This photographer stole Richard M. Nixon's soul. . .

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

This is a rare photograph of President Richard M. Nixon—one of the few I've ever seen (and I've seen many) that captures his heart and soul:

Several recent ATIT articles on President Nixon:

Visiting Richard Nixon

Fun with Richard Nixon's Ghost

Nixon's Back Pocket speech in case of a space disaster

RMN's Comedy of Errors

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Draft Resistance pamphlet from Seattle in the late 1960's

By Jack Brummet
Seattle History Correspondent

I worked part time as a draft counselor in a community center in 1970-72.  We worked mostly with people trying to file for conscientious objector status, took part in marches, letter writing campaigns, and distributing literature about the draft.  We weren't really part of the hard-core resistance movement (meaning we didn't perform acts of sabotage and most of our customers did not want to go to jail.), but we were fellow travellers and, really, just different branches of the same tree.

These pamphlets and posters remind me that everything was hand-made/analog in those days.  You can see in this flyer that they used three different typewriters (or different IBM type balls).  Maybe it was commercially printed, or maybe it was typed on mimeograph stencils and then duplicated.

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The Band's final song: Dont Do It - the encore at their final performance

As their final song, after a very long concert with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neils Young and Diamond, Emmy Lou Harris, The Staples, Muddy Waters, and many more, The Band played their great cover of Marvin Gaye's Don't Do it, albeit in a shortened version. They'd been on stage for many hours. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel both died tragically years later. And the rest of them are still plugging along, but no one ever came close to the transcendent heights The Band achieved. The movie this clip is from, Scorsese's Last Waltz engendered a lot of hostility from the Band members (except Robbie Robertson). Rick Danko told a reporter that they usually turned Robertson's mike way down--because he couldn't sing. . .something easily verified by a listen to his solo recordings.

POTUS 37 - President Richard M. Nixon, or, Tricky Dick And The Comedy Of Errors

Click to enlarge

When I lived in NYC, we used to visit The Ex-President's house (All This Is That, December 8, 2004).

President Nixon was actually the last of the liberal Republican presidents--social spending was at an all-time high under The Nixon Administration. The country, however, seemed to visibly crumble under the domestic spying, break-ins, misinformation campaigns, Kent State, prosecution of the Chicago 7, massive anti-war demonstrations, the bombing of Cambodia, hardhats and Hell's Angels attacking peace marchers. . .and all the other outrages committed and encouraged by Nixon's henchmen, a band of misanthropic thugs. President Nixon's long smoldering resentments, doubts about his own self-worth, and his paranoia about The Kennedys would eventually sink his presidency.

The war against North Vietnam raged on with increased troop levels, saturation bombing, napalm napalm napalm, and massive body counts. The body count became a feature of every nightly news broadcast. On the plus side of the ledger, President Nixon reached out to both Russia and China, and set the stage for the later upheavals in Russia, up to and including the fall of communism. He opened China up to diplomacy and trade and sat with Mao Zedong.

After resigning in disgrace in August, 1974, Nixon hid out in California a couple of years, and then moved to NYC. He went on to write numerous books on foreign policy, and unofficially (with no public fanfare) advise every President until the day he died.

If you want a fascinating read on Richard Nixon, check out Chris Matthew's book Kennedy And Nixon. I've read many books about Richard Nixon, and I probably enjoyed this one the most. But the Watergate Transcripts, and the Woodward Bernstein books are also excellent, as is the great Hunter Thompson book, Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail 1972.
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