Richard M. Nixon Presidential Candidate of the Republicans
The National Convention of the Republican Party in Miami has been in session since Monday, August 5. Florida was deliberately chosen as venue for the Convention in order to gain votes for Republican candidates in the South, which since the Civil War has traditionally voted for the Democrats. The Convention began in the usual carnival atmosphere, but backstage the seasoned practitioners, who know masterly how to play the complicated game of American politics, were at work. It is always fascinating to observe how the political power play of a continent is set in motion. At the opening of the Convention, the Afro-American Senator Edward Brooke gave a remarkable speech. Looking toward the future of race relations in America, he said: “America will be an integrated society of magnificent plurality.” The liberal wing of the Party was holding on to Nelson Rockefeller, although he had withdrawn from the primaries. But the radical conservative group rallied around Barry Goldwater whose speech had the strongest applause. At this Convention, the followers of Goldwater were still a noticeable force. When the voting started on Wednesday evening, there was a lot of guessing going on whether Richard Nixon would win on the first ballot. Nixon had the leading margin of votes from the primaries. When finally at 2 a.m. in the morning of August 8 the roll-call balloting was carried out, he reached the required 667 votes for his nomination on the first ballot. Surprising was Nixon’s choice of Spiro Agnew for his running mate. The delegates from the Northeast and from the industrial areas felt to have been passed over, while the delegates from the South were quite satisfied with this choice. No doubt, Nixon made a concession to the conservative South by selecting the Governor of Maryland. This was a move to take the wind out of the sails of the Wallace forces. Nixon’s acceptance speech aroused astonishment. If elected president, he said, he would make an effort to give American foreign policy a new direction that will again be more oriented toward Atlantic affairs. After the election in November he would generally overhaul the foreign policy situation and take care that the United States will not again be unintentionally and recklessly drawn into an international conflict.
[Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-94), lawyer and politician from California; U.S. Representative, 1947-51; U.S. Senator, 1951-53; U.S. Vice President in the Eisenhower Administration, 1953-61; U.S. President, 1969-74. Following the Watergate affair, he resigned as President in August, 1974. Nixon died on May 29, 1994 in New York; he was buried next to his wife Pat at the Richard M. Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, his place of birth on the southern edge of Los Angeles. Spiro T. Agnew (1918- ), Governor of Maryland, 1967-69; U.S. Vice President in the Nixon Administration, 1969-73. Edward W. Brooke (1919- ), Attorney General of Massachusetts, 1963-66. Brooke was the first African-American to be elected to the Senate; U.S. Senator of Massachusetts, 1967-79.]
[After August 8, my family and I went on the trip to Colorado. Since my wife’s sister had come from Innsbruck to visit us, we could make this journey to the West together. We drove on Interstate-80 through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska to Denver, Colorado, altogether a distance of 1,200 miles.]
Denver, [August 15], 1968
Travel Impressions
The Mississippi River is much more of a cultural divide than one would usually assume. While the settlement east of the Mississippi is in many ways reminiscent of Europe, the character of the landscape changes drastically as soon as one crosses the River at Bettendorf. The area west of the Mississippi is still sparsely populated. Beginning in Iowa, the endless wheat and cornfields spread westward without interruption as far as the middle of Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska, which is located on the Missouri River at the border to Iowa, is the last large city until Denver. In the Joslyn Art Museum of Omaha we could see the rare water color paintings of Karl Bodmer. These paintings show the original way of life of the Indian tribes on the Mississippi River.
[In 1833 the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied on his anthropological expedition to the Upper Missouri. The water colors painted on this expedition belong to the rare authentic representations of the Indian tribes of the Missouri River region.]
After Omaha we drove for hours along wheat fields. Occasionally, large grain silos surrounded by a few houses were looming on the horizon. The monotony of this landscape has an oppressive effect. Past Kearney wheat and corn gradually give way to grassland with scattered ranches. At an altitude of 1,200 m North Platte lies in the center of this pasture, where over the summer months cattle is raised for meat production. There we could visit the Buffalo Bill Ranch and see a real Rodeo.
[The legendary scout and buffalo hunter William F. Cody (1846-1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, lived in North Platte around 1880. Starting from there at the beginning of the 1880s, he put his “Wild West Show “ together. Cody had his show, for which he brought along a buffalo herd, cowboys and Indians, performed in open air. The Show that lasted for 30 years was a huge success, and when brought to Europe it became a sensation. Cody contributed a great deal to the romanticized image of the Wild West and of cowboys in America as well as in Europe.]
Between North Platte and Denver, there is a stretch of semi-arid land, which on the way west only served as a passage. On this deserted, inaccessible terrain only a few shanties and forlorn trailer homes could be seen. Only when one reaches the 1,600 m or one mile high plateau of Denver, the Rocky Mountains suddenly rise up to majestic heights. But despite an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 m, the peaks show no glaciers. The Rocky Mountains are situated much more to the south than the Alps. The climate here is warmer and drier so that there is no glacial formation.
In Denver one is immediately confronted with the Spanish-Mexican culture. The service personnel are almost exclusively Hispanic. On the southern section of Denver one passes through a sprawling ghetto that is not better than the slums in the inner cities on the East Coast. It is not difficult to foresee that the Hispanic minority of the Southwest from California to Texas will soon strive for recognition and be mindful of their rights.
[Before we traveled on to Colorado Springs, we stayed for two days in Golden, which is located west of Denver.]
Golden, Colorado, [August 19], 1968
Golden is a charming, small “Western Town” that has been developed into a tourist attraction. Something of the gold rush atmosphere is still in the air. It evokes memories of the gold mining era. On the banks of the creek that flows down from the Rocky Mountains, there are always a few hobby prospectors who hope that they can pan out a few nuggets.
[From 1860 to 1910 waves of the gold and silver rush passed through Colorado, bringing tens of thousands of fortune hunters to the Rocky Mountains. The yield of precious metals finally surpassed that of California. That turbulent as well as romantic period of Colorado’s history left numerous traces behind. Especially west of Denver along the Clear Creek as far up as Central City and on Interstate-70 to Georgetown, the area is dispersed with “ghost towns,” abandoned silver mines with their dilapidated settlements, which have now become tourist attractions. But even today, one will still find a number of unswerving adventurers who are trying to pan gold out of the gravel or are prospecting for silver in remote valleys.]
Colorado Springs, August 21, 1968
The Czech Tragedy
In today’s morning hours, the news reached us that during the night armed forces of the Warsaw Pact nations have invaded Czechoslovakia, and that Soviet tanks are rolling through the streets of Prague. We sat silently dumbfounded at breakfast, as the news reports incessantly came in. The reports sounded unreal on the distance, but nevertheless the reality of what was happening could not be doubted. Here in the American West, the event was hardly noticed, the vacation atmosphere of the resort town not disturbed. Public opinion in the country expressed the view that the American government should not interfere in this internal communist struggle. The existing American-Russian agreement of a partition of spheres of influence has not been thrown off balance by this intervention. The occupation of a country on the borderline of the Iron Curtain seemed to be within the limits of tolerance of both super powers. The small countries on this line should therefore be especially on guard and do more for their own security.
The line of separation between East and West that runs across Central Europe has again frighteningly been called back to mind. The precision and speed by which the troops of the Warsaw Pact overran Czechoslovakia during the night of August 20/21 is spine-chilling. At this moment, nobody could stop the advancing armored divisions. The helplessness of Europe has again come to mind in a tragic way.
The especially grave question is thrown on one’s mind: Who, in case of an emergency, would protect the neutrality of Austria, should the Warsaw Pact nations for tactical considerations decide to either invade or march through Austria?
[From Colorado Springs we drove directly back to South Bend because the new school year was just about to begin.]
South Bend, August 29, 1968
Chaos in Chicago
Toward the end of August, the delegates of the Democratic Party assembled for their National Convention in Chicago in order to define the Democratic platform for the campaign and to nominate their candidate for the presidential election. The Convention has been ill-starred from the outset. It gave the impression of confusion and inner tension, accompanied by wild demonstrations that ended in an unprecedented chaos. At the opening, the delegation of Georgia left the Convention because they were not willing to split their votes with a second, racially mixed delegation of their state. The Party had urged representatives from the South to send racially mixed delegations to the Convention. Georgia was allowed to be represented by two delegations - one official white delegation and a racially mixed delegation. That led to the walk-out of the former. As a result of the controversy, the South was driven even more so into the Wallace camp. George Wallace campaigned as third party candidate for the American Independent Party. Aside from the racially motivated conflict, the Convention was even more divided on the issue of the War in Vietnam. McCarthy and his followers stood up for a peace policy and were under no circumstances ready to compromise. They were able to win over on their side about one third of the delegates, but lost the election to Vice President Hubert Humphrey whose nomination had already more or less been a given since the beginning of the Convention.
While the politically contrasting positions collided inside the Convention Hall, a street battle between police and demonstrators was going on outside. Radical groups of the “counter culture” and the peace movement had already made plans weeks ahead of time, how they could break up the Convention. The Chicago Police who had learned of these plans were prepared. They advanced with unusual harshness against the demonstrators and took dozens of them under arrest. In front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel on South Michigan Avenue, where the Humphrey and McCarthy campaigns were located, tumultuous scenes occurred. The demonstrators who were getting ready to camp out over night across the street from the Hotel in Grant Park were expelled by the Police and National Guard before nightfall. Because of these riots, it was considered to break off the Convention. But it was nevertheless brought to a conclusion. Hubert Humphrey was nominated presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, and his choice of Senator Edmund Muskie as running mate was confirmed today. In recent days Chicago has been the venue of the most serious confrontations and riots that ever happened at a National Convention in America.
[Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (1911-1978); U.S. Senator of Minnesota, 1949-65; U.S. Vice President, 1965-69; presidential candidate of the Democratic Party 1968.]
[Edmund S. Muskie (1914- ), lawyer and Democratic politician from Maine; Governor of Maine, 1955-59; U.S. Senator of Maine, 1959-80; U.S. Secretary of State during the last year of the Carter Administration, 1980-81. As a politician, Muskie dealt more with domestic issues and the protection of the environment.]