MEMORIES AND MOMENTS FROM THE BICOASTAL

RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

The Richard NixonCentennial 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

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Two unforgettable events, reaching across the United States from Yorba Linda to the Nation’s Capital, inaugurated a yearlong celebrationand 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 NixonFoundation hosted a deeply moving and solemn ceremony honoring the President on his centennial.

The President’s daughter, Tricia Nixon Cox, laid a wreath sent by President Barack Obama on behalf of the American people to markPresident Nixon’s 100th birthday. As a Marine Band played the inspiring notes of the Navy Hymn, a flyover of four Harrier jets roaredoverhead 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 thebirthday celebration of the century. An enthusiastic, overflow crowd of more than 400 of RN’s family, colleagues, friends, and admirersgathered 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 galaevening 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 hiscentennial as patriot, President, and peacemaker.

Sandy Quinn, PresidentRon Walker, Chairman

THE RICHARD NIXON FOUNDATION

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Iam chairing now the Foreign AffairsCommittee, and I thought I’d just sharewith you some observations. I had been involved in the University of

Cal State Fullerton and first met Richard Nixonthere 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 asrepresenting, at the time, Whittier and part of Yorba Linda, and he said, “Ed Royce, yourepresent my old district. That’s a mighty finedistrict. Even if the other side cheats, you’llwin that district.”

But I remember him fondly telling me alittle bit about his experiences, his fondnessfor Yorba Linda, how his wife, Pat, had taughtin Whittier, and what was a great honor to mewas that he later said, “You know, I’m goingover to the Senate, and I’m probably havingmy last conversation there. Pat Moynihan isgoing to introduce me, and he’s going to askme to talk on foreign policy. Would you liketo come along for that luncheon?” I indicatedI certainly would appreciate that.

In his wide ranging speech, certainlywithout notes, former President Nixonidentified for those members of the Senate all of the great challenges that the UnitedStates would face in the decades ahead,

as he discussed his trip to China, thechallenges that lie ahead, the ways in whichwe needed to engage China, some of hisconcerns. I will say, for my part, I subsequentlyintroduced legislation to broadcast into China

with Radio Free Asia the same way we hadwith Radio Free Europe in order to impartthose lessons that he talked about that day —the necessity of having the next generation ofyoung Chinese understand political toleranceand political pluralism, democracy, markets. The problems he identified there were the problems we’re still grappling with, and I thought I would share with you the final speech he made to the House ofRepresentatives that day because I have a few notes, and let me share his conclusion and his introduction:

“Many have said, ‘Why talk about foreignpolicy at all? Nobody cares.’ Let me tell youwhy foreign policy is important. It’s importantbecause foreign policy and domestic policy are like Siamese twins: one cannot survivewithout the other. It has an enormous impact as far as our economy is concerned. I can sum up best what America’s role in the worldshould be: today, the world is not going to be saved by any single nation, but Americacan save herself by her exertions and can, by our example, save the cause of peace andsave the cause of freedom in the world.” �

HON. ED ROYCEThirty-ninth DistrictChairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

THE RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL KICKOFF � JANUARY 6, 2013RICHARD NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM � YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA

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States in March of 1945, serving in variousassignments within the Bureau of Aeronauticsuntil his release from active duty in March the following year.

He is also the president most identified withthe war in Vietnam, and we have heard theVietnam War referred to from time to time as“Mr. Nixon’s war.” Of course, what is overlookedin those references is Mr. Nixon inherited a verywell-established war from his three predecessors.

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Under his presidency, he managed thetransfer of responsibility of the war to theSouth Vietnamese with ongoing U.S. supportand the drawdown of forces and eventual end of ground combat operations while negotiatingacross the board with our adversaries in multipleareas to reduce worldwide tensions. His effortsat a responsible drawdown took into accountthe wide ranging war and insurgency in Vietnamand various insurgencies throughout theneighboring states while seeking to secure thegreater Southeast Asia region and preserve ourultimate leverage for the hundreds of prisonersof war in North Vietnam and position ourselvesfor dealing with the greater long-term challengespresented by the Soviets and the Chinese.

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The President’s May 1972 Moscow Summitwith Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev produceda treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union.

Mr. Nixon opened up the People’s Republic of China to the United States, which greatlyaltered the balance of the Cold War and set the world on the path we now see today withChina and the Chinese people.

Internal to the armed forces and easilyforgotten is that milestone policy change thatformer Commandant of the Marine Corps andSupreme Allied Commander, Europe, GeneralJames Jones called the single most significantchange in his career, the establishment of thePresident’s Commission on the All-VolunteerForce and the ultimate elimination of the draft.I can speak personally and professionally to the profound impact of that change during mycareer. As you look across the armed forces todayand as we review the performance of all of our services during this decade of war, it isreasonable — and for me, easy — to concludethat our current all-volunteer force is not simplya success, but the best force we have ever fielded.

Controversy notwithstanding, and maybeeven distracting, President Nixon was a modelof the American citizen-soldier, which has beenthe cornerstone of our national security and ourfreedom, and he was a president whose impacton the world’s strategic landscape and our ownarmed forces is historical in context. It isappropriate for us to gather and commemoratethe centennial of the birth of our 37th Presidentand to recall and recognize his leadership andcontributions to the security of our UnitedStates and the world. �

GEN. MELVIN SPIESEDeputy Commanding General, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force

Thank you for the invitation toparticipate in this commemoration ofthe centennial of the 37th President

of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. I’vebeen asked to speak on Mr. Nixon’s militaryservice and impact on the armed forces.

Although himself able to avoid militaryservice by virtue of religion and job, like millionsof other young Americans, Mr. Nixon chose toserve his country in World War II. He joinedthe Navy at age 29, being commissioned aLieutenant Junior Grade in June of 1942. Heserved at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base inOttumwa, Iowa following his initial training.

Seeking a greater role in the war effort, hewas reassigned to the South Pacific in May of1943, as the Officer in Charge of the SouthPacific Combat Air Transport Command on Guadalcanal. He returned to the United

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Ibelieve that no president, no world leader,perhaps no person other than PresidentNixon, had the tremendous genius of

looking at the world in a very unique waywith a tremendous vision that’s unexcelled. Itisn’t that he looked at it as a globe with some200 countries; anyone can do that. He lookedat it as a globe with 200 countries and 200leaders, and he studied every one of those

leaders and he knew mostof them. He was able totalk at great length abouta particular leader, abouthis eccentricities, abouthis friends, about his foes,about his ambitions. Each day he would taketime to study—unless theevents worked out that hejust couldn’t—the day’sevents in terms of the waythat those things he knewto be true on a Saturday had now changed on aSunday. He kept up withit, and I’m talking aboutbefore 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 andknowing them so well had tremendous respect for that. Respect for it, even if theywere from the opposition party.

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After the presidency, President Clintonreceived a report from former President Nixon

on a trip he took to Russia. Bill Clinton said— and he said this publicly — he had neverreceived a better report on world affairs duringhis entire presidency than he received fromPresident Nixon.

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If you talked to him about Moscow, itwouldn’t be about Red Square or the LeninMausoleum. It would be about his debatewith Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, when hewas vice president for President Eisenhower.He would talk about this man and tell you thathe was a confrontationalist; he loved debating;he was sort of not extremely sophisticated inworld events, not very knowledgeable aboutthose things that you would expect a worldleader to be knowledgeable about; and how hecompared with Leonid Brezhnev, who was theleader of the Soviet Union when PresidentNixon was president himself. He would say thisman was entirely different than Khrushchev;Leonid Brezhnev was much more sophisticated.He was much more knowledgeable about the world, much more knowledgeable aboutthe United States, and although he was verystrong, he would use confrontation as a lastdevice, not something that he would use first,in contrast to Khrushchev.

Then he would add a detail, as PresidentNixon just absorbed details. He said, “And

HON. BRUCE HERSCHENSOHNDeputy Special Assistant to the President, 1972–1974

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you know, Khrushchev never wore cufflinks.Brezhnev always wore them.” Wow, I mean,that’s seemingly unimportant. But it isn’tunimportant when it’s put together with all of the stuff that the President knew and had in his head, because it all gave a very largepicture and an accurate picture. Anyone whotalked with him could know any number ofthese details, but it was a marvelous thing torealize that he would not just study, but whenhe studied, he would go over all the things healready knew so that his brain could just get to them like that if he was ever asked.

There’s someone named Bud Day, a colonelwho was captured and was in the Hanoi Hilton,as the American prisoners termed it. He wasbadly tortured, very badly treated. An extremelymarvelous guy. He received the Medal ofHonor from President Ford, and he made astatement later on in talking about it. He said,“I was very humbled and so appreciative toPresident Ford, but I very much wanted to seePresident Nixon and receive the medal fromhim.” So he came to San Clemente and visitedwith President Nixon. He said, “The reason I did this is because of President Nixon’scourage and conviction and I know I wouldnever have gotten out of the Hanoi Hilton ifit wasn’t for that man.” And President Nixon— not ceremonially, but just between the twoof them — took the Medal of Honor and gaveit back to Bud Day.

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

tell you one? There are so many of them.When I talked about Bud Day, he wasthankful for the December bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. President Nixon had ordered the bombing of Hanoi andHaiphong, and because of that bombing, theNorth Vietnamese came to the peace table.They had messed around about not comingfrom President Johnson’s time. Yes, then no;yes, then no. They came because they felt they had now lost the war, and they’ve saidthat in their memoirs; they’ve said that in their public addresses.

He wanted to know from a number ofpeople on the staff, “Should we bomb onChristmas?” He didn’t want to. There wassomething he just didn’t like about it. And sohe called for a 36 hour bombing halt. Lookunder “C” in any book on Vietnam, and you’ll probably find the Christmas bombingwith no explanation of why they call it theChristmas bombing. It would be like sayingPearl Harbor was the Christmas bombing by Japan. No, it wasn’t on Christmas. But itmakes it seem worse; it makes it seem awful.

It was marvelous in that it caused the NorthVietnamese to feel they had now lost the war.

We weren’t naïve about thinking that they werenot going to try violations of this accord. Ofcourse they did try violations. But the Presidenthad already put in the Paris Peace Accords thatif they do violate it, we would resupply SouthVietnam with anything they lost — a bullet fora bullet, a helicopter for a helicopter, all of that,anything. But after President Nixon left office,the Congress, which darn-near took overeverything, would not appropriate the moneyto resupply South Vietnam when the violationscame from North Vietnam.

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We should know that. We should knowwhat was caused by those people who wantedpeace, peace now, and applauded the idea thatperhaps there would be peace — along with all of us — but said nothing about whathappened two-and-a-quarter years later andwhy it fell. Why on earth history books andsome history professors don’t tell this part of the story, is just beyond me.

After the presidency was over, Jerry Dunphy and I went to the East Coast, andPresident Nixon asked us to have lunch withhim 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.They’re 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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No president, no world leader, perhapsno person other than President Nixon,had the tremendous genius of looking at the world in a veryunique way with a tremendousvision that’s unexcelled.

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outside, into the street. The President wasanswering questions, as usual he segued intoforeign 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 therewere people who wanted him. You didn’t wantthe President to have to be the one to say,“Gee, I’ve got to go;” you look at your watchand you say, “Mr. President, you’re going to belate for that meeting.” So it got to that pointwhere I thought, “Gee, I think he wants to getout of here.” So I said, “Mr. President, you’regoing to be late to that meeting.” He looks at me, gets a little smile, which he had a habitof doing. He said, “Cancel it.”

Well, this was before mobile phones. Ididn’t 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 myface just in case anyone who’s looking sees me talking to no one. I waited and waited anappropriate amount of time, and I came backout. I didn’t say anything, I just came backout. He looked at me and said, “Did youcancel that meeting?” And I said, “Yes, Mr. President, I did.”

To see here so many friends of PresidentNixon, so many personal friends, I’m positivethe President’s here, and I’m positive he justloves this.

We need Nixon now more than ever. Onthis centennial of his birthday, we miss himmore than ever. We miss his character, hiscourage, his goodness more than ever. �

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Harrier fighter jets roared over the President’s1913 birthplace, as a Marine Band played

the Navy Hymn and President Obamahonored RN with a presidential wreath.

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Dear friends, on this commemorationof the 100th anniversary of myfather’s birth, and our heartwarming

reunion, my family and I feel a great sense offamily with you. You are part of our extendedfamily and we appreciate that you are in thearena. Thank you for everything. Yoursteadfast friendship has meant so muchthrough all seasons.

For those of us who knew and loved myfather, we remember his words, hopes andaccomplishments. In accepting his party’snomination in 1968, he connected with theAmerican people. Their sorrows were hissorrows, 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 placeshe’d like to go. It seems like an impossibledream. But he is helped on his journey in life.A father who had to go to work before hefinished the sixth grade sacrificed everythinghe had so that his sons could go to college. A gentle Quaker mother with a passionateconcern for peace quietly wept when he went

to war but she understood why he had to go.A courageous wife and loyal children whostood by him in victory and also defeat.”

After the election, in his inaugural address, his main theme was peace. He said,

THE RICHARD NIXON CENTENNIAL GALA � JANUARY 9, 2013MAYFLOWER HOTEL GRAND BALLROOM � WASHINGTON, D.C.

VENUE FOR RICHARD NIXON'S TWO INAUGURAL BALLS

TRICIA NIXON COX

He connected with the Americanpeople. Their sorrows were his sorrows,their dreams were his dreams.“ ”

“The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.” In this noblequest for peace, his leadership andperseverance transformed a dream intoreality. In a turbulent time, peace in theworld and justice at home were the twinpillars of my father’s initiatives, initiativesthat integrated all Americans into thepromise of the American Dream andinitiatives 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 andbetter world.

One hundred years ago today, a childwho would grow up to be president andleader of the free world was born in YorbaLinda, California in a house his father built and began the journey which wecommemorate today. Thank you for being a special part of that journey and for yourown remarkable journeys. In conclusion, as my father and mother would say,“Onward and upward.” �

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It’s my pleasure to kick things off for the Nixon Foundationofficial celebration for Richard Nixon’s 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 you’ve made toour nation. All of us here have a special bond: we work forRichard Nixon. We knew him, we admired him, we supportedhim and we loved him. And in our different ways, we playedour own parts in helping him create a just society here at homeand to seek a generation of peace around the world.

Although he didn’t 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 he’s been gone, his balance, his judgment,his experience, his dedication and his wisdom have been missed every single day. �

HON. RONALD WALKERSpecial Assistant to the President and Director of theWhite House Office of Presidential Advance, 1969–1972Director of the National Park Service, 1973–1975Chairman, The Richard Nixon Foundation

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Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower admired abirthday cake recreation of their father’s Yorba Linda birthplace.

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Let us pray. Our graciousHeavenly Father, we cometoday to celebrate the 100th

birthday of a remarkable man,Your servant, Richard MilhousNixon, our 37th President. Withthe storm clouds of uncertainty on the domestic and internationalhorizons, we miss his voice, we miss his leadership to ournation and to the world duringthis 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 peopleeverywhere to the peace that comes only from You.

We thank You today for Dr. Henry Kissinger, for his dedicated serviceto our great nation. We thank You for the President’s and Mrs. Nixon’sfamily, who gave themselves to our country in sharing the gift of theirfather and grandfather. We thank You for special blessing upon Tricia and Edward Cox, for Julie and David Eisenhower, for their children andgrandchildren. We pray for Your blessing on this evening, for the guestsand their friends who have gathered to honor the life of this extraordinaryman. May we leave here tonight remembering a man who sought peaceand may we be reminded of Your promise in Scripture that we may havepeace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray all of this in Your holy name, in the name of Thy Son. Amen. �

REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAMPresident and CEO, Samaritan’s PursePresident and CEO, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

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HON. FRED MALEKSpecial Assistant to the President for Personnel, 1970–1973Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget, 1973–1974Chairman, The Richard Nixon Centennial Legacy Campaign

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What a privilege it is to be heretonight. It’s a privilege not onlybecause we celebrate the 100th

birthday of our 37th President, RichardNixon, but it’s also because we’re in thepresence of the Nixon family. But to me, so much is because I am standing before some of the best friends that a man or awoman could possibly have in life, friendswho’ve endured over four decades. No onecould ask for more than the kind of enduringfriendship, the kind of enduring loyalty thatthis group represents.

Now, most of you here tonight are alumniof those exhilarating times. You were part of a presidency that accomplished so manygreat things and, yes, part of a presidency that was at times exhilarating and at timesdebilitating. But we all knew in our hearts that we worked for a great president and hadgreat accomplishments.

You know, we were — and I guess we stillare in many ways — young, inexperienced.Most of us, like our leader, came fromhumble, at best middle-class beginnings andwe rose from that to the positions that wewere privileged to hold in the White Houseand in the Administration.

Today, we stand here secure in our beliefthat we worked for a great president and weaccomplished some wonderful, wonderful and amazing things. We learned a great dealfrom our experiences. We took much thatserved us so well in the four decades thatfollowed. Never before, never before, has there been a pool of talent so great as wasassembled by Richard Nixon.

Just think about this: just looking at thealumni of the Nixon White House, we have a future President of the United States. Wehave a future Vice President of the UnitedStates. We have four future Secretaries ofState. Henry, you thought you were the only one — we had four! We had five United States Senators. We had twogovernors. We had two Secretaries of theTreasury. We had more than five majorcorporate CEOs. We had more than fivemajor respected columnists and commentators.We had four National Security Advisers and we had three Secretaries of Labor, aSecretary of Commerce and a Secretary of Transportation. What a group!

But those are just the ones with therenowned titles. All of you are people ofaccomplishment. You’re people of loyalty.You’re people of commitment and that’s why you’re here tonight.

There are three reasons why I amprivileged to chair the Nixon CentennialCampaign to raise money for this Library.One, I think it’s so important to refurbish and improve this Library, which is so dated.It’s so important that we not only refurbishthe Library where hundreds of thousands of

Introduced by Hon. Larry Higby, DeputyAssistant to the President, 1969–1973

people come, but that we reach out electronically tothe world — millions of people around the world —with a more robust electronic presence to share theaccomplishments of the 37th President.

I’m also honored to do this, well, because Triciaand Julie asked me and I would never say no tothem. But I guess I do it even more than anythingelse because of my feeling of camaraderie, my feelingof family, my feeling of friendship, my feeling ofloyalty to the people in this room. You are family.You are people who have stood the test of time, whohave stood loyal, who have been there when thingscounted and you can’t ask for more than that in life.

So I accept this challenge of raising a few bucks for the Nixon Library with enthusiasm, withtemerity, knowing that it will be a rough ride — all these rides are — but knowing that I’ve got a lotof friends. And believe me, friends, I’ll be knockingon your door. It’s the memories, I think, that weshare of these experiences and these accomplishmentsof four decades ago, that not only bring us togethertonight but I think also inspire us to want to domore to bring the memories of this great man, theaccomplishments of this great man, to the world. So, again, I’m honored to be here. I’m privileged to be here. I thank you for being my friends of fourdecades and I thank you for being so loyal to our37th 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 Frederic V. Malek

HONORARY CHAIRS

Tricia Nixon CoxJulie Nixon Eisenhower

Edward F. CoxDavid Eisenhower

Edward C. Nixon

RN BIRTHDAY GALA HOSTS

Ambassador George L. ArgyrosJames H. Cavanaugh

Lawrence M. HigbyDonald M. Kendall

Frederic V. Malek

RN FRIENDS AND FAMILY HOSTS

Barbara Hackman Franklin R.L. (Dick) HermanTod R. Hullin

Robert C. Odle, Jr.

RN IN THE ARENA HOSTS

Stanton D. AndersonMichael Balzano

Bob BostockJohn R. Brown

S. John ByingtonHenry C. Cashen, II

Red CavaneyDwight Chapin & Terry

GoodsonJohn M. Damgard

Fred F. FieldingPeter M. Flanigan

Frank GannonEdwin Harper

Eugene JohnsonBobbie Kilberg

William KillgallonPatrick O’Donnell

Terrence O’DonnellJohn R. Price

Richard (Sandy) QuinnBrent ScowcroftDaniel M. Searby

Geoffrey C. ShepardJ. Peter Simon

Ben SteinJames Tozzi

William J. Usery, Jr.Ronald H. Walker

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It’s the memories that … inspire us to wantto do more to bring… the accomplishmentsof this great man to the world.”“

We are here tonight to celebrate thecentennial of a statesman, a profilein courage and an extraordinary man

we are all proud to have served: the 37th Presidentof the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon.

Years ago, Meg Greenfield of The WashingtonPost 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 timewhen Richard Nixon was not on the politicalscene, and too old reasonably to expect that we shall see one.” Greenfield was distressedabout this.

Yet her thesis rings true. We are the NixonGeneration. We were born into and lived throughwhat Bole Dole called “the Age of Nixon.”

And what a time it was — and what a manhe was.

Home from the war in 1946, Richard Nixon was elected to the 80th Congress andswiftly became its most famous member. For he would exhibit early on an attribute thatwould mark his whole life: perseverance.

Because he believed a disheveled ex-communist named Whittaker Chambers, andbecause he distrusted an establishment icon,Alger Hiss, Congressman Nixon persevered to expose the wartime treason of Hiss.

By 1948, he was an American hero, sopopular the Democratic Party did not field acandidate against him. In 1950, he captured a Senate seat with the largest majority in thehistory of California.

Yet the same people who just loved HarryTruman’s “Give ‘Em Hell” campaign of 1948whined that Mr. Nixon played too rough.

In the Taft-Eisenhower battle of 1952, aninternationalist — the Boss, at 39 — was the vicepresidential nominee — and a man of destiny.

Then it was that the establishment firstmoved to bring him down. They hyped a phonystory about a political fund, alleged it was forSenator Nixon’s personal benefit, and instigateda great hue and cry for General Eisenhower todrop him from the ticket.

Senator Nixon’s decision to defend his recordand integrity in the Checkers Speech, thoughmocked by his enemies, remains the mostbrilliant use of television by a political figure inthe 20th century.

In the 1950s, he redefined the vice presidencyas a force in foreign policy, braved a lynch mob inCaracas, became the first vice president to travelbehind the Iron Curtain and confronted NikitaKhrushchev’s bluster in the “Kitchen Debate.”

By 1960, he had no serious challenger for the nomination.

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HON. PAT BUCHANANSpecial Assistant to the President and Speechwriter, 1969–1973Special Consultant to the President for Media Analysis and Speechwriting, 1973–1974

Introduced by Hon. Dwight Chapin, SpecialAssistant to the President, 1969–1971 andDeputy Assistant to the President, 1971–1973

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After the closest election in a century,about which there hung the aroma of votefraud in Texas and Illinois, he went home toCalifornia to run for governor. After a brutalprimary, he was gaining on Governor Brownwhen the Cuban Missile Crisis broke hismomentum, and the Boss went down to hissecond defeat — and looked to be out for the count.

Believing he had nothing to lose, he camedown from his suite the morning after thatdefeat to deliver to the press words that willlive in infamy. As “Cactus Jack” Garner said,“He gave it to ‘em with the bark on.”

He was now thought to be finished. ABCput together an instant documentary titled,“The Political Obituary of Richard M.Nixon.” The featured interview in theobituary was with that astute political analystAlger Hiss.

But, as Mark Twain said, reports of hisdeath were premature.

Moving his family to New York to practicelaw, Richard Nixon entered what he wouldcall his wilderness years.

But after the Goldwater-Rockefellerbloodbath in 1964, with the party bitterlydivided, the Boss volunteered to introduce the nominee at the Cow Palace and did so inone of the finest addresses he ever delivered.

But after he brought that contentiousconvention together with his introduction,Senator Goldwater proceeded to tear it apartagain, declaring, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

Dwight Chapin was in the limousine thatcarried the Boss away from the Cow Palace.He has told me what the Boss said in that car about Senator Goldwater’s speech. Butthere is no need to repeat those discouragingwords here.

Almost all the other name Republicansabandoned Goldwater. The Old Man stood byhim. He traveled the nation, working longerand harder for Goldwater and the party thanthe Senator himself.

After the crushing defeat that fall, theRepublican Party was reduced to one-half ofthe Democratic Party’s strength: 140 Houseseats, 32 Senate seats, only 17 governors. The Republican Party was a house dividedand a house in ruins. It was an open questionwhether it would survive

And now began the greatest comeback in American political history.

When I arrived in New York to join theBoss in January 1966, his staff consisted ofthree people: I occupied one desk in the officeoutside his own. A second occupant was RoseWoods, and the third a “Miss Ryan” — moreexactly Patricia Ryan Nixon, the future FirstLady of the United States, from whom I usedto bum cigarettes.

The altarpiece of that year was RichardNixon’s six-weeks war against what LBJ called “My Congress.” Alone of the nationalRepublicans, the Boss campaigned across thecountry — in 35 states and 80 congressionaldistricts. 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 yearin 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 itsheight, and the Tet Offensive had just begun.Four weeks later, Governor Romney quit therace. Senator Eugene McCarthy then stunnedthe nation by capturing 42 percent of the vote against Lyndon Johnson. And RobertKennedy declared for president.

On March 31, the Boss asked me tomonitor the President’s speech on Vietnam ona car radio at LaGuardia — to brief him whenhe arrived back from visiting Julie at Smith.

At the end of the speech, PresidentJohnson suddenly announced he would notrun again.

Four days after that political earthquake,Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated inMemphis. Washington and 100 other citiesexploded in riots that lasted days and requiredtens of thousands of troops.

In early June, a week after our Oregonprimary victory, I got a 3 a.m. call from ourBible Building headquarters. Robert Kennedyhad been shot in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen.I called the Boss. Julie and David had beenwatching TV and already awakened him.

That August, the Democratic Party cameapart in a bloody brawl between police andprotesters 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 half-decade of assassinations and riots, crime andcampus anarchy. Thirty thousand Americanswere dead in Vietnam, and half a millionAmerican soldiers were tied down in anendless war. America was coming apart.

Richard Nixon was the first president since Zachary Taylor to take the oath withboth houses of Congress against him. Thebureaucracy was deep-dyed Democraticliberal. The press corps was 90 percent hostile.The Warren Court was at the peak of itspower. And the best and brightest who had led us into Vietnam were deserting to jointheir children in protests against what theysuddenly discovered was “Nixon’s War.”

As the presidential limousine came upPennsylvania Avenue after the inaugural, itwas showered with debris. I remember it well.As Shelley and I were entering the WhiteHouse reviewing stand for the inauguralparade, the Secret Service asked us to step off the planks onto the muddy lawn, as thePresident was right behind us. As he passed by me, he looked over, and in the first words I ever heard from Richard Nixon as Presidentof the United States, he said, “Buchanan, wasthat 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 theway home, every provincial capital was inSaigon’s hands. He had ended the war withhonor, as he had promised.

He had negotiated and signed the greatestarms limitation treaty since the WashingtonNaval Agreement of 1922: SALT I and theABM Treaty.

He had ended the implacable hostilitybetween the United States and People’sRepublic of China that had endured sinceMao’s Revolution and the Korean War.

In his second term, he would order thestrategic airlift that saved Israel in the YomKippur War. Israel never had a better friend,said Golda Meir.

In November 1972, Richard Nixon wasrewarded with the most sweeping landslide inhistory — 49 states and 60 percent of the vote.

Because of the campaigns he hadconducted in ‘66, ‘68, ‘70 and ‘72, a party on its deathbed in 1964 was on its way tobecoming the New Majority Party, America’sParty, which would capture the presidency and carry 40 or more states in four of the next five presidential elections. That was

the President’s accomplishment.The President’s memoirs begin, “I was

born in a house my father built.” Well, theRepublican Party in the last third of the 20thcentury was the house that Nixon built.

In domestic policy, he was the firstenvironmental president, creating the Councilon Environmental Quality and EPA.

To battle the scourge of cancer, heestablished the National Cancer Institute.

To close the widening chasm between thegenerations and professionalize our military,he ended the draft.

He made six nominations to the SupremeCourt. Four made it. Not a bad average, whenyou consider the Senate he had to deal with.

As for our Southern strategy, when RichardNixon first took the oath of office, 10 percentof Southern schools were desegregated. Whenhe left, 70 percent were desegregated.

As Bob Dole said in his eulogy at YorbaLinda, it was the Age of Nixon. While Nixonwas a dominant figure on the national stage in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, his influencelived on through the 20th century and intothe 21st.

Would there be a Gerald R. FordPresidential Library, had it not been forRichard Nixon selecting this honorable and good man as vice president?

Would there be a George H.W. BushPresidential 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 figureon the national stage in the '40s,'50s, '60s, and '70s, his influencelived on through the 20th centuryand into the 21st.

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the Republican National Committee, thenAmbassador to the United Nations?

When Ronald Reagan came out of theWest to launch his revolution, his firstNational Security Adviser and first domesticpolicy chief, Dick Allen and Marty Anderson,both came out of our ‘68 campaign andWhite House staff.

Both of Reagan’s Secretaries of State — Al Haig and George Shultz — and hisSecretary of Defense Cap Weinberger, cameout of the Nixon National Security Council or Nixon Cabinet.

The man Reagan chose as Chief Justice,William Rehnquist, had been put on the courtby Richard Nixon.

Reagan’s choice as Chairman of the FederalReserve, Alan Greenspan, was the domesticpolicy research coordinator in Nixon’s ‘68campaign.

In 1996, when Bob Dole was the leadingcandidate for the Republican nomination, he was being most closely pursued by twoformer members of Richard Nixon’s WhiteHouse staff.

Lamar Alexander was one. And I forget the other guy.

That brings back a memory of the 1992election, after I had lost 10 straight primariesto President Bush. I called the Old Man inSaddle River. When he came on the line, Isaid: “Ten for ten. Not bad, eh, sir?” PresidentNixon paused and said: “Buchanan, you’re theonly extremist I know with a sense of humor.Come on up, and bring Shelley with you.”

In 2001, George W. Bush chose asSecretary of Defense the man that Richard Nixon had picked to head upLBJ’s poverty agency, OEO, and tomonitor wage and price controls, twoplum assignments for a rising youngRepublican star, Donald Rumsfeld, before President Nixon named him theAmbassador to NATO.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that “it is required of a man that he sharethe action and passion of his time at perilof being judged not to have lived.”

Richard Nixon shared the action andpassion of his time. Again and again andagain, he came back from woundings, hecame back from defeats. After he left theWhite House, he would write nine bookson foreign policy and the great men hehad known, and there were many, for onlyFranklin Roosevelt equaled Richard Nixonin having been on five presidential tickets.

As this centennial approached, thephone calls started coming in from theoffspring of the old jackal pack, asking my thoughts on Watergate. My greatregret is the Old Man is not here tonightso I can tell him my thoughts on his old tormenters. In the words of NickCarraway to the Great Gatsby:

“They were a rotten crowd,” sir.“You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”

Nixon now more than ever! �

BEN STEINPresidential Speechwriter, 1973–1975

Ijust want to say, when people inHollywood say to me, “How can youstill like Nixon after all these years?”

I say, “Ended the war in Vietnam, broughthome the prisoners of war, saved Israel, laidthe foundations for peace in the MiddleEast, opened relations with China — thusmaking the ending of the Cold War on ourterms absolutely essential and inevitable —and opened relations in terms of strategicarms limitations with the Soviet Union, andI will never turn my back on Richard Nixonthe peacemaker.” �

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diplomatic change, and started three Arab-Israeli agreements. The one with Syriasurvived until the turmoil in Syria made notthe agreement irrelevant but the conditionsunder which it could be carried out.

It is impossible to list all of Nixon’sachievements in the time available on this

occasion. But I would sum up the fundamentaleffort of Richard Nixon as ending theAmerican oscillation between extremes ofcommitment and extremes of withdrawal, tocreate a permanent pattern in which foreignpolicy could be understood. He approachedforeign policy from the point of view ofnational interest on tactics and permanentvalues on strategy, and he maintained thoseunder the most difficult circumstances.Imagine a president who blockades Vietnamtwo weeks before he was supposed to visit theSoviet Union, five months before a nationalelection, and then goes to Moscow anywayand signs the most sweeping nuclear armsagreement that had existed, whose numbers,however much they were contested, remainedthe basic numbers of American strategy for thenext 30 years.

This was his underlying achievement, andhe brought this about because he reflected thequalities that make a great leader: courage andvision. Character is needed because the keydecisions are very narrow; you need courage to be willing to walk a lonely path. Oninnumerable occasions, I witnessed RichardNixon making decisions against the advicesometimes of the majority of the people aroundhim and certainly in the face of enormous

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HON. HENRY KISSINGERAssistant to the President for National Security Affairs, 1969-1975Secretary of State, 1973-1977

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Let me begin by saying that I thought I’d never live to see the day when PatBuchanan would say the things about

the Nixon foreign policy that I have justheard. So the age of conversions, it’s not over.

It’s a good way to begin explaining thehistoric 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. TheSoviet Union had just invaded and occupiedCzechoslovakia. No negotiations with theSoviet Union were going on. Middle Eastdiplomacy was totally stalemated, and themajor countries of the Middle East hadbroken relations with the United States.

When Richard Nixon left office, the war in Vietnam had been terminated, a permanentdialogue with China had begun, sweepingnegotiations on the nuclear issues were beingundertaken with the Soviet Union. RichardNixon was the first president to visit EasternEurope, choosing, in fact, for his visit toRomania the day that Brezhnev was supposedto be there and they had to paint over thesigns welcoming Brezhnev to welcomeRichard Nixon. He had conducted diplomacyin the Middle East that removed Sovietmilitary power from Egypt, brought about a

Introduced by Hon. Ron Walker, Special Assistant to the President andDirector of the White House Office ofPresidential Advance, 1969 –1972

media opposition. He would say, “You pay asmuch of a price for doing something halfwayas for doing it completely, so you might aswell do it right.” That was the Richard Nixonwho set a standard of foreign policy visionand had the courage, in the midst of greatcrisis, to hold fast to visions he haddeveloped in his Quaker youth. But he alsoknew that peace has two elements: it has tohave a balance of power and there has to be a sense of justice. He worked on both, and he created a set of international policieswhose main outlines survive to this day.

It was my privilege to have beenpermitted to work with him. Forty years agoon this precise day, I sent him a cable that theVietnamese had accepted what was basicallythe outline of a speech he had made the yearbefore. He replied, “If they stick with it, thiswill be the happiest birthday in my life.” So it is my honor to propose a toast toRichard Nixon, patriot, President, and, above all, peacemaker. �

One of the most popular items in the Nixon Library store is a mug and it’s emblazoned with the words, “What would Nixon do?” Well, tonightI’m going to tweak the slogan just a little bit and ask, “What would Nixon

say?” I’m 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 forserving in the most challenging times imaginable and for doing a job superbly andbrilliantly. So many achievements in five-and-a-half years.” And he would say thankyou to the bigger Nixon family, the friends, the supporters who’ve come here tonightto celebrate.

Sometimes I’m asked what it was like for my family to defend my father duringthe 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. HappyBirthday, RN! �

JULIE NIXON EISENHOWER

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He created a set of internationalpolicies whose main outlines survive to this day.”“ He was the best father in the

world. He loved this countryand he made us proud. Happy Birthday, RN! “

”

THE RICHARD NIXON FOUNDATION18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard � Yorba Linda � CA 92886-3949

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