Tony Panaccio at postchronicle.com has an article about Ed Nixon, the last of the five brothers that included the 37th President. and author of The Nixons: A Family Portrait. In the article Ed speaks of RN’s visionary health-care plan:
“My brother’s offer to address healthcare was genuine, and it stemmed from his feeling that we needed tighter regulation on the insurance industry […] He knew back then what was on the horizon, seeing the writing on the wall three decades before the storm.”
Ed also points out that the concerns of the People’s Republic of China concerning the increased Soviet military presence in the Pacific helped make possible his brother’s groundbreaking trip to the PRC in 1972:
“While President Reagan is largely credited for ending the Cold War, the seeds were planted during the Nixon administration. This issue was of significant strategic interest to both China and the U.S. at the time, and working together to keep the Soviets in check was a key element that led to the fall of the Soviet republic. If they couldn’t expand, they would not have the economic base to support their massive military budget. When their expansion ceased, it helped hasten their fate.”