Was Richard Nixon a Communist?
Did Donald Trump say the late President Richard Nixon was a communist? Well, no, not exactly. In fact, I’m not sure he was thinking of Nixon at all when he said (I saw and heard it on NBC News) that “price controls” are a communist idea.
In August, 1971, and I remember this well, then President Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls to try to reign in rampant inflation. Rampant inflation? 5.84% per annum. This act of Nixon was called “The Nixon Shock” referring to the shock it caused to the American economy. The response to Nixon’s action was a rise in the New York Stock Exchange of 33%. The American public reacted very positively. I remember it. Nobody accused Nixon of being a communist or acting in a communist fashion—except perhaps members of the John Birch Society (who also thought President Eisenhower was a “dupe of the communists”). (I know this because I worked for a member of the JBS.)
Much of the political rhetoric I hear from the “right” of today’s American political spectrum reminds me of the JBS and George Wallace, independent presidential candidate and general right-wing political gadfly of the 1960s.
In a time of rampant inflation, wage and price controls may be a good or a bad idea, but they have nothing to do with communism, at least not in America.
Has the Republican Party forgotten its own history? Nixon was considered an arch-conservative. But he went to China for talks with Mao and commentators said “Only Nixon could go to China”—a reference to his unimpeachable conservative and anti-communist credentials.
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