This Was Richard Nixon's Last White House Meal Before Resigning
It's 1973, and the United States is gripped with what can only be described as a mania of tension and drama. People gather around their televisions, read newspapers, and spread gossip about government cover-ups. This is a story about spies, wiretaps, break-in's, corruption, informants, betrayal, and power. This is Watergate, the scandal that dealt with then-President Richard Nixon and his select group of government officials engaging in clandestine, illegal acts against Nixon's supposed "enemies" and the resulting fallout from alleged cover-ups by both Nixon and his cabinet.
Of course, there is still speculation and conspiracy rife about one of the greatest scandals in America's history. For example, there was an unsubstantiated conspiracy that intelligence agents brought down a plane that carried government employee Dorothy Hunt, husband of Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt (via MuckRock). Yet, past all the theories and rumors, one thing is for certain: Nixon left the White House a disgraced president, ending his final day with an emotional regretful speech and a forlorn, somber disposition (via ABC News).
Perhaps the greatest symbol of Nixon's attitude would be his final meal before he stepped out of the Oval Office for the last time.
Richard Nixon's final meal was cottage cheese and pineapples
As NPR reports, Richard Nixon's final meal before announcing his resignation on national television was nothing short of spartan. The meal featured a ball of cottage cheese, a few rings of pineapple slices, and a glass of milk — free from any luxury, any decadence, any sort of gourmet flair that one would expect from the kitchens of the White House. Indeed, an NPR photographer describes it as "sad, stately," and somehow, "funny."
While it would be easy to crack a joke about Nixon, a man who was stereotyped as a stiff, brooding, growling character, eating such a spartan and plain meal, we must remember that Nixon, at the end of the day, was a man who was at the same time both victim and villain.
Plenty of weird things presidents have eaten in the White House, including squirrel stew, which was beloved by numerous presidents, and Chester A. Arthur's favorite, Rhode Island eel, are infamous in their own right. But none is so infamous as Nixon's meal.