Frost/Nixon: Opie’s Fantasy Vendetta

By Kip Dellinger

Having been collaterally involved with much of Richard Nixon’s “transgressions” during his presidency, this writer decided to spend Christmas Day afternoon at the movies – specifically Frost/Nixon. The collateral involvement included being the (very) young partner of a CPA on Nixon’s infamous “Enemies List,” a tax adviser to the Pentagon Papers Fund and the Daniel Ellsberg Defense Fund, and also tax adviser to Another Mother for Peace (my then partner’s wife was a co-founder of the organization).

In addition, several clients of our firm that I advised on tax matters were very prominent Los Angeles Democrats including many from the Hollywood entertainment industry (always a home to the Liberal community). So attending Frost/Nixon seemed like a natural thing to do. What one didn’t expect was to attend a work of fiction more closely identifiable with conspiracy theorist, Oliver Stone, than something we expect from Ron Howard (well, “Opie” in the Watergate Era).

Not satisfied with the truth, Howard had to invent history and mischaracterize it to achieve his goal of painting Richard Nixon as the personification of evil – along with portraying James Reston Jr. as a hero. For whatever Reston accomplished, it was and remains lost in history as a result of his juvenile insistence on making Nixon (and Frost) all about Reston. In Howard’s case, ever the Hollywood hero, he joins Stone in his quest and apparent belief in the Antonio Gramsci – Michael Folcualt “model” that one can change history merely by writing about it. Or this case, putting on the screen.

While there couldn’t have been more than 15 people under the age of 55 in the theatre (think about all those senior discounts), Howard’s objective – like Stone’s in JFK – is surely to implant a false story in the minds of the 2 minutes, then 30 seconds and now 15 seconds span of attention generations that follow those old enough to be familiar with Watergate as it happened. Moreover, most of the Nixon haters of the Watergate Era will not set the record straight because their hatred justifies distorting history (something George W. Bush will probably have to live with until history and record is old and dry).

In any event, David Frost was not some novice party guy destined to be outsmarted by Nixon unless Reston saved the day. The fact was that Frost was an experienced and thorough interviewer – just not an “American inquisitor” as Reston would have liked. So he becomes the playboy in the eye of Howard’s camera. Frost decidedly did not receive any late night, middle of the night or any phone call from an inebriated former President including Richard Nixon.

Moreover, showing a juvenile approach more akin to Opie than an adult filmmaker, Director Howard implies in the ending credits that Nixon spent the rest of his life wholly discredited – like Napoleon in exile. This tells us as much about the lack of credibility, not to mention basic honesty, of Howard than anything Richard Nixon may have undertaken during his Presidency. Portraying Nixon as dishonest and dangerous by distorting the truth puts Howard in the same league – along with Reston, who still can’t get over his Nixon fixation some 30 plus years later.

As early as June 1978, Richard Nixon was asked specifically by Muriel Humphrey to attend her husband’s (Minnesota Liberal Icon Hubert Humphrey) funeral. A funeral attended by a who’s who of political dignitaries from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Nixon later consulted with many foreign policy advisers and with subsequent Presidents of the United States and was considered an invaluable resource on geopolitical matters by numerous world leaders (and was very well received in China, Great Britain and, particularly, in France); in fact, he attended a Carter White House State Dinner for Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Ron Howard graduated from Mayberry to Happy Days and apparently was oblivious to this and either remains so, or is simply a liar.

Nixon also wrote eight (8) books, each of which sold quite well – probably far better than the 15 or so books Reston has written since the Nixon resigned. Certainly Nixon’s writings in the foreign policy arena are far more influential than anything Reston will ever write.

Nixon was certainly responsible for his own undoing and in the course of this, he did damage to the Presidency and to the country (and he did admit this). He is no favorite of this writer. Nonetheless, the truth should be important to anyone with the slightest sense of honor or decency.

A big part of Watergate was the cover up, the failure to be truthful. So folks like Ron Howard and James Reston Jr., with the participation of Frank Langella and others from the Hollywood establishment, engage in dishonesty and distortion and get nominations for “awards” from their Hollywood Brethren and drooling complicit media. This reveals far more about the ethics and morals of this Crowd than the movie “Frost/Nixon” does about the principal subject of the film.

Kip Dellinger lived through the Watergate Era as the tax partner of a prominent entertainment industry CPA/business management firm; he, his partners and their clients followed those events quite closely. He continued to observe the re-emergence of Richard Nixon as a respected commentator on political and foreign policy matters.