The Richard Nixon - Ray Conniff Incident (1972)

This has always been one of my favorite moments in Richard Nixon history. But the Richard Nixon reaction as heard here in the second video from the Nixon Tapes is new to me and man, if it isn't even more entertaining than the incident itself!

Comments

[Walter]

Thank you for this piece of history unknown to me so far. I think that more peopel are needed to show this courage if we want to change the world to the better. It really makes me feel proud to belong to the generation of the 68.

Many thanks from switzerland

[Aaron]

Hey even Nixon thought Ray Conniff was "square". Wow, thats just great. In those days they never did background checks apparently. Good for her. Now if only this happened after Watergate!

[bartleby]

Wow impressive, especially by comparison to presidential event crashers these days who seem to consider getting on TV for doing so an end rather than a means.

[bartleby]

I guess a modern-day equivalent would be this gentleman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LHtgzqTo0

http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/800/1/

[Grant]

Wow. Thanks so much for this.

[Kevin MacNutt]

Leave it to Richard Nixon to be a Ray Coniff fan. "Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me" is about a far from a protest song as you could get.

[Fred]

I understand that Nixon didn't care too much for Ray Siliconiff, though.

[buenos aires real estate]

Always interesting posts, congrats for the great results.

[Ivy]

Wow, good for the lady (I'm not sure how to spell her name.) She had guts. As for Nixon's musical taste.... well, he said it perfectly: the Ray Conniff singers were the equivalent of the Reader's Digest.

[Ivy]

Was this the video in which Nixon commented on the incident? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1_JGX3jVY

[Tamarastar]

What's interesting is that my dad, Ray, actually had John Lennon's "Imagine" in the music books that night. His music may have been considered "square" by some, but his arrangements were nothing but. And, he managed to have a 60-year career in music, no small feat.

[kuppajava]

There's a great article from about ten years ago discussing this incident called Richard Nixon and the Oobie-Doobie Girl. Thank you for your brave stand Carole Feraci!!

[tomasz.]

wow. great stuff.

[eclectik]

Nixon - a disgusting man.
Almost as bad are those artists, like Mr. Conniff, who, instead of questioning power,challenging injustice and promoting peace and democracy, simply are in the pay of corrupt power brokers, echoing and amplifying their bloody propaganda.
Sickening.

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[ROxy]

Ive been blessed to meet this woman and have a relationship she is till the same spunky person

[Luiz]

@Roxy

Hey man, what is she doing nowadays? She deserves applause. I just learn about the events and I am googling to find info about her, but haven't found much so far...

cheers

[Ted McCarron]

Who is that worthless bitch? She basically sided with Communist genocide that night. She cared nothing for human rights. If she had she would have condemned the Communists for attaching South Vietnam.

[Rowby]

Here's Ray Coniff's group singing the complete "Ma -- He's Making Eyes at Me".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNWQ1pzkMp8

[Ed Borden]

oddly enough, Nixon was the one president since Vietnam started who actually put effort into ending it. He worked tirelessly w/ the south vietnamese govt to make arrangements to extract troops whereas Kennedy started our involvement there and LBJ escalated it. So, idiotic displays like this, were counterintuitive.