MEMORIES AND MOMENTS FROM THE BICOASTAL

RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

The Richard Nixon Centennial Celebration

January 6, 2013 # The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum # Yorba Linda, California January 9, 2013 # The Mayflower Hotel Grand Ballroom # Washington, D.C.

Nixon hailed as foreign policy genius at centennial of birth

REUTERS

wo unforgettable events, reaching across the United States from Yorba Linda to the Nations Capital, inaugurated a yearlong celebration and commemoration of the remarkable life of the 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon. On Sunday, January 6, 2013, just steps away from the modest house in which he was born on January 9, 1913, the Richard Nixon Foundation hosted a deeply moving and solemn ceremony honoring the President on his centennial. The Presidents daughter, Tricia Nixon Cox, laid a wreath sent by President Barack Obama on behalf of the American people to mark President Nixons 100th birthday. As a Marine Band played the inspiring notes of the Navy Hymn, a flyover of four Harrier jets roared overhead and riflemen fired off a 21-gun-salute. Three days later in Washington, D.C., exactly 100 years after he was born, the Foundation hosted what will long be remembered as the birthday celebration of the century. An enthusiastic, overflow crowd of more than 400 of RNs family, colleagues, friends, and admirers gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel to salute him. After a spellbinding program featuring several superb tributes to the President, his daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, closed the gala evening with these heartfelt words: He was the best father in the world. He loved this country and he made us proud. Happy Birthday, RN! This collection of photographs, and of the remarks delivered at each occasion, is a permanent keepsake of two events that will long live in the memories of all those who attended and of everyone who joins in remembering and honoring Richard Nixon on his centennial as patriot, President, and peacemaker.

Ron Walker, Chairman

Sandy Quinn, President

THE RICHARD NIXON FOUNDATION

THE RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL KICKOFF # JANUARY 6, 2013

RICHARD NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM # YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA

HON. ED ROYCE
Thirty-ninth District Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

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am chairing now the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I thought Id just share with you some observations. I had been involved in the University of Cal State Fullerton and first met Richard Nixon there when I chaired the College Republicans. In 1993, after I was sworn into office, we had quite an honor. President Nixon came to address the House and the Senate, and I remember he noticed me there as representing, at the time, Whittier and part of Yorba Linda, and he said, Ed Royce, you represent my old district. Thats a mighty fine district. Even if the other side cheats, youll win that district. But I remember him fondly telling me a little bit about his experiences, his fondness for Yorba Linda, how his wife, Pat, had taught in Whittier, and what was a great honor to me was that he later said, You know, Im going over to the Senate, and Im probably having my last conversation there. Pat Moynihan is going to introduce me, and hes going to ask me to talk on foreign policy. Would you like to come along for that luncheon? I indicated I certainly would appreciate that.

In his wide ranging speech, certainly without notes, former President Nixon identified for those members of the Senate all of the great challenges that the United States would face in the decades ahead,

as he discussed his trip to China, the challenges that lie ahead, the ways in which we needed to engage China, some of his concerns. I will say, for my part, I subsequently introduced legislation to broadcast into China

with Radio Free Asia the same way we had with Radio Free Europe in order to impart those lessons that he talked about that day the necessity of having the next generation of young Chinese understand political tolerance and political pluralism, democracy, markets. The problems he identified there were the problems were still grappling with, and I thought I would share with you the final speech he made to the House of Representatives that day because I have a few notes, and let me share his conclusion and his introduction: Many have said, Why talk about foreign policy at all? Nobody cares. Let me tell you why foreign policy is important. Its important because foreign policy and domestic policy are like Siamese twins: one cannot survive without the other. It has an enormous impact as far as our economy is concerned. I can sum up best what Americas role in the world should be: today, the world is not going to be saved by any single nation, but America can save herself by her exertions and can, by our example, save the cause of peace and save the cause of freedom in the world. #

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GEN. MELVIN SPIESE

Deputy Commanding General, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
States in March of 1945, serving in various assignments within the Bureau of Aeronautics until his release from active duty in March the following year. He is also the president most identified with the war in Vietnam, and we have heard the Vietnam War referred to from time to time as Mr. Nixons war. Of course, what is overlooked in those references is Mr. Nixon inherited a very well-established war from his three predecessors.
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hank you for the invitation to participate in this commemoration of the centennial of the 37th President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. Ive been asked to speak on Mr. Nixons military service and impact on the armed forces. Although himself able to avoid military service by virtue of religion and job, like millions of other young Americans, Mr. Nixon chose to serve his country in World War II. He joined the Navy at age 29, being commissioned a Lieutenant Junior Grade in June of 1942. He served at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Ottumwa, Iowa following his initial training. Seeking a greater role in the war effort, he was reassigned to the South Pacific in May of 1943, as the Officer in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command on Guadalcanal. He returned to the United

Under his presidency, he managed the transfer of responsibility of the war to the South Vietnamese with ongoing U.S. support and the drawdown of forces and eventual end of ground combat operations while negotiating across the board with our adversaries in multiple areas to reduce worldwide tensions. His efforts at a responsible drawdown took into account the wide ranging war and insurgency in Vietnam and various insurgencies throughout the neighboring states while seeking to secure the greater Southeast Asia region and preserve our ultimate leverage for the hundreds of prisoners of war in North Vietnam and position ourselves for dealing with the greater long-term challenges presented by the Soviets and the Chinese.
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The Presidents May 1972 Moscow Summit with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union.

Mr. Nixon opened up the Peoples Republic of China to the United States, which greatly altered the balance of the Cold War and set the world on the path we now see today with China and the Chinese people. Internal to the armed forces and easily forgotten is that milestone policy change that former Commandant of the Marine Corps and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, General James Jones called the single most significant change in his career, the establishment of the Presidents Commission on the All-Volunteer Force and the ultimate elimination of the draft. I can speak personally and professionally to the profound impact of that change during my career. As you look across the armed forces today and as we review the performance of all of our services during this decade of war, it is reasonable and for me, easy to conclude that our current all-volunteer force is not simply a success, but the best force we have ever fielded. Controversy notwithstanding, and maybe even distracting, President Nixon was a model of the American citizen-soldier, which has been the cornerstone of our national security and our freedom, and he was a president whose impact on the worlds strategic landscape and our own armed forces is historical in context. It is appropriate for us to gather and commemorate the centennial of the birth of our 37th President and to recall and recognize his leadership and contributions to the security of our United States and the world. #

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HON. BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN

Deputy Special Assistant to the President, 19721974

believe that no president, no world leader, perhaps no person other than President Nixon, had the tremendous genius of looking at the world in a very unique way with a tremendous vision thats unexcelled. It isnt that he looked at it as a globe with some 200 countries; anyone can do that. He looked at it as a globe with 200 countries and 200 leaders, and he studied every one of those

leaders and he knew most of them. He was able to talk at great length about a particular leader, about his eccentricities, about his friends, about his foes, about his ambitions. Each day he would take time to study unless the events worked out that he just couldnt the days events in terms of the way that those things he knew to be true on a Saturday had now changed on a Sunday. He kept up with it, and Im talking about before the presidency, during the presidency, after the presidency. That was a passion and a talent that I have never seen equaled. Certainly everyone in D.C. who knew his habits on studying world affairs and knowing them so well had tremendous respect for that. Respect for it, even if they were from the opposition party.
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on a trip he took to Russia. Bill Clinton said and he said this publicly he had never received a better report on world affairs during his entire presidency than he received from President Nixon.
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After the presidency, President Clinton received a report from former President Nixon

If you talked to him about Moscow, it wouldnt be about Red Square or the Lenin Mausoleum. It would be about his debate with Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, when he was vice president for President Eisenhower. He would talk about this man and tell you that he was a confrontationalist; he loved debating; he was sort of not extremely sophisticated in world events, not very knowledgeable about those things that you would expect a world leader to be knowledgeable about; and how he compared with Leonid Brezhnev, who was the leader of the Soviet Union when President Nixon was president himself. He would say this man was entirely different than Khrushchev; Leonid Brezhnev was much more sophisticated. He was much more knowledgeable about the world, much more knowledgeable about the United States, and although he was very strong, he would use confrontation as a last device, not something that he would use first, in contrast to Khrushchev. Then he would add a detail, as President Nixon just absorbed details. He said, And

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you know, Khrushchev never wore cufflinks. Brezhnev always wore them. Wow, I mean, thats seemingly unimportant. But it isnt unimportant when its put together with all of the stuff that the President knew and had in his head, because it all gave a very large picture and an accurate picture. Anyone who talked with him could know any number of these details, but it was a marvelous thing to realize that he would not just study, but when he studied, he would go over all the things he already knew so that his brain could just get to them like that if he was ever asked. Theres someone named Bud Day, a colonel who was captured and was in the Hanoi Hilton, as the American prisoners termed it. He was badly tortured, very badly treated. An extremely marvelous guy. He received the Medal of Honor from President Ford, and he made a statement later on in talking about it. He said, I was very humbled and so appreciative to President Ford, but I very much wanted to see President Nixon and receive the medal from him. So he came to San Clemente and visited with President Nixon. He said, The reason I did this is because of President Nixons courage and conviction and I know I would never have gotten out of the Hanoi Hilton if it wasnt for that man. And President Nixon not ceremonially, but just between the two of them took the Medal of Honor and gave it back to Bud Day.
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tell you one? There are so many of them. When I talked about Bud Day, he was thankful for the December bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. President Nixon had ordered the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, and because of that bombing, the North Vietnamese came to the peace table. They had messed around about not coming from President Johnsons time. Yes, then no; yes, then no. They came because they felt they had now lost the war, and theyve said that in their memoirs; theyve said that in their public addresses.

No president, no world leader, perhaps no person other than President Nixon, had the tremendous genius of looking at the world in a very unique way with a tremendous vision thats unexcelled.

There are great myths about Vietnam. I hear them repeated continually. May I just

He wanted to know from a number of people on the staff, Should we bomb on Christmas? He didnt want to. There was something he just didnt like about it. And so he called for a 36 hour bombing halt. Look under C in any book on Vietnam, and youll probably find the Christmas bombing with no explanation of why they call it the Christmas bombing. It would be like saying Pearl Harbor was the Christmas bombing by Japan. No, it wasnt on Christmas. But it makes it seem worse; it makes it seem awful.

It was marvelous in that it caused the North Vietnamese to feel they had now lost the war. We werent nave about thinking that they were not going to try violations of this accord. Of course they did try violations. But the President had already put in the Paris Peace Accords that if they do violate it, we would resupply South Vietnam with anything they lost a bullet for a bullet, a helicopter for a helicopter, all of that, anything. But after President Nixon left office, the Congress, which darn-near took over everything, would not appropriate the money to resupply South Vietnam when the violations came from North Vietnam.
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We should know that. We should know what was caused by those people who wanted peace, peace now, and applauded the idea that perhaps there would be peace along with all of us but said nothing about what happened two-and-a-quarter years later and why it fell. Why on earth history books and some history professors dont tell this part of the story, is just beyond me. After the presidency was over, Jerry Dunphy and I went to the East Coast, and President Nixon asked us to have lunch with him at 21. Not bad! So we did, and it was just marvelous. Everyone in the place was just so thrilled that President Nixon was in. Theyre all wanting to talk to him, and he did. It was just terrific. Then after it was over we went outside. Word had gotten out that President Nixon was there. There was a tremendous crowd

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outside, into the street. The President was answering questions, as usual he segued into foreign policy on some of the answers. So I did what anyone who ever worked for the President would do when he was in a situation where there was a crowd or there were people who wanted him. You didnt want the President to have to be the one to say, Gee, Ive got to go; you look at your watch and you say, Mr. President, youre going to be late for that meeting. So it got to that point where I thought, Gee, I think he wants to get out of here. So I said, Mr. President, youre going to be late to that meeting. He looks at me, gets a little smile, which he had a habit of doing. He said, Cancel it. Well, this was before mobile phones. I didnt even know what to do with myself. He knew I was lying. So I walk back into 21 and I go in a phone booth and I hide my face just in case anyone whos looking sees me talking to no one. I waited and waited an appropriate amount of time, and I came back out. I didnt say anything, I just came back out. He looked at me and said, Did you cancel that meeting? And I said, Yes, Mr. President, I did. To see here so many friends of President Nixon, so many personal friends, Im positive the Presidents here, and Im positive he just loves this. We need Nixon now more than ever. On this centennial of his birthday, we miss him more than ever. We miss his character, his courage, his goodness more than ever. #

Harrier fighter jets roared over the Presidents 1913 birthplace, as a Marine Band played the Navy Hymn and President Obama honored RN with a presidential wreath.

THE RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL GALA # JANUARY 9, 2013

MAYFLOWER HOTEL GRAND BALLROOM # WASHINGTON, D.C.
VENUE FOR RICHARD NIXON'S TWO INAUGURAL BALLS

TRICIA NIXON COX

ear friends, on this commemoration of the 100th anniversary of my fathers birth, and our heartwarming reunion, my family and I feel a great sense of family with you. You are part of our extended family and we appreciate that you are in the arena. Thank you for everything. Your steadfast friendship has meant so much through all seasons. For those of us who knew and loved my father, we remember his words, hopes and accomplishments. In accepting his partys nomination in 1968, he connected with the American people. Their sorrows were his sorrows, their dreams were his dreams, and in addressing the watching nation, he said, I see the face of a child. He hears a train go by at night and dreams of faraway places hed like to go. It seems like an impossible dream. But he is helped on his journey in life. A father who had to go to work before he finished the sixth grade sacrificed everything he had so that his sons could go to college. A gentle Quaker mother with a passionate concern for peace quietly wept when he went

to war but she understood why he had to go. A courageous wife and loyal children who stood by him in victory and also defeat. After the election, in his inaugural address, his main theme was peace. He said,

He connected with the American people. Their sorrows were his sorrows, their dreams were his dreams.

The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. In this noble quest for peace, his leadership and perseverance transformed a dream into reality. In a turbulent time, peace in the world and justice at home were the twin pillars of my fathers initiatives, initiatives that integrated all Americans into the promise of the American Dream and initiatives that preserved our water, air and land and initiatives that were ahead of their time in welfare and health care. After the presidency, my father was a global statesman, working for a safer and better world. One hundred years ago today, a child who would grow up to be president and leader of the free world was born in Yorba Linda, California in a house his father built and began the journey which we commemorate today. Thank you for being a special part of that journey and for your own remarkable journeys. In conclusion, as my father and mother would say, Onward and upward. #

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HON. RONALD WALKER

Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, 19691972 Director of the National Park Service, 19731975 Chairman, The Richard Nixon Foundation

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Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower admired a birthday cake recreation of their fathers Yorba Linda birthplace.

ts my pleasure to kick things off for the Nixon Foundation official celebration for Richard Nixons 100th birthday. First, let me thank you for being here to help us celebrate this historical event and I thank you for your loyalty, friendship and support and for your contributions that youve made to our nation. All of us here have a special bond: we work for Richard Nixon. We knew him, we admired him, we supported him and we loved him. And in our different ways, we played our own parts in helping him create a just society here at home and to seek a generation of peace around the world. Although he didnt make it to his 100th, he certainly had an eventful and meaningful life. And in his time, he taught us the meaning of dedication, determination and patriotism. In the 19 years that hes been gone, his balance, his judgment, his experience, his dedication and his wisdom have been missed every single day. #

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REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM

President and CEO, Samaritans Purse President and CEO, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

et us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come today to celebrate the 100th birthday of a remarkable man, Your servant, Richard Milhous Nixon, our 37th President. With the storm clouds of uncertainty on the domestic and international horizons, we miss his voice, we miss his leadership to our nation and to the world during this difficult time. We thank You for that place in history that he so skillfully marked, working for peace. And, Lord, we honor You tonight as the Prince of Peace and we pray that You will lead the hearts of people everywhere to the peace that comes only from You. We thank You today for Dr. Henry Kissinger, for his dedicated service to our great nation. We thank You for the Presidents and Mrs. Nixons family, who gave themselves to our country in sharing the gift of their father and grandfather. We thank You for special blessing upon Tricia and Edward Cox, for Julie and David Eisenhower, for their children and grandchildren. We pray for Your blessing on this evening, for the guests and their friends who have gathered to honor the life of this extraordinary man. May we leave here tonight remembering a man who sought peace and may we be reminded of Your promise in Scripture that we may have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray all of this in Your holy name, in the name of Thy Son. Amen. #

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HON. FRED MALEK

Special Assistant to the President for Personnel, 19701973 Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget, 19731974 Chairman, The Richard Nixon Centennial Legacy Campaign

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hat a privilege it is to be here tonight. Its a privilege not only because we celebrate the 100th birthday of our 37th President, Richard Nixon, but its also because were in the presence of the Nixon family. But to me, so much is because I am standing before some of the best friends that a man or a woman could possibly have in life, friends whove endured over four decades. No one could ask for more than the kind of enduring friendship, the kind of enduring loyalty that this group represents. Now, most of you here tonight are alumni of those exhilarating times. You were part of a presidency that accomplished so many great things and, yes, part of a presidency that was at times exhilarating and at times debilitating. But we all knew in our hearts that we worked for a great president and had great accomplishments. You know, we were and I guess we still are in many ways young, inexperienced. Most of us, like our leader, came from humble, at best middle-class beginnings and we rose from that to the positions that we were privileged to hold in the White House and in the Administration.

Today, we stand here secure in our belief that we worked for a great president and we accomplished some wonderful, wonderful and amazing things. We learned a great deal from our experiences. We took much that served us so well in the four decades that followed. Never before, never before, has there been a pool of talent so great as was assembled by Richard Nixon.

Introduced by Hon. Larry Higby, Deputy Assistant to the President, 19691973

Just think about this: just looking at the alumni of the Nixon White House, we have a future President of the United States. We have a future Vice President of the United States. We have four future Secretaries of State. Henry, you thought you were the only one we had four! We had five United States Senators. We had two governors. We had two Secretaries of the Treasury. We had more than five major corporate CEOs. We had more than five major respected columnists and commentators. We had four National Security Advisers and we had three Secretaries of Labor, a Secretary of Commerce and a Secretary of Transportation. What a group! But those are just the ones with the renowned titles. All of you are people of accomplishment. Youre people of loyalty. Youre people of commitment and thats why youre here tonight. There are three reasons why I am privileged to chair the Nixon Centennial Campaign to raise money for this Library. One, I think its so important to refurbish and improve this Library, which is so dated. Its so important that we not only refurbish the Library where hundreds of thousands of

Its the memories that inspire us to want to do more to bring the accomplishments of this great man to the world.

people come, but that we reach out electronically to the world millions of people around the world with a more robust electronic presence to share the accomplishments of the 37th President. Im also honored to do this, well, because Tricia and Julie asked me and I would never say no to them. But I guess I do it even more than anything else because of my feeling of camaraderie, my feeling of family, my feeling of friendship, my feeling of loyalty to the people in this room. You are family. You are people who have stood the test of time, who have stood loyal, who have been there when things counted and you cant ask for more than that in life. So I accept this challenge of raising a few bucks for the Nixon Library with enthusiasm, with temerity, knowing that it will be a rough ride all these rides are but knowing that Ive got a lot of friends. And believe me, friends, Ill be knocking on your door. Its the memories, I think, that we share of these experiences and these accomplishments of four decades ago, that not only bring us together tonight but I think also inspire us to want to do more to bring the memories of this great man, the accomplishments of this great man, to the world. So, again, Im honored to be here. Im privileged to be here. I thank you for being my friends of four decades and I thank you for being so loyal to our 37th President over these many years. #

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GALA LEADERSHIP
DINNER CHAIR Dr. Henry A. Kissinger VICE CHAIRS Ambassador George L. Argyros Lawrence M. Higby HONORARY CHAIRS Tricia Nixon Cox Julie Nixon Eisenhower Edward F. Cox David Eisenhower RN BIRTHDAY GALA HOSTS Ambassador George L. Argyros James H. Cavanaugh Lawrence M. Higby Donald M. Kendall Frederic V. Malek Edward C. Nixon Frederic V. Malek

RN FRIENDS AND FAMILY HOSTS Barbara Hackman Franklin R.L. (Dick) Herman Tod R. Hullin RN IN THE ARENA HOSTS Stanton D. Anderson Michael Balzano Bob Bostock John R. Brown S. John Byington Henry C. Cashen, II Red Cavaney Dwight Chapin & Terry Goodson John M. Damgard Fred F. Fielding Peter M. Flanigan Frank Gannon Edwin Harper Eugene Johnson Bobbie Kilberg William Killgallon Patrick ODonnell Terrence ODonnell John R. Price Richard (Sandy) Quinn Brent Scowcroft Daniel M. Searby Geoffrey C. Shepard J. Peter Simon Ben Stein James Tozzi William J. Usery, Jr. Ronald H. Walker Robert C. Odle, Jr.

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HON. PAT BUCHANAN

Special Assistant to the President and Speechwriter, 1969 1973 Special Consultant to the President for Media Analysis and Speechwriting, 1973 1974

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Introduced by Hon. Dwight Chapin, Special Assistant to the President, 19691971 and Deputy Assistant to the President, 19711973

e are here tonight to celebrate the centennial of a statesman, a profile in courage and an extraordinary man we are all proud to have served: the 37th President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon. Years ago, Meg Greenfield of The Washington Post wrote that she belonged to what she called the Nixon Generation. What distinguishes us as a group, she said, is that we are too young to remember a time when Richard Nixon was not on the political scene, and too old reasonably to expect that we shall see one. Greenfield was distressed about this. Yet her thesis rings true. We are the Nixon Generation. We were born into and lived through what Bole Dole called the Age of Nixon. And what a time it was and what a man he was. Home from the war in 1946, Richard Nixon was elected to the 80th Congress and swiftly became its most famous member. For he would exhibit early on an attribute that would mark his whole life: perseverance. Because he believed a disheveled excommunist named Whittaker Chambers, and because he distrusted an establishment icon, Alger Hiss, Congressman Nixon persevered to expose the wartime treason of Hiss.

By 1948, he was an American hero, so popular the Democratic Party did not field a candidate against him. In 1950, he captured a Senate seat with the largest majority in the history of California. Yet the same people who just loved Harry Trumans Give Em Hell campaign of 1948 whined that Mr. Nixon played too rough. In the Taft-Eisenhower battle of 1952, an internationalist the Boss, at 39 was the vice presidential nominee and a man of destiny. Then it was that the establishment first moved to bring him down. They hyped a phony story about a political fund, alleged it was for Senator Nixons personal benefit, and instigated a great hue and cry for General Eisenhower to drop him from the ticket. Senator Nixons decision to defend his record and integrity in the Checkers Speech, though mocked by his enemies, remains the most brilliant use of television by a political figure in the 20th century. In the 1950s, he redefined the vice presidency as a force in foreign policy, braved a lynch mob in Caracas, became the first vice president to travel behind the Iron Curtain and confronted Nikita Khrushchevs bluster in the Kitchen Debate. By 1960, he had no serious challenger for the nomination.

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After the closest election in a century, about which there hung the aroma of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois, he went home to California to run for governor. After a brutal primary, he was gaining on Governor Brown when the Cuban Missile Crisis broke his momentum, and the Boss went down to his second defeat and looked to be out for the count. Believing he had nothing to lose, he came down from his suite the morning after that defeat to deliver to the press words that will live in infamy. As Cactus Jack Garner said, He gave it to em with the bark on. He was now thought to be finished. ABC put together an instant documentary titled, The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon. The featured interview in the obituary was with that astute political analyst Alger Hiss. But, as Mark Twain said, reports of his death were premature. Moving his family to New York to practice law, Richard Nixon entered what he would call his wilderness years. But after the Goldwater-Rockefeller bloodbath in 1964, with the party bitterly divided, the Boss volunteered to introduce the nominee at the Cow Palace and did so in one of the finest addresses he ever delivered. But after he brought that contentious convention together with his introduction, Senator Goldwater proceeded to tear it apart again, declaring, Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Dwight Chapin was in the limousine that carried the Boss away from the Cow Palace. He has told me what the Boss said in that car about Senator Goldwaters speech. But there is no need to repeat those discouraging words here. Almost all the other name Republicans abandoned Goldwater. The Old Man stood by him. He traveled the nation, working longer and harder for Goldwater and the party than the Senator himself. After the crushing defeat that fall, the Republican Party was reduced to one-half of the Democratic Partys strength: 140 House seats, 32 Senate seats, only 17 governors. The Republican Party was a house divided and a house in ruins. It was an open question whether it would survive And now began the greatest comeback in American political history. When I arrived in New York to join the Boss in January 1966, his staff consisted of three people: I occupied one desk in the office outside his own. A second occupant was Rose Woods, and the third a Miss Ryan more exactly Patricia Ryan Nixon, the future First Lady of the United States, from whom I used to bum cigarettes. The altarpiece of that year was Richard Nixons six-weeks war against what LBJ called My Congress. Alone of the national Republicans, the Boss campaigned across the country in 35 states and 80 congressional districts. In November, his bold prediction of a 40-seat Republican gain in the House proved conservative. We won 47. After a year off, traveling the world, came the campaign of 1968, the most divisive year in American history since the Civil War. Consider what happened that year. As we flew to New Hampshire the last day of January, the Siege of Khe Sanh was at its height, and the Tet Offensive had just begun. Four weeks later, Governor Romney quit the race. Senator Eugene McCarthy then stunned the nation by capturing 42 percent of the vote against Lyndon Johnson. And Robert Kennedy declared for president. On March 31, the Boss asked me to monitor the Presidents speech on Vietnam on a car radio at LaGuardia to brief him when he arrived back from visiting Julie at Smith. At the end of the speech, President Johnson suddenly announced he would not run again. Four days after that political earthquake, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. Washington and 100 other cities exploded in riots that lasted days and required tens of thousands of troops. In early June, a week after our Oregon primary victory, I got a 3 a.m. call from our Bible Building headquarters. Robert Kennedy had been shot in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen. I called the Boss. Julie and David had been watching TV and already awakened him. That August, the Democratic Party came apart in a bloody brawl between police and protesters in the streets of Chicago. And so it went in that dramatic and divisive year.

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But at its end, Richard Nixon was President of the United States. Now, consider the city he came to, and the hostility he found. The nation had been torn apart by a halfdecade of assassinations and riots, crime and campus anarchy. Thirty thousand Americans were dead in Vietnam, and half a million American soldiers were tied down in an endless war. America was coming apart. Richard Nixon was the first president since Zachary Taylor to take the oath with both houses of Congress against him. The bureaucracy was deep-dyed Democratic liberal. The press corps was 90 percent hostile. The Warren Court was at the peak of its power. And the best and brightest who had led us into Vietnam were deserting to join their children in protests against what they suddenly discovered was Nixons War. As the presidential limousine came up Pennsylvania Avenue after the inaugural, it was showered with debris. I remember it well. As Shelley and I were entering the White House reviewing stand for the inaugural parade, the Secret Service asked us to step off the planks onto the muddy lawn, as the President was right behind us. As he passed by me, he looked over, and in the first words I ever heard from Richard Nixon as President of the United States, he said, Buchanan, was that you throwing the eggs? He always called me by my last name! But now consider what he accomplished. By the end of his first term, all U.S. troops were out of Vietnam, our POWs were on the way home, every provincial capital was in Saigons hands. He had ended the war with honor, as he had promised. He had negotiated and signed the greatest arms limitation treaty since the Washington Naval Agreement of 1922: SALT I and the ABM Treaty. He had ended the implacable hostility between the United States and Peoples Republic of China that had endured since Maos Revolution and the Korean War. In his second term, he would order the strategic airlift that saved Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Israel never had a better friend, said Golda Meir. the Presidents accomplishment. The Presidents memoirs begin, I was born in a house my father built. Well, the Republican Party in the last third of the 20th century was the house that Nixon built. In domestic policy, he was the first environmental president, creating the Council on Environmental Quality and EPA. To battle the scourge of cancer, he established the National Cancer Institute. To close the widening chasm between the generations and professionalize our military, he ended the draft. He made six nominations to the Supreme Court. Four made it. Not a bad average, when you consider the Senate he had to deal with. As for our Southern strategy, when Richard Nixon first took the oath of office, 10 percent of Southern schools were desegregated. When he left, 70 percent were desegregated. As Bob Dole said in his eulogy at Yorba Linda, it was the Age of Nixon. While Nixon was a dominant figure on the national stage in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, his influence lived on through the 20th century and into the 21st. Would there be a Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, had it not been for Richard Nixon selecting this honorable and good man as vice president? Would there be a George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, if Richard Nixon had not recognized the talent of this man who had just lost his second statewide race in Texas in 1970 and made him Chairman of

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While Nixon was a dominant figure on the national stage in the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, his influence lived on through the 20th century and into the 21st.

In November 1972, Richard Nixon was rewarded with the most sweeping landslide in history 49 states and 60 percent of the vote. Because of the campaigns he had conducted in 66, 68, 70 and 72, a party on its deathbed in 1964 was on its way to becoming the New Majority Party, Americas Party, which would capture the presidency and carry 40 or more states in four of the next five presidential elections. That was

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the Republican National Committee, then Ambassador to the United Nations? When Ronald Reagan came out of the West to launch his revolution, his first National Security Adviser and first domestic policy chief, Dick Allen and Marty Anderson, both came out of our 68 campaign and White House staff. Both of Reagans Secretaries of State Al Haig and George Shultz and his Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger, came out of the Nixon National Security Council or Nixon Cabinet. The man Reagan chose as Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, had been put on the court by Richard Nixon. Reagans choice as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, was the domestic policy research coordinator in Nixons 68 campaign. In 1996, when Bob Dole was the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, he was being most closely pursued by two former members of Richard Nixons White House staff. Lamar Alexander was one. And I forget the other guy. That brings back a memory of the 1992 election, after I had lost 10 straight primaries to President Bush. I called the Old Man in Saddle River. When he came on the line, I said: Ten for ten. Not bad, eh, sir? President Nixon paused and said: Buchanan, youre the only extremist I know with a sense of humor. Come on up, and bring Shelley with you. In 2001, George W. Bush chose as Secretary of Defense the man that Richard Nixon had picked to head up LBJs poverty agency, OEO, and to monitor wage and price controls, two plum assignments for a rising young Republican star, Donald Rumsfeld, before President Nixon named him the Ambassador to NATO. Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that it is required of a man that he share the action and passion of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived. Richard Nixon shared the action and passion of his time. Again and again and again, he came back from woundings, he came back from defeats. After he left the White House, he would write nine books on foreign policy and the great men he had known, and there were many, for only Franklin Roosevelt equaled Richard Nixon in having been on five presidential tickets. As this centennial approached, the phone calls started coming in from the offspring of the old jackal pack, asking my thoughts on Watergate. My great regret is the Old Man is not here tonight so I can tell him my thoughts on his old tormenters. In the words of Nick Carraway to the Great Gatsby: They were a rotten crowd, sir. Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together. Nixon now more than ever! #

BEN STEIN
Presidential Speechwriter, 1973 1975
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just want to say, when people in Hollywood say to me, How can you still like Nixon after all these years? I say, Ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the prisoners of war, saved Israel, laid the foundations for peace in the Middle East, opened relations with China thus making the ending of the Cold War on our terms absolutely essential and inevitable and opened relations in terms of strategic arms limitations with the Soviet Union, and I will never turn my back on Richard Nixon the peacemaker. #

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HON. HENRY KISSINGER

Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, 1969-1975 Secretary of State, 1973-1977

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et me begin by saying that I thought Id never live to see the day when Pat Buchanan would say the things about the Nixon foreign policy that I have just heard. So the age of conversions, its not over. Its a good way to begin explaining the historic achievements of Richard Nixon. When Richard Nixon took his oath of office, 550,000 Americans were engaged in combat. America had no relations with China. The Soviet Union had just invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. No negotiations with the Soviet Union were going on. Middle East diplomacy was totally stalemated, and the major countries of the Middle East had broken relations with the United States. When Richard Nixon left office, the war in Vietnam had been terminated, a permanent dialogue with China had begun, sweeping negotiations on the nuclear issues were being undertaken with the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon was the first president to visit Eastern Europe, choosing, in fact, for his visit to Romania the day that Brezhnev was supposed to be there and they had to paint over the signs welcoming Brezhnev to welcome Richard Nixon. He had conducted diplomacy in the Middle East that removed Soviet military power from Egypt, brought about a

diplomatic change, and started three ArabIsraeli agreements. The one with Syria survived until the turmoil in Syria made not the agreement irrelevant but the conditions under which it could be carried out. It is impossible to list all of Nixons achievements in the time available on this

Introduced by Hon. Ron Walker, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, 1969 1972

occasion. But I would sum up the fundamental effort of Richard Nixon as ending the American oscillation between extremes of commitment and extremes of withdrawal, to create a permanent pattern in which foreign policy could be understood. He approached foreign policy from the point of view of national interest on tactics and permanent values on strategy, and he maintained those under the most difficult circumstances. Imagine a president who blockades Vietnam two weeks before he was supposed to visit the Soviet Union, five months before a national election, and then goes to Moscow anyway and signs the most sweeping nuclear arms agreement that had existed, whose numbers, however much they were contested, remained the basic numbers of American strategy for the next 30 years. This was his underlying achievement, and he brought this about because he reflected the qualities that make a great leader: courage and vision. Character is needed because the key decisions are very narrow; you need courage to be willing to walk a lonely path. On innumerable occasions, I witnessed Richard Nixon making decisions against the advice sometimes of the majority of the people around him and certainly in the face of enormous

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He created a set of international policies whose main outlines survive to this day.

media opposition. He would say, You pay as much of a price for doing something halfway as for doing it completely, so you might as well do it right. That was the Richard Nixon who set a standard of foreign policy vision and had the courage, in the midst of great crisis, to hold fast to visions he had developed in his Quaker youth. But he also knew that peace has two elements: it has to have a balance of power and there has to be a sense of justice. He worked on both, and he created a set of international policies whose main outlines survive to this day. It was my privilege to have been permitted to work with him. Forty years ago on this precise day, I sent him a cable that the Vietnamese had accepted what was basically the outline of a speech he had made the year before. He replied, If they stick with it, this will be the happiest birthday in my life. So it is my honor to propose a toast to Richard Nixon, patriot, President, and, above all, peacemaker. #

JULIE NIXON EISENHOWER

He was the best father in the world. He loved this country and he made us proud. Happy Birthday, RN!

ne of the most popular items in the Nixon Library store is a mug and its emblazoned with the words, What would Nixon do? Well, tonight Im going to tweak the slogan just a little bit and ask, What would Nixon say? Im fairly certain that if my father were with us tonight, he would say to all of you, Thank you. Thank you men and women of the Nixon Administration for serving in the most challenging times imaginable and for doing a job superbly and brilliantly. So many achievements in five-and-a-half years. And he would say thank you to the bigger Nixon family, the friends, the supporters whove come here tonight to celebrate. Sometimes Im asked what it was like for my family to defend my father during the embattled moments in the White House and my response is simple: He was the best father in the world. He loved this country and he made us proud. Happy Birthday, RN! #

THE RICHARD NIXON FOUNDATION

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