The Legacy Of Pat Nixon
The woman who entered her role by saying that she simply wanted to go down in history as “the wife of a President” accomplished that and much more. Throughout her more than 25 years of public life, Americans identified with Pat Nixon and many viewed her rise from poverty to success as an embodiment of the American Dream.
Supplementing this was her acquired role — “Madame Ambassador” — the first such President’s spouse to be designated so. She was an ideal example for women in the 1970s and future First Ladies, setting precedents and proving that “women can play a vital role in world affairs,” according to noted columnist Robert Thompson. Her mercy mission to Peru as well as diplomatically productive trips to Africa, China, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South America and elsewhere indeed proved her to be a foreign diplomat in her own right. Gwen Gibson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune noted that Mrs. Nixon may have been “breaking more ground than any First Lady before her.”
Fourteen times she was chosen by the Gallup Organization as one of the ten most admired women in the world, from 1959 to 1962 and 1968 to 1979. Even five years after her husband had left office, Mrs. Nixon remained on the list. Veteran UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas wrote that Mrs. Nixon was “the warmest First Lady I covered and the one who loved people the most. I think newspeople who covered her saw a woman who was sharp, responsive, sensitive.” Indeed, children and adults alike were said to have warmed to her.
Perhaps President Nixon’s tribute to his wife, delivered upon her death in 1993, captured her legacy better than words in a book or pictures on a page: “Let me tell you about the real Pat – the Pat I knew and loved for over half a century. She was beautiful and intelligent and wise. She loved her family. She loved people. Not just the American people, but the thousands of people she met in our travels to Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe over the past forty years. She loved a good time. She knew how to make us laugh. She always brought sunshine into a room… Had it not been for Pat, I would not have made it politically or physically… When you think of Pat, I hope you will always remember the sunshine of her smile. She would like that.”
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3 Comments
2010-05-15
19:35:19
Mrs. Nixon was a woman of great integrity, character and honor, who worked hard her whole life to rise from very humble beginnings to the summit of fame. I admire her greatly for her quiet strength and sense of duty to her country and family. She was admirable in every way and I think we can all learn a lot from her example.
2010-07-24
06:54:02
Pat Nixon had alot of guts. What an example of strength during the late 1973 through the first year of exile in San Clemente. Terrible times they must have been.
Perhaps she might have sensed that millions of Americans knew and shared that pain.
The Nixon years:
ended a war he did't start(sound familiar?),ended the draft, talking to your emenies(China & Russia) which was a risk for for peace, Mideast peace proposals, National Healthcare propsals, Environmental program(EPA)
Cancer research, ending the threat of nuclear war- of the end of humanity. What more important than that? Watergate????
We owe Nixon, and his wife an apology, I feel, for failing to acknowledge these things that were started began durings Nixon's Presidency.
Watergate was and will become a footnote- not forgotten, but not important as PEACE, CONTROLING NUCLEAR WEAPONS, HEALTH CAR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECT, CANCER RESEARCH ......
2010-11-29
16:38:32
Man, really want to know how can you be that smart, lol...great read, thanks.