50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in: A good time to recall that Nixon also had achievements

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There is, not surprisingly, a barrage of media attention highlighting the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in the nation's capital, which occurred on June 17, 1972, and brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon and his administration. The golden anniversary of that tarnished episode in American history is not only generating multimedia recounts but also personal recollections of the scandal and its wide-ranging repercussions, including Nixon's resignation nearly 26 months later.

While the historians dwell on what happened and why — as in a fascinating, fresh account in a book titled "Watergate: A New History" by Garrett M. Graff — the significant accomplishments of Nixon during his six-plus years in office warrant some accolades.

To be sure, Nixon had many shortcomings, highlighted by chronic mendacity, spite, vengefulness and criminality, among several venal features. Those deplorable characteristics, especially his lawbreaking, have helped place him in the lower echelon of academic-based presidential rankings, but they should not obscure some of the signature achievements that he and his administration accomplished, along with their impact here in Minnesota.

While not exhaustive, the following constitutes a few of the achievements before and even after Watergate arose:

• The war: Nixon ran his successful campaign for president in 1968 on the premise that he had a "secret" plan to end the Vietnam War. It turned out to be quite clandestine, if it ever existed at all. But he did manage to withdraw U.S. troops, ultimately getting the nation out of a quagmire that seemed endless at the time, although it came at the cost of significant loss of life and expenditure of the Treasury as he and his team first escalated the war to new heights.

• The draft: Nixon also ended the military draft. In late 1969, the administration started a lottery, which lasted for several years, to determine who would be drafted. But it faded away in 1973 as the war in Southeast Asia ended and the nation went to an all-volunteer military that has been the practice since.

• China: Nixon also opened the diplomatic doors of the country to China, despite his long aversion to that Communist country. His landmark visit to the land early in 1972 led to recognition of the nation some 23 years after the Red takeover. While relations have waxed and waned between the two countries, it took an old anti-China hawk like him to lead to a new era of reduced outright belligerence.

• The voting age: Nixon was not beloved by younger voters, who generally skewed to the Democratic Party. But he did manage to secure a majority of the young voters in his 1972 re-election campaign — not surprisingly, since he won by such a landside, carrying more than 60% of the overall vote. One factor that may have boosted his appeal to younger voters, not that he needed that constituency to win, was his promotion of a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18. While the president does not play an official role in constitutional amendments, his administration supported the move, which also was adopted by Congress and ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states in 1971 — with Minnesota among the first five to do so — as the 26th Amendment, providing for all 18-year-olds to be eligible to vote in all elections.

• Title IX: Another measure that appealed particularly to younger people was the enactment of Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act, which the Nixon administration threw its weight behind in 1972. That measure required the elimination of financial and other disparities in athletic opportunities for women in schools receiving federal funds, which is just about all of them. That provision has been heralded as a major boost for the women's movement in general, with participation in intercollegiate athletics on a more equitable basis than in the past.

• The Supreme Court: Nixon had a major role in reshaping the Supreme Court, with four appointees, all in his first three years. They were a mixed bag, ranging from the "law and order" conservative Warren Burger, a St. Paul native, to replace Earl Warren, the retiring chief justice and liberal icon. But he redeemed himself by naming Harry Blackmun — Burger's St. Paulite "Minnesota Twin" — to the bench. Joining as another conservative, he evolved into a member of the liberal wing in most respects, highlighted by his authorship of the Roe v. Wade decision establishing the constitutional right to an abortion, a ruling Burger joined, along with five other members of the tribunal at the time.

Nixon's two other appointees were William Rehnquist, a staunch conservative who later modified his views a bit after he replaced Burger as chief justice, and Lewis Powell, a moderate-conservative with a respect for precedent, a trait seemingly lacking in some of the conservatives currently in the court. The president's lower federal trial and appellate courts judges — some of whom are still around, such as Donald Alsop, a senior federal trial judge in St. Paul from New Ulm — were generally regarded as competent and capable, cut from the conventional conservative cloth of the times.

• The EPA: While not known as an environmental guru, Nixon supported the legislation creating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was shepherded by his domestic policy adviser, John Ehrlichman, one of those at the heart of the Watergate scandal. The measure provided the framework for expanded environmental protection not only at the federal level, but it trickled down to states as well, including the development of the environmental protection agencies here in Minnesota such as the Environmental Quality Board, Pollution Control Agency and other alphabet organizations.

• OSHA: A similar concern for health and safety actuated the enactment that same busy year, an election year no less, of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, creating the agency that, along with its state counterparts here in Minnesota and 21 other states, was designed to monitor and promote improved workplace standards.

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These actions, although not exhaustive, constitute a substantial collection of progressive undertakings, perhaps greater in sheer number and impact that any by those who have followed Nixon into the Oval Office or by most of his predecessors, apart from monumental figures like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and the two Roosevelts — although no one has rushed to put his likeness on Mount Rushmore, as a few supporters of Donald Trump tried to do for that twice-impeached president.

By today's standards, Nixon would be considered a progressive on many matters, although no one would mistake him for a card-carrying member of the Squad, the appellation given to a group of current progressive House members that includes Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

While Watergate should not be forgotten or minimized, it ought not obscure the positive features of the Nixon administration. Although Nixon's rise and fall occasionally has been equated with Shakespeare's Macbeth, the epitaph that serves him best on the golden anniversary of the beginning of the end for him may be another Shakespearean observation: "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft-interred with their bones."

Although he was no emperor, Nixon had tendencies in that direction. While Watergate set the spark that brought down his presidency in flames, in his legislative efforts, international affairs and other activities, he did not fiddle while his administration burned.

Marshall H. Tanick is a Twin Cities employment and constitutional law attorney.