Richard Nixon exposed to radiation on Moscow trip in 1959, documents reveal

Vice-president and wife exposed to massive dosages' of ionising radiation at US ambassador's residence, declassified files show

Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, were exposed to potentially harmful radiation while staying at the US ambassador's residence in Moscow in 1959, according to declassified Secret Service documents.

Nixon, who was vice-president at the time, was not informed of the threat, and the state department was only informed in 1976, when a member of his Secret Service detail, James Golden, revealed that detection equipment had measured significant levels of radiation in and around the Nixons' sleeping quarters at the residence, Spaso House.