Richard Nixon photo

Remarks on Arrival at Fort Smith, Arkansas, To Attend the Arkansas-Texas Football Game.

December 06, 1969

GOVERNOR [Winthrop] Rockefeller and all of the people who are here at the airport at Fort Smith, I want you to know how much I appreciate this very warm welcome. It is warm, at least as far as the welcome is concerned.

I want you to know, too, that, as I come here to this great football game at Fayetteville, that I have to be in somewhat of a nonpartisan position, because on the airplane we brought down some members of the delegation from the State of Arkansas--Senator [John L.] McClellan, Senator [J. William] Fulbright, John Paul Hammerschmidt, your own Congressman--but I also brought along some members of the delegation from Texas. So I have to be in between the two.

All that I know is that we are going to see today, in this 100th anniversary of football, one of the great football games of all time, and both of them I wish could be Number 1. But at the end, whichever is Number I will deserve it, and the Number 2 team will still go to a bowl and be a great team.

We want to also say, clearly apart from football, that as we flew over the airport and I saw the cars parked for, well, actually not just feet nor yards, but miles down the road, and then as I went down this line and shook hands with people and I felt how cold your hands were, and your noses a little red, and the rest, I realized some of you have been here a long time.

I just want you to know how much we appreciate it. To come from Washington, to get this kind of a welcome, in the heart of the country, right here in Arkansas, means a great deal to us.

We are going to take back memories of that welcome.

I want you to know, too, that I did not have the opportunity of visiting Arkansas during the 1968 campaign. This is the first time I have had a chance to visit Arkansas, since becoming President. After this warm welcome, it isn't going to be the last. I want to come back here.

Now, if I could just close my remarks with one other thought, I realize that this is the beginning of a holiday season. It isn't going to be much of a holiday season for the Congress. I think we are going to have to stay and work during most of that Christmas season, although I haven't worked that out yet with the Congressmen and Senators. But I do want you to know, for everybody here, that Mrs. Nixon and I and our two daughters extend our very best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:20 a.m. at Fort Smith Municipal Airport, Fort Smith, Ark.

Richard Nixon, Remarks on Arrival at Fort Smith, Arkansas, To Attend the Arkansas-Texas Football Game. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240288

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