Tom standage, writing on the wall social media the first 2,000 years is the book. Thank you for being with us. We will talk about the future of the Republican Party. [applause] i stay in the wings and do not come out too often. This is quite unusual for me. I do want to thank all of you for your friendship and your loyal support and for the planning of this wonderful evening for me. I shall remember it always. And thanks to the young people for this great welcome. Pat nixon, the first republican first lady to address a national convention, miami, 1972. She went from a hardscrabble background to the white house. As first lady, she traveled more widely than anybody before her, volunteering was her issue, and was a chief supporter to the political debts and political a visor to her husband. Good evening. Tonight, we will tell you the story of pat nixon. Although her time in the white house was really eclipsed by her husbands resignation from office in the wake of watergate. We will tell more of her record and learn more about her life before the white house, what she did while she was there, and her legacy. Here are two guests to tell her story. A president ial historian and the former head of the Nixon Library, and a biographer and history professor of texas state university. Welcome to both of you. We will start with a perception of pat nixon. She is described in your book as an enigma. What should people know . What are a couple of things about pat nixon they would be surprised to learn . She was fun and funny. People who knew her talked about her sense of humor. She was adventurous. As a young woman, she worked for a hospital in new york city and would go out with the patients who had tuberculosis and slide down the hills. It is the kind of thing she loved to do. She was a working woman and a pioneer. Her wit was strong and at times biting. She did not always take herself seriously. She probably did not want to be first lady. During her time, the media sometimes referred to her as plastic pat. One of our viewers on facebook referred to that in the conversation we have going. He said was because she always smiled to never conveyed any emotion. Is that really where the name came from . If so, what was going on . The name came from early on during the first controversy she had to deal with during the checkers speech. The cameramen, there was only one camera so he told her, we never know when we will, on to you. Just keep a smile on your face. She kept that smile the whole time. There were other reasons she was holding that smile as well. That got started, an idea she was a rigid personality. Afterwards, it just kept coming back to that. What were the Public Opinion of her life . She was much more popular than nixon. A lot of public felt sympathy for her, particularly as the demonstrations got raucous outside of the white house because of vietnam and watergate. I wanted to add something to what mary said. It is important when we think about her image to think about how much of it she did not control. This was a very the modern white house, the Nixon White House in many ways was modeled with a modern white house in the television age. The white house decided how the president ial family would be use or not. I hope we get into this a little more. Pat nixon did not have the opportunity to control as much as she would have liked. The way in which she was presented to the american people. Was this precedence setting . The First White House to go to this extreme with the media . No. The Kennedy White house had thought a lot about jackie. The very fact that jaclyn kenny went to dallas, she was going to dallas because the president knew he needed her help in what was supposed to just the political tour. This was not the first time. Jacqueline Kenny Kennedy was the first. Eleanor roosevelt thought about her public role, but she pushed that. She is unilaterally responsible for that. The Roosevelt White house pushing her in front. I think Jackie Kennedy was the first lady that is part of a media strategy. Pat nixon did not play the role, the public role, that the white house wanted her to play. I think it goes further back. I think the Republican Party used her during the eisenhower, when she was second lady, and wanted to use this image of and pat as a young couple that mirrored america at the same time, two young children. The Republican Party actually helped to create the image of her as an ideal how to that house life. When she was there, they could not stop it. It took on a life of its own. Do you think they were doing the same thing with mimi . Mamie was so much older. I think pat had to fill in with mamie. Mamie was more the grandmother. She was not making public appearances the way that pat was. They needed pat to be a perfect housewife who could do all of these things at the same time. It is the flip of what we learned with Lady Bird Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy. Jacqueline kennedy did not campaign very much later. The older and less glamorous was out on the campaign trail making a lot of appearances in setting the image with the public. How did she feel about sitting on the stage when her husband gave the speech . She hated it. It was one of the most painful experiences of her life, and experience she would that in some way to find the way the two of them related to politics. Pat was a very private person who did not want anyone to know about her private life. You have her husband telling all of their finances, what money they owe, that she did not have a further code. A fur coat. For her, this was a horrible experience, whereas, for her husband, he celebrated that every year. Let me get into some video. Here is former president nixon talking about his life in an interview in 1983. She is probably one of the most intelligent women ever to be first lady. Political discussions, she does not say much, but she can always go to the heart of a matter. She has got an enormously good intuition. The average person thinks of her as somebody who went along for the ride and so forth. I am sure some of them did not believe it. If she had been the wife of a liberal, my god, they would have canonized her. Because she was my wife, they had to find ways to knock her. It is remarkable, despite the fact she has not had a particularly positive press, people remember her as being dignified. They remember her as one devoted to her family. They remember her, too, as one she may not have worn designer gowns, that she was blessed with natural beauty. The ladies in the press, some of the men as well, criticize mrs. Nixon cruelly. This hurt her ear it should not have, but it did. She should have considered the source. They said, why did she not make speeches . It shows she does not have a mind of her own. She knows you do not have two voice is out of the white house. She had ideas she expressed privately. Another thing that shows, the critics, what they would not understand or appreciate at all, she was selfassured and self confident. She did not have such a big ego that she had to go out and prove she had a career in her own right. What was important to her was the career of her husband. We hear a lot of criticism by the former president that much of pat nixons perception problems were nonfriendly media. That is not surprising. That is how he viewed his own perception problems. Julie has written a Remarkable Book about her mother. First of all, the fact a president ial child writes about a first lady is interesting. It is not just about pat, but the family. It is a very revealing book. There is a line in the book where julie talks about how her mother was really involved in discussions of the vice presidency. The discussions all happened for as long as they lived. So, she said, my father decided he wanted to keep his personal and private lives as first his personal and public life, more separated. It was Richard Nixons decision that she not be as involved in discussions about policy. He plays a role in deciding she is not as much a part of the white house as she might otherwise have wanted to be. We would like very much for you to be involved in our conversation this evening. You can tweet us. You can reach us there. Conversations underway. We also have a facebook page. There is discussion where people are posting comments. We will work our way into as many of the comments as we can in 90 minutes. And then our phone lines. We will get to your call throughout the program. Speaking of the media, in 1968, pat nixon was interviewed by gloria steinem, the feminist who was writing an article in the new york magazine, she asked pat nixon what woman in history she most admired. Here is what pat nixon had to say. I will use that as a segue to talk about her upbringing. She began life she did not begin life as patricia nixon. What was her birth name . Selma catherine ryan. Her father called her when he came home, he wanted to call her patricia. He said she was his same track that his st. Patricks baby in the morning. Her friends, in school, called her thelma. In high school, they all called her betty. When she went to college, she enrolled herself as pat nixon pat ryan. That was the first time she consciously renamed herself. As a child, she had a hard time. Her mother died when she was not quite 13. Then her father died four years later. She kept house for her brothers. They lived on basically a hardscrabble farm. They were always working. She had jobs sweeping out banks. She worked to sweep floors. All kinds of things because they needed money to pay the bills. They had to pay their fathers medical bills. She wanted to go to college and they could not afford it. Her brother sent her. Right. Another way she made money, she drove a couple across the country. They paid her to drive their car across the country. She will visit her fathers relatives on the east coast, went and visited them, and then one of her aunts was a nun who worked at the hospital and gave her a job. It was the middle of the depression so she stayed on her own in new york city. She worked all different kinds of jobs in the hospital. In the lab, a radiologist, all kinds of things. She needed work. The deal was she would get a return ticket. She did not use it. She decided to stay. There is a real story, an american story, of someone who comes from nothing and decides an education is her ticket out. It is important because it belies the plastic pat. This is a woman with a great deal of gumption and drive, who knows what she wants, and wants the world. She is really interested. She comes from southern california, and Agricultural Park outside of los angeles, and she wants new york. She gets an opportunity to go and she stays. She only comes back when her brothers tell her they have raised enough money so she can go to college. Throughout the program, we will visit the Richard Nixon library to learn more about pat nixon. Here is our first stop. Here is a little bit more about pat nixons early years. She grew up with very humble beginnings. He spent a lot of time working at the farm. Here is an account from 1931. A farm account book. She was 19 years old when this was happening. She talks about how, at the end here, total deposits, made this none made since a year ago, january. This shows you how difficult it was to make a living. You barely made ends meet. As a teenager in the depression, mrs. Nixon took on a lot of jobs, from becoming a pharmacist, a personal shopper, she became a model, and she would also do call casting. She actually got on the list from paramount pictures, a corporation, to be annexed to and films. She also, as part of this whole jumping from job to job, she also had a steamboat in a film from 1935. You could see her dancing in the film. Her speaking role was cut out. It was also interesting. Her stage passes. This stage past shows her name and the restrictions on what had to go through. Eventually, she persevered enough that she had enough money to take her degree and became a teacher. How did she need Richard Nixon . She was teaching at the high school. She loved theater and had been throughout high school and college. There was a Community Theater production going on. One of the older teachers suggested she go try out. It was not just a suggestion. She got the idea she should. She liked it and went to do it. Richard nixon, a young lawyer, was trying to make connections every way he could. He was also trying out for the show. They were both there at the same time. He says he fell in love with her at first sight. He offered to drive both she and a friend home. He says in the memoirs he asked her to marry him the first night. The friend said it took him three Times Driving back and forth. He was very persistent and ran after pat. She held him at arms day. She did come home and tell her roommate this guy had really put the moves on her and she was not sure she would go out with them, but that she thought he could probably be president some day. You both spent a lot of time. There is so much speculation about the partnership between the two of them and the source of their couplehood. What was it about them that attracted them to each other . I would think and mary will know this better, because i do not think they are quite as close in the president ial years, it is their intelligence. They are both highly intelligent. They are both quite determined. Richard nixon could not walk over pat nixon. I think that both drew them together and, at times, i think it pushed them apart. But there are some similarities in their characters. They both have strong character. They both came from backgrounds in which there had been problems. Nixon had a brother who died. Past parents died. I think they both have a sense of tragedy in their lives. I would add ambition. They both wanted things. Pat was not going to be happy staying. She wanted to see the world. I think she saw that, that this would not be something she was not going to have to stay where she was. This is something that, as you think about first ladies, particularly modern first ladies, they are very driven, ambitious, who, in some ways, have moved beyond they are pioneers for women in their era. They decide to submerge their own ambition. I think that is true to a certain extent. I also think she also sees him as, because they share ambition, and they will go places, i do not think she sees it as, she is giving up her teaching career, as much as, this will allow her to do Something Else. She is not sure where she wants to go, but she wants to go. She wants to do things. I do not see it as, she is just giving up everything as much as, i have to be married because if i do not, i will have problems. This guy will be a mover. I just want to ask. You pull up to talk about really interesting letters she writes after the war. Isnt she sort of hinting . She writes the letter that she wrote when he is getting ready to come home. While he was overseas during world war ii, she was living in san francisco. She wrote him a wonderful letter in which he said she had missed him terribly. A row to one another every day during the war. She said that if she had not been so worried about him, she wouldve had a wonderful time during all of this because she was on her own and had money. She was in a wonderful city. So that he should be careful when he came back and love her very dearly, because otherwise, she would regret she was giving up everything. She knew what was possible. She did know there was another life. She was also, i think, aware of the fact that there was a balance. I think she was always kind of aware of how much she would be able to do it she did not have him back. She wanted him to know he needed to Pay Attention to her. We have a video of her their courtship letters. We will show that to you next. The president and mrs. Nixon began courting in 1938. They met in a play called the dark tower. Each audition for a separate role and that is how they ended up going out on their first date. She initially put him off for a while. She was not very interested in his romantic advances. He said to her, i will marry you sunday. She sort of laughed. They were married in 1940, two years later. What we have here is a rare treasure. These are some of the letters the president and mrs. Nixon wrote to each other between 1938 and when they were married in 1940 that show their courtship. These are incredibly rare, recently released in 2012. This is a letter written by president nixon to mrs. Nixon. Not dated. He writes to her, dearest heart, lets go for a long ride. Lets go to the mountains on weekends and read books in front of fires. Most of all, lets really Grow Together and find the happiness we know is ours. My love to thee, dear heart. What this letter shows us a romantic side of a young president nixon which was not public before the letters were released. Mrs. Nixon writes, gee, i guess im a lucky irishman. The surprise was such fun. Best of all was knowing you would remember. Thank you ever so much. She replies with a kind note and includes a shamrock. This one, she is being a little friendly and flirty. She writes, a social note, romantic . In case i do not see you before, come early wednesday at 6 00 and i will see if i can burn a hamburger for you. A new picture every few minutes. You see here, a letter also not dated. She writes, i will be here for a short time, shall i see you . She says at the end, it must be the hour. Yes, sir rick warrem says so. That was a clock present nixon gave to mrs. Nixon when they were courting. Here, she is cute and playful at the end. She says, sir rick has the nicest face. I like him so much. It is a great story and a side of the nixons the public does not know too much and is not familiar. That is why the letters are such treasures. Adrian asks on twitter what religion pat nixon was since president nixon was quaker. She converted to quakerism but never really practiced any religion. Neither did richard once he kind of out grew once he went to the military. He was a quaker but not really a practicing quaker. He proposed to her on the beach in california, is that correct . I do not know ive ever seen anything about that. That is only important because it later became the place of their home. Right. I do not remember anything about where he proposed. We will say, a possible record. Lets go to phone calls. Next is nick in palm springs, california. You are first up on our callers tonight. What is on your mind . Good evening. This is a wonderful program. Thank you to cspan for it. I have a comment and then a question. Firs