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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Carl Anthony

Aired May 18, 2003 - 10:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Graduating college students today will get some presidential advice. Former President Bill Clinton speaks to graduates in Jackson, Mississippi, and Vice President Dick Cheney delivers a commencement speech to the University of Missouri Columbia.
Yesterday first lady Laura Bush told nursing graduates at Georgetown University to, quote, "appreciate the little things in life." The school awarded Mrs. Bush an honorary doctorate in humane letters. The first lady already has a masters in library science.

Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton may share words of advice and a revealing look at her turbulent stay in the White House. Her eagerly-awaited memoir, titled "Living History," is out next month.

Will the former first lady and current senator talk about the scandals, Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment?

Carl Anthony will share his insight with us this morning. Carl is a presidential historian and first lady biographer. Good morning, Carl. Thanks for being here.

CARL ANTHONY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good morning.

COLLINS: Just wondering, how seriously are these books taken by the American public?

ANTHONY: Pretty seriously. Especially when you look at the roots of first ladies' memoirs. Most of the particularly in the early times, those who wrote them were among the most political, overtly political of the first ladies that we know of.

And Mrs. Taft, was in fact, the first lady to publish her memoirs in 1914 and this is after her husband had been bitterly defeated by Teddy Roosevelt, the former president, who basically split the Republican Party and left her really angry. And she kind of exorcised those demons by writing her memoirs.

Edith Wilson did the same things in trying to defend her sort of taking control during the president's stroke. Eleanor Roosevelt kind of softened the blow.

So I think Mrs. Clinton, as well as in line with more recent first ladies like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Ladybird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalyn Carter, will be very honest. She will set the record straight as to those events, both famous and unknown.

COLLINS: So, Carl, which first ladies have already told us the most? Who really, you know, wrote a lot that we didn't know, maybe?

ANTHONY: I think in more recent times Mrs. Reagan's memoirs were extremely honest. She had, during her eight years in the White House sort of always, you know, played down the fact that she had any kind of a real political role.

Well, in that book she revealed that it was she who felt, against the advice of a lot of people in the State Department, that her husband should form a personal friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and that is, of course what led to that historic friendship, and...

COLLINS: Do you think people are surprised, at least in your work, looking at the history of all of this, at how much say a president's wife or influence a president's wife, a first lady may have in some of these monumental decisions that are made at the White House?

ANTHONY: Well, you know, it also depends on what else is going on at the time. So when Mrs. Reagan's memoirs came out everybody was sort of full of shock and awe. And of course, this was before President Reagan came down with his Alzheimer's.

Rosalyn Carter wrote hers quite some time before Jimmy Carter got his Nobel Peace Prize and it was seen as also sort of, perhaps, evening some scores within the Democratic Party as well as the Reagans, which had defeated Carter.

COLLINS: Right. Now, with Hillary Clinton's book coming out, is this sending any precedents here? I mean, she was a former first lady, currently a Senator. We haven't seen that before, right?

ANTHONY: Absolutely not. And I think what will be really invaluable to historians is that, you know, as someone who has the opportunity to actually get to know Mrs. Clinton, myself, I think what people are going to finally get is the full range in her own voice of these activities.

So, sure, it will be all of these sort of other famous events, but I think people will also get to see her behind the scenes, see her on foreign trips, you know, see her playing different roles that maybe weren't sexy enough to push the other, you know, headlines off the front page.

COLLINS: All right. Carl Anthony, so sorry to have to cut it short with you.

ANTHONY: Sure.

COLLINS: Very interesting stuff. We appreciate your time this morning.

ANTHONY: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 18, 2003 - 10:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Graduating college students today will get some presidential advice. Former President Bill Clinton speaks to graduates in Jackson, Mississippi, and Vice President Dick Cheney delivers a commencement speech to the University of Missouri Columbia.
Yesterday first lady Laura Bush told nursing graduates at Georgetown University to, quote, "appreciate the little things in life." The school awarded Mrs. Bush an honorary doctorate in humane letters. The first lady already has a masters in library science.

Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton may share words of advice and a revealing look at her turbulent stay in the White House. Her eagerly-awaited memoir, titled "Living History," is out next month.

Will the former first lady and current senator talk about the scandals, Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment?

Carl Anthony will share his insight with us this morning. Carl is a presidential historian and first lady biographer. Good morning, Carl. Thanks for being here.

CARL ANTHONY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good morning.

COLLINS: Just wondering, how seriously are these books taken by the American public?

ANTHONY: Pretty seriously. Especially when you look at the roots of first ladies' memoirs. Most of the particularly in the early times, those who wrote them were among the most political, overtly political of the first ladies that we know of.

And Mrs. Taft, was in fact, the first lady to publish her memoirs in 1914 and this is after her husband had been bitterly defeated by Teddy Roosevelt, the former president, who basically split the Republican Party and left her really angry. And she kind of exorcised those demons by writing her memoirs.

Edith Wilson did the same things in trying to defend her sort of taking control during the president's stroke. Eleanor Roosevelt kind of softened the blow.

So I think Mrs. Clinton, as well as in line with more recent first ladies like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Ladybird Johnson, Betty Ford, Rosalyn Carter, will be very honest. She will set the record straight as to those events, both famous and unknown.

COLLINS: So, Carl, which first ladies have already told us the most? Who really, you know, wrote a lot that we didn't know, maybe?

ANTHONY: I think in more recent times Mrs. Reagan's memoirs were extremely honest. She had, during her eight years in the White House sort of always, you know, played down the fact that she had any kind of a real political role.

Well, in that book she revealed that it was she who felt, against the advice of a lot of people in the State Department, that her husband should form a personal friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and that is, of course what led to that historic friendship, and...

COLLINS: Do you think people are surprised, at least in your work, looking at the history of all of this, at how much say a president's wife or influence a president's wife, a first lady may have in some of these monumental decisions that are made at the White House?

ANTHONY: Well, you know, it also depends on what else is going on at the time. So when Mrs. Reagan's memoirs came out everybody was sort of full of shock and awe. And of course, this was before President Reagan came down with his Alzheimer's.

Rosalyn Carter wrote hers quite some time before Jimmy Carter got his Nobel Peace Prize and it was seen as also sort of, perhaps, evening some scores within the Democratic Party as well as the Reagans, which had defeated Carter.

COLLINS: Right. Now, with Hillary Clinton's book coming out, is this sending any precedents here? I mean, she was a former first lady, currently a Senator. We haven't seen that before, right?

ANTHONY: Absolutely not. And I think what will be really invaluable to historians is that, you know, as someone who has the opportunity to actually get to know Mrs. Clinton, myself, I think what people are going to finally get is the full range in her own voice of these activities.

So, sure, it will be all of these sort of other famous events, but I think people will also get to see her behind the scenes, see her on foreign trips, you know, see her playing different roles that maybe weren't sexy enough to push the other, you know, headlines off the front page.

COLLINS: All right. Carl Anthony, so sorry to have to cut it short with you.

ANTHONY: Sure.

COLLINS: Very interesting stuff. We appreciate your time this morning.

ANTHONY: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com