Nixon Returns to Burma Where He Made a Wish in ’53
Former President Richard M. Nixon today returned to Shwedagon Pagoda, where he rang the wishing bell in 1953 when he was vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Local belief has it that visitors who ring the bell will return to Burma.
On Sunday, the first day of a two-day visit to this Asian nation, Nixon visited the shrine of the world’s largest reclining Buddha and met with Burmese leader Ne Win and President U San Yu.
Nixon, accompanied on an Asian tour by former Treasury Secretary John B. Connally, was greeted at the airport on his arrival by Foreign Minister U Chit Hlaing and U.S. Ambassador Daniel A. O’Donohue.
Nixon’s tour has included stops in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. He will visit Pakistan next.
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