The Canuck letter was a forged letter to the editor of the '' Manchester Union Leader'', published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the

New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choos ...

of the

1972 United States presidential election The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. U ...

. It implied that

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Edmund Muskie Edmund Sixtus Muskie (March 28, 1914March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 6 ...

, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, held prejudice against Americans of French-Canadian descent. The letter was a successful attempt at

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

masterminded by

Donald Segretti Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in San Marino, California) is an attorney best known for working as a political operative with then-U.S. President Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President during the early 1970s. Segre ...

and written by

Ken W. Clawson Ken Wade Clawson (August 16, 1936 – December 17, 1999) was an American journalist, best known as a spokesman for U.S. President Richard Nixon at the time of the Watergate scandal. He was promoted from Nixon's deputy director of communications to ...

. In a childish scrawl with poor spelling, the author of the Canuck letter claimed to have met Muskie and his staff in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, and to have asked Muskie how he could understand the problems of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s when his home state of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

has such a small black population, to which a member of Muskie's staff was said to have responded, "Not blacks, but we have

Canuck ''Canuck'' is a slang term for a Canadian. The origins of the word are uncertain. The term ''Kanuck'' is first recorded in 1835 as an Americanism, originally referring to Dutch Canadians (which included German Canadians) or French Canadians. By ...

s" (which the letter spells "Cannocks"); the author further claims that Muskie laughed at the remark. While an affectionate term among Canadians today, "Canuck" is a term often considered derogatory when applied to Americans of French-Canadian ancestry in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

; a significant number of New Hampshire voters were of such ancestry. On October 10, 1972, FBI investigators revealed that the Canuck letter was part of a dirty tricks campaign against Democrats orchestrated by the

Committee for the Re-Election of the President The Committee for the Re-election of the President (also known as the Committee to Re-elect the President), abbreviated CRP, but often mocked by the acronym CREEP, was, officially, a fundraising organization of United States President Richard Nix ...

(CRP, later derisively nicknamed CREEP). The letter's immediate effect was to compel the candidate to give a speech in front of the newspaper's offices, subsequently known as "the crying speech". The letter's indirect effect was to contribute to the implosion of Muskie's candidacy.

The crying speech

On the morning of February 26, two Saturdays before the March 7 primary, Muskie delivered a speech in front of the offices of the ''Union Leader'', calling its publisher, William Loeb, a liar and lambasting him for impugning the character of Muskie's wife,

Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * Jane (1915 film), ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * Jane (2016 film), ''Jane'' (20 ...

. Newspapers reported that Muskie cried openly: David Broder of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' had it that Muskie "broke down three times in as many minutes";

David Nyhan David Nyhan (December 23, 1940 – January 23, 2005), born Charles David Nyhan Jr., was a journalist and biographer, whose op-ed column ran in '' The Boston Globe'' newspaper for many years. He graduated from Harvard College where he played v ...

of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' had Muskie "weeping silently". The ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

'' showed Muskie's face contorted with emotion. Muskie maintained that if his voice cracked, it cracked from anger; Muskie's antagonist was the same editor who referred to him in the 1968 election as "Moscow Muskie", and called him a flip-flopper. The tears, Muskie claimed, were actually snow melting on his face. Jim Naughton of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', standing immediately at Muskie's feet, could not confirm that Muskie cried.

Denunciation

Whether true or false, fear of Muskie's alleged unstable emotional condition led some New Hampshire Democrats to defect to

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pr ...

. Muskie's winning margin, 46% to McGovern's 37%, was smaller than his campaign had predicted. The bounce and second-place finish led the McGovern campaign to boast of its momentum. By the time of the Florida primary, with McGovern clearing other left-leaning candidates from the field, Muskie's campaign was dead. ''Washington Post'' staff writer

Marilyn Berger Marilyn Berger Hewitt (born August 23, 1935), is an American broadcast and newspaper journalist and author. She worked for newspapers including '' The New York Times'' and '' The Washington Post'', and hosted local television news programs in Ne ...

reported that Nixon White House staffer Ken Clawson had bragged to her about authoring the letter. Clawson denied Berger's account. In October 1972, FBI investigators asserted that the Canuck Letter was part of the dirty tricks campaign against Democrats orchestrated by the

. Loeb, the publisher of the ''Manchester Union Leader'', maintained that the letter was not a fabrication, but later admitted to having some doubt, however, after receiving another letter claiming that someone had been paid $1,000 to write the Canuck Letter. The purported author, Paul Morrison of

Deerfield Beach, Florida Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County line. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,859. It is a principal ...

, was never found. The authorship of the letter is covered at length in the 1974 book '' All the President's Men'' by

Bob Woodward Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for '' The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor. While a young reporter for ''The Washingt ...

and

Carl Bernstein Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original n ...

and its 1976 film adaptation.

References

{{reflist

The crying speech

Denunciation

References

Further reading