Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "Richard Nixon Foundation"
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There were two Bobby's. There was the Bobby before his brother was killed. That Bobby was intense, but to the point of being insufferable because he saw the world in black and white terms and was convinced he was on the side of right. He was clannish to the point where he would punch people who said anything about his family, especially his father who he was always trying to please. He was ruthless as evidenced by the way he went after Castro and Hoffa, willing to break any rules because winning was all that mattered. And he was arrogant, a quality that earned him a lot of enemies not only with outfits like the mob but also within his own party. As Joe Kennedy put it; "Bobby is the most like me. When I hate a sonofabitch I hate him for life." People say he would have gotten the nomination in 68 after winning the California primary but I'm not so sure about that. Most of the people who mattered within the party didn't like him, especially LBJ who hated him, a guy Bobby hated back just as hard. Conventions were still dominated by backroom deals and the powers-that-be weren't just going to roll over and let him win the nomination because he was a Kennedy. They were convinced he would lose the entire South and enough Western states to cost them the election.
Then there was the Bobby after his brother was killed. Who admitted: "We were more energetic than wise about a lot of things, especially Cuba, and we paid a great price for it." He was convinced he was the one who got his brother killed, by making so many enemies. He even asked about Hoffa. He asked if he was doing alright. He said he was tired of chasing bad guys. There was a distinct change and that is where he differed from his brothers. Love him or hate him, Bobby was genuine, and he would admit when he was wrong and adjust accordingly. His brothers were incapable of changing at the molecular level like RFK did. I remember my Dad, who thought JFK was a rich-man's kid, was genuinely upset when Bobby died. Perhaps because he was the most Irish of the bunch. I will say this, he was light-years ahead of his degenerate little brother. That guy...but I digress.
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I wasn't alive when Harry Truman was president but I admire a lot about him, his personal integrity, decisiveness, intuition, and his willingness to do what he thought was right even if he knew he would take grief from the press and people in his own party. Of course, his decisiveness was a bit of a double edge sword in that he didn't always think matters through that should have been pondered a bit more closely. He could also hold a grudge like few others and he did have a habit of surrounding himself with people who had no real qualifications and for placing them into positions they had business being in, Louis Johnson and Fred Vinson being classic examples. It was a habit of machine politics he picked up from his days with Tom Pendergast. He also had a bit of an authoritative streak in him but that was typical of New Deal politicians, a habit they picked up from FDR. But he read Stalin better than FDR did and the country dodged a major bullet when the democrat leaders selected him over Henry Wallace as VP. They knew FDR was dying and Wallace wouldn't have sold the farm to the Soviets, he would have just given it to them. Of all the democrat presidents Truman is by far my favorite, the only one in the 20th Century worth a damn.
As for Nixon's recollections, that was classic Nixon having selective memory. Nixon went hard after Truman in 1950 and 1952. It's to be expected, it's politics, but Nixon was an up and comer and he knew the best way to get ahead was to display a willingness to be an attack dog, especially when it came to communism. He was the one who exposed Alger Hiss and Dean Acheson, Truman's secretary of state was one Hiss's best friends, someone who wouldn't denounce him. That put a big bullseye on his back and by extension, Truman. Truman took it personal too. In 1960 Joe Kennedy called Truman in order to get him to endorse JFK. Truman didn't like Joe Kennedy and the feeling was mutual. Initially he was lukewarm about JFK and said as much publicly but after Acheson met with him Truman got on board. He said "Kennedy is young and inexperienced, but that SOB Nixon went around the country calling me a communist." Acheson appealed to Harry's grudge tendency to get him to back Kennedy and it worked. He didn't like any of them, but he liked Nixon the least. And Nixon wasn't too fond of Harry while Harry was alive. Like I say, this is typical Nixon revisionism. He was trying to get people to like him again after Watergate. He became quite gracious at that stage of his life.
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I have a lot of problems with Dick Nixon, but the press absolutely went out of their way to get the guy. Then they gave themselves a major pat on the back and portrayed their role in the whole affair in exaggerated terms. It was a watershed moment because after that suck fest All The Presidents Men came out with Redford and Hoffman reporters started to make a concerted effort to insert themselves into the story instead of simply reporting facts. That movie was to journalism what the Godfather was to the mob. They tried to kick around future republican presidents like Reagan and Bush but they couldn't get them to jump into the tabloid septic tank with them, not the way Nixon did. Nixon liked jousting with them and just like he said in 62 after he lost the race for governor of California: "As I leave you now, just think how much you're going to be missing, you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." Like Gollum in his woe is me recollection: "And we wept precious, oh how we wept." They needed a villain.
In comes Trump. Almost like he was sent over straight from central casting. They had their boogey man back, someone who was more than willing to jump into the mosh pit with em. Hell, most days he jumped in first and said: "Come on in boys, the water is just fine." And like Nixon warned em in 62, Gollum's lamentation fell on em hard in 2020, when Trump was replaced by a feeble old man who shook hands with people only he could see and his stoner VP who couldn't string three words together in a coherent fashion. It was a target rich environment but they were off-limits so the arrows had to be put back in the quiver. Ratings for networks, especially CNN, tanked when the Orange Man was gone. In their coal black hearts they wanted Trump to return. Or as Colonel Jessup put it it: "Deep down in places you don't talk about at party's, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall."
The question now is, who will replace Trump as the target after 2028? Musk? Vance if he's elected? Maybe, but those guys won't be half the villain Trump is. There won't be a suitable replacement for the show. So grab the popcorn and enjoy it while you can gang, because the celebrity's who pass for journalists these days are a lazy no-talent bunch and if they don't have anyone to aim their vitriol at they have nothing. Reality TV as politics. In the meantime there is a debt bomb just waiting to explode and plunge us into a national tailspin so wild we'll long for the good old days of masks and six-foot separation rules. But hey, where's the fun in reporting on that. Sleep well kiddos.
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Okay, Nixon wants to lay it at the feet of McNamara, Bundy, and Rostow, you'll get no argument from me. Johnson was a creature of the legislature, out his element when it came to foreign affairs and the executive branch's role in it's execution and application. He knew it to. The largest part of him didn't even want the presidency because he knew he would not be good at the job, but his ego and desire to be remembered as a great man got the better of him. What he wasn't though was "helpless" as Nixon makes out. Johnson knew good and damned well Vietnam was a losing proposition. He told Kennedy as much in 61 but he also said if they were going to stay there then they had to stick with Diem because "he's the only boy we've got out there."
So, go ahead Dick, call Johnson helpless, but you claim you knew better and still, a lot of service members were killed under your watch, a third of all the deaths in fact. So spare me the excuse making for Johnson. Sorry dude, you got no credibility on this matter, especially considering you told Thieu to reject any peace proposal in 68 because you could get him a better deal once you were in office. Shame on you sir, you, Kissinger, and the whole stinking lot of ya. But that's me.
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Come on Dick, damn near everything was personal with you, especially the feud between you and the media. That said, it's not like it wasn't understandable. It was just as, if not more, personal with the media. There were politicians they disliked but they hated Nixon. The deep seeded resentment was cemented during the 1960 presidential campaign. The media had a love affair with Kennedy rivaled only by obama. And we all know every hero needs a villain to take on. The thing is, Nixon did well with the voters, but his insecurities were amplified by his treatment at the hands of the east-coast establishment as a whole, and the media, which was part of that crew, was his boogie man.
No matter how much he succeeded, no matter how much money he made, they never accepted him. LBJ suffered the same fate but he was more prone to just moan and feel sorry for himself. Nixon was a brawler, and he wanted to get even with the SOB's who looked down their nose at him. Nixon was the brightest of the bunch and he had the most natural talent, but his insecurities got the better of him. He believed he was cheated out of a win in 1960 and he was damn sure going to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. That led to the plumbers and Watergate. Then, as he said, he gave the media all the ammo they needed to hang him and talk about a valued scalp. The scandal made careers and created the celebrity journalist. Just like trump, the media hated Nixon, but they loved the fight.
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Okay Dick, I'll grant ya the point that Carter was inept and the wrong guy to handle Iran or any other global problem for that matter. But ya can't say "I would have stopped the Shah from being overthrown" without explaining how you would have done it. What was the plan? Send in American troops? The Shah was already getting a sh*tpot bunch of cash to prop up his military and police forces. What was the next step to keep him going? And people knew all about Khomeini. This stuff about finding out what he was about? Hell, the man had been producing media pimping the Islamic state since the 1960s. The moderates in Iran were the ones who made a deal with the devil and got into bed with him, figuring they could use him to whip up public support while they charted a more reasonable path. Well you lie in bed with dogs as the old saying goes.
The Shah was going down and there was nothing the U.S. could do to stop it. Carter should have shut the embassy down after the first time the loonies stormed it but he kept it open like a big kick me target. It was Kissinger, Nixon's soulmate, who invited the major-league level trouble when he pushed Carter to let the Shah in at a time when anyone with two functioning brain cells knew that was like throwing gas on a gas-fire already burning like nine sonsabitches.
Sorry, maybe it's not the most popular take on this page but Nixon was playing Joe Montana level Monday morning quarterback on this one. Carter made a lot of mistakes and by the sound of it Nixon would have made the same or worse. Nixon has this rep for being some genius on the world stage but Reagan saw his Détente strategy with the Soviets for what it was, a one-way street where they got to break every agreement and America just said, "uh, okay." He went directly against it and kicked their commie asses inside of a decade. And Nixon's grand opening of China? His big foreign policy trophy? Well we see what kind of fruit that has produced. Nixon was smart, but not as smart as he thought he was. If he was he would have burned the tapes. Just sayin.
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