Posted on 08/09/2009 10:22:50 PM PDT by robert561
Richard Nixon is long gone, buried with so many secrets detailing the chaotic end of a flawed presidency.
But in Palm Beach, an 85-year-old retired general has more knowledge of what transpired in Nixon's final days in office than any other man alive.
One of the nation's most unceremonious moments occurred 35 years ago Sunday, when - for the only time in U.S. history - a president relinquished his power.
No man had a better look at the unraveling of a president than Alexander Haig, the White House's chief of staff who helped orchestrate Nixon's removal from power.
Haig, who lives much of the year in a Palm Beach mansion, spoke in an interview last week with The Palm Beach Post, confirming many suspicions that he and others once denied, like trying to broker a pardon for the president in return for his resignation, and his fears that Nixon would commit suicide in office.
"It was very difficult to watch what happened to him," said Haig from his summer home in McLean, Va. "It was the saddest time of my life."
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
Yep. I remember those days, too. From way afar of course. But it was a sad time for me to watch this.
Nixon was the first Prez candidate that I ever voted for (November '72).
Twenty-one months later, he's stepping down. :(
Good article. Thanks for posting.
I always remember this day in history.
BIG history, for one thing.
And my nephew was born on August 9th, too!
(Around 1980 I believe). :)
That would’ve been rather late to the party. Like nuking Hiroshima a second time in ‘45...
Uh, Nixon was elected in 1968, didn’t take office until 1969, at which point the the Gun Control Act of 1968 was already law.
Nixon was guilty of enough bad things without tarring him with that waste-of-skin Johnson’s sins.
I worked for General Haig during his short-lived campaign for president in 1987. You are both correct.
Just checking on his military background ~ he appears to have been in a good number of bad things where exactly that habit would been called on.
One claim that needs checked on is his place in the chain of command regarding the time the 1/15 Infantry was honored to guard the withdrawal of the US Marines from Chisin reservoir.
I don't find Haig involved directly with the 1/15 but maybe he was around the area.
There doesn't appear to be another time in the history of the country where the Infantry protected the Marines!
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