you here as well as several members of our national council on white house history, which we're always grateful to have well this evening. it is my honor and privilege to introduce a really terrific friend of mine and as a friend of the white house historical association mark up to grove serves as the president and the ceo of the lbj. foundation in austin, texas, he is a presidential historian for abc news and also an accomplished author. mark is actually authored five books on the presidency including this book that we're celebrating this evening in comparable grace jfk in the presidency. and i had the privilege of recording a podcast this afternoon with mark which will release later in the month when the book is officially released and it was a fascinating conversation. i really enjoyed my time with mark and i think you're going to enjoy the time with him here this evening. he is also written for the new york times politico national geographic time the daily beast usa today and most recently he has been the executive producer for cnn's original series, lbj triumph and tragedy and if that is not enough mark has had the the privilege to be the envy of every journalist and historian who has interviewed exclusively seven american presidents throughout his career. well, it was 61 years ago that a young john f. kennedy was sworn into the office up at the capitol and by his side was jacqueline kennedy who would become our first lady and she herself would go down in history as being one of our most influential of first ladies. we have a particular reverence for here here at the white house historical association. but it was later that day on inauguration day that president and mrs. kennedy ended up at the white house and mrs. kennedy realized this was a home the people's house as she would call it. it was in badly badly in need of historic restoration. she believed that the white house should represent the very best of america artisans craftsmen. decorative arts fine arts furnishings. and so she took that on as her project over the course of the next three years. cut short tragically by the assassination of president kennedy, but what she put in place then is still the legacy of her influence of historic preservation at the white house acquisitions for the collection and actually education. it's a key part of our mission and we are mrs. kennedy's living legacy at the white house today. well, it was those 61 years ago that we were founded at by her and today we continue to undertake that work my colleague my colleague colleen shogun leads our david and rubenstein national center for white house history, which is really the educational part of our work and we published books. we publish a quarterly magazine. we have conferences symposia book events like this. so publishing and storytelling is a vital part of what we do and encouraging friends who can unpack these stories i ask mark earlier you another book on john kennedy did we really need another book on john kennedy, but then when i read it i read the book myself and it reads like a novel and i'm it's insightful and inspiring and i'm fighting myself. reoriented in a really special way to the kennedy presidency and i think we can thank mark for that and i know you'll all enjoy reading the book well. it was in 1792 that the cornerstone for the white house was laid just about 200 yards from where we're sitting tonight and a whole lot of white house history has taken place in those years since 1792 and tonight. we're going to focus on three years of that history a very important three years interviewing mark this evening is amananawas. she serves as the pbs. newshours chief correspondent and primary substitute. anchor she's been honored with an emmy award for her nbc news special inside the obama white house. a society for features journalism award she's a recipient of the international reporting project fellowship. and in 2019 received a peabody award for her newshour series on the global plastic problem tonight. she's going to discuss with mark this terrific new book, which remarkably reexamines the kennedy presidency for us and that has so often been trapped behind the myth of camelot if you will and this will be a portrait of the kennedy presidency its visions flaws charm. it's triumphs failures, and certainly it's grace so bringing those stories to life for us the this evening, please welcome, amna and mark to the stage. thank you all. everyone how nice to be in person with people and especially with you mark so much for having me here. well good. thanks for doing this. wow, god. i'm not. options i can to the kennedy's my family had not even set foot on these shores at the time that he was president and yet i was fascinated by this book stewart is right it absolutely reads like a novel and and i can't wait for everyone else to get a chance to read it too. but let's go through some of my burning questions first. here's the way this is gonna work. i've got about 20 minutes with you and then we'd love to open it up to the room for any questions. you might have as well. so if you see me checking my phone, it's not because i have somewhere to be it's because i want to make sure sure i'm respectful of everyone. um, so as stuart mentioned there are a few about jfk out there. right. thank you series some films some i've watched all of them. why jfk? why did you decide to do this? you know, and it's a wonderful question before i answer it. i'm the lineages. thank you again for doing this you have as i understand it. you have an evening job. at the pbs newshour, so it's so good of you to make time for this and i'm a huge admirer of the work you do. so, thank you so much. thank you to my friend stuart mclaren and to all the people at the white house historical association for running this marvelous institution. thank you to my friend lauren leader for helping to organize this with our mutual friend kimball stroud and thank you friends old and new for for coming tonight. i'm so grateful for you being here. there are so many people i would like to recognize but one in particular if i may and and it really leads to your question and answer your question anxiety is here anxiety is the widow of hugh society. it was the legendary president watcher for time magazine. i had the great privilege of working with with hugh and got to know anne and hue through the years and i will tell you hugh was actually the president of the white house historical association some 20 years ago. so this place means a great deal men a great deal to you, but you spent time with john f kennedy and and during crucial hours of his presidency and i heard from you who john f. kennedy was beyond the camelot myth and that got me very intrigued about john f kennedy. he and i worked on a joint project together called time in the presidency and he started that project in talking about john f kennedy and and who he was and what he meant to this country, but while there have been many books that have been written. the well, there's an old expression write the you want to read. and this is the book that i wanted to read about john f kennedy. it's i tried to make it a very brisk narrative that makes you feel as though you're going through these very tumultuous. very triumphant in many ways, very tragic and others days of the kennedy presidency. and that you're here there with them day in and day out as he wrestles with one issue or another and so it's episodic in a way that i didn't see the other kennedy treatments, and i also wanted to wrestle with the camelot myth which overshadows kennedy and so many respects it. it deprives him in so many ways of his humanity so that was important to me too. and there's there's so many books with an agenda. my only agenda was to capture this this indelible president and what he meant to the country and and the momentous decisions that came across this desk. i mean the country is still so fascinated by him and by the family this myth of camelot, right? it's still really grips americans to this day. why do you think that is you and i were just talking about this it is figured out. oh, i i get that. i think royals down to this. john f. kennedy was and continues to be how we want to see our in the world youthful ambitious elegant intelligent compassionate and instilling the notion or embodying the notion of service over self. that is the the image that he diffused abroad at a time when i think we were the envy of the world in many respects and i think that's the way we want to see ourselves. he's the personification in many ways and so is to an extent as the vivacious kennedy family of how we want to be seen. did you learn something new about him in writing this i learned a lot new and one of the things you know, i thought i knew this this history pretty well and you and i talked about talking about civil rights as being a very important aspect of the kennedy presidency, but one of the things i found out, why did he move on civil rights as he did in 1963? he's wrestling with civil rights in in many ways. there was the the free there with the freedom rides in 1961. there's the integration of ole miss with a matriculation of james meredith in 1962. the same thing happens at the university of alabama in 63, and then there's the civil rights movements direct action campaign. birmingham and during the course of that campaign when martin luther king is taken to jail and writes the famous letter from the birmingham jail the the weight of the civil rights cause is coming down on kennedy in this presidency, and it looks like he's going to have to act he's very reluctant to act to do anything except for protect civil rights marchers. and i want i've always wondered why he did it at that moment. and it turns out that bobby kennedy who was his his brother's chief aide most trusted and close advisor goes down south to alabama and meets with george wallace and meets with just horrific resistance down there. you know, people are hurling episode him and and treating him certainly not like he's the attorney general of the united states, but interestingly enough a more. poignant episode for bobby kennedy comes when he meets with with james baldwin the novelist and a group of african-american entertainers and artists at bobby. kennedy's father's penthouse. in manhattan and it is a very uncomfortable situation where they're confronting bobby kennedy with the racism that the kennedy administration has not addressed. and they are they they're unrelenting in their criticism of him. and it has the searing impression on him. and he goes back to the white house and at first he criticizes those who are at the party. you know, he talked talks about baldwin and how horrible he is and that he's gay and oh my god, how what a horrendous thing. this is another time obviously. and then he says you know what? if i were in those shoes, i'd be saying the same things. and i think he had a marked impression on his brother as well and finally his brother decides when george wallace the segregationist governor of alabama blocks the auditorium stewart went to the university of alabama. so he knows this well blocks an administrative building so that two african americans can't matriculate into the institution. kennedy says, you know, i'm not going to let him have the stage here. i'm gonna go on television tonight tonight and talk about civil rights. and bobby encourages him to do that. and he does it and he elevates. civil rights to a moral issue and the interesting thing is they don't have enough time to make an address ted. sorensen said i just don't have enough time to give you a proper address, but bobby tells his brother speak extemporaneously speak from your heart. so that speech which is one of his rhetorical high points. most of it is extemporaneous. and that was something that really surprised me how that came to fruition how he came to embrace the civil rights movement as a moral issue that's fascinating. he actually listened to his brother over the advice of most of his advisors, right? that's exactly right his advisors. tell them not to do it. bobby says no you feel it go out and tell the american people how you feel. so one of the things that fascinated me about the book is the way you've broken it up. you've got four parts. basically you call the torch the fire the brink and the peak. so why explain that a little bit why break it up that way what to each of those mean each i think take you through the kennedy presidency the torch we all know is the torch has been passed that that famous passage of from his inauguration speech the torch was passed to a brand new generation of americans. the oldest president in that in history to that point dwight eisenhower is leaving in the youngest president-elect in our histories coming in. that's a generational shifts of the torch has been passed passed and at that point. kennedy is captured the imagination of the american people bear in mind john f. kennedy only wins the presidency by two tenths of a percentage point. right, but by the time is inaugurated and gives that soaring eloquence at his inauguration. the american people are all in on john f kennedy. um so much so that when he meets the fire of his presidency, so the torch has been passed but then the fire has yet to come. and the fire comes with the bay of pigs and a number of other things that john f kennedy simply can't anticipate. but it says something about kennedy and the american people at that time and our country in another era that when kennedy suffers this huge black guy in his presidency. with the bay of pigs quagmire where a hundred and over a hundred cuban nationalists are killed in the incursion of cuban and 1200 are taken captive. and the american people approve of john f kennedy to the tune of 83% only 5% of americans disapprove of john f. kennedy's job approval at that time. we rallied around our young president at a time when we were fighting for hearts and minds with the soviet union. we know how important it was to put all we had behind this young and in many ways inexperienced callow president. so that's the fire the peak or sorry the the brink comes in 1962 with the cuban missile crisis where we find ourselves on the brink of possible nuclear holocaust where we stare eye to eye with the soviet union as they're bringing missiles into cuba largely as a result of the the failed incursion of cuba with the bay of pigs that emboldens nikita. khrush jeff kennedy's counterpart in the soviet union and we come as close as we've ever come to the brink of nuclear disaster. he's 13 harrowing days. i was talking about my friend you he and husband and q talk to me about meeting with john f kennedy at the height. the cuban missile crisis and it was at night and they ended up the kennedy and hugh had a long conversation in the oval office and then kennedy decides. he wants to go skinny dipping and hugh says well, i don't have a suit. he says you don't need one, but he leaves he leaves the white house that night goes through those black gates. not knowing whether there's going to be a tomorrow. that's how dark those days were so that was the brink and then the peak comes after that in 1963 where kennedy stands at the peak of his presidency. he has resolved the cuban missile crisis. peacefully against all odds. and he gains the esteem of the world and he's standing at his peak when he has cut down in his prime. that slim margin of victory. i don't think it's talked about enough. it's amazing. you try to imagine what that would look like if it happened today and it would be a very different reaction. i think so. why how did he maintain that kind of popularity that sort of approval was it him? was it where the country was at the time a combination of the two? i think it's part of it, you know people ask me all the time why joe biden can't be another lbj and the answer is because the world has changed that our nation has changed fundamentally john f. kennedy has two thirds majority in in the house in the senate. he's battling on civil rights at least. he's battling his own party in the south but nonetheless, they're pretty handsome majorities. the media landscape was far more narrow, even though this is as much as many as much as any it's there wasn't a proliferation and fragmentation of media that we had today. we had three networks nbc abc cbs pbs would come along much later in 1967. we had just a few newspapers there. and so there was a more centrist view of the world. and again, it says something major that kennedy was would be as popular as he was just shortly into his presidency when he wasn't doing so well in the world stage. you know a thing or two about lbj, it's fair to say. talk to me about their relationship. what was that like well, you know people talk about the kennedy's and and lbj and and the kennedys were not monolithic there were different kennedys and they had different relationships but the relationship between jack kennedy and lyndon johnson was very amicable. there was mutual respect begrudging at times but mutual respect john kennedy remembered when he wanted to get something done as a senator for massachusetts largely a back bencher who didn't achieve a whole lot relative to the the peers that he had in the upper chamber, but he remembers he had to go through linda johnson the all-powerful senate majority leader his father, joe kennedy the kennedy patriarch had enormous respect for lyndon johnson. in fact, he told his son don't take the second spot on the 1956-56 democratic ticket. unless lyndon johnson is the presidential nominee and even offers to to fund the campaign if lyndon johnson chooses to run so there was great respect there. i think the confusion about this comes where bobby kennedy comes in bobby kennedy despised lyndon johnson and lyndon johnson didn't feel any differently about bobby kennedy. they were just fundamentally different people. but but i think john f kennedy realized he picked linda johnson to go on the ticket for two reasons want jesus reasons rather one was political. he needed southern balance on the ticket and what better balance the lyndon johnson from austin, texas again who had so much power, but the second one was that he picked a vice president because he was the the person who was most capable in his view of operating in president in the presidency should something happen to him and then that that was the case. i mean when you look back on it now, obviously there's been so much reflection on his abbreviated presidency, right, but it was an incredibly eventful presidency too. just that short tenure. so you mentioned the cuban missile crisis, of course, what was what we were actually facing at that time was that it's a fair to say that was sort of the darkest hour. was that the worst that it got it was there the greatest triumph too for him. yes. there's no question in my mind. that is the darkest moment. not only in the kennedy presidency, but maybe the darkest moment in human kind. to come that close to nuclear annihilation bear in mind the majority of the american people at that point in time believe that there is going to be a nuclear exchange imminently. that's how tense the relationship was between the soviet union and the united states of america. it's interesting because there's there's a transition meeting between eisenhower and kennedy the second of two meetings that they have and this when it takes place on january 19th 1961 the day before kennedy is inaugurated as president. and they talk about the troubled spots in the world all the trouble spots of which there are many and you can see eisenhower's almost relief and relinquishing in these problems and giving them over to jack kennedy. and kennedy leaves the the white house and as the limousine is is departing. he looks at an aid in the backseat and says of eisenhower, how can he stare in the face of disaster with such equanimity? but it's it's equanimity. which defines kennedy in that most, you know, dark hour in that most desperate hour of his presidency in the cuban missile crisis. he is calm there's this almost preternatural calm that comes over jfk. he's measured he doesn't panic. he doesn't paint himself into a corner and he's desperately looking for a way out. i mean, that is the public kennedy right that we all to the grace under pressure and as you say in the title was he like that in private as well all the time, you know, i think so the as you see he was very compartmentalized. different people saw a different jack kenny's people say the same thing about lyndon johnson. but he there was a certain. vitality that he had there that we look at him as being so vigorous and so so youthful, but he was he had battled illness his whole life and i think he the tenuousness of he had been in world war two. he lost his brother there. he lost his sister soon. thereafter. his sister rosemary had had lobotomy because of a retardation. she was something that was meant to be a cure so he saw the fleeting hold. that life had and he tried to make the most of his life, but i think in those hours those really crucial hours the cerebral kennedy kicked in and he was really thoughtful about what the best approach would be going forward. he was determined to avoid military conflict in laos when the berlin wall went up and of course during the cuban missile crisis. he wanted peace and i think that calm not reacting and anger not reacting passionately not listening to the jingoistic military advisors who were telling him that he needed to engage that that defines kennedy and his best moments in the presidency. what about today? 60 years later? what's his legacy on the party on the presidency on the country? you know what? i'm going to read a passage from my book. if i may you know, i i would bastardize this if i really thought about this. how did i want to end a book and i and what his legacy looks like and here's what i came up with. i'm gonna throughout the course of his restless abridged rain in the white house. he dealt with the pressures of the office standing on feet of clay at times showing flashes of greatness at others, but all he did indelibly honor and grace edging out recklessness and abandoned calling forth the best in all of us. and i think in so many ways. kennedy again, he personifies that notion of service over self the phrase we most remember with john f. kennedy is ask not ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country and that's become this timeless expression of an american ideal that we should all be reaching beyond ourselves and kennedy at his rhetorical heights gets us to do that. i could keep going another hour, but i will stop here and open it up to the room anyone who has a question. first hand went up. markup was intrigued when you began the conversation by the reference to two side. a member of the media astonishing society and i recall catherine graham's memoir. in which she examined the relationship? between the media the press and the presidency and how close it was. to thank to talk about huxiety going swimming with the president and the pool on the night. that seems so dark. lbj comes along in a tragic murder how did that relationship change and then what way it seems to me that and i'd like to hear you talk about this whether or not john kennedy's profile with the press haydn his profile around the world and whether or not a change relationship had an effect on lyndon johnson's profile. my friend riley. temple is a great question riley, you know. john f. kennedy was a journalist himself. he worked for her newspapers during the second world war briefly after he came back from combat. any admired journalists, he really he thought in fact in his post-presency that he might buy a newspaper or might become an editor that was and i think there was distinct possibility that he would have done that he appreciated the fourth estate as being a fundamental part of american democracy. what he also knew the value in cultivating those relationships. and i can tell you in talking to you who had a few scars probably on his calves from being kicked from at least metaphorically by john kennedy of time or two for his coverage, but kennedy had enormous respect for hugh and what he did he had respect for the profession of journalism. you knew the clout of time magazine in use case and you know time magazine was a bohemoth at the time. i think that things start to fade when during the johnson presidency bear in mind. john f. kennedy creates this liberal tide that's liberal in the most literal sense that flows into the johnson presidency faith in government in 1964 stands at 77% and that's largely because of john f kennedy. i think having us believe in ourselves and believe in our government. but linda johnson while he takes advantage of that and puts through the laws of the great society mostly in 1965 after he's elected to the presidency in his own right faces the quagmire of vietnam. and he is not necessarily truthful with the american people maybe by his own doing or because he's being misled by his advisors and as the war becomes more and more controversial. the press becomes more and more critical and i think that's when things sort of start to slide. but you know all presidents have a mixed relationship with the press barack obama came to the lbj library where there's a quote from lyndon johnson if i if i walked across the potomac the headline and the next days washington post would be president. can't swim. never changes right? there's there's always somewhat of an adversary or relationship, but john f kennedy, i think he beguiled the press about as well as any that we've had. thanks riley. oh, yeah, we just work our way across the room. thank you. thank you for being here. and the lbj special was really lovely. so congrats on that. thank you. a specialist in both these presidents. what would you look for as a voter in your modern president? say again? i'm so sorry. what do you look for in a president? you as like a scholar of the presidency. you know, i i've been asked this before and i think at the end of the day all presidents are different, you know, they come in with different skill sets and experiences that come in with different visions and outlooks on the world. and i think it's hard to paint, you know any leader with the same brush, you know, we should expect different things from different leaders because not everyone's capable of the same things at the end of the day the best we can expect from our presidents is that they love their country and they do their best. and most of the president's in my lifetime in my view have held up to that criteria. they did their best and they loved their country john f. kennedy certainly fits that that criteria as does lyndon johnson and and so many others, but but i honestly i i don't know that we can ask for anything else john f. kennedy looks different from dwight eisenhower. and from franklin roosevelt and from ronald reagan, but all those four presidents were in the top 10 of all presidents, but for very very different reasons. but but by god if you love your country and you give us your very best things are probably going to wind up pretty pretty well for the american people and for the world. each other. yeah. i think the microphones are working away around here. 10 edelman? yes. thank you very much for this. it's a wonderful discussion mark. your books are great. you're four-part series with lbj is great. so it's a wonderful occasion. two questions number one is we all learned that character is primary it's very important. and it's very odd that kennedy's character of public service. was so exemplary and so inspiring and his personal character was not so exemplary and so inspiring and there seems to be a total split between you know, the public service that he did and the values that he had and the private values that he had which are pretty despicable if you look back at it now second point is that you are absolutely right that you've been missile crisis. what is a tremendous triumph marty sherwin has a new book out. that's just terrific on that. up, and the way you kennedy it was just terrific. but when you look back at the kennedy presidency, you just wonder what was lasting about it. what did he do in those years that really lasted? i you know you are in charge of the lbj library foundation and you know, there's so many things as we're celebrating on the 50th anniversary that we're lasting and you know every day we see lbj programs and that are you know benefit all of us. it's hard to think of one from kennedy. yeah two points. thank you. can those are both wonderful observations and it was interesting to going back to your first point. it was interesting to write about this mad men. era president in the me too era and i talk about that and and really put a light up to his character by virtue of where we stand in 2022 with with a as as much as we've advanced as a society in that regard and you're right. kennedy doesn't look good. the cuban missile crisis. i just one comment on that the misconception is that it was a zero-sum victory for the united states the russians the very emboldened nikita khrushchev sends missiles into cuba and we steroid eye and they blink and they withdraw and that's true what we didn't realize until years later. it is that there was a quid pro quo agreement around that. there were missiles in turkey that we had that were dangerously close to the soviet border posing an existential threat just as there were about to be or where there were missiles in cuba just 90 miles from american shores. so we did a great moment for kennedy, but but we realized much later that it was due to an a back channel negotiation that we get out of that peacefully and it's a credit to kennedy, but it is not a zero some victory terms of what's lasting. here's my view on that. that again i mentioned this this high tide of liberalism that kennedy creates. and and it's funny because you look at the legacies of john f kennedy and lyndon johnson and so often. they are you're either, you know team kennedy or team johnson. and near the twain shall meet, but frankly, they have incredibly complimentary legacies in my view because john f. kennedy gets us thinking beyond ourselves because he instills such faith in government. lyndon johnson is able to capitalize on that and get through the laws of the great society which become the foundation of modern america the civil rights act for instance of 1963, which kennedy proposed in that speech. i was just talking about was largely languishing in the halls of congress when kennedy died. he didn't have the legislative will or the might or both to get it through lyndon johnson did and he did that in so many unfinished things from the kennedy administration in many cases. lbj made them bigger, but you know, john f kennedy tried to get through medicaid and failed john f. kennedy tried to get through federal education federal aid to education and fail all these or on his desk. but the one thing that kennedy does is get us thinking about a better america and lyndon johnson can capitalize on that. if i can follow up on one thing just please from a historian's perspective. the revelations that we know now about his personal character and and his rampant womanizing. does that change how we as a country should view his presidency and his leadership, too. the one thing i would say is you kenneth wright. it's despicable behavior in many respects. if you look at the way he treats an intern if there's a book by robert dalek about john f kennedy the unfinished presidency in which he reveals that there was a white house in turn to whom who loses her virginity to john f. kennedy at the age of 19 in her first week in the white house and he takes her around the the country in the world almost as a concubine and it's very difficult to excuse this kind of behavior. but i will say it didn't it didn't affect his ability to discharge the duties of the presidency. compromised him at some point, but it did not. i think he comes by his his womanizing relatively honesty. honestly, his father was a rampant womanizer himself. i think for the kennedy's womenizing was almost a way of keeping score in an odd way. and here's john f. kennedy trying to get the most out of life and those notches on his belt were part of it in a way in a weird way. i can't explain it. but but it is certainly a deficit of character and i would say if the at the time walter cronkite spoke about the fact that if there was if a politician was womanizing or was abusing alcohol, it didn't matter if it didn't affect his duties to to be a public official and so the gloves were often kennedy knew that to a certain extent. i think that there wasn't this great scrutiny by the press corps, of course that would change markedly later and should change frankly. we should know that america politicians. questions. yes. know that the first half matched up kennedy, and i think that the story was anyway that he kind of thought that kennedy was no big thing and was probably just a young boy and you know he could deal with him what finally convinced khrushchev to back off. was it this was it the missiles in turkey, or was it that somehow kennedy had shown enough strength that he would. back down or respect him. you know john i i begin the book with john f. kennedy talking talked about a member of the press riley and and this goes back your point out intimate. the relationship was between kennedy and the press but the book begins with a prologue. and it is john f kennedy right after going monoamano with the key to cruise with the nikita kushchev at the summit superpower summit in vienna. and kennedy goes in this glamorous elegant figure who gets the such a dashing figure on the world stage and we have these high expectations. and khrushchev goes in thinking that he's very callow and can be exploited. and kennedy's performance over those two days against the very truculent very pugnacious nikita khrushchev leads, khrushcheff to believe that he's and i'm quoting khrushcheff to intelligent and too weak. and kennedy knows that khrushchev has this impression and it goes back after these endless two days of meetings with khrushchev to the american embassy in vienna, and he talks to scotty reston. who's the reporter? from the new york times and it's an off the record conversation in which kennedy concedes that he has been savaged. those are his words by nikita khrushchev. he says and he knows that nikita khrushchev has been emboldened by this encounter. and he says until we remove those ideas there could be real trouble in the world. and again, i think that it's that meeting. it's that face-to-face interaction. with kennedy that embolden's khrushchev to make the move in cuba. and it's the resolution of that that that conflict between the two that gives cruise chef respect for kennedy for the first time for the reasons that i mentioned what the way that khrushchev talked about it in his memoir is that kennedy was clear-headed in that moment. he did show grace and equanimity. he did talk to khrushcheff. i'll be at through back channels to try to find a peaceful resolution. and again, he didn't paint himself into a corner and that made a difference and after that point chris jeff's stock goes down in the world and john f. kennedy's goes up. there are so many fascinating details in this book. i really enjoyed reading it. i really hope everyone gets a chance to read them all. tell your friends spread the word. i do want to be respectful everyone's time and i want to give you the chance to share any other peace of information or a story or a nugget from here that you think people would find interesting before we leave the stage and enjoy the rest of i'll take a quick story that i love and it came comes from my old from french youciety. kennedy goes, you know wonderful inauguration about the entire world is watching and talked about the soaring eloquence and that moment and then he goes on to the inaugural balls afterwards and goes to a party in in the wee hours in the morning and he crawls back into the white house about three in the morning. and because the presidential bedroom is being renovated. he sleeps in the lincoln bedroom and the next day he's asked what was it like to sleep in the bed of abraham lincoln? and he said i just climbed in and hung on. and i think that's true for almost any president, but i'm not thank you so much for conducting this conversation for your time. and thank you all for being here. thank you very much. thank you. what a delight. it's good. thank you. thank you very much, amna and mark for this conversation tonight, and thank you all for joining us here at decatur house white house historical association. and for those of you watching by c-span. thank you for your interest in our work and our mission and telling these important stories of white house history. the book is available. mark is available to sign. thank you so much have a good evening. this is astronaut neil armstrong command pilot for the apollo 11 moon landing mission. what is the purpose of the apollo 11 mission apollo 11? is man's first attempt? and straight the ability. you go to the moon. land there and to return to earth what are your responsibilities as commander of apollo 11? well in