Richard Nixon [Celsius vs Bokks]

[Celsius]

I am debating Bokks on Richard Nixon, the 37th president of The United States. Bokks has agreed to take the positive, while I will take the negative (which I think he did good just to clear it up). This is just a friendly debate. Nothing personel. Bokks has the floor.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Views of Celsius and Bokks are not necessarily those of the American People.

[Bokks]

Ah, so, sorry to everyone--and you Celsius--that I have taken to long to come into the ring.

Without further ado...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of the United States.

One cannot say that this great man was the best president in American history; certainly with great mean like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower (to name but a few) it is doubtful that Nixon would want to be remembered as even a fraction of the definition for that remark. But the nation that he came to lead was a nation intrenched in a foreign relations policy that had given rise to the greatest epoch of distrust and fear ever to grip the nations of the world at any time in world history. The Cold War and the policy of Containment had led the nation to despise nations that were previously valued allies, to doubt our neighbors and to fear our friends. He inherited a nation entrenched in a foriegn conflict, as well as a nation at conflict with itself. In no simle fashion he combated the issues set before him, and put into motion decisions that would lead to keep the United States in particular but no less than the world in general from falling into a series of conflicts that threatened to erupt since the time of North Korea.

Nixon was, above all else, a born diplomat. As VP under Dwight "Ike" David Eisenhower, Richard Milhous Nixon was famous for debates and discussions, most notably the "Kitchen Debates" between himself and Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev on the merits of capitalism vs. Communism. His rhetoric and style before the American public became legendary, and he soon found himself running for the chief office itself. Running against democratic nominee John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the heated race climaxed during the famously televised presidential debate in which as any student of presidential history knows all too well, those who listened to the debates on the radio would have sworn to Nixons supremacy, while those who watched on television saw Kennedy as having the upper-hand.

Losing the presidential election, Nixon flittered into uncertainty and obscurity, finally losing a bid as Governer of California against fellow republican Ronald Reagan. Believing the press had already taken to doing what they could to destroy him, he vowed to retire from politics, saying to the press "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more."

But the former vice-president could not stay retired from politics for long, and as the government became embroiled in a conflict in Vietnam in order to battle communism, and the nation in response roared it's dissent, Dick Nixon found himself running for high office with the greatest issue being Vietnam and the American presense there. Although he was against Vietnam in principle, in pratice Nixon believed it unAmerican to voice radical objection to the actions of the president, and went into office with this attitude. This would prove to be his greatest weakness.

While in office he did the greatest work that arguably any president had ever done to patch ties between embittered enemies. Opening relations with communist China, he cooled the heat between the US and the USSR as strengthened ties with America's allies. In short, the relations that America enjoys today with the allies it has in the world is the result of the diplomatic arrangements Nixon made with so may in his presidency.

Easily reelected for a second term, scandal would strike after it became known that a republican team broke into the democratic party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel and stole party documents. Although Nixon was uninvolved in the act itself and in fact knew nothing about it by it's time, he tried to cover it up after he found out about it. Believing that the president should be followed without question during the length of his elected term and was therefor above the law, he banked on felony by trying to cover up the crimes and lying in court about what he knew and what happened. Eventually, when it became clear that he would be impeached for breaking the law in court during an investigation and for whatever involvement he may have had in Watergate, he resigned from the position of Chief Executive of the United States on August 9, 1974.

The legacy that Nixon has left is a far cry from what he had accomplished for the nation he cared for so much for. He strengthened our standing in the world militarily and economically. He made moves to make America allies with many nations that it at times hated, mistrusted and feared. And despite unbelievable odds he remained true to the principles he held and the codes that he lived by. In all of the things that is said of Nixon--in all that he is rememebered for--he is the kind of president that America would ask for in any situation, foriegn and domestic.

[Celsius]

So, we here the good things. Now the Bad.


This man pardoned over 900 people wjile in office. 900! Thats alot of people who have broke nthe law that got out for free just becaus he problem knows them. He also paid men to break into the democratic hotel room to sobotage it so he could prevent them from gaining power. He is a crook, a liar, and just a plain bad person.

[Bokks]

Well, it is well within the rights of a president to pardon anyone for any crime that he feels are unjustly held against. It is also a myth that Nixon had any direct connection with the break-in of the Watergate Hotel, in fact Nixon by all accounts knew nothing of the crime until aftre the fact. While he did all within his power to hide the act from the public eye--a decision that was admittadly illegal--he himself took no illegal donations, had never been proven to have been bribed, and by all accounts was as judicious as any person who may have withheld the details of a crime committed by a close friend or relative.

It is indebatable that his reaction to the Watergate breakin were illegal, however it is more a reflection on his own personal beliefs of American duties and the relationship of the president with the American public than it is a poor reflection of his abilities as president.

[vizi]

Don't post in the debate threads, post in the commentary threads for relevant comments.

[Celsius]

This is hard. I like Nixon.