Word: vicuna
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Remember when the gift of a vicuna coat was enough to get a respectable Republican hounded out of Washington...
...didn't. When it was disclosed during a 1958 congressional hearing that New England Textile Manufacturer Bernard Goldfine had given Adams a number of gifts, including hotel accommodations in Boston and a vicuna coat, calls began to rise, even in the Republican Party's own ranks, for Adams' resignation. At first Eisenhower stoutly defended his aide. But it was a congressional election year, and party pros were convinced that the Adams affair was damaging their chances. Vice President Nixon, assigned to weigh party sentiment, found that virtually all Republican candidates wanted Adams out. That jibed with Nixon...
Trifles such as a deep freezer and a vicuna coat tainted the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations with charges of petty graft. So when one of President Nixon's speechwriters, William Safire, had an article accepted by the New York Times, he was advised by the President's counsel, John Dean, not to accept the $150 payment, as it might be construed as a conflict of interest. In his new book about the Nixon Administration, Before the Fall, a deadpan Safire-now a Times columnist-recalls his feeling at the time. "That was a good idea, I thought...
...coat,* some very sophisticated people said, "This is going to be very tough for you." I said, "I don't think so. I think the people of New York are smart enough to know that somebody is not going to sidetrack me by giving me a vicuna coat." [As for the gifts to friends and associates], that used to be considered to be a decent thing. A lot of people repeat from the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." But ideas have gotten so distorted about money that people cannot conceive...
While clearly petty compared with the political-corruption charges, such gifts do raise serious ethical questions. President Eisenhower's top aide, Sherman Adams, resigned in 1958 after it became known he had accepted gifts including a vicuna coat from Industrialist Bernard Goldfine. Abe Fortas resigned in 1969 from the Supreme Court when it was revealed that he had accepted $20,000 from a foundation headed by Financier Louis Wolfson, for which he was an adviser...