( CNN ) -- The Richard Nixon I knew had almost nothing to do with the Richard Nixon as portrayed in most media . The Richard Nixon I knew was a man who had served his country honorably as Dwight Eisenhower 's vice president at the height of the Cold War , when Eisenhower kept us at peace for eight years -- with Nixon 's help -- only to have the 1960 election stolen away from him by handsome , rich John F. Kennedy 's fraud at the polls in Chicago . Nixon had endured eight years of seeing the country disintegrate into chaos in the streets and an endless , hopeless war in Vietnam under a genuinely great but very misled president , Lyndon Johnson . When Nixon won in 1968 , he embarked on a presidency in which he never once had control of both houses of Congress . He faced an endless bitter assault from the media and from the so-called intellectuals -- the `` pointy-headed '' intellectuals , as George Wallace aptly called them . Nevertheless , he ended the war in Vietnam , brought home the POWs and calmed the wild streets . More than that , he saved Israel when it was threatened with annihilation by its neighbors , sending a massive airlift of arms to Israel during the Yom Kippur War . Nixon gave unequivocal support to Israel : Johnson could not have cared less about its fate . Nixon opened relations with Red China that greatly sobered up Russia and allowed the U.S. to become the world 's dominant power and peacekeeper for a generation . This was the key event in ending the Cold War . By `` encircling '' the USSR and signaling that if Leonid Brezhnev began a war against either the United States or China , he would face a dreaded two-front war , he showed Russia that its hopes of global domination were not going to work . To soothe matters with the still extremely dangerous Russian bear , he even signed a strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviets . His goal , as he often explained to me and others on his staff , was to create `` a generation of peace . '' He did it . He gave us the longest sustained period of peace since World War II . When the Russians were kicked out of Afghanistan -- just as we are about to be -- the encircled Russian domination machine simply ran out of gas . Will it revive ? No . But it is a menace anyway . Nixon was tortured , abused , beat up by the Beautiful People , but through it all , above all , he was a peacemaker , a trait he inherited from his Quaker mother . If we no longer have to fear Russian ICBMs screaming out of hell to start nuclear war , we can thank the shade of Richard Nixon . He was startlingly progressive in domestic affairs as well . He created the Environmental Protection Agency . He sent up to Congress the first proposal for universal health care . I know . I wrote the message sending it to Congress -- where Teddy Kennedy promptly killed it . He proposed a national energy policy far greener than anyone had ever imagined a conservative would go . Again , Congress killed it . In his personal relations with me and with my father , who was his chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers , and with my mother , his most devout fan and a friend and admirer of Pat Ryan Nixon as well , he was the soul of kindness , concern and politesse . He brought up two of the most wonderful women on the planet , Julie and Tricia . He was a wit and a trustworthy confidant . Why did the media hate him so much ? I have always thought it was because he was vulnerable and showed it when attacked . He did not have the tough hide of a Reagan or an Obama . Like the schoolyard bullies they are , the media went after him for his vulnerability . But let 's look at him with fresh eyes . Unlike LBJ , he did not get us into a large , unnecessary war on false pretenses . Unlike JFK , he did not bring call girls and courtesans into the White House or try to kill foreign leaders . Unlike FDR , he did not lead us into a war for which we were unprepared . He helped with a coverup of a mysterious burglary that no one understands to this day . That was his grievous sin , and grievously did he answer for it . But to me , Richard Nixon will always be visionary , friend and peacemaker . And I will never turn my back on a peacemaker .
The Richard Nixon whom Ben Stein knew was n't anything like the way media portrayed him . Stein : Nixon was under constant media assault , never had control of both houses of Congress . Stein : He ended Vietnam War , brought home democracy , attacked communism and made peace . Stein : In key event to ending Cold War , Nixon cut ties with China , subduing it .