Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency 20141215

Leading up to and after his departure from office on august 9, 1974. He recalls working with nixon on his memoirs. This runs about one hour and 20 minutes. Let me not hold up this great program. Director of the linden pain Johnson Lyndon library, and we who was a gannon white house staffer during the nixon administered. Lets not hold them up. [applause] welcome, everybody. Tonight, we are going to see eene very littles interviews with Richard Nixon conducted by frank gannon. What strikes me about these clips is a Richard Nixon i have never seen before. Talk about nixon some of the things that you will see in these clips, but i have never seen Richard Nixon as relaxed as i have seen him on this. Was often very when it came to the press, as was seen in his interview with frost which was later shown in the play and the movie frost nixon. Is very relaxed and provides insight that is a testament to the relationship. Hat he had with nixon i want to start off by asking you a little bit about that relationship. You were in the white house during the latter part of the Nixon Administration. Houseed you to the white and to work for the 37th president of the United States . Ask, before frank response, we are going to see photographs of frank, which will take them down memory lane and will provide cues to talking about his experience in the white house and with president nixon. And this is our first one. [laughter] just to wake everybody up. [laughter] this is pretty selfexplanatory. I would directly to the white house from the Adult Entertainment industry. [laughter] official everyone, when you joined the staff, you went down to the office and the photographers office, and you got an official close of the photograph taken. This is my official publicity photograph. I have several thousand of them. I dont think it was ever used anywhere, except they give several thousands of copies to me, so i think i have them. This was taken, and i joined i began as a white house fellow. Mark, is the director of the johnson library, and he has come austinstan today today, and im very grateful he has done that. This year is the 50th anniversary of the white house fellows program. It was adjusted by kennedy and enacted by johnson. I was a white house fellow in came tos of 71, and i the white house down from new month ofhe august 1971. This is me here. Lets move on quickly. [laughter] this is me in the oval office in 3, and this is to establish that i am not making this all up. Well, i am making a lot of this up. [laughter] no, i was actually there. These are tough photos, because llent lad in that office picture in 1973, actually this is august 8, 1974. I am in ron zieglers office. Ollie atkins, who had photographed the nixon family for years, even before the white house, just roamed around the west wing pictures of whatever he saw. Kind of on me deathwatch, city enrons office. I saw this earlier, sitting in rons office. I saw this earlier, and behind this curtain is nixon and sadat at the pyramids. It had just been taken five or six weeks before. In the last several weeks before president nixon resigned, he had gone to the middle east and have been hailed in cairo and alexandria, and then went to syria, the first president to visit syria. Then he went to saudi arabia and the to israel. He squared circle of israel and egypt in one trip and ended up in jordan. He came back for a week and then went to russia. So that is that day. This was, i have no idea why i was sent in there, because there was nothing i could do. This was the oval office. Supervise,i guess to two people who knew exactly what they were doing and had done it before. These were techs who had set up the oval office for the resignation speech. The president wanted to speak, and spoke as he says in the resignation speech, this was the 37th president and this was the 37th time he was speaking from the oval office. You can go into the oval office and see that they put down the papers, or whatever they were, to protect the rug. And they moved the flakes from to be to near the desk near the bookcase. Put a scramy would behind, or not a scrim, but a curtain behind. Brown top on put a the top of the desk. So the president could have been speaking from the ramada inn in braille in brea. So that was the prep that was done in the oval office. And was the death watch this is the postmortem. This was after the resignation speech. We watch that on the set in ron s office. That is diane sawyer, that is ron, and that is me. We are now going to see some clips from the interview that frank has with president nixon in 1984, or 1983. Leads up to the very dark days of early august, 1974. Frank, talk about what we are about to see. We will roll these clothes, and frank will set up there are four different sets of clips. Frank will give some concept around them. And then we will roll them. So talk about the first set that we will see. These clips are available on the Nixon Library website. In preparing them, i think of it homage to kenan burns. There are title cards to explain what they are. So i went to be the human title card here to set them up. That if you go to the library website, you can see them, and they will have a much more sustained explanation and they will have a much more ciscnt succinct explanation. What nixon is telling me in this is on the 23rd of july although this is the first of august but he is saying on the 23rd of july that he got the news. This will be a slightly longer explanation than the rest of these. But to set it up, the House Judiciary Committee was getting ready to vote on the articles of impeachment. The math was unrelenting. There were 38 members, 31 17ocrats 21 democrats and republicans. Of the 21 democrats, 18 were solid vote for impeachment. There were three possible swing votes, people who at least had not committed themselves previously if they were going to vote for impeachment. They happened to be three southern democrats and they were very influential within the committee. They were considered to be very thoughtful people. Did notheld, if they vote for impeachment, this was a very lastditch hope. But it was the only hope in town. That theth was congressional relations people came up and said it was possible the 17 17 16 of of the 21 democrats. There was massive there were you to keep one republican only keep to democrats, or keep all the votes the math was a hail mary play. On the 23rd of july, nixon gets word that all three southern democrats were going to vote for impeachment. So this was the hail mary play. To call was the talk walter flowers, the alabama southern democrat, and see if he could influence him to vote against impeachment. Is on the phone in the oval office. It was a very curious conversation. Wallace kept saying i cant hear you. Thingsn he kept saying louder, and then he realized that walter did not want to hear him. Then he said, i will be praying for you. And he looked at hague said, well, al, there goes the presidency. Before the tapes were released, he knew he could not survive as president. So in the first clip, he describes what he did as a result of that realization. The second clip, when he decides he has to resign, he decides he has to tell his family. He has two intermediaries with his family. One is rosemary woods, a longtime friend of the family. So that is on the first of august. Thehe second of august, president will talk about bringing the family to the lincoln sitting room. He wants to read the transcript of what became known as the smoking gun tape. It was the tape of the conversation in the oval office and neck halderman nick halderman in 1972. This tape made, in nixonian phrases, the presidency in operative. In the tape was going to be released three days later. They were in the sitting room, and he tells his family what they are about to read. The transcripts. And the result is that the think it is survivable and they dont think hes should and mrs. Uld resign, nixon is particularly adamant that he should not resign. July, i knew that we could not survive. However, when i got back to washington, in my usual think itl way, people is methodical and i guess it is, i decided i should put done the pros and cons of what options i had. Of paper on that which refreshed my memory. It was rather interesting when i today so many years later. One said i could resign now. To select a way for impeachment and resign then. And three said i could go to trial in the senate. That would take about six months. Resigning now is the option i did not want to do above everything else, personally. I am a fighter. I just did not want to quit. Also, i thought it would be an admission of guilt, which of course, it was. Also, i felt it would send a terribly bad precedent for the future. I hoped no other future would route no other president would resign in the future. House would do with the voting for impeachment would be to put all of my supporters on the spot and make them vote for impeachment. The third option was to go through the senate with a hearing and a trial, i should say, for six months. I knew that that was unacceptable. Unacceptable, from the standpoint of the country, the country could not afford to have a crippled, half time president. In this time, when i recall in 1973, things were not as bad as things are now, the soviet union was not as difficult. I just could not risk that. So after making those notes, i in my own mind decided that there was no choice. So the next day, the first day of august, as the weeks before i finally made my resignation speech. Him thathague and told i felt there was no choice but to resign. I was i i told hank ziegler. Told hague and i went out into the sequoia with to have a satisfactory outcome of the heat astern, you cant do it. You just cant do it. The writing. With then i said some i said to my family. The painful thing. The lincolnn sitting room, as i recall. She came down, patricia, and julie. The 23rd tape transcripts, because i thought it was important that they would see just what the problems were. It was causing concern. Had it not been a 23rd tape transcript, we still would have resigned. As we know, the three democrats had been lost. But nevertheless, this was the final blow. The final nail in the coffin. Although you dont need another nail when you are already in the coffin. Which we were. She was very quiet about it. Listening to others, which she usually does. But she came down very emphatically against resigning. You have to remember that during , ifund crisis suggested i turn in my resignation to eisenhower. And she said, you cant do that. You are going to be able to survive and get your in theers to support you final campaign. And on this occasion, she was a fighter to the last. She was the last to give up. She was the last to give up on was the lastg, she give up in 1960, and she was the last to give up here. Of clipss next batch takes us to august 5. To august 7. T 5 so they went to camp david for the weekend, and we pick up again on the fifth. That is the monday night, the night that the smoking gun tape was released from the white house. On that night, the nixon family to campe woods went david. And davidand julie, eisenhower, his sons and laws sinlaw, and they left. After the tapes were released, the president did what he did. That is the fifth. Now he had decided to resign on several days earlier. The senior white house staff knew. That afternoon, l hague al uccinctives a su description of that point her and he finds a note on his pillow. That is the sixth. On the seventh, the family had the last dinner at the white , which ishe solarium on the third floor of the family quarters, and it is hidden by the portico. It is a room that is essentially all glass walls, and there is a balcony that looks down on to elipse. After that dinner, the president goes to the lincoln sitting room to work, and after midnight he calls his press secretary ron ziegler to talk about final arrangements for the next morning. We decided that night to go out for one last ride on the sequoia. That was a rather you read right, i would rather eerie ride, i would say. We talked about what patricia woods call the subject patricia woudld call the subject. Talked about how rose was handling inquiries from the press, she was very effective. So the evening ended rather puzzling. Then i went down below to pleasantly rather. Then i went down below to stretch out and think about all these things. Haig,ot a call from al and she read from her shorthand notes. It is about as we expected. Some of thenced as names were read off of those who had left my support. Ierstood it, but i felt look back at the time where i campaigned for them, and supported them, and it cut. But i did understand it. I did not hold it against them. That theread off cabinet was standing firm, for the most part. And then she left the room. So i just turned off the light and closed my eyes. Mrs. Nixon was very perceptive however. Sequoia, night on the even though she had not been officially told that the decision was final, she had started to sort the clothing and start packing. So the three days from monday night till we left on friday morning, she did not sleep at all. She was packing five and a half years of clothes and mementos, and preparing herself for leaving. As it is between people who are very close, you dont have to say it publicly or even privately. Things unspoken say it even more strongly. Well. The cabinet i knew from what i had heard others, that and they would like the opportunity to present their views and to logging me to make the decision. I respect of the but i was not about to allow them to get me to resign. It had to be my own decision taken at my own way at the right time. I did not want to give them that opportunity. Moreecond reason was even important, however. There could not have been a. Period of 48 a hours where it was going to be known that i was going to be resigning. Many of them probably did not appreciate the fact that i did not tell him, just as many did not appreciate the fact that i did not tell them i was going to china. But at times you have to keep your counsel, and i felt that at the time, this was one of those times. Right after the cabinet meeting, i asked henry to come in, and i told him of course. We had to inform foreign governments of course, that sort of thing. He supported the decision, he was askingt, but it too much to ask me to be dishonored, as he would put it, to have me go to trial for six months. It was a tuesday afternoon. General haig that i would beign, but it with dignity and no rancor. Be as worthy as your opponents are unworthy, he said. And then i thought a minute and said, well al, i really screwed it up, didnt tie . Didnt i . He did not have to answer. When i arrived in the room, i knew it was pretty tense. With mrs. Ys tell nixon, or the time with the fund time withremember the the fund, and she had this pain in her neck. When she saw me, she put on a great act. I guess it was an act. She got up and threw her arms around me. She said, we are all very proud of you. Well, i did not know quite what to say. Ollie took portraits of me, and i said, i think it would be nice youou to take a picture of and me in the rose garden, and patricia said, i will go with you daddy. So i would with patricia down to the road garden rose garden. We were able to think back to a happier time, back to 1971, when she and eddie were married in the rose garden. What a beautiful occasion it was for all of us. Thinks as beautiful, i more so then and even now, then she was then. Then she was then. Hen. Han she was t e that we would have the picture, i put on a bold front and try to arrange it in my usual way, you stand here, you stand here, you stand according like so you want be cut out of the picture, ollie was very quick because tears were brimming and everybody eyes. Everybodys eyes. And then julie could not stand it, and she threw her arms around me and said, i love you so much daddy. At that time i could not say much either. That was way past midnight. As ron was leaving, he had been a loyal fellow and so forth, and i had really never given him a twour, but i wanted him to see through my eyes. I had all of the lights turned off and the queens bedroom. Also in the lincolns bedroom, and in the yellow room, and so on and so forth. So i walked through the rooms and showed them to him and by theed a little bit history, and he seemed moved by it. He said simply, you have had a great presidency, sir. So now we get to the darkest of the dark days. Nixon 8, when president announces to the nation that he is resigning from office, and august 9, the data he departs from the white house and flies back to san clemente. Talk about what we are going to see here. We will see into separate sections, the august 8, which at 11 00 in the morning, he meets with Vice President ford in the office to officially inform the vice hours,nt in 24 hours, 25 he will become the president. That evening, at 9 00, he gives the resignation speech. Comesit, Henry Kissinger in and asks, there was a tradition, and henry would walk the president back the 500 feet or what ever it is from the oval office to the residents of the white house in itself. Night, henry comes and asks if he could do the same on this occasion. Tough for him. Tougher for me. For manyrked together years. He had come to Congress Just a year after me. We had fought many good battles most,e most and won lost a few. I told him i thought that the country would be in very good hands. I told him it was important to keep Henry Kissinger, and he agreed, and i told him i thought we had a very fine cabinet. I said, ieaving, meant to tell you something. I said, i remember so well one of the last conversations i had with president eisenhower. In fact, the last conversation i had with him before i was inaugurated. E called me on the phone he said he wanted to wish me well. And then he went on to say, his voice broke a bit when he said it, you know, i have only one regret on this great day. This is the last time that i can ever call you dick, mr. President. Said, gerry, this is the last time i can ever call you , mr. President. And it brought tears to her eyes. Our eyes. After the speech, i went over to the residence to read henry came up to me residence. Me, and heup to said, i have always done this after the big speeches. As we got to the door, he said, mr. President , history is going to record that you were a great president. , henry, that will depend on who writes the history. I went upstairs, and all of the family was gathered in the hall. As i came in, david said, i dont see how you did it, i dont see how you did it. And then suddenly, they all got up and came around and just surrounded me. It was sort of a huddle, but the family embraced and said nothing and saying everything. Said, daddy,icia coat ist is wet, your wet through. I began to have a chill. The room had been so hot and the temperature so great that i was perspiring through the suit, the same suit, incidentally, that i had worn to moscow and spoken on television to the russian people in 1972. Soon the chill went away, and i went down to the lincoln room and made a few calls to people. I heard the chanting outside. It reminded me of the vietnam days. Chantis chnt was was jail to the chief, jail to the chief it did not bother me. I understood it. I think we have one more pod. One more batch of clips that relate to august 9. The last day in the white house. The last halfday in the white house. The president slept fitfully for a couple of hours, and then woke up on that last morning, friday morning, and the family then said goodbye to the white house staff, which was a tearful goodbye. Had aite house actually staff of the house, the butlers and the maids, the next development down and spoke to each of them. And the nixon went back to the lincoln sitting room to prepare for his Farewell Speech, which was going to be made was made at 9 00 in the east room to speech s a good buy Farewell Speech to the staff. Al haig comes in with one minor house speaking minor housekeeping detail. He describes leaving the white house. Went to bed. Did not sleep very well. I woke up with a start the next morning. The last morning. I wondered if i had overslept. I look to my watch and it was only 4 00. I tossed and turned and then i got up. I walked to the kitchen. I got a bite to eat. Johnny johnson, a white house butler was there, and i said johnny, what are you doing here so early . And early mr. T is present, it is almost 6 00. I looked at my watch, as a matter of fact, the same watch i have here, and the battery had run out. Worn out. At 4 00 on the last ar was in office. By that time, i was worn out on the last day i was in office. Why that time, i was worn out to. . . By that time, i was worn out, too. Patricia said she was glad that people were able to see daddy as he really was. He had spoken from the heart, and i had spoken of pride, there had never been an example of anybody profiting. Told them that they must not allow what has happened to discourage them or affect them. We learn from our defeats. Life is not over because you suffer defeat. Just some of the philosophical that enriched and guided me in my life. I try to share them. Oldoke to my parents, my man, as i recall. My mother. My mother was a saint. Ay old man was not just common man, he was a next her and her man. That was about it. Went back down to the lincoln knockedhay al haig on the door. It was perhaps for him, the most difficult meeting we had. For me it was not easy. He brought to me in peace of paper with one lie on it, and it i herebyatement, resign the office of the president of the United States. So i signed it and he took it out. I worked on a speech until it was time to go down. Very emotional speech. I recall speaking from the heart. Later in her diary, which she let me see, wrote that for the first time, she was glad that people were able to see daddy as he really was. Spoke from the heart, thanked them for what they done, expressed my pride in the fact that this administration had never been an example from anybody profiting in this office. Told them that they must not allow what had happened to me to discourage them. We learn from our defeats. Life is not over because you suffer defeat. Philosophicalhe and finished and that i deleted my own life. I i can assure them. I spoke to my current, michael van as i called him, and my mother played him as a saint, and my old man. Parents my parents, my old man, as i called him, and my mother, who wasa siant, and my old man not ordinary, in fact he was quite extraordinary. Diplomaticn to the reception room. Gerry ford, he is still gerry there, he is going to be president in two hours, betty is there, i shook has with him. Isaid, when i appointed you, knew i was going to leave the country in good hands. He said, thank you mr. President. And i said, goodbye, mr. President. And then betty ford said, have a nice trip, dick. Then mrs. Nixon came out to the plane. Julie was not going to be able to go to california with us. Tricia was at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the entrance of the helicopter. Got into the helicopter, i turned around, and there was the crowd out there on the lawn as it had been in so many cases before. Hand, i didised my not know if it was a salute or a wave, and that was it. Went in and set down on the plane. I heard the engines world up, i closed my eyes, i was pretty tired and had been up all my. Thinking and so forth. Had been up all night. Thinking and so forth. As the helicopter flew off, i heard mrs. Nixon speaking to no one in particular but to everyone. She said, so sad. It is so sad. And then as the helicopter went i did not have any feeling of bitterness or cor or selfpity. Speech, i sawy people watching me give my speech, and tears were streaming down their cheeks, and how fortunate i was to have such marvelous people, such good people, in our administration. I thought of julie down there. And patricia and ed and mrs. Nixon. One couldlieve me, no have had a more supportive, loving, kind family and how lucky i was there. As the helicopter moved onto andrews, my thoughts would go to the other times. Went there on the way to china. We went there twice on the way the mideast, to europe, to around the world. Thinking, and this is also rather characteristic of may, not about the past, but about the future. What could i do now . What could i do to see that these great initiatives that we had began could continue . And that is the way that it was. Perhaps the best ,escription of how i felt then and frankly it is the description of my philosophy little cufflink that i had received. Card, with alittle a littlee, couplet that i had received during a received a little card, a three by five, with a little couplet on it. It described how i shall rise and fight again. That is the story of my life. So frank, you were a witness to these incidences. You were there when it happened. You were not in the east room when president nixon bid farewell to his staff. Airare at Andrews Force base on air force one. Can you tell me about the experience at that moment . We had, after the resignation wingh, we were in the west , and i was getting ready to go home. One of the secret Service Agents came in that i knew, and said that we were that the office was going to be swept for president ford in a couple of hours. Until then, it was kind of a free zone, and if i wanted to go in, i could. So i went in, and i was alone in the oval office and sat in his chair. Earlier,told mark ked through his desks for spsk for souvenir tie cla and pens. I had to be out at andrews at 8 00. The only people who could go on the helicopter, which we have right out here at the library, were themily, family, the president , mr. Ziegler, and the doctor. The doctor went on every trip. So the people who were going to be on the plane, the people on air force one, had to be at andrews at 8 00. I had a curious sort of out of body experience, because after the speech finished, we were all sitting there and watching the postspeech commentary, and i am watching it, and then in my peripheral vision, it cuts to andrews, and it says the president s helicopter just arrives. And so we got out of the cab and fast. The plane took off at 817 8 17. This is a picture of what would have then a completely filled cabin. It was like a ghost it was like the flying dutchman it was like a ghost plane. Back there is ron ziegler and me and diane sawyer. The president said in the earlier thing, by the time the speech was over, they did not know what was happening, they just went where people told him to go. Similarly, ron, diane, and i were just numbed by that point. The whole weekend just been surreal. 24 hour days. So just mentally, emotionally, and physically draining. I the time we got onto the by theit was just time we got onto the plane, it was just exhausting. What was the flight like from andrews to san clemente . And by the time youre over missouri by 12 00 noon, president nixon became former forddent nixon as gerald room. Orn in at the east the president had come back about an hour into the flight the president came back and think there were five or eight of us in this forward cabin. The next cap and was empty, which was the staff cabin, and what was the press cabin was empty. And then there were the secret service. So he came back. He went back and talked to the secret service. Us, and he talked to stopped and talked to me. He saw that i had had the foresight to get the seat next to the pretty girl. [laughter] us then he thanked all of for what we had done in the white house and for coming with him on this trip. We had been told, the people who were going, on the monday, so the fifth of august, ron ziegler had asked me if the president were to resign, would i be willing to go to san clemente for a month . Anybody that went would be gearing tea that their job in the white house and the Ford White House would be capped. So by going, you would not lose your job. Kept so by going, you would not lose her job. He said to keep it quiet. I guess we had known from that monday on that it was a possibility, but we were finally told on thursday, on the morning , and they before flight was surreal. A touching moment as we were flying, we were getting ready to land at el toro, the a worker back,t and we had seen the five, cars were backed up four or five miles waiting to get off at the el toro exit. That was very moving. , and the at el toro president made a couple of remarks, and that was it. So you worked for nixon. Your mother extended well beyond a month. Nth were 8 your mo extended well beyond a month. You are at san clemente for a while. Of course, it was a real roller coaster. We went out for a month. Extended for various reasons for six months of the official transition, every statute. Is allowed by thoserse, the nixon six months, he resigned on august 8, and on september 8, president ford issued a pardon, so there was a whole flurry of events. Wars called on to draft the work on the draft of the pardon statement. Work on thedraft or statement. E pardon just on your library depends on us for, they depended on the thousands of pieces of mail the cayman the mail for months. Came in the mail for months. And then he got sick. He got very sick. Then he went back in. And then he began a. Of just touchy health from the fall of 1973 until the fall of 1974 and then until the fall of 1975, for some months there it was touch and go. Said that they did not want to get our hopes up because he might not make it. That occupied us. Get better and the. Forhe transition and it, various reasons, mainly financial, and he knew that in order to pay his bills, which were staggering, he had half a Million Dollars in legal bills that he was responsible for house,e left the white itin order to pay his bills, was an exquisite dilemma. In order to pay his hills, essentially his lawyers bills, he had to go on television and write a book. Saidl what his lawyers was, whatever you do, dont go on television and dont write a book. [laughter] i was the Research Assistant on the official life of Winston Churchill written by his son. And so we set our book offices up the same way that churchills book offices were set up. These with through the world es and the second world war, so i knew how randall set that up. So nixon knew that that could of have that experience could affected it. He asked if i would stay on an organized the research and writing of his memoirs. So that is what i did. This is a picture of my parents who came to visit. This was us in the former western White House Office where they met the president. Nixons the man ixons immediate right is a cleanshaven gannon. He had given an immediate pardon to his mustache. [laughter] wish i had known the things that i know now, and i am just not talking about my hair. We are going to see a picture shortly, or maybe next, of the staff. We were wonderful people and he was lucky to have us, and he appreciated that. Would think on august 8, if you had the nixon staff, it would take us to the convention 300 of usd there was in the white house and 2500 of ranch, butxecutive on august 9, this was the western white house staff or it you see friends of the library here will recognize the two bookends, jack brennan on one side. Left,ur in from the friends of the library would goft. Ized lowie he still comes up into the library. You recognize diane on his right. Here is the book staff. Kasheegian, diane, and some people says this shows my best side to read side. [laughter] can you talk about the process of writing that book . I organized it along the lines that churchill had done. Ideainston and randolphs was chronological history. So we organized and i set the gentlemen,were young because in those days, there were only man who was on the staff, from churchills days, who were researchers recruited from universities who could provide raw research. Did in san clemente what randolph did in england, which was to get big looseleaf binders for every day of the subjects jace fromhurchills 1874 through 1965 case from through 1965. Once he became to congress and became president , there would be several binders for one year. The pages would be divided into thirds. The first third was what was happening in nixons life. The second would be what was happening in the country. The third would be what was happening in the world. Any day, you could open this binder and find out where he was and what was going on. In the front of my office, there were floor to show ceiling bookshelves filled with these binders. I called professor arthur marder, an expert on the british navy, written the definitive history of the british navy. If heed him and ask him had some outstanding graduate students, which he did. A man called Mark Jacobson and bob puberty. They worked in the University Library to provide folders of research, background, newspaper clippings, speeches, to flush out the chronology. Was divided is i was the general editor and worked on foreign policy. Kentish again worked on the campaigns. Diane worked on watergate. That was the division of labor. Went through me. There was a general editor who dont with who was in charge of all the texts to prepare them to go to the printers. Briefingprepare these books or folders. Put the graduate students things in the enormous folders, we would give them to the president and he would absorb this stuff for months at a time. Then he would go to ground. He would disappear for weeks or a month and work in the upstairs study. Theres a small room, probably only 12 by 14 or something. Glass with bookcases lining and the fireplace in the meadow middle and windows looking out over the pacific. He would work there. When he came back to the office, 200,000 have dictated or 300,000 words on the subject. That would become the basis of the manuscript. We would take those dictations and give them to the researchers to fact check them. Then we would go to the documents and add documents to them. That would be refined and given back to the president. This process continued. Dictationst on, his built until we had several hundred thousand words dictated by him. That was the process. Nixon described it as cathartic, writing about the presidency. It helped him to heal to some degree from the resignation. Was it an emotional process for nixon . Maybe. But not that i observed. Rational he was not a man who wore his emotions on his sleeve. Believe the presidency should be a soap opera. He did not believe how he felt was anybodys business. In many cases, iv i think he felt it was not even his own business. That what mattered was the performance. He approached this book, which was not his favorite, because he knew, we knew the publishers were mainly interested in watergate, which is fair enough. But it was not his favorite subject, to put it mildly. It was very close. There had not been time to think about it and absorb it. Way writing the book when we did, when he did, was an act of courage on his part to address these things before he was ready, before he material toenough think about it and time to assimilate it. But he did not show his emotions. He approached it in a very professional, businesslike way. That is how he dealt with us. I hope that is how we dealt with him. The interviews you conducted with former president nixon in 1983. Hes to say no disrespect to southern california, which he loved, but he used to say if he had written the book in new hampshire, we would have finished it a year earlier. He felt when every day is as perfect as the day before, it was not innervating, but it was not exactly invigorating. I have not forgotten the other thing. What was the genesis of your doing the interview . Hethe other thing was wrote the bestseller in 1961. He said the seventh crisis was writing six crises. Temperamentally, he was an intellectual. I think he enjoyed the process of writing, but he did not enjoy the process of writing. He enjoyed the process of writing but not doing a book. He felt, as he said, and he was exactly right, we are going to spend three or four years writing this. Roughly 300,000 people will buy it. 330,000 people bought it. He said a fraction will read all of it. He said a lot of them will begin by looking in the index for their name and will not get beyond that. [laughter] him, thatsion, for was what he had to do at that time. But he felt he could go on television and reach millions of people in an hour or two hours. Thing for a congenial him. He always said he would prefer to do it on television. After i left san clemente, i went back and work for john manz in the senate, a great and a great loss to the country when he died in a plane crash in 1991. I kept up with the president. The president and mrs. Nixon invited me out for what i think was the last supper at the casa pacifica. We were surrounded by packing crates. He toasted the book. He toasted that the book was the major accomplishments of his years in san clemente. Worked for a month for him on the chapter on the churchill chapter in leaders. Put982, i was able to together a Production Company to do what he had talked about, which was to prepare a Television Television interviews about his life. I like to ask people what Rupert Murdoch and i have in common, aside from the obvious. [laughter] ailes hasat roger worked for both of us. [laughter] i worknown roger because for him on a couple projects when i was in new york trying to set up a communications business. I contracted with roger to be the producer and director of these videos. So to the extent that they look great, and i think they do, and that they were beautifully directed, that represents rogers artistry. It was part of the combination you talk about, how comfortable nixon felt come in to the extent he ever felt comfortable when the camera was on him. I think part of that was roger was in the mix. They had gone back to the 1968 campaign and in the white house. At national studios, which is no longer. It was over at 42nd, between ninth intent and 10th. They were 38 hours. Were nine fourhour sessions. The first was tebowing 9, 1983. The session from these videos was june 10. Stories i was reminded of, i did not know about it. I was talking to jesse raiford, one of the producers on this. In,he studio before we came there had been some kind of party. These big balloons had gone up into the rafters. In the control room, they could see it. One of the cameramen, instead of being focused on the president focused on these coming down on these enormous lights. One of the secret Service People in the control room told them the form of these balloons hit the light and there was a pop, that the secret service would take out everybody in the control room. [laughter] while i am focusing on what i am doing, there is this alternate drama going on. Where i wasrid form taking him through, and he had prepped for it. I was talking him through the memoirs. I was not a journalist. I had no reputation in the field, much less a journalistic field. I was approaching him as an historian to talk him through his memoirs, to talk him through his life, to get that on tape. The deal wasoken, i could ask any question i wanted. I did. Couple ofses, in a cases, i think i amused him. In a couple of cases, i irritated him. But it was this hybrid form of a structured thing to get his life down but also to be able to detour or digress and ask any question. I thought it was a very productive, luxurious format to have 38 hours over nine sessions. The first session was february 7. Stop me if i am blabbering on. I went out to saddle river to the house on the seventh, the night before for dinner with him and mrs. Nixon. But he going nowhere, opened a bottle of 1955 lafitte moutonlafitte chateau rothschild and described its qualities and signed the bottle for me. That was the launch of these programs. Nixon nine years after leaving the white house. In the middle of his postpresidency, 20year postpresidency, how had he revolved in that nineyear period from a disgraced president , the first resign the resurgent see,a somebody in the middle of what became a substantial and consequential postpresidency . I almost hesitate to answer because i am sitting in the presence of the man who literally wrote the book on this subject. Acts is a second gold standard. Point, i think a couple of things have happened. He had an intimation of mortality. He had almost died. I think that tends to concentrate the mind. He had come off of that. I think that had given him a and itsive about life alternative. In he was also more relaxed that he did not have to deal with politics. In some ways being a former president suited him very well because he could travel, he could write. Beene said he might have happier in some ways as a senator. That he was sort of a quintessential senator where you would only have to run every six years. If you are a good senator and have a good operation, it is almost circular. You can think and burrow into issues which is what he liked to do. He would have been a brilliant chairman of the Foreign Relations committee. He would have been the William Fulbright of the right. He would have been richard lugar. A brilliant, distinguished career making great contributions and playing to strength. Politics, the hail fellow well in 1968, youid have to understand i am an introvert in an extroverts game. With politics removed from the , hetion in these years could settle into being himself more than before. I think also another element was his family. He was living in new jersey. He and mrs. Nixon, they were always close, but now they were close because they spent a lot more time together. He was not diverted by politics, which was never her favorite thing. He was acourse, devoted and loving father. But then he had grandchildren. He would play with them. They were all nearby. Tricia and ed and christopher in new york. Alex and jenny and melanie and david and julie in pennsylvania, outside photo fit philadelphia, so they were all there. He had the chance to reflect on his life. Andad written the memoirs seen that through an adversarial prism and then through a reflective prism with us, the book staff. Had aher thing, nixon great sense of history and occasion. For him, it would have meant something to have reached threescore years and 10, the traditional allotment. He had reached that. Our first session was february 7. He had reached that a month earlier on january 9, so he was 70 years old and looking back on his life with all these things. Know, you say and as you he was beginning, he was in the first stages of what became an anonymously productive for him and for the world postpresidency. I think that was what was different. I was lucky. I was in the right place at the right time to sit him down, unlike frost, who had and we prepared him. The book staff prepared him for frost. We prepared him like he would have been prepared for a press conference in the white house with books of questions. It was not a reflective thing. It was a wonderful thing. It worked out well for nixon and for history. But the frost interviews accomplished and for david frost and nixon and history, to almost think him make him think aggressively about things, and then allow him to think reflectively about the same subject matter. We ended the clips without very emotional clip of nixon talking about the copy received from clare booth luce. She would famously tell president s they would be remembered [indiscernible] at one point she said your sentence will be she sent him a letter and back fromr he came china, and said, 1000 years from now it will be said of you, he went to china. Within 18 months, she had to add something to that. Couplet alludes to all of the rising, falling he did throughout his political career. Perhaps he had the most volatile career of any politician, at least in the latter part of the 20th century. What do you believe history will ultimately say about Richard Nixon . Once again, i am in the presence of the man who has written the book on the subject. I am blanking on the title. Becomeresidents who president at turning point, crisis points, in American History. Baptism by fire. Available in fine bookstores everywhere. [laughter] indeed, if there were tipping points where the country could have imploded or exploded, lincoln in 1861, f. D. R. In 1932, nixon in 1968. People have forgotten that. A lot of people have forgotten that. A lot are too young were too young to remember. He became president at a very tumultuous time. Not the least of his accomplishments was to sort of ride that countercultural wave. The moste least counterintuitive person to ride the countercultural wave because on a 10point scale, he was a square. [laughter] remembered, i think he will be remembered as the most as a very consequential, a very controversial, and a very interesting president. Consequential because of the in which he showed up at the right time. The country was on a tipping point. The things with which he had to deal, the first terrorist attacks taking over planes, the first terrorism message was sent to commerce by nixon. The first welfare reform, health care reform. Three months before senator kennedy died, he told farrah, a reporter from the boston that he had missed an opportunity in 1973 by not voting for the nixon Health Care Plan because nothing that good had come up since. The first Energy Report to the congress. The issues with which nixon was dealing are the issues that are still very much with us today. And the work that was being done, particularly in the to mr. Counsel under Jon Erlichman the domestic counsel under Jon Erlichman, the freethinking, the encouragement of all kinds of ideas, all of which was put down on paper. The unitedst of states has said the Nixon Administration is the most documented between the tapes and papers of any administration. Iceberg has of the yet been discovered. Sitting right below us in the archives are these millions of papers on foreign and domestic policy. I think as scholars begin to come out here to yorba linda, which is now the center of hassles larship, a pool of servers and thousands of doctoral dissertations are sitting below to delve intoegin the other story of the Nixon Administration. I think you will be o he will be consequential because of that. His controversial, i dont think that needs to be expanded. The geezers who have a dog in coil,unt shuffle off the the passions will fade, but the controversy will remain. I think that is interesting and good because controversy breeds controversy breeds ideas and enlightenment. Interesting because he was so darned interesting. He is shakespearean really if you think about the highs and lows, as he said, the mountaintops, the highest mountains and deepest valleys he expressed in his life. It is shakespearean or tolstoy an. It is epic. The way i remember him is the incredible like him or not the incredible quality of resilience. In the east room speech, he says it is only a beginning. He is talking about how everything is terrible. He just read a quote from Theodore Roosevelt on the death of his wife. Then nixon says, but it is only a beginning always. The young must know it. The old must know it. It must only sustain us. He does not talk about greatness. He says the greatness. He is not talking about him being great. He is talking about greatness comes not when things always go but things go bad and you take some knocks. When sadness, disappointments and sadness comes, that is when the greatness thing. He said always dream of the future. Never think about the past. Take thatople will away as a legacy, as part of his legacy, this idea of resilience and optimism and just moving forward. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. Frank, i want to thank you for not only sharing these remarkable tapes before your wonderful insights. Thank you very much. [applause] every sunday at 8 00 and you can learn about president s and first ladies, their policies, and legacies. To watch any of our programs or check our schedule, visit cspan. Org history. You are watching American History tv on cspan3. You are watching American History tv, 40 eight hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule, of upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. Coming up next on American History tv, the u. S. Capitol Historical Society awards congressman john lewis the 2014 freedom award. He was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s serving as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helping