Nixon Visits in his “Wilderness Years”

Following two terms as “one of the most active vice presidents” under Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon suffered what the Nixon Library website calls a “heartbreaking” defeat. Beaten by Sen. John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, Nixon was hit with another “crushing defeat” when he lost the race for governor of California in 1962. Blaming the media for his defeat, Nixon delivered his famous response, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”

This began what historians often refer to as Richard Nixon’s “Wilderness Years.” He traveled widely and met with world leaders, then left California and returned to work as a lawyer in a New York City firm. Following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Nixon kept his word (for the moment) and did not run against President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Instead, Nixon backed the ultra-conservative candidate, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona. And that’s how former VP Nixon ended up at Wentworth by the Sea Hotel on Oct. 1, 1964. According to a front-page article in the Portsmouth Herald, Nixon drew 200 guests to the exclusive New Castle hotel at $1,000 per plate. Nixon called for party unity and pointed “the finger of scorn at LBJ.” He told the cheering audience that it was time for all Republicans to set aside their differences and back Goldwater.

The Herald reporter appeared disappointed to learn the well-to-do Wentworth by the Sea audience was dressed in business suits and cocktail dresses rather than tuxedos and ball gowns. (The “exclusive” hotel had been forcefully integrated only a few months earlier, allowing its first black couple to sit in the dining room.) “There were a few minks,” the reporter noted, “the kind you wrap around your shoulders,” but no full-length furs or garrish jewelry. The thousand dollar menu posted on the newspaper’s front page was as conservative as the candidate himself. Beyond filet mignon and a Maine baked potato, donors received carrot and celery sticks, iceberg lettuce, asparagus and dinner rolls.

In his speech, Nixon proposed a stronger U.S. presence around the globe and a more aggressive role in the growing Viet Nam crisis. He joked that LBJ’s running mate, Hubert Humphrey, was nothing more than “a rubber stamp for the left wing of the Democratic party.” Two days later, while campaigning in California, Humphrey referred to Dick Nixon as “that refugee from California – that self-propelled exile.” Nixon, Humphrey joked, was Goldwater’s “new-found friend and could-be Secretary of State in the imaginary Goldwater Cabinet.” Johnson and Humphrey defeated Goldwater by the largest popular vote then on record.

Much against his family’s wishes, Nixon ran for president again. The Portsmouth Athenaeum includes a series of photos of Nixon surrounded by young admirers while speaking at the University of New Hampshire in 1968. The collection also includes a signed portrait of Nixon to his ardent supporter, James Barker Smith, owner of Wentworth by the Sea. After President Johnson chose not to run for re-election, Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Then VP Humphrey was nominated over “peace” candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy. Nixon defeated Humphrey in 1968 by dominating the Electoral College vote, but winning the popular vote by less than a 1% margin. Nixon won re-election in 1972, but facing almost certain impeachment, he resigned the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974.

Copyright J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.