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Just a minor historical footnote, but arguably an interesting one . . . A man whose Watergate reporting made his career and led to Richard Nixon's downfall has declared that Pres. Gerald Ford did the right thing in pardoning Nixon. Carl Bernstein made the--to me at least--surprising statement on today's Morning Joe, in the course of a discussion of Jeff Greenfield's new book about various what-ifs in history. View video here.

On this day in 1948, Rep. Richard Nixon (R-CA) and his House Un-American Activities Committee questioned Alger Hiss, a State Department officer suspected of being a Soviet spy. Nixon zeroed in on contradictions in Hiss's testimony, revealing that Hiss had lied about not knowing Whittaker Chambers, another Soviet spy. Though never convicted of being a spy, Hiss did go to prison for perjury. For decades, many Democrats asserted that Hiss was innocent and that Nixon had persecuted an innocent man. After the fall of the Soviet Union, de-classified records revealed that Alger Hiss had indeed been a Soviet spy.

The United States studied a plan for a nuclear strike on North Korea in 1969 but advisers to then-president Richard Nixon concluded it was best to remain calm, declassified documents showed Wednesday. The documents, obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, foreshadow present-day US frustration on how to handle Pyongyang following its nuclear tests and the sinking of a South Korean ship. In 1969, North Korea shot down a US spy aircraft over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), killing the 31 personnel on board. Despite US outrage, the new Nixon administration chose not to retaliate other...

Detail by painful detail, the CIA is coming to grips with one of the most devastating episodes in its history, a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China that stole two decades of freedom from a pair of fresh-faced American operatives and cost the lives of their two pilots. In opening up about the 1952 debacle, the CIA is finding ways to use it as a teaching tool. Mistakes of the past can serve as cautionary tales for today's spies and paramilitary officers taking on al-Qaida and other terrorist targets. At the center of the story are two eager CIA paramilitary officers...

We're all supposed to be really excited that Carly Fiorina is "on our side" because she's been endorsed by various and sundry organizations. The National Rifle Association, the National Right To Life Committee, the Susan B. Anthony List etc. By now, many of us realize these groups have a record of endorsing incumbent politicians and political insiders, plus candidates that are less than 100 percent Pro-Life or Second Amendment. National Right To Life always endorses my GOP congressman as "PRO LIFE" when he only voted Pro-Life 57 percent of the time in 2007 and 2008. Then there's the half-way Second...

WASHINGTON - A top adviser to GOP star Sarah Palin was once dispatched by ex-President Richard Nixon to sweep Jews out of government service, newly released tapes show. Nixon aide Fred Malek's role as what Democrats call a "Jew counter" for the disgraced President was already well known, and he has spent decades apologizing for activities that later cost him a Republican National Committee job in the 1980s. But he remains a prominent GOP powerbroker. "The government is full of Jews," Nixon griped to chief aide H.R. Haldeman in a July 1971 Oval Office recording released by the University of...

'This woman suckered us', said Nixon of Indira Gandhi: Book New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) "She suckered us. Suckered us.....this woman suckered us." So said an enraged US president Richard Nixon of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi after learning that war had broken out on the subcontinent on Dec 3, 1971, and Indian forces had made a decisive push towards then East Pakistan that it recognised as Bangladesh three days later. Nixon, who had met Gandhi just a month earlier in Washington, had sought assurances from her that India would not take any precipitate military action pending efforts by the...

Nixon's own composition, set to concerto form with "15 Democratic violinists." Nixon takes a dig at Harry Truman just before playing.

Precise details of what transpired in Washington during the first week of the Yom Kippur War, launched by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, are hard to come by, in no small measure owing to conflicting accounts given by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger regarding their respective roles. What is clear, from the preponderance of information provided by those directly involved in the unfolding events, is that President Richard Nixon — overriding inter-administration objections and bureaucratic inertia — implemented a breathtaking transfer of arms, code-named Operation Nickel Grass, that over a four-week period...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who died on August 16, 1977. Elvis died of a life of excess and drug abuse at the absurdly young age of 42. He had been a superstar for more than 20 years by the time he died, entombed in his own celebrity. When Elvis, Scotty and Bill found their way to the heart of American music with their recording of "That's Alright, Mama," they (and Sun Records owner/producer Sam Phillips) knew they had done something special. Elvis found the heart of America -- the place where country, blues, and...

Here is video of President Richard Nixon discussing his final day as President, and then announcing his resignation as President of the United States on August 8, 1974, 35 years ago today. The video is from an interview Frank Gannon did with Nixon in 1983, and gives some of the personal feeling of what that day was like for Nixon. Nixon resigned after months of controversy regarding his cover-up of the Watergate break-in conducted by a group of Nixon operatives known as "the Plumbers." The Watergate Building housed the Democrat National Committee headquarters. Upon learning of the break-in, Nixon sought...

FROM:Dr. Michael S. Brown of Vancouver, WA TOPIC:"NEGROES WITH GUNS" 12/29/01 12:22:27 The year was 1957. Monroe, North Carolina, was a rigidly segregated town where all levels of white society and government were dedicated to preserving the racial status quo. Blacks who dared to speak out were subject to brutal, sadistic violence. It was common practice for convoys of Ku Klux Klan members to drive through black neighborhoods shooting in all directions. A black physician who owned a nice brick house on a main road was a frequent target of racist anger. In the summer of 1957, a Klan...

Contact: Margaret, Priests for Life,  888-735-3448, ext. 251ATLANTA, June 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., responded today to the news that White House tapes of President Nixon reveal him saying that he thought abortion was 'necessary' when one parent was white and one was black. "Since its inception, the abortion movement has been eliminating people that it considers undesirable -- people of color or those with low income," said Dr. King.  "President Nixon's comment is just one more reminder that abortion and racism are inextricably linked." The Nixon tapes coincide with the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although US President Richard Nixon remained silent on the landmark 1973 Supreme Court rulings that legalized abortion on demand, newly released tapes show the disgraced President actually believed legal abortion was “necessary” in certain cases, such as when the baby was of mixed-race or conceived through rape.The information has come to light thanks to the Nixon Presidential Library releasing today over 154 hours of tape recordings from the Nixon White House that were recorded in January and February 1973.Although the quality of the recordings are poor, Nixon and an aide held a...

Clearing the air vs. splitting hairs and distorting Cold War history (Part 1) Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter whitewashed Since the downfall of the Soviet Union, volumes have been written about that late superpower's penetration of American Society and its institutions before and during the Cold War years. It can be said without credible contradiction that what we now know about Soviet spying and infiltration of the U.S. for seven decades vindicates the much-maligned anti-Communists (in and out of Congress) of that era. If anything, they didn't know the half of it. It was they who warned — often to...

Sorry, not taking Wikipedia as a source. Nor are spurious "conspiracy theory" comments welcomed. It's an honest question. Answers should cite primary sources and such primary sources should cite date and type of audit. I also expand this question to include all US stores, where the gold is owned by the US. Answers must distinguish between "holding" and "ownership", the question is to ownership! I note that a great failing of our times is that people do not know how to keep books anymore, and even less how to audit. Too many make assumptions, or give a cheap pass to...

Nixon And Ebert At The Movies By Ed Driscoll · December 13, 2008 As Christian Toto writes, while Roger Ebert has always been a man of the left, his BDS seems to be getting the better of him these days. In his otherwise appropriately middling review of the Keanu Reeves remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, Ebert opines: The message of the 2008 version is that we should have voted for Al Gore. This didn't require Klaatu and Gort. That's what I'm here for. To which Christian replies: Really? I thought you were here to help the public...

DHP Review: Frost/Nixon by Dirty Harry Friday, December 12th, 2008 Frost/Nixon is a full on respectable, accomplished and intelligent retelling of the now famous series of interviews English television personality David Frost conducted with disgraced former President Nixon in 1977, just a few years after Nixon’s resignation. No on can argue a successful stageplay has been transformed into a beautifully shot narrative with two memorable performances by Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. The film holds your attention and reeks of competence from beginning to end. All that’s missing is a point. Since 1976’s All The President’s...

AugustReview.com [Editor's note: members of the Trilateral Commission and companies with Commission representation appear in bold type.] Since 1973, this writer has made inquiry as to the location and ownership of the vast stores of monetary gold (400 oz., .999 pure bars) in the world. There has not been a formal audit on Fort Knox, for instance, since the Eisenhower administration. Official statistics on gold holdings are often contradictory. Getting plain answers from any Central Bank in the world, including the Fed, is virtually impossible. This paper points out a pattern of manipulation that has been clearly observed by many...

Just because you can, does not mean you should. Look, as conservatives or Republicans, we truly do get the point that much of Hollywood despises us or the ideology they have convinced themselves we blindly follow. For the last two decades or so, they have channeled much of that anger into films that have bashed Richard Nixon or George W. Bush. And now, purely because he can, director Ron Howard and his team are giving us "Frost/Nixon." A feel-good film for liberals that once again, in case you missed the plethora of earlier offerings, trumpets the evils of President Richard...