Known and Unknown (104 page)

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An official White House swearing-in for a member of the president's cabinet is generally a formal occasion. Our three-year-old son, Nick, had other ideas. Joyce held the Bible but kept her eyes on him, wondering what he might do next as President Nixon tried not to laugh.

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Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, c. 1969. Finding myself at the helm of an organization whose founding I had opposed was a challenge. But I believed that properly managed and with more modest goals, OEO could be an effective experimental laboratory for innovative anti-poverty programs.

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At a farewell dinner for Bryce Harlow (left) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (center). Harlow and Moynihan were examples of the varied and outstanding talent President Nixon attracted to his administration. Moynihan stood out as an intellectual giant whose good humor and enthusiasm for life was infectious. Harlow was unquestionably the administration's most seasoned expert on the presidency and the workings of the federal government.

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In the Nixon and Ford administrations, Kissinger seemed ever-present.

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(Above): During a spring 1972 trip with Bob Finch, we managed a side visit to the legendary El Cordobés. He had come from a poor orphanage outside Córdoba to become the world's greatest matador. We went to his ranch in the countryside, where he invited me into the ring for the testing of the bulls. One newspaper inaccurately characterized my bull as “a small bewildered cow.” El Cordobés howled with laughter when I tried to explain my technique—while wearing with good humor the Nixon tie clasp I had given him.

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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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