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Ben Stein is right, up to a point. I part company though as to Nixon's judgment and character.

In high school in 1968 and college in 1972 and from an ardently conservative and Republican family, I nevertheless had no illusions about Nixon's competence, talents, and policies. I campaigned hard for his reelection in 1972 but was not a loyalist. Early in the Watergate scandal, I became convinced that Nixon was deeply involved in the cover-up and that the episode would have tragic consequences.

Nixon's first and greatest mistake was not hammering North Viet Nam into utter submission within a month of coming into office in 1969. The country half expected that and would have supported him. The Russians and the Chinese would have been furious but would have stood back and let it happen.

By waiting until 1973 to bomb and blockade North Viet Nam, Nixon let costs, casualties, war weariness, and domestic antiwar agitation mount to the point that they decisively weakened support for the war. Yes, Watergate prompted the loss of South Viet Nam, but had we fully won the war in 1969, that would not have happened; and Watergate might not have happened either because victory in Viet Nam would have made Nixon a shoo-in for reelection and made desperate reelection tactics superfluous.

Nixon's greatest failing was, obviously, character -- but not as most people think. Nixon was admirable in many ways, but especially so in rising from a poverty stricken youth through intelligence,courage, and hard work. The experience marked him though with a moody, high strung nature that felt reverses and slights too keenly, gave him a craving for the approval of elite opinion, and inspired excessive, self-defeating, self-deluding efforts at control over detail.

A brilliant political tactician, Nixon often seemed clueless as to larger strategic considerations. Disciplined in his political ascent, as President, he lapsed into the foolish self-indulgence of bitterness and recriminations in the presence of aides of slavish loyalty but weak judgment and integrity. In retrospect, Nixon seems of a type the corporate world often sees: the brilliant, standout executive who falters as Chairman and CEO.