2021 Presidents Day: WPOAT -- the Worst President of All Time

 

OPINION

Seven years ago, I wrote along posting that named Richard Nixon as the worst President of all time. It was so long that I had to split it into Part 1 and Part 2.

After the last four years, on this President's Day I have to revise that. Donald Trump has taken over the top spot as the worst President of all time (WPOAT).

I'm not alone in that feeling.

Trump -- the only president who has been impeached twice -- has been named as the worst president in US history in a new YouGov poll. Asked who they felt was the worst president in history, 46% of those surveyed named Trump. 

(One thing to note: the survey was conducted Feb. 6-9 before the impeachment proceedings in the Senate.)

Much to Trump's chagrin, Barack Obama, the man Trump hated most and sought to undo every accomplishment Obama had during his time in office, was voted the best President of all time.

Nixon was named the worst by only 5% of the respondents. Through the passage of time, I'm sure most of the 1,500 people surveyed had forgotten the havoc Nixon wreaked with the Watergate scandal, which in afterthought, seems inconsequential to Trump's attempt to alter the election results or his kowtowing to Russian President Putin.

The distrust sown by the 1972 break-in of Democrat HQ at Watergate is just a minor blip compared to the 1/6 attempted coup, which caused the death of seven people.

Here's the scary part: Respondents were also asked who they thought was the best president in history. Obama narrowly topped the list on 18%t, followed by 17% who voted for Abraham Lincoln. But then Trump was voted as the best by 13%, making him third in the list ahead of Franklin D Roosevelt and George Washington, the latter whose birthday along with Lincoln's, we celebrate today, Presidents Day, (Feb. 14).

While Nixon left in disgrace in 1974, Trump left still spouting the lies that the election was stolen from him. And his followers still believe him.

His acquittal by virtue of the 43 spineless Republican Senators means the Republican party will remain under his control through the 2024 Presidential elections.

The silver lining from the poll is that 53% were opposed to the idea of rump running for president again. But Trump maintains a firm hold on his cult-like followers. A total of 37% said they would support him if he ran again.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Anna Chennault: Key figure in Nixon's election dies

Anna Chennault, center, with former President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

IN SOME INNER CIRCLES in Washington D.C., Anna Chennault was known the Dragon Lady. She passed away last Friday but her daughter announced her death on Tuesday (April 4). She was 94.

Chennault was born Chen Xiangmei in Beijing on June 23, 1923, one of six daughters of P. Y. and Isabelle Liao Chen, members of a prosperous family of diplomats and scholars.

Chennault was one of the most visible private citizens in Washington: a vice president of the Flying Tiger Line, her husband’s postwar cargo operation; a writer of novels, poetry and nonfiction books; a Voice of America broadcaster; and the center of a social whirl at her Watergate penthouse that drew in cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, foreign dignitaries and journalists, according to the BBC.

But it is her secret role that had the most impact on U.S. policy. She was an advocate for the Chinese Nationalists and South Vietnam, and a staunch anti-communist.

RELATED: Nixon, the traitor

She was known to have been a conduit for Nationalist Chinese funds for the Republican Party, and to have been a secret go-between for American officials and Asian leaders like Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist Chinese generalissimo, and President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam.

In the days before the 1968 presidential elections, it looked like the South Vietnam was willing to accept peace negotiations that would end the Vietnam War. If a peace treaty in Paris was signed, it would give a decided advantage to Democratic candidate Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Chennault, acting as a behind-the-scenes liaison for Nixon’s campaign and the Saigon government, was recorded by FBI wiretaps urging South Vietnamese officials to boycott the Paris peace talks, saying they would get a better deal from a Nixon administration if they waited until after the election.

That same day, Nov. 2, South Vietnam's President Thieu announced that his government would not join the Paris talks. Three days later, Nixon was elected and the war was prolonged for two more years at the cost of thousands of Vietnamese and American lives.

Ironically, Chennault died in her apartment in the Watergate Apartment complex, the same locale that became synonymous for the "dirty tricks" that led to the resignation of Nixon.

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MSNBC: Lessons from Watergate

WHEN did cynicism and lack of faith in our political system overtake the optimism and dreams that usually were associated with the United States' version of democracy?

Some would say, the election of Donald Trump might be the result of the downward spiral that began with Watergate and the Nixon administration.

Tonight, (June 17) MSNBC will begin airing its 16-hour mini-series, "All the President's Men," looking back at the scandal that knocked democracy off its pedestal and into the gutter. Although it all happened four decades ago, it led to today's nightmare of a presidency.

With all the scandal and questions surrounding the Trump administration, most of America have mostly shrugged its shoulders as if this is what is expected in the new normal of the United States.

If Watergate had not happened, Trump would have been kicked out of office in the first week of his office. 

Then again, if Watergate had not happened, Trump never would have even attempted to run for office. He'd never have been picked by the Republicans to fly its banner int he presidential campaign. He'd never have been elected. America would not be in the mess its in, right now.

There are lessons to be learned, particularly to the parallels to today's administration.

It is particularly instructive to the young people to whom Watergate is ancient history and not made the connection between Nixon, Vietnam, Reagan, Iran-Contra, the Bushes and ultimately, Trump.

It is also good for us old-timers to remind ourselves what America used to be like and what it can be again. 

The protests of the 60s spawned the anti-war movement, gave birth to environmental movement, gave new impetus to the women's movement, that spurred the civil rights movement beyond the black community and provided a link to other minority groups --  including Asian Americans - to rise up for equality.

Watch MSNBC tonight, 9 pm Eastern.

READ The Edge's two-part post on Nixon:"

• Nixon was worst than I thought
• Nixon - the traitor

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Part 2: Nixon - The Traitor

 Anti-war demonstrators march to Golden Gate Park from  San Francisco's City Hall in 1967. 

PART TWO

THAT IS a pretty harsh headline: "Nixon - The Traitor."

For years, it was rumored that Nixon was behind the failure of President Johnson to negotiate a peace treaty with North Vietnam in 1968. The audiotapes of President Lyndon Johnson White House conversations revealed that Johnson accused Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign of treason for undermining the peace negotiations to end the war in Vietnam.

It wasn’t until earlier this summer that those rumors were confirmed by conservative columnist George Will.

If you're not a policy wonk, most likely you haven't heard of this sordid episode of American history. It's a story of greed, blind ambition, a coverup and winning at all costs. It may also be the beginning of the America's downfall.

In 1968, America was stuck in an Asian land war in which we had no business being in. It was the result of the Cold War wherein the U.S. saw a communist under every rock and would do anything to stop the spread of communism, which Americans thought was our country's greatest threat.

That fear meant that we would support fascist dictators who oppressed their people, fostered rampant corruption for personal gain as long as the despots declared that they opposed communism.

While a lot has been written about the banana republics of central and South America, the same dynamic was happening in Asia.

For fear of the communist Huks, the U.S. supported Ferdinand Marcos for decades, even if it mean that "democracy's showcase in Asia" was really a showcase for strongman politics and how wrong American policy had become.

A similar policy had already taken root in Vietnam. A series of ineffective rulers supported first by the colonial French and then by the anti-communist Americans, made Vietnam a perfect breeding ground for the type of dictatorship that America supported throughout the world. "He may be a dictator, but he's OUR dictator," was the ruling mantra among America's military and political strategists.

Mired in Vietnam for just over a decade, it became evident that a clear-cut military victory would be too costly, if not impossible. It was a virtual stalemate.

By 1968, fearing the divisions that wracked America over our involvement in Vietnam would grow even more deeper, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection. He also began serious negotiations to broker a peace between South and North Vietnam, led by the brilliant Ho Chi Minh. (By the way, Ho Chi Minh initially sought America's help and even pattered his constitution after the American constitution. For some reason, America chose his counterpart in South Vietnam over the popular leader of the north.)

With Johnson not running, Vice President Hubert Humphrey took up the Democrat's banner to run against the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, who was President Eisenhower's vice president and lost to President Kennedy in 1960. The contest was a close one with Nixon holding on to a narrow lead in the polls.

In the fall of 1968, peace negotiations were making progress. As an act of good faith, Johnson stopped the bombing of North Vietnam in October. Peace - it seemed - was right around the corner. If peace was brokered before the November election, it could tilt the election towards the Democrat, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey, as one of his campaign promises, announced in October that if he was elected president, he would stop the bombing, which won him the support of growing and influential peace movement. The polls signaled a virtual toss-up. 

Catching wind of the pending peace treaty, Nixon’s campaign team sent Anna Chennault, a Chinese-American in Nixon’s inner circle, to South Vietnam with a message from “her boss.” She told the South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu to hold out because Nixon – when he was elected president – promised a sweeter deal.

South Vietnam pulled out of the negotiations and the treaty went unsigned. Humphrey never got the bump he would have received from a peace treaty. Nixon squeaked by Humphrey and was elected President. In 1973, under Nixon a peace treaty was finally brokered. 

To say Johnson was "pissed" would be an understatement. Intelligence agencies' surveillance had revealed the plan to undermine the peace talks. Johnson called Senate leader Everett Dirkson to see if he could intervene. "This is treason," said Johnson. "I know," said Dirkson.

Under the 1797 Logan Act, no private citizen can interfere with negotiations with a foreign country. It is difficult to think that Chennault did anything – especially something as significant as sabotaging the peace talks -- without Nixon’s knowledge. He saw the memo outlining Channault's trip to Vietnam and he had written on top of it, "Top Secret."

Not surprisingly, Nixon, called by Johnson, denied any knowledge of the betrayal. 

Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford advised in a conference call a day before the Nov. 5 election: “Some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have a certain individual [Nixon] elected. ... It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country’s interests.”

The next day, Nixon won by the narrowest of margins: 100,000 votes. In January, 1973, Nixon eventually brokered a peace treaty with the same terms that Johnson had on the table in 1968.

Imagine if a peace treaty was signed in 1968. The war would have ended four years earlier, saving the lives of 22,000 American soldiers  and untold Vietnamese who died during those four additional years. 

Nixon might never have won the 1968 election, Watergate would never have happened, he never would have been reelected and a U.S. president never would have been impeached and forced to leave office in disgrace in 1974.

Because of Watergate, we Americans have lost our idealism and faith in our government; the trust and optimism we used to have has been replaced by cynicism and a distaste of anything, any idea, any proposal coming from government. The act of treason changed the course of our country's history. Our country has been on a downward spiral ever since.

Why does it matter now? Johnson and Nixon are both dead. What's done is done. 

The other rumor that may some day be proven to be true is that Ronald Reagan's campaign - staffed by people with the same win-at-any-cost values as Nixon's people - acted to delay the 1978 hostage negotiations with Iran to practically assure his victory over President Carter. 

History has a way of repeating itself if we don't learn from our mistakes. History needs to be rewritten, even if the truth is unflattering. People exist today who have the same twisted principles as Nixon, (and perhaps Reagan's staff). They would do anything to preserve their status and privileges under the guise of a faux patriotism, even if it means destroying our way of life. Win-at-any-cost is not a principle we live by. Its unAmerican. Its treason.

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