Joy Ride

Sharing this bizarre anecdote would prove challenging as most people who witnessed the event have passed on and accounts of the car ride are few and far between. Even viewing the site of the ride would be impossible as heavy security would only allow me to come within a mile or so of Camp David. Luckily, research uncovered photographic evidence, audio recordings, recollections in memoirs and an on-camera interview with Nixon himself. While still sparse, it was enough to create a solid framework of the event.
While I wanted to know more, I came to realize that what’s missing creates a greater sense of mythology around the incident. Why did Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the Communist Party, hit the gas pedal with Nixon in tow? Was he trying to intimidate him or assert his power in the literal driver’s seat? Viewers can use their educated imagination.

I choose to believe that this was simply, as one of my interview subjects suggested, an instance of one of the world’s most powerful men showing a more human side of himself – his inner child. And today more than ever, we need more human moments.