"SEARCHLIGHT is on the lawn!"
The Richard Nixon Foundation has created a new resource for great information about President Nixon's impromptu late night visit to talk with the antiwar demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial fifty years ago today on May 9, 1970.
Click the links below or visit the Nixon Foundation's website to learn more!
President Nixon’s Historic Visit
to the Lincoln Memorial
Fifty years ago today, in the early hours of May 9, 1970, as many as 100,000 protesters gathered in Washington for a demonstration against the Kent State killings and the Cambodian incursion. President Nixon was early and working in the Lincoln Sitting Room.
Looking out the window, he noticed the activity on the ground of the Washington Monument.
When his personal aide, Manolo Sanchez, said that he had never been to the Lincoln Memorial, the President decided to make a spontaneous visit to share what he considered the most beautiful spot in Washington — the Lincoln Memorial by night.
Visit the Nixon Foundation website to learn more about the historic meeting and to hear President Nixon's own recollections of the event.