Richard Nixon's visit to the Lincoln Memorial
In the early hours of May 9, 1970, President Richard Nixon made an unplanned visit to the Lincoln Memorial where he spoke with anti-war protesters and students for almost two hours. The protesters were conducting a vigil in protest of Nixon's recent decision to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the recent deaths of students in the Kent State shootings.
Visit
Nixon had finished a press conference at 10 p.m. on May 8, in which he had been questioned about his decision to expand American operations in Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Nixon then made 20 telephone calls to various people including Billy Graham and Thomas E. Dewey and the NBC reporter Nancy Dickerson.[1] He then slept from 2:15 a.m. until around 4 a.m.[2]
Nixon awoke after 4 a.m. and put on a recording of
Nixon, Sanchez, senior White House doctor
Some students had recognised Nixon by now and, although surprised by his advent, walked up to him and shook his hand. Nixon said that the students "were not unfriendly" to him, but "seemed somewhat overawed". Nixon learnt that several of them attended Syracuse University, and spoke of the university's football team. Commenting later to journalists, the Syracuse University students felt that "most of what he was saying was absurd ... Here we had come from a university that's completely uptight, on strike, and when we told him where we were from, he talked about the football team."[2]
On the Vietnam War, Nixon told the students:
I hope that [your] hatred of the war, which I could well understand, would not turn into a bitter hatred of our whole system, our country and everything that it stood for. I said that I know probably most of you think I'm an SOB. But I want you to know that I understand just how you feel.[2]
He encouraged them to travel while they were young and praised the architecture of Prague and Warsaw. But a student told Nixon "We're not interested in what Prague looks like ... We're interested in what kind of life we build in the United States."[2]
Nixon then told the students that "the spiritual hunger which all of us have" which "has been the great mystery of life from the beginning of time" would not be solved by improving air quality and ending the war. A student later recalled that Nixon was barely audible and his sentences had no structure. Towards the end of the visit the crowd of students had grown to 30 and a student told Nixon, "I hope you realize that we're willing to die for what we believe in", to which he responded that "Many of us when we were your age were also willing to die for what we believe in and are willing to do so today. The point is, we are trying to build a world in which you will not have to die for what you believe in."[2]
The Secret Service agents accompanying Nixon grew concerned for his safety with the increasing crowd and tone of the exchanges with the students and pretended that a call was waiting for him in his car hoping that he would leave, but Nixon kept telling them "Let it wait". With the advent of dawn, Nixon returned to the presidential limousine, but as he walked back, "a bearded fellow from Detroit" in Nixon's words, rushed towards him and requested a photograph with him, that was duly taken by the White House doctor. In a documentary, Bob Moustakas, the "bearded fellow from Detroit" claimed that, during the encounter, he was on LSD.[4]
Nixon said that the man from Detroit had "the broadest smile that I saw on the entire visit". Nixon then left in the presidential limousine.[2]
On the return trip to the White House, Nixon insisted on stopping at the
Aftermath
In 2011 the
Writing in The Atlantic in 2011, Tom McNichol wrote:
"None of the students at the Lincoln Memorial remember Nixon's behavior the way Nixon does. More tellingly, none of his loyal aides remember it Nixon's way either." [...] "Listening to Nixon describe his bizarre sojourn to the Lincoln Memorial is to hear a man who's already sold himself on an alternate version of reality. Having convinced himself of his version of the facts, all that remains is for him to win over the rest of the world."[2]
Following the visit, Haldeman would write in his diary that he was "concerned about his condition" and concluded that the event had been "the weirdest day so far". Haldeman wrote that "he has had very little sleep for a long time and his judgment, temper, and mood suffer badly as a result....there's a long way to go, and he's in no condition to weather it."[2]
Krogh felt that the impromptu visit was a "very significant and major effort to reach out".[3] Nixon later expressed the view that those in the anti-war movement were the pawns of foreign communists.[3] After the student protests, Nixon asked Haldeman to consider the Huston Plan, which would have used illegal procedures to gather information on the leaders of the anti-war movement. Only the resistance of J. Edgar Hoover stopped the plan.[3]
In popular culture
Nixon's meeting with protesters was depicted in Oliver Stone's 1995 biopic, Nixon, in which Nixon is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins.[8]
See also
References
- ^ a b Jesse Barrett (May 9, 2018). "In the Trump era, one of Richard Nixon's worst moments as president looks a lot better". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tom McNichol (November 14, 2011). "I Am Not a Kook: Richard Nixon's Bizarre Visit to the Lincoln Memorial". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Director: Joe Angio (February 15, 2007). Nixon a Presidency Revealed (television). History Channel.
- YouTube
- ISBN 978-0143128342.
- ^ "Nixon's Weirdest Day". WETA. April 23, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8129-9537-4.
- ISBN 0-8131-9126-2.