I believe the second half of the 20th century will be known as the age of Nixon.

Why was he the most durable public figure of our time?

Those were the words of Senator Bob Dole, a man who had lived through the bulk of the 20th century,

who had participated in or witnessed firsthand many of the major events of his time.

The second half of the 20th century was full of larger-than-life figures, men like Dwight Eisenhower,

John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Ronald Reagan.

And that's just in the United States.

There was also Mao Zedong in China, Margaret Thatcher in England,

Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia, and Pope John Paul II in Rome.

But of all of those figures, Dole felt that one man stood out,

so much so that the era should

bear his name. That man was Richard Nixon. On the face of it, this claim might seem an

overstatement. Dole did say this during Nixon's funeral, a setting where people are apt to be

generous to the person who is being remembered.

And of course, it is a matter of opinion.

How do you compare the legacies of presidents or public figures in general?

How do you measure impact or influence?

But Dole was making a point worth considering.

Richard Nixon was one of the most important men in American history. Think about this. Two men are tied for the most appearances on a national ticket for a major party at five times each. The first is

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The other is Richard Nixon. He was nominated for, and won the vice presidency twice under Eisenhower, was nominated for the presidency in 1960, losing to JFK, and then nominated again for the presidency in 1968, and won, and re-nominated for a second term, winning again in 1972.

He was on the national stage, from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, a little short of three decades.

And his influence continued well after his presidency.

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