Opening of Library-Museum Returns Nixon to Limelight

Thanks for your insightful “forgive and forget” coverage of President Nixon. While I hope that no one forgets the Watergate episode, I trust that President Nixon will be remembered with some kind of evenhanded perspective.

Richard Nixon personified raw talent in terms of formidable intellect and clear-eyed strategic outlook. When he wasn’t hung up in petty personal matters, he continuously displayed an awesome ability to perform at an exceptionally high level of competence. His resignation was a tragedy because of our unfortunate national tendency to select marginal talent for the White House, and Richard Nixon was anything but marginal.

Thomas Jefferson’s prophetic words will unfortunately be the benchmark by which I remember President Nixon, “Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulty tenfold, and those who pursue these methods get themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more exposed.”

MICHAEL A. SCOTT

Glendora