In spite of Watergate, did Richard Nixon have more effective presidency overall than Jimmy Carter?

Answer 1

That is a much too broad question to be answered fully in anything less than book-length. But let me give you a quick idea of my stance.
Nixon exacerbated Cold War tensions by sinking the US deeper into war in Indochina. It is true that his visit to China hammered the last nail on a Sino-Soviet alliance, bringing the Communist bloc into disarray in a time of US weakness and thereby saving face before the inevitable withdrawal. Still, Nixon and Kissinger are responsible for the erosion of democracy throughout the globe. Their secret bombing of Cambodia destroyed civil society there and secured the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge. The Nixon-Kissinger administration was also behind the toppling of Chile's Salvador Allende. Furthermore, the escalation of bombing in S. Vietnam cost the lives of millions of people. The combination of crimes of war, support of tyrants and massive war spending (devaluation of the dollar) led to the obliteration of US credibility in international affairs, the erosion of world wide democracy and created a precedent for the expansion of executive powers and immunity that allowed for the last quarter century of US preventive wars.
Carter on the other hand was relatively benign. To his credit, Carter consolidated a detente in the nuclear arms race with SALT II. On the other hand, he failed to fix the myriad of craters left by US bombs on the road to world democratization. A fact we are still paying for. His half-hearted attempts at solving the Palestinian-Israeli crisis at Camp David, his support for a program training a Mujahadin army in Afghanistan should be remembered when when thinking about 9/11 and, truth be told, his diplomatic overtures throughout the world had much less to do with good intentions and most to do with the weakness of the US.
That said, the man's role in the OAS and the Carter Center's distinguished role in Peace brokering make Carter stand out as a worthy ex-president. Proving perhaps that the constraints special interests place on the US executive effectively make good people into tyrants. Nixon on the other hand was only capable of treachery and evil. The US population should look at his presidency as the beginning of the most shameful chapter in US history. As if the Vietnam war had not been a cruel enough period, Nixon taught US presidents that they are not only exempt from international law, they are also unbound by the mostly symboilc checks and balances stipulated by the constitution.

In other words... when you think imperial presidency, think Reagan, Bush I and II and even Clinton; but most of all think Nixon.

Answer 2

Carter was and still is a decent man, with high moral standards. Nixon was a crook. Aside from that, Nixon was a good president. he opened China to America. He got us out of Vietnam (took him to long). But he got us out.
Carter was scarred by the Iran hostage thing and it still bothers our govt to this day.
Actually Carter came to the presidency better prepared than any other man, through extensive pre-planning and staffing.

Answer 3

I would say yes. Nixon extricated the United States from a war it was unwilling to win, stood firm against the Soviet Union without endangering the uneasy truce which was the Cold War and drew a line in the sand domestically. By the latter I mean that the clock was not going to be rolled back to the society of the '50s but the counterculture was not going to transform America into its image.

Answer 4

Oh, YES!! Nixon was far more successful with foreign policy and with the economy. With Carter, we had interest rates on real estate, for example, of 18% plus!! Inflation was amuck during the Carter administration, and we had one crisis after another including gas shortages which raised prices out of sight for that period of time.

Chow!!

Answer 5

Worst--Obamaroid Obama---human beings have died in his Benghazi-gate and speedy&livid. next worst- Carter Carter---everybody continues to be loss of life over his failure with Iran. His financial equipment as stagnant as Obama. way forward--Nixon----Watergate stained his presidency--no person died nevertheless. A civil rights hero and ended the Vietnam conflict. extra efficient than LBJ

Answer 6

jimmy was effective alright, double digit inflation, double digit interest rates, double digit inflation.
however i thank him for his work today with habitat for humanity.