Pye Chamberlain: July 1978, Richard Nixon makes his first post-Watergate speech in a small town in the Kentucky coalfields.
This is Pye Chamberlain, a recap in a moment.
Unknown Speaker: "There's people around here that are getting hurt by this, not only in people that work at Youngstown 24:499 (inaudible); people that worked that had grocery stores, had -- had small taverns. Their business is dead right now. This doesn’t only hurt 5,000 men; it hurts the whole community."
Unknown Speaker: When absentee owners suddenly closed the steel mill last year, a shockwave struck this community. The worst part was there was nothing the people could do about it as individuals. But then they got together. With helped from Campaign for Human Development and others, the workers have formed a coalition to try to buy and operate the mill themselves. The result is not only new hope, but unity and determination …
Unknown Speaker: "We are working very hard toward it, and there's a couple of big things that have to be done. But we feel that it can be done, we know the pieces are there; if we can get the right people to put them together, it can be done."
Unknown Speaker: "And I think it -- it can be done and will be done."
Pye Chamberlain: People together can make a difference. Campaign for Human Development, United States Catholic Conference...
Unknown Speaker: "The 37th President of the United States, Honorable Richard M. Nixon."
"(Applause.)"
Pye Chamberlain: You'd have thought he was still President. Of course, Nixon did a lot for Hyden, Kentucky. This handsome, modernistic gymnasium named for him was built with money from the revenue-sharing program which passed when he was President. It’s the only structure of consequence in town. In his first post-Watergate speech, Nixon launched an implied attack on President Carter, calling him na?¯ve in foreign policy and criticizing his human-rights rhetoric …
Former President Richard M. Nixon: "This is a time when we could well in the field of negotiations cool the public rhetoric and toughen up the private bargaining."
"(Applause.)"
Pye Chamberlain: Nixon had asked that the band play "God Bless America" as he left the auditorium ...
(Music.)
Pye Chamberlain: But instead, in an ironic if unintentional reference to the newspaper that did most to bring him down, it played the Washington Post march, the only allusion of his trip to Watergate.
This is Pye Chamberlain reporting.
