Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Richard M. Nixon

Today, January 9, 2013 marks the centennial of President Richard M. Nixon’s birth.  Festivities to celebrate the life of this extraordinary man are planned all month at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.  In addition, special events commemorating the legacy of our 37^th president will take place across the nation, including a gala birthday reunion taking place today at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., also home of the Nixon Center.

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California in 1913, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and served two terms as Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower before being elected President of the United States in 1968.  He has increasingly come to be regarded as one of the two greatest presidents of the 20^th century, along with Ronald Reagan.  Among the many accomplishments during his years in the White House, Nixon ended the Vietnam War, opened the door to China, set the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism in Eastern Europe, lowered the voting age to 18 and ended the military draft.  He died following a stroke in 1994 and is buried next to his wife, Pat, in a simple grave on the grounds of the Nixon Library.

Visitors to Vietnam today would be pleased to see that it is now a country of hard working entrepreneurs thriving under capitalism.  The former capital of South Vietnam, renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the war, is now called Saigon once again.  The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi is essentially ignored and the Square is virtually empty.  Both Vietnam and China are friendly countries filled with people who like America and Americans.  This is truly a great legacy for President Richard M. Nixon.  Wise men still look to his series of best selling books as a blueprint for foreign policy forty years later.

One has to wonder how much better the world would be today if Richard Nixon had been able to complete his second term.  He was reelected in 1972 by one of the largest landslides in American history with over 60% of the popular vote and carrying every state but Massachusetts.  But his liberal Democrat detractors were hard at work undermining his successful presidency, never mind what the American people wanted and so wisely recognized as a great president.  Faced with both a House and Senate controlled by the Democrats throughout his presidency, it was a tribute to the skill of this great statesmen that he was able to accomplish anything at all.  In a time before balanced cable news, the liberal palaver of all three major networks went unopposed, enabling their news anchormen to become willing accomplices for what have come to be known as the ‘Nixon haters’.  Rather than put the country through any further turmoil, Nixon graciously resigned.  We were so fortunate to have had such a great man at the helm during the critical years from 1969 to 1974 and today we proudly and gratefully celebrate the life and legacy of President Richard M. Nixon.