From the interview.
Because of Watergate, many Americans have come to caricature Richard Nixon as a criminal, but you worked with him personally in the White House at that time.
What’s your assessment?
What’s your assessment?
That’s simply false.
There’s no question about it, when this stupid break-in occurred at the Watergate, that the five who were caught and one or two others—Liddy and Hunt—went high up into the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
But they had nothing to do with the White House.
There’s no question about it, when this stupid break-in occurred at the Watergate, that the five who were caught and one or two others—Liddy and Hunt—went high up into the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
But they had nothing to do with the White House.
. . . . .
In your opinion, what were President Nixon’s greatest accomplishments?
Let me just mention a few.
He ended the war in Vietnam, brought the troops home and brought the POWs home.
He negotiated the greatest arms control agreement with the Soviet Union since the Washington Naval Agreement of 1921-22.
He opened up China and ended decades of bristling hostility with the People’s Republic of China, bring them into the “League of Nations” if you will.
He rescued Israel during the Yom Kippur War with an air lift.
He brought Egypt out of the Soviet bloc and into the Western camp.
He ended the draft, he de-segregated the south, he’s responsible for the 18-year old voting age that he signed into law, he created the EPA, he created the Cancer Institute, he created OSHA for better or worse.
He created the greatest political coalition since FDR.
And he did most of these things in his first term, except for the Yom Kippur War, which would have been more than enough to make him one of the ten greatest presidents had it not been for Watergate—and all folks remember now are Watergate and China.
He ended the war in Vietnam, brought the troops home and brought the POWs home.
He negotiated the greatest arms control agreement with the Soviet Union since the Washington Naval Agreement of 1921-22.
He opened up China and ended decades of bristling hostility with the People’s Republic of China, bring them into the “League of Nations” if you will.
He rescued Israel during the Yom Kippur War with an air lift.
He brought Egypt out of the Soviet bloc and into the Western camp.
He ended the draft, he de-segregated the south, he’s responsible for the 18-year old voting age that he signed into law, he created the EPA, he created the Cancer Institute, he created OSHA for better or worse.
He created the greatest political coalition since FDR.
And he did most of these things in his first term, except for the Yom Kippur War, which would have been more than enough to make him one of the ten greatest presidents had it not been for Watergate—and all folks remember now are Watergate and China.
The magazine of the American Jesuits.
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