Just before the Watergate stories began to come out, I actually felt sorry for Nixon. In my opinion (at the time) the media unfairly dumped on him, not so much for what he was presently doing, but for what he did in the past. I actually wrote a letter, no kidding, intending to give him encouragement and sympathy for the way he was being treated. .I didn’t like that his physical appearance was held against him. No beauty myself, I thought that was bullying. In the extreme, there was even snide speculation in the open press that he and his wife no longer slept in the same bed, had no sex life, etc..Boy, am I glad I didn’t send that letter. Soon, news came out about secret bombing in Laos and Cambodia, his extreme disdain for college students protesting the war, and worst of all, the enemy lists he and his advisers held of his political and press critics..Nixon got really screwy toward the end. In case, you don’t recall, people in financial markets were worried about his mental stability, and the Arab Oil Embargo was afoot. As Watergate investigations intensified, it was a very sick situation overall. My parents hurriedly paid off their house mortgage, and things were very lean in our household for several years. (Last night, I was remembering the tape erasure that Rosemary Woods was responsible for. Remember the cover of Newsweek with her showing how she managed it? What a loyal secretary, and she got away with it.).Well. I think the media needed an epilogue to the Nixon story, whether out of mild sympathy or additional sensationalism, and helped rehabilitate his image, such that younger people (my son included) wonder what the fuss was about..And now Ronald Reagan, having been beatified for so long, has at long last been canonized by the Republicans, judging from their latest meme..Life is absurd. The gods are laughing. Humans are so cute.
Just before the Watergate stories began to come out, I actually felt sorry for Nixon. In my opinion (at the time) the media unfairly dumped on him, not so much for what he was presently doing, but for what he did in the past. I actually wrote a letter, no kidding, intending to give him encouragement and sympathy for the way he was being treated. .I didn’t like that his physical appearance was held against him. No beauty myself, I thought that was bullying. In the extreme, there was even snide speculation in the open press that he and his wife no longer slept in the same bed, had no sex life, etc..Boy, am I glad I didn’t send that letter. Soon, news came out about secret bombing in Laos and Cambodia, his extreme disdain for college students protesting the war, and worst of all, the enemy lists he and his advisers held of his political and press critics..Nixon got really screwy toward the end. In case, you don’t recall, people in financial markets were worried about his mental stability, and the Arab Oil Embargo was afoot. As Watergate investigations intensified, it was a very sick situation overall. My parents hurriedly paid off their house mortgage, and things were very lean in our household for several years. (Last night, I was remembering the tape erasure that Rosemary Woods was responsible for. Remember the cover of Newsweek with her showing how she managed it? What a loyal secretary, and she got away with it.).Well. I think the media needed an epilogue to the Nixon story, whether out of mild sympathy or additional sensationalism, and helped rehabilitate his image, such that younger people (my son included) wonder what the fuss was about..And now Ronald Reagan, having been beatified for so long, has at long last been canonized by the Republicans, judging from their latest meme..Life is absurd. The gods are laughing. Humans are so cute.