Who was the real President Nixon?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/nixon-watergate
-testimony_n_1085924.html
There are many articles and opinions that have been and are still written today about President Nixon and the Watergate Scandal. Judging from history and what we know has been written, Nixon was portrayed as a man who never gave up and would do basically anything to win, whether it meant being dishonest or even breaking the law. It is hard to imagine that Nixon is the same man when you look at the way people viewed him before Watergate versus after. But what people fail to look at are the reasons behind the choices he made, which perhaps tell us a different story.
Wicker (1994) explores the idea that Nixon was actually a shy and introverted man who chose to hide his real self from the public. It was in this effort to hide the “real Nixon” that Nixon became a paranoid and untrusting man (Wicker, 1994). Many say that Nixon did not really have any friends and he refused to trust anyone and believed that everyone was out to get him. It is hard to believe that someone with such little self confidence and trust in anyone could be elected President. Wicker (1994) makes a good point saying that if Nixon never trusted anyone, then millions of Americans never trusted him.
Even up until his death in 1994 Nixon tried to play down the Watergate scandal and always said that he was not guilty of any crimes (Bernstein & Woodward, 2012). Many say that while President, Nixon, "lost his way" and became overly obsessed with political power, what was best for him and his future legacy, and with getting revenge on people. It was this need for power and sense to do what was solely best for him that in the end ultimately led him to make the wrong choices. Bernstein and Woodward (2012) go as far to say that Nixon "turned his White House into a criminal enterprise".