>> from our studios in new york, this is "charlie rose." and once we begin with the president and his announcement of the resignation of chuck hagel. hagel discuss the final quarter of my president he and determined it was an appropriate time for him to complete his service. >> i have submitted my resignation. it has been the greatest privilege of my life to lead, and to serve with the men and women of the defense department and support their families. i am proud of what we have accomplished. ourselves, for the successful transition in afghanistan. we have bolstered alliances and .trengthened partnerships what i enter. -- >> i interviewed chuck hagel last week. i talked about rumors about changes in his national security team. maybe he wants to change his national security advisor, his secretary of defense. maybe he wants to change other elements. is that true? >> you would have to ask the president. >> you concern yourself with it? >> i serve at the pleasure of the president. i am grateful for the opportunity i had the last two years to work for the country and the men and women who serve. i don't get up in the morning and worry about my job. it is not unusual, by the way, to change teams at different times. >> you would expect him to change? -- i didn'texpect say that. it wouldn't be unusual. historically. i have to stay focused on my job. i do. i am very fortunate i have some of the best people in the world to work with. whenever the president decides, he makes those decisions. >> you have the confidence of the president. >> i don't think i would be here by didn't. you would have to ask him that. i see him all the time. i would think so. yes. >> what would you like your legacy to be? >> i am not thinking about that. i have done every job the best i could, as honestly as i could, and then i will let the rest sorted out. >> joining me, david martin, the national security correspondent for cbs news. welcome. >> thank you. >> what happened to the secretary of defense? washingtonlayed the game of did he jump or was he pushed, he was nudged over the side. there are the stories attributed to sources there would be changes in the president's national security team. he starts having a series of meetings with the president to talk about the next two years, the remainder of the obama administration. the president never asks him to stay. hagel, who is certainly a veteran of washington politics, saw the handwriting and tried to leave on his own terms and submitted his resignation. >> without being asked. >> yes. >> why did the president didn't ask them to stay? >> i don't think it was his views. thenything, it was that white house was disappointed he wasn't more vocal in his defenses of administration and national security policy. they did not see him as a great spokesman for their cause. i think there was the imperative , after the shellacking democrats took in the midterm election, there had to be changes made. when you look around the national security establishment, chuck hagel was the guy holding the short straw. >> what was his relationship to the national security council? reputation he had was int he was not very forceful those meetings. he did not speak up at length in those meetings. his story was the reason he didn't speak up that link than those me is an -- meetings with because you could not be sure he didn't leak. >> somewhere i think in the new york times, someone said the ,resident appointed his friend and former colleague, chuck hagel, he did not want another high-profile defense for terry in the mold of bob gates. does that resonate? >> he got one. was high profile because, at the time, it was an honor to have a guy who had served a republican administration to be the secretary of defense for a democratic president, held over from the bush administration. and because the stakes were so high at the time. that was the time of the troop surge into iraq, the great battles over whether there would be a troop surge in afghanistan. it would have been almost impossible for bob gates not to be high-profile. not to mention the raid on osama bin laden. >> leon panetta has written a book which i assume you have read about his own life, his relationship with the obama team, and about how he felt at his tenure at secretary of defense. on the secretary -- other similarities between what he said and what chuck hagel experienced? >> micromanagement. [laughter] that is everybody's complaint about the white house. i heard one military officer referred to .t as nano management the white house plays very tight , and is all over your case on even the slightest matters. sometimes arranges things without telling the secretary of defense. for everyat was true secretary of defense under president obama. that is the way the crowd roles. i do not see that as a cause for resignation. you is one of the things have to live with if you're going to be secretary of defense in the obama administration. >> i talked to you before i did an interview with chuck hagel. about the policy issues, and other matters. not because of my conversation with you but because i read a bit, i asked him, did he have the confidence of the president. give me the timeline of that. >> that interview was on thursday. time int week was the which she made the decision to hand in his resignation. although he actually went through the procedure over the weekend. it was last week that he made the decision. when he said to you i don't wake up in the morning worrying about whether i am going to teach -- keep my job, he was telling the child truth. he probably already knew he wasn't going to keep his job, and it was his choice. >> did he or did he not have the confidence of the president when he said if i don't have the confidence the president will tell me? >> i think he had the confidence of the president. it is impossible to penetrate those one-on-one meetings between secretary of defense and the president of the united date. -- united states. i never saw evidence that he didn't have the confidence of the president of the united states. a lot of attention has been focused on this memo he wrote about the inconsistencies, u.s. policy toward syria comment which basically said there is a disconnect between trying to , and assisting a side must go. in defeating isis you are solving one of a side problems. assad's problems. people were paying attention. raisedy conversation, i that question. the holistic memo. they needed a holistic policy. he explained it was not his point to tell me what he wrote to the president. what was interesting is that he fact therly that if in bombing has an impact, it weakens i sold. the thick weakens -- if it strengthens it assad. >> they are rewarded try to do it for the cia by wrapping up the covert training and equipping of the syrian moderate opposition to put more pressure assad.de -- sad -- it is not going to change that disconnect. >> what pervades this is whether the president understands he has -- iblem with i sold sil. as he looked at national security issues. the question is, in different places, are they reviewing the options? series of --rway a a serious look of what we need to be doing? byif you mean a reassessment the president saying this isn't working, we have to go back at , and thinkquare one this through again, i don't think there is that reassessment going on. i think there is the obvious reassessment. do we have meetings on syria all the time. they are trying to make it work better. the basic strategy is iraq first. slowly thanng along anticipated. that it is coming along. if you look at the airstrikes conducted daily, the majority of the airstrikes are now beginning to happen in iraq. what that means is the iraqi army is beginning to make some movement that requires air support. forward.y is creeping syria isndgame in still a mystery to everyone. i think the president is understanding this in greater detail than uri, he sees the classified information. somehow solve to this issue of syria without in more deeply,nto more detail providing a safe haven in northern iraq. to which she has been resistant up until now. >> is general jen seem -- is general dempsey on the same page ? or do they have difficult competing views of a serious nature? >> i would bet secretary hagel wished general dempsey would not be quite so forthcoming about forward airo have controllers calling in strikes when the fighting gets hot and heavy. but there is not a lot you can say to dempsey about that. he is saying this when he testifies before congress, and he is required by law to give congress is best military advice. he is up there establishing himself as an independent source of military advice. it is hard for even the secretary of defense for the president to say knockoff the independent advice. the big successes? quite see is that secretary of defense for two years. in a organization as large as the department of defense can't do much in two years. all of the stuff he has reform,d, his nuclear he has a bunch of initiatives on sexual assaults, he hasn't been a long long enough for the results to come in. my experience is secretaries of defense in-depth being judged as successful depending on how successful the president he serves his judge. bob gates. he came in for the iraq surge. it worked at least in the short term. he was viewed as a successful secretary. chuck hagel came in in time for this major strategic reverse when iraq came apart and isis , almostss half of iraq none of that can be blamed on chuck hagel. it happened on his watch. >> who is likely to replace or succeed chuck hagel? >> the name on everybody's list is michele flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy, the number three job in the building earlier in the obama administration. she is highly regarded. she has a family, and children. job that hadake a a more reasonable time demand. she is on everybody's list. she would be the first woman to be secretary of defense. you are talking about somebody who has a life in the civilian world and asking them to give that up for the final two years of the administration, when everything is already set in stone. that is a big ask of anyone. then you have to look at the calendar and realize the confirmation hearings are probably not going to start until next year, which means john mccain will be chairman of the senate armed services committee. that could be a different ballgame. >> anybody else on the list? hisou have to throw in deputy, there are people who go around in previous for choosing the secretary of ,efense, like richard danzig who has done a lot of work for the obama administration. buzz in thee hallway. this is not inside thinking. sayith confirmation, my want to go with someone who may, of the senate? because of the confirmation thing. he had a good relationship with congress. >> that is one of the lessons i have learned. political skills are more important in this job than anything else. it doesn't matter how much you now or don't know about defense. it is how much you can work in the political process. someone who is a part of the process would have a better chance. martin, my correspondent at cbs. stay with us. ♪ is here, he was cap to replace craig ferguson as host of the late late show. here is the trailer for "into the woods." >> i wish, i wish. i wish. >> you wish to have the curse reversed? back a cow as white as milk. red as blood. corn.s yellow as a slipper as pure as gold. ♪ >> what might be in your basket? ♪ >> all will come to a happy end. >> not always. >> why would you run away? >> not quite what i expected. >> maybe i shouldn't have strayed from the pack. >> ♪ do you know what's out there in the woods no one has to shield you from the woods ♪ >> it's not what i wish. it's what you wish. >> we have one chance. >> if we are going to get through this we are going to do it together. >> if you love me why did you strayed? >> i was raised to be charming, not sincere. stay a child while you can be a child ♪ ♪ >> this is a modern version of a number of fairytales. >> yes. it incorporates the brothers grimm fairytales, with a new story. there will be lots of things viewers will be familiar with. is my center of the story character, the baker, and the baker's wife, the only normal people. >> meryl streep. the witch. johnny depp. >> the wall. the list goes on. we could sit here for an hour and name incredible actors. , tracyne baranski ullman. it was a joy. >> directed by rob marshall. when he selected you, what did he say? >> it was a strange and long process. . was in a play in new york producer, and mark platt, came to see the play. i sang for rob. the film wasn't green lit. he was putting together a work first reading to show to his executives. we did that, and in the back of my mind i was thinking if this gets made into a film, they are going to cast someone famous play this role. >> you didn't think that was you. >> it isn't. part.a big it is the biggest male role in the movie. they have tried to get this off the ground with different directors. .obin williams, billy crystal i am well aware of my anonymity in the united states. i thought that is what will happen. we finished the reading, and he came over and found me after we showed it to the executives at disney and said i want you to know, when we make this movie, i'm not going to make it without you. >> wow. >> i knew he meant it. i believed him. but even in the back of my mind, i'm not naïve enough to think it is fact. when things get to the business end of trying to get these films made some names are banded around to play the role. ,e is such an incredible man and they both went to bat for me. here i am. it is incredibly humbling. >> what's interesting about you and your life, you have had highs, and lowe's. even lows after the highs. >> yes. that is the nature of any creative career. if you are always trying to do things differently, trying to do different things, you learn more from mistakes that you might make. you learn more from your flops than your hips. you know this. you are only involved and make a hit tv shows. [laughter] >> speaking of rob marshall, there is the case of les moonves. he loved what you did. >> he was in [indiscernible] answer for forto that play. >> he basically said i want to do something, at cbs. to host aarily late-night talk show. >> there was a sitcom idea. then i was going to write one. nowhere, they president of the network said did i want to take over the late late show. >> and will follow stephen colbert. >> are you going to open at the same time? >> i will open in march. stephen is way to start later in the year. broadcast. >> i don't know when his new show starts. >> are you looking forward to that? that kind of thing. >> i posted stop. -- i have hosted stuff. i've never done this, what we're doing now. i've never set on your side. i'm looking over to it. i would be a robot if i wasn't terrified. i always used to think people were exaggerating when they said the phrase it is keeping me up at night. now i know what they are talking about. lot of talent. you are curious about many things. >> yes. i was having this conversation with my father, talking to him about you. it's the one thing, if i could try and harness and harbor on our show, your seemingly in less ability to be interested in people and things. i don't even know if you are lying. [laughter] that good to live. >> that is ultimately what it is about. i don't know if the show is going to work. i hope it does. town, am such a tiny ump outside of london. it is painfully gray and ordinary. it is essentially three roundabouts. there is no reason for a chubby boy from there to have an opportunity to talk to america every night whilst they fall .sleep it is not lost on me what it privileges to do such a thing. >> what is this going to do to the opportunities like "into the woods." you can't do that. >> i can't for a while. doing it so much. i hope there would be a chance to do that down the line. right now, i have to give everything i've got to this tv show. it can never be something which is sidelined. the thing that excites me is the thing that is terrifying. day, a dayidea of a that works towards something. and an audience comes, everyone involved is working towards this one moment, and then it happens, and you do it this day. -- the next day. i enjoy that. you don't get that when you were acting, certainly not in films. you're in a caravan a lot of the day. i am looking for over to the creative freedom of being able to just try and make people laugh, and make a show that is positive, and joyous, and fun before people fall asleep. >> the history boys played what role in your life? , sometimes i think if you come to you the end of your life and look back at 12 decisions that you made in your life that would have kicked on the rest of your life, the history boys was one of those for me without action. i've never done a play before. at the national theater, then we toured, then we showed a movie. more than that, i made my best friends, dominic cooper was in the play, who introduced me to my wife. helen bennett, maybe the , theest living playwrights person who encouraged me to write. i wrote a tv show called gavin and stacey, the thing that changed my career. lifee everything, my whole for that. >> those two things made a difference. >> a huge difference. >> when you think about these , what who played a role influence do they have in creating the artist you are? , my favorite people in the world are people who take their work incredibly seriously and don't take themselves seriously at all. i don't think there's anything worse than an actor or director, thinking, really being that they are changing the world or reinventing the wheel. ,hat is not to say i think meryl streep is the best example of that. taughtn a set with her me more about how to lead a company, and lead a company of people, and be aware of the power you might have in an environment, to use it in a good and positive way. she is meticulous about the work. meticulous. never, ever stops reading, and rereading. herself.will laugh at >> one of the funniest people i know. >> and takes it all with a bag of salt. those are my favorite people. nick is the same. .lan bennett all of the great people. rob marshall. i feel fortunate to have worked with so many brilliant people. >> what was it that you did that got trashed? >> i wrote a sex show that wasn't very good. i was in a movie that perform so badly, when i tell you the title you will understand why it didn't work. vampire killers. it was such a bad film. really bad. there is a strange thing that happens in those first flushes of success. for me, personally, i always think to many things, this is going to end tomorrow. at some point someone is going to pick up the phone and say we've made a huge mistake. we meant the other guy. i'm so sorry. what you do at the start of your career, when that first flash of success happens, you go really? me? and you're are like ixia in a sweet shop. kid in a sweet a shop. >> you go a bit crazy. i have learned that. the tv series i wrote, which it took me 2.5 years to ride it. -- write it. >> one of the most excess full things on hulu. >> it has done well. work, the luckier you will get is my experience. >> i don't know if anybody, i've never said anybody in all the years, for more than 20 years, i've never said anybody, what is the secret to what you have achieved? no one has ever said i'm just more talented. said, a concert pianist, a rockstar, i worked harder. i cared harder. i was more passionate. i wanted it more. >> is my experience that people who in their younger years weren't considered the best, or the top. i feel for the kid who is 18 years old, being handed everything on a plate. you ever really know what it is that you are doing or striving for? how can you take -- and cherish it? , we arei are lucky handsome guys. [laughter] we have managed to get through it on our success. an -- it's difficult for us. [indiscernible] when are we having dinner again. the handsome men group. >> i was just calling today. wednesday next dinner. >> bradley cooper is joining us. [laughter] >> i think he has a good movie coming out. directed by clint eastwood. back to this part of the conversation, and the film, the theme of it is be careful what you wish for. is a a sense it deconstructed fairytale. at the start of the film these are longing for something. the thing they think will make them happy. the message of the film is sometimes the very thing you want is not what you need. you have to be careful what you wish for. smart usenbelievably of work. -- stephen sondheim, i don't know if anybody is better than him at writing musicals. so, one in particular is the intricacies of that, the , it is like nothing i have ever seen. this is when i went to see it when i was 14 years old, when i was in london, thinking this is a genuine masterpiece. to thread these things together and tell a story that has a , it is, a moral purpose a rare thing indeed. >> congratulations to everything. i look toward to all that you do. will see you in march. >> i will be terrified. it is going to be ridiculous. >> back in a moment, stay with us. ♪ >> sylvia jukes morris is here. er book raised for fame covered clare boothe luce. she was often on the list of the most admired women for her glamorous existence. morris has published a second volume called "price of fame." i am pleased to have sylvia jukes morris at this table. has is it about you that caused you to spend a number of years with her? >> it seems like half my life. i think you got it. she was so multifaceted. she was good at everything she tried to do. that started trying out for the olympic swimming team. going on to have those fantastic careers. playwright. ambassador. congresswoman. everything she did, she succeeded. always insecure. she didn't have what she called the american express card of a really good education. she never went to college. what she was admired for a conversationalist. >> a brilliant conversationalist, and witty. a lot of her lines are immortal. the difference between an optimist and it has a missed is the pessimist is usually better informed. [laughter] >> somebody once said he is paranoid, and he has a lot to be paranoid about. when i look at her, i know men were smitten with her. when she views that. she was a vamp. her mother'st at knee. every man she encountered fell in love with her. it endured. >> was she a flirt? >> it was a combination of looks, the blonde beauty, the blue eyes, and then went that went the charm, and the intellect. this acid wit which got everybody. ?> how did she meet luce she met luce at a party. they got into conversation and started to talk about the possibility of a picture magazine before "life." dead in his tracks, and said he had to leave. him an idea,ng condé nast couldn't do it. she had the idea of what would become "life." . leave?did luce >> he needed eight hours of sleep. next time she was sitting at a table in the starlight room for a party. she was sitting at a table by herself. two came by holding numeral champagne glasses, one was for his wife. she said i will get my revenge on this man. they talked for hours. >> what happened to his wife? >> you just left his wife sitting there. she went down, she thought maybe he will offer me a job. have experienced a bolt of lightning. you are the one woman in my life. he had a wife and two children. at first he wanted just to have an affair. he wanted to try it out. she would have none of that. she said no, i'm going to go abroad. you have to sort things out. and he did. he left his wife. >> they became an extraordinary couple. >> the power couple of their time. they worked better together, as a duo. he defended -- he depended on her. nobody ever knows about it. many of the ideas were hers. >> how did you become her biographer? >> i often think the subject chooses you. it happened that i was looking for another subject area. i keep this file and interesting people. , looked at these cuttings articles and pieces. something fell out. it was an interview with clare boothe luce when her play was revived on broadway in 1973. she was 77 years old. i read it. she made a movie when she was 13 years old, then went on to great careers. this is an interesting person. that is why i can't the piece. i didn't say anything to anybody. a few days later i had a call from a friend in washington. lucky roosevelt. i'm giving a dinner party, would you like to come. where in new york. who's it for? it's for alastair horn, the historian. she didn't know anything about it. i went. she sat me at her table. says she won't take any notice of you. she's only interested in men. she zeroed in on mr. horn the whole evening. when she left, she gave me a hug. god.ught that is i thought that-- was odd. apparently not. people thought i should do this book. like she kept everything. all kinds of notes, pictures, everything that was a scrap paper. which is what i thought she wanted to write for life herself. >> she always meant to. >> but couldn't because of hairy. affairs, itany of would have embarrassed the family. she couldn't bring herself to do it. >> did she think you would? >> she said at first she was hernclined to work with biographer. she said my personal life has been so unhappy. my mother was killed in a car crash. my brother committed suicide. my marriage has not been that great. but, nevertheless. wexler she most in love with power? >> the french ambassador wants what she waseally, about was how. that is what she was interested in. >> through her marriage. >> she would like to make it on her own if she could. she was touted to be a running mate for nixon. >> what kind of running mate -- what kind of congresswoman was she? >> she was more left-leaning. he said she was the smartest colleague i ever worked with. her voting record was leftish. she voted for immigration for chinese and indians, for displaced europeans and jews. pay for only equal four, but for women. she wanted [indiscernible] >> she knew that she had the talent. and is extraordinarily, consider this positive, ambitious. she was constantly looking, to achievecheming her goals. >> yes. she said, i hope i will have ambition until the day i die. she saw nothing wrong with it. she wanted to do more and more. >> the later years were lonely. >> yes. she called it a deluxe look loneliness -- deluxe loneliness. all her friends started to die off, as well as her husband. quite she supported nixon throughout watergate. >> i think she would have been picked as his running mate if she was willing. in 60. he ran >> when eisenhower was sick, it was thought he would have to take over. it was widely believed he would choose clare boothe luce as his vice president. boring point. she wanted to move on to something new. she gave up on politics. wanted to get back to writing. it was too late. >> how many years did she live when you started writing? last seven years. we went together everywhere. i got to know her personally really well. was the mosthat from mark boy achievement? was it an idea? an award? would like to say that the happiest years were the vanity failures. -- vanity fair years. in those days, you knew everybody was there. everybody of any consequence. she was young then. she was free of her first husband. that was the happiest of her life. married admin morris. >> we don't share our work when we are in progress. he is not interested in looking at my scribbles. >> but you talk about it. >> we used to when i was doing mrs. roosevelt and he was doing his trilogy. we talked about the roosevelt family them. later, when he is doing different subjects, i don't know much about his subjects as i did the roosevelt. >> the book is called "price of fame." by sylviahe luce jukes morris. thank you. ♪ >> i'm mark halperin, and i'm john heilemann, and with all the respect to jennifer aniston and lisa kudrow, we sit here and curse each other every night. ♪ >> on tonight's mainstage, chuck schumer singing the own mama care blues. and the dnc might just get no sleep till brooklyn.

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