and just doesn't care

every fleischer. thanks for being my guest today. it was a real pleasure to talk with you. thank you on you're always a gentleman. you i'm bill harris. i'm the acting director here at the fdr presidential library museum, and we're so happy to see you here this morning. i can't tell you. we're always happy to see people

but after two years it is so wonderful to have this event back and to have it in person and also to have c-span here with us as well again. they've always been very good and covering this event and we're very thankful for that. i just in addition to welcoming you here. it's just like to note that fdr. i always love it when i get to to sort of channel the former president the late president and say that he i know would be happy to see everyone here today because he had hoped this institution would become a place that would welcome scholars and writers and to see good friends and former and current participants in the program is also really nice. so i want to very quickly go over the format some of you may know it and you may hear this over and over again today, but there'll be about a 30 minute talk from the author then we'll have a 10 minute or so period of question and answer and then afterwards we'll go up to the new deal store where there will be a book signing and you'll be able to get a copy of the book with the signature from from the author and because we're on cspana would like this is different from other rooms if you could queue up at the microphone when you have questions and and then i'll just sort of single when that periods over and when we can move on so now i would like to introduce

our author don carlton. he's written the governor in the colonel dual biography of william p hobby and oviedo called hobby and i think i said i always grow up saying her name my mother's from houston saying her name is obeda, but it's oviedo vita. so that's wow. that's 55 years of getting that wrong, but we can always learn care we so don is the director of the briscoe center down a former american history down at university of texas at austin. we were just talking that's right across from the lbj library, which is a another great library. he has an extensive career. he's served as a chief researcher and advisor for former cbs news. anchor walter cronkite's best-selling memoir a reporter's life, and that's a very nice work right there. he was also an executive producer of pbs documentaries when i rise in cactus jack which we have a relationship with with vice president garner here lone star on capitol hill. he also served as a historical

advisor and commentator for several documentary films including including jfk breaking news in the president's photographer. he's also written 12 books and one of them as an alabamian selma the civil rights photographs of spider martin, i would highly recommend spider martin being amazing photographer from news local newspaper down there who some remarkable photos at the time. he's also written flash of light wall of fire japanese photographs documenting the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. his most recent book is we were here for that today about the hobbies is amazing. i always point this out before i turn it over to you is i love a book as an i'm an archivist about background. that's well. well researched, i believe you have around 2,000 footnotes or so in that work. yeah. like that. well, it just shows you the the detail and the effort that goes into these works. so they're never to be

underestimated and it's really fantastic book and wonderful to have a dual biography. i think that's a really special way to handle it too. so i'll be quiet and turn it over to our author don carlson. thank you. thank you. thank you. well, i'm going to do my best to stay within the time limit here. in fact, i even brought my i'm going to be such a good boy that i even brought my my clock here so or my my alarm clock is a better way to put it. thanks for that introduction. i appreciate it. and i just want to also do a

shout out quickly to the presidential libraries. it just i've done two books where i based my research on the resources here as well as other presidential libraries and as the director of the brisco center university of texas at austin and setting next door to

the lbj library, we do a lot of we partner with a lot in the programming and various things and mark lawrence, who is the director of the lbj library is a colleague of mine in history at ut austin and my good buddy mark

up to grove who is the president of the lbj foundation he works very closely with us as well. so i just want to do a shout out to them and also just to the presidential libraries system in general. it's a great resource. okay, so my new book the governor and the colonel is a is he mentions a dual biography of governor? william p hobby senior. he's the governor in the title and ovita cup hobby. she's the colonel. together they were one of the most influential couples in texas history. and while oviedo was one of the most important women in the us during much of the second half of the 20th century. i should say that i want to take a few minutes here for you to

just doubtful to me that probably you know, who these people are. i may be lucky did have i do have one person here. so i just want to take a few minutes quickly to give you a very brief biographical sketch of both of these people. so and then i'll go back to more of a relationship to the roosevelt between them. we don't know vita hobbies live stories stretch over more than a century. their careers intersected with many important aspects of the history of american politics news media the development of the city of houston and being the fourth largest city in the country world war is one and two and the presidential administrations of fdr dwight eisenhower and lbj. and my book documents two lies remarked marked by remarkable success in business politics government and good works and their lives reflected as shared purpose to use their considerable talents and influence. to benefit their communities their state and their country. it took me more than 700 pages not two thousand. i've missed count. i miscounted it. took me more than 700 pages to tell their dual stories and if that seems excessive, please remember that it's actually two

books in one two biographies. so you get texas and 19. excuse me, 1878. he moved his with his family to houston where he got a job at the houston post when he was 17 years old after making a name for himself as a reporter and editor. he was lured beaumont, texas in 1907 to serve as editor and publisher the beaumont enterprise beaumont was the center of the oil industry in texas in that period of time as

we're spindle top was discovered. as a boomtown in other words in 1914 after gaining statewide attention in texas because of his skillful use of his newspaper to gain support for making beaumont, texas a deep water port. he was elected lieutenant governor of texas. when the legislature impeached james poff ferguson, and that's another story. actually, they also removed him. they didn't just impede him. while the legislature impeached governor james paul ferguson in 1917, or when will became governor of texas and he served out the remainder of ferguson's term and then was elected to be governor of texas to his own term in 1918, and he served until 1921. his remarkable record as governor, which i get into in great detail in the book included signing the texas law that allowed women to vote in the state's primaries, and he also later played a key role in the passage of the 19th amendment when we'll retired from office. he returned to the houston post to serve as its managing editor eventually also owning the paper. after his first wife willie died in 1929. he married miss ovieda culp who was a 24 year old from killeen, texas who was 27 years younger than will. by the time of their marriage oviedo was already well-known and state politics and political affairs. she was the daughter of a member

of the texas legislature and oveda served as the 20 year old parliamentarian of the texas house of represent. before she was old enough even to vote. in the early 1930s. she barely lost an election to serve as a texas including that houston. and she was actively involved in support of several other political campaigns in texas including that of us senator tom connelly. will an oviedo quickly forged an intimate personal and professional relationship that led to their ownership of the houston post and they became pioneers of the broadcast industry in texas will help create one of the first radio stations in texas kprc radio and he and oviedo together eventually started another television. i television station. i should say kprc tv, which is was one of the earliest television stations in texas after oviedo worked with will during the 1930s to bank to houston post one of the most influential newspapers in texas. she took her place on the national stage as the founding commander of the women's army corps during world war two now, i'll say more about that in a moment. after the war however oveda returned to texas and reassumed her position as editor of the houston post. in 1952. she played a decisive role in helping dwight eisenhower when the republican presidential nomination. and she led the organization

democrats for eisenhower that helped carry, texas and other southern states giving eisenhower his victory. in 1953 shortly after eisenhower was inaugurated. he appointed oviedo as the secretary of the newly established department of health education and welfare more better known as agw no longer existing now, it's been split up. thus she became only the second woman in us history to serve on a presidential cabinet the first being of course, francis perkins as secretary of hew she oversaw the development and the distribution of the sauk polio vaccine and she got into as much trouble as falchi over the current vaccines. it was quite a controversy. she resigned in 1955 to return to houston because of will's declining health as i say there was 27 years difference in their ages will died in 1964 and the city of houston named its municipal airport and his honor hobby airport continues to carry

his name today. some of you may have passed through there at some point. oveda, and will had very close relationships not casual very close relationships with house speaker sam rayburn nelson rockefeller real some rockefeller was her deputy at hew and they worked very closely together and years even later after hew they worked together. and also of course lyndon b johnson. during lbj's presidency oviedis served on several important task forces, including one that sent her to vietnam during the war and another that led to the creation of pbs and npr. she was very active in that as well. she sold to houston post in 1983. she saw the handwriting on the wall very early in this newspaper the situation and she also sold kprc tv in 1994.

ovieda died in 1995 at the age of 90. because we're here at the roosevelt presidential library today. i want to say i want to talk now about the relationship between the hobbies and franklin and illinois roosevelt. of course, i'm skipping tremendously a lot of stuff while still governor of texas in the fall of 1920. will hobby this is governor hobby will hobby traveled all over texas campaigning for the cox roosevelt presidential ticket? and then in 1928 will was a member of the texas delegation to the democratic parties national convention in houston. where he first met and was

deeply impressed with fdr. in 1932 the hobbies supported house speaker cactus, jack garner's nomination as the presidential candidate for the democratic party. but they readily they readily shifted their support to fdr and actively campaigned for the roosevelt garner ticket the editorial page of the houston post in the post was a very influential paper. they they endorsed fdr and ovita actually raised a great deal of money for the campaign in texas eleanor roosevelt who ovieda had not yet met rodeo vita a letter of appreciation that read in part quote oviedo. i am so glad to hear that you are doing such good work for us in the campaign and i very much appreciate your doing it. when fdr ran for a second term in 1936 the hobbies close relationship with houston businessman jesse h jones who was fdr's reconstruction finance corporation head as well as later secretary of commerce that relationship led to oveta's

first meeting actual meeting with eleanor. the roosevelt's visited five different cities in texas in 1936 to celebrate this centennial of the texas revolution. and undoubtedly also helping after yours re-election campaign ever the roosevelt's first. stop was in houston. that's thanks to jesse jones and that's where the president dedicated the san jacinto monument which was built as part of the 1936 celebration. the hobbies accompanied the presidential party on a boat trip up to houston channel from downtown houston out to the battleground and this takes a little while to get to get there from downtown. so oviedo connected herself with with eleanor and she and eleanor set together on the boat trip going and coming and they had an opportunity to have a very long

visit and chat without with each other and got to know each other on that boat trip the next day the hobbies joined the president and his entourage and dallas, texas for the president's speech at the cotton bowl which had attracted about 50,000 people afterwards the private plane taking jesse jones in the hobbies from dallas to houston burst into flames in the air and was forced to make a crash landing in a cotton field south of dallas. ovieda who was miraculously unheard except for some bruises had to pull her stunned husband

out of the flaming wreckage. on unfortunately one of the pilots died but everyone else survived news of this accident quickly made its way to president roosevelt's train as it passed through indiana on its way back to washington from texas eleanor roosevelt when she heard this quickly dispatched a telegram that vita got immediately. she dispatched it from the presidential train and i'll call part of it the president and i were distressed to see that you were slightly hurt in the plane accident. it must have been a terrifying experience and i hope that neither of you suffered anything serious. it was very nice to see you in texas, and i hope we will meet again before too long. unquote eleanor roosevelt's hoped to covita before too long would be fulfilled in a way that neither one of the women could have predicted at the time. will an ovieda became disenchanted however interestingly enough with fdr did during his second term because of his attempt to pack the supreme court, which was very unpopular in texas. it was also in popular with his vice president john nance garner.

as a result for the first time in both of their adult lives the hobbies decided they could not support the 1940 democratic presidential ticket instead. they actively supported they didn't go neutral. they actively supported wendell wilkie his nomination. however, and it seems like an ancient time on me, you know a long time ago that didn't exist. however after roosevelt won re-election. the hobbies put aside all political partisanship and printed a series of editorials in the houston post calling on all texans to unite behind the president and support other countries preparations for war. ovita cobb hobby became a national figure in the summer of 1941 when the war department recruited her to serve as head of the newly established women's branch of the army's public

relations bureau. the bureau's mission was to respond to the army's syria's public relations problem. resulting from the first peacetime military draft wives mothers sisters girlfriends of draftees were flooding the war department with letters expressing deep concern about how their loved ones were being treated by the army. the army was clueless about how to handle this. this was something they had never dealt with and of course, there were no women and the leadership of the army or in the army period so someone decided and i think it was general marshall. that they badly needed a woman to with professional, you know communications experience and skill to direct a campaign for the army to educate women about

the necessity for building up the military to defend against foreign threats oveda came to the armies attention and first place because of her prominence as one of the only female members of the american newspaper publishers association, and as well as a lot of publicity that she had gained and her efforts to make the houston post more popular to women readers and actually got in, you know national news as she was doing as a shocking news. the newspaper was trying to appeal to women and she did that so she got her name well known in washington oveta's success at organizing and managing the army special public relations branch during the 1941 impressed secretary of war henry stimson and general george c marshall the army's chief of staff it also gave her the opportunity to renew her acquaintance with out on a roosevelt who will veto

persuaded to come in and help her get this word out about the boys were okay and the army eleanor even gave speeches for her to groups that she brought to washington and she also hosted tea parties for the women leaders of organizations at the white house at oviedas request. and of course oviedo would be there to give a little talk about how their boys were all okay not to worry. so that really helped her get on the radar. let's put it that way at the white house. so it led to eventually her direct involvement in the creation of the women's army corps after the us entered world war two in december of that year. republican congresswoman edith rogers of massachusetts who authored the bill to create the women's core and oveda worked closely together to support this

bill. they that included testifying to congressional committees. general marshall strongly supported the legislation and he was aware of oviedis direct connections to the first lady. in a handwritten note. to the army office responsible for organizing the women's core if the bill was ever passed general marshall wrote quote, please utilize mrs. hobby as your agent to smooth the way in this matter through mrs. roosevelt. so a little bit of bureaucratic jockeying around here marshall also transferred oviedo to the personnel section of the general staff where she reported directly to the chief of staff of the army general marshall congress did pass the women's core bill and not may of 1942, but only as this is a whole

nother story that we don't have time to talk about but only it's an auxiliary. to the army not as a regular unit. thus denying its members equal pay are any benefits that the military has for this members. this was the result of the opposition of the southern delegation to congress as on may the 15th president roosevelt signed the bill and approved the appointment of 37 year old oviedo called hobby 37 at this point as director with the rank of major. eleanor roosevelt held a special press conference immediately after her husband signed the bill and stated that quote. she was vastly relieved that oviedo cup hobby would had the core. in my book i discussed fully the story of oviedakal power being in her four years as head of the auxiliary core and eventually

her success and getting the women's army corps dropping the auxiliary part embedded as a regular unit of the the army and i talked great detail about the tremendous battles. that she waged with the army brass this entire period of time the us congress mainly the southern delegation and the news media the problem in the news media is they made fun of her is a woman it wasn't they were so critical. it's just they for example one ap photographer at went to a wac training camp and they were trying to publicize a whack training so forth. but all they wanted to do was to get oviedo who's quite attractive to put herself in a swimsuit and stand on the diving board of the account training camp swimming pool the army put a stop to that immediately, but that's the kind of thing that she had to put up with from her colleagues in the and the news

industry. i'm sure she wasn't shocked. however being a journalist herself. so i discuss all of these battles and but i don't have time obviously to talk about that. but let me just kind of focus on a couple of episodes where she interacted with eleanor and fdr and late september 1942 and this is a very important trip eleanor roosevelt traveled to the united kingdom to observe the roles that members of the british women's voluntary service were playing in support of the british war effort president roosevelt agreed to the trip as a way for eleanor to learn about what kind of war work women could do best. accordingly the first lady decided that ovita should go with her to inspect the women's service posts in the united kingdom when general marshall informed ovita of eleanor's decision. he state general marshall stated that he was in favor of of her

making the trip for reasons than just one. he said quote i have had in mind that it would be profitable for you to see what the british have done and i do think it would be an excellent thing if you were brought into more intimate contact with mrs. roosevelt and an airplane unquote. this was an invitation oviedo was happy to accept. much to ovetous surprise and pleasure marshall told her that stimpson had in fact arranged for her to accompany eleanor roosevelt in the plane on her flight across the north atlantic now the expedition with eleanor roosevelt was an exciting process prospect by itself, but

in the in 1942 transatlantic air travel was still a novelty with some element of danger. and keep in mind oviedo had been hit nearly died in a dangerous airplane crash before this not long before this the first lady's party which included her close friend and secretary malvina thompson. traveled on a long range seaplane across the north atlantic at a time of the year when weather conditions could be very difficult. plus they would fly over an active war zone. the group departed from new york in october of 1942 on a non-stop flight to the republic of ireland. where they would board another airplane and this was all very quietly done, by the way. i'll explain in a second. they would board another airplane to england. for security as well as personal comfort the war department sent roosevelt and her party on a

commercial aircraft that had been pioneered by pan am airlines a military airplane was much much more likely to attract enemy fighter planes. they didn't want her to fly in a army plane a military airplane

also airplanes are not outfitted for comfort either. so the commercial sea plane was furnished with 16 individual bunk beds placed in private cabins. that's a big airplane. it's hard to imagine and a kitchen a full kitchen that served mills made from scratch. they flew over newfoundland greenland and the open waters of the north atlantic at one point the pilot announced that they were passing over a large convoy of allied ships bound for great britain. eleanor and velveeta jumped up and ran to the seaplanes large windows to gaze down to the ocean below eleanor later wrote that the ships were quote little tiny specks on the ocean.

it was hard to believe that those ships were in danger. and some of them might suddenly be torpedo unquote. the flight itself was mercifully uneventful. but the landing on the shannon river which was obscured by fog and driving rain caused the passengers quite a few tense moments. the seaplane did land safely of course, but it became stuck in the mud of the shallow part of the tidal river as it approached the dock so they had to gather a small boat to motor out from shore to to pick up eleanor party eleanor's uncle and he was in driving rain too. they got soaking wet as they got out of the airplane eleanor's uncle who was david gray and he was the us ambassador to ireland at the dock. to avoid being caught for violating ireland's neutrality which they were doing by being there. and this is why i said this was

all done quietly. the state departments did not inform the irish government that the first lady the united states and the commander of the women's army corps were passing through their country on their way to great britain, as you know, republic of ireland was neutral in world war two. has his thing something to do with the bread so i'm not sure but william, i'm sorry the secret rival in ireland of the famous wife of the president united states was sensitive enough, but oviedas quasi-military status was a more serious concern because of a direct violation of international law, which was prohibited the presence of a combatant nation's military personnel in a neutral country. for that reason major hobby had not been listed at all on the flights passenger manifest. there's she's not listening on that record and she was unable to wear her military uniform. sympathetic irish officials typically looked the other way in those situations if the individuals were americans not if they were british, but if they were americans as the first lady observed later quote, it was all a bit of a farce because irish authorities just simply closed their eyes unquote ambassador gray quietly transported eleanor evita to breakfast near the airport bad weather delayed their flight to england until the next day so gray arranged for the first lady to spend the night at the nearby castle of anglo irish nobility, lord and lady dunraven done raven, i should say who could be trusted to keep the secret of her visit oviedo was checked into a local irish pub in where she signed to register as an american civilian late the next morning winston churchill an airplane to ireland the delivered eleanor ovida and malvina to bristol, england.

where they were met by us ambassador to the united kingdom john gill win it who was an old friend of eleanor's the first lady's party arrived in a private train the churchill sent for them at london's bomb damaged paddington station. where they were greeted officially about king george the sixth and his wife queen elizabeth. the greeting party at the station also included general dionzenhower. and also lady reading the founder and head of the british women's voluntary service. as eleanor descended from the train to be received by the king and queen oveda remained a discreet distance behind after the king and queen in roosevelt exchanged greetings, the first lady introduced them to oviedo who was still dressed in her very stylist. civilian clothes general marshall had center request to eisenhower to meet her there and to open up a temporary office that his headquarters for her to

work in and provide whatever resistance that he could when general eisenhower greeted oviedo at paddington station she managed a very snappy salute. i founded her and said i expected you to be in uniform. a vita later admitted that she immediately had a mental picture of setting in a guard finally get bread and water. but the general immediately broke out into laughter and declared that he was very happy to finally get to me oviedo hobby. as the king and queen swept eleanor off to buckingham palace oviedo accepted ox invitations. join him for lunch. as they entered the restaurant oveda surprised act ike by stepping aside and letting him

enter the restaurant first because he outranked her i once again stopped and howled with laughter and declared that where he came from a lady was a lady with laughter and declared that quote well, and he said that because he was so used to rank over ruling traditional traditional rules of etiquette. after lunch oviedo checked in declarages, which is where she spent her time in london. she later the next day. she went to a luncheon at buckingham palace with the with

the eleanor roosevelt and when she was presented to the royal couple she curse it. while in her whack uniform which was a minor breach of military rules and a violation of the american tradition of not bowing to royalty elnor. in fact was later admitted that she was very surprised when oviedo would curse that that oviedo would curtsy to a foreign monarch. but she understood it was well intended and nothing further was said about the faux pas. uh, so during the reception prior to lunch oveda had the opportunity to chat with the queen queen elizabeth, and we're talking about the current queen elizabeth's mom. okay about evita's plans for bringing american women into the us military the queen made it clear that she had a keen interest in the matter many years later when she was the queen mother after her daughter became queen. i found a long letter this she wrote oviedo in oviedo's papers

and we're talking this is the 1960s. this is you know years later in which she is a warm letter in which she recalled the details of their visit at the palace. it was sort of an amazing thing. that night oveda attended a dinner at clarages associated by ambassador went and also attended by eisenhower. as everyone was chatting before dinner was served oviedo who was a heavy smoker. badly crave to cigarette traditional british etiquette dictated that one could not smoke. until the host toasted the king a drink to the king oviedo looked inquiringly and desperately she later recalled across the table at eisenhower. who was a fellow chain smoker? eisenhower got it and immediately asked when in quote mr. ambassador, are we going to toast to king or not? when when it saw him, he said when you understood was going on everybody. no, there'd be no toast. i immediately reached into his pants pocket hauled out a package of cigarettes and sent it spending clearly across the table landing in oviedo's lap. so there's more i could tell you i'm getting close to running out of my time. i want to skip ahead. and because i go into great detail about her trip to england

and things that she learned there, but let me skip ahead to she did as i said eventually working with eleanor roosevelt. she did get the women's army corps bill passed and then she had to organize the women's army corps all the women in the women's army. auxiliary. army corps, they're both waxed. and so it just gets very confusing. had to resign from the from the waac to join the wac. so it was a usual government bureaucracy. okay. anyway, she handled all of that and eleanor helped her get the bill passed. so in 1943 april of 1943 while oviedo worked with members of congress. to incorporate the women's army corps auxiliary core into the regular army president roosevelt. made an unpublicized tour of the women's auxiliary corps training

camp at fort oglethorpe, georgia on his way to stay in warm springs early on the morning of april the 17th oveda met fdr's train at a nearby depot in chattanooga, tennessee. after secret service agents moved the president's special convertible limousine off of the train fdr waved at ovieda and asked him asked her to sit next to him on the trip to the count. so they said in the rare seat together where an army photographer at the time took a photograph and it's in the book. of her searching through her shoulder bag and laughing while the president's also laughing and he has his cigarette holder out and she's trying to find a lighter. for the president's cigarette and they're both. it's a delightful photograph and they're both laughing heartily at the camp the wax it assembled in tight formation on the parade

ground and when they're commander and fdr roland account they gave him a 21 gun salute and the wax let out a roar of welcome when he came the band played the national anthem and the wax paraded by fdr's car falla fdr's scotty dog broke loose and raced into the middle of all of the wax who were assembled and they all mobbed to dog. he got off an awful lot of attention from these women. as the big open car left the field they the wax let out a loud cheer and oviedo returned to the train depot with with the president. so the other thing i want to mention i'm going to leave out some of this is that when when the once the wax were organized and june of 1943? of course, she had overwhelming

support from fdr and eleanor. and secretary stimson general marshall also she then became a full colonel in the army and marshall wanted her to be a general, but she had enough troops under her command not troops, but you know members of the army. to rank as a general and the southern delegation vetoed. it kept the did not allow her to get above a you know colonel. so so the first lady after this was done after the wax were organized she gave oviedo most of the credit for congress finally agreeing to create the core. she later noted and i'm quoting eleanor here oviedo vita hobby and her whack. had demonstrated that women could do almost every job in the army except fight. and could probably do that, too.

if they had to colonel hobby had to do a lot of nudging a lot of hard work and a lot of tactful persuading to bring this about unquote. ovita commanded the wax until two months before the end of world war two army officially recognized her accomplishments by rewarding her the distinguished service medal the army's most prestigious non-combat honor. she was the first woman to receive this award, which was one of the many firsts that she would accomplish in her long life. perhaps the most lasting tribute oviedo corp hobby would receive for her contributions in the war was the decision to select one of her quotes. to be chiseled in stone and preserved permanently on a wall of the world war two memorial on the national mall in washington, dc. she is the only woman who is quoted in the memorial.

she joined her words joined those of franklin roosevelt harry truman dwight eisenhower admiral chester nimitz and general douglas macarthur and i'll end by reading the quote or inscription reads women who stepped up and she's referring to the war. of course women who stepped up. were measured as citizens of the nation not as women. this was a people's war and everyone was in it unquote. as i mentioned earlier ovetica hobbies public service was far from over after the war as she took on major assignments from president's truman eisenhower and johnson each of those assignments were historically important. but i'm afraid i've gone past my time today, so i'll really direct those of you who have any interest in this remarkable couple to check my my book and on be happy to answering questions.

i'll give you an opening then. tell us about the polio. it was a fiasco. yeah, she as head of hcw the jonas salk. i developed of course the polio vaccine outside of hew but they had to certify its safety. just this is all common. we all were over used to this now. okay, and so she she monitored that directed that and was the one who finally and ultimately recommended the president that it's safe that the song vaccine was safe and they announced that at a press conference at the white house with the president and jonah sauk president. the president was almost in tears because he said he couldn't wait to his grandchildren were able to be innoculated he urged.

of course all americans do come inoculated the polio. where they ran into trouble was over the republican fears of socialized medicine. and the republican party put tremendous pressure the congress. on president eisenhower who was barely partisan frankly if you go back and look at his record. in fact when he ran for when he was people were talking about him running for president. there was a huge debate about whether he was a democrat or republican and the republicans always remembered that even though he was popular enough to win the white house for them and so forth, but at any rate quickly he really? just wanted to get the the vaccine out there. and so but they convinced him that it should be privatized. that the government should have nothing to do with it. and in the american medical association, of course was the lobby behind all of this and so

we created tremendous controversy in the country because there were rumors put out that the vaccine was going to be expensive, you know people were worried about how can we you know, there was no of course medicare or anything like that. and so she had to she was buffeted. by criticisms because eisenhower did agree to go ahead and try to do this as a private effort. because of this fear of socialized medicine and she was heavily criticized as the as the person in charge of hew having to administer this. and it got so bad that she really she'd been planning and going back to houston because will was really very ill. but it hastened her resignation. it was it was a terrible controversy and we all know now the sock vaccine was very successful and but it was had its own.

i think we sometimes forget it we think about today, but it had its own problems publicly. people, you know, so there was a controversy about that as well. anybody else of but they will. yeah, yeah. okay. well, let me just tell everyone now i want you to get a chance to look at the book. be sure and look when oviedo was the head of the wax and she had to fight the army over their attempts to make pregnancy without permission a reason for giving someone dishonorable discharge and ruining their lives and she won that battle also by