Topic summary
Attack on Richard Nixon's motorcade
On May 13, 1958, US vice presidentRichard Nixon's motorcade was attacked by a mob in Caracas, Venezuela, during Nixon's goodwill tour of South America. The event was described at the time as the "most violent attack ever perpetrated on a high American official while on foreign soil." Nixon was unharmed by the anti-war protesters but two of his aides were injured in the melee. The visit took place only months after the overthrow in January of Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, who in 1954 had been awarded the Legion of Merit and was later granted asylum by the United States, and the incident was allegedly orchestrated by the Communist Party of Venezuela. U.S. Navy Admiral Arleigh Burke mobilized fleet and Marine units to the region, compelling the Venezuelan government to provide full protection to Nixon for the remainder of the trip.
The attack was denounced by all major Venezuelan presidential candidates standing in that year's election, except for the incumbent leader Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal. Nixon was generally applauded in American press reports for his calm and adept handling of the incident and was feted with a "hero's welcome" on his return to the United States. His recollections of the attack form one of the "six crises" explored in his 1962 book.