# Was Richard Nixon great or terrible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 4, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810 "2014-08-04T19:19:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/101 "2014-08-08T19:13:24Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Paid tribute to the Egyptians and Babylonians? No, burned a prophecy presented to him by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah chapter 36). Jehoiakim had no Rosemary Wood. (I read somewhere that Nixon originally over dubbed the tape at that point with “Alice 's Restaurant Massacree.”) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/102 "2014-08-08T19:38:05Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Just in case someone here doesn’t know the date, it was exactly 40 years ago from tomorrow (August 8, 1974) that Nixon resigned. > > Any of our more senior members remember their reaction? Relief, shame and maybe a little pride. Relief that we were finally rid of such a petty, hateful man. Shame that we had put him in that position in the first place. Pride in knowing that we were one of the few nations on earth who could go through this transition without troops in the street. I was 20, though, and pretty much represented everything that Nixon, and later his more personality-blessed successor, Ron Reagan, was determined to protect from infecting the all-American values of the beloved Silent Majority. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/103 "2014-08-08T23:23:23Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I didn’t realize quite how complicit Nixon was in the Bangladeshi genocide, **bldysabba**. Thanks for that. I didn’t know it myself until I read about the book. I didn’t even know the US was involved at all, which I feel a little bad about. Recent history is not well documented or taught in India, and I have always been too busy focusing on Indira Gandhi’s massive failures to look closely at her one triumph. > [@](#): > > I was under the impression that he (like the British) basically just made supportive noises to East Pakistan without actually doing anything. Do you mean West Pakistan? Or did he actually make supportive noises towards the Bangladeshis and support West Pakistan behind the scenes? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/104 "2014-08-08T23:59:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > John Dean, who has personally transcribed all the Nixon tapes, [is interviewed](http://www.salon.com/2014/08/08/john_dean_on_richard_nixon_hes_in_the_middle_of_this_its_for_him_blessed_by_him/) about that and [his new book](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670025364/?tag=saloncom08-20). He says Nixon’s decision-making was “Abysmal.” Only the portions relating to Watergate. Would make for an interesting multi-volume publication. I’m presuming that if there are copyright questions Dean is the sort of guy who will have it automatically hit the internet the day after he dies. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/105 "2014-08-09T05:23:11Z")
> **[Collateral Damage (Published 2013)](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/books/review/the-blood-telegram-by-gary-j-bass.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)** > > Promoting their opening to China, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger countenanced mayhem in South Asia. > [@](#): > > Nixon and Kissinger spent the decades after leaving office burnishing their images as great statesmen. This book goes a long way in showing just how undeserved those reputations are. No wonder his parody in the Ventures Brothers is known as [Dr. Killinger](http://venturefans.org/vbwiki/Dr._Henry_Killinger). ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/106 "2014-08-09T07:11:35Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Just in case someone here doesn’t know the date, it was exactly 40 years ago from tomorrow (August 8, 1974) that Nixon resigned. > > Any of our more senior members remember their reaction? As a non American, his resignation was no big deal, especially given all the press reports leading up to it. Not that I was (or am) particularly political. To me he just seems such an enigmatic person. Certainly, there were lots of positives from his Presidency. However, he also seems extremely ruthless (Alger Hiss) and the weirdness of Watergate detract from that (I understand he would have won the next election according to polling- so why?) Also the lack of support from Eisenhower is something unusual. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/107 "2014-08-09T14:49:00Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > As a non American, his resignation was no big deal, especially given all the press reports leading up to it. Not that I was (or am) particularly political. > > To me he just seems such an enigmatic person. Certainly, there were lots of positives from his Presidency. However, he also seems extremely ruthless (Alger Hiss) and the weirdness of Watergate detract from that (I understand he would have won the next election according to polling- so why?) Also the lack of support from Eisenhower is something unusual. Someone asked Ike about Nixon’s good points. He said something like, “If you give me a day, I might think of a few.” (He did live long enough to see Nixon sworn in as President. ) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/108 "2014-08-10T10:05:16Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Someone asked Ike about Nixon’s good points. He said something like, “If you give me a day, I might think of a few.” (He did live long enough to see Nixon sworn in as President. ) Yes, it just seems a very strange statement about someone who was likely to be your next in line. Then again I could never understand the “Democrats for Nixon” either. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/109 "2014-08-10T15:27:41Z")
I couldn’t understand \* Republicans \* for Nixon! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/110 "2014-08-13T01:25:20Z")
I don’t see how anybody could support him, with that checkered past. ---
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/111 "2014-08-14T23:37:33Z")
He had considerable political skills but was brought-down mainly by his own search for what he saw as legitimacy. He was envious of those who could go to Harvard and suffered from class-envy due to his fairly humble origins. He was full of hate and paranoia. And he was the worst-ever sufferer of that condition common to conservatives; emotional constipation along with extreme tightness in the sphinctor muscle. And it’s incurable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/112 "2014-08-15T01:41:06Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > He was envious of those who could go to Harvard and suffered from class-envy due to his fairly humble origins. According to _Nixonland,_ he was envious even of the higher-class students at Whittier, and their shiny happy exclusive fraternity/sorority, the Franklins. But he dealt with it by founding a new club for Whittier’s nerds, the Orthogonians – the name signifying that they were not above or below the Franklins in the school hierarchy but that their axes ran in a different, orthogonal direction. Say what you will about Nixon, he sometimes expressed his class-envy creatively. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/113 "2014-08-15T01:44:02Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > And he was the worst-ever sufferer of that condition common to conservatives; emotional constipation along with extreme tightness in the sphinctor muscle. And it’s incurable. Incurable? OK, I’ve got the time machine, I’ve got the firepower, I just need a few well-hung volunteers to loosen Nixon’s sphincter muscle. ---
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/114 "2014-08-15T21:07:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Incurable? OK, I’ve got the time machine, I’ve got the firepower, I just need a few well-hung volunteers to loosen Nixon’s sphincter muscle. I’m afraid it’s too late for that. Not a bad plan, though. ---
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810/115 "2014-08-15T21:13:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > According to _Nixonland,_ he was envious even of the higher-class students at Whittier, and their shiny happy exclusive fraternity/sorority, the Franklins. But he dealt with it by founding a new club for Whittier’s nerds, the Orthogonians – the name signifying that they were not above or below the Franklins in the school hierarchy but that their axes ran in a different, orthogonal direction. > > Say what you will about Nixon, he sometimes expressed his class-envy creatively. The Orthogonians, huh ? Not very poetic. Kinda’ ominous-sounding. That sounds like ol’ Dick. He was creapy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-richard-nixon-great-or-terrible/694810.md?page=5)