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.”

Welcome To The Club

November 21, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Nixon Library, Pat Nixon, Presidential libraries, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

Groundbreaking for the George W. Bush Presidential Center —the latest addition to  the National Archives’ system of Presidential Libraries— will begin a year from now.  The designs of architect Robert A. M. Stern were unveiled in Dallas on Wednesday.  Several drawings were released, and the general impression was described in today’s Washington Post by architectural writer and critic Philip Kennicott:

Architect Robert A.M. Stern’s plans for the George W. Bush Presidential Center call for a low-slung building of brick and limestone, following traditional lines and hugging the Texas landscape with a calm reserve. It’s almost as if Bush has chosen to retreat into the patrician reticence of his blue-blooded, Connecticut forebears.

The library, with groundbreaking scheduled for November 2010 and an estimated cost of $250 million, will be built on the campus of Southern Methodist University and will house public exhibition space, a mock-up of the Oval Office, a conference center with 364-seat auditorium, and separate entry and offices for scholars. Visitors will enter through Freedom Hall, emblazoned with an American flag on its ceiling and capped by a square glass box that allows natural light to flow in.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center entrance. WaPo critic Kennicott, combining admiration and snark, writes that “It is all self-consciously attuned to and consonant with the SMU campus, a hyper-dignified collection of buildings with porticos and white columns that look as if they were designed by Thomas Jefferson unconstrained by a budget.”

Freedom Hall: The Bush Presidential Center’s entrance lobby.

Kennicott is harsh on the Clinton Library in Little Rock:

Compare this with the  William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, the shape of which recalls the 42nd president’s tediously repeated “bridge to the 21st century” metaphor. Created by Polshek Partnership, the Clinton library is a flashy, contemporary confection of aluminum and glass, with dramatic cantilevers and a high-tech gloss. Although Polshek’s work in Washington has tended to the empty and meretricious (e.g., the Newseum and desperately flawed plans for a visitor center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial), the library for Clinton achieved the brass ring of all too many architectural endeavors: instant iconic status.

Purely as a consumer in the competitive market of Presidential Libraries, I find that judgment  misleading.  One man’s tired metaphor may provide another man’s moment of quiet inspiration, and the Clinton Library  —strikingly situated on the bridge-crossed Little Rock River, and unconstrained by the style of any surrounding campus — provides the visitor an intriguingly site-specific experience, particularly when approached by foot on President Clinton Avenue.  The interiors and exhibition spaces are open and friendly and sleekly modern.  And walking through the replicas of the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room remind visitors of the tangible reality of the Office and the office.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

I have recently had two occasions to visit and tour the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, Virginia — the first time out of curiosity and the second out of interest based on the first.   Wilson was one of RN’s favorite predecessors; he chose portraits of Wilson and Eisenhower for the Cabinet Room.  The Wilson Library complex is bounded on one side by the mansion acquired to house the presidential papers and on the other by The Manse — the house in which Wilson was born in December 1856.  Although he only spent his first year in Staunton, he always considered it as home and chose it as the site for his Library.

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, Virginia.

Each of the twelve —and soon to be thirteen— presidential libraries reflects the character and the times of its namesake.  So comparing them is a business of apples and oranges.  That said, and acknowledging that I’m myopic, I find the Nixon Library —designed by Langdon Wilson— especially architecturally suitable and institutionally successful —as both an accurate rendition of its namesake’s story and as an experience for the average visitor.  Its setting, its design, and its general ambiance convey a real sense of the President and Mrs. Nixon.  The remarkable arc of the Nixon story is all there — from the house where he was born to the simple polished granite headstones of  his and Mrs. Nixon’s  final resting places.  And in the spacious and graciously proportioned building is the history of the deep valleys and high mountains they experienced between.

The original architect’s drawing of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library campus in Yorba Linda.

The Reflecting Pool and Colonnade at the Nixon Library.

Twenty years ago next July: The 38, 40, 37, 41, and their First Ladies at the opening of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda on 19 July 1990.

“I was born in a house my father built.”  RN’s Birthplace at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.

Worth 2000 Words

November 18, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Barack Obama, China, History, News media, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

37: February 1972

44: November 2009.
The White House ID for downloading this photo is “hero_greatwall_LJ-01-60″

50 years On

November 5, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, Sports | 2 Comments 

In November 1959, while on vacation in Southern California, RN played a round of gold with (from left to right) Hillcrest Country Club president Bernard Weinberg, actor Danny Kay, entertainer Danny Thomas, and golf professional Eric Monti.

In the historical section of the Los Angeles Times, Larry Harnisch marks the fiftieth anniversary of the unveiling for plans to build Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine.

The Dodgers had been playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they had moved after being tenants of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York two years before.

Harnisch has also discovered an interesting article which describes Vice President Nixon’s five day holiday in Los Angeles.

According to the article, dated November 5, 1959, RN shopped for ties with Mrs. Nixon in Beverly Hills, and struck up a conversation with a store clerk from Yugoslavia on the politics of the Eastern European nation.

“The call it a social democracy, the store clerk said, ‘but it’s really communism.”

“I know it is, it’s a drab, drab,” responded RN.

RN then visited 20th Century Fox Studios where he met with executive producer Buddy Hadler, and later dined at Hillcrest Country Club with club president Bernard Weinberg, Fox Executive Harry Brand, actor Danny Kaye, singer Dean Martin, Judges Edward Brand and Ben Landis, and others. Mrs. Nixon dined with Brand’s wife, Ruth.

Mrs. Nixon dined at the 20th Century studio with Ruth Brand, the wife of studio executive Harry Brand. Israeli actress Elana Aden is pictured in the center.

After lunch, RN played a round of golf with Weinberg, Kaye, entertainer Danny Thomas, and golf professional Eric Monti, scoring 51 on the first nine and 43 on the second half of the course (RN was no stranger to the game, he is among three American presidents — including Eisenhower and Ford — to ever score a hole-in-one).

During the round, RN joked with his companions, and conversed about Russian Premier Nikita Krushschev (who he debated just four months earlier at the American Exhibition in Moscow), and discussed the future of India.

Harnisch also found another news clip from the trip, a story that describes how RN made two young journalists’ day:

Pat Nixon And America’s White House

October 17, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Pat Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Under the leadership of First Lady Pat Nixon, a record number of guests visited the White House.

According to the Associated Press, tens of thousands are expected to visit the White House this weekend to tour the estate’s gardens and experience a rare glimpse of the “fragrant roses, blue salvias and towering, decades-old trees that beautify the president’s back yard.” The tour includes the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the Rose Garden, the South Lawn, and the Children’s Garden — where visitors can see the handprints and footprints of Presidential grandchildren from Lyndon Baines Johnson to George H.W. Bush.

This semi-annual tradition was started by Pat Nixon in 1973:

Then-first lady Patricia Nixon started the tours in 1973. They are held twice a year, in spring (April) and fall (October).

The first few years saw between 10,000 and 12,000 guests. The White House expects double that number this weekend.

“They’ve been a success ever since,” Dale Haney, superintendent of the White House grounds, said of the tours. He has helped care for the grounds for more than 30 years and was present for the first garden and grounds tour.

It’s comes to no surprise that Mrs. Nixon was behind the White House Garden tours.

In his memoirs, RN said that Pat “stepped into the role of First Lady without breaking a stride,”  was generous with visitors and “thought of imaginative ways to bring young people to the White House:”

Each of us loved the White House and looked for ways to share its history and beauty with others, but it was Pat who made it happen.

She had loudspeakers set up near the fence on the South Grounds so that while they were waiting people standing in line for the tour could hear about the history of the rooms they were about to see. She arranged special tours for the blind that allowed them for the first time to touch the historic objects in the different rooms. Pat also recorded an introduction for the first “talking history of the White House so that those who could not see it would nevertheless have a sense of sharing and belonging when they were there.

As Jimmy Bryon noted last week, under the leadership of the First Lady, the White House was restored to its “golden age.”

“She left us all breathless,” RN Said, “By our second year in the White House we had set a record of 50,000 guests.”

The White House Rose Garden is open to visitors in the Spring and Fall each year, a tradition started by First Lady Pat Nixon.

Pat Nixon And The Golden Age Of The White House

October 5, 2009 by Jimmy Byron | Filed Under Culture, Pat Nixon | 6 Comments 

White House renovator: First Lady Pat Nixon pictured with curator Clement Conger, daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower, designer David Richmond Byers III (left, from left to right), and architect Edward Vason Jones (right) in the Green Room in 1971.

Much has been written about First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s refurbishment and redecoration of the White House, home and principal workplace of the President of the United States. While Mrs. Kennedy’s efforts were successful in restoring many artifacts to the Executive Mansion, Mrs. Nixon’s efforts were enormously successful in furthering White House improvements. Mrs. Nixon incorporated other ideas into Mrs. Kennedy’s plans, producing marvelous and lasting results.

Mrs. Nixon did not receive immense press coverage for her work but she did not seek immediate publicity. Still, though, her story needs to be told and her efforts need to be highlighted.

French bergères: Pat Nixon returned President James Monroe’s special-order armchairs to the Blue Room.

Pat Nixon added more than 600 paintings and furnishings to the White House, the single largest acquisition by any presidential administration. Among many notable improvements, she returned President James Monroe’s original special-order French bergères (or armchairs), to the Blue Room and replaced replicas of Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of John Quincy and Louisa Adams with the originals. With the help of a new White House Curator, Clement Conger, whom Mrs. Nixon hired, and Sarah Jackson Doyle, a design consultant who had worked with Mrs. Nixon since 1965, the First Lady redecorated both private family rooms in the upper quarters and public rooms on the State Floor. She refurbished nine rooms, and renovated the Map Room and the China Room, which displays samplings of all the White House china.

The White House China Room circa 1975: With the help of White House curator Clement Conger, Pat Nixon renovated the China Room.

But Mrs. Nixon’s efforts went beyond simply restoration. She made the White House accessible for the disabled by adding wheelchair ramps. For the convenience of foreign tourists, Mrs. Nixon had White House guide pamphlets translated into foreign languages. She opened the White House for tours in the evenings which were enjoyed by over half a million visitors; the tours at Christmas were lighted by candles.

The exterior of the mansion glows a soft-white every night due to the efforts of Pat Nixon. Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s reflection in Pat Nixon: The Untold Story is the best description of this:

The White House illuminated: The soft glow of the White House at nightfall is the work of Pat Nixon.

“[Mrs. Nixon] began work on the lighting of the White House… National Park Service engineers spent months studying diagrams of the house and grounds and submitted various plans for illumination which Mother studied. Great care was taken that the lighting be subtle but still reveal the architectural beauty of the President’s house.

“In August 1970, when my parents returned to Washington from a trip, as their helicopter neared the mansion, suddenly hundreds of carefully concealed lights on the White House grounds were switched on. The softly glowing mansion was a breathtaking sight from the air. Mother had not told my father that the project was completed, wanting him to be surprised. He was elated. Excited, he ordered the pilot to circle once, twice, a third time. Mother beamed with pleasure.

“On November 25, at a small ceremony, Patricia Nixon pressed a button to light the White House officially as the Marine Band played “America the Beautiful.” Ever since that evening, the White House has been illuminated after dusk and a lighted flag has flown by presidential proclamation, day and night. It was an exhilarating moment for my mother midpoint in the first Nixon Administration.”

As Mrs. Eisenhower alluded to, the American flag flies atop the White House twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even when the president is not within the confines of the White House, as a result of the successful efforts of Pat Nixon.

Upon her death in 1993, the Washington Post wrote that Mrs. Nixon, with the help of Conger, “restore[d] the White House to its golden age” and left “as one of her legacies a more historically accurate, and perhaps a more American, White House.” Though she did not seek publicity in regards to any of these numerous accomplishments, the credit she deserves should be dutifully given to this determined, hardworking woman.

Stars and Stripes Forever: Because of Pat Nixon, the American Flag flies atop the White House twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.

9.25.69

September 25, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under History, International Affairs, Middle East, Nixon Administration, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon, White House | Leave a Comment 

Forty years ago today, on 25 September 1969, RN welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to the White House.

It was the beginning of what became a warm and close relationship.  A relationship that would be tested, refined, and perfected during the Yom Kippur War in 1973; and that would culminate in RN’s heartfelt toast to the now-former-PM at a dinner in the Knesset in 1974.

RN’s Welcoming Remarks on the South Lawn of the White House

Madam Prime Minister and our guests here at the White House today:

It is a very great privilege for me, speaking in behalf of the American people, to welcome you, Madam Prime Minister, in a very personal sense, because you were raised in this country. You have been to this country many times, but we are particularly proud that for the first time we welcome you as the Prime Minister of Israel.

Speaking to you in that capacity, as the head of government of a very courageous people, a people who are determined to maintain their independence, who also are determined to achieve a lasting peace in the area in which they live, I look forward to the talks we shall have individually, and also with other members of your party.

It would be less than candid for me not to say that the problems of the Mideast are terribly complex and not susceptible to solution in one meeting, or two or three, or even more, at the level at which we will be talking.

But it is also proper to say that the Mideast and peace in the Mideast is of interest not only to your nation and your neighbors but to the whole world, because of what could happen in the event that war were to break out there, the repercussions that that could have all over the world.

We know that you and your people want peace. We know that your neighbors want peace. Certainly the majority of the people in the whole area want peace. The question is how to achieve it. On this we shall have discussions that I hope will be helpful; the real peace, the peace that is not simply one of words but one in which both parties will have a vested interest in maintaining.

I would say finally, Madam Prime Minister, that a very famous British Prime Minister once said: “One should always talk as much as possible to women, because this is the best school.”

I can assure you that I recognize the tremendous complexity of the problem we will be discussing. I recognize that it is necessary to get the very best answers that we can to find a solution to these problems, and I realize that in talking to you, not just because you are Prime Minister but because you are one of the outstanding women in political leadership in the world, that in talking to you, I will be truly going to the best school today and tomorrow.

A timely visit: the week before she arrived at the White House, Mrs. Meir was on the cover of Time magazine.

RN described the visit in RN:

On September 25, 1969, Golda Meir came to Washington for a state visit.  In Israeli terms she was a “hawk,” and a hard-liner opposed to surrendering even an inch of the occupied territory Israel had won in the 1967 war.  Mrs. Meir conveyed simultaneously the qualities of extreme toughness and extreme warmth; when the survival of her country was involved, the toughness was predominant.  She requested twenty-five Phantom jets and eighty Skyhawk fighters and complained about the delays in delivery of planes that had already been approved.  She also asked for low-interest loans of $200 million a year for periods up to five years.  I reassured her that our commitments would be met.

At a state dinner in her honor she expressed concern regarding our moves toward détente with the Soviets.  I told her that we had no illusions about their motives.  I said, ‘Our Golden Rule as far as international diplomacy is concerned is: “Do unto others as they do unto you.’”

“Plus ten percent,” Kissinger quickly added.

Mrs. Meir smiled.  “As long as you approach things that way, we have no fears,” she said.

During my interviews with him in 1983, I asked RN if he remembered that first meeting with Mrs. Meir:

Oh, I recall it very vividly. She came to the Oval Office–I believe it was in 1969.   And what impressed me about Golda Meir was the contrast between her and Indira Gandhi. The contrast was really quite vivid.

Indira Gandhi was a very intelligent woman and a very strong leader, but she was one who acted like a man, with the ruthlessness of a man, but wanted always to be treated like a woman.

That wasn’t the way Golda Meir was. Golda Meir acted like a man and wanted to be treated like a man. I remember so well when we sat down in the chairs in the Oval Office, and the photographers came in, and they were running their tape and so forth, and we were shaking hands, and she was smiling, and making the right friendly comments–”How are you? How’s the family?” and the rest.

Photographers left the room.  She crossed her leg, lit a cigarette, and said,  ”Now, Mr. President, what are you going to do about those planes that we want and we need very much?”

And from that time on, we had a very good relationship. It wasn’t that she was not one who was very feminine, because she could be. She used to wear her hair in a bun. She told my daughter Julie the reason she did it was that her husband liked it that way, even though that wasn’t the fashion, at least in–in certain places.

She was very feminine in another way. She never forgave. She never forgave those that had opposed her, she she thought it was unjustified.

She never forgave Ben-Gurion because he had opposed her when she was on her way up. She never forgave Pompidou, because Pompidou had said some disrespectful things about Israel and her–she thought so–a couple of years previously. But there is no question that she was a very strong, intelligent l–leader in her own right.

Cartoonist Noah Bee noted Mrs. Meir’s first White House visit and referred to her interest in direct negotiations between parties in the Middle East.

That night, the President and Mrs. Nixon were the hosts at a State Dinner.

The Prime Minister’s Toast to the President was particularly warm:

When I say this was a great day for me, Mr. President, I shall remember it always, because you made it possible for me to speak to you, to bring before you all our problems, all our worries, all our hopes and aspirations; and if you will forgive me, I did not have a feeling for one single moment that I, representing little, tiny Israel, was speaking to the President of the great United States.

I felt I was speaking to a friend who not only listens —in Hebrew we have two words, a word that means only listening, and a word that means that it really is absorbed–and I have a feeling that you were not merely kind to listen to me, but you shared what I was saying, what our worries are.

We discussed the problems of Israel as though they were our common problems. This means a lot. Israel has known in its short number of years too many hours when we felt we were all alone. And we made it.

Mr. President, thank you, not only for wonderful hospitality, not only for this great day and every moment that I had this day, but thank you for enabling me to go home and tell my people that we have a friend, a great friend and a dear friend. It will help. It will help us overcome many difficulties.

When the great day comes when this dream comes true, you will have had a great share in it.

The next afternoon, in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, RN bid farewell to his new friend.  With a characteristic flourish, he wished her well for the rest of her visit to America — particularly to Milwaukee, where her family had settled after they left her birthplace of Kiev, Russia.

THE PRESIDENT.  I can only wish you well on the balance of your trip. I know you will receive a wonderful welcome every place you go, and particularly in Milwaukee. Milwaukee lost the Braves, but they got you back.

THE PRIME MINISTER. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. As a matter of fact, the Braves could use you as a pinch-hitter right now in order to win.

THE PRIME MINISTER. They lost that opportunity.

THE PRESIDENT. They are in Atlanta. You know that.

In the Nixon Library’s World Leaders Gallery, Ivan Schwartz’s life size statutes of Golda Meir and Anwar Sadat stand side by side.’

In Leaders (1982), RN devoted several pages to Golda Meir.

We both took office in 1969.  We both resigned in 1974.  She became Prime Minister just two months after my own inauguration, and she served until two months before my resignation.  In effect, she was “my” Israeli Prime Minister; I was “her American President.

Georges Pompidou once described Golda Meir to me as “une femme formidable.”  She was that and more.  She was one of the most powerful personalities, man or woman, that I have ever met in thirty-five years of public and private travel at home and abroad.  If David Ben-Gurion was an elemental force of history, Golda Meir was an elemental force of nature.

Some leaders are masters of intrigue, spinning webs of deception, planting suggestions that the unwary will take as promises, wheeling and dealing, constantly, even compulsively, plotting and maneuvering.  For Lyndon Johnson this was second nature.  FDR was a master of it.  For many, scheming is the essence of statecraft, the most effective and sometimes the only way of navigating the threatening shoals of competing interests and getting things done.  Not for Golda Meir.  She was absolutely straightforward.  There was nothing devious about her.  The corollary is that she was implacably determined.  There was never any question about where Golda Meir stood, or what she wanted, or why.  She could be either the irresistible fore or the immovable object, as the situation required.  But as an object she was immovable; as a force she was irresistible.

9.23.52

September 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, History, Media, News media, Pat Nixon, Republican Party, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | 1 Comment 

Taking matters into his own hands:  On 23 September 1952, RN went on radio and TV to answer charges of financial impropriety.   The phenomenal success of his speech assured Ike’s victory and put RN’s bench mark on the emerging medium of television.

Today is the fifty-seventh anniversary of the speech that changed the course of RN’s life and of politics as practiced in America.

It was also the first of the remarkable comebacks from defeat or adversity that marked his long career.

Garry Wills described the spectacular risk RN took, and the stunning success he achieved:

Nixon first demonstrated the political uses and impact of television. In one half hour Nixon converted himself from a liability, breathing his last, to one of the few people who could add to Eisenhower’s preternatural appeal — who could gild the lilly. For the first time, people saw a living political drama on their TV sets — a man fighting for his whole career and future — and they judged him under that strain. It was an even greater achievement than it seemed. He had only a short time to prepare for it. The show, forced on him [by Eisenhower's advisers], was meant as a form of political euthanasia. He came into the studio still reeling from distractions and new demoralizing blows….[A]t the time he went onto the TV screen in 1952, he was hunted and alone.

It had all started several days earlier.  On 14 September 1952,  just as RN was launching his campaign as Ike’s VP  with a whistlestop train trip aboard the Nixon Special, up the coast from Pomona to Seattle.  Three thousand miles across the continent the New York Post ran a headline: Secret Nixon Fund!  Secret Rich Men’s Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary.

Under Dorothy Schiff’s ownership and Jimmy Wechsler’s ownership, the Post in those days was a proudly-identified left-wing tabloid.   The story was completely bogus, and the rap was totally bum.  Far from being secret, the fund had been solicited by letters to hundreds of supporters throughout California, individual contributions had been limited to $500, and the account was administered by a trustee and was regularly audited.

But the reporters smelled blood in the water, and the story soon overwhelmed all campaign coverage.

Not the least of the many ironies of the Fund Crisis was that the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson, did have an unreported secret slush fund of campaign contributions that he had used for purely personal expenses.

It was finally decided that RN should take his case directly to the American people with a speech to be broadcast both on the radio and the new medium of television.  Depending on the popular reaction to the speech, he would either remain on the ticket or voluntarily withdraw.

The approach he took to this situation was as inspired as it was unprecedented.  Instead of the self-serving boilerplate blather usually produced in such situations, he decided to take his national audience on a guided tour of his net worth.  In addition to proving that he clearly met Ike’s ethical standard of being “clean as a hen’s tooth,”  the speech showed that he was just a regular guy, like most of his viewers.

While Adlai Stevenson’s ‘52 campaign slogan was “Let’s talk sense to the American people,” his rhetoric was often elegant bordering on highfalutin.  But RN’s plain speech put everything right out front right up front:

I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency and as a man whose honesty and — and integrity has been questioned.

Now, the usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details. I believe we’ve had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C.  To me the office of the Vice Presidency of the United States is a great office, and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might obtain it.

I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth. And that’s why I’m here tonight. I want to tell you my side of the case. I’m sure that you have read the charge, and you’ve heard it, that I, Senator Nixon, took 18,000 dollars from a group of my supporters.

Nothing like this had ever been seen or heard before.  The effect was immediate and electric.

From the moment RN’s image faded off the screen, the Checkers Speech —as it immediately became known— was controversial in direct proportion to its success;  in other words, off the charts.

Nixon supporters reveled in the tsunami of national warmth and support for this honest and plainspoken young man who had, by risking all, turned the tables on his foes.  And his foes, not surprisingly, carped that it had been mawkish and unseemly and embarrassing.

RN preferred to talk about the “Fund Crisis” — because the speech, important as it was, was only part of a greater and no less significant story of a badly wronged man fighting back and coming out on top.  But although the Fund Speech was RN’s preferred term of art, that tale continues to wag the dog, and it has gone down in history as the Checkers Speech.

The drama of those September days has been described by many authors — including RN himself, who made it the second of his Six Crises.   More than four decades later, Six Crises presents incomparably the most vivid and dramatic account, and it still makes exciting reading.   In the first volume of his Nixon trilogy, Stephen Ambrose surveys a lot of the press coverage.  And Conrad Black’s recent magisterial biography supplies both drama and analysis:

Abandoned by everyone except his wife, his mother, [political adviser Murray] Chotiner, [RNC Chairman Arthur] Summerfield, [RNC public relations director Robert] Humphreys, and a few others, put right to the wall and verging on nervous and physical exhaustion, Nixon had staged a political version of MacArthur’s Inchon landing.  He had destroyed his enemies, given the vice presidency a political significance it had never had in 164 years of the history of the office, sacked his judge and the kangaroo court around him and replaced them with his friends in the National Committee, while impeccably restating the greatness of Eisenhower.  Dwight D. Eisenhower was, by most measurements, a great man, but his greatness was not in evidence on this occasion, and that was not the description of him uppermost in Nixon’s thoughts at this time.

The role played by PN throughout the Fund Crisis was pivotal and inspirational.   And it wasn’t easy for her, as Julie Nixon Eisenhower revealed in her biography of her mother; and as RN described in the interviews I conducted with him in 1983:

The homely and memorable example of the cocker spaniel has come to dominate —and characterize— thinking about the speech.  In fact, aside from RN’s heartfelt peroration and the central core of reporting his net worth, the speech was an example of extremely sophisticated and hard hitting political rhetoric.  As RN wrote in RN, even  the pooch had a political pedigree:

On the plane [a night flight from Portland to LA where the speech would be delivered], I took some postcards from the pocket of the seat in front of me and began to put down some thoughts about what I might say.

I remembered the Truman scandal concerning a $9,000 ink coat given to a White House secretary, and I made a note that Pat had no mink — just a cloth coat.  I thought of DNC CHairman Mitchell’s snide comment that people who cannot afford to hold an office should not run for it, and I made a note to check out a quotation from Lincoln to the effect that God must have loved the common people because he made so many of them.  I also thought about the stunning success FDR had in his speech during the 1944 campaign, when he had ridiculed his critics by saying they were even attacking his little dog Fala, and I knew it would infuriate critics if I could turn this particular table on them.

“It isn’t easy to bare your life”:  When RN arrived in LA, he refined his thoughts for the speech on a yellow pad.

But enough exposition — here is the speech itself.  After all this time, and despite the outdated and stilted production values of the hastily mounted production  (the opening and closing titles were RN’s Senate calling card)  its human honesty and emotional intensity can still pack a punch.  Imagine what it must have been like when there had never been anything like it.

The complete text of the speech and an mp3 audio will be found here.

Every Dog Has Her Day — And Checkers’ Was 23 September 1952

In my 1983 interviews, I asked RN if he had ever played a practical joke on anyone.  He thought for a moment and replied:

Yes. Oh, I remember, for example, the — the Gridiron speech that I made in 1953.

This was, in effect, similar to a practical joke. That was after I had made what was called the Checkers speech in the fund controversy.  And so, the Gridiron had a very rough skit on me about Checkers, and I knew that it was going to be rough. And I had learned it in advance, thanks to them.

[Political columnist and later best selling novelist] Fletcher Knebel came on set.  He was dressed as a dog, and he cried, and so forth and so on.

And so what I did was to get the real Checkers, our Checkers, and I arranged to have that dog brought to the — backstage in the Statler where the Gridiron was held, and when I made my speech, I started out in a way that really scared my supporters to death.

I remember [newspaper publisher John S. Knight] Jack Knight, who was a great supporter of mine at that point, was just sitting there saying, “He mustn’t do it. He mustn’t do it.” — because I started out and I said, in a very serious way, “I know that everybody is supposed to take whatever barbs are thrown at the Gridiron dinner in good form”, and so forth and so on, “and not respond. But this is one time you’ve gone too far.  Fun is fun, particularly when that is directed against a lady.  And now I want you to see the real Checkers.”

And then Knebel came out holding Checkers.  Checkers, of course, was a female. Well, it brought the house down, and my supporters thought,  ”Well, he’s not as serious as we thought.”

Pat Nixon’s Influence: An Historical Reflection

August 27, 2009 by Jimmy Byron | Filed Under Pat Nixon | 4 Comments 

PN – pictured at the Miami Beach Convention Center in August 1972 – was the first Republican First lady to have a keynote speech at the Republican National Convention. (Photo Credit: Life Magazine)

In 1984, First Lady Nancy Reagan addressed the Republican National Convention, arguing that her husband was still the right man to occupy the Oval Office. Barbara Bush did the same in 1992, Laura Bush in 2000 and 2004. Now regularly at the front of the public eye, the role of a candidate’s spouse has altered from that of quiet bystander to one of national prominence. It was Pat Nixon who popularized the now-common tradition in which presidential spouses speak on behalf of their husbands at their party’s national convention. Mrs. Nixon spoke at the Miami Beach Convention Center in August 1972, becoming the first Republican First Lady to address a national convention.

In addition to starting that tradition, her efforts on behalf of her husband in the 1972 campaign (depicted left on the cover of Time Magazine with Eleanor McGovern in October 1972) were replicated by her successors (and those who desired to be her successors, Republican and Democrat). Her lengthy, solo campaign trips are now common for a candidate’s spouse. Take — for example — this rare footage as a small sample of Mrs. Nixon’s 1972 campaigning.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Nixon exercised an influence upon those First Ladies who followed in her footsteps, and contributed to their ever-evolving role in the White House.

Needless to say, President Nixon’s campaign was triumphant, achieving a resounding victory in November over Senator George McGovern. At the inauguration in 1973, Mrs. Nixon broke with a 108 year tradition when she chose not to wear a hat during the swearing-in ceremony.

In his candid 1983 interviews with Frank Gannon, RN reflected upon a 1952 campaign trip in which Senator Harry Darby introduced Mrs. Nixon to large crowd gathered at a rally. In the words of RN, Darby said: “Our candidate for Vice President, Senator Nixon, he’s controversial – but everybody loves Pat.” As one of the most admired women in the world from 1958-1962 and 1968-1979, her achievements, influence, and remarkable ability to connect with the American people speak for themselves.

PN, pictured with Chief Justice Warren Burger, as RN accepted the Oath of office on his second inauguration in January 1973.

Her Life, Her Story

August 24, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | 4 Comments 

Sarah Leicht — a TNN reader and high school student from Germany — produced the following video of Pat Nixon as part of a class project, rife with quotes and photos about the First Lady:

Ms. Leicht explained that she became fascinated with PN after watching video and reading the biographies of the first couple. “I noticed that Pat Nixon never got the appreciation she should have gotten for the things she did in her life,” Leicht said. “I think that she was a really great and wonderful woman and I wanted to show that with the video.”

“Her life and her story would really deserve that.”

Getting Away From The —Oval— Office

August 23, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

Today’s Daily Beast offers a “Media Gallery” of Presidential vacations.

The slideshow includes TR’s 1909 post-presidential African safari.

HST vacationed aboard the presidential yacht USS Williamsburg, or at the Little White House in Key Biscayne — where he relaxed with First Lady Bess and daughter Margaret.

DDE decommissioned the Williamsburg and found relaxation in fishing —the Beast notes that “he’s reported to have gone on a veritable fishing tour across the U.S., hitting up streams and lakes in Florida, Rhode Island, Maine, South Dakota, Georgia, Maryland, and Colorado” — and hunting.

RN is represented by a 1956 family vacation to Disneyland.

The gratuitously snarky caption —

Ah, Richard Nixon’s innocent days. During a 1955 vacation in California, then-Vice President Nixon and his wife, Pat, took their two young daughters, Julie and Patricia, to Disneyland. Here, the family is shown leaving the Fantasyland castle; they reportedly spent the day sightseeing and enjoying the rides. During his presidency, when he wasn’t indulging his inner child, Nixon was known to escape to a compound he owned on Key Biscayne, off Miami—often referred to as his Florida White House.

— ignores the comparatively greater amount of time RN, PN, and the family spent at La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente.

If You’re Tired Of “Frost/Nixon”….

August 20, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Entertainment, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

….then the Orlando Sentinel has an article that may tickle your fancy – about Bill and Sue Wills, a Maryland team of husband-and-wife actors who, for years, have been presenting two-person shows in which they portray a President and First Lady. So far they’ve portrayed no less than 32 Presidential couples – from the famous ones, like FDR and Eleanor and Harry and Bess, to the lesser-known ones like the Fillmores and Pierces. This month, they’re touring as Richard and Pat Nixon. There’s a photo of them in makeup and costume. Be advised that Bill Wills looks something like Lyndon Johnson doing a Nixon impression (or maybe LBJ impersonating David Frye impersonating RN), and that Ms. Wills does not look much like Pat, though she seems to have a very slight resemblance to Betty Ford.

8.18.71

August 18, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Environmental issues, Nixon Administration, Nixon Foundation, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

President Obama and his family enjoyed and praised the beauty of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon during their recent whirlwind western tour.  And Douglas Brinkley has written a doorstopper celebrating TR’s role in creating our National Parks.

But it was RN’s Legacy of Parks program —officially announced thirty-eight years ago tomorrow, that gave the Park Service its late 20th Century legs and pioneered the Nixonian concept of bringing parks to places —especially urban places— where all people could enjoy them.

As a result of RN’s program, between 1971 and 1976, more than 80,000 acres of government property were converted to recreational use in 642 new parks.

PN launched the Legacy of Parks thirty-eight years ago today —on 18 August 1971— at the end of a four-day swing through several western states that ended on the US-Mexican border south of San Diego.

PN launches the Legacy of Parks at Imperial Beach, California, on 18 August 1971.  She officiated at the turning over of a 370-acre former naval base as Border Field State Park.

Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program that I submitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings.

I will propose programs to make better use of our land, to encourage a balanced national growth–growth that will revitalize our rural heartland and enhance the quality of life in America.

And not only to meet today’s needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President of the United States to expand the Nation’s parks, recreation areas, open spaces, in a way that truly brings parks to the people where the people are. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy.

On 8 February, in his Special Message to Congress Proposing the 1971 Environmental Program, RN put some appropriations flesh on those legislative words:

Merely acquiring land for open space and recreation is not enough. We must bring parks to where the people are so that everyone has access to nearby recreational areas. In my budget for 1972, I have proposed a new “Legacy of Parks” program which will help States and local government provide parks and recreation areas, not just for today’s Americans but for tomorrow’s as well. Only if we set aside and develop such recreation areas now can we ensure that they will be available for future generations.

As part of this legacy, I have requested a $200 million appropriation to begin a new program for the acquisition and development of additional park lands in urban areas. To be administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, this would include provision for facilities such as swimming pools to add to the use and enjoyment of these parks.

Also, I have recommended in my 1972 budget that the appropriation for the Land and Water Conservation Fund be increased to $380 million, permitting the continued acquisition of Federal parks and recreation areas as well as an expanded State grant program. However, because of the way in which these State grant funds were allocated over the past five years, a relatively small percentage has been used for the purchase and development of recreational facilities in and near urban areas. The allocation formula should be changed to ensure that more parks will be developed in and near our urban areas.

And on 19 August, at Grand Teton National Park, he issued a statement announcing the first fruits of his January proposal:

It has been estimated that some 75 percent of all outdoor recreation enjoyed by Americans takes place within a short distance of their homes. That is why I believe so strongly that we should be doing far more to bring our parks to the people. The Congress has thus far appropriated only $100 million for the HUD program.

Finally, I would point to my establishment of the Federal Property Review Board, which evaluates federally owned properties in order to determine whether they can be converted to park use. Close to 100 such properties have already been identified, and 24 of these, containing more than 5,000 acres, are now in the process of being conveyed by the Department of the Interior to local and State agencies. Mrs. Nixon has sought to encourage this important effort during her trip across the country this week.

Many of the properties which have been released under this program are within easy reach of our larger urban areas. To augment these efforts, we are also preparing a number of amendments to the Federal Income Tax Code which would facilitate charitable donations of property for conservation purposes. I hope to present these proposals to the Congress in the near future.

The combined effect of all these activities will be to provide that full range of outdoor experiences which our dynamic population requires. For some, this program will provide neighborhood parks in the city. For others, it will offer a pleasant setting for a weekend retreat, for an afternoon bike ride, or for a family vacation. For still others, it will provide the chance truly to escape into the wilderness.

I believe our Nation can afford to make these opportunities available. In fact, it is my view that we cannot afford not to provide them. For such a program can significantly enhance the quality of our Nation’s life and spirit–both now and for future generations.

It’s significant that the new President of the Nixon Foundation —Ron Walker— is the man RN chose to head the National Park Service in 1973.  The appointment of this valued staff member and long-time friend was an indication of the importance RN continued to place on his parks initiative.  (And it’s ironic that RN’s extensive biography on the National Park Service website doesn’t even mention the Legacy of Parks.)

50 Years On

August 13, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | 4 Comments 

Though the precise anniversary has since passed, the Retroist blog has pointed to footage of the launch of the Disneyland monorail system on June 14, 1959, enjoyed first by park visitors 50 years ago this summer.

Then Vice President Richard Nixon — accompanied by Walt Disney — gave the introductory remarks for the dedication. By his side was wife Pat, his daughters Tricia and Julie conducted the honorary ribbon cutting.

The voice over was done by the indispensable Art Linkletter, whose family was also on hand to be among the first to board:

The Diplomate

July 24, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under History, Nixon in the News, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

In the Soviet Union in 1959, as on all of RN’s Vice Presidential diplomatic trips abroad beginning in 1953, PN continued to break ground by pursuing her own independent and substantive schedule.   Her work was recognized by Life magazine with its 10 August cover.

The late Herb Klein was the Veep’s Press Secretary on this trip, and he later recalled an otherwise unheralded event:

Shortly after arriving at the Spaso House [the American Ambassador's residence where the Nixons were staying], the Vice President asked Pat if she would like to take a walk with him through the town.  I walked with them, and there was only one American Secret Service man, and one Embassy representative who acted as interpreter.  This was one of the few times the Nixons have been able to go through a public area unnoticed.  the Soviets seemed to notice only that Mrs. Nixon wore shoes with pointed toes.  In a small store she gave two little children some candy.  their parents were amazed when the interpreter told them that the candy was given by the wife of the Vice President of the United States.

In addition to Moscow, the Nixons visited Leningrad, Sverdlosk, and Novosibirsk — where PN broke through the language barrier (and the distancing ploys of her official hosts) to mix with the crowds.

Been There Done That

July 6, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Barack Obama, Cold War, International Affairs, Nixon Administration, Nixon in the News, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

From Confrontation to Negotiation: RN with Nikita Khrushchev in the famous Kitchen Debate in Moscow in 1959, and with Leonid Brezhnev (who had been part of Khrushchev’s official entourage in the Kitchen) on the Truman Balcony at the White House in 1973.

In a few hours, President Obama will be arriving in a cool and rainy Moscow.  After less than six months in office, Mr. Obama is already well-traveled; even his presidential campaign had a European leg.

The first time the Stars and Stripes flew over the Kremlin was thirty-seven years ago —in May 1972— when RN stayed there during his first —of three— Soviet Summits.

The externals have changed radically —President Obama will be visiting a fledgling democracy on the economic ropes rather than the competing superpower with which RN had to deal.

But the more things change the more they stay the same, and it’s not too late for 44 to learn from some of 37’s experiences.

26 May 1972: President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signing the SALT 1 Interim treaty freezing US and Soviet weapons at their current limits.  Although spouses weren’t invited, PN wanted to witness the historic late-night post-banquet Kremlin event.  She followed RN’s advice and watched surreptitiously from behind a pillar.

When Air Force One lifted off from Andrews Air Force Base on 20 May 1972 (en route to Moscow via Salzburg) the thin backstory of Soviet summitry wasn’t auspicious to say the least.

Eisenhower’s meeting with Khrushchev at Geneva in 1955 and Khrushchev’s 1959 visit to the US were at least uneventful.  But the plans for Ike’s 1960 visit to Russia had to be scrapped when Khrushchev withdrew the invitation in the wake of the U2 spy plane debacle.  And JFK’s 1961 Vienna meeting with Khrushchev turned out to be disastrous.

The 1972 Soviet Summit had been long and carefully planned.  From the first weeks of his administration, RN had initiated a pragmatic policy of hardheaded détente, and insisted on the linkage of Soviet conduct (particularly in North Vietnam, North Korea, and the Middle East) to America’s willingness to negotiate on issues of interest to the USSR.

Indeed, many had direly predicted that RN’s refusal to be intimidated by North Vietnam’s invasion of the South the month before —which he countered with the bombing of Hanoi and  the mining of Haiphong Harbor— would lead the Soviets to cancel the Summit at the last minute.  RN noted that, after Air Force One was airborne, Henry Kissinger “came into my cabin and exuberantly said, ‘This has to be one of the great diplomatic coups of all times!  Three weeks ago everyone predicted it would be called off, and today we’re on our way.”

When RN and PN arrived in Moscow on Monday, 22 May 1972, the greeting was polite — but no more.  Brezhnev, whose power was supreme but whose official title was a few pegs down the totem pole, wasn’t among the official greeting party.  But as soon as the President and First Lady were installed in rooms in the Kremlin, Henry Kissinger arrived with word that Brezhnev was waiting in his office.

Although this would be their first official meeting, RN and Brezhnev had crossed paths before.  In the uncropped photographs of the 1959 Kitchen Debate —when Vice President Nixon confronted the belligerent Premier Khrushchev with some home truths about American capitalism— the  young communist party official Leonid Brezhnev had positioned himself directly behind the young American Veep.

In RN, RN recalled:

Brezhnev’s office was the same room in which I had first met Khrushchev, thirteen years before.  Like Khrushchev, Brezhnev looked exactly like his photographs: the bushy eyebrows dominated his face, and his mouth was set in a fixed, rather wary smile.  I was sure that neither of us, standing shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen at the American Exhibition thirteen years before, had imagined that we would one day be meeting at the summit as the leaders of our country.

For the next few days, the communist leaders —Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Podgordny— alternately applied the complete Soviet arsenal of surprise, belligerence, crudity, charm, schmaltz, erratic and late hours, and, of course, gallons of vodka.  President Obama can expect these techniques to be indigenous —as familiar to Count Nesselrode as to Sergei Lavrov— and should be prepared accordingly.

Throughout, RN remained calm, unruffled, resolute, and unfailingly diplomatic diplomatic.  And, no less important, he didn’t lose his sense of humor.

In the first plenary session at 11 A.M. with Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny, Gromkyo, and Dobrynin, I decided to establish the straightforward tone I planned to adopt during the entire summit.

“I would like to say something that y Soviet friends may be too polite to say,” I began.  “I know that my reputation is one of being a very hard-line, cold-war-oriented, anticommunist.”

Kosygin said dryly, “I had heard this sometime back.”

“It is true that I have a strong belief in our system,” I continued, “but at the same time I respect those who believe just as strongly in their own systems.  There must be room in this world for two grea nations with different systems to live together and work together.  We cannot do this, however, by mushy sentimentality or by glossing over differences which exist.”

All the heads nodded on the other side of the table, but I guessed that in fact they would have much preferred a continuation of the mushy sentimentality that had characterized so much of our approach to the Soviets in the past.

This first Soviet Summit produced the first SALT (strategic arms limitations talks) Treaty establishing a temporary freeze on the numbers of ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles that either side could have or build until a permanent agreement could be reached.  RN also signed the ABM treaty, stopping would would have become a headlong arms race to defend American and Soviet cities from missile attacks.

As RN later wrote, “Together with the ABM treaty, the Interim Agreement on strategic missiles marked the first step toward arms  control in the thermonuclear age.”

FLOTUS 37′S COIFFURE AND AMERICA’S HISTORY

July 4, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Culture, Lifestyle, Pat Nixon, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

Christina Cristoforou’s interesting illustration on the op-ed page of today’s New York Times places our forty-four first ladies’ hair styles in historically cross-hatched perspective.  PN is in the middle of the second row from the bottom.  This reduction doesn’t do justice to the original which can be found here.

37’s 4ths

July 4, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Holidays, Nixon Administration, Nixon in the News, Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The Philippine Republic and the USA share July Fourth as their Independence Day.  On 4 July 1956, Vice President and Mrs. Nixon joined President Ramon Magsaysay  and First Lady Luz Magsaysay in Manila to celebrate the Philippines’ 10th and America’s 180th birthdays.   (Photo for LIFE magazine by John Dominis.)

July Fourth was always a meaningful day for RN throughout his presidency:

1969- RN spends the holiday weekend in Key Biscayne, Fla., where he attends a
parade and exchanges messages with anthropologist Thor Heyerdawl, who is on the boat ”Expedition Ra” on his way across the Atlantic.

1970- RN is at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, meeting with Vietnam peace talks envoy David K.E. Bruce.

1971- The official Fourth celebration occurs on the 5th this year and RN witnesses the certification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution —which added eleven million new voters to the rolls by lowering the voting age to 18— in the East Room of the White House. RN’s extended remarks were particularly significant.

1972- RN gives a Fouth of July radio address from San Clemente, Calif., and reveals his plans for the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.

1973- RN issues his Independence Day Statement from the Western White House in San Clemente: “Independence Day is a day to secure our moorings, to consider how far we have come as a nation, and to understand where we must yet go. It is a day of solemnity, for the birth of our nation was a momentous event for all mankind. But it is also a day of great joy as we celebrate the wondrous blessings of liberty and freedom.”

1974- President Nixon is at Key Biscayne, Florida after having returned from the Soviet Summit in Moscow on the previous evening.  In his Independence Day Statement, he says: “The Fourth of July is a uniquely American holiday. But it is also a holiday that echoes the hopes and aspirations of people throughout the world. In each of my-trips abroad, I have seen tangible evidence of people’s basic belief in the value of the principles that underlie our Republic, and outpouring of affection and respect for the Nation that Abraham Lincoln called “the last, best hope of earth.”

On 4 July 1970, RN recorded a message to be played for the crowd on the Mall waiting for the Honor America Day ceremony followed by the annual fireworks at the Washington Monument:

WE AMERICANS are known throughout the world as a forward-looking people. The United States of America is in fact a symbol of progress, of hope, and of just and orderly growth.

Yet, on one day each year we turn and look back at our past. We look back today over almost 200 years to a group of men meeting in Philadelphia and we look back in pride and in wonder, for what they did on this day is the single greatest political achievement in the history of man.

And we are the beneficiaries of that achievement.

To those of you who have gathered on this day to honor America, I send my best wishes for an enjoyable, memorable Fourth of July celebration. I know that the sponsors of this event, from every walk of life and from both major parties, have done everything they can to make this day a very special one for all of you.

Yet, there is something remaining to be done in order to make Honor America Day the kind of special occasion we all want it to be. It is my hope that each of us will take away not only our proud memories of this day, but also the living spirit of the Fourth of July as well, a spirit that created a free and strong and prosperous nation.

That is the spirit that can truly honor America, not only today but always. Let us all look back today so that we will be reminded of what great sacrifices have been made to make this day possible, and then let us turn once more to the future, inspired by what this day means to us and to all those who love freedom throughout the world.

A tip o’the Liberty Cap to James Heintze.

Raising The Curtain For Nixon’s Granddaughter

June 13, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Entertainment, Nixon family, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

Jennie Eisenhower, the actress who is the great-granddaughter of the 34th President and granddaughter of the 37th (and the daughter of David and Julie Eisehower), is the subject of an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer by that paper’s theater critic Howard Shapiro. Ms. Eisenhower is currently featured in the show Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits at the Walnut Theatre in Philadelphia, a production in which she portrays such legends as Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, and Liza Minnelli. This versatility has been a hallmark of Ms. Eisehower’s career; she plays several other characters in the show, recently performed in the title role in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, and also just directed productions of Our Town and Kiss Me Kate at her alma mater, Conestoga High School.

The article describes how Ms. Eisenhower, after graduating from Northwestern with a dual major in theater and communications, settled in New York, where she went through the customary round of endless auditions and getting roles that, as often as not, took her far outside the city. After a period of working at Bloomingdale’s as a personal shopper, she moved back to Philadelphia and has made it her base for performances in that area and further afield. (Several years ago she appeared at the Olney Theater near Washington, in the title role of Shaw’s St. Joan, and also had a small role in the Julia Roberts film Mona Lisa Smile.)

The actress also mentions the support she received from her parents and grandparents as she chose and worked on her career, and points out that RN’s very last public appearance (unless one counts the wedding of a family friend, the weekend before his death) was in the audience at her high school production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods. (So the next time you find yourself at a Sondheim trivia contest – and whenever two fans of the man who gave us Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music are in the same room, there always is one – that’s your chance to deliver the stumper: “Which Sondheim musical did Richard Nixon see just before he passed away?” My bet is that the first guess would be either West Side Story or Gypsy.)

Pardon Me, Did He Really Ask For Grey Poupon?

May 7, 2009 by David R. Stokes | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Cool Commercials, First Ladies, History, Humor, Pat Nixon, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History | 3 Comments 

It wasn’t as big of a deal as, say, an Air Force One fly over, but it was the talk of the town – and the rest of the universe, apparently – the other day when Barack Obama and Joe Biden ventured beyond the walls of the White House on a quest for ground red meat. And, in just about the biggest scoop since the whole Bill Clinton “boxers or briefs” inquiry, information was skillfully gleaned by the media in abundant attendance indicating that POTUS and VPOTUS fundamentally disagree on a matter of concern to all Americans.

Joe likes ketchup on his burger. Barack likes mustard. And not just plain old yellow mustard. No sir, he likes the good stuff – brown and spicy. In fact, as he ordered his “regular” bacon cheeseburger at Ray’s Hell-Burger in an Arlington, Virginia strip-mall, he asked for it “medium well” and with mustard. In fact, he asked for Grey Poupon.

Part of the Dijon family of mustards (that’s French, for any conspiracy theorists out there), and made with a brown Canadian-born seed, with just a splash of white wine, Grey Poupon became a household name in the 1980s via the success of its television commercial. The spot featured one Rolls Royce pulling up alongside another, and then the famous question: “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon.”

The question quickly went viral across America as something of a cute, pompous, somewhat pretentious, and very snooty tag line. Now, if George W. or his Daddy had asked for it – that would have been the big story at Ray’s Hell-Burger. But alas, the idea of the two big guys hanging out with regular folks at a burger joint was too cool to complicate with anything that didn’t fit the desired picture.

And that burger “joint” – well, it’s not exactly a glorified White Castle or Steak and Shake – or even a Five Guys, it’s a spot where you can drop up to $17.50 on a burger. You can get yours with foie gras, bordalaise sauce, and even white truffle oil.

Just like Mickey D’s, right?

It turns out that maybe the cool “let’s-show-them-we-are-just-like-them” adventure was at least a little flawed, but you’d never know it by the news coverage. The New York Times featured it, the Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and other usual suspects, as well. The story even got a lot of play internationally.

Richard Nixon once walked on the beach in his street shoes and he was brutally lampooned by the nattering nabobs of negativism in the press, ever after. George H. W. Bush’s fascination with the cool product code reader at a super market checkout counter in 1992 was evidence that he was out of touch.

But when Mr. Obama asks for Grey Poupon while trying to act like an everyday schnook ordering an artery clogging burger, it apparently happens with media impunity.

Of course, the migratory eating patterns of presidents in and around town have always been of mild interest. Certainly our presidents are entitled to scramble out of the pocket on occasion to mingle with the masses, even in this security-hyped age. Dwight Eisenhower enjoyed Chinese take-out from Sun Chop Suey Restaurant on Columbia Road in the district long before he became our 34th president. And he hated that every employee had to undergo a rigorous FBI check before he could have his first order sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1953. But he and Mamie wanted Chinese food on their T.V. trays and that was that.

A lot of presidents have eaten at Billy Martin’s Tavern Restaurant in Georgetown over the years, most of them first enjoying the place as congressmen or senators. Reportedly, Jack romanced Jackie in their favorite booth, while Lyndon Johnson talked shop with Sam Rayburn over cuts of prime rib. Harry Truman liked the place, always having a glass or two or three of his favorite I. W. Harper Bourbon (he even kept a stash in his personal White House bathroom and Bess never knew) with his steak.

Speaking of drinks, Richard Nixon was known in later years to prefer Tanqueray martinis, not the scotch his character drinks in Oliver Stone’s clumsy and just-plain-hideous cinematic caricature. But he also loved the mai tai’s at his favorite Washington, D.C. eatery – Trader Vic’s. The drink was actually invented by “Trader” Vic Bergeron, though he is seldom credited with creating the concoction. Mr. Nixon took Pat there for Valentine’s Day in 1973, and he enjoyed a few of Vic’s specialties, while she stuck with Jack Daniels.

Bill Clinton had more than one favorite Washington, D. C. area restaurant. Go figure. He liked Mark Miller’s Red Sage and the Italian restaurant Galileo, on 21st St. NW. His predecessor, the first President Bush, favored a Chinese spot in Falls Church called Peking Gourmet. And I can verify that they serve the best Peking duck you’ll ever savor.

Of course, all of these guys had to eat everything put before them while on the campaign trail seeking the office. Seeing them smile in photographs over the years, munching on this colloquial delicacy or that, you can every once in awhile almost see a glimmer of the kind of face Lucy Ricardo made while taking the first few spoonfuls of vitameatavegamen.

When politicians ultimately get to the White House, their days of having to partake of things they’d rather not become more rare – at least, until time for reelection comes around. Then it’s out with the French mustard and in with the French’s.

We will all know when the moment comes – if indeed it ever does – that the media either gets bored with Barack, or in some sense turns on him. How? Well, there will be this photo-op thing, where the president drops by some really-regular-people-friendly breakfast place. And the commander-in-chief will order some eggs, bacon, and grits, with white toast.

He will then turn to the table next to him and say, loud enough for the cameras to pick up, “Would ya please pass the jelly?”

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