Opinion of Richard Nixon...

[nickshepDEM]

I'm only 22, so work with me here, but I was reading over a list of his 'accomplishments' and he doesn't seem that bad (besides the whole Watergate thing, of course).

*Normalisation of relations with China
*Environmental Protection Agency
*Clean Air and Water Act
*Drug Enforcement Administration
*Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
*Suspension of the convertibility of the dollar into gold
*Native American self determination policy
*Withdrawal from Vietnam
*Support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War
*Authorization of the Space Shuttle program
*'War On Cancer'


Thoughts on Richard Nixon?

[mike_c]

1. Nixon would rank as a pretty moderate republican today-- his failings...

...were both personal-- he was paranoid and utterly creepy-- and political, especially with regard to the Vietnam war. Nixon played political games with the war to ensure his reelection-- cynicism at its most vile.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. nope.

he would rank as a liberal democrat, at least on many of those issues today. Even many of today's democrats would be afeared of trying to create an EPA, or Clean Water Act, or fixing Social Security.

Of course, he was a paranoid, power-hungry man, who either knew or tried to ignore criminal acts done on his behalf. But at least he resisted his worst impulses and resigned, saving the country from a constitutional crisis. I don't see Bush having that sense of honor.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Yes - Like Eisenhower

Nixon, like Eisenhower, would be a flaming liberal by today's standards. Eisenhower defended a 92% top tax bracket!

[Jacobin]

30. You're KIDDING, right? He is left of 90 percent of dems in congress

did you read the list?

Unfortunately, he was very dishonest in his power acquisition practices and LIED to keep us in VietNam longer than necessary. He was also an overt racist. However, he could never be elected today even as a democrat because his policy decisions were very liberal (except for VietNam(

[cmkramer]

52. resentment and self-pity

were his calling cards. He resented people like the Kennedys who he saw as always having things easy. And he always thought he was being treated unfairly by everyone.

[Radical Activist]

2. Some good things passed while he was President

but most of them were due to the Democratic Congress and pressure of the times.

Ford withdrew from Vietnam. Nixon increased activity there and lied about leaving. He also expanded the bombings to Cambodia.

Nixon violated the law and abused his power as President to subvert the democratic process, both during the election and to harass radicals.

I'm not sure I would call the DEA a success and I think his foreign policy "accomplishments" are over-rated, especially considering the number of horrible war crimes committed in Vietnam and Latin America during his Presidency.

Without a doubt he is one of the worst Presidents of all time.

[Hippo_Tron]

3. He withdrew from Vietnam after letting thousands of Americans die for no reason

The difference between Johnson and Nixon is that Johnson really believed we could win the war in Vietnam. Nixon knew from day 1 that we couldn't win yet he kept the troops there for his own political games.

Not to mention his illegal surveillance of civil rights and anti-war groups and outright assassinations of black panther members.

And thanks to the DEA we pay billions to lock up pot smokers. I guess Nancy Reagan is more to blame for that.

[Joe for Clark]

5. He was a "crook" - but he was a smart man.

Well - I think the best way to put it - if Nixon was president now, I probably wouldn't be posting here. I'd vote against him, but I think he was smart enough to do the smart thing, too.

I don't think anyone really liked Nixon.

With Reagan - I voted against him - but I liked him. Hard to like him on a personal level.

Does that make sense??

Joe

[many a good man]

6. He was the most liberal president of the past 38 years

And that's NOT a compliment to Nixon!

[emcguffie]

7. Granted, I'm from a yellow dog family.

As I grew up, I got the distinct impression from my parents that Mr. Nixon was a very, very bad man. Not honest. A crook. A criminal. This was long, long before Watergate.

When forced to confront his image on TV or in print, my mother would practically combust spontaneously. Smoke would come out of her ears. Froth would form on her lips.... My father was not so dramatic, but he would harumph kind of furiously, and work his jaw like he was chewing on something.

The "Checkers" speech. Something in that. Something in that speech revealed him, I think. Someone here knows about that, I'm pretty darned sure.



edit for spelling

[OzarkDem]

15. "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more"

The Checkers Speech showed what a paranoid psychopath he really was.

from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech

Nixon, having been accused of accepting $18,000 in illegal campaign contributions, gave a live address to the nation in which he revealed the results of an independent audit that was conducted on his finances, exonerating him of any malfeasance. The money, he asserted, did not go to him for personal use, nor did it count as income, but rather as reimbursement for expenses. He followed with a complete financial history of his personal assets, finances, and debts, including his mortgages, life insurance, and loans, all of which had the effect of painting him as living a rather austere lifestyle. He denied that his wife Pat had a mink coat, instead she wore a "respectable Republican cloth coat."

The one contribution he admitted receiving was from a Texas traveling salesman named Lou Carrol who gave his family a cocker spaniel, which his daughter named "Checkers." <2> Nixon admitted that this gift could be made into an issue by some, but maintained that he didn't care, stating "the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it." Later, when asked about Nixon's performance, some Eisenhower campaign insiders joked, "We're keeping the dog."

[Botany]

8. Nixon was a no good shit but if I could I would dig his bones up

and breath life back into them if he would take over for W.

BTW in his last years he saw the dangers of the neo cons and
wrote that America should never have ground forces in the Middle
East.

I disagreed with almost everything he did but he would have never
done this Iraq mess that W has us in.

[Infinite Hope]

9. My grandfather who's fairly liberal and pragmatic calls Nixon

'probably the best of modern Republicans' because he really was fairly liberal on many issues. He was just corrupt and paranoid.

[bobbolink]

20. "just corrupt and paranoid"

Given the present mess, that's really funny.

Or sad.

Can't figure out which.

[Infinite Hope]

28. Sorry, that wasn't meant...

as excusing it or brushing it off. It was making the point that he'd have been perhaps a "tolerable" Republican had he not been the scum he was.

I shouldn't have used the word "just" as it gives my point the wrong meaning. Sorry.

[bobbolink]

40. Yikes! I didn't mean it directed at you!!

It was just my (sloppily-worded) comment that it's hard to find the line between sad and funny these days...

:hug: 'K?

[fiorello]

10. No, No, NO!!! I remember Nixon. YECCH!

(1) Half of the US combat deaths in Vietnam occurred during the Nixon administration.

(2) Nixon greatly widened bombing of north Vietnam, with more direct targeting of civilian targets. All (as pointed out by previous poster) when everyone knew that the war was lost - and even Nixon said it was just about 'peace with honor', i.e. saving face.

I'll never forget the deliberate bombing of a hospital in 1972 (just after being re-elected.)

(3) Nixon overthrew the government of Cambodia (1969), which was stable up to that time - then invaded the country (1970). Apart from the direct damage, this lead the Pol Pot genocide. And HUGE casualties.

(4) Nixon overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile (1973).

(5) Watergate was not just about spying on a few Democrats - it was about suspension of civil liberties.

(6) Watergate arose from the predecessor of Bush's K-street strategy - politicize every branch of government (especially the IRS) and use them to punish businesses and individuals for giving money to the Democrats.

The Bush Iraq war, civil liberties assault and K-street strategy are all Nixon policies - just weaker and less successful.

What about domestic policy?

(1) Nixon gets 'credit' for doing things that were overwhelmingly popular - things he did not initiate, but could not get away with blocking. Remember that the Democrats overwhelmingly controlled Congress - and labor unions were powerful - and environmental cleanups were overwhelmingly popular.

(1) The EPA: Nixon let it happen... but he quietly gutted it whereever he could. He initially had a Secretary of the interior (an Alaska republican) who was serious about environmental affairs - so Nixon sacked him. There were similar behind-the-scenes blocking of environmental initiatives. He just couldn't do it openly.

(2) Nixon adopted liberal economic policies - in desperation, in 1970, when the economy went for shit and he recognized that the only way to prevent big losses in the Congressional election was to fix the economy. Little credit there.

(3) After Nixon's re-election in 1972 he announced the gutting of 'sacred cow' social programs - what Reagan also tried to do (and only partially succeeded due to political opposition). Nixon tried to do bad things to the US economy and failed; remember that Democrats overwhelmingly controlled Congress then - no credit to Nixon for that!

(4) Nixon began the policy of driving moderate Republicans out of the party - actively campaigning for right-wingers against moderates, and with his designated vice-president-idiot Agnew, to attack any opponent (Democrat or moderate republican) as an enemy and traitor.

Of the other things mentioned above, most were routine matters that worked through the (then non-partisan) bureaucracy, and don't provide credit to Nixon. (It's like crediting today's scientific discoveries to little Bush.)

The only positive things about the Nixon administration for which Nixon genuinely deserves credit is the detente with China and the SALT talks. (Those were genuine accomplishments. )

But foreign policy in general???? If the US and Vietnamese death rates under Nixon were ANYWHERE NEAR as low as the US and Iraqi death rates today, he would have been universally acclaimed as a national hero! The death rates under Nixon (US and Vietnamese) were TEN TIMES HIGHER than today's US and Iraqi death rates. AND IT WAS LESS JUSTIFIED THAN THE IRAQ WAR TODAY. (At least most Iraqis opposed Saddam Hussein; 80% of the Vietnamese supported the Viet Cong, according to President Eisenhower).

Sorry. I'm 53, and I remember.

One last thing - Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, was also his closest advisor. Over the past few years you may have heard comparisons between little Bush's John Ashcroft as 'the worst attorney generral since John Mitchell. Yep, there was a reason for it. John Mitchell said at the Watergate hearings that if the Democrats won the election, it would be So Bad for the United States that ANYTHING - legal or illegal - would be justified to keep them out. (Uh, the horrid risk-to-national security policy of the Democrats at the time was to WITHDRAW FROM VIETNAM.) And this person was in charge of justice in the US!!!!

[OzarkDem]

17. He refused to do anything about the Arab oil embargo

Like the blivet today, Nixon sat around and made a lot of excuses while the price of gas skyrocketed and oil tankers sat off the coast of the US waiting for prices to get high enough.

http://www.answers.com/topic/1973-oil-crisis

[liberalpragmatist]

22. Interesting perspective

I wasn't alive during Nixon's tenure (or Ford's or Carter's), but I'm skeptical of the "Nixon wasn't so bad"-nostalgia a lot of people seem to espouse nowadays.

It seems to me that an awful lot of Nixon's "liberal" policies were akin to Bush's "liberal policies," similar to how Bush instituted steel tariffs, increased agricultural subsidies, gave us a horribly wasteful and bastardized prescription drug benefit for Medicare, and passed a liberal-sounding (but hollow and expensive) education reform in "No Child Left Behind."

Nixon wasn't a liberal, or even a moderate. He was a cynical, power-hungry megalomaniac who had no coherent ideology other than a cynical desire to stay elected. His "liberal" policies seem to have been cynical attempts to buy off Democratic voters.

Jon Rauch (columnist for National Journal) wrote a column calling Nixon the worst president of the 20th century and pointed out that Nixon's domestic policies were extremely wasteful and did a whole lot to mire the U.S. in the budget deficits and stagflation that came later. The horrible fiscal situation that Carter inherited (and which Reagan made worse) came directly from Nixon.

Now, Rauch is a bit of a small-l libertarian, so he criticizes a lot of Nixon-era regulations on business and industry. I don't know enough about those to know for myself where I stand on Nixon's regulatory regimes. Still, it's an interesting column.

http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/nixon_20th_centurys_worst_president/index.html

Let me know if you agree with his critique or my criticisms.

[fiorello]

31. I question Rauch's economics - the rest seems right on

Rauch writes as a right-wing ideologue - government spending is Bad; if the economy is Bad it must be blamed on Too Much Government Spending (especially if it helps the poor). Somehow, I don't think that the high inflation of the late 1970's was due to too much government spending on Medicare.

(Medicare, started under Johnson, was ramped up into full operation after Nixon became president - again, no thanks to Nixon. Nixon began his attack on programs to aid the poor in 1973, but one month later Watergate blew up.)

The US economy of the time got screwed up under Johnson - I got this from a liberal economics professor - Johnson's economists told him that he needed to raise taxes right from the start if he was going to go big into Vietnam, and Johnson refused because he was afraid people wouldn't support the war if taxes went up. (Does that sound like anyone? Hey, Americans, go out and buy something, pay no attention to the war behind the curtains. LBJ deserves so much credit for civil rights, for his programs for the poor... but still.)

The so-called Great Inflation was also sparked by the energy crises in 1973 and 1979 - I can't blame Nixon for that since his policies were not that much different from what any average politician would have done - also by the time of the energy crisis Nixon was spending most of his energy trying to keep out of jail.

Nixon did widen race-based entitlements, and I've read since that this was genuinely his initiative. Nixon was no great supporter of blacks. He probably disliked blacks even more than he disliked Italian-Americans ("you never find one that's honest"), or Polacks or Fat Japs (Spiro Agnew's immortal words), or Jews (no epithet needed, the word itself was an epithet). He used coded racism probably even more than today's Republicans (and that's saying a lot). I've read that he did it because he figured that it would be politically advantageous to Republicans to put the 99%-Democratic black vote into ghettos. Was he that smart? Go fig'.

[charlyvi]

33. Not to mention Mitchell's batshit crazy wife Martha. nt

[OzarkDem]

38. She ended up being a hero

She was trying to call attention to the Nixon administration crimes and they labeled her as crazy.

[karynnj]

44. Wow! This is a fantastic summary

It really tells things as they were - Nixon should never be "re-habilitated".

[John Gauger]

11. Nixon was a criminal.

He did not respect the rule of law. He staffed his administration with corporate lobbyists and allowed them to make decisions about matters that affected the American people. He thought that he was not bound by the law and attempted to completely do away with any Constitutional restrictions on the President's powers. He also operated completely outside the realm of morality. He lied without hesitation and without compunction. He thought that the American people were stupid and communicated with us as such (see the Checkers speech.) He worked to secure and perpetuate the power of the elite at the expense of ordinary Americans. He ran and was elected on a racist platform; he was the 'law and order' candidate. This was a thinly veiled promise to white America to surpress the dangerous Negro population. He authorized the CIA murder of Chilean president Salvadore Allende (at the request of PepsiCola, Anaconda Copper, and IT&T; Kissinger actually gave the order) He made Henry Kissinger National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State. While he did end the war, he first expanded it (illegally, of course) into Cambodia and Laos; Cambodia today as a result has more landmines than any other country. In short he operated in a cynical and morally reprehensible manner. He was a wholly despicable individual.

I would note that the DEA is not a positive accomplishment: they are a criminal organization that also operates outside the realm of the law. Nixon also authorized illegal surveillance by the FBI in an attempt to intimidate enemies. He used the powers of the state for his own corrupt ends.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Nixon was a nasty, authoritarian, criminal, semi-deranged son of a bitch.

That said, I'd still take him over what we have now.

[MannyGoldstein]

16. But It's Not Like He Was George Bush or Something

As you said.

[wishlist]

13. He also wanted universal Health Care coverage

During his Presidency the federal government took over administering Supplemental Security Income (welfare for aged, blind and disabled) from the states so that it could be run more fairly and uniformly by the Social Security Administration under standardized rules. This was a big enhancement in reducing poverty due to the outreach and increase in benefits that occured reducing the disparities and inequities that had occurred when the states each ran their own separate welfare programs. He wanted univeral health coverage too but had to settle for expanding SSI and Medicaid for the poor and disabled.

[fiorello]

18. It was called the 'Great Society' - an LBJ program - opposed by Repukes

Throughout the 1970's and 1980's there was constant Republican claptrap against the Great Society programs - the 'war on poverty', started by Johnson in 1964 - Nixon made no question he was opposed to it. Here is what Nixon said in his 2nd inaugural in 1972 - a reference both to those programs and a plagarizing of Kennedy's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country". Nixon said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for yourself."

There was an enormous decrease in poverty and hunger in the US during the 1960's - there were significant numbers of Americans sick through malnourishment in the US until the 1960's - the change was DUE TO THE DEMOCRATIC POLICIES OF LBJ.

If any of these were "passed" during the Nixon administration, it was all hang-over from the Democrats - the Democrats controlled Congress, remember.

[wishlist]

29. SSI was an initiative of Nixon Administration that he signed into law in 1972

Welfare and disability benefits were actually expanded and liberalized under Nixon. (His policies were also generous for federal employees' pay and benefits. Then Carter greatly expanded federal employees' union rights which are now getting severely eroded under Bush)

Ironically the payment of benefits came to be seen as overly generous and out of control with lack of safeguards. As a result Jimmy Carter's administration initiated a number of reviews, restrictions and security measures to rein in programs and tighten eligibility criteria. Carter signed the law stopping the payment of Social Security disability benefits to convicted felons in prison. That change was generally approved but some of the other restrictions or cessation of disability benefits under Carter were very controversial resulting in legal action and reversal. I worked for the Fed Govt administering several of these programs so I was aware of the changes as they came down the pike from above.

[mtnsnake]

19. Before Nixon came along, there was no such word as CROOK

If he was president today, I think we'd be despising him as much as Bush, what with the internet and all. A real mother fucker he was.

The only reason he resigned was to save his ass from going to jail. Had he not resigned, he would've been impeached and convicted.

[T Wolf]

21. It is interesting that so many have said that Nixon was very bad

and provide so much great detail - like a list of charges on an indictment.

And that any good that happened in his years in DC was not due to his efforts.

And that being said, Tricky Dick is STILL preferable to the piece of shit squatting in AL's house.

And I agree with alll three points.


How in the hell are they still in positions of power?

[liberalpragmatist]

23. I'm not sure he would be preferable to Dubya

Dubya strikes me as Nixon's 21st century counterpart.

Do you really think that Nixon would have conducted Iraq better? If Vietnam is anything to go by, we'd be in just as bad a position as we are now.

[fiorello]

27. A reminder of how much times have changed...

Sorry, one more anecdote. Around 1970, some nut named Charles Manson was on trial for murder. Nixon, in a speech, referred to him - generally, he meant to hint that people who opposed the Vietnam war were all like Charles Manson, as opposed to 'patriotic' Americans who support Nixon - standard stuff for the time. But he slipped up and referred to Manson, "who is guilty of murders".

This was BIG HEADLINE NEWS all across the country and widely, widely condemned. Declaring someone guilty while they were still on trial! We are a country of laws, and no one can be declared guilty unless they have their day in court, not even by the President! There were no Rush Limbaughs around to defend Nixon - it was considered by the news media to be absolutely beyond the pale. And by most Americans. Except for Spiro Agnew, who railed against the "liberal news media".

Now, today, when little Bush says that 1000 card-carrying-terrorists are definitely terrorists, because he says so - people yawn, it's standard.

[LittleClarkie]

24. My estimation of him has improved because of Bush

He'd be better than what we have right now. Liberal health care policy. Actual knowledge of foreign policy. Yep, I'd vote for him over this crapola.

[cosmik debris]

25. Nixon had a secret plan

To get us out of Viet Nam. But his plan led to the illegal invasion and bombing of Cambodia. I believe that was one of the Articles of Impeachment.

I remember his "Peace with Honor" propaganda campaign. When there was no Peace in Saigon and no Honor in Washington.

I remember Hunter S. Thompson saying that Nixon was so crooked he had to screw his pants on every morning.

I remember Nixon as a man with no moral compass.

[Warpy]

26. Nixon was a mixed bag, that's for sure

The DEA would count as a dismal failure except the cornerstone of his drug policy wasn't interdiction by a quasi military police force, it was REHAB. He thought cutting demand was a more cost effective way to tackle the problem than jailing the users or interfering in other countries' agriculture.

He was eventually tripped up by his own paranoia, the extent of which seems a little quaint now that his party has become an interstate racketeering organization engaged in election fixing.

[RoyGBiv]

32. Nixon: Not as Moronic as Bush

That's about it. He was smarter, but the ideology that ran through his administration was every bit as subversive as that of Bush, but in a slightly different way.

[charlyvi]

34. If Nixon were alive today he'd be as conservative as the rest of them.

Nixon was a power-hungry, secretive, paranoid, lying piece of crap that pushed the idea of "The Imperial Presidency" all the way to his own resignation and plane ride in failure back to San Clemente.

Anything he did was to cement his own power. The EPA? SSI? Trip to China? It was all done to decorate the altar of Nixon, and he would be doing the same thing today--only now it would be through the vehicle of conservatism. The times dictated the means of his self aggrandizement. And the times were very, very different when Nixon was president. The John Birchers were there, but were thought of as fringe lunatics, not the "movement conservatives" that they would become.

Nixon was an evil man; just as the descendants of the Vietnam dead.

[dmosh42]

35. Nixon's unpredictability!

I would never try to defend any of our president's from charges of being crooks, liars or even evil. The only ones I thought were sincere in their efforts were Truman, Eisenhower, and Carter. But Nixon had this 'out-of-the-box thinking. His moves to bomb Cambodia in order to get the No. Vietnamese to negotiate worked because the communist could always predict what our gov't would do, until Nixon. He was "tricky Dick", as the Dems called him then. And the other thing I remembered was he didn't have that anti-working man mentality, and was the last Republican president to sign any legislation for worker safety.(OSHA)And when they suddenly opened talks with China really set the USSR back on their heels, as this allowed for a split in the communist world. I do think his biggest downfall was his paranoid thinking that led him to Watergate, and there was no way McGovern would beat him for re-election.

[karynnj]

46. Nixon's actions worked in SE Asia??????

By what measure - he destabalized the entire region! Prince Sihanouk tried to keep Cambodia neutral and had succeeded for years. Nixon started the path to Pol Pot! (Note the military under Johnson also invaded Cambodia and Laos in pursuit of Viet Cong - against international law, but Nixon expanded it in a major way).

The peace terms in 1973 were what was available in 1968 - all Nixon accomplished with his "unpredictability" was the genocide in Cambodia, about 25,000 extra US servicemen killed and many more mentally or physically injured, over a million Vietnamese deaths.

[terrya]

36. Once you get past the fact that he was a vile anti-semitic, racist...

paranoid, ruthless creep who needlessly prolonged the Vietnam War, he wasn't all that bad.

[noonwitch]

37. A really smart, but really paranoid guy

If Nixon had not been so paranoid about communists and hippies, he probably would have been able to be a great president.

He did some good things, and by today's standards would not be considered conservative. He made a few of big mistakes-Watergate and the associated coverup, some of the actions related to the Vietnam War, participation in the assassination of Salvador Allende.

He also did some major good things-he opened up relations with China, improved diplomatic relations with the USSR, managed the economy, had an energy conservation program, and he began the peace process with Israel and Egypt that led to the Camp David Accords credited to Carter (and rightfully so, but the initial work that led to that was begun during Nixon's administration).

[fiorello]

39. On energy,and the Israel-Egypt war: "Henry's in bed with a broad"

Energy conservation? Nixon's energy program was 100% big-nuclear (unrealistically so); there is no such thing as energy conservation, just a bit of lip service. The Democratic Congress passed some energy conservation legislation; Nixon did not veto it.

On the Yom Kippur War: This is from Jimmy Breslin's brilliant book, "How the Good Guys Finally Won":

----
"Early in the morning of October 10 (1973), the Congressional leadership was called in for a briefing... the Arab-Israeli war had erupted on the 6th.... Kissinger began to explain what happened.

'Ah, we had trouble finding Henry. He was in bed with a broad', Nixon said. He began giggling and rolling his head around'.

Kissinger went on with the details.

"Henry, which girl was it that you were with?", Nixon said.

Kissinger kept explaining the war.

"It's terrible when you have a girl and the Secret Service has to break in on you", Nixon said. He leered and winked.

On his notes, Tip O'Neill (the Democratic majority leader) wrote 'President is acting very strangely'.

When the meeting broke up, O'Neill rode back to the Capitol with George Mahon of Texas and Thomas E. Morgan of Pennsylvania, the only Congressman who is a physician. Morgan said he thought Nixon was sick. Laughter when others are being killed has a way of being disturbing."
----

Two other quotes about Nixon (from the Peoples Almanac):

"Nixon is a god-damned liar, and people know it. He's the only politician to run for high office talking to the American people out of both sides of his mouth and lying out of both sides." - Harry Truman

During the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon campaign, Truman was asked by reporters if he had really said, as reported: "Anyone who votes for Nixon and Lodge can go to hell", and "Nixon never told a word of truth in his life." Truman denied the first, but said "you can't deny the second."

[eridani]

41. DEA on the plus side???

You realize that's the War on Some Drugs, and not regulation of pharmaceutical companies, don't you?

Also, withdrawal could have been much, much earlier.

[sutz12]

42. Nixon was a crook...

You can trace the roots of the neo-cons right to his feet of clay.

He did, however, pass the largest pay raise for the military in history, benefiting me quite handsomely. :)

But, no, I wouldn't suggest we clone him for present or future use. He invented the Rove/Bush playbook.

[karynnj]

43. He had no choice on many of "his" accomplishments

Vietnam:
He was elected in 1968 when both party's had planks of ending the Vietnam War. He did significantly draw down troops, but he continued a war until 1973 that the architechs of the war knew couldn't be won as early as 1968.

Even though the number of troops in that interval was less, half the soldiers who died were killed under Nixon's leadership. The policies implemented had little or no chance of success which likely made serving at that time extremely demoralizing as well as dangerous. (Many here who actually served can speak to this much better than I can - I was a college student and as a girl, had no risk of being called to serve)

Nixon ended the war after being re-elected. Congress cut off the funding. The terms were basicly the same as those offered in 1968. In the last year, a letter from Kissinger to the Chinese, written when Nixon was first in office, shows that he wanted to negotiate a deal where Saigon would not fall until a few years after the US left. That letter is proof that John Kerry was 100% right in saying that the war was continuing because Nixon did not want to be the first President to lose a war.

Abuse of civil rights

Nixon had an enemy's list - actually written. He used the FBI, the IRS and any other government entity to investigate and harass those people he had political problems with. The Nixon tapes that showed America who he was behind closed doors were shocking. (You heard a small portion of the tape in 2004 when he ordered his people to "destoy" Kerry, who was then a 27 year old war hero.) Nixon attempted to be an Imperial President - though in the end he failed - Bush has resurrected much of the Nixonian doctrine.

I was adamently anti-Nixon, but I would never would have believed he was as nasty and unAmerican as he really was. All the Bush dirty tricks etc have their origin in the the stunts pulled by the creeps in the Committee to Re-elect the President - which in one of the few honest acts of the Nixon administration was refered to as CREEP.

Consider that the Buffalo Springfield song - "For what it's worth" was a hit. "Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep..." Not until W did that song again seem to resonate with the reality in America. You can get a better view of that period looking at the music, movies and books written then - while avoiding most re-creations of that time written especially in the last decade of so. (Re-writing history through pop culture has tried to make Vietnam winnable and the anti-war movement into drugged out hippies.


All the environmental stuff:

There was a massive popular movement - lad by people like Rachel Carson - who moved people to demand action on environmental issues. In fact, John Kerry in recent years has used that movement as his main example of a grassroots movement that succeeded. He spoke of the League of Conservation Voters identifying a "dirty dozen", the 12 worse people on environment, and working to defeat them. In 1970, they defeated 7 out of the 12 - which is incredible considering they were incumbents. Kerry then explained that beyond eliminating the worst of the bunch, this made people in Congress take demands for legislative action seriously and that led to all the that environmental legislation. It also did lead to Nixon creating the EPA. (Note: Many old time Republicans were good on the environment.)

On many of the other things, China, SALT etc, Nixon was a very competent President and he did do somethings right - some of these things and his comments implying that peace was near - account for his easy re-election. One irony was that it was his paranoia that he would lose the election that allowed the dirty tricks that got him impeached.

The difference between W and Nixon is that Nixon was intelligent and competent. They both were/are dangerous for our democracy.

[sutz12]

49. He also invented the term....

"ratfucking" for his dirty tricks. Gotta give him credit for that. :rofl:

[karynnj]

50. I never knew that

Really classy guy - NOT

[Bridget Burke]

45. "He was a crook"--by Hunter S Thompson

Jun 16, 1994

MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK

DATE: MAY 1, 1994

FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON

SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON:

NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.

"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is becoming the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."--REVELATION 18:2

Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing--a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that "I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.

www.liberalavenger.com/2005/02/hunter-s-thompson-on-nixons-death.html

(Always glad to have a chance to post the words of The Master.)

But Bush makes Nixon look good.

[Zorro]

47. Until Shrub, the worst president we've ever had

Don't fall the historical revisionism going on surrounding Nixon. He was a rotten bastard.

Wrote the book on presidential abuse of power.

Selected a crook as his vice-president.

Demonized college students and opponents to the Vietnam War.

Won in '68 on the platform of having a "secret plan" for ending the war, when he had nothing.

[Eugene]

48. Nixon was a "go slow" moderate-conservative who could be pragmatic.

By today's standards, some of his policies could be condered liberal,
even lefist, like wage-price controls and energy conservation.
But Nixon was a law and order conservative (despite being a crook)
and a ruthless anticommunist (an ally of Joe McCarthy).

Despite his many flaws, he knew how to work with the political realities
of his time, especially a Democratic Congress.

[CrispyQ]

51. One of my favorite bumper stickers of all time,

This Modern World:




I get lots of comments when I have this one displayed!