Was Nixon's 1969 (wartime) inauguration very lavish?

[bluestateguy]

We have been told that FDR's 1945 inaugural was a very simple affair, while both of Lincoln's inaugurals were solemn affairs. I am curious to know what Nixon's 1969 inaugural was like. This was the height of the Vietnam War and I'm wondering if anyone knows about or remembers that event.

Or maybe someone could share what they know about Eisenhower's 1953 inaugural during the Korean War.

[despairing optimist]

1. From what I recall, and I was a kid at the time . . .

the first Nixon inaugural was a pretty fancy affair, especially since it marked the first Republican administration in eight years and Nixon had lost a squeaker to JFK at that time. There was an almost hysterical (in the psychological sense of the word) attempt to make things seem "normal" amid the nightmare of the Vietnam war, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and RFK, the riots and civil rights struggles, the growing antiwar and draft resistance movements, and student uprisings on college campuses. Very Stepfordish, and I think an apt precursor of today's repressive environment.

Then as now, the country was deeply divided and support for the war was used as a litmus test for patriotism by those who valued loyalty to the president above all else. It was the imperial presidency in full flower, and the inaugural was hardly a simple affair. It was a distraction designed to keep people's eyes away from how awful things really were.

[madrchsod]

2. here are two places i found.

<http://www.archives.gov/research_room/federal_records_guide/presidential_inaugural_committees_rg274.html[br />NARA] | Research Room | Guide to Records of Presidential Inaugural Committees
<http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/collections/exhibits/arch/1969/1969-1.html[br />1969-1]

the first has a lot of info but i don`t have time to look and the second goes to show somethings never change... only 10,000 and 2,000 protesters.....
from what i can remember is that there wasn`t a huge amount of attention on the inaugural crap. there was a war going on and people in the streets.

[lenidog]

3. We keep on getting told that FDRs was a simple affair

but it was his 4th, he was also seriously ill and how about the the other three like the two that were in the depths of the Great Depression or the one where the whole world had just decided to go to war.

[Piperay]

4. I believe that Nixon was unable to

get out of the car and walk because the event was so heavily protested.