Nixon's Rampant Alcoholism Revealed His Disturbingly Unstable Personality
Drunk Nixon Tried To Nuke North Korea
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsPerhaps the most serious and obvious problem with having an alcoholic in the White House is the president’s easy access to the nuclear arsenal. While presidents generally don’t “push the button” when it comes to nukes, they’re the ones who get to tell other people to push said button. This issue came to a head in 1969, when North Korea shot down an American spy plane over the sea of Japan. Nixon was drunk when he heard the news, and he immediately ordered a retaliatory nuclear strike on North Korea. Luckily, Henry Kissinger got on the phone to tell everyone to wait until Nixon sobered up, and when he did, they said that he had changed his mind after “mulling it over,” even though all he was really mulling was a wicked hangover.
Nixon Would Often Fire People While Drunk, And Forget In The Morning
Photo: YouTubeBeing the president seems like an easy position to abuse, what with all the power and such, and it seems doubly easy to abuse when one is relieved of all their inhibitions. This was definitely true for Richard Nixon, the pisstank president. Nixon would routinely get angry and decide to fire people when he was drinking, and sometimes he’d even call them to let them know. Of course, Nixon was usually so blackout drunk that he’d forget which people he had fired by the morning, and everyone would just pretend it never happened. Some hapless individuals were no doubt “fired” on multiple occasions.
Nixon’s Drinking Buddies Brought A Stripper To The White House At 2 AM
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsRichard Nixon did most of his drinking alone in the White House, but he also had some loyal drinking buddies who aided in his debauchery. One such party animal was the beautifully named Bebe Rebozo, a long-time friend of Nixon’s. On one occasion, Rebozo and a few others arrived at the White House at 2 AM with a mysterious trunk that they insisted was for the president. The Secret Service opened it and found a naked stripper inside, holding a bottle of champagne. The Secret Service refused to let them bring the girl inside, mostly because the sauced troublemakers were only trying to get a rise out of the notoriously sexually-repressed prez.
Nixon Was Seen Eating Dog Biscuits
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsRichard Nixon was long associated with man’s best friend, mostly because he once made an impassioned speech about his dog, Checkers. However, that was not Nixon’s only canine-related caper. When the Watergate scandal was at its peak, so was the president’s depression and alcoholism. The pressure definitely got to Nixon, and he was witnessed exhibiting extremely odd behavior. On one occasion, Nixon was seen sharing some dog biscuits with his pet, mindlessly chewing on them alongside his four-legged friend. Presumably, whoever saw him doing that backed away slowly and immediately told everyone they knew.
Nixon Developed A Reputation As A Drunk-Dialer
Photo: National ArchivesThere are few drunks more annoying than the “drunk-dialer.” And, unsurprisingly, Richard Nixon was one of the worst. Nixon often liked to drink alone, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to talk to someone. Nixon would phone his underlings to complain or fire them, and he would phone his allies to complain about how rough he had it. Most would ignore the contents of the conversation, because they knew that Nixon wouldn’t remember any of it in the morning. Most bizarrely, Nixon was known to frequently call up his old football coach in a drunken search for inspiration and guidance.
Nixon Was Too Drunk To Deal With The Yom Kippur War
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsFew people can successfully perform at their jobs while drunk, and Richard Nixon was no exception. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, the Middle East exploded and could have benefited greatly from the guidance of a strong, non-wasted American president. Unfortunately, no such leader could be found. The British Prime Minister even called the White House to collaborate on a solution, but Henry Kissinger had to inform him that the president was too “loaded” to talk right then. Nixon was in the midst of the Watergate scandal, and was drinking even more than usual. As such, his actual president-ing became practically non-existent, right when it was most important.
Nixon Was Passed Out For An Entire Cold War Conflict
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsRichard Nixon wasn’t only drunk during the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, he was also incapacitated throughout nearly all of the intense Cold War maneuvering that surrounded it. The Soviet Union used the conflict in the Middle East as an opportunity to assert themselves against their American rivals, and the secretary of the Communist Party, Leonid Brezhnev, spent the length of conflict posturing and threatening Americans as well, neither of which received a response because the president was “too tired.” Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig covered for him the entire time, and Nixon remained either blackout drunk or passed out. When the issue sorted itself out, an elated Nixon went off to Camp David for more boozing, but not before demanding that the media be told how “indispensable” he had been during the crisis.
Drunk Nixon Liked To Rock Out To Movie Soundtracks And The Sound Of His Own Voice
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsEveryone has their favorite drunk-jam. For many, it’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” but for Richard Nixon, it was soundtracks from obscure documentaries and the sound of his own voice. When he was a happy drunk, Nixon would blare the score from his favorite '50s documentary, Victory at Sea. When he was a sad drunk, Nixon would kill time by listening to his own secret recordings of White House conversations, in a desperate and pathetic attempt to see where it all went wrong. Nixon was simply indulging in the 1970s equivalent of drunkenly browsing through one’s old Facebook posts and feeling instant shame and regret.
Nixon Belittled The Deaths Of Vietnam Soldiers While Drunk
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsOne of the reasons that Richard Nixon’s alcoholism was so well-documented was due to his nasty habit of secretly taping everything that went on in the White House. This practice eventually cost him the presidency during the Watergate investigation, but it has also helped to further his reputation as a sloppy drunk and overall terrible person. There are countless inebriated Nixon conversations caught on tape, and very few of them are pretty. By far the worst example is a quote in which Nixon says of all those who died in the Vietnam War: “Oh, screw 'em!”
Nixon Employed A Life-Long Psychiatrist
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsWhen hearing reports of Richard Nixon's alcoholism, it’s easy to assume that his drinking troubles started when he became the subject of the largest political investigation in American history. While the Watergate scandal certainly didn’t help his alcoholism, Nixon’s problems actually started long before he became president. Nixon struggled with alcohol and other mental issues very early on in his political career, so much so that he quickly became acquainted with Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, a specialist in psychosomatic illnesses. Hutschnecker became Nixon’s personal psychiatrist for the remainder of his political career, with Nixon often seeking his help with a litany of issues including depression and the abusive drinking that came along with it.
Nixon Also Abused Prescription Medications
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsIn terms of volume, it has been said that Richard Nixon didn’t necessarily drink excessive amounts, rather it was the ridiculously strong effect that alcohol had on him that was the problem. This was likely due to the fact that Nixon abused prescription medication along with alcohol. Tricky Dick happened to have tricky back problems early on in his career and was plagued by insomnia - so he took pills to deal with both. He also abused Dilantin, an anti-epileptic medication, and claimed that it solved all of his problems, including depression. His frequent consumption of various pills meant that all it took was a few glasses of scotch or a couple martinis to leave the president completely sloshed.
Henry Kissinger Always Covered For Drunk Nixon
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsMany functioning alcoholics need enablers to maintain their troubling lifestyle, and Henry Kissinger was that man for Nixon. The notoriously dour Kissinger was Nixon’s Secretary of State, but he was also a hell of a wingman. Kissinger would constantly have to intercept those wishing to speak to the president and tell them that he was “sleeping” or “busy,” which was code for “wasted.” Kissinger would also have to follow Nixon around, telling people to ignore his drunken orders until they could be confirmed in the morning, whether they included firing random people or firing nukes at random countries. If Kissinger didn’t win White House Employee of the Month every month, he was getting ripped off.
Nixon’s Wife Also Had A Major Drinking Problem
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsNixon’s presidency didn’t just drive Nixon to drink. His wife, Pat, was unfortunately dragged into the chaos, too. Richard and Pat did not have a happy marriage, and he was even rumored to have struck her in a drunken rage on numerous occasions. She had never wanted him to go into politics in the first place, which made her a convenient target for his rage when politics didn’t go his way - which was often. Pat soon began to abuse substances in much the same way that her husband did, and had numerous scary incidents, including one where White House staff had to prevent her from drowning in an overflowing bathtub.
Nixon Spent His Finals Days In Office Completely Blotto
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsThe closer Richard Nixon got to his impeachment, the harder he drank. And this version of sloshed Nixon was, understandably, not a fun one to be around. Nixon’s lifelong depression got exceedingly worse during this period, often leading him to drunk-dial his friends and talk about how he should just, like, totally quit, man. In the end, of course, Nixon did end up quitting, resigning from his office before he could be officially booted from it. Nixon’s final days in the White House are very well-documented, but he probably didn't personally remember much of it at all, since he was hammered for most of it. The Nixon Presidency ended in much the same way as it began - angry, drunk, and corrupt.
