European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 2, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday May 2, 1994 commentary j the stars and stripes Page 13 . Apple As Richard m. Nixon must have hoped it would his funeral turned into a rite of reconciliation bringing to a fitting end his 20-year struggle to rehabilitate himself after the disgrace of resignation. The nations secular Leader president Clinton and the closest thing the country has to a National religious Leader the Rev. Billy Graham came a to Yorba Linda to preside at the service As if to signify a National readiness to let bygones by by gongs a if not to forget watergate which would be impossible then to set it in the context of the accomplishments that also marked the Nixon years. Quoting a hymn that he said he had heard in Church last week Clinton said a Grant that i May realize that the trifling of life creates differences but in the higher things we Are All  Nixon struck something of the same not in 1990 when he returned to this Small Orange county town where he was born a in the House my father built a As he wrote in the first sentence of his memoirs. Dedicating the Library built by his friends next to the House near the Shady spot where he was buried on tucs Day he said he had a Many memories some of them Good some of them not so  a in the five Days after the 37th president died in new York on april 22 at the age of 81, politicians historians and Ordinary americans have spoken a great Deal Les Ness and his divisiveness. There is less talk about Richard Nixon As an evil schemer and More of him As a tortured soul whose damaged personality never gave him a moments real repose or Chance to savor his successes. A his intimates have Long spoken that Way. In a 1986 interview with prof Kenneth w. Thompson of the University of Virginia the  Harlow  the a Wist Republican operators of Nixon a Era said this a i suspect that my gifted Friend somewhere in his youth maybe when he was very Young or in his teens got badly Hurt by someone he cared for very deeply and trusted totally a a Parent a relative a dear Friend a Lover a confidant. From that experience and from then on he could not Trust  some people View All of this As an outburst of hypocrisy. There have been a few primal screams of rage at the re baiting Nixon the Nixon of the enemies list the Nixon who carried the War into Cambodia the foul mouthed Nixon of the watergate tapes. But in 1994 they Are the exception not the Rule As they were 20 years ago. A a part of the change stems of course from the elegiac nature of the occasion. Few like to speak ill of the dead. Many former foes had been softened too by Nixon a extraordinary persistence in immersing himself in the great events of the time and refusing to yield the global stage even after his Public humiliation As the Only Man in the annals of the White House to be forced to quit. As 19th-Century British prime minister William Gladstone said of his great rival Benjamin Disraeli Richard Nixon was a a Man who was never  a every reverse every defeat is to him Only an admonition to wait and catch his Nixon s Opportunity of retrieving and More than retrieving his position a Gladstone said. People like people who fight Back. The passage of Lime since the dramatic events of the Early 1970s a the trip to China detente with the soviet Union the glacially slow withdrawal of the United states from Vietnam the shooting at Kent state and the unfolding of watergate and the other a White House horrors a has also prompted a new toting up of the debits and the credits. Arid that has proved a lot More flattering to Nixon if still More than a Little conditional. With the smoke of Battle dispersed it has been possible to see More clearly the changes the former president wrought including the transformation of the Republican party with Power shifting from the Eastern moderates to Southern and Western conservatives the development of television As a powerful political tool with the direct Appeal of the checkers speech in 1952 and the Campaign debates in 1960, and the fraying of the Bonds of Trust that once linked the american Public and their leaders. In his new Book Nixon a life Regn cry Jonathan Aitken a conservative member of the British parliament of Fer cd this upbeat judgment a a because of his shakespearean complexity he Wilt probably continue to polarize biographical opinion after his death just As he polarized political opinion throughout his career. A this life has so far rolled for More than 80 years like a Long and fascinating River occasionally passing through strange ill smelling pools sometimes babbling along the shallow currents of political expediency yet most often bowing into mysteriously still Waters in which there lie hidden  but there is something More at work Here than Mere revisionism. , has been hardened by its steady diet of  Lias spawned so Many other Gates most recently Whitewater Gate that it no longer seems unique to _ be. The plea a give him a break a is heard at least As often As that older cry a get rid of the bum a if americans Are now More ready to forgive that is at least partly because their leaders have Given  much to forgive. C Newy ofttimes a  a Richard Nixon a death catches the evolving search for a True american foreign policy at a Point of some embarrassment a some of it undue a to the late president.  a the detente with the soviet Union including the opening to China that helped incline a the Kremlin Quot to detente in the first place is no longer regarded As the bold breakthrough that it was considered at Nixon a White House time. It involved formidable intellectual and political courage on both the soviet and american sides not least for Nixon who had built a career on a dark Domestic form of anti communism. As he practice detente it did not end political confrontation but it made safer the nuclear confrontation that was always the Rawest and most dangerous aspect of the cold War. But nowadays Nixon a detente is increasingly seen As a transitional time buying phase. For besides its undoubted accomplishments it added to the legitimacy of communist Power and lengthened its life it helped a creaking structurally impaired strategically Over extended soviet system to postpone its ultimate facing up to reality. Meanwhile Moscow used the �?T70s to pursue its expansionist fancies. _ a Nixon was guided by a traditional gut belief m balance of Power. He built american global strategy on containment of the soviet Union partly by confrontation and partly by partnership. Both parts inevitably conferred status and preference on the partner. The real breakthrough came Only with Ronald Reagan. He was a Radical who stigmatized the notions of 1 coexistence parity and partnership As artifice for communism and the soviet Empire. Reagan confrontation in ends and Means in ends he meant to terminate the a evil Empire and in Means to pile on the pressure military technological and economic. One Side in the continuing american debate feels to this Day that the ultimate enemy was nuclear War in which Case detente in Nixon a harder version or in Jimmy Carters softer version was an essential investment in dispute solving and nuclear sanity. This is where Nixon built his reputation for toughness and savvy. The other Side feels the ultimate enemy was communism in which Case the purpose of policy was to find strategically effect live and politically acceptable ways to do the enemy in. People rightly argue Over what were the foreign sources and what were the Domestic sources of the disintegration of soviet Power. Reagan had the advantage of having the visible phase of the collapse begin on his watch. That trims Nixon s achievement to doing the Best he could in the different earlier circumstances where the possibility of an ultimate solution was simply not within mainstream imagining. But it was no Small feat for Nixon to open up with Moscow Beijing and in the Middle East. His contrib Stephens. Rosenfeld Tion was Large and needs no apology. Lie recognized and responded to the global nuclear anxieties that were the controlling High policy reality at that time. He treated these anxieties by political dialogue and by arms control. The latter accords including Salt i and the abm treaty did not All hold up Well to later political weathering but they provided valuable Comfort at the time. Nixon a Vietnam policy remains a nest of ironies. Obsessed with avoiding defeat and. National Humilia Tion he thought Cut and Ruh would invite the Kremlin to maraud elsewhere. He devised a four year withdrawal strategy meant to leave South Vietnam standing with american Aid but defending itself. But what he had to do in Cambodia Laos Haiphong and Hanoi to make this strategy work exhausted his political capital and Congress repudiated Aid North Vietnam took Over. A defeat did inflict humiliation and encourage further Kremlin marauding Nicaragua Angola Afghanistan. Those of us who found the results an acceptable Price to pay for leaving an unbearable War elected Jimmy Carter. Those who did not then elected Reagan. Nixon was right in the Short term but wrong in the Long. Defeat did Cost us but not permanently or mortally and Vietnam lived on As a Pesky but not unmanageable Issue. Victory Cost Moscow far More it encouraged soviet Imperial overstretch which helped bring Down communism. T washing out Posl