Today in 1969, President Richard Nixon became the first and only sitting president to visit the underground headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) inside Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, Colorado, just three years after it became fully operational. Future convicted …
Watergate co-conspirators Attorney General John Mitchell, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, and White House Counsel John Erlichman were there for the almost two hour visit (as seen in photo), which preceded a reception and meeting at the National Governors Association in Colorado Springs.
During his tour, NORAD Commander in Chief General Seth McKee presented President Nixon with a piece of granite from Cheyenne Mountain in a wooden presentation box while standing outside the facility’s underground entrance.
(On June 5, 1963—as part of a whirlwind five day trip to western states, and after delivering the commencement address at the US Air Force Academy and touring its campus—President John F. Kennedy paid a brief visit to NORAD headquarters, then aboveground at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.)
