Friends, Foes Laud Nixon Role in World Affairs

President Clinton joined his predecessors and other prominent Americans Friday night in mourning the death of Richard Nixon, calling him a “statesman who sought to build a lasting structure of peace” during a “particularly difficult period of the Cold War.”

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden two hours after Nixon’s death, Clinton referred only briefly to the Watergate scandal that had brought an early end to Nixon’s presidency, saying the 37th President had “experienced his fair share of adversity and controversy.”

Instead, like many others who commented on the former President’s passing, the President concentrated on Nixon’s achievements in foreign affairs, saying that Nixon “had the wisdom to know when the time was right to reach out to the Soviet Union and China” and that today’s world is one of “great opportunity in no small part because of the vision of Richard Nixon.”

Nixon, he said, had been able to “leave his mark on his times as few national figures have done in our history” and that he continued to do so “right up to the end of his life.” Only a month ago, he said, Nixon had sent him a private letter recounting his observations from a recent trip to Russia.

“It’s impossible to be in this job without feeling a special bond with the people who have gone before, and I was deeply grateful to President Nixon for his wise counsel on so many occasions on many issues over the last year,” he said.

White House officials said Clinton planned to declare a national day of mourning for the former President. An announcement is expected later today.

Former President Ronald Reagan, in a statement issued by his office in Los Angeles, also praised Nixon’s foreign policy achievements, calling him “a great champion of democratic ideals who dedicated his life to the cause of world peace.”

“To millions, Richard Nixon was truly one of the finest statesmen this world has ever seen,” Reagan’s statement said. “There’s no question that the legacy of this complicated and fascinating man will continue to guide the forces of democracy forever.”

Former President Jimmy Carter said Nixon’s “foreign policy accomplishments laid important groundwork for efforts of the presidents who have succeeded him. His foresight and diplomatic skill helped bring about much-needed detente and better understanding.”

Former President George Bush said: “The difficulties he encountered in office may have diminished his presidency, but what should be remembered are his many outstanding achievements both foreign and domestic.”

And former President Gerald R. Ford, who succeeded Nixon and pardoned him for his Watergate actions, said the country has “lost an outstanding foreign policy statesman.”

“President Nixon believed in and fought for the best traditions of America worldwide; we greatly admired his firm dedication to democracy at home and abroad,” Ford said.

Even a former foe praised what many regard as the highlight of Nixon’s presidency: his reopening of relations between the United States and China. “I think, like others, that his opening to China was a major accomplishment,” said 89-year-old Alger Hiss. “But in other respects, he left many deeds uncorrected and unatoned for.”

As a young member of Congress from California in the late 1940s, Nixon led an investigation of allegations that Hiss, then a senior State Department official, had ties to Communists. The allegations, still the center of fierce dispute, ruined Hiss’ career and catapulted Nixon into national prominence.

Nixon’s fellow Republicans, in their statements, argued that his foreign policy achievements would outshine the Watergate scandal--the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters during Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, and the subsequent attempt to cover up Republican responsibility for the burglary. It was Watergate that, in 1974, made Nixon the only U.S. President ever to resign.

“All in all, people are going to look back and say Watergate, the resignation, a lot of these things were bad and shouldn’t have happened,” said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who served as GOP chairman during part of Nixon’s presidency. “I think history will, with a few exceptions, say that this man made a difference. You add all that up and he comes out ahead.”

Nixon’s secretary of state, Henry A. Kissinger, praised him for having a combination of idealism and realism.

“He felt idealism did not prohibit, and indeed required, an understanding of the world as it was,” Kissinger said. “And he patiently studied the world as it was and then put his ideals into the service of his analysis, and that enabled him to be so consistent and to be so resilient.”

In Sacramento, Gov. Pete Wilson said Nixon “came to symbolize America’s implacable opposition to communism” and “played a major role in winning the Cold War. . . .”

“He was a fighter, with a fierce loyalty to the friends and causes he believed in,” Wilson said. “I am greatly saddened by his death, but very grateful to have known him.” Former Nixon aide Robert H. Finch, who managed his unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign and then went on to serve as secretary of health, education and welfare during Nixon’s first term, also commented on the strength of the former President’s determination.

“I don’t know anybody who had a greater drive or a stronger intelligence than Richard Nixon. He had an incredible ability to focus on a given race or a given issue,” Finch said.

But, he added, that same trait helped lead to Nixon’s downfall in the Watergate cover-up. “He didn’t have to get into it--but he did,” Finch said.

Nixon’s first vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, who resigned in 1973 after revelations of his involvement in a payoff scandal as governor of Maryland, sent his condolences from his home in Rancho Mirage.

“We extend to Tricia, Julie and the other family members our sincere sympathy on the death of President Richard Nixon,” Agnew’s statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.”

Nixon’s death did not put an end to the deep polarization of the American people by a man who dominated the nation’s politics for nearly a generation.

“President Nixon did not distinguish between the nation’s interest and his personal interest; he believed that any threat to either had to be crushed,” said Rep. Ray Thornton (D-Ark.), who helped draft the articles of impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee adopted against Nixon in 1974.

“He was sort of weird, but to me he was a friendly sort of person,” former House Speaker Carl Albert, a Democrat, said from his home in McAlester, Okla. “I never had any trouble with him.”

In Hanoi, Vietnam, where Nixon’s name stirred passions two decades ago during a war that he helped shape, news of the stroke that led to his death was greeted philosophically.

Tran Thi Thu, a 40-year-old woman who peddles fruit and vegetables to passers-by on the street, said: “He did what he had to do, just like all of us.”

Le Ngoc Hung, 42, an employee at the Freedom Hotel, said: “Thinking back to the days of bombing and gunfire, his name brings back a lot of sadness. He caused us much hardship. We could never love him, of course. But Vietnamese are very respectful. We wish him peace.”

Times staff writers Eric Malnic, Nora Zamichow, David Willman and Niesen Himmel in Los Angeles, and Lily Dizon in Hanoi, contributed to this story.