Machiavelli's The Prince has been around for over five hundred years, and has influenced many great, and many terrible leaders, but the political leader I believe embodied Machiavelli's principles is the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. Nixon's following of Machiavelli's principles of sabotage, deception, and cover-ups can be seen throughout Nixon's presidency and even before, while trying to get more votes, to the infamous Watergate Scandal.
"Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires." In accords to this Machiavellian principle, Donald Segretti was tasked by Nixon to stage "dirty tricks" against potential Democratic nominees, which included mailing letters that falsely accused one candidate of homosexuality and fathering an illegitimate child in order to help Nixon gain more popularity during his reelection. Nixon also sabotaged Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Peace Talks during his presidential race against Hubert Humphrey by convincing South Vietnam to wait until Nixon was President, as Nixon had better plans in regards to the peace negotiations. Nixon was very careful when doing this, as any hint of what he had done would have undermined all he had worked for.
One of Machiavelli's Principles is to "Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception." After losing the 1960 presidential election to J. F. Kennedy, Nixon ran again for the 1968 election and won, though there was evidence of ".voting by telephone and bulk voting by political leaders." (U.S. Presidents and Election Fraud, July 30, 2015) in Illinois, adding votes to Nixon's campaign. When Nixon wished to win his 1972 reelection ".by a landslide.
