The march of progress westward. Doing the smallpox book i come across this Huge Population of out in the middle of north dakota. At the time of the revolution, population hub bigger than charleston, south carolina, the fourth biggest city on the atlantic seaboard and i just said holy cow, what if we told this story of america from the center of the continent . What if we called this is American History and this is the quintessential american story. Thank you dear ill stop there. [applause] you are watching booktv, television for serious readers. Watch a program you see here online at booktv. Org. Irwin gellman is next on booktv. He recalls the relationship between president Dwight Eisenhower and his Vice President Richard Nixon. So not her speaker. Our speaker tonight is pretty brilliant. Irwin gellman is an author of books on for president s. Is taught at uc irvine Chapman University and out franklin and Marshall College in pennsylvania. He authored a book on president nixon years in Congress Called the content in school and called the content in school and work out a book about the nixonkennedy election. His most recent book is the subject of the talk called the president and the apprentice the president and the apprentice eisenhower and nixon, 19521961. Its a monument of research. I think the indus and the dog alone are 300 pages. Please put a lot of work into. Ladies and gentlemen, a great scholar and a Great American irwin gellman. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, before i start one of the things id like to do is reintroduce growth and who, without her kindnesses and her generosity to my wife and myself, this book would never be written. She is as good as it gets, and if you read the dedication that she has, and the gentleman that is kind of, this is her book and it is her book with my thanks and i appreciate it. In addition to that, what i appreciate is all of you who come. Its beyond thankful for some of the people that i know that are here and i havent seen in years. Rbn and barbara. Could you me a favor and stand up . Barbara, can you stand up, please . I cant mention everybody, but these are two of the best people that i know anywhere. Barbara has put up with him for i dont know how many years and always looks at them the same way my wife looks at me and says, i cant believe ben, that you did that. But you still doing it. He is still here, and both of you guys, you are the epitome of what is good and the county and the state and anywhere that folks that are good and gracious can be. Thank you so much for being here, and thank you for helping me out. [applause] the check walkabouts . [laughter] by the way that is typical ben. When he sits down, barbara will hit him. [laughter] what i would like to start off with, if you dont mind, is a story, not true, but its a story. Richard nixon and eisenhower, dwight d. Eisenhower, didnt like one another. They may have hated one another. They may have gone even lower than that. They both may have been in dantes circle of hell. Button the story that is told is done for one reason and one reason only, and its to prove that both Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower didnt get along for a reason. And the reason was if they couldnt get along, their party couldnt get along, and they themselves as representatives of the Republican Party could not get along. And that people that write this, i hope youre not shocked, are democrats. And its a story that is done purposefully. Its not a story thats done because of some mistake. Its a story that is done because if you are a democrat and your partisan, or if you are a liberal persuasion and your partisan, the story fits. It is a good story of where to start with the animosity within the Republican Party. And whats a better place to start with animosity within the Republican Party than Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon . It may make sense to folks that dont do the work, but after 20 years and reading as much as a they could and interviewing as many people as i could, the story is just the opposite. So what i decided to do was to begin with one of the seminal moments in Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower. And it was called the fund crisis. And it dealt with the checkers speech, both of which were supposed to show how badly nixon and eisenhower got a long. In addition to that, how evil Richard Nixon was because as his brother knows better than most, you have to make Richard Nixon evil before he was even born. It is only the wrote a book called Richard Nixon. I kid you not, on a flight jacket it says even before he was born, he was a liar. That kind of stuff is crazy, but thats the kind of thing were looking at. So what i wanted it is all want to kill the what really happened during the crisis. And take you through it as logically as i can without being a democrat, without being a republican, without being a socialist or an anarchist or anything, but just give you the fact pattern the way it occurred and see if what im telling you makes sense. The first thing that i want to say is, is the campaign really started on september 17, 1952 with nixon chugging out of the los angeles train station and going up to the intra valleys in california and then up further on. As he was going on there was this rumor, hard to believe it was planted, but there was a rumor that Richard Nixon had a slush fund. Gee, how many times have we heard somebody having a slush fund . Thats just terrible. And in his slush fund, secretive rich man trust fund keeps nixon install far beyond his salary. Thats the banner headline. If any of you wish to read the article, theres nothing in there about a secret bands trust fund. Theres nothing about millionaires and theres nothing about Richard Nixon living beyond his style of life. But if you look just at that, thats pretty bad stuff. Why in the world with people believe that . And the answer is simple. The democrats were running at least evenson against a five star general who was probably the singular best known man in the world, Dwight Eisenhower. So they were searching for anything that they could use to somehow debilitate the 1952 campaign, and debilitating the 52 campaign was real simple. If Richard Nixon has a secret fund and is using it to live beyond the standard of living, get rid of him, have him fired. I cannot help this is not shocking to you, the chairman of the dnc. Now, why not . If i were the chairman of the dnc and thats something i thought was wonderful to work over my opponent, i would use it. And he certainly did. He called for Richard Nixon to be fired. Of course. There were a couple of problems. First problem, there was nothing to said anybody could get rid of the Vice President of the united states. Number two, there was nothing that said that Dwight Eisenhower could get rid of Richard Nixon. And like so many other problems when you have a ticket, if he did get rid of Richard Nixon as Vice President , then you would have to start all over again, find another Vice President ial candidate that the people would be happy with. Think about the morass you have to go through to do that. It would be virtually a war zone. So they have this story out there on september 18, and the other thing that was a huge problem. Im sure that some of you have heard of cell phones. There were no cell phones in 1952. You had two men running separate campaigns on separate trains that dont stop at the same time and they couldnt get in touch with each other at the same time. So heres Dwight Eisenhower moving along who doesnt even hear about the charge of the secret fund until the next morning. And heres Richard Nixon going along figuring so what, this is the normal partisan stuff we have to deal with, nothings going to happen. All of a sudden that our movements, get rid of Richard Nixon for doing this evil thing. Richard nixon doesnt know what to do. How in the world do you respond to somebody wanted to get rid of you . Advocating, to go back and pay back, the fable is that Dwight Eisenhower wanted to remove Richard Nixon from the ticket, and quietly behind the scenes, with stealth, talk about getting ready them. Theres only one problem. It never happened. Dwight eisenhower never made one mention of Richard Nixon being removed from the ticket. It never happened. And yet that is the story that you here. The story is false. The story has no reality, but most of the people write about it. And as youll see in a little bit, it really is 90 90 how the makeup becomes fact when its really fiction. Nutty. Here is Richard Nixon chugging up towards washington on the train getting nailed for having the secret fund. At the same time heres a Dwight Eisenhower covenant on his trained in the midwest again this nixon is going up the spine of the west coast there are people standing out there, it didnt i know you will be underwhelmed, but they were democrats who are saying get rid of him. Where is the money, richard . What are you doing . How are you living with this kind of taint on your life. Now, for some reason this story, trying to push running against a Dwight Eisenhower, doesnt say anything. People start to wonder, why isnt Adlai Stevenson attacking Richard Nixon for being this guy with a secret fund . And again, this may surprise you but Adlai Stevenson had a fund. Not only did he have a fund but he has a fund 10 times the size of Richard Nixon. Now, i read the authorized biography where he talks about how he used this fund on really important things come like one of his sons birthday parties. Does that sound a little strange to you, where this man would be using a trust fund for his sons Birthday Party . Richard nixon had to explain in detail that this fund wasnt meant for anything. And by the way, the fund was 18,235. He couldnt even write a check on the fund. It was in somebody elses name. The only thing that Richard Nixon could do was send invoices in to dana smith who was the trusty, and dana smith wrote the check. Akin, i know this may be again, i know this may be somewhat surprising but none of them added to nixon solar. None of them helped nixon to have a mate. None of them bought clothes for Richard Nixon at neiman marcus. All of the things that were done under this fund which by the way, a very, very detailed fiduciary in which means if he did wrong, he went to the pokey. All of those funds were accounted for. Would you be surprised to know that Adlai Stevensons fund was never revealed . I tried to find the records for the fund, and somehow they had disappeared. So nobody knows to this day where the records are for Adlai Stevenson here but Everybody Knows the details of what happens with Richard Nixon to fund. The long and the short of the story is that Richard Nixon had to make sure that price waterhouse, at that time a huge accounting firm, went through the fund and then said its clean, theres nothing wrong with it youre in addition, gibson dunn and crutcher, a Big Los Angeles law firm, was to go through the spending and say that nixon do anything wrong, and gibson cut and crutcher says this is as pure itself. So all of a sudden there is no fund controversy. But in spite of that, Richard Nixon is forced to make sure that hes not old as pure as the snow, he is more pure than the driven snow. Yes to give a speech on television, and that speech was called the checkers speech. Now, if you read about the checkers speech, at just about every book, you will find out the word that is used most often is model and. For those of you dont know what that means, modeling doesnt sound good. And it isnt good. It is a bad speech. It is each that doesnt mean anything. Its just a whitewash. Richard nixon gave his speech, and because it was such an awful speech that is interpreted by various people, you would think that most of the people that wrote in about the speech, the only about 3 Million People i wrote in about the speech, thank goodness for the ladies sitting over there, beverly lindsay, catalogued 25,000 letters . Of the 25,000 letters, eight were negative. Eight were negative. And yet the speech was a failure. Now, i didnt i know that this probably will not surprise you. Richard nixon remained on the ticket. So if the speech was as bad as it was and if nixon was as evil as he was, how in the world did he survive it . Nobody answers the question. The reason why nobody answers the question is because it never happened. It just sounded the way people wanted when i wrote this book, the introduction of the book, i tried to make as impartial and as an ascetic as i could. But people simply lied. Some of my friends who wrote blurbs from first books i bought were simply disingenuous. They simply did not tell the story the way it shouldve been told. And that was that nixon had the largest tv audience up to that time for a political speech, and it was gangbusters. Do any of you ever have eureka moments were all of a sudden you say, wow, thats really Something Wonderful . Well, as a historian look at a few million documents, you very seldom have a eureka moment. And if i could figure out how to use this, this is a letter written in late november 1956. You are all familiar with the term probably not. If you on, it means giving somebody the background to some important event that is occurring. And send a letter for those of you who cant read it, it says the Vice President nixon. This is a copy of the seven pages of notes that Dwight Eisenhower took as he watched your speech at the cleveland auditorium on september 23, 1952. Eisenhower watched the speech in the managers room at the cleveland auditorium. He made notes. Now, once more, the story, again, this is the story, as Dwight Eisenhower was watching the speech, he was so angry that he took his pencil instead into the that he was looking at and tore the paper and wrote awful things about Richard Nixon. Do any of you see any rips . Any rips . Rips . How about maybe even a little mini care . Rips . Sounds really good, doesnt it . Only i found that document. The reason why nobody else did is it comes from a series at the Nixon Library here called the free 20 series. At 320 series is 847 boxes. Who is counting . You will never guess who was the only one ever to go through every page. [laughter] i stumbled across this and i went, whoa, i cant believe this. And do you know why nobody else ever saw that . Because what they did in historical terms is whats called cherrypicking. They looked at those documents that they thought would give nixon the worst possible position. So rather than go from box one to box 347, they went to box sherman adams, boxed Dwight Eisenhower, box nelson rockefeller, box whatever. To show you how bad it was, i looked at the last 50 boxes that nobody else had ever looked at. I dont know how many of you swim, but i were swimmers goggles. I were a face mask. I had a smoke in front of me and i have something to clean them off because nobody had looked at those boxes ever. Nobody was in the room that i was in because nobody could stand being in the room i was in because of all the dust. I had to leave the room every 30 minutes because i couldnt stand the smell. But think about it. The obligation that i have standing in front of you is did hthe best i can be. And the only way i know how to be the best i can be is doing work. If youre going to have a preconceived notion of what goes on, why bother . Some of the people that ive written about, not in regard to this, but in regard to other things, and begin i hope none of you are upset or embarrassed or whatever, Stephen Ambrose wrote a big hocrisy of Dwight Eisenhower. Stephen ambrose wrote a big biography of Richard Nixon, three volumes. And in a Dwight Eisenhower is said in one meeting of legislative leaders telling a bobby jones series of nword jokes. Now, thats pretty awful. Sitting in front of a whole series of people, giving derogatory comments on black people. You know, i have some skill with this. I was a white being of the black university, so i think im pretty sensitive to this kind of stuff. And i said, you know, i look at all those legislative leader things. I dont remember that. So i called up the Eisenhower Library and i said, what you guys do me a favor and scan those meetings . You will never guess what came back. It never happened. It wasnt in any notes. So i decided to take the next step and said to the eisenhower people, are you sure . Audit any kind of ancillary files to this . And it came back, no. Is that the end of the story . Maybe not. Taylor branch wrote a book, the first in a series on Martin Luther king, jr. , he won approval to price and ended he takes Stephen Ambrose story that never happened and changes it. I mean, he couldnt even copy well. So thats the kind of thing that i am dealing with on a regular basis, and its sad. It does not make me happy to stand in front of you and say that some of my colleagues are not doing what they should, but they arent here and for some reason, fred nixon, this is got to friday. To think that its one thing to criticize your brother for real things, but for things that never happened and then not only never happened but were made to never, never happened, thats insane. I dont know how they do it. Well, the fact is that eisenhower writes his speech after he sees nixon give the checkers speech on television. He goes and gives a speech in the cleveland auditorium and he says, you know, ive seen some really fine man do some really wonderful things, but this, Richard Nixon, is the man that i want to be my Vice President. It doesnt sound like eisenhower hates the guy, does it . Not to me it doesnt. So from there eisenhower sends nixon a letter, and in the letter and Nixon Eisenhower writes and nixon saying i will meet you in wheeling, west virginia. Congratulations on your speech. I cannot make a decision of whats going on, but i will do the best of my ability give you my in premature that you will remain on the ticket. Eisenhower meets nixon in weve been west virginia. Nixons plane lands. Eisenhower rushes up to the plane, walks in and says, youre my boy, as Richard Nixon breaks down and cries. I know that all of you are historians. Im not telling you anything you didnt know, but eisenhower and Richard Nixon win the presidency and the vice presidency in 1952, and the people that didnt like eisenhower as president of Columbia University because he was a military guy, not only were unhappy with eisenhower at columbia, but were even more unhappy when he beat stevenson badly in 1952. And then not only were unhappy with that, but in 1956, eisenhower won by a landslide. So they were really unhappy. So what did they do . They wrote history books based on one of the history. Not what happened but the way they want it to happen. I read one manuscript i James Macgregor burns a rant of the democratic ticket in 1958 that said, eisenhower narrowly beat stevenson in 1956. I wrote in the margin in jimmys manuscript, i said, 9. 7 billion is not merely. I wrote him also and said, jamie, please dont publish this. Jimmy never talk to me again. But in the book called running alone, he did put down a very pleasant acknowledgment to me. Irwin gellman read this, boom. That was the end of it. So when you dont tell the story based on what really happened, you get this stuff. I wanted and with one small little thing which gives you some additional stories. One of the big problems with the checkers speech and the reaction is Dwight Eisenhower, because he was responsible for millions of lives, look at something, and once it was done, it was over. When he writes about the checkers speech in his memoirs, mandate for change, he spent 45 pages on it. Richard nixon spends a whole chapter on it. And he is very upset of what happened and what happened with the checkers and what eisenhowers day. The problem with much of the stuff that is written by both of these guys is they may cross in the night, but they are never together. So what i try to do in the book was to put what eisenhower was doing, what stevenson was doing, what nixon was doing, what truman was doing, and all the rest of them so that you found out how the story interlocked. And the nature of just the checkers story that until we do is repeated time after time after time. I just want to do one last thing. You all know, especially ed nixon knows, that his brother saw a psychiatrist. Well, i got the psychiatrist medical records. Doing the vice presidency, based on Richard Nixon eight times. For any of you in the audience that either crazy and or psychiatrist, and may also be crazy, eight times i dont think makes for a psychotherapist. In addition to that, arnold totschnig are went before congress in november 1973 and was asked the same two questions in the house and the senate under the pain of perjury. And the questions were doctor, did you ever treat nixon for psychiatric problems . The answer was no. The same question was asked in the house because the question was asked, dr. Hutschnecker, did you ever treat Richard Nixon for psychological problems . The answer was no. Im not sure. Maybe you all can help me, but it doesnt seem like dr. Hutschnecker served as nixons psychiatrist. And the story goes on and on and on for people of made all kinds of assumptions and all kinds of stories about the eisenhower presidency and the nixons vice presidency that are just foolish. So i hope that those of you who read my book will get some kind of at least the idea of what really happened according to the fact that. Thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoy the work, and if you have any questions i would be more than happy to take them. Our first question is in the back row. You mentioned that you are writing a new book regarding jfk and Richard Nixon, and i was curious if you might be able to tell us any advice for research you had on the first president ial debate between the two of them come if you hav hady thoughts regarding the . The question is what am i doing in my next book and what kind of information do i have on the first debate . The answer is yes, i am already working on the next book of nixon versus kennedy, and my agent and my editor have already called me up and said, where am i at writing the next volume . I said i didnt your belinda giving a speech. They said i dont care. But the answer to your question is, my first fatherinlaw was harsh, who did the private side of the nielsen ratings. He did advertising ratings. The corporation was called scr. One of the things im going to be stating about the debates is not, not that kennedy won the debates or nixon lost the debates am a but debates had a certain ability to draw all things being equal people closer together. So the nature of what happened in the debates was not the one that was better than the other, but by kennedy being there and being on the same screen, to even out the contest somewhat because he had the same kind of media exposure. Before we get to our next question, i had a quick question. How active other policy role did the Vice President nixon have on the Eisenhower Administration . By the way, for you, this is trying 11 who has been a jewel from it very helpful and has been very great jonathan movroydis. The real story to that, jonathan, is this. The problem is that eisenhower took the position that the only person that made the ultimate decisions was the president. So what nixon ends up doing is being a trusted lieutenant who has all kinds of authorities giving him. One of the authorities thats given to Richard Nixon, and i hope you dont repeat this, but its going to ruin nixons image and none of you want to see that happen, he was the singular most advocate in promoting civil rights in the 1950s. No one, no one did more to end segregation everywhere. And especially in foreign affairs. Because one of nixons monica was come if you cannot preach democracy at home by ending segregation, you could not preach freedom in the developing countries because you had to treat all people equally. Richard nixon was one of the great proponents in the 1950s of leveling the playing field. So what happened with nixon, johnson, was a series of things. The better he did from 19531954, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the more of 40 the president gave him. The problem was that eisenhower was really difficult to read. Hed didnt get out there and say im doing this, and so and so is responsible for that. Or im doing this and so and so is responsible for that. What he said was if anything happens bad, i responsible for if anything happens good, the team is responsible. So you dont get Dwight Eisenhower getting out and usually giving anybody praise. I will tell you this. One of the things in the book when nixon comes back with first Foreign Policy trip in 1953 was a handwritten letter on white house stationery. There may be four or five of these, and pat and Richard Nixon got one of them. [inaudible] the question was how did eisenhowers relationship with nixon change after eisenhower heart attack with i have a whole chapter on that. In addition to the whole chapter on that, not only do i have eisenhowers problems, but nixon had problems because nixon was being treated for insomnia and for tension. Nixon was taking a bunch of barbiturates. By the way, so was a Dwight Eisenhower. So i really thought this was really great. This is really cool. I had these guys nailed and had them both sitting doctor feelgood. They were precursors to elvis presley. So i talked to two doctors who practice in 1956, and a pharmacist who practice in 1956. And they both said to me, no, this wasnt a big deal. This is the way we treated people in the 1950s. Boy, did they bust my bubble. I was actually student of yours at Chapman University win of the contender came out, and really enjoyed it, and you brought us here as students. Great extremes. I wrote a paper in a class on kennedy and nixon some looking forward to that. Twopart question. Isnt going to be another 15 years before get the next book . And when writing what percentage would you say is research versus actual writing . The first part of the question i can answer pretty easy. I have a great editor. These guys are measurable human beings. They have a publishing in 2018. If you dont think i got scars on my back already to get the next book out, youre wrong. The other part of the question that you asked, i write a very strangely. I memorize documents and then i put them in order. Then when i see them again in order, and they happen to be topical things ie, like the with the chapter on religion side pull all that out of my head, we write it in my head, write it up and then show it to my wife who is my first review. I dont know if that is kind of strange but thats the way i do it. Thank you for doing this, for doing the contender get as far as i know none of your books on Richard Nixon have ever been challenged for fact or for accuracy, so congratulations on that. You are one of a series of new books on Richard Nixon. What do you attribute this new look at Richard Nixon . Is the world ready to look favorably and more positively on him after all these years . That was saintecroix who by the woul what started with richd nixon in 1962, and he walks around with a series of dogs sandy quinn. At one point he would put a collar on me and walk the red also as one of his dogs that i balked when he wanted me to eat the dog food. But to answer the question from one of my friends is evan thomas, and he has a new book out which is partly i agree with him, partly i dont agree with. Jack farrell is coming out next you with double date and Douglas Brinkley is doing the tapes. Theres a pretty ugly book out called one man against the world. I think that nixon is becoming more and more acceptable from the standpoint that he wasnt the poker that he is over that is made out to be. That more and more people are understanding he was a complicated complex person with a whole series of positives and a series of negatives. Just between us and cspan and 100 Million People, there is some people that just hate this guy. So example in the book which i know i dont comment on so dont tell anybody i am, hes got a section in there where he says that John Ehrlichman said that he refused to work for nixon in the 1960 election, unless he promised that he wouldnt drink. Im going, this is the first time that John Ehrlichman ever worked for Richard Nixon. So i called up general donald hughes, nixons appointment secretary during the 60 election and his appointment secretary from 5761. And said, how often did John Ehrlichman c. Nixon in the 1960 election . And he said, maybe five minutes. Now, maybe you have a better understanding of a guy running for president than i do, but i tied this seizure for five minutes and somebody says hes giving an ultimatum that is not going to work for him unless he stays sober, is kind of nutty. I check the footnotes. It never happened. And talking about the checkers speech and the interaction between eisenhower and nixon, i believe in [inaudible] nixon stayed in, he had a conversation with eisenhower when he felt that eisenhower had not made the decision and allegedly said something. In the research, is this fact or he said shit or get off the pot. Thats what youre very pleasantly saint. Yes. Eisenhower calls Richard Nixon in any way is getting ready to return from i think seattle back to l. A. To prepare his speech. And at one point in time i synopsis to nixon, you know, you are really having a hard time, this is a problem, and our these kinds of problems, et cetera, et cetera. And nixon, your brother sister eisenhower, sometimes a magenta, gifted shit or get off the pot. They have cleaned it up a number of ways but the real story is, thats the real story. Earl warren, former governor, former chief justice. I understand he ran with the thomas dewey and 48. I understand it was animosity between nixon and eisenhower over the 52 convention. Nixon out getting on the convention train. Could you speak to the . Sure, i can. Its not true. What happened was that nixon went to the convention what they were doing a platform. He met the train as it was coming and i played to denver. The war and training come and nixon went on the war and train said its going to be a contest between eisenhower and taft. And told warren that. The story is, is that warren felt that nixon was trying to work you over for the nomination. Again, i dont know how many lawyers i have any obvious or anything like that, but the primary law and by 52 said that until the favorite son releases the delegation, the delegation had to vote for the favorite son, who was earl warren. And just for your own information, earl warren never released the california delegation. There never was a unanimous vote for Dwight Eisenhower. Because warren didnt let it happen. Thank you very much. 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