Recently on CNN, Larry King did his show from the Nixon Library and home in California with Nixon’s daughter Julie. And as I watched them walk through the exhibits – on Nixon’s peace overtures to China; his attempts to bring an “honorable end” to the war in Viet Nam; his involvement in the Watergate cover up that led to his political demise – I thought about the time I encountered Mr. Nixon.
It was 1963, and America was still coming off the most peaceful decade in a long time: the 50s. In the 60s, even as we tried to forget World War II, we entered the cold war with the Russians, and damn near had a nuclear war over missiles in Cuba, but President Jack Kennedy saved us, and we dodged the warhead. So life was looking pretty good when I discovered Richard Nixon was in Syracuse, where I started in radio, for a Republican Party conference. I vowed nothing would stop me from getting an exclusive interview with the former Vice President who had lost to Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.
Everybody wanted to know if Nixon would run in ‘64 against Kennedy. My detective work turned up the fact that Nixon was staying the presidential suite at the Hotel Syracuse, so I camped outside in the hallway for what seemed like hours until Nixon came out. When he finally did, I got up off the floor and followed him with my little tape recorder, asking him questions as we walked toward the elevator. I was hoping for a longer interview, but if a few quickies between his room and the elevator were all I could get, so be it, nobody else had it.
I asked if he was going to run in ‘64, and he said he hadn’t made up his mind yet. I don’t’ remember much else about the walking talking interview, but soon we were at the elevator door, and Mr. Nixon asked, “going up?” AND LIKE A DUMMY I SAID, “..oh..no, I’m going down.”
The doors closed on Richard Nixon and my interview was over. Just like the guy who could have had a V8, I smacked my head and said, what’s the matter with me? I could have had five or ten more minutes with him, maybe even got inside the conference room where they were meeting!
Nixon never did run for president in ‘64. By that time Jack Kennedy had been assassinated and nobody was going to beat Lyndon Johnson. Instead, in 1964 Nixon ran for Governor of California and lost. It was then that he told reporters they wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. He was wrong. Nixon made a comeback and won the presidency in 1968, but after the 1972 Watergate break-in the reporters kicked him around a lot. So much so that he resigned the presidency.
The thing I remember about Richard Nixon is that he was a terribly nice man, very courteous, and he answered all my dumb questions as if they were good ones. After what happened to him later in life, I always felt a little sorry for the man who was so nice to me in the hallway of the Hotel Syracuse. I always thought it ironic that, eleven years later, he was going down, and I was going up.
It was 1963, and America was still coming off the most peaceful decade in a long time: the 50s. In the 60s, even as we tried to forget World War II, we entered the cold war with the Russians, and damn near had a nuclear war over missiles in Cuba, but President Jack Kennedy saved us, and we dodged the warhead. So life was looking pretty good when I discovered Richard Nixon was in Syracuse, where I started in radio, for a Republican Party conference. I vowed nothing would stop me from getting an exclusive interview with the former Vice President who had lost to Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.
Everybody wanted to know if Nixon would run in ‘64 against Kennedy. My detective work turned up the fact that Nixon was staying the presidential suite at the Hotel Syracuse, so I camped outside in the hallway for what seemed like hours until Nixon came out. When he finally did, I got up off the floor and followed him with my little tape recorder, asking him questions as we walked toward the elevator. I was hoping for a longer interview, but if a few quickies between his room and the elevator were all I could get, so be it, nobody else had it.
I asked if he was going to run in ‘64, and he said he hadn’t made up his mind yet. I don’t’ remember much else about the walking talking interview, but soon we were at the elevator door, and Mr. Nixon asked, “going up?” AND LIKE A DUMMY I SAID, “..oh..no, I’m going down.”
The doors closed on Richard Nixon and my interview was over. Just like the guy who could have had a V8, I smacked my head and said, what’s the matter with me? I could have had five or ten more minutes with him, maybe even got inside the conference room where they were meeting!
Nixon never did run for president in ‘64. By that time Jack Kennedy had been assassinated and nobody was going to beat Lyndon Johnson. Instead, in 1964 Nixon ran for Governor of California and lost. It was then that he told reporters they wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. He was wrong. Nixon made a comeback and won the presidency in 1968, but after the 1972 Watergate break-in the reporters kicked him around a lot. So much so that he resigned the presidency.
The thing I remember about Richard Nixon is that he was a terribly nice man, very courteous, and he answered all my dumb questions as if they were good ones. After what happened to him later in life, I always felt a little sorry for the man who was so nice to me in the hallway of the Hotel Syracuse. I always thought it ironic that, eleven years later, he was going down, and I was going up.
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