Why was Nixon a bad president?

Answer 1

Does anyone believe that Nixon was NOT trying illegally to protect guilty members in his administration, who afterall were doing his bidding and went to jail for it, whether or not he personally told them to bug the Democratic Reelection Committee. And there is, of course, the famous 'smoking gun' tape, which convinced members of his own party that he should be impeached. If he hadn't resigned, he'd have been convicted and gone to jail. So, WHO believes he was innocent? Perhaps the same people who believe the earth is 6,000 years old, i.e. true believers!

For another point of view...

1. In 1964 president Johnson asked Congress permission for war against North Vietnam and he got it. Many people think that Nixon should have asked the same every time he extended the war. But in the mean time many congresmen and senators had changed their minds about this never ending war and the answer could have been negative.

It was difficult for Nixon however to ask permission because then the ennemy would have known about his plans beforehand. He did discus the matter with some individual senators.

2. When Hunt, Liddy and McCoy organized the burglary in the Watergate building, Nixon knew nothing about it and when he heard about it, he was told that no people in the White House were involved. So he tried to suppress further investigation of the FBI, not because to protect guilty people, but because unnecessary publicity would be damaging for the election and for innocent people.

The FBI and the CIA convinced him that this was not a case of national security and that suppressing would be unlawful. So within two weeks he said "go ahead" to the FBI-chief.

The tapes do not prove that Nixon ordered the burglary or that he definitively hid the truth. In the opnion of people however hen obstructed justice by not giving the tapes immediately so that his considering of hiding the truth was unnoticed for many months. But Nixon was forgotton his considerations two years earlier and did not know about that smoking gun tape. What he wanted to hide were all kinds of conversations that had nothing to do with Watergate.

Everythings shows that the senators were not after the truth, but for political reasons after Nixon. Because there was so little evidence for the Watergate case, they used the tapes to prove that Nixon committed all kinds of crimes.

All these people do not consider the fact that a war was goning on inside the country about civil rights. And that a war was going on in Vietnam; that publication of the secret Pentagon Papers could possibly endanger American soldiers in Vietnam. Foreign leaders were amazed about all the fuss. What amazes me however is that after all these years Americans still take Watergate seriously.

Back to another point of view, answering the question, Why take Watergate seriously?...

What Nixon did wrong was to think he could get away with abusing the power of the Executive branch, a classic case of paranoid hubris. The American people, Republicans as well as Democrats, were horrified to learn what dirty tricks the Nixon Administration and the Nixon Reelection Committee were up to.

Impeachment is by definition and practice a political act involving, not the courts, but the Legislative branch. The act of lying to the American people on serious matters, part of the famous 'cover-up', was enough to get him impeached. His erratic behavior (inspired by hatred of his progressive 'enemies' who he was out to get) frightened the country, not to mention the world, and contributed to his downfall. For a detailed month by month account of those momentous days read Elizabeth Drew's Washington Journal.

No one thought then, and only the extreme right-wing thinks now, that Nixon was innocent or unfairly treated by a democratic system that proved, to liberals and conservatives alike, that it worked. Future presidents will think twice. That's why Watergate is taken seriously.

Answer 2

Some say because of his illegal wiretapping in the Watergate affair.

Some say by continuing and expanding the US war in Vietnam, he killed thousands of US citizens and thousands of Asians. That makes him a bad president and a bad man. It makes him a war criminal.

Nixon attacked Cambodia, see link below.

After Vietnam War, Nixon, Cambodia.

Nixon and Kissinger were also ordered illegal air strike attacked Cambodia, this process was held secretly. Nixon tried to bomb N. Vietnamese that hid in Cambodia, but it's only killed Cambodian civilians. The amount of bombs that dropped in Cambodia almost equal the amount of bombs that were dropped in Japan during WW2. By 1969-1973, about 500,000 Cambodians died,and more than 2 million people left their their cities. The illegal bombing of Cambodia was led to a disaster of Cambodia, Khmer Rouge or Cambodian Genocide. Nixon had weaken Cambodian military system and gave chance for Khmer Rouge to come power. Lon Nol became Cambodian Prime Minister b/c of American aided, so that why he allowed the bombing. Nixon's mad man policy was count as one of the other triggers of Cambodian Genocide(1975-1979). Richard Nixon should not be served as the U.S. President.

Answer 3

Reasons people believe that Nixon was a bad president:

Richard Nixon was a bad president because, by continuing and expanding the US war in Vietnam, he killed thousands of US citizens and thousands of Asians. That makes him a bad man and a war criminal.

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Richard Nixon was a bad president for only three reasons:

1. Killing the protesters, even those that were in high school, that were protesting the Vietnam War
2. Killing over a half a million troops in Vietnam
3. The Water Gate Scandal where five of Richard Nixon's men were trying to steal information from the Democrat Party in a Hotel called the Water Gate where the Democrats were working.

So from all 3 reasons Richard Nixon was a really bad president. He was a part of one of the darkest times of American history.

Reasons people believe that Nixon was NOT a bad president:

Richard Nixon was called a bad president because he rigged an election but only because while being president. He was trying to pull the troops out of Vietnam because they were all getting killed and he wanted to save them but the person he was running against wanted to send thousands of troops into Vietnam instead, so Richard Nixon tried to rig the election so this wouldn't happen. Unfortunately he was caught and gave up his presidency and the other president sent thousands of troops in and got them all killed.

Answer 4

Richard Nixon, born on Jan 9th 1913 became president during the vietnam war. During his re-election some men that Nixion knew about broke into the watergate building in D. C., Nixon tried to cover it up. Before he could be impeached he resigned from his presidency in 1974, leaving Gerald Ford in charge of the U.S. He then pardoned Nixon from all his crimes.

Answer 5

• He was a criminal for covering up the Watergate break-in.

• He believed that if the President did something, it was legal.

• He believed in making the executive branch very secretive.

• Possible CIA involvement in overthrow of Prince Sihanouk.

• Bombing of Cambodia and the murder of 600,000 to 700,000 Cambodians.

• Overthrow of Salvador Allende and the support of Augusto Pinochet's reign of terror.

Answer 6

It is a divided public opinion to whether Nixon was a good or bad president. Certainly to the majority of Americans reflecting back on Nixon's presidency he was seen as a deceitful and untrustworthy leader (from the cover up of the Watergate scandal) which eventually led to the public losing all faith in their president and the whole federal system. However, it is hard to ignore that Nixon did in fact employ very useful policies that relate to all social, political and economic areas. Examples include the finalisation of the SALT treaty and the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and not to mention the 90 day freeze, to curve the rising inflation. However, despite this you could also argue that Nixon's policies were mostly irrelevant (especially to him a republican) and ineffective, displaying examples such as the slow withdrawal of American troops from the Vietnam War and the failure of the 90 day freeze.

So therefore it is a matter of opinion, to depict his overall successes as a president.

Hope this helped,

RT

Answer 7

He was heavy involved in the Watergate Scandal, which was the audio-taping of the Oval Office and his opponents (usually democrats because he was a republican). He was very secretive during his presidency. When the scandal was revealed, he denied it completely. Eventually, further evidence proved that he was involved in the scandal. No one trusted him and wanted him impeached. Before his impeachment, he resigned-coward. In his last speech, he said he was resigning for the "good" of the country, which kinda shows that he thought he wasn't well fit for presidency.Also, his Vice President resigned during his presidency.

Answer 8

Watergate, namely. He was criticized strongly on social and foreign policy both, namely, the Vietnam War. Libertarians like to blast him for doing away with the Gold Standard.

Answer 9

Watergate scandal

Answer 10

He was a crook