It stands to reason he must have been doing something right to have stayed so close to the halls of power.
I was a toddler when he was carpet bombing Cambodia, never knew him as anything but “an important person” that was sometimes on the TV. Only learned of his crimes in the past decade.
How did an in-your-face war criminal retain such influence for so long?
While his later years were definitely marked with controversy and dumb to the point of evil decisions, he made decisions in earlier presidencies that without a doubt were helpful. You gotta understand this time period was what bought him the credence he used to get people to trust his later decisions.
Decisions we now universally regret.