• U.S.

P.O.W.S: Nixon Throws a Party

3 minute read
TIME

Back in March, when Richard Nixon invited each of the released Viet Nam P.O.W.s to come to dinner, he had little idea how much he would welcome their applause. He nonetheless ordered preparations for the biggest, most elaborate party ever held at the White House.

A huge yellow-and-orange tent was set up on the White House lawn to accommodate more than 1,280 guests at 128 tables. White House aides found two aluminum canoes and filled them with crushed ice to serve as brobdingnagian coolers for the champagne. Chef Henry Haller borrowed a huge blender from the Pentagon to purée 90 quarts of strawberries for the dessert. Two hundred extra butlers were recruited to help serve a feast that began with suprême of seafood Neptune (crabmeat, tiny shrimps and scallops in sauce) served with hearts of palm and proceeded, with grateful disregard for the high price of meat, to roast sirloin of beef. Military orchestras and Les Brown’s band provided music, and Bob Hope played host at the after-dinner show. A sample Hope line (greeted with traditional groans): “This is the first time I’ve played to a captive audience.”

Veteran Gunslinger John Wayne was on hand to pay homage, as was Sammy Davis Jr. Even Irving Berlin, just turned 85, joined in singing his own song, God Bless A merica.

For the 680 former P.O.W.s, along with their wives and friends and one Playboy Playmate, the occasion was one of joy that not even a downpour could diminish. Most of them squished happily through the bog that had once been the White House lawn. One veteran of a Viet Nam prison remarked, “It’s not the first time I’ve sat in the mud to eat, but at least this time I have a chair.”

Some of the guests wept when a P.O.W. chorus sang a hymn composed by one of the prisoners: “We pledge unswerving faith and loyalty/ To our cause—America and thee.” All were moved when a tiny flag was carried into the tent and placed in a position of honor on the stage. Laboriously made from threads plucked from prisoners’ uniforms, the flag had been flown at night by men confined in the prison called the Hanoi Hilton.

The former P.O.W.s were equally emotional in their expressions of gratitude to the Administration that had negotiated their freedom. Several of the wives embraced Henry Kissinger, and one of the P.O.W.S told him: “You’re the man who brought us home—thank you.” “You’re ruining me,” Kissinger smiled, but he added: “This makes it all worthwhile.”

The toasts were no less unabashed.

Nixon saluted the flyers who had participated in last December’s bombing raids as “brave men who… did the job” and their wives and mothers as “the most magnificent women I have ever met.” The P.O.W.s in turn presented a plaque to “Our leader—our comrade, Richard the Lionhearted” for his “fortitude and perseverance under fire.”

Then they all danced until 2 in the morning.

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