Richard Nixon Looks Back on His Final Hours in the White House

It is more than interesting to consider the curious distortions Nixon places on history. In singling out drug users within the “leadership class,” Nixon launches yet another thinly veiled witch hunt against the so-called liberal establishment of the ‘60s. Curious that a Democratic President, and a Democratically-controlled Congress promoted the Vietnam War. And the Johnson Administration in particular made a monumental commitment to win that conflict. Who then constitutes this “leadership class” responsible for losing the Vietnam War and permitting the “drug plague”?

And who is he kidding? Going after the heroin growers in Turkey is the moral equivalent of a “prohibitionist” going after martini drinkers. Obviously we cannot win the war on drug “abuse” without focusing on the domestic user. But it is worth noting that drug abuse did not begin in the ‘60s, and that alcohol and tobacco ruin more lives every day in this country than any of the more exotic substances. And the single most valuable tool to moderate the use of acceptable drugs has been public awareness. Recent history has proven consistently that the most effective way to control substance abuse is to decriminalize and educate.

Nothing is to be gained from bashing the ‘60s. Draconian measures fail on their own merit. But before we charge into a civil war on drugs perhaps we should define drug abuse, lest in our fervor to stop all drug use we put the entire nation on diet of bread and water.

DAVID C. REUTTER

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