Remembering Nixon

President Richard Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the revelations of his "abuses of power" and obstruction of justice. For his involvement in criminal activities, Nixon earned his unique epitaph: an unindicted co-conspirator.

As the nation watched events unfold from 1972 to 1974, a host of then-famous names passed before us: Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean, Mitchell, Colson, Haig, Ziegler, Liddy, Hunt, Kleindienst, Magruder, Agnew, and so on. But the burglars, assorted presidential aides, congressional investigators and prosecutors now have faded into the mists of history -- spear carriers at best. Only the principal remains in our consciousness for his achievements and his misdeeds.

In 1974, more than 30 hours of White House tapes proved sufficient to force Nixon's resignation in the face of certain impeachment. In succeeding years, Nixon maintained that his tapes would exonerate him, yet he fought doggedly (and expensively) to prevent access to the remaining several thousand hours.

Eventually, a successful 1996 lawsuit forced the liberation of his remaining tapes, and secured wide public access to them. The new tapes have magnified and pinpointed Nixon's criminal liabilities. He openly discussed "hush money" payments to the arrested Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, one of his "plumbers," a secret group engaged in break-ins and other illegal activities. H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, reported on Aug. 1, 1972, that "Hunt's happy." "At considerable cost," the president replied. And then hastily added: "It's worth it, [t]hey have to be paid. That's all there is to that." He knew that Hunt "had done a lot of things." He worried that Hunt's "plumbers' " work -- his "earlier venture," according to Nixon -- might be exposed.

Nixon was both aware of the cover-up and was a participant in it from the outset, as the famous "smoking gun" tape of June 23, 1972, long ago revealed. He discussed the cover-up constantly throughout the next year. Haldeman told him that John Dean was "watching it on an almost full-time basis" and reporting to him and John Erhlichman, another principal Nixon aide. Haldeman assured Nixon that the investigation of Watergate was proceeding "along the channels that will not produce the kind of answers we don't want produced." On obstruction of justice, the tapes are clear.

Nixon's famous March 21, 1973, meeting with Dean ("There is a cancer on the presidency") has been variously interpreted. Either Dean told an uninformed Nixon of the full scope of the cover-up (as Nixon contended) or, more likely, he merely summarized whatever the president knew. In any event, no sooner had Dean left the Oval Office than Nixon called in his longtime secretary, Rose Mary Woods, and told her he "may have a need for substantial cash for a personal purpose" -- Woods had several hundred thousand dollars of "campaign contributions" in her office. Nixon acknowledged that his good friend Thomas Pappas "has raised the money." Haldeman laconically added: "And he's able to deal in cash." Later, Nixon thanked Pappas for his aid "on some of these things that ... others are involved in."

Nixon learned as early as October 1972 that Mark Felt had leaked FBI field reports to the Washington Post, a "secret" known since 1997 with the first release of new tapes. But Haldeman told him, "If we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI." Nixon agreed and then, trying to fathom Felt's motivation, he and Haldeman concluded that Felt was Jewish (he was not) and that explained his leaking of the information.

On April 30, 1973, Nixon dismissed his top aides. He spent several hours in telephone conversations that evening, making remarks uncharacteristically emotional, distraught, poignant and sprinkled with slurred words. At one point, he told the fired Haldeman, "I love you, Bob." A few days later, he lamented to his press secretary, "It's all over, do you know that?"

Nixon's tragic fate was self-inflicted. In the literary sense, he was a comic figure --"I am not a crook" is popular shorthand for a reflection on his life. The comic side reflects his awkwardness, and that awkwardness resulted in fatal isolation. He was constantly at odds with himself, allowing hate and suspicion of others to consume him, and this sent his career crashing into ruins. Nixon's conflicts and hates fueled his drive for power, and they eventually unraveled his authority. There was no "new Nixon" after all; he was the same man who had played on our public stage for so many years. In the end, Nixon delivered his most revealing insight into himself: "[T]hose that hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."

Partisans and historians will long argue over Nixon's presidential record; they similarly will divide over how to measure his impact on American political style and life. But Nixon's ignoble end indisputably left a disturbing legacy for that political life. Today, we speak of presidential abuses of power as being "worse than Watergate" in their contempt for lawful processes and the rule of law. The "lessons" and meaning of Richard Nixon remain exquisitely relevant.

Watergate persists as Nixon's nemesis. For it is Watergate and the unprecedented spectacle of a presidential resignation that most set him apart. Neither Nixon nor we can escape that history. The 35th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation once again raises his name and his memory, and reminds us of who and what he was. "For hateful deeds committed by myself!/ I am a villain: yet I lie. I am Not," Shakespeare's Richard III declared. Watergate remains Nixon's burden and our legacy.

Stanley Kutler is the author of The Wars of Watergate (W.W. Norton).

Comments

[ThomasDoubting]

Why is it that we had the authority, and the ability, to remove a president, in 1974, but we don't have it now ? The majority of American citizens would have been happy, to get rid of George W. Bush, for any number of reasons, anytime after about January 2005. Impeachment was off the table. Bush was at least as bad as Nixon, many would say worse. Nixon and Bush seem so different, and yet the result was pretty much the same. We lost and they walked away. Nixon had Viet Nam, and Bush had Iraq and Afghanistan. They also had their secret wars, and Americans lost many of the rights that our ancestors died, for. Because of their actions millions died, and millions more are still suffering. In years to come we will continue to hear about things that the Bush/Cheney regime, did that are worse than anything, that we have heard about yet.

[oldgeek1]

Remembering Nixon--- I would rather not, neither would the GOP who do not think their was a Republican President before Ronald Reagan.

[indymaggie]

Nixon (continued)
Changes Voting Age - In 1971, Right to vote: The voting age in the United States is reduced from 21 to 18 (provision of the 26th Amendment formally certified by President Richard Nixon).
Strengths Alliance with Israel - In 1970, the U.S. Congress gives President Richard Nixon authority to sell arms to Israel.
Alaska Pipeline - In 1973, President Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.
Minority Business Enterprise - Developed and Coordinated a national program for minority business enterprises.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - Created the EEOC in the Federal Government on August 8, 1969.
Regulations Regarding Employment of the Handicapped - Implemented regulations protecting and assisting the employment of the handicapped on September 9, 1969.
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[indymaggie]

Nixon (xontinued)
Increased Social Security and Medicare Spending - Under Nixon, direct payments from the federal government to individual American citizens in government benefits (including Social Security and Medicare) rose from 6.3% of the Gross National Product (GNP) to 8.9%.
Food aid and Public Assistance rose, beginning at $6.6 billion and escalating to $9.1 billion. In August 1969, Nixon proposed the Family Assistance Plan, a welfare reform that would have guaranteed an income to all Americans. The plan, however, did not receive congressional approval.
Defense Spending Decreased - from 9.1% to 5.8% of the GNP.
Revenue Sharing Program - pioneered by Nixon delivered $80 billion to individual states and municipalities.
Return of Okinawa to the Japanese - In 1969, President Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington to the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. retains rights to military bases on the island, but they must be nuclear-free.
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act - In 1970, President Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States, starting on January 1, 1971.

[indymaggie]

(continued)
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) - Implemented a broad environmental program (he is largely responsible for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

Ended the Draft - Nixon formed the Gates Commission to look into ending the military service draft, implemented under President Johnson. The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription. On September 28, 1971, Nixon signed legislation abolishing the military draft.The draft was extended to June 1973, and then ended.

Military Pay Increase - as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the United States Army began.

Ended the Vietnam War - In 1969, President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This starts the "Vietnamization" of the war. Under Nixon, American involvement in the war steadily declined from a troop strength of 543,000 to zero in 1973. Signing of the Paris peace accords ending American involvement in the Vietnam war in January 1973.
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[indymaggie]

(continued)
Détente replaced the hostility of the Cold War - In May 1972, Nixon visited Moscow for a summit meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and other Soviet leaders. Nixon engaged in intense negotiations regarding international issues [with his Soviet counterpart. This "summit meeting" resulted in agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established groundbreaking new policy of détente (or cooperation) between the two superpowers.

Nixon ended the draft.

Anticrime Laws - President Nixon helped several pieces of anticrime become law, including:
The landmark Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. Sponsored by Senator McClellan, the conservative Southern Democrat from Arkansas, and Senator Samuel J. Ervin, a conservative Democrat from North Carolina, the act included Title IX, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statue, which launched a concerted drive against organized crime. The statue established severe criminal and civil penalties for using racketeering money or procedures in authentic businesses. But it also led to numerous civil lawsuits, which in turn prompted Congress to review the statue.
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[indymaggie]

(continued)
Supplemental Security Income - Nixon indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Balanced Budget - In 1969, Nixon presented the only balanced budget between 1961 and 1998.

Universal Health Care, Even the Clinton administration admitted if Nixon had completed his presidential term and was successful with this plan's implementation, American would be light years ahead in healthcare reform.

Detachment of the Dollar from the Gold Standard - By the time Nixon took office, U.S. gold reserves had declined from $25 billion to $10.5 billion. Gold was an underpriced commodity, as the dollar was overpriced as a currency. The United States was on the verge of running its first trade deficit in over 75 years.The price of gold had been set at $35 an ounce since the days of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency; foreign countries acquired more dollar reserves, outnumbering the entire amount of gold the United States possessed. Nixon completely eradicated the gold standard, preventing other countries from being able to claim gold in exchange for their dollar reserves, but also weakening the exchange rate of the dollar against other currencies and increasing inflation by driving up the cost of imports. Nixon felt that the dollar should float freely like other currencies. Said Nixon in his speech:

"The American dollar must never again be a hostage in the hands of international speculators."
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[indymaggie]

(continued)
NASA's Space Shuttle program - On January 5, 1972, Nixon approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program, a decision that profoundly influenced American efforts to explore and develop space for several decades thereafter. On May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space program, culminating in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a joint-mission of an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1975.

Economic Policies - Nixon announced new economic policies on August 15, 1971 in a televised speech to the nation.

The Democratic Congress passed the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, giving Nixon power to set wages and prices; While opposed to permanent wage and price controls, Nixon imposed the controls on a temporary basis in a 90 day wage and price freeze. The controls (enforced for large corporations, voluntary for others) were the largest since World War II; they were relaxed after the initial 90 days, although unemployment did not decrease.

A Pay Board set wage controls limiting increases to 5.5% per year, and the Price Commission set a 2.5% annual limit on price increases. The limits did help to control wages, but not inflation. Overall, however, the controls were viewed as successful in the short term and were popular with the public, who felt Nixon was rescuing them from price-gougers and from a foreign-caused exchange crisis. The next day, the Dow Jones measured a then-record one day increase.
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[indymaggie]

(continued)
Roe v. Wade - It was during the Nixon Presidency that the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling, legalizing abortion. First Lady Pat Nixon had been outspoken about her support for legalized abortion, a goal for many feminists (though there was a significant pro-life minority faction of the Women's Liberation Movement as well). Nixon himself did not speak out publicly on the abortion issue, but was personally pro-choice, and believed that, in certain cases such as rape, or an interracial child, abortion was an option.

Moon Landings - In 1969, Nixon's first year in office, the United States sent three men up to the moon, becoming the first nation in the world to do so. On July 20, Nixon addressed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, two of the astronauts, live via radio during their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk. Nixon also placed a telephone call to Armstrong on the moon, the longest distance phone call ever, and called it "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House." He observed their landing in the ocean from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. All U.S. Project Apollo moon landings, and the attempted moon landing of Apollo 13, took place during Nixon's first term.
(more to come_

[indymaggie]

(continued)
Nixon tied desegregation to improving the quality of education and enforced the law after the Supreme Court, in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969), prohibited further delays. By fall of 1970, two million southern black children enrolled in newly created unitary fully integrated school districts; this meant that only 18% of Southern black children attended all-black schools, a decrease from 70% when Nixon came to office. Nixon's Cabinet Committee on Education, under the leadership of Labor Secretary George P. Shultz, quietly set up local biracial committees to assure smooth compliance without violence or political grandstanding. "In this sense, Nixon was the greatest school desegregator in American history," historian Dean Kotlowski concluded.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 - now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, but more commonly known simply as Title IX, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Nixon signed the landmark laws Title IX in 1972, prohibiting gender discrimination in all federally-funded schools and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. In 1970 Nixon had vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act, denouncing the universal child-care bill, but signed into law Title X.
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(more to come)

[indymaggie]

No man is all good or all evil. Nixon may have been paranoid and bitter but he accomplished a lot of things in his Presidency. To write only of the evil side and not list the good side is reprehensible. Men should be judged by all that they do. Here is the good side of Nixon:

Although he did not achieve all that he had wished for in the Middle East, Nixon virtually expelled the Soviet Union from the region and initiated a long peace process.

He began formal relations with China and improved relations with the Soviet Union.

Nixon's accomplishments while in office included:

ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) - Nixon endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification as a Constitutional amendment. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968.

Ending Segregation - The Nixon years witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Strategically, Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist George C. Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern white Democrats. His plan has since become known as the Southern strategy. He was determined to implement exactly what the courts had ordered— desegregation — but did not favor busing children. Nixon, the Quaker, felt that racism was the greatest moral failure of the United States and concentrated on the principle that the law must be color-blind.."
(More to follow)

[blindhog]

The sad thing but at the same time wonderful thing is that Richard Nixon became a very empathetic figure after his fall from grace.

It's just too bad he did not display that same degree of empathy to the public, while he was in office.

Had he done that, maybe he would have been able to complete his term and do more good, as he did with the thawing of the US-China relationship.

[RevBookburn]

Nixon left a legacy of crime and blood. It is unfortunate that most of the focus is on the Watergate cover up. There needs to be more reflection about his war crimes, the Chilean coup (9.11.73) and other atrocities around the world. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[RedDogBear]

Mr. Kutler thanks for the retrospective on Nixon. I was in HS at the time and very political. I remember all the discussions about whether to prosecute Nixon or not, which were short circuited by Ford's pardon. I think that pardon was a shame in retrospect. It set a precedent that presidents really were above the law and couldn't be held criminally liable for their crimes. I wonder if Reagan and especially the latter Bush would have been so cavalier about ignoring the law if Nixon had spent a few years in jail.

[Michael Shanley]

Nixon biggest blonder is the curent Healthcare industry in this country, when he let Kiser Permente rob the people of this country and neglected our health.