50 years ago in Expo history: Senator criticizes Nixon amid Watergate scandal, compliments Soviet Pavilion

Sen. Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson visited Expo ’74 and held a news conference in which he raked President Richard M. Nixon and his advisers over the coals.

“I have been terribly disappointed in the failure of the President’s representatives to provide in a timely way the information requested by both the House (Judiciary) Committee and the (Senate) Watergate Committee,” Jackson, a Democrat, said. “We have literally lost months of time which could have been avoided.”

When asked whether Nixon should resign rather than face impeachment charges, Jackson replied, “I leave that up to the Republicans.”

He also decried the fact that Nixon had been taping conversations in the Oval Office without the participants’ knowledge.

“I thought that only happened behind the Iron Curtain,” said Jackson.

Speaking of the Iron Curtain, Jackson toured the Soviet Pavilion and praised it as “very beautiful and outstanding.” Jackson, a well-known anti-Communist hawk, said he hoped that there could be more tourist travel between the U.S. and USSR to aid in “peace, dignity and understanding.”

In other Expo news, Amtrak’s new special Expo train between Seattle and Spokane got off to a slow start. It was delayed more than two hours when a load of logs fell off a flat car on another train and had to be cleared from the rails.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American West. This would go on to total 80 million acres by 1900.