At the direction of Congress, the voices and experiences from the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century are being documented in an oral history project. This effort is a collaboration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell. Mr. Brownell was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s senior campaign strategist in 1952, became Attorney General in 1953 and served in that capacity until after the Little Rock integration crisis in 1957. In this oral history, Mr. Brownell talks about his relationship with Ike, the election, U.S. involvement in Korea, and the Warren Court.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with journalist James Reston. He was the New York Times Washington Bureau Chief during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, and he offers his observations about Ike’s foreign policies, his relations with the GOP’s conservative wing, and the influence of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He also explains why the downing of an American U2 spy plane led Eisenhower to consider resigning the presidency.

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From the Eisenhower Legacy Collection, unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former staff secretary and defense liaison officer to President Eisenhower, Gen. Andrew Goodpaster. After World War II, Goodpaster served with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in the late 1950s. In this interview, Goodpaster explains Ike’s views of the military industrial complex, his ideas on military spending, and working with Congress. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. C-SPAN 3’s American History TV is airing a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. 

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of several key events from the civil rights movement, including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington. Lonnie Bunch, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, is joined by curator Elaine Nichols to introduce the museum’s Civil Rights Oral History Project, which was conducted in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. We’ll then see an oral history interview from that collection with Rev. Joseph Lowery who, along with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with former Central Intelligence Agency Director William Colby. After serving in World War II, Colby joined the CIA and became a strong opponent of the Communist Party. In this interview from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection, Colby speaks about post-war America,  the rise of communism within and outside the United States, and how the American government got involved in the Cold War. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. 

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with retired General Bernard Schriever, who directed the U.S. Air Force program to develop the ICBM or Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. He discusses the technological advances made during the Eisenhower presidency that led directly to supersonic aircraft and space flight. And he explains how the Soviets beat the Americans into space with the launch of Sputnik, the so-called “Missile Gap” of the 1960 presidential campaign, and his reaction to Ike’s famed “Military-Industrial Complex” speech. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. Over the next few weeks, C-SPAN 3’s American History TV will air a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. 

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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with John Connally, who served as a long-time adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson. Connally had an up-close view of relations between President Eisenhower and Senate Majority Leader Johnson -- the man Connally called "the undisputed leader of the Senate." Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961.  C-SPAN 3’s American History TV is airing a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. 

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Independent producer George Colburn has created a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career, a period covering from 1941 to 1961.  His latest project –  “Eisenhower’s Secret War” – debuts in May 2013 on public television stations nation-wide and focuses on Ike’s campaign to wage peace in the aftermath of World War II. American History TV is airing a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. This interview from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection features unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with journalist Walter Cronkite. He knew Eisenhower in England during World War II and recalls his “white hat” reputation among his troops and the wartime press. And he describes how the “People’s Man” – as Cronkite called Ike – made the transition from war hero to president.

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Former President Richard Nixon served as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice-president over two terms, from January 1953 to January 1961. He sat down for an extended interview with independent producer George Colburn for a documentary series on Ike’s military and political career. Mr. Nixon – who died in 1994 at the age of 81 – spoke about the Eisenhower he knew. These are unedited excerpts from that 1991 conversation. We’ll hear about Eisenhower’s views on U.S.-Soviet relations, communism, the Middle East and the Space Race. Mr. Nixon recalls a decisive president who, he said, was always the calmest man in the room. And he explains why he himself never called the president “Ike.” This interview is from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection.

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