Why Was Richard Nixon So Good At Foreign Affairs?

Why do you think you were

good

at

foreign

affairs

? You had never been abroad before, except in the war. You came from a relatively isolated town, if not a provincial town in Southern California. You would have had limited exposure to the world. issues and yet from the beginning you seem to have an instinct or an intuition that certainly continued throughout the rest of your career up to the presidency, which makes what made you

good

at it first, I would say goes back to my upbringing at Woodier uh the study of history the study of philosophy uh the fact that even long before I went to Hooder my interest in geography deals with

foreign

affairs

not just where countries are and all that kind of stuff uh and also frankly , goes back to Quaker background, a passion for peace, you know, I, uh, I've been in wars, uh, I was in a war, of course, and I was exposed to Korea and Vietnam, etc., and so on, as a politician. leader, uh, but there's nothing that's been more of a motivating force in my life than doing something, whether in my service, whether in the House, the vice president or the president of the Senate, that would make the world possibly more peaceful, uh, me.

I know that many of my critics will probably, justifiably based on my record, say, "Well, you certainly haven't acted that way in your decision-making, but what I've tried to do is be quite pragmatic, recognizing that it's not enough." Just to be in favor of peace, you have to recognize that there are evil forces in the world that are not in favor of peace, that there are aggressive forces and that, unless you stop that aggression, you are not going to have true peace PE , you have to recognize that if in the name of peace you now turn around in the face of an aggressor who can buy peace not even in your time, but perhaps in our time, but guarantees war at a later time, Munich is the example prize.

And so, while I was for peace as a Quaker, uh, I guess so, I have to say that I was always against appeasement, not because I was for war, but because I was for peace for the generation during a century instead of just peace in my own time. And that's what motivated me and, consequently, going to Europe was a fantastic opportunity for me to see what made the world tick, to see what motivated people, to be able to understand them beyond their intellectual training, although I always felt It has caught the attention of me and many.

Observers find it interesting that for someone who in some cases with Americans or in American political situations feels uncomfortable or uneasy, it seems that you have an intuitive instinct for foreigners, you know how they think, you say the right thing and you do the right thing. The right thing you can negotiate, you can deal with them in an intuitive way. There is some? Have you ever thought about it that way? Well, yes, let me say it, since apparently you're too polite to say there is. Many people say that I like foreigners more than Americans and there are many people who say that they cannot understand that when I go abroad, even after the trauma of Watergate and so on, I am received so favorably and so well in some places. like China and France and Austria, etc., etc., no, I think maybe that goes back to the early years.

One of the great benefits. Can I say that one of the consequences of living in that small closed Quaker community was the first? exposure to a splendid faculty that had a world view and not a parochial view and growing up with people with Japanese, with Mexicans, Koreans and Chinese, let me tell you something interesting, although it is not particularly irrelevant to your question, as I remember. vividly from my college days, this was in 1933 34 at that time the Japanese had invaded China, you know, in manua and I remember two of my best friends, one was Chinese in Woodier's college class and the other was Japanese, these two practically came to blows uh in the assembly that we were having when that topic came up and I was able to see some of the great forces that fight each other in the world now let's go to the feeling about foreigners uh I think that if I identify with them it is because seeing them as people, as individuals, rather than just sort of impersonal leaders who represent nationalist views, let me put it more precisely, they are all very aware of my attitude, my Soviet attitudes, my anti-communist attitudes, but when I went to the Soviet in 1959 together I insisted with Pat and it was difficult to do, but I insisted from the Russians that I had the opportunity to go to the plants to meet people, go through the streets and so on, now, of course, they surrounded me. pretty good, but I found the Russians to be warm and strong, they are people I wanted on our side instead of the other side, they are good people, I admire them the same way with the Chinese, uh uh, when I went there, great, great . you can think of a China with a billion people, you can think of them like Ma, you can think of them as desperate communists and so on, or very foreign, or you can think of them for what they really are, frankly, they're more like us than to us. the Russians uh because they laugh in a similar way at the same jokes uh in some way or another I quite sympathize with the Chinese with the Russians too, but in a different way I guess what we're really saying here is that fundamentally uh I think that Every individual counts and I think whether it's China, Russia, Indonesia, Ghana, or Cairo, wherever you go, if you can break through the official structures and get to see the people and, in particular, the people who don't belong to the elite.

The Elite class is the same all over the world, they go to the same parties and drink cocktails etc and have the same snobbish characteristics everywhere and they are not and frankly although I have many friends among them, You are not my tea plate, but if you can go down and meet the shopkeepers, the workers and the students, and the rest actually talk to them, you will discover that there is a great common bond that unites us all. together and now I'm talking too idealistically for the pragmatist I'm supposed to be, but that's the only way we're eventually going to bring this world together.