Wash journal. And if you missed any of the live coverage, watch any time on demand at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Now to the lecture part of our program. Our speaker tonight is dr. William hitchcock, author of the age of Eisenhower America and the world in the 1950s. Dr. Hitchcock with the William Corcoran professor from the university of virginia where he focuses on international, diplomatic and military history of the 20th century, in particular the era of the world wars an the cold war, and in addition to the age of eisenhower dr. Hitchcock is the author of the bitter road to freedom, a new history of the liberation of europe which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a winner of the george lewis spear prize and a Financial Times bestseller in the united kingdom. Following dr. Hitchcocks remarks, ann compton will join for a conversation on this great biography and the 34th president of the United States. Ann is a pioneer of journalism in america. The first woman to cover the white house for Network Television and was on the air for 41 years with abc news. Her longevity and her impact are unparalleled. Anns career at abc news spanned seven president s of the United States, ten president ial campaigns, she anchored from the white house, from capitol hill, and president ial travel that took her to all 50 states and six continents. And ann, and this is a very significant part of American History and white house history, ann was with president george w. Bush on the september 11th, 2001 and the only broadcast reporter allowed to remain on air force one. As you remember the president was not allowed to return to washington. And was kept away during the hours following the chaotic terrorist attack on our country. She was on the air force one on behalf of the entire press corp reporting back and so she herself has become an important part of white house history. And shes also a very good friend of the White House Historical association. She will be moderating a series of lectures throughout the course of the year. Weve announced the subjects an the dates are pending. So if youll follow our website for future information on those either exciting lectures. It is a wonderful series. But tonight for our features presentation, please welcome dr. William hitchcock. [ applause ] thank you so much. What a treat this is. It is just a splendid setting and a beautiful room and so many distinguished guests in the audience. Im just quite overwhelmed and thrilled to talk about eisenhower with you tonight. I hope i will do him justice, but although hes a great man and i think we have to work hard to really live up to his reputation. I want to thank stewart for inviting me and thank the White House Historical Association Staff for putting together this event. A lot of work goes into these kind of events and Julian Levine who has done a lot of work, thank you very much for your excellent work. Im honored to share the stage later with ann compton who is an unparalleled and is an absolutely sparking presence and someone that ied on tv for so many years. So im a little star struck. But i also want to acknowledge the presence here of general reddel who is working to he is a local hero and organizing and leading the Eisenhower Commission to get the great memorial built for general and president Dwight Eisenhower so that finally washington, d. C. Will have an appropriate monument for this very important general and the 34th president. So i want to congratulate you on your success. [ applause ] i believe may 8, 2020, with may 8 the big day. Well have a ribbon cutting. So what a great day that is going to be. So thank you very much for your work. Lets get to it. I want to start out with a president ial puzzle. Not really a quiz or anything. But it is just a puzzle. If you look at American History in the years from 1945 to 1961, so the end of the Second World War up until the election of john kennedy, one figure stands out as the most dominant figure in that period. Oops. Not those guys. I see. That guy. Dwight eisenhower was the most popular man. The most respected man. The most admired man of that period. 45 to 61. 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 he was president , for eight years, was 65 average. And the next president is closest to that is bill clinton at 55 and after that Ronald Reagan at 53 . Theyre way in the rearview mirror. But the puzzle is from the moment he set out to run for president in 1951, all of the way through his eight years in the white house, and indeed for the ten years after he left the white house until he died in 1969, eisenhower was consistently underrated as president. That is the president ial puzzle. Senator robert taft his opponent in the 1952 republican primary scoffed at eisenhowers, get this, inexperience. Taft said, oh, you would never hire such a green horn, someone with little experience to be president , wouldnt you. The democratic nominee in 1952 and 56 mocked eisenhower as a light weight. He was just a tool of the right wing corporate figures. That was stevensons view. President harry truman campaigning in 1952 said we should send the voters the voters should send ike back to the army where he belongs. He was a general and he should stay there. A book in 1958 that came out while ike was in the office by markist childs was given the label titled a captive hero. Eisenhower had been captured and he was sort of a dummy, a ventriloquist who was mouthing words written by other people. That is the view of eisenhower by people who were commenting on him while he was president. While he had won these two immense elections. And scholars agreed. Eisenhower, after he left office, the harvard historian arthur shlessinger senior published a infamous poll that asked historians to rate eisenhower. All of his friends were harvard professors. But eisenhower in that poll, 1962, placed eisenhower 22nd out of 31. 22 out of 31. He was nested 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 probably want to hear about first. Chester a. Urgear and Andrew Johnson who is widely tout to be one of the worst president s we ever had. So go figure. That is the company they put ike in in 1962. And during the kennedy years, the cam lot clan used eisenhower as a foil. To reflect glory on their young and dynamic john kennedy. And after all, it is harder than it looks. My students would all get this. Wouldnt you if, if you were kennedys advanced man use ike as the counter point. So on the one hand in 1954 eisenhower maybe playing scrabble and i think that looks pleasa pleasant and lovely but they have to work with this guy so naturally there was a sharp contrast. And it worked against eisenhowers memory against the impression that was given to the public. By the time of his death on march 28th, 1969, at the age of 78, the press seemed uninterested in ike and there was an obituary in Time Magazine concluding he was more of a figure head than a president. He was, quote, out of touch with his people. He was a great soldier but judged a mediocre or maybe even a failure as a president. Starting in 1980s classified information started to become available to scholars. If you go to abilene, kansas and you work in the library. You could read wonderful, juicy details about the eisenhower period and this showed a different eisenhower. It showed that eisenhower was deeply involved in government, deeply involved in the daytoday operations of his National Security council, on National Security affairs on Foreign Policy and a master of his brief and just deeply involved in the details of american National Security issues. But the emphasis of the scholarship that started to come out, having read all of this, was to attack eisenhower for being a kind of evil genius. Look here, he had overthrown the government in iran and over here the government in guatemala. And what about cuba and the congo. So suddenly we have a new branch of scholarship that depicted mike as this evil figure whereas before it was eisenhower as as. Worthy kind of mediocre. This is history for you. Pendulum is constantly swinging and if your head is swimming im not surprised. Where is the real eisenhower. Im a orrhistorian. I want to figure out what made him tick but what impact did he have on the country. What is the meaning of the eisenhower presidency for the country. What impact did he have and also how should we understand his political appeal . Why was he so popular . People said i like ike. But why . What was it about him that they liked. And ill touch on two big answers to that question. The first i want to talk briefly about his policy achievements. The substance of his presidency was really significant. If you want to know why ike was popular, look at what he did. The accomplishments in his eight years an ill touch on those. But then i want to talk about the man and his character, who he was and the kind of man that he was. So let me talk about the substance of his presidency first and give you a gist of what is in the book. There is much more there but i want to give you sink your teeth into what he really accomplished. Eisenhowers proudest accomplishment as president was that the United States did not go to war for eight years while he waz in office. He said this again and again. It doesnt just happen, ill tell you that. He probably said it colorfully than that. He worked hard to keep the United States at peace for eight years. When he came into office, the korean war was raging. An unpopular war. Eisenhower was determined to stop it. Even before he was sworn in as president , he went to korea to see the front and what did he find . It was an unwinnable war. Only way it could have been won was to use unusual weapons. He thought about it briefly. He talked with his staff about it. Obviously he didnt want to do that. He got lucky in this one respect. Joseph stalin dropped dead in march of 1953. Having a cascading effect, the new leadership said were not going to win this car. Lets agree to a armistice. But the moment of leadership is eisenhower said ill take that deal. Ill take the armistice and many the Republican Party criticized him for accepting something short of all out victory. Were still living in a time whether that war hasnt been completed yet. But he took the deal against criticism from his own party and i think the kind of thing that leaders do. He said the American Public wants this war to end and im going to give them that and it was an overwhelming decision and americans were delighted the war was over. Eisenhower decided to keep United States troops out of vietnam in 1954. Now youll remember some of you that the french were fighting a dogged defense of her empire in endochina. They had one big battle at the end they thought might turn the tide. It was a disaster. The battle of den fu and they said send american troops to vietnam in 1954. They were fighting for years. Rescue our colony there. And eisenhower said no and he said it again and again. I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for america, he said. But to get heavily involved in an allout war in those regions. Many of his advisers, here are two of them, disagreed and privately coaxed eisenhower to aid the french, to send some troops there, to get involved in the fighting. Admiral radford and John Foster Dulles was secretary of state, nobody likes to tell eisenhower things he didnt want to do but they back channeled to get their words heard. He said no. I cannot tell you how bitterly opposed i am to such a course of action. This would absorb our troops by divisions. So america did not go to war in vietnam in 1954. Mind you, eisenhower then committed to help build the state of South Vietnam and we could have an argument about the fact that built up future commitments that led later president s to commit the United States to war in vietnam. But eisenhower had a choice to make and despite some of his most powerful allies and advisers he said, no, were not going to wage that war and that is the wrong place for the wrong reasons. America avoided conflict there. So again in 1956 there is another conflict over the suez canal in egypt and britain and france invade egypt and should the United States join and nasser and you think there is a argument for doing that. Eisenhower said that is an outrageous violation of International Law and put pressure on the british and the french to get out. Humiliating anthony eaton, the Prime Minister in the process. And again when the soviets put pressure on the city of berlin, eisenhower resorted to diplomacy. Rather than saber rattling. He invited kristoff to come to the United States and they had a rip roaring good time, traveling the United States. Ike said im going to gettysburg but you could go and see the country for yourself. But that is the thing. Resort to diplomacy first if you can to avoid war. Mind you eisenhower was no dove on defense matters. On the contrary. He invested huge sums in building up our defense establishment. In eisenhower years and this is a number to take away with you, i wont give you many but here is one, in the eisenhower years the United States spent on average 10 of the gdp on defense. 10 of gdp on defense. Today were 3. 3 . The size of the economy is different. But a huge summon investing in defense. The man who did so much to alert us to the dangers of the military Industrial Complex did a lot to build that complex. The u. S. Nuclear arsenal absolutely soared in the eisenhower years from a few hundred weapons to well over 20,000 war heads and the b52 bombers an the atlas and titan and missiles and the undersea polaris missile all came online in eisenhower and he few all about it. He was fascinated by the details and poured over the plans. He was deeply engaged in pushing the agenda, pushing these developments forward. Now the purpose of these weapons was to deter the communists. It was to keep the peace. This was the beginning and the formation of the peace through strength strategy that waged and won the cold war. Now, we could debate whether it was the right choice. But every president since has followed it and it was very much the strategy that helped to win the cold war. So ike it a paradox in this regard. He wanted to avoid war. He did avoid war. But he invested in the tools of the war. That is the nature of the choices that he made. Well, a second area that i want to talk about eisenhowers substantive of his achievement was in the economy. Ill touch on this briefly but it is important. Here is a fact that you might not have known. Eisenhower balanced three budgets out of eight and he came pretty close on the others except for the first one which was trumans deficit. But he was a budget hawk. This is a record of fiscal discipline unmatched by any successors until bill clinton managed to balance a few budgets in the late 1990s. And i want to talk about a figure often held up a figure wd up as a leading conservative figure, if i can get us away from the nuclear deterrent. I want to talk for a moment about Ronald Reagan, who sometimes is held up as the archetypal conservative figure, but he added to the National Debt and didnt come close to balancing a budget. He was much more interested in cutting taxes. Here is a really revealing difference between ike and reagan. They had very different ideas how to handle taxes. 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 days him. What he said, and he said it repeatedly. He wasnt private about it. He went on the campaign trail, and gave public addresses about taxes. Heres the gist of it the Good American is proud to carry his share of the national burden. Whew, i dont think thats going to be on the Bumper Sticker in 2020, whoever is out there. You know, its just a different world. This was simply his view. Paying your taxes was part of being an american and it was a patriotic duty and americans should do it. No wonder that bill buckley, when he magazine was just coming out in the mid 50s the National Review they viewed him as an apostate, and somewhat contributed to the negativity around his legacy. Wasnt conservative enough for the conservatives. Ike thought about himself as a conservative, but the fact is early on he made a peace with the new deal, expanded Social Security to include 10 million recipients. He raised the minimum wage. He founded the department of health, education and welfare and invested in a very big infrastructure program, the interstate highway system. Through building its thousands of roads thousands of miles, it cost billions, but he came up with a clever way of using it, a gas tax, which turned out to be an engine that fed itself. The more you drove cars, the more gasoline you bought, the more taxes you placed, but it didnt place a heavy burden on the treasury. That was the key to the plan. Great a a budget hawk, but also progressive when it came to issues like Social Security and human welfare. Finally one substantive topic i want to touch on is an area where i will bet you not many of you realize what a significant legacy he actually had. Thats the field of civil rights. In the 15950s, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining attention. Africanamericans were using the courts to challenge the segregation of Public Schools and places across the country. The practice of jim crow was in place fully across the south. This was a practice that was coming at an increasing conflict and protests from africanamericans in the 50s. Through Court Challenges as well as bus boycotts so much happened. Its an astonishing time. Ike is a fascinating character. He didnt know much about black life in america. Frankly he wasnt all that interested in it initially before he became president. He had grown up his entire career had been spent in the segregated United States military. Most of his friends from the army we are southerners or had southern connections. Where did he like to go for vacation . Augusta, georgia. He doesnt allow africanamericans or women to join until the 1990s, so ike really didnt have a point of reference on how to handle this growing crisis. But whats interesting to note, he accumulated a significantly progressive record on civil rites. He and his attorney general, Robert Brownell worked through the courts to weaken jim crow segregati segregation. Most significantly earl warn are warnen are warning was appointed assist chief justice. He would write the unanimous decision that order ed not only did he publicly denounce the decision or deek to undermine it or question the authority of the Supreme Court and for that ruling to be enforced. He never would dream of doubting it publicly. He would sign into law the 1957 Civil Rights Act, first civil rights legislation since the end of the United States civil war, since reconstruction slowdown. He ordered federal troops to surround the school in little rock, arkansas, to ensure that courtordered desegregation of that cool would proceed, despite the hostility of the arkansas governor. He saw it an issue of federal versus state power. The federal government had the right to impose and enforbes the laws. He may have been a reluctant warrior on civil rights, but he was a determined defender of the u. S. Constitution and the authority of federal law. Its true that ike didnt 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 only in the terms of law. The law is the following, and we metz enforce it. Historians and many critics have criticized eisenhower for not putting his shoulder to the wheel, but i think you can see the opposite, he was not prepared to deal with the crisis, and president s face crises that theyre not prepared to deal with, and i think he fareed well. Ladies and gentlemen, i cant go on about his policy achievements, but the fact of the matter it probably wasnt the policy achievements that endeared him to so many americans. I just want to reflect a bit on his character and well go into some q a. When americans looked at Dwight Eisenhower i love this picture of ike, by the way. 1946, after the war, hiss chief of staff in hawaii. One word that comes to minute maybe there are many. Hes confident, relaxed, but the word that comes to mind it winner. Thats what americans saw. Since playing football at army and running the Second World War and winning, liberating europe, becoming the first commander the nato, winning two landside elections, and never looking like he was trying that hard, he was just a winner. His optimism, his quality, his personal quality. One of the things that struck me when researching this book was the reports about his physical cou charisma. Every head in the room turned and said, wow, there he is. Total star power. Very athletic in his carriage. People just loved his persona. Thats a big part of his early political magic, if you will. Another reason for his appeal surely was his authenticity. Ike knew where he came from, and he never forgot it. He used it politically, but he loved where he came from, abilene, kansas. He grew up in a family of six boys, and eisenhower 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 down the street. They were one paycheck away from total death tugstitution. He lived in a small house. If you go to abilene, its lovely, tiny. Imagine raising six boys in this place. Im sure there was a lot of, get the heck out of here, go play in the yard, in that household. At the same time heres the thing i want to emphasize. He had a ton of glamour about him. A smalltown kansas toy, but he was a fivestar general. Blackjack pershing, millionai s millionaires, titans of industry, he was at home working with churchill, roosevelt. He had met stalin, been in moscow, london, all around the world. He was a global citizen. What an interesting contrast, the smalltown barefoot farm boy, and fivestar general a friend of world figures. He wrapped up this im an order nair guy. Thats just part of the magic. That was part of the magic. Now, let us not forget, part of his appellate to the public was his wonderful wife, Mamie Geneva Dowd grew up in denver. She met eisenhower in san antonio, and they married in 1916. This is a photograph of her about the time they met. Thats why im using it here. I think shes beautiful, and i love this picture. I think it just has a lot of style and personality to it. Mamie ike and mamie married in 1916. They made a sparkling couple, and she devoted herself to his career. She was social, fashionable, a gregarious partner in his life. She presided over the executive mansion, chose menus, had charm, personality, much like eisenhower, comfortable in any setting and able to make herb guests comfort afbl. A lot of people have forgotten mrs. Eisenhower, but she truly about help to shape the role of modern first ladies. Mamie also had the sympathy of many americans, because the public knew who died much scarlet fever in 1921 at the age of 3. Neither mamie nor ike ever overcame their loss. Eisenhower called his sons death the greatest disappointment and disaster in my life, the one ive 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, their sads in, vulnerable. He also another element that i bet not that many knew, and youre going to learn about right now a fascinating detail of his life. He was raised by parents who were members of the river brethren, an offshoot of the mennonites. They later in their lives became,hofbecame jehovas witnesses. They learned their bible from their father, but after he left home, he rarely went to church. Maybe he had enough of it, but it was in his mind, he heart, but didnt practice publicly his faith until he was elected president. Well, he had not been baptized as a child, but he decided a few weeks after his inauguration he would join the Presbyterian Church here in washington, and in a private ser moyer in 1953, he was baptized by the reverend edward ellison, and the only president to have been baptized while in office. He made every effort while president to place religious faith in the public eye. At the heart of his presidency. Now, the 50s was an era of religious revival in the country. And eisenhower was fine with that, and he encouraged it. He started the National Prayer breakfast. He was the first president to bring the young evangelical billy graham to the white house and became Close Friends as a spiritual adviser, and of course he would go on to serve many president s. He hardly approved of the congressional decision to place the words under god in our pledge of allegiance and to have the words in god we trust name the National Motto and placed on you our currency. The fact is is that 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 character, we look back a lot of my students certainly look back on ike as somebody from the stone age, and in fact he was, he was the last president to have been born in the 19th century. He was a man of some rather distant past, but at the time he believed himself and wanted to be associated with innovation, with new technologies, with new ideas, with science, with education, and he was during his time in office a great champion of those things. He was the first president to hold a press conference in front of the television cameras, and his prey conferences would be recorded and rebroadcast from 1955 onward. He used tv advertising in his campaigns. After the sputnik crisis, he championed Space Research and, of course, founded nasa, and invested large sums into science education. And on july 12th, 1957, he became the first president to ride in a helicopter, something he loved to do and did regularly, even with visiting dignitaries, including a very surprised nikick kiakita krusch. He reached the age of 70 in the white house, but he sauce himself as the future, an innovative person, eager to help and encourage t im going to wrap it and go into some q a. I want to make sure as a historian im well aware that ike has plenty of warts, and there are plenty of questions we can and should as scholars and as citizens raise about eisenhower and his presidency. Ill just name three topics maybe we can return to a bit in the q a. Well, yes. Ill just do this real quick, because im sure youll want to ask questions yourself. We can have a further discussion, but the first question i have is, why nixon . Now, theres a political answer to why eisenhower chose nixon to be hi running mate in actually he doesnt choose nixon. Thomas dewey, the governor of new york and twotime failed candidate chose him. It was dewey who put him on the ticket. They were worlds apart in everything. I believe eisenhower accepted it as the desire of the party to have nixon on the ticket. I think it was a bad decision, now because of who nixon became later, but eisenhower didnt use his Vice President as an adviser, as a counselor. They didnt get along. They didnt have a relationship. In nigh opinion, frankly, he didnt trust nixon. He didnt feel he was grown up enough. He hoped he would grow into the job. He tried for eight years, or so he sid, but nixon was so intimidated, the two never meshed. He tried to bounce nixon off the ticket and said, dick, you really ought to go run the pentagon, and nixon smelled a rat, thanks very much for that, but im okay right where i am. Eisenhower refused to tell him directly, im ordering to run the pentagon. He wouldnt do it. He wanted nixon to say, sir, i need more executive experience. So the two of them were ships passing in the night. I think thats not a good way to use the office of the vice presidency, and i think thats a question we should raise about his legacy. Second, joe mccarthy. Why didnt ike do more . Say more . Go to war with mccarthy . There again, theres a political answer. Joe mccarthy was reasonably popular in the United States in 1953 and 54. Americans didnt necessarily believe everything he said, about you their view was if 10 of what hes saying, is true, its bad enough. Eisenhower didnt want to be the president that said i think its baloney and have another scandal on his hands when a communist should be found working in the government. He approved of the idea of loyalty oaths. He approved of the idea of vetting people to work in government, but he hated mccarthys tactics. Should he have gone to war with mccarthy and elevated this red hunting senator to an equal of the president . Eisenhower said, no way, 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 corresponds, wrote to him and said, general, wont you Say Something about this awful man . Eisenhower said, im trying, and he worked very hard behind the scenes. What i show in the book is he worked very hard behind the scenes, a lot of information that that led to the he hearings in fact came from the white house. So eisenhower played an Important Role in back channeling, creating a damaging dossier that eventually he never felt he tangled with mccarthy. Alan dulles is the last thing ill leave for q a. He was the director of the Intelligence Agency the entire time eisenhower was in office. During the eisenhower years, president eisenhower significantly expanded the pouts are poutsers and responsibilities and ordered it to conduct covert operations and coup coup detat around the world. And outlined attempts some of these operations we learned about in the 1970s in the church committee, but they are still jawdroppinging jawdroppingingly zany. The truth is eisenhower delegated enormous power and resources to a secret agency, and let them carry out quite violent operations against sovereign nations in the name of National Security. A spoiler alert hes 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 documents, we have to understand why eisenhower felt those decisions, those kinds of policies were in the national interest. He believed they were. He could make a good argument they were. Historians have come along and criticized him for that. Thats what historians do, but we need to you get how he viewed the world to explain to give dulles free reign to conduct he dirty tricks around the world. These controversies are going to continue, no question. I hope they will continue. Its good for eisenhowers legacy that we debate it and talk about it, but it seems to me unlikely theyre really going to mar eisenhowers legacy. In 2017, a poll of president ial historians, no, not another poll of historians, but yes, this is a very good one. A poll of president ial historians ranked eisenhower our fifth greatest president after washington, lincoln, franklin, and teddy roosevelt. This leap up the rankings, 22 chester a. Arthur hes left chester in the dirt this leap tells us eisenhowers style of mott rad governance combined with personal character, dignity, is something that even today americans admire. Its up to us to make sure the values are placedty heart of our political discourse. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Wow, what do you think . Five is a pretty good ranking . Do any of you really remember the eisenhower years . Most of you are much, much too young. My parents sure remember Dwight Eisenhower. I always thought he was, you know, really one of the cool ones. Cool is not a word they often associated. Great, maybe. Were going to open this up for question and answer, and as youre thinking 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 eisenhowers son john said the worst time in his 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, eisenhowers in the oval office waiting to greet a king. He gets wooze e woozy, dizzy, as having a stroke. How did Dwight David Eisenhower handle the multitasking things which today is considered part of the how did he as a person handle that kind of onslaught of unexpected crises . Thats a great question form the multitasking of a presidency must be so exhausting. Its also hard to write about as a historic. If you just think about a day of what crosses the president s desk and theres 10 or 20 crises, they all have to be dealt with immediately, thats actually very hard to write, to narrate. You end up cheesing one and the remembers disappear into the past. The trick is imagine looking at it as a president sees it, and it must be terribly overwhe overwhelming. The soviet invade budapest, the israelis invade egypt, and oh, yeah, hes running for reelection. Theres a tenday period when ike is dealing with two international crises, either one of which could have led to a war are the soviet union, and hes running for reelection. I can assure you the laos am of time he spent on was running for reelection. He was running against adlai stevenson. So that is a great question, the sense of all of the things coming at the president. Eisenhowers health suffered a lot in that tenday period with a doctor by his side, who was constantly monitoring him. This was after his heart attack. The sputnik case is one of those wonderful moments, we recognize his political brilliance. The soviets send up a satellite, and everybody says this is the end of the world, weve lost the cold war, the russians will run the table on us. Eisenhower has a press conference and says simmer down, were doing fine. What is the big deal . They got a lump of luminous up there. Were busily ahead of them on the things that matter, on the missiles, the bomber fleet. That little toaster oven has no military value. He said that, no military value. The press gave him the thumbs down on that press conference. He doesnt get it, he doesnt realize what a big crisis this is. Look at him. Hes out of touch with his people. The press just didnt hear what he was trying to say. He has to go back and recalibrate the message. The mem was, i grant you theyve had a breakthrough. Guess what . Were going to redouble or efforts to build out the missile deterrent. Were going to get a satellite into orbit, which they would do january 1958, but im also going to create thatnasa, which he di. He reorganized the defense department. He created the old adage dont waste a crisis. Im going to finally get control over the pentagon. He got a big bill reorganizing the poutser of the pentagon. That reveals how he understood washington. The idea that ike was green, inexperienced, didnt really get how washington worked, he had spent his entire life in washington. From the early 20s on. Hands up, ladies and gentlemen. And then second question. Lets bring the other microphone right over here. Put up your hand again and well come to you second. Yes, sir, welcome. I very much enjoyed your presentation. One thing you didnt mention was eisenhowers farewell address, one of the great speeches in president ial history. If you havent seen it, i say go to youtube and listen to it when you go home from this event. One of the his big messages in that speech was the warning about the military Industrial Complex, so what i wanted to ask you is how do you square his role as a cold warrior with that admonition about the military Industrial Complex . Yes, thank you, excellent question. You just wrote about this. Yes. I deal i try to address it in the book. That is an interesting speech. I would urge commend it all to you. Go ahead and listen to it. Its not just about the military Industrial Complex. He says im sorry we didnt have better breakthroughs on arms control. I would have loved to have had a significant breakthrough there, but i pushed for it, we didnt get it, so 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. Were sorry about that, but its keeping us safe. Now its on you for the citizens, to be careful, to keep a watch on it, make sure the brass doesnt have the run of the place. Who do you think that message might have been directed towards january 1961, the new guy is already in there measuring the drapes. I believe its a direct message to the 43yearold lieutenant junior grade john kennedy, who is 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 the leaders to the High Standard and make sure theyre doing the job of monitoring the military Industrial Complex. Make sure they have your best interests at heart. Actually its a cold warriors message 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 . Do we have another hand up over here . Well bring a microphone over here in the green shirt and then ill come down to you. Hi. Good evening. You took office seven years after the end of world war ii, but he brought in Senior Officers that worked with him, in appointments like bradley at the veterans administration. How successful were those appointments compared to others he made at secretaryial positions . Beetle submit came in, he would have liked him to run the cia for various reasons, i guess. Maybe the state department, but i think beetle was a wonderful adviser, very effective. Robert cutler, who was his first National Security adviser, a general. He was somewhat of an horror i have been general, but he had been schooled by he really 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, this is where everything happened. Kennedy said, yeah, yeah, whatever im going to have bobby. He didnt Pay Attention to the nsc, and didnt used it the same way, end and bobius cutler was the man who implemented it. Real quickly, george marshall, the relationship . Thats a lecture in itself. Marshall made eisenhower. We owe eisenhower to general r marshall. Of course, marshall brought ike up, promoted him, gave him the biggest jobs of the war from war plans to running the european theater, to the command in normandy, which marshall probably wanted and said, mr. President its not up to me, and roosevelt said, im going with ike. George marshall had been criticized for many, many months by senator joseph mccarthy, who said, hey, that marshall guy, he was over in china when it went communist, there must be a connection. Believe it or not, of all the people. Well, you would think that marshalls greatest, most successful protege, who had the platform would have said up and says any bad word about marshall, youre going to have to deal with me right now. Well go outside and settle it here. He didnt say anything of the kind. That in part is because he was a newbie in campaign politics. He listened to his advisers who made him cut a praiseworthy paragraph out of a speech he was going to deliver in wisconsin, mccarthys home state. The press had already received the full speech, the advance copy of the text. They knew, hes going to praise marshall. Hes going to finally break radio silence and Say Something positive. Ive seen the text, the actual speech was circulated on the campaign train, the advisers were in there saying the wisconsin boys are saying its a bad cut. You can see the practice of written through with pencil scrapped out. The press went crazy, and they never relented, never forgave eisenhower in a sense for this act of failing to support his mentors. Theres correspondence between the two of them after this event. Marshall basically between the lines what i real is, if you went into politics, ike, of course youre going to do something dumb every day. I just assume that. Once you left the army and went into politics, i expect knuckleheaded things, im not going to hold it against you. I have subsequently learned that mrs. Marshall never forgave eisenhower. Question here. Thank you so much, sir. Turning to the infrastructure, can you share any insight into eisenhowers inspirit afor tation for the ine system . You may know the answer, sometimes there are people who are knowledgeable in these topics, and in audiences like this, we have a lot of expertise. Eisenhower said it, the famous transcontinental convoy was in part inspiration. He was assigned to to get this materiel ko cross the country. It took three months. He ever after said, this is ridiculous, you cant drive from one coast to the other. Somehow we have to find a way to knit it together. Its obvious said he used the National Security imperative as an explanation. He did do that. 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 he did say it was a National Defense imperative to have an integrated system of highways. They had been trying to pass such a bill for a long time, and they hadnt figure out how to pay for it, and it was a breakthrough to figure out the means to pay for it. Im ambassador gill robinson, the youngest appointee of eisenhower, and had some interactions with him. Thank you for coming tonight. 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 by pointing 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. One of his two top assistants was a young black woman named lois libman. She was very, very helpful in the white house in what she did. As some of the you may nose, the citizens rise was one of the major groups that got him elected, or his nomination. Lois was in there with the founders early on. 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. 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 youve already talked about, was eisenhower too timid . Did he think twice about not just the education, but the broader issue . Let me just put it this way, to dodge the question, historians disagree. There are those who feel he was really quite out in front on civil rights and those who didnt do enough. Can i add to your very useful story by pointing at another figure in the white house, an africanamerican named frederick morrow. He was a hes the one i referred to, came in almost four or five years later. Yeah. Morrow was a fascinating man. He wrote repeatedly about his experiences in the white house. He wrote a memory called black man in the white house. I high ly recommend it. He tried very hearts to get the team to play civil rights leaders. He played a very Important Role whether a young Marten Luther king, along with other leading civil rights leaders in that era, came and presented a set of concerns to eisenhower. That took years, years to get that done. He took a lot of pride, and hes an unsung hero of the 5d manages, but it wasnt a bed of roses. He acknowledged this is probably true of every staff person. Mere portfolio is not getting enough attention, but he had a case to be made. They talked a good game, but didnt act aggressively enough. I didnt want to ignore questions. Hands over here, one right down in front. Why dont we get the microphone right here, and then come over to you, sir. Yes, please. Yeah, i just wondered if you could make observations on the relationship with Sherman Adams and his influence and how it all came about . It became quite controversial and maybe particularly difficult for eisenhower . Sherman adams was a chief of staff, a governor of New Hampshire. He came on to the campaign early. He helped to organize the New Hampshire primary, which eisenhower won. It was close. You know, in 1952, robert taft was considered the guy. He was going to be the nominee. There was eisenhower in paris, running nato. He hadnt even said if he wanted to run. He needed a team on the ground to get him on the ballot and make sure he was going to be present in those primaries. Taft was campaigning like mad, and he was winning delegates. He went to the 1952 convention. They were 2kedlocked. It was that close. There was no guarantee that eisenhower was going to get the nomination. Can you believe that . Given how successful hess became. Dr. Robert brownell played a very Important Role. Taft was known as the taciturn. Everyone thought he was a terror. He was very loyal to eisenhower. He in many ways invended the contemporary role of chief of staff. He was a very important figure. He later had to resign over claims that gifts had been given to his wife, famously a persian carpet and vicuna coat. Everyone remembers that. But when you think about where weve country since, taking a persian rug from a rug dealer doesnt seem like a resigning offense. He stepped down, and went back to New Hampshire. A very important figure. While were getting this microphone, i want to ask you about one other figure. Weve talked so little about congress. Who was like the Senate Majority leader . A big very, big personality. Lyndon johnson durable. Youve all heard of Lyndon Johnson. So taft, and nolan for a while. Same party, they didnt like each other, but when the Democratic Party took control of the senate, Lyndon Johnson became majority leader. The two of them could not have been more opposite. Its a fascinating story. I have no expert on Lyndon Johnson, but i pore over a wonderful study, its a wonderful complement to studying ike. One of the signature achievements they really went at it. Lyndon johnson wasly was trying to undercut eisenhower, but theres a fascinating story about getting the 1967 Civil Rights Act through. Johnson is a southerner, a democrat, he had to deal with his faction of southern democrats who were very hostile to civil rights, very hostile to 9 brown decision. Eisenhower says i want to strengthen the powers of the Justice Department so they can investigate and go into the and saying things like the emmett till murderer can no longer happen with these guys going free. Johnson said, well see how it goes. He would water down the bill. Mr. President , i know youve given me four fingers, but i just have to take another piece out. And by the end. Eisenhower wanted to veto his own bill, because johnson had eviscerated it. Eisenhower signed the bill. It became an important steppingstone 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. The two of them, its another example of would the 50s is so amazing. The Young Johnson making his bones working the senate is a great moment and eisenhower is, wow, this guy is good. He wanted to work with him, but johnson ran rings around him. One thing interesting about that was the man that eisenhower designated to push his brownells bill was nixon, but brownell is often given credit for vetting eisenhower while in paris on civil rights. Can you go into that a bit . Well, brownell was delegated to go to try to persuade eisenhower to run. They talked about how it would happen. He was part of the liberal new york wing, the dewey team. They got along very well. I think when eisenhower realized this real pro coming from new york was telling him, we can make this work, he wasnt just a fan. He was the real machine guy. So brownell very important in getting ike to run and then making the Campaign Work and getting him in. I dont know about vetting nixon. That did come out of the eisenhower. Well, he didnt really vet eisenhower. Everyone knew he was political gold, just absolute political gold. It was getting him to say yes. That took a long time. Probably the most important figure to get him to say yes was his close buddy, general lucius clay. You have to do it or the country will go to hell. Youre the only person who can save the country. When you have enough people tell you that, hundreds did, thousands did, he began to think, may i am the person who can save the country, i will run, and never looked back. I have to ask one last question on my own. There are such colorful moments, and the personalities from that era, you are right, are just amazing. Frankly wills book is so beautifully written, his almost pulitzer winner was described as written as a novel. It was written with the art and elegance of a novel. Give us, as your parting gift to us, a little description of eisenhower and kruschev. Someone should do a oneact play. First of all, he arrives its 1959, he arrives this is the last year. Berlin crisis had been going on, sputnik has already happened. Theres a lot of blood blood in the water, kruschev is they didnt really know each other. He decides to come, eager to get an invitation, eisenhower tenders the invitation. He senses that he wants press stage, equality, to be seen on the stage of the president. Sure enough, thats what he wants. He flying the biggest plane ever made to the United States in order to talk about arriving with a bang. Its a gigantic jet that they could land at the usual place. They have to extend the airway. He steps down off of this thing, eisenhower is there, its icy at first, theyre not getting along. He says i have some gifts for you. This is an era of exchanging gifts. He pulls out a mini flag. He says tess a replica of the thing we just sent to the moon. Many of you may not know. The soviets landed a chunk a doodad on the moon. This is a way of taunting eisenhower your Space Program is a decade behind ours. Eisenhower had this plan. They were going to sit knee to knee and get rid of everybody but the translators, and say lets end the cold war. No, no, we disagree with you, and doing his usual thing. Eisenhower says, this isnt working. Ive got an idea. Lets go for a helicopter ride. And without any planning, he says get the chopper in, and he takes him on a tour and hes like, im not getting in that thing, this cant be right, it starts to soften the ice. After a number of meetings, his takes his own tour of the country, goes to l. A. She see Shirley Mcclain on the set of cancan who must have been Something Like 15. They do a song and dance number for the visiting dignitaries, 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 the bloomers with a pair of red underpants. Thats the number. The soviet delegation is appalled, disgraceful, this is capitalist garbage, an insult, and theyre about to go back to moscow. They go north on the train to san francisco, its beautiful, they have a wonderful time. They come back to washington. They he hear a concert at the soviet embassy. Eisenhower then takes them to camp david, they talk, and for a moment it looked like the cold war might soften, might find a pathway, i blame alan dulles, at least in part because of the u2 crisis, and so on. We missed a chance to maybe change the nature, because the diplomacy was so successful, the two men got along, and i think they wanted a deal, but after the u2 crisis, it was impossible. My friend will hitchcock, this is not dry history. Its a delight. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. The president s, from public affairs, available now in paperback and in ebook, presents biographies of every president , organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst, and features perspectives into the lives of our chief executives and leadership styles. To learn more about each president and historian feature, and order your copy today, wherever books and ebooks are sold. Ar tonight a look at the lives of Lady Bird Johnson and pat nixon. 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