Goodman on Richard Nixon

I read with interest Ellen Goodman’s typical anti-Nixon column (Op-Ed Page, April 22). Naturally, she dwells on Watergate. I wish she had expounded on the predicament that the United States and the free world would be in if former President Richard Nixon had not gone to China.

Certainly one must wonder about Goodman’s conclusion that she would not vote for Nixon’s “admission into the circle of elder statesmen.� Nixon earned that status a number of years ago. His most recent book, “1999: Victory Without War,� underscores that fact.

Rather than go back and wallow in Watergate, as Goodman would like us to do, our future leaders would do well to take advantage of Nixon’s unmatched foreign policy experience and prepare our nation for the next century.

CHRIS CRAIN

Mission Viejo