We dislike greatly….beating up on the dead…or their memory. There are many things more uplifting and helpful to do in life. Yet, sometimes things come to your attention that revisits your visions of things, people and history. When that happens, it is best to reassess, think on it, investigate it in great detail and then move on.
Frank Langella recently was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars for his role in “Nixon-Frost”. Ron Howard Produced and Directed and he too was even nominated. There was a big marketing push to have people see this redux of the famous exchanges between Richard Nixon and David Frost. Here, Nixon is tested to the point that he finally says: “If the President does it…it is not illegal.” Evidently, Bill Clinton hung on every word during that interview and had no qualms about following suit. Having said that…..it is not our intent to beat up on personalities, but rather actions.
Did anyone ever wonder why the “OPEC – Arab Cartel” suddenly, cut off all our oil, as an embargo effort because of our support of Israel against the Arabs in the Seven Day War of 1967? Or, since the Oil Embargo took place in October of 1973….about the same time as the Yom Kippur War? Who was pulling all those strings? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis
A couple of things worth noting: In October of 1971, the United States pulled out of the Bretton-Woods World Banking Agreement….along with our pal the United Kingdom. What did that mean, you might ask: “Well, Nixon just de-monitized our US currency. Basically, he was just being vindictive and personal toward DeGaulle. The result however was that we didn’t have to back our currency with the Gold in Fort Knox…anymore! All by Presidential edict!” If you follow the ramblings of Ron Paul…occasionally he drops this bomb. Along with the likes of the tractor logo guy: Lyndon Larouche!
But what was the fallout of that action and how in world could it happen in the first place? Well, it goes like this: Charles DeGaulle was President of France and really loved requesting payment in Gold for everything that the US or the UK wanted to buy from him. French Wine and Cheese pleased him greatly. Watching his coffers grow and grow and grow. Pretty soon, it was getting to be a bit of an inconvenience for the people at Fort Knox…busy loading up and shipping that gold off to Paris. As you might know, Charles wasn’t just a bad guy….but he hated LBJ and the war in Vietnam. He was very embarrassed that the French had to be bailed out by the Anglo-Americans….and that France lost a very valuable colony! It wasn’t personal, it was just business and making the US sweat in front of the entire world was just plain fun.
Along comes ARAMCO….the Saudi’s, Iran, Iraq, Morrocco and Libya – the wonderful oil exporting countries. They watched Charles boy and said to themselves….”Hey, we could do that too!” Does anyone remember the 70’s and 80’s enough to remember the very rich Arabs invading America with their gold chains around their necks? How about the spike in Gold prices in 1979? Does any of this ring a bell?
The term “Unintended Consequences” became very apparent to Nixon when suddenly he had to add “Price and Wage Controls” to our economy. Does anyone remember this? It was dreaded….it was awful…..and it set the stage for the fall in our currency across the globe. Let’s just say, Nixon had much bigger problems than “Plumbers in the attic!” He had protesters outside the White House and he didn’t know what they were protesting! If he had known it was just that “Dirty Asian War”….he might have pulled out sooner. But with people like John Dean advising him…..what could you do? Nixon loved “Yes Men”…and adored those that adored him! His favorite song was sung by Frankie Valle: “My Eyes Adored You…cause I couldn’t take my eyes off you….My Eyes Adored You! Metaphorically, of course!
All in all, Nixon killed our economy, placed us in bed with World Banking because now we were controlled by a “Basket of Currencies”. We placed our fate in the hands of Investment Bankers! These people love leveraged buys of any kind….gold, oil, corn, hogs……any ringing bells yet? We don’t know what the world economy holds for us now…but we do know that Richard Nixon did all he could…….to destroy the American Dream for average citizens…..who he distrusted greatly.
Richard Nixon has a lovely Library in Yorba Linda, California which we encourage everyone to visit. But having said that….we also encourage “a clear view from the bridge” …. unobstructed by hyperbole!
There isn’t enough gold in the world to make it a unit of currency for anyone.
So taking the USA off the gold standard, no,
the gold standard was replaced with the dollar standard.
*King Midas and Charles DeGaulle evidently agreed with you….
However, the Chinese prove you both wrong!
Richard Nixon was a “GREAT” President, did more good for this country then most Presidents. You must be on drugs.
I shook hands with Tricky in San Clemente. I wonder if he ever drank a Diet Coke?
OCGator, pay no mind to ignorance. The Heading/Title of this post should be deleted ASAP. Referring to Nixon as a “dirty, rotten, SOB” is absolutely unacceptable and a disgrace considering this blog may easily be read by kids (there seems to be a new audience-local high-schoolers have posted comments lately)-we are misinforming them-completely!!! This is not the first anti-Nixon post on the OJ Blog-I believe there was another one a few months back.
Ron & Anna Winship have made better contributions in the past. We can’t expect everyone to be experts on politics, history, and much less International Relations. Nixon was an astute statesman and an extremely intelligent man.
I suggest these ppl research Nixon’s great contributions to the political arena and Global Affairs/Foreign Policy and diplomacy in general. How could anyone in their right mind undermine the significance of– and reverance/respect owed to SALT I and SALT II– made possible by President Nixon. President Nixon was a genious type individual-yes difficult to figure out, but one of this nation’s greatest minds. President Nixon opened relations with China which provenly shifted the balance of power our way. I’m sure we can see the parallelism or analogy with present day threats-i.e Russia and China AGAIN– let’s hope Obama is as sharp as Nixon. Russia envisions a new Russian-Chinese alliance in seizing their perceived opportunity to lead in the midst of a weakened U.S economy. We have Russian scholars advocating for the creation of a new Russian-Chinese alliance in creating a new currency to replace the U.S Dollar as the leading currency by suggesting that the U.S has lost control of global markets/ (“NOT”!)
Nixon is probably our nation’s top unsung hero. OJ Blog must issue a rebuttal with facts and key accomplishments during the Nixon Administration and an apology for this misrepresentation of President Nixon. Afterall his hometown was O.C. Nixon was a good man. The gold standard deal is simply deferred maintenance on our government’s behalf. That could have been re-visited from time to time.
#5,
Oh please! Nixon was known for dropping F-bombs and worse. This post’s title is mild compared to what came out of his mouth every day.
However, he does deserve credit for signing OSHA and the EPA into law.