The Nixon Myths of Right and Left

“Had Nixon been at least arrested and fingerprinted, a later President like Trump might not have been so tempted to break rules.” – Michael Beschloss, historian

“At the time of Nixon’s pardon, America had just lost a war, the economy was in the tank, the energy crisis was strangling us, and the Soviets were on the march around the world. Ford had to make a hard call, and he made it correctly, for the sake of the nation. A heroic call.” – Tom Nichols, national security specialist

The above quotes best symbolize the most prominent myths of left and right regarding Gerald Ford’s decision to grant a presidential pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon. Amidst the mass shuffling of political positions over the last seven years, this one has largely held. To the left, the pardon was a tragic mistake that damaged the rule of law and paved the way for Trump. To the right, it was necessary action to get the country to move on from Watergate and deal with the crises of the 1970s.

It helps that in this case, the two myths can fuel each other. While Nichols himself has long been an NTC (Never Trump conservative), Trump defenders will gladly seize upon the pardon as precedent against charging a former president. Meanwhile, the left has been minimizing or downright denying the crises of the 1970s ever since … well, 1980.

However, there are problems with both myths.

The Myth on the Left: The Precedent of a Nixon Trial

From the moment Trump became president, the left has been looking to prosecute him – and I would argue he was giving them reasons for that before he was even elected. The left also asserted numerous parallels to Nixon, and this is when the issue of Ford’s pardon came back to the fore.

In the left’s view of the world, a Nixon trial would have established the precedent that presidents can be charged for their actions in office (albeit not during their tenure in office). Thus, so the theory goes, Trump would have known he could be charged for his crimes. At the very least, his accusations of an unprecedented political hit job would fall on deaf ears.

I must say, the naïveté behind this is breathtaking. One could simply argue that Donald Trump’s followers have little or no concern for actual truth, let alone “precedent.” Certainly Trump himself is more than willing to shatter the truth for his own ends. The notion that Ford allowing Nixon to be tried would stop Trump from making the accusations he is now making is laughable at best.

Moreover, the Nixon trial would not have ticked all the precedent boxes the left thinks it would have. For one thing, Nixon himself was barred by the 22nd Amendment from running for another term in 1976. So the notion of indicting even a potential presidential candidate, let alone an actual candidate and front-runner for the Republican nomination, was never a factor for Ford. In addition, both Ford and Nixon were Republicans. It would be another two and a half years before the Democrats would be in a position to control the Department of Justice – assuming they would have won in 1976 (more on that below).

Richard Nixon was neither Ford’s partisan nor his intraparty opponent. Thus, Trump could still call the indictment unprecedented, because in fact it is – and this comes from someone who still considers it very, very necessary.

The Myth on the Right: The Chaos of a Nixon Trial

Nichols distilled this almost perfectly. He nicely listed everything else going on in the 1970s and why, to many Americans, adding a Nixon trial to the list would simply be too much. The trouble with that begins right when Ford took office in August of 1974.

For starters, America had not yet “lost a war.” South Vietnam was still around in the summer of 1974, in part due to the promise of American aid should the Communist North invade. Before the pardon, Ford’s political position was strong; his approval rating was 71%. No president could match that three months away from a midterm election until George W. Bush. The pardon dropped his rating by more than twenty points and all but ensured a Democratic landslide in November. We know the Democrats of 1975 completely stymied Ford’s attempt to keep our promise to South Vietnam. We don’t know what effect forty more Republican House members might have had. We do know that four more GOP Senators would have given the minority the ability to filibuster in the upper chamber.

Ford became one of the weakest presidents since Andrew Johnson. It was a political miracle that he came as close as he did in the ensuing election of 1976. A Nixon trial would have spilled a lot of press ink, to be sure. It also likely would have meant a Ford Administration in a much stronger position in Congress – and possibly winning a second term. Ford certainly was hoping the country could move on with the pardon, but a Nixon trial might very well have let the Republican Party move on and put Ford in a stronger position to address “the economy … in the tank, the energy crisis … strangling us, and the Soviets…on the march around the world.” Instead, the Democrats – in the midst of their deepest isolationist phase since Grover Cleveland – won a veto-proof majority in the House and nearly that in the Senate.

The Unique Danger of Trump

The use of Nixon as a political example has become so frequent that I have already reminded everyone that he is, in fact, dead. We are once again in a situation where I have to reiterate that 2023 is not 1974. For all of Nixon’s flaws, he refused to try hanging on to power in the way Trump did. Nor did Nixon have the cult-like control of the GOP that Trump has.

Whether we like to admit it or not (and too many would like to forget), Trump is a unique danger to the republic. Putting Nixon on trial in 1974 wouldn’t have slowed Trump down now … or America back then.