he always brings up eisenhower. eisenhower advised me on this, eisenhower and i spoke about that. that is actually some of the origin of my research and book. i still repeat what ike says a while ago. our great mistake was assuring the enemy in advance of our intention not to use them. you do not draw a redline and not follow through or tell the enemy in advance when you are going to withdraw our troops. you can think for yourself, what would eisenhower and reagan say when things were handled differently a few years ago? now we get to the two great shocks of 1968. the tet offensive. those of you who may have heard the term probably associate it with some kind of american military disaster. it was actually the reverse. our troops and the south vietnamese troops were caught by surprise for a little bit but turned it all around very quickly. they had the north vietnamese army surrounded, but you would not know that from the u.s. media. famously, walter cronkite delivered the news for cbs. there were only three networks then. he viewed this as a major defeat. and it handed the communi

a year before, eisenhower had laid out what's now called the eisenhower doctrine, the first time in american president said to the american people into the the world the middle east is vital to america national interest. no president until then that ever identified the middle east as important or vital to american interests. it's interesting what was laid out is crucial to american interests they said to crucial interest in the middle east one is oil, the second was the middle east was the birthplace of this three realist gins in the context of the cold war, united states could not allow atheistic communism to take over the birthplace of the three great religions. it's very interesting eisenhower 1957 did not identify the defense of israel as a strategic vital interest of the united states. no subsequent american president for whatever look at it in those ways. on july 15, 1958 was the marines coming ashore, they gave the new explanation as to why they were there. and essentially what he said was that a coup in iraq the previous day the 14th of july in which the most pro- western government

a year before eisenhower had laid out what is now called the eisenhower doctrine in the first time in american presidents said to the american people and to the world the middle east is vital to american national interests. no president until then had never identified the middle east is important or vital to american national interests. but it's interesting what i get played out crucial to american interests. he said there are two crucial interests in the middle east. one is obvious. oil and the second was the middle east was the birthplace an the three great monotheistic religions, judaism and christianity and islam. in the context of the cold war united states cannot allow atheistic communism to take over the birthplace of the three great religions. very interesting that eisenhower in 1957 did not identify the defense of israel as the strategic vital interest of the united states. no subsequent american preside president, of course, whatever look at it in those ways. on july 15, 1958 was the marines coming ashore and i gave a new explanation as to why they were there and essentially

one year before eisenhower laid out the eisenhower doctrine the first time the american president said to the american people and to the world the middle east is vital to america's national interest. no president had ever identified the middle east as vital. one crucial interest was oil but the birthplace of judaism and christianity and islam and in the context of the cold war the united states cannot allow atheist communism to take over the birthplace of the three great religions. eisenhower 1957 did not identify the defense of israel as a strategic vital interest of the united states no subsequent american president whatever look at it that way. on july 151958 with the marines coming ashore there were two explanations as to why they were there. he said that a coup in iraq the previous day the 14th of july was the most pro-western government in the middle east had been overthrown was a direct threat to america national interest so the government in iraq was opposed to the very violent coup even by middle eastern standards. he identifies the two perhaps as the starting point of the mid

like to say wined and dined but given great profile by the eisenhower administration. the failure of the plot to assassinate resulted in a severe throwback the saudi royal family and a matter of days stripped assad of all of his power and stayed in power as king but essentially was powerless afteraf that he was much much less favorable so that was one great big setback from the united states shortly afterwards the lebanese civil war began that was another setback the lebanese president was one of the few arab leaders that publicly endorsed the eisenhower declaration the cia uncovered a plot king hussein at this point is on his early twenties very experience king running a country 80 percent palestinian and then to plot with the objection and trip on - - plot to overthrow the king and to turn to the king of jordan king faisal the second and asked him and the two of them agreed iraq would send the brigade of the iraqi army to help the stabilize the jordanian situation. unfortunately for those who were preparing a plot against king faisal the plot succeeded on the 14th of

i think truman was snubbed in certain ways by eisenhower, and eisenhower felt very differently. i'm interested to hear what you think, actually, about that. >> well, i -- [inaudible] aj: and if i remember correctly -- >> repeat the question. aj: oh, yeah, yeah. sorry, sorry. yeah, that's a good point. so the gentleman was asking when eisenhower took over, there was an uncomfortable relationship between truman and, and eisenhower at that time, right? from my reading, what i understand was that eisenhower was upset because truman had invited eisenhower's son to appear at the inauguration, i think, without eisenhower's knowledge as a surprise. and eisenhower, i think, was offended -- am i getting this correct? because -- >> [inaudible] aj: we need the mic. [inaudible conversations] >> what actually happened was during the campaign, eisenhower was visiting wisconsin, and senator joe mccarthy denounced george marshall who president truman felt was the greatest living american at the time. he said there wasn't a medal big enough for george marshall. he had tremendous respect for him.

i think truman felt snubbed in certain ways by eisenhower and eisenhower felt very differently. i'm interested to hear what you think, actually, about that. [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] [ inaudible question ] >> we need the mic. >> can you repeat the question? >> yes, good point. so the gentleman was asking when eisenhower took over and there was an uncomfortable relationship between truman and eisenhower at this time, right? and so from my reading, what i understand is that eisenhower was upset because truman had invited eisenhower's son to appeart ta inaugurati at the in think, as a surprise and that offended -- am i getting this righ right? >> [ inaudible ] >> we need the mic. >> what actually happened was during the campaign, eisenhower was visiting wisconsin and senator joe mccarthy denounced george marshall, who president truman felt was the greatest living american at the time. he said there wasn't a medal big enough for george marshall. he had tremendous respect for him. and joe mccarthy, we all know who joe mccarthy was. he denounced george marshall as a communist sympat

i think truman felt snubbed in certain ways by eisenhower and eisenhower felt very differently. i'm interested to hear what you think, actually, about that. [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] [ inaudible question ] >> we need the mic. >> what actually happened was during the campaign, eisenhower was visiting wisconsin and senator joe mccarthy denounced george marshall, who president truman felt was the greatest living american at the time. he said there wasn't a medal big enough for george marshall. he had tremendous respect for him. and joe mccarthy, we all know who joe mccarthy was. he denounced george marshall as a communist sympathizer, et cetera, et cetera. so, truman was very upset that eisenhower running, the republican candidate for president, did not stand up and defend george marshall. who is the fellow who made eisenhower the allied supreme director during world war ii. >> at the same time -- >> the origin of the confusion of their relationship deteriorating, because up to that point, president truman had great respect for eisenhower and made him the head of nato in 1950. >>

and a whole german wehrmacht army has surrendered to general eisenhower in north africa. and so we come to the book that is being launched tonight. volume three. tonight, volume iii. i can reveal that my editor was somewhat surprised at the title. he thought it had been used before. [laughter] >yes, but a long time ago! and nobody else had thought to use it since. [laughter] >> i thought it was pretty appropriate, "war and peace." this third volume also begins with a voyage, a journey. it begins with fdr sailing on a new american battleship, the uss iowa with his chiefs of staff to north africa. i am looking at a picture that is very small, but i think you can see general marshall, admiral leahy, and admiral king. they are going to north africa because they were going to go on to cairo and there, once again, he is going to meet with his opposite number, the prime minister of britain, winston churchill. but before he gets to cairo, he wants to make quite certain that he has a chance to talk with the american commander-in-chief, the allied commander-in-chief in the mediterr

president eisenhower is considered not only a popular president but a successful one. he had two terms, a lot of americans felt we wantedto return to normalcy and eisenhower delivered that . he initially got along well with nikita khrushchev but was still worried during the cold war about what the soviets were up to so he authorized the u2 flights, the were these were spy planes over the soviet union. these planes flew at tremendously high altitudes beyond the soviet technology of being able to shoot them down until the soviets improved their technology and then he authorized several of these spy planes before an international conference which was in 1960 which he felt was going to be the capstone of his presidency and cause a thought in the cold war, it was going to be germany, france, the uk and so on in paris but he wants this spy mission about three months before this international conference is supposed to happen and the soviets shot that one down . it was a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans. it looked like we were the warmongers and all this sort o

returning from tehran and cairo, he stays with eisenhower in tunis. and together the two men fly in the president's plane, nicknamed the sacred cow, to malta and sicily, where the president decorates general mark clark for his bravery and leadership for his -- leadership at solerno, and tells lieutenant general george patton, who i think you can see next-to-the-last figure at the back of the jeep, that despite the current black cloud hanging over patton for slapping and threatening shell shocked g.i.s in a field hospital, quote, you will have an army command in the great normandy operation. thus was the grand alliance saved. d-day set in stone and its supreme commander appointed. back in washington, returning on the iowa, the president is fated as a conquering hero. from hyde park surrounded by his family, he broadcasts a christmas message, announcing to the world his appointment of eisenhower as supreme commander of the forthcoming assault. he looks and sounds full of beans, in the pink, as someone describes him. but he isn't. for he soon falls ill w

president eisenhower. we have to go rapidly because i want to respect your time. president eisenhower is considered a popular president and successful one. two terms. a lot of americans felt we wanted to return to normalcy and eisenhower delivered that. he -- initially got along pretty well with the soviet leader nikita khrushchev but still worried what the soviets were up to so he authorized the u2 flicks, my spy plains over the soviet union. they flew at high altitudes buns the soviet technology until the soviets improved their technology, and then he authorized several of these spy flights before international conference in 1960, which he thought was going to be the capstone of his presidency and caused a thaw in the cold war-meet with khrushchev, letters of germany, france and uk in paris but he launched a spy mission but the weeks before this international conference was supposed to happen, and wouldn't you know it this soviets shot that one down. so a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans. looked like we their he warmongers and this sort of thing

this is a cartoon about president eisenhower. joseph mccarthy and richard nixon through a smear campaign. what you need to know about this cartoon is it did not run in the washington post. it was a pro-eisenhower paper. they are very adamant about that in his cartoon. they felt mr. bloch's opinion of eisenhower failing to control mccarthy and went too far. we didn't run. it did run in the areas mr. bloch was syndicated, the other newspapers. they knew that a cartoon had appeared elsewhere. the washington post ran every single cartoon that he chose to draw after that. we can see mr. r -- mr. bloch's art style and a very loose drawing style. he's using a simple board. use white out as a way to enhance his image. being guided by president kennedy, he's got budget written in white out. it stands out in his cartoon. kennedy was hard for most cartoonists to draw. he was a handsome looking fellow. even as late as 1962 they had not really found like big ears or big nose or something that stood out to make him look funny. he kind of looks

initially present eisenhower lied about it. he said it wasn't a spy flight it was a weather mission. he made a bad judgment here and admitted later it was the worst mistake of his presidency that set both sides back in the cold war. his feeling from his advisers that he got was the planes could not survive an attack, first well because they're rather fragile and secondly the pilot would not survive at the tremendous altitude being shot down and landing down on the ground. the pilot also out of poise it needled to inject himself with so he would kill himself. they not only found the debris they captured the pilots and crews just showed the degree in very well published eyes in moscow and said not only are the americans the warmongers, flying over our country and soviet union but eisenhower is a liar it's her tremendous blow because he prides himself on being honest politician. it really did hurt his reputation. the soviets actually played this the public relations of it much better than americans thought they would because they

and eisenhower delivered that. he initially got along pretty well this soviet leader cruised off. he was still worried during the cold war about the soviets were up to so we authorized you to fight some of these were spy planes over the soviet union. these planes flew tremendously high altitudes beyond soviet technology of being able to shoot them down until the soviets improve their technology. and then we authorized several of these spy flights before international conference in 1960. he thought about the capstone of his presidency germany, france, uk, paris. he once the spy mission, about three weeks before this international conference is supposed to happen and wouldn't you know, the soviets shot that went down. it was a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans. look like we're the war mongers and all of the sorts of things. initially president eisenhower had a lie about it he said it was not a spy flight it was a weather mission. he made a bad judgment here and he admitted later it was the worst mistak

and wanted to mention eisenhower as number five. again it's hard to point to some massively wonderful thing that happened, that makes us delighted that he was president. it seems a surprise to me. eisenhower i would point to the massively terrible thing that did not happen. eisenhower faced the toughest period of the cold war when we were at loggerheads with russia. nuclear weapons were proliferating. russia was at its most assertive. stalin was still in power when eisenhower became president. and the fact that eisenhower kept the peace so effectively, he resisted the temptation and the recommendations of his general to intervene in vietnam. the fact that he kept the peace in a very quiet way, a very calm way during the eight years justifies that one. one at the top and at the one bottom. the one at the bottom i always , thought that warren harding gets a raw deal in these. yes, warren harding brought us scandal whiche was a hydra headed scandal. the teapot dome itself was under the interior department. it pales in comparison with t

that president eisenhower employed so effectively. that's not what was on their minds. but they make the larger point throughout their interviews and throughout the volume, they make the larger point that we heard this morning that the process worked. that's what counted. the process worked. and that word is used over and over again. and i would say that this assertion that the process worked invites examination of strategy, not simply process, but strategy. what does it really mean to say that it worked? in the volume, bob jervis notes that there's much dispute among experts about whether the surge actually made a lasting difference or whether it was even decisive in the short run. in part, doug loot underscored that today and said there were many other ingredients that made the surge work rather than simply the deployment of american troops. condition current developmentsays bob jervis like the sunni awakening, may well have contributed more to the outcome, more to making the surge work than the deployment of additional troops itsel

dwight eisenhower made it into the top five. he started out 20 years ago in ninth place and interesting to think about what we are observing about the presidency and what work we have learned over 20 years about how we conducted an people are rating him higher. bill clinton started out as 21st place. remember, it was in 2000, right after the impeachment. then by the time he did the survey, eight years later, he moved to 15 and he has stayed in 15th in this last survey as well. ulysses s grant. this is an interesting one. 33rd place to 22nd. i'm sure we will learn more from our historians perspectives about why he is rising up in their estimation. you might also remember there has been a big grant biography published. there is an interesting impact of successful biographies on the view we have of presidents. think about harry truman and the on theof that biography public perception of harry truman. ok, so now we're going to go to the 2017 survey, which is the organizing principles for our book of collected reviews. -- collected i

eisenhower had khrushchev to camp david. eisenhower was the first american president to make use of helicopters for presidential travel. he spontaneously, soviets didn't want crews chef on the helicopter. he said if the american president gets on, i can too. they did a tour of washington and went to camp david, enjoyed a great time there. khrushchev liked it so much he talked eisenhower into letting him buy two that he took back with him to the soviet union. then a great story, another soviet story with nixon. he has brezhnev up to camp david. interestingly, even though khrushchev had been there, brezhnev said he didn't know much about this camp david place. he was a little suspicious of it. he went anyway. nixon, you know, the party guy, richard nixon, he had the typical navy blue blazer for brezhnev when he got there with the presidential seal. he also had the keys to a brand new navy blue lincoln continental car. brezhnev liked cars. so brezhnev relished this. told nixon to get in the passenger seat. brezhnev got behind t

president eisenhower, i want to be respectful of your time. it is not only a popular person, a lot of americans, eisenhower delivered that. he got along pretty well with the soviet leader, the soviets were up to, he authorized these were spy planes over the soviet union, they flew at tremendously high altitudes, being able to shoot them down until they improved their technology and authorized several of these flights before the international conference, the capstone of his presidency and in germany, france, the uk and so on in paris. the spy mission, before the international conference was supposed to happen and the soviets shot that one down, a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans, it looked like we were the warmongers. president eisenhower authorized a lie about it, said it wasn't a spy flight, it was a whether mission. he made a bad judgment and admitted later it was the worst mistake of his presidency, set both sides back in the cold war but his feeling was planes could not survive because they were fragile, the pilot would not

and kennedy adopted the plan at the eisenhower administration and he meets with chris jeff with the bay of pigs in vienna he concludes he is weak and inexperienced and he can get better of him. so what happens? one of the most dramatic and dangerous moments in the cold war which is the cuban missile crisis that he could not let this go so to see 13 days another creations. including the movie 13 days. and with mary on - - all these arguments with what to do invading cuba. making that announcement to the country a quarantine rather than a blockade. that is considered an act of war so there was a blockade so kennedy gives the speech i was just a boy them. and then watching kennedy on tv and then to blockade cuba and didn't know how the soviets would respond and then to learn from experience and doesn't change of the circumstances. and to take them rather than keep pushing khrushchev into a corner and he did learn from the cuban missile crisis from the bay of pigs that the military advisers and in those fundamental ways to push them through a comfort one - - confrontation so listen to the g

president eisenhower we do have to go rapidly to be respectful of your time he is generally considered a successful and popular president to terms a lot wanted to return to normalcy and eisenhower deliver that. initially he got along pretty well with khrushchev, but he was still worried what the soviets were up to so he authorized the spy plane flights over the soviet union. they flew at tremendously high altitudes beyond the soviet technology to shoot them down and tell they improve that technology and then he authorized several of the spy flights before the international conference that he thought would be the capstone of his presidency and thought he would be with khrushchev and france and germany and the uk but he launched a spy mission three weeks before this conference was supposed to happen and the soviets shot that down. it was a tremendous blow to the prestige of the americans and eventually eisenhower authorized ally and said it wasn't a spy plane it was a whether mission. he made a bad judgment and admitted later it was the worst mistake of his presidency to set both sides b

now you see eisenhower coming straight up. and also part of it is because we have a new appreciation of ike as a person, being the supreme commander in world war ii. d-day. just as grant was president of the civil war. susan: while we were talking about lincoln, i would like to hear your thoughts on why it is that abraham lincoln at number one is book ended by the two worst? is that a circumstance of history? character? what contributed to that distinction between those three men? edna: i think that we tend to judge these presidents based on how they dealt with adversity. so there has to be something extraordinary that is happening during their administration. and with lincoln, it does not get any more extraordinary than the civil war. this is a man who could have done what buchanan did and simply sat there as the country was falling apart. he chose not to do that. he came into office and decided that he was not going to allow the south to secede without challenging that. and so, we judge him much higher than we would someone

this is a cartoon about president eisenhower. and he's castigating mr. block thinking a little too gently joseph mccarthy and richard nixon for a smear campaign against adelaide stevenson, just days before the presidential election. and what you need to know about this cartoon is that it did not run in "the washington post." the post pulled the cartoon because it was a pro-eisenhower paper. and mr. block was pro-stevenson, and very adamant about that in his cartoons. and they felt that mr. block's opinion of eisenhower failing to control mccarthy and nixon went too far. and might, perhaps, persuade voters not to vote for him and so it didn't run. it did run in the areas where mr. block was syndicated, the other newspapers. what you also need to know about this cartoon is that "washington post" missed it. they knew a cartoon had appeared elsewhere. it hasn't appeared in their hometown papers and they were angry. and "the washington post" ran every single cartoon that mr. block chose to draw after that. he had a lot of power at the "washington post" as a c

dwight eisenhower in the war's european theater. the hauenstein center is named for ralph hauenstein and hosted the event. >> welcome to our c-span and grand rapids audience. i am the host of today's discussion. since 2003, the director of the hauenstein center for presidential studies named after colonel ralph hauenstein, whom we will be speaking of. i am joined on stage by two individuals for whom world war ii is no abstraction. two your right is the daughter of the late ambassador. her father is remembered as the envoy who tried to negotiate peace with america while the , japanese military was secretly trying to attack pearl harbor. her mother was american from new york city. after world war ii, she married an american, worked in commercial real estate, and lived much of her life in the grand rapids area. one of her great-grandchildren , garrett, is in the audience. is a candidate in the cook leadership academy. to your far-right is the youngest grandson of colonel ralph hauenstein. brian's grandfather is pressed -- is best known

eisenhower and echoing his political views. mr. kopelson is the author of reagan's 1968 "dress rehearsal." the pepperdine school of public policy hosted the event. [crowd conversations] >> ok, we are going to get started. good evening. i am pete peterson, dean of the pepperdine's graduate school of public policy. it is a pleasure to welcome you here this evening to our calabasas campus for tonight's discussion with dr. gene kopelson on the relationship of -- between

eisenhower saying we have a fight to continue. the consequences of not doing so or losing it are too horrific to take into contention. much like slavery needed to be destroyed, fascism and the form of slavery that came with it was something that needed to be defeated. his men took this message to heart. eisenhower developed a strong esprit de core with american soldiers. he cared about them and they knew it. it was one reason they fought so hard and diligently on his behalf. the harder they fight the war, the sooner the war will be over. another element i would like to show you is a weapon that we have over here. this is an 81 millimeter mortar. i mention this in our talks prior to this. my good friend mike and andy are going to tell us a little bit about that. >> here to talk to you about the 81 millimeter mortar. this was designed by the french in the 30's. the u.s. army got a hold of it. up until that point, they couldn't really move around the battlefield. once they got in place they sat there. the mortars could sit there, it

you think about allen dulles, picked by eisenhower. eisenhower is on a containment crusade and in some cases is trying to roll back to push communism back to whence it came. naturally, in a telegenic professional with oas as experience like dulles was a perfect fit. that's why he stuck around as long as he did. lyndon johnson picks richard helms i believe because he wanted a skilled operator and an individual with a very good political sense to run the agency as the vietnam war was heating up. a good fit there. ronald reagan, pledged to win the cold war and he goes back and picks his campaign manager bill casey to lead the agency on a worldwide crusade to finally crush communism for good. again a perfect match and it is hard to think of another president other than someone like eisenhower perhaps, picking something like casey. and then george tennant, after 9/11. he in effect becomes a head of a massive counter-terrorism organization that president bush has mobilized to lead the fight against our canada and the taliban. tenet almost ov

in the audience was general dwight eisenhower and his wife. i'm sure you all know general eisenhower is the one that led the allied invasion of normandy. in his closing remarks in honor of general marshall he said all he wants to do is retired to his farm in virginia with mrs. eisenhower. [laughter] well, as soon as he said, people began to laugh. he immediately recognized his mistake and quickly and clearly set up my apologies to the general. at that point, general eisenhower pointed out which general. i do not rely solely on the discussions with members of his family. i also had access to it with documents. no documents wa document was mot than his diary. through his long diplomatic career almost every evening during the week andro on weeken, he would sit at his desk in his pipe between his teeth, his typewriter in front ofnc him and he would write what has happened and what he thought and thee previous day. i have access to pages of diaries and i knew almost everything he did i knew what time he got up in the morning. i knew that his favori

eisenhower developed a really powerful decor with common american soldiers. he cared about them and they knew it. that's one reason why they fought so hard and diligently on his behalf. of course, too, the harder they fight the war the sooner the war will be over. another element i would like to show you is a weapon that we have over here. and this is an 81 millimeter mortar. i've mentioned this a little bit in some of our talk prior to all of this. and my good friends mike and andy are going to tell us a little bit about that. >> hello, everybody. i'm here to talk about the 81 millimeter mortar. this is designed by french in the '30s and the u.s. army got ahold of it. they really liked that idea because up until that point during world war i, mortars couldn't move around the battlefield. once they got into place, they koo kind of sat there. world war i was more stagnant and they could sit there but in the future they wanted a more mobile war and this fulfilled the bill. if our 8-1 millimeter mortar and it was one millimeter smaller than ours and we could fir

it's all in the eisenhower library. i had so much fun, when you go to the archives they give you a finding guide. it's a list of boxes, what's in that box you canbo pull a box at a time you can only look at so much. the finding guide for jackie is this big. i don't know there's like 60 linear feet of material, it was so good. [laughter] she kept everything, she keptt every letter -- she kept a carbon copy of every letter she wrote. a copy of every letter she received even copy she cced on copies of letters she has people to say she want to know if they were saying in this whole astronaut business behind widows telling here. so to keep it straight was actually able to see what every single woman is saying it end up getting all the way to nasa it will go all the way to the president. gerry was sending telegrams to the white house. i was able to find that white house routing slips to say kennedy got this telegram from her did not want to deal with it had nasa answered and dismissed her. all of these little details that hel

that is the treasury building, which is called the eisenhower executive office. so, yeah, as i was saying, the white house grounded not always a quite as nice as they do today. in the great rush to complete the white house before president john adams moved in on november 1, 1800, the landscape was left completely neglected and unimproved. as we have heard, it was still full of temporary structures needed for building the mansion. this included the carpenter shed and the houses is that house the workman on site. as well as unused construction materials and even heaps of garbage. many of the trees had been used for firewood. the ground itself was terribly uneven and marked with holes used for firing in the brick helms. in short, it was deplorable. abigail adams was understandably less than impressed, and wrote to her daughter that the place had "not the least fenced yard, or other convenience." even so, she still saw the landscapes potential through all of this mess and closed the note by saying, "it remains a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement." but the

so that is the treasury building and state war navy building which is the eisenhower executive office. before john adams moved in november 1st, 1800, the landscape was left neglected and unimproved. as we heard, it was still full of all the temporary structures needed tore budding the mansion, the carpenter shed and the house that's housed the work men on site and unused construction materials and even heaps of garbage. many of the pre-existing trees had been filled for firewood. the ground itself was terribly uneven and full of holes dug to gather play for firing in the brick kilns. the scene was deplorable. upon her arrive will a, first lady abigail adams was less than impressed and wrote to her daughter that the place had "not the least fence yard or other convenience." even so, she saw the landscape's potential through all of this mess and closed the note by saying it remains a beautiful spot capable of every improvement. >> the adams would not have any improvements them theflz. john adams lost his re-election bid and only lived in the white house for a little less than four month

eisenhower. as soon as he said that people began to laugh. grew immediately recognized his mistake and quickly and clearly said, my apologies to the general. at that point general eisenhower blurted out, which general? i did not rely solely on discussions with members of grew's family. i also had access to a lot of documents. no documents was more important than grew's diary. this guy was incredibly disciplined, through his long diplomatic career, almost every evening during the weekend on weekends he would sit at his desk, his pipe clinched between his teeth, his smith corona typewriter in front of him and he would write out what had happened, what had been said and what he had thought the previous day. i had access to thousands of pages of grew's diary. i knew almost everything he did, everything he said everything he thought in those months before pearl harbor. i knew what time he got up in the morning. i knew that his favorite scotch whiskey was johnny walker red and i knew too about his very deep feelings for his wife alice. in fact in m

and general eisenhower tasked him with preparing the force to hitler. the screaming eagles and the bread devils of the british 1st airborne. the night before d-day, he couldn't sleep. he actually fell out of his cot he was so restless. he was worried. and he reached for the old testament and pulled down the book of joshua and he turned to the battle of jericho. up to that time, the most ferocious battle in the history of the hebrew people, and he looked to god's promise. i will not fail thee nor forsake three. in 1986, ronald reagan awarded general ridgway the presidential pr medal of freedom. and he said hero comes when they are needed. great men step forward when courage seems in short supply. that is what we are about. not failing or forsaking those who step forward when courage seems in short supply. just as the warriors of 1776 stepped forward to create a new dawn for the west. and finally, we turn to the man whose greatest hero was the man we see above us, that was dwight eisenhower. when president eisenhower was inaugurated, he was told on day on

in the audience was general dwight d eisenhower and his wife. i'm sure you all know general eisenhower led the allied invasion of normandy in his closing remarks in honor of general marshall, he said all he wants to do is retire to his farm in virginia with missus eisenhower. [laughter] as soon as he said that, people began to laugh. he immediately recognized his mistake and quickly and coolly said my apologies to the general. at that point, general eisenhower blurted out, which general? [laughter] i did not rely solely on discussions with members of grew's family. i also had access to a lot of documents. more document was more important than grew's diary. this guy was incredibly disciplined. throughout his long diplomatic career, almost every evening during the week and on weekends, he would sit at his desk, his pipe clenched between his teeth, his smith corona typewriter in front of him, and he would write out what had happened, what had been said, and what he had thought in the previous day. i had access to thousands of pages of grew's diary.

eisenhower was not a bloodthirsty maniac but eisenhower thought any war with the soviet union would go nuclear. it was inevitable and therefore realized what had to be done was to deter a war from happening in the first place and the way to do that was to tell the soviets in no uncertain terms that we will destroy your entire country if you do this and that would deter things. then something happened to nearly 60s, the soviets developed their own nuclear arsenal. that weapons that could strike us. this became a policy of suicide. of the soviets invaded western europe or grabbed west berlin and we responded by blowing up the soviet union they could blow up us and that is when it was decided we should have some conventional weapons so we don't have to go nuclear right away but also thought about limited nuclear war. maybe if a war starts maybe we can just launch some weapons at their military forces and tell them if you strike back against us we will take the weapons we have left and hit your cities. the people who came up with the idea had serious doubts whether this was plausible. they

. >> i guess my reaction to tricky dick was eisenhower, i know an awful lot about eisenhower nixon relationship. eisenhower always thought that nixon was too partisan. also amateur. nixon tried to brad himself when he ran a second time for president 1967 68, new nixon, could poke fun at himself. you might remember seeing him in his campaign saying stuck to. me only the new extent do. that we got a new version of a trick. stir this one in a magician suit. calls back to him as tricky deck. >> to tie it with johnson and opinion polls at the time, survey respondents were asked do you trust the government to do the right thing and most cases. it's popping up at about 80%. once you get to nixon it drops well below the fifties and into the 20s. we see this precipitous drop, the noses in the cartoons are indicated in the public, the faith in the government, the sense that these leaders are lying to us has become great in the american culture. >> nixon's great advantage when it came to the vietnam issue in 1968 was that he was able to say i am not this, i am not to that, i will not be the president who