The actor recalls Richard Nixon’s history and applies a lesson to Donald Trump.
To the Editor:
Re “What Ford’s Pardon of Nixon Means (and Doesn’t Mean) for Trump,” by Garrett M. Graff (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Feb. 20):
As a working actor, I have tried to find the good inside villains and the darkness in heroes. However, on TV, when I was growing up in the 1950s, there were only good guys or bad guys. Good guys always won.
It was a natural transition from believing in the good guys on TV to believing in the good guys in government. Naïve, yes, but after World War II, didn’t the free world think of the United States as the good guys? That is what we were told and that is what we believed.
Then came the ’70s and Watergate. We watched as slowly, painfully and inevitably the mask was pulled off the face of our president and his henchmen. Not all our leaders were good guys. In truth, they could be corrupt, ruthless and power hungry.
When Nixon climbed up the helicopter steps after resigning, I said, out loud: “Please say something! Please acknowledge and apologize for what you have put us through.”
Nixon turned, gave the victory sign and was gone. I felt viciously gut punched. Surely, millions of others felt the same. Nixon was pardoned, and the gut punch to our body politic turned into a festering cynicism about our leaders, which has only grown in the years since.
Nixon should have been held accountable. And so should Donald Trump. Another gut punch may prove fatal.
Glenn Close
Bozeman, Mont.
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February 24, 2023 at 06:41PM
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