The disgust with the office of the Presidency was fostered on the American pysche with the advent of Richard Nixon, personally? I respected Nixon for his foreign policy acumen, I always thought he beat Kennedy in the televised debates, and both men, as freshman Congressman had a lot in common, only Nixon didn't have the Kennedy machine behind him, like Jack did, Hell Jack wouldn't have had the Kennedy machine behind him if Joe Jr. had lived,
Kennedy proved himself with the Bay of Pigs, and his speech at the Berlin Wall, it was a rendering of maturity that led Kennedy to this pinnacle in his career, however, Nixon, if he hadn't aligned himself with Joe McCarthy, would have been better off. Remember Nixon did indeed the only communist in the Federal Government, that would be Alger Hiss.
We may not like Nixon's "list of enemies" or his nefarious planning due to the sycophantic machinations of his staff, he should have had better judgement in my view than to pick Ehrlichman, Haldemann and others, but he was a brilliant elder statesman when it came to foreign policy.
Nixon committed the LBJ sin with Cambodia, but I'll tell you the truth, that war would have been an all consuming cancer for ANY president. it was flawed and fraught with lies from the start, and I hope Westmoreland is burning in hell for his lies about troop loss, on both sides.
But don't get it wrong, this whole attitude towards the American presidency, and the un-bound rights of citizens to publicly attack a president on a personal level, started with the GOP.
They, themselves, were the ones who set up Nixon for failure, Nixon was very clear, he was "going to crush OPEC" and the Hunts Brothers, the ones that Ike declared he would shoot on site with his pearl handled revolvers, were the ones behind the downfall of Nixon. The Washington Post was the puppet that the Hunt Brothers pulled the strings on.
Nixon's legacy of developing other countries that had natural energy resources (Nigeria and Venezuela) was a cornerstone in his strategy to bring OPEC to their knees, BUT, he also wrote on the demographics of those countries. Nixon wrote that Nigeria was 98% Muslim faith, and if we weren't careful in our approach to Middle Eastern politics (based on clearly semitic thinking), we would become the "victims" of our engagement there.
Very different than the conversations between FDR and Faisal at Yalta; FDR's position "we will buy your oil and stay out of your politics", Nixon on the other hand stated, we must understand Middle Eastern politics so to see it's influence in Africa.
By the way, Nixon also stated that very soon, there would be a position taken on apartheid in SA, because in his view, it was another Balfour letter, that would lead to a situation similar to the Palestinian plight.
You may not know this, but Nixon's foreign policy gave aid to Eypgt and Jordan to set up camps for the Palestinians in the Jeddah Desert, AND he was the first to encourage American geologists to go to Eypgt and Jordan to help them develop irrigation techniques, he was criticized for this, I think this was a brilliant stroke of foreign policy, he was forward looking towards the Palestinian plight; they needed land to grow food, and being marginalized and corraled in Palestine, meant great stress on their food supplies.
To this day, Palestinians who cross the West Bank thru Israeli guard are going to land that is irrigated for growing.
And if you wish to talk to a real veteran of Nixon's ME policy, Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana is a geologist, he helped developed Eypgt's irrigation industry for this very reason.
We think oil rules in the Middle East, we are not so smart, Water rules in the Middle East, the DMZ between Lebanon and Northern Isreal hosts one of the most fertile aquifers in the region, hence the conflict.
Nixon, in my opinion was a brilliant, brilliant man, but his self loathing was his downfall, and others in the GOP saw that, and took advantage of it.
Regards
Pace
