Cspan3 continues next with the presidency focusing on the legacy of john f. Kennedy. The Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted this 90 minute event. Good evening. Did you know that john f. Kennedy was the most photographed leader of his day . This may not surprise you since he used photography strategically to share his values and his vision for america. It was also the golden age of photography in america and that is why this subject is of interest to us at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and hopefully you. Here at the museum we focus on telling the stories of the American Experience from folk art to photography as well as painting and sculpture and crafts and media arts. Our exhibition, american visionary, john f. Kennedys life and times, which you can view on the second floor in the graphic arts gallery is a premier event among many organized by the kennedy president ial library in this centennial year. I am stephanie stevish, the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and saam is what we call ourselves for short. Youre in for a special treat this evening. Were debating the Kennedy Administration and its legacy. Many of you likely remember the Kennedy Administration and the arc of historic. We also have several members of congress in the room with us and i want to pause for a moment and acknowledge them and thank them along with their staff for their work in doing the peoples business. Please join me in recognizing congressman jim banks representing indianas third district, congressman david siliani representing rhode island First District and also a member of the congressional art caucus which i appreciate and finally congressman stenny history representing marylands fifth district. Weve asked [ applause ] weve asked representative history whos also serves as the House Minority whip to graciously introduce our moderator this evening, steven emrothstein who is the head of the Kennedy Library foundation. In closing, i want to note that tonights program is being live stream and also recorded by cspan. So kindly turn off your digital devices so that we may all enjoy the program tonight. Thank you and i appreciate your being here tonight with us. [ applause ] thank you very much, stephanie for the work that you do. Steven, i was told to introduce you. They didnt say graciously introduce you. But i will try to be that. David sciliani, he represents rhode island, former mayor of providence, david, thank you for all you do. [ applause ] let the word go forth from this time and this place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to new generation of americans born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. [ applause ] i am a part of the inspired generation who listened to those words, who listened to john kennedy and whos life was changed. We are here to celebrate the life and legacy of a man who promoted political courage, not only by writing about it, but by living it. The life of our 35th president was in many ways to reappropriate the title of robert frost poem a gift outright. He was to my generation and to many generations a gift outright. For he gave of himself at every turn from his bravery in the South Pacific during the war to his steadfastness in our nation and worlds most dangerous hour during the cuban missile crisis. For those of us who remember him and his presidency, it was a time of promise, renewal, progress. For those who do not, his legacy has nonetheless shaped our National Understanding of what Public Service means. In my office at the capital as you will not be surprised sits a bust of john f. Kennedy. It is a miniature of the bust that is in the kennedy center. It was given to me by my mother in 1973. I was then a member of the Maryland State Senate and she gave it to me for my birthday because she knew what an extraordinary impact john kennedy made on my life. The courage for which he stood for them. And for me personally, its a reminder of what drove me to enter Public Service as a young man. John kennedy came to the campus of the university of maryland the spring of 1959 and he spoke as im sure he spoke to hundreds of thousands of young people, a lot of young people in this audience and he spoke about what we could do to make a difference and further what we ought to do to make a difference. In short ask not what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country. When president kennedy went to college nokt 1963 to youll apologize robert frost he observed that a nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors. And im sure we all would add by the women we honor. So as we honor the essential ten yal of the birth of John Fitzgerald kennedy let us reveal in our tributes the vision of america that he espoused a positive vision. A hopeful vision. A vision of partnership and mutual responsibility. An americas secure in its sense of purpose. An america competent enough in itself in the cold war to say to our adversaries and our quote, let both sides join in a new endeavor, not a new balance of power but a new world of law where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. This evening we engage in our ongoing work of honoring president kennedy and his legacy. The man im about to introduce, graciously, has been charged with leading the institution whos mission it is the preservation of that legacy. Steven rothstein serves as executive director of the Library Foundation which supports the work of the kennedy president ial library in boston. When he arrived at the Kennedy Library foundation in august, he brought with him a wealth of experience successfully leading academic, private sector and government institutions. Like others inspired by president kennedys call to give back to their communities and their country, steven has pursued Public Service in many different forms. At the start of his career, he partnered with president kennedys nephew, joseph p. Kennedy the second with whom i served in the congress of the United States to found Citizens Energy corporation. The first ever Nonprofit EnergyCompany Helping lowincome families afford heating oil, gas and electricity. Steve why didnt he let you get in the ads . As a massachusetts state official in the late 1980s, steven oversaw programs sempg the mentally ill. John kennedy had something to say about disabled children. He said that all though these children may be the victims of fate, they shall not be the victims of our neglect. Steven, thank you for your work with the mentally ill of which Patrick Kennedy of course has been such a great leader. He launched the private sector firm focused on promoting and expanding green energy technologies. For decade he served as president of the per kin school for the blind, expanding its programs to 30 countries and the number of students served in person and online from 30,000 to nearly 1 million. He did gods work. Thanks in large part to his leadership, perkins is now the largest trainer of teachers and parents of the kbliend. Between his departure from perkins in 2014 and his arrive at the Kennedy Foundation last year, steven led citizen schools, a National Nonprofit helping middle schools provide low income students with opportunities to learn in demand science, technology, engineering and math skills and certainly we would call it steam in this institution because arts are so important. He continues to serve on the board of directors of the Brady Campaign and the brady center for prevention of gun violence. Working to promote Safer Communities and safer schools. President kennedy, stiefel and i have no doubt would have been deeply proud that his Memorial Library is being led by a man whose life has been spent in service to those in need and to building a better america for us all. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Steven Rothstein to the podium. [ applause ] lets hear it again for congressman stenni history for the leadership. [ applause ] our country is better off today each and every day because the work that you and your colleagues do on the hill and the challenging times but knowing that youre there fighting the fight on big issues and small issues and helping to move us forward lets us sleep at night so thank you for your service each and every day. Really, we really appreciate it. Again for our distinguished leaders. Thank you. Stephanie, thank you so much. Everything except for having to follow steny hoyer. If you havent had a chance to see photographs upstairs, take a look, ive had a chance to see them before, theyre a remarkable collection of some fascinating views. Public and private views of john kennedy and his family. And from an artistic perspective, well worthwhile. Encourage you to do that. When stephanie started off, she said there are academics and scholars. Im going to be very quick so we can get to our distinguished guests in a minute. Eye few things to keep in mind. Since today in the United States, 80 of the people alive today were born after the Kennedy Administration. 80 . One of the questions were going to talk about in a little while, why is the centennial important . And why is he still every year there are surveys done of president s, hes always in the top three, four, five. Why is that . He was only there for 1,336 days. It was cut short obviously. Pew does an annual survey of trust in government. In 1962 when john kennedy was there, he did, as you know, the first televised press conferences and over threeyear period he had 64 press conferences. 64 live televised press conferences. Im not going to compare that to anybody else, i wouldnt do that. But he did an on average, every 16 days, and in the first five press conferences, were collectively watched by 60 million americans. They got to see someone making decisions. He believed in transition in government, when pew did their survey in 1962, people had trust in the government, a year ago, before the elections, that 75 had gone to 19 . One of the questions for all of us is what do we do about that . Im going to introduce our two speakers, before they come up, were going to show a 30 second video. Ted whidmer at the library of congress. Before that, he taught at brown university, he was director of the John Carter Brown library. The founding director of the cv star center. Before that, he worked as an adviser to president clinton. He has been the editor, author of nearly a dozen books and in 2012 worked on with caroline kennedy, listening in, the secret white house recordings. President kennedy recorded over 200 hours. Theyre all transparent, all available. Ted went through and prepared a book, really a marvelous piece. If you havent had a chance to get that, i encourage you to get that. Professor of law at harvard. To get one appointment is amazing, to have a joint appo t appointment is nothing less than remarkable. His most recent book, embers of war, the fall of the empire, will have won a pulitzer prize, as well as the park man prize. Its really, if you want to learn more about vietnam, if you havent read embers of war, i encourage you to do that. His essays have appeared in many newspapers and journals, hes the past president of the society of historians for American Foreign relations, and currently writes a biography on john kennedy. Ive read a lot, im excited. Before they come up, theres a 30 second video weve been playing, i think we can watch now and then well kick off the program. Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment to end thirst and hunger, end illiteracy. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world. Come on up. [ applause ] were here as part of the centennial activities, weve done with partners like the smithsonian, keandy center and many others. All over the country and a few internationally. Why is celebrating the centennial important . I think we part of the answer it seems to me is that commemorations are important this is my own view, are important for the civic health of a nation, one of the reasons we do this, not just with john f. Kennedy, but other leaders, it helps bind us together. I also think in this particular case. Its an extraordinary story. And, you know, president kennedy had a marvelous sense of humor, i suspect that if he were with us today, if he lived to be 100, he would make some remark about having overstayed his welcome. But we recognize this extraordinary day, 100 years ago, that he was born in brookline in 1917. Because of some of the things congressman hoyer said, and some of the things you referenced in the film. I think he inspired us. He reminds americans it seems to me of an age when it was possible to believe. This is powerful to me, especially as a recent citizen of this country. Reminds americans of an age when it was possible to believe that politics could speak to our highest moral yearnings. Could be harnessed to our highest aspirations, thats important. Thats one of the reasons why i think we celebrate him. History is a kind of civic glue. Anniversaries give us a chance to remember this one is a little disorienting, its hard to imagine john f. Kennedy at 100 years old, he always looks young, he looks unbelievably charismatic and theres a presence to john f. Kennedy thats unusual. When congressman hoyer read the lines from the opening sentences from the inaugural. The guests si s sitting behind said thank you. Theres an immediacy to the words of john f. Kennedy. They still live with us. He was a student of history himself. Both in school and preparing for the profiles in courage. If we dont learn from history, we are going to repeat some of nose. In my research for this book, that dimension is so powerful, and comes out even when he is a sickly young guy. In those days there were no cell phones, ipads or anything else. He had one thing he could do, and that was to read much i think very early on. That historical sensibility was manifest. And its there now. We remember him as one of the most natural politicians anyone had seen. He said, this is really hard, i would rather read a book on an airplane, fan have to talk to the person next to me. That wasnt arrogance, that was genuine shyness. He was smaller than his youolde brother, his older brother was supposed to go into politics. We cant escape media, especially on days like yesterday and this week. There was something very cerebral about him. He said what he wanted you to hear and not more. Hes one of the popular president s. Why is that when he had so little time there, and clearly others, johnson, got more legislation passed . Why s do you think that is . Thats a great question. We cant ever escape the haunting end of the Kennedy Administration. Everything was utopian and perfect. Our politics have disintegrated. We had Serious Problems in the early 60s, and deep political hatreds that his presidency stemmed from. There was a lot achieved. Most of us feel that the cuban missile crisis was the greatest crisis of the last 60 years, and an existential crisis, if he had not led us as ably as he did, theres a pretty strong chance the world as we know it would have ended. It was kind of a high noon of american culture. There was a new liberalism coming out. A new conservatism coming out. He represented the hopes and aspirations of an important general that was just coming on to the world stage and hasnt left the world stage. Even if he was president for a little over 1,000 days, they were intense days and he was an intense leader during that time. I think the only thing i would add, as we were saying earlier, he inspired us. I dont mean just in america, but the world. Im from sweden. Part of your question, it seems to me it wasnt just americans who took something from what john f. Kennedy represented and what he said in his speeches. It wasnt just the assassination. Some of this was about what he did as president. I guess im suggesting if we had a global poll, he would still figure very highly. It seems to me barack obama brought some of that. Not just in the United States but abroad. In are interesting similarities between the two of them. The president ial speeches we reride, there are many outside of lincoln, roosevelt and kennedy. Thats a small number, its not just because he was handsome and young. There is great substance in those speeches. Lifes irony, brevity. One fact that historians have learned more about in the last 10 years, thanks to the Kennedy Library is that he had a very difficult lifelong struggle with health. He had serious life problems. I think he knew that a 100th birthday is out of the question. He would not have made it to his own 100th anniversary. He knew life was short and precious. That feeling was in those speeches. Theres a certain authenticity that is an elusive concept often. For me, it means fundamentally taking things seriously. And expanding empathy, he made his share of mistakes. There was an authenticity there. Maybe this is what ted is speaking to as well. That help explain those one of the things i admire about him if you take the bay of pigs, which was an enormous mistake. Between that and the cuban missile crisis, so much happened. In terms of five key things, we all see pictures in the situation room the hotline to russia. The green beret. The daily security briefings that selfreflection, i didnt make the best decision, how can i do better, how can our system be better. That is such a refreshing eleme