Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency JFK Nuclear Arms Race

Andrew, tell us about your book, which focuses really on two days in the kennedy presidency. June 10th and june 11th, 1963. Why did you decide to write a book focused on only two days of the kennedy presidency and why did you pick those two days to focus on . Well, thank you, colleen, and its a great honor to be here with you and the White House Historical association, particularly meaningful to me because as was just said, it was founded by Jackie Kennedy and in the white house 60 years ago. I had been looking for a way into the Kennedy Administration for some time. Part of this may be hard to believe, but one of the most seminole days in my life was november 22nd, 1963, where as an 8yearold, i learned of the assassination of president kennedy. It isnt unusual for someone like me or anyone of my generation to remember where he or she was, but it did seem to me to change something. It developed for me a fascination. As i grew up, my friends were interested in captain cook and the final frontier. I was interested in jfk and the new frontier. Through my career journalist, and as a student before that, i had been looking as a washington correspondent as well for a way into the kennedy stories. Of course, colleen, there were monument alibiographies and and memoirs and Academic Studies and scarcely a part of jfk legacy that had not been dissected and inspected and examined. I wondered if there was something new to say. And then i came upon in a sense these two days in june. Were on the eve, incidentally, of the 57th anniversary of june 10th and 11th 1963. What could i say that was new. And when i thought about it,ib said to myself, my goodness, two extraordinary speeches, one on the june the 10th, 1963 and one on civil rights, the evening of june 11th the evening of 1963. Those would be two of the most extraordinary speeches of what was a rhetorical presidency. Between them, and they are the pillars of this study, but theyre also the parenthesis. Because in between i saw an opportunity to explain, litt illuminate the presidency hourbyhour in an atmospheric way to try to give a reading who didnt know much about jfk, like the students i teach for example, who are from another generation, what it was like to be jfk, what it was like to be president of the United States and what it was like to make the decisions he did on the two pivotal issues of not just his presidency, his decade or his generation, civil rights and nuclear arms. And when people ask me what do days did you pick, they talk about the missile cuban crisis or the bay of pigs. These are the high noon of the kennedy presidency. So when the book begins, krend kennedy is waking up on air force one and flying back to washington, d. C. From hawaii, where hes just given a speech. And only a few hours later he will be at American University giving a monumental speech on foreign affairs. Could you tell us about the substance of that speech and why kennedy wanted to give it at though moment in time. Well, to give us some context, colleen, this is the spring of 1963, john f. Kennedy has been in office two and a half years and i think it is fair to say his record was mixed as president. His first year in 1961 he authorized the disastrous bay of pigs. He a difficult meeting in vienna where he was bullied in a sense when it meant something different. He watches the berlin wall go up in august of 1961. By the end of that year, when a reporter said to him, i would like to write a history of your first year in office, kennedy turns to him and said why would you want to write a history about disasters. By 62 things are changing. He faces down the executives of what we call then big steel that were trying to raise prices. He faces down kristoff in what is famously the cuban missile crisis and by 63 hes feeling confident about his presidency but he also knows america is in a water shed turning point, both in the height of the cold war around nuclear arms, around civil rights. But lets deal with nuclear war. I just mentioned the cuban missile crisis of 1962. 13 perilous days in the autumn of 1962 when historians still say today we came as close to Nuclear Annihilation as we have before or since. Kennedy was shaken by that and so was nikita kristoff and kend into the spring is looking to change the channel. Both of them felt that america and the soviet union having come to this near nuclear apocalypse, ar armageddon, having to get through. The pope is involved and the editor of saturday evening review is involved and there is an attempt by both parties to come to some conclusion or to begin some process that would lower the temperature and begin a certain process of disarmament. Kennedys big gamut in the spring of that year is a speech. It will become [ technical difficulties ] over four to six weeks. It isnt a secret but done by a tightly and a tight circle of trusted aides. Kennedy does not share what hesing to propose because it is almost subversive. He doesnt share it with the joint chief of staff or go the state department or department of defense or consult the cia and he leaves out the joint chiefs of staff and congressional leadership. All people who he might have consulted giving what will become the major Foreign Policy speech of his administration. He is dealing with it that way because kennedy is going to say things about the russians that no american president has said since the cold war. Now, 18 years of cold war. And he will, in that speech, arrive at American University at 10 30 a. M. , as you said, colleen, having flown across america, across the pacific, nine hours, having left hawaii the night before, touching down at Andrews Air Force base at about 8 50 a. M. Getting on marine one, choppering to the white house, and within 100 minutes of landing on that tarmac, he will be dressed in a gown and mortar, or he wont wear the cap, before an audience at American University in northwest washington where he will make a speech in which, for the first time, hell talk about the russians in very human terms. He will compliment the russian. Humanize the russians and talk about their achievements in industry, in their economy, in science and americans are very familiar with what just happened. Very familiar because sputnik has gone up in 1957 and there is a great sense that america has fallen behind the soviets. Hell talk about the soviets or the russians contribution in the second world war, 20 million and i think it is higher than that and we learn later. Of all of the russians have done as a society, hell put aside the rhetoric of the cold war, of soft yet treachery, of the gulags, all of that have become the standard, the staple of american politicians. So hell do that in very carefully worded and carefully worded address under prepressive heat. It is 98 degrees at American University that day. And people are wilting and they set up triage stations because people are fainting, and there hell make an iefr offer to enter into negotiations over a comprehensive test treaty. This isnt comprehensive in the end, it would be limited. But kennedy is proposing that as we as the cold war goes on and we both stockpile weaponry that could kill us many times over, why dont we simply stop testing. No no tests in the atmosphere, no tests under the ocean and no tests in space. And it is a radical idea that kennedy knows is not going to go down well with many elements in congress and elsewhere who are hardline communists. Now it is important for that jfk is no slouch when it comes to communism. People always said dont judge john f. Kennedy by his inaugural address, judge him by what was to be called the peace speech. So the rhetoric, the tone, when kennedy says in the final analysis, we all inhabit the same planet and breathe the same air and cherish our childrens future, were all immortal, hes almost universalist in his appeal. This kind of language had not been heard before the mouth of a president since Franklin Roosevelt was dealing with stalin in 1944 and 1945. And when kristoff hears this several hours later because while the speech is broadcast live in the United States it takes longer to make its way to moscow, he cannot believe what he is hearing. There will be a negotiation and six weeks later, just to show you as you know as a student of rhetoric, sometimes things do happen from speeches. There will be the limited Nuclear Test Ban treaty, the most important Foreign Policy decision and achievement of the Kennedy Administration. And almost a few hours later, after this really transformative Foreign Policy speech that kennedy gives at American University, your book details about how hes pivoted two hours later to another major pressk National Issue concerning governor George Wallace and desegregation at the university of alabama. How does kennedy begin to prepare himself to handle this crisis and why does he think that it might be a Pivotal Moment in civil rights history . Well, in the velocity of the 48 hours i called on this feverish 48 hours, he does pivot. He pivots on both issues. And he has to pivot within the days. So he leaves American University, it is about five or six miles from the white house, jumped into the Lincoln Continental that the kennedys have designed and kreennedy is using and roars back to the white house. Where, as you say, his thoughts turn from diplomacy and the cold war and nuclear arm to George Wallace and civil rights and the university of alabama. Because down in alabama, George Wallace, the bantamweight small man with a big complaint has announced, has more than threatened, has announced that he will refuse to integrate the university of alabama. He will refuse personally to admit two black students, james hood and vivian malone, who the court has ordered admitted to the university of alabama and George Wallace said he will stand at schoolhouse door and prevent physically those two from entering. Now the court has ordered this. The kennedys know it and so does wallace. But wallace is determined to make a spectacle of this and the kennedys realize they have to allow them to do that. They will not bring the two students to the front door. Will admit them through a side door. But there will be a confrontation. Which will also be carried live, not necessarily on american television, but certainly on radio. And the kennedys have been preparing for this for some time. And as the roots of the peace speech are the cuban missile crisis, the roots of the civil rights speech are seven months earlier at the university of mississippi when ross barnett, the governor of mississippi, like George Wallace is refusing to integrate the university of mississippi. These are the last of the great big public universities in the south. All others have been integrated at this point. And these are and in 1962 the kennedys have to send in the National Guard, shades of today, have to send in the National Guard to preserve the rights of james meredith, the rights to enter that university. It does not go well. It is actually quite a disaster. There is a 15hour riot, two people are killed including a french journalist, hundreds are injured, ross barnett has not done what he said he would do. The kennedys feel betrayed and they are not going to let that happen again. So before the showdown on the door of the university of alabama, the kennedys, led by the attorney general of the United States, jack kennedy, his closest adviser, Robert Kennedy has been working at the Justice Department to ensure nothing goes wrong. They are gaming scenarios. How would they remove George Wallace if he refused and what would happen if she does refuse, and should they hold him in acontempt of court, how will they handle that and preserve the dignity of the two black students who, after all, just want an education. And so the kennedys have been preparing for this, they have studied maps provided by the United States forestry service, they have even positioned a boat on the Black Warrior river in the end of campus in case a lynch mob chases those two away. There was a threat of tens of thousands of klansman outside of the gates of the university. So this is happening that day. Kennedy on monday is preparing for this. The confrontation wont take place until tuesday. But on monday, hes gaming this. And one advantage, colleen, i had in writing the story, is, and i didnt know until well into it, there was a documentary film team filming kennedy in the white house let by robert drew, one of the early filmmakers and i had access to that, to the raw footage which is held in hollywood, and there i could see, i could watch the negotiations, the consultations, that were going on both on monday after the peace speech, which is june 10th and in the morning of june the 11th. So you see how serious the kennedys were taking this and preparing for that confrontation with George Wallace. In your book, as you explained earlier, it is about two days but you use those two days as a lens into some of kennedys most intimate and personal and most political relationships that he maintained. And one person that you feature in the book, quite extensively, is ted sorenson. Could you tell us a little bit about ted sorenson and why you decided to heavily profile him and include him in your book. Well ted sorenson, who deserves a diography of his own, and i had put aside and hope to return to, he is kennedys speech writer. Ted sorenson leaves nebraska and arrives in washington and jack kennedy leaves the house and goes to the senate in 1953. Sorenson doesnt know kennedy. Hes interviewing with Scoop Jackson, Henry Jackson the senator from washington and interviewing with jack kennedy. The speech writer is interviewing the senator. Ted sorenson was considered so good, out of nebraska, he led his law class, he was young at the time, in his early 20s, that he is advised to go with Scoop Jackson but chooses jack kennedy. And there begins an association of 11 years, which i would argue is the most Extraordinary Partnership between a president and an associate in the history of modern presidency. There isnt anything that ted sorenson wont do for jfk. He reveres him. Hes a master craftsman and a word smith. He works for jfk, who himself is a writer and values writers, had written with ted sorensons help, profiles and courage, but had begun his career after the war and admired writers ab called them his friends and made eloquence and rhetoric a center piece of the style of the Kennedy Administration. With ted sorenson, with kennedys sense of occasion and ted sorensons facility with a pen, they were magic, the two of them. And so at this time ted sorenson is not just writing the peace speech, hes writing a number of speeches, including the speech that jfk will give in berlin two weeks later and hell be writing under different circumstances, which im sure well get to, the civil rights speech that jfk will deliver on june the 11th. They are an extraordinary combination which doesnt mean theyre friends. They dont socialize together and ted sorenson is devoted to jfk. It comes at some cost. It will destroy his marriage and ravage his health and shake at times his selfconfidence and he will never recover from the death of john f. Kennedy five and a half months later five and a half months later. But while their together and on the particular two days is the height, in for me looking at this administration, where words mattered, the height of the rhetorical flourish. Another major player that you highlight in the book regarding jfks decision in the university of alabama. Well ted sorenson used to like say he was the third most powerful man in washington because r. J. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy was the second and nobody could display bobby. Bobby is a lot younger than jack. Bobby has been drafted by joseph p. Kennedy, the kennedy patriarch, to serve his brother. Bobby didnt want to be attorney general in 1961 and joe kennedy said to jack, will you make bobby your attorney general and he introduced bobby saying, i see no reason not to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law. This is the chief Law Enforcement officer of the United States. Bobby was a wonderful attorney general and Kennedy Justice is a extraordinary combination of passionate affect and drawing some of the leading lawyers and legal thinkers in america. He is more than a lawyer and hes more than an adviser to jack kennedy, particularly, colleen, over these two days. If he was a Prime Minister on other days, today hes a field marshal. Hes almost a copresident. Because what it comes to handling what is happening in mississippi, bobby is executing the moves through the department. One of his trusted colleagues is the person, the gangling and tall Rhodes Scholar who appears in the pictures, towering over George Wallace who kept in the sun while George Wallace was in the shade. Their stage managing everything, the kennedys in response to White House Historical<\/a> association, particularly meaningful to me because as was just said, it was founded by Jackie Kennedy<\/a> and in the white house 60 years ago. I had been looking for a way into the Kennedy Administration<\/a> for some time. Part of this may be hard to believe, but one of the most seminole days in my life was november 22nd, 1963, where as an 8yearold, i learned of the assassination of president kennedy. It isnt unusual for someone like me or anyone of my generation to remember where he or she was, but it did seem to me to change something. It developed for me a fascination. As i grew up, my friends were interested in captain cook and the final frontier. I was interested in jfk and the new frontier. Through my career journalist, and as a student before that, i had been looking as a washington correspondent as well for a way into the kennedy stories. Of course, colleen, there were monument alibiographies and and memoirs and Academic Studies<\/a> and scarcely a part of jfk legacy that had not been dissected and inspected and examined. I wondered if there was something new to say. And then i came upon in a sense these two days in june. Were on the eve, incidentally, of the 57th anniversary of june 10th and 11th 1963. What could i say that was new. And when i thought about it,ib said to myself, my goodness, two extraordinary speeches, one on the june the 10th, 1963 and one on civil rights, the evening of june 11th the evening of 1963. Those would be two of the most extraordinary speeches of what was a rhetorical presidency. Between them, and they are the pillars of this study, but theyre also the parenthesis. Because in between i saw an opportunity to explain, litt illuminate the presidency hourbyhour in an atmospheric way to try to give a reading who didnt know much about jfk, like the students i teach for example, who are from another generation, what it was like to be jfk, what it was like to be president of the United States<\/a> and what it was like to make the decisions he did on the two pivotal issues of not just his presidency, his decade or his generation, civil rights and nuclear arms. And when people ask me what do days did you pick, they talk about the missile cuban crisis or the bay of pigs. These are the high noon of the kennedy presidency. So when the book begins, krend kennedy is waking up on air force one and flying back to washington, d. C. From hawaii, where hes just given a speech. And only a few hours later he will be at American University<\/a> giving a monumental speech on foreign affairs. Could you tell us about the substance of that speech and why kennedy wanted to give it at though moment in time. Well, to give us some context, colleen, this is the spring of 1963, john f. Kennedy has been in office two and a half years and i think it is fair to say his record was mixed as president. His first year in 1961 he authorized the disastrous bay of pigs. He a difficult meeting in vienna where he was bullied in a sense when it meant something different. He watches the berlin wall go up in august of 1961. By the end of that year, when a reporter said to him, i would like to write a history of your first year in office, kennedy turns to him and said why would you want to write a history about disasters. By 62 things are changing. He faces down the executives of what we call then big steel that were trying to raise prices. He faces down kristoff in what is famously the cuban missile crisis and by 63 hes feeling confident about his presidency but he also knows america is in a water shed turning point, both in the height of the cold war around nuclear arms, around civil rights. But lets deal with nuclear war. I just mentioned the cuban missile crisis of 1962. 13 perilous days in the autumn of 1962 when historians still say today we came as close to Nuclear Annihilation<\/a> as we have before or since. Kennedy was shaken by that and so was nikita kristoff and kend into the spring is looking to change the channel. Both of them felt that america and the soviet union having come to this near nuclear apocalypse, ar armageddon, having to get through. The pope is involved and the editor of saturday evening review is involved and there is an attempt by both parties to come to some conclusion or to begin some process that would lower the temperature and begin a certain process of disarmament. Kennedys big gamut in the spring of that year is a speech. It will become [ technical difficulties ] over four to six weeks. It isnt a secret but done by a tightly and a tight circle of trusted aides. Kennedy does not share what hesing to propose because it is almost subversive. He doesnt share it with the joint chief of staff or go the state department or department of defense or consult the cia and he leaves out the joint chiefs of staff and congressional leadership. All people who he might have consulted giving what will become the major Foreign Policy<\/a> speech of his administration. He is dealing with it that way because kennedy is going to say things about the russians that no american president has said since the cold war. Now, 18 years of cold war. And he will, in that speech, arrive at American University<\/a> at 10 30 a. M. , as you said, colleen, having flown across america, across the pacific, nine hours, having left hawaii the night before, touching down at Andrews Air Force<\/a> base at about 8 50 a. M. Getting on marine one, choppering to the white house, and within 100 minutes of landing on that tarmac, he will be dressed in a gown and mortar, or he wont wear the cap, before an audience at American University<\/a> in northwest washington where he will make a speech in which, for the first time, hell talk about the russians in very human terms. He will compliment the russian. Humanize the russians and talk about their achievements in industry, in their economy, in science and americans are very familiar with what just happened. Very familiar because sputnik has gone up in 1957 and there is a great sense that america has fallen behind the soviets. Hell talk about the soviets or the russians contribution in the second world war, 20 million and i think it is higher than that and we learn later. Of all of the russians have done as a society, hell put aside the rhetoric of the cold war, of soft yet treachery, of the gulags, all of that have become the standard, the staple of american politicians. So hell do that in very carefully worded and carefully worded address under prepressive heat. It is 98 degrees at American University<\/a> that day. And people are wilting and they set up triage stations because people are fainting, and there hell make an iefr offer to enter into negotiations over a comprehensive test treaty. This isnt comprehensive in the end, it would be limited. But kennedy is proposing that as we as the cold war goes on and we both stockpile weaponry that could kill us many times over, why dont we simply stop testing. No no tests in the atmosphere, no tests under the ocean and no tests in space. And it is a radical idea that kennedy knows is not going to go down well with many elements in congress and elsewhere who are hardline communists. Now it is important for that jfk is no slouch when it comes to communism. People always said dont judge john f. Kennedy by his inaugural address, judge him by what was to be called the peace speech. So the rhetoric, the tone, when kennedy says in the final analysis, we all inhabit the same planet and breathe the same air and cherish our childrens future, were all immortal, hes almost universalist in his appeal. This kind of language had not been heard before the mouth of a president since Franklin Roosevelt<\/a> was dealing with stalin in 1944 and 1945. And when kristoff hears this several hours later because while the speech is broadcast live in the United States<\/a> it takes longer to make its way to moscow, he cannot believe what he is hearing. There will be a negotiation and six weeks later, just to show you as you know as a student of rhetoric, sometimes things do happen from speeches. There will be the limited Nuclear Test Ban<\/a> treaty, the most important Foreign Policy<\/a> decision and achievement of the Kennedy Administration<\/a>. And almost a few hours later, after this really transformative Foreign Policy<\/a> speech that kennedy gives at American University<\/a>, your book details about how hes pivoted two hours later to another major pressk National Issue<\/a> concerning governor George Wallace<\/a> and desegregation at the university of alabama. How does kennedy begin to prepare himself to handle this crisis and why does he think that it might be a Pivotal Moment<\/a> in civil rights history . Well, in the velocity of the 48 hours i called on this feverish 48 hours, he does pivot. He pivots on both issues. And he has to pivot within the days. So he leaves American University<\/a>, it is about five or six miles from the white house, jumped into the Lincoln Continental<\/a> that the kennedys have designed and kreennedy is using and roars back to the white house. Where, as you say, his thoughts turn from diplomacy and the cold war and nuclear arm to George Wallace<\/a> and civil rights and the university of alabama. Because down in alabama, George Wallace<\/a>, the bantamweight small man with a big complaint has announced, has more than threatened, has announced that he will refuse to integrate the university of alabama. He will refuse personally to admit two black students, james hood and vivian malone, who the court has ordered admitted to the university of alabama and George Wallace<\/a> said he will stand at schoolhouse door and prevent physically those two from entering. Now the court has ordered this. The kennedys know it and so does wallace. But wallace is determined to make a spectacle of this and the kennedys realize they have to allow them to do that. They will not bring the two students to the front door. Will admit them through a side door. But there will be a confrontation. Which will also be carried live, not necessarily on american television, but certainly on radio. And the kennedys have been preparing for this for some time. And as the roots of the peace speech are the cuban missile crisis, the roots of the civil rights speech are seven months earlier at the university of mississippi when ross barnett, the governor of mississippi, like George Wallace<\/a> is refusing to integrate the university of mississippi. These are the last of the great big public universities in the south. All others have been integrated at this point. And these are and in 1962 the kennedys have to send in the National Guard<\/a>, shades of today, have to send in the National Guard<\/a> to preserve the rights of james meredith, the rights to enter that university. It does not go well. It is actually quite a disaster. There is a 15hour riot, two people are killed including a french journalist, hundreds are injured, ross barnett has not done what he said he would do. The kennedys feel betrayed and they are not going to let that happen again. So before the showdown on the door of the university of alabama, the kennedys, led by the attorney general of the United States<\/a>, jack kennedy, his closest adviser, Robert Kennedy<\/a> has been working at the Justice Department<\/a> to ensure nothing goes wrong. They are gaming scenarios. How would they remove George Wallace<\/a> if he refused and what would happen if she does refuse, and should they hold him in acontempt of court, how will they handle that and preserve the dignity of the two black students who, after all, just want an education. And so the kennedys have been preparing for this, they have studied maps provided by the United States<\/a> forestry service, they have even positioned a boat on the Black Warrior<\/a> river in the end of campus in case a lynch mob chases those two away. There was a threat of tens of thousands of klansman outside of the gates of the university. So this is happening that day. Kennedy on monday is preparing for this. The confrontation wont take place until tuesday. But on monday, hes gaming this. And one advantage, colleen, i had in writing the story, is, and i didnt know until well into it, there was a documentary film team filming kennedy in the white house let by robert drew, one of the early filmmakers and i had access to that, to the raw footage which is held in hollywood, and there i could see, i could watch the negotiations, the consultations, that were going on both on monday after the peace speech, which is june 10th and in the morning of june the 11th. So you see how serious the kennedys were taking this and preparing for that confrontation with George Wallace<\/a>. In your book, as you explained earlier, it is about two days but you use those two days as a lens into some of kennedys most intimate and personal and most political relationships that he maintained. And one person that you feature in the book, quite extensively, is ted sorenson. Could you tell us a little bit about ted sorenson and why you decided to heavily profile him and include him in your book. Well ted sorenson, who deserves a diography of his own, and i had put aside and hope to return to, he is kennedys speech writer. Ted sorenson leaves nebraska and arrives in washington and jack kennedy leaves the house and goes to the senate in 1953. Sorenson doesnt know kennedy. Hes interviewing with Scoop Jackson<\/a>, Henry Jackson<\/a> the senator from washington and interviewing with jack kennedy. The speech writer is interviewing the senator. Ted sorenson was considered so good, out of nebraska, he led his law class, he was young at the time, in his early 20s, that he is advised to go with Scoop Jackson<\/a> but chooses jack kennedy. And there begins an association of 11 years, which i would argue is the most Extraordinary Partnership<\/a> between a president and an associate in the history of modern presidency. There isnt anything that ted sorenson wont do for jfk. He reveres him. Hes a master craftsman and a word smith. He works for jfk, who himself is a writer and values writers, had written with ted sorensons help, profiles and courage, but had begun his career after the war and admired writers ab called them his friends and made eloquence and rhetoric a center piece of the style of the Kennedy Administration<\/a>. With ted sorenson, with kennedys sense of occasion and ted sorensons facility with a pen, they were magic, the two of them. And so at this time ted sorenson is not just writing the peace speech, hes writing a number of speeches, including the speech that jfk will give in berlin two weeks later and hell be writing under different circumstances, which im sure well get to, the civil rights speech that jfk will deliver on june the 11th. They are an extraordinary combination which doesnt mean theyre friends. They dont socialize together and ted sorenson is devoted to jfk. It comes at some cost. It will destroy his marriage and ravage his health and shake at times his selfconfidence and he will never recover from the death of john f. Kennedy five and a half months later five and a half months later. But while their together and on the particular two days is the height, in for me looking at this administration, where words mattered, the height of the rhetorical flourish. Another major player that you highlight in the book regarding jfks decision in the university of alabama. Well ted sorenson used to like say he was the third most powerful man in washington because r. J. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy<\/a>, Bobby Kennedy<\/a> was the second and nobody could display bobby. Bobby is a lot younger than jack. Bobby has been drafted by joseph p. Kennedy, the kennedy patriarch, to serve his brother. Bobby didnt want to be attorney general in 1961 and joe kennedy said to jack, will you make bobby your attorney general and he introduced bobby saying, i see no reason not to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law. This is the chief Law Enforcement<\/a> officer of the United States<\/a>. Bobby was a wonderful attorney general and Kennedy Justice<\/a> is a extraordinary combination of passionate affect and drawing some of the leading lawyers and legal thinkers in america. He is more than a lawyer and hes more than an adviser to jack kennedy, particularly, colleen, over these two days. If he was a Prime Minister<\/a> on other days, today hes a field marshal. Hes almost a copresident. Because what it comes to handling what is happening in mississippi, bobby is executing the moves through the department. One of his trusted colleagues is the person, the gangling and tall Rhodes Scholar<\/a> who appears in the pictures, towering over George Wallace<\/a> who kept in the sun while George Wallace<\/a> was in the shade. Their stage managing everything, the kennedys in response to George Wallace<\/a> and Bobby Kennedy<\/a> is following everything on the phone from his office and there is a film crew to record it. So there is not only one with president kennedy in the white house, there is one with Bobby Kennedy<\/a> at the Justice Department<\/a> and one with George Wallace<\/a> and the two students in alabama. So Bobby Kennedy<\/a> is something of a show runner before the word was used. Hes a choreographer. Nobody knows how all this will unspool. But bobby has ensured that if anything he has thought of everything and nothing will go wrong if he could help it. And he does think of everything. And nothing does go wrong and that university, after georgia wallace turns away, nicholas katzback in the morning, they federalize the National Guard<\/a> and send them in and they arrive at 3 30 and at 3 30 in the afternoon, 5 30 in washington, a two hour time difference, the university will be integrated and vivian mallone and james hood who just want to join the system, will enroll at the university of alabama as students and then the thinking is what is next. And the next, of course, is the civil rights speech that night. So could you tell us a story of the speech on june 11th, 1963. How was the speech drafted and also why does kennedy think this is the time in which to include the moral argument about civil rights . This speech is written entirely differently from the careful drafting of the peace speech the day before. Its extraordinary. There had been talk of a speech the day before, that perhaps if things went well at the door and the crisis subsided, jack kennedy would make a speech. After all, the kennedys recognized a crisis and they would never let a good crisis go to waste. But really they werent persuaded they were going to do that. So at 5 30, in the afternoon on june the 11th, wednesday, jack kennedy turns to ted sorenson and said, ted, i think were going to give that speech tonight. Ted sorenson says, what speech . There is no speech. And the president said, well i booked all three networks for 8 00 p. M. So i guess there has to be a speech. Bobby kennedy, alone among the circle, alone among the circle of kennedy advisers wanted jack, his brother, to make that speech. He felt it was time. Now, many people, and the kennedys were much criticized for this gradualism on civil rights. The day before kennedy is flying back, he has early editions of newspapers when hes complying back from hawaii, and on the front page of the New York Times<\/a> is Martin Luther<\/a> king castigating kennedy for his record, he says, all youve done is offer inadequate performance for a miserable one, the miserable one being dwight eisenhower, kennedys predecessor. Kennedy is new to civil rights. When he arrives in 1961, his folk he is entirely is on the cold war. If you look, colleen, at his inaugural address, there are three words about domestic United States<\/a>, three words about human rights, human rights at home. Not even civil rights but human rights at home. Kennedy is preoccupied as the predom riders are getting on the buses in the spring of 1961 and mississippi is and alabama are beginning to tremble as the Civil Rights Movement<\/a> is beginning to gain traction and will accelerate in 1962. By 1963 when it explodes in birmingham, alabama, in may, this is considered to be the education of jfk. And remember, colleen, jfk is a white irishman from boston. He does not know people of color. He is from hyannis port and brooks town and harbor beach and the all white navy and the all white congress. He is slow and unaffect the in a sense by this Great Movement<\/a> that is convulsing america but by may he understands it. And people told me how physically revolted he was when he saw the images when weve all seen of the snarling dogs and the High Pressure<\/a> water hoses which were turned on black men, and children in birmingham and his education is confronted in a fable meeting at his apartment in new york with members of the black community, including lorraine hence bury and James Baldwin<\/a> and Kenneth Clark<\/a> the psychologist, where kennedy for three hours listens to the raw, impassioned pleas of black americans who are they just wrought in passion, they were in many places so emotional that they attacked kennedy in away that he just couldnt expect. One in particular does that. And lorraine hencebury leaves and krend is left solemn and silent and aware. And his education begins. Were now at june 10th. Kennedy realized that turning wallace back from the door he has an opportunity. He has an opportunity to Say Something<\/a> and to do something. Because the speech will not just be about rhetoric, as the speech he gave the day before was not just about rhetoric, he will, that night, introduce the Civil Rights Act<\/a> of 1963. It will become a Civil Rights Act<\/a> of 1964. He wont live to see it. The most sweeping piece of social regulation from the emancipation proclamation. And he will do it and used language not used by an american president and kennedy as he humanized the russians the day before will attempt to humanize the American Negro<\/a> as theyre then called black americans the next day and talk about the plight of a black american in 1963 and how to be a black american was to have less chance of finishing high school, almost no chance of going to college. Making less money. More susceptible to disease. And having a Life Expectancy<\/a> seven months excuse me, seven years less than that of a white person. Kennedy does this in a language so raw and stirring that people cant believe this white irishman from boston is saying that. But he does. And to use the word, i think you used it earlier, two or three times in the speech he talked about morality. But just to go back a sec, the speech was barely finished and ted sorenson is scribbling away in his office at 7 00, Bobby Kennedy<\/a> is concerned there wont be a speech. He and jack go to the cabinet room and begin work on their own version of the speech. Kennedy does something hed never done before, before he and bobby meet in the room, and the speech writer go the oval office and said how are you doing ted and ted said well ts just coming out of the typewriter right now. It was not. Ted has to scramble to find the words and by the time kennedy is sitting in the oval office, he has a draft from sorenson without a real ending, he has what he and bobby are going to do and some of it is on pieces of paper in front of him. When the light goes on, kennedy becomes absolutely masterful. And he talks in an impassioned way for 11 minutes. For 11 minutes he runs out of speech. And so he begins to improvise. If you have the speech in front of you, you could see it, if not you probably wouldnt. He finishes at 13 minutes. Hes talked about the morality of civil rights, he said it is old as scriptures and clear as the american constitution, and at 13 minutes he said good night to americans when Martin Luther<\/a> king sees that speech, hears that speech, he said to people around him, i cant believe that white man just stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park. Our last question, before we go, we have a lot of great audience questions so i want to make sure we get to them. Our last question is to do with what you learned from writing the book. There has been a lot of books written about jfk but did you learn something that surprised when you learned it in your research for the book, and did your opinion or your view point of john f. Kennedy change when you were researching and writing the book. It did change. I began as an admirer. Not everybody was or is. I got to know the investigator si herch and he was writing a book, not a plattering one called the dark side of camelot and i recall with great energy and emotion he pulled a memo from his files and he puts it in front of me and he said, here, andrew, here is my jack. And his jack was somebody who wasnt the person i was seeing, wasnt the person of honor and nobility, was somebody else. And i said, well, si, you have your jack and i have mine. And mine, i like to think, ive tried to bring to some kind of consciousness in this book. It is a jfk who changes. Who understands that two great forces pressing down upon him and this generation in 1963. The threat of nuclear arm and the arrival of civil rights. How does he get ahead of that. He finds ways and not afraid because he, after all, is a student of history. Hes someone who has read history and written history and now more than anything he wants to make history. So when he thinks about the cold war, it is not using the same rhetoric he would use before, he doesnt want to win the cold war, he wants to end it. With civil rights he wants to recast it as a moral question. No american president used that language before. So i saw in him a moral president with his flaws and as you go through this book, it is not uncritical of president kennedy, as we follow him hourbyhour, and i do. But also, colleen, it is the Sheer Velocity<\/a> of his presidency. How much he does in one day. It is not that hes chained to his desk there at 6 00 a. M. And not that he doesnt go for a nap at 3 00 in the afternoon and it isnt that he doesnt swim twice a day. But hes desperate to run out against the clock. By 1960, kennedy had several brushes with death. He didnt think he would have a long life. He certainly thought he would finish his presidency, but didnt think he would have a long life. Hes had rights ministers to him and so every day, as you look as i did, as the 48 hours and one of the advantages of being someone who could hover over two days and 48 hours and find all kinds of things that perhaps people have missed before because it is a luxury to be that close, you see just how much he was doing, his appetite tor change, what he and jackie are thinking about, not just in he thinking about Great Affairs<\/a> of state, but how could we save Lafayette Square<\/a>, which is current today, how could we redesign the white house and develop a new air force one. Why dont we send americans into space and return them to earth before the decade is out. Why dont we send Young Americans<\/a> into the developing world in something called the peace corp. Hes not going to miss an occasion to do anything and so my respect for him grew, not just in the sense of the time and morality, but in his commitment to the job. This is someone who loved what he did and it is said that not all president s love being president. He loved being president. But not for the purpose, but for what he could do with the power he had. Okay, now were going to some good audience questions. The first question is from steve. Everybody can quote a line from krends inaugural, but not from the peace speech. Do you have a favorite line in it . Yes, i do. And i may not get it all right, but i said it earlier. In the final analysis we all inhabit the same planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our childrens future and were all mortal. The russians and americans and everyone else live on the same planet, it is almost an early environmental sense of the world but they called it then universalist. I would urge everybody to go to youtube and i think we put out our pictures of jfk at American University<\/a> and listen to the speech and read the speech and i assure youll find lots of memorable lines. From marshall. Vice president johnson was observe the point of contact for the administration which deals with the south. Can you speak of any role he played during those two days . Actually, not at all. And this was a source of real agony to Lyndon Johnson<\/a>. It was said of the vice presidency that it is where you went to die. And at least up to it certainly was when Teddy Roosevelt<\/a> became vp to mckinley and then the president died and that is what happened to lbj. Lbj was not happy as Vice President<\/a> and kennedy had isolated him not so much jack but bobby who there was a raging contempt for each other. And because bobby was closer to jack, lind an johnson was shut out. Hes not part of the two days. Although, he makes a very memorable speech about 30 days before in which he uses morality and talks about the morality of the american presidency and what it should be doing for the american black. But on these two days, hes not present. And actually, hes not much present beyond the Space Program<\/a> and many abroad in this administration, which is an extremely difficult time for him, robert carol deals with this in his studies, he was shrunken and almost invisible in the Kennedy Administration<\/a>, but jack kennedy did try hard to make him feel at home but at the end of the day didnt much trust his advice on this question that he probably should have. Because Lyndon Johnson<\/a> would become the great civil rights president within a year. From rick nielson from wellington, ontario. Do you believe the assassination of mit garr evers one day after the june 11th speech was some kind of statement to jfk . Well, it was. June 11th, 1963, may well be the most singular single most important day in history of the Civil Rights Movement<\/a>. We have what happened at the university of alabama and its integration. We have jfks introduction of the civil rights speech, Civil Rights Act<\/a> of 1963. And we have in the early hours of june 12th, 12 20 a. M. To be exact, medgar evers shot from behind in his driveway, in his home in a segregated sub division in jackson, mississippi. Kennedys day of 48 hours have largely ended. Kennedy was asleep. He woke that morning to find in a sense perhaps the reason he had given that speech and the consequence of that speech. I dont think kennedy medgar evers heard the speech but kennedy understand the very raw passions, what he called the fires of frustration that are burning in American Cities<\/a> and how this kind of thing would unleash them and how this kind of thing, and he was very he didnt know medgar evers. Medgar ever had tried to get his attention. But when he heard about this, he drafted a letter to mrs. Evers and uses his office to persuade the family that medgar evers should be buried at arlington, which as a veteran he was right to. And he invited her to the white house and talked about the rights and he said to arthur schlesinger, i cant understand the south and how it thinks. He said there is an element out there that got your husband, will probably get me and five and a half months later, they did. A question from jackie. I think mrs. Kennedy was involved in restoring Lafayette Square<\/a>. What do you think she or jfk would think of the events this past week . Well, they were more than involved in restoring. They saved Lafayette Square<\/a> as we know it. Lafayette square that we see today, if you could see it today if you are able to walk there today and i understand, im not in washington, but i understand the barricades prevent you from actually entering the president s park as it was called, but it is a very elegant, 19th century array of houses. The head of the General Services<\/a> administration told jfk. Well we need to build new Office Buildings<\/a> for the growing federal government and were going to put them in Lafayette Square<\/a>. And kennedy says, really . Jackie said really . That means youll have to tear down these townhouses. And in the way kennedy did things, he simply intervenes and as it happens, as the story goes, a friend of his who was an architect called john warnic happened to be visiting washington around this time. I friend of jfks brought his brought him to jfks attention. He said what do you think, what do you think of the plans . This was an architect of some renowned. And he goes to the library and meets jfk the next day and places in the cabinet room an array of books, very visual and shows jfk what the square was, what it could be and what the plans would have turned it into and jfk thanks him and the next day the General Services<\/a> administration called him and say what did you tell the president. President now wants something new and more than that hes asked to you design it. And so john warnic describe designs very much the square we see today. There are federal buildings behind it. But the kennedys, had they not intervened in 62, there would not be that square today. As to what jfk would think what is happening today, he would be appalled. He would never, never have countenances turning himself and the white house into a fortress. It would have embarrassed him. This is a decorated hero of the second world war. Someone for whom physical courage was never in question who felt that the president should be close to the people. Who, when told by the secret service maybe you shouldnt be in an open car, said i have to be. If somebody wants to get me, theyll get up in a Tall Building<\/a> with a highpowered rifle, which is what happened. But he would have never burrowed himself in the white house, or allowed himself, i think, to gone to the white house shelter. He would have said, im sorry, im not doing it. And unfortunately we have one more question because were running out of time. The last question is from jonathan. Do you believe that the Civil Rights Act<\/a> would have passed had kennedy survived . Johnson used kennedys memory to put pressure on legislators to pass it. I believe it would have happened to, jonathan, but it would have taken longer. Lyndon johnson was far more skilled than jfk as a legislator and there was, of course, a great element of sympathy and a feeling that this was unfinished business. Lbj deserves all of the credit that he later claimed for piloting, navigating, guiding the civil rights bill to passage in july of 1964, which he signs it. But i think kennedy deserves credit as the Kennedy Johnson<\/a> bill. It had cleared committee in the house of representatives by the day jfk was killed. Jfk had made alliance not with democrats but with mid western republicans. He had reached out to them and they were supporting it, particularly in the senate. He had gone to ever dirkson and others of that ilk. I think it would have gotten through. Eventually it might have taken until 1965, kennedy would have gotten the Civil Rights Act<\/a> but full credit to Lyndon Johnson<\/a> for doing it when he did, and i dont think he could have done it without the death of jfk. Andrew thanks so much for joining us this evening. Once again the book is two days in june, it is a terrific read. I learned so much from it. And it is also beautifully written, which is an extra bonus for people who like to read books that have a little bit of pros to themselves. Youre watching American History<\/a> tv, every weekend on cspan3 explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television<\/a> companies as a Public Service<\/a> and brought to you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month were featuring American History<\/a> tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a look at programs from the Kansas City Public Library<\/a> in kansas city, missouri. We begin with a talk about the life of hollywood artist mill sent patrick, and author mallory omary discusses her book. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. And enjoy American History<\/a> tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. You have watched lectures in history lately . Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History<\/a> tv on cspan3, go inside a Different College<\/a> classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u. S. President s, to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With most College Campuses<\/a> closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch a transfer to a virtual setting engage with students. Gorbachov did most of the work to change the soviet union but reagan met him half way, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, i should just mention, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is, indeed, freedom to print and publish thing, but not a freedom for what we now refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history, on American History<\/a> tv on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. U. S. Capitol Historical Society<\/a> William Chuck<\/a> digiacomantonio discusses the inter actions between democratic and republican president Thomas Jefferson<\/a> and the seventh congress, the first a full session in the full capital of washington, d. C. He explains how political differences led them to politicize many aspects of daily life, including food, socializing and science. The u. S. Capitol Historical Society<\/a> provided video of this event. Today is the inaugural scholar series and we thought we would start with our very own chuck digiacomantonio. 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