we ll now hear from bernard nussb nussbaum. this is the first of two parts. it s just over an hour. i m director of the richard nixon library museum. it s october 1st, 2011. we re in new york city. thank you for doing this. glad to be here. so to help the viewer understand 1974 view, let s go back and tell us about how you became a lawyer. i was born in 1937. i was born inman hath tan. my parents were immigrants. first in the family to come to the united states. i was the first child born in the united states. i grew up on the lower ets. which was primarily a poor neighborhood. populated by jews and others at the time. i went to new york city public schools. i graduated from stiverson high school in 1954. i was the first of my family to attend college. i did well. i became editor in chief of the college daily newspaper. and then i went to harvard law school. at the end of my third year in law school. kennedy who is now in the supreme court, who was in my class so i knew
proceedings. but i think her victory two years before and my sustaining of that victory as a lawyer had probably a greater impact and what whatever she did or i did two years later when we were part of it. you re being a bit modest. there s a little courtroom drama in your victory two years before. oh. it s a great story. well, there s a lot of courtroom drama in that one. no, it was the brooklyn organization really wanted to win that case and there was a and one of the the judge was a judge named dominec rinaldi who was an old-time judge who came up through the organization which most of the judges did at that time. and what i did in that case was i knew it would be tough to win below in the trial court. i was hopeful i would win in the appellate court hope to i lost the trial court. what i ended up with doing with people in my firm was to submit a brief to him at the beginning of the trial, a very lengthy brief, sort of summarizing all the law which made it
richard nixon presidential library museum in yorba linda, california. it s october 1st, 2011. we re in new york city. i have the honor and privilege to be interviewing bernie nussbaum for the richard nixon oral history program. bernie, thank you for doing this. glad to be here. so to help the viewer understand 1974 and you, let s go back and tell us please a little bit about how you became a lawyer. i was born in 1937. so i was 37 years old in 1974. i was born in manhattan on the lower east side of manhattan. my parents were immigrants. they were the first in their family to come to the united states. they met and married here, but they were born in poland. i was the first child born in the united states. i grew up on the lower eastside, which was primarily a poor neighborhood. populated by jews and others, and you know, at the time. and it was a very modest but very warm and loving upbringing. i went to new york city public schools. i was educated in the public schools