Tag: nixon

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Education Reading Vietnam War Watergate

Latest read: Integrity

What can you learn from a Nixon staff lawyer who pleaded guilty to approving the break-in of Dr. Lewis Fielding’s office in 1971?  Plenty to my surprise.  Egil Krogh‘s Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House is a story of how ‘national security’ and political zeal triggered Watergate.  Krogh even closes the book with an open letter to W. Bush’s illegal wiretapping to demonstrate that our nation’s politicians and their staff have forgotten Watergate‘s 40th anniversary is just a couple years away….clearly the lesson has been forgotten as well.

Krogh joined Nixon’s White House team after working in a Seattle law firm with John Ehrlichman.  Ehrlichman served Nixon as a senior consultant in the 1968 Presidential campaign and was rewarded with the role as Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman dominated the Nixon White House like no other executive staff.

Krogh was responsible for approving the break-in at Fielding’s office in order to dig up damaging evidence against Daniel Ellsberg who had leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.  Ellsberg served on Kissinger’s staff.  This event was the first of many illegal break-ins designed by G. Gordon Liddy‘s Operation Gemstone.

Ellsberg wrote the introduction to Integrity.

Shortly thereafter Nixon’s men would invent a Special Investigative Unit, a Nixon/GOP “police force” known as “The Plumbers” to fix the leaking of government documents to the media.

It was not a total surprise to learn Liddy was willing to kill during the Fielding break-in.  Thankfully that did not happen but proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the zealots who were working for Nixon. Even Howard Hunt‘s team from Miami did not ask to be paid to break into Fielding’s office — they saw it as a patriotic act.

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Education

My latest read – American Spy

As most of the President’s men who served Nixon have released their own accounts of their roles in Wategate, Howard Hunt’s book American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond is no different.  Hunt spent his career in the CIA from the end of WWII to Watergate. I must admit Hunt lived quite a life.  He was also a respected writer having published over 45 books.

He will always be known for his role in the Bay of Pigs and his reported involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy however his book’s focus is Watergate.

I cannot honestly believe how stupid the Republicans were in dealing with Hunt’s team from Miami.  G. Gordon Liddy was the mastermind of Operation Gemstone and directed the overall planning with the White House while Hunt ran the team.   Its amusing to see the amount of detail Hunt provided regarding the planning to break into DNC offices in the Watergate building.

Many believe the break-in was a one time event.  In the last twenty years it has become accepted that Liddy directed four break-ins at the Watergate.

Why?  A member of Hunt’s Miami team, Virgilio Gonzàlez the lock picker actually forgot to bring the correct tools to break into the DNC office.  Hunt’s team had to cancel the operation while Gonzàlez actually fly back to Miami over a weekend to located a correct set of tools to successfully pick the lock.

This just proves how stupid Hunt and Liddy were regarding this group of clowns….the guy who is in charge of picking the lock to get you inside the DNC forgets to bring his lock picking tools?

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Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: The Way of the World

Ron Suskind has written a revealing novel about the Bush Administration‘s attitude towards terrorism and American politics in The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.  Suskind won the Pulitzer for A Hope in the Unseen and sets a pretty level playing field for the Bush Administration’s War on Terrorism revealing new insight to the strategy used by Bush/Cheney to “secure” war against Iraq.
The Way of the WorldSuskind brings many issues of concern to the forefront regarding the Bush Administration’s actions in taking the country to war.  I believe Suskind has clearly documented actions by Cheney as lessons learned from Nixon’s Watergate.  Cheney served Nixon as White House Staff Assistant in 1971 and Deputy Assistant to the President from 1974–1975.

During Watergate Nixon’s inner circle kept the President “in the know” but as Vice President Cheney has acted to deliberately keep W. Bush out of the loop for political and potentially legal reasons.  Suskind details the odd relationship developed by Bush in order to protect himself.

The 2% rule.
What does a sitting President do with a 2% approval rating with African American voters in a post-Katrina America?  With midterm elections on the horizon Bush simply extended (a bit early) the voting rights act.  That was the most strategic advice the GOP could offer?  Did they want to hit….say 4%?  This proves to be an excellent example of the political extremism underway in the Bush White House to show how the story and plans for war would be developed to further a political agenda.

Knifing the baby
Immediately following 9/11 Bush became accustomed to getting his political way with America, the mainstream media and government. History has shown this leads Presidents down dark paths.  When British intelligence (MI5 & MI6) notified the US that a plan was underway by Al Qaeda to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic Bush asked British PM Tony Blair to give up the terrorists to American authorities.  Blair refused saying British Intelligence had 2,000 operatives working this case for over a year.  They were eavesdropping on their ring of terrorists and looked to grab higher players within 30 days.

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Education Reading

Latest read: Nixon in Winter

Was looking forward to Monica Crowley’s Nixon in Winter : His Final Revelations about Diplomacy, Watergate, and Life out of the Arena for any Watergate insight but failed to learn anything new outside of Nixon’s predictable thought and opinions on the issue that killed his presidency . I was somewhat more interested in his insights on Vietnam.
Nixon in WinterSo what I learned was the impact of Vietnam and ultimately how it was just another part of the downfall of Nixon. I believe Nixon’s secret invasion of Cambodia which lead to campus protests, really ignited the anti-war movement and as a result began the actions of CREEP. He promised if elected he would bring peace to America, yet most Americans did not realize the resources North Vietnam used in Cambodia.

The most revealing was Crowley’s view of the Nixon’s and how he was so attached to Pat, especially when of her physical failures resulting from cancer. The insight of his devotion to her was true. In recalling video of Nixon weeping openly at her funeral somehow proved he was human in a moment of loss.

Overall this final revelation about Watergate proved little value. If memory serves me correctly this is now my 14th book about Watergate. Not sure I will pickup Crowley’s other book Nixon off the record.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Kent State

Kent State: What Happened and Why was a very personal, private reading experience. Raised and educated in Ohio, my father was an Army MP in the Ohio National Guard. My father’s twin brother was also an MP.
During that weekend, my father’s unit based in Toledo was called up by Governor James Rhodes.

At the time of the shooting my grandmother who was in failing health was overcome by the initial, inaccurate reports that Ohio guardsmen were shot and killed. She died that day. I was only four years of age when my grandmother passed away.

In the spring of 1970 the war in Vietnam, waging since 1959 spread into Cambodia.

The US Military began limited expansion into Cambodia which came as a shock to many Americans.

President Nixon announced Thursday April 30th the incursions by US troops into Cambodia to find enemy supplies and troops. This event drove a further wedge in America still coming to terms with the My Lai massacre the previous November.

As author James Michener followed the timeline of events, he quoted Roy Thomson, Kent’s Chief of Police that same day as stating “Kent is exceedingly fortunate in that most of the 20,000 students at Kent State University are well balanced.” Could anyone have predicted the tragedy that was to unfold?

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