Next up, a panel of cia analysts and Navy Historians discuss recently declassified cold war documents on the soviet navy. Cohosted by the Central Intelligence agency, the National Museum of the u. S. Navy and the Naval Historical Foundation. The hourlong event was titled red navy revealed, soviet Navy Intelligence and analysis during the cold war. All right. Well, good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming out to the National Press club. The worlds oldest and Largest Organization of professional journalists. My name is kevin wency, on behalf the jetblue and directors of the press club, i want to welcome you and our audience on cspan and other media. Thank you very much. We have a special program for you today. First, i wanted to introduce claire sassen from the Naval Historic Foundation claires the executive director. Thank you, kevin. Can you hear me . I know you want to hear from everyone else on the panel, not me. Ill only take a minute of your time. We are delighted to work with the
Board of directors i want to welcome you and our audience on cspan and other media. Thank you very much. We have a special program for you today, and first i want to introduce claire sassen from the neighborhood historical foundation. She wanted to say a word about their partnership on this, and then well get into the statements and qs and as. Thank you, kevin. Can you hear me . I know you want to hear from everyone else sitting here at the panel, not me. So ill only take a minute of your time. We are delighted to be able to work with the cia to bring you this, we think, exciting briefing this morning. I also want to thank kevin and the National Press club for hosting us this morning. For those of you who dont know, the naval historical foundation, were a nonprofit membership organization. We focus on preserving and commemorating naval heritage. We use naval history to help educate the American People on the importance of our navy, sea power, and the maritime domain. Were located at th
Into law by lincoln five years earlier and the only one in that original group founded in lincolns home state. Indeed one of the reasons i was drawn to come to illinois last year to take the job as law dean is the prospect that the university of illinois can build upon the legacy of, and become linked with lincoln in the way the university of virginia is associated with Thomas Jefferson. Who to my mind was not as great a president and not as great a person. This brings me to a fourth question, why bob woodward . That might be the easiest one of all. Many people consider the New York Times the countrys newspaper of record. But bob woodward of the rival Washington Post is americas reporter of record. He has been at the post for 45 years and is responsible for two of its Pulitzer Prizes for investigative coverage of water gate and also 9 11. But mr. Woodward is much more than a reporter. He has an inciteful and prolific historian of, among other things, americas president s. In this regar
Meeting. And i had the luxury of time, two fulltime assistants. We looked at all the contemporary coverage of the pardon, got all the memoirs, got the legal memos from the ford library. I kept going back to interview ford. And to try to piece together what happened. I interviewed him in colorado a number of times, where he had a home, and many times at his main home at rancho mirage, california. I remember the last interview asking him, why did you pardon nixon . He said, you keep asking that question. I said, but i dont think youve answered it. And then he said, astonishingly, ok, im going to tell you. And he then said what happened is that al haig, nixons chief of staff, came and offered me a deal. He said, if you guarantee that the president will get a pardon, he will resign and you get the presidency. And ford said, however, i rejected that deal. I knew i was going to become president. Nixon was finished. So theres no way he could work that deal in the way haig described. And passi
That hes not accommodated to the idea of who he is, the opposite of lincoln. When gerald ford became president , the next year, one of the things he said, again, contradicting nixon, he said none of our problems today are as severe as those facing lincoln. He quoted one of the things lincoln said in one of fords kind of natural spontaneous statements of humility. He said, oh, lincoln fords in a dispute with congress. He said, well, lincoln said the following. We of the congress in this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. Ford also said, of lincoln, that his compassion, lincolns compassion for others came from an understanding of himself. I think the kind of merging somewhat of the pragmatism and the strategic sense of what the country needs, excellent example of this is gerald ford. I remember it was september 1974. Ford had been president about one month. And he went on television. Some of you may remember this. And gave said he was giving nixon a full pardon for