At the height of the Cold War and the Red Scare, US Vice President Richard M Nixon, who would become one of the most infamous political figures of a turbulent 20th century after the Watergate scandal, toured New Zealand on a Downunder charm offensive.
Now, decades later, top secret files have been declassified. The remarkable treasure trove of documents outlines stealthy planning between White House and Beehive politicos, behind-closed-doors fears of “Communist Asia”, Prime Minister Sidney Holland private briefing notes, and an embarrassing mix-up over who picked up the bill for a grand function. The visit also saw an audacious heist carried out by Kiwi airmen on Nixon’s plane. Kurt Bayer reports.
Richard Milhous Nixon, son of a devout Quaker and service station owner, smiled like it stung. He wore a happy face like a butcher’s apron, a welder’s helmet, a necessary accoutrement for the job. At 40, he was a young politician in a hurry. And he took his job seriously.
After the bloody Korean War disaster, President Dwight D Eisenhower embarked on a new offensive, swapping bombs for charm. The United States, the world’s overwhelming superpower and self-styled global watchdog, was wounded and in need of propping up. And Nixon was the man he wanted out and about. He was tasked with touring Asia and the Pacific, getting friendlies even friendlier.
Nixon, Republican, keen golfer, was so invested in his task Downunder that all tee-off times were flat-out rejected. One State Department officer who accompanied the Vice President on his travels wrote a secret memorandum for the New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC.
“Mr Nixon took his assignment very seriously,” documents declassified in 1996 and which now are housed in Archives New Zealand in Wellington reveal.
“The State Department was both surprised and pleased at the amount of time which he spent on briefing himself before his departure.
“Mr [Philip] Watts [the State Department officer who went with Nixon] said he found the Vice President an easy travelling companion, though not a man of any great humour.
“He applied himself diligently to his task throughout the whole tour and was not willing to accept any opportunities for relaxation. His only sport is golf, but he refused all invitations to play because he thought they were incompatible with the seriousness of his task.”
Secret plans
The Korean War and Senator Joe McCarthy’s feverish paranoia about America’s internal Communist threat had Kiwis wary of their longstanding friend. The US needed allies, especially in the Pacific, and Nixon was deemed the man to win them over.
Three days before an armistice was signed, ending combat operations in Korea, a proxy war for the Cold War that ended in stalemate with an estimated 1.5 million dead and the border between North and South Korea near where it had been at the war’s beginning, a telegram landed in Wellington.
“State Department advise us unofficially that arrangements for a visit to the Pacific, including New Zealand, by the Vice President of the United States are now fairly well advanced,” said George Laking, Auckland Grammar old boy and future Chief Ombudsman, but who on July 24, 1953, was working at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC.
While World War I veteran and incumbent Prime Minister Sidney Holland’s maiden National Government embraced the idea, they had a problem on their hands.
They desperately wanted to avoid a clash with visiting British Government ministers, including the aristocratic decorated war hero Lord De L’Isle and Dudley, along with John Profumo, who would later become embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of 20th-century British politics.
After some juggling, and dates being shifted around, the American’s precedent-setting visit was locked in for mid-October, before he was to cross the Tasman Sea to Australia.
But the trip had to be kept under wraps while the US State Department confirmed other countries. Nixon also didn’t want any publicity until after Labor Day, when Eisenhower gave a speech warning of the “sly evil of the promises of totalitarianism”.
A State Luncheon “on the largest scale” was ordered by Prime Minister Holland. A draft itinerary was drawn up, but Nixon wasn’t pleased. He was “disappointed” that the proposed arrangements saw him avoid Auckland – a place he had a “longing” to visit, dating back to his time as a US Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific during WWII. Nixon was assured they would look at it, and perhaps add in a scenic attraction like the Waitomo glowworm caves or Rotorua mud pools.
And he had another suggestion. Nixon wanted to catch up with Major-General Harold Barrowclough, the legendary military leader he met during Operation Squarepeg – the Battle of the Green Islands where Kiwi forces fought alongside Americans - including Lieutenant Nixon - against the Japanese and captured several key atolls.
Nixon himself floated the idea of a reunion of “officers and other ranks” from the 3rd New Zealand Division in Auckland.
When the fact-finding trip was announced in Washington, Nixon said his Asia tour’s fundamental purpose was “to discover, to anticipate and to reduce points of latent friction with the United States throughout Asia and the Far East” and, generally, to “act as the eyes and ears of President Eisenhower”.
In the official travel party was First Lady Pat Nixon, master diplomat Christian Herter - who had just graced the cover of Time magazine - several military aides, State Department officials, three grizzled news wire correspondents and Nixon’s fiercely loyal secretary and gatekeeper Rose Mary Woods.
Nixon, the New Zealand Government was told, would not be giving any press conferences and preferred to keep any speeches not too “long and serious” but rather “make a shorter radio talk”.
Eisenhower wrote directly to Holland in the days ahead of the much-anticipated visit, saying he was “hopeful” he would “be good enough to afford the Vice President the privilege of hearing your views on matters of concern to New Zealand – a member nation of the British Commonwealth, in an area of special significance”.
Touchdown Downunder
A grinning Nixon stepped off his Super Constellation plane at Ohakea air base outside Palmerston North on the morning of October 12, 1953, looking fresh. He had a packed schedule for his four-day whirlwind stay.
After resting up at Government House – and the others staying at the art deco Hotel Waterloo, now a downtown Wellington backpackers - the American statesman met Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, a veteran of both world wars, and laid a wreath at the Wellington War Memorial cenotaph before mingling at an ambassador’s dinner party.
The next morning was free for the likely jet-lagged Nixon. Holland, meanwhile, got ready to bend Tricky Dicky’s ear.
Declassified briefing notes ahead of the pair’s private chats were topped by “Economic questions”, with aides suggesting the Prime Minister argues for reduced wool tariffs and cuts to restrictions on dairy produce imports. Also on the agenda were international affairs, echoing global concerns over Korea, Germany and “Soviet policy on Germany”.
“There is good reason to believe that the Soviet Union genuinely fears the possible dangers which a re-armed Germany in association with the Western Powers may present,” the briefing notes say.
“The Vice President could therefore be asked whether he considers that a guarantee to the Soviet Union against German aggression would provide a likely means of breaking the deadlock on German reunification and prepare the way to a general German settlement.”
They met behind closed doors ahead of the grand State Luncheon at Parliament House, where Holland buttered up his illustrious visitor further and stressed their countries’ special relationship, sharing “sentiments of cordial goodwill, warm friendship and mutual understanding”.
The PM quoted from Abraham Lincoln’s speech - made just 41 days before his assassination - where he spoke of “malice toward none, with charity for all … let us … do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”, adding that the words have been invested with a new urgency given the post-WWII upheavals and insecurities.
There was another formal soiree at Government House that night before Nixon flew to Hamilton the next morning. After touching down at Rukuhia Airfield, now Hamilton Airport, the Vice President visited a “typical Waikato commercial dairy farm of Mr S Roberts” ahead of arriving at Tūrangawaewae Marae at Ngāruawāhia, where he was given a traditional Māori welcome by King Koroki and elders.
The City of Sails was next, with Auckland Mayor Sir John Allum, a former London messenger boy and “father” of the harbour bridge, greeting him at Whenuapai Airport. Mr and Mrs Nixon stayed in the Proprietor’s Flat at the exclusive Roedean Guest House, which, over the years, also hosted other celebrities including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Gene Pitney and Chubby Checker.
That night, Nixon got his war buddies reunion at a reception hosted at the Auckland RSA hall. He was met by Barrowclough and other Kiwi veterans and had to be dragged away to attend a civic dinner with the mayor at the 100-year-old private Auckland Club.
An awkward fumble for the reunion’s bill later emerged. The declassified papers reveal Prime Minister Holland seemingly being mortified that Sir Barrowclough, by now Chief Justice, had paid for the function out of his own pocket.
“Although he has not raised this question directly, I think he expected at the time that at least some of the expense of the function would be met by the Government,” a memo to the PM more than seven months later said.
Holland was keen to pick up the bill but Barrowclough wouldn’t have it. He said he was delighted to host Nixon “as a private citizen” and would feel “very unworthy if the cost of the entertainment were to come out of any pocket but my own”.
Barrowclough, however, was grateful for the PM’s offer, saying it was “typical of him and is greatly appreciated ... but I would be really embarrassed if he insisted on my accepting it”.
Deputy Prime Minister Keith Holyoake bade Nixon farewell and the next morning he flew across the Tasman to visit Sydney Trades Hall amid fears of communist agitators, swing a cricket bat on the hallowed Melbourne Cricket Ground turf, and attend the Caulfield Cup horse race.
From Singapore, Nixon wrote to Prime Minister Holland to thank him for the “kindness and hospitality” he and the First Lady enjoyed Downunder.
“We shall always remember the warmth of our reception and look forward to seeing you again, either in Washington or Wellington ... We have forwarded the rugs to our home, and you may be sure we are looking forward with pleasure to using them,” says the signed letter, dated October 25, 1953.
Returning the expressions of goodwill, Holland told President Eisenhower said the trip helped strengthen the “bond of friendship” between the two nations, which shared a common cause in the “defence of values which both of our countries cherish”.
There was one final twist on the Nixon visit.
While his Super Constellation sat guarded at RNZAF Ohakea air base, some cheeky Kiwi airmen hatched a cunning plan. Members of 75 Squadron saw a chance for a unique souvenir. Creeping past security guards, they snuck up to Nixon’s plane and removed the polished metal Vice-Presidential seal plaque.
Delighted with their prize, it went straight to the crew room. But within days, in the sobering light of day, discretion became the better part of valour and they thought better of incurring the wrath of the world’s policeman. Mustang aircraft were scrambled to fly the seal up to Whenuapai, where it was sheepishly handed back to the American captain.
Nixon, however, thought the heist hilarious. He ordered a replica to be made out of hardwood which was presented to 75 Squadron on June 30, 1954.
“To 75 Squadron, RNZAF, with best wishes for happy flying always, Richard Nixon,” he wrote.
It appeared that Tricky Dicky, despite what his travelling companions reported back, had a sense of humour after all.
- Kurt Bayer is NZME South Island Head of News based in Christchurch. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2011.
