Thank you, Bob! I appreciate your response!
For anyone who wants to learn more about Presidential children, you
might consider reading a paper, "Political Roles of Presidential
Children." This is a Master's Thesis by Tabitha Alissa Warters, a
Polical Science student at Virginia Tech. See
scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/
etd-4898-12119/unrestricted/DOCUMENT1.PDF
Here's her account of Julie Nixon Eisenhower's decision not to attend
her college graduation with her parents (I've sanitized the profanities
which are spelled out in Julie's account in the original PDF document):
"Retreating from Smith and Amherst for Julie and David would prove yet
another
challenge in their young marriage. Neither Julie nor David was able to
attend their
graduation ceremonies in June of 1970 for safety reasons. As Julie
recounts,
'Four hundred fifty colleges and universities were now on strike, among
them
Smith and Amherst, and classes and study were suspended. Several weeks
before graduation, the head of my Secret Service detail had asked if he
could
talk to David and me. Formally he told us what we already had heard as
campus
scuttlebutt: if we or my parents or any of David's family attended
either the
Smith or Amherst graduation at the end of the month, the campus
organizers
were boasting they could swell protesters ranks to 200,000 people by
busing
students from the enclave of colleges around Boston and other points in
the
East. College officials at Smith and Amherst had made it clear to both
the
Eisenhower family and my Secret Service detail that they could not
guarantee
our safety at graduation ceremonies. Emotions were running high. The
demonstrators' usual chants were "Hell, no, we won't go," "Peace now,"
"One, two, three, four, we don't want your [expletive deleted] war."
But recently the
Northhampton Hampshire Gazette had reported that at an antiwar rally
the crowd
had screamed a new chant, "[Expletive deleted] Julie, [Expletive
deleted] David"'
(Eisenhower, Julie 290).
Although their college years were tainted because of protests against
Richard Nixon and
against their own presence on campus, Julie and David remained resolute
defenders of the
President."
Ms. Warters's thesis also has an interesting account of Mrs.
Eisenhower's relations with the press. I doubt most of us could have
handled as well at the age of 21 or 22 some of what Julie did so
bravely and resolutely! It's hard enough to live in a fishbowl but
when your father is the target of so much vituperation, it must really
be tough. The article reminds us of how different the lives of
Presidential children are from ours, and how this is bound to affect
how they view their fathers' legacies and records. (Wouldn't most of
us be protective of our Dads?) As I said, something to consider in
thinking about access to records, the role of Presidential families,
the effect of the executive order on the PRA, etc.
Maarja
-----Original Message-----
From: bobd <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:30:56 -0800
Subject: Re: [RM] LONG Re: [RM] On-line this afternoon - Classification
of Presidential Records
Thank you Maarja ... excellent response.
Bob Dalton, CRM
Dalton Consulting
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