1972 Republican National Convention

The convention was chaired by House minority leader and future Nixon successor Gerald Ford of Michigan.

Columnist Jack Anderson discovered a memo written by Dita Beard, a lobbyist for the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., suggesting that the company could pledge $400,000 for the San Diego bid if the Department of Justice would settle its antitrust case against ITT.

[1][2] Fearing scandal, and citing labor and cost concerns, the GOP transferred the event—scarcely three months before it was to begin—to Miami Beach, Florida, also the host city of the Democratic National Convention.

Congressman (and delegate) Manuel Lujan of New Mexico, a staunch Nixon supporter, honored state law by voting for McCloskey himself.

[9] In 2005, files released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation monitored former Beatle John Lennon after he was invited to play for Yippie protests.

[10] The scene did not appear in Kovic's autobiography but was taken almost directly from a documentary film created the 1972 Republican Convention titled Operation Last Patrol by filmmaker and actor Frank Cavestani and photo journalist Catherine Leroy.

The Miami Beach Convention Center was the site of the 1972 Republican National Convention
First Lady Pat Nixon addresses the convention. She was the first First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to address a party convention, and the first Republican First Lady to do what is now considered common practice.
Protestors at the convention.