Nixon relishes royal flush, keeps a poker face on inner self in new videotape

ATHENS, Ga. - Even in a relaxed interview conducted by a friend in 1983, Richard Nixon had no patience for soft hearted self-reflection.

The interviewer, writer and historian Frank Gannon, asked the former president if he had had a good life. Nixon paused, then blurted: "I don't get into that kind of crap."

The exchange is part of more than 33 hours of videotaped Nixon interviews do nated to the University of Georgia Media Archives. The school recently made the tapes available to the public.

Nixon touches on major events of his presidency, but also reflects on growing up in California, meeting his wife-to-be and his favorite pastimes, especially poker.

He said his "most vivid experience" as a poker player was drawing a royal flush - ace, king, queen, jack and 10 of diamonds - in a single hand of five-card stud.

"Many of the things you do in poker are very useful in politics," Nixon said. "I knew when to get out of a pot. I didn't stick around when I didn't have the cards. I didn't bluff very often."

Nixon appears comfortable during the 1983 interviews with Gannon, Nixon's principal assistant in writing his memoirs.

"These interviews present a Nixon that is several layers of the onion skin closer to the core than the guarded, paranoid, media hater that we know from television," said Jesse Raiford of Raiford Communications.

Nixon said it was love at first sight when he met his wife-to-be at rehearsals for a theater production in Whittier, Calif.

"She was a beautiful girl and striking and vibrant, and there was no question about her being the dominant force as far as that play was concerned, and as far as my life was concerned," Nixon said.

Nixon said he tried to convince Pat Ryan that he was going to marry her.

"It was very uncharacteristic of me to say something so impulsive," he said. "But, like most successful politicians, I have intuition."

But he bristled at questions designed to explore his feelings. Gannon noted that some historians say Nixon resented his mother for leaving him for three years to care for his tubercular brother.

"That's just nonsense," Nixon retorted. "You know, these psychohistorians are psychos. That's all I can say about them."