Nixon

Days after the May4th Ohio college shooting, massive protests broke out across the country's colleges. One hundred thousand students marched on Washington and laid seige to the capital, four hundred and fifty colleges shutdown across the nation. Nixon was moved to Camp David for his own safety. The president spend two sleepless nights there at the very verge of a nervous breakdown. The nation he was presiding over was at war with itself,he decided to reach out to the students. The night he was back in Washington, fourty seven outgoing calls were made by the President. At four o' clock in the morning, the secret service radios hissed "Searchlight is on the lawn", much to surprise of officers on duty that night; 'Searchlight' the code word for Nixon. The Presidential motorcade sped to the Lincoln memorial where the student leaders where keeping vigil. At the Lincoln memorial, Nixon "treated the student leaders to a clumsy and condescending monologue, which he made public in an awkward attempt to display his benevolence". The student leaders did not relent. Nixon was convinced that the students were under external communist influence and decided to gather incriminating intelligence against the anti-war-student-movement through legal or illegal channels - a habit that would bring down his presidency years later.