Don't Fear the Reaper
NIXON ASSASSINATED
President Richard Milhous Nixon was assassinated in Ottawa, Canada at 12:00 PM Central Standard Time while visiting Parliament Hill in a diplomatic visit. He was shot four times while inside the limousine, two shots to the head and one to the chest. He was pronounced dead at 12:35 PM.
The Gunman was identified as Arthur Herman Bremer, an unemployed American citizen that is believed to have followed the President to Canada with the express purpose of assassinating him.
[Taken from…The Washington Post, April of 1972]
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The first hours were the most hectic; as they took us by surprise and frankly we were not prepared for a change of such magnitude. Upon hearing the news of the President’s death, the first thing we did was to take the Vice President to be sworn in and then fly to Washington to address the nation and assure the public that everything was in order and that the gears of government and the normal functioning of the United States would not be stopped by the actions of a single man.
Judge John Clifford Wallace, who had been quite fittingly enough been nominated and appointed by President Nixon himself for the office of Federal Judge, swore in Vice President Wayne around 2:15, right there at the Airport. Per the President’s strict request, there were no cameras or journalists present. An oddity given the character and history of the man that was to become the 38th President of the United States, but as he later explained “This ain’t a show.” Others would later say that the President was grief-stricken and didn’t want to appear in front of the cameras looking shocked, surprised or in sorrow.
John Wayne left San Diego around 2:30 PM, as the 38th President of the United States.
[Taken from…The Making of A Presidency]
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MUSKIE WINS ILLINOIS BY THIN MARGIN AFTER RECOUNT
After several days of recount, Senator Ed Muskie has been declared as the winner over Ted Kennedy with a margin of 400 votes. Both candidates have nevertheless refused to make comments besides expressing their condolences about the death of President Richard Nixon, whose funeral will take place tomorrow at his home town of Yorba Linda, California.
[Taken from…Chicago Tribune, April 12th of 1972]
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What exactly drove Ted Kennedy to put an end to his Presidential Campaign on April of 1972 has been debated for years, especially given the perceived lead he had over his chief opponents, Senator Edmund Muskie and Governor George Wallace. Many theorize that the very decision to run that year in the first place was not for Kennedy to win the nomination, but to test the waters in anticipation for 1976, a fact backed by Kennedy’s apparent reluctance to talk about the election in late 1971 and Nixon’s popularity at the time.
A variety of factors can be attributed to Kennedy’s decision: the ‘Canuck Letter’ that had nearly killed Muskie’s chances early in the contest was a particularly worrisome cause of fear for the Kennedy camp, as was later seen in the early mudsliding between candidates, and that was before the existence of a ‘dirty tricks squad’ working for the Nixon administration was even thought of as a possibility. Let’s remember that it wasn’t until 1981 that the activities of groups such as the Committee to Re-Elect the President were fully disclosed, yet all sides knew or suspected that the ‘other’ side was fully capable of anything, be it democratic or republican.
Thus Kennedy’s drinking and other personal problems were feared as sources of shame or personal attacks that would soon come. Yet there was another strong reason, one closely related to what had up to 1972 the greatest American tragedy of the century. The assassination of Richard Nixon, just like that of Ted Kennedy’s brother John nine years earlier had a devastating effect in the following Presidential elections, as the Republicans and Barry Goldwater could verify.
Although somewhat cynic, it would not be completely unrealistic to assume that Kennedy dropped out of the race on April of 1972, just days after Nixon’s funeral, out of the certainty that John Wayne was invincible that year.
[Taken from…1968-1976: A Guide to Cold War political Chaos]
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KENNEDY CRUSHES MUSKIE, DESPITE HAVING LEFT THE RACE
Following the virtual tie between Senator Ted Kennedy and Governor George Wallace at Wisconsin just weeks ago (32% to 31%) and Senator Kennedy’s announcement that he would leave the race to the White House to spend more time with his family and taking care of his brothers’ children, the Massachusetts Senator has nevertheless been able to pull an astonishing victory over his closest rival with a 57% to Muskie’s 20% and Wallace’s 6%.
Given Senator Kennedy’s decision to withdraw his name from the contest just days before the primary, it is yet unknown which candidate he will endorse and to whom will the Kennedy delegates go.
[Taken from…The Washington Post, April 26th of 1972]
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The ink on the 25th Amendment was still fresh back then, having only been signed some 5 years ago, whereas John Wayne had only been in office for two days when the need for his replacement became apparent. The first hours had been a chaotic whirlwind of activity and the idea of finding someone to fill in for Wayne as Vice President was not even seen as particularly relevant until the third day, although the President himself did not consider it important at all during his tenure as President. For once, as was proven by later events, the new Vice President would only be a seat warmer until the Republican Party bosses found someone more permanent and fitting to campaign posters.
But Dallas and Ottawa proved that the President of the United States was not immune to disaster, especially if it took the shape of a bullet, and thus we started searching.
The Nixon people favored Texas John Connally, who was perfectly conservative but unfortunately a democrat and a Texan running mate for a President that for all people cared about, was more Texan than the Texas Rangers and The Alamo. Something similar could be argued about John Wayne’s former Lieutenant Governor and another Nixonian favorite, Robert Finch, a Californian and having served as Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Health, Education and the whatnot, somewhat of an unknown.
At the end, allegedly, the very Democratic Speaker of the United House of Representatives would only leave us with a choice, which is the one we took. As I said, we knew that it would only be a place-holder till the National Committee picked a more photogenic or politically acceptable candidate.
[Taken from…The Making of A Presidency, testimony of John Patrick Sears]
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GERALD FORD SWORN IN AS VP
United States House Minority Leader, Gerald Ford (R-MI) has been sworn in as the 40th Vice President of the United States, as established by the lines of the 1967 25th Amendment…
[Taken from…The Washington Post…April of 1972]
Coming soon...May of 1972
