Nixon, Brewer & Wright on Mauritius and Foreign Service

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Good morning, Mr. President.

Good morning.

How are you?

I'm very well, sir.

Thank you for the honor to be with you.

Mr. Brown, you've been at the Foreign Service many years, isn't it?

I'm a webhead as an ambassador.

Thank you very much.

I'm glad to be with you.

And also, sir, I want to just say, perhaps you didn't know, but when you were reporting to me, you were acting upon a recommendation of the recently named President John Adams.

1799.

What was that record?

Justin.

to be driven because of that.

We had a lot of interest in that in the 1790s and 1900s.

Well, he didn't in fact act on it, but the recommendation was made by the consul that some men would be sent aside to Mauritius.

Well, you got it.

That's what we'd like to do is to get to a formal picture here.

And we'll get one sitting down.

Thank you very much.

what you said over here.

I'll be going back in a few weeks time.

I'll be back in a few weeks time.

all the countries that are involved.

Well, I wouldn't expect that you could from the part of your

It's like Caribbean island.

Is it?

With the, you know, the beaches.

Not caves.

Yes.

Perfectly lovely.

And swimming.

Yes.

No sharks.

Not in the, inside the reef.

And that's, of course, the other state of Florida.

Outside the reef, fishing is pretty good.

I don't like fishing too well, but it sounds great.

The beaches are great.

Yes.

Well, they should attract tourists.

Well, they're trying to because, you know, it's the one crop economy, sugar, and they're increasingly worried about the output of sugar in the long term.

So they are delayed.

Do they have good transportation?

Yes, airlines.

But many, not American airlines, but Lufthansa, BOIC, Air France, East African Airways, hotels.

They have several, but they need more.

Well, they have some.

They have two that are really very good, but they're usually full.

Oh, yeah.

This is the problem.

They get full of smart people.

That would be great.

Well, a lot of it is in the back of my mind.

I always think, well, those are different places.

Well, it's a beautiful spot.

Where did you come from, Richard?

Connecticut, Mr. President.

That's right.

From Connecticut.

Yeah, I was the first member of the lecture school.

Yes, sir.

Right.

And that's it.

Very good memory.

Yeah.

But I was the first member to leave the New England 300 years.

Yeah.

And then came on down and entered the Foreign Service quite...

Yes, sir.

Right after 1947.

Yeah, well, right after the war.

After the war.

Yeah.

1947.

Moved up.

Well, it must have been, you wouldn't trade it, but you'd do the same thing again.

You like what you're doing.

Yeah.

And one of the very few, perhaps, settled on this kind of career, very young, about eight or nine years old.

Did you really?

That was your father?

No, sir.

I don't recall including myself.

Why?

Yeah.

But I must have said to somebody, this is not quite a good idea.

And everybody said, oh, yes.

And from that point on, well, I would say that geography was my best subject.

I was most interested in it.

Yes.

County line is a big deal in those days.

But, or down to Tijuana.

And since then I've gone to about 75 countries.

So that's one thing.

Join the Foreign Service and see the world.

Well, I want you to tell us some of the presidential companies.

And let me give you some of our most tradition badges.

Thank you for the time.

I hope you'll be honored.

You a golfer?

No, sir.

I am the...

paper I use in my songs.

One reason why I've written it best is because it's small, which indicates you don't have too much paper in here.

Mr. President, I don't know whether I wrote it to you, but maybe I haven't brought it to your attention, but your annual report got the right impression very much.

And as I handed it to him, he looked at the table of contents and he said, boy, President Nixon must have an efficient operation.

That's how you will pass.

You know, it is quite a, you know, it's sort of a book, you know, 60,000 words, and we cut it for $120,000.

And I think it's not a bad thing.

But I think he read it and thought it was a good thing.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I wish you the best in your continuing service.

Thank you again very much.

Do you want to get up?

You've already been up all night.

Well, I've got to get up tomorrow.

Did you go to, let's see, let's see.

And you went directly from there into college?

That's right, yes.

My former law partner, Bill Rose, trustee.

Oh, yes.

Thank you very much, President.

Thank you.

Nixon, Brewer & Wright on Mauritius and Foreign Service

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on June 7, 1971

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