President Nixon: ‘not a crook’

I like the late Richard M. Nixon. He was one of my favorite American Presidents. Contrary to what the liberals and historians may say about him, I believe he was a great man–and a great American. When he died in April of 1994, I felt a sense of loss.

Nixon captured my admiration and affection. He also captured the hearts and minds of millions of other Americans–even to this day, long after he finished with politics.

I remember one fine sunny afternoon in California. It was back in the Spring of 1992. I was attending Chapman University in Orange, California. I had nothing urgent to do on that particular Saturday afternoon, so I decided to drive out to Yorba Linda and visit the Nixon Presidential Library.

I will never forget what I saw in the theater of that library: the poignant, heartfelt reaction of an old Caucasian couple after viewing a documentary of President Nixon in his prime.

They looked like such good, decent, hard-working Americans–good folks, Republican through and through. And they were in tears. They were so moved by the Nixon aura–by the Nixon character and enigma, as captured in the library’s documentary and assorted memorabilia. They had lived through that great American era and were now overcome with Nixon nostalgia.

Whatever the liberals may say about him, Richard Milhous Nixon had a certain magnetic charisma. He was one hell of a man. They don’t elect Presidents like Mr. Nixon anymore.

Why the sudden nostalgia for the late President Nixon?

The Nixon White House tapes are out; they have been released by the National Archives. The Sunday edition of the Honolulu Advertiser published Nixon’s 1971 take on the Peace Corps in Saipan.

“Goddamn that Peace Corps!” thundered President Nixon. “Goddamn that Peace Corps!

“What the hell are they doing there? I don’t care where the hell they send them. Send them to the Congo, anyplace, but get them the hell out of that region . . . They’re protesters! They’re against the United States . . . Get them the hell out of the Marianas!”

My sentiments exactly. If Nixon were President today, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he said the same thing about the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.

“What the hell are they doing there? Meddling into local Marianas affairs? These people are socialists, protectionists– beholden to Democratic interests and Big Labor unions.”

What’s more, Nixon knew where Saipan was located on the map; he could probably also name our governor, along with the leaders of a dozen other relatively obscure territories. Nixon would never fail a pop foreign policy/geography quiz.

For all of his petty faults, President Nixon was a giant in American history, politics and foreign policy. God rest his soul.