Working on president kennedy that mrs. Kennedy walked into the operating room in the emergency area and took out a piece of his skull and offered it to the doctors and said, would this be of any help . Of course by then it was too late. Lets interrupt just a moment here. Yeah. Because julian parallels what you are saying with where he was and what was happening in the limousine as well. Can you overlap what sid was talking about . Then we will go back into Parkland Hospital. My memories are similar to sids. I was in the same White House Press bus. I was up in the front of it. When we heard the shots we had to decide what to do with the bus. I talked with to driver with another assistant press secretary who was on the bus with us. We decided the only thing to did was to go to we had thousands of people out there wait forth the president and they didnt know what happened. We might have to point out something about when this happened of course no one on the bus had any concept what had occurred. I would remind you this was before the dave cell phones. The only persons who are any outside communications were one person in the pool who had a radio telephone. Merriman smith, Merriman Smith who broke the story. With united press. Thats right. We didnt know what happened but knew something terrible happened we took the bus out the trade mart. I jumped out of the bus and all the guys ran for the pay phones. Thats when we had rows of pay phones in front of public buildings. They rushed to the public phones. And i rushed to the podium. The chairman was up on the podium. And i rushed in to him and said mr. Johnson, something terrible something terrible happened. We think the president and mr. Conley have been shot. He stared down at me seemed like forever, he said i think we will wait for a few moments, and then he turned and asked for a prayer. Luther holcomb. He was supposed to do the invocation, instead he ended up doing a prayer. I immediately rushed out. Incidentally i will tell you when i walked in the hall or ran into that hall the measuremer of 3,000 people who were waiting for the president and mrs. Kennedy to walk in tea minute it was erie when i knew they didnt have a clue what had happened. I ran into a friend outside. I commandeered her and her car to get me to Parkland Hospital. I got there in just a few minutes. It is not very far there. I saw an indoor i saw an in door. I was astounded there was no security, nobody in sight. I went in the in door which was wide open and found a nurse and asked her to take me to mrs. Conley. She took me to mrs. Conley, who inside a dark hallway. Two women had two straight chairs across the hall from one another. Mrs. Conley and jackie on the other. Neither spoke a word. I knew that the press would be crawling all over us shortly. I knew malcolm would represent the president. But i also knew they would want to know about governor conley. He was in the operating room. They started surgery on him. Were those chairs outside the operating area. Yes, there was trauma one and frahma two across the hall from one another. The president was in trauma one, mr. Connolly was in trauma 2. Norma told me what the seating arrangement was. We sketched out the seating arrangement. In the limousine in thats right. I ran down and found malcolm and we set up a temporary press room quickly in the nurses training room and malcolm got up, made the announcement that the president was dead. And i got up immediately after him and drew on the blackboard the sketch of the seating as reported to me by nellie. Okay. Larry . I think it might be instructive to tell about the shooting from the standpoint of John Connolly. Hes not here to do it for himself. But i can repeat the story he told, julian, told ben, told me. As julian said, the seating arrangement was in that limousine, on the right side in the regular seat was president kennedy. On the left side was mrs. Kennedy n. A jump seat right in front of the president was John Connolly, in front of the first lady was Nellie Connolly. The governor said when he heard the shot he said i have been around guns all my life. It never occurred to me that it was a backfiring of an automobile. I knew it was a gun shot because i have known gunshots all of my life. And he said when he heard the shot, he turned to his right to see president kennedy. And he couldnt see anything. And he turned around to his left so he could see president kennedy. And about that time the went into his back, out his chest, he turned it splintered and went into his leg. It was powerful bullet that did all of that. Then nellie grabbed him and pulled him over in her lap and bent over him to protect him. And the doctor says that he had a sucking wound and had she not done that air would have gotten in the wound and he would have died before he got to the hospital. So that was the story about the shooting from his standpoint. Fascinating in that sense, now, but coming back to Parkland Hospital, where the two of you were located at that time, and the announcement was made that the shooting had occurred and the president was dead, then the president how long was it before president johnson then moved toward air force one . Because at that moment he in effect was the president of the United States. Well, back up just a second. Malcolm, when he came into the nurses training room to make the announcement had just talked to president johnson downstairs in the emergency room area. And he said, mr. President , i have to tell the press that john f. Kennedy is dead. At that point, kilduff realized that he might have been the first person to call Lyndon Johnson mr. President. And he said the president was taken aback when he said mr. President , and he paused, i have to do this. Johnson said firmly and without hesitation, mack, i dont think you ought to make the announcement until i leave the hospital with mrs. Johnson. We dont know if this is a communist conspiracy. Give me a few minutes to get out of here back to love field and then you can make the announcement. So they waited three or four minutes so the car could get away and the president was safe going to love field. Then malcolm, eyes full of tears stood up at the microphone. He was the assistant press secretary. Io this younger person who had never handled anything of this enormity is now in charge of making the announcement that the president of the United States is dead. So he opened his mouth and tried to talk, and nothing came out at first. And then he said, president john f. Kennedy died today at 1 00 Central Standard time. He was he was killed by a bullet to the brain. I have nothing further to say. At this point, all hell broke loose. It was chaos in there. We all ran for telephones. I had demand eared a phone earlier so i had a phone to go to. I ran out and made the announcement. I will backtrack for just a second. This is not a self serving statement but i think something you ought to know about people in the press. While we were waiting to get the announcement of president kennedys death, i had been in that same nurses area during near that training room waiting for this briefing to take place and some of my friends my friends from washington were talking to two priests. One of them was father oscar hubert. As i recall, he was about 67 years old and he was the parish priest in the Parkland Hospital area, our neighborhood. And just as i got over there to hear what he was telling the reporters, i heard him say, hes dead all right, i gave him the last rites. And i told mrs. Kennedy that i thought his soul had not yet left list body. I ran back to my phone, i talked to my boss, jim schneider. And i said, can you keep me off the air for a second, i have got to tell you something. They cut me off the air. I said, jim, there is a priest here who says president kennedy is dead. And i hear a gasp at the other end. He said what do you want to do . I said what do you want to do . We talked. We both agreed it was too person. We would figure that father hubert would know what a dead person looked like but we were deal with the president of the United States. And we decided to keep it to have air until the official announcement. If you are a reporter the congenital thing you want to do is break the story. The other end of it, the dreadful saying yourself the president is dead. The other side of it, shouldnt we get more defining detail . All of these things went through my mind. But we held it. We didnt do anything until we had it on the air. I bring that up because i dont think that would happen today. I think the press is a lot different today than it was then. But we did hold it. Then it was like an eternity waiting formal come kilduff coming to make the announcement. Seemed like hours yet it was only a minute and a half, maybe. Most people relate the announcement that the president was dead to walter kron kite on cbs. Anybody know how he got that word. The wire service. I think he got Merriman Smiths bulletin. Just to Say Something about Merriman Smith. Those of you in the room, gwen gibson and joon crisp and some of these people who know these reporters. Merriman deserves some comment somewhere along the line. He got a Pulitzer Prize. He was one of the greatest reporters who ever lived. He covered roosevelt, truman. He was a genius. He had a radio phone. In those days we had a phone assigned to the press pool. This is the pool, representing television, radio a television reporter, a radio reporter, a wire service reporter. It rotated. I was in it going to fort worth. Matter of fact when i was chosen to be the pool man i didnt want to be the poolman that it was peer points turn and there was an argument whether i was going to be on air force one. Merriman smith was a reporters reporter. He was magnificent in his reporting of it. He had the telephone, the one phone. He always sat up in the middle front seat of the pool car, which was usually a ford, not a big car. The first thing he would do when we got into a city, no matter what city, no matter how dull the story, smitty always got the telephone and we used to laugh at him because he would say we are going on mass boulevard, on main street, and there is a traffic light, we laughed at him, he believed that telephone belonged to him. He also believed air force one belonged to him. When dallas hit, he has the telephone, the story of the century, his chief competitor sitting behind him, the guy from Associated Press what is dying a Million Deaths because smithy has that phone and not only did he not let go of it. Not only did he tell what happened he couldnt have something fresh happen all the time, he would say to the office, he was dictating to the united press here in dallas, now repeat what i just told you. And the guy in the back seat is dying. So they started there were various stories about it that there was a big fight between the ap and the upi. A friend of mine says it was more of a tussle. But the guy in the back seat had the disadvantage because he couldnt wrest that phone out of smittys hand and smitty won a pil Pulitzer Prize for what he did. They are all great reporters. Lets jump to the famous photograph of lbj with his hand raised, the judge hughes administering the oath of office. You were there on the plane, i think in you said you were the only one still alive. I am the last surviving one of the three in the pool till alive. All the people in that picture are gone except for bill moiiers. I want to get the how he dot there in just a few moments. Bill was in austin when the shooting took place. Brooks is gone, thomas is gone. They are all gone. All these people. Describe how that picture took place. What happened . I was on the air broadcasting the president s at the time when the White House Travel Office person grabbed by my suit collar from behind. He said i had to go with him. I said i am not leaving damity, i am on the air. He said we need a pool. I said it is peer points turn. Grab him. I mean we are arguing over covering the biggest story of the century. But i did go. They had an Unmarked Police car waiting for us. They said we are going out to air force one. We took off doing 60 to 70 miles an hour through dallas over curbs, driveways, however this Police Officer could get there, trying to get to air force one back to washington. Got to the airport and mrs. Kennedy just arrived with the casket. They were putting the casket onto the aircraft and they had to carry it up the incline of the rear stairs. It is a 7 07, a big airplane. It was a brandnew airplane. They designed the colors the colors you see on air force one today is designed by mr. And mrs. Kennedy. They had to knock handles off the casket so they could get it in the airport. They managed to get this thing in there. I went around the side of the airplane with Merriman Smith and Chuck Roberts and climbed in from another side of the aircraft coming from the front end of the plane went back to the mid ships and i saw mrs. Johnson and president johnson in there with a group of people and president johnson was talking to marie famer his secretary. I talked to marie and they said they were trying to get a judge from downtown to come out and do the swearing in. Mrs. Kennedy was in the rear with the casket. Marie told me when the president arrived on the aircraft, which was maybe 15 minutes, no more than that, than mrs. Kennedys arrival. The first thing he did was he asked for a hot cup of vegetable soup. And he said to marie, i have lived a year since this morning. And then he told her, and i overheard him tell her that i would like for you to go and ask mrs. Kennedy if she will stand with us at the swearing in. And marie went back and talked to mrs. Kennedy or sent a message back, yes, i will come, but i want a few minutes to compose myself. And so we waited. By this time, the room was stifling hot, probably 120 degrees. We hadsitting under the hot sun and only one engine was running to keep the electronics going. It was probably a few minutes before mrs. Kennedy appeared in the doorway. Thats when the sobbing the quiet sobbing by the Young Kennedy staff. You have to understand these were young people in their 20s and 30s who had made the long march to the campaign, made him president , they had gone through the bay of pigs and the cuban missile crisis and he was their hero and now he was gone. And the satness of this scene was evident on the faces of these young women with the mascara streaking their cheeks as they were waiting for mrs. Kennedy. And once she came into the room, the crying became almost unbearable among everyone. The sobbing was just unbelievable. Was mrs. Kennedy crying . Was Jackie Kennedy crying . No, she was not. She was standing in the doorway and we could see her. President johnson left his place in the middle of the room, walked over to her, took her by both hands, and he walked backward, sort of backward and took her and placed her to his left in the center of the room. And he pulled mrs. Johnson over to his right. And he asked for a glass of ice water. And marie brought him some ice water. Then he looked at the judge. And he said proceed. Now, as a pool reporter, it is my responsibility to write everything i saw. I am just a rinky dink rrt who are covered the Police Station in ohio and now i am covering one of the biggest stories in the world and i have to tell you i was worried i wouldnt get everything i had to get. It was such an important story. I examined her pretty carefully. I saw blood on her legs, it can congealed on both legs. I saw blood and speckles of brain matter on her skirt and on her blouse. I noticed that she was unblinking. She was in grief, but she had her wits about her. She knew exactly what was going on. She understood everything that was going on. I dont think she would have come forward had she not known what was going on. I think in the annals in history this is one of the most courageous thing i have ever seen between the president and another first lady where she i believe suffering probably the worst thing that could happen to a married couple,s losing your husband in a murderous situation, leaving the casket to come up front to attend the ceremony took a lot of courage. And i think mrs. Kennedy felt it was important for her to be in that room. At the same time, i thought that gesture by president johnson asking her to come forward, he said if he would like to stand with us, because he knew the circumstances. I think that the opportunities for greatness were there in that setting for so brief a time. The compassion shown by president johnson, i have never seen it since. He invited all the kennedy Staff Members on the airplane that wanted to in, he asked people to get closer together so more kennedy people could answer the the thing. And his behavior, i never saw anybody more resolved about what he had to do it. He had his wits totally about him. As soon as the oath was finished he kissed mrs. Johnson. Then he kissed mrs. Kennedy on the check. Then he weapon over to president kennedys secretary, evelyn lincoln, he shook her hand and health her tightly and said he was sorry this that happened. Then he fended off almost any effort on the part of anyone to come up and congratulate him, which was another sign of i think his greatness. He did not want this to turn into a celebration. And the somber mood that existed from the beginning was there at the end. My friend Chuck Roberts, one of the other poolers went over to president johnson, he shook his happened, looked up at the president the president was 63 or 64, he looked up at the president and he told me later, he said i looked up at him and now hes different. He said, i didnt know what to say. So i said, god speed, mr. President. And i thought, i wish i could have said Something Like that. It was so appropriate for him to have said that. And then president johnsons first order was, lets get airborne. They knew they had to move that airplane out of dallas and get back to washington. One interesting sidelight, the air force one pilot, i understand that the air force one pilot pilot cross. Cross, i thought he was going to be here. I understood he was going to be here tonight. What swindle did was on his own because he sensed the danger of the situation where you dont know whether there is conspiracy, you dont know whats going about with Foreign Countries that he took that 707 up above its normal cruising rate, 41,000 to over 41,000 feet in order to avoid any ground, air missiles that might take place. He did that on his own on the way to washington. On the ground i wanted to give the report at the air field because if i gave the report, then i was free to use the story myself. Otherwise i would have been on the airplane for three hours and my office wouldnt know where i was. So it was a selfish act on my part. I said i would get off and do the pool report. But i stood there with judge hughes. You have seen the dress that judge hughes war, brown dress with huge flowers. And i have often wondered if she had worn that dress that day if she knew what was going to happen because it is such a glaring part of the picture. In any case she was in tears the whole time. She said president johnson had nominated her for the office and that president kennedy had appointed her. We both stood there, and in tears we watched air force one disappear into the eastern sky. I couldnt help but think of the strength of this country, its leadership, because as the Associated Press said of Lyndon Johnson that day, it was as though a giant hand had reached down and stroked the heart of a grieving nation. I think that was the most pope thing anybody could say about his behavior that day. It was exemplary. And i wanted to come to austin, and have people here in austin hear me say it. [ applause ] lucy johnson is hear in the audience. And she heard what you just said. So i think it was appropriate. Lets move as we have time now, only about ten more minutes or so, but i want to talk about how it impacted that day and then the next couple of days. Lee harvey oswald, jack ruby, what happened in texas. But start with what happened in austin, texas, after this occurred in dallas. Because ben barnes, larry temple, you guys were set up, ready to go here with what was going to go on. And nothing happened. Ben, you you couldnt convene, i guess, because you werent speaker at that time. He thought he was. [ laughter ] but you could lead a Prayer Service in the house chamber, is that i think the first thing that i would like for the audience to know, that i was at the 40 acres club with bill moiers and frank irwin when bill moiers got the call from the secret service that president johnson wanted him to proceed to love field as quick as he possibly could. Then you had a commercial he didnt have an airplane to get to love field. I called colonel garrisson, he didnt know i was not speaker either, larry. Cole garrisson was head of the department of public of safety. They kept their plane, the twin engine cessna out at the browning. And by the time i got to the airport with bill moiers, the plane was there with the engines running and bill got to dallas in time to see president johnson take the oath of office. So thats about a 45 or 50minute flight. So that much time lapse. Was that a legal act . The statute of limitations has run. We are here to talk about november 22nd, not illegal acts. We dont have enough time. But frank irwin left to try to make certain that the connolly children, they were in public children, go get those. But the real difficult thing was, in driving moiers to the airport the first report that we had was that president kennedy had been killed and John Connolly had been severely injured and might not live. We were concerned that we might hear the news that governor gonlly died also. The town was full of people here for the reception and for the din hear the night. Driving down the streets of austin you knew you would see grown people on the streets crying. Everybody was at a loss because knowledge of this had happened during the lifetime of any of the people here in austin at the time. It was opportunity that we came up with the idea of having the Prayer Service in the house chamber. People wanted something to do. We did plan the Prayer Service. And the house gallery and floor was overflowing with people. It was open to the public. It wasnt just for members of the yes, it was open to the public. The gallery was full. People jammed the capital. We didnt have accommodated all the people that would have liked to have been there for the service. When we sent our Television Crew down to the auditorium it was vacant. People wait staff catering the event that evening were standing numb, they didnt know what to do. They were just stand willing waiting. Then they rushed to the Television Sets just the see what was happening in that regard. And julian, people in texas were concerned about the governor, obviously, and what was. Very much society. I said any other time in history that a governor of texas was almost murdered himself it would have been a six column, eightcolumn headline. Just so happens that was the moment the president of the United States died. The story understandably and appropriately was subdued to this tragedy about the president. But we were all very concerned about governor connolly. Of course the hospital was jammed with people coming to see him, you know, wanted to see how everybody wanted to say how are john and nellie, how are john and nellie . We had our own vigil the watch. It was ten days before governor connolly and nellie came back to austin. Larry, didnt some of the staff go run the governors office, set up shop. That did hatch. There was a 24hour period that ben alluded to and julian alluded to at noon on friday and it was not until noon on saturday that it became apparent that John Connolly was going to survive. For that 24hour period there was a belief and presumption that he would not survive that bullet wound that went through his body. It wasnt until noon on saturday it became apparent he was going to survive. As julian said he was in the hospital for a while. Howard rose, who is probably here and was the governors chief of staff went and set up an office of the governors in dallas so he could operate there. And he tried to operate as best he could under the circumstances from the hospital until he returned here, julian says ten days later. I am not sure i ever counted the number of days. But then there was a period, a long period of time, that he was had his arm in a sling and he was here recuperating. That was obviously november 22nd. I think he never did get out of that sling with his arm that can gotten so missed up with that bullet until maybe january or february. And he had to sign bills and documents with his left hand . Learned how to he got pretty adroit at signing with his left hand. I always remember, he wasnt a complaining guy, and he only did it in a nice way. But he was complaining about if he had to eat with his left hand, he didnt know how to keep english peas on his fork. And i just thought to myself, if i had any courage, i would say, well, dont eat english peace, but i didnt do that. A couple of other quick little notes. Lucy johnson was not here in austin at the time. Listen linda bird was at school at the university of texas. Immediately the secret Service Provided protection to them as such. Their lives also were impacted beyond that. And i simply wanted to bring that to the attention of the group here. Julian. Let me mention one other footnote. I call it the unfinished itinerary. Most people dont know that the plans also included the president was going to spend that night at the lbj ranch. Thats right. There was going to be a beautiful typical lbj barbecue. Barbecue on the banks of the that so many of you experienced. All of those arrangements were made and thats another thinking that did not happen. That we have not heard. We have a few minutes left. I want to talk about texass role here. Larry, you are the lawyer of the group here. As i understand it, under texas law, the crime that was committed in dallas, the assassination of the president was under the jurisdiction of the state of texas at that time. It was. And the attorney general of the state, carr, immediately soon therefore wanted to conduct an investigation. The other aspect of it obviously was on sunday following the assassination, jack ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald and when he was transferring between jails in dallas at that sense. So in texas, what describe what you feel, ben, larry, julian, was happening inside this state at a time when the nation was grieving horribly so because it was playing out all the funeral services, in washington, everything that was being said there. And yet the subplot or maybe a plot all of its own in its own way was taking place here and just embroiling texas at this time. I think, neil, there was a feeling of shame by a lot of peep that this would have occurred here in our backyard, that the president of the United States had been invited to come to this state, and he was welcomed. And the fact that one crazed individual would do this and bring that shame and disrepute on the state. It wasnt that the people generally thought they had a responsibility for it because they didnt. But there was not only the disappointment but the shame. And it took a long time to get over that. I think for example, in dallas they still work on that. And they have got that wonderful activity thats going on on november 22 to recognize the 50th anniversary of the assassination. I think it is being done in a very adroit, sophisticated, mice way, without it looking like anything ghoulish. Let me tell you, dallas was vie opportunitierative comments about dallas and tax. I wrote a lot about that. This is vicious. It was horrible. All sorts of examples. People traveling outside of dallas who were from dallas were refused service in restaurants. That happened. The head the largest foundation in dallas was literally thrown out of a cab in new york because they heard he was from texas. And a woman who had a direct mail service in dallas, all the mail of course came back to dallas, actually had to change her Mailing Address to arlington because her business dropped off so much. It was that bitter for a long, long time. I will echo what julian said. But i want to go back and talk about a comment that Nellie Connolly made to the president in the motorcade in dallas when she turned around and said this may not be a direct quote, she said, mr. President , you cant say they dont love you here. I think that this trip was great up up until the time in dallas it was a great political score for kennedy. He was welcomed here and with such enthusiasm. People had not really known julian referred to this. They had really not known jacqueline kennedy. Jacqueline kennedy was a celebrity all over the world. She was a first lady that created a lot of excitement. I think if jack kennedy lived and the 64 campaign had taken place kennedy and johnson would have carried the election. It was a great thing for him to go to texas and handle himself the way he handles himself and texasance loved him. The National Geographic channel has recognized that. They have produced a twohour document other thats focused on the happy times he experienced in texas. And it is going to be aired on november 8th, 8 00 eastern. It is a fabulous show. Its worth seeing. A lot of activities are under way on this 50th anniversary of a very, very dark day in the history of this country and the history of texas at that point. How has this nation, just real quickly, we have just about a minute or two, how do you think this nation has survived based on that looking back now 50 years and where we are today. What has it done to us . I think that it would be wonderful if we could put an end to these conspiracy theories that people want to believe in without any facts to support it. 50 years is enough to have played the game here. And the evidence hasnt changed. The evidence is the same. I think that i dont want to get in a quarrel with people who disagree with me but i think the Warren Commission report holds after 50 years. Do you agree with that. I not only agree but i accompanied ted kennedy here to this library to make his first trip. He never went to dallas but he came here to visit mrs. Johnson in this library. He taid said walking through the exhibits and going up to mrs. Johnsons office, he said he agreed with the Warren Commission report and he had no reason to doubt the Warren Commission report and he said that in this library. Gentlemen, thank you, our time i would like to take about three minutes. We dont have three times. Because i could run out of time and they wont see me again. Actually. What weve got is we have got a hard time that we have to end the broadcast. But we will have the audience stick here to hear your remarks as soon as we wrap up. But we do need to wrap this up now in this regard because of the contrants of Television Time in this regard. Larry temple, ben barnes, julian read, sid davis, you folks have added immeasurably to the history of this even with what you have said here tonight. And we thank you so much for being here. [ applause ] well, lets go ahead, sid, and give you the comments. You folks are the lucky ones to be able to hear sid in this regard because of what he has added to this evening and such. And the folks who are watching on television are going to miss this aspect but i know you deserve to hear what he had to say. I think my mother is watching from somewhere, she would say only my son would do Something Like that. I just wanted to share with you an off the record story about president johnson that i have never written. I do talk about it but i have never put it into print. It is about leadership and about what he endured and what his family endured living in the white house during the vietnam war. This happened in april of 1965. And this is very typical of president johnson. Mrs. Johnson and the president were very hospitable to reporters. We were invited to the ranch often. Mrs. Johnson kept frozen cookies in the refrim rater. So if he held a News Conference on the spur of the moment she had something to feed us afterwards. You couldnt leave the ranch without being fed. One april evening in early 1964 we were walk down constitution avenue after a dedication of a flag at the smithsonian. It was a drizzly night. It wasnt cold, but it was damp. There were three us, muirial to bein of the baltimore sun, myself, and a young reporter from mutual broadcasting. His name was bill evanson. We were walking down constitution avenue toward the white house in the rain and the president ial limousine pulled up alongside of us. The window rolled down and it was president johnson. And he said how would you fellows like a ride . Of course, no president that i know of in my lifetime ever said anything like that. So we said we said of course. So we jumped in the car. And the president turned to jack who was sitting on a jump seat, jack, when is my next appointment . He said your next appointment has been waiting for you for four hours. What was not untypical of president johnson. He worked all the time. We drove over to the white house. We went to the family quarters. Now thats another unusual thing. Its not very often that the family quarters are open to reporters. As a matter of fact, many president s dont open the family quarters to anybody. We went up to the family quarters, and he said to jack, i think i have got time to buy these folks a scotch and soda. And he ordered scotch and sodas for all of us. And he said there and he said we could have hors doeuvres if we wanted and he ordered those. He started talking about the job corps, education and went through a litany of all the programs he had he was trying to sechl he was always selling a program. He said i want to get the war in vietnam ended if i can. I would like to do it as soon as possible. I hope can i make a start at it tomorrow night i am delivering a speech at Johns Hopkins university and i want you to attend the speech. Now it is 8 00 or 9 00 at night. We went down to the oval office and he had jack bring the speech and he started wreath reading it. I said you fellows havent eaten, have you . We said no. He picked up a crate of figs that someone in israel had sent him. He pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket. You dont think a president is carrying pocket knives but he is a country boy and he had a pocket knife and he started slashing the cellophane which is flying all over the east the oval office. He handed each of us a handful of figs and read the speech and asked us what we thought about the speech. He was going to offer a. Booing halt of North Vietnam and a billion Dollar Development program for north and South Vietnam including ho chi minh if ho chi minute would just agree to come and talk with him. He said if i just have a chan to sit found one on one i think i can make this work. Asked us what we thought of the speech and he swore us to secrecy because it wasnt going to be given until last night. He asked us what to lead with. I said the bombing halt. And another journalist said the billion dollars. He said thats exactly what i thought you would say, you guys like dollar signs and you guys like peace signs. Then he talk us into the lincoln bed and asked to us sit on the bed. I am not sure it is still the lincoln bed. They have had several iterations of it probably. We didnt want to sit on the bed. Said i am saying you should sit on the bed. Yes, sir. So we sat on the bed. And he said i want you to know, i come up here almost every night and i sit on the bed, and i pick up that phone and i call the situation room. Im sure that lucy understand whaz i s what i am talking about. And i say, how many of my boys did not come back today . And repeat lead through the night, you can go through the white house logs and you will find it, these calls went on virtually every night forever and ever and ever while he was president. And outside in lafayette park, you could hear the chants, hey, hey, lbj, how many kids did you kill today . Thats what president s endure. Thats what that first family endured. And i have never forgotten that. Well, president johnson wound up with just telling us what he was trying to accomplish. He talked about his generals. And then he went over to a portrait of lincoln and he pointed to the portrait and he said, i sure hope i have got better generals than he had. He said, you know, doing whats right is easy. Knowing whats right is the hard part. And he said that many, many times afterwards. By that time, jack was beside himself. My appointment has been there for eight hours now you have got to get these guys out of here. We said good night, mr. President. We shook his hand and we left. As we approached the Northwest Gate i turned to muriel and i said boy, muriel, have we got a story tonight. And we hear the pitterpatter of feet behind us. And it was jack chasing us out the white house gate. He caught us just before we got in the street. And he said, everything you said and heard tonight is off the record. So the story was never published. Great story. Great story. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you to you all for come tonight. We appreciate the opportunity to share this with you. We can nights this month, we are featuring American History tv programs as preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. On the we hear the experience was three women who reflect on their time working on the apollo space program. They share how they overcam challenges and their rolls with nasa. Watch beginning at 8 00 eastern. And enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on american his tremendous tv on cspan3 go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, and u. S. President s, to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging in to class. With most College Campuses closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union but reagan met him halfway. Reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, i should mention madison called it freedom of the use of the press. It is indeed freedom to print things and publish thing it is not a freedom for what we refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. You are 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. Now, the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation and institute hosts their annual education summit. This discussion features the role of philanthropy in education. It is 25 minutes. Welcome, everyone. We are so glad to have you here today. Thank you for joining us. We have a real treat today, two leaders in philanthropy talking about their involvement in this unprecedented time. Alan gold citizen and carol stern, welcome. Im really pleased to have a chance to chat with you. Before we begin i have to say to