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Richard Nixon
First Lady Pat Nixon died June 22, 1993 of health problems, including two strokes and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California during the week until her burial on June 26. Richard Nixon was in deep sadness the entire time, but was comforted by his family as well as former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and their First Ladies, Betty and Nancy, respectively.
Death and funeral
Nixon suffered a severe stroke at 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. It was determined that a blood clot resulting from his heart condition had formed in his upper heart, then broke off and traveled to his brain. He was rushed by ambulance to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, initially alert, but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg. His vision was reportedly also impaired, but he was able to greet his private doctor and daughters on separate occasions with strong squeezes from his left hand and his renowned thumbs-up salute.[36] Nixon was reportedly also visited by longtime friend Reverend Billy Graham and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the day after his stroke.
Doctors initially claimed Nixon's stroke was minor, but the damage to the brain caused swelling (cerebral edema). Less than 24 hours after his arrival at the hospital, Nixon's level of consciousness began falling sharply, and on Thursday, April 21, 1994, he slipped into a deep coma. Nixon's living will stipulated that he was not to be placed on a ventilator to sustain his life. On Friday, April 22, 1994, he died at 9:08 p.m., with his daughters at his bedside; he was 81.
The graves of President and Mrs. Nixon
Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994, the first for an American President since that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973, which was presided over by Nixon during his presidency. Speakers at the service, held at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace (now Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum), included then-President Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Also in attendance were former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and their respective first ladies. Nixon was buried beside his wife, Pat (also 81 when she died ten months earlier, on June 22, 1993, of lung cancer), on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda. He was survived by his two daughters, Tricia and Julie, and four grandchildren. The funeral was not a state funeral, therefore his body did not lie in state.
Legacy
Presidential scholars, both liberal and conservative, generally agree that Nixon presents a special problem when seeking to evaluate and determine his presidential ranking because his foreign policy and domestic policy successes stand in dramatic contradiction to the corrupt elements in his administration. Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles. On some very important dimensions both Wilson and L.B. Johnson were outright failures in my view; while on others they rank very high indeed. Similarly with Nixon." Historian Alan Brinkley said: "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Wilson, Johnson, Nixon)." James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic President, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"[37] Even George McGovern, eleven years after Nixon defeated him for the presidency, commented: "President Nixon probably had a more practical approach to the two superpowers, China and the Soviet Union, than any other president since World War II. ... I think, with the exception of his inexcusable continuation of the war in Vietnam, Nixon really will get high marks in history."[38]
Public perception
Nixon's career was frequently dogged by his personality, and the public perception of it. Editorial cartoonists such as Herblock and comedians had fun exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature version of him became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed as a sullen loner, with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow. He was also characterized as the epitome of a "square" and the personification of unpleasant adult authority.
Nixon tried to shed these perceptions by staging photo-ops with young people and even cameo appearances on popular TV shows such as Laugh-In and Hee Haw (before he was President). He also frequently brandished the two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the "Victory sign" or "peace sign") using both hands, an act that became one of his best-known trademarks. Due to his uptight image, many Americans were shocked to hear that the President had a much gruffer, aggressive side, revealed by the sheer amount of swearing and vicious comments seen on the transcripts of the president's White House tapes. This did not help the public perception and fed the comedians even more. Nixon's sense of being persecuted by his "enemies," his grandiose belief in his own moral and political excellence, and his willingness to use power ruthlessly to achieve political goals led some experts to describe him as having a narcissistic and paranoid personality.[39] During the Watergate scandal, Nixon's approval rating had fallen to 23%.[40]
References
- Further information: Richard Nixon Bibliography
Notes
- ^ Steel, Ronald (April 26, 1987) "I Had to Win": Review of 'Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962,' by Stephen E. Ambrose." New York Times Knowledge Network.
- ^ Hove, Duane T. American Warriors: Five Presidents in the Pacific Theater of WWII, Burd Street Press, 2003 ISBN 1-57249-307-0; summary accessed at [1] August 2, 2006
- ^ "Diplomat in High Heels: Thelma Ryan Nixon", The New York Times, 28 July 1959, page 11
- ^ Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates, 1960 — Erika Tyner Allen, Museum of Broadcast Communications, accessed April 4, 2006
- ^ Foner, Eric (2006). Give Me Liberty!: An American History, Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 843. ISBN 0-3939-2784-9.
- ^ William A. De Gregorio, "The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents" (2005) 6th edition, Barricade Books
- ^ Morrow, L. "Naysayer to the nattering nabobs." Time Sep. 30, 1996
- ^ "Real peace", Little Brown & Co (T) (January 1984), ISBN-10: 0316611492, ISBN-13: 978-0316611497, 107 pages
- ^ Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History V2. W.W. Norton & Company. New York
- ^ Victor S. Kaufman; Confronting Communism: U.S. and British Policies toward China (2001), 228–31; Anthony Kubek, "The 'Opening' of China: President Nixon's 1972 Journey." American Asian Review 1992 10(4): 1–22. ISSN 0737-6650; Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, "Taiwan Expendable? Nixon and Kissinger Go to China," Journal of American History (2005) 92(1): 109–135. ISSN 0021-8723
- ^ John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment (1982), pp. 294 and 299; Ang Cheng Guan, Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (2003), pp. 61, 69 and 77–79; Qiang Zhai China and the Vietnam Wars, p. 136
- ^ Nixon, No More Vietnams (1987), pp. 105–106.
- ^ NSA archives on South Asia crisis
- ^ Harold H. Saunders, “Memorandum of Conversation: Kenneth Keating, Henry A. Kissinger and Harold H. Saunders,” June 3, 1971, The National Security Archive
- ^ Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan, — Raymond L Garthodd, p 298
- ^ The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971 — Sajit Gandhi, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 79, December 16, 2002
- ^ Thornton, The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping American’s Foreign Policy, pp.113–115
- ^ Sharma, Dhirendra (May 1991). "[[2] India's lopsided science]". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist 47 (4): 32–36. http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=may91sharma
- ^ Nixon's dislike of 'witch' Indira — BBC News.
- ^ Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli, The United States and Pakistan: the Evolution of an Influence Relationship, pp.49
- ^ Kotlowski (2001) p. 8
- ^ Kotlowski (2001) p. 37
- ^ The American Presidency Project archives
- ^ a b Richard Nixon, Address on the State of the Union Delivered Before a Joint Session of the Congress., Jan 30, 1974, hosted at "The American Presidency Project", UCSB
- ^ David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. "I Am Not a Health Reform", The New York Times, December 15, 2007.
- ^ Hall, K. G. (28 November 2007). Democrats' health plans echo Nixon's failed GOP proposal. Retrieved on 2007-11-28 from http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/22163.html.
- ^ CNN transcript
- ^ Dean, John. Blind Ambition, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1976. ISBN 978-0671224387.
- ^ President Nixon's Troublesome Tax Returns The Tax History Project, April 11, 2005. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
- A quote from this reference:
"Nixon's greatest concern with the IRS audit and the JCT investigation was that fraud might be charged, thereby imposing a civil fraud penalty of 50 percent of the tax deficiency, increasing his chances for impeachment. Amazingly, fraud was not mentioned either by the IRS or by the committee report. However, the House Judiciary Committee, which was considering the impeachment of Nixon, stated that it might investigate the possibility of tax fraud. By agreeing to pay $465,000, Nixon's wealth was reduced to half of the previous $988,522."
- ^ Stans, Maurice H. The Terrors of Justice: The Untold Side of Watergate (W. Clement Stone, PMA Communications, Inc. Northbrook, IL, U.S.A.) 1978. ISBN 978-0895268280
- ^ William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia (New York: Simon and Schuster). 1979. ISBN 978-0671230708
- ^ Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Final Days (London: Simon and Schuster) 1976 (repr. 2006). ISBN 978-1-4165-2236-2
- ^ "This Will Be Forgotten" June 20, 1972 White House conversation of Richard Nixon and Charles Colson. Presidential Recordings Program, University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved on 2000-09-16.
- ^ "Richard M. Nixon: Before and After Watergate", The History Channel
- ^ The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation: Museum store
- ^ "[3]", A daughters reflection on Fathers Day: "he squeezed my hand one last time, let go, and gave me a jaunty thumbs-up salute.".
- ^ * Skidmore, Max J. "Ranking and Evaluating Presidents: The Case of Theodore Roosevelt" White House Studies. Volume: 1. Issue: 4. 2001. pp. 495+.
- ^ William Greider, The McGovern factor, Rolling Stone, 10 Nov. 1983, p.13.
- ^ Nixon: A Psychobiography — Vamik D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, and Andrew W. Dod, book review by Michael A. Ingall, accessed April 4, 2006
- ^ Presidential Job Approval for Richard Nixon. The American Presidency Project. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
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