1,emberg, germany, june 1946. Grace, my dearest, it is now but not 00 p. M. And i am here with you. I prefer to pass my time if you rather than reading or doing anything. You are so much on my mind at all times. I had a nice letter from judge wine thanking me for a picture i sent. He said he showed it to judge jennings, who showed interest but made no comment. Wind said this is the greatest trial in history and while it seems long now, in a few years i would look back with great satisfaction. Reade way, be sure to walter lipmans article in the ladies home journal for june. It is a good thing and give you some idea of how important this proceeding is. There is a great satisfaction of doing whats job, particularly a job like this. It is of great importance to everyone and as lit lippmann says, someday it will be recognized as a great landmark. It is the highest calling of the legal profession, and i am proud of my part in it. It continues to mean sacrifice and struggle, and i feel even better about it. You, dearest, share very much in this sacrifice and struggle. You have made also both for me to keep on over here. I will never do anything as worthwhile again. Nothing will be as important. Someday, the boys will point to it, i hope, and to be proud and inspired by it. Perhaps they will be at the bar themselves and invoke this precedent, and call upon the law we make here. That is reward enough for any lawyer. I feel we are doing something so important that it is awesome, it is almost purifying. It has deep religious meaning, of that i feel certain. Truly, it is gods wish that man not wage wars of aggression. The proof here is absolutely overwhelming. I never would have believed men could be so evil, so determined on a course of war, murder, slavery, dreadful tyranny. Never before has such a record and written. And demand will read it for 1000 years in amazement and wonder how it ever happened. Well, dearest, i have been talking to you for more than an hour, and it seems like only a few minutes. A good game of rummy would just set off the evening, then some cola and smelly cheese. I suppose the children are growing and i will notice great changes in them when i get home read christopher will be quite a citizen. He was only an infant when i left. It tickles me to read of him raiding the refrigerator. A chip off the old block, i guess. Having caroline do in school . She is so bright and cute. I know she will do all right. Tom seems to have been quite a dancer. It will give him lots of poise and confidence. Your tales of jeremy and his turtles and pollywogs made me laugh, martha and her vaccination brightened my day. She is so sweet and it doesnt seem possible that ms. Potter will be a schoolgirl in the fall. Dearest, i am in my 40th year end you will be soon. Your baby days, i suppose, are now numbered, and i guess we can hang up our family close and settle down to raising this ground grant route we have. The best years are ahead, years of happiness, enjoyment and comfort with each other and the children. Just a little while now, and i will be back to start that with you. This june ninth, we are far apart as distance goes, yet ever closing our love and affection. Tom. [applause] [violinist playing solo] [mournful violin solo] [applause] do we have any light, i wonder if we have any light here . All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, very much for the opportunity to speak with you. And thank you, chris. Chris asked that i expand my remarks today and include some of the advents the events that transpired at nuremberg. Im trying to get a good light this. T i can see Robert H Jackson was the chief counsel for the major war criminals at the end of world war ii at nuremberg. With his executive trial counsel. Dodd with his executive trial counsel and i waspart of his staff and the only one at the palace of justice when the defendants who had received the death sentence were executed. My assignment when i arrived in was,mber 1945 london because i had been in oss, the brunner,t ernst kalten who was the head of the Reich Security Office and the gestapo and the sd thank you, that is nicer, i cant see very well either. [laughter] anyway, we prosecuted organizations as well as defendants at nuremberg. Began, ire the case had the opportunity to interview a man, a defendant named oldendorf. He had been captured by the british, i brought him to nuremberg and spent two or three days talking with him, during the course of which i asked what he had done during the war. He was the head of ops six of said he had been are sf the rsa j that year whencept her one he was part of the eye instead inoup part of the eye stadt. And i asked, how many men, women, children did you kill that year . And he said 90,000. At that broke the case as far as the einstadt group concerned, and we established by evidence that you Million People, innocent men women and children, mainly jews, were murdered by the einstadt group in the open fields. Toer, i had the opportunity rz, the commandant of auschwitz concentration camp. It happened this way. We acquired evidence auschwitz as a terrible center, concentration camp, perhaps the worst of the whole regime. It. We couldnt find after we rested our case, i received word from the british that they had picked up rudolph where he had been hiding as a farmer. I asked the british to bring him to nuremberg, where i might interrogate him. They did so and i spent three days simply talking to this individual across the table. Described the a trust and he described the atrocities in auschwitz. I asked how many men, women and children were murdered auschwitz murdered in auschwitz, and he said 2. 5 million. This startling evidence was iduced to an affidavit that hadnt even signed, and it was the most striking piece of evidence we had in the whole case as far as the, what we now call the holocaust is concerned. There was one difficulty, which i discussed with tom, and that was, we had already rested our case. How were we going to get this piece of evidence into the record . Were puttings their cases on. The, it just happened attorney for my other defendant, ltenbrunner, that called stand intosz to the friend of kaltenbrunner, and because of that, we were able to get this striking document into the record, the single most important document on the holocaust at nuremberg. I shared a house with tom dodd during part of the trial, and we became great friends, although we had other associates. Of june 3, 1946, in this wonderful book, compilation, he writes, Whitney Harris has been away all weekend. He is a nice chap, but not much company. [laughter] he sings all the time. [laughter] i was quiet at least part of the time. He says in a later letter, whitney came in to see me when he got home, and we chatted for a while and went on trips to garnish in vienna and back without any complaints from tom to remember about, excessive verbal musicalizing. In any case, i am positive i never sang in court. [laughter] book, thisful compilation of these marvelous letters, i knew that he wrote letters to his wife every night, as he summarized the events of the day. And this is a little dangerous when you stop to think of it, because conditions change, the defendant of today may harm you, may upset you, tomorrow. Worrym dodd never had any about that, he wrote the truth that he wrote it every night to his dear wife. One of the letters that he wrote , let me see if i can find it said m all mixed up, let me speak now to the letter itself. Defense finished its final argument on tuesday afternoon and another none of them varied much from one another. They were all abstract and filled with misty metaphysics. They did not discuss the facts of the case as we know it in america. There were hard put to make decent arguments for their clients. But i expected something more than we got. Justice jackson started his speech in the morning and delivered it very well. I assume it was carried fully in the press, particularly in the New York Times but if not, i will send you a complete copy, as i think it is worth reading. He has a great style and notable points of clarity and simplicity. I might say that tom dodd had a and hetyle likewise, manifested that style in many arguments which were crushing to the defendants. Wrote, hisent, tom argument will take its place among the great documents that have been made in great cases. He finished at noon on friday, and the summary was begun for the british, a long and detailed argument, a very good one, but it did not have the brilliant literary value one finds in jacksons speech. He concluded saturday little left at 1 00. Monday, the french start their argument, then the russians will conclude. I aspect of that at about tuesday, the main, final arguments of the case will be over. That last thursday night, i attended a dinner given and the judges, Justice Jackson and a small group of americans were there. I was one of them. Not the russians. I was one of the americans. [laughter] they entertained very nicely, with all kinds of vodka and plenty of it. It is a very strange thing that they insist on trying to get everybody intoxicated. [laughter] they do this by your russian host on your right proposing a toast, quickly followed by a like toast from your russian host on the left, making it two to one. Bring in learned to the Second Russian for the first toast. That is leveling the field. [laughter] updated theay, i guy on my i out did the guy on my right. They hauled him away. [laughter] [applause] that was a great line. [laughter] oh,e goes on to say here, my goodness now, that is no good. This one is better. [laughter] thank you. The old man this blind died. As i listened to the arguments cross,ice jackson and this is tom speaking, this is very significant, and it was ever in my mind that all of the crimes which the nazis have committed have been committed by the russians, and from what i hear, may still be committed by the russians. Participation in this prosecution is the achilles heel of the great trial. Someday we may have to explain it. Of course, time changes many things, and it may be that the russians themselves, by their very participation here, will more completely realize the course of their own conduct. You will understand that i had somber reflections on british conduct not so many years ago. Talking, talking about nazis destroying educational facilities in poland, forbidding anything but the most elementary teaching into a serfdom of fathers and mothers and the destruction of cultural institutions, i thought of what happened in ireland not many years ago, of what happened in other british colonies, and what is probably still happening in india. This does not mean that they should not participate in this trial. I am glad that they have progressed far enough to denounce such measures, and i know that our own skirts are not completely clean. Cleanerk god they are than those of any other great nation. He says, tonight there is a party being given by Justice Jackson for all hands. I expect it is in the nature of a farewell affair, as he intends to get away day after. The day after tomorrow. He concludes the letter as i am so anxious to see you, my dearest, i simply count the days until i have you in my arms. That. See what i did with excuse me for a moment. Last year, march, the 60th anniversary of the judgment of the International Military tribunal at nuremberg. Institutey Harris School of law recognizes this historic decision with a threeday conference in st. Louis. There were two speakers at the closing banquet, philippe kirsch, president of the International Criminal court at the hague, and Christopher Dodd, United States senator from connecticut. Senator dodd delivered a brilliant address stressing the vital importance of the nuremberg judgment and the principles it had declared for the future if you vanity. Of assembled future humanity. The assembled guests were enthralled by his grasp of the issues that they applauded his statement. And for 60 years, a single word has best captured americas moral principles and commitment to justice. Nuremberg. At the conclusion of the conference, i wrote a personal letter to senator dodd, from which i would like to share the following excerpts. Letter is first to thank you for your appearance harriswhitney r Institute Dinner saturday, and for your brilliant address. America is lucky to have chris dodd in the senate, to speak plainly on the vital issue of maintaining the rule of law in the world, and americas inescapable responsibility for advancing the cause of peace. Your speech was truly brilliant and well received by an informed audience of legal scholars. The response to your remarks at the debtor and subsequent andeto at the dinner subsequent thereto convinces me of two things. One, we must continue to strive for a world of peace under the rule of law. Two, senator Christopher Dodd must continue to lead america to that goal. With warm personal regards, cordelia yours, whitney cordially yours, whitney. [applause] fmr. Senator dodd thank you, very much. Thank you. [applause] not bad for 95. [applause] [laughter] with whiteg guys hair, ill tell you. [laughter] Whitney Harris. Harrissanna, whitney lovely wife . Misses Whitney Harris. [applause] there he goes, he knows where to sit down. Gem,ey, you are truly a and what a great honor. Time after time, he has come up and spoken, wrote a wonderful book on nuremberg, chronicling the events there, and how fortunate we all are that you still have that vibrancy and that voice and that commitment. This man was totally responsible for the prosecution of kaltenb runner, one of the worst defendants at nuremberg. It would not have happened without Whitney Harris. John, thank you immensely. It is a great honor to be here at quinnipiac. I had the honor a few years ago to give the commencement address that the law school and enjoy that immensely. The discussion that they was on the rule of law as well. I was honored to be invited. How about a round of applause eahy at quinnipiac college. [applause] to roxanne and julia as well, one of the great bookstores. Im an advocate of independent bookstores. Thank you for being part of this. [applause] and we thank you for the beautiful music that you provided. Another round of applause. [applause] im not good to take a long time this evening. I want to thank justin dodd as well, justin and his cousins and passages fromited these letters earlier today. I am delighted justin is here this evening as well to participate. Thank you, justin. It is wonderful you are part of this. And let me tell you, i regret deeply jackie never had a chance to meet my parents. Is the fact this book exists doing no small measure to jackie, my wife, who did wonderful job putting this altogether and making it happen. Jackie, we thank you very much. [applause] larry bloom. Where is larry . This would not have happened without larry bloom as well, who i share this jacket cover with, who was invaluable in going through as a professional and editing letters to make sure we never lost the essence of this. This never would have happened. I must say a quick story because i have known larry a long time and it might his work immensely. I called larry and said, i want to show you something, and i brought these letters from nurnberg to larry and i said look, you and i are friends, we know each other well enough, i am going to give you these letters to read. If you read them and conclude they are nothing more than a wonderful heirloom, not only you and your children or grandchildren want to have in future years, to read the letters from your father, grandfather, great father, to their greatgrandmother, i wont be offended by that. If you think there is value beyond that, have the courtesy to tell me so but also have the courtesy to tell me it may not have historical value. Larry said, im very busy on another project, but i will take them if there is no rush. I said there is no rush, these letters have been around a long time. About 24 hours later i got a call. Larry bloom, with the said i voice, he thought i would only read a couple of these letters and i hours. En a 48 i cant put them down. History needs to hear what his voice has to say at this critical moment in history. Without larrys advice and counsel and urging come of this book would never have existed. Larry, thank you for taking those two days out and getting exhausted in the process. Larry bloom, thank you. [applause] share a little about this with you, and then we will stop. I dont want to ruin the book for you. I didnt really know these letters existed. When you are the fifth of six children, you find things out late in the process. [laughter] my older siblings, i think, were aware of this. I sued my father had written to my mother, but had no idea he wrote her every single day from nurnberg, which was an event in and of itself. This book has three values to me. One is, for those of you who want to read the lost art of writing a letter, this book will be a great source of enjoyment. At for those of you who have loving relationships with another human being, be careful. Do not show them this book. [laughter] because this sets a standard on letterwriting that none of us are ever going to meet when it comes to appreciating another human being. So on that level, this book is a joy just to read, to hear my fathers voice to my mother, that deep affection he had for her. And secondly, the book is valuate in urgent historical sense, in that it is contemporaneous history. Whitney harris has written a wonderful book of there have been several others about nuremberg and the events as they unfolded at the trial. The advantage whitney and others had as they wrote their books, after the fact knowing what happened at nuremberg. These letters of the saga as it unfolds. At this event was a presumptuous event if there was we were had concluded in europe in 1895. President roosevelt had died. Theres an awful lot to be discussed and things to do to rebuild europe and all the things that were certainly on the internet at home and abroad, and the idea that for nations, the allied powers, would decide to hold a trial in germany to bring to the soviet union, the british, the french, and the United States, all with very , therent Legal Systems idea that you would meld these together, bring four nations together with for prosecution teams to try almost a dozen defendants with lawyers in a city that almost did not exist, as you saw from the video. The destruction was overwhelming. 30,000 people were buried in that rubble in the summer of 1945. There were really no conditions in which you could possibly hold an event of this magnitude. My father reflect the difficulty associated with this, not to mention some of the difficulties with personnel and the like and how you pull this all together. The letters offer a wonderful point of view for those who love to read history to understand how difficult this was to bring this off, to engage in this event, and it was not just about political opposition as well. Winston churchill wanted to summarily execute every one of the defendants at nuremberg. Why would you bother having a trial . The soviet union believed in having a show trial for about a week and then just execute everyone and going through the motions. Robert jackson basically, four of five people really stood up for this idea of a trial. Probably the leading advocate of it ironically was the secretary of war in the Roosevelt Administration, the only republican in the Roosevelt Administration who felt strongly about it. One of the major speechwriters for Franklin Roosevelt felt strongly better. Robert jackson obviously did. Supreme Court Overall members of the Supreme Court totally against the idea that they would argue ex post facto jurisprudence in a sense, that this was going to be an , as oned lynching member of the Supreme Court argued at the time. There was a lot of opposition difficulty, and why would we possibly exhaust the resources, time, and effort to give these individuals the stability of a trial . 55 Million People died in that conflict. 6 million jews were incinerated at the hands of these individuals. 5 million others faced a similar rate because of their ethnicity or politics or sexual orientation. Why would anyone possibly give these people a trial . And yet, because there were people like jackson and simpson and others who argued that we are different, and we are going to prove to the world that despite how they treated their victims, we are going to get to them that which they never provided their victims, the civility of justice. Theres a great opening line i memorized years ago that Robert Jackson used in his presentation to the court. One of the most remarkable sentences i think that existed in the context of law, and he talked about the nations gathered at nuremberg and said the following, he said that 4 great nations stayed the hand of vengeance by voluntarily submitting their enemies to the judgment of the rule of law with the most was the most significant tribute that power ever paid to reason. It was as a result of that event and the success of it that many of the following events that urred in postwar europe they really were a result of what happened at nuremberg in many ways. Historians would tell you the International Criminal court in fact, nato, spring from that. These letters provide an Historical Context not only for an event that was truly the greatest trial of the 20th century but also provided the context from which the structure and architecture of these into were provided, with obvious exceptions, a period of half a century of global peace. It was also the ability for us as a nation to carry four principles of human nature, human rights, the rule of law. Nuremberg became the word by which in many ways we represent our moral authority for so many years. This book provides a wonderful context for understanding that history, but the true value of this book, and i would not have parents this, my letters, my fathers letters to my mother in fact, ive been asked what my father would have thought he would have been angry. Except for the point i want to share with you now, and that is the value i hope they provide to younger people, to those who are interested in what is going on in the world today because beyond these being great letters love letters, if you will beyond being interesting history at a critical moment in the 20th century, these letters are also an epistle to all of us in a way because the rule of law is transcendent in a way and while facts are different and circumstances are different and i recognize that, the principles embodied at nuremberg, the effort to have a civil jurisprudence, a Justice System at work is something we need to be mindful at this very hour and day is that those who would principlesm those today, abandoning habeas corpus, torture, warrantless wiretapping. The idea that you and i cannot be saved unless we are willing to give up some of our rights is a dangerous notion, and we need to understand [applause] this book is really about that more than anything else, that each generation of us have a responsibility to defend these principles and these rights. The temptations to step back from them are obviously strong, and there are serious temptations at this very hour, and yet we need to understand as a people, as a nation, that we become stronger when we advance those rights, that we advance our place in the world when we strengthen those. Aredangers we face today very different than they were during the cold war, but nonetheless, International Institutions and architecture like that which was created at the end of november, the end of world war ii, are going to be critical for our safety and security in the coming years, so more than anything else, i thought the value of this book was on this last point. Theres been history, there have been great letters ridden by others, but the lessons of nuremberg that there were a handful of people at a critical moment when they could have followed the path of vengeance chose a critical course, and we all benefited from it because there were a handful of people, one of them happen to be my father, who stood up and defended the principles of the rule of law. The letter of june 1, 1946, talks about the most important thing he would ever end he would ever do in his life, and while he held other jobs in his life, his career was in effect shape at nuremberg because what he learned there, what he understood there, but he fought for and defended there, became the center for him and Everything Else he did in his life as a member of congress, a lawyer, a member of the United States senate. These letters became not only instructive to him but to his six children, growing up around , hearingg room table my father talked to us about the lessons of nuremberg, the lessons of the holocaust and how they should never be repeated again and had there been in the 1920s institutions that would have stood up and denounced the activity of the nazis, maybe, just maybe, the holocaust might have been avoided and that should never happen again. And the individuals and men who defined these principles as upng universal should stand for them, and they are being challenged again today. I hope you love and enjoy this book as much as i have enjoyed putting it together. Thank you all very much. [applause] history bookshelf features the countrys bestknown history writers over the past decade talking about their books. You can watch our weekly series every saturday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv on cspan3. Cspanican history tv on 3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend today at a book on theern, capture of were criminal adolf eichmann. On sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, the final debate between Ronald Reagan and walter mondale. Then at 10 30 a. M. Eastern, the second debate between George H W Bush and michael dukakis, and at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on reel america, john f. Kennedys church andch on state. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. The first tv president ial campaign ads aired during the 1952 contest between republican dwight d. Eisenhower and democrat adlai stevenson. As have been essential to every president ial campaign since. Heres a look. A little townin called hope, arkansas, three month after my father died. I remember that old twostory house where i lived with my grandparents. They had very limited income. It was in 1963 that i went to washington andto met president kennedy, and i remember thinking what an incredible country this was not someone like me who had no money or anything would be given an opportunity to meet the president. Thats when i really decided i could do Public Service because i cared so much about people. I worked my way through law school with parttime jobs, anything i could find. After i graduated, i really didnt care about making a lot of money. I just wanted to go home and see if i could make a difference. We work hard with education and realh care, and weve made progress. Its exhilarating to think as president i could change peoples lives for the better and bring hope back to the american dream. I dont know much about clinton except promises. He tells people what they want to hear. He wants to spend more money and the only place he can get it is the people, so higher taxes. I dont know how we can take anymore taxes. Inhes raised taxes arkansas. Hell raise taxes. Pretty simply, whos the best qualified person up here on the . Tage to create jobs make the decision and vote on november 3. I suggest you might consider somebody who has created jobs. Who is the best person to manage money . I suggest you pick a person who has successfully managed money. Who is the best person to get talk . S and not finally, who would you give your pension fund and saving accounts to to manage . And last, who would you ask to be the trustee of your estate and take care of your children . Finally, you students up there, god bless you, ive done this for years. I want you to have the american dream. [applause] the american people, im doing this because i love you. Thats it. If you like politics, you can find plenty of archival ads, president ial debates, and Campaign Speeches on our website, cspan. Org. Little smoky is a short u. S. Forest film telling the story of a real smokey the bear, a cub that was rescued during a forest fire in new mexico and ended up living out his days at the national zoo in washington, d. C. This Fire Prevention film was hosted by hopalong cassidy, a hollywood midcentury cowboy played by actor william boyd