Another President With “Game”?

May 14, 2010 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Nixon family, Nixon in the News, Presidents, Richard Nixon, Sports | 1 Comment 

Many articles about President Obama have suggested that he is the first President to display any considerable skill as a basketball player. (Herbert Hoover used to toss a six-pound medicine ball over a volleyball net, but Hooverball’s another game altogether.)

But such may not be the case, as recounted in Alex Pappas’s article about President Nixon’s grandson, GOP congressional candidate Chris Cox. Recalling the time he spent with his grandfather, he says:

“I remember we went to lots of baseball games together and played basketball together. I tell you, he had a mean shot from the top of the key.”

And from a story by the Associated Press:

The aspiring politician says his grandfather, who mostly talked with him about the Mets and Giants before his death in 1994, when Cox was 15, did provide advice that may come in handy between now and November.

“What he would tell me is the only way you lose is if you stay on the floor,” Cox said. “You’re going to get knocked down time and time again, but keep coming back. And keep trying. The only time you lose is when you stop trying.”

3.16.10

March 16, 2010 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under First Ladies, History, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | 1 Comment 

Pat Nixon was born ninety-eight years ago today, on 16 March 1912.

My mother was born near midnight on March 16^th, 1912, in a miner’s shack high in the mountains of eastern Nevada.  Although it was almost spring the nights in the copper boom town of Ely were frosty, and one of her brothers, Bill Ryan, remembers being awakened by cold air seeping into the cabin.  When he got out of bed, two-and-a-half-year-old Bill saw his father standing at the front door with a stranger.  The man pocketed five dollars and then he was gone.  Bill was round-eyed with questions.  “You have a little sister now,” his father, Will Ryan, explained.  “That money was to pay the doctor.”

At her mother’ s insistence the baby was called Thelma Catherine.  But thoroughly Irish Will Ryan, whose parents came from County Mayo, circumvented the Thelma.  His daughter was always “Babe” to him.  He decided too that they would observe her birthday on March 17^th, the birthday of Ireland’s patron saint.  When Bill once asked why his sister’s birthday was celebrated a day late, his father answered, “Well, she was there in the morning, my St. Patrick’s Babe in the morning.”

From:  Pat Nixon: The Untold Story by Julie Nixon Eisenhower

RN, in RN, describes how he prevailed on Duke Ellington to play something on the piano at the conclusion of the star-studded 70th birthday celebration the Nixons hosted for him in the East Room in April 1969:

The room was hushed as he sat quietly for a moment.  Then he said he would improvise a melody.  “I shall pick a name — gentle, graceful — something like Patricia,” he said.

And when he started to play it was lyrical, delicate, and beautiful — like Pat.

A quilt square of the Pat Nixon Rose, bred in 1972 by Marie-Louise Meilland.

Managing The Nixon Oval Office

February 19, 2010 by admin | Filed Under Nixon Administration, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events, Nixon family, Nixon in the News, Pat Nixon, Presidential libraries, Richard Nixon, Yorba Linda | 6 Comments 

On Presidents’ Day 2010, more than five thousand packed the Nixon Library and were welcomed with cherry pie and appearances by Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. Then at 1:30 pm, RN’s Oval Office Team presented the second Nixon Legacy Forum, The Effective Use Of the President’s Time, a look at RN Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, how the Office of the President operated and why it became the model for successive administrations.

Twenty-two members of the Haldeman family were in the audience including widow Jo Haldeman, their son Hank, daughters Anne and Susan, and their grandchildren. Dwight Chapin, former Deputy Assistant to President Nixon, moderated the panel of key staff including Larry Higby (Special Assistant to the President and Assistant White House Chief of Staff), Steve Bull (Special Assistant to the President) and Ron Walker (Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Presidential Advance). Chapin’s service to RN started as a young field man in the 1962 California gubernatorial race. After the former Vice President’s defeat, he went to work for Haldeman at the J. Walter Thompson advertising company. It was during this time that Haldeman – who served as Campaign Manager in 1962 and Director of Advance in the 1960 Presidential campaign – spearheaded the organization of RN’s comeback.

“These weren’t the wilderness years.” Chapin explained. “These were the strategic planning years.”

As an example, Chapin pointed to a memo that illustrated a new and innovative strategy for winning in 1968. Outlining the need for more effective time management, Haldeman told RN that he could reach more voters through the use of television in one or two key events with substantive messages, buying much needed time for him to rest, reflect and write.

This was a radical concept that totally changed the way campaigns went thereafter.” Larry Higby added. “It became the style for how we started to communicate as a White House.”

Higby, the youngest of the staff, also began his career working for Haldeman on the 1968 campaign while in graduate school at UCLA. At twenty-three years old, he became Assistant White House Chief of Staff.

“My first job was to find a book on how the presidency worked.” We had just ninety days to build a corporation from scratch.”

The Nixon organizational model would be groundbreaking. Previous White Houses implemented the cabinet form of government where decision-making was delegated to cabinet officials. John F. Kennedy, Higby explained, worked freestyle, forming coalitions and committees for the most important policy issues. While President Johnson managed like a legislator and focused heavily on his domestic agenda, a reflection on his over 20 years on Capitol Hill.

By contrast, RN managed like an executive.   “H.R. Haldeman was his Chief Operating Officer,” explained Steve Bull. “While Dr. Kissinger was the Vice President of International Affairs and John Erlichman was the President of Domestic Affairs.” It was the Cabinet officers’ job to ultimately execute the positions from the White House.

A retired Marine, Bull’s path to White House was trailed after returning from Vietnam in 1966. He hardly recognized his country as rising crime, social upheaval, and protests against the war were dividing the country. He saw RN as the leader who could bring the country together.

After working on the successful 1968 campaign, Bull joined the White House team as the President’s Special Assistant, managing his day-to-day schedule and moving officials in and out of meetings.

“I was not a confidant.” Bull said.  “It was a senior to subordinate position. My job was to run the Oval Office. I was kept around because I was trustworthy. Trust was important.”

Managing RN’s work environment was also important. Bull explained that RN was a private person. He didn’t like meeting with large groups or numerous advisers. He was a contemplative man whose best course was to rely on his own instincts. He needed time to shape his agenda and map out the long term.

He essentially “shaved two days into one,” Chapin said.  RN started his day early by reading the daily news summary and meeting with Kissinger, Haldeman, and other White House senior advisers and cabinet officials.  During the afternoon, RN would take a short 40 minute “power” nap, change and retreat to his private study in the Executive Office Building, where he would “write out long thoughts, shape his agenda, and constantly be looking ahead,” Higby explained.

As Director of the first Office of Presidential Advance, it was Ron Walker’s job to constantly look ahead. Now the President of the Richard Nixon Foundation, Walker prepared hundreds of foreign and domestic trips for RN including the historic trips to China and Russia in 1972.

After working as a volunteer advanceman during the 1968 Campaign, Walker worked on the transition and the first inaugural. Following inauguration, Chapin invited him to construct the first Office of Presidential Advance.

Not only did Walker create the office, but he also perfected the art first pioneered by Haldeman.

“We wanted to be the mantel of the Presidency,” Walker explained. “When I went into the White House to work for Dwight and Bob, the first thing I thought was important was that I write an advance manual.”

The manual took six months and amounted to 397 pages, constituting what Haldeman initially developed for political campaigns and refining it to advance the President of the United States.

The Nixon White House had “all of those elements necessary to move the President of the United States outside the White House,” Walker said. “We had advance men who knew how to run airport arrivals, how to put motorcades together, how to do press conferences, how to handle the press,” and who were able to effectively “work with Secret Service,” and “the White House Communications Agency.”

On the last day of the 1972 campaign, Walker advanced President Nixon to Greensboro and Spartanburg, South Carolina at midday, flew to a sunset rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico and landed in Ontario, California for a torch light parade of fifty thousand with appearances by John Wayne and the Carpenters.

The next morning at the White House, the President thanked the advance team for their hard work and told them if it not for what they had accomplished he wouldn’t have earned a second term.

To give a sense of their efficiency, RN later told Walker that his team could have took the beaches at Normandy.

Nearly forty years later at the President’s Library in Yorba Linda, the Oval Office Team also performed with masterful efficiency, finishing two minutes ahead of schedule. “The program was to run from 1:30 to 3:30, this program ended at 3:28,” Walker concluded, “that’s called a good advance.”

Chris Cox On Running For The House

February 4, 2010 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

For Christopher Nixon Cox, advantages come from the wisdom of his grandfather:

As for Nixon’s grandson, Mr. LaValle said he would not receive deferential treatment because his father was state chairman. “The cachet Chris Cox brings is not because his father is state chair. It is his lineage, his heritage. He’s extremely intelligent and knowledgeable on the issues. He has the full package of tools necessary to be an efficient leader and representative.”

For his part, Mr. Cox said on “Fox and Friends” that the name recognition came with pluses and minuses. He said he is often asked what his grandfather would have done today. His response was that he would not have endorsed President Obama’s policy of talking to people “who don’t like us.” In that interview, he also said Mr. Bishop had voted with Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, 97 percent of the time. Mr. Cox said he would not be a “rubber stamp” for his party’s agenda.

A Race – And Candidate – To Watch

January 29, 2010 by David R. Stokes | Filed Under American Politics, Congress, History, Nixon family, Nixon in the News, Pat Nixon, Politics, Presidents, Republican Party, Richard Nixon, U.S. History, White House | 3 Comments 

Nearly 65 years after his famous grandfather was first asked to run as a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representative from that state’s 12th district, 30-year old Christopher Cox has put his hat in the ring for the seat in New York’s first district on Long Island. Cox, the son of Edward and Tricia Cox, and grandson of the 37th President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, is a fiscal conservative who champions limited government and lower taxes.

He also has politics in his blood.

And like his grandfather, who was swept into office as part of a Republican landslide in the 1946 off-year elections in the aftermath of World War II and too many years of “New” and “Fair” Democratic deals, he hopes to ride the current wave of discontent and frustration all the way to Capitol Hill. In doing so, he could make a little bit of history, as well. Cox graduated from Princeton and New York University Law School, and served as a John McCain delegate and was the New York State Executive Director of McCain’s 2008 Presidential run.

New York’s first district encompasses Suffolk County, the eastern part of Long Island, with its signature north and south forks and places such as Brookhaven, Smithtown, and the Hamptons. The region is picturesque—still pastoral in part. Richard Nixon loved it out there, even writing his 1968 Republican nomination acceptance speech at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk.

Edward Cox, Christopher’s father, is the current chairman of the New York Republican State Committee. His ancestors were well known in state and local politics, business, and jurisprudence—and his own political resume includes experience as an attorney in the Reagan administration.

Of course, those of us old enough to remember recall the images of a beautiful White House wedding back on June 12, 1971, as Ed took Tricia Nixon as his wife.

Should Christopher Cox get the GOP nomination, he’ll face an uphill race against the Democrat incumbent—Tim Bishop, who has held the seat since 2003. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that Bishop trounced his opponent in 2008 by 16 points, Barack Obama only garnered 51% of the district’s vote in 2008—a rare case that year of a local Democrat out polling the “Yes, We Can” national juggernaut. So to many observers, certainly Chris Cox among them, the seat is very much in play.

It’s been said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The year was 1945, and a young Naval officer was transferred that January to a post in Philadelphia after his tour in the South Pacific. He and his wife contemplated their post-war future. Richard and Pat Nixon also awaited the arrival of their first child.

In September of 1945, while still on the east coast, Richard Nixon received a letter from Herman Perry, a Whittier, California banker, inquiring: “Would you like to be a candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket in 1946? Jerry Voorhis expects to run. Registration is about fifty-fifty. The Republicans are gaining. Please air mail me your response if you are interested.”

The rest, as they say, is history—but none of it was a foregone conclusion.

The seat had been held since 1936 by Jerry Voorhis, a sometimes-New Deal—sometimes further left— Democrat, who had had long been covered by Franklin Roosevelt’s electoral coattails. He had made a career attacking insurance companies, oil companies, and banks—even going so far as to advocate the funneling of all profits from the Federal Reserve System into the Federal Government’s general revenues.

Nixon quickly sized up the situation and the offer and replied: “I feel very strongly that Jerry Voorhis can be beaten, and I’d welcome the opportunity to take a crack at him,” promising “an aggressive, vigorous campaign.”

In fact, Nixon made good on his word and took the fight to Voorhis in 1946. Facing a tough and effective speaker and campaigner, Voorhis was put on the defensive right from the start and never really figured out what to do. During debates with Nixon, one observer said that Voorhis, “pauses, breathes heavily, adjusts his glasses nervously with both hands, etc.,”—this was contrasted with Richard Nixon’s bold style and manner.

Of course, down through the years, the story of the 1946 campaign, as told by many Nixon detractors, has been that it was dirty and underhanded. But, as one biographer has written:

Politics is a rough occupation, and Voorhis had led a sheltered life. He should have seen Nixon coming and responded more effectively and promptly to his attacks… It was not an edifying example of clarity of political debate at its best, but it wasn’t the infamous prostitution of the political process that Nixon-haters have sold to a drooling posterity either.

On election night, Nixon basked in the glow of victory after winning 57% of the vote. He would regularly say over the remaining years of his life that every election win was special—but that first one always remained the most vivid and rewarding. He, Pat, and their nine-month old little baby girl, Tricia, were on their way to Washington, where they’d all (joined by little sister, Julie, less than two years later) live for 20 of the next 28 years.

In early 1947, as Richard Nixon began serving in Congress, he made his way to a debate in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The subject was American labor, particularly the merits of the Taft-Hartley Bill. His opponent was also a former Naval officer, who had as well been elected in November of 1946—one of the few bright spots for the Democrats that otherwise discouraging night. His name was John F. Kennedy.

JFK would later concede that Nixon bested him that night. They left the stage, had dinner, and then shared a compartment on a train back to Washington talking into the morning hours about life, politics, the past, and the future. In fact, those two young men on a train, Nixon at 34 years of age, Kennedy not yet 30, would figure significantly in the future of the nation. They were young men in a hurry—part of a new generation of leaders.

These days we watch another class of young politicians testing the waters. John F. Kennedy, Jr. died tragically, long before we could ever see him run for office. His big sister, Caroline, made an awkward attempt to get Hillary Clinton’s vacated Senate seat, but never seemed to catch on—or up. Now the torch has been past to an even newer generation as Tricia’s son, Christopher, runs this year.

It will be very interesting to watch—and remember.

Remembering Rose Woods

January 22, 2010 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, In Memoriam, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

Rose Mary Woods died five years ago today, on 22 January 2005.

“Those who didn’t know her might think her life was all about a gap on a tape.  How wrong they would be.”  Rose Mary Woods at her desk in her office in the West Wing in 1974.  She was born in Sebring, Ohio, on the day before Christmas in 1917 and died five years ago today in 2005.

Back in the days before everyone was an assistant, when being a secretary was a serious and important vocation, Rose Woods was the epitome —the ne plus ultra— of the executive secretary.  Her resume may have highlighted  her phenomenal typing and dictation speeds, but that was only the technical basis for the pivotal role she came to play in RN’s life and career.  The keenness of her intelligence was matched by the acuity of her insight — into people and events and issues.  And the fierceness of her loyalty was matched by an innate integrity that was anchored by the depth of her Catholic faith.

Rose was an intensely private person — and the life of every party.  She had a lively sense of personal style and a sly sense of humor.  And there is no question that she would have knocked out all the competition if she had appeared on So You Think You Can Dance.

Rose Mary Woods with Senator Nixon in 1952 and in the late 1960s.

Rose first met RN in 1947 when she was working for the Herter Committee of congressmen that went to Europe to examine post-war conditions; their recommendations played a large part in shaping the Marshall Plan.  Tasked with preparing all the members’ expenses, she was impressed by the young newcomer from California’s 12th District because he was the only one who submitted meticulously kept records with all the relevant receipts and documents already attached.  The impression she made on him was equally strong, and when he was elected to the Senate in 1950, he asked her to join his staff as his private secretary.  Thus began an association and a friendship that lasted for the next five decades.

RN’s early staffs — in the House and Senate and then in the Vice President’s office — were blessed with talented and dedicated secretaries.  Dottie Cox Donnelley started with him in the House in ‘47.  On the Senate staff, Rose was joined, in May ‘51, by Marje Acker, who became her secretary, and, in July, by Loie Gaunt.  Others followed, including P J Everts, Gladys Hook, Betty McVey McCarthy, Rita and Jane Dannenhauer, and Doris Jones Forward.  Today Loie Gaunt is the Assistant Secretary Treasurer of the Nixon Foundation’s Board.  She and Marje Acker are long-time members of the Foundation’s President’s Council.  Loie and Marje, along with the Dannenhauer sisters and Doris Forward have plans to attend the Library’s 20th Anniversary celebrations in July.

At Rose’s Memorial Service, held at the Nixon Library, one of the eulogists was her friend and secretary, Marje Acker.  (Imagine how good you have to be to be the secretary to one of the world’s great secretaries.)

REMEMBERING ROSE

by Marje Acker

Marje Acker and Rose Mary Woods in Rose’s West Wing office.

The most important day of my life turned out to be May 1, 1951.

Two and a half months earlier, I had left my home in Portland, Oregon to take a GS-3 clerk-typist job at the State Department.  When I heard about a secretarial opening on the staff of the junior Senator from California, I summoned all my courage, applied for the job, and was hired.

My first morning on the job, I was shown to my desk right across the aisle from Richard Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods.

I will never forget her welcoming smile and her high-heeled, ankle-strap shoes.  Almost immediately we developed a strong, enduring friendship.  Soon I was lucky enough to become her secretary, a post I held during all my years on Richard Nixon’s staff.

Rose was a bright, politically savvy, red-headed Irish Catholic from Ohio, with a wonderful sense of humor, great empathy for people, and impeccable integrity.  In reading articles about her recent death, those who didn’t know her might think her life was all about a gap on a tape.  How wrong they would be.

To colleagues, friends and family, she was the very best friend you could ever have.  She always had time to listen and offer advice if you had a problem.  She made you feel you were the most important person in the world to her.

She was a role model and mentor for all of us.

We had such a close working relationship — we both were fast typists, could work under pressure, thrive on little sleep, read each other’s shorthand, confide in and trust each other, laugh and cry together.

The hours were long as we raced against the clock to get speeches finished on time, respond to tons of correspondence, make innumerable lists for events, gifts, and thank-you letters, field and place phone calls, and manage schedules.  And yet as I look back on my association with Rose, I’m amazed we were able to fit in just as many good times and laughs.

In 1957, shortly before Phil Acker and I married, he had to go to Washington on San Diego city business.  I asked him to be sure to meet Rose and take her to dinner, which he did.  Phil knew that I valued Rose’s opinion so much that he later speculated —not entirely without foundation— that if Rose had not approved of him, I might not have married him.

So Rose was much more than a secretary to Richard Nixon.  She also was a dear friend of the family and was cited in articles as “the fifth Nixon.”  After the 1968 election, she was the first person the President named to his White House staff.

Rose was also close to her own family.  I don’t think a week passed that she didn’t find time to call her parents…..

The epitome of thoughtfulness, Rose also made sure the Boss had his bases covered.

When the Nixons and the staff were in Key Biscayne one year, the President and the First Lady invited us for dinner just prior to returning to Washington.  Afterward, Rose took the President aside and told him it was my birthday.

Soon after Air Force One was aloft, I was told the President wanted to see me in his cabin.  Waiting with him was Pat and the whole staff, complete with a birthday cake.  I never did figure out how they had found a cake late on a Sunday evening at a moment’s notice!

Inspired by Rose, we had such fun planning a 25^th wedding anniversary party for Bette and Don Hughes, as well as surprise parties for the promotions of General Hughes, one of RN’s military aides, and the President’s doctor, General Walter Tkach.

I can remember just one time we were able to surprise her — a party to mark her 20^th anniversary as the President’s secretary.  During the weeks of planning we had to talk in code lest she find out.  That day we all wore big campaign buttons saying “Rose Woods for President” — a job she might well have been able to handle.

Of course there were sad times as well.

On election night in 1962, when RN ran for California governor, all of us, including Rose, were up all night.  I will never forget the Boss coming into the staff room the next morning and individually thanking each of us for our help and saying how sorry he was he had let us down.

During the dark, ugly days of Watergate, Rose and I tried to find little things to relieve the pressure.  We had signs on our desk reading Illegetimi non carborundum — “don’t let the bastards get you down!”

So many memories..…in California on a beautiful summer day, driving in her convertible with the top down to Malibu for a couple of hours walking on the beach…..our walks to the Tidal Basin on a spring day in Washington to see the pansy garden…..walking around Camp David between speech drafts…..being together for campaigns, elections, and inaugurations, was well as the dedication of the Nixon Library and the funerals of Mrs. Nixon and the President.

Rose Mary Woods will always be cherished and loved and remembered by her family and the innumerable friends and colleagues who had the privilege of knowing her.

Rose Mary Woods with Vice President Nixon in the Senate Lobby in 1953, and with PN aboard the campaign plane during the 1968 presidential campaign.   (1953 photo by Arthur Schatz, 1968 photo by Hank Walker, both for LIFE magazine.)

RN’s Son-In-Law Gives Annual Legacy Lecture

January 11, 2010 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Edward F. Cox, the son-in-law of Richard Nixon and newly elected Chairman of the New York Republican party gave this year’s Nixon Legacy lecture in the East Room at the Nixon Library.

RN’s son-in-law and the newly elected Chairman of the New York Republican Party, Edward F. Cox, gave the annual Nixon legacy Lecture in the East Room Saturday.

Introduced by his son Christopher, Cox described the astute leadership and the complexity of President Nixon.

“He had a great and active intellect.” Cox said.  “But he was also a man of action.”

Cox further discussed how these attributes translated into a unique strategic vision and an uncanny ability to follow through on it.

Recalling a time he went to the Nixon home to pick Tricia up for a date, Cox asked RN how he was going to end the Vietnam War. RN told him first he was going to go to China and then to Moscow to bring the Russians to the peace table.

He had a vision to change the world, Cox explained.  “In 1972 he went to China. It was the week that changed the world.”

After RN resigned from office in 1974, Cox described how he went on to write a series of books, advise future Presidents, and travel the world as the country’s elder statesman.

“In 1986, he made the cover of Newsweek with a title that read HE’S BACK.” Cox said. “And he was back.”

Auld Acquaintance — Memories of 1969

December 31, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under History, Nixon Administration, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | 2 Comments 

As 2009 comes to an end, here is a brief (and highly selective) look back forty years ago — to 1969.  Many other important and memorable events occurred — but their photos haven’t yet reached the internet.

On 20 January 1969, RN was inaugurated as the thirty-seventh President of the United States.

36 and 37: The Nixon and Johnson families followed the tradition of meeting at the White House and traveling together to the Capitol.  As RN, PN, and Julie and David Eisenhower, and Tricia Nixon with LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson.

For the Inaugural Balls, PN wore a “mimosa silk satin gown with matching embroidered collar and cummerbund. Over the gown she wore a gold and silver embroidered jacket, encrusted with Austrian crystals”  The gown, which was designed by Karen Stark for Harvey Berin, can now be seen at the Nixon Library.

Julie and David Eisenhower with RN and PN at one of the Inaugural Balls.

The Official Presidential photo chosen for use throughout the Federal government.

RN settled in with his Cabinet — pictured here in the West Wing’s Cabinet Room…….

….and in the White House — where David and Julie join RN, PN, and Tricia for a meal in the Family Quarters’ Private Dining Room.

26 January : RN and PN invited Rev. Billy Graham to conduct an ecumenical worship service on their first Sunday in the White House.   RN, PN, and Tricia (who lived in the White House during 1969) posed on the North Portico with Ruth and Billy Graham.

February :  RN was pictured on the 21 February cover of LIFE at the Winter White House in Key Biscayne, relaxing while he prepared for his trip to Europe.  The trip also made the 28 February cover of TIME:

23 February : RN and PN depart for Europe.  As PN talks with Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, RN shakes hands with Senator Edward Kennedy.

One of the highlights of RN’s first trip to Europe was his meetings with President DeGaulle.  After the official greetings, he introduced members of his official party (left to right, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, Domestic adviser John Ehrlichman, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, and Secretary of State William Rogers.

2 March : RN met with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.

Only a few weeks later, on 31 March, RN had the unexpected and sad opportunity to meet Charles DeGaulle again when the French President flew to Washington to attend President Eisenhower’s funeral.

31 March : President Eisenhower’s funeral in the Naitonal Cathedral.

7 April : As manager Ted Williams watches, RN throws out the first ball at the Senators-Yankess opener.   The smiling Marine aide at RN’s shoulder is Jack Brennan.

29 April : RN hosted a 70th birthday party at the White House for Duke Ellington.

26 April  :  Wally MacNamee captured RN crowning Tricia Queen of the Azalea Festival in Norfolk, Virginia.

21 May : RN announced the appointment of Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

8 June : RN met in Guam with President Thieu of South Vietnam.  On this trip, RN announced the Nixon Doctrine.

13 June : In the Rose Garden, Tricia and Julie present RN with a miniature surfboard in advance of his trip to the new Western White House in San Clemente, CA.

29 June : Along with DC Mayor Walter Washington, PN greeted Stevie Wonder for the kick off the the Capital’s “Summer in the Park” program.

2 July : Although the Eisenhowers weren’t living in the White House, Julie volunteered as a White House Tour Guide during the summer of ‘69.

8 July : RN welcomed the Lion of Judah — Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to the White House.

24 July : President Richard Nixon flew to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to welcome Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin back home from the Moon.

30 July : Dirck Halstead photographed RN’s visit to combat troops at the First Division base at Di An, northest of Saigon.

PN visited with patients at the 24th Evacuation Hospital.  Here she shakes hands with  PFC. Thomas Casimere Jr., 21, of New Orleans, LA.

15 August : RN (complete with surfboard and “Surf’s Up” shirt) was at the Western White House in San Clemente when TIME’s cover pictured some of the issues and personalities that characterized his first half year in the White House.

25 September : RN welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to the White House.

31 October : On Halloween, Tricia Nixon hosted a mask party at the White House for underprivileged children from the Washington DC area.

14 November RN, PN, and Tricia Nixon returned to Florida to witness Apollo XII launch.

19 November : RN bid farewell to Japanese Prime Minister Sato in the Rose Garden. In the Rose Garden: On Prime Minister Sato’s last day in Washington —21 November 1969— RN announced plans for the return of the Ryukyu Islands —including Okinawa— to Japan.  The reversion took place on 15 May 1972.

December : PN welcomes children to a White House Christmas party.

December : RN, PN, and Tricia in front of the White House Tree on their first Christmas in the White House.   PN chose a “National Flower Tree,” and arranged for disabled workers in Florida to make the ornaments of velvet and satin balls, each featuring a different state’s flower.

29 December : Tricia Nixon and her escort Edward Cox arrive at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

All in the Family: Tricia’s 2 year old Yorkshire terrier Pasha, Julie’s 7 year old miniature poodle Vicki, and RN’s year old Irish setter King Timahoe had their own decorations, stockings, and Christmas tree in the Family Quarters in December 1969.

The First Family in 1969: The Nixon family posed for a portrait on 15 June  in the Yellow Oval Room of the Family Quarters.

12.25.52

December 25, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Holidays, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

‘Twas the night before Christmas: this photograph of PN (holding Checkers), six-year-old Tricia, four-year-old Julie, and the thirty-eight year old Vice President- Elect was actually taken on 20 December at their home in Washington.

12.22.1968

December 22, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Pat Nixon | 2 Comments 

On December 22, 1968, the President’s youngest daughter Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower.

RN in his own words:

My daughter Julie first met David Eisenhower at his grandfather’s second inauguration in 1957, when they were both eight years old. They did not see each other at all during the early 1960’s; it was a geographical coincidence that brought them together again. In 1966 David began his freshman year at Amherst College and Julie began her Freshman year at Smith College, only a few miles away. One day he called her on an impulse and asked if he could come over to see her. They met, they fell in love, and just before the start of their sophomore year they told Pat and me that they planned to marry.

Julie pictured with husband David Eisenhower.

On the night their engagement was announced I wrote a note for Julie and left it on her bed table.

RN then discussed the big day:

The Church was beautifully decorated for Christmas with fresh pine boughs and red bow draped over the balconies and a large wreath behind the altar. Red and white poinsettias banked the entire front of the church and surrounded the small white prie-dieu on which David and Julie knelt during the ceremony.

The most memorable moment for me was when I gave Julie away at the altar. She suddenly turned and kissed me. This impulsive, spontaneous gesture brought tears to the eyes of many in the church — including mine.

The Mission Inn At Christmas

November 28, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

From the Los Angeles Times comes this article about the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, California which has just set up its much-cherished “Festival of Lights” for another holiday season. Nixon scholars know it as the place where the future President married Pat Ryan, but it has hosted many, many other weddings – including Bette Davis’s union with her third husband, William Grant Sherry, in 1945. The inn has also counted among its visitors the likes of Albert Einstein, Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, Amelia Earhart, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – and not just two-legged ones:

One of the more unusual guests was a circus elephant named Schneider, who escaped from a train and invaded the premises in 1909.

Apparently mistaking his reflection in the window of the hotel barber shop for another bull elephant, Schneider charged, bursting through the glass.

[Mission Inn founder Frank] Miller took the incident in stride. “He said that was the only guest that was ever allowed to carry his own trunk,” Gutierrez said.

November 1969 — Giving Thanks

November 26, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Holidays, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, U.S. History, White House | Leave a Comment 

A Nixon Family portrait from 1969 — their first year in the White House.

On Thanksgiving Day 1969 —their first year in the White House— the Nixons invited more than two hundred residents without any families from nineteen DC area old age homes to join them at the White House for a traditional meal including fruit salad, turkey and all the trimmings, and pumpkin pie.  The guests, ranging in age from 58 to 93, arrived in busses and were greeted in a presidential receiving line.

The Nixon family —RN, PN and Tricia, Julie and David, and Mamie Eisenhower and David’s sister, her 17-year old granddaughter Susan— welcomed the guests, who were divided between the East Room and the State Dining Room.  Everyone was seated at round tables of ten decorated with centerpieces of  fall flowers and fruit.  Music was supplied by the Army’s Old Guard Fife and Drum Band and the Marine Corps Band Orchestra; entertainment was provided by the Beers Family folk singers and a balladeer from Colonial Williamsburg.

Several guests responded when RN asked for anyone over 90 to raise their hands.   One of them was 93-year-old John W. Graves of Neosho, MO who lived in the National Lutheren Home for the Aged in DC.  The irrepressible nonagenarian rose three times — first to tell RN that he was born in Missouri (RN replied: “I know President Truman will be glad we had a Missourian here today.”); then to inform POTUS that “I’ve never had a sick day in my life.” (RN: “I’m going to have the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare come and talk to you and get your formula so we can pass it around the country.”); and, finally, to observe that “My father lived to 93; my sister lived to 94; and there were 10 children, five of us still alive.” (RN: “I want to get your formula too.”)

The New York Times‘ headline for the story of the event:  ”Nixon Is Outtalked by Holiday Dinner Guest, 93.”

Julie Nixon Eisenhower told the guests that the grace she would say was one that had been used in the Nixon family since she and Tricia were little: “Thank you for the earth so sweet; thank you for the food we eat….”

Everybody Knows The Bird Is The Word

November 25, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Holidays, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, TV, U.S. History, White House | Leave a Comment 

A couple of months ago the First Lady made a guest appearance on the opening episode of the 40th anniversary season of Sesame Street.   (And last month I saluted the charming PSA that resulted.)

Sesame Street premiered in November 1969, and a year later — on 12 December 1970 — PN invited the cast to a children’s Christmas party at the White House.

PN was Big Bird’s friend through fair times and fowl, and on 28 January 1981, she introduced her fine feathered friend to another generation of Nixon family fans.  As The New York Times reported:

The great-granddaughter of one President and her cousin, the grandson of another President, had their chance Wednesday to look in awe upon Big Bird and his friends in person.

A visit to the ”Sesame Street” TV studio, at Broadway and 81st Street, was arranged ”just like any other grandmother would,” said a studio spokesman, by Pat Nixon, wife of the former President, for Jennie Eisenhower and Christopher Cox.

Jennie, who is almost 2 1/2 years old, is the daughter of the former Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower, grandson of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Christopher’s parents are the former Tricia Nixon and Edward M. Cox, a New York lawyer.

The children were accompanied to the TV studio by their grandmother and Mrs. Cox. When Big Bird stepped forward to greet them, Jennie Eisenhower gurgled gleefully and said to Mrs. Nixon, ”Look, grandma, he’s just like Big Bird in the picture over my bed.”

Nixon’s New Jersey Friend Looks Back

November 12, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Nixon family, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | 1 Comment 

Last week I wrote about a retired Atlantic City firefighter named Richard Nixon, whom the New York Times’s website had profiled in a series about everyday Americans with Presidential names. Today’s post is about the Richard Nixon who lived on the opposite side of the Garden State during the last 13 years of his life – that is, the one, usually being discussed at TNN – and a remarkable man, Robert Re, who’s spent most of his 78 years in Bergen County.

Mr. Re, as this article by Karl De Vries from the Fair Lawn (N.J.) Town Journal describes, served for many years as a law-enforcement officer with the Ho-Ho-Kus police department, rising to chief, and also was a Bergen County undersheriff, as well as serving for several terms on the Saddle River town council, from which he is retiring next month. De Vries notes that:

[p]erhaps the achievement that Re remembers most fondly, however, was his intimate relationship with former President Richard Nixon, who lived in Saddle River from 1981 to 1991. When the former president waived his lifetime Secret Service detail in 1985, calling it unnecessary, he retained his own security team, tapping Re, then the head of the Ho-Ho-Kus force, as his right-hand man.

Re would serve the former president for nine years until his death in 1994, accompanying him on a daily basis, observing how Nixon would never turn down an autograph request or a photo as he walked the streets of the community.

“The Nixon I knew was a warm, compassionate man, sensitive to the needs of other people,” said Re, who would meet such figures as Billy Graham, Bob Dole, Mikhail Gorbachev and former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter through his relationship with Nixon. One of his most prized artifacts, which he springs at the opportunity to display, is a photograph of him flanked by Nixon and former President Ronald Reagan, signed by both men.

Following the stroke that would eventually end Nixon’s life in 1994, Re spent five days at New York Hospital by the former president’s side, and flew to Yorba Linda aboard Air Force One, which then President Bill Clinton had sent to New Jersey to pick up Nixon’s entourage. During the funeral, Re sat with Nixon’s daughters, Tricia and Julie[...]

He’s been persuaded by numerous friends and family to write a book about his relationship with Nixon, focusing on the life of the former president following his resignation from office in 1974. But in the meantime, Re remains grateful for the camaraderie of the people he served with during his 46 years in law enforcement, his fellow council members, and the friends he has made as a longtime resident of Saddle River.

It’s also worth mentioning, with Veteran’s Day just past, that the longest period Mr. Re spent outside Bergen County in his adult life was during the Korean War when he served his country for three years overseas in the Marine Corps.

Ed Nixon On The Record

October 29, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The President’s  youngest brother and author of the new book The Nixons: A Family Portait, Ed Nixon, is featured in the Examiner.

“Seeing The Writing On The Wall”

October 17, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under China, Healthcare, Nixon family, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

Tony Panaccio at postchronicle.com has an article about Ed Nixon, the last of the five brothers that included the 37th President. and author of The Nixons: A Family Portrait. In the article Ed speaks of RN’s visionary health-care plan:

“My brother’s offer to address healthcare was genuine, and it stemmed from his feeling that we needed tighter regulation on the insurance industry [...] He knew back then what was on the horizon, seeing the writing on the wall three decades before the storm.”

Ed also points out that the concerns of the People’s Republic of China concerning the increased Soviet military presence in the Pacific helped make possible his brother’s groundbreaking trip to the PRC in 1972:

“While President Reagan is largely credited for ending the Cold War, the seeds were planted during the Nixon administration. This issue was of significant strategic interest to both China and the U.S. at the time, and working together to keep the Soviets in check was a key element that led to the fall of the Soviet republic. If they couldn’t expand, they would not have the economic base to support their massive military budget. When their expansion ceased, it helped hasten their fate.”

It’s A Family Affair

September 29, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Nixon family, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The New York Times continues to chronicle the election of Ed Cox as the Chairman of the New York State Republican Party.  That was unanimously accomplished this morning at a meeting in Albany.

The Nixon family took center stage at the state Republican Party’s conference on Tuesday, as county leaders gathered to elect Edward F. Cox, Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, as the party’s new state chairman.

Mr. Cox’s wife, Tricia Nixon Cox, was in attendance and hard to miss in a fire-engine red ensemble. So was the couple’s son, Christopher Nixon Cox, who ran John McCain’s New York campaign alongside his father and will most likely have some role in the state party.

“We will rebuild our party, and we will win elections,” Mr. Cox said in his speech to the gathering. He promised to win back one Congressional seat and retake a majority in the State Senate, and even raised Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as a Democratic bogeyman.

During the 2008 presidential election, Christopher Cox, RN’s grandson, served as the  Executive Director of the McCain campaign’s New York operations.

Hard to miss: the Coxes yesterday in Albany, New York, where Ed was named State GOP Chairman.

Edward Cox To Be New York State GOP Chairman

September 29, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Nixon family, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | 2 Comments 

The New York Times’ Danny Hakim has written an interesting and timely profile of Ed Cox.  Accompanying the article is a slide show of several photographs, beginning with Mr. Cox’s wedding to Tricia Nixon in the White House Rose Garden in June 1971, through his current role as the putative New York State Republican Chairman (he is uncontested in the election for the position to be held today in Albany).

He appeared on American television screens nearly four decades ago, a blond-haired Princeton man in cutaway and striped trousers who married Tricia Nixon in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Edward F. Cox became an adored son-in-law to President  Richard M. Nixon, appearing at the president’s side during some of the nation’s most pivotal moments, including Nixon’s teary farewell address in 1974.

Now, Mr. Cox, 62, is re-entering public life, taking on a task that many see as impossible: reviving the demoralized and shrunken Republican Party in New York…

Mr. Cox grew close to his father-in-law, and recalled traveling the world on good-will missions with his wife and going to China with Nixon after he left office. He has ferried messages between Chinese and South Korean trade missions and met  Fidel Castro at the Palace of Justice in Havana. He recalled a trip to the Soviet Union during the Nixon presidency in which he had to mediate between a KGB general and the Secret Service.

There were happy moments — his wife can even be heard on the Nixon White House tapes gushing to her father, “Eddie passed the bar.” Then there were more difficult moments, like standing behind his father-in-law during his final address as president. “During his farewell, he asked me to bring him a book,” he recalled. “I was working with him the night before and got it from the library — it was where Teddy Roosevelt wrote about the death of his wife, his first wife, ‘The light went out of my life,’ ” Mr. Cox said, referring to passages Nixon read during his speech.

“Obviously, it was a very emotional time, it was extraordinary,” he added. “He was a man who really had control of himself, but also saw the bigger picture and what he was doing in the bigger picture.”

Speaking of the lessons he had learned from his front-row seat, he said of politics, “You’ll get bloodied, and sometimes it’s tough, but there are moments when you’re on the mountain peak.” “That’s what public life is about,” he said. “You have to be willing to take those ups and downs if you’re going to accomplish something.”

Edward Cox at a the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York.  (Photo for The New York Times by Chang W. Lee.)

The article analyzes the problems —and the opportunities— Mr. Cox will inherit with the State Chairmanship.

The cerebral, centrist Mr. Cox represents a break from the parochial Republican county leaders who have led the state party in recent years, presiding over disastrous electoral results. In the 2006 election, Republicans were shut out of all statewide offices, and in 2008, they lost control of the State Senate, their last power base. The absence of Republican star power means that Mr. Cox will play an outsize role as a voice of the party, whose leaders will gather Tuesday in Albany to elect a new chairman; Mr. Cox is the only remaining candidate for the post. Despite the odds against the party, he said he believed a wave of Democratic scandals could be a boon for Republicans in New York.

A Career That Just Keeps Rollin’ Along

September 25, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Entertainment, Music, Nixon family | Leave a Comment 

Three months ago I wrote a post about a Philadelphia newspaper’s profile of Jennie Eisenhower, President Nixon’s granddaughter whose stage career has taken her to theaters around the country. Starting on Wednesday, and continuing until November 1, she can be seen in the Media Theatre, near Philadelphia, in a production of that venerable cornerstone of the American musical, Show Boat. In it she plays Julie, the role created on Broadway (and continued in the famed 1935 film) by Helen Morgan, and also enacted in the 1951 film remake by Ava Gardner, and so will be singing those two classic Jerome Kern tunes “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and “Bill,” with words by P.G. Wodehouse. This article from the Delaware County Daily Times discusses the upcoming show and in it Jennie discusses the various roles she’s undertaken. One thing for sure: there aren’t many thespians out there who have played both the Artful Dodger (in Oliver!) and Hedda Gabler. But Jennie has.

“Nixon’s Life”

August 26, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

Building on the more personal side of RN — featured in younger brother Ed Nixon’s talk at the Nixon Library yesterday and Frank Gannon’s 1984 interviews — the increasingly useful Hulu.com has a thirty-minute campaign commercial from 1968 which captures the 37th President’s early childhood in Yorba Linda and Whitter:

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