Good friends at the Richard Nixon foundation, i would like to welcome the chairman of the board of the Nixon Foundation. Right up here on the front row. And the president of than Nixon Foundation, we will hear from in a few moments, we have many distinguished guests, many formal officials from the administration and we are honored to have you here tonight. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon then becoming first lady, under her leadership the white house collection added over 600 paintings and furnishing elements to the white house collection, which is the most of any president. The significance of this will be in tonights program, but it was very important to us here in the White House Historical association, as a core part of our mission which, as most of you know by first Lady Catherine kennedy is the private nonpartisan partners to the white house, restoration for the state rooms in the white house. The acquisition of items for the Permanent Collection as well, and for our Education Program for rooms like this where we teach and sell the stories of the white house, and its wonderful history going back to 70 the 1700s. To commemorate Richard Nixons 50th anniversary as first lady. The White House Historical association has taken an additional partnership, and here is a digital exhibit highlighting efforts to 1972 to the original french empire style, photographed documented and video footage of this project. Providing greater insight to her accomplishments as first lady, and highlight her commitment in the white house collection for future generations. This exhibit can be found on our website starting today, at white house history. Org, and soon will be available on the Nixon Foundation tonight marks the third of four episodes on our Quarterly Program for 2019. Moderated by gentlemans, and our Fourth Program will take place on october 29th, with former white house executive pastry chef the, fan favorite of everybody in this room, as well jennifer pickens, they have two new books that will be out and there she is right on cue, she will be joining us on october 29th. And and will have another program with jennifer, we advise you to be back with these presentation. Tonight everyone in this room those watching by cspan and Facebook Live are in for a real treat her role as being the first woman assigned to cover the white house. For network television, is known to everybody in this room, what may not be known or is well known is the extensive contribution to used to make to organizations the university of virginia, and many others, and i think its also very fitting to acknowledge this with tomorrow, the 18th anniversary of 9 11. During this tragic day in american history. If youd only broke asked on airports one, for the entire report, thank you for your career for particularly acknowledging that moment. We have three other distinguished guests on our panel tonight, anita mcbride, on our board of director, at the White House Historical association, and addition to being on our board of directors she chaired the presentation committee, the National Center for white house history, and where every two years we convene across the country. Well have to begin in september 2020. She is the executive president at the center for Congressional Studies and american university, anita is the leading authority on the role in history of first lady, she herself has worked for the former president and with chief of staff first lady laura bush. We have pressure is a master who is a speech writer and continues in the office of first lady for betty ford, she has a distinguished career including many years in abc. And betty mcgill and who worked for more than 30 years in the office of the curator of the white house, retiring as chief curator. Belly is a great colleague at the association, she has worked with us for many products she offered our book valuable in our book shop. I because our quarterly Scholarly Team and a master of the white house collection. We have a lovely panel to hear, for before and comes up wed like to introduce representing our probably our partner the Richard Nixon foundation, as i mentioned, is president of the Nixon Foundation. And hes teaching constitutional law at since 1975. You will recognize him as a frequent guest on many news programs, hes written extensively for the new york times, the wall street junior journal, the los angeles, times you will also be very familiar with him as the host of the National Program for six years and including assistant counsel in the white house. And as attorney general following his move remark a very brief video presentation our panelist will join us here by program, those of you on this side of the room, dont worry this podium will be removed so you will have a clear shot of our panelists and i cant and with a little bit of self promotion, our shop is open and a 30. And everybody here will get that discount on anything home with you tonight, you can finish your Christmas Shopping right here tonight, thank you very much. [applause] thank you and welcome to all of you on behalf of the Nixon Foundation. What a great first event celebrating, i want to get out of the way of experts and get them up here in a hurry. We all know the definitive biography, i am pleased to let you know that as of this friday it will be available on audio book. It was written by her daughter and granddaughter. I think he will enjoy listening to it, if you did not already read it or if you want to read it again. I was very lucky, 41 years ago, to be asked by eisenhower to drive across the country and go to work for him, after three or four months which kavanaugh knew so well. From their day serving the president. In their, there were not a lot of people around and i got to know nixon in their retirement. I didnt know anyone in california. Thanksgiving rolls around and mr. Nixon invites me to thanksgiving dinner. That was the first of many invitations. It was that first dinner, what im 22 years old and i do not know what im doing. And im surrounded by the former first lady, the former president s and she was the most incredibly gracious person to be. A youngster who had no idea what they are doing, clueless to the manners and protocol. It was only five years later, when my wife i moved back to d. C. To work for president reagan. My wifes grandmother was working in the dresden. Helen smith was working there, so i got to know her very well, we took over her grandmothers in the summers. How and would explain to me that the graciousness ive experience with mrs. Nixon was not unique to me, she was gracious to every Single Person she had ever met. In every capacity, young and small. She traveled the world relentlessly 1953 as the second lady. She set the pattern for the second lady, which was unique. When she was the first lady, she was the first lady to visit not only africa and south america, it was the first she went to china and the ussr. And every step she always insisted on seeing people, children, schools, orphanages. She wanted to get out of the diplomatic protocol and talk to people. It was there that she exhibited on behalf of america, the same kind of kindness that i experienced firsthand. [applause] wasnt sheet amazing first lady in so many ways . I want to start with pat nixon, who i covered when i arrived at the beginning of the ford administration. You had already been hired as a speech writer and Deputy Press Secretary for pat dickson. And you told me once she had a keen eye for what was appropriate, and she was very much shaped by her growing up. How hard she worked. That work ethic. It was one of those things that i think was so important about her. I have been in television, ive been in politics, ive been known a lot of people who work hard. But this one takes the cake. She really was in full for. The first thing i noticed, really my first day on the job, can you hear me back there . Was when you set something up to her that needed her input overnight, it was literally on your desk the next morning before you got in. It didnt matter if there had been a state dinner the night before, she had a job. And she treated it as such. The daytoday handling of constituents was so important to her. It was one of the first things she said to me and our job interview. She considered people to be her project. She did not want a pet cause. That just was not her. She wanted to make life better for people who came to visit the white house, who wanted to connect to their government. I used to watch her stand in some of these lines, and she was never one of these people. One of these people who shake hands and pushes the people through. You know what i mean. You can see her looking directly at the person in front of her. A meeting of minds and the taking of times to shake our hand and say a few words. She had all the energy in the world to do that, because she understood how much it meant to people to have someone who cared about them and government in washington. She felt very strongly. It spoke to how she, like all of us, who make sure that requests get filled quickly, that mail was returned quickly. She had a real thing for being able to connect with people. It was quite a gift. She used it for the presidency. It was a very rare gift. She had been the public eye for so long before she arrived to the public white house. People thought she was shy. She did not seem that way to you. She had a reserve. She was a very elegant woman. She was out of an era, the best part of an era, we dont see so much of that era anymore. She was not one that was going toi guess the going thing now is unload yourself and confide in america on whatevers going through your mind. A little bit of that goes along way, if you dont mind me saying. She was appropriate, always. She had in innate ability to be that way. It was wonderful to behold. Let me ask you, because you were present for all of this. Thank you for all you have done for the white house as curator and a Lasting Legacy that you have helped create there. We think about first ladies, the more traditional role of worrying about house and home. She felt strongly about doing more with the white house, including opening some of those doors. Very much, i think the film mentioned her tours for the blind. Julie was instrumental in participating in this as well. She was the first lady to open the grounds for garden tours in the spring and fall. Those have continued. In the christmas candlelight tours in the evening. So the public could come see the house in the heart during the holidays. The lighting of the exterior of the house, she had gotten a lot of inquiries from people talking about tours by the house in the evening. When she and the president would come in on the helicopter, they could not see the house it was so dark. Using inaugural funds from the first inauguration. She worked closely with the National Park service. And having the design plan and implement the lighting of house. That is the legacy that endures today. The idea that she brought in more works of art then any first lady. How did that moment in history happen . She and president nixon had gone to the state department and the Reception Room in 1969. She saw how beautiful those worms were, and then in 1970, a year later, she called the curator at the state department and asked if she would be willing to be the curator at the white house. He had a job at the state department. Mrs. Nixon invited him to the white house. He walked through all the rooms down to the ground for, through the private quarters. He thought about it for a few days. He decided to accept it. He was a strong supporter of this program. It had last been refurbished in the early sixties. There has been tremendous receptions and a lot of crowds in the 60s had taken place. Things needed to take shape. And he was a very energetic and and vicious person. Who knew how to raise funds and appeal to donors. Mrs. Nixon would write letters to donors and have receptions and teas for people who are potential donors or museums that might have objects such as the Dolley Madison portrait. It was hung in 1971. He was a big supporter. It was purchased for the collection. He went up to philadelphia to the Pennsylvania Academy to thank them for lending that painting. She put herself out a great deal. She worked very closely and became very attached to a consulting architect. They became very good friends. What patty said about her graciousness, we were not a part of their white house staff, but i remember once she invited her staff to go out on a yacht. She included our staff. That was very generous. We got a gift of a gilded french chair that belonged to the blue room suite. It was mrs. Nixons birthday. We invited her to our office and showed her the chair and had a little Birthday Celebration with her friends. Some of the butlers and household staff came in. There is a wonderful for picture of her with holding a placard that is you are not quite 49. She had a lot of energy and was extremely gracious. To people visiting the white house. You have worked over a period of several presidencies. You can see threads today that were begun by pat nixon. Two of these wonderful women who had the opportunity. One i would have liked to have sat with pat nixon. Because of her impact, the privilege she felt to be a steward of the white house and anybody who works in the white house sees the impact on the wall of the things they have been able to acquire. That makes a part of the Beautiful Museum and gift to the meeting that it is. I worked for several first ladies. Correspondence was important to them. One of the good things about the things about mrs. Nixon, as she came from a small town. She really understood that if somebody got an envelope from the white house, the president of the united states, what it is to receive in their mailbox, and that is what to have her mail responded to and that anyone who wrote to her would get a letter from the white house. How much that means. The fact that she took that so personally is one of her great legacies. There are people here who worked at volunteers in work with the correspondents and they know what we are talking about. And thanks to misses roosevelt, eleanor roosevelt, established the first formal Correspondence Office at the white house. She was the eyes and ears for her. She really understood what that connection to the American People would be through mail they wrote to her or the president. Talk about the threat of history. Its a really wonderful example, the connection to the constituents, you can never forget that. What that reminded me of is that she had a mindset that was almost like a member of congress. In terms of having a constituency. And the people across america where her constituency, and she understood them because she had grown up with them, she was an incredibly hardworking person. From the time she was from the time she was 13 euros old, her mother died. She was working on the farm in the morning. Taking care of her older brothers. Really raising her older brothers. Cooking for them. Went on to start working as a teenager. Sometimes holding two and three jobs. She was a professional for a very long time. And the main thing is, she understood how people felt about Something Like the white house. It was very important to her to have them feeling better about themselves and about what was going on. Opening up the white house at night and people who had day jobs could come and go look at the white house. It would give them access as well. And patty, i remember from my years, i covered seven president s, starting with gerald ford. All the way to president obama. I remember all of them, i think was Ronald Reagan who said there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you dont care who gets the credit. That was pat nixon. She lived that. She was the embodiment of that. You could see it. It was never about her. I ran into a quote, and it was a barbara bush quote. Pat nixon didnt take credit, barbara bush was not shy. Nixon didnt seek credit, which is probably why she is not as fully appreciated as she should. Because she never sought recognition for herself. Those of us who knew and mired her always wished she had gotten the appreciation that she earned over a lifetime of service. Mrs. Nixon always wanted the word to speak for itself. She didnt care about getting credit. She generally did not. You wants told me that the role of first lady adapts to the woman as much as the woman adapts. How does that work . Someday, it will be a man. That is the white house in general, throughout our history. Will the occupant adapts to the office and the office adapts to the occupant. I think nixon, like first ladies throughout our history, the thread that binds all of them together is there is no person that cares more about the president and the presidency than their spouse. That is their single focus. That is something that does bind all of them together and what they share. That is the Single Person who had experienced the ups and downs, and who at the end of the day, is not like any other adviser. They are a different confidant. And i think mrs. Nixon does not get credit for what an incredible political mastermind she was. This is the hardest working person on the president s campaign. Think about it, in six years she saw him go from congressman to senator to Vice President in six years. And in all of these campaigns, some of them that were very very difficult. 1962 for the vice presidency. With that scandal on the finances personally wounded her, so much, because it was a challenge to their integrity. Not so much a challenge to policy and projects but to their integrity. So this is a famously shy person. A quiet person. She didnt have to be the loudest voice in the room. She was wounded by that. And i can understand why. I was watching this wonderful tape that was done, and it really encapsulates everything she was about. I was watching it and thinking, i wish she could have seen. That then i thought, get a grip. She never would have let you do Something Like that. Never in 1 million years. She was much too modest to ever think about letting you do Something Like that. One thing she had not gotten adequate credit for is the pandas. Who can tell the panda story . Shes going with her husband to the breakthrough opening in china, a remarkable, really a seminal moment for American Relations and they add her to the trip, and the hairdresser. He somebody pick up the story. Shes at the state dinner, the state banquet, and theres a package of silhouette sitting there. I dont know the story. This is nixon who said we its a wonderful. He said, cigarettes . And she said no. And he said ill send you to. Thats definitely something i heard, a wonderful story, i dont know if i could share that. He told me that the actual full cigarette is an artifact that you will now have at the library and that the cartridge of that little pack of cigarettes was found. That metal pack. Thats a great way to tell a story about this incredible skill full of mrs. Nixon, and her very quiet and lovely way. And then here we have this national treasure. This national zoo with the pandas. And again, you can just imagine theres so much pressure and preparation that went into that. No president ial lady couldnt have scripted that visit, but look at the legacy it has left behind. Lucy win chester which is the secretary told me a wonderful story about the logistics of getting those pandas here to washington. I hope they do a history with lucy manchester about that. One thing that i know pertain to mrs. Nixon and is in the same subject, i think people dont realize that whether it is a state dinner or whether you are doing a foreign trip, one, thing for years, there were no jet airliners. So you can imagine what it is like going to some of these places. But the other thing is the amount of time and work that goes into making sure you are appropriate, and read the guidance, because as soon as you are sitting next to a head of, state you are talking that person on your own level and you have to know what youre talking about and what youre not supposed to be talking about. It requires a lot, you cannot founded in, you have to very conscientiously know the briefing books and make sure you can handle something along those lines. She was someone who worked very hard on that and understood the nuance of why you had to do that. There were so many things to admire this woman for and she just took it in stride. It was a part of her job and, her unpaid job, and she excelled she was comfortable talking with heads of state, very comfortable, for example. The trip that we mentioned earlier, when there was that terrible earthquake in peru. She landed in a mountain and matt the wife of the president there and they walked for five hours through the muck and everything that had been involved in that. It was something and it all happened because she read the stories to begin with and the government sent our plane with some things and three weeks later she was noticing all the coverage of it had stopped. She went to the president said, i would really like to be helpful. I would really like to do something. And within a week, she was on a plane headed for peru and she wasnt fact i had to sit in a makeshift chair in the front, because it was obviously a plane that was taking as many things as they could load up. Cargo. Exactly. The wife of the president met her and i walked through five hours through this muck. I then the rest of the day she said there were 50,000 people that died in this earthquake. And Something Like 800,000 without a home. It was wrenching and she spent the day talking with everyone that she could see and hugging them and it had this the deployments, it had this consequence. The diplomats were very nervous about it because the president of the country had gotten some overt overtures to the soviets. So is one of those moments, you didnt know which way it was going to go. By the end of the day, he had heard everything that have happened with mrs. Nixon, and how everybody adored her, and what she had gone through to actually initiate this and go over there with all of this. By the way, the p. S. To it, not even a week later the soviet sent 60 planes of materials to help these people. So is not only her own government supporting her, the irony was that it also ended up getting them more support from another country. The time that she was in the public eye were such dramatic ones. By the time they got to the white house with the civil rights movement, the war in vietnam, the womens rights movement, pat nixon walked back that careful line without getting overtly political into her husbands decisions. Yet she would stand up, she and her successor body forward would stand up and say yes, you should pass the equal rights amendment. My daughter and my kids dont even know what the equal rights amendment is. But she would talk about that, and talk about women running for office, women getting involved in politics. Remember, when they were in the white house, the ivy leagues were still all male universities. Sandra day oconnor could not get a job out of law school except for a secretarial one. How did she find the strength . How did barbara was running the office of womens issues so im going to tell your story. And you worked in the white house and you know how she worked with him in that white house office, and the departments that were there, thanks to leadership with you and armstrong that were very conscious of thiss movement and mrs. Nixon, politically astute, realized republicans or losing some ground and democrats were proposing legislation built to support women and she worked very closely with the office of womens issues and the white house to help get more appointments of women in the federal government, and as you said she spoke publicly about women. She was disappointed that was not the president s decision and discuss that pprivately. Again, that was her character and the appropriate way to do it, but she was responding to what was going on in the country. Can you come up in and join us . We have a chair up front for you. Make no mistake about it, she was what i would call quietly politically astute. She was not about to brag about what she could do were not do. She was very quiet about her sophistication in terms of doing things appropriately politically. The times she lived in worked dramatic ones, but there are some things that dont change. I covered the white house over 40 years and there have always been for every administration tension between the east and west. East wing and west wingdoes it come with the territory . It is constantly evolving. My experience with working with the east wing and west wing is that a lot of the way that this is handled, it comes with the leadership and the way mrs. Nixon comported herself and support the president and her personal interests and her character and her integrity and do what she could to be a representative of the president and of the American People. I think people respected that in the white house. It is constantly an evolving relationship between the east and west wing and in some cases it is better than others. I dont think theres any secret that mrs. Nixon was frustrated. It did not stop her from doing what came natural to her and what she felt she could do to make a contribution, so i would say my experience was mrs bush was the same way and i remember when i interviewed with her, the first thing she said is i am not here for myself, im here for george and because of george and with that, it helped me get access to the things i needed to help her help him and people knew that and for that reason we had a successful run. At some point you and others got the title assistant to the president. The highest ranking recognition in the east wing that they had a role to play. During the early days, Kate Anderson writes that no first lady had a more fraught relationship with west wing than pat because bob wanted to run everything. Patty, you came to the white house after they were gone, i think. I miss them. There were those in the administration who clearly saw how important she was. She actually wrote to the president at some point, saying that pat nixon had broken through where we failed to project a human side. Parade magazine wrote just five years ago, saying despite his reputation for being a neglecting husband, he was a sentimental partner. In march 1969, he summoned the secretary to the white house and they helped plan a Surprise Party for his wife. He was so excited he sang the entirety of happy birthday to you. Pat once told a reporter he is very dear personally. I dont think she would have stayed with him otherwise. There were other interesting voices that come up about that need to have a first lady seen as a partner and you will recognize the name roger ailes who says in a memo to mr. Haldeman, on may 4, 1970, pat nixon wrote saying, please tell the president to talk to her and smile at her and he wrote back, you tell him. She had backbone. She deftly had backbone and just a backup minute, there has to be a genesis for the word mansplaining and i think it may have originated in the west wing. Im not sure. She just continued on with what was on her agenda and did not let Bob Halderman deter her or even slow down. She was gracious as always and did what she thought she should do. I think in the early 1970s, it is hard to imagine now, but there was a white house east wing press corps of women that covered the first lady and it was a very different time. They looked at it much more as a traditional manner, so her press secretary you can speak to that. It was very gradual. In the beginning, just a core of maybe four or five women. She started doing international trips. But remember, she already had done 53 foreign trips. That is unbelievable. She may have been the most prepared woman first lady that there has ever been in history. She had so much experience at a young age and was very confident of the things she needed to do and could enhance the position and also enhance the i was going to say the acceptance of her constituents. And the presidency. Stature of the role. Pat nixon, so many of you involved with the Nixon Foundation come up are going to open this up into questions and just a moment and i want to ask all three of you, did pat nixon come back to the white house . Did she come to visit once they left and went back, or did she leave that behind . I dont recall that she ever came back to the white house. Another first lady did and i would give her a lot of credit for her graciousness to mrs kennedy. I think it was 1971 when two portraits were completed and mrs. Nixon wrote to mrs onassis asking what she would like to do at a ceremony and she wrote back that she was not up to a ceremony, so mrs. Nixon invited mrs. Kennedy and they the house was locked down that day when mrs onassis was coming back. Nobody could enter into the east wing and they invited kennedy to look at portraits and locations they would be hung. They showed the children the rooms and then were invited to a lovely private dinner and i thought that was one of the most gracious things they couldve done at that time to preserve mrs onassisprivacy and give her the one time she ever came back. She wrote the most touching and beautiful letter you could imagine, saying that the nixons had made the day she most dreaded a wonderful experience for her and her kids and it would bring a tear to your eyes to see this letter. She was also very complementary to mrs nixon about how the white house had been improved and she said there were no dark corners anymore in the white house and she had done a beautiful job and she also complemented their ability raising the two lovely daughters they had and she said to raise the young women in the public eye is a very difficult thing to do. Theres a portrait of pat nixon. Tell us about that. It is an extremely beautiful portrait and it was painted in 1978. She went out there to paint her in the house and it came to the white house. But i have a note that she sent to julie about her impression of her mother while she was painting this portrait and i would like to read a little bit because i think it is so beautifully captures who mrs. Nixon was. She says her mother has eyes that are like no one elses. The eyes reveal an unusual spirit. They are the eyes of the 16yearold girl with great sweetness and in that expression, occasionally the doors closed and the lights go out. But there is a wistful and missed your mothers beauty. Always the feeling of something beyond, desire for the unobtainable. She has maintained a fragile beauty about her life. When she looked out the window, at the humingbird, i liked the expression then in her eyes, she still will be despite injustice. I thought that was a beautiful tribute. Ladies and gentlemen, lets hear from you. We have a microphone. Can we break in bring a microphone . You talked about mrs. Nixons support of womens rights. Back in 1972 at the Republican National convention, they had a Platform Committee for Public Policy and for the first time it had to be 50 men and 50 women. The majority for women wanted to do something about childcare and support things financially. The majority of men did not want to they got very far as the all of a sudden, all of the tension went away and they supported it, funding for federal childcare and i asked why . People just looked at me and said the east wing said it was time. This is a lively crowd. Thank you. Your story about the collection is amazing, is there another one you would care to share with us . Maybe about an acquisition . What was your favorite