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Richard Nixon on Technology
President of the U.S., 1968-1974
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1971 ITT scandal: dropped antitrust suit for $400K donation
What we now call "Watergate" was in fact a confluence of currents that began flowing in 1971. The first was the International Telephone and Telegraph scandal, which involved essentially the same players, the same atmosphere, and the same activities that
comprised the larger chain of wrongdoings. In the summer of 1971, an internal ITT memo amounted to the first "smoking gun" of the long Watergate affair. It explained why the administration had quietly dropped the antitrust investigations against
ITT: the company had struck a secret deal with the administration to donate $400,000 to bankroll the San Diego convention. (The city itself had refused to finance the event.)
Why San Diego? Nixon was a Californian who loved the coastal stretches and
the political climate below Los Angeles. The region was a good deal more conservative than Los Angeles or San Francisco, and Nixon wanted a televised show of popular enthusiasm to contrast with that of his likely opponent, George McGovern.
Source: True Compass, by Edward M. Kennedy, p.323&325
, Sep 14, 2009
Installed voice-activated taping system in Oval Office
Most Americans recall the highlights of Watergate's long denouement: The bombshell that Nixon had taped all conversations and phone calls in his office since 1973; the protracted struggle for possession of the tapes; the bizarre 18-minute gap.American
have wondered where Richard Nixon came up with the idea of recording the conversations that ultimately brought him down. I believe I know the answer: he got it from my brother Jack.
Pres. Kennedy had a taping system in his office. He was not the first
president to do so, but it was Jack's system that seems to have caught Nixon's imagination. My brother's recordings included the intense and historically invaluable deliberations over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Perhaps Richard Nixon envisioned compiling
a comparable record of his own presidential triumphs. His fatal modification was to install a voice-activated mechanism, which removes the user's volition. Jack and other presidents, by contrast, relied on the conscious procedure of flipping a switch.
Source: True Compass, by Edward M. Kennedy, p.333-336
, Sep 14, 2009
Broadcast Radio Free China and Radio Free Tibet
- We should resume the high-level dialogue between China and the United States. The fact that we are meeting is not as important as what we say during the sessions. Legislative-branch leaders and executive-branch officials should go to China.
Tough language on human rights and political reform should always be included in their talking points.
- We should increase, not decrease, cultural and educational exchange programs in China. Contact with the
West has been a major impetus for peaceful change. Without these programs, the ideas of inalienable rights and popular self-government that fueled the democracy movement would have remained largely unknown in China.
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We should open up two new international broadcasting stations--Radio Free China and Radio Free Tibet--to provide these nations with independent information and commentary.
Source: Seize the Moment, by Richard Nixon, p.178-181
, Jan 15, 1992
I did not illegally wiretap; but I did order wiretaps
The most widely believed myth was that I ordered massive illegal wiretapping and surveillance. Among the more bizarre accusations were that the White House:Put Senators under surveillance- Wiretapped the telephones of Democratic Presidential
candidates
- Conspired to wiretap McGovern's telephones to gather information for my reelection campaign
- Wiretapped the telephones of friends of Mary Jo Kopechne, who had drowned in Sen. Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick
- Orchestrated undercover
political activities conducted by so-called FBI suicide squads against opponents
- Operated a secret police force to conduct illegal wiretaps and burglaries against left-wing radicals.
All of these charges were false, and no evidence was presented
to substantiate them. None was ever retracted. My administration did have a carefully limited and totally legal policy of conducting wiretapping for reasons of national security. I do not at all regret having that policy. We were going to war in Vietnam.
Source: In The Arena, by Richard Nixon, p. 32-33
, Apr 1, 1991
1969: Moonwalk made heavens become part of man's world
For me the most exciting event of my first year of my presidency came in July 1969 when an American became the first man to walk on the moon. The space program was already well under way when President Kennedy captured the national imagination in
1961 by setting the goal of a moon landing by the end of the decade. I decided that when the Apollo XI astronauts actually landed on the moon, the occasion should be well and widely marked. Working with
NASA officials, we made plans for a televised phone conversation from the White House to the moon.On July 20, aides and I stood around the TV set and watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. Then I made my phone call to the moon. Armstrong's
voice came through loud and clear. I said, "Because of what you have done the heavens have become part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth."
Source: RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p.428-429
, May 15, 1978
1969: Moon landing culminated program begun in 1957, not JFK
The moon landing was the culmination of a program begun a dozen years earlier after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first man-made orbiting satellite. American public opinion was jolted at the thought of the Soviets in control of outer space.
In Cabinet and NSC meetings during this time I strongly advocated a sharp increase in our missile and space programs. Pres. Eisenhower finally came around to this view and approved a proposal for manned space vehicles.
While he justified this decision on military grounds, I felt that something more basic was involved. I believe that when a great nation drops out of the race to explore the unknown, the nation ceases to be great.
The space program was already well under way when President Kennedy captured the national imagination in 1961 by setting the goal of a moon landing by the end of the decade.
Source: RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p.428-429
, May 15, 1978
Technology misused damages environment; but can restore it
We see a natural environment; true it's been damaged by careless nuisances and misuses of technology. But we also see that that same technology gives us ability, the ability to clean up that environment, to restore the clean air, the clean wa
open spaces, that are our rightful heritage. And I pledge we shall do that and can do it in America.Oh, I know the fashionable line among some: Wouldn't it be great to live in a country that didn't have all these problems of material progr
Not at all. I've been to them. I've seen them. And I simply would like to say to you that great as our problems are as a result of our material progress, we can do things for ourselves and for others that need to be done, and we must see it i
Look at our Nation. We're rich, and sometimes that is condemned because wealth can sometimes be used improperly.
Source: Address at Kansas State University (APP#295)
, Sep 16, 1970
Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013
