Interviews with Former Presidents

The completed paper is due two-three weeks before the end of the semester. Brief in-class extemporaneous reports are sometimes given. Recent papers done by students include: "The Appeal ofthe Horror Film," "Sex in the Cinema-Reflections of the 1950's," "The Good/Bad Guy," "The Production Code," "Radical Films of the 1960's," "Marx Brothers," "Hollywood Starlets," "Chaplin," "New Roles for Blacks," "Hollywood's Moral Image in the 1 920's," "Mae West," "Violence in Films," and "How Movies Helped Win World War II." FILM REVIEWS INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER PRESIDENTS Four ax-presidents, now deceased, have sat for interviews about their public careers. The staff of CBS News was responsible for those with Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and edited portions of their interviews have appeared on national television. An independent producer sponsored the interview with Herbert Hoover, and it has appeared occasionally on television. Unfortunately, only the conversations with Truman [From Precinct to President, Some Reflections by Harry S. Truman (CBS News, 1958), 60 min., b&w, 16mm.] and Hoover [Herbert Hoover (Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1959), 60 min., b&w, 16mm.] have been made available for general usage. From Precinct to President, a pioneer effort by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, was developed with a sense of history in mind. The coproducers believed they were transcribing a primary source suitable for viewing in 1990 or later when historians might find it useful to examine the Truman presidency in the language and voice of the thirty-third president. The interrogation is not vintage Murrow, but Truman compensated for the deficiency by embellishing in most of his answers and by speaking with the bluntness and candor usually associated with him. Truman's sometime caustic personality comes through quite well as he discusses the major decisions of his presidency such as dropping the atomic bomb, sending troops into Korea (his "most difficult" decision), and dismissing General Douglas MacArthur. His lecturing on the need for a strong president ("lobbyist for 150 million people") and how to establish peace in the Middle East (Israel as the industrial core with the Arab states as the granary) has a certain irony in view of the events ofthe last decade. Compared and contrasted with the Truman memoirs and the growing number of studies of the man and his era, From Precinct to President is an excellent source for classroom use on both the introductory and advanced levels. The production could be improved ifa new version including the material deleted in the original was extracted from the CBS archives. By mutual agreement, some footage was not to be shown during Truman's lifetime. Not everyone will be satisfied with the time devoted to certain subjects (e.g., anti-Communism and Joseph McCarthy) and some will be disturbed that some issues are skirted over or ignored (e.g., Truman's relationship to the Pendergast machine). Nevertheless, this initial production does have very real usefulness for the teaching and researching historian. 40 Herbert Hoover has all of the weaknesses of From Precinct to President and none of its strengths. The production appears to have been a futile effort to continue the Quaker president's personal efforts to rehabilitate his image in history begun with his memoirs in the early 1950's. The interviewer is inept as he fails to profile vital issues, and Hoover speaks in the same ponderous and obfuscating way he did in the White House. Boredom sets in very quickly and the students turn off. Most of the footage is devoted to Hoover's successes (e.g., his career as a mining engineer and his coordination of efforts to feed Europe after two world wars), while his years in the White House are virtually ignored. Comparison and contrast with the historiography ofthe man and his era is rendered impossible because of the glaring omissions. But like Truman, his personality comes through and the students can gain some appreciation for the electorates' decision to retire him in 1932. The teaching historian would be better served with an installment from the Biography series of Mike Douglas [Herbert Hoover (CBS News, 1954), 26 min., b&w, 16mm.]. The interview with Eisenhower conducted in 1963 by Walter Cronkite is...