Transcripts For CSPAN First Ladies Influence Image 20140126

Yes. I did notice the difference between being the Vice President s wife and the president s wife is huge because the Vice President s wife can say anything and nobody cares. The minute you say one thing as the president s wife, you have made the news. Barbara bush used the office of first lady to promote literacy and to raise awareness about aids and homelessness. She earned her way into the history books. She and Abigail Adams are the only women to be both a wife and mother of a president. Welcome to first ladies influence and image. Tonight is the story of barbara bush. For the next 90 minutes, to tell us more about her life and influence are two guests. The barbara bush biographer, part of the series we have turned to so often. She is a first ladies scholar. Jeffrey engel is the founding director of the center for president ial history at Southern Methodist university. He is the author of one book on george bushs foreignpolicy. We heard barbara bush talk about the fact that when she became first lady, her words were much more attention getting. That trend continues. We will see clips of an interview that she gave to us in october. One of them has been bouncing all around the News Networks for several days because she talked about president ial dynasties, political dynasties, and the potential for jeb bushs president ial aspirations. Barbara bush she had a reputation for a good quote and candid comments. She was always very aware of her public persona and i think she was always concerned about whether it would have political consequences for her husband. She also was very candid and sometimes a comment slipped out and she admonished herself or from time to time. The candid barbara bush had some pluses and minuses. She would really speak her mind and she was somebody who would speak her mind to the president , but not in a public way. She would tell him what she really thought. As we are working our way through the biographies of these women, barbara bush is between two much more publicly active first ladies. Nancy reagan, Hillary Clinton. Barbara bush talks about her approach to the job. If you ever wanted to give advice or talk about policy with your husband, how would you do that . If i wanted to, i would just tell him. The truth is, i did not want to. He had great advisers. I never called his office to say, if i had something to say, i would say it to george bush. But i did not call jim baker. I have never had an office except in the house. At the white house, i had an office, but i never went to it. I did not get into his office affairs. Describe her approach. As she became first lady, she wanted to do something positive every day and she set out with her staff to do that. She looked up potential for her literacy project, some of the other thing she was interested in, and it was full speed ahead to try to do that one good thing every day. As you look through the documentary, where can you see through Historical Documents evidence of her influence on the white house . Very little evidence of her influencing policy. She believed her role was to set a proper standard for the white house. Her impact upon the administration was really in portraying them as forthright and honest. We do not see any particular policies that come out of her influence. Rather a general tone that the public took to. How is that different than the reagan years . Mrs. Reagan like to get her hands dirty in politics. She would frequently call up the office of the president admonishing them for one thing or another. Mrs. Bush never did that. She did not directly involve herself in policy. She cared a lot about politics. She knew what was going on in washington. She made sure she knew the gossip, but she was not interested in changing the policy. During the campaign times, as she involved in strategy . Less about strategy than being out in front for the campaign. She was much more popular than he was. Many times the president would center out on the campaign trail and begin to answer questions with, barbara and i think. The subtitle of your biography is president ial matriarch and that is the next clip we will like to show you. Lets listen in. How do you develop that thick skin for politics . I am not good at it. Most people do not dare criticize my children in front of me. The press, i do not pay any attention to. I do not like it, but i do not pay any attention to it. Do not dare criticize george h. W. Bush. Ever. When she came to the white house, she told her press secretary that there were three areas where youd better keep hands off her fellow, family, and her dogs. That followed through. She was very concerned and reacted sometimes very quickly if there was criticism of george bush. And the children. We are going to invite you to participate in our discussion tonight. We have a conversation underway on our facebook page. You can join that. You can also tweet us. And you can call us. We have our lines divided geographically. We will try to get as many comments from as many different media as we can tonight. Lets understand where she came from. She was was born in new york city in 1925. She was born in new york. At the time of her birth, her father was on the staff of the president at the mccalls publishing company. Her mother was a descendent of an Ohio Supreme Court justice. The pierce family was related to president franklin pierce. The family moved to rye, new york, where barbara and her siblings grew up. It was a comfortable upbringing. They went to private schools. When barbara was old enough for high school, she was sent away to ashley hall, a boarding school in south carolina. Home for christmas break of her junior year, she went to a Country Club Dance and that is when she met george h. W. Bush. They were very young people and they got married very young. What do you know about the attraction, early courtship . They were attracted from the start. They developed an intimate correspondence, which was typical for the times. George bush decides to join the navy. He becomes the youngest aviator in the pacific theater. Their correspondence is emotional, intimate, when they could not be together in the same spot. When they could be together, it was electric. She began school at smith college. She was there for a year and she admitted that she was not the most dedicated of students. She was more interested in her boyfriend. I believe she was rather active in athletics. She went back for the first semester of her sophomore year and then left school to marry george bush. As a young couple, when he went off as an aviator, he had some very close encounters. Do you know the story of his being shot down in the pacific . It is a harrowing story. He was on a bombing run and he went in on the run, started to dive down, and was hit by enemy aircraft. He continued on his Bombing Mission and called back to his fellow crewmates and said, we will continue this mission. We will bail out. He thought they had already left the plane. He discovered later that there was no chance for them to have survived. He was alone in the pacific and spent 4. 5 hours bobbing up and down in the pacific before he was rescued. He spent another several weeks continuing with the submarine on their patrol mission. It was unclear for his parents what had happened to him. He was listed as missing in action. They made a decision not to tell barbara until they knew for certain. They missed their first wedding date because he was not back. Finally, he was back. On january 6, two weeks after the original date, they were married. He served in the military until when . He served until 1945 until the peace treaties were signed. He had many points accumulated so he was able to take an early out. He and barbara left for new haven and yale and the beginning of his longdelayed college career. George walker bush was born during that time. It was also at that point that george h. W. Bush was playing varsity baseball at yale and barbara was the official scorer for the team. It was a happy time for them. They had six children. George, robin, jeb, neil, and dorothy. I want you to tell the story about robins death. It impacted both parents. Robin was a little over two years old and woke up one morning. At this point, they were in texas. She said to barbara, i think i will stay in bed or maybe i will go out on the lawn and look at the clouds. That raised red flags. Her daughter was very active. She took her daughter to the pediatrician and the pediatrician asked barbara and george to come back a little bit later that day. She said to them, your daughter has leukemia. George bush said, what does that mean . At that point, who knew what it was . The doctor says it means she will not live very long. The doctors recommendation was that robin be allowed to go home and enjoy things. One of george bushs relatives was a doctor in new york and robin was taken there to try some different treatment modalities to deal with the leukemia. They prolonged her life a little bit. They still talk about her today. The emotion is very visible. President bush spent his entire life writing letters. The most painful letters we have in the archive are him writing about his daughter, talking about the pain, the thing that is missing. We do need a little girl in our lives. They did manage to recover to some degree and they had a big and bustling family. This next clip, barbara bush talks about her role as a parent. You have been referred to by some family members as the enforcer. I am not sure i am thrilled with laura saying that. I deserve it. George is so anything they do is all right. Someone has to be sure the standards are kept. He leads by example, i lead by denying some things. I am the enforcer, no question about it. Do i like that role . No. Any comments . Her husband always called her miss frank. She has had his back all of her family members all these many years. If someone was critical, she was going to respond. There was a story that a reporter once told me that if you wrote something negative about bill clinton, maybe the clintons would forgive you and let you write another story. If you said something negative about george h. W. Bush, you were done until the next administration. What aspects of mrs. Bushs personality might be seen in her son . Both of them have long memories. Barbara bush does not let go of criticism very easily and i am not sure that George Walker bush does either. A similar question. Are there any passions that a Young Barbara passed on to her children . To understand barbara bush, you need to appreciate that she was a product of her time. The passion was the fact that she had devoted her life to them, to raising a family and to being a good and loyal wife to her husband over the course of his varied careers. He was an absentee father for many years because he was on the road as a salesman, and as a politician. She was there every night. For george w. Bush, it formed a real bond between the two of them. Some statistics, by the time they made it to the white house, they had been married for 43 years and had lived in 29 different houses in 17 cities. Dave murdock wants to know, rumor has it that barbaras hair turned white after robins death. I believe that is true. She took the death very deeply. She went through a period of depression and it was only after she was so sad for so many months that she heard george outside saying to a young friend, i cannot come out and play today because i have to take care of my mother. She realized that was too much burden to put on a little boy. Leroy is watching us in kentucky. Did the bush family go by the scriptures . We do have a clip where barbara bush talks about her faith. Were they Church People . They always had very strong faith. I cannot really attest to how much Church Attendance was part of their lives, but i believe it was considerable. They did go to church. President bush did give one speech about his own spirituality. I am a person of faith, but i am an episcopalian and we do not talk about these things. They moved to texas and into california for the oil business. How did they make the transition to politics . They came back to texas and they had a great deal of success. They moved to houston. George bush was asked to consider running for Harris County republican chairman. That was his first campaign. She really enjoyed it. She felt very competitive and they won that race. 189 precincts and they visited every one. We should also note that about that same time, georges father was involved in politics. He was a senator for the state of connecticut. One of Dwight Eisenhowers favorite golfing buddies. The senior bush was very competitive. Eisenhower said, i like playing with him because he is one of the only people who would not let me win. When youre on the athletic field, or in any arena, you are there to win. To the national stage, howd that happen . There were two terms in congress. A senate try that did not work. Two terms in congress. Another try for the senate that did not work. And then there was mr. Bush was asked to be Republican National Committee Chairman during watergate. Between that time, he was United Nations ambassador. He is coming from texas, a texas that is transforming itself. When he runs in 1964, he is hopeful of winning, but no republican was going to win in 1964. Richard nixon encourages him in 1970 to run again. He thinks he is going to run the exact same campaign portraying his incumbent as a liberal. A terrible thing happened. A more conservative man at the democratic nomination. His entire strategy went out in the wash. This is still a democratic state. Texas will always take the democrat. That has changed, of course. Richard nixon tells him, i will take care of you and you can become a United Nations ambassador. Where was his Foreign Policy at that point . He did not have any. He would be the first one to admit it. This is one of the reasons nixon chose him. Ultimately, what nixon and Henry Kissinger wanted was somebody who would be loyal. The less the person knew the better. He was very good at that. He was very loyal. He liked being with other diplomats. He did something very unusual. His predecessors gave him advice before he showed up. You are the ambassador from the most powerful country in the world, let them come to you. He said, i will go visit other people. He went to all of the different nations in their offices. Something an American Ambassador had never done before. Barbara bush enjoyed those u. N. Years. She had not gone outside the country. Her first time going outside the country was when they were in china. In new york, they had a suite in the waldorf towers where they entertained. They entertained constantly. For both of them, there was an understanding, comprehension of the importance of personal diplomacy. Lets get the sequencing right. First, there was the u. N. Position. Head of the Republican National committee. This was during watergate. He has the unenviable job of going out every day and defending the president. He feels it is his duty. No matter what. He refers to this period as being in the eye of the storm. With the rnc position being a social one, this town was so full of tension. She wondered how he was soldiering on. Mr. Bush has to go to president nixon and say to him, it looks like most hope is lost. Our next questioner is from quincy, massachusetts. Are you there . Hello . I am in quincy, massachusetts, the birthplace of john adams. I have a question and a comment. You mentioned earlier that mrs. Bush is the only first lady after Abigail Adams who was the mother of a president. Is it also true that she is the only first lady after Abigail Adams who was the wife of a president and a Vice President . Pat nixon. But not the mother of a president. Thank you for your call. From watergate, chief of the republican party, to china. This is a great story. Watergate occurs. President nixon resigns. George bush is considered very strongly to be one of the potential Vice President ial picks for gerald ford. You have been a loyal soldier and i would like to get all of the people involved in watergate out of the limelight. What would you like to do . Where would you like to go . I can offer you paris, london. George bush says, i would like to go to china. Gerald ford says, would you like to go to london or paris . Bush says, china is going to be the future. It is an exciting place. This is really key. China is a lot cheaper than london or paris. The ambassador is expected to supplement the social budget. George bush had five kids to put through college. He wanted to go somewhere that was a little bit affordable. How wonderful it was to live in a place that was so inexpensive. Barbara bush loved china. She said it was her favorite place to be. The kids were not there. But the dog went with them. She had george bush to herself. The two of them took advantage of the many possibilities that china offered. They learn to speak some chinese. They were able to enjoy going out into the countryside. We did not have a full consulate there. We did not establish relations until 1979. It was an unofficialofficial post. There with a little more freedom that came with that. She was very unhappy when they had to leave. It seems like it was on the cusp of change. It was a world away. No telephone connection that was reliable. You could feel like you were getting away from it all. He felt after watergate that he was exhausted. He needed a sabbatical. He would say, the phone does not ring on my desk. It was dark at night. It is not the vibrant and excitingsmog filled beijing that we know today. Barbara bush mustve been quite of interest to the chinese. A woman with white hair. Not very many westerners. Did she write about that experience . She wrote some columns for newspapers that were sent home. She found so many things to be unique about the experience. Barbara bush was a scrapbook and the collections have catalogued all of these. We will visit the bush library next. Mrs. Bush began scrapbooking shortly after she and george bush became engaged. It is a hobby that she continued throughout george bushs entire family career. Over a hundred in the collection. They go throughout hi