Oh, say, can you see, by the dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say, does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [applause] please, be seated. We have a lot to do and a lot of special guests to thank before we get going tonight. You will hear in a couple of moments from Rhonda Johnson, the president of at t california. At t is the cosponsor of todays events, which have been going on since the 5k race for space this morning. Celebrating 50 years ago. I have heard the National Anthem a lot of times but i have never reflected on the home of the brave being so perfectly incorporated when neil armstrong, Michael Collins and buzz aldrin took off in that capsule 50 years ago. We are also pleased to welcome rhondas assistant Vice President , richard. We have a very special guest. Toould like to introduce you kia eisenhower, the greatgranddaughter of president misses nixon and the great greatgranddaughter of president and misses eisenhower, and our honored special guest tonight. Welcome. I hope i got that right. The great greatgranddaughter of dwight and mimi and the great rate granddaughter of president nixon and pat nixon. Sandy quinn if you would stand , up, a member of our former Nixon Foundation. Mike is our Library Director from the National Archives association. [applause] mike really makes the trains run. A terrific partner with the foundation. Alberto sandoval is a senior director of communications and public directors at uci. Thank you for being here. Bill, legendary disney promoter, friend of the Nixon Foundation. He is now on the anaheim transit authority. We are glad to have you. Supervisor don wagner and megan wagner, please stand up and say hello. We have the chief of staff to california senator, and anthony johnson, representative of assemblyman philip chen. Lucy done from the Orange County business council. If anything happened to tim, she was going to do the National Anthem and didnt even know it. I want to thank francis french, we have three special speakers today, francis is a historian who spoke earlier in the library and theater today about the personalities of neil armstrong, Michael Collins, and buzz aldrin. Buzz will be with us tuesday night. Jason silverman is a senior Dragon Development engineer at spacex and spoke about the future of space travel today. Although hes not here with us now, i want to acknowledge doug paul for and sparing comments. He was the at t plant manager general control in new york with a key role in making the connections from the earth to the moon and he saw the live feed before nasa did. He played a crucial role in making the longest distance phone call in history possible so we thank him and want to give him a round of applause. [applause] i also want to thank the president Society Members who are here or in the library watching in the overflow room. I want to thank a few people before i ask up rhonda from at t. This event began a few months ago with a lunch in d. C. Time in theong washington, d. C. And the vice chair of the George Herbert walker bush foundation. Given this was the most memorable phone in history, you would think at t would be interested in being involved . He said, i will get back to you. I called randall, the visionary leader of at t. Randall sent me a letter saying, you really want to talk to nicole anderson, and we did talk to them at length. I cant tell you how pleased we to have partnered from the start to the finish with at t. I would like to introduce to you Rhonda Johnson. She oversees all of at t in california. She lives in san francisco, sadly not in Orange County, but she is down for the day. She oversees and directs all of at t government affairs, Public Policy philanthropic giving and , social engagement activity throughout california. They have 33,000 employees in california alone. Rhonda is a veteran of the communications industry. She spent more than years with 30 at t. She actually comes from the finance world, having begun her career in chicago with the Federal Reserve there. At t is one of our leading job creators and innovators in the United States and informing Community Engagements and celebrations. We are so pleased they have joint with the Nixon Foundation tonight, and the connection they made 50 years ago watched by 1. 5 billion people, is indeed the most famous phone call in history. Rhonda, if you could come up and share a few words. [applause] rhonda thank you so much. I must say, and for those of you i am Rhonda Johnson from at t. I now have the job of president of at t california. We are so proud and pleased to be a part of this event and this day working in collaboration with the Nixon Foundation library. This has been a phenomenal day. I was able to participate earlier, see all the people that came through, and then myself personally to take a tour. I have been so impressed by what i saw in history that this president dead, not only with the apollo 11 landing, but everything in this museum is something you need to see. At t has been and had is playing a role a little bit and what happened 50 years ago. We are all here today to remember that historic event when president nixon and aliens billions of people around the world watched two american astronauts step on the moons surface. To make and have that first step on the lunar surface in the sea of tranquility. We at at t played a role. We did have one of our former employees part of that participate here today. We were involved in the transmission of that Television View that we saw. I was a small child in a rural farm in illinois, sitting on the living room floor, watching the black and white tv of people stepping on the moon. I will always remember that. When i think back about what it means to make it happen, we heard from doug paul this morning, our employee, about what happened traveling 240,000 miles from satellite dishes andnd the earth, from nasa, from the oval office up to the moon. It really is a phenomenon. When we talk about the transmission of the telephone call, that was something that was a historic event. I have now seen documents from the 60s that talk about how nasa first reached out to at t and asked us to work with them, the u. S. Air force, and u. S. Ds to make that possible. It took a lot of people dedicated to the mission to make that phone call happen. It was the longest distance phone call ever. From the oval office and this lovely all of green pushbutton phone, where the president of the United States called the astronauts on the lunar surface. That call traveled those 240,000 miles up to the moon to the apollo station and then onto the backpacks and antennas, they were attached to the two after astronauts as they spoke to the president. You can see the transcript. Our is all about using technology to make a difference in the world, connecting people. A little over 100 years ago, it was the first transcontinental phone call. Alexander graham bell called from new york to send san francisco. 50 years later, we made a call to the moon. In 1983 at the worlds fair in new york we also had the first Video Conference phone call. Then we developed the unix operating system, the precursor to things like windows and all that we used today. Then we have the first wireless commercial telephone call in 1983. We now all carry around those devices that we can use and do marvelous things with, whether it is connecting family and friends, or telehealth and other things like Autonomous Cars and things of our future. No matter what it is, at t is there to support technology. In fact, we have one of the most prolific libraries of patents. Patents of at t. We received approximately five patents a day. We continue to innovate. As i look back 50 years ago of the power and the bravery it took and the dedication to the mission, whether it was landing on the moon, the transmission of the telecast, or that phone call, it took people who believed in accomplishing a , dedicated to it with perseverance, and made Amazing Things happen. It was changing history. Its all about connections. That is what at ts mission is about. We are so proud to be here, to be a part of this program, and i want to thank you for having us here and participating. And now i want to bring back hugh hewitt. Ofis the president and ceo the foundation, but he is an author, lawyer, tenured law professor, a columnist, and a nationally lit note nationally known policy commentator. Hes going to lead us through the wonderful program. Please join me in welcoming him back. [applause] what you people dont realize is rhonda just did the trick, to stand with your hands before you speak without a note and deliver a message flawlessly. [laughter] many of us have seen president nixon do that many times. Lets get started. Eisenhower, larry higbee, john price. Thank you. [applause] i want you to know there is only one hard break this program. We can go wherever the conversation takes us. At 8 48, we are going to the tape, because it is 50 years ago to the minute that president nixon called the moon. I have a clock in front of us here and you have a clock over there. If i have missed that, i have screwed up. So we are not going to do that. On my far left grandson of , president and misses nixon. Greatgrandson of Dwight Eisenhower and made me eisenhower maybe eisenhower. Please welcome alex eisenhower. [applause] chafing,ght is quite one of the moving forces behind the redo of the museum. Inhas been a moving force the nixon world as far back as 1962. He served as Deputy Assistant to the president and he was there on the night of the phone call. Welcome. Next, another longtime nixon aide also in the administration from the first day. He worked closely with hr bob alderman and is a member of our board and one of the driving members of the foundation for many years. Welcome back. [applause] immediately on my left, a man i just met for the first time. John price was the special assistant to the president and executive secretary for the urban affairs council. One of the true movers of the mastic policy in the white house along with Daniel Patrick moynihan. I want to begin, if i could, because the moon landing and the moon phone call is for many of us a received a received memory. I remember it. I was 13. I am 63 now. I remember being woken up to watch it on tv and to it in ohio at 11 48. Most people learn about it from their parents or grandparents. Alex, i called your aunt tricia to talk about the family moment. I know you have spoken to your mom about it. Can you tell people what your family was doing that night . Yes. My mom told me she was on the second floor of the white house, and they were looking out over the rose garden. They could see her father, the president , talking on the phone to the astronauts, saying that it was actually the most exciting moment of all of her time in the white house. That moment watching him speak to another man on another planet. Im sorry, on the moon. , she said itentous was the most exciting, electric atmosphere of all of their time in the white house. Tricia nixon cox told me they would look from the television to the oval, from the oval to the television, because they couldnt believe what they were watching. The other part, im wondering if your father mentioned this to you, when it was done, your grandfather arrived. They went down to greet him. He was completely humbled by the event, totally overwhelmed by the courage of the astronauts and staggered by the history of the moment. Has that come through to you . To your mom as well . Yes. She says he was really excited about it. He thought it was a great opportunity. To actually bring the world together. Even in his speech, he talked about the gray surface of the moon and the beautiful earth. I think he saw it as an amazing opportunity. We are going to talk about the context first before we get to the phone call. As you all know this began in 1957. I was a year old, wasnt my fault. The russians launched sputnik one. John, do you remember . Lets get the reaction to sputnik. Go ahead. In thenik one was a slap face to american complacency. It was a benign era of good feelings. The country felt comfortable byause they were being led an intelligent, competent man who knew arms and armies. All of a sudden sputnik goes up. , it is the small iowa college i was at Grinnell College that autumn. It is the small iowa college and the physics major grabbed me and said lets go see sputnik. We drove 15 miles into the even greater darkness. Indeed with the naked eye could see sputnik circling the earth. The next morning i phoned my grandmother, who was the wife of a dairy farmer in southern iowa. I said, i just watched this soviet satellite circling the earth up in the heavens. She said its not possible god , would not permit it. [laughter] but permit it he has. What happened after that was this backandforth of initial soviet accomplishments followed by american response. Election of that . My recollection goes back to the fact that it probably was the biggest wakeup call the United States would have for any of our Space Programs and what resulted for the first time over the succeeding number of years was truly phenomenal than what we are celebrating here today. It kicked into motion a chain of events. The United States was not used to being second in anything. The fact that the russians got sputnik up there, it really was a Public Relations blackeye to the administration. They determined quickly couldnt be this way and they had to make this change. The Space Program is rightly identified with president kennedy. I have been in touch with the Kennedy Foundation director. I hope you get a chance to see it. It is so remarkable. President kennedy announced in houston on september 12 that we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. When you reflect on what president kennedy said, the 60s descended into chaos. Maybe the only thing that held together was the Space Program. I think this is an important moment. We hear it referred to quite often today that it would be a kennedy moment, for example, if somebody today set a goal that we were going to accomplish something in the next decade. America was ready for this call to arms. President kennedy put it out there. President nixon was behind it 1000 . He never wavered on it. He thought kennedy had made the right decision, and the president was very supportive. Do you recall if shaping your College Years was the space race in the background . Too many things were in the background all the time, including several classes i didnt get to. [laughter] i think it did shape and begin to bring focus, which is a word i always associate with it whether you were in high school , and is one of those things that capture the imagination and concern of the world, not just the United States, the world. I think our ability to react and come back strong and accept the challenge and beat the challenge is really what makes the u. S. A special place to be. Do you want to add to that . The whole backdrop of the is divided between conflict and 1960s change and the Space Program. Very much so, and what the latter did was give a common sense of purpose, of shared purpose, and finally a sense of accomplishment and national competence. You were in the campaign. How often did the Space Program come up in the 1968 campaign . The president won one of the narrowest victories in history. Lost one in 1960. But what is the Space Programs role in the campaign, if any . Dwight, do you want to start . At one point in the campaign, i believe it was in early october, james webb, the head of nasa, resigned. One of the reasons he resigned was the johnson administration, which would include humphrey, the candidate running against nixon, that they wanted to cut back on the Space Program. The president , being candidate nixon, put forth a statement saying it was imperative that the administration go ahead with program, fully fund apollo and keep it going. There was a moment in time where it was becoming a campaign issue. Do you beat recall being shut down right away . It was a brief conversation. I think would happen with the Space Program in general was more a back drop issue the president saw, had value in terms of so many other things he was trying to get done, whether it was weaved together an alliance throughout europe or southeast asia, or bring new people into the alliances we have already had. It was a calling card that allowed you to get in and do other things. In domestic policy, it was very expensive. Was there any question about the expense overwriting the importance of the mission . It was significant something , like 4 of the entire federal budget. Staggering if you think about it. Larger than the defense budget. Right. But it was ramped up willingly and bipartisanly. Only after as the joy and feeling slowly d