Life History: Lee Hamilton 2014

A Guide to the Collection of Oral History Interviews at Indiana University Bloomington

Finding aid prepared by the staff of the Center for Documentary Research and Practice

Creator: Center for the Study of History and Memory
Title: Life History: Lee Hamilton
Collection No.: ohrc119
Dates: 2014
Quantity:

Quantity: 1 Interview

(Audio files, transcripts, and digital video )
Abstract: Congressman Lee Hamilton (1931- ) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana from 1965-1999, and worked as a Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His scope of work allows him to draw poignant connections between the social and political upheaval of the 1960's Vietnam War and Civil and Women's Rights Movements with the challenges of the first decades of the 21st Century. He describes the shift of the American experience from post-WWII exceptionalism to the cynicism of the Watergate Scandal and 9/11. His anecdotes about Presidents from Johnson to Obama (including Christmas Day games with Bush) offer quirky, insider perspectives about each of their idiosyncrasies. He is now a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council and is the Director of the Center on Congress and a professor at Indiana University, encouraging youth to improve on the flaws and structural issues of Congress he saw while working there.
Location: Interviews are housed in Franklin Hall, Room 0030A. Contact ohrc@indiana.edu for more information. Copies of interview transcripts are also held by the IU Libraries University Archives. For other locations housing the interviews from this project, please contact the Center for Documentary Research and Practice office.
Language: Materials are in English
Repository: Center for Documentary Research and Practice
Franklin Hall 0030B
601 E. Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
Business Number: 812-855-2856
ohrc@indiana.edu
URL: https://cdrp.mediaschool.indiana.edu/

Scope and Content Note

This series of six interviews was conducted in the Summer of 2014. The second interview session was recorded by video. Congressman Lee Hamilton discusses his long political career as a representative for the U.S. House of Representatives for the Indiana 9th District.

Restrictions

Usage Restrictions:

The archive of the Center for Documentary Research and Practice at Indiana University is open to the use of researchers. Copies of transcript pages are available only when such copies are permitted by the deed of gift. Scholars must honor any restrictions the interviewee placed on the use of the interview. Since some of our earlier (pre-computer) transcripts do not exist in final form, any editing marks in a transcript (deletions, additions, corrections) are to be quoted as marked. Audio files may not be copied for patrons unless the deed of gift permits it, and a transcript is unavailable for that interview. The same rules of use that apply to a transcript apply to the audio interview. Interviews may not be reproduced in full for any public use, but excerpted quotes may be used as long as researchers fully cite the data in their research, including accession number, interview date, interviewee's and interviewer's name, and page(s).

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[interviewee first name last name] interview, by [interviewer first name last name], [interview date(s)], [call number], [project name], Center for Documentary Research and Practice, Indiana University, Bloomington, [page number(s) or tape number and side if no transcript; if digital audio and no transcript, cite time when quote occurs].

Collection Inventory

Hamilton, Lee , July 3, 2014, July 8, 2014, July 18, 2014, July 23, 2014, September 3, 2014, September 12, 2014

No(s): 14-075

Physical Description: 199 pp.; 6 .wav files, 16 bit/44.1 kbs, 1 video file; index

Scope and Content Note: Congressman Lee Hamilton (1931- ) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana from 1965-1999, and worked as a Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His scope of work allows him to draw poignant connections between the social and political upheaval of the 1960's Vietnam War and Civil and Women's Rights Movements with the challenges of the first decades of the 21st Century. He dscribes the shift of the American experience from post-WWII exceptionalism to the cynicism of the Watergate Scandal and 9/11. His anecdotes about Presidents from Johnson to Obama (including Christmas Day games with Bush) offer quirky, insder perspectives about each of their idiosyncrasies. He is now a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council and is the Director of the Center on Congress and Professor at Indiana University, encouraging youth to improve on the flaws and structural issues of Congress he saw while working there.

Indexed Terms:

  • Places:
    • Indiana
    • Germany
    • China
  • Occupations:
    • Politician
    • attorney
    • Congressman
  • Subjects:
    • 1964 presidential election
    • 9-11
    • abortion
    • Al-Qaeda
    • American exceptionalism
    • campaign
    • campaign fundraising
    • campaign office
    • Cold War
    • Democrats
    • Foreign Relations of the United States
    • Great Society
    • Iran-contra affair
    • Panama Canal
    • parades
    • political changes
    • political involvement
    • political party affiliation
    • Roe v. Wade
    • Soviet-American relations
    • Vietnam War, 1961-1975
    • Watergate
    • women and labor
    • women's rights
    • World War II
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Center on Congress
    • Democratic Party
    • Democratic National Committee
    • DePauw University
    • Foreign Affairs Committee
    • Indiana University
    • United States Congress
    • United States of Representatives
  • People:
    • Bush, George, Sr.
    • Carter, James Earl Jr.
    • Cheney, Dick
    • Clinton, William Jefferson
    • Hussein, Saddam
    • Johnson, Lyndon Baines
    • Kennedy, John Fitzgerald
    • King, Martin Luther, Jr.
    • Lugar, Richard G.
    • Mills, Wilbur
    • Nixon, Richard Milhous
    • Obama, Barack
    • Reagan, Ronald Wilson
    • Russell, Richard

Access Status: Open