An ad in the New York underground newspaper Rat Subterranean News calling for a protest of National Football Foundation’s 1969 awards dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria where Nixon was to be honored as “the most distinguished and accomplished American.”

Here’s Rick Perlstein in Nixonland describing the absurdity of the scene.

The next day, he traveled to New York to be honored by the National Football Foundation for his ability to “confront our problems with steadfastness.” Read the plaque, “Courage in the true tradition of our sport has marked your career.” Responded Nixon, “The competitive spirit, the ability to lose and come back, to try again…the character and drive of our youth is an essential characteristic.”

Nixon’s motorcade had been forced to detour through a slum to avoid an assassination threat. At his hotel, Nixon harangued Haldeman about how much he hated big cities, as outside the Waldorf-Astoria, five thousand youth showed their character and drive by chanting, “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh will surely win,” dodging counterprotesters with signs reading I LIKE SPIRO and PEACE WITH HONOR, THE SILENT MAJORITY and cops who chased them in and out of a glistening row of Park Avenue Christmas trees.