A hunk, a hunk of burning… history!? In this episode of Primary, we take a look at a letter written by Elvis Presley, the King himself! Sure, Elvis has a lot of fans, but what is HE a fan of? It turns out he's a fan of America, possibly America's biggest fan, so who better to write a letter to than President Richard Nixon? Erin and Vinnie take Elvis at his word to learn why he would make a great Federal Agent at Large and how he can help Nixon with his pesky counter-culture problem. And if Elvis just so happens to get a new badge for his collection? Well, that's just a bonus! So, thank you for downloading this episode of Primary, thank you very much.

Special thanks to chadbwhite at fiverr.com for his incredible reading of Elvis's letter

Citations

The Primary Source

• Scan of the letter https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/elvis-letter-to-nixon
• Transcript https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/nixon-met-elvis/assets/doc_1.1_transcript.html

Secondary/Additional Sources

• Info on SDS - https://www.britannica.com/topic/Students-for-a-Democratic-Society
• Two biographies of Elvis:
  • https://www.graceland.com/elvis/biography.aspx
  • https://www.biography.com/people/elvis-presley-9446466
• Info on the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Program - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Outstanding_Young_Americans
• Info on Nixon's foreign affairs policies - https://millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs
• A speech given by Nixon on Communism - http://watergate.info/1960/08/21/nixon-the-meaning-of-communism-to-americans.html