He quickly rebuilt his reputation on the public stage as an international relations expert through candid and carefully nonpartisan statements. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all came to greatly appreciate Nixon's accumulated wisdom and acute instincts.
With Presidential blessings - and sometimes simply as a private citizen - Nixon traveled in his later years to meet with global leaders, from the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev to China's Premier Deng Xiaoping. He had keen insight into various leaders personalities and motivations, and he reported back to Washington with his observations and recommendations.
By the early 1990s, Nixon's legacy had been reshaped by his return to the world stage as a statesman and mentor lo Presidents. He had begun to win back some of the national respect that had been lost during the Watergate scandal.
After he died, I found myself wishing I could pick up the phone and ask President Nixon what he thought about this issue or that problem. I appreciated his insight and advice and I'm glad he chose, at the end of his life, to share it with me. - 2013
- In 1976, the former President and First Lady are personally invited back to China by Chairman Mao Zedong
- Nixon shakes hands with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during a 1988 reception.
- Former President Nixon and President George H.W. Bush outside the Oval Office at the White House - April 1991
- In October 1981, President Reagan appointed three of his predecessors to represent the United States at Anwar Sadat's funeral in Cairo: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon.
- Former Presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon aboard Air Force One on the way to President Sadat's funeral in Cairo.
- Nixon laughs with President Ronald Reagan at an event in New York, 1984
