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Originally posted by Not Bob
Ben Stein is so completely and utterly full of horse, chicken, and bull shit that I am sitting here agog after reading this. What did Nixon do that was so bad? Without doing any research and without much thinking . . .
(1) Overthrowing Salvador Allende's government in Chile. Death of a few US citizens in coup by CIA resources in Chilean army.
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This ended up being a great thing for Chile and us. Allende had destroyed Chile's economy and may have turned it into another Cuba.
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Originally posted by Not Bob
(2) Dumping an antitrust suit against ITT in return for a campaign contribution.
government out of tax money by back-dating a document (can't remember if this involved the foundation that was to build his library or "Six Crises").
(4) Using the IRS to attack political opponents by ordering audits.
(5) Having the FBI investigate critical newsman Daniel Schorr ("we were doing a background check because we were thinking about appointing him to a high government position").
(6) Ordering a break-in of the office of the shrink of Pentagon Papers leak Daniel Ellsberg in order to find something incriminating on him.
(7) Using the FCC to attack the Washington Post Co. by challenging renewal of TV broadcast licenses.
(8) Payment of money from cash held by his personal lawyer to Watergate burglars in an attempt to keep them quiet.
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These were all bad and threatened the constitution. Mr. Stein should have mentioned these.
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Originally posted by Not Bob As for Vietnam, Watergate had nothing to do with the fall of Saigon or Cambodia. Nixon won election in 1968 on a promise to end the war, and he was doing whatever he could to get the US out well before the Cubans broke into the DNC offices. The fall of Nixon did not create the Communist victory -- in fact, some argue that Nixon's invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was the first step of the Khmer Rouge takeover.
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This is liberal B.S. In 72 Kissenger signed a treaty with North Vietnam to end North Vietnams involvement in the war(for which he got the Nobel Peace Prize). At this point South Vietnam held every provincial capital in South Vietnam. Without support from the North Vietnamese regulars the Vietcong started to lose ground. Because of this North Vietnam started to break the treaty, so Nixon did the Christmas bombing of Hanoi. This got the North Vietnamese to back off. Once again the Viet Cong started to lose ground. But once Watergate got really bad the Democrats in Congress cut off all military aid to South Vietnam and prevented Nixon from doing anything in Vietnam. The North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and there was nothing the US could do about it. Once Nixon left office Congress prevented Ford from doing anything to enforce the Peace Treaty making the fall of Saigon inevitable. South Vietnam did not fall do the Vietcong. It fell to North Vietnam, which would not have happend had Nixon not fallen.
Only a twisted mind could come up with the crazy idea that the communist takeover of Cambodia was caused by Nixon. The Khmer Rouge were support by the North Vietnames. Of course they later lost control of them, but intially they were pawns of the North Vietnam. Nixon bombed Cambodia and got invovled in Cambodia because the North Vietnamese were there. It was when US influence was completely pulled from the region that the Khmer Rouge took over.
