Announcement using the best animator at the time in the country. She published books and she got dear abby or with the help ofthe pr people from mcdonalds and she got dear abby to write a couple pamphlets she published and they were deluged with requests. They touched a nerve and its so exciting that someone with a High School Education was able to do such formidable work. Watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today your terrific book. Guest its an honor to be sitting with you after having spent the last three and a half years studying your grandfather. Host looking at all those childhood pictures. Adorable children who were all well behaved. Im really most interested in this book because you managed to do in a readable length what many other authors have tried to fit into many, many pages. Im just curious about your interest in eisenhower. When come how familiar were you with his record when you develop an interest in the subject . Guest i covered the pentagon for six years. Obviously had a healthy appreciation of general eisenhower. But i didnt really have an appreciation of the eisenhower presidency. Im a college golfer, former college golfer, still a golfer and i got the holy grail of golf invites them to augusta national, and i was on cloud nine. Went down there and was driving down magnolia lane. Such a spectacular place, and for golfers as you know its a place to be. So i went in and they told me you were staying in the eisenhower cabin. And i couldnt believe it. I couldnt go to sleep and import myself a glass of wine and walked around the eisenhower cabin, which is just spectacular. Spectacular. Its a little white house really. The memorabilia on the walls and the books and the statues in the art that your grandfather painted, i was kind of over, in the midst of getting ready for my round the next day. I realized i did not know and i cover politics a lot about the presidency of eisenhower, because our generation and younger, it seemed like history as the focus started with kennedy going forward. I thought to myself is there a way to breathe life into that and to share that experience with younger people . So soon after that i traveled to abilene, kansas, to the library and boyhood home. And that is what i talk to the folks there and they said this moment, this transition, while a lot of books and written about your grandfather, that had not been focused on. The farewell speech. I went to the library and those great folks there brought out the box and put on the clouds and they pulled out the plastic sheath and actual speech that he held and read in 1961 with his scribbles and markings. I got goosebumps and i said, this is it. Thats what im going to do. Host its so exciting to be studying somebody who is pretty digital age, because of this fantastic experience of actually polling tactile experience of that. So how long did you actually work on this book . Guest its roughly three and half years from the start to the birthing of the book. It had a lot of help as far as researching, and it was a labor of love in the end. I discovered a lot, and i think really its relevant today and thats when it things i love about the book, is that it really can translate. Your grandfathers messages can translate today. He could read the speech. President obama couldve read that speech the other day in his farewell address. Host in the course of your research im fascinated by this, were there any surprises for you . Did you have a feeding by the end of this that there were some misconceptions about the way he ran the white house, the way he brought his leadership skills to public life . Guest completely. My perception of his presidency changchanged dramatically. I thought it was going in, it was always perceived in the press as this quiet time, and he was a little disconnected and played a lot of golf. Im a big proponent. I looked at it, and he got us out of the korean war, he had a booming economy. The first civil rights legislation since reconstruction, that Massive National highway bill, the interstates that we drive on today, put under god in the pledge of allegiance, in god we trust at the National Motto printed on our currency, and had this amazing ability to keep us out of foreign war where we didnt need to be, yet be Strong Enough to hold off an expanding and ominous soviet union. Best that after the korean war that there really wasnt a single combat soldier killed or covert operations actually, but for the rest of your grandfathers presidency is really stunning pic if you think in retrospect. Finally the bipartisan nature really was something that drew me to him. Because in meetings that he had with sam rayburn, house speaker, or Senate Majority leader Lyndon Johnson once a week sometimes. Thats stunning if you think about recent president. Host i was surprised to read that myself. I knew that he made a big priority of reaching out to members of congress, and they knew that he had a drink with sam rayburn and Lyndon Johnson on a regular basis, but you have some wonderful detail about that. Guestthat gave us a letter jm haggerty as press secretary, a lot of folks, his secretary, chock full of stories. We found documents and things that have not been tapped to be as a reason i did was because hes the First Television president. So for a tv anchor it was a big deal. I was surprised and they did not know before your grandfather, no transcripts of news conferences were put on the record. You could go to his comfort and as the president a question, or you could not quote directly from the president of United States. You would paraphrase. They would always have the out to say president didnt say it that way. When your grandfather came in, he said forget that. I just did a campaign where everybody had a camera. But the transcripts on the record. That quickly evolved to record the news conferences with me on tv and radio. And he did the first live news conference, the first on the American People saw their president being questioned by the Fourth Estate was with president eisenhower. Thats important to me. Host i was quite amused at the store of having makeup applied to his shiny bald head, and how we found this deeply uncomfortable. How do you think, how would you compare them to other president s today in terms of his comfort with the media and television in particular . I know hes the First Television president , but guest i think he had a Good Relationship with a lot of the people who covered him, but they did like to cover that his style in answering was tilted sometimes, stop and start. They made fun of the way he talked about some things in a kansas kind of way, and, but i think he was transparent. For example, when he has the heart attack and 9055 and hes considering obviously whether to run again or not, he says to jim haggerty, put everything out, jim. Put everything out about my health. Theres this note about it we cleared that says dear jim, this is all fine but i could do without the once an update on my bowel movements. [laughter] so i mean, those a little nuggets of humor and host that little note is a keeper. Suitable for framing. Thats most interesting. I was also charmed to read one of his last dinners before he left office was for the press corps. Guest exactly. And they really loved him as a person. I dont think they fully appreciate all the things that were happening behind the scenes. Nor did we after that as a nation, until we looked back. Thats why this look at these three days and the speech enabled us to look through the narrative and then get back to his life. You know he was a humble leader and he i think you got that from his time as general, dealing with those huge egos of bradley and patent, macarthur and montgomery and de gaulle and this huge figures that had forgot how to get on the same page for dday. Host im wondering how you see the leadership come his leadership during world war ii and his leadership during the presidency. Were you able to connect those dots . Do you think that it brought the same set of skills or did he have to learn new ones as president . Guest he had to learn new ones but he definitely tapped into those skills. For example, the dissenting views and airing out things. He set up a National Secret apparatus in the white house that was much like what he had in his military ability for dissenting views to happen. And then the buildup to dday i think he was someone who had a steady handle until, and lifted people up, he empowered them to do the best and give them credit, frankly. He kind of let them have the spotlight, which is what, an interesting story about the Nixon Eisenhower relationship is that nixon, when your grandfather says, you know, dick, you may want to run for a cabinet position to own an issue, to be credited with some changing something, he knows he wants to run for president , and nixon sees that as he wants to just kick him off the ticket. That wasnt what we found. So there wasn was this skeptici think that drew a bill at that moment, and maybe thats what of the reasons he was kept off the trail in dick nixons campaign. Nixon says to us about your grandfathers health, but i think when your grandfather gets on the trail are dick nixon at the end, it turns the tide of that campaign to the point where we found kennedy talking about it and he says, every day that eisenhower is on the trail i feel like im standing on a pile of sand and a wave is coming in and i am sinking and im sinking and im sinking. And they believe if he was out a few more days, that nixon mightve won that election. Host thats what of the big controversies, isnt it, about why nixon didnt use eisenhower. There was some discussion whether or not i was ever asked whether the health was really the issue. But you know, its unusual for an incumbent Vice President to be elected, isnt it . Guest it is. You look back at history. Vice president gore did something similar with bill clinton obviously there were different circumstances in that he is trying to distance himself from all the ones of the clinton controversy, but at the same time clinton was a great campaigner. He did not use them. Same kind of deal if you look back at history, perhaps it might have been better for Richard Nixon to own an issue then jump from something. Host of all of ike relationship with other great man, which do think was the most intriguing of them . I almost wrote the book on relationship between your grandfather and churchill, and the letters that they sent back and forth. I think theres a lot to explore that i just didnt go down, but its there at the library. They really valued each other in the world, and i thought that was most intriguing. I do think the relationship with kennedy is very complex, and we talk about it here. This book as you know starts with president elect kennedy meeting president eisenhower after the election, and theyre talking in the oval office. It is with president elect trump meeting president obama in the oval office. So the relevance is up there. Eisenhower, from what we found, didnt think there was a lot to kennedy, that he was kind of hollow, that he was young and might not have a lot of experience. What he was saying on the trail was really making him mad. Specifically, the u. S. Missile gap charge that the soviets were churning out missiles like sausages and the u. S. Was not. Your grandfather knew that not to be true, and yet he still used it. And that made your grandfather very upset. He finally meets him, and in this meeting with great detail from both sides. Eisenhower is very impressed and says to himself, you know, maybe the American People got this right. Theres a lot to this guy, but what concerns the most is that he didnt like kennedy, the nationals could apparatus that was set up for dissenting views. That comes back about a month later in the cuba situation. Host i obviously ikes favorite National Pastime in a sense he found politicking and what politicians are forced are willing to do, not so inspiring sometimes. Were you surprised by that . He had some natural charm and ability to connect with people. Guest he did. He had that huge smile and megawatt smile. He didnt Like Campaign he clearly like he was good at it because he was relatable. I love this tour and a talk about it as a humble leader. I love the story from after world war ii he comes back to the tickertape parades in new york and then back to abilene, and hes in the car waving and everyone is cheering, and someone turns to your greatgrandmother and says, you must be so proud of your son. And she says, which one . Of six. So that gave you a sense of grounding growing up as an eisenhower as he did. And i think that reflected itself later on in how he conducted himself. Host in your book you made the comment that Mimi Eisenhower didnt want to know what party people came from when they came to the white house. Do you see this come you might say nonpartisan streak in his governance . Guest really not ideological. More practical. Figure out you have to do with the other party no matter what they said about you on the campaign trail, which is the beauty of how he deals with sam rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. And is the essence of passing that national highway bill that was so amazing. He had a temper, and he tried to deal with it. I love and whitmans story, she is the secretary, where she says that he would end up back the south along to swing the club and he did that a lot because it cleared his mind picnicking back and he was so angry because there were squirrels in his backswing. Every time he went back there were squirrels everywhere. Squirrels. In whitman says, in every right to be there, just like you do. And one day he tells the secret service to take all the squirrels off the white house lawn and transfer them to rock creek park. So thats what of the little gym stories. Host its your house to be in charge. Its hard to have the school sent into exile. You know, you i think the artfully talk about some of the principles that guided his presidency in terms of decisionmaking and his view of the situation both domestically and internationally. What struck you most in terms of being a contemporary way of looking at this challenge . Guest he articulated this in the farewell speech, this caution, this balance, this want and need to not jump to things, to really act when you have to, that paperweight on his desk, silent in manner, strong in deed. I think its all about getting things done and not dealing with the personalities, not being personal. And i think thats related throughout. I found a lot of examples of leadership style that he didnt steer it. He said you dont have to hit people over the head to be a leader. You have to empower them to do their job, and thats how he looked at it. To go back to the cuban missile crisis, another controversial thing that we really dug into to try to find how that played out. So he tells kennedy about the nationals wh he could apparatus, how important it is. There is an operation in the planning stages, but your grandfather says there are stipulations that have to be met. He makes this clear to kittery on the first meeting. He says, wine, there has to be a cuban exile government ready to go offsite. Two, there has to be some leader thats able to take over castro. And three, there has to be significant airpower to support these operatives that we are training. It was in its infancy when he leaves. Now, candidate moves forward. The whole thing goes forward. Its event of disaster obviously, and the first person kennedy calls is your grandfather. He gets him out to camp david here, and this iconic picture going up the path, and the quotes as confirmed by both is candicandidate turns to eisenhor and says, you know, you never really know how tough this job is until you are in it. And your grandfather turns with a kansas smile and says, mr. President , with all due respect, i think i told you that three months ago. You know, in retrospect the kennedy folks, understandably, looked back at the time difference and say the operation was already going and he just moved it forward. They were very specific things that your grandfather said that had to happen that did not happen. And, in fact, the air cover was called off at the last minute by president kennedy because he didnt want the world to know the u. S. Was involved. And your grandfather said, the world will know. Host the world will know. You posted and wonderful documentary last night with the same title of your book, and Doug Brinkley made the point that the green light had not been given by the eisenhower administration. Actually used what was in the planning process. Do you think part of that is a misunderstanding between the way military mind to work and civilian minds . In other words, you would have any number of contingencies ready to go so that the president always had options . Guest of course. And i think thats lost in time, that is lost in the years that have gone by. So its kind of molded into this storyline that obviously fit the kennedy folks to be able to talk about this in an operation that he moved forward. But there were real clear that your grandfather made that he did not follow. Host and that not actually even decided to go ahead. I am curious about, theres some other wonderful speeches he has given. One of them was called, is one to the press club, a cross of iron as it is often referred to. In the way its sort of a bookend to the farewell address. What was it about the farewell address, aside from the balance . You do a very elegant job of handling the military and is a complex but what was it about that speech that you thought was particular relevant today . Guest first, he took a year and half, almost two years for him to almost two years, thinking about his indie message. Thats a long time, and 21 drafts. He worked it and worked it and worked it. And as you know it was your grandfather who, wrote for macarthur. People dont know that. They think his style and news conferences was holding and all that stuff but he was an eloquent writer and editor. So his ability to be a wordsmith perhaps was much better than his ability to deliver it, but he could craft it. She really took his time to craft of this, which tells you how significant he thought that moment was. So it was not about his list of accomplishments. It was not about him. It was about a blueprint for america come his concerns and warnings about not only the militaryindustrial complex that formed intervention, but deficit spending, says we cant mortgage our children and grandchildren future. How relevant is that today . Host i love that line by the way. Guest if you look at that, again, you could deliver that today. Bipartisanship. Figure out what you can get done together before you argue about what you cant. I think there were just a lot of messages that were not about him. If i make him one thing we didnt include in the book, was opm, a speechwriter. Just brilliant and we talked about the documentary. So he said, at the Time Technology is where it was and every draft had to be retired by secretary ann whitman. And your grandfather were editing all the time. So she tried to preempt things by getting out of speechwriter ahead of time, bobby gave us these letters in which from ann whitman to bob first, do not use the word merit as a perfect use it only as a noun. Second, never use the pronoun i at the beginning of two consecutive paragraphs. Third, this morning a mild grumble from the boss on your using two adjectives, warm best wishes. Clearly you can make wishes warm or you can make the best, but you should not make them warm best. North, never taken for granted that the president know something about a national or local organization. Say im happy to learn, or i understand that. Fifth, the construction not only but also is fine, bob, in its place but please, bob, not in every message, please. Six, heres what i love, she had to retype a lot of the stress on this one particular thing and she says look, bob come every time you use the word of appreciation, you follow it with the word for. Havent you noticed that the boss and sicily changes that generate appreciation of . So please for my sake, for god sake, bob, when you use the word appreciation never followed with four. Always follow it with him. He goes back and forth and makes the argument and she says, i just look at the president s appoint a book and i say he has some free time at 2 30 p. M. Would you like to come over and explain all of this to him . And he says no. Bob is leaving the white house. He gets a picture signed by your grandfather. He says to robert with best wishes and with lasting appreciation of valuable service in the white house. Dwight d eisenhower. Those kinds of things are precious. Thats why i love writing. Host is a going to be so easy to write a book about the future president so much as done by email now and the limits of paper and all those things . Guest it will be tougher because probably wont be as rich as what we were able to find after all these years. But i really do think that breathing life into that time is important. The dedication of the book, i dont know if you saw the first pages, to our sons paul and daniel and their generation, please allow history to inform your decisions in the future. Host thats an interesting question. I have a group of students at gettysburg college. I have a yearlong seminar, and i was trying to think of how you might talk to the undergraduate population. What would you say is ikes greatest legacy or his key legacy . Guest he has a lot of them but i think that his ability to work with others, the ability to keep the country safe, and the fact that hes underappreciated after all these years suggests that we have more to learn. So that gives you a sense that we need to learn more about our history because guess what, it factors in now. If you look at that speech, you would place radical islamic terrorism for the expanding soviet union and communism. You can talk deficits now. Now the debt is 20 trillion. Then was in the billions. Bipartisanship arguably is past president couldve done a lot of difference if he had met even once a month with the leaders from the hill. I would tell them, you know, look backwards. Always look forwards but dont forget to look backwards at where we have been. Host do you have any predictions of how some of these principles might be brought to bear in the next four years tax its obviously not just the president who has to adopt certain key ways of operating but congress is a huge factor here as is our supreme court. Its a divider system after all. Guest there are some some letters. Your grandfather was a really popular figure but he was outside politics. He had name recognition, not a politician. Donald trump is someone who fits that bill. Your father was nonideological, more practical. People say that that is exactly what donald trump is the your father valued businessman. His cabinet was called eight millionaires and the plumber because he had businessman from the outside, that ceo of gm at the fence and others, and then the labor secretary was ahead of the plumbing association. In his first term. But a similar appreciation. Different that he kept the generals out of his cabinet because he himself a general didnt want to project that. But the practical nature of getting things across the finish line, no matter party, some of his biggest fights were with his own party. I think that is possible, that what were going to see going forward. I think on the National Security side and russia and the appreciation for the geopolitical sense of things, your father was obviously much different and much more cautious. Cautious. And i think he would offer President Trump the same advice he gave incoming president kennedy. And that is, let the dissenting views and experts fight it out in front of you. Learn everything you can, take everything and then make a a decision. I was asked the other day what your grandfather would say about twitter. And i said well, first of all, he would say whats twitter . And then he would say get off of it, probably. Because he believed less is more, and the words that come out of the oval office particularly carry such weight and importance. Thats why he did all the scribbling and editing and changing. The speechwriters said it looked like a dozen chickens with dirty feet had gone over their scripts, or their transcripts. But thats why. Because he believed every word that came out of that office was important. Host im just curious, when you discovered that did that strike you as micromanaging or did you think you try to get something bigger . Guest i think it was bigger. I think he had in mind what he wanted to do. Ultimately better job is to interpret how he would deliver that message. The best speechwriters can think like, be the mind of the president. He was showing them what that was, and eventually there were a few address at the end. Host thats interesting. So even bob demonstrated that he learned a few things about how the president likes to end his why do you think, i mean, youre focused now on this book, actually a very interesting time. So i think this book has more residents than ever. The militaryindustrial complex, as you pointed out last night on television, has been quoted by many people for many decades. What do you think it is about that speech that keeps bringing people back to it . Guest a lot of people have taken that line and adopted it as their own. And i think did a really fully appreciate the line and the context in the speech. Your grandfather was concerned about this. Obviously the world war ii industry that had turned its efforts to produce for the war had been just continued, and continued to produce, and then stuck lobbyists and money that flowed into lawmakers, that impacted a policy up on capitol hill. People who were in government left their positions and then went to those companies, and it was a circle. A circle is still churning today, even more furiously perhaps. I thought it was really telling that your grandfather was so upset when he saw ads in life magazine for missiles, you know, things that go to the homes that were advertisements. He would get so angry. And the fact that he wanted to call it the militaryindustrial scientific congressional complex tells you that there were multiple concerned in his mind, that it was this thing that was separate of government but was churning its own policy continuing. I think those messages are really valid today. Drain the swamp is essentially what the militaryindustrial complex is, is dont have this establishment that is not working for the American People. That is, has its own policy agenda, that has money behind it. I think that is a message that resonates not only with voters but inside washington. I think youre going to see currently the trump people say theres an intelligence industrial complex. I mean, thats that talking point now about what they believe is a polarization, i mean a partisanship at the leadership of intelligence. Intel people obviously push back pretty hard, but we are dealing with the same kind of broad issues of concern of these, the complex, if you will. Host we are in a period where we are all for ourselves trying to identify exactly what piece of the system is not working at optimal levels. Because the public is concerned about the direction of the country. I mean, this is one of the recent it was such a close election and the rest of it. What do you think eisenhower would se say about the difficuls we are facing today . Guest i think he would take the ball. I think he would, he would be the one who would try to unify. I think just judging by his past, and asked a couple of the people we interviewed what do you think eisenhower would you today, and all of them as a person said he would solve it. He would get, figure out how to get there, unify, and then move on. He doesnt get credited for a lot of the civil rights things that obviously later president s took that baton and went forward. But the fact that he got that legislation across the line, the fact that he had the action that he did, you know, i think is worth noting. He was a doer, and i dont think is credited in the history books as being a doer president. I think most people look back at his time in general, and it could be in part some of your grandfathers wishes. When he leaves to tell president to 30 who was time he was struck, he said why do want to become a general again . He says, his wish is for kennedy to get congress to pass a bill, reinstating him as a fivestar general asses title. And kennedy says, why would you want that . He says i want to die as a military man. And they do. They passed the bill. Kennedy signed it and he becomes general eisenhower. And then as you know, he is buried in his uniform. Host did i tell you that with the only document he had in his office that was hanging on the wall in his retirement . Was the letter that kennedy had signed for the reestablishment of his commission. Guest wow. So the import of that. That kind of value, that kind of patriotism is sometimes missing in todays environment. Host you said one thing on your documentary, and i hope everybody has an opportunity to see the document again because its very well done, but i was interested that you i think hit the nail on the head about doing things for a longer period of time, playing for the long game. In civil rights, for instance, his judicial appointments would be an example of that, where you wouldnt necessarily see the fruits of it immediately, by putting judges were against segregation into districts in the south played out over a longer period of time. Having said that, what do you think are the parts of his president ial policies that have lasted the longest . Guest well, first of all i i think that is exactly right, which is why i was so right on when fred goldstein, political scientist, said your grandfathers leadership style was the hidden hand. You know, as a bridge player the hidden hand, no one knows what cards he has until when the game is over and he puts them out there. You are right, the long game was a huge part of his leadership style. I think the longest lasting thing was the bipartisanship to get that Infrastructure Project through, set the table for the ability to realize that big things can get done with both parties. I think that was a big deal, and i think his interaction with the soviet union and how he did it opened the door to a lot of diplomacy that change the geopolitical structure in europe. Host could you imagine inviting Vladimir Putin to United States for 10 days . Guest i think we should imagine it. You never know. I dont know whats going to happen. Thats exactly right. Thats also relevant because obviously that comes into focus right knee. I think cruise jeff is a lot like pooping in the way that he ask and the way that he kind of his knights and not nice and everyone at the beginning of their administration wants you to either reset or look into their eyes and i see the soul of a man. Think about that. President bush, president obama with hillary clinton, and now were on our third reset. There is this want to do that. Eisenhower seem to do it the best up until the u2 spy plane that kind of changed everything. Host it did. Interestingly, apparently chris jeff tried to mend fences in the fall of 1960 but it was too late. New administration was coming in. Guest and it was great to have his grandson. Host has added so much to American Life as a resident of rhode island. Guest and it was great to have his voice in the mix. If i may, im humbled by some historians that have weighed in on this, and this is jay winnick, magnificently rendered bret baier three days ingenuous destined to take its place is not only one of the masterworks on cut fiber one of the classic of president ial history. This is too little known but remarkable filled story with drama power in during the lessons of leadership today, impeccably researched. The book is nothing short of extraordinary. What a triumph. People weigh in, it is its humbling. Im honored by it but i really do think it means something bigger. Like it means that there is some lasting thing in you. Michael beschloss, as general and president Dwight Eisner as one of the great sleep in american history, and bret bears book is a lock him up out of the cartridge into our appreciation of ike described some of the most important qualities of character, wisdom and leadership which are so needed in the public figures of her own error. And just finally, douglas brinkley, bret bears three days in january illuminates bitchiness and intricate eisenhower system farewell address written with verve and given researched. He dissects back from this, and landmark achievement in u. S. President ial history. Host you are being way too modest because i thought the book was terrific myself, and when i say youre being too modest, you really did paul a very long career into a very readable book. I think thats all well deserved. Having said that, im fascinated by your comment that it may mean something bigger. What do you think that the good thing is . Guest i just think that if the next generation can read Something Like this and be intrigued by it in the form that it is, the kind of narrative and it brings to life a president that i just know people havent focused on, i think that that enables us to learn the lessons from that time, and maybe the next leader who is in his teens right now, or her teens i should point out, may be those things stick with somebody to the point where they think about it when they are a person with their hand on the bible and theyre going to lead this country down the road. Thats really the reason that i wrote it. Host it strikes me that a lot of what people havent done characteristically in these books is put the war and the presidency together, but he guest as you talk about, it was a bit it was who he was. He seemed most happy host what influences do you think the war had on this presidency . Guest here is a man who ran the war effort, who most craved piece. And strive for it. It goes to show you that for all the people who said military men would be warmongers or we have to be careful about a general in civilian clothes. The real issue is the other way, is that somebody who doesnt see the front lines of war. And i was struck, when he goes to meet with the 101st airborne before dday, and each individual soldier, i mean paratrooper he meets with and talks to them and asks them questions about their hometown. He was impressed with the size and scope of the military, but he said its the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog. And he believed that america was about the spirit inside, and i think it drilled who he was. The military was a big part of his life. Host certainly was. He had a special fondness for the 101st, and 82nd, didnt he he . Guest he really did. So your take on, if i may ask you one question, and thank you for your quote on the book as well. It means a lot to have the family way again, and we didnt talk before. I started this effort, and i kind discovered it. And im honored to have you question me here. Whats your thought looking back . Host well, i think the war did have a great impact. I mean, its devastating really when you think about it. Its hard actually to tell the Younger Generation how transformative world war ii was in the minds of the generation that fought it and the immediate generation after that. Maybe my generation. We grew up with it. And not necessarily coming from him. It was everywhere, world war ii. So this deep desire not to get into fights all over the world, you know, that might not end up the way they started. He didnt believe in a manageable war. Things that start out as small things can get the big things really fast, and then in the atomic age that meant Something Else altogether. You deal with the atomic question quite a lot in your book. I guess Younger Generations will have a hard time understanding the duck and cover drills and shelters, bomb shelters and all of that. Was there anything about the nuclear part of your book that surprised you . Well, you were a pentagon correspondent to you already knew a lot about nuclear weapons. Guest i guess what surprised it was how much it was on your grandfathers shoulder at all times, ever present. Because he saw the scope and power and deadliness of that weapon. And he knew if the world didnt get control of it, that it was going to be devastating. And in the world potentially. I think the story about him beating with a bipartisan leaders and theyre talking about how many missiles they will make a bad year, and back and forth for five minutes come and her grandfather comes in and slams his aunt on the table and says, gd, how many times do we have to kill a man . Because he knew we had many times missiles needed, could destroy the world. So it drove him to put atoms for peace speech in united nations. It drove him to reach out to the soviets. And thats what made it give the warning he did to his successor, president kennedy. Host maybe thats the thing the tardis to convey to Younger Generations. I once gave a speech to a group of women from ages 1870, and i had spent a fair amount of my career and arms control policy, focused of course on nuclear issues. I described the number of reductions, and now were will only blow up the world seven times instead of 15, and this little girl in the back of the room raised her hand and said i have a question for you. Why wasnt once enough . So the was a kind of illogical part in the way to the cold war. How do you think were going to explain this in the future to young people . Guest its going to take some work because its not easy to explain. Something that doesnt happen is not easy to put on a chart or a video or something. Thats the brilliance of your grandfathers presents, in one of the most dangerous times no one knew it was a dangerous time. It was a happy time for somebody in the middle america. That show happy days goes back to the 50s, but it was a dangerous time. We were on the precipice of not knowing what was going to happen. As i go around the country, it is unbelievable in the book signing, people come up with that personal experiences with your grandfather. This is president eisenhower scarred, a marine who brought me pictures guard from all different, that i hadnt seen. State dinners. And ive met someone who landed on the beach at normandy. Host is that right . Guest just the other day, and wanted to come up and he had read the book. And someone else who dealt with your families finances after he and put them in a trust. Host a blind trust. Guest yes. He came up and said it was a real honor just every time i interacted with him. So that, too, is a pleasure for me to meet folks who had some connection. Host i just have to kill a quick story that one gentleman came up to me. He bent on granddad Archaeology Team at walter reed at the lash of his life. They discovered every time Arnold Palmer played golf, that ikes Blood Pressure went up. So that a big conference as to whether or not they should continue to allow him to watch Arnold Palmer pick up against the doctors reluctantly and sadly concluded that his life was probably coming to and anyway so that would allow him to continue to follow his friends around the golf course. That was a good one. Guest thats classic. And as a golfer i love that connection as well. He clearly had a love for the game, it and i have a friend who, at some auction somewhere, there was a plank of wood from the oval office and it had cleat marks from your grandfather coming and from the south lawn. Host between the squirrels. What do you think golf did for imports we are always critical when president obama goes on a golfing trip, or our president takes guest youre right, there was a lot of criticism, how much he played golf. I dont begrudge any pressure for playing golf because i know it frees the mind and it enabled your grandfather, he talked about in oral histories, to focus, the outside, appreciate nature, but be able to clear his mind of what was going on. President obama speaks of it the same way. I have a look at the number of rounds, but its close. President trump to be, probably going to be a golfer. He is a golfer, a good golfer but is by going to golf as well. I think its interesting that president s play golf. Host did ike use golfing much to bond or interact with his colleagues, or was he a quieter golfer . Guest no, no, no. He golf, told stories on the course. He played over at burning tree here locally, and the joke up on capitol hill is if eisenhower was golfing, the world is in a good place. I think he was obviously connected, but he had those moments that he got away, and augustine was a very special place for him as you know. Had you been there . Host i took my first golfing lessons at a customer so i could go on the course with him, and after one short route i thought, probably golfing is not in my future. I tried Something Else after that. Guest my wife says on the six all she will say, do you ever get bored playing golf . I say no, never. Host never, thats right. Youve had the great experience of meeting people who come up to you at your various events and you had this tremendous feedback from the historic community, and congratulations again. I looked asking people about surprises, so i cant help myself. Have there been any surprise while you been on the book tour . Guest yeah. Im surprised at how many people didnt know anything about eisenhower. I mean, im talking anything. They knew he was a general. I mean, very low bar. And after reading it, had this renaissance of his role. And so im surprised about that. Im surprised at how much attention its getting because i think, you know, history books, sometimes they can get lumped into, this is going to be a chore to read here this is kind of a narrative page turner, and i think its going to be fun to read. You could read it on the beach but learn something. Im surprised about that, and unhappy. Im really excited about going back out to abilene. Ill be out there february 2, and the people there have been really spectacular. They are the reason that it ended up on this conference and theyve been tremendously supportive. The researcher i worked with, catherine whitney, worked with me, tremendous. Host it certainly helps understand his origins and his worldview. And again, its a treasure trove, is in it, that library . Guest its amazing. You could find something to all the time. I mean, like i said about some aspiring authors out there, the Church Letters are sitting there, and its right for someone to dig into that relationship. Host so you actually both the war years and the president to get at this library. So its a wonderful focus on both world war ii and the cold war. Guest its hard to believe theres still some stuff thats classified that you have to go through the channels, and to get it declassified. Its a process. Host did they ask you to file a freedom of information act request . Guest i had to go through all the chains, through the process. But we found some amazing things, and people talking, even your grandfather talking, that had not been, not been really mind before. Host that was one of his request to his family as he neared the end of his life. He said please try and get the archives open. It can be classified as quickly as possible. Guest wow. He was about transparency. Clearly, from the time he was starting in office and obvious afterwards. So from a journalist, we welcome that. Host exactly. Well, its an amazing opportunity to have the chance to talk with somebody who has read so many accounts and have gone through these files. I hope you saw the Queen Elizabeth file where she actually gives him some of her cooking recipes. Because of course he was a cook, which really sort of rearranges your brain, doesnt it . But its a wonderful book that you have written here. We have a little more time and i would like to just ask you to see if you can summarize, if you will, what this book, or i should say research did for your better understanding of the eisenhower years, but also what its added to the way you look at our challenges today. Guest i think what the research told it was that we have a lot that we can learn from the past. I think that our current leaders could look back and say this has happened before. This is a dangerous time. This handover is a very dangerous time. The world is watching at this moment as we hand over to the next president. But the world was watching as the 34th handed to the 35th 35th as well. And i think that, i think what eisenhower would say on a number of fronts is that the steady hand on the till, not to be over the top, not to be, let all views work inside the white house, it sounds cliche but he did do it. And he enabled those people to speak out about various views on any issue. He had this opendoor policy with congress. He said that some congressman or senator wants in, make sure they get a time. Think about that. I dont know if thats possible today with all the things that we deal with, but he had an opendoor policy. And i think there are differences obviously. The technology has gone in a much different place, but there are truths that comes through from the 34th to the 45th. Host thank you very much. Guest thank you. Its been a real pleasure. Host visually has been a pleasure. Cspan, where history unfolds a daily. In 1979, nine, cspan was greeted as a Public Service i americas cabletelevision companies and is brought you today by your cable or satellite provider. I decided that i missed the 60s. I was born in 1963, and i grew up in new york city on central park west, and my playground was essentially the staging ground for the antiwar movement. No one took finals and yet i graduated 15 years later to the middle of the reagan administration. A few of us went to battle on the streets against apartheid, but otherwise it was very quiet. All of my friends went off to work at wall street and i knew my life was different because of what had happened in the 60s. I was free to choose any career i wanted or liberty life i wanted to lead, but i wanted to know what it was about this revolution in the late 60s that i had missed and how that activism that awakened generation had it changed my generation and all of the generations to follow and i also thought it was a good time to go back and with history i think you are allowed to go back every decade or so and revisit what occurred even if the 60s has been written about enormously, i mean, what i collected in my research was vast, so i felt it like was a bit cheeky to decide that i could take on this a decade