the 50th anniversary, the White House Historical association has also undertaken Additional Partnership with the Richard Nixon foundation, this is where we have created a digital exhibit highlighting her efforts to restore the blue room in 1972 to the original french empire style. Photographs, documents and video footage of her refurbishment project provide greater insight into her accomplishments as first lady and highlight her commitment to enhancing the white house collections for future generations. This digital exhibit can be found on our website, starting istory. Orghitehouseh and soon will be available at nixonfoundation. Org. Todays the third episode in quarterly programs, 2019, moderated by and compton. The fourth will take place on october 29inth, with Jennifer Pickens who has a new book out at that time. Jennifer walks in on cue. She will be joining us. Anne will have another program. We invite you back with us to that occasion. Tonight, everyone in this room and those watching by cspan and Facebook Live are in for a treat. Ne compton is one of my favorite people anywhere. Her role as a former reporter and White House Correspondent as well as her being the first woman assigned to cover the white house for Network Television is known to everyone in this room. What may not be known or is well known is the extensive contributions anne continues to make to organizations such as ours, the Miller Center at the university of virginia and many others. It is also fitting to acknowledge this particular week, tomorrow being the 18th anniversary of 9 11, your unique place in American History on that tragic day as you are the only broadcast reporter on air force one with president bush that entire day to report on behalf of the press to the American People. Thank you for your career, particularly acknowledging that special moment in history, that we will acknowledge tomorrow. [applause] we have three other distinguished guests on the panel tonight. Anita mcbride, who serves on our board of directors. In addition to being on the board, she chairs the Education Committee which is our David M Rubenstein National Center for white house history and our president ial sites Summit Committee where every two years we convene 200 president ial sites across the country. It will happen again in september in dallas, texas in 2020. She is at the center for Congressional Studies at american university. She is a leading authority on the role of the history of first ladys. She has worked for four president s and was chief of staff to laura bush. Patricia mattson, with us tonight, was a speechwriter and press assistant for Patricia Nixon and continued in the office of the first lady for betty ford. Distinctad extremely career in strategic and munications, including many years in senior roles at capital city cbc. Debbie, who worked for more than 30 years as curator of the white house, retiring as chief curator. She is a great colleague for us of the association. She has worked with us and continues to work with us on many projects. Majorthored our book on Decorative Arts in the white house, which is available in our bookshop. She is a consultant to our white house history quarterly, our quarterly scholarly magazine that we are very proud of. Betty is a master of knowledge regarding the white house collection. We have a wonderful panel for you to hear from tonight. Before comes up anne comes up, i would like to introduce hugh, president of the nixon foundation, who has been teaching constitutional law at chaplin College Law School since 1995. You will recognize him as a frequent guest on many Tv News Networks and programs. He has written extensively for the new york times, the wall street journal and the los angeles times. You will be familiar with him as the host of a nationally syndicated radio program. He served for six years in the Reagan Administration in a variety of posts including assisting counsel to the white house and special assistant to attorneys general. Following his remarks and a brief video presentation, our panelists will join us for the program. Those of you on this side of the room, no worries. The podium will be removed. You will have a clear shot of panelists. I cannot and without a little selfpromotion, our shop is open until 8 30 p. M. Tonight. [laughter] it is at the top of the ramp from the door were you came in. Everyone here will get a 10 discount on anything you would like to take home with you tonight. You can finish your Christmas Shopping right here tonight. Thank you very much. Hugh, welcome. [applause] thank you, stuart and welcome to all of you on behalf of the nixon foundation, which i became the president of in july. What a great first event celebrating this is nexen mrs. Nixon. We all know the definitive biography. As of this friday, it will be available on audiobook, read by her daughter and granddaughter. I think you will enjoy listening to, if you did not already enjoy reading or want to read again, the definitive book of mrs. Nixon. I was lucky to graduate college 40 years ago, drive across the country. I went to work for president nixon at the old western white house. From their day serving the president , in their retirement, there were not a lot of people around. S nixon in anmr unusual way. 22 years old, dont know anyone in california, thanksgiving rolls around, and she invited me to dinner. That was the first of many invitations postpresidency. But it was that first takes dinner when i do not know what i am doing, and i am surrounded by the president of the united states, former first lady and her children, and she was the most incredibly gracious person, a youngster who had no idea what he was doing, clueless to manners. It was only five years later when my wife and i moved back to washington, d. C. That my wifes grandmother was living in the know helen i got to smith well, because we took over grandmothers apartment in the summer when she was all right thinking that people left town. She would explain that my graciousness was not unique to me, she was in fact ratios to every Single Person that she ever met in every capacity. She traveled the world relentlessly beginning in 1953 as the second lady, setting a pattern that was unique, and when she became first lady, she was the first to not only visit africa, but also as the first lady the first time to go to china and the ussr. Every step she always insisted on seeing people, children, schools, and orphanages because she wanted to get out of diplomatic protocol protocol and talk to people and it was then that she exhibited the same kind of kindness that i experienced firsthand. [applause] wasnt she an amazing first lady in so many ways, and i want tti matson, whoa i covered at the beginning of the ford administration, you had already been hired as a speechwriter and Deputy Press Secretary for pat nixon, and you told me once that she had a keen eye for what was appropriate, and she was very much shaped by her growing up, how hard she worked, and that work ethic. Patti it is one of the things that i think was so important about her. I have been in television, politics, and ive known a lot of people who work hard, but this one takes the cake. In full bore, and the first thing i noticed, really my first day on the job, can you all hear me back there . It was when you said sent something up to her that needed her input overnight, literally it was on your desk the next morning before you got in. It did not metal if matter if there had been a state dinner, treateda job, and she as such. Daytoday really handling of constituents was so important to her, it was one of the first things that she said to me and our job interview, that she considered people to be her project. She did not want a pet cause. And that just was not her. In andted to, on a day day out basis make life better for people, who came to visit the white house, people who really wanted to connect with their government. I used to watch her stand and some of these receiving lines, and she would never one of these people she was never one of these people who shakes hands and pushes the people through, you know what i mean . You can see her looking direct lay at the person in front of of minds, andng taking time to shape to shake a hand and sometime say a few words. She had all of the energy in the world to do that, because she understood how much it meant to people to have someone that cared about them in government in washington. She felt very strongly. Went and spoke to how she, like all of us who make sure that requests got filled quickly, to make sure that the mail was returned very quickly, she had a real feeling for being able to connect with people. Sheas quite a gift, and used it for the presidency. Gift, and iy rare was fortunate enough to see it. Ann she had been in the public eye for so long before she actually arrived at the white house. Why do you think that reputation of being kind of timid, even in the videos she seemed amused that people thought she was shy. She did not seem that way to you. She had a reserve hugh she had patricia she had a reserve and i found that attractive. She was an elegant woman and of an era, the best part of an era, and we do not see some much of that anymore. She was not one that was going the going thing now is to unload yourself, and to confide with america on whatever is going through your mind. A little bit of that goes a long way if you know why i am saying so. She was appropriate, always, and she had an innate ability to be that way. It was wonderful to behold. Betty, let me ask you, you were present for this period of time. Thank you for all you have done for the white house as curator and Lasting Legacy that you have helped create. We think about first ladies, the more traditional role of worrying about the house and home, but she felt strongly the whiteg more with house, including opening some of those doors. Betty i think the film mentioned her tours for the blind and the death, which julie was very instrumental in participating in. She was the first first lady to open the grounds for garden tours in the spring and the fall, and those have continued to the present time, and the christmas candlelight tours in the evening so the public could see the house during the holidays all lit up and beautifully decorated. Another legacy that i think that endures today is the lighting of the exterior of the house. She had gotten a lot of inquiries talking about the house was so dark when they brought tours by the house any evenings, and she and the president would come in on the helicopter, they could not even see the house it was so dark. From they using funds first inauguration, she worked closely with the National Park service and having the engineers design and planned, and implement the lighting of the house, that is the legacy that endures today. The idea that she brought in more works of art than any other first lady ever, how did that happen . Betty i think it happened when she and president nixon had gone to the state department to the diplomatic reception rooms in 1969, and had seen how beautiful the rooms were. A year later, in the early 1970s, she called the curator at the state department and asked if he would be willing to come over and be the curator of the white house. He had a job at the state department and worked in the Protocol Office as well as the diplomatic reception room. Misses nixon invited him to the white house and they walked through all the rooms from the third floor down to the ground floor. And, he thought about it for a few days, and decided to accept it. She was a very strong supporter of this program. The louvre had been refurbished in the early 50s, but there had been tremendous visitation and receptions and a lot of crowds in the 60s. And things really needed to take shape. He was a very energetic and ambition ambitious person. Writes. Nixon would letters to donors and would have receptions and teas from people who are perceptive donors, and those woodland like the Dolley Madison portrait and those nd, like thee Dolley Madison portrait. For theinally purchased collection, she was a big supporter and did go up to Pennsylvania Academy to thank them for lending the painting, and she put herself out a great deal. She worked closely and became very attached to a consulting her onct who worked with many of the projects and became good friends with him and his family. Second whatt patti that about her graciousness. We were part of her staff, that i remember once she invited her staff to go out on the yacht and she included our staff which was generous. Another time we got a gift of a gilded french chair that belonged to the blue room suite, and it was mrs. Nixons birth date and we invited her to our office to show her the chair and had a little Birthday Celebration with her friend. Some of the butlers in the household staff came in, and there is a wonderful photograph of her looking at something that said you are not quite 49 on the placard. She was a very strong supporter. Energy and lot of peopleremely gracious to visiting the white house and to people who would contribute in some way to the collection. Ann anita, you have worked over a period of several president s and youve got to see threads today that were begun by pat nixon. Anita olutely absolutely, i have to say it is an honor to be here with these two women who had the opportunity that i always wanted to have. One first lady i wouldve loved to have dinner with is pat nixon. Because of her love of the house, her incredible privilege oft she felt to be a steward the white house and anybody who works in the white house knows the impact and sees the impact, and reads about it, you see it on the wall that they have been able to acquire for this collection that make it part of the Beautiful Museum and gift to the people. Mentioned about correspondence and i chuckled firste i work for several ladies whose correspondence was incredibly important. One of the things about mrs. Nixon is that she came from a small town, and she really understood that if somebody got an envelope from the white house, what that would mean to receive in their mailbox, and relentlessat she was about, having her mail responded to, and that anybody that wrote to her would get a letter from the white house and how much that means and still means to this day. The fact that she took that so of her great one legacies, and there were people who worked in volunteers and correspondence so they know what we are talking about and how that is something that every white house really feels is important, and thanks to mrs. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt who established the first formal Correspondence Office at the white house and she was the eyes and ears for her husband anyway. She really understood what that connection to the American People would be, the mail that they wrote to her or wrote to the president and that they would get a response. That is something to talk about, that threat of history is a good example thread of history is a good example. What that reminded me of was that she had a mindset almost like a member of congress in terms of having a constituency. The people across america were her constituency and she understood them because she had grown up with them. She was an incredibly hardworking person from the time she was 13 years old and her mother died. She was up working on the farm in the morning, taking care of her older brothers, really raising her older brothers and cooking for them. She started working as a teenager. Holding two and three jobs. She was a professional for a very long time. She the main thing is that understood how people felt about Something Like the white house. And, it was very important to them leave feeling better about themselves, and about what was going on. Betty opening up the white house at night meant that people with day jobs would have access as well. Years, ir from my covered seven president s starting with gerald ford and all the way through president obama. I remember a sign that probably all of them wanted on their desk, but i think it was Ronald Reagan who had, there is no limit to what you cannot pump accomplish if you do not care if you had the credit you had the credit. That was pat nixon. She was the embodiment of that, and you can see that it was never about her. It was ao a quote and barbara bush quote. Pat nixon did not seek credit. And barbara bush was definitely not shy. Pat nixon did not seek credit, which may be why she is not as fully appreciated as she should be. She never sought recognition for herself, but those of us who knew and admired her always wished that she had received the appreciation she earned over a lifetime of service. Mrs. Nixon wanted the work to speak for itself, she did not care about getting the credit and genuinely did not you once told me that the role of first lady adapts to the woman as much as the woman adapted. Anita someday it will be a man. That is the white house in general. Throughout our history that the occupant adapts to the office in the office adapts to the occupant. Think mrs. Nixon, like all first ladies, this finds all of them together. Who careso person more about the success of the president and the presidency and the president s spouse. That is their single focus and that is something that will bind all of them together in what personare as the single who has experienced the ups and downs, and who at the end of the day is not like any other advisor. They are a different confidant. I think mrs. Nixon does not get the credit for just what an incredible political mastermind that she was. This is the hardest working person on the president s campaign. To think about it and Richard Nixons campaign he had gone from congressman to senator to Vice President of the united states, and in all of these campaigns, some of them were difficult. 1952 running for the vice presidency when the scandal on the finances corrupted and how that personally wounded her so much because it was a challenge to their integrity, not so much a challenge to policy and to projects, to their integrity. Person, shequiet did not have to be the loudest voice in the room, she was wounded by that, and you can understand why. I was watching this wonderful tape, and it brilliantly encapsulates everything she was about. I was thinking, i wish he had could i wish he could have seen that, then i thought, get a grip, she never would have let do Something Like that, never in a million years, she was much too modest to think about letting you do Something Like that. Not gotteng she has adequate credit for is the pandas. Who can tell the panda story. She is going with her husband to the breakthrough opening to a reallyarkable seminal moment for american her tons, and they add the trip and a hairdresser. So pick up the story, she is at the state dinner. At the state banquet, and there is a package of cigarettes sitting there. Somebody tell the story. I do not know that either. They were panda cigarettes. Mrs. Nixon said betty these are such these are so wonderful and we should have them. And he said cigarettes, and she said no, pandas. And he said i will send you two. I heard a wonderful story tonight, i do not know if i can share that. Actuald me that the cartridge of cigarettes is an artifact that you will now have at the library that the was actually found. It was a metal packet, and isnt that terrific. Isnt that a great way to tell the story about this incredible diplomatic skill of mrs. Nixon and her very quiet and lovely way of saying, i like those, and here we have this National Treasure at the national zoo. Of the pandas. Again, you can imagine at the state banquet, so much pressure and tension, and preparation that went into the visit. No president ial aide could have scripted that that would be the outcome of that visit. But look at the legacy that it has left behind. Was thewinchester, who social secretary, told me a wonderful story about the logistics of getting the pandas to washington. I hope they have done an oral history with Lucy Winchester about that incident. Thing that i know pertained to mrs. Nixon, and it is in the same subject of how hard she worked, i think people do not realize that whether it is a state dinner, or you are doing a foreign trip, for one thing, for years there were no jet airliners, so you can imagine what it was like going to some of these places. The other thing is the amount of time and work that goes into making sure that you are appropriately briefed, and you read the guidance because, if you are sitting next to a head of state, you are talking to the person on their own level, and you have to know what you are talking about or what you are not supposed to be talking about. You cannot phone it in. Conscientiously know those briefing books, and make sure that you can handle something along those lines. She was someone who worked hard on that, and understood the nuance of why you had to do that. There were so many things to admire this woman for, and she just took it in stride. It was a part of her job. Her unpaid job. And she excelled. She was comfortable talking with heads of state, she was very comfortable, for example the trip that was mentioned earlier when there was that terrible earthquake in peru. Mountain and met the wife of the president. They walked for five hours andugh the mock and muck everything involved. It was something. She readppened because the stories to begin with, and the government sent our planes with things. And three weeks later, she was noticing that all of the coverage really had stopped, and she went to the president and said, i would like to be helpful here. I would like to do something. Within a week, she was on a plane, headed for peru. Sitwas in fact, she had to in a makeshift makeshift chair in the front because it was obviously a plane that was taking as much and as many things as they could load up. Cargo. Exactly. The wife of the president met her, and then, as i said, they walked for five hours through all of this mock muck. And in the rest of the day she spent there were 50,000 people that died in the earthquake. Something like 800 thousand people 800,000 people were without a home. She spent the day talking to everyone that she could see, and hugging them. Diplomat, it had this consequence. The diplomat were very nervous because the president of the country had gotten had made some overt overtures to the soviets. So that it was one of those moments where you did not know what way it would go. By the end of the day he had heard everything that has had had happened with mrs. Nixon and how everyone adored her and what she had gone through to actually initiate this, and go over there with all of this. The ps to itay, was not even a week later, the soviets sent 60 planes of materials to help these people. It was not only her own government support, but the irony was that it also ended up in getting them more support from another country. The times in which she was in the public eye were such dramatic ones. By the time they got to the white house, with the civil rights movement, with the war in vietnam, with their womens rights movement, pat nixon walked that kind of careful line without getting overtly political into her husbands decisions, yet she would stand up, she and her successor would stand up and say, yes you should pass the root the equal rights amendment, my kids do not even know what it is. That,he would talk about and she would talk about women running for office, women getting involved in politics. When they were in the white house, the ivy leagues were still allmale universities. Sandra day oconnor could not get a job right out of law school except a secretarial one. . Ow did she find the strength going to part two barbara franklin. She was running the office of womens issue. These folks who worked in the white house and new mrs. Nixon knew how she worked within the white house office, and the departments that were there thanks to leadership with you and armstrong, and others that were very conscious of this burgeoning womens movement, and mrs. Nixon because she is politically astute realized that the republicans were losing ground on this. The democrats were proposing legislation, and bills to support women, and she worked very closely with the office of womens issues to get more appointments of women in the federal government. As you said, she spoke publicly about women and woman from the supreme court. She was disappointed that that was not the president s decision and may have expressed that privately to him. Publicly, of course she supported the president. And was her character her, the appropriate way to do it. She was responding to what was going on in the country. Marlene, can you come up and join us. We have a chair up front for you. Go ahead. Was gonna say, make no mistake, she was what i call quietly politically astute. About to brag about what she could do or not do, she was very quiet about her sophistication in terms of doing things that were appropriate politically. Well said. The times that she lived in were dramatic ones. But, there are some things that do not change. There is always, in the years that i covered the white house, over and 40 years, there has always been for every administration a bit of tension between east and west. East wing and west wing. It does not come with the territory, it is just natural. It is constantly evolving. Inexperience with working the white house and working for the west wing and east wing is way that thisthe is handled, it comes from the leadership at the top. The way mrs. Nixon comported herself as she was there to president of the united states, she would take her personal interest, character her, and integrity and do what she could to be a representative of the president and of the American People, i think people respected that in the white house. An, it is just constantly evolving relationship between east and west wing. In some cases it is better than others. But, i do not think it is any secret that mrs. Nixon was frustrated at times, or whether heated oron would be not, that it did not stop her from doing what came natural to her, and what she felt she could do to make a contribution. , my experience with s, when i enter viewed when i interviewed to be her chief of staff, her first thing forhat she said i am here george and because of george. With that, that helped me get access to the process and things that i needed to help her help him. For thatew that, and reason we had a successful run, i think for her. At some point you, susan, and the others became the title assistant to the president , the highest ranking position within the white house. There was some recognition that the east wing had a voice and had role to play. Days,ing the early nixon kate who the book, first women, writesthat mauve no fraughtery had relationship with the west wing because paul wanted to run everything. You came after they were gone. I missed them. There were those in the administration who clearly saw how important she was. Chuck colson who had an interesting career path of his own actually wrote to the president at some point saying trippat nixon on a foreign had broken through where we failed to project a more human side of the administration. Parade magazine wrote five years despite his reputation for being a neglectful husband, he was a sentimental partner and in march 1969 he summoned pats social secretary to a private meeting in the white house to help plan a Surprise Party for his wife. He was so excited that he saying the entirety of happy birthday to you, and described his details for the event in minute detail. Brantley when he is very dear personally i do not think i would have stayed with them otherwise. There were other interesting things that come up about that need to have a first lady seen as a partner, and you recognize the name roger hales who was a nixon Media Advisor who says in patemo to mr. Haldeman, please tell the president her,lk to her and smile at and haldeman wrote back, you tell him. Backbone, and just a backup for a minute, there had to be a genesis for the word mansplaining. And i think it may have originated in the west wing. I am not sure. Mansplaining . Get it . Ok. She just continued on with what was on her agenda. She did not like bob haldeman to deter her or even slow her down. Gracious as always, and then went ahead and did what she thought she would do. Is harde early 70s, it to imagine now, but there was the white house east wing press corps of women that covered the first lady. It was a different time, and they looked at a much more traditional manner than sense. The first press secretary used to do briefings for the press for a few years, so you can speak to that. Patricia that stopped later. Gradual, almost that you could not give it a date. In the beginning, it was just a thatof four or five women also followed around to various things, and then she started doing international trips, but remember, in the Vice President ial days, she had already done 53 foreign trips, that is unbelievable. She may have been the most the best prepared woman to be first lady that there has ever been in history. Experience, and so much experience at a young age. She was very confident of the things that she needed to do, and could enhance the position enhance the stature of the role. The acceptance of her constituents in the presidency. How many of you had new pat nixon, worked for her or president nixon, so many of you who were involved with the reagan the nixon foundation. We will open this up to questions in just a moment, and i want to ask all three of you, did pat nixon come back to the white house . That she come to visit, or did she once they left and went , did sheassa pacifica kind of leave that behind . I do not recall that she ever came back. No. Another first lady did and i would give a lot of credence to mrs. Nixon for her graciousness towards mrs. Kennedy. Tell us about that. This was in 1971 or early sanitys 70s when the two portraits of president kennedy were completed. She wrote to mrs. Kennedy and asked her what she would like to do it about a ceremony. Mrs. Kennedy said that she was not up to a ceremony. Mrs. Nixon then invited mrs. Kennedy and her children to come back for a private viewing, and i remembered that house was locked down the day when mrs. Kennedy was coming back. Nobody could enter through the east or west wing into the residence area. They invited mrs. Kennedy and the children to look at the portraits. On thehung them locations they were going to be, and invited them to the private quarters. Julie and trista showed the children the rooms that they had been in when they were young, and that the president and mrs. Nixon invited them for a lovely private dinner, and that was one of the most gracious things that they could have done at the time to preserve her privacy and give her the time, her one time that she ever came back to the white house. And she wrote the most touching and beautiful letter you can imagine saying that the nixons had made the day she most dreaded a wonderful experience for her and her kids. Would bring a it tear tear i to see this let tear to your eye to see this letter. She was complementary about how the white house had been improved. There were no dark corners anymore in the white house, she had done a beautiful job. And she also complemented their ability raising the two lovely daughters that you have an she women likese young that who are in the public eye, their entire lives, it is a difficult thing to do, and you did a beautiful job. She was so happy her children got to meet the nixons children. There is a portrait of pat nixon, tell us about that. It is a very poignant and utiful picture painted by in san clemente in 1978. And she went out there to paint her in the house, the nixons home. To the white house, but thate a quote from a note the painter sent to julie about her impression of her mother while she was painting this portrait. I would like to read a little bit of it because it is so beautifully evocative of whom mrs. Nixon was. Above a bridge of a nose that is almost greek, your mother has eyes like no one elses. The eyes reveal a unusual spirit, they are the eyes of a 16yearold girl, an expression of great sweetness. In that expression, occasionally the doors close and the lights go out, there is a wistfulness in your mothers beauty which is what you find in all great beauties. Always the feeling of something beyond, a desire for the unattainable. She has maintained a fragile beauty about her life. When she looked out the window there is angbirds hummingbird in the painting, i like to the expression in her eyes best. She still believe despite injustices. I think that was a beautiful tribute. Let us hear from you. We have a microphone over here and another over here. Could you bring one down to bobby. I will try and stand, but i broke my hip so it is difficult. You talked about her support of womens rights, and there was one story that fluttered back and that was in 1972 at the Republican National convention. They had a Platform Committee to decide public policy. For the first time it had to be 50 men, and 50 women. The majority of women wanted to do something about cut childcare and supporting it financially. The majority of men did not want feisty andgot very fairly tense. All of a sudden, all of the tension went away and they supported funding for federal childcare. And, i asked why, and people just looked at me and said, the east wing said it was time. [laughter] do we have hands over here . This is a lively crowd. In the third row, please. Thank you. Thank you. Your stories about the collection is amazing to hear. Is there another one you would care to share . About an acquisition, this is favorite mrs. Nixons or your favorite. Was interestedon in the portraits of first ladies, but she also hosted a large reception at the time that the adams family gave the portraits of Luisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams that had been in the family for over 150 years and were first painted in the 19th century. She gave a wonderful reception, and invited many adams descendents to the reception at the time. Remember,k, and i mrs. Johnson had tried to acquire a portrait of James Madison but it did not come in until the Nixon Administration and she invited mrs. Johnson back for when that was unveiled 1970 think it was. I do remember when the blue room thatnveiled in 1972, and was a major project. Gone to a had Historic House in georgetown to look at plasterwork which was copied and replicated for the blue room. They were having this on normas reception enormous that was being held and it was the same evening that George Wallace was shot. Mrs. Ber the president and nixon speaking at the reception. That was a good question. Right here. Mrs. Trump recently went to an active combat zone and i do not think that she got much coverage, but it surprised me how few commentators mentioned mrs. Nixon and mrs. Bush going to one. It seems to be a rare occasion and i was hoping that you could tell us a little bit what it is like for a first lady to do that, and did mrs. Nixon get much pet much press coverage. It was amazing that story about her being in open helicopter. That is one of the first things that i really learned and admired about mrs. Nixon, the fact that she was the first first lady to go to an active combat zone. I tell you where i learned this, this was while i was looking for working for mrs. Bush and we went to the National Constitution center and there was an exhibit about first ladies. What struck me is that i did not know that she, and still to this day is the most traveled first lady, 81 countries. No one has eclipsed that. More and studying her peeling back the later the layers of bravery to go to an active combat zone. She was fearless. In terms of coverage at the time, i am not sure. I will say this. I think that i command the nixon found commend the nixon foundation, and the last couple of years you are seeing so much more paid attention paid to the contributions of this woman and how much she did, not only at the white house, but the impact she had on politics and and theomens rights, fact that she was the only she is the only first lady that was given the title of personal representative of the president. As a global diplomat, no one comes close, and i traveled to 77 countries with laura bush, and that is a remarkable achievement to go to afghanistan, middle east, and all over. We had a difficult time getting coverage. He did not have a press corps, we had to beg people to come on the trips. I do not know what it was like for mrs. Nixon. The other thing to note is that it is not as if she had never been in frightening situations. Nixon, iresident believe when he was Vice President , had gone to south america, and they were in the riot that was so close, he did not know for a number of years because they were not told how close they were to death. She had had close calls before going. Nd she was she was undeterred. We have a question right over here and a microphone coming from behind you. You kinds television, of work the microphone. It is interesting to me, i have read a few quotes and i would like to hear from each one of your panel telling me exactly, because she was quoted as saying she gave up everything that was precious and dear to her to support the president , but listen to you ladies and watching the video, that does not seem to be the case. She was quoted as saying that. The thing that was most dear privacy, and she did certainly give that up for her husband. A in fact, there is wonderful, and i highend i highly encourage people to watch it, an interview that she gave over a period of days in california with virginia abc, it was a wonderful interview, and she was asked that question about what bothered her the most all these years of Public Service and all the contributions she has made and all the conch and all the places she traveled, and it was to always be so guarded and surrounded all the time, again giving up privacy. I think anybody in public life would say that is a hard thing to do. I think that is why she made the house such a home, in particular their private corridors where they could have that privacy and sanctuary. Outhe other thing that came in that interview, Virginia Sherwood asked her why are you not talking about everything you are doing to redo the white house . You are totally doing it a whole scale project. We do not see anything around about it. Mrs. Nixon just explained that she didnt think comparisons on that were relevant. She was very grateful to mrs. Kennedy for really bringing the nations attention to the white havingnd lifting up and people understand how important it was, but she did not want to get into making comparisons with other first ladies. Gracias. That when Jacqueline Kennedy did so much to improve the white house, and we went through the period of intense and i remember in college, the fabric of america was praying under the pressures of the war in vietnam, political opposition, civil rights strains, and it was not the time when decorating the white house an importanted priority. During those years, when it was not as much as a priority, mrs. House, ind a white think it was Lucy Winchester would go around with little manicure scissors and snap little straggly strings off of the furniture which definitely needed it. It needed to be refurbished and selfworth and so forth. She worked hard at that project as i said before. She gave it her full support to do that. I do recall that there were press when a room was refurbished over a painting donated and they would be a ceremony. There was press coverage but it did not seem to get out much out of the white house. Those were the days where there were threes Television Three television stations and no internet. I do not know if pat nixon wouldve gone on twitter. I do not think it wouldve been her thing. We have time for two more questions. We have two over here. That is go to the way back. The gentleman here, and i will get to you next, sir. I had the privilege of interviewing beth ables who was social secretary and she told me a story about how protocol for the outgoing social secretary to leave a gift and a note for the incoming social secretary, which was Lucy Winchester. She said that she was very winchesterhat mrs. Never responded to her note, she said that she only found out several years later that she had been informed not to respond to the note under threat of termination. You can pretty much guess what mrs. Ables reaction to that was. My question was, what do you think pat nixon would have thought if she had found out that this had occurred . I find that surprising because i have to say one club people of who are pretty close are the social secretaries, and they still all get together very regularly. Puzzling, sad, and hard to believe. Question, way in the back. Good evening, thank you for the presentation, it is most enjoyable. I am a history buff and i want your input if you know the answer to this. President his books, nixon wrote that in 1940 he was a trustee at Whittier College in california, and at the same time he was the trustee, little henry hoover, herbert hoovers wife was also a trustee. I am wondering if any of you know if the two first ladies ever met. I do not, but i would like to find that out. We will have to do research on that. You are talking to the right people. We have time for two more questions. Wait in the back, with the lights it is tough for me to see way in the back, with the lights it is tough for me to see, but there is a hand they are. There. You are speaking about mrs. Nixon jealously guarding her privacy. I am surprised you have not brought up how she had to give that up for one of the biggest events of their family life, tricias wedding at the white house, how did she handle all of those preparations and opening that event to the world . Good question. Desire to have it in the garden, and she went with it. And, i can only say that i am certain that she handled it very graciously, and certainly with all of the photos that i saw subsequent to that, she looked radiant, and she made it look easy. What can i say . White house weddings are big events, and i remember when president George Herbert walker daughterbarbara bushs was going to get married at camp david, and i saw mrs. Bush and said, so, what could you tell me, and she said absolutely nothing. There are some things that first ladies and family keep to each other. Let me end on this point, every president who serves brings a family who finds itself in the line of fire in a very public glare of public life, and how the nixon daughters, and soninlaws, and their children have flourished despite what they went through, especially the last couple of years of his administration. Betty i do remember working a lot with julie when she was living david must have been somewhere else, because i think he was overseas or something. He was in the navy. Betty she was living the house, but she became involved with projects that mrs. Nixon had and encouraged her to be involved with. I remember trying to review her scripts and things like that that she was writing. She was very active and very interested in people, like her mother, very outgoing. Tricia was more reserved, and she did tutor a student all she lived there, but she was not therefore too long. It would be good to note that, at the first possible moment, they all got out of town. They chose a place to live where they could have the privacy, and had no one around them in terms of standing there when they are eating dinner or going out to a movie or that kind of thing. You do what you need to do to get through a period, and they did it graciously, but it was not what they chose to do for the long haul. Well said. Some families there have been families that have become political dynasties but it has not been the nixon family. No, of course not. Even for any family, whether there are multiple generations in politics, it is still hard to see any of them hurt, wounded, or challenged, and i remember president bush 41 saying, even after all he had been through, his campaigns and the very difficult way he left in 1993, what hurt him the most was attacks on his son. George w. Bush would say everything he went through, what the him most where challenges and attacks on his dad. I think that, ultimately, at the end of the day, family is sanctuary and what you depend on, your strength. That no matter what your political life is, it is your on, not life that lives your politics. We hope this has shown new illumination on a very fascinating time in American History. Its hard to believe it has been 50 years. Lees think this remarkable panel please thank this remarkable panel. [applause] tonight, on American History tv, at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, the 1981 trial of the woman accused of murdering a doctor. Jane harrison was smart. She went to smiths college, graduated phi beta kappa, did everything a wealthy young woman of that era was supposed to do. She said there was a struggle over the guns and there does seem to be evidence she is bruised. She testified he hit her in ways he had never hit her before. Announcer and at 10 00, on reel america, a silent majority speech. The great silent majority. My fellow americans, i ask for your support. I pledged in my campaign for the presidency to end the war. In a way that we could win the peace. I have initiated a plan of action, which will enable me to keep up. Officer johnrmer lumbered as a hostage in iran. Whats is in your culture detain aits you to guest against his will. On theer at 8 00, presidency, Ronald Reagans Political Affairs director, frank donatelli, and his story on reagans campaigns for the white house. Reagan cleans up in New Hampshire and wins like to to one. It was such momentum that it won by such a big margin because it always we already spent most of our money. Announcer explore americas past on cspan3 every weekend. Thinking about participating in the studentcam 2020 document should competition but you havent created a documentary before . We have our Getting Started and download pages on studentcam. Org and video links for footage in the cspan library. Teachers will find the resources on the teachers materials page. My advice to anyone that wants to compete this year is find a tropic topic you are passionate about and pursue it as much as you can. Announcer we are asked asking Middleton High School students to create a documentary on the issue you would like the president ial candidates to address during the 2020 campaign. Cspan will award 100,000 in cash prizes and a 5,000 grand prize. Go get a camera, a microphone, and Start Building and produce the best video you can possibly produce. Announcer visit studentcam. Org for more information today. If im a socialist, im not caring too much about popular opinion or pleasing a consumer. In fact, when we socialize things like health care, they say everybody will get it, you will no longer be bankrupt and wont have to worry about bills, but you will have to ration. Announcer sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwards. Book, Kentucky Republican senator rand paul talks about the history of socialism and argues there is a new threat of socialist thinking on the rise in america. He is interviewed by republican congressman matt gaetz of florida. It seems as though you are making the argument that a country that is more socialist becomes more selfish. I think that is true. It is an irony in a way because they were professed to be tour the other man, everything is for someone else, but in the end, it is true selfishness. Announcer watch it, sunday tvht at 8 00 eastern on book on cspan2. Announcer next, on American History tv, university of New Hampshire professor eliga gould delivers an address called making peace in britain, ireland, and america 1778 to 1783. He describes the efforts of several peace commissions to end the revolutionary war and the events leading up to the 1783 treaty of paris. This keynote talk was part of a three day conference, cohosted by the museum of the american revolution, Pritzker Military museum library, and the richard c. Von hess foundation. Good evening, all, and welcome to the american revolution, in americas founding never hood neighborhood. We are two blocks from independence hall. You are in the headquarters of of american revolution, some the oldest founding era