Worst Presidents: Richard Nixon (1969-1974)

Add to comments on The Arrogance of Power

The book says Nixon treated Pat cruelly. He once sent her to the hospital after a beating & another time gave her a black eye. They were both alcoholics. Since he was gay with Rebozo, his behavior toward her may have been misery of being made vicious as a closeted gay. They always joined to board or leave a plane, to fake the loving couple scam, but it was all a lie. He was far from being a wonderful expert in foreign affairs. His tax-paid early global trips let him make "connections" to meet people he could do favors for in office, and ask deals from them. His acts were like those in the Godfather, it seems to me. To court the Catholic vote, he lied & said Pat was born on St. Patrick's Day. I was in Singapore in l972 when the famous Red-Hater Went to China. As I posted before, he was there to get commissions for getting China to market Pepsi there. The company got one of the first trade agreements. With him, but soft-pedaled, were agents of airlines seeking contracts for air routes, etc. He was there as a commission man. The law firm he worked for had as a client--get this--the government of S. Nam, headed by Diem, the corrupt heroin dealer.

Read Anthony Summers "The Arrogance of Power"....

I just read Summers' book-based on transcripts, memos, interviews, etc. I was stunned to learn how unstable Nixon was. Quite a long time before he resigned to escape trial, conviction and prison, his aides & cabinet met to be sure nobody obeyed a Nixon order until all agreed. They might have disabled the brief case so if he pushed the button ordering nuclear attack, it would not work. I suspected he and Rebozo gay lovers & they were, since about l951. Rebozo helped make Nixon rich with deals including the Mafia. When he was in office, i never knew he secretly had secret psychiatric sessions & took meds. He used to brag HE could push the button & kill 500,000 Reds. Aides wondered if could make a military fascist coup by ordering the army to surround the capitol. How far away were the nearest troops he could use? Those in command there were briefed against him. A bizarre situation arose.. If he ordered the army to take over, would someone of high rank need to order Marines to beat the army? This man INTERFERED with peace. I blame him personally for killing everyone caught in his endless war. Secretly, there were heroes behind the scenes, protecting the Republic from this poor-boy envious psychopath.

Mark,are Nixon tape transcripts at Nixon Library?

Mark praised Nixon but I'll bet that if any tape transcripts are at the Nixon Library, they've been "sanitized." I've read books by Helms and others near Nixon. They reveal Nixon treated the Oval Room like the Vegas suite of a Mafioso in the old days. He used the IRS to harass candidates and scare them. He said the Watergate break-in wasn't really a crime "because they didn't get anything." He called it 3rd class break-in and called it stupid. He said its stupidity proved he and his men could not have done it. If they had done it, they would succeed. Five coups are mentioned in a Helms book. All were started and run by the CIA and all displaced anti-capitalist socialist leaders. See Pg. l4l4, Vol. 4 of an edition of the Catholic Reference Encyclopedia. It defines "Private Property." It says "the Church vigorously defends against those political systems that seek to replace private with public ownership." The US used men and taxes to implement that war-making policy of the Vatican City State. Leaders of the Cold War include many subjects of the pope..Haig, Shultz, Allen, Angleton, RFK, JFK, etc. Glasnost wreckers of the USSR had ties to the Catholic church and it is back again, with pubiic subsidy, over there.

Read Nixon tapes about Pentagon Papers, etc.

I must add to my Nixon comments. I read Groening's Edition of "The Pentagon Papers," explaining why the Nam war was illegal. It describes corrupt S. Nam Pres. Diem's profiting from heroin, using US men & equipment, all the way from poppy fields through processing that involved using treated water from soft-drink factories. GI's were addicted by having kids put heroin in their pockets. I was eager to read "Abuse of Power," by Stanley Kutler. it has transcripts of some tapes. As I read, I was astounded that any US citizen could have such contempt for our government and election system. Nixon & aides plot schemes to avoid guilt. They "make up scenarios." Nixon says he "has power" and can use the IRS to scare Common Cause contributors, etc. with tax audits. They talk about ways to harm Democratic candidates with "dirty tricks." They say "everybody does" what they do. They use dirty phrases about distinguished lawmakers & judges. They're like a bunch of little bums in alleys, plotting ways to control the neighborhood. It is simply terrible. You must read transcriptions yourself, to understand how vile were Nixon and his aides. Deane was heroic to expose them.

Nixon was Pepsicorp lawyer when out of office

After being a #1 Red Hater, Nixon went to China in l972 to sell Pepsi. One of the first trade concessions made was to sell Pepsi there. I was in Singapore in l972 and know agents of airlines came at the same time, to get routes in China. Nixon had a psychiatrist but that wasn't publicized. But Mondale was hurt when his first VP campaigner was revealed to have psychiatry. I've read some of the Nixon tape transcriptions. They expose a paranoid, vengeful tyrant, He did misuse the IRS to make it do audits on his "enemies." If you want to see techniques of putting blame on others, read one of the books with transcripts. His foul language and nasty remarks are amazing. He's part of history as an example of how a totally unqualified person can be "sold" by the kind of people who did manage his campaigns. I wish I knew where I read it, but Nixon admitted Hiss was framed and sent to jail for perjury when a typewriter was rigged to make the fonts fit a typewriter Hiss once had in his possession. Hiss was such a fine man, a peace advocate, important in founding the United Nations. Its founding policy is that war is not an acceptable solution to international differences.

Nixon

Nixon was the revival of the Imperial President with more than enough hypocracy for three presidents. He started the EPA but mainly as a diversion for the war which he and Kissinger wnated to continue. He invaded Cambodia and prolonged the agony. The EPA when headed by Ruckelhaus was starting to be effective and then the rug was pulled out with no effort to stop polluting industries or improve air quality. Nixon promoted the burglary of the Watergate and had his enemies list. He could do foreign policy coops but then show complete disregard for domestic issues like housing or health safety issues. Nixon begat Cheney and that was his legacy.

Richard M. Nixon

I personally don't think Nixon was so bad. Like the commentators before me,I think watergate just,gave him a bad name.

it's "W" the Idiot Bush #43

I happen to be a student of history and have been the entirity of my life. George W. Bush is the absolute worst president ever! and his timing could not have been better. Remember when he said that "american school children should send afghan children a dollor, after the 9/11 attacks on our soverign soil? Does anyone remember the High-Tech Wreck & Crash in his "first day(s) in office. What about UBL being the obvious target and should have been the whole time & "W" the Idiot Attacks Iraq? UBL is still alive and a whole lot more prosperous than perhaps 99% of the entire US population. Remember when on a daily basis American Soldiers being killed in cowardly terrorist attacks & "W" the Idiot saying "stay the course" What Course? And how about Hurricane Katrina, doesn't anyone besides myself seeing the "Louisiana Superdome" flooded, full of refugees, the oppresive heat, the stench of fecal-matter, & the people trapped on the I-610 overpass. "I personally witnessed a man step to the Railing of this I-610 overpass and simply "walk off" and fall to his death. I saw people go into insulin shock, babies & elderly dying. And I shall never forget this black man drowned, twisted up in a wire-mesh fence, with drowned cats & dogs! What is worse his loyalitys were only to a few "elite" ignorant, self-centered, self-indulged, obnoxious, and Jackass fools who were just like himself. But my most absolute "dislike" of this "fortunate son" was that he was a "draft-dodger", who misquoted the Bible on a continual basis.

He never did even one thing right and now our nation is in the worst economic "DEPRESSION" since the early 1930's, and these are all facts. For God's Sake people "WAKE UP" and realize we were invaded by Mexico and the Mexicans Won, (this was Montezumas Revenge!!!

Nixon

After looking over what I wrote at first, I saw a few typos, and then some better comments to add, so I tried again. I hope that my second submission can replace my first.

Allan C. Boschen.

Nixon!

I've seen some good and thoughtful comments here in this listing, but the general public commentary, thru the years, about Nixon has lacked any depth of reflection! One would think that Watergate was the only thing that happened during his tenure.

The Cold War had been the one dominant feature of the everyday news since closely after the end of WW II. There had been a few words during that time on the threats and hazards of nuclear war and the necessity for eliminating the A-Bomb from existence, but it seemed that the Missile Race ensued instead, while "Mutually Assured Destruction" became our hallowed safeguard. Six, 8, or 10 -- or even 1 (ONE), on either side, out have been quite enough to satisfy that slogan, as we set about diligently [at the UN, together with the Soviet Union, Britain, France and all others] to SOLVE this problem. Instead we jumped into that 'Race' with full vigor. That was Stupidity! --As demonstrated by how quickly Nixon's initiative was embraced by China, and then by the Soviets as well, and by everybody else!

Then came Watergate, the next significant event of Nixon’s term! It was as if nothing else had ever happened! Yet by comparison with the breakthru to China and the Soviets, it (Watergate) was trivial! -- Truly TRIVIAL compared with the ongoing status of war as the LAST WORD on the resolution of conflicts among peoples.

And now we have a new COLD WAR, this time in terms of suicidal terrorism by religious fanatics! And they are striving to get nuclear weapons! Think how much greater the hazard of that Red Button getting pushed by a suicidal fanatic who thinks only in terms of glories he might get for wiping out 'infidels'. The termination of our expansion of our fleet of F22s might turn out to be a real and serious step toward the termination of the threat of nuclear war, (AND of ALL WARS).

Let the next significant step be the adoption of Esperanto as the language of the UN, so that the people at the UN can talk to each other DIRECTLY and CLEARLY, and stop wasting so much time (and money) on translation services, and reduce the hazards of serious misunderstandings. This would be a relatively easy step to make, if we simply admit Esperanto as a choice among languages in the foreign language programs. This part should be VERY easy, because Esperanto would ENHANCE our education program on a broad scope, while REDUCING cost. (I could expand extensively on this, but this is quite enough to include in this context.)

The advent of Climate Change into this scene might be the required ingredient to nudge Humanity toward collaboration on this most threatening matter. Some of us might rate C.C. as equivalent in scale to an invasion by Aliens (from Mars), for wars and ongoing, never ending, preparations for wars are most wasteful contributions C.C.