April 14, 1973: Nixon Uses False Quote in Tribute to Media Personage

Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward receive top awards at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner for their early Watergate reporting. President Nixon and a coterie of staffers attend, and Nixon, speaking to the assemblage, draws some laughs when he opens with the line, “It is a privilege to be here… I suppose I should say it is an executive privilege.” He pays tribute to the founder of US News and World Report, David Lawrence, who had recently died, saying, “David Lawrence, who was a charter member of this club 59 years ago, said to me a couple of years ago, ‘There is only one more difficult task than being president of this country when we are waging war, and that is to be the president when we are waging peace.’” After the dinner, Nixon asks chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, “What did you think of the Lawrence quote?” Haldeman replies, “Appropriate.” Nixon says, “I made it up.” [Reeves, 2001, pp. 586]