Nixonland: America's Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon 1965-72

by Rick Perlstein

On October 13 White House couriers pulled a kid out of class at Georgetown for a photo opportunity. Randy Dicks had written to the president about his September 26 press conference, “It has been my impression that it is not unwise for the President of the United States to make note of the will of the people.” Dicks was selected from thousands of letter-writers to hear back from the president, to show that he cared. An NSC aide drafted Nixon’s response. Kissinger kept on tossing them back: “Make it more manly.” The president ended up saying, “Whatever the issue, to allow the government policy to be made in the streets would destroy the democratic process.” The press corps asked Randy Dicks what he thought of that. Not much, he said, before launching into a peroration about his indifference to “the democratic process”: monarchy, he said, “was the superior form of government.” The aides had carefully selected one undergrad. They had carelessly neglected to learn that he was president of something called the Student Monarchist Society.