"Louie smokes marijuana?"

From Nixon's Secrets by Roger Stone and Mike Colapietro.

In fact, Nixon could be quite naive. In the late 1950s, the US State Department made jazz great Louis Armstrong a “goodwill ambassador” and underwrote a series of concert tours in Europe and Asia. On his return from the first two tours, based on Satchmo’s ambassadorial status, Armstrong and his entourage were waived through customs without a search. Yet, upon a later return, upon landing at Idlewild Airport in New York in 1958, he was directed to the customs lines. Custom agents had been tipped off that contraband was being imported into the country. Armstrong joined a long line of travelers lined up for inspections. Unfortunately, the jazz trumpeter was carrying three pounds of marijuana in his suitcase. Once Armstrong realized he was about to be busted and would bring shame on the country he was traveling on behalf of, he began sweating profusely.

Just then the doors swung open and Vice President Richard Nixon, in step with his security detail, swept in the room followed by a gaggle of reporters and photographers. Nixon, seeing an opportunity for a wire photo with Armstrong, went up to the jazz man and said, “Satchmo, what are you doing here?”

“Well, Pops, (Armstrong called everyone Pops) I just came back from my goodwill ambassador's tour of Asia and they told me I had to stand in this line for customs."

Without hesitation, Nixon grabbed both of Satchmo's suitcases. "Ambassadors don't have to go through customs and the Vice President of the United States will gladly carry your bags for you," Nixon said. Whereupon The Vice President "muled" three pounds of pot through United States Customs without ever knowing it.

When Nixon was told what happened by Charles McWhorter, who served as a traveling aide to Nixon (who heard the tale from one of the jazz musicians traveling with Satchmo), a startled Nixon exclaimed, "Louie smokes marijuana?"