Professor of history at the university of virginia where he focuses on international and diplomatic history. In particular the era of the world wars and the cold war in addition to the age of i eisenhower. He is author of the bitter road to freedom, which was a pultizer prize finalist. Following his remarks, ann compton will join dr. Hitchcock for a conversation on this great book. Ann was the first woman to cover the white house for Network Television and was on the air for 41 years with abc news. Her wrolongevity and impact are unparalleled. She spanned 10 president s of the United States. She anchored from the white house and she went to all 50 states and six continents. Ann was twauactually with presi george w. Bush on september 11th, 2011, and she was the only reporter allowed to stay on Board Air Force one with the president. She was on air force one on behalf of the entire press core. She is also a very good friend of the White House Historical association. She will moderate a number of lectures this summer. It will be a wonderful series. But tonight for our feature presentation, please welcome dr. Hitchcock. Thank you so much, what a treat this is. It is just a splendid setting, room, so many distinguished guests in the audience. I hope i will do him justice but really she a great man and i think we have to work hard to live up to his reputation. I just want to thank the staff for putting together this event. A lot of work goes into these events. Juliet levine, i want to say thank you for your work. Ann is a woman that i watched on tv for many years, im a little star struck, but i also want to acknowledge the presence of general rodell who is a local hero who is organizing and leading the push to get the great memorial built so finally washington dc will have an appropriate monument for this very important general and the 34th president. So i want to congratulate you on your success. May 8, 2020 there will be a ribbon cutting, so what a great day that will be. So lets goat it. I want to start tonight out with a president ial puzzle. If you look at American History from 1965 to 1971, one figure stands out as the most dominant figure in that period. Whoops. Not those guys. Not those guys. Oh, i see. That guy. He was the most popular, respected, and admired man in that period. He served the country as president and he garnered massive approval from the public having won two landslide elections. His average approval rating, ladies and gentlemen, while president for eight years, was 65 . Average. The next president that comes closest to that is bill clinton at 55 , and Ronald Reagan at 53 . Theyre way in the rearview mirror. When he set out to run for president from 1951 all of the way through his eight years in the white house and his ten years after he left the white house, he was consistently under rated. Senator dae eor taft laughed a eisenhow eisenhowers lack of experience. They mocked him as a light way saying he was just a tool of the right wing corporate figures. President harry truman campaigning said the voters should send ike back to the army where he belongs. He was basically just a general who should stay there. A book that came out was given the labels, it was titled a captive hero. Ize eisenhower was a dummy mouthing words said by other people. And collascholars agreed. Arthur slesinger was never doing that. But eisenhower in that poll, 1962, rating of the president s, lac placed eisenhower 22nd out of 31. He was between chester a. Arthur, a figure who i dont know if well have a book talk on chester a. Arthur. We might get there, but there is a lot of other guys you would rather hear about than him. And in the kennedy years, the camelot clan used him as a foil to reflect glory on their young and dynamic john kennedy. It is harder than it looks. You know, wouldnt you if you were kennedys advance man use ike as the counter point. They may be playing scrabble, i think that looks very pleasant and lovely, but they had to work with this guide. So naturally there was such a sharp contrast. And it worked against his memory that was given to the public. By the time of his death, at the age of 78, the press was uninterested in ike. They concluded that he was more of a figure head than a president. They said he was out of touch with his people. He was a great soldier, but maybe a failure as president. Starting in the 1980s classified information started to become available to scholars. If you look at the eisenhower library, you can read to many juicy details. It showed thattize ize tiz izttn eisenhower was deeply involvemented in the details of American National security issues. But the emphasis of the scholarship that started to come out was to attack him for being a kind of an evil genius. What about cuba . What about the congo. Suddenly we had a new branch that depicted him as an evil figure when before he was snooze worthy. Look, im a history waianhistoro know what impact did he have on the country. What is the real impact that he had on the country, and how should we understand his political appeal. Why was he so popular. People said i like ike but why . What can they like . I am going to touch on two big answers to that question. First, i want to talk briefly about his policy achievements. If you want to know why he was popular, look at what he did. Look at his accomplishments in eight years. Then i want to talk about the man and his character. So let me talk about the substance of his presidency first and give you a gist of what is in the book. I want to give you something to sink your teeth into what he accomplished. He did not go to war for eight years while in office. He said it didnt just happen, i will tell you that. He probably said it more heatedly and colorfully than that. He says he worked hard to keep the United States at peace for eight years. When he came into office the korean war was waging. Unpopular, sieisenhower was determined to stop it. Before he was sworn in, he went to the front, and said it was an unwinnable war. He said the only way to win is with nuclear weapons. Joseph stalin dropped dead in march of 1953 and he got lucky. They said were not going to win this war, but eisenhower saidly take that deal, and many in his own party, the republican party, criticized him. The point is that ike took the deal. He says that they wanted him to do that. He also decided to keep the kroops out of vietnam in 1954. The french were fighting, trying to hand on to their empire. They had one big battle at the end they thought might turn the tide, and it was a disaster. The Prime Ministers came toizeen hour and they said send the troops to vietnam. Rescue our colony there. Eisenhower said no, and he said no again and again. I cannot con seize of a greater america. It is an all out win. Many of his advisors, here are two of them, disagreed and privately coaxed him to aid the french the chairman of the joint chiefs, no one liked to tellizeen hotell ize izeen eisenhower things he didnt like to do. He said this war would absorb our troops by divisions. So america did not go to war. Izeen hour then helped to build the state. He built up future commitments. But he had a choice to make, and despite some of his most powerful and important allies, he said no, were not going to wage that war, it is the wrong war in the wrong place for the wrong regions. Again in 1956 there is another conflict in egypt, britain, france invading, should the United States join in and overthrow the strong man . You would think maybe there would be an argument for doing that. He said that is a outrageous violation. Humiliating the Prime Minister in the process. Again when they put pressure on the divided diseaecision of ber he invite d khrushchev. He had a great time. On the contrary he invested huge sums in building up defense establishment. This is a number, take a way with you. Here is one. In the eisenhower years, the United States spent 10 of gdp on defense in the 1950s. The size of the economy is very different, but a huge sum on investing in defense. The man who did so much to alert us to the dangers of the military Industrial Complexion did a lot to build that complexion. The u. S. Nuclear arsenal soars in the eisenhower years from a few hundred weapons to 20,000 warheads. The more powerful atlas and titan. They all came online in his terms and he knew all about it. He poured over the plans, he was deeply engaged at pushing the agenda and these developments forward. The purpose was to deter the communis communists. This was the formation of peat through strength that won the cold war. Every president since has followed it. And it is very much the strategy that helped to win the cold war. So he is a paradox. He wanted to avoid war, he did, and he invested hugely in the tools of war. That is the nature of his choices that he made. A second area i want to talk a little about the substance of his achievements is in the economy. Here is a fact you might not have known. He balanced three budgets of eight, and he came close on the others, but he was a budget hock. This is a record of fiscal dismin that was unmatched. I want talk about a figure that is held up as a leading conservative figure. I want to talk about Arnold Reagan to is the conservative leader. The reason is he was more interested in cutting taxes. Here is a really really vaveali difference. Eisenhower was very stern about taxes. He demanded that the u. S. Budget should be balanced before everyone got a tax cut. Boy does that date him. What he said repeatedly, and he wasnt private about it. He gave public addresses about taxes, and here is the gist. The good american, ieisenhower said, is proud to carry his share of the national burden. I dont think that will be on the Bumper Sticker in 2020, whoever is out there. It is just a different would and this was simply his view. Paying your taxes is part of your patriotic duty. When he was just coming out, they viewed him and they happied abuse on him throughout his time in office. He thought of himself as a conservative, but early on in his presidency he made his peace with the new deal. He expanded Social Security to include ten million additional recipients. He raised the minimum wage. He founded the department of health, education, and warfare. The interstate highway system through building thousands of miles of the roads, it cost billions but eisenhower came up with a clever way of doing it. The gas tax, a user fee, that went into the highway trust fund. The more you drove, the more gasoline you bought, which paid for more roads. So strong on defense, but stronger on diplomacy. Great on a budget hawk, but also a progressive for securiocial security and human wellfare. I also want to talk about area where not many of you realize what a significant legacy he had and that is the field of civil rights. In the 50s, it was gaining attention, they were using the courts to challenge the segregation of Public Schools and Public Places across the country. The practice of jim crow was in practice it is conflict. And black americans ro were demanding so much. Ike was a fascinating study. He didnt know much about the civil rights movement, and he was not all that interested initially before he became president. He fwru up his entire career being in the segregated United States military. Most of his coworkers were southerners. He liked going to augusta, georgia. So he didnt really÷t have a pot of reference. But i think this is interesting and worthy of note. He accumulated a progressive record on civil rights. He and his attorney general worked through the courts to weaken jim crow segregation. They appointed five reasonably adjusted justices. Warren would write brown versus the board of education. Eisenhower had some qualms, but he didnt denounce it, seek to under mine it, or question the supreme court. And he never would dream of doubting it publicly. He would sign into law the 1957 Civil Rights Act. And it took an enormous risk. A real risk uncharacteristic when he ordered federal troops to surround Central High School in little rock, arkansas. Eisenhower saw the issue of one of federal power versus state power. He had the right to impose and enforce the law. And he may have been a reluctant war i warri warrior, but he was a determined defender. He did not publicly or personally embrace the civil rights cause as his own. He did not speak up about civil rights as a moral issue. As an issue of justice and equality. He spoke about it in the terms of the law. The law is the following and we must envoforce it. But i think you could also seep the opposite, and president s face crisis theyre not able to manage a lot. Well, ladies and gentlemen, i could go on, but it was probably not his policy achievements that ende endeared him. I want to reflect on his character and well go into some q and a. When americans looked at Dwight Eisenhower, and i love this picture. This is after the war. His chief of staff, it just looks what is one word that comes to mind. Maybe there are many, but he is confident, relaxed, but the word that comes to mind is that he is a winner. A man playing football at army and then running the Second World War and liberating europe, winning two elections, and never looking like he was trying that hard. People loved being around him. One of the things that struck me was the reports about his personal physical charisma. He was a guy that every head in the room turned and said wow, there he is. He was very forward, athletic. Carried himself, people loved his persona. Another reason for his appeal was his authenticity. He knew where he came from and he never forgot it. He used it politically, and he loved where he came from. He grew up in a family of six boys, and he shared a bed, not just a bedroom, a bed with one of his brothers. Until he left to go to the army. They were poor. His father worked at the creamery. He sold vegetables out of a wagon in the summer to make a few extra pennies for the family. They knew what it was like to live on a few nickels to make it to the end of the week. They lived in a small house that i hope some of you have seen. If you go to abilene, you can see it, it is lovely, tiny, and imagine raising six boys in this place. I imagine there was a lot of get out of here and go play in the yard. At the same time, here is the thing that i want to emphasize. He had a ton of glamour about him. He was a five star general. Who are his mentors . You know, douglas mcarthur. Millionaires who are titans of try. He was at home and working with church hill and roosevelt. He met stalin, all around the world, he was a global star and what a shaim shake. He wrapped up this wonderful story in his own political personality. Im an ordinary guy that is not ordinary at all. That was part of the magic. Now let us not forget part of his appeal to the public was his wonderful wife mammy. She met him after he left west point, they married in 1916 and this is a photograph of her about the time they met. That is why im using it here. I think she is beautiful and i love this picture. I think it has a lot of style and personality to it. They married in 1960. She devoted herself to his career. She was social, fashionable, and she proviovideepresided over th mansion. She had charm, personality, like eisenhower. A person who was comfortable in any setting and was able to make herself and make her guests comfortable. A lot of people forgot mrs. Iz i izeen eisenhower. Americans of the 50s adored her. She also had the sympathy of Many Americans because the public knew perfectly well they suffered through the loss of a child. He died of scarlet fever in 1921 at the age of three. Neither one of them ever overcame the loss. Eisenhower said it was the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life. The one i have never been able to forget completely. It was just another element of their lives that made them feel that much closer to the public. Perhaps their sorrow, sadness, and vulnerability. It linked them to the public in a very endearing way. They also liked him for his wjs faith. A fascinating detail of his life. He was raised by parents who were members of the river brethern. An off shoot of the mennonite sermennonites. He read scripture every night, but after he left home he rarely went to church. It was in his mind and heart, but she did not practice publicy until he was elected. He was not baptized as a child, but he decided after he was inaugurated that he would join the presbyterian church, and he was baptized by the reverend edward elson. The only president to have been baptized while in officer. He made every effort to place religious faith in the public eye. The 50s was an era of revival, eisenhower was fine with that. He started the National Prayer breakfast. He brought the original Billie Graham to the white house. And he would go on to serve many president s. He hardly approved of the words under god in our pledge of allegiance and to have in god we trust but our our national currency. It squared with the values of his time and americans loved this about eisenhower. Another aspect of his appeal. And then finally, ladies and gentlemen, on the subject of his charact character we look back, a lot of my students, certainly. Look back at ike as someone from the stone age, and he was the last president to have born in the 19th century. He is a man of a rather distant past, but at the time he wanted to be associated with innovation, new technologies, science, education, and he was in his time in office a great champion of those things. He was the first to hold a Television Conference in front of the cameras. And they would be recorded and rebroadcast from 1955 and onward. He used tv advertising very effectively. After the sputnik crisis, he champions Space Research and nasa and invested large sums into education if he became the first president to ride in a helicopter, and he did so regularly. This is why, i think, it is a wonderful choice to have the White House Christmas ornament to feature the helicopter. He may have been the first man to reach the ripe old age of 70 in the white house, but he saw himself as the future. The cutting edge person eager to help encourage technological breakthroughs. I painted a pretty glowing por gra portrait here tonight, but i want to make sure you understand that i know that ike has plenty of questions that should be raised about him and his presidency. Ill just name three topics that maybe we can return to a little be in the q and a. I hear lots of oos and ahs. Yes, indeed. I will do this quick. Im sure you want to ask questions yourself. The first kwi that i have now is why nixon . This is political question why he chose nixon. It was dewey that put nixon on the ticket, they had never met, there was a word of difference. I think he accepted it as the desire of the party to have nixon on the ticket. I think it was a bad decision. I dont say that because of who nixon became later, but he didnt use him as an advisor or counsellor. They didnt get along. They didnt have a relationship. Eisenhower didnt really trust nixon. He didnt feel he was grown up enough. He hoped he would grow into the job. For eight years he tried. He tried, so he said, but nixon was so intimidated that they never meshed. In 1956 he tried to bounce nixon off of the ticket. And he said dick you need experience, you should run the pentagon, and he smelled a rat and he said no hangs, im fine where i am, and he never told him districtly, i order you to run the pentagon. He would say sir, i think i need more executive experience. So the two of them, they were ships passing in the night. Second, joe mccarthy, why didnt he do back, say more, go to war with mccarthy. There again there is a political answer. He was reasonably popular inf m 1954. Americans said if 10 of what he is saying is true, thats bad enough. And there were communists in the weapons department. There was only a few of them and most of them had done it in the 30s or late 40s, but eisenhower didnt want to say i believe it is balogna. And he approved of the idea of setting people. Should he have gone to war with mckcarthy and elevated him, he said im not getting in the gutter with that guy. I wont go toe to toe with him publicly. But many of his friends, and we have the correspondence, wrote to him and said general, wont you Say Something about this awful man . Andize ize eisenhower said im. He worked very hard behind the scenes. A lot of the information that came out that lead to the hearings came from the white house. And so eisenhower play add really Important Role in back channelling and creating a damaging dossier of material. So the ultimate was that many people felt he never tangled with mccarthy when behind the scenes he was trying to do just that. And the last thing is allen dulles. He was the director of the Central Intelligence committee for the entire time and part of the kennedy years. Eisenhower expanded the power and abilities of the Central Intelligence agency for them to conduct operations around the world. And he approved and helped design the overthrowing of the iranian government in 1953, guatemala the same in 195 4. They raided rebels. Some of these operations we learned about in the 1970s. He delegated his power and resources to a secret agency, and let them carry out quite violent operations against sovereign nations. She not the only president to have done this. But this is part of the eisenhower legacy, too. If were going to be fair to the past and the documentation, we have to understand why those policies were in the national interest. He believed they were. He could make a good argument that they were. That is what historians do. They have to explain the decision to give dulles free rein to conduct dirty districtr around the world. I hope these will continue, its good for his legacy that we debate it and talk about it. It doesnt seem likely theyre going to mar his presidency. Ohno, not another poll of historians, but yes, this is a good one, a poll of historians ra ranked him our fifth greatest president. Number 22, chester a. Arthur, he left chester in the dust, thats for sure. The moderates combined with personal integrity, with character, and dignity and something that even today americans admire. It is up to us to make sure these values are at the heart of our political discourse. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. So where do you think . Five is pa pretty good ranking for eisenhower. Years . Most of you are much, much too young to remember it. I was a kid back there, but my parents sure remember Dwight Eisenhow eisenhower. I always thought he was one of the cool ones. Cool is not a word they often associated. Great maybe but were going to open this up to question and answer. We have microphones in the aisle, or coming around to you. And just catch the young ladies eyes when youre ready to ask a question. I want to start out, will, by asking you, ieisenhowers son, john, said the worst time in his preside presidency was late 1957, when weeks after he had sent federal troops into little rock, just two weeks later, sputnik was launched. And then a few weeks after that, eisenhower is in the oval office, waiting to greet a king and gets woozy and dizzy and cold and numb, and cant call his secretary. He was having a stroke. His health at that moment. And that was after his big heart attack. It was, a couple of years later. How did Dwight David Eisenhower handle the multitasking of things which today is considered part of the how did he, as a person, handle that kind of onslaught of unexpected sure. Crises . Thats a great question. Multitasking of a presidency must be so exhausting. Its also hard to write about as an historian, because if you just think about a day of what crosses the president s desk, and theres ten or 20 crises and all have to be dealt with immediately. Thats very hard to write. Its very hard to narrate. You end up choosing one and all the others disappear into the past. The trick is imagine trying to look at it all as the president sees it. It must be terribly overwhelming. November 1956. The soviets invade budapest. The israelis, french and british invade egypt. What else is going on . November of 1956, oh, yeah,izen how are is running for reelection. Theres a tenday period where ike is dealing with two international crises, either one of which could have led to a war with the soviet union and is running for reelection and won reelection. I can assure you that the least amount of time he spent on that month was running for reelection. He was running against stevenson once again. He actually said to his son, that guy is licked. Come on. Lets go to the ball game. He had world series tickets in his pocket. He said im not going to go campaigning. Im going to go to the ball g e game, and he did. Eisenhow eisenhowers health during that period, he had a doctor constantly monitoring him after the heart attack. The sputnik case is one of those moments we recognize his political brilliance. Soviets send up a satellite and everybody says this is the end of the world. Russians are going to run the table on us. Weve lost the cold war. Eisenhower has a press conference and says simmer down. Were doing fine. Whats the big deal . Theyve got a lump of aluminum up there. Were going to get one. More than that, were way ahead of them on the things that matter, on missiles, our bomber feet. Besides that little radio, that little toaster oven circulating the earth, it has no military value. He said that. It has absolutely no military value. Guess what, the press gave him the thumbs down on that press conference. You see, he doesnt get it. He doesnt realize what a big crisis this is. Hes out of touch with his people. This is the classic case where the press didnt hear what he was trying to say. Eisenhower has to go back and recalibrate his message. The message he came up with was, all right, ill grant you theyve had a breakthrough. Guess what were going to do . Were going to put our foot to the gas and were going to redouble our efforts to build out the missile deterrent. Were going to get a satellite into orbit, which they would do in january 1958, but im also going to create nasa, which he did. Im also going to get through the reorganization of the defense department, which he did. He figured out the old adage, dont waste a crisis. Something bad has happened . Im going to get through the things i want to do, finally get control of the pentagon. He got a big bill, reorganizing the powers of the pentagon, getting a defense secretary much more power. Things like that. Reveal how he understood washington. The idea that ike was green, inexperienced, didnt really get how washington worked. He spent his whole life in washington. He had worked in washington from the 20s on ward. So he was prepared to deal with this multitasking issue very well. Questions, ladies and gentlemen. Hands up, with one way back over here. Can we get the microphone over here . Second question. Lets bring the other microphone right over here. Put your hand up again and well come to you second. Yes, sir, welcome. Yes, hi. Thank you. I very much have enjoyed your presentation. One thing you didnt mention was eisenhowers farewell address. Its one of the great speeches in president ial history. And if you havent seen it, go to youtube and listen to it when you go home from this event. One of his big messages in that speech was the warning about the military and Industrial Complex. What i want to ask you is how do you square his goal as a cold war era with that admonition about the military Industrial Complex . Yes, thank you. You just wrote about this. Yes. I deal with it. I try to address it in the book. That is an interesting speech. And i would urge and commend to all of you, go home and listen to it. Its not just about the military Industrial Complex. He says if theres one thing im sorry about, that we didnt have better breakthroughs on arms control, on peace with the soviets, trying to end the cold war. I would have loved to have a significant break through there. I pushed for it, didnt get it. As a result, we have been compelled to build a military Industrial Complex. Thats the tell. What hes saying is to defend our country and our way of life against the communists, we have been compelled to build a military Industrial Complex. Now were sorry about that, but its keeping us safe. Now its on you, the citizens, to be careful, to watch, to keep a watch on it, to make sure that the brass doesnt have the run of the place. Who do you think that message might have been directed towards january 1961 . Hes on the way out. The new guy is in there, measuring the drapes. I believe its a direct message to the 43yearold lieutenant junior grade john kennedy, who was coming in, who has no experience managing the brass, no experience managing the multitasking. And part of what hes saying is, okay, america, you voted for john kennedy against my guy, richard nixon. I understand that. But its on you to hold your leaders to the High Standard and make sure theyre doing the job of monitoring the military Industrial Complex. Its a direct message to the public. Make sure that you keep the tabs on your leaders and make sure they have your best interest at heart. So, actually, it is a cold warriors message, which is to say i did it. Im owning that, but at the same time i want you to be aware that it comes with a burden, a responsibility that he wants to place on the public so theyll keep an eye on this inexperienced guy who is now in the white house. Question right here. Yes . And do we have another hand up over here . Well bring a microphone over here in the green shirt and then ill come down here to you. Hi. Good evening. He took office seven years after the end of world war ii but brought in a number of Senior Officers who worked with him in world war ii and afterwards like the bradley administration. How successful were those appointments compared to other appointments he made to secretarial positions . Well, ill just name two that i think were pretty successful. Beetle smith had come in, already run the cia. He would have liked to have him run the cia but couldnt for various reasons, i guess. Maybe the state department but he was deputy secretary. He was a wonderful adviser, very effective. Robert cutler, his first National Security adviser, general. He was not somewhat of an honoristic general. I think Robert Cutler invented the role of National Security adviser. He defined the purposes of the National Security council and, indeed, brought a military ethos to running the nsc. Eisenhower said again and again the meetings of the National Security council were the most important meetings of the government. He said that to john kennedy when they were meeting during the handover, during the transition. You have to understand the nsc, what its all about. This is where everything happens. He said yeah, yeah, ive got bobby. Ill be fine. He didnt use it the same way eisenhower had done. Bobby cutler was the man who implemented it. Real quickly, George Marshall, what the relationship with thats a lecture in itself, but marshall made eisenhower. We owe eisenhower to general marshall. And its a story with some to it. Marshall brought ike up, promoted him, gave him the biggest jobs of the war, running the european theater, getting xand in normandy, which marshall probably wanted and said mr. President , its not up to me. Roosevelt said okay, im going with ike. During the campaign of 1952, George Marshall had been criticized for many, many months by senator joseph mccarthy, who said hey, that marshall guy was over in china when it went communist. There must be a connection. Maybe hes a traitor. Believe it or not, of all the people. Well, you wouldnt think that marshalls greatest protege, who had the platform stood up and said anyone who says a bad word about marshall ever again will have to deal with me right now, well settle it here. He didnt say anything of the kind. That, in part, because he was really a newbie in campaign politics. He listened to his advisers who made him cut a praiseworthy paragraph out of a speech that he was going to deliver in wisconsin, mccarthys home state. So he gave the speech, but the press had already received the full speech. Advanced copy . The advanced copy of the text. Oh, hes going to praise marshall, break radio silence Say Something positive about general marshall. Then when he gave the speech, the paragraph was missing. Ive seen the text. The actual speech was circulated on the campaign train. The advisers were in there saying, wisconsin boys say its a bad idea. We have to cut this paragraph out. You can see the paragraph written through with pencil, scratched out. He gave the speech. The press went crazy and they never relented. They never forgave eisenhower, in a sense, for this act of failing to support his mentor. There is correspondence between the two of them, marshall and eisenhower, after this event. Marshall basically, between the lines what i read is if you with went into politics, ike, of course youre going to do something dumb every day. I just assume that. You gave you know, once you left the army and went into politics, i expected knuckleheaded things. Im not going to hold it against you, but i have subsequently learned that mrs. Marshall never forgave eisenhower. Question right here. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Yeah. Turning to the infrastructure, can you share any insight as to eisenhowers inspiration for the interstate, advocating for the interstate system or what he hoped the countrys goals would accomplish by advocating for it . Yeah. Well, i dont know. You may know the answer. Sometimes there are people who are very knowledgeable on these topics. In audiences like this, we have a lot of expertise gathered here. Its often said in fact, eisenhower himself said that the transcontinental convoy was at least in part inspiration, taking demilitarized equipment after world war i, he was assigned to get this material across the country. So, it could be mothballed. It took them three months to cross the United States. This was in 1919, i think it was. He ever after said this is ridiculous. You cant drive from one coast to the other in this country. We need somehow weve got to find a way to knit it together. Its often said that eisenhower used the National Security imperative as an explanation for how to get this thing through congress. He did. He claimed it would be a terrible thing if there was a Nuclear Attack on the United States and we couldnt everyone was stuck on route 1 at a dunkin donuts, trying to get from boston to washington or wherever it was. So he did say it was a National Defense imperative that we have a system, integrated system of highways. They had been trying to pass such a bill for a long time but hadnt figured out how to pay for it. It was the breakthrough of the Eisenhower Administration to come up with the means to pay for it. Fascinating. Question right here. Yes, sir . Hi. Im ambassador gil robinson and i was the youngest appointee of eisenhower and had some interactions with him. [ applause ] thank you for coming. Great to see you, sir. One of the things that i think is not pointed out enough, and i had some personal experience with this, is eisenhowers integration of the white house five years before, four or five years before they got a lot of publicity appointing a black assistant. What people dont know is that when he went into the white house, Sherman Adams, the governor of New Hampshire, became the chief of staff and one of his two top assistants was a young, black woman named lois litman. She was very, very helpful in the white house in what she did, as some of you may know, citizens for eisenhower was one of the major groups that got him elected, or his nomination. Lois was in there with the found founders early on. And she became very, very significant in the white house. For example, one of the founders of citizens, charles willis, the other was stanley rumbo jr. , became the chief of new people coming in. And he said with lois they developed a system that is still in use today in the white house. This is a fascinating element. Thank you for raising this. Weve already talked youve already talked about was eisenhower too timid, did he think twice about not just the education, but the broader issue . Its a let me put it this way. To dodge the question, historians disagree. There are those who feel that he was really quite out in front on civil rights and those who feel he didnt do enough. Can i add to your very helpful and very useful story by pointing at another figure in the white house, an africanamerican named frederick morrow. Many people have never heard of him. He is the one i referred to, came in four or five years later. Morrow was a fascinating man and wrote repeatedly about his experiences in the white house. Black man in the white house. Its about his experiences working with Sherman Adams and others. Morrow tried very hard to get the Eisenhower Team and adams in particular to meet civil rights leaders one on one. He played a very Important Role in a breakthrough meeting when the Young Martin Luther King along with civil rights leaders of that era presented a set of circumstances to him. That took years to get that done. He took pride in it rightly so, an unsung hero of the administration. It wasnt all a bed of roses. He acknowledged that he felt that his issues were not probably true of every staff person, right . Yes. My portfolio is not getting enough attention. He really had a case to be made. They talked a good game but didnt act on it aggressively enough. That was his view. I dont want to ignore questions, hands over here, one right down front. And did we have another . Why dont we get the microphone right here and then well come over to you, sir . Thank you. Yes, please. Go ahead. Yeah. I just wondered if you could make some observations on the relationship with Sherman Adams and his influence and how that all came about, because it became, i guess, quite controversial and maybe particularly difficult for eisenhower at a certain time. Sherman adams was his chief of staff. He was the governor of New Hampshire. He came on to the eisenhower campaign early. He helped to organize the New Hampshire primary, which eisenhower won. It was close. In 1952, robert taft was considered the guy. He was going to be the nominee. There was ieisenhower in paris, running nato. He hadnt even said if he wanted to run. They needed a team on the ground to help get him on ballot and make sure he was going to be president in those primaries and adams played a prominent role to get him on ballot. Taft went to the 1952 convention, they were deadlocked. It was that close. It was no guarantee, no guarantee that eisenhower was going to get the nomination in 1952, given how successful he later became. Brownell, attorney general, played a very Important Role. Taft was known as the no man, typical New Hampshire guy, im not taking any guff. Get out of my office. Everyone thought he was a terror. He was very loyal to eisenhower. He, too, invented contemporary role of chief of staff. Assistant to the president but the first fulltime chief of staff. Very important figure. He was later he had to resign over claims that gifts had been given to his wife, famously a persian carpet and a mink. Vicuna. Vicuna coat at time. Yes, thank you. Everyone remembers that. When you think about where weve come first, taking a persian carpet from a rug dealer does not seem like a resigning offense. That was 1958. He stepped down. Went back to New Hampshire. Fine, ill go back and live a happy life up there. Very important figure. While were getting this microphone, could we bring it up to the front row . We talked so little about congress. Yeah. Who was the Senate Majority leader . A very big, Big Personality in an era full of big personalities. Lyndon johnson. Youve all heard of Lyndon Johnson. Back in the majority. There was taft and ike, they didnt like each other. Democratic party took control of the senate, Lyndon Johnson became majority leader and the two of them could not have been more opposite. And its a fascinating story. Im no expert on Lyndon Johnson, but i poured over robert cairos wonderful study of him in the senate. The signature achievement, i think, one of the signature achievements they really went at it. Lyndon johnson could run rings about anybody but he was really trying to undercut eisenhower. But its a fascinating story about getting the 1957 Civil Rights Act through. Johnson is a southerner and a democrat. And he had to deal with his faction of southern democrats who were very hostile to civil rights. Very hostile to de segregation, very hostile to warren and the brown decision. Eisenhower is saying i want to strengthen the powers of the Justice Department soet attorney general can investigate issues of voting irregularities and go down in the south and say things like emmitt till, the emmitt till murder cannot happen anymore and those guys walking free, which is what happened. Well, johnson said, well see how it goes. Well see what we can workup. And over a long period of time of negotiation, johnson watered down the bill, watered down the bill. He would come back, mr. President i know youve given me four fingers but i have to ask you for one more. I have to take this other piece out of the bill. By the end of it, eisenhower wanted to veto his own signature piece of legislation. He didnt recognize it. Johnson has completely evicerated it. A few things were left, creating the Justice Department, for example. It became an important stepping stone to johnsons later ability to deliver a civil rights legislation in the senate. He said i showed him that bill that i could control the southern democrats. I got them so they wouldnt veto it in committee. And it passed. So, the passage was more important than what was in the bill. So the two of them again, another example of why the 50s is so amazing. The Young Johnson making his bones work in the senate is a great moment. Eisenhower is like, wow, this guy is really good. He wanted to work with him but eisenhower ran rings around him. Fascination character study. One more question. You preempted the issue that i wanted to raise, but fine. One thing interesting about that was the man that eisenhower pushed, which was nixon. Brown is often giving credit for vetting eisenhower when he was in paris on civil rights. Brownell was did he say naeso talking talk toies ee ee ee een. When he realized this real pro coming from new york was telling him, we could make this work. He wasnt just a fan. He was the real machine guy. Brownell very importantly getting ike to run, making the Campaign Work and getting him in. I dont know about vetting nixon. That did come out of the eisenhower. Vetting eisenhower. He didnt really vet eisenhower. Everyone knew he was political gold. It was getting him to say yes. That took a very long time. Probably the most important figure getting him to say yes was his close buddy general clay. He said you have to do it or the country is going to go to hell. Youre the only person who can save the country. When enough people who you admire tell you this again and again and hundreds did, thousands did. People begged him to run. He started saying maub i am the only person who can save the country and all right, ill run. He did and never looked back. Ive got to ask one last question on my own. There are such colorful moments, and the personalities from that era, youre right, are just amazing. Frankly, wills book is so beautifully written. His almost pulitzer winner was described as written like a novel, written with the art and elegance of a novel. Give us, as your parting gift to us, a little description of eisenhower and krushev. What a comic scene. Someone should do a oneact play, little short movie or something. Kru krushev arrives. Berlin crisis, sputnik has happened. Kruschev, is he a stalin like figure, short guy, bald head, only this high. They met before in 1955, geneva, didnt really know each other. Anyway, kruschev is eager to get an invitation. Eisenhower tenders the invitation in order to ease the berlin crisis. Kruschev wants prestige, equality. He wants to be seen on the stage with the u. S. President. He flyies the biggest plane eve made to the United States. Talk about arriving with a bang. This gigantic jet that they cant land at the usual place. They have to extend the airway. Anyway, he steps down off of this thing. Eisenhower is there. They drive back into washington. Its icy at first. Theyre not getting along. Kruschev says ive got gifts for you. He pulls out a little mini flag, and he says this is a replica of a thing we just sent to the moon. Many of you may not know, its true, the soviets landed a little chunk, a little doodad on the moon. They managed to get this flag planted in the ground. This is a replica, basically a way of taunting eisenhower, that your Space Program is a decade behind ours. Not a good way to begin. Eisenhower had a plan, they were going to sit knee to knee and get rid of everybody except the translators and say lets end the cold war. Lets do it. Lets end the cold war. Kruschev is having none of it, doing his usual thing. Cant get through to him. Eisenhower says this isnt working. Lets go for a helicopter ride. Quite literally, without any planning, he says get the chopper. He takes kruschev on a tour of washington, d. C. During rush hour. He says im not getting in that thing. They do it. Its wonderful. It breaks the ice. Kruschev takes his own tour across the country, famously goes to hollywood with his delegate of big wigs and they see Shirley Mcclain on the set of can can. Shirley mcclain. Who must have been 15. They do a song and dance number, the ending of which is one of the dancers slides on his knees, underneath the legs of one of the female dancers, and he pops up out of her bloomers with a pair of red underpants in his hands, and thats the end of the number. Soviet delegation is watching this and theyre just appalled, disgraceful, capitalist garbage. This is outrageous, an insult. And theyre about to leave, about to go back to moscow. They get back on the train, go north to san francisco, beautiful. They have a wonderful time. They come back to washington and they make up a concert at the soviet embassy. Its a moment where eisenhower then takes kruschev to camp david, they talk, really get to know one another. For a moment it looked like the cold war might soften, we might find a pathway to ease this thing called the cold war. Alas, it didnt happen and i blame the u2 crisis, shootdown. Separate story youll have to read in the book. The diplomacy was so successful, the two men really got along and i think kruschev wanted zplatly to do some kind of deal but after the u2 crisis, it was impossible. Maybe ike needed a third term. My friend will hitchcock. This is not dry history. It is a fantastic read. Thank you. Youre watching a special edition of American History tv airing weekdays. Tonight, at 8 00 eastern, battle of okin wachlt a, 75 years ago. Over the course of 82 days the battle raged in the pacific, japanese launched nearly 2,000 kamikaze attacks on american fleets as the u. S. Navy filmed assembled from aerial and ship combat footage by hollywood filmmaker. Part of American Historys tv reel america series which looks at history through archival films. American history tv now and over the weekend on cspan3. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who Lizzie Borden is . And raise your hand if you ever heard of this murder, the gene harris murder trial, before this class. The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. So were going to talk about both of these sides of this story here, right . The tools, the techniques of slave owner power and well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Lectures in history on cspan3, every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. And lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Before Dwight Eisenhower became president , he was an army general. Up next, historian david mills discusses the partnership he had with u. S. Army chief of staff George Marshall during world war ii. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this event. Its just over an hour. Good evening. Good evening. Great to have you, great to have