Letter from London

It cannot be said that the names of the Nixon Cabinet made much impression either way on the British public, for very few people over here had heard of even one of them. On the other hand, Richard Nixon’s television introduction of his team made a very strong impression. People noticed that the incoming President was calm, authoritative and confident. The legend of the doomed loser, the predestined bottom dog was quietly demolished. This was a man who had arrived.

There is no doubt at all that in governing circles the election result was a sharp disappointment, though not a surprise. How much easier things would have been if Happy Hubert had pulled it off! There is no reason to believe that the new President and his colleagues will be unfriendly, but every reason to believe that they will be strictly businesslike in their dealings, and there is nothing that Britain in her present state would more anxiously avoid than businesslike dealings.

CB

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Colm Brogan

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It cannot be said that the names of the Nixon Cabinet made much impression either way on the British public, for very few people over here had heard of even one of them. On the other hand, Richard Nixon’s television introduction of his team made a very strong impression. People noticed that the incoming President was calm, authoritative and confident. The legend of the doomed loser, the predestined bottom dog was quietly demolished. This was a man who had arrived.

There is no doubt at all that in governing circles the election result was a sharp disappointment, though not a surprise. How much easier things would have been if Happy Hubert had pulled it off! There is no reason to believe that the new President and his colleagues will be unfriendly, but every reason to believe that they will be strictly businesslike in their dealings, and there is nothing that Britain in her present state would more anxiously avoid than businesslike dealings.