Transcript for Episode 6 of the 2023 Season of Talking Hoosier History
Written by Kelsey Green and produced by Jill Weiss Simins.
Archival audio of Nixon speaking:
“And so, Mr. Mayor, I just want to say that to be here in Indiana, not as a son of Indiana but as a grandson of Indiana always makes me very proud. And to have this wonderful welcome is an added dividend!”
Receiving a “Warm Hoosier welcome” on the “rather cold day of February 5, 1970, President Richard Nixon spoke in front of Indianapolis’ City Hall before meeting with nine Indiana mayors in a conference on urban affairs. This was the first presidential visit that Nixon had conducted since his election an entire year prior. The attraction? Young Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar, the fast-rising politician who had recently implemented a bold, yet controversial city-county consolidation program known as Unigov.
After Nixon’s visit, Lugar experienced a meteoric rise in politics. He won his mayoral reelection in a landslide, and in 1976, he was elected to the US Senate. Lugar then served as an Indiana senator for 32 years, wherein he became an expert in foreign affairs. So much so, in fact, that he served as a key advisor for multiple presidents including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Lugar is best known for co-authoring the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Act, which led to the dismantling of thousands of Cold-War era weapons. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for this work, and, in 2013, President Obama presented him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can achieve. An impressive legacy, but how does a mayor of a landlocked, Midwestern city become the country’s leading foreign policy expert? Well, the answer goes back to February 5th, 1970, and a warm handshake on a rather cold day.
I’m Justin Clark, and this is Talking Hoosier History.
Richard G. Lugar was born on April 4th, 1932. The eldest of three children, he grew up on his family’s farm outside of Indianapolis. He graduated as valedictorian from Shortridge High School and attended college at Denison University in Ohio. There, he became co-president of the student body with his future wife Charlene Smeltzer. Lugar eventually won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. After graduating, he served as an intelligence briefer for the Navy before returning home to help his father run the family business and farm. Eventually, Lugar was elected to the Indianapolis Public School board where he served one term. During his time in office, he promoted desegregation policies and worked towards racial integration of Indianapolis Public Schools. His advocacy caused backlash among white, suburban voters, and he lost his re-election bid. With this, his entry into public life seemed to have come to a quick close.
Enter Keith Bulen, the Marion County Republican Party Chair. Shrewd, detail oriented, and ambitious, Bulen was a political pariah who, as his friend Gordon Durnil put it, “crossed every T and dotted every I. Nothing was left to chance. Surprises were not tolerated.” Bulen recognized that the Indianapolis’ Republican party needed a drastic revival. The city Democrats had enjoyed a sixteen-year long tenure in the mayor’s office, and the Republican party’s star was fading fast. Despite this, Bulen recognized a fracture in his opponent’s party after Democratic Mayor John Barton introduced a failed city-county consolidation plan. Here was Bulen’s opportunity to win the mayoral office back; he only needed the right candidate. Dick Lugar fit the bill nicely. Hailing from a family of loyal Republicans, Lugar caught Bulen’s attention after running a campaign for fellow Republican Paul R. Oakes. While Oakes ultimately lost, Lugar’s youth, intelligence, and loyalty to the party impressed Bulen and he approached him with the prospects of running for mayor. Lugar accepted, and they hit the campaign trail.
[Archival audio of Lugar’s campaign jingle]
In a political upset, Lugar beat John Barton by 10,000 votes to become the next mayor of Indianapolis. Immediately, Lugar began thinking of ways to revitalize downtown Indianapolis which, like so many cities during the 1960s, was struggling with a mass exodus to the suburbs. He insisted the Pacers, the city’s basketball team, be located downtown. In addition, he facilitated the partnership between Indiana and Purdue University to create IUPUI, a public college situated in the heart of Indianapolis. While IUPUI successfully elevated the city’s academic status, the university’s construction displaced predominantly Black-owned residences, businesses, and other cultural institutions along Indiana Avenue. Lugar’s urban renewal policies conflicting with the interests of Black Indianapolis citizens and their community would be an enduring and controversial theme throughout his mayoral years.
This tension would come to a head in 1970, when Lugar introduced his own version of city-county consolidation- Unigov. This policy consolidated the downtown district with the surrounding suburbs and, in doing so, skyrocketed the city’s population by over 300,000 people overnight. It also reorganized city services and streamlined the government’s organizational hierarchy. Notably, most of the demographic folded into Indianapolis was white, conservative suburbanites who would likely vote red. In turn, this new voter base would dilute the political voice of Black voters who often aligned with the Democrat party. Liberals quickly accused Bulen and Lugar of orchestrating a power grab. This fear was not unfounded, with Bulen boasting to The Washington Post that, “It’s my greatest coup of all time, moving out there and taking in 85,000 Republicans!” Despite the heated debate and lack of public referendum, Unigov was signed into law on March 13th, 1969.
Let’s take a quick narrative break and explore an important but often underutilized historical source and methodology: oral history. Oral histories provide access to the thoughts, feelings, and memories of individuals in ways that print sources such as newspapers or census records often cannot. They enrich and enhance the narrative when in conversation with other, more traditional sources.
Researchers often use oral histories when looking at marginalized communities whose records weren’t preserved or archived as they should have been. However, even with well known figures such as Lugar, oral histories play a key role in describing the qualitative characteristics of an event. In other words, how to event feltto the individuals involved.
Archival audio of Lugar speaking:
“President Nixon won the election in 68 and did not go outside Washington in 69’ because of the Vietnam protestors. But his advisors said ‘you better go someplace.’ And he went out to Indianapolis, his first stop, in 1970. About 20,000 people in front of the city county building…”
That’s Senator Lugar in 2018, describing President Nixon’s visit to Indianapolis. However, on February 6, 1970, The Anderson Herald reported a crowd of “nearly 5,000” had attended the President’s speech—a 15,000-person difference. What’s more, The Kokomo Tribune reported that 12,000 people listened to his speech while The Indianapolis News estimated 10,000 and IndyStar reported 13,000. Oral history indeed puts people back into the story. But as we see with Lugar, people’s memories of events can conflict with other sources. Therefore, we do need to be careful with people’s memories and ensure our interpretation of events draws upon both subjective sources like oral histories and more objective sources.
So, how does a historian reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable numbers? We start by evaluating the reliability of each source. Senator Lugar’s interview is from 2018. That’s 48 years after the visit! In contrast, the newspapers reported the same week of the event. Since no newspaper reported a crowd of 20,000 we can estimate that the crowd was likely smaller than Lugar remembered. We would also examine other sources such as Lugar’s mayoral papers which are housed at the University of Indianapolis. While this search did not yield a definitive number, documents from the collection did give us key information about the event. We learned that Lugar sent out personalized invitations to many party leaders, that Bulen ensured the innermost party people would be front and center in the crowd, and, most importantly, that the Nixon administration was pleased with the visit and, immediately afterwards, began cultivating a closer relationship with Lugar.
While as historians we would like to know more definitive details about past events, the reality is that information is often lost to time. We must put on our detective hats and interpret the sources we do have to piece together a meaningful and accurate narrative. Even without the exact size of the crowd, thanks to Lugar’s interview, we can identify this day as a watershed moment for Lugar’s career and the beginning of Lugar’s connection with Nixon as his, “Favorite Mayor.” At its core, that is the primary significance of President Nixon’s visit. As we continue our story, be sure to pay attention to how we describe the visit and its legacy.
While Lugar was celebrating Unigov, President Nixon was sequestered away in the White House. With mounting tensions over the Vietnam War, Nixon failed to make a single presidential visit the entirety of 1969. A deeply insecure man, he abhorred the idea of visiting the states and facing mass protests. Aides began urging him to make an official visit somewhere, anywhere that would be friendly to him. They eventually identified Indianapolis as a potential city. It was one of the only major cities run by a Republican. Even better, the new Unigov policy aligned perfectly with the President’s own New Federalist ideals, which facilitated the transfer of power from the federal government to the states. Nixon agreed to visit Indianapolis and, for the first time since his inauguration, he decided to step outside of Washington D.C.
Indianapolis began preparing to host the Commander in Chief. In late January, Lugar sent hundreds of letters to mayors, Republican County Chairmen, and other guests inviting them to the event. Keeping with the theme of urban affairs, all the mayors were invited to a luncheon before the President’s arrival at Stouffer’s Inn on the Northside of Indy. Buses were then arranged to take guests to the City-County building for Nixon’s speech. Bulen was also busy whipping the local GOP into shape. Nixon was not going to have his visit ruined by disorganization, a lackluster crowd, or worst of all, Vietnam protestors- Not on Bulen’s watch. He asked party members to arrive at the City-County building nearly two hours before Nixon would. This ensured friendly faces would be at the forefront of the crowd. He had bands playing at 9:30 AM and concession stands serving hot food and drinks. Press had to receive credentials from the mayor’s office to attend and were sent extensive information about the event, including mayoral biographies and anticipated remarks. This would ensure the most positive and thorough press coverage possible.
For the local GOP, the visit was a fantastic success. From touchdown at Weir-Cook Airport to the speech in front of city hall, Nixon was surrounded by enthusiastic Hoosiers. Bulen succeeded at rallying a crowd of approximately 10,000 people for the president’s speech alone. Nixon was delighted by the large reception and in good humor on his way to the conference. The Conference on Urban Affairs was more symbolic than practical, cementing Nixon’s commitment to New Federalist Policies. Mayor Lugar indicated that they had discussed how the federal government might help cities like Indianapolis and that the mayors had requested less ‘red tape’ and more federal support for city programs. Despite the intense preparation by Lugar and Bulen, the most important event for Lugar was not a scheduled one. Instead, it happened on a city county elevator.
Archival audio of Lugar talking:
“We came back into the building. On our way up to the 25th floor elevator, He said “Dick I want you to go with Moynihan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to Brussels to rep the US in a NATO Conference on cities.”
Lugar accepted the President’s invitation, precipitating his transformation from a local Midwestern mayor into a worldly U.S. Statesman. In 1970, Lugar attended the NATO Conference at Brussels where he, on behalf of Nixon, proposed an idea to have another NATO conference in Indianapolis. The proposal was accepted, and during the summer of 1971 Lugar hosted over 500 world delegates and 1,000 guests in Indianapolis. Lugar was then invited to speak at the 1972 Republican National Convention for Nixon’s reelection campaign. There, he was introduced by Governor Ronald Reagan.
Archival audio of Reagan introducing Lugar:
Having won reelection last fall with the largest winning margin in his city’s history, including over 75 percent of the youth vote. He is a former Rhodes scholar, naval officer, businessman, and farmer. And has served for the past year as president of the National League of Cities. He is a respected spokesman for and practitioner of the very best in workable new approaches to the urban challenge. He has represented the president not only across this country but also within the NATO community. And this is particularly dear to my heart, he has actually reduced the property tax in his city for the past four consecutive years. I am proud to present to this convention, the mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana, mayor Richard G. Lugar!
Lugar’s star was burning bright. For the rest of his mayoral administration, he continued his close relationship with Nixon, frequently championing his causes, campaigning for him, and even visiting the White House to meet with him. The Washington Post took note, and one reporter dubbed Lugar as “Nixon’s Favorite Mayor.” The name stuck–not that Lugar did anything to dissuade it–and media all over the country started using the nickname. With the help of a president, Lugar went from a local school board member to a nationally recognized politician in a span of less than five years. It seemed there was nothing Lugar could not accomplish. Maybe he would even run for President one day. Of course, that was all before Watergate.
Archival audio of Nixon’s resignation:
Watergate would rock both the national GOP and Lugar. Being dubbed “Nixon’s Favorite Mayor” suddenly was a curse, a real albatross hanging around Lugar’s neck. Despite this, Bulen urged Lugar to run for the 1974 Senate race. After all, if anyone could win post-Watergate, it was Lugar. But throughout the campaign, Lugar struggled to divorce himself from Nixon. He spent much of the campaign dodging Watergate, giving half-hearted condemnations of his former mentor, and telling the press he was not sure he “ever qualified as the President’s favorite mayor.” Mid-election cycle, the public became outraged when President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, sinking any glimmer of hope that Lugar might escape Watergate. Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh won the 1974 Senate race with 50 percent of the vote. Lugar received 46 percent.
Lugar was not yet ready to admit political defeat. He tried for the Senate again two years later, this time with much more success. This Senate campaign was headed by future governor Mitch Daniels. Their focus on running a positive campaign paired well with Lugar’s quiet demeanor. It also separated him from Nixon, who was infamous for his mudslinging on the campaign trail. In the news, incumbent Vance Hartke brought up the favorite mayor tag, accusing Lugar of spending more time campaigning for Nixon than running the city. But Watergate was no longer breaking news, and Lugar was able to focus on his own successes as mayor instead of the controversy. Lugar won in a landslide and thus began his 32-year career as Indiana’s longest-serving senator.
For Lugar, the lasting impact of becoming “Nixon’s Favorite Mayor” was his rapid rise in politics. Nixon brought the young Republican to the national stage and introduced him to foreign policy early in his career. While Lugar never fully eschewed the nickname after Nixon’s resignation, his own career quickly eclipsed the turmoil of Watergate.
For Indianapolis, Lugar’s political career was notable in a variety of ways. While debate about Unigov is still ongoing today, the policy undoubtedly diluted the city’s Black political voice for generations to come. This legacy would transform Indianapolis’ political landscape, flipping the city from blue to red and ushering in three decades of Republican leadership. Perhaps the most tangible evidence of Unigov’s legacy on the Black community is Indianapolis’ public education system, which was intentionally excluded from the merger. The Indianapolis Public School system, which served many Black families, experienced a steep population decline and received substantially less funding compared to neighboring suburban schools after Unigov’s implementation.
For the state, Senator Lugar became a mainstay in Indiana politics. Serving for over three decades in the Senate, his chairmanship of the powerful Foreign Relations committee and reputation as a pragmatic, even keeled statesman brought both prestige and political clout to Indiana. His legacy can still be felt in the state through the plethora of leaders who either interned or staffed his office. That list includes former Governor Mitch Daniels, former State Senator Teresa Lubbers, Pacers’ President Jim Morris, and Senator Todd Young.
In January of 1994, during the 25th anniversary of Nixon’s inauguration, Senator Lugar and President Nixon’s paths crossed one final time. It was another chilly day, not unlike their first encounter nearly 25 years prior. But in those two and a half decades much had changed; The Cold War had ended, Bill Clinton was President, and the Republican Party was undergoing a major political transformation, veering farther and farther to the right. It was during this time that the political topography started shifting under Lugar’s feet, and Lugar, once known as a solid conservative, gained a reputation as a bipartisan negotiator or even a moderate. Regardless of the political present and future, Lugar and Nixon were gathered to recount presidential history. Lugar told reporters, “Our prayers today are for the continuing strength and activity of President Richard Nixon,” whom he then referred to as his “foreign policy teacher and counselor.” After the celebration, Nixon, who was now in his 80s, privately pulled Lugar aside and confided in him saying:
“You know, you really were my favorite mayor.”
Want to learn more about Senator Lugar or President Nixon? Check out our blog post, “Richard G. Lugar: Nixon’s Favorite Mayor,” by IHB historian, Kelsey Green. We’ll put the link in our show notes.
If you’d like to learn more about modern Hoosier politicians, check out our markers on Wendell Willkie, located in Madison and Rush County. A charismatic internationalist, Willkie played a pivotal role in encouraging the Republican party to choose intervention in European affairs over isolation and served as a top diplomat for FDR both during and after World War II.
We hope you liked this episode of the podcast. Let us know! Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Once again, I’m Justin Clark, and this has been Talking Hoosier History. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes:
For sources, links, and images see: “Richard G. Lugar: Nixon’s Favorite Mayor” by Kelsey Green on the Indiana History Blog.
This episode was written by Kelsey Green and performed by Justin Clark. Talking Hoosier History is produced by Jill Weiss Simins.
