D. C. E here in washington, at the northwest corner of the new, president ial memorial for dwight d. Eisenhower. Starts about 1000 miles west of washington, d. C. In abilene, kansas. Inle eisenhower was born texas, his family moved back to kansas when he was just a toddler. He stay there through high school. I wanted direct your view to speech that is inscribed in this wall in the memorial. When world war ii ended, eisenhower came home and was given a heros welcome, and in a humble way, he started talking butt not that he was a hero what you dreamed of doing when he was a young boy in abilene, kansas. And ended with the proudest thing i can claim is that im from abilene. I come here first, to thank the proudest thing i can claim is that i am from abilene. [applause] that first paragraph of that speech was a primary inspiration for the designer of the memorial, frank gary. He has expressed that here in this statue of Young Eisenhower as a teenage boy, sitting on a stone block, looking in the direction of two of his greatest accomplishments, president of the United States and Supreme Commander of the allied expeditionary forces. The stone comes from spain. All of the stone in the malarial and the memorial is limestone. He is capped lifesized in italy by the sculptor sergei i slandbekov. Young ike was the last to arrive and was recently installed in may. There is a photograph of eisenhower, teenage boy, wearing bunch ofe with a friends sitting there. I think they were camping is what they were doing. That was the photo that kept coming back up to the front when gary went when looking for the photo he wanted to encapsulate this young man. One of the things we found as we went through the review Agency Process was that everybody really liked that you had a kid memorialized here. That for a young person to come to a memorial and he ca heroic nine foot sculpture, and here they are four feet tall, we are hoping when they come here, they can see someone there size and think, i wonder how he did that. I wonder who he was. And it will spark curiosity to learn more about eisenhower and his youth, and later his career. Cannot find a site in washington dc that is more suited for Dwight Eisenhower to have a memorial. Bys square is surrounded health and human services, which used to be called health, education, and welfare, started during th eisenhower administration. Apartment of education behind you, started during the eisenhower administration. The federal aviation administration, again, started during the eisenhower administration, and the jewel in the crown if you will, the aerospace museum, and of course nasa, which began during the eisenhower administration. It is perfectly suited for ike. As we walk into the memorial from this corner, we have a call them here that has five stars, which was the insignia for general eisenhower, and the other fivestar generals during world war ii. When the legislation was passed in 1999, they created the memorial commission, unique to commission. Unique to this was that it was not only to be called as a president but as the Supreme Commander of the allied expeditionary force. This is 10 feet in diameter and clad in the same limestone from spain that recognizes this role that he had as a fivestar general and commander of all of the forces in europe in world war ii. Columns onight giant this site. Two of them anchors the corner of the site, freestanding. This one, in recognition of the general, and the one on the far opposite corner, which has the profile of eisenhower from the Silver Dollar profile that everyone has probably seen, and also his first inaugural coin that says 34th president of the United States. The other six columns support the tapestry, and we can talk about them in a little bit. We are walking into the center of the memorial, and it is in the center of a four acre park. D. C. , there are a lot of government buildings. The mall is a block to the north. So this is giving people who live and work in d. C. , and to come here as tourists, a nice cooling place to sit down, get off of their feet, have a bottle whenter, just relax, and they are ready, proceed into the center of the memorial, the contemplative area. While we are here, we should stop for a minute and look at the view of the capital. We are in the middle of maryland avenue. Maryland avenue and pennsylvania avenues in sister the plan for d. C. , and preserving them in their original intent was important. Pennsylvania avenue was developed with a little more discipline than maryland avenue was. Capital,t was from the you could look all the way to the potomac down maryland avenue and from the capital all the way to the white house down pennsylvania avenue. Int didnt quite happen maryland avenue, the building lines arent like they are elsewhere. So preserving the plane was important, and gary has done this in greenway, which is a different kind of grass you see on the side. It is mowed grass, and there is a granite strip that commemorates the original maryland avenue. It is frankly one of the few places in the city where you can stand in the middle of a street and not get hit by a car, and enjoy the view of the capital both daytime and nighttime. Entering the center of the memorial. This was really the contemplative area. This is the place where we are hoping you will stop and think about eisenhower, learn a little bit more about him. There are audio tours that are podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, that will tell you indepth what you are seeing and the idea behind it. Theres an idea with the designer, frank gary, and he talks about the tapestry. Then you will understand his concept and how he eventually developed this memorial. Over here, we have the recognition of eisenhower as supreme allied commander. This sculpture or grouping is inspired by a very famous photo taken on the eve of the day. Dday. Eisenhowers speaking to the hundred and fourth airborne. It was anticipated they would have a 70 or higher casualty rate. There, found some of the 100 first airborne, and the story goes that he wanted to know if anyone was from kansas. One of the soldiers do not represent any particular people, but some of the original soldiers in the group say he is holding a hand that way because he was talking about flyfishing. May or may not be sure, but that it may or may not be true, but that is the story. All of these paratroopers, they gear they had to have with them when they drummed they jumped, had to be strapped to their bodies. These straps, some hold ammunition and some hold the things they needed to survive, because they were going to be dropped behind the lines. And there is eisenhower with the famous eisenhower jacket, the shorter cut off at the waist. Wanted you tog i look at is how young some of the soldiers are. The two on the outside of this grouping of four look very young. It is a reminder that these soldiers that were going on the invasion the next day, a lot of them were just kids. Here inis reflected this sculpture. A thatm, there is et 15 feet high and 35 fe long, and on it is carved an approach to normandy. On the top right, the normandy coast line, the cliff there, the americans were going in at omaha and utah beaches. Omaha had some high bluffs they had to overcome. Then, you will see some of the landing crafts approaching. This was also done by the dbekov. R sergei islan it is also spanish limestone and bar. There is a giant lentil that the askew on top of release, and that messages from the dday address that every , werer, airmen and seamen given on the day. This is one of the sentences from its, the tide has turned, the freemen of the world are marching to victory. These sculptures were produced in italy using the same method they have been producing sculptures there for centuries. That is called the lost wax project. The sculptor makes a clay model and that is covered in kind of a is cutd then the wax into pieces off of the clay model. Plaster is put around the wax model to keep it from moving , to stabilize it. Then, that goes off to the foundry, and the foundry takes that wax impression of the statues and creates another wax impression using a very, hard black wax. That black wax is then encased likeother form of flurry, a ceramic flurry, both inside and outside. That goes into an oven, and temperature is turned up. The wax melts out, and into the poured. He hot bronze is that is where the statues then absolutely resemble the first wax impression that was made. It is done in various pieces, not all at once. Hen, they are reassembled these were all shipped here, took about a month at sea in container, and then installed with rods that are 18 inches long, embedded into the stone and concrete base. Now, we will walk over here and see the president ial side. The 50s think they talk about it like it was this tranquil time, but it was actually a dangerous time in the world. Europe was ravaged as a result of world war ii, communism was spreading, eisenhower had just left to run for president , being the First Military commander of nato, and he was trying to unify the military forces there, so they could prevent another war from breaking out in that part of europe. Approach fors running for president , and hes not really interested in politics, never voted, doesnt think military people should be partisan. The republicans visit him, and he is hesitant about running, but also worried america will slip into isolationism, so he agrees to run. Candidate inin some states, a drafted candidate and others. He goes into the Republican Convention with most people believing taft was going to win, and he emerges with the republican nomination. So he is now presiding over an america in time where the korean war is going on. The 1950s were actually a dangerous time in the world, very unstable. Europe was trying to reunify and rebuild, eisenhower came into office, and in the korean war, the korean war, and then built on the postworld war ii economic coverage of america. He thought americans were is up were exhausted. They needed peace and prosperity but that was not just going to happen. That would only happen if america was strong, so we started to build up and keep a Permanent Military establishment. In this imagery here, you see eisenhower and three aids. One is a military aid and two our civilian aides. This is again to remind us that eisenhower always had to hold , peace and freedom get the power for america to defendant self and its allies defend itself and its allies. He said that not one soldier was one in battle, not foot of land was lost in war, and that not just happen. Think wele, again, cruised through the 1950s, but the 90 peace was a dangerous time. A but the 1950s was dangerous time, and eisenhower oversaw america as it emerged into the world leader that it now was from where it had been prior to world war ii. So you have the military advisor representing americas permanent role in the world, and here you have two civilians, one of whom is an africanamerican, and eisenhower is often overlooked in the civil rights struggle while he was president he had enacted the first civil rights legislation since reconstruction. He also desegregated the district of columbia and completed what truman began as the desegregation of the military. Factor thatresting ties these two sides together is that after the round versus board of education decision, in arkansas and little rock, they were using to carry through with the order to integrate the schools. Eisenhower brought the 101st airborne, not the same people but the same unit you see there, to little rock, to enforce the law. This cultural grouping is representing. Behind them, we have a map of the world. That is to represent eisenhowers international standing. He lived in panama all. He lived in the philippines, in england, was the postwar governor of europe. Eisenhower probably understood the world outside of the United States better than any president we have had, and part of that was due to his military career. And then at this, which sits , we have anlocks excerpt from his second inaugural address. We look upon this shaken earth and declare our firm and fixed purpose, the building of a peace with justice in world where moral law prevails. On the back of both of these the texts some of from eisenhowers more powerful speeches that he gave. On the back of the president ial block, we have an excerpt, a lengthy excerpt, from his first inaugural address. Next to its, we have what most people probably remember about eisenhowers speeches, which is the farewell address. Almostit here in it entire context, so people can read what he said about the militaryindustrial establishment, and they can decide for themselves what he was really meaning by that. His farewell address is very similar to the kind of farewell address washington gave when he left office, and doing that was inspired by Eisenhower Eisenhower was inspired by washingtons farewell address to do that. Here to theg over back of the general side, which has the guildhall address on it. It was a speech eisenhower gave when he was given free range of the city to london, which he called the key to the city. Addressvery poignant and begins by saying humility bust must be the of many men whose fame is earned in the blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends. Humbleally beautiful, prose, by this man greeted as a conquering hero. He went on to talk about the suffering that mothers and wives and children had, because they did not have husbands or fathers returning. Are 4600 and carved letters on the back of both of these blocks. Moved back now along independence avenue. So we can get a full view of the most distinctive view of the eisenhower memorial, this massive tapestry. Of 600pestry consists panels of woven, stainless steel cables representing a design, which in this case is in normandy, france. Originally, garys image for this was a landscape from kansas, but as the design evolved, the image on the tapestry evolved as well. Dronek photos with the but they did not translate to this medium well. Drew it,y sat down and and sketched it out. This sketch is in fact what is represented on the tapestry. Some small, fine wire, three lairs of it in different directions, and on top of that, is an art wire, a thicker, heavier art wire, as many as six players sometimes, which creates the design. If you go to the website eisenhowermemorial. Gov, there is an interview with the man who came up with the methodology to create this and massproduce these panels. Our first sample took three months to produce. Obviously we couldnt make 600 panels of each one took three months, and thomas was the one that figured it out. So lets walk closer to it, and you can see the design as we get closer. Under littapestry is at night. It comes on about dusk, and as you can see, the wires kind of glow. One of the interesting things about this tapestry is that it looks different at every time of day when you come here. If it is a sunny day, overcast as, sometimes adjust service a screen between the department of education and the memorial. You cant really tell the design. Offr times, the son glints of it. Every time you visit this memorial, you see Something Different on that tapestry. Beams thative support the tapestry and hold it in place. Columns and those columns on the end our doing all of the work of holding one tapestry in tension. When we went by the two columns, the columns on the northwest corner, and there is one on the northeast corner, they are the size they are because these columns were structurally designed to support the tapestry. They are the same size for that purpose. We walk around behind the back and see how it looks, because some of the panels have art wires on the front, and some of them have them on the back. In the daytime, this reads blue skyll with the behind it. In fact, sometimes it is invisible from the other side, but they are lit black because they are lit from the backside. Its like an almost entirely different tapestry from this side. So from the time this was an idea, how long has it taken for this memorial to get here . Victoria the legislation for the commission was passed in 1999. There are four senators, four members of the house of representatives, and four president ial appointees, equally balanced republicans and democrats. Over the years, people have had to leave, commissioners have had. O retire, have died we have four that have been there from the beginning, but in about 2014, senator pat roberts took over the chairmanship, and that was transformational for moving the project forward and getting it done. 2009,as selected in submitted his first design in 2010, and we went through many iterations with reviewing, which is a requirement in washington dc, before this final design was approved. The park service issued the building permit, congress provided the funds, and construction started in november of 2017. The building process was about 30 months. Philip how much do Something Like this cost . Victoria the total project for the 20 years of the commission was about 150 million. Most of that are federal funds. Are traditionally undertakings of the people, unlike a lot of the memorials in washington, started by a nonprofit. That,ss grants land for they privately raise the money, and build the memorial. The seven president ial memorials in d. C. Had principally been paid for by federally appropriated dollars. In this case, we raised 15 million in private funds for the project. The Construction Cost is about 80 million, and the rest of it is getting the design, the land, getting what we call the soft costs that go along with the project. Our history is told in many different ways in america, and one of the ways it is told is through memorials and monuments, particularly in washington, d. C. We have Educational Programs that will be on the National Park service website, that will be hosted by the Eisenhower Foundation in abilene, kansas, and will have a lot of teaching resources. Say who over here and are those guys . And what is that giant stainless steel thing over there . Then you listen to the audio tours, maybe here in a student group, listen to your teacher, and you go away and learn about a guy that came from abilene, kansas. His family was not well known, wasnt rich, figured out how to get a College Education by going to west point, and went on to serve his country for the rest of his life, until he retired after he retired from the presidency in 1960. It is an american it is a great story, an american story. Philip, a quote from your review, near the beginning, you say over the past decade in almost every step from the Design Competition to the Ground Breaking in 2017, the project was dogged by controversy. Why is that . Philip i think there were two reasons. One is the reason one reason is that the idea proposed was unlike any other memorial in washington or any other memorial in the world. It was challenging people on an aesthetic level. The other is that eisenhower is not so far from our current moment. Time, there was still a son of eisenhower alive. So the family and some of the former president s intimates were still involved. An argument played out among them on what was the appropriate way to honor eisenhower. We have a hearing from 2012 in cspans Video Library where susan eisenhowers arguing pretty strongly against this. They want to start all over again. [video clip] symbolism will play a nine nine vital role in capturing the we have heard for many people who have objections to the metal mesh tapestries. Commissions references to this ancient tradition, modern tapestries have generally been found in the commonest world communist world. Philip so after gary was selected and there was submitted a proposal for how he would do the memorial for the family, mainly led by susan eisenhower, the president s granddaughter, took exception to it and worked vigorously. With ained forces conservative group that was interested in keeping memorials and buildings in washington in a very conservative idiom. They did a lot of research and raised questions about the process on where it was chosen but also robust criticism. Susan supported a lot of that criticism. The tsa has a represent reputation of protecting the taxpayer and the park service has a history of maintaining our national heritage. But on occasion, circumstances can conspire to produce a real mess. This seems to be one of those instances. Congress can act to clean it up and eisenhower deserves it. Philip often, she couched her concern as concerns of others that might be a problem. Others may think this. Basically, she says it was , and this might be look at as a billboard or fence. And it recalls earlier chapters of 20th century history. Even the idea of auschwitz and the soviet union was brought up. Her rhetoric was careful to say , i think this. She directly said that she did not like the design and they should go back to the drawing board. In your article, you write, admiringly, of the 91yearold frank gehry. Tell us a little about him. Philip i think he was probably the most famous architect of the past halfcentury. He is a canadian born architect living and working as a u. S. Citizen in the u. S. And served in the u. S. Military. Coming from the west coast. So he broke with many sacred 20th century ideas about modernist architecture, and his most famous building is a museum in bilbao, spain, which changed the course of architecture forever. It is an astonishingly sculptural combination of volumes in a shiny, titanium steel. It was unlike anything else that had been made, up until then, and it charted a new course for architecture. To some degree, it gave him he was anon that architect with one trick in his portfolio, but he subsequently has been an architect of astonishing versatility and creativity. This memorial is unlike any memorial that we have seen before, and unlike his other building, it is new and different. How did he win over the family and some of his critics . Philip that has been a long process. Gehry has a reputation of being one of these starkichect. Soning an architect that was powerful in his Creative Vision went right over critics. There was a famous moment in the simpsons where gehry appears, and he is asked to sign design a library. He crumbles it up and throws it away, it lands on the sidewalk, and he thinks genius. The design fors this building, this crumpled piece of paper. Thats his popculture reputation. Its a quite unfair reputation for gehry. Gehry, as an architect, does architects do, which is to marshall a lot of forces and creative types, a lot of different clients. People that have an interest in how this project comes out. To get them on the same page and come up essentially with a compromise. That is what he did in the case of the memorial for eisenhower. He kept at it. He kept working with the design oversight groups in washington and working with the family. And there were several meetings, some went well. Eventually, after making some substantial changes to the design, including removing some of the tapestries and moving the sculptures around and changing the symbolism, he got the family on board. He now cites that as one of his happiest accomplishments in the whole come along, protracted struggle to get the memorial built. What about the role of the commission in congress . It seemed at one point this was going to be defunded. Philip it effectively was defunded. They removed the money for construction. For a while, the commission, although a although it kept its doors open, it was at a standstill. Congress does not really do a good job at these sort of things. If you bring a crisis to congress, they may get involved. Especially some opportunists. They may see a moment to put their foot forward and get thats mainly happening behind the scenes. Congress eventually refunded it and ground was broken, and now it is set to open. You visited several times. Tell us your thoughts about it, now that it is done. Philip it is unlike any memorial in washington or in the world. Its defining feature is an in normas come along, mental tapestry. Metal tapestry. An enormous, long tapestry. This is more like a park that has been designed in a hard, urban, problematic space. It added some greenery that people dont much love. It is about eisenhower, but more about the kind of generosity of public space. I like this memorial, because it comes to the emotional core of its message. Kind of through roundabout ways. One of the striking things and controversial things about the memorial was the idea of including this figure of a boy eisenhower. It kind of spectator of the mans career, and that has taken on a number of meanings and even in some ways purposes over time. In one of the earlier iterations of the memorial, the figure of between ike,sat in the general who won the campaign, and iq, the president to lead the free world, and he seems to be looking out at his options, pondering his future. In the course of the design, that little statue got moved aside and now it looks on from a distance. A lot of things changed about the message. Now, it looks almost to be a memory that eisenhower is adult as an adult had from his past. As if this part of childhood was never quite erased but it has been pushed far to the side of consciousness. A child at this point is quite remote. I find that quite touching, and a message that has not been incorporated into any other memorial that i can think of. During the day, the design of the tapestry gets a little bit lost. Its not quite prominent to appear without shadow defining it. When the light turns on at night, the entire space becomes electric. The drawing on the tapestry which is gehrys own drawing, of the cliffs in normandy, becomes alive and dark and abstract. It is a really dynamic drawing. The statue group that stands in front of this, it stands out because its like a theatrical scrim. And they are addressing the stage and addressing you. The lighting on them puts them into the shadows. Its a wonderful sense of drama. It is a memorial to go to at sundown and then stay for the next hour or so is the color of the sky changes in the color of the stone changes, and eventually lights come on and becomes this dynamic, electrical space. One other thing you write about is the question, is this one of the last great men memorials in washington . At an we are interesting moment in the way we memorialize. We have had radical memorials, very successful memorials like my linsky maillot linsky. Hadnt mia linsky. Its not a matter of whom we memorialize or the style of memorial, or the message. More broadly, we are beginning to think about whether we want to memorialize people in the same tradition and same great men tradition we have done for so long. Thehave to remember that United States, in the beginning of our history, we were conflicted about the idea of memorials. A guy in the horse, the man on the throne, these belong to do a different culture. A democracy needed a different way of thinking about its past. One idea was not to think about the past but merely the same things that people focused on but to create living memorials and essentially do the work of collective action, rather than get lost in the perpetual perpetual is asian of these dead figures. I think we might be at a point in our history with black lives movement and two movement, and with a much more proactive set of politics on the street that it may be the direction we go. What are your predictions about how tourists will respond to this . Philip if you look at how memorials in washington when an audience, it takes some years. Warmemorial to the vietnam took a while before it became the those beloved memorial in washington. I think there will be a lot of questioning about how it looks at the beginning. Whether eisenhower is the right figure at this moment to be memorialized. In the long run, the greenness of the space, the amazingness of this phase, the amazing view of the capital, i think those are going to be the things that people love. And i think we will return to it with a sense of gratification. Philip kennicott, thank you for talking to us. Philip thank you for talking to thinking of me. Since 1790,years the u. S. Government set out to record data about the population. The count is mandated by the u. S. Constitution, and the 24th census of 2020 currently underway. Reelht on our series, america, a selection of films from the u. S. Census ash on the u. S. Census. Here is a on the u. S. Census. Here is a preview. In 80 million mayor boxes across the usa , help us plan the way can we count on you . You can count on me. Can we count on you you can count on me. Help your government get equal representation and assure jobs are there for health care, education, and more. All of your answers are kept confidential by law. Can we count on you . You can count on me. Can we count on you . You can count on me. Together we will see it through and were counting on you and through the senses, were counting on you just au. S. Census isnt population count, it helps allocate federal, state, and local funds see your community for things like hospitals, and daycare centers. So take a few minutes and answer it. It counts for more than you think. Headquarters of the bureau of the census is just outside of washington, d. C. Meet an optical sensing device for input to computers. This microfilm is fed into this optical device. Singleame of the film, a sentence report sheet, stops for a fraction of a second while the machine scans it. The 1960 census is the first to use this and does the job that an earlier census requires the services of 2000 [inaudible]. Now the tapes are into the computers, along with others, which tell us what to do with the information. Noises] this april 1, we take the National Pulse for the 19th time in our history. Home,ng out to american for the separate statistics that will add up to a fulllength profile of the nation. The census has been handed down to us by the founding others as part of the constitution. We have preserved it over the years is one of our most useful legacies. Keeping check of where we are and where we are going is still our common purpose in the census. It, hey. It, we did what did you do . We helped mommy fill out our census form, and we mailed it back. But why . Because everybody comes in the census form, especially little kids. How houses get important things in our town like daycare centers, schools, and more. We did it. The 2010 census, you can count too. Learn more about the senses tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern, 7 00 pacific, here on American History tv. Youre watching American History tv, every weekend on cspan3. Explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television company as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend and all of our programs are archived on our history. T cspan. Org you can watch lectures in college classrooms, archival films, and see our upcoming programs. Thats at cspan. Org history next on the civil war, historians and the green medford and vernon discussed the debate over removing confederate monuments and memorials and talk about how we remember slaveholders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in the way he memorializes the Founding Fathers differs from confederates. President lincolns comment posted this discussion and provided the video. Unique in thatot we will focus our conversation confederatef iconography, monuments, and memorials, but it is unique in that this is not just a conversation in response to recent events but the killing of on