How Richard Nixon once sent the Queen a book on English language ‘speaking techniques’

Each U.S. president has had to navigate daunting protocols and etiquette during royal encounters. In the case of President Richard Nixon, who visited with the Queen several times, there were a few moments of awkwardness stretching from small talk to the dress code, even amid the smiling images of glamorous encounters.

Nixon was a royal admirer who once sent the Queen a book filled with tips on effectively communicating in English.

On another occasion he had to scrounge for a jacket to meet the Queen’s desire for a less formal dress code. The one he found didn’t fit right. Then he told the Queen about it.

And there is the infamous incident of Nixon reportedly trying to set up Prince Charles with his daughter, Tricia. 

Nixon’s decision to send the Queen a book on English might appear to be an odd gesture for someone who was known for her diction and command of the language. 

But the Queen appeared to reciprocate after their first meeting. She once gushed about a ‘delightful’ meal they spent together and penned informal correspondence referring to the president as ‘Mr. Nixon,’ a never previously-published document obtained by DailyMail.com reveals.

Nixon first met the Queen on a visit to London when he was vice president. He would later host the Queen and then host Prince Philip on a stag visit during his time in the White House.

(On that 1969 visit, it was Prince Philip who felt out of sorts. He later wrote Nixon apologizing for giving a ‘lame’ toast at the star-studded event, as DailyMail.com previously reported). 

Nixon wrote the Queen in October 1957 to pass on a copy of a book they discussed at a luncheon. The book was The Art of Readable Writing, by Rudolf Flesch.

‘I thought you might find some of Mr. Fleisch’s rather startling ideas amusing, in view of our discussion of speaking techniques,’ he told her, in a letter he signed ‘Respectfully yours.’

Nixon sent the Queen a book on ‘plain talk’ and ‘readable writing’

It is among a trove of material about Nixon and the Queen held at the Nixon Library in California. 

The Nixons greeted the Queen that year when she visited Washington and made her first trip the U.S. as Sovereign.

Nixon wrote the Queen in a formal typed letter thanking her and Prince Philip for ‘valued mementoes,’ ‘handsome autographed photographs’ and ‘pleasant meetings during your memorable days in Washington.’ 

But he also pointed to their ‘warm friendliness and charm and our enjoyment of the moments we were privileged to share.’ 

By the following year, the relationship between the Nixons and the Queen appeared to have grown closer, after the Nixons hosted the Queen for a special Thanksgiving dinner at the American ambassador’s residence in London.

The Queen thanked the Nixons for hosting a dinner at the US ambassador’s residence in London. Nixon had to borrow a dinner jacket, according to his daughter Julie Eisenhower Nixon

Nixon and the Queen bonded over a traditional Thanksgiving meal

Nixon attended the dedication of the American Chapel at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

Nixon sent along a copy of a book with ‘startling ideas’ about English

Nixon thanked the Queen for autographed photos on a ‘significant 1957 State Visit’ 

The Queen visited the Capitol on her first trip to the U.S. as Sovereign

A State Department memo gave detailed instructions on where Nixon should turn

Nixon had to find a dinner jacket ‘in a hurry’ when hosting the Queen at the US Ambassador’s residence in London

Luckily, aide Jim Bassett was Nixon’s size (almost)

Nixon’s jacket was ‘too short in the arms,’ his daughter wrote

The Queen wrote Pat Nixon, in a Nov. 28th, 1958 letter on Palace stationary now held at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda obtained by DailyMail.com.

‘Thank you for a delightful dinner party last evening – it was a great pleasure to be able to join you and Mr. Nixon on Thanksgiving Day,’ she wrote – using an informal title for the president in the hand-written letter.

‘I hope you have enjoyed your all to brief stay here in London and I hope you will have a good return flight to your country. With my good wishes to you and Mr. Nixon.’

She signed the letter, ‘Yours sincerely, Elizaeth R.’ 

The Queen was only aware of some of the sartorial drama Nixon had been through.

According to a memoir of Pat Nixon by the Nixons’ younger daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the night began ‘on a frantic note for my parents.’

‘My father had assumed that the dinner would be white tie. But in London he learned that the Queen had specifically requested less formal attire. He had to come up with a dinner jacket in a hurry. He arranged to borrow one from Jim Bassett, who was on leave from the Los Angeles Times, acting as my father’s press aide on the trip.’

But that only halfway solved the problem. ‘Bassett in turn commandeered a suit from a Scotland Yard detective,’ she writes. 

That later led to a cartoon in Punch magazine poking fun at a ‘trouser-less London bobby on guard outside the embassy.’

The suit was ‘too short in the arms and looked as if it had come from a local rental agency,’ she wrote.

Nixon ‘explained his predicament to the Queen, she laughed heartily,’ Tricia Nixon recalled. 

Their relationship continued during Nixon’s long presence on the political scene.

Nixon met the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace in 1969. 

They visited again in 1970 and stayed at Chequers. 

If Nixon was on his best behavior when he was with the Queen, he had some help from protocol officers.

According to a memorandum for the Nixons for a luncheon with the Queen and Prince Philip at the Capitol for the Queen’s 1957 trip: ‘You will escort the royal couple up the steps, pause on the second landing, face the Senate Office Building to permit photographs to get the shot with the Capitol dome in the background. Queen on your right; Prince on Mrs. Nixon’s left.’

Then it was on to Nixon’s formal Senate office and a receiving line. ‘At this time you and the royal couple will be offered drinks. The Queen will probably take either sherry or fruit juice, but a wide variety will be possible,’ according to the memo.

A State Department memo for the visit provided the correct way to address Her Majesty (it said British subjects normally say “Your Majesty” and “Your Royal Highness” ‘and thereafter “Ma’am.”‘

‘However “How do you do” is quite correct,’ it said.

Under ‘Beverages,’ the diplomatic note said ‘The Queen likes Rhine wine, sherry, and Canada Dry ginger ale. Prince Philip may ask for Scotch Whisky and Soda Water or Gin and Tonic Water.’ Special arrangements are being made to serve neutral water for them at all events.’ 

Nixon’s toast at the event, marked ‘as dictated from recollection,’ had the president pointing to the Capitol as a symbol of shared heritage of the English-speaking world.

He went on to recall his trips to far-flung English-speaking nations over the past five years – some part of the former British Empire and some part of the Commonwealth.

He brought up trips to New Zealand and Australia, the Colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore, Malaya, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Ghana and Canada.’

All were bound by ‘three great institutions – the Parliament, the common law ant he English language,’ he said. 

The Queen couldn’t help but comment on expansive geography herself.  ‘I find it difficult to realize that many of your constituents are as far from Washington as I am now from London,’ she said.

(She would later tour the West Coast with Ronald Reagan). 

According to a more infamous story, Nixon tried to set up King Charles III with his daughter Tricia.

Author Sally Bedell Smith told BBC America that then-Prince Charles, 21 at the time, recalled the incident years later when he visited President George W. Bush at the White House. 

‘More than three decades later, when Charles and his new wife, Camilla, visited George W. and Laura Bush at the White House, he joked that the Bushes had better not try to fix up their twin daughters with his sons William and Harry the way Nixon had worked to set him up with Tricia,’ said Smith. 

‘That was quite amusing, I must say,’ then-Prince Charles told CNN. ‘That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon.’

‘All our families are great Anglophiles,’ Tricia Nixon told the BBC during an interview at Prince Charles’ investiture in 1969 at Caernarfon Castle.

She attended as part of a delegation led by former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon invited Humphrey, whom he defeated in the 1968 presidential election, to lead the delegation. 

The Queen caught a cold and couldn’t meet her, but wrote a letter apologizing.