Real Richard Nixon: PAT (2) - Marriage & Pat Nixon's Early Years

-Clip 2-
The Real Richard Nixon
Vol. 2: "Pat"
Interview with Frank Gannon

In this interview/documentary segment, President Richard Nixon discusses his proposal and marriage to future First Lady Pat Nixon. He also discusses Pat's remarkable background, including the family tragedies and various careers (X-ray technician, movie extra, etc.) that marked Pat's early years. Furthermore, he talks about her Irish and German heritage, Konrad Adenauer's reaction to Pat, his and Pat's honeymoon, World War II, the birth of their elder daughter, Tricia, and the congressional election of 1946, when he first entered politics.

The video clip comes from 38 hours of interviews that Nixon did with Frank Gannon in 1983 during eight days of interviews spread out over several months. Gannon used to work for Nixon and was well acquainted with the former president. Subsequently, Nixon is more at ease and open here than in most of his recorded interviews.

Originally there here had been no clear intention to create a documentary on Pat Nixon when the interviews took place. The segments on Pat came from different days, originally interspersed among a variety of topics.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Drew Antidormi]

she was a good Woman

[Ulysses61]

Thank you for posting this!

[9675775]

That "wife or girlfriend" comment at 5:41-5:47 was funny!

I don't think the interviewer got the joke!!

[Andromeda1741]

Pat was a lucky lady.

[newellgirl]

superb DEFINITIVE interview of Richard Nixon..this whole series is brilliant.

[devilndeepbluesea]

How about this, somethings between a man and a woman are just that, between them.

An honest man is never a good liar, you are right. He loved his wife, all one has to do is look at his out pouring of emotion when she died. I think that is the most beautiful thing, although very sad.

[RZ2787]

the way he speaks about her... it shows his admiration and his respect for his wife... what love!

[Seasass]

Hmm ... he was vague about what they talked about during their courtship and he didn't seem to know much about her personal life until much later. Sounds like he probably did talk a lot about himself and his ambitions, despite his protestations to the contrary. Another, more sympathetic, possibility is that he unburdened himself to her about his unhappy childhood and was embarrassed to bring that up here. At any rate, he's holdling something back (poor Dick was never a very good liar).

[MsSunlover]

she sounds like a remarkable woman