The Day Was a Reunion of Old Friends

Like old chums, they shook hands and slapped backs. They broke bread and they swapped stories. They smiled in the face of a relentless press corps that at one point nearly pushed them against a wall to get photos.

But mostly, these members of one of history’s most exclusive fraternities took time during a ceremony attended by more than 40,000 fans and dignitaries to laud one of their own--Richard M. Nixon, the nation’s 37th President, the politician who left Washington in disgrace after the Watergate debacle.

President Bush joined former Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan to toast Nixon and wish him well during Thursday’s hourlong dedication of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace. The four also got a tour of the $21-million library and attended a private lunch inside the tile-roofed edifice.

“I feel as good as the rest of them look,” a clearly exuberant Nixon cracked at one point during the library tour.

It had been nearly a decade since four U.S. Presidents were together, and the first time that all were from the same political party. In 1981, Nixon joined Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter to meet with then-President Reagan at the White House before the three former Presidents departed for the funeral of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat.

Thursday’s meeting was far more jovial. And though their moments together were brief, these men shared more than just the bond of having held the reins of power in the United States.

Ford was Nixon’s successor, the man who pardoned him after Watergate. Bush had faithfully defended Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Reagan shares similar political roots in California.

Reagan praised him as a politician who was “first among equals--a man whose foreign policy was universally acknowledged as brilliant.” Ford said Nixon deserved “the gratitude of men and women everywhere.” And Bush labeled him a “true architect of peace” who helped “change the course of not only America but of the entire world.”

Nixon appeared moved by the whole affair, smiling broadly and often as speaker after speaker lavished praised on him. The former President didn’t even seem ruffled as demonstrators chanted during the ceremony and police removed one protester from the enclosure roped off for the event.

Nixon arrived early at the library with wife Pat, daughters Tricia Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, their husbands and children. The group took time before the other Presidents arrived to pose for a family photograph on the steps of the white clapboard house where Nixon was born.

Beckoning his grandchildren, Nixon good-naturedly said, “Com’on, com’on. . . . We have to get everyone in” for the photographers.

The family then stepped inside for a tour led by Nixon.

At one point, he popped open the second-floor windows of the room he shared with his brothers and peered out along with grandsons Alex Eisenhower, 10, and Christopher Cox, 11.

“There were four of us up here,” Nixon bellowed to the press corps gathered below, holding up four fingers. “You couldn’t believe it. Not much fun.”

Later, Nixon greeted each of the other Presidents as they arrived at the library with their wives.

As the Presidents chatted inside, the former First Ladies joined a jovial Barbara Bush on the steps of the library to pose for photographers. Pat Nixon appeared slightly stooped and frail but smiled graciously.

Inside the library lobby, the presidents lined up on pre-assigned spots marked with masking tape on the floor as the press swarmed around. Nixon said the Presidents talked “about the state of the world.”

Nixon added that he was impressed by the library but suggested that he is “not the best judge. I’m going to let these three (other Presidents) be the judge and the jury. And I’m glad to be in the hands of this jury.”

During the photo sessions, Bush chatted amicably with Nixon. Ford, the only one of the four Presidents who was not elected to the post, appeared ill at ease, lingering on the periphery of the group, which prompted television cameramen and news photographers to urge him to move in.

Along with their wives, the presidents toured the library, hitting many of the exhibits--with a notable exception. The group did not visit the Watergate exhibit. Library Director Hugh Hewitt said there wasn’t enough time, and in fact the public program started about 15 minutes behind schedule.

Kenneth L. Khachigian, a former Nixon speech writer, said the presidents were “very jovial, swapping stories.”

Bush remembered meeting the other Presidents in 1981, and recalled that photos of the four before Sadat’s funeral became collectors’ items, often sent to the White House by autograph seekers, Khachigian said.

When the four Presidents posed Thursday in the World Leaders room, which is filled with lifelike bronze statues of foreign dignitaries, Bush quipped, “We’ll be signing these (photographs) for the rest of our lives.”

Later, Bush asked Nixon, “Do you have any new jokes to tell today?”

“The tour went great. They all loved the museum,” Hewitt said. “They spent a lot of time in there, they went a little bit longer getting started than we had anticipated. . . . They enjoyed the exhibits. They spent a lot of time pointing out common events in their past.”

When the Presidents finally made it to the blue-draped stage, Nixon at first looked solemn but quickly warmed to the applause of the crowd. Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush chatted and waved to old friends in the audience as bands played.

As if to underscore the historic nature of the congregation, Ford led off his speech with a joke. Looking at each of his peers, he intoned, “Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President,” then proclaimed, “If I have overlooked a President, will you please stand up.”

Bush also spoke of the shared feelings held by men who have run a nation.

“To occupy this office is to feel a kinship with these and other Presidents,” Bush said.

None of the Presidents referred to Carter during the ceremony. The only living Democratic Party President, Carter declined an invitation to the Nixon library opening, saying he had another commitment.

After the speeches and the release of 50,000 red, white and blue balloons, the presidents and first ladies retired to the John M. Olin Reading Room in the library basement for a private lunch catered by the upscale Los Angeles eatery Chasen’s.

It was the first time four U.S. Presidents sat down for lunch together. They ate a light meal of watercress and pea soup, Dover sole with lemon butter sauce, and three kinds of berries topped with Devonshire cream.

Helen Boehm, chairman of the board of Boehm Porcelain Studios in Trenton, N.J., and a benefactor of the library, created 22 white bone china plates edged in gold especially for the luncheon. Each of the presidential plates bears the signature of one of the attending presidents on the reverse side. Nixon’s plate displayed signatures of all four Presidents.

Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and Tony Marcano contributed to this story.