AHC: Make Nixon Respected

I tried searching for similar threads but the search function was playing up for me. There probably have been threads along these lines, but I couldn't find any.

Anyway, I've long-since been fascinated with Richard Nixon. He had a rather impressive rise to power, being Vice President age 40. He's also one of the few to have lost a presidential election, but be nominated again by the same party and win. However, Nixon's a very divisive historical figure, mostly down to Vietnam and Watergate. That said, there's a lot to his credit, such as his role in affirmative action, NASA and establishing the EPA.

So, how can one go about reforming Nixon's political career that makes him at least as successful as he was in OTL - meaning being a president. Bonus points if you manage to make him both Veep and Peep, and that he finishes his second Peep term unblemished by impeachment or resignation. Treble bonus points if you turn him into a universally-respected elder statesman after his presidency, liked by Democrats and Republicans alike.
 
Well, if he decides that there's no need for shenanigans in the '72 election, then there's no Watergate scandal, and he completes 2 full terms and sees the end of the Vietnam War. He'll still be controversial, but probably not hated in the same way as his legacy is reevaluated in the '80s and '90s. Oh, and the tapes can never get out, because he looks like a paranoid nut ('cause he was) on those.
 
I tried searching for similar threads but the search function was playing up for me. There probably have been threads along these lines, but I couldn't find any.

Anyway, I've long-since been fascinated with Richard Nixon. He had a rather impressive rise to power, being Vice President age 40. He's also one of the few to have lost a presidential election, but be nominated again by the same party and win. However, Nixon's a very divisive historical figure, mostly down to Vietnam and Watergate. That said, there's a lot to his credit, such as his role in affirmative action, NASA and establishing the EPA.

So, how can one go about reforming Nixon's political career that makes him at least as successful as he was in OTL - meaning being a president. Bonus points if you manage to make him both Veep and Peep, and that he finishes his second Peep term unblemished by impeachment or resignation. Treble bonus points if you turn him into a universally-respected elder statesman after his presidency, liked by Democrats and Republicans alike.

A good start would be to get rid of the "Southern Strategy", and Watergate, I think. Both of these things are two of the main reasons why Nixon is so disliked today.
 
No Watergate. Nixon was a Dem hate figure since Hiss. If you get Reagan Republicanism down the line or an analogue down the line then Dems won't like him (did anyone outside his immediate family really like him?), but they'll say "Nixon was so moderate compared to these guys. He supported UHC, environmental regulation, Keynesian economics, etc." Sorta like today.
 
Get rid of Watergate and Nixon is probably remembered as one of our better presidents.

Ya. He had some pretty significant accomplishments. Counteracted by that paranoid ego maniac streak.

Preventing watergate would be enough, imo.

He might well be remembered liked Bill Clinton .. not good person, but a good president.
 
Either get rid of Watergate like others have said or have him handle the fallout better. If he was more up front about things, even if they were lies he could have avoided a lot scandal if he seemed like he wanted to tell the people the truth.
 
Even with no Watergate or tapes he is still going to be thought of as the guy who started the culture wars. You would have to dramatically alter his policy towards the anti-war movement for him to be respected, and that would be more or less impossible unless there was no Vietnam war, since Nixon's policies were in many ways a reaction to public demand for action.
 
The best way to make Nixon's legacy better is to NOT create the "Plumbers" (the team responsible for "plugging leaks"). It was their actions that triggered the sequence of events that brought down Nixon.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
He's already far more respected than he deserves. He wasn't impeached and didn't go to jail and enjoyed a good deal of celebrity in his post-presidency. The guy got off easy and it is a damn shame.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Even with no Watergate or tapes he is still going to be thought of as the guy who started the culture wars.
And waging an illegal war in Cambodia, which was one of the first articles of impeachment promulgated against him and was only dropped after a great deal of horse trading.
 
If his opening of China was played up a bit more and Kissinger's involvement played down, I can sort of see him being trumpeted by Republicans as one of the more notable statesmen of the latter half of the 20th century.
 
Perhaps have Ike die of that heart attack in 1955? Nixon automatically gets thrust into the presidency, only on a wave of public sympathy. How he acts after that though will determine whether or not he'll be a universally respected elder statesman, but the way he conducts himself after Ike's sudden death - IOTL he won plaudits for his professionalism during Eisenhower's hospitalisation - could put him on such a road.

It also denies history a chance to see Nixon influenced by his 1960 and his 1962 electoral defeats, which pushed him into a state of extreme bitterness, to say the least. That said, we could still see a little of that in the aftermath of the Checkers controversy.

Assuming He won in 1960 reelections, we have Nixon dealing with Cuba. Nixon advised Kennedy in the OTL during Both the Bay of Pig crisis and the Cuban Missile crisis to send in troops to Cuba. While I don't think that that will result in Nuclear War as other on this board do, I suspect that US Troop would have been in Cuba far longer then any thinks, Mid to late 1970's.
There were several other foreign Policy crisis that could have resulted in Troop being sent to fight Communists. We may have seen our troop spread out in a number of foreign conflicts, not just Vietnam.

So no I think that if Nixon is there in the 1960's, his reputation would be worst than in the OTL.
 
I assuming that while the Government of Cuba would fall fairly quickly, The Die Hard Communist are going to begin guerrilla tactics and it going to be harder to pull troops out than any one would think. What ever government we put in Cuba going demand that the guerrilla movement be put down before we pull the troop out. So I agree that Cuba going to turn into 5 to 7 years of nasty fighting.

You are completely Right on Laos. Nixon would provided more support than Kennedy would.

Very good look at the issues.
 

bguy

Donor
In my view, a Vietnam War starting in Laos would have been worse as well, simply because the combat area is a lot larger, the international situation more fragile over time (the PLA isn't going to be handicapped by bad equipment and training forever) and the terrain (arguably) more inhospitable. And if the US eventually fail in protecting the Royal Lao government, there's a slightly higher likelihood, through sheer proximity, that Thailand could see an insurgency of similar scale.

On the other hand if the US is in Laos in force won't that take a lot of the pressure off of South Vietnam? Presumably the US will take and fortify Tchepone which means the Ho Chi Minh Trail is pretty well cut. Given that President Nixon isn't likely to put up with Sihanoukville being used to ship weapons into South Vietnam for long either, cutting the trail means the communist forces in South Vietnam are going to have major supply problems.
 
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