In Defense of Richard Nixon

Steven VanDeLaarschot

Undergraduate/Political Science


Over the summer I saw something that has been bothering me for a few months now. It was an article that spoke of how some Republicans were comparing Sarah Palin to Richard Nixon, specifically after he failed to become governor of California. I have always had a great deal of respect for Richard Nixon and upon seeing the comparison immediately thought of how wrong it was. 

Richard Nixon is often remembered simply for his role in Watergate and being the only president to ever resign, and that is a gross oversimplification. Nixon was a man who clawed his way up all his life, becoming a congressman, senator, vice president to Eisenhower, and finally president. He did not have great charisma or oratorical skills. Instead Nixon had to rely on his intelligence and an endless drive to get to the top. 

Nixon was a remarkably intelligent man and was able to make up for his unsavory image while Sarah Palin often comes across as unintelligent and all talk. In Nixonland Richard Perlstein describes Nixon’s drive, “In law school Nixon earned the nickname Iron Butt for his marathon stints at the library” and that “iron-assed will” of his was seen on the campaign trail because, after his loss to Kennedy, “nothing – locale, personnel, audience – was left to chance.”1 In contrast, Palin has been turned into a joke (because it is hard to forget the line “I can see Russia from my house”), and if she really is planning on becoming president she will always carry the baggage of resigning while governor of Alaska, something that will be brought up by all her opponents and is something Nixon never would have done. 

Sarah Palin often speaks of how she is a maverick and her new book is entitled Going Rogue which makes it look as if she is trying to be an outsider. She also spoke of how only dead fish go with the flow when she gave her resignation speech. Richard Nixon, in sharp contrast, went with the flow and was elected to four different offices throughout his political career, thanks at least in part to the fact that “Nixon always had a gift for looking under social surfaces to see and exploit the subterranean truths that roiled underneath.”1 It does not seem likely that Palin has a similar gift, especially when she speaks of the “real America” as she did on the campaign trail. 

Palin has often been described as someone who is able to solidify the Republican base and get Republicans excited. Richard Nixon was not just someone who got the base of his party excited, he was able to tear apart his opponents. In the 1956 election season, when Eisenhower's opponent for the presidency was Adlai Stevenson and Eisenhower had told Nixon to “give 'em heaven,”1 Stevenson started to gain. Upon seeing his opponent gaining ground, “General Eisenhower gave Nixon license once more to breathe fire,”1 and Nixon resumed breathing fire with ease, gladly tearing into Stevenson and, as we all know, there has never been a President Stevenson. 
 
When Lyndon Johnson was in office and after the crushing defeat of Barry Goldwater, Republicans looked as if they might cease to be worth considering in American politics. Richard Nixon then began rebuilding the Republican Party. He tore into Johnson every chance he could get and he campaigned for every Republican candidate he could. In 1966 candidates supported by Nixon swept in, whether in Congress, Senate, or for governor did not matter. Nixon was able to capitalize on the turmoil of the sixties to bring Republicans back. Frankly, while Palin is able to energize the Republican base she has not shown any great ability to draw independents to vote for her or drive voters away from her opponents, which will continue to be a liability for her if she tries to get back into elected office. 

Richard Nixon traveled the world extensively whether he was in elected office or not. He visited South America as well as the Soviet Union while vice president to Eisenhower, engaging Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in the famous Kitchen Debate. While out of office he often toured the world, speaking to leaders as he went. During his time in office as president, Nixon traveled to China and spoke with Mao Tse-tung, opening the way for normal relations with the Chinese. Sarah Palin has virtually no foreign policy experience and in contrast, Henry Kissinger has stated that “With (Theodore) Roosevelt holding such European-style views, it was not surprising that he approached the global balance of power with a sophistication matched by no other American president and approached only by Richard Nixon.”2 By virtue of Nixon's intellect he was able to lower tensions with the Soviets and establish diplomatic ties with the Chinese after the Communist Party took control. 

There has been a lot of interest in Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue. Without wishing to badmouth her book, mainly because I don't know what's in it and don't plan on reading it, I must point out the extent of Nixon's writings. Richard Nixon wrote eleven books over the course of his life, two before becoming president and the other nine after his resignation. They range from his memoirs to reflections on his time in office and leaders he met to his thoughts on America's direction for the future. In addition, near the end of his life our 37th president created the Nixon Center, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C. that was ranked among the top 30 in 2007. 

There is simply no comparison between Richard Nixon and Sarah Palin. Nixon planned his presidential run years, and elections, in advance. He went from being a man who no one would have picked for the presidency to the debating partner of Lyndon Johnson and set himself up for two successful presidential runs. His downfall was of his own making, if he had not had such paranoia and had not been associated with Watergate he probably would have gone down in history as one of America's better presidents. No matter your feelings, you had to respect Nixon for his intelligence and his determination, he was a force to be reckoned with. Nixon knew how to tear his opponents to shreds and in a debate I would pick Tricky Dick over Sarah Palin any day. 

Now that we have come to the end of my article, some readers may think I am a Republican, defending Richard Nixon. In fact I am a liberal and a proud Democrat. Honestly, I have never liked seeing someone reduced to something so simple and crude. At the end of the movie Frost/Nixon there is a narration that basically says the legacy of Nixon is the addition of the suffix -gate added to any sort of scandal. Nixon's legacy is not that simple, his legacy includes the establishment of relations with Communist China which continue to this day, much to the advantage of both the United States and China. 


Sources:
1: Perlstein, Rick. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. New York: Scribner, 2008. 
2: Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1994.