tonight we'll tell you the story of claudia taylor johnson, known to everyone as lady bird, the wife of our 36th president. here to tell our story tonight are two guests, cokie roberts, political commentator for abc news and npr. she's also the author of two books about women's political history, "founding mothers" and "ladies of liberty." thanks for being here. cokie roberts: good to be here. susan swain: betty boyd caroli is a first ladies expert. she is the author of numerous books, including "first ladies: from martha washington to michelle obama," and she's currently working on a new biography of lady bird johnson. ladies, i'd want to start with the beginning, with where we were 50 years ago this week. this is an administration birthed in natural tragedy. what were the immediate challenges for the brand-new first couple on those first terrible days after the assassination of kennedy? cokie roberts: well, they're enormous. first of all, nobody knew whether there was a widespread plot, and so the country was in terror for a period of time. and then they had to be both taking over

here to tell her story are cokie roberts, political commentary for abc news and npr, also the author of two books, "founding mothers" and "ladies of liberty." betty boyle curly is an expert and working on a biography of lady bird johnson. i want to start with the beginning, where we were 50 years ago this week, this is an administration birthed in national tragedy. what were the immediate challenges for the brand new first couple in the first terrible days after the assassination of kennedy. >> it was enormous. nobody knew if it was a widespread plot so the country was in terror for a period of time and they had to be both taking over and making sure that there was a peaceful transition of power without seeming to take over because of the image of being pushing the kennedys out of the way so they had to be very, very careful in how they handled it and lyndon johnson was very lucky he had lady bird to help him with that because she had a good ear for knowing exactly what to say and when to say it. >> in particular, what did she do during those first weeks? >> she said she felt she was

that stood him out from robert taylor and other actors who were cooperating with huac. but there is an irrefutable fact. in 1980, we were losing the cold war. by 1989, we were winning the cold war. as jeane kirkpatrick said about the san francisco democrats "from the fall of sigh gone in 1975 to january 1981, soviet influence expanded dramatically in laos, libyan, syria, madagascar, seychelles, nicaragua, grenada." not all were pro soviet and anti-american to be sure. there are many good anti-american democrats. but for whatever reason a number of democrats in the 1980s, call them fellow travelers or fifth columnist or deconstructionist or pro srobg tours. or lennon's phrase useful idiots. these were the san francisco democrats to which kirkpatrick was referring. from lobbyist clark clifford to van hoffman, anthony lewis, robert dollic, many other liberals either spoke up for soviet communism or denounced reagan of consigning it to history. the soviets at the times called their policy i reversibility. soviet surveillance was everywhere. their embassy in washington was r

that stood him out from robert taylor and other actors who were cooperating with huac. but there is an irrefutable fact. in 1980, we were losing the cold war. by 1989, we were winning the cold war. as jeane kirkpatrick said about the san francisco democrats "from the fall of sigh gone in 1975 to january 1981, soviet influence expanded dramatically in laos, libyan, syria, madagascar, seychelles, nicaragua, grenada." not all were pro soviet and anti-american to be sure. there are many good anti-american democrats. but for whatever reason a number of democrats in the 1980s, call them fellow travelers or fifth columnist or deconstructionist or pro srobg tours. or lennon's phrase useful idiots. these were the san francisco democrats to which kirkpatrick was referring. from lobbyist clark clifford to van hoffman, anthony lewis, robert dollic, many other liberals either spoke up for soviet communism or denounced reagan of consigning it to history. the soviets at the times called their policy i reversibility. soviet surveillance was everywhere. their embassy in washington was r

this stripped him out from robert taylor and other actors who were cooperated who called for the expulsion of communists in the hollywood trade union. in 1980, we were losing the cold war. by 1989, we were winning the cold war. as gene kirkpatrick said, the republican national convention in august of 1984 about the san francisco democrats. quote, since the fall of sigh conin 1975 to january 1981, cambodia, ethiopia, mozambique, libya, syria, aiden, madagascar, nicaragua and grenada. not all the democrats were pro soviet anti-american, that's ridiculous, to be sure. there are many good anti-communist democrats. but there were, for whatever reason, a number of democrats in the 1980s who you call them travelers or deconstructionists, but -- communism or even the famous phrase useful idiots. these were the democrats to which patrick was referring. another writer anthony lewis, many other liberals denounce reagan's consigning it to the history. the soviets at the time called their policy ir reversibility. soviet surveillance was everywhere. and their embassy in washington with regard to more th

stephen cushman, the robert c taylor professor of english at the university of virginia in charlottesville. he has been teaching there since 1982 as a scholar and also as a poet. he has published multiple books and articles. his first civil war book entitled "bloody promenade: the collections by civil war battle," which happens to be the battle of the wilderness. it is an outstanding book. as you will discover, he has a way of taking evidence historians often see as a transparent window into a past but he's able to interrogate sources and writes about them beautifully. his analysis is absolutely superb. today, he will be speaking on one part of his most recent published by the university of north carolina. that book is entitled "belligerent muse: five northern writers and how they shaped our understanding of his evil war. this book chronicles abraham lincoln, while whitman sherman ambrose bierce and today subject, joshua chamberlain. in fact, there was life for joshua chamberlain after gettysburg, and we will be talking about chamberlain and appomattox. please welcome steve cushman. [appla

robert taylor of auburn university found that cool had no effect, no significant affect on canada's export market for beef. and there is further indication from this study that show that it did not -- cool did not negatively impact imports of slaughtered cattle. what likely did drive decrease in imports is a global recession and weak economic recovery. data on imports of 400 to 700 pounds of cattle did not show cool having a significant negative effect of imports of feeder cattle from either canada or mexico relative to placements in the u.s. feed lots. and cool has not had a significant negative effect on the price paid for imported slaughtered cattle relative to comparable domestic cattle. if retaliation is approved, it will probably not begin for several months. in the brazil cotton case, it did not begin until 21 months after the final appeal ruling. applied to cool that time scale would take us to march 2017. we still have options for maintaining u.s. sovereignty. for example, u.s. canada and mexico could make a deal that avoids the imposition of sanctions all together there is preced

taylor, tenison graduating with honors, deck watch officer cutter robert miami, florida. blake albert thompson deck watch officer, cutter decisive mississippi. paul edward tomio. deck watch officer cutter thetis, key west, florida. rocko michael graduating with high honors, student engineer cutter sherman, honolulu hawaii. ray ulbrecht. deck watch officer. miami, florida. alexandra marie von rassin cutter midget mp her commission will be presented by her father lieutenant colonel, u.s. army, retired. marina van skoik. christian robert von strollendorf, graduating with honors cutter alder duluth minnesota. jamie nicole waterman graduating with high honors cutter sherman, honolulu, hawaii. zachary david wells graduating with honors. deck watch officer cutter willow, new port, rhode island. david scott wesland cutter dependable, virginia beach virginia. his commission will be presented by his brother second lieutenant paul wesland, u.s. marine corps. james joseph white. port smith virginia. nicholas david williamson graduating with high honors. deck watch officer, cutter ray

that stood him out from robert taylor and other actors who call for the expulsion of communist provocativeeurs. there is an irrefutable fact in 1980 we were losing the cold war. by 1989, we were winning the cold war. as jacob patrick said, the -- gene kirkpatrick said about the san francisco democrats "from the fall of saigon, soviet influence expanded in laos, cambodia ethiopia, libya syria, madagascar, the seychelles, nicaragua, and grenada. not all the democrats were pro -soviet and anti-american. that is ridiculous. there are many good anti-communist democrats over the years for harry truman to hubert humphrey to john kennedy and jackson. but there were for whatever reason a number of democrats in the 1980's who work, call them fellow travelers or deconstructionist or provocateurs. or soft on communism. or even useful idiots. they existed and that was the essential point. these were the san francisco democrats to which patrick was referring. -- which kirkpatrick was referring. many other liberals spoke up for soviet communism or denounced reagan. the soviets at the time called their policy

robert e. lee's surrender appomattox. he describes the forgotten surrenders of the civil war including joseph johnston in north carolina and richard taylor in alabama as well as confederate forces and their allies in the trans-mississippi region and indian territory. indian territory. this talk was part of a symposium on the closing of the civil war, cohosted by longwood university and appomattox court house national historical park. it is about an hour. >> i want to introduce our first speaker. robert dunker lead -- robert dunkerly. he has worked at nine different historic he has worked at nine different historic sites. he has written two books that are not listed,

this half-hour documentary is narrated by actor robert taylor. ♪ >> on the 18th of december 1944, the conflict that would become the battle of the bulge was two days old. it had started with a huge german counter offensive planned with a strict timetable. by the 18th, two panzer armies should have reached the river, driving toward their objective antwerp. instead, thousands of hitler's finest troops were fighting to take a small town in belgium. a junction of roads and railways, the key to success for the counter offensive was the timetable. a key to the timetable was st. vith. ♪ at dawn on the 16th, the massive german assault had achieved its first object, surprise. it overwhelmed the inexperienced american troops in the forest east of st. vith, where some like colonel oliver patton, were still trying to fight back to friendly lines on the 18th. >> the last attack down the road. in that attack, i was hit for the second time that day. i was hit through both legs and i couldn't walk. late that night, i remember the battalion commander came through and told us that the battalion had t

this documentary is narrated by actor robert taylor. >> on the 18th of december, 1944, the conflict that would become the battle of the bulge was two days old. it had started with a huge german counter offensive planned with a strict timetable. by the 18th, two armies should have reached the river driving toward their objective antwerp. instead, thousands of hitler's finest troops were fighting to take a small town in belgium. a junction of roads and railways, the key to success for the counter offensive was the timetable. a key to the timetable was st. vith. at down on the 16th, the german assault had achieved its first object, surprise. it overwhelmed the inexperienced troops in the forest where some, like colonel oliver patent, were still trying to fight back to friendly lines on the 18th. >> the last attack down the road. in that attack, i was hit for the second time that day. i was hit through both legs and couldn't walk. i remember the battalion commander came through and told us that the battalion had to pum pull out. they were going to leave us. there were four or five of us. the