Great moments with Mr. Nixon

[swag]

http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/great-moments-with-mr-nixon/

My colleagues and I were discussing the craziest Nixonian moments the other day, and we decided to come up with a top ten list. Here it is. Add your own favorites in the comments. (Alternatively, you could do the things the Disney folks did to Lincoln, and pick quotes from a variety of different moments to create a special Nixonian pastiche.) Some questions to ponder:

– was Nixon really our craziest president, or would they all sound crazy if they’d installed voice-activated taping systems?

– who did Nixon admit to having a crush on (see the 14-second beep in item 10)?

1. On thinking big (April 25, 1972)

Nixon: I still think we ought to take the North Vietnamese dikes out now. Will that drown people?

Kissinger: About two hundred thousand people.

Nixon: No, no, no, I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry?

Kissinger: That, I think, would just be too much.

Nixon: The nuclear bomb, does that bother you?…I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christsakes.

. . . more

[Uncle Joe]

1. This one blows me away, I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Elvis was high on

legal drugs when this incident took place.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/elvis/elnix.html

Of all the requests made each year to the National Archives for reproductions of photographs and documents, one item has been requested more than any other. That item, more requested than the Bill of Rights or even the Constitution of the United States, is the photograph of Elvis Presley and Richard M. Nixon shaking hands on the occasion of Presley's visit to the White House.


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The Meeting The Documents The Photos


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The Meeting

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On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in Washington, D.C. The meeting was initiated by Presley, who wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit with the President and suggesting that he be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. The events leading up to and after the meeting are detailed in the documentation and photographs included here, which include Presley's handwritten letter, memoranda from Nixon staff and aides, and the thank-you note from Nixon for the gifts (including a Colt 45 pistol and family photos) that Presley brought with him to the Oval Office.

<snip>

Thanks for the thread, swag.

[catbyte]

2. He sure looks stoned N/T

[rurallib]

3. Thanks for the trip down memory lane

Shrub had to be at least as crazy.

[democraticinsurgent]

4. Great post

and i highly recommend the entire article linked on the OP.

Pulled this one from the comments left there:



Nixon on all the homos at Bohemian Grove.

“But it’s not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time . . . It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.”