Flight of Three Presidents

(3 of 5)

As they stood in the aisle, they began to call each other Dick, Jerry and Jimmy ("The first time," laughed Carter later). Nixon had a martini, maybe two, and gulped peanuts by the handful. Ford, wearing a red golf sweater now, had his pipe. As the talk mounted, Carter perched on the arm of a seat. Everyone shared Sadat stories. The universal respect and affection for the murdered leader was truly remarkable. The Presidents next turned to the dangers ahead in the Middle East. The conversation swung to the proposed sale of AW ACS planes to Saudi Arabia. The discussion became curiously vehement, with each of the Presidents emphasizing his support. If the Senate turned down the AW ACS deal, they agreed, America's relationship with the Saudis would undergo a dangerous change.

At one point, Al Haig came back and quietly sought out Kissinger. Just as he boarded the plane, Haig explained, he had been handed cables from the U.S. embassy in Jidda, wondering about giving a dinner for Nixon. My God, asked Haig, was Nixon going to Saudi Arabia? By this time, White House Aide Mike Deaver was calling 26000 with the same question. Kissinger agreed to ask discreetly what was going on. Ever the conspirator, Nixon threw his hands in the air. He was not sure, he claimed. He had invitations to visit several nations in the Middle East. Whether the Saudis would let him come had not yet been resolved.

It was plain to see that at the center of the tiny cylindrical stage hurtling through the sky over the Atlantic was none other than the rascal of the age, Richard Milhous Nixon. The other two Presidents watched him. Jimmy Carter could not contain his curiosity. Former Press Secretary Jody Powell noticed that Carter stayed with Nixon. They talked about China and some of the personalities in Washington ("How wicked that must have been!" chortled one witness).

House Majority Leader James Wright studied the three Presidents with a bit of Texas melancholia. Twenty years earlier he had gone to a small Baptist church in Bonham to say a farewell to a great American, Sam Rayburn. On that day, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had shared a cramped pew. Wright had never forgotten the moment, and thought he would never see anything like it again. But here before him was a similar scene. Nixon came to Wright's seat and shook his hand. Then he reached back into that crammed cerebrum and recalled the time when Wright had sponsored a resolution calling for a peaceful settlement of the Viet Nam War.'Nixon was still grateful.

Common interests arose. The Presidents talked of their libraries (Ford's, and Nixon's and Carter's to be), of writing books and just living as an ex-President (pretty good). All three men seemed to swell a bit as the evening wore on. Warmth replaced coolness. Each man, in his own way, sensed that he was back on a stage, that he could make a little more favorable history for himself.

Whispering her thoughts to a fellow passenger, Rosalynn Carter expressed genuine surprise at how nice Nixon was. Henry Kissinger decided again what a terrible shame it was that Ford had not been reelected. Sol Linowitz worried that if he dozed off, great events might happen at his side and he would never know.