S archival and presidency. Donald holloway is the curator , our featured speaker today is donald holloway. The curator for the gerald are poor president ial museum, who came to the four president ial museum in 1996. Since, then his helped curate and shape our over 70 exhibits, including the centennial exhibits of both president and mrs. Ford, as well as the renovations of the museum, the Court Exhibit in 1997 and 2016. He has a bachelors degree of history and Political Science from Oklahoma Baptist University and a masters from kansas, where he serves as an adjunct professor, teaching American History and ancient history. Don, welcome. Are you with us . I am, patrick. Thank you for having me. Excellent how are you doing . And most importantly, how is the staff doing . Are you guys reopen . Theres obviously a lot of energy to get all these museums reopened. How are things there . We hope to share some of that energy, and soon. The staff is doing well. They are eager to get back. The lib
Also had had a daughter at 14. So all of those questions led me to pursue them. A very aristocratic family. We need to step back and say exactly who madam nhu was. He brotherinlaw, the brother of her husband became president of South Vietnam in 1956 or 55. 54 he becomes premier. So madam nhu was the de facto first lady, because the president of South Vietnam and theres a few titles before that, but for simplicity well calm him the president. He was a bachelor. That makes him sound like he was going to vegas on the weekends, but he was really very moral, he slept on a hardwooden cots. He signpersonally signed entry visas. Theres this kind of very catholic austere man who needs a first lady, someone to host the parties and go to the orphanages, host the flower shows. So madam nhu, his younger brothers wife becomes this woman and shes perfect for it. She looks great for the cameras, likes to be out there, and this sort of gives her a voice. All of her life i think she had been looking for
Historian carol berkin is next on booktv. She recounts the life of Elizabeth Bonaparte the onetime wife of the brother jerome and a native of baltimore maryland. This is a little under an hour. [applause] thank you for coming out on a cold night. Elizabeth patterson bonaparte was a legend, curiosity walking slowly down the streets in the 1870s, her trademark held high above her head to protect her from sun or rain. On the other arm she carried in a laboratory and the wished bag that was rumored to hold all of her jewels to rea rate her dress no longer fashionable perhaps made in that area when napoleon dominated europe and america was a little more than a fledgling nation. It was clear that even in her old age she conveyed an elegance and a sense of superiority that captured admiration is curiosity. As she stopped at one building and then the next knocking on doors and demanding their rent owed to her, the passerby as might have recognizesmight have cities and countries first female ce
More vigorously and with greater force and depth than had been anticipated. What do you think patton would have done in that circumstance . Landing an army on the beach with no opposition . Would he do you think he might have dug in . You know, thats a counter factual and historians always love counter factuals because i cant be wrong. I can say, yeah, he would have dug in just like lucas did. Or no, he would have raced to rome and the story of the anzio landings would have been considerably different. My belief is had general lucas taken that small core and pushed inland they would have been destroyed, that they would have been annihilated. Not only would we have had the agony of four months at anzio, but that we would have probably had the agony of an entire corps being annihilated. So im a defending of lucas even though i recognize hes the wrong man for the job. Hes replaced by general trusscot, the one who was born to lead men in the dark of night. He was reliesed by lucian. Yes, s
Where she lived in paris. She avoided pars because she could have been extradited. Correct, yes. Rented the apartment, is that correct . The apartment that they owned in paris . Madame nhu told me she was given the apartment. She always implied it was given to her by the American Government because they felt bad for knocking off her husband and brotherinlaw and had no other place to go. They needed to keep her in a safe place. So when she would leave paris, she would rent out that apartment and get the extra cash from it. Thats where i found her. My vietnamese is really bad, but every now and then, i will go online and try to decipher my way through a little article. I found. This article written in the early 2000s by a guy who claimed interview madame nhu. That sort of rung a bell. I thought back to my notes. I thought, oh, yeah, i see she wrote a letter to claire booth from this address close to the eiffel tower. Ill go there and see if i can find her. This is when i thought theres n