THE LAST AMERICAN PRESIDENT

(See also my larger Nixon entry ‘Russia’s Greatest American Hero,’ which was second in the series of four Presidential entries published together on my blog on January 18^th, 2011, under the joint title Assassination Of The American Dream.)

In my younger years I used to be well-known for my numerous quips, rhymes, and impromptu one-liners. Thus, in 1972, as I had just become Fellow of the USA Institute in Moscow, I was asked my opinion about Richard Milhous Nixon, to which I replied:

“RMN is our man.”

This was not merely a funny joke, though. It pretty much reflected the general view of the thirty-seventh President of the United States in Moscow, among the foreign policy professionals and the political elite.

As a result of the 1963 assassination of JFK, Soviet-American relations suffered a huge setback. Kremlin’s reluctance to deal with LBJ in good faith was a perhaps unfair but humanly understandable reaction to the death of the most promising leader of the Western world, with whom the USSR expected to develop a constructive and mutually beneficial rapport. President Kennedy’s assassination dealt a dreadful blow to that optimistic outlook, which could have been even worse, had America not delivered Nixon in 1968.

Richard Nixon was an experienced politician-statesman, an intellectually brilliant student of world affairs, a great American patriot, and a notorious cold warrior. Moscow applauded all these characteristics of her not-so-new antagonist-in-chief. She had an equal resentment for hardboiled hawks and soft-boiled doves. Her ideal was the Nietzschean noble enemy: a respectable and respectful sparring partner who would never pull the punches, but always offer a healthy joust in the best traditions of Western pageantry.

Nixon offered the Soviets a good game, fearlessly throwing in the thrilling challenge of Communist China. His presidency can be rightly described as the Golden Age of superpower chivalry… His downfall was all the more painful…

I have called Richard Nixon “the last American President” for a reason. Not only was he the last consummate professional in the art and science of world affairs; he was also the last American President who could stand his ground against domestic political pressures and intrigues. At the end, he did not lose his ground: it was, rather, blown off from under his feet…

As I quipped in 1974, following President Nixon’s resignation:

“I hate Watergate!”