The Hiss thing not really all THAT much, since that didn't cool the hearts of the damned lefties towards JFK, the "SPARE, BRAINLESS PRINCE" of the Kennedy clan.
Though yes, I agree, the first whiff of lefty/COMMIE anger was beating Voorhis, which predates my earliest, rather rabid interest in politics.
I do know that Ike hated Nixon and wanted to replace him. Thankfully that morbidly STUPID idea failed to come to fruition.
Re Nixon and something you said earlier....
Yes, Nixon had the guts to stand up to Khrushchev, had his number from the get go, and so there would NEVER have been the Cuban Missile, and as an added bonus, there would NOT have been the Vietnam War either, had Nixon been president instead of that drugged out of his mind, fornicating with any female who crossed his path, easily influenced JFK.
Up to the bitter end in August 1974, Demonrats saw Nixon being forced out of the Presidency as payback for the Hiss thing. It was REALLY personal. 29 years after his death and they’re still kicking him around, but the hatred for Trump eclipsed anything directed at Nixon. Despite Nixon’s faults and being wrong-headed on many policies, I think he’d be 100% behind Trump today, remembering what he went through with an evil media and a profoundly corrupt elitist Establishment/Derp State.
RE: Vietnam
The question on that (with a ‘61-’69 Pres. Nixon) is what explicit policies would he have pursued ? He wouldn’t have had the imbecilic JFK/LBJ Cabinet (certainly no Robert McNamara as the “Republican” Defense Secretary). Some speculated he might’ve been more isolationist, or let the South Vietnamese take the lead. The other end suggests he might’ve allowed more hawkish interests to have used limited nuclear attacks (that would’ve likely upset too many Americans). I don’t think he would’ve let media criticisms (idiots like the Commie Cronkite) influence him too much, since he knew they hated him anyway (Voorhis/Hiss/Douglas/JFK). If he had ended up with a permanent split, a la Korea, that would’ve been a win.
With a lot of the war stuff settled before 1969, you may never have seen the total social breakdown as a result, from which we’ve never recovered (which was my biggest issue with the JFK/LBJ regime). As it was, so much had been effed up, Nixon couldn’t clean up the mess post-1969. It would’ve required more dramatic changes. Reagan would’ve been better as President from 1969-77, might’ve ended the showdown with the Soviets earlier, although they were still firmly in control. Might’ve been back to ineffectual RINOs from 1977-onwards and then a similar decay as we’ve reached today, just with different events.