[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 50 (Monday, May 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   HONORING THE LATE RICHARD M. NIXON

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Madam President, attending the funeral of President 
Richard M. Nixon last week was an extremely moving experience for me, 
as I'm sure it was for many of my colleagues. It would not be an 
exaggeration to say that Richard Nixon shaped the politics and the 
attitudes of a whole generation of Americans.
  Indeed, I think all Americans--regardless of party or political 
ideology--have lost a great resource with the passing of America's 37th 
President.
  Richard Nixon brought to the analysis of America's global and 
domestic problems an intellect rarely matched in the history of 
statecraft. In the final judgment of history, he will be remembered 
primarily for his geopolitical audacity in the opening to Communist 
China--and bringing America's influence to bear on the future of the 1 
billion people who live in that country.
  By opening the window of U.S. diplomacy and trade, Nixon laid the 
groundwork for the integration of the world's most populous nation into 
full membership in the world community. That process continues today--
and, as a result of Nixon's opening, sober analysts have high hopes for 
mainland China in the 21st century.
  In his domestic policy, Nixon combined a belief in free market 
economics with a recognition of the need for decisive government action 
to mitigate the defects of the market. It is ironic that shortly before 
Nixon's death, a Vice President of the opposite party would joke that 
his Democratic administration would be very happy to enact the Nixon 
health reform plan--a reference to one of Nixon's major domestic 
initiatives that failed to carry in Congress.
  That, Madam President, was Richard Nixon the statesman. Let me 
recount an event that gives us some understanding of Richard Nixon the 
human being. When my predecessor in this office--the Honorable Hubert 
H. Humphrey--was dying of cancer in Lake Waverly, MN, he called former 
President Nixon and asked him to attend his--Humphrey's--funeral. 
Humphrey knew that the funeral was not going to be long in coming--and 
he arranged that Richard Nixon be received at that ceremony with the 
full honor due to a former President. Young people who watched the TV 
coverage of President Nixon's death and funeral--coverage that I 
understand was generally positive in tone--might find nothing 
remarkable in this. But back in 1977, the scars of the Watergate 
scandal were far from healed. Many of Senator Humphrey's liberal 
colleagues--and even a substantial number of moderates and 
conservatives--viewed Nixon as deserving a state of permanent disgrace.

  Hubert Humphrey demonstrated true nobility of character by making his 
historic gesture to President Nixon. He realized that whether you share 
Nixon's views or not, you have to recognize his value to public life. 
Humphrey had known Nixon for decades--and knew that ostracizing Nixon 
would hurt America's future more than it would help.
  Today, let us continue in the tradition of my distinguished 
predecessor. Let us join Hubert Humphrey in recognizing that all 
public-spirited Americans, whatever their ideology, have a constructive 
role to play in building our country's future.
  Few Americans have ever played a more constructive role than Richard 
Nixon did in his final years. People who read his books--and I'm sure 
this group will include the future leaders of America--will be reaping 
the benefits of his intelligence and wisdom for many generations to 
come.
  At this time of mourning, I wish Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Tricia 
Nixon Cox, the late President's daughters, all possible consolation in 
what must be a very difficult time.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a Washington Post op-ed 
by Paul Rexford Thatcher, Sr., describing the final days of the 
relationship between President Nixon and Senator Humphrey be included 
in the Record. I further ask that two articles from the Minneapolis 
Star Tribune be included, one recounting the visits of President Nixon 
to Minnesota and the other recounting Minnesotans' reaction to his 
passing.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                Reconciliation Heals People and Nations

                    (By Paul Rexford Thatcher, Sr.)

       It was the Christmas holiday of 1977, and an especially 
     bitter December in Minnesota. Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey had 
     returned home to his refuge, his house on the new frozen Lake 
     Waverly, about 35 miles west of Minnespolis.
       He had just made a short but triumphant last journey to the 
     nation's capital to deliver in person his farewells to the 
     men and women with whom he had served for almost 30 years as 
     U.S. senator, then vice president of the United States and 
     since 1971, again, as a member of the Senate and its 
     president pro tempore.
       Now it was almost over, this remarkable political life, and 
     emaciated by cancer, Humphrey lay in bed dying at Lake 
     Waverly. The grounds of his house on the lake were stewed 
     uncustomarily with twigs and fallen branches from the 
     leafless trees on the expansive lawn. Humphrey had been 
     notorious for taking visitors, be they prime ministers, 
     fellow senators or political associates, for long walks on 
     his grounds, making them pick up scattered twigs or leaves. 
     There had been no such recent visitors.
       In the lane at the back of the house, the small road that 
     led to the highway to Minneapolis, a cluster of reporters was 
     already forming a death watch over Minnesota's most famous 
     political son.
       Humphrey's son-in-law had leased a WATS line for him as a 
     surprise Christmas gift. After returning from Washington, his 
     life and legendary energy now ebbing from him like a tide, 
     Minnesota's Happy Warrior began to call old friends and 
     associates around the nation and the world. He ostensibly 
     called to give them season's greetings, but everyone knew he 
     was taking his leave of them.
       He reached his old adversary, Richard Nixon, on Christmas 
     Eve, only to learn that the Nixons were both ill, depressed 
     and alone for the holiday in San Clemente. Something troubled 
     Humphrey deeply about this conversation with Nixon, and that 
     evening, surrounded by his immediate family, he brooded often 
     about Nixon's circumstances. He spoke of it later in the 
     evening, too, and it was only the next morning that his 
     concerned seems to diminish as he again called Nixon in San 
     Clemente. He called to tell the former president--the man who 
     in 1968 had given Humphrey his most bitter defeat--that he 
     had a farewell gift to give him.
       Humphrey told Nixon that he knew he had only days to live, 
     and that he had made the arrangements for the events that 
     would follow his death: his lying-in-state in the Capitol in 
     Washington, his funeral and burial in Minnesota. Humphrey 
     told Nixon that he was inviting him to attend the ceremony 
     that would conclude the lying-in-state in Washington, and 
     that he wanted him to be present and to stand in the place of 
     honor of a former president.
       Nixon, of course, had resigned from the presidency in 
     disgrace only three years before and had not returned to 
     Washington, where ever since he had been unwelcome. This 
     seemed especially so now in the first year of Jimmy Carter's 
     presidency, with Washington in the control of so many 
     unforgiving Democrats (and probably not a few unforgiving 
     Republicans as well).
       Sensing Nixon's profound depression in exile in California, 
     Humphrey spontaneously fashioned a credible excuse enabling 
     his old rival to return to the capital. He told Nixon that if 
     anyone questioned his presence, he should say that he was 
     there at the personal request of Hubert Humphrey.
       He further told Nixon that he would call me (I had been 
     placed in charge of the Washington ceremonies by the Humphrey 
     family) to relate their conversation and to tell me of his 
     wish that Nixon be treated respectfully and with dignity for 
     that occasion.
       On Friday, Jan. 13, 1978, Hubert H. Humphrey died at Lake 
     Waverly. President Carter was immediately called and 
     notified. The president at once dispatched Air Force One to 
     Minnesota to bring Humphrey's body to the capital for the 
     weekend lying-in-state.
       On Sunday forenoon, with President Carter, former President 
     Ford, Vice President Mondale and many of the nation's 
     political leaders in attendance, a concluding ceremony was 
     held in the Capitol Rotunda. To the surprise of most and the 
     gasps of many, I escorted former President Nixon to the place 
     of honor with the others, near the flag-draped casket. Hubert 
     Humphrey's gift in the winter to Richard Nixon had been 
     delivered.
       Fifteen years later, it is not the chill Minnesota winds 
     that cause me to remember again that gift. I suspect that my 
     memory is triggered by echoes of the voice placing that 
     Christmas Eve telephone call to San Clemente.
       I hear those echoes in the pledge of President Clinton to 
     bring us together. To reconcile rich and poor, black and 
     white, old and young, and to realize fully the intrinsic 
     value of every citizen. If he fulfills that pledge, the 
     Clinton years in Washington will bear the hallmarks of comity 
     and compassion that were the emblems of the life of the 
     lamentably late Hubert H. Humphrey.
                                  ____


           [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Apr. 23, 1994]

                 A Memorable Whistle-Stop Tour in 1952

                         (By Bob von Sternberg)

       On a golden, autumn day long ago, the candidate whistle-
     stopped across Minnesota, lashing and slashing at his 
     Democratic opponents from the back of his campaign train, 
     wise-cracking with deliriously adoring Republican supporters.
       In was Oct. 23, 1952, one of the first times Richard Nixon 
     ever visited Minnesota. ``America needs new leadership,'' he 
     said when the train stopped in Moorhead, telling his 
     listeners that they would cast a ``vote that may determine 
     the future of America''.
       In a way, they did, helping launch Nixon on his 
     extraordinary political career, delivering the state to the 
     Eisenhower-Nixon ticket. Minnesota, where the shadow of 
     Hubert H. Humphrey still looms so large, may not seen like 
     Nixon territory. But in the five national elections where 
     Nixon was on the ballot in this state, he won a majority of 
     Minnesota's votes three times.
       And elections were the usual prism through which 
     Minnesotans saw Nixon, about two dozen times between 1951 and 
     1970. Almost always he came in the fall, hustling votes, 
     beating up on everyone from Harry Truman to Humphrey. After 
     1970, at the apparent height of his electoral power 
     Minnesotans' glimpses of Nixon where confirmed to the news 
     media he so detested.
       The first time, he was still a relatively obscure presence, 
     speaking as a U.S. senator from California on the topic of 
     law office management. By the next year, a youthful vice-
     presidential candidate, he was in full rhetorical flower, 
     assailing the Democratic gang in Washington, failed farm 
     programs and the Communists who had enfiltrated U.S. society.
       The podium-pounding aside on that whistlestop tour in 1952, 
     Nixon's visit was accented by touches of outright weirdness, 
     considering how a few comments eerily foreshadowed his 
     downfall a generation later.
       Some Litchfield residents presented Nixon with butter and 
     milk products that came from nearby farms. Earlier in the 
     day, he had been given onions, potatoes and even a bagged 
     pheasant. ``We're really getting the loot today,'' he told 
     them.
       Later, the man who would be consumed by coverup charges in 
     the Watergate scandal sneered about the Democratic ticket, 
     ``They're trying to cover up their record.''
       The visits continued throughout the 1950s: An appearance at 
     Turkey Days in Worthington in 1954, grand marshal of the 
     Minneapolis Aquateunial in 1958, an address to the American 
     Legion convention the next year.
       Minnesotans had again supported the GOP ticket in 1956. In 
     1960, when Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy by a hairbreadth 
     nationwide, his losing margin in Minnesota was a scant 22,000 
     votes out of more than 1.5 million cast. He paid two visits 
     to the state during that campaign.
       During the early '60s, when Nixon was widely seen as a 
     spent political force, he included Minnesota on his itinerary 
     of almost perpetual public speaking nationwide: the 
     Svenskarnusdag celebration in 1961, Shakopee in 1965, a pair 
     of visits in 1966. Considering the anti-crime rhetoric of 
     1994, a 1967 speech has a peculiar resonance: ``Judges have 
     gone too far in weakening the peace forces against the 
     criminal forces.'' The crowd filling the old Minneapolis 
     Auditorium erupted in cheers.
       On April 20, 1968, Nixon mocked Lyndon Johnson's 
     announcement three weeks earlier that he wouldn't run for re-
     election. ``I shall not seek and I shall not accept the 
     nomination for vice president, he cracked.
       In October, barely a month before his showdown with native 
     son Humphrey, Nixon was washed in the cheers of 10,000 
     Minnesota Republicans, again at the auditorium. ``Just think, 
     Dick Nixon getting this kind of reception in what is supposed 
     to be Hubert Humphrey's Minnesota,'' he crowed. His speech 
     took aim at big-spending Democrats: ``It's time for the 
     spenders in Washington to begin thinking about the savers in 
     the country.'' And at anti-war protesters: ``The American 
     flag is not going to be a doormat for anybody when we get 
     into office.''
       As it turned out, Humphrey thumped Nixon handily in 
     Minnesota, 857,738 to 658,643, even as he lost the election.
       The last visit came two years later, in 1970, as he 
     campaigned one more time against Humphrey, who was running 
     against Rep. Clark MacGregor for a Senate seat. Nixon had 
     been on a weeklong Midwest midterm election campaign swing, 
     and his reception in Rochester was the warmest of the trip.
       On Oct. 30, the lifelong professional football fan charmed 
     the crowd at the Mayo Civic Auditorium, telling them he was 
     ``glad to be in the land of the Vikings.'' He never mentioned 
     Humphrey's name, saying he came to Minnesota ``not to speak 
     against anybody.''
       Protesters, though not many, dogged the appearance. One 
     displayed a sign that mocked his first inaugural. ``Bring us 
     together,'' it said, at a time when the nation was bitterly 
     divided. Another sign, one that would be seen with increasing 
     frequency during the next four years, said simply, ``Impeach 
     Nixon.''
       Humphrey went on to win and return to the Senate, and 
     MacGregor went on to run the Committee to ReElect the 
     President (CREEP), the nest that hatched Watergate.
                                  ____


           [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Apr. 23, 1994]

         Minnesotans Who Knew Him Recall Man of Contradictions

                         (By Kevin Deckschere)

       Minnesotans who knew Richard Nixon remembered him Friday 
     night as a man of contradictions, who excelled at the game of 
     statecraft even while he struggled--sometimes painfully--with 
     the demands of modern American politics.
       Maurice Stans, 86, who was born in Shakopoee, was Nixon's 
     chief fundraiser in two of his three presidential campaigns. 
     He was Nixon's secretary of commerce from 1969 to 1972.
       Nixon ``was a man of great ambition, and the only real 
     handicap in his way was that he was essentially an 
     introverted person. That was one of the hardest things he had 
     to overcome.''
       Former Minnesota Gov. Elmer L. Anderson, who rode with 
     Nixon on a campaign train from Moorhead to Minneapolis in 
     1960 said Nixon was very able and smart ``but very cold. I 
     don't think people warmed up to him . . . I don't think his 
     life is one to be admired. . . . It was one that was 
     difficult and excruciating.''
       But U.S. Court of Appeals Judge George MacKinnon, 88, a 
     longtime Minnesota Republican whom Nixon appointed to the 
     federal bench in 1969, said his old friend was very 
     personable--and terribly bright.
       He remembered siting next to Nixon on the House Labor 
     Committee in 1947, when both were new members of Congress.
       Every time Nixon quizzed a witness, MacKinnon said, ``he 
     had something different and important to inquire about. He 
     had a tremendous intellect and foresight into problems. He 
     impressed everybody.''
       MacKinnon was less taken with another freshman member of 
     the committee, John Kennedy: ``He wasn't there very often. He 
     was down in Palm Beach.''
       Nixon's greatest achievement in the White House was the 
     opening to China, most agreed. But former U.S. Sen. Eugene 
     McCarthy, a Democrat who opposed Nixon most of his career, 
     said Nixon's enemies list was a more serious offense than the 
     Watergate scandal.
       ``It was much closer to being an impeachable act. Watergate 
     was kind of a marginal, mixed-up thing.'' McCarthy said.
       Asked how he would rank Nixon among recent presidents, 
     McCarthy chuckled. ``I don't know how you'd rank him. The 
     last half-century hasn't been a very high ranking crowd, 
     aside from Harry Truman, you know.''
       Stans said that Watergate was the result of Nixon's desire 
     to defend his associates, rather than an effort to obstruct 
     justice. But he said the former president admitted that it 
     was a mistake ``It got past him on his blind side and, as he 
     said later he blew it. He recognized that,'' Stans said.
       For Clark MacGregor, a former Minnesota member of Congress 
     who headed Nixon's reelection campaign in 1972, Watergate is 
     still an unsettling memory.
       ``When he asked me to succeed John Mitchell [as campaign 
     manager], he assured me that no senior person in his 
     administration had anything to do with Watergate. That was 
     some 10 days after he had already begun to orchestrate the 
     coverup,'' MacGregor said.
       ``He'll go down in history as perhaps one of the most 
     farsighted presidents in terms of foreign policy, but 
     tragically he had almost a paranoia about those he deemed to 
     be his enemies in politics.''
       Stans called Nixon ``the most farseeing president we've had 
     in this century with the possible exception of Woodrow 
     Wilson,'' The last time he saw Nixon, he said, was at the 
     party Nixon threw Jan. 20 at his presidential library to 
     celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first inauguration.
       ``He appeared to be in good spirits and good health. He 
     looked much better than he had some months earlier when his 
     wife, Pat, was buried at the same place,'' he said.
       Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, son of 
     Nixon's opponent in the 1968 presidential race, said that 
     there was a closing to the stormy relationship between Hubert 
     Humphrey and Nixon before his father died.
       ``My father had a WATS line and he was making calls all 
     over the country. One of the people he called was Mr. Nixon. 
     It was at that time that he invited him to his lying in state 
     in Washington,'' Humphrey said.
       Watergate symbolized the end of closed government in the 
     United States, he said. But, he added, ``I've thought through 
     what this person has meant to me and meant to the political 
     life of this country and here was a man who went into the 
     fray, created some of the fray, but in his heart, he really 
     wanted what was best for the country.''
       Staff writer Anne O'Connor contributed to this article.

           [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Apr. 23, 1994]

                            The Mark He Made

       ``Today, the world mourns the loss of a great champion of 
     democratic ideals who dedicated his life to the cause of 
     world peace. For millions, Richard Nixon was truly one of the 
     finest statesmen this world has ever seen.''--Former 
     President Ronald Reagan.
       ``There were very few people who tried as much and were as 
     successful in as many initiatives as he was in a relatively 
     short period of time.''--Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn.
       ``Past differences are now history. I wish him God's care 
     and peace.''--Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker, who as a 
     Republican member of the Senate Watergate Committee often 
     took sides against the GOP president.
       He was ``the ablest man to hold the presidency since World 
     War II.''--Former Michigan Gov. George Romney, who campaigned 
     against Nixon for the 1965 GOP nomination.
       ``He will always be remembered for the disgrace that he 
     brought to the presidency. But I will say to his credit he 
     contributed much in his later years. His knowledge on foreign 
     policy, primarily, was invaluable to the last three 
     presidents. I think that in many respects he was trying to 
     make amends and did some worthwhile work in the last years of 
     his life.''--Rep. Tim Penny, D-Minn.
       ``His contribution to the ending years of the Cold War and 
     the pursuit of peace will be recognized and remarked on for 
     generations to come.''--Former Sen. Howard Baker, the 
     Tennessee Republican who was ranking minority member of the 
     Senate Watergate Committee.
       ``All in all, people are going to look back and say 
     Watergate, the resignation, a lot of these things were bad 
     and shouldn't have happened. I think history will, with a few 
     exceptions, say that this man made a difference. You add all 
     that up and he comes out ahead.''--Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.
       ``I always thought that President Nixon would go down in 
     history as one of the best presidents. . . . He was saddled 
     with Watergate, but I think history will treat him better 
     than his contemporaries or peers did.''--Rep. Rod Grams, R-
     Minn.
       ``Some of these days when Watergate becomes a footnote in 
     history . . . and when the Nixon-haters in the press are all 
     gone . . . Richard Nixon will go down as one of the great 
     presidents in history.''--Earl Butz, agriculture secretary 
     under Nixon and Gerald Ford.

                          ____________________