A Long Road to Nixon's Last Crisis
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Long Road To Nixon's Last Crisis I had recognized from the time I be- came a member of the Committee on Un-American Activities, and particularly after my participation in the Hiss case, that it was essential for me to maintain a standard of conduct which would . not give my political opponents any solid grounds for attack . "Even when you are right they will give you a rough time," I have said. "When you happen to be wrong they will kill you." `—"Six Crises" e always knew what to say, but the H question was how closely he. lis- tened to himself. During his quarter-cen- tury in politics, Richard Nixon's actions often stood in jarring contradiction to his high-blown rhetoric. Reading "Six Crises," his ghost-written autobiography, in the light of .Watergate and his resig- nation points up the immense gulf be- tween his endless pieties and the harsh reality of his tragically flawed career. In all apparent sincerity, Nixon could preach law and order even as he and his aides were breaking the law. He could boast that his Cabinet was free of yes- men and then reduce the Cabinet to unprecedented impotence. In the midst of the Watergate cover-up, he could righteously declare: "What really hurts in matters of this sort is not the fact that they occur ... What really hurts is if you try to cover it up." In a moment Welly McNamee—Newsweek of unintended irony, Nixon's first Attor- A last hurrah, 1973: Mistrustful even of his own success ney General, John Mitchell, once ad- vised: "Don't watch what we say; Magruder at the Ervin committee hear- misunderstood. Only months after his watch what we do." The President would ings, that the end, whether national se- landslide victory in 1972, he complained have been safer the other way around, curity or re-election, justified the means to White House counsel John Dean: for when Congress and the American —including repeated violations of the "Nobody is a friend of ours. Let's people finally learned what Richard Nix- Constitution and the Bill of Rights. face it." on had done, his Presidency came to an The judgments on Nixon's policies ALWAYS THE OUTSIDER abrupt and squalid end. will likely be as mixed as the views of Nixon's detractors called him amoral; Historians and psychologists will de- his personality. At home, the Nixon Ad- his friends explained that he was "prob- bate for decades the causes of Richard ministration took a largely revisionist lem oriented," not "ideology oriented." Nixon's downfall, and the full answer stance, trying to dismantle Lyndon John- Whatever the explanation, his record may never be known. But there are hints son's flawed Great Society and replacing was the most paradoxical in U.S. politi- in several well-documented Nixon traits: it with such lower-key devices as reve- cal history. He was a seasoned Red-bait- an opportunism that sometimes over- nue sharing, which returned some Fed- er who in the crowning achievement of whelmed common decency, a penchant eral money and power to the states. So- his life opened a historic door to the for solitude that gave his subordinates a licitous of his "Silent Majority," Nixon Communist world. He was a laissez-faire shockingly free hand, an unrestrained opposed such controversial activities as free-enterpriser . who suddenly an- aggressiveness in fighting a legion of real busing to achieve racial integration in the nounced "I am now a Keynesian," and and imagined "enemies." Above all, per- schools. He also cut back on health and espoused wage and price controls in an haps, Nixon was a born outsider, despite education programs, and offered the effort to lick inflation. There was much to his cultivation of rich and influential black minority little more than what one applaud in Nixon's remorseless abandon- men. When he had climbed to the very adviser called "benign neglect." And al- ment of outdated positions. But at its pinnacle of American society, he re- though Nixon presided over the landing worst his pragmatism degenerated to the mained, in his own view of himself, an of men on the moon, he ultimately failed philosophy, expounded by Jeb Stuart outsider still—distrusted, unloved and to solve—indeed, aggravated—a more Newsweek, August 19, 1974 35 UPI Crowning achievement: On his epochal visit to China in 1972, Nixon meets with Chairman Mao Tse-tung down-to-earth problem: the surging in- The Watergate burglary itself was record and attack it relentlessly. The flation that threatened to undermine only a petty chapter in the saga of cor- Communist menace was not yet the con- U.S. prosperity. ruption. The subsequent cover-up had suming issue it was to become, but Foreign policy, however, was always warped America's system of justice and Chotiner thought it would do. Thus, Nixon's strong suit, and there, with the tinged some of the country's most impor- Nixon charged that his respected op- brilliant help of Henry Kissinger, he tant institutions, including the FBI and ponent, Rep. Jerry Voorhis, was a dupe wrote himself a distinguished page in the CIA. The President's purveyors of of the U.S. Communists. There was no history. In Vietnam, he ended America's "dirty tricks" had tarnished the political foundation for the charge, but Voorhis longest war ( although his critics said process. His "plumbers" had violated per- never recovered from this onslaught, and he was too slow about it ). He achieved sonal freedoms—in many cases for no Nixon was elected to Congress. real détente with the Soviet Union and valid reason, despite the claims of "na- The same tactics were employed in lifted Washington's twenty-year quar- tional security." In the pursuit of political his 1950 race for the Senate against Rep. antine of mainland China. Even as Wa- "enemies," the White House also at- Helen Gahagan Douglas. Terming her tergate intruded on his time and author- tempted to subvert the Internal Revenue "the Pink Lady," Nixon and Chotiner ity, he and Kissinger arranged a truce Service. distributed 550,000 pamphlets, printed in the Middle East and started Israelis on pink paper, linking Mrs. Douglas's and Arabs on the path to accommoda- THE EDUCATION OF A POLITICIAN voting record with that of New York tion. A price was paid for these gains. In addition, the Administration was Rep. Vito Marcantonio, an outspoken Key allies—Japan and the NATO coun- remarkably helpful to some giant corpo- Communist sympathizer. What the Nix- tries—were ignored and affronted dur- rations run by the President's friends on camp did not mention was that he ing Washington's fixation on Russia, China and campaign contributors. And there himself had sided with Marcantonio on and the Middle East. And the White were even hints of personal peculation— many issues and that Mrs. Douglas had House showed a woeful lack of inter- money and jewels that may have stuck opposed Marcantonio by supporting anti- est in international economic and mone- to the President's fingers, houses that Communist legislation. Nixon won nearly tary affairs, contributing to a worldwide were in fact embellished at taxpayers' 60 per cent of the vote, and a small financial malaise that is now approaching expense and income taxes that were California newspaper tagged him with the crisis point. drastically underpaid until an uproar the enduring nickname, "Tricky Dick." Nonetheless, Nixon's diplomatic tri- arose. In his farewell address last week, umphs were real. But equally real were the only specific reason Nixon gave for The Hiss case brought me national Watergate and all the other scandals. his resignation was a loss of political sup- fame. But it also left a residue of hatred Judging by the public record, Nixon port, but once again his rhetoric was out and hostility toward me—not only among ran, quite simply, the most corrupt Ad- of touch with reality. the Communists but also among substan- ministration in U.S. history. tial segments of the press and the in- When he himself was finally chased An attack always makes more news tellectual community. from office, more than a dozen of his than defense . You cannot win a bat- former associates had already been con- tle in any arena of life merely by de- Nixon's attacks were not confined to victed of or had pleaded guilty to a vast fending yourself. opponents in political campaigns. A array of crimes. Among them was a lucky assignment to the House Un- former Attorney General, Richard Klein- Nixon's political style was set during American Activities Committee during dienst, and Nixon's handpicked original his first campaign, in 1946, by Los An- his freshman term brought him his first Vice President, Spiro Agnew, who had geles lawyer Murray Chotiner, a hard- chance for national prominence. He was pleaded no contest to tax evasion. More nosed political tactician. In essence, sitting in a HUAC hearing one day in Nixon aides, including two former Cabi- Chotiner's technique was to isolate a real 1948 when a Time magazine senior edi- net officers, were under indictment. or contrived weakness in an opponent's (Continued on Page 46) 36 Newsweek NATIONAL AFFAIRS detailed his own modest assets as proof (Continued from Page 36) Day) had its moments of indignity. Oc- casionally he would drive her into Los of honesty. "I should say this, that Pat for and former Communist courier named doesn't have a mink coat," he declared. Whittaker Chambers murmured the Angeles and wait for her while she had a dinner date with someone else.