You really should read тАЬWitnessтАЭ. The microfilm really was hidden in a pumpkin patch at his farmhouse. The story is incredible. Nixon, like anyone, had many weaknesses and blind spots, but he was a patriot that loved America. Unlike many that celebrated his downfall.
And yet look at the evil that grew from the remarkable act of Nixon going to China. That was the one thing I admired him for and it was both wise and fatal. Life's tricky like that...
The death of a really sensible civics education in schools has been one of our tragedies. "Patriot" often just boils down, in the common imagination of many, to fanatical Christianity claiming to be the true America.
I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance when I was in HS, both because it seemed extremely hypocritical to me, and because I don't believe in performative gestures of loyalty. And I don't believe in nonsense like "greatest country..." because countries are made up of ordinary human beings and people are the same all over.
It's our foundational ideals, though, that make us truly unique as a nation-state created as the fruit of the European Enlightenment, and it took me a lifetime to understand their value.
"And yet look at the evil that grew from the remarkable act of Nixon going to China. That was the one thing I admired him for and it was both wise and fatal. Life's tricky like that..."
While it's all 20/20 hindsight, you have to wonder how things would have turned out if Watergate had not happened. North Vietnam would not have started its invasion of South Vietnam in late-1974 and South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos wouldn't have fallen. Soviet/Cuban inroads in Africa and Central America were in response to American weakness following the defeat in Vietnam. Would Somoza have fallen in '79? The fall of the Shah in '78 and the Soviet invasion of the Afghanistan in '79? All of this had an effect on domestic issues.
The situation with China would probably be remarkably different and Nixon would be regarded as a visionary (which he was). Like you said, life's tricky like that.
Great. great post. "Enjoyed" might possibly be an inappropriate word, considering all the carnage done and likely to continue, but you get my meaning.
And really--a live actual fruit-growing pumpkin patch? That anecdote alone made this for me.
And Nixon--if that man hadn't been the Crawling Eye of neurosis made manifest he might have been a truly great leader. Reminds me of someone.
Thank you SCA! Agreed.
You really should read тАЬWitnessтАЭ. The microfilm really was hidden in a pumpkin patch at his farmhouse. The story is incredible. Nixon, like anyone, had many weaknesses and blind spots, but he was a patriot that loved America. Unlike many that celebrated his downfall.
And yet look at the evil that grew from the remarkable act of Nixon going to China. That was the one thing I admired him for and it was both wise and fatal. Life's tricky like that...
The death of a really sensible civics education in schools has been one of our tragedies. "Patriot" often just boils down, in the common imagination of many, to fanatical Christianity claiming to be the true America.
I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance when I was in HS, both because it seemed extremely hypocritical to me, and because I don't believe in performative gestures of loyalty. And I don't believe in nonsense like "greatest country..." because countries are made up of ordinary human beings and people are the same all over.
It's our foundational ideals, though, that make us truly unique as a nation-state created as the fruit of the European Enlightenment, and it took me a lifetime to understand their value.
Your last paragraph is very true. Your entire post describes my thoughts to a T.
"And yet look at the evil that grew from the remarkable act of Nixon going to China. That was the one thing I admired him for and it was both wise and fatal. Life's tricky like that..."
While it's all 20/20 hindsight, you have to wonder how things would have turned out if Watergate had not happened. North Vietnam would not have started its invasion of South Vietnam in late-1974 and South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos wouldn't have fallen. Soviet/Cuban inroads in Africa and Central America were in response to American weakness following the defeat in Vietnam. Would Somoza have fallen in '79? The fall of the Shah in '78 and the Soviet invasion of the Afghanistan in '79? All of this had an effect on domestic issues.
The situation with China would probably be remarkably different and Nixon would be regarded as a visionary (which he was). Like you said, life's tricky like that.