As you might expect, you can’t beg, borrow or steal an artifact held by the National Archives. But if you’re a
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former first lady, you just might receive one as a gift.
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On Friday, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein presented Barbara Bush with a letter Amelia Earhart wrote to FDR before one of her trips (Bush has long been an admirer of the great aviator).
Weinstein had another surprise for the former first lady at the end of their public discussion: He displayed on the large screen a note Boris Yeltsin wrote to her after they dined together at the Russian Embassy. The translation read: “Barbara, Remember it was you who stepped on my foot. You did it on purpose. I got the message. I feel the same.”
She told the crowd that her husband had just been on his namesake aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, “watching the new catapult they put in.” She said it was an example of how well we treat our ex-presidents. “We treat [them] much better than in other countries,” she said. “Half of them kill them.”
