Richard Nixon on the state of the state

If this were another country the rebels would be stockpiling guns in the hills. 

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) July 18, 2017 Twitter

Richard Nixon Tweet on Shakespeare and President Donald J. Trump

by Jack Brummet

"There is no Shakespeare that easily applies to Trump because Shakespeare thought in terms of moral complication and nuance."

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An amazing morph/mashup of Presidents Nixon and Trump

by Jack Brummet

[Creator unknown]

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The President forgets who broke the ground he is treading upon

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Ed.

"The relationship I have with China, it's been already acclaimed as being something very special, something very different than we've ever had." - President Donald J. Trump on Face The Nation this morning.

Well, not quite, Mr. President.

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Richard Nixon's Commandments of Statecraft

1) Always be prepared to negotiate, but never negotiate without being prepared.

2) Never be belligerent, but always be firm.

3) Always remember that covenants should be openly agreed to but privately negotiated.

"Public tactics tend to harden the opposition. 
Successful diplomatic or business negotiators resist the temptation to grandstand or make public demands that can be interpreted as threats."

4) Never seek publicity that would destroy the ability to get results.

5) Never give up unilaterally what could be used as a bargaining chip. Make your adversaries give something for everything they get.

6) Never let your adversary underestimate what you would do in response to a challenge. Never tell Him what you would not do.

7) Always leave your adversary a face-saving line of retreat.

8) Always carefully distinguish between friends who provide some human rights and enemies who deny all human rights.

9) Always do at least a much for our friends as our adversaries do for our enemies.

10) Never lose faith.  In just cause faith can move mountains. Faith without strength is futile; but strength without faith is sterile.

11) "Sometimes leaders are hesitant about executing strong and controversial measures in the belief that a less than full-hearted operation mutes criticism. When you once decide, go with all your might."

12) "When saying 'always' and 'never,' always keep a mental reservation; never foreclose the unique exception; always leave room for maneuver. A president always has yet to be prepared for what he thought he would never do." 

POTUS 37 Richard Nixon hits back at the press

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Former President Richard M. Nixon on current events

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Great quotes from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

Quotes from one of the best books on Presidential politics ever. . . (Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72):

• “If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”

• “How many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?”

• “McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

• “Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler who should be put in a goddamn bottle and sent out with the Japanese current.”

• "It was not until his campaign collapsed and his ex-staffers felt free to talk that I learned that working for Big Ed [Muskie] was something like being locked in a rolling boxcar with a vicious 200-pound water rat. Some of his top staff people considered him dangerously unstable. He had several identities, they said, and there was no way to be sure on any given day if they would have to deal with Abe Lincoln, Hamlet, Captain Queeg, or Bobo the Simpleminded..."

• “People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, fuck, sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenalin rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels”

• “The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy—then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.”

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President's Nixon's Enemies List

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

President Nixon's enemies list was part of a bizarre plan known as the “Political Enemies Project.” The list became public knowledge when John Dean mentioned it during his testimony before the the Senate Watergate Committee.  Journalist Daniel Schorr, who was on the list, managed to obtain copies of it later that day.

The White House Counsel's Office (John Dean), said the list was kept was to use tax audits from the Internal Revenue Service, and by manipulating "grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc."  In a memorandum from John Dean to Lawrence Higby (August 16, 1971), Dean explained the purpose of the list:

“This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."

IRS commissioner Donald C. Alexander refused to launch audits of the people on the list. In fact, John Dean later said that no real action was ever taken against any of the "enemies."
Senators

• Birch Bayh
• J. W. Fulbright
• Fred R. Harris
• Harold Hughes 
• Edward M. Kennedy
• George McGovern
• Walter Mondale 
• Edmund Muskie
• Gaylord Nelson
• William Proxmire

Members of the House of Representatives

• Bella Abzug
• William R. Anderson 
• John Brademas
• Father Robert Drinan 
• Robert Kastenmeier
• Wright Patman

Black Congressmen and Congresswomen

• Shirley Chisholm
• William Clay
• George Collins
• John Conyers 
• Ronald Dellums
• Charles Diggs
• Augustus Hawkins
• Ralph Metcalfe 
• Robert N.C. Nix
• Parren Mitchell
• Charles Rangel
• Louis Stokes

Other politicians

• John Lindsay, Mayor of New York City 
• Eugene McCarthy, former U.S senator 
• George Wallace, Governor of Alabama
• Sargent Shriver, former director of the Peace Corps and 1972 Democratic Party Vice Presidential candidate

Organizations

• Black Panthers, Hughie Newton [sic]
• Brookings Institution, Lesley Gelb [sic] and others
• Business Executives Move for VN Peace. Henry Niles, national chairman, Vincent McGee. executive director
• Committee for an Effective Congress. Russell Hemenway
• Common Cause, John Gardner, Morton Halperin,Charles Goodell, Walter Hickel
• Congressional Black Caucus 
• COPE, Alexander E Barkan
• Council for a Livable World, Bernard T. Feld, pr idem: professor of physics. MIT
• Farmers Union, NFO
• Institute of Policy study Richard Barnet, Marcus Raskin
• National Economic Council, Inc.
• National Education Association, Sam M. Lambertpresident 
• National Student Association, Charles Palmer[disambiguation needed] president
• National Welfare Rights Organization, George Wiley
• Potomac Associates, William Watts
• SANE, Sanford Gottlieb
• Southern Christian Leadership, Ralph Abernathy;
• Third National Convocation on the Challenge of Building Peace, Robert V Roosa, chairman
• Businessmen's Educational Fund.

Labor

• Karl Feller president, International Union United Brewery. Flour, Cereal, Soft Drink and Distillery Workers, Cincinnati
• Harold J. Gibbons, international vice president,Teamsters
• A F Grospiron, president, Oil, Chemical Atomic Workers International Union, Denver
• Matthew Guinan, president, Transport Work. Union of America, New York City 
• Paul Jennings, president, International Union Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, Washington D.C.
• Herman D. Kenin, vice president, AFL-CIO. D
• Lane Kirkland, secretary-treasurer. AFL-CIO (we must deal with him)
• Frederick O'Neal. president. Actors and Artists America, New York City
• William Pollock, president, Textile Workers Union of America, New York City 
• Jacob Potofsky general president, Amalgam. Clothing Workers of America, New York City
• Leonard Woodcock, president, United Auto Workers,Detroit
• Jerry Wurf, international president, American Federal, State, County and Municipal Employ Washington D.C.
• Nathaniel Goldfinger, AFL-CIO
• I. W. Abel, Steelworkers

Media

• Jack Anderson, columnist, "Washington Merry-Go-Round"
• Jim Bishop, author, columnist, King Features Syndicate
• Thomas Braden, columnist, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
• D. J. R. Bruckner, Los Angeles Times Syndicate
• Marquis Childs, chief Washington correspondent, St. Louis Post Dispatch
• James Deakin, White House correspondent, St. Louis Post Dispatch
• James Doyle, Washington Star
• Richard Dudman, St. Louis Post Dispatch
• Jules Duscha [sic], Washingtonian
• William Eaton, Chicago Daily News
• Rowland Evans Jr., syndicated columnist, Publishers Hall
• Saul Friedmann, Knight Newspapers, syndicated columnist
• Clayton Fritchey, syndicated columnist Washington correspondent. Harpers
• George Frazier, Boston Globe
• Lou Gordon, The Detroit News columnist and television talk show host
• Katharine Graham, editor, The Washington Post
• Pete Hamill, New York Post
• Michael Harrington, author and journal member, executive committee Socialist party
• Sydney J. Harris, columnist, drama critic and writer of 'Strictly Personal,' syndicated Publishers Hall 
• Robert Healy, Boston Globe
• William Hines, Jr., journalist. science education,Chicago Sun Times
• Stanley Karnow, foreign correspondent, Washington Post
• Ted Knap, syndicated columnist, New York Daily News
• Erwin Knoll, Progressive
• Morton Kondracke, Chicago Sun Times
• Joseph Kraft, syndicated columnist, Publishers Hall
• James Laird, Philadelphia Inquirer
• Max Lerner, syndicated columnist, New York Post: author, lecturer, professor (Brandeis University)
• Stanley Levey, Scripps Howard
• Flora Lewis syndicated columnist on economics
• Stuart Loory, Los Angeles Times
• Mary McGrory, syndicated columnist on New Left
• Frank Mankiewicz, syndicated columnist Los Angeles Times
• James Millstone, St. Louis Post Dispatch
• Martin Nolan, Boston Globe
• Ed Guthman, Los Angeles Times
• Thomas O'Neill, Baltimore Sun
• John Pierson, Wall Street Journal
• William Prochnau, Seattle Times 
• James Reston, New York Times
• Carl Rowan, syndicated columnist, Publishers Hall
• Warren Unna, Washington Post, NET
• Harriet Van Horne, columnist, New York Post
• Milton Viorst, reporter, author, writer
• James Wechsler, New York Post
• Tom Wicker, New York Times
• Garry Wills, syndicated columnist, author of Nixon Agonistes
• New York Times
• Washington Post
• St Louis Post Dispatch
• Robert Manning, editor, Atlantic
• John Osborne, New Republic
• Richard Rovere, New Yorker
• Robert Sherrill, Nation
• Paul Samuelson, Newsweek
• Julian Goodman, chief executive officer, NBC
• John Macy, Jr, president, Public Broadcasting Corp, former Civil Service Commission
• Marvin Kalb, CBS
• Daniel Schorr, CBS
• Lem Tucker, NBC
• Sander Vanocur, NBC

Celebrities

• Carol Channing, actress
• Bill Cosby, comedian
• Jane Fonda, actress and political activist 
• Dick Gregory, comedian and civil rights and peace activist.
• Steve McQueen, actor
• Joe Namath, former New York Jets Quarterback
• Paul Newman, actor 
• Gregory Peck, actor
• Tony Randall, actor
• Barbra Streisand, actress and singer

Business people

• Charles B. Beneson, president, Beneson Realty Co.
• Nelson Bengston, president, Bengston & Co.
• Holmes Brown, vice president, public relations,Continental Can Co.
• Benjamin Buttenweiser, limited partner, Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
• Lawrence G. Chait, chairman Lawrence G. Chait & Co., Inc.
• Ernest R. Chanes, president, Consolidated Water Conditioning Co.
• Maxwell Dane, chairman, executive committee, Doyle, Dane & Bernbach, Inc.
• Charles H. Dyson, chairman, the Dyson-Kissner Corp.
• Norman Eisner, president, Lincoln Graphic Arts. 
• Charles B. Finch, vice president, Alleghany Power System, Inc.
• Katharine Graham, editor and publisher, The Washington Post
• Frank Heineman, president, Men's Wear International.
• George Hillman, president, Ellery Products Manufacturing Co.
• Bertram Lichtenstein, president, Delton Ltd.
• William Manealoff, president, Concord Steel Corp.
• Gerald McKee, president, McKee, Berger, Mansueto. 
• Paul Milstein, president, Circle Industries Corp.
• Stewart R. Mott, Stewart R. Mott, Associates.
• Lawrence S. Phillips, president, Phillips-Van Heusen Corp.
• David Rose chairman, Rose Associates.
• Julian Roth senior partner, Emery Roth & Sons.
• William Ruder, president, Ruder & Finn, Inc.
• Si Scharer, president, Scharer Associates, Inc.
• Alfred P. Slaner, president, Kayser-Roth Corp.
• Roger Sonnabend, chairman, Sonesta International Hotels.

Business additions

• Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace and New National Priorities
• Morton Sweig, president. National Cleaning Contractors 
• Alan V. Tishman, executive vice president, Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc.
• Ira D. Wallach, president, Gottesman & Co., Inc. 
• George Weissman,, president, Philip Morris Corp.
• Ralph Weller, president, Otis Elevator Company

Business

• Clifford Alexander, Jr., member, Equal Opportunity Commission; LBJ's special assistant
• Hugh Calkins, Cleveland lawyer, member, Harvard Corp
• Ramsey Clark, partner, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; former attorney general
• Lloyd Cutler, lawyer, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C.
• Henry L. Kimelman, chief fund raiser for McGovern. president, Overview Group
• Raymond Lapin, former president, FNMA; corporation executive
• Hans F. Loeser, chairman, Boston Lawyers' Vietnam Committee
• Robert McNamara, president, World Bank; former Secretary of Defense 
• Hans Morgenthau, a pioneer in the field of international relations theory.
• Victor Palmieri, lawyer, business consultant, real estate executive, Los Angeles.
• Arnold Picker, Muskie's chief fund raiser; chairman executive committee, United Artists
• Robert S. Pirie, Harold Hughes' chief fund raiser: Boston lawyer.
• Joseph Rosenfield, Harold Hughes' money man; retired Des Moines lawyer.
• Henry Rowen, president, Rand Corp., former assistant director of budget (LBJ)
• R Sargent Shriver, Jr., former US. ambassador to France; lawyer, Strasser, Spiefelberg, Fried, Frank & Kempelman, Washington, D.C. [1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate] 
• Theodore Sorensen, lawyer, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York.
• Ray Stark, Broadway producer.
• Howard Stein, president and director, Dreyfus Corporation.
• Milton Semer, chairman, Muskie Election Committee; lawyer, Semer and Jacobsen
• George H. Talbot, president, Charlotte Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. ; headed anti-Vietnam ad
• Arthur Taylor, vice president, International Paper Company [presently CBS president]
• Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association.
• Paul Warnke, Muskie financial supporter, former assistant secretary of defense
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Muskie financial supporter; chairman, IBM

Academics

• Michael Ellis DeBakey, chairman, department of surgery, Baylor College of Medicine; surgeon-in-chief,Ben Taub General Hospital. Texas
• Derek Curtis Bok, dean, Harvard Law School
• Kingman Brewster, Jr., president, Yale University.
• McGeorge Bundy, president, Ford Foundation.
• Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics, MIT
• Carl Djerassi, professor of chemistry, and co-inventor of the first oral contraceptive pill Stanford University
• Daniel Ellsberg, professor, MIT.
• George Drennen Fischer, member, executive committee. National Education Association 
• J. Kenneth Galbraith, professor of economics, Harvard
• Patricia Harris, educator, lawyer, former US. ambassador; chairman welfare committee Urban League
• Walter Heller, regents professor of economics,University of Minnesota
• Edwin Land, inventor of instant photography.
• Herbert Ley, Jr., former FDA commissioner; professor of epidemiology, Harvard.
• Matthew Stanley Meselson, professor of biology,Harvard
• Lloyd N. Morrisett, professor and associate director, education program, University of California 
• Joseph Rhodes, Jr., fellow, Harvard; member,Scranton commission on Campus Unrest
• Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist; director, A. Philip Randolph Institute, New York.
• David Selden, president, American Federation of Teachers.
• Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., professor of humanities, City University of New York
• Jeremy Stone, director, Federation of American Scientists
• Jerome Wiesner, president, MIT.
• Samuel M. Lambert, president, National Education Association

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"The President is not available, Mr. Prime Minister"

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

Brent Scowcroft and Dr. Henry Kissinger put off the PM of England, Edward Heath, while President Nixon is in the bag. . .

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We Pick Dick!: photo from a Richard Nixon for Governor rally in 1962

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Photographs of President Richard Nixon with Sammy Davis, Jr.

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

In honor of RMN's departure 40 years ago, I'm sharing some photos of The Trickster with Sammy Davis, Jr.

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Ruminations on Dick Nixon and his resignation 40 years ago

By Jack Brummet
History Editor

Nixon and Premier Nikita Kruschev in the famous "kitchen debate"

I've been thinking about Richard Nixon a lot (he never strays far from from my thoughts, all these years hence) since I visited his Presidential Library and Birthplace in Orange County, California.  Lately, I have read a couple new (to me) books on him, and one he wrote, and listened to recordings from the Richard M. Nixon Oral History Project.

RMN on the keys

Thanks to the lowered-to-18 voting age, I was able to cast a vote against Richard Nixon in 1972.  Watergate was just becoming a big problem, but he hung on--the last few months by the skin of his teeth--until August, 1974, less than two years into his second term.  He was a smart guy, who accomplished a great deal politically, kept entitlements and social programs fully funded, but then there was The Dark Side (consisting mainly of The War, Watergate, and his misuse of the CIA and FBI to spy on and harass citizens).  He's lucky they didn't send him to prison.  And President Gerald Ford's blanket pardon, a month after Nixon resigned derailed any prosecution and the hydra-headed barrage/industry of various legal actions, a press howling for blood, and subpoenas from literally dozens of Senate and House subcommittees, courts, and panels of inquiry, all aimed at crippling Richard Nixon. . . snapping off the head of the snake.

The Republicans were even more desperate to get him out of office than the Democrats.  Day by day by day friends, allies, old colleagues, people he'd worked with for decades, people for whom he'd done big favors--all drifted away and some of them sent out press releases or talked to reporters.  It was over.

One of a very few instances of RMN in kooky mode

Sammy Davis Jr, hugs his bro' The President

On the beach with Pat and the girls

"I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall--plead the Fifth Amendment, cover-up, or anything else. If that will save it, save the plan." (1973 - to his subordinates in the White House during Watergate) - President Richard M. Nixon

"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." (1973 - to the press during Watergate) - President Richard M. Nixon

"Well, I screwed up real good, didn't I?" (1974 - to Al Haig just before writing his resignation speech) - President Richard M. Nixon




"When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. But I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in and twisted it with relish. And I guess that if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing." (1977) - Ex-President Richard M. Nixon

When I lived in NYC, we used to visit The Ex-President's house (see Visiting Richard Nixon In NYC).

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 sneaky,  misanthropic thugs. President Nixon's long smoldering resentments, doubts about his own self-worth, and his paranoia about The Kennedys would all contribute to sink his presidency.

One of his resignation/farewell speeches

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 down with Mao Zedong.  And this was the old red-baiter and commie smear artist who labeled one of his early opponents "The Pink Lady."  Helen Gahagan Douglas, who had the temerity to run against RMN in a Senate election, was painted as a Fellow Traveler, and Nixon won the election in a landslide--nearly 60% of the votes.   I recall that HGD was, probably in the late 40's, a girlfriend of LBJ when they were in Congress together.

Trapped with LBJ in a funhouse mirror situation

Maybe my favorite Richard Nixon story is about his friend  Jackie Gleason, and a little visit to an air force base where Gleason says they viewed the wreckage of an alien space ship, and the bodies of eight alien astronauts.

Bye

Jackie goes public

The Alien story was carried originally in the National Enquirer. In Florida in 1974, Jackie Gleason was playing golf with his friend President Richard Nixon who had learned of Gleason's deep interest in UFOs. The President allegedly admitted that he also shared Jackie's interest and had a sizable collection of UFO-oriented materials of his own.
 

RMN, lighter than air

You can imagine Gleason's surprise when President Nixon showed up around midnight, completely alone in a car (and probably wildly waving a fifty of Scotch).
When Jackie asked him why he was there, Nixon told him that he wanted to take him somewhere and show him something. He got into the president's car, and they ended up at the gates of Homestead Air Force Base.  Timothy Green Beckley describes it in "UFO Universe Summer 1993": 

 "They passed through security and drove to the far end of the base, to a tightly-guarded building. At this point, I will quote directly from Gleason himself, from an interview he gave to UFO researcher and author Larry Warren:"



Dick and Mao

"We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area, finally stopping near a well-guarded building. The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure. There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases. Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then - upon closer examination - I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident."



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 that followed him until the day he died.

Selected recent posts on President Nixon:

Visiting Richard Nixon In NYC
Jackie Gleason, Richard Nixon and The Alien
Fun with Richard Nixon's Ghost
Nixon's Back Pocket speech in case of a space disaster
RMN's Comedy of Errors
The photographer who stole Richard Nixon's Soul
Fun With Dick Nixon's Ghost
Lying and Contractions
Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon disaster
POTUS 37, or, the comedy of errors
Presidents it was fun to vote against
Visiting Richard Nixon

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A gathering of White House Superheroes: Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon

By Jack Brummet

[original photographer unknown]

A gathering of White House superheroes. Say what you will about Dick Nixon, he lasted longer in the West Wing than anyone else in this lineup, except RWR.

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Alien Lore No. 260 — Jackie Gleason interviewed about UFO's and higher life forms

By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore and UFO ed.

This is an interview between Jackie Gleason and a Jack (last name unknown), who was guess hosting Long John Neville's radio program November 16, 1958, on New York City's WOR. 

Jackie Gleason was fascinated with aliens and UFOs.  Some people, including Jackie's wife, have claimed that he and President Richard Nixon once viewed the bodies of aliens from a UFO crash at a secret Air Force facility) (See our article Alien Lore No. 225 - Jackie Gleason's tale of President Dick Nixon and "The men from Mars"

Gleason: I got this letter unsolicited and it came from a group (8) of atomic scientists and physicists.

Jack: Could you name the scientist?

Gleason: I can't and let me tell you why I can't. They are still in government employ.

Jack: What does that mean?

Gleason: Well that means they're under security provisions

Jack: What do you mean security provisions if there's a flying saucer there's nothing there reviewing?

Gleason: We're supposed to believe the official dispensation from the Air Force. We're supposed to believe that he's flying saucers are a matter of great national concern then I love the same outfit tells us they don't exist. At the same time they tell us that they do come out of the security provisions and they have several regulations that forbid that forbid government and military from even talking about the.

Jack: But these aren't government officials? You can talk about it?

Gleason: Yes I can talk about it. I can't reveal the identity of these fellows . You know what I did with Willie Ley (rocket scientist) one night on a show called “The author meets the critic”. This was several years ago . Really with giving Donald Keyhoe and myself a hard time and I asked him if I could show him a letter and show him who signed it and where it came from and whether he would let me read one sentence which is all I was permitted to read publicly. I showed him the letterhead and his jaw dropped open. I showed him the signature and it dropped open a little more. And the sentence said quote after 6 years of studying the material in connection with these so called flying saucers we are of the unanimous opinion that these are interplanetary devices conceived and operated by intelligent beings of a very high order."

Jack: Now was that letter signed by very important men in the government?

Gleason: Yes It was signed by an important physicist.

Jack: Are these men that would have been in contact with the president?

Gleason: No no I wouldn't think so.

Jack: So then they weren't big personages?

Gleason: No they weren't top flight men but they were men who evidently had a lot of ability.

Jack: Were they connected with the government?

Gleason: Well they were connected with an atomic enterprise

Jack: But not with the government?

Gleason: Well I don't know but they were analyzing stuff for the government. I wouldn't say that they were actually career man or anything like that, no, but they were hired to do a job.

Jack: Why should then that be a surprise if some kind of scientists or men attached to the atomic research , a private research organization - why should his drop jaw drop open when they stay there are flying saucers?

Gleason: I think he was surprised at first when he recognized the scientist’s name and his standing.

Jack: That he was on the government team?

Gleason: Well he may have been . I don't know exactly what his relationship would have been except that I would be glad to show you the letter sometime. You could figure it out from there. 

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Former President Richard M. Nixon with Robocop

via Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

POTUS 37, Richard Nixon, ca. 1987 (13 years after he resigned) with RoboCop at a national board meeting of the Boys Club of America. RoboCop was on hand promoting Orion Home Video’s RoboCop release and donating $25K to the charity. [Photo: Billboard]

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Alien Lore No. 225 - Jackie Gleason's tale of President Dick Nixon and "The men from Mars"

By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore & Paranormal Editor

On February 19,1973, according to White House records, President Richard Nixon met Jackie Gleason on the 18th green at the Inverness Golf and Country Club. He was there to help kick off a charity golf tournament founded by Gleason. If rumors are true, Nixon also came to Florida in 1973 to show Jackie Gleason the bodies of extraterrestrials (knowing, he too, believed there was something Out There).

True or not, it's a good story. . .Dick Nixon and The Great One driving in the dead of night, without Secret Service protection, to the cooler where they kept the recovered alien bodies.

Timothy Green Buckley said in an interview once: “I'm afraid I am a bit of a fence setter. All this could be real or none of it could be!” What follows is his strange and funny article from UFOs Among the Stars.

Mixing Richard Nixon, Jackie Gleason, conspiracy, and Aliens together, how can you really go wrong?

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Jackie Gleason & The Little Men From Mars
by Timothy Green Beckley

Way back in the mid-1960s, I got a letter in the mail from Jackie Gleason Productions, Hollywood, Florida, ordering a copy of a mimeographed booklet I had put together relating to UFOs. This, to me, was confirmation of what I had heard rumors about for a long time ... that "the Great One" was personally involved in researching UFOs. Supposedly - and I've since found out that this is true--Gleason had one of the greatest UFO book collections in the world. This is where the tale gets a bit wilder. A story circulated by Gleason's ex-wife, Beverly, has Jackie actually viewing the bodies of several aliens who died when their craft crashed in the Southwest.

The story was carried originally in the National Enquirer, and though Beverly Gleason later confirmed it to members of the press who were able to track her down, independent confirmation of Gleason's supposed experience could - for the longest time - not be certified.

Now with the striking revelations of a young man who knew Gleason personally, it can safely be said that such an event did take place... 

Larry Warren was an Airman First Class stationed at Bentwaters Air Force Base in England (a NATO installation staffed mainly by US. servicemen) when an incredible series of events took place over Christmas week of 1980. A UFO was picked up on radar and subsequently came down just outside the perimeter of the base in a dense forest.

On the first of several nights of confrontation with the Unknown, three security police ventured into the area across an eerie-looking object hovering just above the ground. One of the MPs was mesmerized by the UFO and was unable to move for nearly an hour. While in this mental state, he received some sort of telepathic message that the craft would return. For the next few nights, up to 80 U.S. servicemen, British bobbies, as well as civilians from some nearby farms, witnessed an historic event. According to Larry Warren, who stood within feet of this craft from another world-three occupants came out of the ship and actually communicated with a high ranking member of the U.S. Air Force.

This close encounter at Bentwaters has become the subject of several books (see "From Out Of The Blue", Jenny Randles, Inner Light Publications) and has been given wide publicity on CNN, Home Box Office and more recently "Unsolved Mysteries." Warren has, in a sense, become somewhat of a celebrity himself as he remains in the public eye, willing to talk about what he observed.

"Jackie Gleason was interested in hearing my story first hand," Warren offers as a means of explaining how he met the famous comic in May, 1986. "At the time I was living in Connecticut and both CNN and HBO had run pieces on the Bentwaters case. Through mutual friends who knew members of his family, I was told that Gleason would like to talk with me privately in his home in Westchester County, and so the meeting was set for a Saturday when we would both have some time to relax'".

After being formally introduced, the two men ventured into Gleason's recreation room complete with pool table and full-size bar. "There were hundreds of UFO books all over the place," Warren explains, "but Jackie was quick to tell me that this was only a tiny portion of his entire collection, which was housed in his home in Florida." For the rest of the day, UFO researcher and UFO witness exchanged information.

"Gleason seemed to be very well informed on the subject," Larry says, "as he knew the smallest detail about most cases and showed me copies of the book "Clear Intent" that had just been published, as well as a copy of "Sky Crash", a British book about Bentwaters that was published, actually, before all the details of this case were made public. I remember Gleason telling me about his own sightings of several discs in Florida and how he thought there were undersea UFOs bases out in the Bermuda Triangle."

But it wasn't till after Warren had downed a few beers and Gleason had had a number of drinks--"his favorite, Rob Roys"-that conversation really got down to brass tacks. "At some point, Gleason turned to me and said, 'I want to tell you something very amazing that will probably come out some day anyway. We've got em!' 'Got what', I wanted to know? 'Aliens!' Gleason sputtered, catching his breath."

According to Warren, Jackie proceeded to tell him the intriguing set of circumstances that led him to the stunning conclusion that extraterrestrials have arrived on our cosmic shores. "It was back when Nixon was in office that something truly amazing happened to me," Gleason explained. "We were close golfing buddies and had been out on the golf course all day when somewhere around the 15th hole, the subject of UFOs came up. Not many people know this," Gleason told Warren, "but the President shares my interest in this matter and has a large collection of books in his home on UFOs just like I do. For some reason, however, he never really took me into his confidence about what he personally knew to be true... one of the reasons being that he was usually surrounded by so many aids and advisers."

Later that night, matters changed radically, when Richard Nixon showed up at Gleason's house around midnight. "He was all alone for a change. There were no secret service agents with him or anyone else. I said, 'Mr. President, what are you doing here?' and he said he wanted to take me someplace and show me something." Gleason got into the President's private car and they sped off into the darkness--their destination being Homestead Air Force Base.

"I remember we got to the gate and this young MP came up to the car to look to see inside and his jaw seemed to drop a foot when he saw who was behind the wheel. He just sort of pointed and we headed off." Warren says that later Gleason found out that the secret service was going absolutely crazy trying to find out where Nixon was. "We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area," Gleason went on, "finally stopping near a well-guarded building. The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure.

There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases." Gleason noted his initial reaction was that this was all a joke brought on by their earlier conversation on the golf course. But it wasn't, as Gleason soon learned. "Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then - upon closer examination - I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident."

According to Larry Warren's testimony (regarding Gleason's lengthy conversation about UFOs and space visitors), "I forget whether he said they had three or four fingers on each hand, but they definitely were not human...of this he was most certain!" For three weeks following his trip with Nixon to Homestead Air Force Base, the world famous entertainer couldn't sleep and couldn't eat. "Jackie told me that he was very traumatized by all of this.

He just couldn't understand why our government wouldn't tell the public all they knew about UFOs and space visitors. He said he even drank more heavily than usual until he could regain some of his composure and come back down to everyday reality." Larry Warren is convinced that Gleason wasn't lying to him. "You could tell that he was very sincere - he took the whole affair very seriously, and I could tell that he wanted to get the matter off his chest, and this was why he was telling me all of this." And as far as Larry Warren was concerned, the Great One's personal testimony only added extra credibility to his own first hand experience with aliens while he was in the service.

"Jackie felt just like I do that the government needs to 'come clean,' and tell us all it knows about space visitors. It time they stopped lying to the public and release all the evidence they have. When they do, then we'll all be able to see the same things the late Jackie Gleason did!" Hopefully this day may arrive soon.

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Rumored Closeted Republican Politician of The Week: Richard Nixon!

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Editor

This article was just sent by reader Dean Ericksen: Rumored Closeted Republican Politician of The Week: Richard Nixon!
This is a mind-effer of all mind-effers.  As a long-time Nixon student (see our articles on him, below), I'd never caught even a whiff of this one before.  Yeah, we knew Bebe and The Trickster had a close friendship, but Hoover-Tolson close?   Sure, the evidence is pretty flimsy, but it torques the mind to even consider that bright, but thoroughly mean-spirited misanthrope holding hands under the table with Bebe Rebozo!  Unfortunately, neither Bebe or Tricky Dick are around anymore to ask. . .

Other ATIT articles on Richard M. Nixon:

Visiting Richard Nixon

Visiting Richard Nixon In NYC
Jackie Gleason, Richard Nixon and The Alien

Fun with Richard Nixon's Ghost
Nixon's Back Pocket speech in case of a space disaster
RMN's Comedy of Errors
The photographer who stole Richard Nixon's Soul
Lying and Contractions
POTUS 37, or, the comedy of errors
Presidents it was fun to vote against

Goodbye, So Long, Farewell

The image Wonkette used in their story, hearkening back

to this year's Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann memes

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