Page "Pat Nixon" Paragraph 37

Pat Nixon held the record as the most-traveled First Lady before Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In President Nixon's first term, Pat traveled to 39 of 50 states, and in the first year alone, shook hands with a quarter of a million people.

She undertook many missions of goodwill to foreign nations as well.

Her first foreign trip took in Guam, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Romania, and England.

On such trips, Pat refused to be serviced by an entourage, feeling that they were an unnecessary barrier and a burden for taxpayers.

Soon after, during a trip to South Vietnam, Pat became the first First Lady to enter a combat zone.

She had tea with the wife of President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in a palace, visited an orphanage, and lifted off in an open-door helicopter — armed by military guards with machine guns — to witness U. S. troops fighting in a jungle below.

She would later admit to experiencing a " moment of fear going into a battle zone ", because, as author and historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony noted, " Pat Nixon was literally in a line of fire.

" She later visited an army hospital, where, for two hours, she walked through the wards and spoke with each wounded patient.

The First Lady of South Vietnam, Madame Thieu, said Pat Nixon's trip " intensified our morale ".