To celebrate what would have been The King of Rock & Roll's 75th birthday, National Public Radio did a segment last Friday about Elvis Presley's meeting with President Richard M. Nixon, in the Oval Office, on December 21, 1970. On the previous day, Elvis hand delivered a letter to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in which he asked the president to designate him a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

In the letter Elvis said, "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 where I can and will do the most good."

This exchange took place not long after Nixon had approved a plan for greatly expanding domestic intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other agencies - which he quickly rescinded. Instead, he formed a a group that became known as "the Plumbers," which masterminded the Watergate break-in less than 6 months later.

Photographs by Nixon's chief photographer, Oliver F. Atkins, from the National Archives.

Evidently Nixon saw in Elvis the personification of the American Dream, in which the poor boy makes good: he invited the King for a meeting in the Oval Office the next day. The photographs of that meeting have become the most requested items in the National Archives.

In fact, the National Archives has produced a mini-website dedicated to the now-famous meeting. Click to enter. Take a look at a group of photos in which members of Nixon's inner circle also meet Elvis. Read a transcript of the King's 6-page handwritten letter to the President. It's a long way from today's White House...