Deep Throat and Genocide

The American Spectator ^ | 6-1-05 | Ben Stein

[veronica]

Re: The "news" that former FBI agent Mark Felt broke the law, broke his code of ethics, broke his oath and was the main source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's articles that helped depose Richard Nixon, a few thoughts.

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.

When his enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:

1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.

2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.

So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me.

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu, and author of "Ben Stein's Diary" each month in The American Spectator.

[AFPhys]

"Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose."

" ...they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor,... "

PING

[Cyber Liberty]

...no one to this date has any clue about its purpose.

Ben Stein, whom I am getting to like less every day, must really hate G. Gordon Liddy.

[AFPhys]

Nixon's major crime was loyalty to his friends.

As a result, he helped to cover up an investigation into wrongdoing.

He was threatened with impeachment by the large-majority Democrats after much hounding by the Old Media. Representatives of his party, Republicans, took a walk from the Capitol to the WH to ask in a private conversation that he resign. Nixon further showed his loyalty to his friends and his country by doing resigning, instead of forcing the party and country to split in a trial over this, though he never believed his actions were wrong. In fact he believed that the state of war gave the executive branch the right to do what his subordinates did, though he never specifically authorized their ill-fated actions, and cited WW2 precedents.


An unbiased history of Watergate would include what I wrote above.
`\

[GraceCoolidge]

I believe that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among those whose telephone was tapped on the orders of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The media double standard, I think, is most glaring when you compare coverage of the Kennedy family to the coverage of any Republican family, leader, or President.

[Jedidah]

Nixon campaigned on that same promise in 1968, saying that he had a "secret plan," but didn't get around to actually pulling troops out until the fall of '72. It was the October surprise of the 1972 election. That's four years of death in Vietnam under his watch.

I've wondered if Kerry got his "I have a plan" strategy from Nixon '68. Thank goodness it didn't work twice.

[GraceCoolidge]

I saw G. Gordon Liddy on Fox this morning and he alluded to a "call girl ring" that was being investigated. He stated that the telephone tap was placed on a secretary or assistant who was believed to be the link between the call girl ring and the DNC.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I prefer Stein's appraisal to yours. His has facts and logic, yours just emotion and opinion. If you aren't a liberal you share those traits with them.

[chudogg]

Uh, he tried to cover up the Watergate break-in. Nixon was way ahead in polls, I never could understand why he thought he had to spy on ANY Demoncrat. I was only 9 at the time.

During this election, it was revealed that John Kerry had a mole in George Bush's election campaign, so that he could find out what his talking points were going to be. How is this any different than Nixon's campaign placing a bug in the Democrats office to find out the same thing?

[Proud_texan]

"classic Rockefeller (Liberal) Republican"

Exactly which is why I always wonder that the media, especially the east coast media, hated him so much. I agree with Stein in that I suspect it goes back to Alger Hiss but it's no secret that many of our current woes with big government started under Nixon (not that he was the one who got the rock rolling by any means!).

To tag on as for the remark "ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose" as far as I know there's no question about it, it's purpose was to acquire information on the use of prostitutes. There are grey areas within that but I thought it was pretty much settled that was the purpose. Have I missed something?

Certainly no more than other administrations have done and certainly a lot less.

[Squantos]

Dang I thought a new STD was discovered when I read that title.....:o)

[Schwaeky]

I didn't agree with much of the domestic agenda of Nixon (set the stage for the malaise of the late 70s, not putting a lid on inflation and spending early) and not loosening monetary policy to keep the interest rates from spiralling skyward, but making peace in the world was something he did, detente was at its peak under Nixon, he scaled down our ground presence in Vietnam, he gained rapproachment with Beijing (if nothing else to serve as a counterweight to them embracing the Soviets and to have a strategic edge over the USSR). Nixon had guts, he did things others only would dream about. Nixon was a true statesman and this Felt guy, while not a traitor, definitely sold out everything good and great about America just for bringing down the one of the few good world leaders from the 70s.

By the way, the Watergate break-in was about a call-girl sex scandal that the Democrats were having call-girls come to DNC headquarters, had some on DNC payroll to handle delegates "needs", and Nixon intended originally to bring this forward but needed concrete proof. The initial offenses by the individuals directly responsible were only low-rent breaking and entering charges, which the ones involved could easily have got dropped. He could have stopped everything by simply pardoning them there, and nothing further would have went from it..

[Grampa Dave]

bump

[RinaseaofDs]

Nope, it wasn't arrogant. It was, however almost non-sequitor and definitely naive.

Nixon was willing to pound the NVA into the turf, but Watergate made it possible for Congress to defund the war in 1975, essentially leaving Nixon one option - get out.

We left $11 Billion dollars (1975 dollars) of materiel and equipment behind in our haste, by the way. That's how fast we got out.

All of this, and we had, by top NVA generals own admission, the enemy within 2 months of capitulation. With NVA defeat, the Khmer Rouge probably wouldn't have happened.

Stein is right here.

[arasina]

A "Yuh gonna love dis one" Ping. Ben Stein says it best.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Too bad that because Nixon failed to uphold the law,
we are still stuck with Hanoi Jane and Hanoi Kerry.

If Nixon hadn't caved into the minority anti-war crowd
and listened to the Silent Majority
Hanoi Jane AND Hanoi Kerry
would have been prosecuted for their treason in the 70's,
while Nixon was still President.

Keep in mind that Nixon was directly involved in Viet Nam,
as Vice President, going back to at least 1955.

So Hanoi Jane AND Hanoi Kerry keep a high profile,
and always watch your yellow backs.
Nixon is NOT HERE to protect you.
You are on your own.

26 Sep 1945 - The first death of an American serviceman in Vietnam occurred.
OSS (Office of Special Operations) Major (Lieutenant Colonel) A. Peter Dewey
was killed in action by the Communist Vietminh near Hanoi.
May 1950 President Harry S Truman authorised $10 million in aid to the French for their war in Viet Nam.
By January 1951, $150 million had been given in aid.
1953-61 Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th US President
1953-61 Richard M. Nixon Vice President
1953 - The US is supporting the French in the amount of $1 billion per year--
33% of all US foreign aid--which is 80% of the total cost to the
. US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles (under Eisenhower) first voices the 'Domino Theory':
if one country in Southeast Asia falls to the Communists, they will all fall, one by one.

12 Feb 55 - President Eisenhower's administration sends 1st 350 U.S. advisers to South Vietnam
to train the South Vietnamese Army

8 Jun 56 - The first American of record to die in Vietnam
was Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.
His son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, died in Vietnam Sep 7, 1965.
8 Jun 56 Has been formally recognized by the Pentagon as the first American officially to die in that war.

5 Sep 56 - President Eisenhower tells a news conference that the French are
"involved in a hopelessly losing war in Indochina" 1956 The US believed in that Ho Chi Minh would have won any election held in Viet Nam and used their influence over the government of the State of Viet Nam to ensure that the election was not held



From a Must Visit Site
Vipers Vietnam Veterans Page, A Vietnam Veteran & Proud Web Site
About Vietnam

The Vietnam war was the longest in our nation's history.
1st American advisor was killed on June 08, 1956,
and the last casualties in connection with the war occurred on May 15, 1975, during the Mayaquez incident. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in the war zone; 300,000 were wounded and approximately 75,000 permanently disabled. Officially there are still 1,991 Americans unaccounted for from SE Asia.

Vietnam was a savage, in your face war where death could and did strike from anywhere with absolutely no warning. The brave young men and women who fought that war paid an awful price of blood, pain and suffering. As it is said: "ALL GAVE SOME ... SOME GAVE ALL"
The Vietnam war was not lost on the battlefield. No American force in ANY other conflict fought with more determination or sheer courage than the Vietnam Veteran.  For the first time in our history America sent it's young men and women into a war run by inept politicians who had no grasp of military strategies and no moral will to win. They were led by "top brass" who were concerned mainly with furthering their own careers, most neither understood the nature of the war nor had a clue about the impossible mission with which they'd tasked their soldiers.  And the war was reported by a self serving Media who penned stories filled with inaccuracies, deliberate omissions, biased presentations and blatant distorted interpretations because they were more interested in a story than the truth! It can be debated that we should never have fought that war. It can also be argued that the young Americans who fought so courageously, never losing a single major battle, helped in a huge way to WIN THE COLD WAR.

[Black Tooth]

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible?

Most seem to be missing why Felt, and maybe others in the FBI wanted Nixon out.

Hoover had ran the FBI since Calvin Coolidge, They always replaced those the left the organization with others they approved of and from within the FBI. It was a tradition. When Hoover died, Nixon put L. Patrick Gray in charge, an outsider. Those senior in the FBI, and many others in the organization were not happy about this, and held a tight grudge.

I personally feel Felt was not the only one in the FBI that went of their way to help Nixon fall.

[AFPhys]

You are not the only one here who watched Watergate unfold.

Your take is the one the MSM propaganda machine has successfully foist upon you and others.

What Nixon's administration did was unremarkable - but the Old Media and the liberals had been angry at him since he brought down Hiss - so they dared to bring on a double standard in reporting that has killed the credibility of the press, as well as having the other effects that the trivial burglary of Watergate ended up having, some of which I've detailled Here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414434/posts?page=39#39
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414434/posts?page=40#40
and
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414334/posts?page=123#123

[Dems_R_Losers]

Ben Stein is the son of Herbert Stein, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Nixon. Ben worked briefly as a speechwriter in the Nixon White House, alongside Pat Buchanan. Nixon has always been one of Ben's heroes.

[AFPhys]

"...and Nixon intended originally to bring this forward but needed concrete proof."

Wrong. Dean suspected his new wife was involved in the call ring operation, and HE ordered the break-in --- NOT Nixon - who didn't know about the break-in until later on.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for filling in the details for me, folks. :)