Anne, Joe, and the White House

October 1973

“Joe , I’m attacking Iceland from Greenland. I come to liberate Europe”

Joe looks down and the game board and then at David. Not two turns ago David sat content in South America promising a lasting peace, then his ambitions for global domination got the best of him and he directed his troops north, through Mexico, through the Eastern United States and on to Greenland where his armies are now amassed.

So much for harmony. Joe looks at his girlfriend Anne who looks at him sheepishly - the traitor. She too promised a non aggressive alliance but now her troops in Africa, positioned “solely for security” threaten Europe’s southern border.

He reaches for the die preparing for battle and turns to David. “Wasn’t it your grandfather who said ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog’?”

“It was,” David says, “but the time has come for your tyrannical rule to end.”

Julie interrupts. “David, we gotta go.”

And that’s when it hits Joe. He is playing Risk, ‘The Game of World Conquest’ with the grandson of General and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower, his wife and Anne’s college friend Julie, who happens to be the daughter of the current President, Richard M. Nixon. And they are playing in the White House.

Joe holds the die and looks at David. David holds his die and looks back.

“David,” Julie says again, “we gotta go,” and then to Anne and Joe says “It should only be an hour or so.”

Anne and Julie met, and became friends, at Smith College. David and Joe came on the scene later. The foursome got together occasionally and when Julie’s father was elected President the get-togethers got more interesting: touring the Potomac with Princess Anne and Prince Charles when they visited the States. They’d cruised down the Patomac on the Presidential Yacht ‘Sequoia’ to tour Mount Vernon on that hot day in July and then flew back on Marine 1 to land on the Ellipse just south of the White House. The press had portrayed the Princess as rude and disinterested but was much more gracious toward the Prince.

The foursome, Anne, Julie, Joe and David, had planned a casual night of board games or maybe cards but when Anne heard that their Saturday dinner date conflicted with the President’s nomination of a Vice President to replace Spiro Agnew, Anne suggested they reschedule. “Don’t be silly.” Julie said “Come over for dinner. David and I will only have to step out for an hour or so”. The dinner plans remained intact.

Accused of bribery, Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest and became only the second Vice President after John Calhoun to resign from office. That left Nixon searching for a replacement. There was no shortage of speculation as to who it would be. Some thought it would be former Texas Governor John Connally, maybe New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, or maybe even California Governor Ronald Reagan. Julie and David had to attend the televised announcement from the East Room, downstairs from the residence.

On the way out the door Julie turns to Anne. “Want to know who he’s going to nominate? Gerald Ford, Congressman from Michigan. We’ll be back soon.”

Anne and Joe go out to the third floor balcony and watch the procession of Washington dignitaries get out of cars and walk up the steps: Supreme Court justices, senators, congressmen, and a few members of the press. Then they go back inside and turn on the television. All the networks “interrupt their regularly scheduled programming” to cover the announcement. Anne and Joe settle on Walter Cronkite, the most trusted journalist in America, who says “Only a handful of people know who the nominee will be.” Anne turns to Joe: “Only a handful.”

The President is happy, almost gleeful in his opening remarks. Vietnam is in the rear view and Watergate is just a hotel down the street. The resignation of Spiro Agnew is a bump in the road but Nixon is determined to charge through it, there is an energy crisis to deal with. Set against the gold curtains of the East Room, in a dark grey suit with a white shirt and dark grey tie the President is confident and earnest in his delivery outlining the challenges of the day and the criteria he used in making his selection: he must be qualified to be President; one who shares the view of the President; and, one who can work with members of both parties in Congress.

Without mentioning a name Nixon says his selection has worked for twenty-five years in the House of Representatives and the cat is out of the bag, the audience stands and cheers turning to Gerald Ford, who remains seated in the front row. After a long ovation and some congratulatory pats on the back Nixon is obviously pleased at the reaction and jokes “Please don’t be premature. There are several here who have served twenty-five years in the House of Representatives”. Everyone laughs. Ford prods Tip O’Neil, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts who had also served more than twenty-five years, but was unlikely to have ever been Nixon’s nominee. Nixon is in on the joke and smiles.

Minutes later, after some closing remarks and a short acceptance speech by Ford, the announcement is over and some time after that Julie and David return. David throws his suit jacket over the back of the couch and Julie heads to the bedroom to change out of the red dress and pumps and into something more casual. Anne and Joe can’t help but be star struck. “You sat right in front of Kissinger!” “What was is like knowing who it was but not telling anyone?” “When did your dad tell you?” Julie returns and fills four wine glasses. Anne tells Julie she looked great on TV. Joe nibbles on cheese and crackers as pundits comment on the appointment from the television in corner. Sitting on the couch in front of the game board David says: “Now Joe, about Iceland.”