let's start with you doug brinkley. in terms of what robert kennedy said there, the real legacy may be he's a man of peace during a time of great conflict. is that a fair analysis? >> he was a man of peace, but he was a cold war hawk. i think his legacy is something like the space program here at my university, rice university, kennedy came in '62 and said we'll put a man on the moon at the end of the decade and did it and he framed it in a sense of exploration and science of moving people to do things. he is a server of the peace corps and the things he did with the government is positive and in the '60s and vietnam comes people start disliking their government. but kennedy was an inspirational president of the 20th century. >> robert dally, do you go along with that, particularly in relation to vietnam, where kennedy started the american troop involvement there. again, robert kennedy suggesting he wanted to pull the troops out, but obviously that didn't happen. it got dramatically worse. was he a villain or potentiall

let's start with you doug brinkley. in terms of what robert kennedy said there, the real legacy may be he's a man of peace during a time of great conflict. is that a fair analysis? >> he was a man of peace, but he was a cold war hawk. i think his legacy is something like the space program here at my university, rice university, kennedy came in '62 and said we'll put a man on the moon at the end of the decade and did it and he framed it in a sense of exploration and science of moving people to do things. he is a server of the peace corps and the things he did with the government is positive and in the '60s and vietnam comes people dislike the government but kennedy was an inspirational president of the 20th century. >> robert dally, do you go along with that where kennedy started the american troop involvement there, again, robert kennedy suggesting he wanted to pull the troops out but obviously that didn't happen. it got dramatically worse. was he a villain or potentially trying to be the hero of this war by stopping it

doug brinkley, presidential historian, gerald posner who wrote a book called "case closed," about jfk's assassinati assassination, maureen orthwho has written extensively about how the presidency changed dramatically on november 2nd, 1963, and eleanor clift who just marked her 50th year at news week" magazine. eleanor, you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing and what you were thinking. >> i was hired earlier that will year in 1963 as a secretary to the national affairs editor. and the bulletin came across on the news wire, that the president had been shot. then we turned on the television. it wasn't like there were televisions everywhere like there are today. i think there was probably one television everybody collected around. and, of course, when we learned that the president had died, the national affairs editor, he told everyone to go home and do their grieving. it happened on a friday, the day that the news magazine goes to bed. and he said go home. we'll put out the magazine the next day. i watched him sort of draft a story list, contact, we had a bureau in housto

our guests are allida black and doug brinkley. mary in west grove, pennsylvania, please go ahead with your question. >> why is she viewed as the most disliked and loved first lady of all times? if she was here today, how would she deal the 24/7 media? >> oh, i got that one. eleanor took a profoundly controversial issues of civil stand on the rights, women working, women traveling unescorted. she spoke out by the second term on legal and constitutional questions that made people a little nervous. and especially the daughters of the american revolution who looked at her and called her an unfit woman and really did not want her in the white house. her poll numbers throughout and the letters she received as well as the hate mail and the largest fbi file that we have in american history up until that time shows the extent to which the american public really revered her. but the people that disliked her, disliked her intensely. she really was a rorschach test for what you thought about democracy and social upheaval at the time. if it wa

michael beschloss, doug brinkley, edwin morris. what was your role? that? how did you get there? >> the president said he loves history. he said he would love to meet on somewhat of a regular basis, once a year it's happened, with historians who come with the knowledge of their president in their head and can give him advice. so it's not like we go in there and give little talks. it's more that be we sit around dinner, just us, get a couple of members of the white house staff. michelle went at one point, and the president. and he talks about whatever is happening at that time. someone might talk about how he might have communicate in the past, how people dealt with congress, lbj in the past. and tell story from our guys that might be an echo for him. but for us to be together is half of the pleasure of it all. to feel that camaraderie with the fellow historians, in the room, truman, jackston, eisenhower, reagan. like the presidents have come into the room in our heads. >> what are the rules? >> never been quoted. >> the rules -- >> no, not about the substance of the meeting. the

. >> here is a quote from doug brinkley. we pushed teddy roosevelt like crazy on him. did it work? >> he went out to that place where teddy delivered his famous speech and talked about fairness. the idea at that time, in 1910, i think what happens is maybe he keeps reading anyway. if a certain president becomes interesting, then he might think more about that president. that is a good thing. lincoln would constantly go back to the founding fathers. when fdr was there, he was reading lincoln. teddy was reading lincoln the whole time. i think it is healthy for these presidents. why should they have to become a president without learning from the history of the guys who went there before them? so few of them have sat in that office. it has to be a helpful thing or else our profession doesn't mean anything. >> you have been involved with presidents forever. within a few months, ms. goodwin was helping the president's speechwriters draft and address and billed as the intellectual foundation for his second term. it was a start to finish tribute to roosevelt. how much of that have you don

. >> here is a quote from doug brinkley. we pushed teddy roosevelt like crazy on him. did it work? >> he went out to that place where teddy delivered his famous speech and talked about fairness. 1910,ea at that time, in i think what happens is maybe he keeps reading anyway. if a certain president becomes interesting, then he might think more about that president. that is a good thing. lincoln would constantly go back to the founding fathers. when fdr was there, he was reading lincoln. teddy was reading lincoln the whole time. i think it is healthy for these presidents. why should they have to become a president without learning from the history of the guys who went there before them? so few of them have sat in that office. helpful thing or else our profession doesn't mean anything. >> you have been involved with presidents forever. goodwin few months, ms. was helping the president's speechwriters draft and address and billed as the intellectual foundation for his second term. it was a start to finish tribute to roosevelt. how much of that have you done with this president? >> not t

. >> host: doug brinkley writes in forward to "across that bridge" about you. he forges onward, that rarest of politicians who draws the respect of every colleague on both sides of the portion file. -- partisan. when he steps to the podium -- do you ever get tired of reading things like that about yourself? >> guest: i try not to beat it. because you start reading and keeping it, you start believing it and i don't want to believe it. as i -- i just tried to make a little contribution. i didn't like what i saw growing up. i knew there was a better way and people like gandhi and martin luther king, jr. and rosa parks provided a way out, maybe a way in. >> host: in "march: book 1", the most recent, one of the early stories in here you kind of flip back from current day to your past life. and one of the stories here is a woman bringing her two sons to your office, and you were there. is this allegorical or a real story? how often does this happen? >> guest: this is the real story. people come all the time. i believe on that occasion it was the day of the inaugurati

as we take a look at what's going on, the presidential historian, doug loss brinkley is with us. give us your preflexions a little bit about what we're about to see as the current president, the former president, they're getting closer to the gravesite of president john f. kennedy. they will approach the eternal flame. the president will place his hands on the wreath, taps will be played. there will be a moment of silence. it's a moment that all of us, of course, who lived through that era remember 50 years ago, but it's a powerful moment for the country right now, douglas. >> absolutely. well, after kennedy was killed in dallas, the question was, as you mentioned, where is he going to be buried. part of the reason jackie kennedy picked arlington was because of the scenic view. it's so beautiful but mainly because it's surrounded by war dead. he so was so proud, john f. kennedy of his naval career. he pilt it around the pt-109 incident in the pacific. it's a remarkable place. anybody who goes to washington needs to go to arlington and they do and go look at the grave of president

doug brickly beyond this tragedy why was this such an important anniversary for america? >> well, i think a lot of people are remembering where they were, what i did that day. this was but to us live on television. playing clips of walter cronkite not just john f. kennedy, who is lee harvey oswald, why is jackie wearing a suit with blood. on and on for four days. everybody kind of tuned in. there's a line by bob dylan said people don't live or die people just net. most people live in the-lined lives when kennedy was killed, they weren't floating any more it was like realtime adrenaline for the whole country. >> schieffer: you know, those of us who were here and covered this story, i think a part that is not really understood today is that beyond this tragedy that we saw unfolding on television, we'd never seen anything like this before. hanging overall this it was like we all felt on 9/11 we didn't know what it meant. we didn't know if this was the beginning of world war iii, a year away from the human missile crisis. it was just this profound, i can't understand this. wh