Nixon, Hickman & Howard on Rotary International and Foreign Relations

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Are you the president?

Well, I am the president.

I would say you're the president.

We're co-presidents.

Yes, I am.

And I just had a .

I know.

In South America.

Yes.

And I .

I, uh, you still got .

Yes.

Let's go over here and get a better picture of your flying suit.

And maybe you can have a picture with the award.

Yes.

I'm very proud of this.

It's like Judge Walker.

Oh, that's a Paul Harris award.

I had him continue to color marvels to Dr. Herbert Harris.

And he was a great Rotarian.

He received a very national award for some fields.

And we were so proud of him.

This was in Woodyard, California.

And I remember Dr. Herbert Harris taught English.

And he loved Rotary.

He loved English.

He loved Rotary.

And worked at the T-Series.

This is so nice.

I read your letter.

I feel like he's approached him because he was a student in the faculty at Lake Placid, you know, where we all bring all of the industry governors every year, and so I'm very proud of him and CRK.

Thank you very much.

This is for you.

the world in late November and December.

Cyprus, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, back in the United States in 28 days, and I had visited 15 nations.

All of course, in India, I had an audience with the Madam Prime Minister, and I was particularly interested

in the fact that she said that Rotary was one of the greatest movements for world peace because it works at the local level.

And then she said another thing, that you teach your local chapters to support your own country.

And I said, that's exactly right.

It's not an American organization.

It's an international organization.

And my purpose here today is

of the growth of the rotary, which you apparently know in India.

And we say, and my theme this year is let's take a new look at ag, which means to take a new look at your own backyard, that you do not have a right to criticize someone else's community or nation unless you've cleaned up your own backyard.

And she said, well, no, that's not that I've done.

The only fault I found, I mean, our image, American image, and this is also interesting, Mr. President, as an American, why I could really feel the pulse.

See, last year I succeeded in a sweep, and he came out around the world and found, I mean, it was a little poor, as it was, of course.

But this year, after your trips,

they begin to feel that really these Americans are not as braggadocio, not like all Texans.

You know, we're all considered as Texans.

But my thought this year has been to leave the head table at all of these big meetings, go and table hop and shake hands and say all this.

I've had volumes of letters that you're the first American that has

They said to the greatest ambassador we've had for your country.

So this is the thing, plus what you have done in this, you don't see as many signs.

For instance, I just, last week, back from South America, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, had an audience with the president of Chile.

In Brazil, we really have an excellent image in Brazil.

I was in Porto Alegre, which is southern Brazil, in Rio, helping to leave Rio celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The Rotary's establishment in Brazil was three weeks ago, and I was there.

Very, very, there is a close tie.

Now, in Argentina, the members of the Rotary Club, of course, are against parole.

This I was going to find out.

They do not fear him as they did before.

They don't think that he's going to carry as much.

Chili?

No.

But I had many good meetings with many Rotarians there, and I feel like that it's hopeful.

It's really hopeful.

You don't see as many signs.

Go home, Yankee.

You know, we used to see all over the world.

But Asia, I was particularly pleased with.

I had sort of a diplomatic job.

I had to go to Pakistan to tell them that they could no longer have in their district the Rotary Clubs in East Pakistan.

So I went to West Pakistan first.

And he was, and I put them in the district with Calcutta, India, which they wanted to be.

So, of course, I was a fair bag boy.

I had done what they wanted to do there.

West Pakistan, of course, didn't like it, but later on they agreed that the facts of life, they can never be together again.

But worldwide, our image is picked up.

And as I say, your trips to China and to Russia definitely set down the feeling that America is no longer, you know.

Of course, we still have a lot of problems.

As long as the Vietnamese thing, we've got a peace agreement, but the North is not.

Our prisoners are back in South Vietnam.

South Vietnam.

You have Rotary Clubs in South Vietnam?

Oh, yes.

They have a non-communist government.

There are no Rotary Clubs in the communist country.

That's true.

We had them, of course, in the satellite.

Sure.

Before Poland, Czechoslovakia.

That's the point.

Just remember, that's one signal to me.

As long as you've got Rotary Clubs in South Vietnam, South Vietnam, they were war-ridden quarters.

The new clubs are south of Vietnam in the last year.

They had a farm down there.

Even with guns down there, they still have it over the age.

And this is something I think is .

Well, I can tell you, you have my best wishes.

I remember speaking at your 50th anniversary.

I was there.

I saw you.

I've spoken to the pigeons.

I just had a great, great .

I remember .

Oh, yes.

The, uh, I, uh, must say that, uh, uh, people sometimes sort of, you know, they sort of laugh, you know, they miss the intellectuals.

Yes.

They're all about what they call, uh, service gloves and all that good, and all that.

They're joking and, and fighting and so forth and so on.

But believe me, there's Americans at the top who realize you're an international president.

But I was also sitting there, American?

Oh yeah, it's so, it comes right from our soul.

The idea of community action, voluntary action, good fellowship.

And it's just good for a town to have a little bit of money.

It's good for us.

good cause, and your Rotary hands get together, and heroes do, and it changes the spirit of the town.

And I think, I would say that about a lot of key ones.

Oh, yes.

The others, I just believe, voluntary organizations, it's something that is indicative to this country.

And I'm glad you're spreading it.

And I do

change of rules somewhere that you could get in?

Who does that?

Well, we'd go in a moment if the government's with her.

One interesting question I have, what's the future of Rotary?

And I said, the future of Rotary is unlimited so long as men care for mankind.

And this has been so true.

When you will see groups of men in all parts of the world working with leopards and these underprivileged children.

So we're getting through them.

Just absolutely.

I stood there, and Paul, Count Mundoon and Paul, go out into poverty.

Now, we think we have some poverty in this country, but I've said many times, the poorest person in America, he's a millionaire, to what I saw.

You know, people on welfare in the United States would be rich in the English of the world.

Why, yes.

You know that, Joe.

India, Latin America, good heavens, our people on welfare, they're talking.

Everybody else, you know, I mean, our guys, our people here, we just don't realize how lucky we are.

I've said to the clubs that we are, wherever I've been, you ought to get out on your knees every night and thank your neighbor.

I must go.

Well, you know, our prisoners of war brought them home to us, haven't they, those magnificent men?

They reminded us of the greatness of this country and its heroism.

They're proud of us for treating them the way they've been treated, for the purpose of helping us.

It really is something that makes me feel humble every time I see those guys talk.

When I have seen some of the things in Bangladesh and Kathmandu, there, why, I just, you stand there and tears come out of your eyes.

I see little children have never as much as had a brain aspirin for any, for vaccination and all that.

How they survived.

And here, this little club in Kathmandu,

has gone out and established little clinics in areas of poverty.

It's just something that really amazes me.

Incidentally, I know your past bookmaster gentleman quite well, Red Blunt.

Great guy.

Sorry.

John Spartan.

I hope he's a good man.

Sorry.

Yes, it was not the year, because there

And usually, being an Alabamian, basically you know very well if the Wallace Factor had a red could have won him, yes.

But he couldn't deliver the Wallace Factor, and there's no way Wallace could have beaten Ford.

For Charles, another thing, Mr. President, in the son's department, of course,

Because, you see, the man who would succeed him was from Wisconsin.

Oh, Robert.

Yeah.

Oh, if I'd been a banker, I'd have worked my tail off for him.

Oh, he was a Democrat.

Well, that's right.

Well, this is Robert.

This is Wildman.

This is really what beat him to the red.

Because now he's nowhere near the man who's always been a businessman.

Oh, sure, he is.

John's a good man.

John Spartan.

Well, you know what?

He's a supporter.

And he supported us very well.

He's a good supporter.

And I remember the same college fraternity, and so we've been very close together.

Well, Alan is not a bad fellow.

Who?

Alan, Senator.

Fine.

Yeah, he's a big fellow.

I've seen him quite often.

He's a good fellow.

I'll abandon one of my best friends, you know.

Oh, you can't.

Mississippi.

President and the flag.

Here it is.

That's only for Presidents today.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I wish you the best.

You are many supporters in our crediting to world peace.

I'm going to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and to the convention.

And I shall love your work, your rage, if you disagree with that.

Or else I have a chance.

I have been a hard worker to many Presidents.

And let me say it, what we have to do is to learn this work and live together with different systems of government.

We must not allow different systems of social and political systems to divide the people we're learning from.

Rotary is tied and binds.

Rotary ties every people regardless of the beliefs, regardless of the differences.

Rotary brings people together.

That's the greatest hope and that's the cement that will build the structure of peace

Nixon, Hickman & Howard on Rotary International and Foreign Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 16, 1973

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