Letters to the Editor: Richard Nixon can be both brilliant and a failed president

To the editor: I have a personal anecdote to add to Nicholas Goldberg’s column on his reevaluation of President Nixon.

Years ago, I was surfing TV late at night and stumbled on Nixon being introduced to an audience at a private club in New York. This was many years after he’d left office in disgrace, and his subject was U.S.-China relations.

He proceeded to give an hour-and-a-half talk that was absolutely brilliant, giving a history of China as well as our interactions with it, with cogent analyses and insightful predictions of potential problems. His answers to questions were of equal depth and insight.

I was stunned, and all I could think of was the sad, sad waste of a mind and experience because of his emotional and psychological failings.

Meg Quinn Coulter, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As a Vietnam War veteran, I have two thoughts on Goldberg and his visit to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda.

First, under Nixon’s watch, more than 21,000 Americans lost their lives, and many more were wounded in Vietnam. I witnessed some of these people die. This happened after he claimed before the 1968 election that he had a secret plan to end the war.

Second, he never publicly and clearly admitted guilt in the Watergate scandal, which tells us everything we need to know about his credibility.

Rudy Estrada, Downey

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To the editor: Too bad Goldberg did not mention Title IX, which Nixon signed into law in 1972. That law prohibited sex discrimination in any education programs receiving federal funds, most notably giving women an equal chance at athletic competition in schools.

This changed the lives of countless girls and women.

Terry Kennedy, Claremont