“We didn’t start the fire” was an iconic song written by American artist billy Joel in 1989. The song, among some of the hottest of 1989, reached the top of the billboard hot 100 and received a Grammy nomination for song of the year. Its lyrics include brief allusions to over 100 headline events between 1949, the year of Joel’s birth, and 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front. It was listened to and discussed by millions around the world for decades, and is still played frequently on 80’s radio stations today. So, nearly three decades after its release, one must wonder; what makes this song so significant?
Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” official music video.
Each event stated in the song had some sort of significant impact on the world, whether it be social/cultural, political, or even military. Billy got the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a studio talking to a friend who was 21, when a conversation stemmed about how it was such a rough time to be growing up as a young adult. Joel thought back to a time in the 60’s when he was growing up through the Vietnam War, civil rights movements, and times of immense political tension, and he got the idea to write “We didn’t start the fire” based on events that had happened in his life, and the fact that history has always been a dynamic timeline of social, political, cultural events. The lyrics, “we didn’t start the fire, it was always burnin since the worlds been turnin” represents how the world has always been, and always will be filled with these significant, time changing events.
In class we looked at this song and chose one topic from the lyrics to study and write about. Out of hundreds of topics to choose from, I wanted to write about something/someone that I was genuinely curious about. Originally I chose Elvis as a topic, but soon after learning about the watergate scandal in class I shifted my focus to Nixon.
Nixon and Elvis Presley in December 1970: “The President & The King”
Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of The United States, serving from 1969 until 1974, when he resigned from office, being the only US President to do so. Before now the only thing I knew about Nixon was the fact that he was the talking head in a jar on the show Futurama. However, little did I know he was actually one of the most infamous US presidents in all of history, due to his shady involvement in the watergate scandal.
President Nixon, photographed in 1973.
The watergate scandal, “one of the grossest abuses of presidential power in history”, took place on July 17th, 1972. Nixon’s men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to wire tap telephones and dig up dirt on opponents for the re election campaign. 5 burglars were caught and convicted. Originally it was established that Nixon had no involvement in the watergate scandal, however, as soon as he learned of it he did everything he could to cover it up, refusing to give up tape evidence from the White House, firing the lead FBI prosecutor from the case, then later providing edited transcripts of the tapes with over 18 minutes of missing audio.
News paper articles from 1973, covering Nixon’s shady involvement in the Watergate scandal, including his cover up of evidence and discharge of lead FBI prosecutor on the case.
After lying about irrefutable evidence for months, through a series of trials it came out that Nixon’s campaign head ordered the burglary, and Nixon paid off the burglars, five members of the Republican Party, for their silence. On August 9th, 1974, facing impeachment and prosecution for his crimes, Richard Nixon stepped down from his position as president, and was pardoned by President Ford for his acts of treason.
“Nixon resigns” – New York Times Article, August 9th, 1974.
Nixon in his final address to the nation, August 9th, 1974.
“After Nixon resigned in 1974, he engaged in a very aggressive war with history, attempting to wipe out the Watergate stain and memory. Happily, history won, largely because of Nixon’s tapes.” (Bob Woodward) Today Nixon is remembered as being the spider that got caught in his own web of lies.
Political cartoons of Nixon following his shady involvement in the infamous Watergate scandal.
As depicted by the political cartoons above, many label Nixon to be a crook, as his legacy has been forever tainted by the watergate scandal, the infamous White House tapes, and the fact that he was the first president to ever step down due to committing treason. However, although Nixon is most well know for his involvement in the watergate scandal, he truly was a natural born politician, and extremely well liked in the United States throughout his first term as president. Today Nixon is portrayed as this slimy crook, but in reality he achieved a lot in his term of presidency, which often goes unnoticed and discredited when discussing his infamous legacy.
During his presidency, Nixon evoked mass change in US diplomatic and Foreign Policy, successfully implementing Innovative environmental regulations, de-escalating the cold war, starting the war on cancer, ending the draft, and ending the decade long, widely protested, conflict in Vietnam. So, after accomplishing so much in only 5 years, does Nixon truly deserve to be solely remembered as the crook responsible for Watergate?
“His own worst enemy” – political cartoon of Nixon in the wake of Watergate
In 1972, President Nixon participated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the USSR as part of an effort to improve the strained Cold War relations. On top of that, Nixon also signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, helping to calm U.S.-Soviet tensions by limiting the nuclear threat amongst the two world powers. Through these changes in Cold War foreign policy, following a time of immense tension all throughout the 60’s, nixon was able to make progress towards establishing world peace, something no president was able to do before his time. On top of improving US-Soviet relations, arguably shifting the coarse of the Cold War, President Nixon was the first President to visit the People’s Republic of China, announcing a desire to open normalized trade relations that still exist today and fuel the North American consumer economy.
Nixon shaking hands with general secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, after signing the strategic arms limitation treaty.
President Richard Nixon shakes hands with Chinese leader Mao Zedong on Feb 21, 1972
However even more notably, Nixon ended mandatory conscription and signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. At the time, as U.S. casualties had mounted throughout the conflict since 1965, American support for the war had deteriorated, anti war movements were rampant, and by the fall of 1972 there was major pressure on the Nixon administration to withdraw from the war. The signing of the Paris Peace Accord was a major victory for Nixon, gaining him major support from people, both young and old, all across the country.
A news paper article announcing the cease-fire in Vietnam.
Vietnam War veterans, celebrating the end of the war as they head back home to the US.
following the 1972 election it was clear that Nixon was well liked by most Americans, retaining his presidency with over 60% of the popular vote, and winning 49 states. However, on top of being well liked during his presidency, we cannot forget that Richard Nixon was the first US president to seriously acknowledge the growing concern of global warming and dedicate significant government funding to begin the war on cancer.
When most people think of Richard Nixon, the term “environmentalist” isn’t the description that leaps to mind. Conversely, Nixon has a strong eco-legacy, doing many wonders for the environment during his time as president. Most notably, Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency, a department of the US government in charge of overseeing the protection of the environment, and he also established the Clean Air Act Extension Act of 1970. Furthermore, Nixon passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, signed the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and proposed the safe drinking water act of 1974. Nixon provided the US new legislation governing protection of the air, water, and wilderness, which influenced other countries around the world to adopt similar economic policy. Also, As I mentioned above, Nixon was also the first president to engage full scale war on cancer. Nixon dedicated 100 million dollars to begin a cancer treatment campaign that led to the creation of national cancer centres and antidotes that helped fight the deadly disease.
A photo that showcases the significance of Nixon’s contributions towards establishing the EPA and strengthening environmental regulation in the US.
Nixon is partly responsible for saving millions of lives through kick starting cancer research, preventing wide spread dumping and air pollution, and ending mandatory conscription. If anything, that is worth be mentioning when discussing the topic and legacy of Richard Nixon. However, whether you’re on either side of the argument, Nixon will ultimately go down as a villain and forever be branded as a crook in the book of history. Nixon, despite his major political achievements, had such a long, drawn out public demise that his other accomplishments often go unnoticed, and are overshadowed by the fact that he was the first president to commit treason and step down from head of office. Although he accomplished a lot during his presidency, revolutionizing foreign relations, setting a foundation for innovative environmental policies, establishing new government health programs, and even advancing women’s rights, you can’t erase the fact that he lied to an entire nation of people, denying any involvement in the Watergate Scandal, while clearly breaking the law.
Although Nixon is most well known for watergate, and is widely scrutinized due to his involvement in the scandal, he was well liked, and created a lot of positive change in the United States during his presidency. In my opinion, following the whirlwind decade of the 60’s, Nixon put the US on a path towards peace and prosperity, and although history portrays him as a villain, he did a lot of great things during his presidency that make him an extremely commendable person and politician.
The visual below is a political cartoon that I made, which depicts how Nixon is tainted as a crook, and solely remembered for watergate despite the wide range of accomplishments he achieved during his presidency. Today Nixon is branded as the worst president in US history, however, I believe he’s truly misrepresented in history, as all of his accomplishments and his true legacy seem to have died along with him.
