Nullary Sources

Absolutely crazy story + interview by Ray Suarez for PBS Newshour on a jaunt out of the White House by President Nixon in the middle of the night to meet with anti-Vietnam war protestors. Here’s Melvin Small of Wayne State University:

It’s a little odd, because Nixon had been on the phone. He had made 50 phone calls from about 9:00 until 3:30. He called Henry Kissinger eight times. He was in a very odd situation mentally, I think. The country was falling apart, from his perspective. He later said this was the darkest period of his presidency.

Henry Kissinger said Washington and the White House was besieged. There were district buses lined up around the White House for who knows what. The 82nd Airborne was in the basement of the Executive Office Building across the street. This was a very tense and, in many ways, from his professional, dangerous period.

And, then, all of a sudden, he says, let’s go look at the Lincoln Memorial.