Wednesday, January 09, 2013

"The best friend of the friends of peace"

One hundred years ago today Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. Ben Stein remembers him fondly in the American Spectator.

He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POWs, saved Israel from having to use nuclear weapons to survive in the Yom Kippur War, signed the first strategic arms limitation treaty with the former Soviet Union, and, of course, opened up China. This last one made the Cold War unwinnable for the Soviets, setting the stage for the end of that entity, and opened up vistas of unimaginable prosperity for the Chinese people. He was by far the best friend that the friends of peace have ever had. He was by a million miles the best friend the Jewish people have ever had in high office anywhere in the Western world.

Friends here in Hollywood, close relatives, colleagues, have asked me for decades how I can still love Nixon, after Watergate, after his questionable comments about Jews on tape, and I have an answer.

I will never turn my back on Richard Nixon, the peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers, and God bless Richard M. Nixon.

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