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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI predict Trump will revive Nixon's palace guard uniforms.
Richard Nixons Palace Guard
by Megan McArdle
August 19, 2013 7:00 AM
Its a Monday in the middle of August, and we could all use a break. So lets go back in time to January 1970, when President Richard Nixon was preparing for a visit from Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Nixon, who thought his White House uniform guards looked slovenly, had them outfitted in new uniforms, based on the honor guards he had seen, and been impressed by, in Europe.
My husband, upon seeing this, immediately said Oh my God, those look like marching band uniforms! You can kind of picture them sticking a flute in those holsters, cant you? If an enemy charged the White House, they could quick-draw and start fifing away. Give em the old Yankee Doodle Dandy, boys!
The public reaction to the new uniforms was not good. Heres how Richard Reeves describes it in President Nixon, Alone in the White House:
The uniforms didnt last long. The black hats were the first to go, and by the mid-1970s, the whole uniform had been abandoned. In 1980, the barely-used uniforms were repurposed as yes, you guessed it, the uniforms for the Southern Utah State marching band. Apparently, the college beat out rock singer Alice Cooper, who had wanted five of the tunics for his band. The marching band paid the General Services Administration $90 for shipping, plus a charge for cleaning and pressing.
Theres no larger point to this except, I guess, that we democracy-loving Americans dont want any movie ushers or fife-and-drum corpsmen on the steps of our White House. I just figured we could all use an afternoon laugh.
by Megan McArdle
August 19, 2013 7:00 AM
Its a Monday in the middle of August, and we could all use a break. So lets go back in time to January 1970, when President Richard Nixon was preparing for a visit from Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Nixon, who thought his White House uniform guards looked slovenly, had them outfitted in new uniforms, based on the honor guards he had seen, and been impressed by, in Europe.
My husband, upon seeing this, immediately said Oh my God, those look like marching band uniforms! You can kind of picture them sticking a flute in those holsters, cant you? If an enemy charged the White House, they could quick-draw and start fifing away. Give em the old Yankee Doodle Dandy, boys!
The public reaction to the new uniforms was not good. Heres how Richard Reeves describes it in President Nixon, Alone in the White House:
A couple of days after the State of the Union address, Democrats and the press finally got a chance to mock Nixon. The occasion was a state visit by Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Great Britain and the official unveiling of new White House police uniforms, inspired by the honor guards Nixon had seen in Europe. The cops were wearing double-breasted white tunics with starred epaulets, gold piping, draped braid, and high black plastic hats decorated with a large White House crest. They look like old-time movie ushers, said the Buffalo News. The Student Prince said the Chicago Daily News. In the Chicago Tribune, a Nixon friend, columnist Walter Trohan, was more serious, saying the uniforms belonged onstage, calling them frank borrowing from decadent European monarchies, which is abhorrent to this countrys democratic tradition.
The uniforms didnt last long. The black hats were the first to go, and by the mid-1970s, the whole uniform had been abandoned. In 1980, the barely-used uniforms were repurposed as yes, you guessed it, the uniforms for the Southern Utah State marching band. Apparently, the college beat out rock singer Alice Cooper, who had wanted five of the tunics for his band. The marching band paid the General Services Administration $90 for shipping, plus a charge for cleaning and pressing.
Theres no larger point to this except, I guess, that we democracy-loving Americans dont want any movie ushers or fife-and-drum corpsmen on the steps of our White House. I just figured we could all use an afternoon laugh.
Nixons Palace Guard
January 1970: The White House guard (secret service uniformed division) publicly revealed their new uniforms which featured a white, double-breasted tunic with gold shoulder trim and a stiff shako hat with peaked front. They replaced the black uniforms the guards had previously worn on ceremonial occasions.
President Nixon had ordered that a new uniform be designed after he had seen what palace guards wore in other countries and had decided that the White House needed something as fancy.
January 1970: The White House guard (secret service uniformed division) publicly revealed their new uniforms which featured a white, double-breasted tunic with gold shoulder trim and a stiff shako hat with peaked front. They replaced the black uniforms the guards had previously worn on ceremonial occasions.
President Nixon had ordered that a new uniform be designed after he had seen what palace guards wore in other countries and had decided that the White House needed something as fancy.
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I predict Trump will revive Nixon's palace guard uniforms. (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Jan 2017
OP
underpants
(182,829 posts)1. But this time all in GOLD
Because Snowflake thinks that is "classy".
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,733 posts)2. Those are elegant compared to what Trump might come up with.
I remember the Nixon uniforms; the whole country LOL'd and they were soon done away with. Even Nixon could be shamed, but Trump, not so much. I would expect something more like this, only with even more gold braid:
angstlessk
(11,862 posts)3. And it even looks like someone peed all over the front of his uniform
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)4. He's at the Holocaust Museum looking for guard uniform patterns.
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,734 posts)5. I'm hoping he corrals the "witch hunt" .....
We may get some flying monkeys in gold lamay.
That would be a great presser. Flying monkeys on either side of the podium ready to cart off any media figures that piss him on... Sorry meant off.
rug
(82,333 posts)6. I had forgotten about them.
They will appeal to the Little Lord Fauntleroy in him.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)7. You're probably right.
MFM008
(19,816 posts)8. another asshole who got himself impeached
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