Manuel "Manolo" Sanchez (born 1929[1]) was a long-time valet to Richard Nixon, known for his unfailing loyalty and fierce devotion to the former United States president.

[2] Sanchez, along with the president's physician Major-General Walter Tkach and four United States Secret Service agents, accompanied Nixon during his unannounced 4:40 a.m. visit to the Lincoln Memorial on May 8, 1970, during which he met students protesting the Vietnam War.

At the memorial, Nixon showed Sanchez inside the sanctum and described the inscriptions; the pair were eventually approached by a group of about 30 protesters and spent the next two hours speaking with them.

After White House personnel became aware Nixon had left the building unannounced, Ron Ziegler mounted a mission to retrieve him.

[8][9] During his last years in the White House, Nixon became increasingly dependent on Sanchez, and the two developed a constructed language "sometimes using words that only the two of them understood".

During one incident, in 1973, Nixon expressed frustration to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Russell E. Train about overly cumbersome environmental regulations, citing the instance of mangrove trees at his property in Key Biscayne, Florida, which he couldn't cut down, before turning to Sanchez and asking "isn't that right"?

If you cut them down there won't be any more fish.He continued working for Richard and Pat Nixon at their post-presidency home in San Clemente, California.

He is in good spirits, thank you, God.By 1980, after nearly two decades serving the Nixons, Manolo Sanchez retired with his wife, Fina, and returned to Spain.