Was Nixon the One? : Valley Teens Take a Voice Vote on Leader’s Legacy

The faces were young and unlined, but the argument over presidential right and wrong was as old as John Lennon’s granny glasses.

Was Richard Nixon a bad President or was he driven from office by a vindictive media who didn’t like his politics or his 5 o’clock shadow?

As the 37th President lay in critical condition in a New York hospital, San Fernando Valley high school students who were not yet born when he resigned in 1974 rehashed the argument over the Watergate controversy that is as much a part of Nixon’s legacy as fiddling is Nero’s.

“I don’t think Watergate was really that bad,” Mike Wenzel, a junior in Ted Bennett’s Advanced Placement history class at Chatsworth High School, said Wednesday. “I believe other Presidents covered up the wrongdoing of their friends. Because he got caught, we shouldn’t blow it out of proportion.”

But blowing things out of proportion, many students feel, is what the media does best.

“They are the crooks,” said Charley Padow, 16, provoking general laughter.

Of course, this anti-media attitude may reflect only the fact that while the students don’t know all that much about the ex-President, the press and television are around them every day.

“The media is an ongoing thing with them, while Nixon is something they hear about in history class,” agreed Donna Wyatt, assistant principal.

So how much do the students know about a man who belongs far more to history than to the legion of humorists who once trooped onto TV variety shows and shook their jowls and thrust their arms over their heads in that victory salute that looked like a man testing the inseams of a new suit?

Chatsworth High students demonstrated a broad range of knowledge. Some said he stuffed ballot boxes; others thought he personally bugged the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

“I don’t know anything about him. Who is he?” one girl asked.

Asked how many knew what the Watergate controversy was about, 10 of the 25 students in Bennett’s class raised their hands.

“The worst thing he did was try to cover up what his friends did and using his position of power to obstruct a criminal investigation,” prompted Bennett. He said he had not yet begun teaching the class about Watergate.

The history and social studies framework for the Los Angeles Unified School District is quite specific about what teachers should emphasize about Nixon and Watergate. “Students should understand the events that led to President Nixon’s resignation, and they should assess the role of the courts, the press and the Congress. Students can discuss the continuing issue of unchecked presidential power. Are the president and his staff above the law?”

Esther Taira, a district administrator, said one of the standard texts, “The Americans,” devotes seven pages to Watergate alone.

Many of Bennett’s students were sympathetic to Nixon.

“I think he actually was a good President,” said Maya Adrabi. “I think (Watergate) was a serious act, but he would have won regardless. It was a mistake. He was too insecure.”

The opinions in the school’s detention room were more judgmental. “I heard he was a bad President,” said Scott Dumas, 14, who had run up too many tardies.

Paul Davis, 15, in detention for telling a student that he looked like he shopped at the Salvation Army, said Nixon was “a punk, because he broke the law. He shouldn’t have broken the law. He’s the President. We gave him free housing and he broke the law.”

Watergate, he said, was “where he had people break into the other party’s place.” That was about as good a description as any that the students came up with.

Paul also agreed that Nixon was right in resigning. OK then, so who was worse, the media or Nixon?

“The media.”