Remembering President Nixon

Posted 5/6/14

To the Editor:

April 22, 2014 was the 20th anniversary of the death of President Richard Milhous Nixon. Even though the Democrats controlled both houses of the Congress during his five years in …

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Remembering President Nixon

Posted

To the Editor:

April 22, 2014 was the 20th anniversary of the death of President Richard Milhous Nixon. Even though the Democrats controlled both houses of the Congress during his five years in office, Nixon was able to work with the Congress in regular order to make the United States and the world a better place to live, work and pray. Nixon was not an ideologue.

During his presidency, Nixon negotiated major nuclear arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union, reduced cold war tensions by opening formal relations with China, ordered a massive airlift of American arms sent to Israel that helped them win the 1973 Yom Kippur War, expanded Social Security and Medicare benefits to seniors, increased benefits for the aged, blind and disabled by $5 billion, took 9 million low income families off the income tax roles, established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), signed the Clean Air Act, signed the Endangered Species Act, signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), ended public school segregation in the southern states, implemented the “Philadelphia Plan” – the United States’ first significant affirmative action program, campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), signed the Title IX Act – creating equal opportunities for women in sports and negotiated the end of the Vietnam War.

In the 1972 presidential election, Nixon won 49 states and received 60 percent of the popular vote. In February of 1974, Nixon sent Congress a comprehensive plan for health care reform that was rejected by the Democratic leadership. Senator Edward Kennedy later said one of his biggest mistakes was not supporting Nixon’s health care plan.  

Although Nixon remained active in the political arena until his death in 1994, after 1985, he refused to accept Secret Service protection, which saved United States taxpayers millions of dollars. He visited many countries, gave counsel to many world leaders and wrote many best selling books describing his political views. President Clinton met openly with Nixon and regularly sought his advice. In 1986, after a trip to the Soviet Union, a Gallup poll ranked Nixon as one of the 10 most admired men in the world. 

 

Kenneth Berwick

Smithfield

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