Attack on Richard Nixon's motorcade
Attack on Richard Nixon's Motorcade | ||||
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Date | May 13, 1958 | |||
Location | 10°28′50″N 66°54′13″W / 10.48056°N 66.90361°W | |||
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On May 13, 1958,
The attack was denounced by all major Venezuelan presidential candidates standing in that year's election, except for the incumbent leader Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal. Nixon was generally applauded in American press reports for his calm and adept handling of the incident and was feted with a "hero's welcome" on his return to the United States. His recollections of the attack form one of the "six crises" explored in his 1962 Six Crises book.
Context
Richard Nixon's carefully planned 1958 tour of South America has been described as one of the "most important United States foreign policy events in post-WWII Latin America".
The tour was to see Nixon visit every independent country in South America except Brazil and Chile.[a] Brazil had been omitted from the itinerary as Nixon had visited that nation the previous year. The Chilean leadership, meanwhile, were scheduled to be out of the country during the time period of Nixon's visit. Nixon was accompanied on his trip by his wife, Pat Nixon.[4]
Early tour stops
Nixon began his tour in
The visit to Argentina was billed as the major stop of the trip and four days were allotted to the country, instead of the two slated for the other visits. In Buenos Aires, Nixon attended the presidential inauguration of Arturo Frondizi and spoke to several students and organized labor groups.[7]
The first serious trouble on the tour materialized in
Dear Dick: Your courage, patience, and calmness in the demonstration directed against you by radical agitators have brought you new respect and admiration in our country. I am certain that the vast majority of citizens both in Peru and in the United States deplore the incident caused by a few. I note with satisfaction that the Peruvian Government has already expressed to you its regret. Indeed, I feel that every participant in the mob will finally come to feel a sense of guilt and embarrassment because of his failure to show a friendly visitor the ordinary measure of courtesy and hospitality. Give my love to Pat and warm regards to you.
Nixon's final stop before
Tour in Venezuela
Background
Earlier in 1958, the disliked Venezuelan dictator
In an interview conducted after he retired from government service, Robert Amerson, then-press attache to the United States embassy in Venezuela, said that the demonstrators who disrupted the Venezuela stop on the tour "had been bused down by the professional agitators and organizers" affiliated with the
Arrival
Nixon arrived, via air, in Caracas on May 13, 1958. According to a U.S. Secret Service report of the incident, a crowd of demonstrators at the airport "purposely disrupted ... [the] welcoming ceremony by shouting, blowing whistles, waving derogatory placards, throwing stones, and showering the Nixons with human spittle and chewing tobacco".[20] Life's Donald Wilson told his magazine that "they were out to get Nixon from the moment he stepped off his plane".[21] The New York Herald Tribune's Earl Mazo wrote that "Venezuelan troops and police seemed to evaporate. The vice-president and the whole official party literally had to fight their way to cars behind a thin but sturdy phalanx of U.S. Secret Service agents".[1] The original itinerary had Nixon moving from the airport to the National Pantheon of Venezuela where he was to lay a wreath at the tomb of Simón Bolívar. However, a United States naval attache sent ahead with the wreath reported a crowd that had assembled at the Pantheon had attacked him and torn up the wreath. At this point it was decided to proceed directly to the U.S. embassy.[17]
Attack
For the first time on the South America tour, the Nixons traveled in closed-top cars as opposed to convertibles, a decision later credited with saving their lives.[18]
As the Nixons traveled by motorcade through Caracas, the vehicle carrying the vice-president was slowed to a crawl by heavy traffic.[c] Life's Wilson wrote that a crowd of several hundred "raced toward their quarry and engulfed Nixon's car",[21] stoning it and banging on the windows with their fists.[20] Nixon was protected by twelve United States Secret Service agents, some of whom were injured in the melee.[23] Reporter Bruce Henderson and other Americans were nearby. He wrote, "I was an American and here before my eyes the Vice President of the U.S. was on the verge of very possibly being beaten to death".[21] According to the Secret Service, Venezuelan police declined to intervene to clear the crowd. When the mob began rocking the car back and forth in an attempt to overturn it, U.S. Secret Service agents, believing the vice president's life was in jeopardy, drew their firearms and prepared to begin shooting into the crowd; in an act described as "the kind of presence of mind for which battlefield commanders win medals", Nixon ordered Secret Service agent-in-charge Jack Sherwood to hold fire and shoot only on his orders. No shots were ultimately fired.[8][20][24]
Nixon would later recount that Venezuelan Foreign Minister Óscar García Velutini, who was traveling with him, was "close to hysterics" and kept repeating "this is terrible, this is terrible". According to Nixon, Velutini explained the police inaction was because the communists "helped us overthrow Pérez Jiménez and we are trying to find a way to work with them".[4] Nixon's longtime secretary, Rose Mary Woods, was injured by flying glass when the windows of the car in which she was riding, following Nixon, were smashed. Vernon Walters, then a mid-ranking U.S. Army officer serving as Nixon's translator, would end up with a "mouthful of glass",[24] and Velutini was also hit by shards of the limousine's supposedly "shatter-proof" glass.[8]
Two different accounts explain how Nixon's car was ultimately able to escape the mob and continue to the embassy. According to one version of events, the U.S. press corps' flatbed truck, accompanying the motorcade, was used to clear a path through the crowd.[20] In Nixon's remembrance of the incident, Associated Press photographer Hank Griffin at one point had to use his camera to beat back a protester who tried to mount the truck.[4] According to a second account, soldiers of the Venezuelan Army arrived and cleared the traffic, thereafter moving the mob back at bayonet-point to allow Nixon's car to pass.[25] Life wrote that the police opened a route for the car. The incident was over 12 minutes after it began.[21]
Embassy
Shortly after the Nixons arrived at the embassy, the Venezuelan army surrounded and fortified the chancellery, reinforcing the small U.S. Marine guard force. Their assistance had earlier been requested by the U.S. ambassador.[14] That afternoon, members of the ruling junta arrived at the embassy and lunched with Nixon. The next morning, representatives of Venezuela's major labor unions came to the embassy and requested an audience with Nixon, which was granted. The union leaders apologized for events of the preceding day and disclaimed involvement, though, United States Air Force officer Manuel Chavez[d] – at the time attached to the embassy – wrote in 2015 that "they probably were the instigators or at least encouraged the actions".[14]
U.S. mobilization
Upon learning of the incident, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke ordered the airlift of elements of the 2nd Marine Division and the 101st Airborne Division to staging areas in Puerto Rico and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The aircraft carrier USS Tarawa, along with eight destroyers and two amphibious assault ships, were ordered to put to sea towards Venezuela.[23][26] The U.S. mobilization was code-named "Operation Poor Richard".[8]
According to U.S. officials at the time, the forces mobilized were being readied to enter Venezuela to "cooperate with the Venezuelan government", though later accounts suggest President Eisenhower was preparing to "invade Venezuela" should Nixon suffer further indignity.[19][23][26] Privately, Eisenhower was reportedly furious at the attack on Nixon and, at one point, told his staff "I am about ready to go put my uniform on".[27]
Nixon was shocked after learning about the mobilization and wondered why they were not consulted, but later found out that communications between Caracas and Washington had been cut for a critical period immediately after the riot that afternoon.[4]
In response to the movement of American military forces into the region, Admiral Larrazábal pledged the Nixon party would be "protected fully" thereafter.[28]
Return to the United States
Additional activities were canceled, and Nixon departed Caracas the next morning, seven hours early. His motorcade to the airport was protected by a major deployment of Venezuelan Army infantry and armored forces in the capital.[18][14] Nixon described having taken the same route as before, whose streets were empty and heavily patrolled after the whole area had been tear-gassed.[4]
American reaction
The Nixons stopped in Puerto Rico before returning to Washington. Eisenhower ordered that Nixon should receive a "hero's welcome" on his return; all U.S. government employees in Washington were given the day off work to turn out for the arrival of the vice-president. Nixon deplaned before "a cheering crowd of 10,000" that included the congressional leadership and ambassadors from most Latin American countries. Eisenhower personally greeted Nixon at the airport and the two then traveled to the White House along a route lined by 100,000 people.[21][18][29][30]
Life credited Nixon for his "courage" and said "his coolness had been remarkable".
All 12 agents of Nixon's Secret Service detail received the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service from Eisenhower at Nixon's request.[4]
Venezuelan reaction
In Venezuela, all major presidential candidates standing in the 1958 general election denounced the attack except for the incumbent president, Admiral Larrazábal. After Nixon's departure, Larrazábal said that he would have joined the protests if he were a student. Despite receiving strong backing by the communists, Larrazábal lost the election to Rómulo Betancourt.[32]
During the 1961 visit of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to Venezuela, anti-American violence also broke out; a repeat of the 1958 attack was avoided, however. President Betancourt pre-deployed significant Venezuelan military forces into Caracas in advance of Kennedy's arrival and ordered the preventive arrest of suspected ringleaders. All 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) of the highway Kennedy was scheduled to travel from the airport, the same highway traveled by Nixon, were closed effective the day before Kennedy's arrival.[33]
Significance
Pathé News described the assault as "the most violent attack ever perpetrated on a high American official while on foreign soil".[2] Contemporary and later sources described the attack as one that nearly led to Nixon's death[21][3] and, though it is generally agreed he acted with remarkable composure throughout, the incident had a lasting impact on him.[34] In his first book, Six Crises, Nixon wrote of the experience as one of the titular crises with great impact on his life.[35]
Every year on the anniversary of the attack, Nixon would "privately celebrate" with Vernon Walters. Nixon would favor Walters for the rest of his career, eventually appointing him
The hardening of Nixon's attitude toward Latin America, which he came to "equate with violence and irrationality", has been attributed to his experience of the attack. Some believe this change of mood foreshadowed his subsequent support for covert U.S. actions directed in support of dictatorial regimes in the region. In fact, he would later privately list several nations whose populations, he believed, were too immature for democratic government and would be better administered by authoritarian regimes, specifically citing France, Italy, and all of Latin America "except for Colombia".[37][27]
The incident has been credited with first making American policymakers aware of growing popular resentment to U.S. policies in Latin America.
In Literature
The attack on Richard Nixon's motorcade is extensively referenced in Paul Auster's novel 4321. The book's protagonist, a school boy in 1958, hears of the incident and talks about it with a politically radical uncle. Afterwards, he writes an article for his school newspaper entitled "Fracas in Caracas", where he states that the attack on Nixon resulted from Latin Americans' resentment of their domination and exploitation by the United States. This nearly leads to his being expelled by an angry school principal, accusing him of being "a youthful Communist agitator".
See also
- Eva Perón's "Rainbow Tour"
- History of Venezuela (1948–58)
Notes
- ^ Suriname and Guyana were not, at the time, independent.
- ^ Amerson would later write a letter to The New York Times in which he questioned if "Caracas dramatized to him that since local conditions primarily caused anti-American sentiment, international Communism might not really be monolithic. This may have influenced his Presidential decisions to deal directly with Communist leaders in China and the Soviet Union."[16]
- ^ According to Drew Pearson, citing secondhand information, Nixon had personally insisted the press truck drive ahead of his vehicle. The larger vehicle could only manage 25 miles per hour, which slowed the entire motorcade to the point the mob was able to stop it.[22]
- ^ Chavez was a relative of Senator Dennis Chávez.[14]
References
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Tragic Incidents In Venezuela Against Vice President Nixon (1958)". British Pathé. Pathé News. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
- ^ ISSN 1094-8120. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Nixon, Richard (1962). Six Crises. Doubleday. pp. 183–284.
- Newspapers.com.
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- ^ ISBN 978-1451606263.
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- U.S. Department of State. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- Newspapers.com.
- FRUS. Archivedfrom the original on January 6, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ^ "Marcos Perez Jimenez – Legion of Merit". valor.militarytimes.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
- ^ a b c d e f Chavez, Manny (May 3, 2015). "Just Why Did Nixon Go to Venezuela in 1958 Anyway?". History News Network. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
- ^ "Warn Guards of Nixon Plot Tip". Chicago Tribune. May 13, 1958. Retrieved February 26, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Amerson, Robert (May 8, 1994). "Even Now, Nixon Stirs Up Friend and Foe Alike; Tempered by Caracas". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ a b "The Day Venezuelans Attacked Nixon". Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Archived from the original on December 17, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Nixon Ordeal". Universal Newsreel. Associated Press. May 1958. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 141283757X.
- ^ a b c d Glass, Andrew (May 13, 2014). "Vice President Nixon's motorcade attacked in Venezuela, May 13, 1958". Politico. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Hate Running Loose Hits Out at Nixons". Life. 1958-05-26. p. 32. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
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- ^ a b c "Nixon attacked by angry Venezuelans". History. History Channel. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
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- ^ Newspapers.com.
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- ^ "Big Nixon Welcome Today". Chicago Tribune. May 15, 1958. Retrieved February 26, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Caracas: The U.S. Reaction". LIFE. May 26, 1958. p. 47. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- ISBN 978-0-8223-9180-7. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
- ISBN 978-0-8203-1782-3. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
- ^ a b "Vernon Walters, Back in His World". The Washington Post. December 16, 1985. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ Nixon, Richard (1962). "Attack by a mob in Venezuela". Six Crises. Doubleday.
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- ISBN 978-0674040885.