Richard M. Nixon American President
It’s hard to believe that 35 years have passed since the Watergate incident. Time flies by as American Presidents come and go. While time passed long ago for Richard M. Nixon, known not so affectionately as “tricky Dick”, in death Nixon remains a man of mystery and speculation.
Nixon was not the warmest and certainly not the most charismatic of the rather strange, highly driven, ruthless men who make it to the top of the world leadership heap as an American President. In fact most Americans, when asked about Nixon today would rank him near the bottom of the Presidential wreckage heap.
It is doubtful that anyone in American Politics has ever been so thoroughly disgraced by taking an active role in attempting to cover up such a stupid operation, the Watergate bungled burglary affair.
Yet when you compare the actual accomplishments of Nixon’s administration you have to acknowledge that Nixon was effective at his job. His list of tangible long lasting achievements is probably unsurpassed by any President ever.
Nixon’s great mistake with Watergate was, of course, the effort to cover it up. Had he early on admitted his involvement and begged for forgiveness the good hearted by nature American voters would have probably forgiven his secretive sneaky ways. Maybe.
After all, Nixon was never called upon to resign because of his illegal bombing and undeclared war on Laos and Cambodia in S.E. Asia. Nixon has the dubious honor of having ordered the dropping of more bombs during his term in office than any other President anywhere in the history of warfare.
That’s a lot of bombs, some of which are still a killing threat today lying around as unexploded ordinance in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
You would think that his relentless bombing of civilian centers and villages in S.E. Asia would have caused him some trouble. But no. It was the ridiculous Watergate affair that brought down the house of Nixon.
Unfortunately, for the Nixon legacy Watergate continues to overshadow some accomplishments that on their own would have placed Nixon at or very near the top of the accomplishment list of any American President since George Washington.
Nixon’s most noteworthy accomplishment was his trip to China in 1972 and his meeting with Mao Tse-tung which paved the way for reestablishing relationships with China. Very likely his diplomacy with China did more to end the cold war than Reagan’s efforts at containing the Soviet Union. Yet Reagan generally gets 100% of the credit.
Could it be that the petty paranoid Nixon was so hard to like as a person, and Reagan was a man whom everyone liked, even his enemies, that Nixon didn’t get the recognition that he deserved? Or is it the ugly spectacle of Watergate that will forever keep Nixon’s legacy held in disrepute?
Nixon was the most effective President the US has ever had in dealing with desegregation of school issues. Tom Wicker, one of his most liberal critics stated in his massive 1991 study of Nixon, “One of Us,” that “the Nixon administration accomplished more in 1970 to desegregate Southern school systems than had been done in the sixteen previous years or probably since.”
Nixon was one of the few, perhaps only, American President who understood that it was important to have as an adviser a man smarter than he was. While Nixon, as bigoted a man as has ever sat in the oval office, disliked Kissinger and his Jewish background, he appointed him as his Secretary of State and benefited from his advice on a wide range of issues.
In addition, Nixon was a friend to the long abused American Indians. The executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, Bruce Willkie, stated that Nixon was “the first U.S. president since George Washington to pledge that the government will honor obligations to the Indian tribes.” Peter MacDonald, a Navajo leader, called Nixon the “Abraham Lincoln of the American people.”
Yet who among us has ever heard of Nixon’s outstanding record on Indian affairs? But we have all heard of Watergate.
Nixon remains a mystery. Why would such a smart, even at times brilliant man and President, risk all by lying about his involvement with the Watergate cover up?
The study of the life and Presidency of Richard M. Nixon should be required study for any sitting President. The cost of covering up Presidential misdeeds can be severe. Letting arrogance, ego and pride interfere with sound judgement can be fatal to a President’s legacy.
Let’s only hope that the present President realizes that his legacy will be that he was America’s worst President in history unless he somehow quickly changes his positions and ways.
I strongly expect that over time Nixon’s stock as a great President for achieving lasting accomplishments while in office will rise while George W. Bush’s stock as the worst President in America’s rich history will stay mired at the bottom of the heap.
A complete failure of Bush’s policies in Iraq and the Middle East and the absence of any noteworthy accomplishments on the domestic front are far more serious matters than Watergate ever was.
Still, Presidents should be acutely aware that any effort to cover up misdeeds is usually a far more serious matter than the actual deed. Future Presidents and the present President should make careful note of this fact and have more transparent Presidencies.  Â
