Those American Presidents…

The infamous Watergate scandal shocked the world and the American political scene off their chairs in the 1970s. The scandal led to the early resignation of Richard Nixon, the Republican president then in his second term, under the threat of impeachment.

In fact, Nixon had never been popular among Americans. It was largely due to Henry Kissinger that Americans elected him to a second term.

Kissinger, undoubtedly Nixon’s most outstanding aide, drew up the blueprint for normalizing relations with China. Under the greatest secrecy, Kissinger flew to China to meet with the Chinese Prime Minister at the time, Zhou Enlai, to convey the U.S.’s intention to improve its ties with China. Both countries began to collaborate and enacted the famous scene of “Ping Pong Diplomacy” in which the American team was sent to China to have a friendly game with the Chinese team. This marked the preamble to the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between the two giants.

Because of these actions, the sly Nixon was portrayed as the most outstanding American president. He flew to Beijing to shake hands with Chairman Mao while his wife hugged Mrs. Mao, Jiang Qing, and applauded aloud while watching the artistic drama her new friend had created.

All would have gone well had Nixon not dug his own grave by ordering his aides to spy on his contender in the presidential election for his next term. These rogues, in turn, hired five men to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office to wiretap and take photos. The policemen nabbed all five of these “James Bonds" red-handed and sent Nixon’s reputation into a free fall.

To make matters worse, Nixon caught himself on tape. He had a penchant of surreptitiously recording conversations with his aides. These tapes, reluctantly surrendered, were full of vulgarity and revelatory details that gave the real inside story of the scandal.

I was in the U.S. when the scandal was uncovered. There was seemingly endless T.V. broadcasts discussing the possibility of impeaching Nixon. Two reporters from the Washington Post managed to dig up the darkest secrets of the scandals through an anonymous source, codenamed “Deep Throat” and had the story published. This “information exploration” was later made into a movie. In that movie, “Deep Throat” was portrayed as a dark shadow. Who was he, exactly?

It was only in 2005 that his identity was unveiled. The world got to know “Deep Throat” as Mr. W. Mark Felt who was serving as the number two man in the FBI during the Watergate scandal. He passed away of congestive heart failure recently, at the ripe old age of 95.

After Nixon, several presidents took the stage. Among them, Ronald Reagan got the best reputation even though Bill Clinton was the most capable, but his term was regretfully soiled by his extra-marital relationship with an intern, which nearly got him ousted from the White House prematurely. President George W. Bush, the idiot, will get out of the way in three weeks’ time to usher in a new age as the first black American president, Barack Obama, takes office.

The world knows Obama, through T.V. broadcasts of the U.S. presidential election, as a clear-minded, eloquent and earnest man. Everyone is counting down to Obama’s inauguration. Hopes are high that he will clear up the messes created by idiotic Bush and put the brakes on the declining economy.

The new year breeds new hopes. Everyone hopes Obama will lead the world out of the current situation where so many people get booted out of their jobs and into bankruptcy. Here's to you, Obama!