Oct 22, 2015 - Sale 2394

Sale 2394 - Lot 169

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
DO NOT ENDORSE LT. GOVERNOR BECAUSE HE "FIDDLED WHILE WATTS BURNED" NIXON, RICHARD M. Typed Letter Signed, "Dick," to CEO of the Hearst Foundation Richard E. Berlin ("Dear Dick"), explaining that this letter is not meant to influence the editorial decisions that Hearst papers will be making [concerning the endorsements for candidates in the 1966 CA state races], expressing hope that the Hearst papers would endorse Reagan for Governor and Finch for Lieutenant Governor, claiming that incumbent Lt. Gov. Glenn M. Anderson is responsible for the some of the death and damage incurred during the Watts riots, and suggesting that an endorsement of Anderson is an endorsement of radical views that are incompatible with the principles of the Hearst papers. 2 pages, 4to, personal stationery, written on rectos only of separate sheets; loss at upper corners of each sheet repaired with paper, horizontal folds. (TFC) New York, 12 October 1966
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

". . . I would not for a moment impose on your friendship to attempt to influence the editorial decisions which I know the Hearst papers will be making in Los Angeles and San Francisco within the next few days.
". . . I strongly favor the election of Ronald Reagan and the other statewide Republican candidates. I . . . am aware that . . . the decision as far as the governorship is concerned is still to be made at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. I naturally hope that the Los Angeles paper will do what it did in 1964 in supporting the Republican ticket . . . .
"There is one office, however, on which I have the very strongest personal convictions and where I hope both the San Francisco and Los Angeles papers will reach the same conclusion. Bob Finch, the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor is probably the best qualified . . . .
". . . The Hearst papers have been strongly anti-communist, anti-radical, for a strong stand against aggression in Vietnam, and for a firm handling of the disgraceful mob rule which brought the great University of California to its knees and made Watts such a symbol of terror for all the world to see. Anderson . . . is . . . a charter member of the radical left in California. . . . [H]e refused to support action to deal with the lawless elements at the University of California. And . . . he delayed calling out the National Guard because of his desire to curry favor with the radical civil rights elements with the result that damage to life and property soared unnecessarily. . . . Anderson fiddled while Watts burned.
". . . I hope your editorial boards will not allow the . . . Hearst papers . . . to be used to promote the candidacy of a man who throughout his public life has fought against most of the principles for which the Hearst papers have stood.
"This is a strictly personal letter . . . . I am not writing 'for the record' or to impress someone later who may be writing the history of this election. . . ."