Dez Prez Rankings: #22

#22 of 39:
Richard Nixon (37th president)
1969-74
Republican


I must disclose from the outset that I am a Richard Nixon fan. This is as far as I could justifiably push Tricky Dick up on this list. On a personal level, I was born during his presidency, so I am a child of Nixon. As an American, I can step back from the shadows of Watergate and appreciate his substantial accomplishments, and in some instances, his far reaching vision. As an academic, how can I not love Nixon as a fascinating figure to study? In the AP U.S. History course that I teach, I spend two full class periods on the Nixon presidency (if you know the breadth and scope of an AP course, two classes on any one subject is a substantial commitment). His presidency deserves a close look, and I always hated when I was a student how the teachers would always run out of time at the end of the year and we would have to sprint through the most recent 50 years or so. Not me. This stuff is important. With Nixon, it is very much a case of The Good, The Bad & the Ugly.

The Good:
RN’s triumphs were in foreign policy. His first great move was striking up a close relationship with the brilliant Henry Kissinger, his National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State. The Nixon-Kissinger team was insulated and secretive (a hallmark of most Nixon relationships), but this one worked. Nixon opened relations with communist China. Before this point, previous American presidents had refused to even acknowledge the Chinese government as legitimate (instead recognizing the government-in-exile on Taiwan as the “true” Chinese leadership). But Nixon, the former rabid Red-hunter, now was the peace seeking diplomat. This move was brilliant. Not only did it open relations with China, it also lit a fire under the jealous and suspicious Soviets. Now afraid that the U.S. and China were suddenly cozy, the Soviets wanted to talk too. Between Nixon’s triumphant visits to Beijing and Moscow, he masterfully played China and the USSR against each other, taking advantage of the natural competitiveness that existed between the world’s two most dominant communist powers. Nixon was able to reopen the door to China and at the same time usher in Détente, the thawing of the Cold War. He also signed the SALT I treaty, the first arms reduction deal with the Soviets.


ABOVE: Nixon and Kissinger made an outstanding foreign policy team

Nixon’s conduct of the Vietnam War which he inherited was mixed. It was Nixon who decided to (slowly) end our involvement. “Vietnamization” was the precursor to our current Iraq strategy of pulling our military out and handing the fight over to our local allies. The eventual result of Vietnamization was the fall of Saigon and the defeat of the South Vietnamese. Let’s hope Iraq has a more favorable outcome. More on Vietnam (and Cambodia) below.

Nixon was less successful domestically, but he did do some good things. I find it notable that he proposed a universal health care plan decades before Obama. He increased social security, Medicare and Medicaid. He also became an early advocate for the environment, creating the EPA.

The Bad:
Nixon’s illegal and secret (for awhile) bombing of Cambodia was, uh, questionable. Estimates vary wildly (between hundreds and tens of thousands) of innocent Cambodian civilians who were killed in the carpet bombing. But at the same time, it is helpful to understand his reasons. The Viet Cong were able to move at will throughout Vietnam due to their ability to jump the Cambodian border on to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We knew the Viet Cong had substantial supply depots and bases on the Cambodian side of the border, even though Cambodia was ostensibly neutral. If your enemy is hiding somewhere, it makes sense to bomb them there. But “there” happened to be another country with whom we were not officially at war. One can argue that Nixon’s actions strengthened the position of Pol Pot, inadvertantly helping his genocidal Khmer Rouge government to gain power.


ABOVE: Nixon enjoyed bowling

Nixon proposed one of the first affirmative action programs with his Philadelphia Plan. I happen to feel affirmative action is a negative and just discrimination under a different name, so I put that in the negative column. He did not handle the economic problems of the 70’s very well. Contrary to what my friend Pockyjack states, I don’t think anyone had the answers to the 70’s economic woes. But Nixon sure didn’t help things with his price and wage freeze.


The Ugly:
As much as I try to focus on the complexities of the Nixon administration, it always does end up coming down to Watergate. What makes Nixon such an interesting historical figure is that most of his problems he brought upon himself. Nixon was a brilliant, hard-working leader, but he was also paranoid, vindictive and distrustful. His desire to punish his enemies and to ensure his own power led him to violate the law. His team of Plumbers led by G. Gordon Liddy did everything from break into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to steal medical files and get some blackmail-worthy dirt on the Pentagon Papers whistleblower to planning kidnappings of war protestors and setting up filmed prostitute entrapment scenarios for his political rivals.


ABOVE: The famous photo of Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods. When Congress and investigators demanded to know why there were substantial gaps on some of the White House tapes, especially one in which Nixon and H.R. Haldemann were about to discuss Watergate, Nixon blamed his secretary. Here she is seen demonstrating how she could have activated the tape machine with her hand and at the same time "accidentally" pushed the erase button with her foot. Needless to say, this gymnastic pose didn't help Nixon's credibility. Especially when it was later discovered after analysis that the tapes had been erased 4 to 6 times to make sure there was no trace of what was on them.

I don’t believe that Nixon ordered the Watergate break-in, but he definitely tried to cover it up. And more importantly, the atmosphere that he created led his underlings to believe that the Watergate caper was acceptable practice. It was so unnecessary. He had the ’72 election won against the whimpy George McGovern anyway. But he wanted to do more than win, he wanted the biggest landslide in history. The irony is that the taping system that Nixon used in the Oval Office that he thought he would use to preserve his meetings and later use to help him write his own glowing memoirs was finally what sealed his doom. Once the Supreme Court in The United States v. Nixon ruled that he had to hand over the tapes to Congress, he became the first (and only) president in U.S. history to resign from office, as he was facing certain impeachment and removal.



Pros:
* Open the door to China relations
* Detente with the Soviets (SALT I)
* Eventually got us out of Vietnam
* EPA
* Expanded some important programs

Cons:
* Bombing and invasion of Cambodia
* Affirmative Action
* Price and wage freezes
* Dirty tricks and Watergate