Jim, were you actually around during the Last Years of Nixon? I’ve got to say, he would have had difficulty mustering the political capital to change from blue suits to brown. Ford did, at least, respond with some force to the Mayaguez (that mayy be spelled wrong, the ship taken by the Cambodians) but in any case got nothing but hell about it at the time and didn’t have any more political leverage with the Democrat-dominated Senate than Nixon.

I’ll grant you in a second that I think Nixon should have responded more forcefully, and Kissenger’s notion of being the reincarnation of Metternich and playing realpolitik with the Soviets was, in hindsight, just flat-out wrong.

But, realistically, did Nixon have any hole cards to play?