Sure, but only to counteract the unfavorable impressions of Lincoln & Northerners generally which our Lost Cause mythologizers so enthusiastically monger.
jeffersondem: "Like them or not, Arab states are recognized - even by the government in Washington D.C. - as legitimate, sovereign states with cultures different than that of the northern United States.
Since you contend the southern states were not free and independent..."
If you've followed my posts then you know I've often pointed out there was no civil war when Deep South Fire Eaters declared secession, and no war when they declared Confederacy, no war when they called up 100,000 soldiers, no war when they seized dozens of major Union properties, from forts to ships, arsenals and mints.
There was still no war when they wrote up a new constitution protecting slavery, elected their own congress and president.
Indeed, there was not just no war, President Lincoln announced he would not assail them so there could be no war unless, unless, unless, Confederates themselves started it.
Somehow in Lost Cause mythology, that point is always ignored, except to claim erroneously that Lincoln himself started the war.
But the fact remains that had Jefferson Davis allowed Fort Sumter's resupply, there would still have been no war.
jeffersondem: "...all-to-reminiscent of the radical knife-wielders at the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre."
Except those were outlaws, some eventually captured & hanged, whereas Slave Power Fire Eaters declared secession, then Confederacy & war on the United States.
Despite that, none were ever hanged.
So the key fact relating to your Nixon analogy is that no Arab oil exporter, or Soviet leader, started & declared war on the United States,
If they had, Nixon would have responded differently.
Notice how he employs idioms identical to what CNN and MSNBC uses?