| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:07 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,526
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Just curious. From what I've read, Nixon seemed a realpolitik conservative. He was overly paranoid, but seemed to have some real accomplishments to his name.
Please restrict comments to the Nixon administration.
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:19 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,197
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Faced with an inflation rate that was rising quickly after all the money that had been poured into the economy during the Vietnam War and the War on Poverty, Nixon imposed wage and price controls.
He was unable to lower taxes to increase productivity with Congress against him, or to cut social programs which had become extremely popular with the Demoratic base. The wage & price controls deferred the zoom in inflation until the Ford and Carter administrations, when we saw a prime interest rate at more than 20%.
In addition, although opening the doors to China was a magnificently bold move politically, we're now paying the price for an industrialized competitor which owns our national mortgage and devours jobs.
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:22 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
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Spiro Agnew
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:26 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,526
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In addition, although opening the doors to China was a magnificently bold move politically
To put this in perspective, the opening of China put a wedge between two monumental dictatorships (i.e. China and the USSR) who were opposed to the First World. The two countries found that their differences outweighed their similarities. This probably as big a step in breaking the grip of the communist tyrants as Reagan's outspending of the Soviets in the arms race.
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:38 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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Haban3ro
Posts: 1,197
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It's been a mixed blessing, and anything that fosters peace is a good thing.
But the Russians and Chinese weren't all that close since 1961. They had a bit of a shooting war over their border in 1969, which we didn't notice as we were trying to get out of Vietnam. Nixon's visit in 1972 now seems like Mao decided to get a spite date for the Prom.
This link will take the curious to an article on the border war.
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 10:48 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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lefthandedluckie
Posts: 6,386
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Putting import duties on Japanese car imports!
a little more on the Soviet and Chinese thing! Nixon travels to China
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 11:05 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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Say_Yes
Posts: 2,226
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Nixon was a paranoid, but a much better president than history has given him credit for being. He ended the war in Viet Nam, opened the doors to normalized relations with China, began the peace process in the middle east, negotiated the SALT & ABM treaties with Russia, negotiated an end to the Yom Kippur war. He ended the draft, instituted the food stamp program and he created the Council on Environmental Quality.
If not for Watergate, Nixon, would likely have gone down in history as one of the best presidents. (Of course, that is sort of like saying, if not for a small matter of treason, Benedict Arnold would have gone down in history as an American hero.)
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 11:09 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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SweetNapaGuy
Posts: 8,526
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That's my general impression of Nixon, too.
If better psych drugs had been available in Nixon's day, he'd have easily made it eight years...
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 11:28 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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lefthandedluckie
Posts: 6,386
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Something he said once gave him away but, nobody knew it at that time. Hindsight is always good after, huh!
It went something like this...."Well, you won't have ol'Nixon to kick around anymore"! I believe he said that after the governors race in California! It gives you a look into how he viewed himself and others. He felt somewhat sorry for himself and he thought people were talking behind his back about him!
Just my thoughts on that!
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| Nov 13, 2008 @ 11:43 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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Jankia
Posts: 11,909
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Losing in 1960 to the guy that chose LBJ as his VP.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 1:02 AM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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Say_Yes
Posts: 2,226
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Nixon had cause to be at least a little paranoid. After all, there is a fairly good chance that the election was stolen from him in 1960.
There is no certainty that Nixon won both Texas and Illinois [which
he would have had to to do win the Electoral College vote]. What is
certain, however, is that massive voter fraud on Kennedy's behalf
occurred in both states. In Texas, Kennedy's margin of victory was
46,000 votes, but Lyndon Johnson's Lone Star state political machine
could easily have provided that number. In Illinois, Kennedy won by a
bare 9,000 votes, and Mayor Daley, who held back Chicago's vote until
late in the evening, provided an extraordinary Cook County margin of
victory of 450,000 votes. No thorough investigation of the massive
irregularities was ever conducted, and partisans of Kennedy and Nixon
still debate the bottom line."
(From "If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat," by Hugh Hewitt, pages 60-61)
Source
In addition, it was a different time. Yes, the repubs spied on the dems at the Watergate Hotel (though keep in mind, Nixon was not accused of having anything to do with the break-in, but rather with the coverup that followed.), but that was not unusual at the time. After all, LBJ had used the FBI to spy on Goldwater during the 64 campaign.
Source - The Cult of the President - Gene Healy - P.103
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 6:38 AM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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eyesofastranger
Posts: 930
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he closed the door on any gov intervention in health care leaving it to private insurers. this is the one that i feel was his worse decision but i'm canadian. maybe i'll get an mri today if i'm bored.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 6:43 AM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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CPUfan
Posts: 7,983
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I guess the Alger Hiss case was a failure in the end. In Nixon's memoirs he describes it as his "first real crisis" or words to that effect. In the end the story turned out to his discredit too, but probably only due to Watergate. (Committee for Unamerican Activities)
Say Yes, Of course, that is sort of like saying, if not for a small matter of treason, Benedict Arnold would have gone down in history as an American hero.
Benedict Arnold was even more unpopular in Britain as the loyalist who defeated General Burgogne on the Northern Frontier thus leading to French involvement in the War of Independence.   I think one of Washington's two generals facing the British at New York was loyalist too and remained entirely passive - but the Brits captured him lol... fortunately or not depending on your Atlantic perspective heheh...
Sorry bout the diversion but Nixon is certainly a fascinating figure.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 1:07 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures? |
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Say_Yes
Posts: 2,226
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he closed the door on any gov intervention in health care leaving it to private insurers. this is the one that i feel was his worse decision but i'm canadian. maybe i'll get an mri today if i'm bored.
Sure, go ahead and make the appointment. You can probably arrange to get in to have one, in two to three months, if you are lucky.
The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 10.1 weeks. Patients in Ontario experienced the shortest wait for an MRI (7.8 weeks), while Newfoundland and Labrador residents waited the longest (20.0 weeks).
Source - CBC News
Of course, thanks to such decisions, you can still come stateside and get one the same day. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't think of single problem, for which I would need an MRI that I could wait two to three months to get one. By then, it would no longer matter.
But to move back towards being on topic,
Say Yes,
Of course, that is sort of like saying, if not for a small matter of treason, Benedict Arnold would have gone down in history as an American hero.
Benedict Arnold was even more unpopular in Britain as the loyalist who defeated General Burgogne on the Northern Frontier thus leading to French involvement in the War of Independence.
My point exactly.
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| Nov 14, 2008 @ 1:29 PM |
Aside from Watergate, what were Nixon's failures?
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CPUfan
Posts: 7,983
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 It's a funny old world...
Having secured the French alliance for the fledgling America, Ben Arnold joins the British drive up through the South and fights Lafayette...
Maybe he didn't like the French after all...
I doubt that even the French like the French hehe...
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