BLOGMay 19, 2017

Bill O'Reilly: One Thing Separated Roger Ailes From Other Media Executives

Bill O'Reilly, former host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, was one of the first people Roger Ailes hired at the fledgling network. He joined Glenn's radio program on Friday to share his thoughts about his former boss. Ailes passed away on Thursday at the age of 77.

Additionally, O'Reilly shared details about his recent opinion piece for USA Today, in which he said the following about the iconic news executive:

To say that Roger Ailes led a full life is a massive understatement. A force of nature with an agenda, RA, as fellow executives called him, was a man on a mission.

Both Glenn and O'Reilly gave perspectives on their former boss, with O'Reilly detailing, in his opinion, the one characteristic that set Ailes apart from other news executives.

Enjoy this complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

GLENN: This is going to be a fascinating hour. We are so fortunate to have joining us on Fridays Mr. Bill O'Reilly. One of the steady voices of reason for two decades on Fox News. And was one of the first hires at Fox News from Roger Ailes, who passed away yesterday. We're going to talk to him about Roger Ailes, James Comey, the president, the world at large, and have him try to help make some sense out of this week in review. We begin there with Bill O'Reilly right now.

Mr. Bill O'Reilly, how are you, sir.

BILL: Good. Thanks for having me back. I appreciate it.

GLENN: You are so warm and friendly and personable, I don't know if you catch that every time. But I can feel the --

PAT: It oozes out of the phone.

GLENN: You say very little to me. Just at that opening, you feel he loves me and loves being here.

BILL: Well, I rehearsed that all morning. Did I do okay?

GLENN: Oh, yeah. It sounded so sincere.

PAT: The depth and the warmth.

GLENN: Anyway, Bill, I thought of you a lot yesterday.

PAT: Are we in a wind tunnel.

GLENN: Or an oxygen tent? What the hell is happening? What the hell is happening?

BILL: I am outside. Can you hear me clearly?

GLENN: Oh, god. We're going to do a professional radio program.

BILL: I understand, but I'm a child of nature.

GLENN: Yeah, I know. You're, again, I feel that exuding from you.

So yesterday I thought of you, Bill, because of Roger Ailes, and you probably knew him better than anybody at Fox. And he didn't reveal all sides of himself to everyone. He's one of the most complex men I have ever met. He is in some ways an icon to me, an idol to me in some ways. And honestly, personally, one of the biggest disappointments in my life at the same time, and I have a -- it's weird. I've never liked someone as much as I like Roger Ailes and then despised some of the things that he did at the same time.

BILL: Well, I can't speak to your situation because for two reasons, number one, you're my friend. And number two, he was my friend.

GLENN: Right.

BILL: And I as you know didn't get involved in that when you were at Fox News, only to the extent that I told him quite clearly that you were very beneficial to the network, and then I -- you and I partnered up to do a tour together.

GLENN: Yeah.

BILL: So he knew that I was in your corner. So I don't know any more than that. And when you left, I obviously was disappointed because I didn't think it was good for the network at all. But, you know, you're you, and he was him.

GLENN: Yeah, I'm not even talking about that, Bill. I just -- you know that Roger when he wanted to be, would be ruthless. And I don't want to get into all the charges back and forth of what happened to other people because that's going to happen in court or, you know, none of us were there for that, so I don't even want to talk about that. I mean if Roger wanted to protect you or somebody else, you knew he would. He would be loyal, loyal, loyal.

BILL: Yes.

GLENN: But there was also the side of him that when he wanted his way, he could be the most ruthless man ever.

BILL: Well, I don't know about that, but he was certainly a businessman who operated in a world where what was good for him was going to happen. And so if you were going up against what was good for him, then there would be a conflict. And I understand that. And I had to deal with that too.

GLENN: I know.

BILL: That thing about Ailes. But you and I both know, and this is important, and I want people to read the USA today op-ed that I wrote about you and I both know that what television and radio is all about. It's about one thing. Money. And if you get in the way of money, you're going to get hammered, and you're going to die. If you can make them money, you'll prosper.

GLENN: Yeah.

BILL: That's what it's all about. So Ailes that was his basic business plan. I'm going to be successful. I'm going to crush the opposition. Not just beat them. I'm going to crush them. Okay? Because there were very, very strong psychological reasons why he hated the establishment, he felt that they were arrogant, and they were never fair to him and all of that.

But the one thing that separated him and everybody should know this, even if they don't have any motion invested in Fox News or Roger Ailes is that if you got into trouble, if he thought you were a loyal person, he would do anything to help you. And that is very different from most of the executives that work in radio.

GLENN: Very true. Very true.

Bill, what was it like at the beginning of Fox News? When you were there, I mean, you were one of the first hires, and he came to you, and you said in your USA today article today, your op-ed piece to him, you know, do you want to see a treatment of what I want to do? And he said, no, just tell the truth, take no prisoners, don't make any, you know -- no sacred cows, and don't screw it up.

BILL: Yeah, well, he knew me from "Inside Edition" where I had anchored that program for six years and made it a success after David Frost got fired after three weeks on the air. And Ailes is a business man, so he knew me. He knew that I turned a program around. He knew that I could do it. But I was surprised that -- because I had heard, well, he's this ideological guy and, you know, he wants it his way, and I was surprised he never told me, hey, I want you to do this or hammer this guy or be friendly to that guy. Never. He just wanted me to go and do it, and that's why we were successful.

GLENN: Roger Ailes is gone. He left Fox News. They started changing Fox News, obviously you are no longer with Fox News. I remember somebody said to me when I was there, so who's going to replace Roger Ailes? And I said I don't think anybody can replace Roger Ailes. But they certainly weren't grooming anybody. Bill Shine was probably the closest that could begin to think like Roger. But he never in his mind, I think left the roots that he had in Ohio. He could still think like somebody in the center of the country, which is nobody in New York City at an executive level is doing.

We've seen this --

BILL: No doubt.

GLENN: Go ahead. Comment on that.

BILL: Yeah, look, Roger was a child. He was one of the first baby boomers. Okay? He was a little bit before that, born in 1940. But he had that mentality. And his father was a tough guy and, you know, Roger was a working class, and he was a human philiac, so as a child, he had tough health issues, and he was a small guy, so I think he was a victim of bullying. He took all of that, and he said you know what? I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you, and I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan or if you're the head of GE, I'm going to show you. And I'm going to show you how it's done because I have a link, just as you have and I have with regular Americans, working Americans. I have that link. And that's what made him successful.

GLENN: You think that's what he saw in you? Because I think that's --

BILL: Oh, there's no doubt about it. No doubt about it. You know, he could have had all the stones and forests and, you know, all of these network people who were named after inanimate objects, he could have had them. He could have done that. He could have had pocket Hankies all over the place. British accents, Peter Jennings, clones. He could have done all of it. But he wanted regular people. So he hires Hannity. He hires a bunch of tough Irish guys who we knew would be brawlers. He hired you, and he put together the staff that he knew blue-collar people would identify with.

So, you know, he was a genius. But what he did wasn't genius, it was just out of the mainstream. And that's why Fox News became a $2.5 billion a year grossing bank. I mean, can you imagine that much money? And that's what happened.

GLENN: He was a genius. And what he did, I think, was genius. It was just out of the -- it was just actually in the mainstream but not the mainstream of media. You know as well as I know, Bill, that you could be confused by one of the most complex issues of health care and the bills and everything else. You would see Roger Ailes for two minutes, and he would boil it down off the top of his head in two lines, and you would go "That's freaking genius. I've never -- that's brilliant."

He could just --

BILL: Yeah, that came from his political background. He told me a story one time about Ronald Reagan, and I have this in my book. I have this exact story in the book. And Reagan was lost when he was running second time around, and he got hammered the first debate. So they brought Ailes in the second debate because the poll numbers are going down for Reagan, Reagan looked discombobulated, so here comes Ailes walking in. Okay? And he didn't know Reagan that well. And he sat Reagan down and looked him in the eye and said going to lose. The whole thing is going to blow up unless you start to wise up. And then Reagan was startled because who talked to Ronald Reagan that way when he was President of the United States? Nobody but, you know, you could see Ailes doing it. And then Ailes said here's what you're going to do. We're going to have three or four themes that we're going to -- that you're going to have to emphasize, and I'm going to give you two strike lines that when we know he's going to say certain things, you're going to go back at him. And one of them was I'm going to hold my opponent's age and inexperience against him. You remember that.

GLENN: Yeah.

BILL: So Ailes was a political guy, political consultant, and he basically brought that over to TV. And he didn't want pinheads on the air with, oh, well, I think we have to go back and look at the amendment. That gets you fired faster than anything. So his formula worked. Works to this day. They're still doing Roger Ailes on Fox News. The personnel has changed, so they're having a hard time. But they're still doing what he put into place.

GLENN: You know, you said that he didn't hire rocket science people. But I don't know if I've ever told you about my interview with him. The first time that I had met him, two or three times, and he had just said "Let's have a casual dinner. I just want to know you.

And then he said I would like to talk to you about joining Fox, and we had dinner together in some private room at a steakhouse in New York.

And the first question he asked me was "What did you think about the 1972 China trade deal?"

And I said "Roger, I've got to be honest. I don't know."

And then the next question was "What was the biggest accomplishment of the Eisenhower administration?"

And I looked at him and I said Roger, I have two ways to go here. I could either bluff and kind of make something up, or I could tell you the truth. I'm not up on that one either. And possibly end the interview right here, but I'm going to bank on not bluffing with you. I don't know.

He said really? And then he said nothing to me for ten long minutes as we ate.

BILL: Really? You ate your salads, huh?

GLENN: But he got up. Neither of us had salad. And we got up afterwards, and then he pushed me to the wall. Pushed me to the wall. I mean questioned my faith. Got in my face so much. And then I thought this is over. I lost 15 pounds of sweat, and I thought this is over. I'm never going to work at Fox. He stood up at the end and he said it is great to meet a man who actually knows what he knows, isn't afraid to say it, and isn't afraid to say what he doesn't know. Good for you.

And that was the end of the interview. It was a nightmare. A nightmare. He was wicked smart and knew exactly what he was looking for.

BILL: Yeah, and he carried that over, and that bluntness got him in trouble, as I wrote in the op-ed. You know, there's two ways to take it. The way you took it, and the way that some other people that hated him. And they --

GLENN: But, you know, there's a lot of people -- because I watched you closely because you have a reputation of being a hothead, and I never saw that. And I saw -- what I did see was Bill O'Reilly expects you to do your job and to do it with excellence because he's doing his job with excellence and not phoning it in. And if he doesn't screw it up, you don't screw it up. So the only time I saw people have a problem with you is when they were bluffing. And it was the same with Roger Ailes and the same with me. Don't bluff. Don't do it.

BILL: If you're going to run a successful enterprise in a ultra hypercompetitive situation, you have to demand excellence. You have to. It's like the military. If you're going to be one of the elite troops -- I mean, you can't allow people to slough off or give you 75 percent effort. So, you know -- but a lot of people don't like that and a lot of people don't want to be challenged and a lot of people don't want to be criticized. So therefore, Ailes made enemies after enemies after enemies plus conservative ideology alienated the press right off the jump, and they were out to get him. I mean, if you look at the clip file from the time Fox News started in 1996 to this very day, the negative Fox News articles run 100 to one.

GLENN: All right. Bill O'Reilly at BillOreilly.com. We're going to continue our conversation. I want to ask him when we come back if -- MSNBC is beating Fox News for a week after Bill O'Reilly leaves. Does Fox News survive without Roger Ailes? Without Bill O'Reilly and others in possibly a new direction? We get that. Also, I want to talk about Trump, the week's he's had, Comey, and you can hear him every day on his podcast at BillOreilly.com.

[break]

GLENN: Bill, I've got about two minutes here, and I want to switch and go onto something about Trump. Something stunning happened that has never happened before. You leave cable news and Rachel Maddow is now number one person on cable news. And MSNBC won cable news for the week. What does that say about -- what's happening? I know you watch the ratings. Is this beginnings of fox actually having to really work hard to hold its place?

BILL: They have a problem. Fox News has a problem. There's no doubt about it. Whenever you lose key personnel in any industry, competitive industry, sports media, you better have a plan. And it doesn't look like FNC has a plan.

The Trump haters are going over to MSNBC and there's a lot of them. A lot of haters. So they're being bolstered by the problems the president is having. But by the Fox News side, you know, they made their decisions, they didn't have to make those decisions, and they didn't have a plan. You know, when you take a guy like me out of the line up, and I'm doing five, six million viewers a night, you better have a plan to replace that. Tucker Carlson is very talented. He's very good. But I don't see a plan.

RADIO

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

RADIO

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.

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