but this was a big deal for president nixon. his knowledge that the u.s. might not fare so well in the comparison about missile construction or thrust. fast forward a year to the debate with senator kennedy for the presidency. kennedy called nixon on that and said it is on acceptable, senator kennedy, that we would say this, because clearly missile thrust is more important, and as an economist, what is more important to me is what the vice-president said. nothing. the correct answer is the superiority of the united states, because of a small critically important number called productivity growth. one of the things that will determine our future is the pace of that growth. vice-president nixon's error was a simple one, but it really was the key to why the race between the united states and soviet union was vastly different. there was also an essential air -- error. crucial for got a simple number. the no. i'm about to say is a constant. it never changes. it is called 100%. the tierney of 100% is that the shares of government spending must add to 100%. why d

this was a big deal for vice president nixon to have brought up. he acknowledged, though, that the u.s. might not fare so well if the comparison were about missile construction or missile thrusts. fast forward a year to the debate with senator kennedy for the presidency. kennedy called nixon on that and said it is unacceptable to me, senator kennedy, that we would say this because clearly missile thrust is more important and what is amazing to me as an economist is what vice president nixon said. nothing. the correct answer. an economic counselor would have told him is the superiority to have united states is you can have both colored television and eventually better missiles because of a small number that is critically important and it is called productivity growth. t growth. vice-president nixon's error was a simple one, but it really was the key to why the race between the united states and soviet union was vastly different. there was also an essential air -- error. crucial for got a simple number. the no. i'm about to say is a constant. it neve

but he used nixon as his ambassador. nixon was a very important in that way. i would say that the first water, powerful vice president was richard nixon. -- the first modern powerful vice president was richard nixon. i'm going to have to repeat myself in terms of the cheney and george bush -- ask the question 50 years from now. host: part of the exhibit features theodore roosevelt. for those with a military background, how did they adapt to the vice presidency? guest: good question. i am trying to think of an example prepa. roosevelt resigned his post in 1898. he was among many americans urging war with spain. he was particularly interested in taking the spanish out of the western hemisphere. the cuban situation was deteriorating. he made some maneuvers with the secretary of the navy, ordering the pacific squadron to be stationed off the philippines prematurely, without the president' or the navy being aware. when war was declared, roosevelt resigned and his volunteer rough rider unit was made up of people near the dakotas, near his ranch, and people that he k

and i knew that that kind of record have dried up ignobly had recorded their conversations since nixon. my impression was that they are not keeping the kind of record data that will enable you to really find out today what george bush was really thinking before he went into iraq. you know, we're going to have to make do with the myth and the filters and images. and i wanted to do better than that. i was done that he wanted to do better than that. he was thinking about those things even before he took office. >> host: describe briefly 1972. how well did you know him? >> guest: we live together. were the two texas coordinator he asked if he could bring his new girlfriend, hillary, to our apartment so the three of us got an apartment together. hillary also worked in other states and even bill and i had the time, we were traveling all over like water bugs in the big state of texas. we didn't spend all that much time together. we were technically responsible for the state. we made lots of decisions and getting shellacked the way we did by richard nixon in 1972, is a bonding experience. when

no, no, speeches by nixon. kennedy said to me, i imagine, they did something so foolish and dangerous based upon a gubernatorial race by a defeated presidential candidate. that shows you how little they understand our system. they said to me, what the hell, we don't understand their system very well either. [applause] [laughter] . . >> if he thinks that i should apologize for kennedy's success in prevailing, i ain't going to do it. i would just say finally that in one of the many biographies of senator ted kennedy that appeared several weeks ago, it it was reported that during this last 15 months or so of his life since he received the death sentence from his doctors, knowing that everyone in his household because he's did most of the time on the cape, that he would rise in the morning, get to the top of the stairs and the lowdown in that great booming voice of his, "i am still here ." i am here today to tell you that i am still here. [applause] h[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions

went off of that system under president nixon in august of 1971, instead of fighting to maintain a stable monetary system or figure out how to get back to 1, which is what i think the imf should have fought to do, it waited a few years and then it accepted that. now, any country can have any kind of exchange arraignment they want, floating, fixed, they can have a currency board, they can piggyback to another country's currency. the only thing they cannot do is pay their money to gold -- peg their money to gold. in the meantime, the imf's sits on virtually all of the gold that was contributed from the beginning from countries that had to pay in gold or dollars to be a member of what was supposed to be a stable, international monetary system. >> my recollection is that jack kemp was a big gold supporter and he had an outfit called empower america. >> i was on that board. i am very proud of that. kemp was a visionary. there was a plan to launch of the jack kemp foundation. it is invigorating to see the people that were part of that movement, the supply side, now we could say that the supply-

where the president to be disabled, were eisenhower and nixon. in the agreement that eisenhower and nixon had, said essentially that if for some reason the president became incapacitated and wasn't aware he was incapacity, the procedure that reduces the vice president would have to consult and get the support of half the cabinet in order to assume the powers of the presidency. lyndon johnson and john f. kennedy came to a similar agreement, with just one little clause. that had to be running around in lyndon johnson's mind of every boy second. kennedy said he not only had to seek the support of half the cabinet, he had to consult with the attorney general of the united states. attorney general of the united states was the president's brother, robert f. kennedy. in lyndon johnson's arch enemy in the white house. are a lot of this is speculative. we don't know what's going on. lyndon johnson being the political creature he is new every word in a document, and every punctuation point. and he knew, what was he thinking? was he thinking is going to be

furthermore, whittaker chambers became a great buddies with people like richard nixon. he was adulation by ronald reagan. he was admired by j. edgar hoover and so on. all sorts of villains of the intellectual left with the friends of whittaker chambers. so you can see he was a popular figure. >> host: you talk interesting about what i would call aesthetics which relate to your own work and a large part of your career, you quote i believe that maybe cromwell time, round and you say they wrote of people that they were wrong but romantic, or right but repulsive. >> guest: that's from a very -- i'm using a book by yeats and sellers called 1066, and all that. a sort of joke history. yes, he characterizes the roundheads as right but repulsive. and the cavaliers as wrong but romantic. you can apply that to some of our characters. >> host: we look at a visualage. if you look that he is back. is the first impression on the entire impression of how much intake beyond a first impression should you do. and that was clearly a lot of attention here was to make the people who are sayi

went off that system under president nixon in august of 1971, instead of fighting to maintain a stable monetary system, or figure out how to get back to one -- which is what i think the imf should have sought to do -- it waited a few years, kind of fumbled along. and then it accepted that. and now its attitude is, any country can have any kind of exchange arrangement they want -- floating, fixed. they can have a currency board. they can piggyback and peg to another country's currency. the only thing they can't do is peg their money to gold. so, it's not just a betrayal of the original idea, it's almost perverse. they can't peg to gold. meantime, the imf sits on virtually all of the gold that was contributed from the beginning, from countries who had to pay in gold or dollars to become a member of what was supposed to be a stable, international, monetary system. >> vin weber you mentioned earlier. my recollection is that jack kemp was a big gold supporter, and he had an outfit called empower america, and that vin weber was involved in empower america, and you were involved with empower

is the beginning of the nixon administration. and it's all the rest going on, you say my staff and i, with the president's strong support, undertook a re-examination of military doctrine. the first problem was to define the strategy for general nuclear war. according to the doctrine of assured destruction which had guided the previous administration, we did term -- we deter the soviets attack by defensive forces at the table of achieving a number of civilian deaths and industrial damage. it was all very well to threaten mutual suicide for the purpose of deterrence, particularly in the case of a direct threat to national survivor -- national survival. but no president could make such a threat credible except by conducting a diplomacy that suggested a high irrationality. how could u.s. hold its allies together as the credibility of the strategy eroded and that we deal with this issue if it came time, as you say, if deterrence failed, and the president was finally faced with the decision to retaliate, who would take the moral respon

leaving beijing today the president walked along the same section of the great wall of china richard nixon visited in 1972. >>> in between state dinners, closed door meetings and sightseeing he had a rare reunion with his brother. mark obama has been living in southern china. he claims in his new book their father physically abused him. he wouldn't bring that up when they met at the president's hotel. >> we just had a big hug and my wife and he had a big, big hug. and it was very, very powerful. very, very intense because he's my big brother. >> president obama says he hasn't read his half brother's book but says it is no secret their father was troubled. >>> west virginia's robert byrd is making history. the longest serving member of congress ever. byrd has represented west virginia 20,774 days, that is almost 57 years. byrd came to washington in 1953 along with the first eisenhower administration. it is not the only milestone he is marking in two days he will turn 92 years old. >>> the crew of the space shuttle "atlantis" is at the international space station. what they are doing there n

and then it became nixon's war. once he lays out a strategy that leads to a victory or not, it becomes his. i think of the caller is correct in saying that there is nothing he can do that will not be criticized, that is absolutely certain in this environment. i think that there has been a dangerous narrative advanced in the last several years where to be patriotic, really it is since 9/11, to be patriotic america can only do right. whenever it is we are doing, it must be right. i think that we will find that sentiment rising more strongly. host: wyoming, minn., a republican line. you are on with our two guests, james joyner and adele stan. caller: i am a first-time caller or what ever. i am a little nervous, but my first comment, as far as dick cheney and george bush are concerned, the media should not give coverage to war criminals like them. president obama needs to start telling the truth about the war in afghanistan. there is a gentleman on cnn that has been in iraq and afghanistan since these wars started. ther

>> that is the kind of question i would expect from are the nixon library. the fact is that the missile gaffe was an expression not originated by john f. kennedy and not a central issue in his campaign as said in previous panels t arose from three separate commissions that were appointed during the eisenhower administration, at least one that gave the commission, i believe, an official body, one was a rockefeller commission, which was unofficial. i have already forgotten the third. all assumed or were told that the soviets had the capacity to build more missiles at a faster rate than the united states, but they did not say that the soviets had actually made good on that capacity. they merely assumed it. it was picked up by a good friend of the president's, john f. kennedy, that is, joe auerbach, who wrote a good deal about it. he may have first referred to it as the missile gap. and johnson and others also talked about the missile gap. kennedy was running on the theme "we can do better, we must do better, we cannot afford to let the soviets get ahead of us i

also the post office is now public and has been since nixon's time. this is just a republican attempt to -- well, as i see it, bring down obama. you know, there wasn't any problem in paying for an unfunded occupation in afghanistan and iraq. but now to help the people, there is. here in texas, we have one of the worst health care systems in the nation. what -- when i was working every year, our premiums and co-pays would go up but our coverage would go down. you know, if the republicans have their way in this state, nothing will get any better. it just amazes me the scare tactics that the republicans are putting forth to do whatever they can do not help the people. host: thank you. guest: well, i agree with you, the results of this bill are scary. but it's because of what's this in the bill. the bill does cut nearly a half trillion dollars out of medicare. that's never happened before. and if you have a medicare advantage plan, which one out of four medicare recipients does, their benefits will be cut. the bill does increase taxes by a half trillion d

>> i have to say carrie prejean tapes are much more than nixon's tapes. although watergate, prejeangate, two very different things. and i'll be quiet now. >> carlos, stranger things have happened. we've been at this a long time and we've seen the weirdest of the weird. leslie, let me ask you this. can you possibly see this now, i've come up with an idea for a platform that perhaps carrie prejean could run on, i've made my notes here, how about the anti-opposite marriage and pro-sex tape video reform platform, heh? how do you like that? >> how about, i had breast implants and asked to give them back platform. carlos, did you do a sex tape at 17? i know i didn't. we're all crazy at 17 but we didn't all do sex tapes, especially sex tapes alone. a.j., i think this is exactly what we're proving america would do, which is laugh at this. except for some extremely anti-gay groups in america that would latch on. i don't think she has a chance at all. now, unless she were to go into politics in the future. >> i've always disagreed with the idea that any publicity i

nobody runs around caen themselves a richard nixon republican or a hayes republican. it does not always mean that they understood what ronald reagan stood for. . . >> we will show the 14 vice- president that became president. happy thanksgiving to all of you. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., eastern time. c-span[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> you were watching c-span, created for you as a public service by america's cable companies. coming up this thanksgiving day, director steven spielberg received the liberty medal at the national constitution center. then, remarks from the former undersecretary of defense, paul wolfowitz on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. after that, political strategists assess the new obama administration as he nears his first year in office. friday, for the first time in british history, parliament opens its chambers to non-mp's as they debate in the house of commons. former new york times reporter at what has to his plagiarism. a look

a lot that we can learn between the experiences of president kennedy, president reagan, presidenand nixon. power can be applied. we are still the most powerful country in the world. we are trying to get them to stop going down the road that they are going towards. there is a new development really in the last decade, the juxtaposition of terrorism and nuclear weapons. it is one thing that iran and north korea will be rational states. it is another thing to deal with rationality when dealing with osama bin laden. this is a very dangerous age. on 9/11, osama bin laden used in the crudest means possible to kill 3000 people. if he had used biological weapons, nuclear suitcase, it would have been a truly catastrophic event with the deaths and wounded in the multiples of 3000. while we practice traditional straighstatecraft, we have to dl with this very issue. >> , to longer do you think that this government has? >> it is hard to know how much time one has but there is time available. everyone agrees that the north koreans are not fully capable. i think it is a mistake to say that we need to ru

one of the surprising tidbits of this is that richard nixon lived several months in -- and to clinton's term, and communicated with clinton who took his advice quite seriously. at one point, he went to see strobe talbott and said yeltsin may be a drunk, but he was the best they're likely to get out of that screwed up country. they had to keep him from becoming there any or being replaced by someone who wants to be their enemy, and that is not a bad summary of what the administration tried to do. clinton moved to try to build a personal relationship with yeltsin, and he did a lot of specific things -- more money for economic assistance, getting russia admitted to the so-called g-eight, which required refocusing from economics to political situate the -- considerations. it appears the clinton, who was a very successful politician, had a lot of sympathy. i did not see the president that often, but i did once have the privilege of briefing him before a meeting with yeltsin, one of the administration clearly mean, we correctly, pulled its punches. he said if we had a situation anything like