Doris Kearns Goodwin on "An Unfinished Love Story"

Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of our best known  and bestselling presidential historians now   she's out with a new book but this time it's a  love story and it's personal as our Robert Costa   explains please welcome the great Doris Kearns  Goodwin Doris Kearns Goodwin come out here Doris   Doris Kearns Goodwin is a rare presence on our  national stage a historian with academic cred   and pop culture cat here's Doris Kearns Goodwin  born in 1809 into a the teacher is Doris Kearns   Goodwin today we explore Lincoln in 1861 her work  of course is serious but she shares it with joy   and sometimes a laugh it's fun when a younger  person comes up to you and says you know my   kids saw you on the Simpsons or my grandchildren  they' thought this is really exciting maybe you   are something after all they Goodwin now 81 is  renowned for telling the story of America often   through the prism of the presidency her latest  book about her late husband does that too and it's   deeply personal an unfinished love story is about  Richard Goodwin's adventures in the turbulent   1960s writing speeches for Titans like JFK LBJ  and RFK and it's about Richard and Doris he was   an extraordinary character who somehow traversed  almost every important moment in the 1960s he's   like Zelig in a certain sense in the 60s some of  the most iconic lines from the 60s came right from   Richard Goodwin's typewriter the Great Society  ripples of Hope We Shall Overcome dick loved   poetry he loved drama I mean using the anthem of  the civil rights movement in the middle of the   great speech after the Selma demonstrations it was  just a moment that was almost a moment of Genius   that came to him and we shall overcome before  becoming a fixture at the side of presidents   Goodwin had a fast rise Harvard Law Supreme Court  Clerk and then Congressional investigator of the   rigged TV quiz shows of the 1950s my name is Dick  Goodwin I'm an investigator with the subcommittee   on legislative oversight of the United States  Congress Robert Redford's 1994 film quiz show   dramatized his real life crusade to prove the  fix was in don't treat me like I'm some member   your goddamn fan club you telling me everybody  got the answers but you you're so persistent you   know I really envy that President Kennedy later  brought Goodwin into his Inner Circle The Genius   of our scientists after Kennedy's death so did  LBJ who looked to Goodwin for some rhetorical   magic as the LBJ tapes reveal I'm I just ask him  if he can't put some sex in it I ask him if he   couldn't put some rhyme in it and some beautiful  Churchillian phrases I need more sex and Rhythm   and churchillian phrases in my speeches the  tapes were just so revealing especially when   you hear him talking about my husband that  way and you're write about how Johnson could   be so flat and dry in his public remarks but in  private if he people had known the way he talks   on the tapes if they had listened to him tell  stories they were brilliant the private Lyndon   Johnson he's the most formidable interesting  character I think I've ever met in my life Doris   Kearns Goodwin first met Johnson in 1967 when the  Towering Texan asked the young White House fellow   for a dance I couldn't believe but when I read  this you met him at a dance yeah and mean what   what a what a way he really twirled me around  the floor and then he whispered to me that he   wanted me to be assigned directly to him in the  White House Johnson's advisers were initially on   edge about her anti-war views but she quickly  became someone he trusted talking to her for   hours during the Bittersweet Twilight of his life  he could be mean at times but underneath there   was this force that wanted to make the country a  better place and the war in Vietnam cut much of   that into and without that there's no question  he would have been one of the great presidents   but even now he is one of those great presidents  Doris and Richard Goodwin met at Harvard after LBJ   left office and were married in 1975 they lived  here in leafy conquered Massachusetts raising a   family and working until Richard's death in 2018  and the couple's book collection now lines the   shelves of the local library never would I  have an office quite so elegant as the great   room here in the conquered Public Library these  days Goodwin stays busy with history but also   keeps a close eye on politics what's at stake in  this upcoming election it's not an exaggeration   to say democracy is at stake I mean I I think  about Lincoln when he said that early on that   the central point of the fight of the Civil War  was really whether democracy would exist because   if you could decide as a southern set of states  did that they lost an election so they're going   to secede from the union then democracy is an  absurdity and that's the Hallmark of our system   is that you you lose an election and you accept  it with Grace what do you say to Americans who   look at what's happening with this election they  just want to tune out not pay attention tuning   out and not paying attention is an action in fact  somehow not participating is even worse than many   other things you can do because it means you're  saying I don't care it's not important and that's   that's a cowardly thing to say because it's not  true and Americans she says can always turn to   the Past for lessons I still think if we look  back at history that somehow America's pulled   through each one of these tough times and we've  come out strengthened it's hard to see exactly   how that's going to happen now but it's going  to happen happen only if people start marching   only if people start fighting for the rights they  believe are being taken away when conscience is   fired and the majority will is is exercised  we somehow come through and I think we will again

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 221,860

Keywords: Sunday Morning, CBS Village Women, U.S.

Id: HIJ6PDUMX3k

Length: 6min 16sec (376 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2024