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NIXON, RICHARD M. (1913‑1994). Thirty‑seventh president of the United States. ALS. (“RN”). 1p. Small 4to. Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, February 11, 1992. Written on his personal stationery to Senator DANIEL PATRICK “PAT” MOYNIHAN (1927-2003).

You again have made not only my day but my year with the superb biography you so thoughtfully sent to me. I shall always be in your debt for continuing to serve as my favorite intellectual! Sincerely…

After serving his first term from 1969-1972, Nixon won re-election by one of the largest landslides in U.S. electoral history, helped by Kissinger’s “October surprise” announcement on October 26, 1972, suggesting that peace was at hand in Vietnam. Only a few months into his second term, after two Washington Post reporters uncovered the connection between a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and Nixon’s re-election campaign, Nixon became embroiled in Watergate, probably the most famous political scandal in American history. Conversations Nixon had secretly taped proved his and his staff’s involvement in a cover-up. The trial of the “Watergate burglars” began in January 1973, and by the end of the month, several of the president’s aides had been convicted of conspiracy. Nixon continued to assert his ignorance of the affair and refused to cooperate. Finally, rather than face impeachment, he resigned from the nation’s highest office on August 9, 1974, becoming the only president ever to resign his post.

Despite his Democratic affiliation, Moynihan was selected at the beginning of Republican Richard Nixon’s first term to be his counselor on urban affairs. As a former assistant secretary of labor under Kennedy and Johnson and director of the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies,Moynihan was chosen, in part, because of his broad academic background in social policy. In 1973, Nixon appointed Moynihan as the U.S. ambassador to India, the world’s largest democracy, with which American relations had become strained. During his two years in this role, Moynihan created a cultural exchange program and forgave some of India’s debt in what became known as the “Rupee Deal,” often cited as the largest single check ever written (in the amount of 16,640,000,000 Rupees). Moynihan went on to serve as ambassador to the UN and as a U.S. Senator representing New York from 1977 to 2001.

Our letter is a testament to the ongoing relationship between the fallen president and his former advisor. Moynihan once recalled, “giving Nixon a list of the ten best political biographies that he thought Nixon should read, which list included Lord Charnwood’s Lincoln, Alan Bullock’s Hitler, and Robert Blake’s Disraeli. Five weeks later Nixon said to Moynihan, ‘I’ve read them all,’” (“Nixon Reconsidered,” The Age of Reagan: A Chronicle of the Closing Decades of the American Century, Hayward).

In fine condition and rare in ALS.

Item #17366 

Price: $1,200