Word: nixon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...July 4, 1985, Richard Nixon sits in a low-back armchair, his legs crossed on an ottoman, his hands contributing to his account of the past 40 years of atomic diplomacy by drawing circles in the air, playing an absent piano, shooing away a wrong idea, coming together in an arch or making points in precise order: one, two, three, four. It is shortly after 8 a.m. Two mornings back to back he has been discussing the effects of Hiroshima on the world and on the presidency in his office in a federal building in downtown Manhattan. The building...
...very much because I knew how tough the Japanese were, and that the war in the Pacific might take a long time. I was sure that I would be rotated back to duty on one of the islands. What I remember about V-J day is that Mrs. Nixon and I went to Times Square to celebrate, and I got my pocket picked. Never forget that! In those days we didn't have a great deal of money. Sort of put a damper...
...summer of 1945 may have been the last time in his life that Nixon had the luxury of paying casual attention to the Bomb. Nuclear weapons were to color politics from that time on, and Nixon's political career was to extend from Congress in 1947, to the Senate in 1951, to the vice presidency under Dwight Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, to the presidency in 1969 and again in 1973. His view of Hiroshima is that the bombing not only brought nuclear weapons into international diplomacy but that it brought America into the world. What he saw in Hiroshima...
...second time involved China. There were border conflicts. Henry [Kissinger, then National Security Adviser in the Nixon Administration] used to come in and talk about the situation. Incidentally, this was before the tapes. You won't have these on the tapes." He continues without changing his expression. "Henry said, 'Can the U.S. allow the Soviet Union to jump the Chinese?'--that is, to take out their nuclear capability. We had to let the Soviets know we would not tolerate that...
...high gear now. He does not sound like a man out of office. He emphasizes that the entire history of nuclear diplomacy under the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon administrations led to a narrowing of the nuclear option. Thus the only way out for the superpowers is arms control, but "arms control must not be sought as a goal in itself. Far more important is our political understanding of the Soviets." For Nixon, this is where things get interesting, where the country gets interesting. Odd to realize that Nixon's America is not home and hearth, not the Fourth of July...