President Nixon was a criminal and a disgrace to America

[Valley Oak]

President Nixon was a criminal and a disgrace to America. How anyone could possibly defend this unscrupulous liar, cheater, briber, mass murderer, baby killer, gross violator of basic human rights, and saboteur of American democracy is completely beyond me!

Read it for yourself:

Richard Nixon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

["Mad" Miles]

President Nixon was a criminal and a disgrace to America...

Edward/VO,

No argument from me. I was in High School when Nixon ruled, and even though I was stuck in Rocket City USA, (aka Huntsville, AL), a place that was culturally at least three years behind the rest of the world, I didn't care for the guy. The whole Watergate spectacle, was a formative experience for me. That's where I learned to viscerally mistrust government, and official leaders.

But as a counterpoint, my staunchly Republican grandfather, from Laguna Beach, CA, was very strong in his opinion that Tricky Dick got a raw deal, that everything he was blamed for, was nothing different than what was done by every U.S. President before him. He never could explain why Nixon went down for the same acts as others, who didn't get publicly excoriated and disgraced. While living in his house in the mid-to-late seventies, while I was attending UCI, these conversations led to an impasse where we couldn't really talk about politics. My views were just too upsetting for him.

The film, "Frost/Nixon" provides a good insight into Nixon's character.

Someone may ask, and has done so already, why are we reliving the crimes of a dead man from thirty-eight years ago? Well, if you look at patterns of government malfeasance, such as Iran/Contra and various other scandal-'gates" over the years (the term is admittedly overused) it seems clear to me that not all of the lessons from the Vietnam War / Watergate era have been sufficiently learned. Wars started on false pretense, continued while ignoring the realities of the slaughter perpetrated by our political leaders, suppression of whistle blowers, back room deals to maintain power and privilege. Granted, these things have been going on for millenia, but 'Ol Tricky Dick sort of set the gold standard for such things!

Yeah, he opened China, and Reagan single handedly won the Cold War, but those "successes" don't make up for their deficits, and their legacies that we still have to live with.

I'll save a discussion of the "great man theory of history" vs. the systemic nature of human problems, for another day.

[Sara S]

My Dad was a lifelong Republican who always voted, but he couldn't bring himself to vote for Tricky Dick....this was in the 50's.... a few years later, Dicky had maneuvered his way into the oval office, and my husband and I wore black armbands the day after the election.

Edward/VO,

No argument from me. I was in High School when Nixon ruled, and even though I was stuck in Rocket City USA, (aka Huntsville, AL), a place that was culturally at least three years behind the rest of the world, I didn't care for the guy. The whole Watergate spectacle, was a formative experience for me. That's where I learned to viscerally mistrust government, and official leaders.

But as a counterpoint, my staunchly Republican grandfather, from Laguna Beach, CA, was very strong in his opinion that Tricky Dick got a raw deal, that everything he was blamed for, was nothing different than what was done by every U.S. President before him. He never could explain why Nixon went down for the same acts as others, who didn't get publicly excoriated and disgraced. While living in his house in the mid-to-late seventies, while I was attending UCI, these conversations led to an impasse where we couldn't really talk about politics. My views were just too upsetting for him.

The film, "Frost/Nixon" provides a good insight into Nixon's character.

Someone may ask, and has done so already, why are we reliving the crimes of a dead man from thirty-eight years ago? Well, if you look at patterns of government malfeasance, such as Iran/Contra and various other scandal-'gates" over the years (the term is admittedly overused) it seems clear to me that not all of the lessons from the Vietnam War / Watergate era have been sufficiently learned. Wars started on false pretense, continued while ignoring the realities of the slaughter perpetrated by our political leaders, suppression of whistle blowers, back room deals to maintain power and privilege. Granted, these things have been going on for millenia, but 'Ol Tricky Dick sort of set the gold standard for such things!

Yeah, he opened China, and Reagan single handedly won the Cold War, but those "successes" don't make up for their deficits, and their legacies that we still have to live with.

I'll save a discussion of the "great man theory of history" vs. the systemic nature of human problems, for another day.