As we contemplate Bush's upcoming visit to Jolly Olde, it's instructive to look back at the visit of Vice President and Mrs. Nixon to Venezuela in 1958.
http://shafr.history.ohio-state.edu/Newsletter/2000/SEP/spit.htmThe Vice President, in a dark blue suit, and Mrs. Nixon, in a red suit and hat, stepped from the US Air Force DC-6 with its red, white and blue propeller tips, to face the usual group of dignitaries lined up along the traditional red carpet in order of protocol. The waves and broad smiles of the Nixons quickly disappeared as they saw the hostile crowd on the balcony of the terminal and along their path. By the time they reached the bottom of the plane's steps, a very grim Vice President and lady stepped onto the tarmac, hearing anti-Nixon shouts and looking at banners reading, "Go home, Nixon," "Go away, Nixon," "Out, dog," "We won't forget Guatemala" (a reference to the ouster of the left-wing Arbenz regime in Guatemala with US assistance), etc.
At Venezuelan insistence, the motorcade was parked in front of the terminal. Consequently the Vice President's party had to walk under the balcony from which hundreds of people were spitting down on us, through the terminal and out to the front. We were spat upon all the way out to the cars and literally had to shove people aside to get the Vice President inside. We thought the worst was over. It wasn't.
The motorcade was "buzzed" by cars on the highway up to the city. Ironically, Communist propaganda had been so effective that a group (mob would be a better word) of teenage kids and their organizers attacked us as we entered the city streets. That point could have been catastrophic, and it did get bad enough that one of the Secret Service men drew his gun. Had he fired, the mob might have become incensed enough to have really gone after us. However, a decision was made to run for it directly to the American Ambassador's residence, where the Nixons holed up for the rest of their visit. American troops, drawn from the Embassy Marine guards and the US Military Mission, came to stand guard at the residence for the duration of the visit. No one knew what to expect but no attack ever materialized at the residence, a lovely home on a hilltop in a suburban neighborhood and an area too far to walk from any public transport, a key factor. Years in Latin America have convinced me that Latin revolutionaries, rioters and the like, will risk being beaten, shot, and even tortured but they will neither walk very far nor stay out in the streets and get wet if it rains. In any event, Nixon was safe for the moment.
The decision to flee to the security of the residence saved the Nixons' lives and ours. Unknown to those of us in the motorcade, several of our people waiting at the National Pantheon with the wreaths Nixon was to have laid at the tomb of Simon Bolivar, were attacked by a mob. The commander of the Venezuelan Honor Guard there called for help. When the troops moved in they picked up over two hundred Communists with Molotov cocktails. Had the motorcade of big Cadillac's turned into that area of the old city with its very narrow streets, we would have been burned to death. That mob of kids had saved us from the professionals.
Once we were settled in the residence, I went outside for some air and happened to look at the car. It was hard to believe that that black Cadillac with diplomatic license plates 63-CD had borne the Vice President of the United States. The rear windows were shattered, sputum was all over it and the windshield was just a white smear as the driver had tried to remove the spit with the wipers. It was difficult at that moment not to hate Venezuelans.
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