Rising Above Personal Grievances

Rising Above Personal Grievances

1988 6 June 14 Rising Above Personal Grievances (355) “Some say there’s a new Nixon. And they wonder if there’s a new Freeman. I would like to think that that’s all behind us. After all, he is the new diplomat and I am the new statesman, trying to do our best for peace in the world.”

A few months before Richard Nixon was elected U.S. President in 1969, he was scathingly criticized in public by an English diplomat, John Freeman, who called him “a man of no principle whatsoever except a willingness to sacrifice everything in the cause of Dick Nixon.” The former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger records this incident, and its sequel, in his book, The White House Years. After Nixon had become President, John Freeman, by some strange play of fate, was appointed British Ambassador to America. Nixon, presumably foreseeing a great deal of unpleasantness arising from this situation, immediately sent a request to the then British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, to appoint some other diplomat who would be more acceptable to the new American government. Wilson, however, did not accede to his proposal. Things went from bad to worse when Nixon made an official visit to Britain as U.S. President, and found that Freeman’s name was on the guest list of dinner arranged in his honour at No. 10 Downing Street. Nixon did everything in his power to have Freeman’s name deleted from the list, but the British Prime Minister did not see fit to oblige him. It was a situation of the utmost delicacy. However, when Nixon stood up to propose an after-dinner toast, quite contrary to all expectations, he looked directly at Freeman and said, “Some say there’s a new Nixon. And they wonder if there’s a new Freeman. I would like to think that that’s all behind us. After all, he is the new diplomat and I am the new statesman, trying to do our best for peace in the world.” According to Kissinger, “The usually imperturbable Freeman was close to tears.”

By changing himself, Richard Nixon had managed to change Freeman too. From then onwards, both Freeman and Nixon were different men for each other.