Sharing My Story

In 1972 Nixon was running for re-election.
His Democratic opponent George McGovern,
primarily an anti-war candidate, was a
unelectable alternative. However I was
not enthusastic about Nixon. He traveled
to Red China in February seeking a
diplomatic breakthrough with that
country. In a highly publicize photo taken
during the trip we saw Nixon dedicating
a toast to his host Chairman Mao.

Chairman Mao has the horrific honor of
being the greatest mass murderer of the
twentieth century. Only fellow communist
dictator Josef Stalin comes close to rivaling
the sheer immense of Mao genocidal mania.
It bothered me very deeply at the time even
for supposed good benefits that Nixon would
dignify saluting this despot. One thinks of
Neville Chamberlin in 1938 returning from
a meeting with Hitler in Munich waving a
piece of paper announcing “Peace in our time.”

I couldn’t vote for Nixon or McGovern and
so I voted for the third party candidate
John Schmitz (American Independent Party).
While Schmitz had no chance of being elected
I couldn’t support Nixon in my first Presidential
election as a voter.