It’s almost embarrassing to admit but I have a fondness for Richard M. Nixon, the nefarious man who served as the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t approve of his actions, attitudes, or bull-in-the-China-shop approach to politics. But in the span of our history, he made a mark that had a significant impact on my personal life. In writing about Vietnam, I could not help writing about him and somehow that has created a connection to the man.
Today is the 50th anniversary of his resignation. He said he didn’t want to cause the country undue hardship in managing the impeachment case against him, so he would courteously step aside.
After his long-term approach to bombing SouthEast Asia “back to the stone age,” this saccharine consideration of his fellow human beings is enough to set one’s teeth on edge.
Still, the action of a president resigning was a seismic event in 1974. On August 7, 1974, my mother wrote home: “Well, it looks as tho Nixon has had it. I am so sick of it all and even if he is wrong, it still makes one want to weep. Ah well, what is there to say?”
In my June 15, 2024 interview with author Steve Sheinkin (Most Dangerous: The Story of Daniel Ellsberg), we discussed the impact of Daniel Ellsberg’s distribution of The Pentagon Papers and how that led to Nixon’s resignation and the ultimate end of American military involvement in Vietnam.
Thank you for reading. I hope you’ll join in this conversation with a comment, like, and/or share.
Until next time,
Kat ❦
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This weekly newsletter tells of the Welch family saga of life in Vietnam in 1974-75 and shares a wide variety of stories about Vietnam—the country as well as the war.
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Nixon resigned because he didn’t want to be impeached. He took Ford’s pardon because he didn’t want to go to jail. He didn’t give a tinker’s damn about what the country went through. If he did, he wouldn’t have extended the murder of millions of Vietnamese civilians for six years.