Richard Nixon is Tired of Being Compared to Donald Trump

Funny Politico Magazine piece by Richard Nixon. Ok, not really him, but from the person who runs the @dick_nixon Twitter account:

Here’s the truth. Yes, Trump promises détente with the Russians. He says he’s the “law and order” candidate—specifically invoking our ’68 campaign—and claims a so-called “secret plan” to beat Islamic State, just as I’m supposed to have done in Vietnam.

But if he’s Dick Nixon, I’m Kate Smith.

"I like babies; I’ve never, never, never talked that way toward a woman; and I have devoted my life to building a lasting architecture of peace."

"On accepting the nomination in 1968, I said:

"And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply:

Our goal is justice for every American. If we are to have respect for law in America, we must have laws that deserve respect."

"Just as we cannot have progress without order, we cannot have order without progress, and so, as we commit to order tonight, let us commit to progress."

"Think about that. Where Trump hacked the old social bonds to pieces, we stitched them up in a delicate and calculated move to the center. And in ’68 that’s what “law and order” was; Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were shot, the cities burned in race riots. The murder rate was up 47 percent in five years. It’s horrific to see a school or nightclub shot up today, policemen shot in the back by snipers, blacks mowed down for traffic tickets. But ’68 felt like the end was near."

"The only people against “law and order” were anarchist kooks. So we promised to deliver. To listen to the “quiet voice in the tumult and the shouting,” the native and foreign born, the young and old. And we did deliver. What more proof do you need than 49 states and 47.1 million votes in 1972?"

"The ’68 speech was a cool response to real danger. It spoke to whites, sure, but it left the door open. Trump locked up and threw away the key—and for what? Because far right economic policy sold the little guy up the river for 35 years, and now his only hope is an iron fist."

"The “secret plan” thing is one of the biggest damn lies told about me. I never had a “secret plan” for Vietnam. I didn’t run on it. Check the record. In fact, I wrote in the Los Angeles Times on March 28, 1968, that I had “no gimmicks or secret plans” for the war. It’s all an invention of the press."

"The whole dumb business began in New Hampshire on March 5, 1968, when I said I had “no push-button technique” to end the war, but nevertheless promised to end it. This echoed Ike’s vague pledge to get out of Korea in ’52. But I did elaborate on background to reporters and editorial boards—military and diplomatic pressure, Vietnamization. Everything we did."

"But the press loves nothing more than to feel privileged, so that’s where the “secret” talk came from."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/richard-nixon-speaks-stop-comparing-me-to-trump-dammit-214142#ixzz4GeR93W8k

I agree there are a number of differences between Trump and Nixon. Nixon abused his power but nowhere near the level of a President Trump. Nixon at least released his tax returns-which did show him owing the IRS hundreds of thousands of dollars that he then paid.

Trump has tried to base himself on Nixon's 1968 campaign with appeals to 'Law and order.'

There are significant differences. For one, crime really had been surging in 1968 as it is not today. In addition, we had seen the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. So the sense of anarchy and disorder were much more plausible then than today.

Beyond that, as Nixon says, he also had a positive unifying message in addition. Americans felt their streets were on fire and Nixon promised to put them out. Trump is the biggest arsonist in the arena.

On the issue of Nixon's 'secret plan' for Vietnam, he is on shakier ground. He did sound sort of proto Trumpian by promising to bring 'Peace with honor' in Vietnam and not even attempting to explain how.

He had argued like Trump would that saying anything would somehow weaken us at the negotiating table with the North Vietnamese.

What's more there are many historians who argue that Nixon deliberately sabotaged LBJ's peace talks with Vietnam in 1968, that Nixon's team deliberately undercut LBJ's October Surprise.

Nixon's team had urged South Vietnam to not accept but to wait till he's in, arguing South Vietnam would get better terms from him.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Maelstrom-Election-Politics-Division/dp/B01DW95LQS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470575532&sr=1-1&keywords=cohen+michael#navbar

This if true is a near treasonous act. LBJ was aware of it and Hubert Humphrey became aware of it late. But he was unwilling to go public with what he learned at the 11th hour.

LBJ's team worried that Nixon would win the election and then this story would be out there which would lead to a constitutional crisis.

It's interesting how often unforced errors change things. What could have happened had Humphrey gone public? Michael Cohen-author of the above linked book argues that had Humphrey distanced himself from LBJ's Vietnam policy earlier he could have won.

What certainly seems true based on Cohen's telling of it, is that Chicago Richard Daley really made a big mistake in pushing the police department to crackdown so hard on the protesters.

Nixon's being forced to resign was an unforced error. After Daniel Elsberg released the Pentagon Papers Nixon freaked out and started threatening the press if they printed anything more by Elsberg.

The PP had nothing on Nixon-but plenty of JFK and LBJ. But Nixon worried what if Elsberg also had something on him?

Had he not started threatening the press, maybe none of this every happened.

Speaking of old Tricky Dick, the NY Times compares him to Trump-and Trump is found wanting.

"Lost in the debate over Donald J. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns is the story of where the custom of disclosure comes from — and why it can be so valuable as a measure of character. It’s a tale of presidential tax shenanigans, political scandal and one of the most famous quotations in American history: Richard M. Nixon’s “I am not a crook.”

"The story begins in July 1969, when Congress eliminated a provision of the tax code that had allowed a sitting or former president to donate his papers to a public or nonprofit archive in exchange for a very large tax deduction. Congress’s rationale was that a president’s papers already belonged to the public."

"In his taxes for 1969, President Nixon indicated that four months before Congress acted, he had donated more than 1,000 boxes of documents to the National Archives. He claimed a deduction of more than $500,000."

"The write-off didn’t become public until 1973, when it was mentioned in passing during a lawsuit related to the Watergate break-in. Although the deed formally giving the papers to the National Archives was dated March 27, 1969, it turned out not to have been signed until April 1970, nine months after presidential document donations lost nearly all their tax benefits. (A thorough account of Nixon’s tax dodge is contained in a paperwritten for the United States Capitol Historical Society by the Northwestern University law professor Joseph J. Thorndike.)"

"Had Nixon really beaten the deadline? And had he overstated the papers’ value to generate a personal windfall?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/opinion/why-we-ask-to-see-candidates-tax-returns.html?smid=tw-share

In the end Nixon released his taxes under great political pressure. Trump has said he won't. What could be so bad in his returns that he'd rather be called out for his cowardice and lack and moral abdication?

Some of this sounds like what we know of Trump's taxes.

"There the story stalled until Oct. 3, 1973, when Jack White, a 31-year-old suburban reporter for The Providence Journal-Bulletin, broke the biggest story of his career. While big-time reporters prowled Washington for details about President Nixon’s taxes, White covered small-town politics and high-society events as manager of his paper’s bureau in Newport, R.I. But White, rumpled and easygoing, had a knack for earning the trust of sources. One source provided him with evidence that Nixon had paid taxes of only $792.81 in 1970 and $878.03 in 1971, despite having income exceeding $400,000."

"By donating his papers with a backdated deed, Nixon had slashed his tax bill drastically. He paid the equivalent of a family of three earning about $8,000 in 1970 dollars."

"Trump too has claimed a number of tax credits only available for those who make far less income than he claims."

"After White’s article was published, demands rose for full disclosure. The next month, White’s colleague at the Providence paper, Joseph Ungaro, asked Nixon about his taxes during his appearance at a newspaper editors’ conference in Florida. Nixon replied: “I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.”

"Three months after White won his Pulitzer, Nixon resigned from office, not because of taxes but under threat of impeachment for the Watergate cover-up. Among other misdeeds, he was accused of misusing the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the I.R.S. In addition to losing his presidency, Nixon lost nearly half his net worth paying what he owed to the I.R.S."

"Until Donald Trump, every major-party presidential nominee since then had released his or her tax returns (except Gerald Ford, who released a summary in 1976). The simple reason is that, on at least one subject, Nixon got it right: The American people need to know if their president is a crook."

Less transparent than Nixon. Not even close.