Time to back up. How and why exactly did the King meet the Prez on this fateful day? It seems that Elvis had a few hours to spare on a stopover in the Nation�s Capital, and he got to thinking. What if a popular entertainer, one with unprecedented influence over this great nation's youth, were to press the cause of a drug-free America? And what if he were to do so in an official capacity? Not as a mere private citizen, of course, or even as a good will ambassador or special cabinet appointee. This is the King, after all, and he had a special role in mind for himself: Federal Agent-at-Large!

Elvis naturally figured he�d be perfect for the job. So he grabbed some of the American Airlines stationary lying around and drafted a letter to the Prez. And he sent it over to the White House by special delivery, with himself acting as postman. A few excerpts:

"I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs 3 weeks ago and expressed concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do NOT consider me as their enemy or as they call it The Establishment. I call it America and I love it�I will be here for as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing�."

Meeting this apparition wearing large shades, thick sideburns and coiffed hair, tight pants and a flashy  peacoat, the White House guards scanned his communique and did what comes naturally in such situations. They sent him on through the bureaucratic chain of White House staffers, a trail marked out in memorandums from each party along the way. A White House Aide, Egil Krogh, thought this meeting of King and Prez had possibilities for "meeting some bright young people outside of the Government." Chief of Staff Joseph Haldeman disagreed in a scribbled note: "You must be kidding." Nonetheless, the King followed his natural course and went all the way to the top. 

And the rest is history. We know this because the photos prove it to be so: the King and the Prez side by side in the oval office, grey flannel suit-and-tie G-man and the pop star resplendent in open-necked white shirt, gargantuan belt buckle, brass-buttoned black coat. The handshake. The display of family photos. The shoulder-to-shoulder poses under  the flags of the republic, indicating a shared resolve to purge the hippie influence from the land. And of course, the King passing Nixon the ultimate peace offering among warriors, a handgun. Or more specifically, as Nixon noted in his thank-you letter, a "commemorative World War II Colt 45 pistol, encased in the handsome wooden chest." Nixon was impressed. In fact, he remarked that it was an "impressive gift."

Incredible as such a meeting may seem, the story gets even weirder. Presley was indeed given a badge that same afternoon by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. And Elvis�s mission must have been very covert, because he White House actually kept the Elvis/Nixon nexus a secret for over a year, until the Washington Post broke the story in 1972.

You don�t have to take my word for it. You can see Elvis� original letter. And all the memos trailing from it. Plus all the pix that  come almost like frame-by-frame stills from a film documenting this Historic Meeting. The National Archives preserves these treasures in hard copy form, but you don�t have to go there to see them. Just hop on the virtual time machine that is this web link and ride back to the Nixon Oval Office yourself. Tell the King MondoDC sent you.