Transcripts For CSPAN3 JFK In The Senate 20170527 : comparem

I am excited about this idea. Of course, it really follows through with work that course and my friend, john shaw has done an inspired me to have a new chapter in my life after the senate and continuing to think about the rest of the world, think about ways in which those who withdraw for service might be more effective and more humane. Let me just say at the outset that this is an exciting day to talk about a new book above john f. Kennedy, the pathway to the presidency. It is an exciting book. When i first read i wrote back to him. He may recall this very short letter. John, i wish that i have had this book before i tried to run for president in 1995. It really has been most instructive, and some of the things i learned from the buck book in retrospect, although i do not intend to run again for presidency. I want to reassure you well that you really have to want to do it full time. As this book will illustrate, from the time that john kennedy entered his second term in the senate life he was ready to go for four years. And so therefore everything was aligned in that respect. I remember bob dole running. He was running in the year that i was trying in 95 and 96 and was successful. I remember very well, howard baker ran earlier than that because i was his campaign manager. But both of these individuals were leaders of the party to minority leaders in most cases as opposed to the majority leaders. In the bill very conscientious about doing there duties in the senate. I felt the same way about making all of the roll call votes and feeling that indiana had only to members of the senate. If one was gone 50 percent of whatever we had was absent. But it is a different style. If you decide to go for the presidency, the senate is there as a forum, you can speak, have books of your own, take time to write those, as john kennedy said certainly did, and likewise to have an instructional process in terms of Foreign Relations. I was delighted to learn from jons book, for example, that president kennedy was very eager to get on the Foreign Relations committee. And it took him awhile for his service. I think it was four years or so prior him after he came into the senate that Lyndon Johnson to had, at least the power to make these appointments, but among the Foreign Relations committee. That gave me a good feeling. He was on the Foreign Relations committee, but he was not there really to spend time running out grinding out legislation, having tens of hearings, i presume, for almost every ambassador from the United States to every country, all of the appointments of the state department or so forth. As we celebrated Foreign Relations committees, a couple of years ago, the Historical Society gave me an opportunity to point out that the Foreign Relations committee hold more hearings or at least in those days, then any of the committee. At the time to process all the personnel. Likewise, all of the various things that are occurring in the world. President kennedy contributed to these, but this was not a preoccupation. What was on his mind was the presidency and how he was going to prepare, really, to be a great president , how he was going to prepare, in fact, to be a candidate who would have an opportunity, as a matter of fact he already had experience at the convention prior to the one in which he was nominated in which she was almost the vicepresident ial nominee, and he was, i suppose, instructed by what occurred during that time not to at least go through the same mistakes again. I dont want to tell the whole story of johns book but before he has suggested talk again today, but i am excited about it because it does really offered, as he suggests, a pathway to the presidency. Facts are, of course, historically, only one other senator had gone directly from the senate at that time, and only one has subsequently, namely, the president we now have, barack obama. I remember very well the first year that barack obama came to the senate. He was a faithful participant in our hearings. As a matter of fact, he was a junior democratic senator. I was the chair at the time. We recognize back and forth. Barack was the last one in the room by the time we finished. It was a twohour hearing. Almost everyone else had left but the two of us. And so i once applauded him relief for his diligence, his constancy in all of this. Well, he took me upon it. After i made a complimentary remarks in mid it was either april or may of that year he said, dick, i know you go to russia every year. I would like to go with you this year. I was startled with his interest. Out of the blue. I said, well, fine. Lets do that. And so, as a matter of fact and the two of us went to russia in august at a time of Senate Recess and onto azerbaijan. Then ukraine, as a matter of fact it now, i visited this past year azerbaijan. They are well aware of the visit , but certainly every picture that has brought obama and it has been elevated to a new status. People are very interested. Likewise, even in arms control situation happens in russia, enlarged pictures of barack obama taking a look at missiles being chopped up in the process. It was an instructive time for him, but he was running for presidency, not going to run it for being secretary or chairman of the Foreign Relations committee. I admired his ambition, and it was an interesting person with whom to work at that time. I mention all of this because there can only be so many president s and so many senators. Therefore in offering this pathway i am hopeful that the book will be in print for a long time because there will be a number of administrations, along, a number, but i would just say, it is authentic. I can say from my own experience, this is about to you ought to read very early on in your career if you want to be president. [laughter] not everybody wants to be president. Some people, as a matter of fact, enjoy being members of the house or the senate or cabinet members, have other aspirations. I appreciate that. I am one who has thoroughly enjoyed 36 wonderful years there were given to me, but still, it has been important for us to understand the mechanics of government, but likewise, the aspirations that leads people to do great things to take great risk, try to take risks on behalf of their country. What really does mold the president s, the challenges. I appreciate the writing of this book especially because he has been in valuable in terms of his interest in Foreign Policy. His work is a contributor to diplomats as well known to most of you. He has always been on hand, have found, in the subway of the senate. I can recall many, many days. I was not trying to date him, escape him but i was certainly aware that he was tracking me down on that occasion. And himself really in his pursuit as a reporter, but likewise, piecing together bit by bit each story to make each thing with accuracy, and likewise, with grace. The book it he wrote about me was very generous, but nevertheless, i dont want you necessarily to skips certain chapters, but there are times in which john appears that i was not quite up to but i ought to be doing. And so, as a matter of fact, he has let me know that, and i have read that loud and clear. No way to retraces, of course, but at the same time palin it does lead you to believe that it is important to have great reporters around to have coverage of the senate. It is important to the American People to have this kind of coverage. And john saw that he was the epitome of this. I appreciated the work that he did on the statement. Coverage. Of a very gifted diplomat as he read my diplomat and gave a good idea of what happens to many of you in this room today your ambassadors and how you got here, what you do, how effective you may be, what is going to happen next. A remarkable book. I am confident that john f. Kennedy, the pastor of the senate, is going to be successful. Not only as it will be well read, but those to read it will profit and benefit by it enormously. It is a great privilege to be with john today here at the german marshall fund. This is the right place to meet. I want to just one final personal note, and that is the distinguished ambassador is here from montenegro. I mentioned him in particular because i just had a great visit to the country. I think it probably originated because it has become a part of our institute, part of our roundtable discussions, and montenegro is a country that is seeking the United States investment. There are american firms and really want to have ties with this country, there really came to love referendum, as you know, in 2006. 600,000 people, but a country of enormous power and beauty. And we dedicated remarkable apartments, the largest American Investment made in mt. Montengegro today, but we also had the opportunity to discuss the nato prospectively with the Prime Minister and with the president around the table and a beautiful dinner up in the mountains. People gather together. Understandably, the press was very interested in all of this. And the press will have to be determined by them, as to whether there were stabbed, but very clearly their intent now is to help for a nato summit in 2004 which takes up the question. I touch upon this because these are the sorts of events that happen around this table. And the events that john shaw covers because he was over in the senate Foreign Relations Committee Room for the rollout of our institute. He wrote a very generous article about that. We were graced by secretary john kerry coming over, now a Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations committee, bob corker, my friend by my side turn my final years. These are people who are friends and yet at the same time, we need to talk to each other. Cover the events, to understand the world and context in which is occurring. John does this so well. Is my privilege to be with them on this very auspicious occasion. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you for that kind introduction. As the senator was speaking, the many, many hours we spent talking about Foreign Policy. Its a fiveyear project i was working on the book. Took a great week off and went to indiana with him and spent ten days in russia, ukraine, albanian. It was a good trip. I have been thinking a lot about the senators career recently because ive had the good fortune to read a chapter about him in a book that is coming out next year. Thinking about the senators career and his accomplishments will be one of the points to make the end of the book, the good things he has done since he left the senate, you know, obviously the work your the marshall fund, the hoover institute, the hoover center, excuse me, the engine shipper ramsey is working on. I think the press sometimes the a narrative about people who leave congress and all they want to do is become lobbyists and cash in. There are a lot of people like the senator who do wonderful things when they leave the senate and we dont focus on that enough. So in this article im going to just focus of the great things he has done since leaving the senate. That will be fun to do. Well, today when i would like to talk about is senator john f. Kennedy. And i want to do it in the following way first to give you a sense of how he came to write this book. There were some 40,000 books allegedly on jfk. So you sort of have to ask yourself, is there really a need for another book . And that was sort of the first threshold that i had to cross. And i will explain to you why i thought that there was intelligence to write this book. Secondly i want to just describe what kind of senator john f. Kennedy was. And then lastly, i want to go into a little bit more stag live speculative from. Kind of counterfactual analysis and consider a couple alternatives pass that his career might have taken if the fates it chains just a little bit. And i will do that at the end of my remarks. The book actually arose directly out of my work. I was just at the end of the book. I had not identified all the research and a little bit of the final chapter in a need to put his career into context and understand how we fit in with the course of history. So i had a meeting with the senate historian, and they give me some interesting things to read and think about. One of the things they suggested i look at was a report that john f. Kennedy wrote in mid1950s. As chairman of the special committee to determine the five best senators in American History it was an interesting project, and i will talk about it later, the sense of american midcentury that they would have the audacity to conduct such a study. Im not sure that the institutional institutional system decided that they would launch Something Like that, but kennedy was assigned to do it, did a really good job, has a wonderful narrative about what it means to be an excellent senator. So i read that, was thinking about that in the context of senator hoovers career and this file has his back story of just how this committee actually worked. And to no ones surprise, and certainly not senator hoovers was a fair amount of political machinations even to determine the five best centers in American History. I went on vacation. About the second day of vacation she went out. I was sitting by the Eastern Shore of maryland, by the chesapeake thinking, i wonder if it might be possible to register kind of a simple, narrow book on the Kennedy Committee showing just how kennedy was in charge of this project, why the start of a project like this was interesting, the back story, the political machination. During the vacation i sketched out a proposal. And then i came home and i thought about it more and put together a formal proposal, contacted a wonderful legacy, and we started talking about the book. He liked it, but it might should be a little more broad. We talked more and talk to a publisher and decided to write a book on jfk Senate Career. Turns out, of these 40,000 books are so that are out there, there really isnt one on his Senate Career. And, of course, when you start a project that you sort of say, you know, i would like to think im relatively intelligent, but i am not that much smarter than everyone else. Why is this the case . Why has no one else have gone down this path . And i think it is because theyre is a conventional wisdom about kennedys career which is that it was an inconsequential time, he really didnt do much. He used it as a stepping stone. Just passing through. The think like a lot of conventional wisdom there is no man of truth to it. His Senate Career was much more interesting than that, particularly in the room a realm of Foreign Policy. He loved foreign affairs. Could not get too much of it. In a thinking makes a major contributions to Foreign Policy debates, very active in labour legislation. He was also, i think, he did a lot to promote the institution of the senate through his work on the Kennedy Committee. And also interestingly, i think the senate changed him. When he arrived he was this sort of lightly regarded former house member not considered a very serious guy. Eight years later he had become the democratic nominee for president. As senator hoover said he became only the second sitting senator to be elected president. And i think it is very, very intriguing how he was able to make that pathway from the senate to the white house. I also argue that i think that it was sort of the kennedy model, thay barack obama looked at. And i sure that he studied all the nuances of the campaign, but i think he got the basic theme that kennedy was able to articulate and saw how a back bencher could run for president and almost use his inexperience as an advantage rather than a burden. So let me with that as a context of what to describe the five ways to think about john f. Kennedy as a senator the first, as a colleague, what was he like . There is a pretty substantial record of memoirs. Everyone sort of agrees. He was a cool, reserved, polite, formal, distant person. He was not one of the boys. He was somewhat aloof, sick a lot of the time. As i started reading about him and thinking about it, i think his personality type was much closer to barack obama then his own brother, ted kennedy, who in some sense was almost the exact opposite. And he knows it well. Ted kennedy, there would be almost a party around his exuberant, talking, laughing, joking. And then more sensitively he was a patient person who love the legislative process, loves to work it, and i dont think necessarily that jfk had that same sort of mind set. If i could just read a couple of sentences from a wonderful memoir, a gentleman by the name of Harry Mcpherson who wrote about political education. And the book, among many other some of the characters of the senate at that time. And let me read just a few sentence. He sat in the back Row Companies against the desk, wrapping his teeth of a pencil and reading the economist and the guardian. He was treated with affection by most senators, but he was all to elusive, finding his way in other worlds outside the chamber. Handsome, bright, wellconnected, he seemed to regard senate grandees as impressive but tedious. Regarded by them as something of a playboy, a dilettante. His voting record was moderate and sometimes conservative, especially on trade in agriculture matters. He was not a prime mover in the senate. Only once, in early 1960s, in handling a labormanagement build the scene to emerge as a leader. Then he stood in the center of chamber, shattered his opposition challenge them to match his argument. I scarcely recognize that cool, glamorous figure. To Lyndon Johnson, believes he was an attractive nephew who sings an irish ballad for the company, but then disappears before the table planning and dishwashing began. To Kennedy Johnson must have seemed