Quotations and comments from "1999 - Victory without War" by Richard Nixon
"In its two-hundred-year history the United States has lost a total of 650,000 lives in war. Therefore, in the minds of Americans, no rational leader could contemplate starting a war that would kill tens of millions of people."
But the leaders of the Soviet Union, which has lost over 100 million lives in civil war, two world wars, purges, and famines in this century, have a different perspective. < > While the Soviet Union has been a victim in war, its government has made victims of millions of its own people. < > they do know it can be survived."
"Our loss in Vietnam, followed by the spread of Soviet power throughout Indochina, was a devastating strategic blow to China, which suffered twenty thousand casualties in a 1979 war with Soviet-backed Vietnam that would not have occurred if South Vietnam had not been defeated by the communist North."
" .. in Hangzhou in 1972 < > we planted a three-foot-high sequoia that I had brought with me < > In October 1987 < > the tree {was} ninety feet tall. Even more significant, they said that forty thousand saplings from the tree were thriving in seven Chinese provinces."
Chapter three, "How to Deter Moscow", reveals Richard Nixon's astonishing grasp of the details of nuclear deterrence in regard to the Soviet Union. It also calls to mind Richard Nixon's reputation as a skilled poker player as a young man, and why this skill provided a significant amount of money for him at times.
Richard Nixon finished this book on January 9, 1988, his 75th birthday. By this time he had been to the Soviet Union 6 times, 3 times as a private citizen. In the next 6 years he would visit 4 more times.
"1999" refers to the end of the twentieth century. "Victory without War" might be a deliberately ambiguous statement that could apply to either the Soviet Union or to America.
"For the balance of this century and the beginning of the next, the dominant players on the world stage will be the United States and the Soviet Union." Richard Nixon repeatedly expresses this assumption and that Mikhail Gorbachev will be the Soviet leader for years into the twenty-first century.
However, only two years after Richard Nixon had finished this book, the Berlin Wall had come down and all the countries of Eastern Europe were throwing off their communist governments. In the next 2 years, by 1992, the Soviet Union itself would be falling apart and collapsing with surprisingly little violence. It is quite possible to believe that Richard Nixon's thought provoking, and unexpected, series of 4 or 5 books had something to do with this historical outcome.
It might be that the concept of geopolitical history and international relationships, that was being constantly advanced by Henry Kissinger and his likely student, Richard Nixon, was a challenge and a rebuttal to the more old-fashioned ideas of Marxist-Leninist historical determinism. Neither Henry Kissinger nor Richard Nixon seems to have explained geopolitical history very clearly; but, perhaps geo refers to particular places on earth and political refers to the people who live in those places and everything about them. This way of looking at the world is far more complicated than Marxist-Leninist determinism. And Richard Nixon excelled at details.
"The search for meaning in life has gone on since the beginning of civilization. It will never end, because the final answer will always elude us. < > Of this we can be sure: Meaning cannot be found in sheer materialism, whether communist or capitalist. < > It is because they addressed spiritual values and fulfillment that the world's great religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism - have inspired people for centuries." This is the first of 3 times that Richard Nixon refers to the world's great religions in his books, but for some reason does not include Hinduism.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
Experimental Blog # 194
Brief comments on 6 more of Richard Nixon's books:
About four years after Richard Nixon resigned from the American presidency in August of 1974 he completed his rather massive memoir, "RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon". His book is well over 1000 pages. Although it is difficult to imagine that very many people today would carefully read the entire book, it seems to be a very good source book for many conversations and other events of Richard Nixon's presidency. However, there is no mention of Elvis Presley. It is well known, and it can be easily verified, that Elvis Presley visited President Nixon at the White House and brought him a present of a 45 caliber colt revolver!
About two years after his memoir was completed, Richard Nixon, in 1980, published his third book entitled "The Real War". He later wrote that he wrote this book because he was afraid that America was losing the Cold War.
Richard Nixon's fourth book came out in 1982 and is entitled "Leaders - Profiles and Reminiscences of Men Who Have Shaped the Modern World". In the third paragraph of this book Richard Nixon writes. "For the last thirty-five years I have had the exceptional opportunity, during an extraordinary period of history, to study the world's leaders firsthand. Of the major leaders of the post-World War II period, I knew all except Stalin.". Some of Richard Nixon's best writing is in this book as he describes his encounters, conversations, and sometimes friendships with at least 23 world leaders.
Towards the end of this book Richard Nixon writes, " < > I believe that before the end of the century we will probably elect a woman to the vice presidency and possibly to the presidency." A prediction that obviously did not come true. Otherwise, the book ends somewhat tediously.
All of Richard Nixon's books, except #s 5 and 6, have extensive indexes. "Real Peace" is only 107 pages, and in this book Richard Nixon repeatedly emphasizes the impossibility of war between the "superpowers", that is, America and the Soviet Union. The book came out in 1984.
"No More Vietnams" is perhaps Richard Nixon's most controversial book; maybe sometimes the worst and sometimes the best. He writes, "The Vietnam War began when World War II ended." "France had ruled all of Indochina - Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - for over half a century." Some people might say that the Vietnam War began in 1887, when France declared Indochina to be a part of the French empire.
"In January 1969, the United States had 542,000 troops in Vietnam. By July 1970, as our operations in Cambodia came to an end, our troop level was down to 404,000. < > By July 1972, we would have only 45,600 troops stationed in South Vietnam."
"On April 30, 1975, with Soviet-built tanks rolling through the streets of Saigon, South Vietnam surrendered. Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas had conquered Cambodia thirteen days before. Hanoi-backed Pathet Lao forces took over Laos a few days later. All the dominoes in Indochina had fallen."
Richard Nixon's ninth book, "Seize the Moment - America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World", was published in 1992. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s Richard Nixon was, in spite of his age, going to Russia every year. As the communists lost control, Russia almost seemed to have become Richard Nixon's favorite country, after America, of course.
About four years after Richard Nixon resigned from the American presidency in August of 1974 he completed his rather massive memoir, "RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon". His book is well over 1000 pages. Although it is difficult to imagine that very many people today would carefully read the entire book, it seems to be a very good source book for many conversations and other events of Richard Nixon's presidency. However, there is no mention of Elvis Presley. It is well known, and it can be easily verified, that Elvis Presley visited President Nixon at the White House and brought him a present of a 45 caliber colt revolver!
About two years after his memoir was completed, Richard Nixon, in 1980, published his third book entitled "The Real War". He later wrote that he wrote this book because he was afraid that America was losing the Cold War.
Richard Nixon's fourth book came out in 1982 and is entitled "Leaders - Profiles and Reminiscences of Men Who Have Shaped the Modern World". In the third paragraph of this book Richard Nixon writes. "For the last thirty-five years I have had the exceptional opportunity, during an extraordinary period of history, to study the world's leaders firsthand. Of the major leaders of the post-World War II period, I knew all except Stalin.". Some of Richard Nixon's best writing is in this book as he describes his encounters, conversations, and sometimes friendships with at least 23 world leaders.
Towards the end of this book Richard Nixon writes, " < > I believe that before the end of the century we will probably elect a woman to the vice presidency and possibly to the presidency." A prediction that obviously did not come true. Otherwise, the book ends somewhat tediously.
All of Richard Nixon's books, except #s 5 and 6, have extensive indexes. "Real Peace" is only 107 pages, and in this book Richard Nixon repeatedly emphasizes the impossibility of war between the "superpowers", that is, America and the Soviet Union. The book came out in 1984.
"No More Vietnams" is perhaps Richard Nixon's most controversial book; maybe sometimes the worst and sometimes the best. He writes, "The Vietnam War began when World War II ended." "France had ruled all of Indochina - Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - for over half a century." Some people might say that the Vietnam War began in 1887, when France declared Indochina to be a part of the French empire.
"In January 1969, the United States had 542,000 troops in Vietnam. By July 1970, as our operations in Cambodia came to an end, our troop level was down to 404,000. < > By July 1972, we would have only 45,600 troops stationed in South Vietnam."
"On April 30, 1975, with Soviet-built tanks rolling through the streets of Saigon, South Vietnam surrendered. Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas had conquered Cambodia thirteen days before. Hanoi-backed Pathet Lao forces took over Laos a few days later. All the dominoes in Indochina had fallen."
Richard Nixon's ninth book, "Seize the Moment - America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World", was published in 1992. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s Richard Nixon was, in spite of his age, going to Russia every year. As the communists lost control, Russia almost seemed to have become Richard Nixon's favorite country, after America, of course.
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