#Nixon Library

[deadpresidents]

Road Trip

On November 8, 1960, millions of Americans went to the polls in what would become one of the closest Presidential elections in American History:  John Fitzgerald Kennedy versus Richard Milhous Nixon.

That morning, Kennedy voted in Boston and Nixon voted in Whittier, California.  The candidates had spent months canvassing the nation, working to get every last vote – and every last vote was needed.  For the past several weeks, Kennedy and Nixon had criss-crossed the country, debated one another, and been working non-stop to be elected the 35th President of the United States.

After they voted that day, there were results to monitor, precincts to watch, election day problems to take care of, and many other things to worry about.  Imagine being on the cusp of the Presidency – with a 50/50 chance of being elected the next President of a superpower in the grip of the Cold War, with the threat of Communism and nuclear weapons hanging over your head, and the hopes of hundreds of millions of people pinned on either your victory or defeat.  Imagine being in the position of John F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon on November 8, 1960.  What would you do? 

John F. Kennedy put the control of his campaign in the hands of his younger brother, Bobby, and then took a nap.

And Richard Nixon took a road trip to Mexico.

Once Nixon voted that morning at a private home in a quiet Whittier neighborhood, he had been scheduled to head to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (where Bobby Kennedy would be assassinated eight years later) for the Election Day vigil and the long wait for the returns which would indicate whether he would be moving into the White House or facing an early retirement. 

Nixon was finished voting by 8:00 AM and hopped into his black Cadillac limousine to be driven to the Ambassador.  Several blocks away from the polling place, Nixon ordered the limousine to stop.  Along with a military aide and a Secret Service agent, Nixon jumped out of the limo and into a white convertible follow-up car driven by an officer from the Los Angeles Police Department.  Nixon took the LAPD officer’s place, got behind the wheel and ditched the press which had been following him.

Driving to La Habra, California, Nixon made a quick visit with his mother, making sure she had voted for her son in the Presidential election.  Nixon drove south along the Pacific Coast Highway, with no specific destination.  He stopped for gasoline in Oceanside and told a gas station attendant – startled to see the Vice President of the United States on a joyride on the very day that he stood for election as President – “I’m just out for a little ride."  Nixon confided that it was his only source of relaxation.

As the group of four men, with Nixon in the driver’s seat, reached San Diego – over two hours away from Nixon’s campaign headquarters at L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel – Nixon pointed out that he hadn’t been to Tijuana in at least 25 years.

As David Pietrusza wrote in his recap of Nixon’s road trip, "Richard Nixon – the ultimate control freak – was winging it on the most important day of his life."  Not only that, but the sitting Vice President of the United States and the man who many Americans were choosing to become the next President, impulsively decided to leave the entire country while those voters were still at the polls.

In Tijuana, Nixon and his party headed to a restaurant called Old Heidelberg.  Despite the fact it was owned by a German, Border Patrol agents told Nixon that it was the best place in Tijuana for Mexican food.  Joined at the last moment by Tijuana’s Mayor, Xicotencati Leyva Aleman, Nixon, his military aide, a Secret Service agent, and an average LAPD officer ate enchiladas in Mexico while John F. Kennedy took a nap in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

When Nixon’s press secretary Herb Klein was asked about the missing candidate, he had to tell reporters that Nixon often took some private moments on hectic days such as Election Day.  Really, though, Klein had no clue where Nixon was, eventually admitting that the Vice President was "driving around without any destination”. 

After lunch in Tijuana, Nixon and his companions headed back north towards the United States border crossing.  The LAPD officer took over driving duties as Nixon sat in the convertible’s passenger seat.  A shocked Border Patrol guard shook hands with the Vice President and asked the man who was currently on the ballot for the Presidency, “Are you all citizens of the United States?”.

Nixon and company drove to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, which Nixon called “one of my favorite Catholic places” on the day he faced the first successful Catholic candidate for the Presidency in American History.  Nixon took his three companions on a quick, informal tour of the Mission.  “For a few minutes, we sat in the empty pews for an interlude of complete escape,” Nixon later recalled.

The missing candidate and his three road trip buddies arrived back in Los Angeles before the election results started rolling in.  Nixon had to explain his trip to reporters who had been searching for him all day.  “It wasn’t planned.  We just started driving and that’s where we wound up.”

In his Memoirs, Nixon didn’t go too far into explaining why he escaped on Election Day, but a paragraph about that day is pretty illuminating:

“After one last frenetic week, it was over.  Since the convention in August I had traveled over 65,000 miles and visited all fifty states.  I had made 180 scheduled speeches and delivered scores of impromptu talks and informal press conferences.  There was nothing more I could have done.”

Except escape to Mexico while JFK slept.

[deadpresidents]

I've actually never seen this photo of LBJ!

The @richardnixonlibrary in Orange County is not just one of the best Presidential Libraries in the National Archives system (and has the unique feature of having Nixon's birthplace on site, just a few dozen feet from his gravesite), but they also have one of the best Tumblr sites for history content! You guys should follow them.

#OTD 1/22/1973 Former President Lyndon Baines Johnson died at the age of 64 following his third heart attack. In his statement on President Johnson’s death, President Nixon said, “No man had greater dreams for America than Lyndon Johnson. Even as we mourn his death, we are grateful for his life, which did so much to make those dreams into realities. And we know that as long as this Nation lives, so will his dreams and his accomplishments.” (Image: WHPO-1892-14A)

[californiastatelibrary]

He's just sitting there... ✨menacingly✨

Please enjoy meeting our resident Slowly Melting Wax Nixon Head, he lives in the California History Room and he does not have eyes.

[girderednerve]

so glad to be back from trip to see my beautiful girlfriend's family. i love my beautiful girlfriend but her family so obviously just like finds her incomprehensible and they don't listen to her and i hated it. and also two of them are cops who are so self-satisfied about it, gross. but we walked around joshua tree national park together + i'd never been in a desert before + i was overcome + wept quietly at the rocks and the yucca and the vast unbroken sky and the vibrant pulsing life around us. so it was worth it

[headfullmanythots]

recently discovered the entire archives of sb newspapers dating back to the 1870s are available online !! nixon family bits coming soon

[macaron-n-cheese]

I went to the Nixon and Reagan Presidential Library and Museums today!

I have a migraine from reading in the car so I'm not going to write a lot.

Nixon. I love his signature anime girlie pose :)

WOOF WOOF

THE JASON HEUSER PAINTING IN THE CORNER

I can now say that I am a Richard Nixon fan, he's just silly. The intro video actually called him a loser since he's always lose before he won 😭

Reagan

NOOOO NOT CUSTER 🤢🤮

It's still so cool that Reagan acted and was even President of the Actor's Guild.

President fandom:

MARX 'S THUMBS-UP IS SO FUNNY. Teach your kids about the wonders of communism RIGHT NOW. 👍

Horse :)

the glare is horrendous...BEAN PORTRAIT

*😐 among us WHOHMP tat tat tat* uh....

[u-mspcoll]

Next week! Voices of Dissent: Protests Against Richard Nixon

Flyer announcing protest of a Republican Party fundraising dinner. (Subject Vertical Files, Joseph A. Labadie Collection)

Join us on the 6th floor of Hatcher next Thursday, 17 October between 4-6p for our next Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester! 

This event will commemorate the 50th anniversary of a pivotal moment in American politics: President Richard Nixon's resignation. Artifacts and narratives from the Joseph A. Labadie Collection illuminate an era that sparked a powerful and enduring anti-war movement and fueled widespread activism. Light refreshments will be served. 

While you’re here, pick up a Third Thursday Passport and collect a stamp from each of the three Third Thursday Open Houses — the Clark Library, International Studies, and the Special Collections Research Center — to win a prize!

[the-white-rat]

Tagged by @gnfard

Last song: "With a Little Help from My Friends" by The Beatles

Favorite color: Dark green

Currently watching: I don't really watch TV 😅

Last movie: Ravenous (1999) dir. Antonia Bird (I love you Antonia Bird)

Currently reading: 3 books: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, and (as you know) One Man Against The World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon by Tim Weiner.

Current obsession: I feel like I'm actually in-between obsessions right now! My Watergate obsession seems to have faded into that state where I will always enjoy it, but I might not be as intense about it as the past couple years. Or maybe it's just because I'm challenging myself to read only fiction books this month (besides One Man)!

Last google search: "sweatsmile emoji" (I'm on my laptop okay)

Currently working on: Very broad question... I'm planning a camping trip with a friend and currently crocheting a temperature blanket.

no pressure tagging @undeaddream @rubber-garage

[deadpresidents]

What do you think of black dynamite's portrayal of nixon?

Are you suggesting that it wasn't a documentary featuring actual footage?

I'm going to require some clarification from the @richardnixonlibrary before I even begin to entertain the possibility that it's not archival video from the Nixon White House. What's next? Are you also going to tell me that Abraham Lincoln wasn't a vampire hunter? Or that George Washington didn't really have a wig for his wig and a brain for his heart? Excuse my language, but that's humbug and balderdash.

[deadpresidents]

Wow. I've never actually seen these photos!

#Nixon50 #OTD 8/9/1974 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger received and acknowledged President Nixon's resignation letter, thereby officially making Richard Nixon the first American President to resign from office.

The single sentence letter read “I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States.”

(Images: WHPO-E3395-21A & 22A)

[majianguo]

Yep, that's the famous Richard Nixon helicopter where he made his famous statement "I am not a crook". Southern California has two presidential libraries, this one as well as the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.

[tmblriscompleteshit]

President George HW Bush, with former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, at the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California - November 6, 1991.

[headfullmanythots]

ALSO look forward to nixon content tomorrow !! i am taking (dragging) my friend to the local historical museum to visit my babygirl (lewis) as a fun friend bonding activity (i indoctrinated her into the hbo war universe) and we’re delving into an educational exploration of wwii after (getting roaring drunk and rewatching band of brothers to make gay jokes about war heroes) !!

[paranormal-playground-podcast]

Haunted History of the Richard Nixon Library

The haunted history of the Richard Nixon Library is both intriguing and eerie. This iconic site in Yorba Linda, California, is not just a repository of presidential artifacts but also a hotspot for paranormal activity. Visitors and staff have reported numerous ghostly encounters, making it a place of historical and supernatural significance. The stories surrounding this location add a chilling…

[donjuaninhell]

Every time I'm scrolling through my music library I always manage to forget that the Jonestown suicide tape is in there.

I don't know why I have this.

[deramin2]

I was finally able to snag The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) from the library. I've been wanting to watch it again for months (saw it at least 15 years ago), but it's not streaming anywhere. So blessed to have that huge DVD wing with so many rare finds.

ID: DVD box of The Assassination of Richard Nixon starting Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, Jack Thompson, and Naomi Watts. The mad story of a true man. End ID.