There’s no doubt that Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, made a lot of errors during his time in the White House. However, there’s one that is a security team’s nightmare. In 1973, at the invitation of President Nixon, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev visited the White House before holding talks at Camp David. President Nixon presented Brezhnev with a 1973 Lincoln Continental — dark blue with special black velour upholstery. The Soviet leader wanted to go for a ride. He jumped behind the wheel and motioned Nixon into the passenger seat. The head of the president’s Secret Service detail went pale as Nixon climbed in and the two men took off down one of the narrow roads that run around the perimeter of Camp David. For more than 30 minutes, the leader of the United States was alone with the leader of the Soviet Union, with no Secret Service detail, and without the all-important nuclear briefcase. Needless to say, the Secret Service made sure nothing like that ever happened again.
