Known and Unknown_ A Memoir - Donald Rumsfeld [437]
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(With left to right) President Nixon, John Mitchell, John Erlichman, Charles Colson, Bryce Harlow, Bob Haldeman, and Bob Finch at Nixon’s Key Biscayne home. The President was constantly adjusting the members of his administration to assure he was getting a stream of fresh ideas.
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The Taos Indians had been working for years to reclaim the sacred Blue Lake in a forty-eight-thousand acre tract of land in the Sangre di Cristo Mountains near Taos, New Mexico. I was privileged to be present at the ceremony when President Nixon signed the legislation to return it to them.
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In Cairo for President Nasser’s 1972 funeral with (left to right) John McCloy, who had served as the High Commissioner of Germany after World War II; Robert Murphy, the renowned “diplomat among warriors” and Elliot Richardson. Then-acting President Anwar Sadat impressed us as thoughtful, serious, and ready to open avenues of communication with the West.
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President Nixon could be both considerate and generous with his time. When I was preparing to leave for Brussels as the new U.S. ambassador to NATO, he asked me to stop by the Oval Office on my last day in Washington and to bring our son, Nick, with me. It was a glimpse of Nixon most people did not see.
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With President Nixon and Henry Kissinger when Nixon attended his last NATO meeting in Brussels, just weeks before his resignation.
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We had scheduled a family vacation for the beginning of August 1974. Joyce was determined to have some time together. We learned of President Nixon’s imminent resignation from the International Herald Tribune.
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When I returned to Washington to serve as chief of staff in 1974, President Ford was determined to keep the White House involved in big issues. The warm and brilliant Dr. Herman Kahn moved seamlessly from discussing economics to nuclear strategy to future trends. Ford’s engagement in the discussion might have surprised his critics.
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With Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, March 1975. The feeling was mutual.
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On Air Force One with Larry Eagleburger (left), Henry Kissinger (center), and Dick Cheney (right). Serving as White House Chief of Staff was among my most challenging assignments, but it could also be enjoyable.
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Ford’s fine sense of humor kept us all coming back day after day. It appears the President won this tennis match with photographer David Kennerly.
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President Ford meeting with his advisers on the disastrous economic situation he had inherited (left to right: Bill Simon, Ron Nessen, Dick Cheney, and Alan Greenspan).
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On his first trip abroad as President, Ford visited Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. His meetings, including this official luncheon with General Secretary Brezhnev and Foreign Minister Gromyko, were held in a former mental health sanitarium.
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Two assassination attempts in September 1975 added to President Ford’s challenges. After the attempt by radical Squeaky Fromme, my longtime secretary, Lee Goodell, took down the President’s recollections on our return flight to Washington, D.C.
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During the second assassination attempt, the bullet from Sarah Jane Moore’s pistol passed between the President’s head and mine, before hitting the wall of the St. Francis Hotel.
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My mother, Jeannette, with Joyce, Nick, Marcy, and Valerie at my first swearing-in ceremony as secretary of defense. This is a favorite photograph of the special people in my life.
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Nick, then eight years old, was taken aback by the nineteen-gun salute at the ceremony, but tried hard not to show it.
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General-turned-statesman Yitzhak Rabin (left center) succeeded Prime Minister Golda