Nixon did have a secret plan, and I knew that it involved making threats of nuclear war to North Vietnam.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It was accountability that Nixon feared.
I kept a very full diary of my relationship with Nixon, for some strange reason, until he became president.
The number of illegal activities were so large that one was bound to come out and lead to the uncovering of the others. Nixon was too willing to use the power of government to settle scores and get even with enemies.
Lyndon Johnson may have escalated the war, but when I was drafted and shipped off to Vietnam, the signature on my orders was Nixon's.
I greatly blame Congress, spurred on by its personal hatred of Nixon, for passing legislation in June through August of '73 which embargoed any further U.S. help to South Vietnam.
Nixon was always willing to be bipartisan, so there are a lot of surprises in the man.
George W. had a plan. He arranged to join the Air National Guard in Texas, which meant he would not be sent to Vietnam.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost - and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.
Nixon had this remarkably effective, deeply intense will to power. Reagan and I have a will to ideas.