Treasonous

Major John Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's (Ike's) son, was a neighbor of ours.   Ike's grandson, David, was in my Boy Scout troop and was one grade behind me in school.  When we went camping, it was known that he would always have two Secret Service Agents accompanying him.  What many people didn't know, and which we discovered by accident when we attempted to cut through the woods to spy on the Girl Scout Camp, is that there were another two Secret Service Agents close by who nobody ever saw or knew about.

On three separate occasions, Ike visited David's school events and we had a chance to meet him. He was seated directly in front of me for an hour during one of the most boring school plays I'd ever seen, but during which he never quit smiling.  A year later, we met him again in Korea.

We used to play on a huge cargo net in David's back yard which I never realized until years later was there in case of an extreme emergency--everyone in the household was instructed to jump on the cargo net immediately upon an alarm, and an Army helicopter would hook it and lift everyone to safety.  This was during the nuclear cold war with Russia, so exactly how this would help in the case of a nuclear missile attack was never clear.

Rick Nixon, who nobody knew or even thought about as being related to Richard Nixon, invited me to accompany him to the opening of the Richard Nixon Memorial and Library.   Because of the incredible unpopularity of even the name "Nixon", I declined, then asked why he would even think about going to it.  The way he shrugged I will never forget--it suddenly became obvious that Richard Nixon was his uncle after whom he was named, and that being a Nixon relative wasn't exactly the Red Badge of Courage at the time so he never told anyone about it.  I've been there a number of times since then, and am sorry that I didn't take him up on the offer.  It must have been a lonely event for all Nixons, and I feel bad that I might have contributed to his feeling of isolation.

There are three great nephews of Richard Nixon who carry on the Nixon name, two of them are jews, and I know one of them, who's really a personable guy and is seriously considering entering politics.  I haven't told him directly, but in my view, being a jew makes him personal non grata in politics, and a lousy way to memorialize Nixon.

None of the above are unlikable people.  none of us can "hate" them for what Ike might have done.  BUT, if the stories about Ike starving to death German prisoners of war, and about Nixon being behind the assassination of JFK, then we cannot stand pat.

Copyright @ 2007 by Fathers' Manifesto & Christian Party