The Forgotten Man and Forgotten History of the Nixon Years

By David in TN

[N.S. My partner-in-crime, David in TN, wrote this essay in four parts, over the course of three months. Actually, he didn’t plan his remarks as one essay, but they were all on the same topic, and worked fine that way.]
 

President Richard M. Nixon 

Part I

I haven't read Richard Whalen's Catch the Falling Flag in a long time, so I checked it out of the library today. On page 13, Whalen wrote of his initial conversation with Richard Nixon:

"We talked for a time about liberals and conservatives, about the enmity he aroused in the Alger Hiss case. 'That was twenty years ago-they never forget, do they?' Nor would they ever forgive him, I suggested, for being a representative of the new American middle classes. The left-liberal intellectuals and journalists despised middle-class ‘bourgeois’ values and the 'square' culture. Nothing that Nixon could say or do would appease them. He threatened their status as an antidemocratic elite in much the way that Lyndon Johnson did, and he could expect the same vindictive assaults that Johnson was experiencing. Beyond his political objective, I suggested, lay a cultural objective: the building of the foundation of a new intellectual establishment that would restore and conserve values under attack from the radical left."

This book is still relevant today, especially the parts where Whalen tried to influence Nixon on race and crime. (Nixon didn't want to talk about it.)
 

Part II

I've finished rereading Catch the Falling Flag. Richard Whalen repeatedly suggested Nixon appeal to poor and middle-class white voters. Nixon didn't want to hear about it for the most part. He did talk "law and order," but not much besides rhetoric.

Whalen left in August 1968 after the GOP convention. Mitchell, Haldeman, and Erlichman took over, and Whalen didn't respect them.

Nixon was a solitary figure with a lot of insecurities.

I'm reading Buchanan's new book. It's a pretty fast read.
 

Part II

I finished Buchanan's latest a few days ago. PB thought Richard Whalen should be asked to return but Nixon was adamant. Whalen left, and should not be invited back.

Whalen wanted Nixon to take a position committing to end the Vietnam War as soon as possible. Nixon refused to declare himself in order to "keep his options open." Buchanan agreed.

Whalen (and Buchanan) wanted Nixon to come down harder on the "Gut" issue (crime and disorder), but Nixon would or could not.

There was a conflict on Nixon's staff between the "conservatives" led by Buchanan, and the liberal Republicans led by William Safire.
 

Part IV
 

Spiro T. "Ted" Agnew 

Something I forgot to mention. There is a forgotten man from the Nixon presidency. That is Vice President Spiro Agnew.

Agnew attacked liberals in politics and the media in speeches written by Buchanan and Safire, with some contributions from Agnew himself. It drove the liberal establishment wild.

I saw an interview concerning Agnew with long-time Beltway reporter and author Jules Witcover. When asked how his colleagues reacted to Agnew's attacks, Witcover said they were angered and intimidated. Witcover also said media people are "very thin-skinned."

Agnew, like most vice presidents, was frozen out of major decisions and had nothing to do with the Watergate Affair, and was untouched by it.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney did a fishing expedition to find evidence of kickbacks to state politicians. Not exactly something hard to find.

They found Spiro Agnew was taking payoffs from contractors as Baltimore County executive, Maryland governor, and was still receiving cash envelopes as vice president.

Agnew resigned in October, 1973.

Had the payoffs not surfaced, Agnew would have stayed vice president and would have been 100% insurance against Nixon's impeachment.

The Democrats would never have impeached Nixon, if it meant making Spiro Agnew POTUS.

As Peter Brimelow wrote, impeachment is strictly a political act. The Democrats would have let Nixon and Agnew stay as they were until 1977, both weakened, in preference to impeaching Nixon and putting Agnew in the Oval Office.