#nixon

[soberscientistlife]

~Stephen King

[mllfhotties]

Samantha G aka Tyler Nixon

[hindsart]

#DARKNIXON

[allhailthe70shousewife]

“James Chapman, a Republican from Wayne County, told the paper he traveled to the city of Clare to join the party meeting at the Doherty Hotel. But the meeting was reserved for members of the state committee. So Chapman said that he and others gathered outside the meeting location and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. He also said that he attempted to open a door to the meeting room by jiggling the doorknob.

Mark DeYoung, who chairs the Clare County Republican Party, said he heard Chapman’s attempt to enter the room and opened the door after seeing someone flip him the bird through a window. “He kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door,” DeYoung said of Chapman, speaking to The Detroit News by phone from the emergency room.

DeYoung added that Chapman charged him, slamming his body into a chair, and said he now has a broken rib. He intends to press charges.”

“The state of the Michigan GOP is so chaotic, this isn’t even the first physical altercation at a state party meeting this year. In April, police were called when two Republicans got into a fight. On video captured of the incident, Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett appeared to knock a cigarette and phone out of Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis’ hand. Pehlis then pushed her open hand toward Sackett’s head. “

[oldshowbiz]

Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling despised Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty.

"What I consider Mayor Yorty wouldn't be publishable even in the Daily Bruin,” said Rod Serling. “Mayor Yorty and I have done everything but engage in letters to the editor of the LA Times. That's usually the ultimate in combat play. But Mayor Yorty knows where I stand. I'm sure he could care less. I find him, number one, a demagogue, number two, unprincipled, number three, well, now we get into the four-letter Anglo-Saxon words … I find him a totally unwholesome individual. I think he's an asset to to no one.”

Mayor Sam Yorty said in 1974, “The Watergate mess was blown out of proportion and this country is going to miss President Nixon and his administration.”

[flashnthunder]

Ivy- devotion, fidelity, loyalty

Milk vetch- your presence softens my pain

[nobrashfestivity]

Kjartan Slettemark, ‘Nixon visions’, färg offset. Foto © Uppsala Auktionskammare

[lockandkeyhyena]

haven’t drawn nixon in a while so take the boy!

[usnatarchives]

Pelé and President Ford, 6/28/1975 (NARA IDs 12082700 and 6829578).

RIP Pelé

Brazilian soccer legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pelé) died today at age 82. After retiring from a dazzling and historic international soccer career, he played for the New York Cosmos (1975-1977) and is widely credited with sparking American interest in the game. 

In his role as a soccer global ambassador, Pelé was a frequent visitor to the White House.

Pelé and Nixon (5/08/1973, NARA IDs 194508 and 1552580).

See the “Memoranda of Conversation” from this meeting (excerpt):

Pelé and Reagan (10/14/1982 NARA ID 75852465).

Pelé, Reagan, and Brazilian President José Sarney (9/1/1986, NARA ID 75855009)

Pelé and Clinton (10/15/1997, NARA ID 81122856)

See related: 

In Memoriam: Pelé (1940-2022), National Archives News

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!, Pieces of History blog

Soccer in the National Archives and Sports in the National Archives, National Archives News special topics pages

All American: The Power of Sports exhibit, National Archives Museum, Washington, DC, through 1/7/2024.

[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.

[aunti-christ-ine]

By the way, @CemeteryGuide's Mark Masek is one of the best. He does a fantastic yearly calendar (I've gotten them for several years now) and has even written a one-of-its-kind book. http://www.cemeteryguide.com/

[facts-i-just-made-up]

The supposed “missing” 17 minutes from Richard Nixon’s secret tapes was never actually missing, rather it was released by Iron Butterfly under the title, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”

[phantom-the-spookyboi]

My many Monument Mythos and Nixonverse fanarts. I fucking love this series so much you have no idea.

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

August 5th, 1974: President Nixon is forced to release the "Smoking Gun" tape, clearly and unambiguously implicating him in the Watergate scandal.

[allhailthe70shousewife]

Finally🥂💃🏻👏

[oldshowbiz]

"Rosemary Wood, the former secretary to ex-president Nixon retired today on a pension of fifteen thousand dollars.

"A lot of people feel that's a lot of money, but she happens to be an excellent secretary.

"How many secretaries do you know can erase 2000 words a minute? "

- Johnny Carson, Tonight Show, December 11, 1975