Throughout his decades in public life, Prince Philip was known for putting his royal foot in his mouth with occasional clumsy remarks that could be embarrassing. But his faux pas at a White House dinner with President Richard Nixon in 1969 was enough for Philip to really fall asleep.
In a handwritten note to the president discovered by archivists at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, the Duke of Edinburgh wrote to “ humbly apologize ” for not toast to the president’s health as prescribed by protocol during a ‘deer’. dinner in his honor.
“After the genius of the other speakers and of yourself, I am afraid my contribution was very weak,” Philip wrote to Nixon from Greenland on November 7, after his solo tour of the US ended. He added, “That night I woke up in a cold sweat when I realized I forgot to imagine your health!”
Philip died last week at the age of 99 and his funeral is on Saturday. He was married to Queen Elizabeth for 73 years.
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“I think the letter itself shows the character of Prince Philip that so much of the public in the UK and in the Commonwealth, and actually around the world, has been admired,” said Jim Byron, executive vice president of the Nixon Foundation. He said the letter was discovered before the coronavirus pandemic, but was made public this week as a way to mark Philips dead.
In this June 2, 1953 file photo, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, are waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London, after the Queen’s coronation at Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace confirmed Philip’s death at the age of 99 last Friday.
(AP Photo / Leslie Priest)
“It expresses some of the personal feelings of a moment in time when the public really doesn’t always get a chance to see it,” Byron added.
Known for his quick wit and willingness to be self-deprecating, Philip’s brand of brutality didn’t always fall well, sometimes turning into racism. In 1995, he asked a Scottish driving instructor, “How do you keep the natives off the drink long enough to pass the test?” Seven years later in Australia, when visiting Aboriginal people with the Queen, he asked, “Are you still throwing spears at each other?”
While visiting a military barracks, Philip asked a sea cadet instructor if she worked in a strip club, even telling a woman who lost two sons in a fire that smoke detectors were “ damn annoying. I have one in my house. bathroom, and every time I run my bath the steam turns it off. “
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President Richard M. Nixon dedicates his new administration to the cause of “peace between nations” while former President Lyndon Johnson, right, listens to the January 20, 1969 inaugural address in Washington. On the right are Vice President Spiro Agnew and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
(AP)
During White House dinners, honored guests usually raise a toast to the president’s health and success. Philip wrote to Nixon that he “couldn’t begin to tell you how much I appreciated your very kindness and hospitality at the White House. I was quite overwhelmed by the guests, but delighted to meet such a distinguished company.”
He said he subsequently traveled to New York, where he was interviewed by Barbara Walters for NBC’s “Today” show.
“The weather in New York was awful, but otherwise everything was fine,” wrote Philip, “and I found Miss Walters particularly charming and intelligent. I hope we did a good job. ‘
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The long dinner guest list was all male. It included Vice President Spiro Agnew, most of the members of Nixon’s cabinet, and nongovernmental notables such as business magnate Ross Perot and British-born comedian Bob Hope.
Byron said Nixon had almost certainly responded to Philip’s letter, but since the library archives remained closed due to the pandemic, what he would have said is unknown. What Philip said in his comments – other than wishing Nixon good health – is unknown for the same reason.
The dinner came a day after Nixon delivered his famous “silent majority” speech, begging a national audience to unite behind the ongoing Vietnam War until his government could achieve “peace with honor.” Byron said top assistant HR Haldeman, who later went to jail for his involvement in the Watergate scandal, noted in his diary how absolutely delighted the president was that evening, as his speech had been positively received.
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Nixon, who died in 1994 at the age of 81, was slightly older than Philip, but the two had known each other for years by then. As Vice President, Nixon and his wife met Queen Elizabeth and Philip in London. The Nixons gave the royal couple a tour of Washington sites when they paid a state visit to the US in 1959.
“Philip, anyway, he was nice,” Byron said of the letter. “And really express so much of his character.”