Pat Nixon is back in the news, this being her 100th birthday year. And despite the biographies by her daughter Julie and others, we’re still learning details about the trailblazing first lady’s diplomatic trips.
One was revealed last week during a panel discussion of former Nixon aides about Pat’s trips, notably with President Nixon to China in 1972. The trip drew all the big TV reporters, such as Barbara Walters and Walter Cronkite. Former aide Jack Brennan revealed that Walters tried to hog the first lady. “Barbara Walters was especially egregious, always trying to stand next to Mrs. Nixon.”
Brennan told a National Archives audience that he got so fed up near the end of the trip that “I just took Barbara Walters by the arm, took her aside and said, ‘This is not the Barbara Walters show.’”
