[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 55 (Monday, May 9, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: May 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON
Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, on January 9, 1913, I was living in
rural Edgefield, SC, and was a month into my 11th year. It was on that
day, in the rural southern California agricultural town of Yorba Linda,
that Richard Milhous Nixon was born. Little did anyone know that this
son of devout Quakers, born in a humble mail order home, would grow up
to become the 37th President of the United States of America and one of
the most important men of the 20th century.
Americans love to talk about self-made men, but few realize that
Richard Nixon was one such person. He was raised by God-fearing people
of moderate means who never enjoyed great financial success in their
lives. His parents worked hard and were passionately dedicated to their
family, instilling strong values and qualities in all their children--
values and qualities that would carry one of their sons to the highest
office of the land.
From his earliest days, Richard Nixon was not someone who was afraid
of a challenge or of work. As a student, he distinguished himself at
Whittier College by earning high marks, taking part in a number of
campus activities, including student government and football, and
impressing his professors as a serious young man with a keen mind. His
determination and drive helped him through long nights of grueling
study at Duke University's School of Law, where he had to maintain a
high-grade average in order to keep the meager scholarship that allowed
him to attend that school. His service in the House and Senate were
also characterized by hard work. He and his staff often worked late
into the night, answering constituent mail or carefully preparing for
his hearings on communism that were catching the Nation's attention.
Throughout his life, he never failed to adhere to the strong work ethic
that Hanna and Frank Nixon imparted to their son.
Richard Nixon was a man who possessed a love for his Nation that
carried him into a lifetime of public service. At the outset of World
War II, he was recruited to serve as an attorney in the Office of
Emergency Management in Washington, DC. As a Quaker and a civil servant
with a skill critical to war efforts, he could have been exempted from
military duty; however, his patriotic streak motivated him to volunteer
for service in the Navy. It was this same dedication and patriotism
that caused him to heed the urgings of his fellow Californians and run
for the U.S. House of Representatives 1n 1946. Nixon's successes in
that race and in the Congress sparked what became one of the most
important and significant political careers in the history of the
United States.
I subsequent years, Richard Nixon would serve in the U.S. Senate, as
Vice President, and as President. To each of these positions he brought
an insightful mind, unbridled energy, and a clear vision of the role of
the United States in the world.
In 1968, Richard Nixon reentered the political arena, this time as a
Presidential candidate. This race was significant for several reasons.
First, after two disappointing political setbacks earlier in the
decade, Nixon's decision to seek the Presidency was another example of
his perseverance and his uncanny ability to overcome personal
challenges and setbacks. Second, it was the beginning of a new era in
Presidential politics. Richard Nixon was an uncanny politician with a
sense about him that has been matched by few others.
Nixon was the first to realize the importance of the South in a
national election. He knew that the key to winning the White House in
1968 was to capture that region, which had traditionally been a
stronghold of the Democratic Party, and he called upon me for my
assistance at the Republican Convention and for the campaign. I
campaigned very hard for Nixon throughout the Southeast that year, and
for the first time in close to 100 years the South cast their votes for
a Republican Presidential candidate.
Richard Nixon was undoubtedly one of the most intelligent Presidents
with whom I ever served, as well as one of the most effective. We have
all heralded his many significant accomplishments in foreign relations,
a field he loved and at which he excelled. His grasp of ``realpolitik''
allowed him to deal with foreign leaders without being intimidated or
compromising the strength and security of the United States. I doubt if
anyone else could have started his career as investigating communism
and ended it by opening China to the West and ushering in a new era in
United States-Soviet Union relations. Furthermore, he brokered a peace
with Vietnam that ended an unpopular war in an honorable manner; and I
believe that had he stayed in office, Saigon might not have fallen into
the hands of the North Vietnamese. Nixon's experience as a statesman
was so valuable, he continued to contribute to the debate on foreign
policy literally until the end of his life. Each of his successors
sought his counsel on international matters and there was an
enthusiastic audience for Nixon's extensive writings regarding world
affairs.
What is often overlooked is the strong role he took as a domestic
leader. Perhaps it was his humble origins, or having lived during the
Depression that President Nixon was extremely aggressive in fighting
inflation and even introduced wage and price controls at one point. He
took a very strong role in desegregation an affirmative action matters;
and he became the Nation's first environmental President when he
created the Environmental Protection Agency and the Endangered Species
Act. Richard Nixon assumed the Presidency at one of the most fractious
eras in our Nation's history, but under his firm leadership, America
became a calmer place and the world became a little less dangerous.
As I watched the television coverage of President Nixon's casket
being loaded aboard his old Air Force One, I was struck by the image of
a young Marine in the Honor Guard. He was the epitome of Marine Corps
``spit and polish,'' standing rigidly at attention with his rifle at
``present arms''; there was, however, a noticeable exception to his
military appearance--he had a tear streaking down the left side of his
face. Perhaps this marine was caught up in the emotion of an
overwhelming and somber event, but I doubt it. Funeral details are
common duty for honor guards. I believe his tear was caused by grief.
Despite the fact that this young man was probably not even alive when
Richard Nixon was President, I think he realized that we had lost one
of history's most important figures and one of this Nation's greatest
leaders; and he, like the rest of us, was deeply saddened by this
realization.
Mr. President, it is almost impossible to sum up the life of Richard
Nixon in just a few minutes here on the Senate floor. Historians will
spend years studying and interpreting this very complex and gifted man,
and they will write volumes sharing with us their discoveries. Suffice
it to say, Richard Nixon is one of the few figures in American history
who has truly gained immortality. His contributions transcended
generations and have forever changed the international community, even
laying the groundwork for the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.
I ask unanimous consent that a recent article written by Nixon
biographer and British Member of Parliament Mr. Jonathan Aitken be
included in the Record following my remarks. Mr. Aitken interviewed me
for his excellent book, ``Nixon: a Life,'' and I believe the tribute he
wrote for Human Events does a very good job of summarizing President
Nixon's life and giving us some insight into what made him such an
amazing man.
Mr. President, I know that President Nixon was proud of his heritage
and that all he accomplished in his life was the result of grit,
determination, hard work, and intelligence. I also know that the one
thing he truly loved in this world was his family. He came from a
tightly knit family and he idolized his mother. As a husband and
father, he carried on the tradition of closeness and he was deeply
committed to his devoted and lovely wife, Pat, and their two beautiful
daughters, Tricia and Julie. It seems only appropriate that Richard
Nixon will spend eternity next to his wife in the place where he
learned his most important lessons--the site of his parents' home.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From Human Events, May 6, 1994]
A Tribute to Nixon (1913-1994)
(By Jonathan Aitken)
Nixon the man was even more intriguing than Nixon the
statesman. ``Complex'' was the adjective most used by
journalists to described his multi-faceted personality, not
least because he camouflaged that most elusive of characters,
the real Nixon, behind a battle-scared carapace, which he
himself described as ``an over-developed wall of privacy.''
Surprisingly few people even got behind this wall. I think I
may have been one of them, so I have concentrated this
tribute on the lesser-known private qualities that lay behind
this extraordinary public figure.
To begin near the end: Passing through London last month,
aged 81, on the outward leg of his ninth visit to Moscow.
Nixon telephoned unexpectedly on the morning of Saturday,
March 5, and asked if I would like to come with him to the
theater. The invitation, like his choice of show, and his
somewhat disorganized arrangements for the evening seemed out
of character but we duly set off for the Shaftesbury Theatre
like a couple of tourists and settled unrecognized into our
seats to see the revival of Rogers and Hammerstein's
``Carousel.'' As the musical got underway it became apparent
that Nixon was word perfect in many of the lines and most of
the songs. As the story reached its climax, he seemed to be
in the grip of powerful emotions, especially during the
famous number ``You'll Never Walk Alone'' when tears started
to trickle down his cheeks.
As we walked away from the theater Nixon felt it necessary
to provide an explanation for the display of his feelings. He
said that ``Carousel'' had been the favorite musical of his
late wife Pat; that they had seen it many times together; and
that he had chosen ``You'll Never Walk Alone'' as the music
for her funeral last year.
After a pause he added that the show's lead male character,
Billy Bigelow, reminded him of Harold, his elder brother who
had died of tuberculosis during Nixon's childhood. In two
days' time, he continued, it would be March 7, the
anniversary of Harold's death. That date was also his
mother's birthday, but she could never bear to celebrate it
again. After another pause he said that before Harold had
died, the family had often gone out for birthday picnics like
the one in ``Carousel.''
For a man who normally shunned personalized small talk,
Nixon's urge to share these poignant memories was a revealing
reminder that his deep family roots and Quaker upbringing
were central to his odyssey--which is surely the closest
20th-Century approximation to the ``log cabin to White
House'' legend.
Nixon was born on Jan. 9, 1913, in a rustic Californian
clapboard cottage, which had no electricity, running water,
wireless, telephone or inside privy. He had a hardscrabble
childhood, one step away from poverty, with his formative
years made difficult by a domineering father and sad by the
deaths of two of his brothers, Arthur and Harold. Their
medical bills created many financial hardships for the
family. One painful consequence of these came when the young
Nixon won a scholarship to Harvard University and had to turn
it down because his parents could not afford the associated
travel and accommodation costs. Nixon overcame these early
sorrows and disappointments with the help of two strong
pillars of the Milhous matriarchy--his grandmother Almira and
his mother Hannah.
Grandmother Almira Milhous was a poet and a teacher. She
was the first to recognize that the young Richard was a
gifted child and the first to say, ``That boy will one day be
a leader.'' She disciplined him into the habits of
intellectual curiosity, iron application and deep reading of
history that stayed with him for the whole of his life.
Still more important was the influence of his mother
Hannah. Long before her son became famous, she was known in
her local community of Whittier as ``A Quaker Saint.'' She
instilled into him the belief that equality between races and
peacemaking between nations were Christ's most important
teachings. In return he loved her deeply, but strangely. Time
and again in my many hours of biographer's conversations with
Nixon he spoke movingly about the great debt he owed to his
mother for the inspiration and idealism she gave him
throughout his career, but on one occasion he added the
unexpected information that she had never kissed him.
When I expressed surprise, Nixon grew quite angry, saying
that my comment might have come from ``one of those rather
pathetic Freudian psychiatrists'' and added, ``My mother
could communicate far more than others could with a lot of
sloppy talk and even more sloppy kissing and hugging. I can
never remember her saying to any of us `I love you'--she
didn't have to!''
Although suppressed emotion may have been part of the Nixon
heritage, this did not mean that he was an unfeeling or
unemotional man. Far from it. He put his passion into his
politics and it powered him to early stardom. Unknown
freshman congressman at 33. Re-elected unopposed at 35.
National celebrity as a result of the Hiss case at 35.
Senator at 37. Vice President 11 days after his 40th
birthday. This meteoric ascent owed far more to a zealous
mastery of complex issues and a burning intensity to fight
the evils of communism than it did to political opportunism.
There was plenty of that too, but as he always acknowledged,
Nixon would never have risen to the office one heartbeat away
from the presidency had it not been for the granite support
of his wife Pat, who in many ways was the tougher partner of
the marriage.
It was she who persuaded him to put their life savings into
what at the time seemed the reckless gamble of running for
Congress in 1946 against safe Democratic incumbent Rep. Jerry
Voorhis. It was she who nurtured his health through a stress-
related breakdown in 1951. It was she who pulled him through
the Fund crisis, literally dragging him in front of the
television cameras seconds before the ``Checkers speech''
broadcast. Above all, it was she who gave him the contented
family life with two daughters that created the happier
hinterland of his hidden persona--a kind, generous and loving
father and grandfather.
Yet for all his private virtues, it is as a public man that
Nixon would wish to be judged. Even here the two sides of his
existence were more connected than has been recognized.
During his wilderness years period between 1960-68, Nixon
told his intimate friends that the real reason he wanted the
presidency was to honor his mother's ideals. It was a promise
he did much to keep. For Nixon was the President who ended
U.S. involvement in Vietnam (while giving South Vietnam a
chance at survival), who terminated the draft, who saved
Israel from possible annihilation, and who initiated the
process of detente with the Soviet Union with a series of
ground-breaking disarmament agreements. Through wily
diplomacy, moreover, he managed to help put a check on Soviet
aggression by bringing China back into the family of nations.
Nixon also undoubtedly had a dark side to his character. In
his private musings, now embarrassingly preserved on the
White House tapes, he could be vindictive and paranoid,
particularly when talking about his liberal tormentors in
Congress and the media.
As for Watergate it was a sordid and shameful mess, but
Nixon's alleged villainy in it has been much exaggerated. It
is true that he covered up for his closest friends and aides
with mendacious maneuvers that were political folly of a high
order. Yet contrary to the media's hysterical claims at
the time, he had nothing whatever to do with the break-in;
he was unaware of the enemies list; there never were any
mission tapes and he destroyed no evidence. Even the
notorious ``expletives deleted'' contained none of the
familiar four- or six-letter sexual swear words. What
Nixon actually excised were a mass of hells, damns, craps
for Chrissakes and other puerile examples of Sunday school
swearing. He explained to an aide that he could not
publish the uncensored transcripts (which would have been
far less damaging) because his mother ``would turn in her
grave'' if such epithets saw the light of day.
So Watergate, like Nixon, deserves reevaluation. It was a
bad episode in a great career and it has made Nixon the most
controversial and complicated character ever to sit in the
White House. If he had died, as he so nearly did soon after
his resignation, his obituary notices would have been a
undiluted chorus of vilification. They will read differently
now because the last 20 years of his life were perhaps the
most remarkable of all in terms of the development of his
character. Transforming himself from exiled pariah to honored
elder statesman was nothing less than a miracle of political
resurrection. How did he do it?
I came to know him well during his two decades of
rehabilitation or ``the Fighting Back years'' as he sometimes
liked to call them. Running for Ex-President was a good label
to describe his energetic globe trotting, writing and speech-
making, but the reality was far more profound. The secret of
his resilience was that he had developed his own new credo.
It owed something to the religious counselors whom he saw
regularly, such as Dr. Billy Graham and the Rev. Norman
Vincent Peale, but was more a spiritual and philosophical
concoction of his own.
It included several quintessential Nixonian ingredients,
among them tenacity, reflective reading and the desire to
perform useful public service by influencing great events.
But there were other more unexpected elements, such as
magnanimity. For he had put his past disappointments firmly
behind him, forgiven his enemies (most of them!); and dropped
recrimination from his mind. ``Remember the story of Lot's
wife. Never look back,'' was one of his favorite lines, and
he meant it.
Instead, he worked unremittingly to influence the future.
During his pensionable years, he wrote eight best-selling
books on foreign policy and dispatched a steady flow of
influential private memoranda to Presidents Carter, Reagan,
Bush and Clinton. He launched his presidential library and a
new Nixon Center for Peace and International relations. He
continued to travel and speak widely, winning increasing
acclaim as America's leading foreign policy expert. Longevity
brought him the serenity and fulfillment that had for so long
eluded him.
By chance, the last audience he addressed was a gathering
in my house on March 17. The still-ambitious octogenarian was
keen to convey his latest impressions of the situation in
Russia to a group of ministers, defense chiefs, intelligence
experts, editors and parliamentarians. He prepared for the
occasion with his usual intensity and delivered a tour de
force of a speech without a note. Including question time, he
was on his feet for nearly 90 minutes. The details of his
knowledge, the lucidity of his presentation and the incisive
brilliance of his judgments, dazzled all of us present.
Nixon enjoyed his evening. As he got into his car he said
to me, ``Went well, didn't it? Clever group. But I've spoken
in your house eight times in 14 years. I think that will have
to be the last one.''
I said I hoped that he might come back one more time.
``Nine speeches, eh? Nine lives? Who knows?'' he mused.
``Anyway keep on fighting!'' and with that characteristic
salutation he waved and was gone. We shall not look upon his
like again.
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