Forty Years Later ...

Before the inevitable lock, just wanted to state you both make points I have thought about over the years. Earlier, Walter mentioned some significant accomplishments. I would add another: enforcing Brown vs. Board of Education. Noble decision but it quickly led to the white academies 'cause many of those folks didn't want their children to go to school with black kids.

I think Richard Nixon was a brilliant, but flawed man. "One Of Us" written by Tom Wicker is my personal favorite of the many books I have on Nixon. Appropriately titled, too, and that wasn't by accident.

To the op, I was a young kid, as well, but remember the drama like it was yesterday. Watching his resignation speech was weird. As a child I certainly didn't totally understand what was going on but knew it was important.

EDIT: Board of...

 

Me, too. I possess many of the co-conspirators' books; the only one I can think of I don't have is Jeb Stuart Magruder's but I've read it.

 

Turning the European Jews away . . . ignoring the Holodomor . . . Japanese internment . . . giving Stalin Eastern Europe.

Quite a legacy, indeed.

 

If by influential, you mean the good, the bad and the ugly, I tend to agree.

I definitely think Nixon was the greatest geopolitical analyst of the last half of the 20th century.

 

Most influential? I don't know about Nixon as being all that influential. In no particular order, I would rank Wilson, FDR and Reagan as the most consequential/influential of the last century.

 

Nixon is generally credited for establishing widespread mistrust for politicians. To me, that's a significant historical influence. However, his predecessor deserves some of the credit, IMHO.

Diplomatically, he talked some with the Chinese and Russians.

 

As Bob Dole said in his eulogy, the second half of the 20th century is the Age of Nixon.
His fingerprints are all over the period.

 

Good points. Upon further review, I'll amend my prior agreement on "most influential" to the "second half."

 

FDR was a giant, but he might not have even been the most influential Roosevelt of the 20th century. Teddy laid a lot of the foundation for what modern America has become -- breaking up trusts, labor reforms, better food inspection, expanding the U.S.' role in world politics, getting the Panama Canal started, the National Parks system ... he was a guy who really got our own house in order so that we could move forward.

 

Hope I live long enough to see a Congress that gets its house in order.

Sad to say, but that would really be something.

 

Dude- Congress sucked in 1791.
This is not a new problem in the United States.
The career politician must be shown the door, however.