Everyone always ums and ahs about Watergate when you bring up the concept of Richard Nixon but what ELSE was bad about him as a leader? Was it that he lacked charisma? Were his policies askew?

Can any historians/ Americans enlighten me?

inertinept

Bangladesh1195 Posts

December 21 2008 02:05 GMT

? there was nothing wrong with what he did, he was excellent in foreign policy and overall a good leader. who said he was bad?

theonemephisto

United States409 Posts

December 21 2008 02:12 GMT

I'm not particularly well-versed in history, but I'll give it a try.

As far as I can tell, Nixon was at worst an average president and quite possibly a fairly good one besides Watergate. He started a really bad policy of bombing Cambodia, but eventually ended the Vietnam War. His domestic policies were mixed, he took us off the gold standard but used harmful price controls to try to control inflation. And probably a lot more that high school textbooks didn't care enough to talk about.

But his real successes were when dealing with the USSR/China. The Cold War experienced a significant toning down during his time and there were a lot of good peaceful advances made.

It's just that Watergate really was a big deal. I didn't experience it, but from what I know it represented a fundamental shift in how Americans viewed their government and the people who ran it.

Mindcrime

United States6899 Posts

December 21 2008 02:19 GMT

Nixon did not end the Vietnam War; Gerald Ford did. Nixon fucked around, and sent men to the meatgrinder for the entire duration of his presidency.

Proposal

United States1310 Posts

December 21 2008 02:31 GMT

Generally remembered as highly proficient in foreign policy / disastorous with the Watergate scandal

Caller

Poland8075 Posts

December 21 2008 02:45 GMT

The problem with Richard Nixon was that he expanded federal power to ridiculous measures, especially the executive branch. The Watergate scandal and the ensuing blowout (see: Frost-Nixon) was a shock to Americans at how far their country had gone down the slippery slope (yes, I said it) and it backlashed against him.

This was unfortunate, because he was also a great diplomat and opened up relations to China.

Of course, as a Taiwanese, my kin were pretty pissed at this.

fusionsdf

Canada15390 Posts

December 21 2008 03:47 GMT

He was a Libra

QuanticHawk

United States32130 Posts

December 21 2008 03:49 GMT

lollllll ^^^^^^^

Archaic

United States4024 Posts

December 21 2008 03:54 GMT

On December 21 2008 12:47 fusionsdf wrote:
He was a Libra

I'm a Libra T_T.

I'd have to say he had a fairly short temper, was *extremely* paranoid, and he was ugly. Quite frankly, his looks probably were a factor, thinking of how shallow the American public is (That was not meant to be an anti-American statement).

micronesia

United States24761 Posts

December 21 2008 04:30 GMT

#10

Definitely Vietnam. He lied about bombing Cambodia, and when people asked him about it, he claimed it was a national security issue (sound familiar to any recent president?) to which people responded "what, the Cambodians don't know they are being bombed?"

He was average though because of good foreign policy that did not pertain to the Vietnam War. When China reached out its hand, he embraced improved relations (ping pong politics - read: Forest Gump)... and this never would have happened with Bush... Bush woulda given them an 'f u')

ShloobeR

Korea (South)3820 Posts

December 21 2008 05:50 GMT

#11

iiiii ammmm not a crooooooooook buuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

EtherealDeath

United States8366 Posts

December 21 2008 07:19 GMT

#12

LoOOoOL Tricky Dicky. Omg I fell outta my chair when I read that.
But about him, he was too arrogant.

HamerD

United Kingdom1922 Posts

December 21 2008 21:20 GMT

#13

Thanks for the opinions everyone. Except the dewsh beegs.

Frits

11782 Posts

December 22 2008 02:52 GMT

#14

it's tricky dick

and he lied all the time

for some reason it's not mentioned at all on wikipedia

Mindcrime

United States6899 Posts

December 22 2008 03:56 GMT

#15

Some groups lay some of the blame for the current state of the healthcare industry on Nixon's lap because of what his HMO Act did. The HMO Act was passed with the intention of making healthcare affordable but what it did was subsidize not healthcare itself, but rather a certain kind of middleman in the system. This Act, it is claimed, led to further fragmentation of the healthcare system and the increasing unaffordability of healthcare... especially healthcare for the individual.

I'm sure one of the neoliberals on tl could tell you more about it.

Pods

United States81 Posts

December 22 2008 04:54 GMT

#16

Nixon was a tricky dude yo
Watergate is one level and the whole cover up; when the FBI was close to investigating the money that had been wired to Mexico, Nixon actually asked them to stop, saying that it would interfere with CIA activity. bullshit.
Cambodia showed his paranoid side; he wiretapped the NSA, CIA, and FBI
Also in general, he just said one thing and would do another. One example is him painting himself as an anti-Communist but opening up to China. Another example would be him telling the public that he wanted to give federal money to the arts (a traditionally liberal ideal, and one that typically expanded the federal government, which ran contrary to the Republican ideal) and then doing so-but giving local governments broad discretion in choosing how to distribute the money (so this actually made the federal government smaller) and earmarking federal money for the arts for performing groups to perform overseas to promote democracy.

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