against a lot of advice, he went and there was a confrontation with thousands of all ginned-up troops, i mean the people who were against us. and it finally developed into rocks that were thrown, and a couple of people were injured in our party. after we got away from that, the next two visits in ecuador and colombia were fine. but we picked up some scattered information about something in venezue venezuela, mentioning an assassination plot on the vice president, but none of it had any real substance, so we weren't worried about it. and on the way into caracas, i called betty, my wife, on the radio phone. she said, boy, you want to watch out when with you get theyou ge.

i said, what about? you're going to have trouble. anyway, she was right. we landed and the crowd was just screaming. we weren't sure what they were saying or anything. our translator said, mr. vice president, they're not friendly. and they had the greeting party set up like you would never do it if you knew what was going to happen because we had to walk across, from the airplane to the terminal building and through it out to the cars. well, there were balconies on both sides, lined with people who were just delighted to spit all over us. to make it worse, as we were filing along there to go through, the mband started to play the venezuelan national anthem so we stopped right under the canopy, which got us all

properly spit upon from above and people screaming at us. so we got on the other side and got it going out the other side to the cars. and, by this time, there's a large crowd outside and they were screaming and holler iing, nixon and so forth. so we called off the rest of the greeting ceremony and we got in the automobiles. originally they had convertibles. thank god they switched them to regular sedan s so the vice president was in front with the foreign minister in his car and pat and i were in the back with the foreign minister's wife. by this time, she was starting to be a little bit upset. >> the foreign minister's wife was getting upset? >> yeah, she was a little bit upset by that time. we opened the door and got her in the car, and pat took her

handkerchief and wiped the seat off so that she could get rid of some of the spittle. and off we started. we had originally some police, an army, around us. as we progressed into town, they evaporated. they just left. instead, there we were in the middle of these people who were -- i mean, thousands of them -- screaming at us, throwing rocks and bricks and anything they could throw, and then we finally got to a roadblock. so we were stopped. it was sort of an ambush, if you will, because they all converged on us. and i don't mind saying it. it's the scariest thing i think i've ever been in because they were throwing the rocks, the windows were being shattered, and we could see the president's car -- vice president's car getting the same treatment up ahead. and pretty soon they began to rock our car, which is really

bad. and about that time we had about 12 secret service agents through the whole thing by now. and those guys really earned their pay. they were real heros in my estimation. >> and how was mrs. nixon reacting in the car with this going on? >> i was just going to tell you, with this chaos going on -- i've never had anything like it because my experience with war was, i didn't see the people i was shooting at or they were shooting at me. but here they were right there and the hate on their faces was just unbelievable. they were out to kill us. and all of that going on, and mrs. nixon finally had the minister's wife, who was by now hysterical, so pat had her arm around her, and she and i were talking kind of quietly. she kept asking me to keep checking on the car ahead to make sure the vice president was all right, which i was doing.

but finally we managed -- the secret service managed to break us out of that roadblock and we just forgot about the stop we were going to make and went -- we limped all the way up to the residence of the ambassador up on the hill where it was secure. but all through it, pat never, ever raised her voice. she never showed any anxiety. she was busy with this woman. i'll never forget that. and we got up to the embassy and got out and went in and took a deep breath and started to recover. it was clearly a thing i'll never forget. ever of. >> i want to add one thing to that. as far as -- you said you were close to death.

there, that photo i think is very vivid. all the windows except one on the car was smashed on my father's car. but what was so interesting was, when i was writing the book about my mother, i said, well, were you afraid? you know, the baseball bats and rocks, and i had talked to you, don. and she said, no, i was angry. she said, he was angry because these communist inspired hoodlums were destroying a goodwill trip. and that's just so typical pat nixon. i mean, she had her eyes on what they were trying to do, why they were there. they were on a mission. and this was going to be the whole story, just one small group who were bent on destruction would ruin the goodwill of being in south america. and she said once she got to the embassy, though, then she was afraid because she realized what

a close call it was, when they got to the american embassy and they went in and rosewoods came in and the three of them, you know, i think that's when she realized that it had really been a near-death experience. >> and julie, how did you and your sister hear about this attack, or did you hear about it? >> we just heard about it -- the san marcos incident that don described so well, we were watching television at home, and we heard that my parents were being attacked by mobs at san marcos. but that was not a true story. it wasn't that bad. and we ran to the phone and called my father's office. but as far as caracas we didn't really hear about it at the time. i think later -- i think somebody from my dad's office came out and said everything was all right. it wasn't until i was researching the book that i realized how serious it was. because my parents didn't come back from trips and talk about

that kind of thing, the negative. it was about what they were trying to do, and that was the focus. so we were really clueless it would have been so dangerous. >> your mother really had her hands full with that hysterical woman. i mean, that was something else. and then the next day -- then the hoods of the four military people who were running the country came up to visit the vice president. and just quickly i'll finish this. we were up in the vice president's quarters, and the steward announced the hunta was there, the four people who led the country. so the vice president said, fine, i'll be down. so he went in his room with your mother. we were talking through an open door, and he was taking his tie off and his shirt. i said, sir, what are you doing? he said, i'm going to bed, taking a nap. your mother smiled. so i said, okay. i got out. and he did.

he got in bed, but i don't think he slept. but he waited 45 minutes and then he went downstairs and just took these hunta apart, piece by piece. boy, it was magnificent. but then the next day when we left, i was helping your mother into the car. i opened the door, and there was a submachine gun and three hand grenades. so pat very delicately reached over and picked up one of the grenades with her finger and thumb and said, i think this belongs to you. so then we went on down, and, as i said in your mother's eulogy, we went out in nixon style with all flags flying. and that pretty well wraps caracas up. >> julie, your mother visited 53 countries during the vice presidential years, which is just extraordinary.

propeller aircraft, no air conditioning, et cetera. what do you think, what ground did she break as a result of her travels during those years? and really what precedence did she set that other senior government folk have followed in all the years since? >> well, she did really break ground in that she said to the embassies, i don't want any teas. i want to go to the schools, the hospitals, and the institutions. and that's what she did. and by the end of the first trip, she had been with 200 hospital trips and meeting with women. when she got back, the women who covered the white house and the first lady, they wanted an interview. i was reading transcripts of the interviews later when i was doing research on the book, and i was just fascinated what my mother said. she told these women in 1953, women of the press, she said, everywhere i went on this trip i helped women. this is 1953. this is not '63 or '73.

the women's movement isn't even much of an idea in '53. but she was very aware that she was able to help women who were not being represented, who were living very difficult lives. so that was her -- she said, i was able to help women. that's what she told these reporters about. >> great. great. i want to fast-forward to the white house years. bill codus, who did so much planning for those trips, julie writes in her book, my mother thoroughly enjoyed bill and always felt at ease when he was involved in planning a trip. apparently he also planned to make sure she had a birthday cake when it was her birthday on one of those trips. but you were at the state department as assistant chief of protocol for visits. how did you get involved in starting to plan visits for mrs. nixon overseas? >> well, the visit section that we were in charge of, when president nixon invited these

dignitaries, the chiefs of state, heads of government, protocol got involved in planning the trips here in the united states. in those days, a visit from liberia or saudi arabia was a seven-day visit, for a state visit, and an official visit was four days. but then eventually i was involved in that and traveling with these chiefs of state, heads of government, around the united states and got involved with some people who -- i should say chiefs of state who brought their wives. there was friction every once in a while because they were rather demanding. but not mrs. nixon. but, anyway, we then got to go to liberia, and this is quite interesting. in liberia we went on the advance teams, as jack said.

ten men and one lady, as mary lou shields came with us. >> the decision to go to liberia was because they had invited president nixon but his schedule didn't allow it so -- >> exactly. and they also -- from liberia we went to ghana and from ghana to the ivory coast. but in liberia it was the naub rai -- inauguration of president tolbert. it was quite interesting. in fact, one of the secret servicemen who was there for years, patrick mcfarland, you remember him, he was on our detail. and when we arrived, it was tremendous ceremony out at the airport, and then she also got a 19-gun salute, which was very unusual, a 19-gun salute you get a prime minister or a 21-salute for a reigning chara, as such. but anyway, whenever the time came, the president escorted mrs. nixon to the house where we stayed at, in the so-called

mansion, and the protocol officer said to me, at a certain time we want mrs. nixon to come and knock on the door and then see president tolbert and then we'll go into the inauguration. well, what happened was quite funny. the time came, and mr. mcfarland, who was on the detail at that time, and then we went to mrs. nixon's suite and escorted her to the president's suite and knocked on the door, waited a few minutes. nothing happened. knocked again, and the door opened, and president tolbert looked like this, not at us, but he looked at that. he closed the door on us, which was very unusual. then he realized that it was mrs. nixon there. rather embarrassing, but it was quite interesting. >> now, in getting ready to go on those trips, before you would go on a trip such as that or other trips, how involved was mrs. nixon in planning what the

itinerary was going to be, making sure you were doing what she wanted to do? >> well, of course, the state department and white house got together and decided -- well, they invited president nixon and he couldn't go so he sent his best representative. and the way they planned it, what's important is what parts of the world they have to go to. and from there we then -- after liberia, we then went to ghana. >> i hate to interrupt you, but we've got pictures coming up on that. but if you could just talk a little bit about what her involvement would be in planning these trips and making sure she was doing the sorts of things that she felt were important in these various countries. would you meet with her and discuss beforehand? >> of course, she was very conscious of a large entourage. we only had ten people who went over to liberia and ghana,

although some others came in after that. but she insisted that we don't need a large contingency. but we had to have secret service, and we had to have the doctor, et cetera, et cetera. but she was very conscious on that, not to have a large staff. it doesn't look good, you know, for the public. >> sure. i want to turn to jack now for a minute. one of the first trips mrs. nixon made as first lady, the president and mrs. nixon went to the pacific area, and she went to vietnam to visit the troops there in the hospitals and build up their morale. >> and she did that -- i did not go into vietnam with her, but what she did was not do the photo op thing. she went to see the troops in the hospital, the wounded in the hospital, not for a picture. but the most important thing she did -- like i say, i didn't go with her, but i was slightly

wounded in vietnam and the persons who feel it the most are the family at home. but because my wife and kids just got a telegram and they were frightened to death to open it and read the telegram. then they get no follow-up. maybe you get a military guy reading a script saying everything's okay, but you don't know how they are. mrs. nixon went into the hospitals and took the names of all of the young men who were wounded in the hospitals, and when she went back to the united states, called their loved ones to say, i saw him. it's not a script i'm reading. i saw him and he's doing well. it's going to take a while. whatever. and they felt so much better. also, remember how these kids felt. 10,000 miles from home. in a hospital. alone. don't even know the guy next to them. they're sad, to some agree angry. and to have the first ladies of the united states come into a combat zone.

it had never happened before. but to pay particular attention to these young men, just remarkable things that she did and courageous. >> did she fly right into the zone with a helicopter? >> yes, she flew in on a helicopter. several of helicopters escorting her. amazing. that's just who she was. she always, always felt for people. in liberia that bill was just talking about, this new president of liberia really wanted to show off the blond lady. in the inaugural parade, you know who sat next to him. not his wife, but the blonde lady. and we get into the church, they had a baptist church to celebrate president tolbert's inauguration, and the service went on for three hours. and there's a seat for mrs. nixon. i don't know how it happened but next to her was a seat for me. i'm in uniform.

after three hours, i perspired completely through my uniform, and she was smiling. and i was getting angry. all this stuff going on, this guy was using mrs. nixon, i felt. she's like, that's fine. everything's fine. the marines are nature that diplomatic. >> you know, they're not. >> later, he was supposed to pick her up. bill had arranged it, we'll just meet the president at the inaugural ball. no, no, no, the president insisted on escorting mrs. nixon once again. >> that's what it takes to be a great diplomat, go with the flow on that, three-hour speech, whatever. >> it was 8:00 at night, he was going to pick her up. nothing. he has three aides, all generals. i'm a major, i'm saying where is he? 8:00, 8:30, no president tolbert. finally at 9:00, we hear the sirens and all the noise.

i went to mrs. nixon, she said, he's here? i said, yes, he's here. i said we're not going. she said, what do you mean we're not going? >> we're going to tell him you tore your dress, let him wait. that's one of the few times we got the irish/german temper up. no, we're not, yes, ma'am. the compassion she showed was just remarkable everywhere we went. >> that's great. now, the next year there was a devastating earthquake in peru. and i don't know if all the videos are affected. do we have the connie stewart video? does it work or not? we'll try it. connie stewart who was mrs. nixon's staff director and press secretary talking about this trip to peru which i think -- hopefully it will work. >> no. >> and it doesn't. >> you know, i think somebody saw that "the artist" won an

academy award as best picture, that silent movie, and that's what's going on. >> you can donate to the archives by going on www. -- >> no. in peru, they suffered a devastating earthquake. tens of thousands of people killed. many more, tens of thousands, left homeless. the need was great. mrs. nixon went to peru. julie, can you tell us a little bit about why she went there and what happened. >> how she went there? >> yes. >> earthquake was high in the andes. so it took three weeks for the full magnitude of the disaster to be known. 80,000 people died. 400,000 homeless. and my parents were at camp david because it was their anniversary. and my mother was reading the reports of just how terrible. she said, oh, what can i do? i feel like i want to do something. and so my father said to her, well, would you like to go? and immediately, he picked up the phone, he probably was calling some of your colleagues in the state department and said, you know, would a visit by

mrs. nixon be welcome? because the government of peru was a revolutionary government and they were very anti-american. and within one week, americans had donated two planeloads of supplies and air force one, my mother flew on air force one with one plane load. another plane followed. and she went up into the andes mountains and landed in a cargo plane up there. and walked among the rubble. and it was just, you know, a great way for the american people to reach out to the peruvians who have suffered so much. and to show that it didn't matter what kind of government peru had. it was what americans do best, they -- when there's some kind of tragedy, americans always respond with goods and volunteer and everything. >> and improving government recognized your mother with the decoration? >> yes, the grand order of the -- >> the sun. >> yes, thank you. >> the highest civilian award that their government offers. >> and julie was very generous

to say she flew on a cargo plane. she flew on -- listen to this -- a c-130, a cargo plane that can land on very short air strips. at the top of the mountain they were created a dirt air strip. a very short air strip. the air force pilots tied a kitchen chair between the pilot and co-pilot and strapped her in. and i'm saying, wait a minute. and they landed on this very short dirt air strip. and i was frightened, she was smiling. and then we boarded helicopters which, you know, we'd spent a lot of money to send helicopters out there. the pilot told me they could only take a few people because they were so high in altitude. it was a matter of concern so those people who couldn't go on the helicopter were not happy. but the general who was the interpreter and i went and the doctor went. in any event, then we went from this mountaintop air strip, dirt air strip, in the helicopters to the incredible devastation.

incredible. >> looked like the face of the moon, was that the quote? >> and mrs. nixon would go right into hugging people, you know, and they were, wow, with tears. and connie would have said in the video, connie being mrs. nixon's chief of staff, connie stewart, she said it well, mrs. velasquez, the president of venezuela's wife was just watching mrs. nixon, what is this woman doing, going into the crowd mingling with real people? then after a while, mrs. velasquez started doing it, she followed mrs. nixon's lead and people started warming up to all of them. it was an incredible scene. it was normal for mrs. nixon but very unusual for the wives of heads of state who are very aloof from the people, so to speak. >> one of the peruvian leaders said afterwards that that visit by mrs. nixon did more for peruvian-american relations than any single act in the previous hundred years. it was quite a diplomatic -- quite a diplomatic success. bill, i want to get back to

liberia and talk a little bit about -- >> i don't. >> talk a little bit about liberia. when mrs. nixon went to liberia, it was the first time that a first lady had officially represented the president of the united states at a state event overseas. and as you mentioned, she got the 19-gun salute. >> 19-gun salute, right. >> and you and jack talk about the ceremony, so beautiful, sitting through all of them. but then there was a great dance that was -- a native dance that was shown for her on the roof of the -- >> right there. >> tell us about that. about that occasion. >> well, i was -- it was quite odd because she disappeared. i mean, when i say disappeared, i mean, we had her up there and then she disappeared and then came out in this beautiful

caftan and such, and it made "time" magazine. liberia was quite a place, as you know, jack. president tolbert did come to the united states for an official visit and we were in protocol and took the president and his wife around the united states. i told you about knocking on the door in liberia, i thought it was quite funny. i talked about escorting mrs. nixon to the president's door and knock on the door, he opens it up and there's president tolbert. >> but he didn't expect you, is that what you're saying? why was he looking at your shoes? >> we were told to come at a certain time. protocol told us to do that. we knocked on the door. he opened it and looks down. it's ludicrous. and then adjusts the door. then pat and i said -- ♪ open the door richard

♪ open the door >> from liberia, we went on to ghana. we didn't do much there. she wanted to go to an orphanage. >> there was an inauguration, right, what was happening in ghana? >> what happened in ghana, there was a coup right after we left. >> right. you distracted the president. >> but in ghana, among the stops she made was to an orphanage. jack, you were with her when she arrived at the orphanage. >> this is typical of her wanting to go to an orphanage. i would go ahead of her, this particular day i was standing with the press. and mrs. nixon came into the orphanage grounds, and i heard the noted philosopher and some time upi writer helen thomas standing next to me, and mrs. nixon can came me in and s and the children ran to her. and helen thomas said, chewing

her gum, she said, they can always tell. i said, what are you talking about? she said, kids can always tell if someone's genuine or a phony. they can tell. it's very telling, kids just saw her and hugged her. >> exactly. we also went to indonesia, and they took her to an orphanage. and it was total chaos because the press came in and the babies started to cry. it was terrible. and when we finished the event, mrs. nixon said, from now on, we'll do orphanages, but no press. >> yeah, right. >> she didn't want the children to be upset. >> right. to frighten them. >> now, another thing in ghana, the nixons had been there, of course in 1957, for their independence ceremony and there had been a chieftain there who had met the president and mrs. nixon briefly. >> i don't remember his name. mary lou is the one who remembering everything. some chief. and he wrote to president nixon

when president nixon became elected. and the president sent a pro fo forma letter saying, thank you very much. and this guy waved this all over ghana saying, this is my buddy, my pal. when we got to the captain of ghana, they said, of course, you must go up to the hills and meet the chief, president nixon's buddy. who in the hell is this guy? but we did. we thought it was a courtesy. well, he had planned for a huge ceremony honoring mrs. nixon. and he was blind by then. the first negotiation as bill is working things out with the guy, we're going to have a mammoth ceremony, all ofsubchieftans wi. the chieftans will be in garb and we'll roast