About Nixon, the irony is hat he was a liberal Republican, quite different in his orientation from Reagan. As for his anti-communism, I think the negative attention he got from the Establishment because of the Hiss affair, seems to have changed him personally. He didn’t have the self-confidence that Reagan had, the need to “prove” himself. ‘If you know you’re right, then go ahead!”
Met him once very briefly. He was immensely uncomfortable in his own skin.