Quote:
Originally Posted by VA Yankee
A least Nixon establish diplomatic relations with China which was a major accomplishment.
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Yup. Nixon was a paranoid, but he was also a quite effective statesman.
That's the biggest difference between him and Trump. Trump never knew enough about the fundamentals of governance to ever be an effective President.
I've often wondered what would have happened to Nixon if he had fired Hadleman, Erlichmann, and a few other advisors from his first term and found some replacements for them.
They all facilitated Nixon's paranoia during the 1974 election and turned Nixon's worst thoughts into actual plans. The "Plumber's Committee" never needed to be formed at all.
I'm sure that if any of them had come up with some simple excuse and kept Hunt away from the President, Nixon's second term would have been much better than his first. Nixon was riding high after his trip to China, and had the most self-confidence he had ever had afterward.
When Richard Nixon had a clear, politically honest objective in sight, with a clear goal, he did have the skill to see it through. And Nixon could be courageous when he pursued his goals.
His paranoia never allowed him to be comfortable in victory, though, so mentally, he was always at his worst when things were at their best for him. Those were the times when Nixon always began chasing shadows, and that's the way he always was.
All his advisors knew this; when he was VP, they found ways to chase away the shadows and get him back on track.
His first set of campaign advisors did the same in 1960. By 1968, all those people were gone, replaced by an entire bunch who used Nixon's paranoia to further their own ends and ambitions.
It was obvious to everyone that after the primaries ended Nixon would cruise through an easy victory into a second term.
All his advisors had to do was to convince him that was the fact, but they chose to indulge his paranoid fantasies instead, and made them worse when they did.
Really, all they had to do was limit Nixon's drinking. Nixon binged when he was having a paranoid spell, and the booze made it worse. He wasn't alcoholic, I believe; Nixon simply over-medicated with his booze in his worst moments.
But instead of putting the bottle away, they all sat around and drank with him and constantly fed his paranoia.
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