RMA Presents: The President’s Man: The Memoirs of Nixon’s Trusted Aide
By the Retired Men’s Association
At the October 12 meeting of the Retired Men’s Association, Bob Rimmer introduced the speaker, Dwight Chapin. From Nixon’s, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” at the end of his 1962 California gubernatorial campaign, through his world-changing trips to China and Russia and his epic downfall, Dwight Chapin was at the president’s side. He was with him in his most private and public moments. While still in his twenties, Chapin served as Nixon’s personal aide and then as deputy assistant in the White House. He travelled with him, advised, strategized, campaigned, and learned from America’s most controversial president.
Chapin had an interesting and unusual life. He was born in humble beginnings on a farm in Kansas in 1940. Even as a young boy, he had to work hard and contribute to the responsibilities of running a family farm. When his family moved to California, he experienced a major culture shock. He went from classrooms that covered three grades to a high school with fourteen thousand people, but he adapted. He was energetic and motivated. He went to college at the University of Southern California, where, in a pivotal move, he got into political organizing for the Republican Party. In 1962, during Richard Nixon’s run for governor of California, he worked for HR Haldeman setting up local Republican offices in several California counties. Although Nixon lost, Chapin impressed Haldeman and was offered a job at the big advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson. He continued the relationship with Nixon and Haldeman and, in 1968, he became Nixon’s personal aide, crisscrossing the country with Nixon and his team, raising money. This experience gave the young Chapin a unique perspective on Nixon, having worked so closely and personally with him for so many years.
Chapin shared with us that he saw Nixon as a man of incredible resiliency, one who suffered terrible defeats and made serious mistakes, but who managed to keep going. He lost a presidential election to Kennedy and a gubernatorial election, but still returned to run for and ultimately win the presidency. After he resigned in disgrace in 1974, he continued working, writing nine books.
Chapin suggested that Nixon was very adaptable, learning for example, when he finally became president, how to use TV to his advantage, even after previous failures. He was very hard working and analytical and had a rigorous mind. Chapin also showed examples of Nixon privately reaching out to Hubert Humphrey in Humphrey’s moment of defeat and to Coretta King after her husband’s death. Further, he was prepared to do the unthinkable to advance the interests of the United States, as when he normalized relations with Communist China, even though he had been a staunch anti-communist throughout most of his political life. In short, Chapin asked us to judge Nixon by his whole life, not by his most egregious failure, just as Bill Clinton suggested we should do in his eulogy to Nixon in 1994.
Note: The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker, and do not represent the views of the RMA.
To see the full presentation, go to https://greenwichrma.org/, cursor to “Speakers” and click on “Speaker Videos.”
The RMA’s upcoming presentation, “The Case for Putting Plants First in Your Diet” by Dr. Katie Takayasu, is scheduled for 11 AM on Wednesday, October 26. Dr. Takayasu is an Integrative Medicine Physician and author of Plants First: A Physician’s Guide to Wellness Through a Plant-Forward Diet. She practices holistic health, bridging the gap between traditional Western medicine and the evidenced-based health tools of nutrition, acupuncture, meditation, botanicals and lifestyle.
She works one-on-one helping patients to recognize their own balance in mind, body, and spirit as well as in group settings with the gentle but effective jumpstart to reclaiming wellness and lifestyle balance by harnessing the body’s natural propensity for detoxification.
Dr. Takayasu attended the University of Michigan and Wright State University where she graduated with an M.D. and M.B.A. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian where she became Chief Resident.
Dr. Takayasu is married with two sons and resides in Darien.
Please note: Attendees must show proof of vaccination and booster at the door for admittance.
To stream Dr. Takayasu’s presentation at 11 AM on Wednesday, October 26, click here (https://bit.ly/30IBj21). This presentation will also be available on local public access TV Channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum (Cablevision) channel 79.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer, and community service opportunities which the RMA offers to its members. For further information, go to www.greenwichrma.org, or contact our membership chairman (mailto:members@greenwichrma.org).
