and the members of my generation significantly, and i am really proud to see all of that, and not just members of my generation, and all young people in general, giving out a run for office, especially here in new hampshire because there is so many of us. >> voices from the states on the 50s capital tour. >> next on american history tv, we will hear from some of the senior campaign advisors that worked on richard nixon's 1968 bid for the white house. they took part in the discussion at the national archives in washington dc earlier this year. >> i am particular happy to welcome so many veterans of the nixon administration who are here for this nixon legacy for a, the greatest comeback, richard nixon in the 1968 election. sunil -- some of you have 40 been participant earlier nixon forums, and this is kind of a gathering of the klan.

the last time we was altogether was in october 2016 for the opening of the new nixon library exhibit, and now i can welcome here to the national archives. the first legacy form was held here in january 2010 and over the last eight years, there has been more than 30 of these forums covering all aspects of president nixon's consequential administration, and most of them have been here in the mcallen theater, and most of them have been covered by c- span, and is good to see that they are with us here again today. all of these have been recorded by the nixon foundation and is an important part of the historical record available for students and scholars in -- and many interested individuals on the website of the national archives and the nixon library and the nixon foundation. porn topics have covered both foreign and domestic policy as well as managerial revolution

that nixon ushered into the west wing. also, the creation of the modern executive office of the president. this afternoon, we are going back into the pre-presidential history of the campaign of 1968 that lost the nixon presidency. it brings together men and women who served in the nixon administration to discuss some of the particular issues and programs that they worked on in the day. the conversations are complemented and supplemented by materials, documents, tape recordings, videos, and photographs from the nixon library archives. the historians and in particular future historians, this kind of resources all but invaluable. to be able to watch and hear the people who is making history describe exactly how it was made is a unique opportunity. this is the kind of backstage back story that the document simply cannot convey, but that

is no less important in order to understand and appreciate what really happened and why. many years in history and they believe their year is the key that opens the door to everything that follows. reason, books have argued for the significance of 1913 as we was on the eve of the great war in 1920, and has six former presidents joined battle in the white house and 93rd i was a countdown to war, and 1944 was the year that fdr changed history. i think when you're that everyone agreed is 1968, whether it is seen as a flashpoint or a watershed or a tipping point, there is no question that the issues, the events, the personalities and the struggles, and the trends and not to mention the mistake, made 1968 a year unmatched for other years in history.

that was not only here but all around the world. so, 96 it was a presidential year and that campaign reflected all of the years unsettled and unsettling aspects including riots, assassinations, bombings, and communication in generational gaps. americans dug in on different sides of most issues. i would not even asked why anyone would want to be president in year like 1968. richard nixon did and on the morning of november 6, his election as the 37th president was confirmed. 1968 was awarded a year of the 50th anniversary of nixon milestones and january 31 mark the 50th anniversary of when he announced his presidential candidacy. march 12 march the sixth anniversary of his decisive victory in the new hampshire primary. last month on august 8 was his

sixth anniversary of his memorable acceptance speech at the republican national convention and -- in miami beach. the nixon library, which is part of the national archive system of presidential libraries, will be celebrating many of these anniversaries and if you have the good fortune to find yourself anytime soon, i recommend a special exhibit that opens at the nixon library last month, and vote like your whole world depended on it, the story of the 1968 election. we are honored by the president of the foundation and the president and ceo who is with us here this afternoon. said i will introduce jeff sheppard --

>> i will introduce jeff sheppard who will moderate this form and. >> jeff joined the domestic counsel staff at the nixon white house, and he served five years, and another year as associate director of general government in the ford white house. the author of the secret plot to elect kennedy president, and the real watergate scandal, for the past three decades he has arranged and hosted reunions of the nixon and ford staff and 2010 has produced the nixon legacy series. [ applause ] >> it is a pleasure to be here. we have done these forums in sponsorship with the national archives and david and his

people have been and been tremendously helpful and we are happy to be here again. the public life of richard nixon, the highs and the lows, incredible highs and incredible lows, and we are here today, which is the 50th anniversary of the 1968 election, to talk about one of the highs, and to celebrate one of the highest. it doesn't mean that we are not mindful of the lows, but that is going to be a topic for other forums. for today, we have gathered four people who worked on president nixon's campaign, then, richard nixon's campaign, and they are going to share their memory. it is a wonderful group, and we are going to go in order of how long they knew richard nixon. so ken, ken is a recent one, and ken was a researcher taking

time from columbia law school when he was a law student. emily and her husband martin formed the domestic advisory group and marty flew with the campaign and emily ran the homebase doing all the hard work. pat mccann requires no introduction at the is a fantastic guy, and joined nixon way before the campaign, and finally, we get to the white chapin, -- the white chapin -- dwight chapin. what we are going to do is start with each of us explaining to us how they met richard nixon and how they came to be a participant in the campaign. jim, we will start with you. >> actually in 1962 as a freshman at university california at santa barbara, i

cornered him at a rally that he did, and he gave me some debate pointers. then in 1967, as a second year law student at columbia, i saw an article in the new york times with a sample of this fella on the stage, pat buchanan and marty anderson and the white chapin -- dwight chapin, and nixon was always a political junkie and decided i might like to work on that campaign if they let me. so i wrote a letter to mister nixon and said i would like to work on your campaign, and my wife worked at 30 wall street, and she hand-delivered it to somebody at the reception desk

there. about 2-3 weeks later, i got a letter from this guy over here pat buchanan and said let's come in for an interview. so i went in to see him, and the first he thought i was a rockstar spy and thought i was from columbia. i may have had a beard at this time, but i cannot recall. he asked me a lot of tough questions and some i did not answer to prayer in any event, he said why don't you come in and i started out as a volunteer answering correspondence. every chance that i got, i did research, and marty figured that i might be able to help them out, and in may of that year, he said why don't you come in and work full-time. starting in june, i started working full time at the

headquarters, >> you talk your way into the campaign. >> what i was doing was really boring. i did research and ids quotes and whatnot. and emily, how about you and how did you come to richard nixon's attention? >> i got involved with the campaign basically because my husband got involved. he was a graduate student at columbia, and he was professor at columbia, and we met someone for dinner and found the law firm of nixon and said with your views, you should be working for richard nixon. so, i ran down and got in touch and recruited martin, and the first thing that martin did for

nixon, one of the first things, and it is dated july 4 of 1967, is to make the argument for abolishing the military draft and moving to an all volunteer force. martin, like hundreds of thousands of other young men in the country, had dealt with the issue of getting drafted. he had joined rotc at dartmouth and went on to be a member, a reserve member of the security agency. >> i am going to interrupt for just a second because i neglected to move the slide. you are going to start to see size of these people from 50 years ago. here is emily. i apologize that i did not

bring this up, but this is emily hard at work on the campaign. >> supposed to, but i don't know the convention and i did a lot of things in the campaign, and ken and i did a lot of things. we did research and we responded to request to to work, and we got that smack to -- to tour, and we look things up and we was in a difficult environment for communication. that is basically how i got involved. i had actually, and i cannot blame this entirely on martin because i voted for richard nixon in 1960, and i worked in the other campaign. it with a natural. >> what martin and kim did and we are going to jump ahead is lit -- a little bit, and toward the end of the campaign, nixon

was accused of campaigning and not taking any substance positions. the research staff was asked to put together under tremendous stress all of nixon's positions, and this picture shows president nixon really with two volumes, and emily has another one, and it will be on the exam and you have to be able to remember it.[ laughter ] >> this proof and what was fantastic was that the staff was able to pull out all of this information from previous speeches and previous campaign stops. >> let me tell the story jeff. [ laughter ] >> the story is this. having being accused of not having any position on the issues, at one point, mister nixon said i have taken positions on 147 hard issues.

they say where did he come up with that number? that is when the staff went into full panic mode and said, >> we ended up with 227 issue, both foreign and domestic. >> we worked 96 hours and produced this document. >> bill casey, who was working with the nixon campaign, on the printing press that printed it. we had books and we got the request on sunday and we had the books on friday. >> fantastic. >> we passed them out to the press and said here. [ laughter ] >> we moved to pat, >> we had more than 227 issues.

>> let me start with the picture. we are going to get to pat's book in a minute, but we have this wonderful picture of pat and dwight, and they look like teenagers. look at them? dark hair and in charge. >> i first met richard nixon in 1954 i believe, and i was a caddy on the caddy bench and in the afternoon when everybody else had gone out with their bags, and the deputy pro put a plaid bag on the caddy bench, and it was that of the vice president of the united states, and he looked at me and my buddy and we was the last two guys, and he said come on. so i moved around that entire 18 holes with a golfer named richard nixon who had no resemblance to arnold palmer. [

laughter ] >> that with an expense i told my family and friends but i got home that afternoon. 10 years later, i was an editorial writer for the st. louis globe democrat and spent three and half years there. i wanted to get involved in the politics of 1968. i have been pro goldwater, and that ended in a disaster. richard nixon was speaking in illinois, and there was a cocktail party after his speech in a place who was a cartoonist for his paper and it is on, i went into his kitchen and around midnight, i got an invite and went up to nixon and said if he was going to run in 1968, i would like to get aboard earlier. he said first, we have to win 1966. he called around and invited me to new york and i went up there for a three hour interview with nixon from 3:00 p.m. until six clock p.m. at his law firm, and he said i'm going to hire you for one year and we will see how well

it goes. i want you to write a column for me and do all of this mail and get rid of these files and mail. i want you to handle the press him what we did was we spent three hours a day talking to richard nixon almost everyday, and we sat in the law firm and he would call me and that i want to know if i had to practice law pat, i would be minimally dead in two years, and physically that in four years. he loved politics, policy, issues, and personality. he couldn't get enough of it and wanted to know all about the conservative movement. he was very young in his mind, and i traveled with him and that campaign in 1966, and he had something like 35 states and 80 congressional districts, and at the end of it, the republicans had the greatest victory since 1946 and nixon have been the guy who had did all the work out there, and at the end of the campaign after we goading johnson, and one of

the statements we got in the new york times, johnson physically attacked nixon four days before the election in a savage attack, a personal attack and called him a chronic campaigner and announced them, and the cameras came to richard nixon, and dixon was invited all of the sunday shows and he responded very graciously and said i understand how a candidate can be as tired as a president is. he referred back to his own press conference, but it vaulted nixon up into real prominence and a potential presidential candidate. by the time november and december was over, governor romney was running first, and nixon was a close second, and we came to the grassroots of the party, nixon already had it. >> and testing. we go to dwight, -- fantastic. we go to dwight, and we have

pictures of him alone. >> they didn't use them all obviously. [ laughter ]>> in 1962, mister nixon was going to run for governor as he had lost in 1962 kennedy. i did have a job that summer and my dad said i had to have a job, so i went down to the headquarters and was interviewed by a man who took me down the hall and introduce me to a young crewcut guy 33 years old by the name of bob halderman. my life change and at that moment, but i didn't know it at the time, that i became a field man in southern california for ventura and santa barbara can only -- county, and i am 21 years old and i am out setting up campaign headquarters working with the women's network that we had and in those days, we did precinct speeches and everything else. we lost and i could not believe

it. i drove around los angeles all day solving and my -- sobbing -- sobbing, and my life was destroyed. i still have not graduated from college, but my life was over. i was hired and what was intriguing is that he would take his monthly trips back to new york were nixon had moved, and come back and tell stories about how nixon was plotting for his comeback. this was in 1963. in 1964, having decided that he was going to weigh in with goldwater, i went to the convention and helped out polls and in 1966, i had moved to new york and upon arrival in new york, i contacted rosemary woods and said i would like to volunteer and i went down to 20 broad street after work at night and answered correspondence. pat was in the

office near her and there was a desk as pat identified in this book that patricia ryan nixon had used when she came in. but when i would go down in the evening to answer correspondence, my tutor was mrs. nixon. she really got to know me, and i got to know the staff, and in 1966, i became an advance man and as pat described that incredible campaign were nixon is out there on the stump for everyone, and it happened to be that the day that lyndon johnson called nixon a chronic campaigner, the first stop after that incident was mine in waterville, maine. i had mike wallace coming in and he had just interviewed axon, and we tried to slow the presidents point down in order to get wallace there. it was a big deal at the time.

then it converted into nixon going on to national television and the rnc gave him one half of an hour time, and it was a huge thing. >> nixon went in there to be interviewed by wallace, and he said that, this into johnson's press conference and tell me what he says. so nixon came up and got in the plane and said you are not going to believe what he has been calling you for 10 minutes. so nixon handled it very well and said sit down and tell me what he said. we gave him the details of what he said and mike wallace found out and took a jet, >> he charted a jet to get ahead of the other plane. we had to slow your plane down in order to get the wallace people there. so needless to say, my juices was flowing by this time, and that was in november, and in december, bob halderman said you are going to get a call from rosemary wood, and she

called and i went down, and mister nixon interviewed me to become his personal a. -- aid -- aide. i joined his staff as a personal aide the same date that our good friend ray price joined the staff, and i never missed one domestic trip with mister nixon from that time through until when he was elected president. said let me say that when you came aboard at the same time, charlie came aboard, and shelley was with richard nixon in his vice presidential office in 1959 and 1960, and travel the campaign and worked in the 1962 campaign. he traveled in the campaign for goldwater in 1964 all around the country, and came back in 1967, which is when i met her when she arrived, and we was in

that office with pat ryan, who was mrs. nixon, and people would call and say i know mrs. nixon, and please put me through to the vice president. mrs. nixon would say that i am sorry, i cannot put you through. date was talking to the future first lady. [ laughter ] >> the other thing is that we had rose, pat, and myself in this one little office and right outside with shelley, and then in the office adjacent to mister nixon's office was a very important person who had arrived with his pipe and so forth, and that was john mitchell. we was all in the corner there. >> we was on the senior partners floor. >> we knew so much about law that it was great to be on the senior floor. >> we found a slide in if you was here for the pictures before, there is a much better version of this they came up in color that would enable us to

see this. but talk about the speechwriters who are in the slide. >> the speechwriters basically, i came aboard and was doing excerpts in 1966, one page excerpts, which nixon would put into his speeches. but in 1967 after our great year in 1966 with a huge victory, the future president told me he wanted to hire someone to balance me because he felt i might be a little bit far to the right. i went out and got a list of the best and brightest young writers who was moderates and republicans and i came back to nixon and said the very best one is ray price, former editorial editor of the herald tribune, which i believe had gone under by then. i set one problem is that he is not a great admirer of years, and he wrote the endorsement of linda johnson in 1964.

so nixon told me it again, and said listen pat, i don't care whether not he likes me or not, but bring them in here, and after the first battle, he will be a lawless. nixon believed in that, and in the fires of battle and things, loyalties are created that don't exist before then. people who come to work for you and look at it as a job, with all of the battles you are in together, a bond is created. >> so we have price on the end and then pat. that is how we reconstructed it, and this was the traveling, >> traveling squad of speechwriters. we was on the campaign plane. >> everybody ended up in the white house. >> they should have. >> we have two slides and our

panelists have already covered them. before we get to 1968, the importance of the goldwater campaign and nixon campaign for goldwater, and did you guys have anything else to add about that? >> i can add something. at the convention in 1964 in san francisco on sunday night, the convention will be launched on monday, and on sunday night, dyck and pat nixon -- dyck and pat nixon -- dick and pat nixon had a thank you for all of that delegates. the line went down the stairs and out the front door. every delegate came, and the phenomenal thing, and i had the privilege of standing right there with them through this whole thing, they knew everybody. this was one of richard nixon's

hallmark things is that he knew everybody in that party, and all of these delegates. what he wanted to do was reestablish contact with them. they wanted to thank him, but it kind of set up a premise that we follow through on not only in 1964 when he went all over the country for goldwater, but in 1966 in the election. >> we go to 1966, and we talked about the midterms, when you recover nicely, anything else to add on this? >> nixon made a number of strategic moves, and one was endorsing goldwater in 1964, and he came after the disaster of 1962 when he lost for second time to pat brown. everybody wrote him off, but the key thing and the key moments there was the endorsement of goldwater, and not only that, my wife was with him and campaign harder for goldwater then goldwater did

myself. the key part of that is that the conservative movement had taken over the party and they cannot win a national election, but they was taking over the party in the fact that nixon went out for the votes when governor romney and governor rockefeller basically abandoned goldwater, and in 1965, the very first january 1965, barry goldwater said that if you run for president nixon, you have my support. that meant that the goldwater movement was moving to nixon and at the same time, nixon had a base in the party. it was the beginning of the transfer of power within the republican party on the party of eisenhower and nixon in the 50s, to the party of nixon and reagan, which would dominate the 1970s and 80s. >> we got all of the goldwater people to come over. but this thing really started immediately within three weeks

after the assassination of jack kennedy. the decision at that point with the strategic meeting in new york was that goldwater is too close to getting it, and i cannot intercede there. what i will do is i will throw everything i can against it and do everything i can do to help. that was the basic strategy. >> he wasn't on the ballot, but he certainly did not send it out. >> in 1964, he campaign harder for goldwater and what he did himself. >> we go to the campaign of 1968 and we are through the introduction and about ready to start. first, we want to show you the map of new york that we put together, and i did not do it of course, but of the new york operation. the white, you can talk about that smack dwight, you can talk about this.

>> this was a new york campaign, and you don't think of richard nixon and new york, but his department was there, andy finance operation, and in the bible building, and it included alan greenspan, and some people that will become national icons later on, was the hub of that. then we had john mitchell and peter flanagan, and he had his office when he was off of the road as did some of the rest of us, and that very important were john whitaker, who would later become cabinet secretary, and ken cole, one of the great

buddies, they ran the scheduling operation and all of the advancements, and we had 90 advancements out. that was all run out of that for 55 party. >> we now come to the reason that pat was on the stage. he wrote this book on the 1968 campaign and the come back, and what we have asked him to do is to go through what he remembers as the highlight of the campaign, basically to remind the audience that it was not just a continuous forum, but it was interspersed with unexpected development. i will try to keep up with pat on the slides. >> what you are seeing there is a picture that nixon, the white that smack dwight, -- dwight

and i flew to boston. they invaded all of the prudential capitals and broke the spirits of a lot of people in the united states. american elise was starting to turn against the war, and the offensive, even though it was a military disaster for the communist, was a political victory for them, which would last through the years. we took off to boston, and we took richard nixon when we got to boston, and we put him into a motel and registered him as mister benjamin chapman so we could sneak them over to new hampshire the next morning, and in the new york times the next morning when nixon announced it was a single column, they had a picture of the south vietnamese head of security executing the vietcong by putting a bullet in his head. >> very famous.

>> a very famous photo, and it was the same day in the new york times, there is a column shot of nixon's announcement. we can move on from there. this is a february 2, and this is the nixon announcement in new hampshire, and it was a great event, and nixon did very well there. one of the things that dwight, the change in nixon handing himself in new hampshire. he and kennedy were themselves then and almost killed themselves campaigning. nixon made two major events a day, to get the headlines, and when there is a product, you can move it right now. mister romney, he was going to coffee classes in new hampshire, but he was just spinning his wheels getting nowhere, and our

polls satisfy -1 ahead. we was headed to new hampshire when he quit the race. he was out of the race and denied us our victory and was a tremendous blow to us because we thought that huge victory would wipe out nixon the loser image. nixon had some unkind comments about the governor when he dropped out. we can move on here. this year is mccarthy, and i used to see the kids, and they will come by our motel, and they would stand with their signs, and they was young leftist kids, but they was extremely well behaved. but mccarthy did, and he got 42% of the vote in new hampshire to the 49% of lyndon johnson. a tremendous moral victory for him. lyndon johnson wasn't even on the ballot. this was political malpractice of an extraordinary order.

johnson won as a write in candidate in new hampshire as president of the united states. it with inexpressible, but the excitement and the enthusiasm almost blocked out the fact that nixon himself and people looked at it and if they looked at it closely, nixon got a lot of writings in the democratic primary thanks to a little subterfuge that we had going and he beat bobby kennedy 4-1 in the democratic primary. the people did not look at it in the enthusiasm of maccarthy, and the bows exceeded all of the candidates in each party. everyone. so nixon was really off to a tremendous start. just four days after new hampshire, and let's leave it here, four days, bobby kennedy seeing an opportunity and

seeing what maccarthy had done and left the race, and bobby kennedy frankly, we saw the 50th anniversary of his death, but he was a complete opportunity just as make opportunist -- opportunist, but robert kennedy is coming down from the hills to shoot the wounded, he is an opportunist. people was talk about kennedy that way and he was attacking johnson for unleashing the dark forces of the american spirit. four days later, we expected rockefeller to watch on television while rockefeller made his announcement to jump in against us and replace romney as a leader of the establishment. rockefeller

announced that he was not going to run at the press conference. so he went into the room when nixon and said we cannot believe it that he has announced that he will not run. >> what did nixon say? >> he set it is the girl. -- said it is the girl. when rockefeller did announce, he repeated me and what did nixon say,[ laughter ]. >> i said he didn't say anything. nixon decided that he would have to change his policy.

these cops went in and wailed on these protesters for 15 minutes with their clubs and dragging them to the paddy wagon's. we were watching it and we didn't say a word. jose torres was cussing the cops. my friend, future friend hunter thompson was down there as well. and hunter said richard nixon is president of the united states because of what happened for those 15 minutes in front of the hotel in chicago. the picture that went out to the country was the cops fighting the protesters and beating them up. on the floor of the conviction

april rib cookoff saying if they had george mcgovern as president we would not have gestapo tactics in the streets of chicago. of course, you see that famous shot of him yelling. he was cutting loose with an awful lot of language. but that was inside the convention. on the outside they had a brawl going on. tom ricker was the most famous liberal columnist in the country. and the day before on that wednesday, i got hot and all the teargas. i was trying to get into hotels and they were pushing back and not letting you win. i got to the hilton hotel and i went down to the men's room in the basement and was watching this teargas out of my eyes. right beside me was tom ricker washing the teargas out of his eyes. it wasn't a total loss. i went back to nixon and as i

wrote in my book, the folks in new york decided to schedule a first trip to chicago. and motorcade right to the city which had been torn to pieces. and nixon would motorcade through it. i sent him a note and said what you should do is criticize what the cops did as excessive but basically put us on the side of law and order an appeal to the silent majority. it was right there in one of my men knows -- my memos. it would recur over a year later . the first scheduling we had for that september was terrific with huge motorcade stew towns. philadelphia, chicago, i remember that, and the others. by the time we got to october here is how they lined up.

nixon was at 43. humphrey was a 28. george was a 21% of the vote nationally. it was astonishing. that is when hubert humphrey through his desperation pass. right there you see hubert humphrey on september 30. he did a hellish september. even when he campaigned with teddy kennedy the crowds would yelled from the home, dump the hump. at times he was crying and calling the fascists. you felt sorry for him. he couldn't get his message through. humphrey went out and the reason was the war issue. the left wing of the party was tormenting him. so humphrey on september 30 made a speech in salt lake city saying i would half the bombing as a gesture to try to bring peace in vietnam. a lot of the left stopped

harassing him. if you mina, we are with you. humphrey started at that point started at 28% and nixon at 43%. they ended that even. >> so on this day we are checking in to the cadillac hotel in detroit, michigan. and pat comes into the suite. and he says to mr. nixon, he said, hubert just broke from johnson in salt lake city. and nixon says to me, get johnson on the phone. i did not know what to do. i went to rose was and she said you dial 202-456-1414. and talk to the operator.

so i called and got the operator on the phone. i said i have the former vice president sitting here who would like to talk to president johnson. and so there is silence for 20 or 30 seconds. she comes back on and she says, can you put the former vice president on the phone so we can identify him? i said shirley. i handed him the phone and he was right there by me. the next thing i hear is high, millie. yes. how was susan? he knew all of the operators. he was identify him -- identifying himself by his familiarity. and then hi mr. president, this is the connection. i wanted to call and let you know that i am still with you. huge. huge. >> well, what i urged nixon to

do, i said humphrey is going to unite this party. he is going to unite this party and let's remember this party beat us by 2-1 and 1964. is like the union army. if the union army gets united and the confederates don't keep them divided, it is a mammoth machine that will run right over the confederate army they are bigger than we are. go after humphrey and attack him for putting at risk the americans on the dmz and the others who when you stop the bombing will be under fire and that going to be facing the guns coming down the [ null ] chi minh trail . and nixon did not do it. i always felt he should. humphrey started from that day and you could feel the momentum building day after day.

let's move on, there's another event here. >> there is a tape of that between lbj and nixon available through the archives. >> did we make it? >> no. >> the white house made it. >> in that tape johnson goes on and on about the damage to the troops if they stop the bombing . he is criticizing humphrey. >> this is general curtis lemay the guy the bomb tokyo and world war ii. the american commander who george wallace put on as vice president. he had a press conference right after the humphrey thing. general lemay came out and wallace was behind the curtain there. and he was asked immediately if he would use nuclear weapons in vietnam. the general indicated he didn't understand this concern with

nuclear weapons. the vegetation was all back. it's a the sand crabs were a little high -- accept the sand crabs were a little high. wallace came out and took him away. and wallace started, he was a 21%. one 1/5 of the nation was going to vote for wallace. the problem with this was he started down in the polls and he was losing his northern catholics. the northern catholics were not coming to nixon they were going home to the party of their fathers. we didn't get any. they all went to humphrey. eventually humphrey got a 15 point bounce in october for his stance and because wallace was declining.

>> mainly from wallace and not nixon. >> nixon held at 43%. that was one thing that always bothered me. we didn't move an inch. we spent $25 million on ads. we went from 43% to 43%. and here's johnson, president johnson announced a bombing halt on the last day of october. and it was in october surprise. the whole idea was that piece was at hand and to push humphrey over the line. johnson was agreeing with him. this thing was explosive. that was on a thursday. on saturday i went into nixon because we were in la by then. i went in and told him john sears called and we've lost

michigan and were down 43.40 in the harris poll. we lost the nation. i thought we were finished. i thought we would lose the election. i was watching the oregon ducks play usc. and i gave him this information. he said okay, thanks. thanks. my hands were breaking out in hives. he just took it extraordinarily well. >> and? >> on election eve, we did a telephone. roger ailes put it together. 28 years old. he put together this two-hour telethon that began a los angeles. i was in the back room with rose woods. the gals would take the messages and bring them back to me. i would put them in nixonian language and say social security and stuff. he asked me to get social

security and twice every hour. and then they take the questions out and nixon would respond to the questions. after a two our telethon he took an hour break and said let's do another two-hour telethon. it was a night before the election. later on he said he thinks this is nationwide television and this is what put them back over the top. were not going to paris. this is a set up. and as can can tell you he decided long before that they were going to paris because he wanted nixon elected. >> and then nixon won. you could say if you were just going across the big picture that there are two major things for the 68 campaign. the end of the war and restore law and order. but we've asked our panelists to do and pat included, pat

gave you the chronology, but go back through and share some other campaign memories that may not be as well known. kent what do you remember? >> well, there was the mundane aspects of the campaign. we don't generally talk about them. we had an extraordinary policy operation within not only at the headquarters there were he was a policy advisor, my boss, but we had a policy operation in washington headed by the key issues committee. and john had several staff people that work for him and for others in the senate and the house helping with various policy issues, many domestic policies. my specialty was agriculture.

i was the only one that knew how to spell farm. he came to my office and said what is a dirt farmer? it was a stupid question. that is not how farmers thought. dirt farmers were sophisticated people. we had a nixon agnew advisory committee. he had a wide spectrum of policy people run by john tower out of that key issues committee. i thought that was very significant. >> you told me earlier when we were rehearsing about the logistical challenges in that era. you are at home base in the campaign is out there in the hinterland and there's no computers. >> the goldwater people had told martin that once the plane left the ground, they were in a

sealed tube and they lost touch with headquarters. so whatever headquarters was doing and whatever research was being done, experts who might be available, it was hard to reach them. we had no cell phones or computers. the materials that people use on the airplane were physical pieces of paper and books. and so martin worked on setting it up the kid and i and the other people in the research department, greenspan and jack allen would be available by telephone. in addition to the people, the red phone would ring and we would answer and respond to demands from the campaign. we had a guy that had a motorcycle and he would go to new york times headquarters and as they printed the paper for answer would off the trucks for

the first delivery, he would get two copies and bring it back to headquarters and we would cut it up and fax it to the campaign which took six minutes per page. if you can imagine that. and we had -- >> nixon in 68 in the primaries, agnes would go down and get the washington post and the new york times and send these, six minutes per page and they would give them to me and i would mark the paragraphs, the various paragraphs that should be typed up and they would be typed up and put on a pile, the bond paper and they would be put into nixon's room so that he would get his newspaper on the east coast press at the same time folks got it back east. he could tell his new york

times reporters what they had written. and so it was a tremendous, it was an original news summary thing that nixon made a major instrument of policy in the nixon white house. >> i remember it well. >> i wanted to raise the subject . on nixon's birthday in 1968 he went down to go on the mike douglas show. there was a young man there the same age as pat and myself and he came up to him and started talking to kim. his name was roger ailes. where is joe mcginnis in his book references the fact that nixon in 1960 was somewhat afraid of this thing called television. roger ailes look nixon in the eye and said, sir, you need to make television your friend.

and when we left there, mr. nixon said i want you to arrange for that man to go meet ray price who was the first stop in the line of things. roger came up the next week and met with ray price and then he met with carmen and shakespeare and the others and the people that were part of the television team. and one of the most significant things about 1968 was nixon's use of television. for a person who everyone thought was not good on television, the whole myth of that spun out of the jack kennedy debate, nixon master television. that talks about the telethon on election night. we had these television programs called the man in the arena were nixon would stand in the center and there were either citizens or press people

all around him and he had just a standup microphone. they could go right at him and he would answer. this was incredibly effective in this campaign. >> let me mention that roger ailes also did the telethon the night of the oregon primary. again, bud wilkinson the coach of oklahoma was a big supporter and he would asked the questions and nixon would answer. the way we use television, everyone used television then, was to look at the man and look at his strands. ronald reagan was a charismatic speaker. nixon gave great speeches. what he was extremely good with was his knowledge and ability to articulate and's beak briefly and get the information then. his press conferences, every one of them would show him rising.

the man had knowledge, experience, ability, -- this is what his strong suit is. let's strong this -- let's show the strong suit. >> we made all of these trips to florida over and over and over again. he went down there for the sun. i carried a suitcase, pat rouses me about it, i was an expert at pouring coffee. i also carried a suitcase. in that suitcase was a sunland. every single day we would spend 45 seconds in front, he would, in front of that lamp. his skin had that transparent quality that you may have read about. the way that you countered it in the way he look fantastic

all the way through that campaign was because of that sun lamp. >> not only the sun lamp. in 1960 i read teddy white's book and he talked about how kennedy was babbling at the end . and nixon had done so many events and got irritable. of famous memo from halderman in 1967 that said look, take every event you do during every campaign and you will probably see four or 5 million people in person. one night on tv you can see 30 million people. look good on tv for the 20 million or 30 million people. there are two deadlines. the morning paper and the evening paper. we would take nixon and working for 2.5 days and then head for the manchester airport. get on the learjet head for florida. the snow was in new

hampshire but nixon, all these various stops and all of them look good. what fills the empty space in new hampshire are the ads of nixon answering questions. nixon learned tremendously from the mistakes of 1960. 1968 was a dramatic change. >> there's no question about it . >> he was also able to delegate the details. the organization of the campaign in 1968 is critically important. he delegated and gave mitchell the campaign. and he gave halderman responsibility for running him. and he gave ehrlichman responsibility for running the tour. and in the operations, we had

people who were not there because they were making money. they were there because they were professionals who believed in richard nixon. and it gave a whole different cast to the campaign than what you get now when you put together a presidential campaign and you buy all of this various talent and try to put it together and assume that they are committed to the candidate. the nixon alumni, when you go through them, and many of them have departed the scene so to speak, to the hereafter. but our group of people, i would put them up against anyone in any campaign in terms of the competence, in terms of their loyalty, capability, and so forth. it was a marvelous organization . >> i am going to move on because we're running out of

time. >> you're asking about memories. one of my memories, we develop great mentors in these campaigns. none of them that we should not ignore. a great man named bryce arbuckle. -- bryce harlow. he came out of oklahoma and he knew shorthand so he became a clerk to george marshall and he worked his way up and he was a speechwriter for president eisenhower. and he became a lobbyist to procter & gamble. he was also one of the wisest and greatest men in washington. he became assistant in this campaign and became my mentor. i was his contact at the headquarters to take his phone calls. he protected me against senators milton young when they would harass me. on agriculture.

the thing about bryce harlow's stats he had a double agent -- the thing about bryce harlow is that he had a double agent and new every move that the president was going to make so there was no secrets at all. bryce was so well known he had people in the white house. bryce harlow was one of the greatest americans i know. i traveled with him too. he is one of the wisest and finest men. >> i remember briefly during the transition johnson called them, eisenhower called him, and nixon called them. i have talked to two presidents and wants future president to be. >> he was enormously well-liked by everyone in the city. >> he became the head of government affairs. >> he told me on his first day

when he got into the office there were 435 phone calls. they were from the health. they all wanted to talk to bryce. >> teddy white's book on 1968 which is an excellent book to read in terms of the campaign, he makes the point that the nixon people, and nixon having strategy and preparation. and i would like to tell a quick story about 1967. we were in wisconsin up in the middle of nowhere. it's around 6:00 in the morning and two of us are going down. we had a volunteer driving the car. we were off to a radio station. mr. nixon is in the back of the car and you can hear the pin scratching and he had the light on back there. he's got a yellow pad on his

briefcase on his lap and his writing his notes and getting ready for this radio interview. we arrive at the radio station and it is one room and the guide is going to interview him as also the engineer. he probably also sold the time for the radio station. but it made such an indelible impression upon me about who this man was. and his desire to prepare himself and to be ready for everything. and that is what really was one of the side benefits of the halderman memorandum. in the halderman memorandum when bob wrote that he has a section called strategy and thinking time. and that whole thinking time element was something we carried right and onto the scheduling in the white house that i was involved with for five years. he had thinking time. >> we are going to stop because i watch the clock. we're going

to go through the nixon years. this is after the happy group and nixon has prevailed. we are going to go back and we have 1.5 minutes each. during these forums to help guide future researchers and scholars to complex topics. think through for a second because i warned you before hand, what topics are right for research that you do not think are fully appreciated in today's literature? we will start with you. >> several topics that i worked with on the bombing calls. one is that president johnson was truly agonized about whether to do a bombing halt. i went through the lbj tapes. he taped himself. he agonized about it. he was pushed by his

own staff and some of it against his own wishes. a lot of it was for the protocol strategy of the democrats to have the bombing halt help humphrey. harryman who was the negotiator in paris hated nixon who was working with clark clifford to push the bombing halt to get humphrey over the line. that is one aspect. another thing we had to look at was teddy white's book was much overlooked. and mentioned in tom wicker's book as well and also mentioned in clark clifford's book about harryman. the russians were very much involved in trying to get humphrey elected. there is a russian collusion story that scholars ought to start looking at. the russians very much wanted to get hubert humphrey elected.

>> forgive me, about the advanced manual and the development of the advanced manual. could you recall that for us? >> does it take for my two minutes? >> i made the point the billy graham had said to richard nixon vice president of the united states in 1960, have one of your men come down and i can show them what we do. and bob halderman went to montreat, north carolina and met with the billy graham people . they showed him the manual they used when they went into establish crusades in various cities in america. those of us that are older know that these crusades were mammoth things and highly organized. and bob took the billy graham manual and went back and adapted it for advancement for the 1960 campaign.

in 1962 john ehrlichman took that manual and adapted it for the california campaign. and then john was also in charge of the advancement for 1968 and they use that billy graham originated in france manual -- advanced manual to take care of the 1968 campaign. the important thing about it is the degree of organization that is in it is phenomenal. everything is highly controlled. and one thing about president nixon, or candidate nixon i should say, he could handle spontaneous things. he did not want to. he wanted to have everything thought through and he wanted to know exactly how it was going to work. what was expected and no surprises of any kind.

>> we know was going to be said. now you get your two minutes. >> it would be interesting for a researcher to go in and investigate this whole thing about presidential debate commissions. our strategy in 1968 was not to debate. and the way the commission is set up now, it is like they ordained that they're going to be in these debates. that is one of the most significant campaign strategy decisions that can be made and maybe candidates should decide they're not going to debate. i'm not against public exposure of issues, but i think it's a subject that needs to be looked into the other thing i wanted to mention is that the young lady that was holding a sign in deshler, ohio that said mr. nixon, bring us together again. that is huge. in this country

at this time it would be interesting to go back and look at the division from the war and everything else and how mr. nixon handled that at the convention. his convention speech in miami was a work of art. it is one of the best political speeches that anyone can ever read or understand. >> i would say richard nixon as a political figure, he along with fdr are the only two americans on five national tickets that you should go back and study. richard nixon a young naval officer like jack kennedy coming out in 1946 and the great anti-communist era of the and late 1940s and 50s. winning the hugest senate landslide in becoming vice president. the idea of running

against kennedy with a new era opening up and how it was that he came through after these defeats through the 1960s and the cultural social moral revolutions going on and racial revolutions, civil rights and all the rest of it. the extraordinary ability he had to if you will, moved to all of these, it looked like warren peace. the doctor going across the battlefield and both armies are going at each other. he is going right through and surviving it all. and how nixon rose to be president but by the greatest landslide in american presidential history given what he had gone through and the opposition he had. as just a political threat or -- figure, he is the dominant figure of the third quarter of the 20th century far and away.

other say he is the most important figure because i think he gave both. to the majority that ronald reagan built upon, nixon first that new majority out of wallace, humphrey, and goldwater and put together the greatest majority. >> we are going to ends with andy. >> i think the national archives are a great resource. the nixon library is a terrific resource. what i would do if i were going to do more research on richard nixon, i would go back to the things that he wrote by hand. these are great examples, nixon responds to people who send him memos. and a lot of those are in textbooks. there are other handwritten things, my late husband's papers are going to be released at the

hoover institution and nixon wrote things to martin. he said i agree with this, let's proceed with this. and what he himself said that results in all of the rest of this, i think it's very important. >> and we in there. we have ended on time. we began with complements and this was not reversed. we end with complements to the national archives. thank you all for coming. the program is over. we are going to ask the nixon alumni to stay for a few moments. we want to chat with them for a few moments and give the public the opportunity to depart. thank you very much for coming. >> from george washington to george w. bush, every sunday at

8:00 in midnight we feature the presidency a weekly series exploring the presidents, their politics, policies and legacies. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span three. this weekend on american history tv saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war. historian peter carmichael talks about public reaction to photographs of the ed at the 1852 battle of antietam and the soldiers perspectives from letters a home. >> people were changed by a strange spell that dwells in the dead in the eyes of dead men. he said this was a terrible fascination people had with death. these photographs all that they really did was satisfied this morbid satisfaction. >> at 8:00 p.m. on lectures and history arizona state professor kyle long ray of president lyndon johnson and

the vietnam war in 1968. >> here is one of the most powerful presidents that has transformed the country for better and for worse giving up power to search for peace. it's pretty big. major step. and it all relates to what? what is the issue? vietnam. >> sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the presidency ronald reagan's attorney general talks about president reagan's views on communism and his relationship with pope john paul ii. >> you have had two leaders both with parallel interests. and so when those parallel interests were obvious as to what happened in poland where they were under attack if you well, then it was logical for ronald reagan particularly with his ideas about defeating

communism to cooperate. >> next weekend on american history tv the world war i centennial. american history tv airs every week and on c-span 3. >> this weekend c-span citysearch takes it a lake have a sioux city arizona with the help of our cable partners we will explore the a history on saturday at noon on book tv here from author and lifelong resident as he shares the story of the early history from his book living at the end of old 95. >> we moved here lock stock and barrel in february 1965. there was somewhere around 600 people and there might've been 20 homes. for our family it was three years before i'm sorry three months three months before we

finally got running water. and it was another, i think another five months when he finally got electricity. and then it was one year before we finally got a telephone. >> on sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv. a visit to the parker dam which plays a vital role in sending water to arizona and california. >> we have 1 million feet, 326,000 gallons enough to feed two families of three or four for one year. and another one point file -- 1.5 acre-feet goes to phoenix and tucson. >> watch saturday noon eastern on c-span 2 book tv and sunday at 2 pm eastern on american history tv on c-span 3. working

with rk beale -- cable affiliates as we explore america. next, archival footage from the u.s. information agency. it looks at the 1966 governor's race between ronald reagan and edmond pat brown. to show how campaigns and elections are conducted in the u.s.. >> october begins the color and the competition. leaves compete with leaves will men at the beginning of a political feet compete with men. >> [ music ]