Nixon’s Helen Gahagan Douglas Attack Called Dirty Tricks Forerunner

I read (Joseph N. Bell’s) column regularly. I too am a Democrat in this County of Orange. You have hit on some themes that I have responded to in my mind but never took action to write. However the Feb. 1 column on the Nixon questions which I copied and mailed to my daughter still lingers in my unanswered letter file.

“His life passed before me in Technicolor bursts. . . .”

I could have written that! Richard Nixon, the politician, came into my home by way of a mailer designed to defeat my candidate Helen Gahagan Douglas. It was the forerunner of all the “dirty tricks” I came to recognize as Nixon’s trademark. The mailer came the day before Election Day and would you believe? It was printed on pink paper--dirty, Commie Pinkos--the McCarthy touch. I rejected that man that day and only despaired further each time he gained another political victory.

I am dismayed by the apathy of young people (and some older folks) because they don’t bother to vote. But when a man of this stripe is hailed as a great leader I can understand why they are turned off.

The mailer made such an impression on my voting habits that I now look at each one--not at the message--but at the small print in the corner that tells me who paid for the mailing. In many local elections I have voted not for or against the issue or the candidate--but against the mailer itself.

Jean Sullivan,

Newport Beach