It's all relative. Many people hated Tricky Dick. I'm biased though. I always hated Republicans. Fasano is OK though. He's an exception. He doesn't seem like the rest. Tricky earned the scorn of many in my generation by being the President at a time when our generation was strongly anti-government. It wasn't about party. We hated Johnson too. We just hated Nixon more because he continued to send good American youth to die on the other side of the world even though he knew it was pointless because he said he didn't want to go down in history as the only American President to lose a war. Meantine thousands died so he could save face. Watergate was just his political enemys capitilizing on a window of oppertunity to get him out. Sort of like when the Republicans tried to do the same to Clinton. The diff. was Clinton didn't break any laws. No one really cared about the laws Tricky broke, they just jumped on getting him gone.

"Tricky Dick" put a national health plan on the table for his second term. Hawaii adopted it and became the only state with universal health access and coverage. Even today Hawaii remains the most friendly state for health coverage. One of the casualties of Nixon's resignation was a National Health Plan. Nobody messed with "Tricky Dick," he could have gotten it done. However, the scandals and his paranoia overshadowed his accomplisments. His resignation sent a strong signal to politicians. Some in Congress currently would be wise to heed that message.

I wasn't very in tune to what politicians did at the time. As a generation growing up in the heart of protest in the Northeast, I was more just of the mindset of political concepts without politicians. I admit that I was unaware of anything Nixon did except that he kept prosecuting the war much longer than needed & at the time, the draft was still hanging over our heads. The Government was symbolic of what we considered oppression of the people & I was sort of targeted on the war, the draft, & race relation in general in the country. I was too young & unaware of any other aspects involved. When Watergate happened, I don't remember any real outrage. It just seemed like there was an opportunity to impeach him & we didn't like him, so all those against him pounced on the chance to get him out. He was very paranoid & was portrayed as a bit insane.

Nixon and Haldeman are on tape chortling over the idea of providing less health care for the money ... a Kaiser-backed concept that became the HMO. Michael Moore included the exchange in his movie "Sicko."

We now know that what Nixon's Watergate crew were after was a Fidel-Castro penned memo detailing the Nixon gang's links to the Kennedy Assassination--what Nixon alluded to as "The Bay of Pigs Thing" several times on the Watergate tapes.

Nixon's agriculture secretary Earl Butz drove many nails in the coffin of the family farm, and brought in dangerous high-fructose corn syrup as a cheap sugar substitute.

Nixon slammed the gold window shut, effectively ending Bretton Woods and bringing fiat currency to the U.S. (Kennedy's choice had been to use the country's silver as a basis for its money--a principled option taken off the table immediately after his assassination).

Nixon opened to Mao's genocidal regime and set the stage for China to steal away the manufacturing heart of this country.

In short, Nixon's repeated turning away from principle and his outright wrongs are what brought on many of the ills we are suffering today.

It took many years before I recognized what Richard Nixon did for the US by opening up China. He may have been one of the greatest presidents we've had for his international relations. I was a bit older during Watergate, Greg, but like you I remember it as a poingnant moment in our country's history. Also as time went by and I matured I began to understand Richard Nixon better as the complex and intelligent human being he was. His daughters loved him and that meant something to me.

Thanks for you nice article about him. Sorry to hear about your recent illness, though, and am hoping you are feeling much better now.

Richard Nixon, like many Presidents before him and each after, have left office concerned and want to be assured that their years in office have left an indelible legacy of good. It is no different with Jimmy Carter or Herbert Hoover. Richard Nixon worked harder than any I can recall or have read about, after his Presidency to change that image. Bill Clinton who came as close as any other President to be impeached now rests comfortable with a huge approval rating as evidenced by his particpation in the 2012 Election on behalf of President Obama.

Do not forget Nixon did more for Israel that any President before him or since.

Nixon reminds me of the former Red Sox first-baseman Bill Buckner, who was only remembered for letting the famous ball go under his glove in the World Series.

Buckner had a 20 year career in the Major Leagus, was an All-Star, and had over 2,700 hits.

Buckner, like Nixon, did many good things during his career, but will be unfairly remembered for one infamous thing.

A loyal Patch reader, Ed Carraway, has sent me his thoughts and memories about President Nixon. With his permission I am posting them here. Due to space limitations I must break up his comment into serveral smaller parts.

PART ONE
GREG; DID YOU EVER BRING UP SOME FOND MEMORIES and thanks for some deserved recognition of Pres. Nixonwhich I will complement. You expressed many sentiments which I share with you. I have kept this reply on my list of things to do, whose time has finally come.
I started following President Nixon while he was in California as I resided there during some of his days in office. Coincidently I moved back to my home State of Maryland and continued my political interests as the Executive Director of the 1970 Republican Rally for the State of Maryland as a hired gun fund raiser and public relations. V.P. Spiro Agnew having been Governor there and I doing same for a few local politicos I was honored to be appointed to this position.

PART TWO
Ed Carraway: Many are not aware of the many outstanding achievements under Nixon. During that time I became close to many on his staff, and those in Congress where I had a front row seat, so to speak. During which time I was honored to head an Annual Columbus Day DC Chapter to round up a few notables to speak and Ticket sales. A few who accepted were, AFL CIO Pres. Meany, Sec'y of Transportation. Volpe, President Nixon himself and many others who spoke and were honored for their efforts on behalf of all Immigrant Communities as they recognized all for their many contributions to this great Country. As part of the speech I co-wrote, our introduction included Pres. Roosevelt's famous opening line to the D.A.R. "welcome ladies and gentlemen and fellow immigrants", which caused quite a stir and lots of applause.

PART THREE
Ed Carraway: Roosevelt and Eleanor were never invited back after that statement as us American Revolutionary War descendants at the time looked upon themselves, not I for one, as the Blue Bloods of America, even a notch or two above the Mayflower arrivals.
Let’s start with President Nixon's establishing the Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act, the Dept. of Environmental Affairs, and his Executive Order on the study of Medical Marijuana. Son of Sen. Goldwater's was an acquaintance of mine and his father was instrumental in convincing Nixon to commission the study. As it was completed just before his reelection campaign it was shelved due to cautionary political timing as the report was complimentary to Marijuana. And such was big no, no in those days.
Also, I ran the campaign in Maryland's largest Democratic strong hold, Prince Georges County, where we had the first Republican Senator from Maryland elected in many decades. Which came to me being promised a position in the Cabinet as a Deputy Director for FHA as it was known at the time. Upon Agnew's downfall and Nixon's too that went by the wayside.

PART FOUR
Ed Carraway: I also bring this up as during the Impeachment Hearings there was a Republican who sat on the far right side of the Panel known as Rep. Lawrence J. Hogan of Prince Georges County Md. Larry was an ex FBI agent and privy to behind the scenes evidence a few folks did not know of, and a Professor of Journalism at Univ. of Md.and the first Republican to state he was for impeaching Nixon. Needless to say he did not even bother to run in the next re-election, but, skipped that term and ran again next time, where I was on his re-election committee as Community Director, and he won hands down and wen on to continue an illustrative career in Congress. .I had a like position on the Potomac Observer a DC metro weekly newspaper so we had a good exposure. at the time, which I milked for all it was worth.

During that time my brother ran for Congress in a Republican California primary against John Schmitz of the John Birch Society. In a few years John resigned from Congress as he had a paramour with three children on the side who were on welfare etc. His daughter was a chip off the ole' block, Mary LaTerneau and a teacher and imprisoned for having sex with a 14 year old who got her pregnant. Guess my brother ran to early. But, things went well for him as CREEP settled out of Court as defendants in a lawsuit for their dirty tricks. He invested the money wisely and has become a very rich real estate magnate. And no longer was interested in holding public office.

PART FIVE
All this is probably more than you were expected or wanted to know, but your Nixon Birthday recognition got me started with some great memories of which none were bad, just life as in the lane you choose.

Ed, thank you for taking the time to share these wondeful memories with Patch readers. I know that everyone who follows not only this blog, but any student of history, will appreciate the personal experiences you related.