Here at historic Decatur House, which is the home of the White House Historical association. We are honored to occupy this property that is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation one of our wonderful partners in our work and its terrific to have them here. We have a three members of our board of directors who are here this evening martha kumar is here. I have seen martha i need a mcbride will be here shortly if shes not here already and david ferio is ex officio on our board here over on the right. So its an honor to have all of you here as well as several members of our National Council on white house history, which were always grateful to have well this evening. It is my honor and privilege to introduce a really terrific friend of mine and as a friend of the White House HistoricalAssociation Mark up to grove serves as the president and the ceo of the lbj. Foundation in austin, texas, he is a president ial historian for abc news and also an accomplished author. Mark is actually authored five books on the presidency including this book that were celebrating this evening in comparable grace jfk in the presidency. And i had the privilege of recording a podcast this afternoon with mark which will release later in the month when the book is officially released and it was a fascinating conversation. I really enjoyed my time with mark and i think youre going to enjoy the time with him here this evening. He is also written for the New York TimesPolitico National geographic time the daily beast usa today and most recently he has been the executive producer for cnns original series, lbj triumph and tragedy and if that is not enough mark has had the the privilege to be the envy of every journalist and historian who has interviewed exclusively seven american president s throughout his career. Well, it was 61 years ago that a young john f. Kennedy was sworn into the office up at the capitol and by his side was Jacqueline Kennedy who would become our first lady and she herself would go down in history as being one of our most influential of first ladies. We have a particular reverence for here here at the White House Historical association. But it was later that day on Inauguration Day that president and mrs. Kennedy ended up at the white house and mrs. Kennedy realized this was a home the peoples house as she would call it. It was in badly badly in need of historic restoration. She believed that the white house should represent the very best of america artisans craftsmen. Decorative arts fine arts furnishings. And so she took that on as her project over the course of the next three years. Cut short tragically by the assassination of president kennedy, but what she put in place then is still the legacy of her influence of Historic Preservation at the white house acquisitions for the collection and actually education. Its a key part of our mission and we are mrs. Kennedys living legacy at the white house today. Well, it was those 61 years ago that we were founded at by her and today we continue to undertake that work my colleague my colleague colleen shogun leads our david and rubenstein National Center for white house history, which is really the educational part of our work and we published books. We publish a quarterly magazine. We have conferences Symposia Book events like this. So publishing and storytelling is a vital part of what we do and encouraging friends who can unpack these stories i ask mark earlier you another book on john kennedy did we really need another book on john kennedy, but then when i read it i read the book myself and it reads like a novel and im its insightful and inspiring and im fighting myself. Reoriented in a really special way to the kennedy presidency and i think we can thank mark for that and i know youll all enjoy reading the book well. It was in 1792 that the cornerstone for the white house was laid just about 200 yards from where were sitting tonight and a whole lot of white house history has taken place in those years since 1792 and tonight. Were going to focus on three years of that history a very important three years interviewing mark this evening is amananawas. She serves as the pbs. Newshours chief correspondent and primary substitute. Anchor shes been honored with an emmy award for her nbc news special inside the obama white house. A society for features Journalism Award shes a recipient of the International Reporting project fellowship. And in 2019 received a peabody award for her newshour series on the global plastic problem tonight. Shes going to discuss with mark this terrific new book, which remarkably reexamines the kennedy presidency for us and that has so often been trapped behind the myth of camelot if you will and this will be a portrait of the kennedy presidency its visions flaws charm. Its triumphs failures, and certainly its grace so bringing those stories to life for us the this evening, please welcome, amna and mark to the stage. Thank you all. Everyone how nice to be in person with people and especially with you mark so much for having me here. Well good. Thanks for doing this. Wow, god. Im not. Options i can to the kennedys my family had not even set foot on these shores at the time that he was president and yet i was fascinated by this book stewart is right it absolutely reads like a novel and and i cant wait for everyone else to get a chance to read it too. But lets go through some of my burning questions first. Heres the way this is gonna work. Ive got about 20 minutes with you and then wed love to open it up to the room for any questions. You might have as well. So if you see me checking my phone, its not because i have somewhere to be its because i want to make sure sure im respectful of everyone. Um, so as stuart mentioned there are a few about jfk out there. Right. Thank you series some films some ive watched all of them. Why jfk . Why did you decide to do this . You know, and its a wonderful question before i answer it. Im the lineages. Thank you again for doing this you have as i understand it. You have an evening job. At the pbs newshour, so its so good of you to make time for this and im a huge admirer of the work you do. So, thank you so much. Thank you to my friend Stuart Mclaren and to all the people at the White House Historical association for running this marvelous institution. Thank you to my friend lauren leader for helping to organize this with our mutual friend Kimball Stroud and thank you friends old and new for for coming tonight. Im so grateful for you being here. There are so many people i would like to recognize but one in particular if i may and and it really leads to your question and answer your question anxiety is here anxiety is the widow of hugh society. It was the legendary president watcher for Time Magazine. I had the great privilege of working with with hugh and got to know anne and hue through the years and i will tell you hugh was actually the president of the White House Historical association some 20 years ago. So this place means a great deal men a great deal to you, but you spent time with John F Kennedy and and during crucial hours of his presidency and i heard from you who john f. Kennedy was beyond the camelot myth and that got me very intrigued about John F Kennedy. He and i worked on a joint project together called time in the presidency and he started that project in talking about John F Kennedy and and who he was and what he meant to this country, but while there have been many books that have been written. The well, theres an old expression write the you want to read. And this is the book that i wanted to read about John F Kennedy. Its i tried to make it a very brisk narrative that makes you feel as though youre going through these very tumultuous. Very triumphant in many ways, very tragic and others days of the kennedy presidency. And that youre here there with them day in and day out as he wrestles with one issue or another and so its episodic in a way that i didnt see the other kennedy treatments, and i also wanted to wrestle with the camelot myth which overshadows kennedy and so many respects it. It deprives him in so many ways of his humanity so that was important to me too. And theres theres so many books with an agenda. My only agenda was to capture this this indelible president and what he meant to the country and and the momentous decisions that came across this desk. I mean the country is still so fascinated by him and by the family this myth of camelot, right . Its still really grips americans to this day. Why do you think that is you and i were just talking about this it is figured out. Oh, i i get that. I think royals down to this. John f. Kennedy was and continues to be how we want to see our in the world youthful ambitious elegant intelligent compassionate and instilling the notion or embodying the notion of service over self. That is the the image that he diffused abroad at a time when i think we were the envy of the world in many respects and i think thats the way we want to see ourselves. Hes the personification in many ways and so is to an extent as the vivacious Kennedy Family of how we want to be seen. Did you learn something new about him in writing this i learned a lot new and one of the things you know, i thought i knew this this history pretty well and you and i talked about talking about civil rights as being a very important aspect of the kennedy presidency, but one of the things i found out, why did he move on civil rights as he did in 1963 . Hes wrestling with civil rights in in many ways. There was the the free there with the freedom rides in 1961. Theres the integration of ole miss with a matriculation of James Meredith in 1962. The same thing happens at the university of alabama in 63, and then theres the Civil Rights Movements direct action campaign. Birmingham and during the course of that campaign when Martin Luther king is taken to jail and writes the famous letter from the birmingham jail the the weight of the civil rights cause is coming down on kennedy in this presidency, and it looks like hes going to have to act hes very reluctant to act to do anything except for protect civil rights marchers. And i want ive always wondered why he did it at that moment. And it turns out that Bobby Kennedy who was his his brothers chief aide most trusted and close advisor goes down south to alabama and meets with George Wallace and meets with just horrific resistance down there. You know, people are hurling episode him and and treating him certainly not like hes the attorney general of the United States, but interestingly enough a more. Poignant episode for Bobby Kennedy comes when he meets with with James Baldwin the novelist and a group of africanamerican entertainers and artists at bobby. Kennedys fathers penthouse. In manhattan and it is a very uncomfortable situation where theyre confronting Bobby Kennedy with the racism that the Kennedy Administration has not addressed. And they are they theyre unrelenting in their criticism of him. And it has the searing impression on him. And he goes back to the white house and at first he criticizes those who are at the party. You know, he talked talks about baldwin and how horrible he is and that hes gay and oh my god, how what a horrendous thing. This is another time obviously. And then he says you know what . If i were in those shoes, id be saying the same things. And i think he had a marked impression on his brother as well and finally his brother decides when George Wallace the segregationist governor of alabama blocks the auditorium stewart went to the university of alabama. So he knows this well blocks an administrative building so that two African Americans cant matriculate into the institution. Kennedy says, you know, im not going to let him have the stage here. Im gonna go on television tonight tonight and talk about civil rights. And bobby encourages him to do that. And he does it and he elevates. Civil rights to a moral issue and the interesting thing is they dont have enough time to make an address ted. Sorensen said i just dont have enough time to give you a proper address, but bobby tells his brother speak extemporaneously speak from your heart. So that speech which is one of his rhetorical high points. Most of it is extemporaneous. And that was something that really surprised me how that came to fruition how he came to embrace the Civil Rights Movement as a moral issue thats fascinating. He actually listened to his brother over the advice of most of his advisors, right . Thats exactly right his advisors. Tell them not to do it. Bobby says no you feel it go out and tell the American People how you feel. So one of the things that fascinated me about the book is the way youve broken it up. Youve got four parts. Basically you call the torch the fire the brink and the peak. So why explain that a little bit why break it up that way what to each of those mean each i think take you through the kennedy presidency the torch we all know is the torch has been passed that that famous passage of from his inauguration speech the torch was passed to a brand new generation of americans. The oldest president in that in history to that point Dwight Eisenhower is leaving in the youngest president elect in our histories coming in. Thats a generational shifts of the torch has been passed passed and at that point. Kennedy is captured the imagination of the American People bear in mind john f. Kennedy only wins the presidency by two tenths of a percentage point. Right, but by the time is inaugurated and gives that soaring eloquence at his inauguration. The American People are all in on John F Kennedy. Um so much so that when he meets the fire of his presidency, so the torch has been passed but then the fire has yet to come. And the fire comes with the bay of pigs and a number of other things that John F Kennedy simply cant anticipate. But it says something about kennedy and the American People at that time and our country in another era that when kennedy suffers this huge black guy in his presidency. With the bay of pigs quagmire where a hundred and over a hundred cuban nationalists are killed in the incursion of cuban and 1200 are taken captive. And the American People approve of John F Kennedy to the tune of 83 only 5 of americans disapprove of john f. Kennedys job approval at that time. We rallied around our young president at a time when we were fighting for hearts and minds with the soviet union. We know how important it was to put all we had behind this young and in many ways inexperienced callow president. So thats the fire the peak or sorry the the brink comes in 1962 with the cuban missile crisis where we find ourselves on the brink of possible Nuclear Holocaust where we stare eye to eye with the soviet union as theyre bringing missiles into cuba largely as a result of the the failed incursion of cuba with the bay of pigs that emboldens nikita. Khrush jeff kennedys counterpart in the soviet union and we come as close as weve ever come to the brink of nuclear disaster. Hes 13 harrowing days. I was talking about my friend you he and husband and q talk to me about meeting with John F Kennedy at the height. The cuban missile crisis and it was at night and they ended up the kennedy and hugh had a long conversation in the oval office and then kennedy decides. He wants to go skinny dipping and hugh says well, i dont have a suit. He says you dont need one, but he leaves he leaves the white house that night goes through those black gates. Not knowing whether theres going to be a tomorrow. Thats how dark those days were so that was the brink and then the peak comes after that in 1963 where kennedy stands at the peak of his presidency. He has resolved the cuban missile crisis. Peacefully against all odds. And he gains the esteem of the world and hes standing at his peak when he has cut down in his prime. That slim margin of victory. I dont think its talked about enough. Its amazing. You try to imagine what that would look like if it happened today and it would be a very different reaction. I think so. Why how did he maintain that kind of popularity that sort of approval was it him . Was it where the country was at the time a combination of the two . I think its part of it, you know people ask me all the time why joe biden cant be another lbj and the answer is because the world has changed that our nation has changed fundamentally john f. Kennedy has two thirds majority in in the house in the senate. Hes battling on civil rights at least. Hes battling his own party in the south but nonetheless, theyre pretty handsome majorities. The media landscape was far more narrow, even though this is as much as many as much as any its there wasnt a proliferation and fragmentation of media that we had today. We had three networks nbc abc cbs pbs would come