PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 04/30/1968 - HFSID 44636

RICHARD NIXON
Nixon sends his regrets that he was not able to attend a dinner party since he had prior commitments.
Typed Letter signed: "Dick", 1p, 7¼x10½. New York, New York, 1968 April 30. On personal letterhead to The Honorable Spruille Braden, New York, New York. In full: "This is the first opportunity I have had to tell you how much I regretted not being able to accept your most cordial invitation to attend the dinner you gave on April 22nd. However, as I am sure you will fully understand, it was impossible for me to accept because I had commitments involving Governors in three states that day -- Wyoming, Montana and Nevada. I am sure the dinner went off in the 'Braden' style and only wish Pat and I could have had the pleasure of being with you and your other guests. With warm personal regards, Sincerely". Narrowly defeated for the Presidency by John F. Kennedy in 1960, Richard Nixon was counted out by the pundits after he lost a contest for Governor of California in 1962 and railed angrily at the press in a post-election press conference. By 1967, Nixon's prospects were rapidly improving as President Johnson's was undone by the Vietnam war, rising racial tensions, and other problems. The apparent frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 1968, former Michigan Governor George Romney, seriously undermined his own campaign by claiming (August 1967) that he had been "brainwashed" by the Pentagon into supporting the Vietnam war. Although he had to stave off a challenge by supporters of California Governor Ronald Reagan at the Republican convention, Nixon would win the nomination on the first ballot and proceed to a narrow general election victory over another Vice President, Hubert Humphrey. (Nixon would have won more easily except for the third party candidacy of Alabama Governor George Wallace.) To a nation deeply anguished by the continuing war in Vietnam, Nixon's foreign policy experience would prove appealing. Despite Nixon's praise in this letter, H. Read McGrath did not emerge as a foreign policy advisor to the new President. Fold creases through all of signature. Otherwise, fine condition..