The White House Years

in First Lady by Jimmy Byron — April 2, 2010 at 8:00 pm | 1 comment

In 1969 the country had a new president – and a new first lady. When asked what her project as first lady would be, she replied “people are my project.” During the Nixons’ first White House Thanksgiving Mrs. Nixon invited 225 senior citizens without families to dinner; she invited wounded servicemen the following year. In addition she became the first and only First Lady to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation.

Mrs. Nixon began encouraging Americans of all ages to volunteer for needy causes. Her “national recruitment program” enlisted thousands of volunteers. She focused on community services, believing that the power of large voluntary efforts could be felt and could yield substantial results.

Over her five-and-a-half years in the White House, Mrs. Nixon became the most traveled first lady in U.S. history, her record only to be later surpassed by Hillary Rodham Clinton. She became the first First Lady to enter a combat zone. The occasion was during a presidential visit to South Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. While President Nixon negotiated with President Thieu, Mrs. Nixon had tea in a heavily fortified presidential palace, visited an orphanage and a military hospital, and flew in an open-door helicopter across jungles where fighting ensued only a small distance beneath them.

When Mrs. Nixon learned in 1970 that a devastating earthquake had hit Peru, she organized a “volunteer American relief drive” and flew to the country to personally deliver nine tons of donated supplies and aid. She visited small villages and climbed over rubble and destroyed structures, remarking, “I didn’t come here to sit.” In addition to it being a goodwill trip, Mrs. Nixon’s presence had major political ramifications. One newspaper featured an editorial opining that Peruvians could never forget the “messenger of material aid and moral support” who was Pat Nixon. She was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun, the highest official distinction bestowed by the Peruvian government.

Another groundbreaking voyage was to Africa, as she became the first First Lady to visit the continent. She served as the official representative of the President of the United States at the inauguration of William Tolbert, President of Liberia. In addition, she visited Ghana and the Ivory Coast, meeting privately with the leaders of each nation. She viewed traditional native dances and when approached with traditional native costumes, she jumped into them. Women wrapped her head in a traditional lappa cloth and she danced with them. She addressed the national assembly in Ghana, establishing relations that, in the words of one Ghanaian official, “not even a lion could destroy.” She was welcomed to the Ivory Coast by 250,000 people and shouts of Vive Madame Nixon!

Perhaps of all the Nixons’ trips, their 1972 trip to the People’s Republic of China was the most politically influential. While President Nixon engaged in official closed-door negotiations, Mrs. Nixon toured large cities and smaller villages with a large contingency of the American press corps in tow, allowing millions of viewers worldwide to see China. Her “personal diplomacy” was as its best on this trip, as she interacted with the Chinese people. Foreign minister Zhou Enlai was so fond of her that he gave two giant pandas to the U.S. as a gift. The Nixons traveled to the Soviet Union soon after, becoming the first President and First Lady to visit the Communist state. On such trips she refused to be serviced by an entourage, deeming it a barrier and unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

Much of the special emphasis she placed on ordinary people was especially important during the turbulent war years. As a symbol of the administration, she was occasionally heckled by anti-war protesters. While undertaking a trip on behalf of her volunteerism efforts, she appeared at forums with the protesters. One student remarked that “She wanted to listen. I felt like this is a woman who really cares about what we are doing.” Mrs. Nixon regularly made herself accessible to reporters’ questions. She received an average of 1500 letters per month; she attempted to answer every letter personally and wanted all letters answered within three days, feeling strongly that correspondence with the public was an important part of her role.

Mrs. Nixon was a powerful force within the administration. Though politically astute, she did not publicly discuss policy. She shaped a portion of her role around her husband’s initiatives, becoming a member of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped; attending White House Conferences on Children as well as Food, Nutrition, and Health, among others; and she promoted the administration’s Legacy of Parks initiative by visiting the newly dedicated parks. She did however publicly support the Equal Rights Amendment, becoming the first in a line of First Ladies to do so. She encouraged her husband to secure more employment opportunities for women and to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court.

Pat Nixon added more than 600 paintings and furnishings to the White House, the single largest acquisition by any presidential administration. Among many notable improvements, she returned President James Monroe’s original special-order French bergères (or armchairs), to the Blue Room and replaced replicas of Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of John Quincy and Louisa Adams with the originals. With the help of a new White House Curator, Clement Conger, whom Mrs. Nixon hired, and Sarah Jackson Doyle, a design consultant who had worked with Mrs. Nixon since 1965, the First Lady redecorated both private family rooms in the upper quarters and public rooms on the State Floor. She refurbished nine rooms, and renovated the Map Room and the China Room, which displays samplings of all the White House china.

But Mrs. Nixon’s efforts went beyond simply restoration. She made the White House accessible for the disabled by adding wheelchair ramps. For the convenience of foreign tourists, Mrs. Nixon had White House guide pamphlets translated into foreign languages. She opened the White House for tours in the evenings which were enjoyed by over half a million visitors; the tours at Christmas were lighted by candles. She ordered the installation of exterior lighting of the White House executive mansion and grounds, allowing the house to literally glow a soft-white every night. She changed protocol to allow the American flag to be flown twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even when the president is not within the confines of the White House.

Historian William Seale remarked that: “The Nixon era was the greatest single period of collecting in White House history. The great collection of White House Americana today is the long shadow of Mrs. Nixon. The impulse, the idea, and the energy were hers.”

Mrs. Nixon supported her husband in his reelection bid for president in 1972, though she expressed reservations about having to face more years of public scrutiny, as she had in previous campaigns. She put her skills to work again, traversing the country on behalf of her husband. “I don’t think in such a short period, we ever had such a change in our history,” she told the press on a campaign trip. ”I think the days ahead, and the years ahead under this great president – I don’t take any credit, but listen, I kinda love him – and think he’s going to do a great deal for our country.” She delivered a speech to the Republican National Convention, the first for a First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt and the first for a Republican First Lady. Her efforts on behalf of her husband in the 1972 campaign were replicated by her successors (and those who desired to be her successors, Republican and Democrat). Her lengthy, solo campaign trips, which often included visits to many states, are now common for a candidate’s spouse. Nixon was reelected in a landslide. At the inauguration ceremony, Mrs. Nixon became the first First Lady in 108 years not to wear a hat during the swearing-in ceremony.

The Vietnam War ended not long into the second Nixon Administration; Secretary of State Henry Kissinger remarked that he had never heard Mrs. Nixon “so elated…[and] enormously pleased.”

Midway into the fifth year of the administration, a break-in at the Watergate hotel began dominating the press. When faced with questions, Mrs. Nixon replied, “I know only what I read in the newspapers”; when asked if the media was the cause of President Nixon’s problems, Mrs. Nixon replied, “What problems?” The First Lady felt that the power of some of her husband’s key staff members had grown too far in excess and that the president himself was becoming removed from key details within the administration.

Mrs. Nixon undertook another solo personal diplomacy voyage, this time to South America – Brazil and Venezuela – to attend the inaugurations of the countries’ respective presidents. The Nixons’ whirlwind trip through the Middle East not long after would prove to be their last as the First Couple, for at home the Watergate frenzy was consuming the media. All the while Mrs. Nixon stayed true: “I have great faith in my husband. I happen to love him.” She continued her regularly scheduled routines, White House restorations, and made plans to order a new set of official White House china.

President Nixon announced his intention to resign the office of the presidency on August 8, 1974; weeping, Mrs. Nixon told him later that night, “We’re all very proud of you, Daddy.” The Nixons left the White House aboard the presidential helicopter the next morning and returned to San Clemente by nightfall.

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