It is the only way there could be a breakthrough. It is to challenge orthodoxy. Competition is fair. People have a right to practice their religion and decide their future. These are universal values. They are not unique to americans. I believe there is no exception to the universal desire for freedom. The issues that young people are seized with all across asia in the world, corruption, land rights, pollution, food and product safety. These are all fundamentally linked to openness and transparency and greater rights and freedom. No nationle opinion, has two. The exact system we have. Has to exact the same system we have. To makeful hard significant Technological Breakthroughs where orthodoxy is the norm. The very things that have made a such a prosperous and ,nnovative nation are openness a change of ideas, Free Enterprise and liberty, all which have their downsides. As he have recently seen in boston and other places, they have downsides. Would not trade them for all the world. They never tell another leader what is in their interest or what they should do. Are thee these fundamental ingredients for any nation in the 21st century. Byre was that famous line the founder of apple when asked what do i have to do to be more and his answer was think different. You can only thing different when you can think really. Where you can breeze. We me conclude by saying game. Is is not a zerosum it is overwhelmingly in our interest that india continues to grow. It is overwhelming in our interest that china grows in wet the World Economy grow believe success is fundamentally linked to ours. The ocean both east and west, particularly to the indispensable specific nations to help us shape a prosperous future for america, for their people and for the world. Think you all so for being gracious and listening. Inc. You. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] henry waxman tomorrow on newsmakers. He speaks of the debate over the keystone xl pipeline. He also gives his views on last week vote in the house to delay the healthcare law for one year. You can watch the remarks tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. cspan. Helen thomas died today at the age of 92. In her career, she covered every president since dwight eisenhower. She worked for United Press International where she was think the first bureau manager. And samonversation donaldson about their experiences covering the presidency. We are delighted to welcome helen thomas. With you both for being us. It is a pleasure. I want to share two different examples of the questioning a president. Let me ask you whether it is no clinton or barack obama, what is Sam Donaldsons approach . To find out something that is going on and pass it onto the public. It ought to be a direct question that heres she said they can answer directly it a choose. The problem is they often do not choose. If you get a followup you have to figure it out. O easy to throw it out. You have questioned every president since john kennedy. Did they give you the answer youre looking for regardless of their Party Affiliation . No. Of course they dont. It absolutely changed the subject era let me show two examples. Verse we will begin with helen first we will begin with helen. This is in march of 2006. After that great performance youre going to be sorry. Let me take it back. Your decision to invade iraq is going to bother thousands of americans and iraqis. Every reason given publicly turned out not to be true. Why did you really want to go to war from the moment you stepped into the white house . What was your real reason . You said it wasnt oil. It hasnt been israel or anything else. What was it . I didh all due respect, not want war. To assume i wanted war is flat wrong, helen. In all due respect. Hold on for a second. Excuse me. No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that but it is simply not true. Bout the defense of this country changed on september the 11th. I doubtgot attacked, then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American People. Sam donaldson. Great question. President bush gave his best shot at an answer. You ask questions, get the president to respond. We get to ask the question we think is the best. They have to get the answer. In the public can make up its own mind as to whether he wanted to go to war or not. I think it is pretty clear. I remember during 2000 he was on our program on sunday on abc. We asked them whether Saddam Hussein really turned out to have weapons of mass destruction. I think you made up his mind a long time before became president. Lets go back to july of 1998. Sam donaldson is questioning bill clinton. You have spoke to the president about stopping. He is not stopping. Is there a point at which you were going to boo . Is this a lefty is successfully calling . What i do not think that is accurate. Let me say first of all i still believe the situation is serious. I still believe as a practical matter the only way it will ultimately be resolved is if the parties get together and resolve it through some negotiation and dialogue. I think this is primarily responsible. I think others, when they are having a good day or week on the military front, may be reluctant to actually engage in dialogue i think this is something that all parties are going to have to deal with. Since i have been on this trip i have checked an almost daily on the coast of the situation and continue to support strongly with our allies continuing nato an ambiguous statement that we should not rule out any options. I hope that is still the position of our european allies. People are dying every day. They are. On. Conflict is going both sides are involved in that. There is some uncertainty about who are willing to negotiate on it. Helen thomas. We have president s who are very gifted in talking and so forth. They never tell you the truth. We are going to take a look back at different moments of different issues. I want to begin by bringing in the students with some other questions. Were going to start at Pace University in new york. They will take a look at that history. Thank you. Thek you for coming back to class. We really appreciate it. Do you think obama is not taking a Strong Enough stand restoring International Opinion regarding the current controversy . I think he has caved. He wanted no punishment for anybody involved in those her rent this decisions. It has shamed and shop us all. I think they have caved because of congressman who cannot stand this. I think he has to do something for truth, look into the real causes and so forth. Hat motivated this is men obama. Watch president you see some weaknesses. Helen has pointed one out. A few weeks ago all of his people came forward and said we have looked at these bonus cant track contracts. It seems to be legal. Overnight there was outrage in the country. President obama said i am outraged. Here we have a situation in which a or c says lets let i cant the guy bonds. Lets move forward. Know when to be prosecuted. Last sunday. His chief of staff said we are not owing to rescue anyone. The country was outrage. The next day he said it is not the cia operatives but the people who wrote the memos. Have a really thought through these positions before they speak . We like the president. They look at different circumstances. We want presidency think it are in advance and do not just go with the wind. I think that may be a problem. These programs often set the agenda for the week. Why . What George Stephanopoulos does our program now. They get to see the newsmakers and let that how these people are doing. What can answers are they doing . Does it satisfy them . These are the same kind of people who watch cspan. Impressions their across the board. It is very important. Thank you. We want to welcome Sam Donaldson and talent. We have frank who was a at upi. Ue of hers our first question is from elizabeth campbell. Thank you. The Obama Campaign stress Government Transparency in the methods. Is there a difference in the press conferences . I should refer to helen in this. She covered george w. Bush during her years. I would rather have her talk about it. It was immediately after his girard dinners directed. It is nice to talk they. Can you follow through . I asked the few knew of any country in the middle east that has nuclear weapons. He hesitated. He said i do not want to speculate. As far as i am concerned his transparency was totally. I watched them raise bond. I thought there are some sensitive things which may be to conduct. Ve all of us know that israel has been your weapons. Everyone knows that. It is not a secret. Everybody knows. No american official has ever conceded that point. I would have felt much better if you would have said we know the that israel has nuclear weapons. We are for the nuclear zones. I want to abolish these. We have many allies. About it. Ight wantsot believe everyone to be on the table. This is the table. This is the test of his ability to say that. We will to marianna next. Holly has a question. Thank you for being with us today. In the Washington Post recently they wrote about the White House Press corps and if we should get rid of it. I think we should get rid of her. She does not do the daytoday reporting. It is very easy to sit back and criticize. Whenever points was that Investigative Journalism does not happen in the press corps. You have done that yourself. You probably find all with that. They sit around and wait to be cold things. As one if you could respond to that. It is not true. It is true that a lot of our job is to listing the press secretary. We do not have the ability to go everywhere in the white house. He may or may not return our phone calls. That is true. On the other hand, without holding their feet to the fire she would smith out news. One of the things i learned to do early on was to watch where helen went. It in the morning she there she was waiting for the press secretary. . O we break stories that is not the kind of beats. It is not sure that they cannot come up with something that they want to know. That happens all the time. It was only there when it does not have to be, rain, snow, blizzards, everything else. He knew the important thing was we had to keep an eye on the president when he is in public. The best time to get information is around 7 00 in the morning or at the end of the often the agenda is eating said. It is something that breaks out. At the end of the day they give you a left. You can go home. They can sniff that maybe he should stay and another half hour. There are things happening behind the scene. It is very interesting. It is important. I think capitol hill is the best in town. It is a 12 ring circus every day. Could breakthere he stories if you just stuck around. We did not do as much in debt for the watergate exposure. You do not have the time. Youre jumping around and so forth. I did think it is a valid point do not haveondence it. They have 18 reporters on that story. Theing in to try to find truth about watergate. Quick the advantage, we are able to go back to cspan archives. We will go back to your question. I want to go back to one of the most significant speeches delivered by john kennedy at the American University on the nuclear arms race. We will watch that in cu and coe back. Asi think if he is that bad a necessary, rational end of men. I realize that this is not as dramatic as the pursuit of law and frequently the words of the pursuant fall on deaf ears. We have those urgent task. Some says it is not useless to speak of world law or disarmament. Until thee useless leaders of the soviet union adopt a more like and attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. I also believe that we must re examine our own attitude as individuals and as a nation. Our attitude is essential as theirs. Whoy thoughtful citizen wishes to bring peace should begin by looking in with it by examining their own attitude and the possibility for the soviet union. Or the cost of the cold war. That was one of the most really and speeches kennedy ever gave. He said america would never start a war. I remember it. I was there too. The last paragraph i invite people to find speech on the internet and read it. As a whole world knows, the United States will never start a war. How times have changed. Johne assassination of kennedy, this generation does not remember what happened in november of 1963. What did it mean for the country at that moment in time . It was to matt it for the whole world, not just the United States. In deepest africa people were crying everywhere. He represented great hope for everyone. It would never be the same again. For many people john kennedy was the barack obama for us. Useful, vigorous, at least we thought so, beautiful wife, new beginnings. Let us begin again. Alliance for latin america. Peace corps. Man on the moon. Ng i understand when you people look at barack obama and go gaga. I mustnt all people do not either. Is for informal dinner at the we canouse. Do you aint land do you think we cant land a man on the moon . They say we never say no to a president. Is this guy not . September 11 two thousand one, parallels to what it meant to the nation. They are both dramatic events. President have been assassinated before but not recently and not let john kennedy. This is the first time we had really been attacked. Other countries have lived with socalled terrorist tactics. Terrorism is not a country. It is a tactic. It is terrorism. We were attacked. They are rolling out like hornets. Civil liberties. Forget we are going to do it. Now were coming up to your senses as a more realistic way to keep ourselves safe and to keep our values. It is the ultimate safety for this country. The world sees our values are different. Lesson that question . Thank you. The White House Press corps and journalists are the between the people and the government. Government is more likely to act if the people want something particularly. The responsibility to help set the president policy . I think we have three day help every day. It is up to the people to react. The student is very perceptive. That is how our country works. Is a relatively weak office. Article one is a legislature. They want the legislature to be said cream. To be supreme. It has become gigantic in the sense of form policy and going to war. If a president can marshal public opinion, that is powerful. The democrats were basically against. Its what them. That is the role power of the president. Rs part of that came two yea after john kennedy gave the speech about americans not starting a war. Lyndon johnson was just reelect did in one of the biggest pick trees of any president. This is an excerpt from april of 1965. Lyndon johnson try to reverse a pledge. And then four months later he said this. Ive come here to review once again the views of the american government. Americans and asians are dying for our world where each people may choose its own path to change. This is the principle for which our ancestors fought in the valleys of pennsylvania. It is a principle for which our sons fight tonight in the jungles of vietnam. Vietnam is far away from this campus. We have no territory there. The war is very dirty and brutal and difficult. Born into ang men america with promise are on the steaming oil. Painful we take this nation . For the sakepower of the people so far away. We fight because we must fight. If we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure. Histhe war kill of killed presidency. He was hoping to run a ke again. Hey lbj, how many kids did you kill today . Every day hundreds marched in front of the white house. No more. Youre seeing these protests. Oh yeah. He inherited our involvement in vietnam. John kennedy extended it. Kennedy told number people when am going to it i withdraw from vietnam. It is a loser. Jonathan comes into power. In those days the fear of communism was so pervasive we had just emerged from the Joan Mccarthy era. When Joseph Stalin was in charge, we better be afraid of someone like him. Lyndon johnson thought that if he tried to withdraw from vietnam sensitive lighting from hughcommon yes communist. Ot be reelected last time listen to Lyndon Johnson talk to Richard Russell on the telephone. Richard russell was the great senator from georgia. Listen to the tape. You take this conversation. I know we cannot win in vietnam but i do not know what to do. This anguish president said. What he did was just get deeper and deeper. It destroyed him and almost the country. The generals told him what he wanted to hear, that they were winning. Thats all of asia would go. Do you know something . Ho chi minh had his forces there. We were able to carve out south vietnam. John foster dulles created the country free. The vietnamese wanted to live together. When people want to live together you cannot stop them. Want to live together you cannot make them. We control the rest of the way the people want to live. They were all falling apart. Was the dictator died they all ran off and killed each other. We stopped ethnic cleansing eventually. The point of a bayonet never does it. They told the secretary of state, he said when i die there will be no yugoslavia. He was right. He was holding them together with an iron fist. Some of the students at george mason university. George estrada has our next question. You earlier mentioned about not compromising our principles. Thet now with pakistan and taliban in that whole situation in afghanistan, there are stock that we might negotiate with of the taliban. When the compromise some of our principles . Given the circumstances that we are now involved, should we consider that compromising our principles and sacrificing other people would put us in a bad situation . I do not want to throw anybody to the wolves. Look. I him for helping people he wants to allow women to go to school, hold jobs. I am for people who want to live like we have. We cannot make them do it simply because we think it is the right thing to do. I do not know what to do about afghanistan. The soviet union tried it. I want to try it. Good luck. I fear