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Ben Stein's Diary
The Beautiful Pat Nixon
Centennial birthday wishes, as delivered today at the Nixon Library.
Today, March 16, 2012, is the centenary of Mrs. Thelma “Pat” Ryan Nixon’s birth. I am about to go give a speech about her at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, and this is what I am going to say:
Patricia Ryan didn’t have affirmative action that got her into an Ivy League college even if her grades were not good and got her a big scholarship. Her grades were great but she didn’t have affirmative action. She didn’t have anything given to her because she was a woman.
She had to work for everything. Her mother died when she was 12. She had to take care of the house. That’s a job. That’s a real job. She was a retail clerk, an x-ray technician, a janitor sweeping floors at a bank. She worked. She later said that she didn’t have time to day dream. She was too busy working.
Her father died when she was 17. She didn’t inherit money.
She had to work. At 18, from a small town near here called Artesia, now called Cerritos, she moved to New York City to work as a secretary and to teach office skills. That was a daring step, especially in the Great Depression.
She was beautiful. She was smart. But above all, she worked.
I keep saying this because this is what America used to be: young men and women, middle aged men and women — we all worked. That was what life was: work.
It wasn’t organizing your community and asking the government to do things for you — which is really just demanding that taxpayers do things for people who don’t pay taxes.
Mrs. Nixon — as she came to be — worked.
Most people don’t know this, but when she met Mr. Nixon at an amateur production of a play, he fell so in love with her that he would drive her on dates to meet other men just to spend more time with her. That was because Richard Nixon worked, too.
They were both workers. They were workers among workers, parents among parents, fighting a war to save freedom among other fighters.
Most people don’t know this either, but Mrs. Nixon fought against racial prejudice all her life. She didn’t see color or race. She saw the human heart underneath.
Most people don’t know this either. But when Mr. Nixon was in the Navy in the South Pacific, Mrs. Nixon was an economist in San Francisco for the government. I am sure she was a darned good one. She would know enough not to throw a trillion dollars away on fantasy solar power projects and the like. She would probably have known better than to have wage and price controls, too.
She married Mr. Nixon because she saw charisma in that young man. She saw that he was going places and she saw his fun-loving interior under the serious, hard-working exterior. When Mr. Nixon ran for Congress in 1946, she didn’t necessarily want him to go into politics, but she worked on his campaign because she was his wife and in that day, wives and husbands worked together.
She worked to get a Congress that would steer America in a pro-American direction after World War II. She worked to get Richard Nixon into Congress so he could fight the influence of men and women who could not or would not see the dangers of Stalinism and Stalin’s admirers in the USA.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (145) | Leave a comment
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W| 3.16.12 @ 7:35AM
Mr.Stein
Excellent article.
If Nixon did not have the election stolen by the Chicago thugs in 1960, we would not have been in Vietnam for ten years and lost 60,000 Americans.
Alan Brooks| 3.16.12 @ 12:07PM
Nixon called his mother a Saint the day he resigned as POTUS; yet as Kissinger pointed out, it was Pat who was the saint.
In retrospect, Nixon was too gentle to be president, it is a career for the hardboiled who do not cave in under pressure.
Alan Brooks| 3.16.12 @ 12:13PM
"too gentle to be president"
Prime evidence: Jimmy Carter.
Jack in Wi.| 3.17.12 @ 3:36PM
My cousin's wife has a pesonal memory of Nixon when she was a little girl and he was Vice President or running for the job. Or maybe he was still a US Senator Her father was a big shot in the Wisconsin Republican Party and Nixon came to town. He stayed in the family home and actually stayed in her bedroom. He got so soused on martinis that he chucked his cookies all over her bedroom. It is quite a memory.
sirbourbon| 3.18.12 @ 2:00PM
"Too gentle?' What do you mean by gentle?
Under "gentle Dick" the nation of the United States of America got straped with:
1) wage and Price controls
2) we could not drive over 55MPH without the permission of the federal government!
3) companies in the energy business couldn't get place our nation in an independence status away from the chains of the Arab oil cartelists due to Nixon's signature creating the EPA! Under Nixon we became more dependent upion foreign sources for our energy.
4) Businessmen were being fined brutishly by Nixons OSHA! He created it and used it to beat businessmen over the head for not complying to OSAHA dictates. Just what do you consider a president that is a brut?
Wage and Price controls, OSHA and his EPA proves Nixon was anti-business!
5) Watergate and the attitude he took that he was above the law.
6) He lost the war in Vietnam and sent a nut bag named Kissinger to negotiate a lie with communists. you don't negotiate with communists you defeat them!
7) Nixon was a member of the world government promoting Council on Foreign Relations. He staffed his administration with CFR personnel.
8) Nixon was the most vile and prevaricating politician to ever show up on the American scene until Clinton showed up! http://www.amazon.com/Richard-.....028&sr=1-5
RPW| 3.16.12 @ 1:01PM
Nixon got us out of Vietnam. Kennedy got us in then Johnson turned it into a full fledged war. Vietnam is Johnson's war and I am sick of the ignorant and the history rewrites like you who try to turn it into Nixon war. When I pass I hope I return to my fathers house and I hope Both Richard and Pat Nixon are my neighbors there.
It is up to my father to judge not to you or the rest of the lazy and ignorant.
Richard H. Davis| 3.16.12 @ 1:29PM
More Americans died in Vietnam after Nixon was elected than died before the 1968 election.
B-737| 3.16.12 @ 3:06PM
Do you think that might also have had something to do with the actions of the North Vietnamese Communists between 1969 and 1973?
Or was Nixon solely to blame for the mistakes of Kennedy and Johnson (who between them had committed 575,000 U.S. troops to the war by the time Nixon took office in January 1969)?
Ben is right and the facts remain: Nixon got us out of Vietnam. Nixon opened China after 23 years of unremitting hostility. Nixon signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement with the Soviet Union.
A pretty good record in comparison to any of the presidents who have followed him (even Reagan) and an absolutely stellar record compared to the current occupant of the White House.
sirbourbon| 3.18.12 @ 1:42PM
Any deals you make with communists is a deal you will lose.
The ink was still wet when the Reds broke that Strategic arms Reductions treaty. We reduced our weapons and the communists increased theirs.
How is opening up relations with the Reds in China a positive? Nixon was a member of a committee that was formed to deny Red China a seat in the UN but after he was elected he travelled to China to kiss up to the reds!
sirbourbon| 3.18.12 @ 1:42PM
Any deals you make with communists is a deal you will lose.
The ink was still wet when the Reds broke that Strategic arms Reductions treaty. We reduced our weapons and the communists increased theirs.
How is opening up relations with the Reds in China a positive? Nixon was a member of a committee that was formed to deny Red China a seat in the UN but after he was elected he travelled to China to kiss up to the reds!
MHB3| 3.16.12 @ 3:09PM
True. Many more died as Nixon tried to get us out of LBJ's war in spite of near-communist Democrat senators and self-serving street protesters.
W| 3.16.12 @ 3:12PM
RPW
Read what I wrote. We would not have been in Vietnam if Nixon would have won.
RPW| 3.16.12 @ 10:47PM
Oh My! I apologize to "W". I seem to have totally misread your post and applied the wrong meaning to it, we agree about Vietnam. I redirect my response to anyone who blames Vietnam on Nixon.
Bob White | 3.17.12 @ 10:01PM
As Nixon said himself, "I could have said this was Kennedy & Johnson's war, but it was not Kennedy & Johnson's war. It was America's war."
Thanks for the article, Ben. I have always admired Nixon (although he was too liberal for me).
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:26PM
Since the election of 1960 was *NOT* stolen in Illinois, your comment is nonsense.
sirbourbon| 3.18.12 @ 1:38PM
"we would not have been in Vietnam for ten years and lost 60,000 Americans." ---
That's a stretch. I suppose leaving behind hundreds of American POWS and MIAs to rot in communist cells was a victory for the USA? That we cut and ran when we could have won that war in six weeks is a positive? Even Nixon campaigned that the war could be won in six months! How long did the war go on after he was elected? 4 years and then Kissinger betrayed our POWS and MIAs to be forever captives of the communists!
However nice and elegant she may have been she was bambozzled by Tricky Dick who was really an authentic liberal wearing a "conservative" mask as Gary Allen exposed in his book: The Man Behind the Mask. http://www.amazon.com/Richard-.....028&sr=1-5
" She went with Mr. Nixon to Moscow to seek to end the Cold War."
In other words coddling communism like her husband?
"She went to China and charmed Chou En-lai"
Nixon coddled more communists.The biggest murdering thugs on the planet and Mr. Stein thinks that's a good thing? Wow, no wonder we are losing with lousy Republicans personalities like Stein parroting the liberal -socialist party line!
SPQR| 3.16.12 @ 7:35AM
Ben- it wasn't about a mink coat, but rather was about Sherman Adams and a vicuna coat. And I'm younger than you.
W| 3.16.12 @ 10:49AM
Sherman Adams involved Ike, not Nixon. Don't remember type of coat in the Checkers speech.
Al Adab| 3.16.12 @ 12:47PM
W:
"A good republican cloth coat".
W| 3.16.12 @ 3:15PM
Al Adab
Nixon should not have resigned. The Republicans deserted him. The two senators who went to see Nixon to convince him to resign were Hugh Scott of Pa, a moderate, and Goldwater. They told him they did not have the votes to help him. At least the Dems stick with their guys, like Clinton, and fight.
Have a pleasant weekend.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:28PM
Nixon had to resign because he had thugs working for him who committed crimes on his behalf. That alone did not bring him down, but the coverup did.
Oh, and Rosemary Woods *DID* deliberately wipe that 18 1/2 minutes.
W| 3.16.12 @ 8:23PM
You have Nixon confused with your idol Bubba/Hillary.
hardcard| 3.16.12 @ 9:10AM
Dear Benny,
Thank You !!!
LindaF | 3.16.12 @ 9:56AM
I didn't know her personally, nor, at the time, did I particularly see her virtues.
Nonetheless, I have come to see one particular virtue as paramount - she didn't treat the entire thing as "about her". She recognized that her role was important, but not primary.
She also knew how NOT to air the dirty laundry, something I wish more public figures knew.
JP| 3.16.12 @ 10:03AM
Ben if anything is about the most loyal person in the world. No one today even mentions RM Nixon, let alone his wife. I may have diffences with Ben on politics and economics, but I do respect his loyalty. Ben also highlights an age long gone in this country of ours.
Maggie| 3.16.12 @ 10:20AM
What a beautiful tribute to one of America's few truly first-class First Ladies! She was the epitome of the "virtuous woman" in the book of Proverbs!
Timothy B| 3.16.12 @ 10:23AM
Mr. Stein,
Thank you for this wonderful, educational article. It made my morning!
Charles Curran| 3.16.12 @ 11:48AM
I am now reading Conrad(lord) Blacks biography of RM. Great book. Cheap on alibris.com.
JM| 3.16.12 @ 11:52AM
Pat Nixon should be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On the other hand, her memory doesn't need a medal to shine. God bless her.
gearjammer| 3.16.12 @ 12:17PM
Great. I will give 1000 conribution to first GOP contender to champion Nixon and his great lady.
The American Spectator | 3.16.12 @ 2:18PM
gearjammer,
Feel free to send that contribution to your friends here at TAS:
https://spectator.org/donate/?src=12WEB1Q
gearjammer| 3.16.12 @ 12:18PM
Make that 100 my real estate taxes due soon. Er, make it 20 with gas prices. 20 is good-right !
Taterblade| 3.16.12 @ 12:26PM
Thank for the article Ben. In April my wife and I are visiting relatives who live right accross the street from the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. I was surprised and thrilled that my young bride wants to visit the Library and Museum. We are really looking forward to it. No matter you political pursuasion, I understand it is an inspiring and wonderful experience. Have a great speech!
Charles Curran| 3.16.12 @ 1:01PM
Taterblade. Blacks book on RM begins there, and there is a lot of info on that part of California. Also a lot on Mrs. Nixion. www.alibris.com
Vic| 3.16.12 @ 12:26PM
Nixon is the cause of China's rise. Need I say any more!!
Richard H. Davis| 3.16.12 @ 1:31PM
You could say why you believe this nonsense...
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:31PM
The right wing of the republican party read Nixon out of meeting after he opened the door to China.
They knew what he did.
GregA| 3.16.12 @ 12:32PM
Ben, as you know, Richard Nixon is perhaps the most reviled of modern Presidents, but I think history already shows that he was a consequential and significant president who did much good for America and the world. I always enjoy your positive reminiscences about the Nixons, and this one about Mrs. Nixon is a touching tribute.
MHB3| 3.16.12 @ 3:18PM
I voted for Nixon, the best of choices. As usual, before this disgrace in the WH, there was always some good and some bad with Presidents. His domestic actions seemed to be a reach for popularity. Numbered among the worst: Block Grants to the States.
Minuteman78| 3.16.12 @ 5:15PM
Nixon, the MOST reviled? Have you paid any attention to the Constitution-trashing Marxist curently occupying the White House?
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:35PM
Richard Nixon was far more competent than any of those who would succeed him. He would be disgusted by the current crop of Republican candidates. He would be especially disgusted with the notion that you hurt this country to achieve victory. The idea of putting the US into default or another recession to beat the president because he's a democrat would have outraged him.
If Nixon had been willing to accept an ordinary re-election instead of wanting an overwhelming victory he would not have gotten in trouble, and even this Democrat says he probably would have been recognized as a near great president. Though Vietnam would have kept him from being rated a great president. Yeah, he was responsible for a full presidential term of war in Vietnam.
The authors of the American Spectator are not worthy to shine Nixon's shoes.
elixelx| 3.17.12 @ 7:14AM
Are you worthy enough to shine the shoes of those who are not worthy to shine Nixon's?
"All comparison is odious" Don Quijote
"But not half as odious as those who hate grace and elegance" (read Bob from District 9. Federal Inmate!)
Frank Hughes| 3.16.12 @ 12:34PM
Well-said Ben Stein with very appropriate comparisons.
Nixonfan| 3.16.12 @ 12:35PM
You won't read this, but she also had excellent taste and did more for the White House than Mrs. Onassis.
StanO| 3.16.12 @ 12:41PM
Thanks for a great article Ben. I actually have a "history" with Mrs. Nixon. As a young boy in Sacramento we went down to the Capitol to shake the First Lady's hand. As she and the Governor went down the wall of people they were alternating whom they shook hands with. Much to my chagrin (at the time) Pat Nixon skipped over me and then the Governor shook my little hand . . . as you know that would be Ronald Reagan!
Marv Hershenson| 3.16.12 @ 12:42PM
I just read Ben's article on Mrs. Nixon and it is an excellent read. The one issue is the cause of Watergate. This scandal was created by the former President. He was responsible for this disaster. Pure and Simple. One cannot white wash this disgrace.
MOS was 71331| 3.16.12 @ 1:45PM
For an accurate treatment of the Watergate scandal, read "Silent Coup: the Removal of a President" by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin. They compared all the post WG memoirs, interviewed most of the principals, and concluded that the true villains were John Dean and Al Haig. Nixon's hands were a bit dirty, but Dean and Haig, in pursuit of their individual and separate agendas, repeatedly lied to Nixon about what was going on. The unfortunate path Nixon followed was the one Dean and Haig deliberately prepared for him.
Claypoole| 3.17.12 @ 8:43AM
Have heard for years--but have never seen corroborated--the story that the Watergate break-in was for the purpose of stealing a book listing names of high-end (no pun intended) D.C. hookers, of which John Dean's wife had been one. Anyone out there know anything about this?
W| 3.17.12 @ 1:50PM
Look at Robert Colodny's "Silent Coup" about the break in. Also, Spiro Agnew's book "Go Quietly or Else."
The explanation that they broke into the DNC headquarters for political information is silly. What would you expect to find at political headquarters? Names of contributors, amounts of contributions, political propaganda. The Dems had a weak field in 1972, McGovern lost 48 states, I believe, or was it 55 states?
A two bit break in blown into a constitutional crisis. Too bad the Republicans did not have some fighters like Carville and Begala who would have said "It's all about politics, getting information, everyone does it, big deal" and the press would have ignored it.
Nixon should have burned the tapes. LBJ had everyone taped as did JFK. JFK and RFK had MLK under surveillance, imagine if Nixon did that.
Clinton lied under oath, suborned perjury, and molested women while President. But it was "only about sex" according the Dems and MSM. So it is not they lying but what you lie about.
W| 3.17.12 @ 1:50PM
Excellent book, MOS/71331
gearjammer| 3.17.12 @ 2:10PM
It was nothing. Nothing. Fast and furious, plundering of stimulus as political slush fund, thumb ing nose at immigration laws and responsibilities, Acorn, green job scams-give me a break. The Obamacare bill is an assault on the laws of the land-wide open bribery, and the collusion and conspiracy of media and democrats is plain treason. We own those airwaves let's take them back from a handfull of swank Newe Yorker aholes.
UpChuck.Liberals| 3.16.12 @ 12:43PM
Two words you will NEVER see in the same sentence in 40 years. Work and Obama. I remember RMN, he was, by far one of the BEST Presidents of the last Century and I'd say his position is safe going into this one too.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:37PM
I just saw those words in one sentence, just above.
Traveller| 3.17.12 @ 8:33PM
That's not a sentence...It lacks structure...
Hippie | 3.16.12 @ 12:44PM
No doubt Pat and Richard Nixon had many virtues and did many good things. But it is possible and preferable to tell their story without mischaracterizing US government domestic spending as all about taking from hard working taxpayers and giving to lazy bums. What about all the corporate tax expenditures? Nixon's Medicare program that pays non-working able-bodied seniors? http://thenixonblog.wordpress......r-seniors/ And, seriously, Mr. Stein, Watergate was trivial? I will grant that Nixon accomplished good things, including finally withdrawing from Vietnam and opening the door to relations with China, if you will simply admit that having your cronies burglarize your opponents' national campaign headquarters and then lying about it is illegal and immoral and if he hadn't resigned he should have been impeached. Most Americans get this, and you are approaching the status of a Holocaust denier to argue otherwise in a vain effort to rewrite history.
Tim the Enchanter| 3.16.12 @ 12:53PM
You're a hippie.
wally| 3.16.12 @ 1:03PM
A really stupid hippie to boot...
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:38PM
Not smart enough to be as dishonest as most American Spectator readers.
UpChuck.Liberals| 3.16.12 @ 9:51PM
But smarter than to submit to having a cranial/rectal inversion done by aliens like BFD9.
skip| 3.16.12 @ 11:06PM
Bob From District 9 | 8.9.11 @ 3:23PM:
"Try actually learning some facts, and when you realize 100% of our debt problem is the responsibility of three Republican presidents, maybe you will grow up to actually discuss it. Oh, yeah, Reagan/BushI/BushII. Look it up and believe."
skip | 8.9.11 @ 4:01PM:
"Per the Office of Management and Budget:
Federal Receipts for 2003: $1,782,314,000,000
Federal Receipts for 2007: $2,567,985,000,000
That is an increase of over 44% in federal revenues. When was George W. Bush president? When was the George W. Bush tax cuts?"
Still waiting for your smart enough to not be dishonest grown up discussion of some learned facts. Oh, yeah, you're just another idiot liberal liar.
Traveller| 3.17.12 @ 8:37PM
While Bush may have gone along with the "gang"...budgets originate in the House of Representatives...That is where you need to place blame...
skip| 3.18.12 @ 1:29PM
'Blame', or 'credit'? Or, the House is where you need to place 'responsibility'?
'100% of our debt problem' is the 'responsibility' of 'Reagan/BushI/BushII'? When 'BushII' and the 'House' combined to increase 'federal revenues' more than '44%'?
How is that possible when 'federal spending' is funded by 'federal revenue'? How is that possible when 'federal spending' in excess of 'federal revenue' creates 'debt'?
'Federal revenue' that was increased more than '44%' under 'BushII'?
MHB3| 3.16.12 @ 3:26PM
Attention hippie History revisionist:
1. I was paying close attention. No one ever was claiming that Richard Nixon either knew before or planned the Watergate break-in.
2. Medicare was a 1967 FDR-aping program of Lyndon Johnson.
AVCurmudgeon| 3.16.12 @ 6:32PM
I agree Nixon did much good, particularly in the Middle East and with China. We have not had a President since anywhere near as fluent in foreign policy. And even in my radical days always had a soft spot for Pat. That said,
No, Nixon did not plan the break-in, but you have to remember he was part of a "dirty tricks" culture at the RNC at the time, and it was not entirely ironic that his reelection campaign was CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President). But his real problem, so much so that it has become cliche, was the cover-up, including that fairy tale about Rosemary Woods and the "accidental" 18-minute deletion of the WH tapes. RMN owns that one.
But wotthehell, he was also a great poker player and you gotta love him for that. He would have taken Obama's lunch money.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 7:00PM
Nixon expanded Medicare in 1969.
Fred C. Voegtli| 3.16.12 @ 12:50PM
Mr. Stein, thank you for the article, accurate and heartwarming.
Fred C. Dobbs| 3.16.12 @ 12:52PM
I'll take Ben's word for Mrs Nixon, BUT, Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon was a liar (I have a SECRET PLAN to end the war - 1968) and a tax cheat who might well have been impeached for that and other crimes even without Watergate.
Mr. Republican, Barry Goldwater called Nixon "the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life."
Richard H. Davis| 3.16.12 @ 1:36PM
Yeah, but Nixon signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, brought the EPA into being, proposed the Earned Income Tax Credit and was arguably the last great liberal President.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:40PM
Yeah, he was a RINO. Right?
Stormzeye| 3.17.12 @ 6:34PM
Well said Richard. Nixon also took us off the gold standard and tried wage and price controls. Definitely the last great liberal President. Great on foreign policy, lacking on domestic policy.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:39PM
But Barry Goldwater was a RINO by modern Republican standards.
UpChuck.Liberals| 3.16.12 @ 9:54PM
Not even close on this one BFD9. Goldwater was to the right of Reagan.
Gisela Bresler| 3.16.12 @ 12:53PM
Mr. Stein, Thank you for the lovely tribute you have given Mrs. Nixon. She was indeed a beautiful person inside and out.
PEM| 3.16.12 @ 12:57PM
Khoshuver Binyomin - Oh? You don't know Yiddish. Well, I thought you wrote a nice enough piece, except you left out the part where Pat Nixon used her influence to have a daughter's dormitory room changed so she would not have to share the room with a Jewess. A shandeh af Pat Nixon, un a shandeh af dir.
emilio lizardo, PhD| 3.16.12 @ 1:09PM
Embarrassing how Ben grovels at the feet of such a pair of anti-semites as that momzer Tricky Dick and his Mrs.
MOS was 71331| 3.16.12 @ 1:59PM
If Richard Nixon was such a raving anti Semite, how do you explain all the support his administration gave Israel during the 1973 "Yom Kippur" war? And Pat Nixon having her daughter's dorm changed to prevent a Jewess roommate? Please. Next you'll tell us she returned fresh matzos to an A&P and complained they were stale!
What stupid garbage!
emilio lizardo, PhD| 3.16.12 @ 5:29PM
Nixon's anti-semitism is amply documented. And there's a difference between strategic support for Israel and Tricky Dick's loathsome personal feelings for the Jews, including toadies like Ben and swine like Kissinger
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:42PM
Bet Ben doesn't know, a poll in Israel ranked LBJ as one of the most pro-Israel if not the most pro-Israel presidents ever.
RPW| 3.16.12 @ 1:03PM
Happy Birthday Pat and Richard Nixon, God bless you both.
"Dub" Holston| 3.16.12 @ 1:23PM
How Nixonian of you, Mr. Stein, to cast a tribute to a truly nice lady -- and notable First Lady -- in such peevish and politicized terms.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:42PM
Thank you for making that point.
bwunderlick| 3.16.12 @ 1:29PM
How did Mrs. Nixon fight against racial prejudice her whole life?
conrad gaarder| 3.16.12 @ 1:39PM
Thank you, Mr. Stein. There have been many biographies of Richard Nixon. I would like to recommend the excellent "Richard Milhouse Nixon" by Roger Morris. Morris descibes Pat's life at the time she met Nixon. She was attending classes at USC, taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, and selling vegetables at a roadside stand. No "occupying", or as it should more rightly be called "taking up space," for her.
nomadc| 3.16.12 @ 1:42PM
Oh, Ben. You had me until you began using a celebration of Pat Nixon's birth to excuse the failings of her husband. There can be no doubt that Pat Nixon displayed great dignity throughout her life and was devoted to her family and country. But you demean her memory when you use her as a springboard to dismiss Watergate as trivia and portray Richard Nixon as an innocent victim of persecution. There is nothing trivial about a sitting president using the power of his office to cover up a criminal act or go after his political enemies. Richard Nixon had a brilliant mind but a flawed character.
Pat Nixon worked hard throughout her life, earned what she had on her own merits, raised two upstanding daughters and stood by her man in times of adversity brought on by his own failings. The same could be said of Hillary Clinton but I suspect that's a speech you will never write.
"Dub" Holston| 3.16.12 @ 1:57PM
Well said, nomadc. The piece does demean her memory.
Orygun| 3.16.12 @ 2:05PM
The so called crimes Nixon committed pale in comparison to what this administration is doing right now. Most of the so called stimulus money went to bail out his friends and cronies in private and political positions. If the truth is ever fully known this president will go down in history as the most shameful yet.
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:44PM
Your defense of Nixon is wiped out by your dishonesty.
UpChuck.Liberals| 3.16.12 @ 10:00PM
If, we have a country in 40 years you're comments will be spot on. Whereas if Bob has his way, we'll never know.
conrad gaarder| 3.16.12 @ 5:34PM
Oh, nomadc. You had me until you suggested that Hillary Clinton "earned what she had on her own merits." What exactly did this woman ever do before they got on the phone with Nida Lowey and said "sorry, Nida, Hillary wants to be senator?"
Claypoole| 3.17.12 @ 8:51AM
Hillary Clinton has spent her entire adult life trading humiliation for power.
Trent1280| 3.16.12 @ 2:05PM
How strange. Someone named Ben Stein fails to mention Richard Nixon's amply documented anti-Semitism. It is even in his own voice, on several of the Watergate tapes.
This cannot have been duplicity on Mr Stein's part. It must have been an oversight.
rpm| 4.6.12 @ 7:30PM
Stein worked for Nixon; maybe he knows more about Nixon than you do.
Dave Varner| 3.16.12 @ 2:06PM
I always enjoy reading your columns, Ben. You have a gentle way of telling your stories and it works well for you.
I am disappointed how you have used that gentleness to paint over the actions of President Nixon. He was involved in (at least) the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. He finally admitted that, in his own way, during the Frost interview.
Clemmie| 3.16.12 @ 2:13PM
Compare this humble woman who has more class in her little finger than what we have now in the WH. She never lectured us about what to eat either.
darlene casella| 3.16.12 @ 2:15PM
Ben,
Last week in Washington I attended “The Week That Changed The World” at the Institution of Peace which was co hosted by Ronald Walker and the Nixon Foundation. While remarks by Zbigneiw Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, General Scowcroft, Ambassadors Stapleton Roy and Richard Solomon, Robert Kagan and others were informative; your article “the Beautiful Pat Nixon” put a human face on history. It would have been wonderful to have your evocative abilities as part of that event.
Darlene Casella
La Quinta, Ca
matt | 3.16.12 @ 2:29PM
i think obama has pulled a nixon... my name takes you to my article
The American Spectator | 3.16.12 @ 2:30PM
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Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:46PM
You think Haliburton and Blackwater and the Carlyle Group are the "more deserving"?
Have you no shame?
Or are you suggesting we wipe out the support for the elderly, and leave them in poverty?
bwunderlick| 3.17.12 @ 1:48PM
American Specator spams its own comment sections?! HAHAHAHA, I love it!
Vasu Murti | 3.16.12 @ 2:36PM
Ben Stein writes:
"When Mr. Nixon gave his famous Checkers speech explaining that he was far from rich, that he had no slush fund, that he was barely solvent, his beautiful Pat was sitting right next to him. He said some words that are haunting about Mrs. Nixon. He talked about what a fine stenographer she was but that he did not put her on the Senate payroll the way many other Senators did with their wives.
"And he added that in their modest circumstances, Mrs. Nixon did not have a mink coat. What she did have was 'a respectable Republican cloth coat… and I always tell her she would look good in anything.'
"But the point was much bigger than that: Mrs. Nixon was a respectable, hard-working woman. She did not need a fur coat the show off her status. She was a respectable woman and all she needed was a respectable coat that would keep her warm in the cold Washington winters."
Nixon clearly wasn't making fur a class warfare issue, either, and it would likewise be a stretch to try and find an anti-fur animal rights message in the "Checkers" speech.
Nonetheless, you'd think Republicans would immediately understand animal rights.
"Oh, animals have the right to life!"
Or:
"Just as we pro-lifers oppose experimenting upon stem cells, the animal rights people oppose experimenting on live animals that are conscious and can suffer and experience pain."
During 1986 - 1988, when I had access to USENET, a nationwide computer network linking corporations, military bases, think tanks, universities, etc., I paid close attention to the abortion debate. The subject of animal rights always came up, albeit indirectly.
The mentality of the pro-choicers was that the fetus wasn't human, but rather some kind of lower life form--and that lower life forms couldn't possibly have rights.
When a pro-lifer discussed the potential humanity of the unborn, a pro-choicer replied, "MY CAT has more potential than that!"
One pro-choicer said sarcastically, "Maybe the kid (the fetus) should be raised as a vegetarian. After all, don't cows have the right to life?"
Another pro-choicer, Oleg Kiselev, upon hearing the pro-life argument that brain waves can be detected in the unborn as early as six weeks, pointed out that animals also have brain waves. He then added, "Excuse me, while I eat my veal stew."
In the spring of 1988, Stephen, a grad student in Mathematics at UC Berkeley, pointed out that chimpanzees share 99 percent of their DNA with humans, and so, to argue that species membership alone makes life worth protecting "is to fetishize DNA."
A pro-lifer responded: "If it'll please you, I will agree to protect anything that is 99 percent human."
To this, Stephen responded: "Okay. How about 50 percent? That would probably bring quite a few species into the net."
Stephen admitted, "I don't know what makes it acceptable to kill animals for meat. Some people think it's wrong, and I have no logical answer for them. But it's not murder, and I believe abortions are analogous. Yes, it's killing -- but it's not murder."
Stephen admitted his argument was "not a mathematical proof, but there is no mathematical proof that will resolve the abortion debate."
In the August 1988 issue of Harper's magazine, in an article on animal rights entitled "Just Like Us?" bioethicist Art Caplan was worried: if we give rights to animals, will we automatically have to give rights to the unborn, to be consistent?
"That's going to be the end of abortion!" he exclaimed. But many in the online community in the 1980s were already aware of the similarities between these two causes.
On USENET in the fall of 1986, pro-life student John Morrow of Rutgers University compared abortion to slavery: Roe v. Wade denied rights to an entire class of humans merely on account of their age and developmental status, just as the Dred Scott decision of 1857 denied rights to an entire class of humans based on the color of their skin.
Dave Butler of Tektronix in Oregon responded: "Abortion and slavery? Not even close. A fetus isn't human. If you believe it's wrong to eat meat, should your morality be imposed upon everyone else?"
"Not even close" has become a popular slogan with pro-choicers. It even appeared on the headlines of most San Francisco Bay Area newspapers in November 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected.
"Not even close" is not a new slogan. Peter Singer writes in Animal Liberation that when Mary Wollstonecraft, a forerunner of today’s feminists, published A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, "her views were widely regarded as absurd."
Thomas Taylor, a distinguished Cambridge philosopher, tried to refute Mary Wollstonecraft by demonstrating that if women could be given liberation, then animals could be given liberation, too. And since this is "absurd" it must be equally "absurd" to give women liberation.
Taylor titled his parody, "A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes."
"Not even close" is the "A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes" of the late 20th and early 21st century, because it accepts blindly and without question the insurmountable prejudice that other animals couldn't possibly have rights.
It is this prejudice which we in the animal rights movement are struggling to overcome.
The pro-choice mentality hasn't changed since then. On AlterNet (a liberal headlines email newsletter), on February 20, 2009, in an article entitled "why get freaked out?", pereztx writes on the subject of abortion:
"the thought of killing an innocent little life form and tossing them in an incenerator or trash might be the hang up other than that I can't think of why they might freaked out. This article writer probably then sheds tears during a PETA meeting about a chicken being killed"
Again, the mentality of the pro-choicers was that the fetus wasn't human, but some kind of lower life form--and that lower life forms couldn't possibly have rights.
This led me to conclude that if there's any constituency out there which ought to be sympathetic to animal rights, it's pro-lifers.
Killing animals for food, clothing, "sport," etc. IS unnecessary.
Cruelty to animals leads to cruelty to human beings.
"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them," is a quote attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci. "We live by the death of others. We are burial places!
"I have since an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men will look upon the murder of animals as they look upon the murder of man."
Linnaeus, who introduced binomial nomenclature (naming plants and animals according to their physical structure) wrote:
"Man's structure, external and internal, compared with that of other animals shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food."
Predators exist in the wild, but that does not imply man must automatically imitate them. Cannibalism and rape also occur in nature.
Robert Louis Stevenson, in his book In the South Seas, noted no difference between the "civilized" Europeans and the "savages" of the Cannibal Islands.
"We consume the carcasses of creatures with like appetites, passions, and organs as our own. We feed on babes, though not our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear."
Pro-lifers who eat meat are sabotaging their own cause!
In a 1979 essay entitled "Abortion and the Language of the Unconscious," contemporary Hindu spiritual master Ravindra-svarupa dasa (Dr. William Deadwyler) wrote in terms of a secular slippery slope argument, familiar to pro-lifers:
"A (spiritually) conscious person will not kill even animals (much less very young humans) for his pleasure or convenience. Certainly the unconsciousness and brutality that allows us to erect factories of death for animals lay the groundwork for our treating humans in the same way."
Vegan author John Robbins writes in his Pulitzer Prize nominated Diet for a New America (1987):
"The way we treat animals is indicative of the way we treat our fellow humans. One Soviet study, published in Ogonyok, found that over 87% of a group of violent criminals has, as children, burned, hanged, or stabbed domestic animals.
"In our own country, a major study by Dr. Stephen Kellert of Yale University found that children who abuse animals have a much higher likelihood of becoming violent criminals."
A 1997 study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) reported that children convicted of animal abuse are five times more likely to commit violence against other humans than are their peers, and four times more likely to be involved in acts against property.
Russell Weston Jr., tortured and killed twelve cats: burned and cut off their tails, paws, ears; poured toxic chemicals in their eyes to blind them; forced them to ingest poison, hung them from trees (the noose loose enough to create a slow and painful death.) He later killed two officers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
Jeffery Dahmer staked cats to trees and decapitated dogs. He later he dissected boys, and kept their body parts in the refrigerator. He murdered seventeen men.
Kip Kinkle shot 25 classmates and killed several in Springfield, Oregon. He killed his father and mother. He said he once blew up a cow. He set a live cat on fire and dragged the innocent creature through the main street of town. His classmates rated him as "Most Likely to Start World War Three."
As a boy, Albert De Salvo, the "Boston Strangler," placed a dog and cat in a crate with a partition between them. After starving the animals for days, he removed the partition to watch them kill each other. He raped and killed thirteen women by strangulation. He often posed bodies in a shocking manner after their murders.
Richard Allen Davis set numerous cats on fire. He killed all of Polly Klaas' animals before abducting and murdering Polly Klaas, aged twelve, from her bedroom.
After sixteen-year-old Luke Woodham mortally stabbed his mother, killed two classmates and shot seven others, he confessed to bludgeoning his dog Sparkle with baseball bats and pouring liquid fuel down her throat and to set fire to her neck. "I made my first kill today," he wrote in his court-subpoenaed journal. "It was a loved one... I'll never forget the howl she made. It sounded almost human."
Theodore Robert Bundy, executed in 1989 for at least fifty murders, was forced to witness a grandfather who tortured animals. Bundy later heaped graves with animal bones.
David Berkowitz, "Son of Sam," poisoned his mother's parakeet out of jealousy. He later shot thirteen young men and women. Six people died and at least two suffered permanent disabilities.
Keith Hunter Jesperson, "Happy Face Killer," bashed gopher heads and beat, strangled and shot stray cats and dogs. He is known to have strangled eight women.
He said:
"You're actually squeezing the life out of these animals... Choking a human being or a cat--it's the same feeling... I'm the very end result of what happens when somebody kills an animal at an early age."
Carroll Edward Cole, executed in 1985 for an alleged 35 murders and reputed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, confessed that his first act of violence was to strangle a puppy under the porch of his house.
Robert Alton Harris murdered two sixteen-year-old boys, doused a neighbor with lighter fluid and tossed matches at him. His initial run-in with police was for killing neighborhood cats.
Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, which launched the modern day environmental movement, wrote:
"Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is whether its victim is human or animal we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity."
In a December 1990 letter to Eric Mills of Action For Animals, vegan labor leader Cesar Chavez similarly observed:
"Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people.
"Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cockfighting, bullfighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves."
Mother Teresa, honored for her work among the poor with the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote in 1992 to Marlene Ryan, a former member of the National Alliance for Animals. Her letter reads:
"I am praying for you that God’s blessing may be with you in all that you are doing to create concern for the animals which are often subjected to much cruelty. They, too, are created by the same loving Hand of God which created us. As we humans are gifted with intelligence which the animals lack, it is our duty to protect them and to promote their well being.
"We also owe it to them as they serve us with such wonderful docility and loyalty. A person who shows cruelty to these creatures cannot be kind to other humans also.
"Let us do all we can to become instruments of peace—where we are—the true peace that comes from loving and caring and respecting each person as a child of God—my brother—my sister."
Nearly 75% of the grain grown and 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. are used by the meat industry. (Audubon Society)
Over 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow grain for livestock. (Greenpeace)
It takes nearly one gallon of fossil fuel and 5,200 gallons of water to produce just one pound of conventionally fed beef. (Mother Jones)
Farmed animals produce an estimated 1.4 billion tons of fecal waste each year in the U.S. Much of this untreated waste pollutes the land and water.
"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and sub-division developments combined."
--Philip Fradkin, in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York
Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals.
By comparison, urbanization only affects three percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world's land resources.
Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.
The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 34 pounds of topsoil.
Thirty-three percent of our nation's raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only two percent of our resources will go to the production of food.
According to the editors of World Watch, July/August 2004:
"The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future--deforestization, topsoil erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of disease."
Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights similarly says:
"Merely by ceasing to eat meat
Merely by practicing restraint
We have the power to end a painful industry
"We do not have to bear arms to end this evil
We do not have to contribute money
We do not have to sit in jail or go to
meetings or demonstrations or
engage in acts of civil disobedience
"Most often, the act of repairing the world,
of healing mortal wounds,
is left to heroes and tzaddikim (holy people)
Saints and people of unusual discipline
"But here is an action every mortal can
perform--surely it is not too difficult!"
Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, similarly says in the February 1995 issue of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future (a peace and justice periodical on the religious left):
"...the survival of our planet depends on our sense of belonging--to all other humans, to dolphins caught in dragnets to pigs and chickens and calves raised in animal concentration camps, to redwoods and rainforests, to kelp beds in our oceans, and to the ozone layer."
The number of animals killed for food in the United States is nearly 75 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds.
"For modern animal agriculture, the less the consumer knows about what’s happening before the meat hits the plate, the better. "If true, is this an ethical situation? Should we be reluctant to let people know what really goes on, because we’re not really proud of it and concerned that it might turn them to vegetarianism?"
—Peter Cheeke, PhD, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004
Christians (who have no problem using secular arguments on non-Christians when it comes to protecting the unborn), are usually the first to cry "MOVE" when presented with secular arguments against the killing of animals for food, clothing, "sport," etc. -- e.g., the eating of meat.
These Christians should read Every Creature a Word of God by Annika Spalde and Pelle Strindlund. (Vegetarian Advocates Press, Cleveland, OH, 2008)
"This book is beautifully written and carefully argued. It would be the perfect book for a Bible study or church study group," writes Stephen Webb, professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wabash College, and author of Good Eating and On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals.
The authors, Annika Spalde (a Lutheran minister) and Pelle Strindlund, are married animal and antinuclear activists respectively, and involved in the Lutheran Church in Sweden. They write:
"This is a book about being Christian in a world shared with other beings. We do not live here alone. We have brothers and sisters. 'The animals,' wrote the American monk Thomas Merton (1915-68), 'are the children of God.' What does a spirituality that affirms God's love for all creatures look like? That is the central question of this book.
"The animal rights movement is a recent development, but Christian concern for animals is not. We see it in the stories of medieval monks who helped hares and deer escape from hunters, and of desert hermits who offered water to thirsty donkeys. In these pages you will discover the rich history of animal-friendly living and theology within the Christian tradition...
"This book is a result of years of reflection on our relationship to other species...over coffee in church halls, fellow worshippers have challenged us: Haven't we been given animals for our use? Didn't Jesus eat meat? Such questions have forced us to ask if and how compassion for animals can be an embodiment of the Christian faith.
The book is also an answer to the question we have received from many of our friends in the peace movement: How can you focus on animals when so many humans are suffering?"
wally| 3.16.12 @ 3:33PM
What a wind bag loon you are...
Trent1280| 3.16.12 @ 5:21PM
Three or four loons' worth, I should think.
AVCurmudgeon| 3.16.12 @ 6:36PM
Must have had that one all written up and copied ready to paste somewhere that has no space limitations. I'm sure there's a point in there somewhere worth paying attention to, I just can't stay awake long enough to find it.
skip| 3.17.12 @ 2:02AM
Vasu Murti | 2.9.12 @ 4:25PM:
"I'll be honest with you: we humans can't end abortion until we cease to kill animals."
This genius can't seem to comprehend PETA is an acronym for people eating tasty animals.
I bet he's from district 9.
beebop2| 3.17.12 @ 6:14PM
I got a finger cramp trying to reach the end!
Bob From District 9| 3.16.12 @ 6:51PM
Write your own article.
J.E. Dyer | 3.16.12 @ 2:50PM
What wonderful reminiscences. I was a child during the Nixon administration, and felt like the world had ended in August of 1974. But one of my strongest memories of the time is Pat Nixon standing with the president through his final days. With her contained, quietly expressive demeanor, she seemed the embodiment of absolute grace. What a lady.
Marie Brasseit| 3.16.12 @ 4:36PM
What a wonderful tribute to a gracious lady!
By today's standards, Richard Nixon was a saint!
Thank you for your article Mr. Stein!
Trent1280| 3.16.12 @ 4:59PM
A "saint"? What are you talking about? Mr Nixon was an un-indicted co-conspirator in a criminal enterprise. Had he not been pardoned by Pres Ford, he would have certainly been jailed -- as were his Attorney-General and a dozen others.
His greatest foreign legacy was the opening to China. His greatest domestic, creating the EPA. He was brilliant in many regards, but so crippled by paranoia and Aspberger's that he betrayed his own project -- to say nothing of his wicked anti-Semitism.
"Saint"? Don't be absurd.
If there is a saint, it was Pat. But even in death, there was a strange cold distance between them. I have been to the Nixon Library, and stood in front of the headstones. There are two, not one. They are separated by an unusual distance. Most couples share one headstone, and one site. Such is love.
Consider why Mr Nixon chose differently, and you have part of the coldness therein. A very strange man.
emilio lizardo, PhD| 3.16.12 @ 5:32PM
Coldness indeed. How fitting that Tricky Dick now finds himself in a flame suit where it NEVER gets cold.
Trent1280| 3.16.12 @ 5:06PM
Marie: if you doubt this claim as to the oddity of their headstones, and the distance between, I would recommend a visit to Yorba Linda, or to this website. At either, you may see for yourself. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-.....&GRid=1281
Rick| 3.16.12 @ 6:29PM
Even at 100 she still looks good!
Herman Cueva | 3.16.12 @ 6:43PM
Shalom brother Bob. What a nice article, your soul showed up in it.
Shabbat Shalom
nyccpa| 3.16.12 @ 7:10PM
Ben:
Your postings on TAS always brightens my day.
This posting....was one of the best.
Your loyalty......repeated loyalty.....to the Nixons is inspiring.
I admire you and the Nixons
Jeff Jones| 3.16.12 @ 7:43PM
Fantastic...enlightening. Thanks!
EP| 3.16.12 @ 8:19PM
Heartfelt and gracious, Mr. Stein. And your sincere words of appreciation are not at all wasted on this one, unique woman. I always loved Pat Nixon. Thank you!
Martha B| 3.16.12 @ 9:04PM
Thank you for this lovely portrait of Pat Nixon. I learned so much about her from your story. I will now read more on her and President Nixon. Thanks again.
charles parlato| 3.16.12 @ 10:58PM
Dear Ben,
Beautifully said and so true including your observations about Richard and Julie.
Charles
sally| 3.16.12 @ 11:10PM
Very good article except the nonsense about how "perfect" Julie N. Eisenhower is: She was a huge Obama supporter and did what she could to ensure his election.
I wonder what she thinks of Obama now?
I can tell you this: Her parents would be rolling in their graves over his shenanigans which have left the U.S. Constitution in shreds.
Carol Blackburn| 3.17.12 @ 10:00AM
Thanks Ben Stein for the beautiful verbal portrait of Pat Nixon, someone who gave so much and is overlooked.
Oldefarte| 3.17.12 @ 11:33AM
Pat Nixon was the epitome of the old saying that .....BEAUTY IS NOT SKIN DEEP. She was truly a beautiful person inside and out, and her children are a tribute to that obviously!!!!!
Kathie| 3.17.12 @ 11:38AM
Ben,
Thank you for a beautiful tribute to a beautiful lady.
LAF| 3.17.12 @ 11:51AM
God Bless President & Mrs Nxon and God Bless you Mr Stein for such a beautiful tribute.
Susan Benton| 3.17.12 @ 12:04PM
God pless the Nixons, and God bless you Mr. Stein. Although I am a historian and might quibble with you on some fine points, I learned a lot from this article an intend to read you future writings.
m schulzke | 3.17.12 @ 12:06PM
Mr. Stein, Thank you so very much for having expressed what I have felt about Richard and Pat Nixon for all these years.
As a young girl, I followed him as a Congressman, a distinguished fighter for freedom, before he was chosen to be Eisenhower's running mate. I've always believed that the trivialities over which he was forced out of office did not compare in any way to various deeds of his contemporary presidents -- but that his having been a fighter for freedom made him a marked man, a target of the left media and political hacks.
What you have said here about the Nixons is what I am sure many have thought. Thank you again for saying it.
Chef Schnauzer| 3.17.12 @ 5:29PM
Ben-
Thank you, God Bless you. I used to care what the people who kick sandcastles thought and did. I don't. Drawing inspiration from the Mrs. Nixon and the President while I try and move myself closer to God are more important.
Gretchen| 3.17.12 @ 8:46PM
Ben,
A superb tribute to a great and gracious lady!
Alvina | 3.17.12 @ 10:05PM
Ben Stein, Thanks for the article on Pat Nixon.
I still believe the Nixon's are one of the best
President that United States has ever had.
mzk1| 3.18.12 @ 6:09AM
I think this is the first time I agree with Alan Brooks. And it's nice to see the knee-jerk Stein-haters thinking for a change.
I would disagree that Nixon was correct regarding China, and let Israel suffers (intentionally) at the start of the Yom Kippur war, but on the whole I agree. Compare Watergate to Whitewate/Filegete; retroactively, peopel imprisioned over Watergate were political prisioners.
(My Mom vote for Nixon, my Dad for Kennedy, but later regretted it. Both considered themselves liberals and Democrats. I would worked for Democrats for Nixon is 72.)
sirbourbon| 3.18.12 @ 1:20PM
"She [Pat Nixon] would probably have known better than to have wage and price controls, too ..." Bennie Stein
Didn't Richard "tricky dickie" Nixon impose "wage and proce control" illegally, unconstitutionally on the nation?
R Allshouse| 3.18.12 @ 1:30PM
"She would probably have known better than to have wage and price controls, too."
I was a participant in the 1971 Nixon wage freeze and price controls. It made that year of grad school even more interesting with a full time night job to pay the bills. Now I'm retired. God is good, all the time.
sirbourbon| 3.19.12 @ 10:34PM
Huh?
Daniel Williams| 3.18.12 @ 3:11PM
I know you're a big fan of RMN, and not much could change your mind. But to call him a great peacemaker is quite a stretch. Drug War, anyone?
JTT| 3.18.12 @ 11:43PM
Whatever one thinks about Richard Nixon (my own thoughts are more on the negative side), I think his relationship with his wife is truly touching. He was as devoted to her as she was to him. I remember the images of how he wept when she died and, indeed, he felt his life was over and he followed her into the dark only a year later.
David Wasmundt| 3.19.12 @ 12:04AM
Thank you Ben Stein for such a poignant and courageous article, written about one of the most elegant and graceful first ladies that ever occupied the White House. I was moved by the historical context of Pat’s life and her graciousness in the good times and her beautiful dignity and grace that overshadowed even the terrible onslaught of the liberal media and it's friends in running her husband senselessly out of office.
Thank you for having the courage and the clarity of reason to remind us of how the American work ethic helped build a nation and how it's diminishment by the social pathology of liberalism threatens to destroy the peace and prosperity that was paid for with the blood and treasure of our fathers and preserved by patriotic leaders such as Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan. Most men that have made a mark for the good of mankind owe their accomplishments to strong and loving wives like the beautiful Pat Nixon.
Tarr| 3.19.12 @ 9:39AM
Dick was too loyal. A dem president would have ditched Hunt and the rest. A ruthless Camelotonian would have cut the throats of his inner circle and saved his skin.
Dick, we hardly knew ye...
RMN AND PAT RIP..
richard gallun| 3.19.12 @ 1:14PM
you discredit yourself and Pat Nixon as well with your superfluous shots at the Obamas. Eulogy doesn't mix well with politics, particularly partisan politics.
Sherry Chastain| 3.19.12 @ 6:00PM
Mrs. Nixon has been so underated both as a beauty and public figure. She was as kind and unaffected as anyone I ever met. Her stature will only grow in the years to come.
Rick| 3.19.12 @ 7:45PM
I can't believe that she still looks so good! She doesn't look a day over 60! How is she mentally? Can she still care for herself? Is that why we don't see her more often?
sirbourbon| 3.19.12 @ 10:57PM
Nixon legacy:
He was an anti-free market anti-energy executive that created the Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA to harrass businessmen and deny them the abiltliy to take the nation out from under foreign energy dependence.
Nixon's EPA "protects" the bureacrats much like the mafia sells "protection" which was extortion.
With that act he hurt America deeply by placing her at the mercy of bureacratic thugs.
Nixon sold out the people in China to a life under communism. China today threatens world peace and is a state sponsor of terrorism. George H.W. Bush solidified this treachery with his visit. The Tianaman Square massacre didn't bother Bush but it was Nixon that began it all even though he was supposed to be an anti-communist.
I wonder where Ben Steins's head is; buried in the sand of the shores of the Yalu?
Nixon said that wage and Price controls was like clamping down a lid on a rising head of steam. It eventually blows and creates economic havoc. He once said when asked about W&P controls and would he impose them and Nixon responded that Diocletian tried them and failed; it would have the same result in America. Once in office Nixon imposed them!
Is your head still in the sand Ben?
More Nixon legacy:
OSHA
55 MPH mandates
POW-MIAs were left behind in North Vietnam.
He lost a winnable war despite having campaigned on winning it in 6 weeks.
He should have been impeached, tied and sent to jail.
Pat was too good for that jerk.
POST American| 3.20.12 @ 12:31AM
"--America better watch it
or in a couple of decades
we're going to be a minstrel
show --for RED China."
-Gore Vidal
(1985)
----ER ---make that Globalist 'M-powered'
-------------------------------------------RED China
-------And that 'M-power'
--------------------------was OUR power
SO back-engineer and follow those crumbs
-----CFR Rockefeller
---------------Harriman
---------------------Acheson
-----------------------------Kissinger
--------------------------------------'NICK's ON'!
(--or is it 'NIX---ON'?)
Anyway, stick with COOLIDGE
---------------------Eisenhower
---------------------------and GOLDWATER.
CJM2| 4.4.12 @ 6:57PM
So what's your point PostAmerican????? And what has this to do with PAT Nixon?
John F. Carlyle| 3.23.12 @ 3:41PM
I can't believe that it has been over 15 years since I had the privilege of visiting the Nixon Presidential Library and to this day I still remember the sights and smells of the Pat Nixon Roses in full bloom throughout the grounds. But what really left an impression on me was the epithet on Pat Nixon's grave -- Even when people can't speak your language, they can tell if you have love in your heart. So true, so simple, yet so powerful.
God Bless You Ms. Nixon and your family on the centennial of your birth and you truly were a special and treasured gift to the world!!
Ray Magallanes| 3.26.12 @ 10:15PM
May I remind all, the article was about Pat Nixon,
not her sick husband. May she rest in peace.
CJM2| 4.4.12 @ 6:54PM
I liked Pat Nixon too---so why did Richard Nixon abuse her? And he did; that's a fact.