ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Former Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel, who was Richard Nixon’s interior secretary until he was fired after criticizing the handling of Vietnam protests, has died at age 90.
Longtime assistant Malcolm Roberts says Hickel died Friday night of what his son Jack Hickel described as natural causes. He died at Horizon House, an assisted living facility in Anchorage.
President Nixon fired Hickel in 1970 after he wrote a letter saying the administration was ignoring the concerns of “our young people.” The letter helped stir the national debate about the growing generational rift over Vietnam.
The letter was written following the National Guard shootings during a protest at Ohio’s Kent State University and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.
Hickel was first elected Alaska governor in 1966. He resigned to take the Cabinet post. He served a second term as governor in the 1990s.
