The Issue: Richard Nixon’s 100th birthday, and how he affected American politics during his presidency.
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Richard Nixon was a smart guy with a soul tainted by paranoia (“Richard Nixon at 100,” Editorial, Jan. 13).
He was his own worst enemy, although many on the left would deny that.
Nixon epitomized the idea that anything goes in politics, an attitude that animated President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Just as Nixon savaged political opponent Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950, so Obama did Mitt Romney, with accusations from acolytes that Romney bore responsibility for the cancer death of a steel worker’s wife.
Like all of us, Nixon juggled the good and bad within him. But in his case, everything was magnified.
Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati
Ironically, how Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union could apply to Nixon — a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
What a paradox he was: A cynical politician, yet in a way an idealist. A supposed anti-Semite, yet he did more for Israel than many presidents.
He was a cold warrior, yet pursued detente.
One thing was for sure: He loved America, but America didn’t always love him back.
Nixon’s great act of patriotism was exposing Alger Hiss as the Soviet agent he was, which eventually helped Nixon become president.
However, it was exposing Hiss that ultimately led to his downfall.
Gary Schwartz
Fort Lee
Nixon reminds me of the former Red Sox first-baseman Bill Buckner, who was only remembered for letting the famous ball go under his glove in the World Series.
Buckner, like Nixon, did many good things during his career, but will be unfairly remembered for one infamous thing.
I always wanted to thank Nixon for ending the Vietnam War just in time, so I didn’t end up there.
Thanks, Dick. Rest in peace.Wayne Olson
Suffern