the years of decency and clean living

When first got the film Nixon on DVD I could not wait to put it in the DVD player and start it -- even though I had things I had to finish doing, I put in the movie anyway, and kept checking back in with it, between tasks-and-lists-and-notes....It is a powerful film. 

You almost can't watch it, and yet you cannot stop watching and listening.

President Nixon was, it could be argued, a tragic figure, in the classical sense.

He did Right Things.  He did things that were right.  Correct.  Good for the country and international relations.  He did good things.

There's one scene in the film where he does a press conference and he announces withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, and the peace settlement.  And these questions about Watergate start popping out from various locations in a small "sea" of reporters -- Watergate, Watergate, Watergate.

President Nixon leaves the press conference -- back in his office, he's really, really ticked -- so frustrated, and hurt -- "I ended the war, I opened China..."  all-they-want-to-talk-about-is-Watergate!! -- And what person on this planet would be unable to relate to that, in some way -- the propensity for those that judge us to not want to talk about the 10, or 20, or 600,000 things we've done well, but only to talk about the one thing they think we didn't do right.

And during the Watergate "siege" time (fall, 1973, I think) Pres. Nixon got sick -- rushed to the hospital, and the disease he had was phlebitis. 

I remember that.
It was like -- "What is phlebitis?"

"There's a cancer on the presidency."
--John Dean.

Remember that, too.

"The most serious constitutional crisis in our country's history" -- after the President fired Archibald Cox -- (the Saturday Night Massacre)...

In the film, Pres. Nixon talks to his aides:  "In the old days, people knew how to hold power, how to use power, how to set limits.  They wouldn't have torn this country apart over a third-rate burglary..."  And he adds something like, Now all these guys have such a superficial outlook-- they just wanna look good to the press, & "chase girls"...

President Nixon wanted to do good, the same as the candidates my parents voted for instead of him:  Humphrey in 1968, and McGovern in 1972.  I learned the sort of nuanced fact that all serious (electable) presidential candidates are good men (or women) who want to do good, when I was six years old.  I said to my cousin Laurie, "Who are your parents going to vote for, for president?"  And I was shocked and shaken when she replied, "I don't know, probably Goldwater."

("Goldwaterrrrrrr??????!!!!!!!")

I had assumed that since my mom and dad were voting to re-elect President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, that he was the Good Guy and this Goldwater person must be the Bad Guy.  (When you're six years old, you may be forgiven, I think, for having a simplistic view of things.)

I had just assumed that Laurie would answer, "Johnson."

I don't think I thought it all the way through at that time, but later remembering that funny little conversation with my 10-year-old cousin helped me understand that the "other" candidate is not a Bad or Terrible person -- he just isn't the first choice for the job, at your house....

Nixon is riveting -- and it's like, you almost can't stand it.  Because it's soaring triumphs; dedicated, well-meaning hard work; vibrant, out-sized ambition and love of country; frustration; paranoia (though as the bumper sticker used to say, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you"); resentment; feelings of being an "outsider"; fear; courage; tragedy; comedy -- a life. ...

And if people watch the film who weren't born yet when these events occurred -- people who did not experience the 60s and 70s -- then how does it impact them?...I don't know...I look at it and go, "I remember that, I remember that....Was That really true??..."

...and the next morning, thinking about it, "Oh my gosh!  Painful!"

Then thought -- it's kind of like the old joke, or adage, where the guy goes to the doctor and moves his arm a certain way and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this."  And the doctor says, "Well if it hurts when you do that, then don't do that."

If viewing the film, Nixon, is painful, then maybe I should stop watching it....Just don't put it into the DVD player.  (It isn't going to start playing by itself. ...)

No. ... It's too good to not-watch it.

It begins with the Watergate burglars having dinner June 17, 1972, before the "job."

"The years of decency and clean living -- are over," says one.

The first time I watched that early part in the same room, those names -- those names -- came washing over my head:
Frank Sturgis
James McCord
Virgilio Gonzales
E. Howard Hunt
G. Gordon Liddy (if only Pres. Nixon had avoided these people with NO FIRST NAME, ONLY AN INITIAL...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Eugenio Martinez
Bernard Barker

I had this great feeling of connection, and -- closure, maybe -- hadn't heard those names or thought of these people in such a long time, and I felt -- happy, for some reason.
And asked myself, What are you happy to see these Watergate burglars??  Been missing 'em, have ya?

And, sitting on my bed taking notes, thought, "Well -- Watergate burglars are -- people, too...."

-30-