It was an order they did not have to obey. I made my way to the back of the room like a good staffer does and they came up to me and said excuse me maam are you the press secretary . They even know who i am, thats amazing. They wanted to get their picture with me so i asked a questions in the first i said what made you want to become a navy s. E. A. L. , sense of adventure Family Tradition chance to see the world, physical challenge, what was it in the first s. E. A. L. Says oh no man they get it. Even with a beard and a said yeah they get it. The second s. E. A. L. I said when youre going, preparing to go wherever it is you may be going do you have to take a lot of language classes and he said oh no man we are not there to talk. [applause] thats great. And i tell that story because as we get on the chopper to head back its my last flight in marine one of the prison he said that was cool. E that was great and i tell him the story and he threw back his head and he laughed and he said god, i love those guys. They understood the mission. They understood freedom and what we were fighting for. I got to see him last weekend of all the things that come with the presidency the only thing he misses his being commander in chief. [applause] for those of you who dont know there is also an ugly side to working at the white house. Long hours, incredible stress and i think this book does a great job of telling the wonderful stories about what its like to work so close it with a president but also gives a sense of how tough it is and there are moments i think that all political staffers go through where they question what they are doing. The data you became White House Press secretary was also a day that you maybe had had enough. Tell us a little bit about that. The day i got the job to be White House Press secretary was the day i walked into the white house fully intending to resign. The theme throughout the book is every time i make a plan god had a different idea and it turned out to be better than the one i had. Thats the reason amazing and ed gillespie was director of indications of the white house. He recently ran for senate in virginia and came this close to winning. He should have won that seat that he was the director of the indications and one of the things around this time of the presidency that the Obama Administration is facing right now which is 18 months ago you had people that have been there since the campaign and as a staffer you do get tired. One of the things i write about very openly for the first time if that some of the Health Challenges that i ended up with mostly because i didnt take care of myself and if i had to do anything over again it would have been that. Josh bolten the chief of staff said to us if you dont think you can make it until the end of the administration should think about leaving now. I had to be honest i was barely crawling. My husband and i went on a trip and he was running this, this really crazy idea of running the middle of the woods with these people. I had the day off and i said we really should talk about this. A Family Member white house senior staff are goes through a lot as well and he was quiet about it. Choosing to be loved is not a career limiting decision. Lisa doesnt have to be in it wasnt for me. He would support me whatever i want to do and he knew how hard it would be for me to say i wouldnt get a chance to work with george bush. Once you leave the white house its unlikely youre going back. So we decided i was going to leave and we make all these plans on the way home. Im going to go to target and im going to make breakfast twice a week. Of course i do have a plan. I will walk the dog monday wednesday and friday. And i get to the white house that morning on monday morning and i say i dont know how im going to tell the president. We get to the morning meeting, the Bush White House started it 7 30 and i saw ed gillespie the director of the communications my stick and i talked after the meeting text the meeting ends and the leader of the meeting says dana can you stay behind, everyone thinks youre in trouble. I always think im in trouble sorry buddy files out and i sat down and im ready to blurt it out to ed. He said you might if i go first . I sat back and thats what he said the president would like to make you the press secretary on monday. And i said oh really . [laughter] and i wasnt sure if i was a convenient choice but i remember thinking what am i going to do . Did you say yes before you called peter . Oh yeah. I whispered into the phone and told peter and he said anything you need i will be there to help you. The president knew how hard it was on staff and tina what they did . One of the things i wanted to talk about in the book was the personal side of him and as a manager have the new that i could do the job but i was gone 18 hours a day and even when i was home i wasnt present. Asa take my black area upstairs. I will be right back and i go upstairs and im yelling at the New York Times usually. And the president invited me and peter t. Camp david soon after that and it was peters birthday. Peter hadnt said anybody that was birthday but the president knew it. Out comes this big cake and his biggest bragging rights as president bush and condi rice singing happy birthday. I bought me another year and a half. [applause] so many president ial staffers write books that are a little bit negative telling us the gossipy side of whats going on in the white house. He wrote a very different book and you peel back the curtains on a president that we know in the love because he teaches us lessons about life. Tell us about why you chose this tell some of the stories that have not been public . When i left the white house i worked on several other books and i did the prm book tour for karl rove Charles Krauthammer and other people and i was asked by a publisher for i ever intended to write a book and i said oh no it they said why not . I said and i had written on a piece of paper the idea for this book and it was in my wallet. I said i kept carrying it around for two years and i said i have this idea and they said that well never sell. [laughter] i hope they are watching now. Political books typically are books that are going to take a jab at somebody and i didnt have any bad things to say about anyone nor would i have said anything like that. This book answers to basic questions for me. One is a onestop shop where he can answer how did somebody he grew up in wyoming and colorado was no political conditions convictions end up as a Republican Press secretary . [applause] and the second thing it does is i feel like its the missing puzzle piece to a lot of the short term history that has been written so far and the Bush Administration because historians from now until the end of time will be able to look back at the Public Record and the policies and the politics and what everybody else has written about that time but they were very few people who could write this book with the personal perspective of somebody who, i was a deputy for a long time and one of my pieces of advice his uis take the deputy job come he worked holidays weekends and nights but thats a get to know the boss. We used the colors of the b team could do it walk in on a saturday hello sir its the b team and he gets used to say that the best team. So we have fun and i really felt like, i dont write about then we decided to the surgeon we did this and we did that. Its really taking people behind the scenes of what it was like what i call leadership from a followers perspective. How he was more than a commanderinchief to me and my boss. He really was like a second father to me. I felt every blow on his behalf. In this book you will not find it negative word about george bush. I was on the radio the other day in new york city and somebody said can you really say that george bush was a good president and i said i can and i do. [applause] and he did teachko me, or preteach me life lessons and one of my predecessors had written a book that was quite negative and he knew i was upset about it. He called o0 watching something which i think is Pretty Amazing the last several years we have watched president bush 43 really take the high road with Barack Obamas presidency and all the problems we are having around the world. President bush has been good about stepping back and saying this is not critiquing. It didnt have that same gift in 2008 when both sides i think predominantly from president obama but both sides were throwing a lot of mud at him and you were outside watching this. One thing that the world does not know how to president bush handle that . His instruction is we are not getting involved in this campaign so do not let yourself get dragged into it. The press corps will ask you every day and then all the rest said this about him and i was pretty disciplined. One of the things i did at the podium is imagine if the president were watching me what hed be proud he would to say i just thought about it. There was one time i did push back. I remember where i was at the crawford middle school. Somebody competes a lot of statistics. We had a big fundraising appeal and using my word. If that felt good for one second when you hit back and felt good for just one second and then you have to suffer the consequences. What you can do for john mccain is stay out of it. Everybody has to be their own person when they run for office and we cant let ourselves get bogged down and i do remember at the convention when president bush didnt end up going to minneapolis in 2008 and he gave a speech as this hurricane was forecasted to hit southeastern United States and he finishes and the cameras are all setup and you can see the monitors and there is a line from the floor in minneapolis and this is a vulnerable moment of weakness in some ways on his part but i have to think that the human moment he looked at me and i write about this and he said to you think that they know they are insulting . I never sugarcoated anything for him so i just waited and i looked up at him and said. He didnt worry about his legacy interviews the last six months i was trying to scramble around. He said im not going to try to be the next president of comments on everything. The job is hard enough as it is and hes comfortable not being in the spotlight and he said that in one year he read three books about george washington. And if historians are still analyzing the first president , the 43rd doesnt have a lot to worry about. [applause] she was my boss at the un so we ended up talking about Foreign Policy quite a bit. I would love for you to give us a little flavor of the Vladimir Putin story when he asked about the reporter in the United States. Thats a good story. This is in the book but i will give you a snapshot. It was 2005 i was a Deputy Press Secretary and i had just arrived on the scene and one of the first trip were overseas and i think we were in latvia for a nato meeting in paper going to have a joint conference for the russians into two questions for the americans and my job was to sit with our press corps and to be able to brief the White House Communications director into the president and Vladimir Putin about wife of the American Press corps was going to add. Putin already knew that the russians were going to ask now that i think about it. No wonder i was the only one in there. [laughter] i read their work and i could imitate them. Ive been told by the connecticut inspector that no matter what we knew that the American Press asks the russian president about press freedoms. Our press corps is likely to ask a question about the press freedoms. Is he going to hit me and Vladimir Putin is standing there in 43 answers you got that if he says why would i talk about the press freedoms in russia when you just justify your did that and he said what are you talking about . He says he fired at new thats news man. Ours you talking about dan rather . [laughter] thats not how it works. Vladimir putin says nothing really. They said this whole nonsense about dan rather. And i remember watching the reporters and they were trying so hard not to laugh. We were laughing at the un. Tell us about another moment which i know was kind of a low point overseas for you when you are in iraq and theres a press conference in the back of the room and something unfolded and you were right in the middle of it. I remember watching this thing in my gosh look at danas. I was the only one that got hit of all the people in the room i was off to the side. And the secret Service Agent was standing behind the interpreter that was next to me. The violence against me i never felt before in my life. It hurt. If the president turns out of there and doesnt stand a strong strong that is terrible for america. I wasnt sure what was going on but the marine had seen what happened and he reaches down and pulls me up and we are trying to get out of the room but now its on to the crime scene because they are trying to find out who this was and everyone is blocking my way. Hes in iraq he security guard. He walked me out of the room and the president comes and finds me and says i saw you cry a bit i thought that it was because the guy and i said i grew up in wyoming and i know little tougher than that. But i ended up huddled up on the floor of airport and go between baghdad and kabul and it wasnt a very long like a fivehour flight or something a little longer. So i was curled up on the floor because the Conference Room was set and everybody was sleeping. I got a blanket and i remember being supercooled. I wake up at a blanket of with a blanket of way and they walked me to the Conference Room. And the speechwriter and big hockey expert says to you sleep on your side lacks [laughter] i went to the bathroom and i had a big black eye. The White House Reporter photographers agreed not to take a picture of me. They made a pact among themselves that said its leave her alone and i was that was really nice. We get to the capitol and we didnt give them much notice that we were coming for security reasons. The president said, with me. So i walked with him as he is going to see karzai. Very charming. Can you say that on cspan . A lot of people already have. [laughter] he feels so bad for me and i said its okay you should see the other guy. [laughter] but i ended up last weeks of the administration with a black eye. I think as we work with and around the president received a u. S. We see the u. S. Military men and women are incredibly determined to keep america safe overseas. When youre overseas you have the American Military guarding the embassy. Tell us about the day because i know president bush had a special place in his heart for our military grade there is a great story of president bush going to a Military Hospital and you were with him. Can you tell us about the emotions of the day . It was 2005 and scott mullen was the press secretary and he asked if i could accompany the president to a bethesda Naval Hospital which is now walter reed. We were going to visit 25 wounded warriors. Ive never been on a visit like this before so i didnt know what to expect from the families. I wasnt sure if they would be angry, distraught. But i would say out of the 25 weeks of 24 were overjoyed. What i write about these two teams. One was the first person we saw a had been injured in iraq and hadnt opened his eyes for the two weeks from the explosion to when he got flown to the hospital. And his mom and dad were there and his wife and one child. One child or six. As we were walking in, they asked the chief of Naval Operations what is the prognosis and he said we dont know because we havent been able to communicate with him we are trying to keep them as possible. Everyone had to wear a mask in the icu and they wanted a picture with the president so she has bunche gathers them and assesses everybody smiling clacks [laughter] then he tells the military aid to present the purple heart so we stood in silence and at attention for the moment and the military aid leads the presentation and at the end he pulled on the childs jacket and says where is the purple heart sees that its an award for your dad he is so brave and loves his country and loves you and i hope you will always remember that. And i was standing here and the marine was an event over here and i saw him open his eyes and so did the medical staff so they start rushing to the bed and they said no i think that he wants the president. So he says reed it again so we stood at attention while the purple heart was again presented and at the end, the president pushed his forehead to the marines and it was a moment i try to capture because theres a relationship between a commanderinchief whos made a decision and to see it through was something i felt i should beware of witness to because i showed it was like behind the scenes when there were no cameras around and how he conducted himself and the other part of that story is we then continue on and one of the families that we saw they are from the caribbean and her son was on life support. He wasnt going to make it and she was so inconsolable and he tried to console her at first and it wasnt what she wanted and then he was very upset and yelling at him and asking why is it my child. Not yours. He stood there and let her say whatever she needed to say. He wanted to absorb some of her grief like he needed to feel it. And when the husband finally said okay and the president left and saw a couple more wounded as he got into the marine one to lead into the way that he and the chapter is to say we get on and its silent because its been a very emotional morning and the president is quiet and he then looks up at me and he says that mana did it come on shore was mad at me and i dont blame her a bit. He looked out the window and he had one tear that came down but i remember he didnt try to flick it away and was very silent and then we flew back to the white house. We are going to get to questions in just one second. Before we do i just have one more question. For those of you that dont know, she is as humble and nice and dont listen to greg. [laughter] she is all the things you see and thats the way that she is in person. This book i think as i said in the very beginning is an uplifting book and a positive book and encouraging book for graduates of the people that are just starting their career. I would love for you to just give a quick couple of anecdotes about what you have learned in this incredibly successful life that you have an item that you dont always look back and take a moment to see that you are an incredibly popular tv show, and you were a New York Times bestseller thats pretty. Give us a couple of tips about how younger people can have an amazing career. One of the things ive noticed when i do book signings and people come to the lines and especially that age group have 22 to 32 this young woman came through in long island saturday night and said i felt like you were speaking directly to me and i said yes because i went through it, too. I talk about the quarter life crisis and so i think that sometimes it is harder to turn 25 than it is to turn 30 because all the things you were going to accomplish that didnt quite come true yet and you didnt didnt need to the guy at your dreams yet and the path to the house and became, you are not going to have it all by the time that you were 28 like you planned that i like to remind people today i think in particular people are looking for an exact roadmap area they want the gps of their life. They want to be told where to turn, would mean to get in. If you give them a roadmap they will follow it but it seems like no life is a straight and narrow path and they are wrapped with anxiety. Melanie also nervous. They want to achieve. They are ambitious so i break the advice of. Some of the things i suggest and the things you can do tomorrow you might not have this in california, maybe in the winter you do. One of the things i say to them is if you have to dress for the job you want and not the job you have. I use a line that sticks with them so you cannot wear your boots in the office. It makes you shuffled through life. [laughter] and what i mean by that is where them to commute between you get there you have to look like you care and like you want this job. I had another young woman i was doing and touring for she had a state Job Interview and the next monday i said that you send a thank you like with a stamp and she said dont you think that would make it look like im trying to hard . Its usually generation x. They grew up writing thank you notes. Also to talk about this idea of networking over time, just big friends, you make friends and then they caught you and ask you if you want to be the spokesperson of the bush campaign. Or then they take you over to the white house. But they worked on capitol hill when i did. And i always admired him so much and i was excited to write about it in this book then he said i dont remember you. [laughter] other pieces of advice i talk about and about i in the book i used something called conversation stranger danger but ive had a life of knowing people from all walks of life and people from both sides of the aisle about meeting president obama when he was a junior senator from illinois and when i got home that night my husband is that how was your dinner, i was at the usaid today tabled a. I could be president in like 20 years. [laughter] try to find a connection with people. I encourage them to to be willing to move. They need to go out and see and do stuff and im hoping to talk them is at the end of my book i have a conclusion if i take all of my life advice now i get to be on this great show and ive had time to write a book like this i have two phrases that i think encapsulates what i was looking for and that i achieved for the most part. And ive now found a way to be joyfully content and productively serene. And in those two ways i actually living up to my potential. I was blessed with friends and opportunities to be here in the east room. All of you came out on a monday night in short interested in this book and it means a lot to me. [applause] we want to have time for all of your books to be signed but the first question im going to put on the screen because it came to us via social media this afternoon and the question is do you have any advice for the current broadcast journalism student . This is from the broadcast journalism Freshman Student at northwestern university. Shes there at northwestern . They are probably watching it on live stream. Journalism schools are filled all across america and thats because people of the system. They want to tell love to tell the story and they want to get the truth. But i would recommend for journalism students today is you also have to learn something else. You have to have a specialty. If you have a chance to do something you care about. And its having a specialty and something in addition to general news. Broadcast journalists need to learn how to write as well. It will always be there with you and do what feels good going into. My wife kristin and i when we put our bed to beat cowboys to bed at night we always wonder how bright is americas future because we think its bright. Seeing it from the inside how bright is and what is your greatest threat for young people, thank you for being here. Well im glad you think that way and that you told your boys because i wrote a book called and the good news is, so i are having optimistic viewpoint. But america really ive had a chance to travel around the world. There is no other place that we would be blessed to be born. [applause] i think the biggest risk is an overall complacency and also being risk adverse. America is exceptional but only if we accept that responsibility and if we are not forcefully being the leader in the world, the world affords a vacuum and someone would try to fill it. Give them service around the world but complacency is the biggest risk. Thank you. We are going to take another one this one came from social media on the video but im going to ask you to stand because i want you to see what happens on this video. Scat can i see it from here . Cynic this is from new york city. Lets play this video. [laughter] [inaudible] [inaudible] [laughter] does anyone know who that was . Laughter code that unemployed man was asking who inspired you to write the book. [laughter] one of the things i say about this in the book as he is the brother i never wanted. [laughter] but in all seriousness, what an amazing talented individual. There is a lot going on. One of the things i love about him as i could read his mind not perfectly but i could see where the jokes are going. I start laughing before he has finished talking. And also i dont believe you have seen on the show there are times somebody will have a topic and lets say that i get to go first he will always say i was going to say that. Or thats what i had written down. So you get to work with people that you have a connection with. Its interesting that we sits next to each other. It wasnt because roger ailes had this idea that we were going to hit it off so well because we didnt know each other. We sit on that end of the table and guess why, because we are the shortest. I want to thank you for being a positive influence with all the negativity around. I appreciate that. My question is being with president bush, we know that he has a special relationship with god and how did you see it come to fruition behind the curtain, behind the scenes . One of my favorite pieces of feedback in the book is the another subset thank you for being a good role model for my daughter. Not just mothers but the dads, too. I had to read the Rocky Mountain news before we got home from work and discuss two articles. And i grew up in a Lutheran Church and he thinks it is hilarious that i was in the choir. [laughter] but of course i was. [laughter] president bush didnt shy away from his state and he lived it and was willing to talk about it. If the things i remember in particular as they were going through a rope line and somebody said i pray that you and he would say i know i can feel it. And he and mrs. Bush said they really did feel they were being prayed for and encouraged. They need that from us because theyve been asked to do is difficult. All the problems of the world window the president s desk and you have to believe in something greater than yourself in order to manage that. [applause] we have time for two more. The next one is from jeffrey in irvine california. We will put it on the screen. What was the most difficult question that you were asked in the White House Briefing room . The only time i ever cried at the cried at the podium i didnt cried to be invited into spillover but it or and i peered up and it had nothing to do with policy or politics because i could handle that. It is when tony snow called me from his exploratory surgery to tell me that his cancer had returned. He was the press secretary before me. He inherited me as his deputy. We were very close and not long after he arrived he had to have this exploratory surgery and go through another round of treatment. He called me right before the briefing that stay. I tried to be brave on the phone but when i went out to greet the press and to say i have an update i remember my voice caught and everybody in the Briefing Room with tv iodine on tv. So, i pulled it together but that was the hardest question with him coming back and he did come back and he did well in his treatment, he really did. And in september of 07 when i took over, i thought that he was going to beat it. But then about nine months later, ten months later he collapsed during the speaking engagement in washington. And he never recovered. But he was in the hospital for several weeks and his wife use to email me and say he likes to read and he was so mad at the reporters that he threw his ice bucket on the floor in solidarity with me. He was the one on the last day he came to me and said how are you feeling about things and i said not very good because how am i supposed to replace you . He was such a giant in the Briefing Room and everybody loved tony snow. Not a Single Person didnt like him. I didnt know how i was supposed to replace him and i could only imagine the ridicule coming my way that he made me stand up and again he was 6foot five and i was only 5 feet tall, maybe still hopefully. And he said you are better at this than you think you are so i got all these men in my life for my grandfather to tony snow, might husband, they all come together to try to help the achieve something. I never understood the war on women. I guess i have a theory where they were coming from but i never experienced it and so the hardest briefing was the one about tony snow. One story that i revealed in the book he was at cnn and now fox news and even he didnt notice. In july of 2008 we went to the g8 in japan. It was a disaster. It was the worst. We were in for three days. Nobody could see anything. My theory is anytime anybody goes on a foreign trip something happens back home that involves your attention to that was the case then. I get back and i am not a good traveler to asia. I still have a hard time recovering. So i said i need one night of sleep and then i can get up and do it all over again. The phone rings at six in the morning and i look at my blackberry and its fair to henry. And i thought what does he want so i answered the phone and i heard his voice and he said im so sorry to call you this early but i need a comment. And every bit of my antennae went off and i said im going to call you back because i have a feeling that tony had passed i didnt want to give cnn a that action to the satisfaction of telling the world. So i hung up and i scrolled through my messages at three and threetime 240 joe had sent me an email that would let me know tony had died. We are going to close with a question from a fan in new york city. There is one . [laughter] spinnaker they demanded that we ask you a. As a result he insisted that we get another dog after henry passed and one night they said there is an actress in hollywood really mad because matter because the paparazzi kept taking pictures of her dog. He said you are a monster that has been known to fly into a rage when someone takes a picture of george r. And i said no i want everyone to be able to share my dog. He can be americas dog and there he is. [laughter] [applause] thank you. Thank you. [applause] the book is and the good news is. And all of you that have the book, go out to the lobby and they will sign in to those of you that dont cut it are for sale in the store. Thank you for coming to the Richard Nixon president ial library. God bless you and god bless america. [applause] this year. [inaudible conversations] good evening. Im the co owner of politics and prose along with my wife and on behalf of the entire staff i would like to welcome you. If you click administrative notes now would be a good time to turn off your cell phones or anything that might beat. Second, when we get to the qanda part of the session, please try to make your way to the microphone right here. As you can see we are recording and not only for our own channel but cspan tv is here. Finally, when we get to the end of the program before you come up to have your books signed, the staff would appreciate if you fold up chairs that you are seated in and leaned them against something that will not topple over. I am really delighted to be introducing evan thomas in longtime friend and im sure very familiar to many of you. He is not hes not only a wonderfully fluid writer engaged debate co. And engaging but hes enjoyed to remarkable careers simultaneously. One living in the present as an accomplished journalist and the other living in the past as a first rate historian. In january that it could drop us an hes a hes been in the byline for decades after nearly ten years with time magazine. He was a lead writer the lead writer on the greatest stories of the day with a very impressive ability to take large quantities of information and blended them seamlessly into the flowing prose. Hes also been a mainstay on television as a commentator and among his broadcast claims to faith, his number of appearances on charlie rose. [laughter] more than 40 times and still counting. [laughter] and i guess because he likes to get out of washington every now and then hes talked writing and journalism at harvard and princeton. As a historian, hes made his mark writing impressive biographies about evan williams, robert kennedy, John Paul Jones and dwight eisenhower. In the very best man then he profiled for figures that read covert operations in the 1950s and 60s. In the wise man, he and Walter Isaacson told the stories of a government personality that shaped the postcold war period and in the best selling sea of thunder he chronicled the conflict in the pacific during world war ii. In being nixon, his newest book he provides a well researched updated view of the controversial 35th president whose very mixed legacy many of us are still wrestling with. He notes in the acknowledgment that as a creature of the east coast Media Establishment that he despised coming he might not have been considered especially by the hands and is inclined to approach this subject with objectivity and fairness. But hes known for his balanced reporting and his knack for clearly articulating the complex topics. Hes about to try to get past what he calls the cartoon versions of mexican and explained with evenhandedness and insight this deeply flawed and infamous but also complicated and intriguing political figure. And judging from a number of favorable reviews so far, he succeeded to please join me in welcoming evan thomas. [applause] is politics and prose the greatest bookstore ever . [applause] the first time Richard Nixon ever kissed a girl was on the stage. He was a senior in high school playing the role in the latin club play a. His boots were too small for his feet. It grew so loud that they had to stop the show. It was an unbelievably horrendous experience, he later recalled. The role was played by a girl and i just about died, she remembered, and the diary that she wrote how i hate Richard Nixon. [laughter] from wanting to ever be on stage again. Nixon went on to be a successful actor. He was giving a famous checkers speech. They changed the mind of nixon. So clever, so strong an authoritative, she did and there was no hankypanky but she thought he was quite handsome. There was a lot of a lot of that surprised me as i wrote this book. We have a dark view of nixon and there was a dark side i will get to that. But as i said i wanted to get past the cartoon version. We think that we know nixon but what was it like to be nixon. Thats what i set out to try to find out. How could someone that is so shy and so awkward be so successful at politics . How could this man become one of the most successful politicians of the 20th century, and he was painfully shy and so bad at small talk sometimes he couldnt talk at all he would just wave his arms. Weve all done this at cocktail parties. Mixing ray and into mrs. Kennedy and said this must bring back memories. [laughter] she was always trying to impress the press so before you started the campaign in 1968 he was the great anchorman at the hotel room and he gave him a drink and he said i will have sherry and he thought to himself that might not be manly enough, so i will have a double cherry. [laughter] mixing really didnt like people said they wanted to get to the state dinners to cut them short they got a stopwatch and they got the state dinners down to 58 minutes and they did it by eliminating the soup course because nixon would still serve over his taxi taxi. The explanation was real men dont like soup. [laughter] nixon was afraid of people and yet at the same time, he liked to plunge into crowds. Mixing love to taunt any war protesters by giving them the peace sign. They start throwing rocks and garbage in the United States and that night im going to read the chief of staff and here is the entry for that night. After the arrival in Saint Clement e. He went home and kept calling with ideas about how to push the line then he asked how are things at your place. I said fine. He interrupted and said we are having a fire here. They caught on fire from his fireplace, told me to come on over. Not too much damage. He took me in his bedroom into patio, slippers and a weird bathrobe when i arrived and said there was no problem. It was full of smoke and i could hardly breathe. I talked him into the guesthouse. We went over there, talked about the day and a really weird today especially the last parts of it he was very tired but in great humor, pulled down his pajamas and showed me a bruise on his thigh from motorcade in rochester. He had given these signs. Imagine being him. Haldeman once called him the weirdest man i ever met. [laughter] so how did this shy lonely poor boy do this . The key was he was an outsider this new hell to play on the hopes and fears of other outsiders. When nixon got to college there was a cool guys fraternity. Nixon was spotted for the uncool guys because he understood there were more of them. There were more outsiders and thats how into the toshiba himself elected to elected student body president. He had a lot of those standing on the steps. He came up with that phrase the silent majority because they understood in 1970 that most of the country got the silent majority was then asked to delete. They were anxious about the riots on the street and a student protesters and the innercity. And nixon kept right into that patriotism. By 1972, this boy won the groups know though republican had one before. He won 35 of democrats in 1972 and yet he was still haunted by the cool guys one in particular john f. Kennedy. Mixing and kennedy were friends. Their offices were across the whole from each other. They recognized they were both shy. Nixon actually and kennedy had a lot in common they were both shy. They were friends and kennedy actually gave him a Campaign Donation in 1950 for a thousand bucks. But then of course they ran against each other. Many of you have either seen images from that debate. Kennedy, cool and nixon. Nixon prepared all day long by taking a nap and listening to the records. [laughter] and it was just a terrible defeat for nixon obviously but what really got to him is that he was quoted as saying nixon had no class. It was deeply wounding for him. Even worse, he believed for some reason that they installed a election in illinois as you all know theres a lot of his story ends today that they probably illinois was assaulted by democrats. He would have needed one more state when it might have also been stolen by lbj and nixon felt he was a good guide by top protesting this, by not challenging that action. But he was bitter. One thing that is important to remember because we can get him as a great dirty trickster he always thought they were better than he was, that he was catching up with them. His later attempts to use the irs he thought he was playing catchup. Bobby kennedy had nixon audited or three times in 61, 62 and 63. Nixon thought that they were better at dirty tricks and he wasnt wrong about that. They were pretty good at dirty tricks. But of course nixon exaggerated and made it worse than it actually was. The other cool kids are to speak was a georgetown set a. My old employer mrs. Graham. Back in the day they really did have some power. At the dinner parties and heads of the cia and the state department would get together and 1950 after nixon won the u. S. Senate Race Committee invited mix, be invited next into dinner to kind of check them out to see who was this new guy. They also introduced him as russell nixon. The ambassador said i will not break bread with this man and he walked out. You can imagine how mr. And mrs. Nixon, how richard and pat
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