Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We are fortunate to have many critical journalist for print and broadcast speak your over the years. Covering six president s beginning with president reagan. We are first introduced in 2002 when he had a handful of other experts came to the Reagan Library to share stories about president reagan and air force one that we did the visitors experience to make that experience much more rich. Since then he has come to other times to discuss copies of the book prisoners of the white house and then to shape history 2017 covering the white house no lack of material for many more books and continue to have insight into the white house of donald trump into the president ial campaign. And then to discuss his latest book president ial leadership in crisis. One of the shrewdest observer of the presidency to have 14 president s who came their way and then regards a crisis as the norm rather than the exception and then with success with the very level of government so lets hear some tales. It is my honor to introduce ken walsh. [applause] talk about challenging times president s had faced challenging times getting here tonight including me. [laughter] i was just in San Francisco and i did some programs of their for the book. And those who were out there making money are starting to get the surgical masks now and its hard to understand what they are saying but all i heard is they dont help you so im glad they are doing but in any case thank you for having me with this extraordinary circumstances. But youre always looking for different ways to see the president s and get insights. And the character policies and their agenda and a number of ways to do that and then to put together the exhibits and then was nice enough to write me a note i did the book of president s and celebrities with the celebrity culture and how they participate. It also occurred to me that i cover the white house for so long every president had to deal with a major crisis of some kind it was true earlier in the history now all of those things are true and we have to deal with some kind of a crisis i will come back to this later but the president is interesting because he seems to thrive on the idea. He generates it himself and likes the idea he emerges victorious in a crisis now it is unlike any he has had to deal with before which is completely out of his control to start wit with. This virus that we talk about has never dealt with this sort of thing. But it is up in the air now how we evaluate President Trump and the coronavirus. And with some of the confusion and lack of understanding with the country once. And then to go in much detail to give you a sense of some of the things that i discovered with this crisis as defining moments and i did come up with a series of standards that i developed as a historian in my own right and what the historians expect is first of all taking action to a change those circumstances to balancing principle with what works and persevere and having the instinct for achieving success and that is all wrapped up but i am about to evaluate. And then as a go to the presentation. So the ultimate crisis and calamity is civil war what god is through this and to adhering to those standards and those values that he tried to convey through the civil war and of course did not start out in a particular critic of slavery and that he would do that. And then that is a moral issue but during the raging of the war there were terrible setbacks initially and that he was in the military earlier briefly, that had a lot to learn. Are they willing to listen and learn . General mcclellan known as little mac at the time. They hired him and fired him and then hired him again and fired him again and then the way lincoln wanted him to do. And we saw that very clearly so i just want to show you one another. Before he took office shortly before he grew his beard at cooper union in new york to outline the agenda keep this in mind this is what it look like when he took over as president. Three weeks before he was killed the ravages had taken such a toll that he became to embody the suffering the country was going through in the civil war. For the free and enslaved people as father abraham to go to such trauma and also lost a son is just amazing the toll so he really did come to embody the best crisis manager we have had but more recently and as the soup kitchen in the early 1930s with a terrible economic calamity a little less than 4 percent we dont like it gets up at eight or nine or 10 percent it was 35 percent during the depression one out of every three people at the time could not find it so this is a picture of what they had to go through this is the humiliation to ask for charity and help and they felt it was their fault they could not find work. So they were tremendously upset by the circumstance. Of people lined up. They get all dressed up to do this. But people were just so desperate and frankly roosevelt stepped in to do that. One thing roosevelt did in addition to the standards and actually persevered in a specific way that is what he is known for and every president since roosevelt has adopted this technique including president reagan. And had been a democrat and a republican but he admired roosevelt because of the optimism he could convey to the country. This is like the fireside chat. Hughes the media of his time, that every american can have access to and he scheduled fireside chats talking directly to the country about what he was doing this is a particular example of banks with a very clever way of doing what he was doing having the federal Government Act instead of talking about shutting down banks are making sure they were solvent by terminating operations he called it a bank holiday and a nonthreatening idea. And he gave fireside chats you could walk through the city or town or hamlet around the country people who had their windows open you could hear Franklin Roosevelts words because he had such incredible market penetration. And to be tremendously effective what he did with the fireside chats and this is an example that so many people of a certain age remember. I cannot talk too long about each one that they are all in the book. Roosevelt dies april 1945 and herein on harry truman a lot of people didnt think he was up to the job and president roosevelt over four terms how will be survive without Franklin Roosevelt and during that period we have the korean war this is a good example of what they had to go through with difficult conditions. Initially the war did not go well and then it started to get better partly because of the general that so many admired with mcarthur so i suggested to illustrate harry truman was firing general macarthur. They will do defining moments in terms of military conflicts and war and peace but doing so many things now to illustrate the book with examples not just war and peace but those were the defining moments for the president. This took a great deal of political courage for truman to fire mcarthur during the pacific he promised to return to the philippines and the Supreme Leader of japan launched a brilliant move with a very risky but Successful Operation and started off after the war was going badly and thinking it was going well you may remember the history of south korea moving farther north getting too close to the chinese border entering hundreds of thousands of troops pushing them back again forcing them off the peninsula. And then to push their way back up again. When the chinese entered mcarthur says this is a different war. I need to do things differently. He talks about Nuclear Weapons and bombing the mainland and the nationalist chinese and harry truman kept telling him publicly we are not doing that. This is the cold war. So for truman it is civilian control in the military. What he a lot one let this very popular general or the president who was the commander in chief and to get a sense of what the general is up to. But then mcarthur started to make the very aggressive comments and truman fired him when he was the offending the cost support but he always defended it and those who write the history books and i was a tremendous gamble for truman for what this president did in retrospective and president eisenhower i want to be respectful of your time and had to terms and then return to normalcy and eisenhower deliver that. And then to get along well with Nikita Khrushchev but he was worried during the cold war about what the soviets were up to those spy planes over the soviet union and then to shoot them down until they improve the technology with the International Conference of 1960 with germany and france and the uk. And three weeks before this is supposed to happened so it is a tremendous blow to the prestige we look like the warmongers and president eisenhower author raised and said and that was the worst mistake of his presidency with both sides back of the cold war. And the youtube planes could not survive an attack first of all because they were fragile. And then the pilot also had poisoned needles so he could kill himself. The soviets not only found the debris but capture the pilot. So khrushchevs show the debris and wellpublicized demonstrations and exhibits in moscow and said not only are the americans warmongers flying over our country, but eisenhower is a liar. And it is a tremendous blow. He prides himself to be an honest politician so it really did hurt his reputation. The soviets played the Public Relations much better than the americans thought they would so they canceled the paris meeting where khrushchev went initially. And then to call off any future you two missions so they waft one he waffled on that. And to go well for american president and then president kennedy from 1960 and with the bay of pigs invasion on invasion with a cuban exile trying to retake cuba from fidel castro. 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 didnt know how the soviets would respond and then to learn from experience and doesnt 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 generals as much as he had earlier and most historians feel they have to do it so the confrontation ends and kennedy gets credit for steering us through the confrontation that could have ended up in a terrible nuclear war. Later it was revealed we had traded the outmoded missiles in turkey for the removal of the soviet missiles but that was not disclosed at the time. So there was a communication strategy going on here as well. So my concluding point that kennedy was unflappable. That khrushchev completely misread talk about failing in his own defining moment that kennedy understood the risks they were taking and they are very prudent and a way of dealing with this and is given credit for that in history and has defining moment. Lyndon johnson takes over after the kennedy assassination in the vietnam war the photograph from the tet offensive. January as a surprise move with the vietcong and the communist forces to launch attacks all over the country to take americans and south vietnamese by surprise. So it made clear we are a long way from winning in vietnam the enemy would not give up and light at the end of the tunnel so it was a Public Relations victory if not a military one. With a more antiwar feeling in the protest that johnson had to deal with as a war criminal and Vietnam Veterans and people in vietnam with these protest and veterans and others protesting i was in college and johnson could not speak outside of the white house because he would have violent protests. Had to speak at military bases he had the respect of the soldiers but basically he was a person of the white house for much of the time and the chant that would go up hey hey lbj how many kids did you kill today . We talk about harsh Politics Today but that is harsh. Then he has to decide what he will do about this there is a lot of interpretations. And then to talk about the bombing pause and he will not run again. Will not seek the nomination of my party is another term that caught the company on the country by surprise people were shocked he would do this because he sought the office all his life and love being president but in reconstructing this it is one of his defining moments for his presidency that he did the right thing because he knew he would face a struggle being elected. He could have been actually he was still a strong figure they had doubts about others running for president but he knew it would rip the country apart some in the end it was the right thing to do and most historians would agree with that. And quickly president nixon always wants to be the leader and when faced with the watergate scandal he violates virtually all of the standards i look at he does it to adjust to changing circumstances and perseveres to try to save the presidency but not dealing with the abuses that the watergate scandal showed. He did not take action. So he Stonewalls Congress and instead of asking to impeach him he resigns. So you remember the scene you can see the pain and pat nixons face when he announces he is leaving the white house as he gets on the helicopter to fly away to california. This is another case where president does not do well in a crisis situation initially if he had owned up to what happened in the burglary and not try to cover it up, he probably could have survived it because the democrats were not offering alternatives the country would accept. This is a case he was his own worst enemy in handling his crisis. Road general ford it takes over as Vice President and pardons nixon. We dont have to talk about this great deal but for decides if he does not and the nixon controversy somehow he would be bedeviled it by it by the rest of his presidency the news media will ask, it will cast a shadow over his presidency so he does pardon nixon thats another big gamble and it probably cost him his own bid to the presidency with jimmy carter because people really wanted nixon to pay a price but ford felt nixon did pay a price with humiliation by leaving office and all the findings that were made that went on in the administration so we pardoned him. At the time a very unpopular decision but it took political courage. He was exonerated by history and even the kennedy family, ted kennedy was very critical gave him a profile encourage award to say i was wrong. And that iranian hostage crisis. And when the shaw of iran or the american ally when the richest zealots took over and took control of iraq america was widely despised for supporting the shaw who was very brutal pressing his people. So one day when the shaw had left he wanted treatment for physical problems he was having in the United States the questions would be let him in the United States to stir up opposition and i ran we were supporting this hated figure . Carter said okay it is the humane thing to do let them have the treatment here he was a good ally but these people take over our embassy and capture our people i will come after you and ask you what we say now and thats exactly what happened. Students and other radicals took over the embassy they captured 60 of our people and held them for one year and carter was unable to get them out trying everything he could do he was derided and instead of taking action one of the president s defining moments he called for prayer and say we prayer for the captive americans this is at the National Cathedral ceremony he was stricken by it and almost froze his presidency for the whole year and finally he did launch a mission at the center of my critique of carter to get the hostages and of course it was an utter failure what happened in the military later said they told carter this but everything had to go perfectly for this mission to have any chance of succeeding. Helicopters had to go into the desert and meet up with other helicopters and find people who knew how to go to get into the embassy, fly fly to tehran, a hostile city, fight your way through get the hostages get them on the helicopters back to the ships. At every phase something to go wrong and it went wrong on the first phase. The helicopters ran into each other and americans were killed. And it got worse from there. It was a terrible blow to the carter presidency and of course president reagan got them out the day he took office. How much was was reagan or the iranians were afraid of him but nevertheless a hostage situation was a terrible blow to the presidency he never recovered from because he handled things and haphazard way. And then washington a few weeks and then John Hinckley junior a starstruck deranged man who had a crush on the Actress Jodie Foster shot the president and had his press secretary in a dc placement at a secret Service Agent and bounced off the side of the limousine and hit him in the side. Exactly the moment he was hit you can see them looking at the shooter. And so they push reagan into the limousine and he feels tremendous pain. He thinks the secret Service Agent who pushed him into the limousine broke his ribs and he was cussing him. Now he was bleeding from the mouth and frothing. So the agent said were not taking it back to the white house we are taking her to the emergency room if they do not do that he surely would have died. Them with grace under pressure and that instinct with president reagan and a movie actor and to understood and then to walk in under his own power and then collapses without vulnerability but he does almost i and he benefits and the day he was at the hospital was a conference and was therefore a conference and then to help with the surgery. And then that postoperative part that was brilliant in many ways because reagan understood the importance of the spotlight to show the country he was capable. And then to have two president ial candidates. And three if you consider bernie sanders. And to be carefully orchestrated and that the president was so weak to take advantage so to convey the idea he was up to this and that he could recover and the almost miraculous way he arranged to meet with a senior advisers. He looks like he obviously had had a trauma. But it works. And believes the president has the personal courage that we price so much. And this is the card with the white house staffers to get well to the president. And then to show he could recover and then pumping iron soon after the shock with that personal calamity was going through. And it helps the agenda. And a lot of americans felt they would give the benefit of the doubt of how he dealt with the personal crisis and then i like to talk to cabdrivers to get a sense of the everyday people and what they think i cannot tell you but said he took a bullet to the chest and kept coming. I didnt like the first but i like him now. Thats a lot of people felt. Now this is the image you are left with. He did have skin cancer and colon cancer but he did end up with this image as the leader charging ahead with the agenda which is the image you wanted all along. Bush was a Vice President winning the 88 election and then launches the gulf war. He was a master a Coalition Building and to apply my standards and then to live up to all the standards and persevering. And then to with that coalition to drive iraq out of kuwait to get oil for other reasons. But he handled the situation very well. It was a massive success for the americans so in all the years i covered the white house with the National Security staff. We know what this is the crisis for bill clinton. Monica lewinsky sex analyze scandal. And to lie about it under oath so he handled it very badly. To say i did not have sexual relations with that woman but that was a lie and he did and he was caught. And that whole year to be investigated and under impeachment proceedings i was telling you things i never dreamed i would be about the president of the United States and his behavior with this young woman and so many just felt betrayed and had taken the fundamental risk and was selfindulgent the job you wanted all his life to be as salacious and dangerous is what he did. He was impeached. That is a charge and then the senate acquitted him. And that what has happened to President Trump by the way. The blemish remained on clintons record for the impeachment that will go on President Trumps record but it still in the history books. But what happens with clinton is that by the end of his presidency he has persuaded the country that his leadership as president is more important to evaluate than his behavior because people thought he was a scoundrel. So he is impeached and acquitted the popularity goes up. And the outcome with the crisis is a fundamental difference of perception. We separate the public president from the private president if we had the Metoo Movement i dont thank you would have survived it. And then of course 9 11. The destruction of the world trade towers and this is president bush initially he was off balance and this is when he was first told of the plane hitting the second tower. At this time he was at an Elementary School in sarasota florida. The aid said plane has it the world trade tower in new york. And nobody knew why. So the president told me later i thought maybe the pilot had a heart attack. Unrealistic initial impression but nevertheless. Then he goes out and is on camera and the chief of staff andy card whispers a second plane has at the second tower. America is under attack. That starts the global war on terrorism that he launches. And on balance for the first day that i was critically initially by think he was right because there was such chaos on air force one the pilot was so unsure what was happening he asked a secret Service Agent who was a friend of his to stand guard at the cockpit so nobody would take over the plane. I always thought that was amazing. The pilot of air force one asking secret service to protect the pilot while it was flying. I thought that was amazing but thats what happened. And then president bush settles and the most memorable moment of his presidency and goes to the site where the trade towers were smoldering in the background. A burnedout fire truck. The First Responders says we cannot hear you so he pulls a guy out from the crowd a retired fireman who volunteered to help with a bullhorn. And he says i hear you and the people who knocked down these buildings will hear from all of us very soon. Thats exactly what the president wanted on what the country wanted to hear from their president. As time goes on we can reassess and handle the longterm crisis and then to thought they would be too much of an obligation and that initial reaction and handled himself very well. And president obama and the crisis and talk about the depression. And obama had to deal with the crisis it was fundamental. So he had to decide if it was best just to get it over with as soon as possible to alienate those people who thought he was going too far or the federal government wasnt going far enough and punishing the bankers. And thought he did not go far enough but he does get past the meltdown and the economy does recover. I have to give him credit for that. He perseveres balancing principle with pragmatism and to take action was important. And he does have an instinct for success. One of the things he did as he rescues the Auto Industry to give loans and Financial Aid which was tremendously controversial that it was the Auto Industrys own fault they were not making cars americans wanted. But he decides to bail out the Auto Industry and fundamental ways so he took a risky and unpopular decision and that was probably a good judgment on his part. We could quarrel about those conclusions but with those parameters of the discussion is interesting how he dealt with this fundamental defining moment. President trump made a presidency from the crisis and seems to thrive in a crisis atmosphere. And that a Government Shutdown is enough of a crisis for a firstterm but we had confrontation with north korea and problems in iraq with the border to get along with congress. The wall is one thing i talk about in the book a crisis that he dealt with. He promised to build the wall between mexico and United States and have the Mexican Government pay for it to stop the criminals coming into the United States. When congress realized mexico would not pay for the wall. And the crisis at the border to move money from other accounts to pay for the wall. And then is taking action with the democrats but still fighting for the wall and stayed with it and a lot of the people feel its the right thing to do but it is a crisis he is still dealing with now his argument is that it started and then the whole impeach trump controversy. And as a fundamental crisis. And with the special counsel and then it was inconclusive the democrats ran with it anyway. The House Speaker did not want to impeach him initially but decided to do it after the famous phone call came about with trump talking to the leader of ukraine about the investigation of joe biden the leading president ial candidate and corruption involving hunter biden. That is floating out there because republicans dont want to let go of that they want to investigate hunter biden. Nevertheless this is the issue that caused the impeachment because the argument is the abuse of power to corner the adversary by forcing the ally to investigate. So trump says joe biden was trying to remove a prosecutor from ukraine and then to investigate hunter biden. And what they were trying to do as Vice President. To fight corruption. But what happens house leaders push impeachment not impeached as clinton but also acquitted so he has that on his record but with the acquittal. So be very hard to avoid impeachment because of the partisan atmosphere. And not to be as resistant. And not allowing testimony but it will never be fair or treated decently with that interpretation. And to Start Talking about and the coronavirus discussion that could be the biggest crisis of the presidency. It affects so many people are they panicking . And what is floating around the country are there enough tests and the people of the Public Health service same we have a problem to get a test for this. The government needs to get on the ball. So we know who has this is taking a very long time for this to happen. And with the initial missteps and slowness of the response. And to be scared about it. It is a real problem so President Trump has to deal with this now and this is him announcing on the program. And taking action what you want to see most of all recognizing the severity of the problem so i think that is a step in the right direction. This is the case i could not accommodate in my book but this is the example of the crisis to propel the president right in play right now and what we are looking at at this moment. Thank you for coming to understand the notion of defining moments. Thank you. [applause] we have time for just a few questions please dont ask and toby have a microphone. Hello. That was the excellent presentation what would you recommend President Trump to do next . Se titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on booktv on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] please welcome Doris Kearns Goodwin and bud selig