President Richard Milhous Nixon was born on this day 1913. 1oo years ago today.

Ten Notes On the 37th POTUS Richard Nixon

1. Richard Nixon was 5 feet 11 inches tall. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He was of English and Scots-Irish ancestry. His religion was Quaker. His favourite movie was Patton with George C. Scott.

2. Richard Nixon is the only POTUS to ever resign from office. He was the first POTUS from the state of California. He is the first POTUS to travel to China while president. He was the first POTUS to visit Moscow. He would be the first to appoint a Vice-President under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.  When Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973 he appointed Congressman Gerald R. Ford to replace him as Vice-Daddy.

3. Richard Nixon was a huge sports fan. Probably the most knowledgable sports fan to become POTUS. He knew the inside stuff. He followed it closely. He even gave the Miami Dolphin’s a play to use in the first Super Bowl they played in. The Dolphins lost to Dallas 24-3. I know the current POTUS is a huge sports fan but from what I’ve read I think Nixon was a bigger fanatic. I don’t know if having a POTUS who is a sports fan is good or not. Carter wasn’t a fan and he was lousy too. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Everyone has to have some outlet for relaxation.

4. I’ve taken my shots at Richard Nixon on this blog but there are some things I admire about him. One is- Bill Clinton wasn’t the original “Comeback Kid” it was Richard Nixon. In 1960 Nixon loses a close presidential election to John Kennedy {I think America made the right decision there and I am not a huge Kennedy fan by any means} In 1962 Nixon runs for governor of California and gets beaten by Pat Brown. Nixon gives his ‘last press conference” and tells the press they ‘won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” At this point they were writing his political obituary. No one gave him a shot at anything. He was done. In the next six years he rehabilitated himself. He did a lot of traveling to foreign countries, he did a lot of thinking, he did a lot of studying up on the issues. Nixon was a smart man. In 1968 he was finally elected POTUS. I admire the never give up determination he had. I also admire him for his post-presidency. No one left the presidency lower than Nixon did. He resigned before he was impeached. He went home and nearly died but he recovered and he made a fascinating return to the national spotlight. I don’t think anyone saw this coming either. He became a respected elder statesman. He wrote books, politicians came to him for advice. Again, Nixon was a lot of bad things but he was a smart fellow. And he wasn’t one of these former presidents who  criticize whoever the current president is [hi there Jimmy Carter} Nixon of course would never have been able to totally rehabilitate his image and his presidency but when he did live 20  years after he resigned and by the time of his death was looked at a lot more favorably than when he resigned from office in 1974.

5. Biggest mistake he ever made was in having the taping system in the Oval Office in the White House. Those tapes did him in during the Watergate Scandal. I don’t know what he was thinking. Was he taping those conversations so in future years when he was writing his memoirs about his presidency he would be able to listen to all the conversations to help him? Whatever- it was a bad decision. The man was so paranoid. Sometimes I look back and wonder how he was ever elected in the first place. He wasn’t someone who had the charisma of say a Kennedy or a Reagan. He was by most accounts a shy man. He never seemed very comfortable in public. A very strange and awkward man.

6. What he should have done was when he found out about the break in at the Watergate building was to give an address saying that -here is what we know happened and we will get to the bottom of this. There is no evidence that he was involved in the planning of the break in. What did him in was the cover-up. The cover-up rarely works. The cover-up ended his presidency. Of course he resigned before being impeached for one big reason. Impeachment and being found guilty and removed from office and he would receive no presidential pension. By resigning he would receive a presidential pension. He only resigned when the Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate came to him and told him the gig was up.

7. I can recall the day he resigned like it was yesterday. I was 13 years old. That day I remember being out with my mom and brother and sister. I can remember eating at a Kentucky Fried Chicken that day. The word was already out that he was going to have an address to the nation that night and that he would resign. I recall being at my grandparents house that evening and watching the resignation.  By all reports in the final months of the Nixon presidency he wasn’t doing much. Al Haig, his Chief of Staff was running the country and making the decisions in the White House while Dick Nixon was consumed with Watergate. Each day the news seemed to get worse.

8. Nixon dominated American politics during the second half of the 20th century. He was nominated by the Republican Party a record 5ive times on the national ticket. 2 times as Eisenhower’s Vice-Presidential candidate, once as the losing presidential candidate in 1960 and the two times he won-1968 and 1972. He is the only person to serve two terms as vice-president and two terms as president.

9. Nixon is one of the POTUS that I have read the most about. Maybe it is because they were POTUS during my childhood but I’ve read a number of books about LBJ {the Robert Caro books being classics} and Nixon. My favourite books on Nixon is the Stephen Ambrose series on him that came out in the 1980’s. LBJ and Nixon are fascinating characters.  I didn’t think much of Oliver Stone’s movie on “Nixon” like his “JFK” I would classify it as rubbish.

10. Nixon served as Eisenhower’s Vice-President during the 1950’s. By most accounts Ike didn’t value Nixon that much except to use him as a political hatchet man. He would support him in 1960 and 1968 but it wasn’t an enthusiastic support. Nixon’s daughter Julie later marry Ike’s grandson David {who Camp David is named for} The famous quote Ike on Nixon was in 1960 when asked what major projects did Nixon assist Ike on during Ike’s presidency, Ike responded “Give me a week, I may think of something.”