the associate director is here with us tonight. he will be speaking in the library october 13, tuesday at the central library. about the significance of the frontier. that is one day before president eisenhower's birthday october 14 where he will be giving his talk at the eisenhower library in abilene. there is a party. you are invited to the party on the 14th as well. we are extremely happy to have professor yanek mieczkowsk here tonight to talk about ike and.net. one of my first memories is of my parents watching the 1956 republican convention on tv and my mother arguing with my father that since he was point to vote for eisenhower you should register as republican. which he was not at that point. not everybody liked ike at that time. joe mccarthy. the john birch society said he was a communist. russell kirk said ike is not a communist. he is the golfer. that image of ike on the golf course, not accomplishing very much. then things likes but the missile gap have affected our view of him historically, which is corrected in his letter moment -- sputnik moment. as he recounts in his careful and measured book, and astute look at eisenhower, by 1961, as president kennedy took office we had a huge lead in satellites and the technology of space and missiles. the quality of what we were doing made a greater difference in the history of the cold war than putting a man on the moon or a flag on the moon as the russians did, which were in essence stunts. he built more roads, schools, and houses during this time that any previous president had. yanek mieczkowsk is a historian who believes in the right stuff among presidents. he has written about president ford, and president eisenhower. on president ford's 90th birthday he wrote a piece about him. he talked about how especially attractive thing about president ford was his integrity. in this book you find that kind of right stuff was present in president eisenhower as well. he at one point said he was looking for a broader and better type of civilization. the virtues, not the hardware of history. you may remember in his famous speech at the end of his presidency he warned us against the military-industrial complex and the scientific and technical elite. he was not one to rush, be rushed by experts or the media, or advisors or anything that he found without merit. it is the virtues of his book and his history that that is what we find out about president eisenhower. yanek mieczkowsk he has written a couple of books on the presidency including the routledge atlas of the presidency and has won many awards and fellowships and is a very fine historian. it is a pleasure to welcome professor yanek mieczkowsk. [applause] yanek: thank you. thank you to the kansas city public library for having me tonight. thank you for coming. many of you must've had a choice to not because it is the first home game of the chiefs. library talk, chiefs game? you decide on the library talk. i appreciate it. the chiefs might not but thank you for coming. i wanted to start my talk and practice it by paying tribute to somebody who helped me a lot, enormously as a research and wrote my book on eisenhower. somebody who inform my thinking on eisenhower, told me stories, some of which i will share with you tonight. that person is dr. william e wald. he passed away this march will one of the last surviving members of the eisenhower administration. you may be familiar with his legacy with an on eisenhower. he worked during the eisenhower administration as a speechwriter for fred seaton and as you see in the lower right-hand corner, he helped former president eisenhower write his memoirs. then he wrote his own books on eisenhower's presidency, which came out in 1981 and is still one of the classics on the eisenhower presidency. i was lucky to know bill and live close to him. he lived in greenwich, connecticut. i would love to see him and interview him. he was my go to guy whenever i had a question. when i was going through documents or literature. i could go and see bill and he would answer my questions. he helps me to know and understand eisenhower. when of the most rewarding and challenging parts of writing about any historical figure, especially one who is no longer around, is the ability or the chance to decipher that person. bill helped me to do that to some extent. he helped me to know and understand eisenhower. i entitled my talk, understanding ike. i found a number of eisenhower traits that stood out and shaped his response to sputnik and the space race, and characterized his presidency as a whole. i thought i would concentrate on four. i am violating a rule of good lectures and human learning. the human brain is well-suited to grouping things in 3. that is why there are three numbers and area codes, telephones, three supporting paragraphs and conclusion. i was thinking that, if i stuck to three, you would have a good acronym to member the talk by. you can consider the fourth trade as a bonus. what i want to do is go through each trait and give examples of them, show how they related to eisenhower, the space race, and his presidency as a whole. the most personal, his temper. i chose this for his entertainment value, the most colorful of the trade. he was a cradle-to-grave kind of thing. he invented as a young boy into his retirement. when he was 10 years old one halloween his parents prohibited him from going trick-or-treating. he beat his fists against the tree outside his home until his knuckles were bloody. in retirement when you would think he would mellow out, he still showed flashes of the temper. his physician during his retirement, one evening he got a call from the eisenhower residence. he had been experiencing heart pain. that is nothing to trifle with. he suffered a heart attack in 1955, and a mini stroke. a month after sputnik. the doctrine physician rushed over to the home examined him, he seemed to be ok. they asked him about what activities he had done that day. nothing extraordinary. then he asked them what did you have for dinner tonight. eisenhower said pigs knuckles and sauerkraut. oh my goodness. general eisenhower. you are on a restricted diet. you can't be eating things like that. he goes why did you eat such a thing? he glared and he goes because i like it, damn it. there was a meaning behind him getting angry. i wanted to show a couple of examples of eisenhower getting angry. in july of 1961, president john f. kennedy was planning to host the president of pakistan. he was going to have a big event. the first state dinner outside of the white house. there would be a bonfire, the marine corps band. eisenhower was fear he's. he lost his temper. he was a dictator and hannity was hosting him at the home of eisenhower's idol, george washington. eisenhower cursed him out. this sacrilegious stunt as he called it. there is a deeper implication. early in kennedy's term eisenhower took a dim view of this young president. he called him little boy blue, the young whippersnapper. he borrowed a phrase from his first defense secretary, the former president of general motors. his flywheel is too big for his engine. [laughter] this disdain was mutual. he once said i have a minimum of high regard for him. after the interviews with jackie kennedy were published, they are available and you can listen to them. he was the historian and kennedy aide. you could hear arthur asked jeske -- jackie, what did your president think of eisenhower. she responds, not much. it was mutual. but eisenhower, this sacrilegious stunt of kennedy's made him think even less of the new president. two months before this incident there was another that made eisenhower question kennedy's judgment. in 1951 he appeared before congress and gave an unusual second state of the union address. he gave a state of the union address in january. now he called a joint session of congress and gave a second state of the union address. he uttered lines that became immortal. the challenge the nation to land men on them moon before the decade was out. eisenhower was appalled. he thought it was a grave mistake. i will let eisenhower's words explain it. this is a letter he wrote in 1965. it was personal and confidential at the time. i will direct your attention to the second page in which he writes in 1961, the president of the united states announced this nation challenge the russians to a race to the moon implying the prestige would be riding on the issue. this i thought unwise. it took one single project or experiment out of a planned and continuing program involving communications and meteorology and military benefits, and gave the highest priority to a race. in other words a stunt. this was a significant behind the scenes clash between a sitting president and a former president. eisenhower respect to the presidency too much to diebold his feelings publicly. now we know how eisenhower felt. he privately said about the challenge to land men on the moon nuts, hysterical, and a number of times a stunt. when eisenhower got angry at kennedy it was not just personal. it sometimes reflected real policy differences. eisenhower did not want to send men to the moon and kennedy did. eisenhower thought that much less of kennedy because he did. another incident, that pertains to the space race. this story comes from arthur larson. he launches sputnik before. the biggest mistake marking the beginning of the space age. on november 5, 1957, almost a month after the launch of lunch with was at eisenhower. eisenhower asked arthur larson to come over to the white house. arthur larson was the director of the u.s. information agency. he made him special assistant to the president to help him write speeches that eisenhower would give nationally to put the sputnik achievement in perspective. on this day, eisenhower was on the phone with his defense secretary, and he created a special list of missile development to be given top priority for missile developments for defense. mcelroy was not buying the idea. finally, eisenhower lost his temper, slammed down the phone. according to arthur larson, he said i will give him foreign policy meetings. --s temper shows to its shows 2 important aspects. this was the president of the massachusetts institute of technology, who eisenhower appointed a science advisor. some americans feared he was trailing the soviet union in science and technology. this was the golden age of science. after world war ii sites became important in everyday day life. scientists harnessed the power , developed the transistor, there was a flurry of development. eisenhower realized he needed an advisor. most presidents do not come from a science background. they've major in history, bike eisenhower, roosevelt, george w. science liketical obama, economics -- gerald ford. reagan was an economic major. in the 20th century only to only 2 scientists came from a science background. a president needs an advisor to give the council on how to promote science and public policy. after sputnik, eisenhower appointed the first science advisor to the president. he created the special assistant for the president in science and technology. the media called this the missile czar. he appoints james killian. he was an interesting guy. he had no phd in a science field or medical degree. was inkground administration. he accumulated enough honorary doctorates that people called him dr. killian. to creating this post, eisenhower reformulated an existing committee, creating the 8 person peace acts consisting of 18 scientists, many nobel prize winners and future nobel prize winners, he would meet with the president, report, and give him advice on science. what eisenhower did after us but nick was to establish a stronger link between the president and scientific community, something badly needed in an increasingly science oriented and technical world. eisenhower liked the sciences, grew to respect them, and even called them "my scientists." eisenhower was hospitalized in the last month of his life at the walter reed army hospital from heart disease. killian visited him. during that visit eisenhower said, this bunch of scientists was one of the few groups i encountered in washington who seemed to be there to help the country and not help themselves. that meant a lot to eisenhower, someone who dedicated his career to serving the country. the president still has the science advisors, president obama has a physicist by training. it is not a cabinet post. he is under the radar. it is a legacy that eisenhower is responsible for, creating the position of a science advisor. killianlroy he trusted enough you toyed with the idea of giving him enough power to circumvent his own defense secretary when he came to rocket and missile development when mcelroy was not cooperating. aspect to thatnd outburst when he was talking to mcelroy. one of the reasons that american's rocket and missile program grew slowly after world war ii was that it had no real direction. it's home was in the pentagon. there was no nasa at this time. rocketry and missiles were housed in the pentagon. in the pentagon, the services fought one another over who inuld have primacy controlling rocketry and missile development. it was a turf for. -- versusversus the the marines, versus the air force. said it was like watching 2 little boys argue over whose father could be that .he other that is how bad it was. eisenhower was inferior rated -- was infuriated by these rivalries. he thought they were parochial. he is these words to criticize these rivalries that people thought he might be mixing church and state. this is how eisenhower felt. when he mentioned this idea of a special missile director to mcelroy, mcelroy hemed and hawed. that said eisenhower off. you saw the flash of temper. he couldn't believe the services that would let parochialism and a term for get in the way of endeavor.ortant this rivalry created a sense of chaos and disorder and rocketry and missile development. they contributed to a sense of disorder and confusion. that brings me to the second. sense of order. eisenhower was disappointed in his approach to everything as you would expect from a career army officer. he brought discipline and order to the presidency. he created special positions, advice orderly senses of to development. it was he who created the position of white house chief of staff to bring order to the volume of people and paperwork that comes to the white house and oval office. it has been an essential post ever since. jimmy carter tried to do away with the chief of staff after was sond found it critical that carter named hamilton jordan his chief of staff. see eisenhower's sense of order in his punctuality. he ran the white house like clockwork. he began meetings on time. he was working on his memoir, the workday would start at 8:00 and indent 5:00. then, the other writers and editors would work into the evening doing research, editing, often until mid-night. he and another editor walked into eisenhower's looked upd he at him and said you were great, but you get up late to. that may not seem as bad as it is. that sentence, the first half, you boys may work late, bill ewald said that was the greatest compliment he ever got from dwight d. eisenhower. he was not one who said think you are complemented. he was very sparing. he said that was eisenhower acknowledging one time how hard everyone they were working on the memoirs. the second half, but you get up was the reproach. i asked, did you ever show up late again. he said no. he would not risk eisenhower's wrath. three minutes late was not good enough for eisenhower. it violated his sense of punctuality and order. you can see his sense of order in the space race. after sputnik there was a cry for a more consorted effort. many senators called for a cap level department of science, including hubert humphrey of minnesota. eisenhower resisted and thought it would add another level to the federal bureaucracy. moreover, he thought the most important space endeavors did not relate to science but national security. at first eisenhower thought pentagon was the natural home for space endeavors. he changed his mind and sport is the idea of a separate civilian space agency. changed his mind was that it appealed to his sense of order. the pentagon's approach had been at some brain yes, flying by the seat of your pants. it lacked they planned out approach. after sputnik, space was important. the country needed, and he used this adjective, and orderly approach to the space effort. a new agency devoted to space could do that. eisenhower thought a civilian space agency was important. he emphasized the peaceable race, of america's space contrasting them with the soviet union. sputnik was launched by a military rocket. all of these reasons, plus madee from scientist, eisenhower support the civilian space agency, nasa. in 1968 he created the national aeronautics and space administration. the speed of nasa was notable. 1950 eight, less than one year after the launch of sputnik. nasa was a tribute to eisenhower's ability to work quickly with congress on a matter of national urgency. a tribute to his being flexible enough to change his mind. a tribute to his sense of order and desire for an orderly approach to america space effort. i mentioned eisenhower thought america's most important space projects would be related to national security, and i gives me a segue to the next eisenhower trait. that was his focus on national security. mostwas eisenhower's important goal, top priority. he liked to say he waged peace as president. he worried about projects with little scientific value and no national security value. how checks that the media, politicians, and scientists wanted from the state of boosting america's prestige. roger x they thought would with -- projects they thought would win the cold war prestige race. there was a prestige race. example, as i mentioned, eisenhower scoffed a the idea of racing the whole o -- racing the soviet union of landing a man on the moon. he said, in a vfl is want to go to the moon? he answered his own question by saying, i don't. i am happier here. turning to the costs of sending men to the moon, eisenhower said he could not care less if men reach the moon. a waste of that was taxpayer money with no national security value. he pointed out at a meeting, i don't think we have an enemy on the moon. there is no reason to go to the moon for eisenhower. he cared more about the race that really matter to him, the to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. he wanted to develop them fast, he wanted to beat the russians. in 1954 he approved the development of the atlas missile, and the titan, a second icbm. he approved shorter range .issiles, the jupiter and thor in 1956, a game changer, the polaris. it was actually a submarine launched the listed missile. mobile and impossible for the soviets to track and destroy, unlike land-based missiles. briefed kennedy on national security before he took office, he mentioned the polaris and said, you have an invulnerable asset in polaris, and added it is in vulnerable for emphasis. this was a major accomplishment for eisenhower and a record he was proud of. icbmss. went from zero when he took office to an array when he left. in 8 years, he advanced america's national security by leaps and bounds. literally, when you consider how far they could go. and kennedy ran in 1960 he charged there was a missile gap. .isenhower was furious it was attacking him on an issue of national security that was near and dear to him. he knew how much he had notmplished but could divulge the standing. he knew there was no missile gap, or there actually was, and in favor of the united states. eisenhower also reported a satellite for national security. as a result, in 1960, the u.s. launched its first reconnaissance satellite. the u.s. didn't know about it until the 1990's. decades until after he left office. we know now, and this was a significant achievement, corona provided intelligence into the 1970's and gave u.s. negotiators enough information they felt confident enough to allow treaty nixon to sign the in moscow in 1972. nixon being eisenhower's vice president. before he died, he saw evidence of his legacy and reconnaissance satellites. well he was at walter reed, the the assistant,nd visited eisenhower and showed him the recent natures of soviet military facilities taken by satellites.issance they had to ask all the medical staff to leave the room, closed the blinds, eisenhower looked at the photos and expressed amazement at how advanced they were compared to the once he had seen in 1960. rocketry andof space, when it came to national security, eisenhower had tangible results to show in his presidency. eisenhower's emphasis on national security carried a risk, and he knew it. that brings me to my fourth eisenhower trait. familiarof you are with eisenhower's farewell address? address,y his farewell i'm sure you are thinking of the same three words, military industrial competency. he immortalized that in his speech. there is another term that he uses just once. there is another term he uses, nine times. that was the farewell address, and just as an important a warning as about his military-industrial complex. what was that word that eisenhower used nine times in his farewell address? i will let eisenhower speak for himself. president eisenhower: he is proposing a wager in light of a broader consideration, the need to maintain balance in and among national programs. balance between the private and the public economy. balance between the cost and hopes and advantages. balance between the necessary and the desirable. balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed upon the nation by the individual. balance between actions of the moment and national welfare of the future. good judgment seeks balance in promise, lack of it finds imbalance and frustration. yanek: he was talking about the proposals to boost industry and agriculture, to boost national security and defense. this is his warning. he mentions balance seven times. he goes on in the farewell address to mention it more. i don't know if eisenhower followed astrology, but since his birthday is coming up on october 14, he was born on october 14, giving him the astrological sign of libra. the symbol for libra is scales, meaning justice, but also balance. whether that has a deeper meaning or not, eisenhower did call his political philosophy "the middle way," in other words, it was balanced between the liberal and conservative wings of his own party, between the liberal and conservative impulses of the electorate as a whole. elections are won in the middle. candidates running should keep that in mind. eisenhower's political philosophy was based on a fulcrum point in the middle of the electorate. it also explains one reason why he won such resounding victories each time he ran for the white house. balance was a theme to eisenhower's presidency. eisenhower believed you had to spend money to achieve national security, but he worried if you overspent and overdeveloped the military-industrial complex, it will throw the economy out of bounds, warp the economy. the private sector was vital. the consumer sector of the economy was vital. eisenhower liked to point to american farms and supermarkets and cars as symbols of how vibrant capitalism is compared to communism. if eisenhower were alive today, he would probably point to home depot, walmart, and the cars we have as vital evidence of how good our economy is. the kind of cornucopia of goods the consumers enjoy. important for another reason. the consumer sector of the economy. you have to have balance. the soviet union was a country that did not have that kind of balance. that doomed the soviet union. the soviet union had a first-rate military-industrial complex, but as gorbachev later said, it was a country that cannot provide security for its -- provide toothpaste for its people. another example of eisenhower in balance -- after sputnik, he gave two television speeches to try to put the soviet achievement of sputnik in proper perspective. he worried that if politicians and the media exaggerated sputnik, the results would be the american people would get exercised over sputnik and demand more spending on rockets and missiles that the country didn't need to fuel the military-industrial complex. he gave two speeches. he was partly acting as a cheerleader in chief, trying to plump up the country's confidence, showing them that the country was achieving a lot in national security and science. he and arthur lawrence wrote -- arthur larson wrote those speeches. the second of those two speeches, delivered from oklahoma city on november 13, 1957, in that speech eisenhower talks about this new age, but in the last line eisenhower says something that is very intriguing. he says, we will need not only einstein's and steinmetzes, but washington's and emerson's. that is a pointed line. -- that is a poetic line. steinmetz is an obscure figure. he was referring to the electrical engineer, charles steinmetz. but the point is balance, again. the country needs scientists and engineers, but also needs fingers -- it also needs thinkers for humanity, political and military leaders like george washington. political philosophers like ralph waldo emerson. and one area of balance was vital to eisenhower. that was the federal budget. national security was important, but he knew the national security was also expensive, or is he liked to say, good defense is not cheap defense. but a strong economy was the most important part of national security. to have a strong economy, the federal government needed to balance its budget. eisenhower insisted. he grew angry. he lost his temper at people who talked about having to make a choice, a choice between a balanced budget and national security. in other words, if you want national security, you have to spend a lot of money on defense, run up the federal budget, and run up huge deficits and debt. eisenhower dismissed that idea. he said a balanced budget is actually a vital part of national security. he insisted on keeping defense spending in check. arthur lawrence remembered -- arthur larson remembered eisenhower meeting with charlie wilson, urging him, telling him, to stay within the budget. he said to charlie wilson, not one penny over budget, do you understand? not under any circumstances. and arthur larson said that charlie wilson looked up meekly and said, yes, sir. he looked like a schoolboy getting a scolding. eisenhower achieved three balanced budgets during his presidency. that is a huge accomplishment. he did it in part by holding the lid on defense spending, keeping defense spending under $40 billion during his entire presidency. he balanced this budget despite increased spending in many new areas, the highway program, despite two new states, alaska and hawaii. you see the idea of eisenhower balancing and underdeveloped state like alaska with a more developed state like hawaii. despite a new space agency. despite new satellites. a slew of new satellites. most of you might not know this, but at the end of eisenhower's residency, the u.s. had launched 31 satellites. the soviet union just nine. and the u.s. satellites were far more technologically sophisticated. the u.s. had a significant lead over the soviet union in satellites in this key area of the space race. eisenhower cannot get that point across in part because of the impact that sputnik had on people. my point is this, despite all this new spending in many different areas, eisenhower still achieved those three balanced budgets during his presidency. that was a signal of achievement. those are the four traits of eisenhower -- his temper, order, emphasis on national security, and emphasis on balance, but i want to end by talk i giving two points to you. last year, american history magazine asked me to write a cover story on a very intriguing topic. we are at a hinge point in history. we have had three consecutive two-term presidents, clinton, bush, obama. we have not seen this in 200 years. thomas jefferson, james madison, and james monro. the idea of what constitutes successful second terms is important for any second term president, any president to his lucky enough to win the second term, to act as a roadmap as to how to achieve a successful second term. my editor at the american history magazine started off by deciding what president or presidents should feature in this story. democrats and republicans alike, they were disappointed when we immediately ruled out fdr and ronald reagan, fdr because he had the disastrous court backing in his second term, and toward the end of his second term he had the roosevelt recession. in fact, if his presidency had ended after two terms, he might have gone down in history as the president to failed to end the great depression. and ronald reagan in his second term had the iran contra scandal. scandals become common in second terms, richard nixon had watergate, clinton had monica lewinsky and impeachment. we decided to look at eisenhower and roosevelt. you can see how they beat the second term blues. look at eisenhower's second term. he avoided major scandals. he had the atom's resignation and u-2 incident, but that did not rise to the level of impeachment. he signed historic bills for nasa, the national education defense act, he intervened in the little rock integration crisis. he supported icbms, satellites, and an impressive satellite program in general. he had a summit meeting with russia. he left office with high public approval. eisenhower's second term was very successful. i will leave you with one more thought, i don't know if you recognize this person in the middle standing next to eisenhower, that is congressman gerald ford. in 2001, once the 20th century was over, a reporter was interviewing former president ford, and he asked him, who do you think was the best president of the 20th century? ford's answer was eisenhower. ford really admired eisenhower. he said that eisenhower presided over two terms, eight years of peace, prosperity, and progress, balanced the budget. he thought well of his presidency. ford's assessment is one worth considering. it is one thing when historians assess rank, it is another thing when former presidents to, someone who has been in that job, who understands its hardships. who has a special vantage point from which to judge the president. gerald ford's assessment of dwight eisenhower is one worth considering. i will leave you with that thought. thank you very much. [applause] host: if you have questions, can you go to the microphone please? go ahead. >> [indiscernible] yanek: a former president which was the former president? >> dwight d. eisenhower. [indiscernible] yanek: that is very fitting. there is an excellent book on richard nixon and eisenhower by one of five friends. called the president and the apprentice and was published a month ago. it is a reassessment of richard nixon and is part of a multi isume project that the dr. working on. he is someone that has really mined the nixon archives. i highly recommend that book if you are interested in richard nixon and eisenhower. next question? >> i would like to first thank you for a marvelous evening. it was entertaining. we have attended a great number of these. we appreciate it. i have a question, if i may. it seems that one of eisenhower's traits that did not get mentioned was his ability to work with different people. showing my age again, you imagine working with charles de gaulle, winston churchill, bernard montgomery, george patton, omar bradley, and surviving it? everybody, on both sides. it seems to me that this is a trait that i think of as very important for dwight d. eisenhower. yanek: good question, yes. he showed that during world war ii. in world war ii, he was not a brilliant strategist. he does not go down in history as a strategic general. he was no more as somebody who could work well with different egos and allies. he was more a political general than a military strategic kind of planner. as president, he worked well with congress. in fact, one thing that both roosevelt and eisenhower had in common that made for two successful terms as president was their ability to work in congress. eisenhower's specific ability was to work with the senate majority leader of that time, lyndon johnson. privately -- well, after sputnik was launched, johnson capitalized on the launch of sputnik. he and his aides saw space is an issue that he could capitalize on and even lead johnson through the white house. so johnson had a hearing, asking a slew of different witnesses to testify about the level of readiness about american 's defense. it was a challenge to eisenhower's leadership. despite this, eisenhower worked effectively with lyndon johnson. lyndon johnson was at the forefront not only of the bill creating nasa, but also the bill creating the national defense education act. privately, i know that views of johnson were a little different. one of his favorite lines that he would drag out is, "that fellow is such a phony." publicly, he worked well with johnson. he saw kinship with johnson. they both suffered heart attacks in 1955. came to work well with the other side, in many respects, eisenhower was better, especially after the democrats gained control over congress. eisenhower worked better, with democrats than the conservative wing of his own party. that is something that i think the candidates today should take note of. last night, there was a debate at the reagan library. the republican candidates are vying for the man like ronald reagan. reagan would not go off the quips with flags flying, he was not as ideologically rigid as people might think. once signed a bill, and one of his aides asked him, why did you sign that will? it is not keeping with your principles that all. reagan said, well, i got 80% of what i wanted and i just declared victory. that was sort of eisenhower's approach to things. he was very good at compromising. gerald ford said that compromise is the oil that makes government go. ford also understood how good an -- how good and important it was to work with members of the opposite aisle. one of ford's best friends was tip o'neill, a golfing partner. publicly, tip o'neill would criticize ford savagely, but after 5:00 ford and tip o'neill got together and golfed and drank together and had a very good relationship, as did eisenhower with members of both parties. >> i don't think it's particularly well-known, but john kennedy, despite his speeches on the moon, basically had the same opinion as i did. -- as ike did. he really did not care that much about going to the moon. my question is, obviously that is not particularly well-known, but i do think it is a fact, did ike ever find out that kennedy felt the same way he did about going to the moon, so to speak? yanek: i can't answer your question with precision. my supposition is, no, he didn't. i don't think documents on kennedy were declassified in the 1960's while eisenhower was alive. i don't know if any kennedy aides spoke to eisenhower about that. but your question is a good one. your question is about kennedy initially resisting and thinking like eisenhower about the space race, not being interested, not being interested in sending men on the moon. that is true. when kennedy was a senator, a bartender recalled kennedy arguing that rocketry and missiles were a waste of money. when the first nasa administrator was waiting for word from the kennedy administration about their plan for space projects, you see his diary entry saying, still no word from the kennedy people, still no word from the kennedy people. there are recordings made in the oval office that are available from the kennedy library. one meeting in which kennedy is meeting with his nasa administrator, in which they argue about landing man on the moon. james webb is resisting, he is saying there are more priorities for nasa, then kennedy puts his foot down and says, no, there is only one priority, putting man on the moon, otherwise i am not interested in space. that is a very revealing candid and behind-the-scenes glimpse at what kennedy's thinking ones. kennedy understood the political value of sending men to the moon in a way that eisenhower did not. kennedy capitalize on it for a number of reasons. my talk tonight was about trace -- was about traits and how trace can be painted on a larger canvas of policies. one kennedy trait was that he was very competitive. he competed with his brothers. when he and his older brother, joe, dined during world war ii, -- who died during world war ii they fought like scorpions in a , bottle. they once raced their bikes against each other, playing chicken. they crashed into each other. john kennedy, who was a rather weak child, needed stitches, joe kennedy was unharmed. i think that incident shows the competitiveness of john kennedy. there was no way he was going to lose the race to the russians. there were other factors that played into his changing of mind, making kennedy realized that he had to regain presidential initiatives. kennedy did change his mind, but behind the scenes he thought very much like eisenhower. he was not a space aficionados. >> [indiscernible] >> could you talk a little bit about the relationship between clarity of thinking and clarity of writing in relation to the development of eisenhower's communicating and founding programs? yanek: the question was about eisenhower's clarity of thinking and writing. good question. eisenhower was known as press -- was known at press conferences to be bubbling and inarticulate. he would mixed metaphors, break grammatical rules. he would sometimes plead ignorance. he would say, for example, i have not read that bill yet, about the civil rights legislation. he said, i don't understand the particulars of it, i will have to refer you to my attorney general. his press conferences weren't exactly sterling performances in terms of a display of knowledge. a lot of times, eisenhower did this deliberately. he did not want to make public utterances that could be inflammatory. that could ratchet cold war tensions. as a general, i think eisenhower was very much trained to let his adversaries underestimate him. he was much more comfortable being in a position of being underestimated. in terms of being articulate, eisenhower often did not give the best speeches or performances at press conferences. he did as an effort to publicize his continued activity in the space race, visiting cape canaveral once, at the speech -- but the speech that he gave there consisted of only three sentences. it was almost embarrassing. if he had done better in terms of his public promotion of his own space efforts, i think the public would have had a better realization of his own achievements in space, for example, how far ahead the u.s. was in satellites. his writing was a different matter. and there is a difference between extemporaneous public speaking and writing. you have time to think and revise, but eisenhower was quite a wordsmith. this was something he paid specific, deliberate attention to. when he gave the speech in london, people compared it to the gettysburg address. he practiced it and rehearsed it. but people talked about how good general douglas macarthur's speeches were. eisenhower said probably, you know who wrote his speeches? i did. his speeches with arthur larson that he gave a national security and defense that he gave after sputnik in early november, i came across 17 drafts of one speech. eisenhower worked on every one of those drafts, but i know he worked hard with larson. again, talk about eisenhower's temper. larson would resist eisenhower's attempts to change words here and there. at one point, eisenhower said to larson, damn it arthur, i am going to ask to write this anyway! he really cared about his writing and speeches, especially on something as important as the speeches after sputnik. he felt like he had to act as cheerleader in chief and layout the bare facts for the american people. yes, sputnik was an achievement, but it is nothing to get worried or anxious about. that was the main theme of all of those features. i wanted to get your take on the suez crisis. it seemed to mark a moment where america definitely went to a real politic stance. for eisenhower to turn against traditional american allies and put his foot down, i just wanted to see what you knew about that or what your take on that was. yanek: the suez crisis of 1956 by dave nichols, i don't know if you have read that. the suez crisis was an important turning point in american foreign policy. it marked the entrance of america into the middle east. it marked a very important point where eisenhower was willing to stand up to three of america's greatest allies -- britain, france, and israel. all three of them had really launchingisenhower by an attack into the suez area on the suez canal. eisenhower. eisenhower was willing to stand up to all three of those allies. another sign of eisenhower's temper, he yelled at the british prime minister so vigorously that helen mcmillan ended up crying on the phone. that was the power of eisenhower's wrath, his anger. but for that reason, i think the suez crisis will go down in history. it marks a point of america's internationalism, of which eisenhower was an expert in. one of the lessons was that the u.s. can no longer afford to be an isil this -- could afford to be an isolationist nation, even interjecting itself and a part of the world, the middle east, that was fraught -- >> my name is miss morgan. what is the lifespan of those 31 satellites, and how do they know the placement -- like, if the other countries are sending up a satellite, is there a boundary that they have to maintain when they do that? can the u.s. only but satellites in certain places? yanek: good question. it was about the lifespan of the satellites, and also are there any boundaries or claims to outer space? for your first question, some of the satellites launched in the 1950's are still up there, like the vanguard. america's first satellite project. some last a long time, others don't, sputnik came down after 90 days. it varies on the orbit of the satellite. generally, outer space is considered about 100 kilometers up. it is a matter of debate among scientists. to get the satellite into orbit, you have to get generally 100 kilometers, 62 miles or higher. the geosynchronous orbit is much higher. but your question about boundaries in space is a good one. eisenhower thought that america's original space project, the vanguard, was part of the international geophysical hearing, in which the u.s. would share the fruits of its labor, share the bounty of its satellite with other nations of the world. it would also establish the principle that outer space has no boundaries, that flight in outer space was free to any country of the world. that was a very important principle for national security and reconnaissance that eisenhower wanted to establish. of course, once the soviet union launched sputnik and america launched its first satellite, explorer, in january 1958, there were no complaints by any nations of the world that this was our territory above, these overflights were illegal. what happened in the 1950's was critical, he established the principle of free space. free overflight. this has all kinds of implications in not only national security reconnaissance, which was a favored field of eisenhower, but for weather, communications, observations, and all the rest. that is the answer to the two parts of your question. i think you are next. >> it struck me, the comparison between lincoln and eisenhower. they are both -- people underestimated them tremendously. choosing people, selecting people that were extremely competent to do their jobs, and then turn them loose. can you say something about that? yanek: sure. lincoln was one of eisenhower's idols. i mentioned balanced budgets and the activity of government. eisenhower wanted to circumscribed the activities of -- wanted to circumscribed the activities of the government. one of his favorite lincoln quotes, how big should the government be? lincoln answered, how long should a person's lightspeed, long enough to reach the ground. -- how long should a person's legs be? long enough to reach the ground. that's what eisenhower thought. but in terms of the cabinets, underestimating the cabinet or assuming a good one, lincoln's cabinet was the greatest. eisenhower also assembled a good, and it was not underestimated at the time. people thought eisenhower and his cabinet -- i came across a new york times article that said something like, the eisenhower administration is not known for its intellectual brilliance. look at eisenhower's cabinet. look at the bill you won't -- ld a phd from harvard. general andrew goodpasture, graduated second in his class at west point. the eisenhower administration was stocked with intellectuals, high-caliber people. it was a very good administration. it's one reason why eisenhower was able to have two successful terms as president. when i look at the common denominators of roosevelt and eisenhower, that was one thing they had in common. they had very good aides and relied on them. they did not get wrapped up in the cocoon of presidential infallibility. they knew what they were -- they knew they were human. they liked to commune with ordinary americans. eisenhower did like to say, i am one of the common folks. eisenhower also held dinners to commune with businessmen to get ideas and opinions from people outside the white house and government. all of that was very important. eisenhower associated with high quality people, and surrounded himself with them. it was a good caliber cabinet and administration. i think you are next. >> after stressing so much about eisenhower being organized and finishing what he started, what thoughts can you offer on the 1953 korean armistice and eisenhower's role in that, and the fact that 60 years later it remains unsettled? yanek: this is one of eisenhower's achievements early in his administration. the war had been going on for years. it was the endless war period, time for trade in , which goess mash on and on. and in six months, eisenhower was able to get an armistice achieved. it was partly by using the principle of brinkmanship, saying to china and north korea that we will be forced to use weapons of extraordinary power. there were clearly veiled allusions to using nuclear power, which forced china and north korea to bargain seriously. but this was also important in what i mentioned tonight, this idea of bringing the budget into balance. because of the spending of the korean war, the defense budget and shot up. about $80 billion. eisenhower wanted to bring that down to a proper level of around $40 billion. he firmly disagreed with advocating a tripling of the defense budget. he saw no need for that. it was one reason he advocated the new look, good defense as cheaply as possible, relying on nuclear weapons rather than conventional weapons. eisenhower knew the pentagon wanted an endless amount of weapons, planes, tanks, and eisenhower wanted to rain that in. you had to have a president working as an arbiter versus the militaries typical propensity to overspend. which is understandable. eisenhower was relying on his knowledge as a five-star general. that was an important part of his philosophy. last question. >> eisenhower was my favorite president of my lifetime. when kennedy became president, i did not have a problem with kennedy, but i surely had a problem with the press. you could not walk down the street without seeing kennedy's face plastered everywhere, especially in business areas, magazines and whatnot. it was as if there was a total eclipse of eisenhower. in fact, up until this year i had heard very little of eisenhower mentioned, and i felt like he was the forgotten president, like there was no president between treatment and kennedy. -- between truman and kennedy. i wondered if that bothered eisenhower, or whether he ever said anything about that, do you know? yanek: i don't know if he said anything specifically about the lack of media attention on him. he did get frustrated with reporters a lot. he considered photographers a friend, but he saw the media voices as something -- he was frustrated with how the media voiced issues like sputnik. he blamed them. kennedy had much more charisma like eisenhower. kennedy's background and training also explains that. kennedy was trained as a journalist. his older brother joe might have -- had his older brother not been killed in world war ii, kennedy might have gone on to become a journalist or publisher. jackie had also worked as a journalist. and that he was much more into what made good copy. things like sputnik and space and landing man on the moon did make good copy. that also helps explain how he knew what makes good public relations. kennedy never loved photographs of himself eating. he knew that was dangerous. you could still something. something.ld spill somebody once put an indian headdress on him and ripped it off immediately. he remembered calvin coolidge being photographed with one and looking ridiculous. in that respect, eisenhower is sort of a forgotten president. he was much more modest, down to earth, and did not have the kind of charisma or ear for public relations that kennedy did. he did try to use television when he ran for president, but he did not fully master it. host: ladies and gentlemen, thank you. [applause] host: a very good book is for sale from our friends from barnes & noble in the hall. i'm sure you would be happy to sign copies. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you can do anything you want to, they used to ask me about that as first lady. that you are supposed to do first ladies are supposed to do. you can do anything you want to. it is such a great soapbox. a great opportunity. i would advise any first lady to do what she wanted to do. you will beg, criticized no matter what you do. could've poured tea and had receptions and i would have been criticized as much as i was .utside for what i did i got a lot of criticism. you learn to live with it. it.expect it and live with you never let it influence. her husband's political partner. she attended president jimmy , and eveneetings testified before congress. their partnership on health and peacekeeping has spanned four decades. at 8:00 carter, tonight p.m. eastern on c-span's ". first ladies: influence and image" examining the public and private lives of the women who fulfilled first lady and their influence on the presidency. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. c-span presents, landmark cases. it explores 12 supreme court decisions, including marbury versus madison. brown versus the board of education, miranda versus arizona. landmark cases, the book features high lines and the impact of each case. published by c-span in cooperation with -- press. formark cases is available $8.95 plus shipping. get yours today. >> on road to the white house, rewind, we look back to ronald announcement, the former governor talked about the economy, taxes, energy and foreign policy. ronald reagan won the 1980 presidential campaign with george w h busch finishing a distant second. he then went on to beat jimmy carter. this is about 25 minutes. announcer: ladies and gentlemen, ronald reagan. >> good evening. i'm here tonight to announce my attention to seek the republican

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