[applause] martha: thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> interested in american history tv? visit c-span.org/history. you can visit our schedule, preview upcoming programs and watch college lectures, tv tours, archival films and much more. american history tv on c-span.org/history. c-span, where history unfold daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television company. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> george brown junior serve the

people of southern california for 35 years in the u.s. house of representatives. next, we will visit the university of california riverside where we will take a look at its political papers and learn about its latest just legislative legacy. i am what the congressman who served the southern california area for 34 years, most of it in the inland and -- inland empire. the inland area -- and power mix of riverside and san bernardino which is in southern california. about one hour east of los angeles and may be an amber or two north of the border. -- maybe an hour or two north of the border. mainly riverside and san bernardino. he was first elected to congress ,n 1963 for the 29th district which was serving parts of east los angeles. he served until 1970 when he

decided to run for senate in california. he lost the primary in that election. he had to take a little bit of a break from congress. he decided to run for congress again in 1973. he served the inland empire continuously since then until he passed away in 1999. i think these kinds of collections are really important to learn about history. note is so much that i do think people realize they can use as collection for it. it is not just political papers. you can kind of learn about the progress of things like scientific research on climate change from the 1960's through , it shows yous how research changed. because he was a congressman for a long time and

he kept such a wealth of research material. experiencethat the ish going to the war probably what motivated me to go into the war, although i did not do so directly after the word. i had gotten into politics with -- i have the silly idea that wars are unnecessary and good political leadership could prevent them. some items i pulled related to the vietnam war. george brown is really known for his opposition to the vietnam war. he believed that the u.s. stance on military intervention with further complex around the world.

he really wanted to seek a peaceful solution through the united nations. ,ome of these documents here this is in 1965 and this is the speech he gave on the floor of the house during the defense appropriations bill. for $700sically asking million. a lot of thought was going to go fund the vietnam war. he said, mr. chairman i rise to express my doubts about what we propose to do here today. , io not say this lightly know, as all as you know that what we are approving here is not merely a routine request for 700 million to meet the temporary needs of the department. what we are being asked to do is improve the policy of the administration waging war in vietnam. this, i cannot do. i think that was a really powerful statement for him and being the only person to vote

against these appropriations. it really sets him apart. in 1970 it was a big part of his campaign. it showed he was against the war the whole time. at that point people began to turn on the vietnam war. for the primary it was supposed to be an easy campaign for his opponent. closened into a really rate with a lot of young people flocking to the ground and approving his message and anti-vietnam stance. did end up losing that primary but it was not supposed to be that close in the first place. it showed the power of him. resolutionere is a that a fellow colleague put together. this is to remove troops from vietnam and this was in 1969. there were put through legislation that they did not

have. this is a photo of george brown in november of 1965. there was a protest in washington against the vietnam war. they were leaving their administrative offices to join a protest. the capitol police even confronted them. he said they could go ahead and arrest him. nafta was passed in 1994. it was signed in 1992. canada, the of united states and mexico had to have their legislative branch ratify these agreements. that was something that was actually tough in the united states for bill clinton to do. there was a lot of polarizing opinions on that.

for a brown was undecided long time on whether he would vote for it or not. the resources we have on nafta are pretty interesting because there are a lot of both sides training convince them of either way china vote. we have a very -- trying to vote. and he these documents was getting sent different briefings, different agencies and groups talking all about nafta. it is a really great resource for anyone. briefing ans of opinion and information about it that was sent to him in order for him to make that decision. becauseort of undecided he did not want businesses in to move to thees

united states to countries like mexico at the time. they did not have strong labor laws in the united states and strong environmental laws. once therried that agreement was passed businesses would move because they could produce products for cheaper using cheaper labor. that was where he was waffling on his decision. ,ome other documents we have this is something a staff member wrote him and it was talking about how the next day he was going to get a call from the president asking him to vote for nafta. this one i think is really interesting because it is telling him that the president is asking what he wants a return for his foe. -- his vote. it is not something that brown usually does, but if he wanted to he offers him some things to ask for.

guaranteeing that labor rights can be included in nafta. that they endorsed an executive order and even some inland empire products -- projects that brown might use as leverage. handis george brown's written letter from different phone calls he had on november 2. theeceived phone calls from senator of connecticut, former president jimmy carter and from the secretary of state at the time. this is just interesting because it is his notes on a conversation, like with jimmy expresses -- for nafta but concern for my

reelection next year. just checking to see if i had come to this. just personal notes, people were calling him about. stuff torought up some brown's record on norton air force base. it was a base near downtown san bernardino with a big city in the inland empire. in 1988 the airport decided to close five bases part of the defense realignment. it was something they had been doing periodically. will -- world war ii and the cold war. and georgeforce base

air force base, which was a smaller base, they were both fumbles less. smaller base, they were both fumbles less. old for in san bernardino county. they needed constituents of george brown. it was something he thought high against the stop the base from closing. they wanted to try to realign the peso people would not lose their job. isically what we have here -- here is just one file out of talks is a files of different thatspondents and research brown has on the base of of taking thet base of taking the basin way and taking different units from the air force, taking it from norton air force base and other basis

and they did research on bringing in economic development. another thing we have here is his testimony. house subcommittee. this was something that he joined forces with -- a republican congressman jerry lewis who had the george air force base in his district. they both work together and they had parts of san bernardino county. they both testified before the committee on how it would impact the district and why they thought it should not happen. we are losing thousands of jobs. we are uncertain as to thousands of more and the state of them. we really think we could do a better job than what they are doing here. i have no problems with a

decision that is based upon what to the national security but is there. -- but is cost effective. 1988 from dating from when it was announced in 1990 and the base fully closed in 1994. a sample of four pages of different phone calls and letters and hearings that you put together and i think this mostly puts together to show constituents what he was trying and he was doing what he could for them. this was going to be a big impact on their economy and on their job. the staff put this together and it really has a good timeline of the events that were happening.

unfortunately the base did itse, but in the 2000s started to get more economic investment. there is an international airport there which does called -- which does cargo flights. there has been some industrial growth as well so it is starting to come back. it is something that took a hit for about 10 years and really affected san bernardino. it was an important part of our local history that people could learn a lot about through the collection. be next set of documents to pulled or related to bipartisanship. that is something that brown was proponentake -- a big of. he was willing to work with anyone if he thought it would and the legislation passions past.

we have some specific documents .ere in the 1990's he did a lot of work with the california democratic delegation of congress and the california delegation as a whole. he did a lot of work to try to build a bipartisan california delegation that would work together for california and work on california issues. we have here a lot of planning documents that we have the staff put together to talk to the offices of other california congressman and ask if they were interested, what things would they be interested in. how it was to live bipartisan delegation.

about building community in the congressional delegation. we also have some examples of how he did that. he worked with republican congressman, who was cochair on a bipartisan task force. he created a lot of tasks force. there is a task force on realignment when bases were closing and how they could keep jobs in california. he worked with in other congressman on the environmental implications of the u.s. and mexico economic development. the staff put together a list of all the bipartisan andrts that he had made then he writes, i can not satisfied with the progress made even in building an effective democratic delegation were bipartisan delegation. however, i believe we should continue to try and explore alternative portions, such as individual relationships and

projects with -- this will build the inevitable differences. i think it proves to me it was not just something he was doing to show his constituents that he , ita bipartisan congressman was something he was very interested in to try to get things done. here what he was infamous for, smoking cigars. ofre are many anecdotes brown always having a cigar in his mouth. he ended up actually donating a of cases here that we have in the collection. hise are some memories from staff. he had a party in 1995 to celebrate his word a. i believe 25 years in congress as well.

former staff members were asked to write their favorite memory of george brown. it is his cigars and how it was a point of pride that he would drive in a car with you and you had to not roll the window down with all the smoke. if you could last then he respected you. that is something that shows a little bit of brown's character outside of being a politician. staff cities tour recently traveled to riverside, california to learn about its history. learn more about riverside and other stops at c-span.org/cities tour. american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. next, on the presidency. eleanor roosevelt biographer withhe wiesen cook talks

paul sparrow, director of the franklin d roosevelt library and museum. ms. cook has written a thee-part biography of former first lady. the third part is titled "eleanor roosevelt: the war years and after." book festival in lewes delaware hosted this hour-long conversation. year my colleague's honor board go to great lengths to find the ideal keynote speaker. it is not an easy job. first of all, it is finding the right person at the right time. honorary totend an our keynote speaker or other offers. they come here on their own with modest accommodations.