Let me welcome you here. Not only to have this distinguished group, chuck and linda, long time active members of the community who have served the commonwealth tremendously. It is great to have kingsley here. 25 years of service to george mason. We appreciate the impact youve had. It is truly great to have everyone here. Lets get on with the show. [applause] host for those of you who do not know Kingsley Haynes, he served as the founding dean of these school of Public Policy. As an aside, we also patriot justht to susan haynes, pay tribute tonightto susan haynes as an aside, we also pay tribute to susan haynes. [applause] the faculty established and generously funded a lecture series in his name. In keeping with past events, we have invited to individuals who have also demonstrated a dip commitment deep commitment to public service. Robb was governor of virginia and served two terms in the u. S. Senate. Lyndaknown for marrying daughter of, the Lyndon Baines johnson and lady bird johnson. Some of you may remember their white house wedding, one of eight ever held there. Tonight, they have a conversation with brian lamb. May surprise you is they served together along with the former George Mason University martin as aids in the Johnson White house. Whitees in the johnson house. As the founder of cspan, today, brian is known for bringing the u. S. House of representatives and the United States senate into our living rooms in addition to his over 800 interviews with world and opinion leaders. It is my pleasure to turn things for theirian conversation about their distinction lives of celebrity commonwealth and the nation. Celebrating the commonwealth and the nation. [applause] i like to go back to 1960 6, 1967, and asked the two 1966, 1967, and asked the two of you when it really started. [laughter] charles robb we have a difference of opinion as to when we met each other. Lynda have a say. Lynda robb i dont think thats very interesting. [laughter] brian lamb it was love at first sight wasnt love at first sight. [laughter] lynda robb apparently not. [laughter] i told him already that when we get the golden day, ogitiate my contract. [laughter] charles robb i will ask you to handle that, george. Brian lamb pick up your microphone. Lynda robb i told him that ticket up and keep it on i brian lamb this was a very inadequate answer. [laughter] brian lamb your life does not like this question. Wife does not like this question. When did it start . Lynda robb each met th charles robb we each met each other on our own turf. On my turf iny washington dc. Lynda robb but i was seeing something else. [laughter] linda probably first for Members Meeting me over at her house. Neither of us are absolutely certain when that started. Were just glad that after 48 years we are going for the gold. Brian lamb you will be married 2017. Years in december lynda robb you want to talk about your participation that . Me, he said, i want you to tell a story, that not everybody has heard. He is telling me that ive talked about this a lot, in other words, and therefore try and think of something that i havent already told everybody about. So, i want to get my heavy lifting out. Aid. Young man was a social they were in the military, and they had to be single. Wanted them to be able to dance. They had high qualifications. Chuck was in the marines. There were two marines. Other year, weve had lunches with the social aides who were there. Every time, it centers around one event. This is when Princess Margaret came. [laughter] charles robb chuck wa lynda robb chuck was not there. There . Ou charles robb no. Lynda robb youll have to wait until i have another lecture. But charles was good at getting the software start. Off to a start. He was good at getting interviews with the press. Is that right . It was not official. I was in the pentagon. Charles robb i did ask brian if he would escort lyndas mother. Lynda robb getting her down was a big deal. Charles robb it was. Lynda robb let me tell you what he did for us. This is a story i havent told, me. E you counchallenged charles robb im nervous at this point. [laughter] lynda robb he wanted a story not everyone has heard. I dont think many people have heard the story at all. Withinefore the wedding, hadlast few months, brian an uncle who had a very nice mesa nearby. He invited some of the social aides, some of the younger military people, people in the white house, and the theme was everyone come as your favorite lovers. Being such wonderful lovers came i came, guess who, i as kate, kiss me kate from taming of the shrew. [laughter] lynda robb he was wonderful. Types and all. Tights and all. Charles robb there are no pictures. Lynda robb thats not true. [laughter] lynda robb there are loads of pictures. Charles robb available. [laughter] charles robb he took the easy blackt containecand came as old magic. He did not bring a date. Frankie and johnny were there. , and weharlie brown actually had lucy, i dont think we had a redhead girl. The truth is those two people got married. It was wonderful. People who several met in the white house who got married, which was nice. Brian was not one of them. Hes one of those people who was hard to catch. Costumes. Derful this started to traditions two traditions. One, we celebrated our anniversary, december 9, for all the big years. Mythe 25th year, i wore personal dinner dress rehearsal dinner dress. I was very proud i could get into it. We would show the wedding movie every year. Finally, i could never get him to come, i dont know why brian didnt want to come, i got several people to come, and to couples who came and that marrying the person they brought. Brian lamb i married your interior designer. Lynda robb you took a long time. [laughter] lynda robb you dont get any credit. Had wonderfulve costume parties. I dont know. I think he just set the right tone. Tradition. Eat, great i appreciate you introducing us. So many fun people who dressed made the party special. Now, ive told my story no one else has turned. Told. Lets move to a moreb serious topic. Married,er you got vietnam. How did that unfold . I knew you knew you would have to go to vietnam while you were in the white house. Ive beenbb requesting overseas expeditionary duty for years. I always got much more time than i asked for. I would doubt that there is anybody during the. Of the decade that i served in the marine corps that had as many good assignments as i did. Some nice things happened, and each thing seem to influence seemed to influence the next. The marines gave me better assignments. Should go back a little bit. My first assignment after quantico as i was on the north hampton. Ship on very secret which the president of the United States was prepared to fight a nuclear war. We had then, president kennedy, and the joint chiefs and the senior and ranking members of the Armed Services and intelligence committee, they all came out and spent two days at sea with us. On the second day, in the morning, all the available ships, and i think every ship that was not in dry dock that was deemed to be available on 81 manofwary had starting with the carriers and the cruisers and the battleships and the rail while we steamed up the middle and exchanged honors from both sides. It is the only time it happened magnitude, it hasnt happened in the 21st century. It was a pretty good way to start your regular activeduty. A series of good assignments after that. I kept asking for expeditionary duty. Vietnam came along, and i asked the westpac banner. I still did not have orders, but , there were aaged lot of people who said it you dont have to go, your service is complete. I said you dont have to understand, some nice things happened at quantico. I wouldnt be able to live with myself if so many of my friends who had gone over and not come back, it was for me a moral obligation, when i believed in. One i very much believed in. Aen i got engaged, i kept secret for a month. Can you believe that . Parents, theare white house social secretary, and my Commanding Officer. For a whole month, they kept it a secret until we announced. Once it was announced, there were people who said we dont have to do this. Want to go. It was important to me not only to go, but if there are any other marines in the group, you know that being an entry officer, an officer to the commander of an Infantry Company , it is the ultimate ambition. I was very fortunate, because the commanding general of the secondary position, i knew most of the generals. I didnt know my contemporaries, but i knew the generals. Myn i got to vietnam, Commanding Officer was don robertson, with whom i played golf. He was a Brigadier General with one star. Pleased, because i ew i would not gets firstraped off with the assignment. At that point, i would knew id get my Infantry Company and have the experience i wanted to have. I know there are people who have strong feelings against the war and participation in it. Goale, it was a personal and something i would never have been able to live with myself if i had not done. To an extent, we are talking about the political process. Number of people who have filled intermediate Political Office who have, in a moment of candor, told me privately, i did not go to vietnam, and because i did not go, i dont think i can continue to my ultimate ambition in politics. These are people who have held statewide office. I was sort of their person who ss theirld confe secrets in this regard. The first assignment, other than the basic school at quantico i received, that i actually requested, i did not actually get until i was engaged in that was going to vietnam engaged. That was to go to vietnam. People tried to intervene, and i told them they dont understand. Brian lamb what was your reaction, lynda, when this was going on . How difficult was it being the daughter of a president and having him go over there . Lynda robb it was terrible. Anyone who is the wife, the Family Member of somebody in harms way is going to be scared. I was very proud of him. I knew what i was getting into. I knew he was going to go. It was a big decision of course, do you wait and get married when he comes back, do you try to have a child before he goes . , if the understanding that idthing were to happen, have the child, on the other hand, being 24 years old, with a baby, how difficult that would be. I knew what i was doing. I thought it was the right thing for him to do too. Charles robb she never asked me not to do it. , of havent had se, chuck went willingly. As a matter of fact, he wrote a letter, which he gave to liz carpenter, figuring that she would give it to the press. She was saying basically, if anything happens, if im everyone towant know that i came willingly and i do not want to be ransomed. I believe in what we are doing. He just put forth all this. On it, he said to be opened in the case of my death. Liz tells the story in one of her books. I did not know it. He didnt tell me. He wrote that out and left it so there would be no confusion could his desires confusion. His desires would be known. Theres also the question of whether he would be a burden. What if he was captured and the enemy would believe they had a bargaining tool . That other people worried about that too. Chuck said he wanted to be out, right there, and he did not want the press to know where exactly he was and did not invite a lot of interviews or press. And, as a matter of fact, he was very unhappy. When he went, he was finally after serving as the commander of a rifle company, he was commissioned as a major. He had to give up his rifle company. He threw a tantrum. I dont want to do that, i want my rifle company. Those were the complaints i heard. I want to stay here. He understood that other people deserve the opportunity, to also have that very important job. Be as reputed to a bounty to capture him. He was a marine, and the marines protect their own, and they made sure that things were going to be right. But, it was very scary. They wrote me letters, and there were times i did not hear for days. M for over 30 that was very nervous. It made me very nervous. I was pregnant. My parents were worried, just like all parents are, about their first granddaughter. My sister said that i was really a burden to my father, because, with me living there with him, and of course we got married, i moved in, we rented a house, turns out, i dont know if you are all from arlington, but it was Mary Margaret whipples house. Full circle. Everything goes around twice. It was, it was a very tough time. Dad said how hard it was on seeing me get more and more pregnant, knowing that i was a representative of lots and lots of other women who were going through the same thing. I joined a group called the waiting wives. These were the wives who had husbands in vietnam. Said, id like to, for my luncheon group, have them over. Over ase, we had very large number of people who accepted this luncheon, this event, and they came over, and the chef came to me and he said, we are going to have 300 pregnant women here . [laughter] aid no. Obb i si was captains to generals wives. It was all over the spectrum. It was very difficult. Any of you, there is one famous picture of daddy. He is in the cabinet room. He is in a shirt, no jacket on. There is a big recording machine next to him. Hes there like this, and hes tening to take from chuck tape form crom chuck. He tried not to tell me anything that would upset me. He told me about some things that were very upsetting, but this one tape i told dad about. Big mistake. He said, let me hear it. He wanted everybody to hear it. This picture is a picture of daddy listening to this tape, chuck talking. , it really was a story he didntt recognize, realize he be speaking to his commanderinchief, just his wife. The people that are over in the combat environment, youve got that in the infantry unit, it is all men. Youve got men who are mutually supporting each other in a difficult situation. Everyone bands together. Fighting aseally much or more for the individual on the right and on the left. The folks back home for a short. Of time. They know what is happening. We did not have the communications we have today. It would take a. Or threeeriod of two days. You would just put your message and address where a state would go stamp would go. It was hard never knowing when ,ou might get a phone call harder than being over there knowing exactly what you were confronting. Lynda robb we did at least one time i know get a phone call, saying my son is in captain robbs unit. Snd that captain robb wa killed. Z didnt want to tell the story. They checked it out and found it was not a true story. Somehow, it got confused. There were scary things like that. Whether you like it or not, i probably would have hurt quicker than most wives or mothers would have heard if something happened to chuck. My mail did not get here quicker. You can be sure of that. I was very proud of him. He came home on his titers sixmonth birthday having never seen her before. You can imagine the expression after a strange man is addressed in front of her and she is supposed to react. She said, mama what are you doing to me at this point . Brian lamb do we get our hands on those tapes . Lynda robb no way. Ken burnscharles robb has been trying to get his hands on those tapes. The photograph was taken. It was not published until two or three years later. It now is probably as iconic as any photo. Burns has been looking for it and we havent been able to find it. If you found it, it would just be me saying, what do you want to name the baby . Brian lamb i have to tell you a story. Married and you went gotietnam, a bunch of aides together for dinner and wrote down on a piece of paper what we thought would happen to the two of you. I thought youd run for house of representatives. You fooled everybody. You ran for Lieutenant Governor of the state of virginia. Go back to that decision. How hard was that . This is between the two of us, either going to law school and giving into politics, ive got more to say on that in a moment. A naturalt of evolution at this point, and i only wanted to run for Lieutenant Governor so i could run for governor. Was a that that legitimate way to get some thing i wanted. That is the only job i thoroughly enjoyed. I got a great deal of satisfaction from it. It was based on my own experience. Ive beenasked why going into politics, and lynda said she never wanted to marry a politican. Politician. There were things that put me in front of regular audiences on a regular basis to work on issues, and after a while, you get a sense of confidence that you can deal reasonably, effectively with whatever issue is presented. You Start Talking to more audiences and it becomes easy. If you get the clinical process, you can actually exert influence on events that are important in , in my case to the commonwealth of virginia, and ultimately to the nation. You can even Impact International policy from time to time. That is something i did not start out. I was a president of the high school class. Senatelected to student in college. I ran for senior class president and loss. It was the best thing i ever happened best thing that ever happened to me. That was really a popularity contest. Getting into the state or federal or even being a local official, it is the toughest job. Official greeter tonight was in local politics for a long period time. Everyone knows you and expected to be able to respond directly to the old provide an answer. Ithin two days you go crazy with thousands of requests. For me, it was a natural evolution, getting some feedback. Youre having a very easy time as moderator. She directs most of my life. In conjunction with an assignment i had after i came i wasrom vietnam, assigned as head of the principal officer recruiting program for the marine corps. One of my duties was to go around and make speeches on college campuses. I did a fair amount of that. I also ministered the program administered the program. One of the colleges decided they were going to be able to have a demonstration against me. They had all the antiwar paraphernalia, all the signs. It was as big as any rally is. It was a big event for the folks participating. Im not sure they were all true believers. Some of them are interested in being a part of what everybody else is doing. They had all the masks on, the slogans and whatever. I decided, at this point, i was a major in the marine corps. Blues whenyour dress you go out to speak to the group, and i decided to walk on the stage without an introduction, wit