click to enlargeThanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out an article and link to the speech I discuss below.
It was interesting to read the excerpts of the speech Dick Nixon would deliver in the event of a disaster during our moon landing. Only a few other speeches like this have slipped out over the years.
When FDR was commander-in-chief, he had a speech prepared in the event that the Normandy beach landings, a/k/a D Day, failed. Other events have triggered back pocket speeches over the years. Mostly, the President (or whoever) has not had to deliver them. But you can bet that every President has had a few of them drafted, waiting in their back pocket.
You may or may not recall an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett's daughter had been kidnapped. His speechwriter Toby handed him a copy of the speech he would give when he daughter was safely released. The President asked him "what about the other speech?" Toby, said, yeah, he had written that one too. Bartlett asked for a copy. And then read it. He approved, but never had to use it.
Neil Armstrong memorably spoke “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. But Nixon's two hundred and some other words, written in the event of a disaster, have been hidden away in an archive until now. Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, Bill Safire sent a memo to White House chief of staff Bob Haldeman, on July 18, 1969 – just days before the landing, that included this very brief speech Nixon would have delivered had something gone terribly wrong during our first moon landing in 1969:
If Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon, unable to return to Michael to the orbiting Apollo 11 command ship, Nixon would have called their widows, of course, and then addressed the nation.
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” he would have told the watching millions.
"These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice."
“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.” If you have any, or know of any other back pocket speeches, send them to us! One that comes immediately to mind was JFK's speech following the disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
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