Revisionist History from the Times
Today's New York Times Corrections section has this interesting item:
"An obituary of former Senator Strom Thurmond in late editions on Friday misstated the width of Richard M. Nixon's lead over Ronald Reagan for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, a first-ballot victory that Mr. Thurmond was instrumental in assuring. Mr. Nixon had 692 votes to Mr. Reagan's 182 — thereby winning easily, not barely."
To appreciate this correction fully, you have to have read the Times' obituary on Strom Thurmond, which was written by Adam ("World Class A******") Clymer. In Clymer's telling, the 1968 convention was a cliffhanger, and Strom put Nixon over the top in exchange for Nixon's promise to sell out southern blacks:
"At the Republican convention in Miami Beach, Mr. Thurmond prevented a slide to Mr. Reagan that could have nominated him on a second ballot. Mr. Thurmond met with Mr. Nixon and told him that Southerners needed reassurance that he would not press hard on school desegregation and that his choice of a vice-presidential candidate would not be a Northern liberal. Mr. Nixon promised to consult Mr. Thurmond before he made his choice....
"The Southern delegations held for Mr. Nixon, and he went on to barely defeat Mr. Reagan on the first ballot."
Clymer's account appears to be sheer fantasy. Nixon swept the 1968 Republican primaries, and Reagan did not even announce as a candidate until the eve of the convention. Nixon's closest contender was not Reagan, but Nelson Rockefeller. The idea that Nixon needed Thurmond to stem the Reagan tide--and promised to delay school integration to get it--is nonsense, as far as I know.
Clymer concludes this part of his story by volunteering that "Mr. Thurmond was influential in the Nixon administration, but it could not deliver on its promise to slow school desegregation." This slander of Nixon has no particular place in an obituary of Strom Thurmond, but Clymer apparently just couldn't resist. For what it's worth, the suggestion that Nixon tried to "slow school desegregation" but was unable to do so is dubious at best. Here is what PBS says about Nixon and desegregation in the South:
"Nixon inherited a nation in which nearly 70% of the black children in the South attended all-black schools....Starting in Mississippi and moving across the South, the Nixon administration set up biracial state committees to plan and implement school desegregation. The appeal to local control succeeded. By the end of 1970, with little of the anticipated violence and little fanfare, the committees had made significant progress--only about 18% of black children in the South attended all-black schools."
That's the revisionist history lurking behind Clymer's absurd claim that Nixon "barely" edged out Reagan in the 1968 convention.
