Richard Nixon Was a Great President

Imagine a man. A mean man. A mendacious man. In many ways, a mad man. A man who mocked minorities, including African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, and gay people. A man who cynically capitalized on the racism of Southern whites in the course of his campaigns. A man who cheated in an election he was already going to win by covering up a break-in at the Watergate hotel. 

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, won his first election in the shadow of the death of Robert Kennedy. His second election, a landslide win over liberal George McGovern, felt like one last boot stomp on the ashes of the sixties. And, of course, Nixon resigned office in the greatest presidential scandal of the 20th century. 

Yet, in between those curtains of American despair, Nixon ended up accomplishing a whole lot. He did the unexpected—his executive orders and his legislation helped the poor, minorities, women, the environment, and the world. 

Nixon, dare I say it, was progressive. He was conservative, and he clothed his ideas in conservative rhetoric, but he was progressive.

Richard Nixon, during his presidency, signed numerous civil rights legislation, including the seminal Title IX, which prohibited gender discrimination in educational funding. He raised the budget for civil rights programs from $75 million to over $600 million. He ended the draft and supported the amendment to lower the voting age to 18. Nixon enforced affirmative action, oversaw the desegregation of Southern schools, and, for the first time, protected the right to tribal self-determination for Native Americans. 

Nixon declared war on cancer and poverty. Remarkably, he introduced a more liberal version of Obamacare and almost succeeded in implementing a form of universal basic income. Under Nixon, for the first time since World War II, spending on human resource services exceeded the defense budget.

Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency and celebrated the first Earth Day. He signed the Clean Air Act and the Water Quality Improvement Act. His environmental action plan marked the first time that the administrative state considered environmental factors in its decision. Historian J. Brooks Flippen claimed that Nixon has “done more in two years [for the environment] than any president in history.”

Furthermore, Nixon was a master of diplomacy. He strengthened our relationships with the Soviet Union and China, signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and making one of the most important trips in American history, which minted the phrase “Nixon to China.” He ended the Vietnam War, fostered peace between Israel and Egypt, and brought about the start of the European Security Conference. Years later, his former opponent George McGovern said about him: ”With the exception of his inexcusable continuation of the war in Vietnam, Nixon really will get high marks in history."

And yes, he was a crook.

What are we to make of such a man?

Nixon sought studs and scalps. One could guess that his intentions were less genuine concern for the poor and more a desire to make history. Nixon dreamed of being remembered as a beloved progressive leader. “Tory men and liberal policies changed the world,” he mused to his advisors. Yet this wrangling of his id into a robust list of accomplishments—is that not the source of so much human excellence? 

There are moral intentions and there are moral consequences. The floral consequences of Richard Nixon’s presidency—most of which are overshadowed by Watergate—contradict his intentions. Would the opposite be any better? The revolutions of the 20th century—of Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin—attest to the grotesque transformations of the most moral intentions.

The unrelenting ocean of history washes away our motives, our hopes, our dreams. All that remains is our actions. And we will remember Nixon’s actions: his biggest mistake, the scandal which will forever define his presidency and life. But if we dig through his legacy, we would find gems which shine brighter in today’s light.

Today is a time of much historical revisionism. We look for sins in the lives of saints. I understand this tendency—greatness doesn’t excuse evil. To worship another human is to forget who a human being is in the first place.

But the truth goes both ways. What about finding the good in disgraced figures? What moral lessons might we gleam from such an exercise? 

I am not talking about dictators, or mass murderers, or perverse evildoers. I am talking about Richard Nixon. I am talking about our presidents, our parents, our favorite characters, our friends, our artists, and our acquaintances. People who make great mistakes but also do great good. People who say prejudiced things and then do justice. People who are human.

What are we to make of such people?

Richard Nixon, by many accounts, was a mean man. But there was good in him. More importantly, there was good he did. And that’s worth remembering.