I dictated this memoir on Presidents’ Day. It is too early to cover Presidents 44, 45, 46 and 47. I cover the others who were in office during my life on earth. This is what I remember from many years ago. I have not “fact checked” as I usually do. The Reader’s memory and the actual facts may differ.
I was born September 5, 1950. It was the month of the Inchon landing in Korea. Operation Chromite was an amphibious assault on September 15, 1950 that turned the tide of the Korean War. UN forces bypassed North Korean defenses to land at Inchon, recapturing Seoul and forcing a massive North Korean retreat. If it had not been successful there would likely be no South Korea, one of our best allies in the world. I’m thankful for Harry Truman entering the fray again even after the huge sacrifices of World War II.
Dwight Eisenhower was elected in 1952 with a promise to end the Korean War. That Armistice has lasted from 1953 through today. Since General Eisenhower was the architect of total victory over the Nazis the North Koreans and Chinese knew he meant business. My oldest grandson spent time in 2025 with 30,000 U.S. soldiers defending Seoul and the DMZ. I recall drills at school, not for “active shooters,” but in case of nuclear war. Those who could afford it built bomb shelters.
When I was 3 or 4 I watched my father watch the Army- McCarthy hearings on a small black and white TV. My father despised Senator Joe McCarthy.
When I drive on a new interstate I think of the President who created the Interstate system. When 540 opened in southern Wake County it cost me $1.92 and has saved me 20 minutes every time I used it.
Eisenhower’s VP was Richard Nixon. In 1960 John F. Kennedy prevailed over Nixon. I remember riding around Greensboro, to the embarrassment of my parents, shouting, “ One Mr. K. is enough.” I remember the debate between Nixon and Kennedy. Radio listeners thought Nixon won. TV viewers were sure Kennedy had won. The principal issue between them: who would be tougher on the Chinese Communists?
1960 was a really close election. It came down to one state – Illinois. There was actual evidence of real ballot stuffing by the Daley machine in Chicago. Nixon conceded “for the sake of the country.” Because the weapons of the Cold War were on a hair trigger we couldn’t afford a doubt as to who was in charge. I admired Nixon for that.
President John F. Kennedy made a rookie mistake with the Bay of Pigs fiasco at Guantanamo. Shortly thereafter Kennedy met the real Cuban Missile Crisis. He exhibited mature judgment, defusing an existential threat to the nation. He listened to advisors who were more knowledgeable. He was tragically assassinated in 1963. By today’s standards JFK would be considered a conservative Democrat. He took the rate of taxation way down in order to increase revenues. That doesn’t work on all types and rates of taxation. It did work then.
His successor was Lyndon Johnson. He knew how to get things done in Congress. Some of his proposals were excellent, some not so great. I have a bone to pick with him. While he was President he ramped up the U.S. involvement in Vietnam to about 500,000 troops. 55,000 died. We learned later that Robert McNamara, his Secretary of Defense, told Johnson that the war could not be won. Johnson doubled down. Who knows what the outcome would have been if Johnson had listened to McNamara?
Some say today is the worst time in American politics. They are too young to remember 1968: assassinations, terrorism inside the United States, riots at the Democratic National Convention, hijackings of aircraft, the Baader – Meinhof Gang, the Weather Underground, the Six-Day War, the bloody Tet Offensive. 1968 was a bad year.
In 1968 I enlisted in the Marine Corps believing that the Communists had to be stopped. The “domino theory” was real but the tactics to stop it were not. I was not old enough to vote in 1968. Boot camp and infantry training made world news unavailable to me. Richard Nixon promised that he had a secret plan to win in Vietnam. He didn’t promise it in 24 hours but quickly. I was not assigned to the infantry and never went to Vietnam.
The war and constant protests well into the 70’s were news every day. Before I was discharged (1970) Marines at Camp Lejeune were practicing riot control after the National Guard killed protesters at Kent State. American men moved to Canada either in protest or to avoid the draft. In September I went to Michigan State. I joined protesters against Jane Fonda and the Black Panthers.
By 1972 the Vietnam War was still not ended. George McGovern ran on an “unofficial platform” of “Abortion, Acid, and Amnesty.” I voted for Nixon. He still had not ended the Vietnam War. Today George McGovern would be considered a moderate Democrat.
In 1972 power went to Nixon’s head. He really tried to rig the election through espionage and dirty tricks – Watergate. He would have won anyway. To try to tame inflation he tried price controls and took us off the gold standard.
Nixon fought the Courts trying to save himself from Watergate. The Supreme Court ruled against him. Everyone, even Presidents, has to honor subpoenas. There were two things on the “missing” tapes that finished him. First, he was found to have lied about Watergate. Second, the nation learned that he constantly used foul language in the Oval Office. Which of these two revelations brought him down? I’m not sure, but he resigned. Republicans, in the minority in Congress, were ready to remove him from office.
Nixon’s vice president was Spiro Agnew. He resigned for taking bribes. Nixon’s second vice president was Gerald Ford. Ford was a decent and competent president. He brought the Vietnam War quickly to a losing end. He pardoned Richard Nixon to save the nation from a year of misery. That cooked Ford’s goose in the election of 1976.
I did not vote for Jimmy Carter. I admired him, not only for his work and his Nobel Peace Prize after his presidency, but also for much of his work while in office – the Camp David triumph and his personal and real Christian faith. He had his flaws. He was a micromanager. He showed incompetence after the Iranian revolution. His intentions were good, but he really needed a better team to advise him. He took office shortly after the reverberations of the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. He claimed later in life to have thought that his actions in office were pro-life. They were not.
Ronald Reagan was my favorite president. In 1976 he won the North Carolina primary. That propelled him into the lead in 1980. He was a convictional conservative. He also had the good sense to make his rival, George HW Bush, his Vice President. He was funny, articulate, and persuasive. Almost everyone liked him even if they opposed him.
Reagan was a smart politician and was truly pro-life. He had signed a bill to liberalize abortion while Governor of California. He got his head and heart straightened out. He wrote Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, the only book ever written by a President while in office. His was not a political conversion on the issue but real. He made a lot of progress on that issue during his presidency even while he was faced with divided government.
In the last year of his presidency Reagan didn’t finish so well. A few years after he left office Nancy reported that he had early onset Alzheimer’s. Some believe that in his last year he was affected by this progressive disease. He was almost 78 years old when he left office. Nevertheless, his record was so strong that George H.W. Bush was able to handily defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988.
I had a lot of respect for George H.W. Bush. He was the youngest Navy pilot to be shot down during World War II. Once I discussed 17 issues with him in 30 seconds. I shook his hand, had my picture taken with him, and said, “ President Bush, I agree with all 17 of your vetoes.” President Bush had a 90% approval rating after the first Gulf War. He orchestrated a magnificent victory. It was about 80% when he came to Raleigh in 1990 to endorse Art Pope and me for reelection to the State House. I was planning to use that recording in the fall. By then he had violated an unequivocal campaign promise, “Read my lips: No new taxes!” In those days voters took specific campaign promises seriously. I didn’t use that recording. I lost. Art won.
Bill Clinton. After 12 years of Republican presidents the country was ready for a change. Bill won in 1992 by a plurality, running against a WWII war hero (Bush) and a billionaire former Navy officer (Perot). A plurality of veterans voted for a draft dodging alley cat. Clinton was smart and had the sense to accept Newt Gingrich leadership in balancing the federal budget for two years and agreeing to real welfare reform.
In 2000 the country was tired of Hillary, if not Bill, and elected George W. Bush in a squeaker. The election came down to Florida. Democrats still say that the U.S. Supreme Court handed the election to Bush. Not so. Every single count of the ballots, even by the press later, showed that Bush won by a tiny majority. A narrow victory does not mean that any one cheated.
The Bush Administration ran into the hurricane of 9/11. Bush invoked Article V of the NATO Treaty. Dozens of other nations came to our defense in Afghanistan and shed their blood with ours. The need for new resources for Defense and Homeland Security pushed the recently balanced budgets out the window. In 2024 Bush won a resounding victory. In 2008 he faced the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. No one really knew what to do. No more balanced budgets since.
President Bush faced claims that he lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003. He didn’t lie. He relied on clear intelligence from many other nations. How could the intelligence have been so wrong? Saddam Hussein thought that his best defense was deception – that the threat of phantom weapons would deter the world. He was foolish and caused his own downfall. Bush tried to prevail in Iraq while others demanded a date to withdraw. The guaranteed way to fail in war and in any other contest is to tell your opponent when and how you will quit the field.
Maybe in 5 years I will complete my remembrances of the presidents. In the meantime I solicit your memories from those years. Use paulstam@stamlawfirm.com.
