Julie Nixon Eisenhower - First Daughter

First Daughter

While her father served as President (1969-1974), Julie became active at the White House as a spokesperson for children's issues, the environment, and the elderly. She gave tours to disabled children, filled in for her mother at events, and took an active interest in foreign policy. From 1973-75, she served as Assistant Managing Editor of the Saturday Evening Post and helped establish a book division for Curtis Publishing Co., its parent corporation. It was during this time that Julie wrote the book Eye On Nixon. It was a book full of photographs of her father.

Once she appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in 1970, and Mike asked her what she thought about the new fad called "streaking," where someone runs naked in public. She responded, "I don't know how they can come off like that!" which was a double entendre that had left the whole studio laughing.

After the news of the Watergate break-in and suspicions that it might reach as high as the oval office began to mount, Julie took on the press at home and abroad. Her defense of her father caused people to wonder why her mother wasn't saying anything about the scandal. Journalist Nora Ephron wrote, "In the months since the Watergate hearings began, she has become her father's ... First Lady in practice if not in fact."

Julie's public defense of her father began at Walt Disney World on May 2, 1973. She gave a total of 138 interviews across the country. In the summer of 1973, she and David went to London where Julie appeared on the BBC. Journalist George Will once reflected: "Anyone thinking that Nixon deserved a better fate from Watergate should remember his silence as his brave daughter Julie crisscrossed the country defending him against charges he knew to be true." On July 4, 1973, she told two reporters that her father had considered resigning over Watergate, but that the family had talked him out of it. On May 7, 1974, Julie and David met with the press in the East Garden of the White House. She announced that the President planned "...to take this constitutionally down to the wire." Just before noon on August 9, 1974, Julie stood behind her father while he gave his goodbye speech to the White House staff. She would later say it was the hardest moment for him.