Clinton, Nixon

James P. Pinkerton (Column Right, Aug. 19) was right about Richard Nixon’s 1952 Checkers speech: It was a resounding success. However, Nixon’s address was just as angry as Clinton’s Aug. 17 speech. Not only did the Republican vice presidential candidate never utter the words, “I’m sorry,” but he also used the occasion to attack his opposition. Nixon opened the speech by claiming there were candidates on the Democratic ticket who also maintained slush funds and later assailed the Truman administration for supposed corruption and cowardice toward communism. Indeed, the Checkers speech, as it has come to be known, was no more than part vitriolic tirade and part humble appeal to the common folk.

If any contrasts may be made between Clinton’s speech and Nixon’s in 1952, they would be that Nixon, of course, was always completely honest about the matters concerning the fund crisis and that his pattern for lying (best exemplified by his conduct during the Watergate scandal) had yet to be established.

LEN POCHE

Yorba Linda