Nixon

by

Fourth of July Salute to America

Donald Trump has announced plans for a “Salute to America” at the Lincoln Memorial on July 4th this year, which some see as another taxpayer-financed campaign rally sure to bring out his “base.” In his usual terse, demure prose, Trump has tweeted that the event will have “Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!”

Proudly They Came (1): 1970


The album cover of Honor America Day recordings of the event that was largely seen as a pro-war, pro-Nixon rally held July 4, 1970 in Washington, D.C. The album contains an iconic version of Kate Smith’s God Bless America, but does not recognize protests at the event against the Vietnam War and for legalization of marijuana.

I can’t help but recall the July 4th “Honor America Day” at that location 49 years ago. It was a massive, entertainment-filled, patriotic ceremony kicked off in the morning with an interfaith service on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial led by Billy Graham and attended by some 10,000 people. The day’s planning committee was led by J Willard Marriott, the hotel-chain baron and friend of President Nixon. Bob Hope was the master of ceremonies. 


American evangelist Billy Graham speaks from a podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while surrounded by uniformed members of the armed forces during ‘Honor America Day,’  in Washington, DC on July 4, 1970.
David Fenton/Getty Images

In spite of campaign promises to end the war in Vietnam, President Nixon had expanded the war with the carpet-bombing and invasion of Cambodia. In the fall of 1969, the largest antiwar protest ever held in the United States drew hundreds of thousands to the nation’s capital. The antiwar movement continued to grow, particularly after National Guard soldiers in May 1970 killed four students attending an antiwar protest at Kent State in Ohio and two at Jackson State in Mississippi.

When Nixon supporters kicked off their Honor America celebration at one end of the National Mall ostensibly to express a sense of national unity and patriotism, many felt it was little more than a pro-war rally. From the reflecting pool to the Washington Monument at the other end of the mall, several thousand hippies and Yippies gathered for what was to become an annual Smoke-In to demand legalization of marijuana and the end to the war.

Proudly They Came (2): 1970

Four years ago, over objections from Congress, recreational marijuana was legalized in the District of Columbia. We can be certain that this year’s smoke-in will offer an interesting contrast to the Trump-sponsored Salute at the Lincoln Memorial.

by

Presidential unravelings

 

I was not paying very close attention in the early ’70s to the shenanigans that eventually brought down the Nixon presidency, but recently I’ve been getting that déjà vu feeling. I recall that Watergate was named for the hotel that housed the offices of the Democratic National Committee, which Nixon’s “plumbers” burglarized. How long, I wondered, did it take for that attempt to influence the 1972 presidential election to catch up to Nixon and bring him down.

So, with the help of Mother Jones, I pulled together a timeline of the key events between the Watergate DNC break-in and Nixon’s resignation a little more than two years later:

Watergate Timeline:

Sept. 9, 1971 “Plumbers” Unit burglarizes Ellsberg’s shrink’s office.
June 17, 1972 Five men arrested bugging DNC’s Watergate headquarters
June–Sept., 1972 Washington Post reports various connections
Oct. 10, 1972 FBI establishes Watergate part of massive spying & sabotage by Nixon campaign
Nov. 11, 1972 Nixon reelected by a landslide
Jan. 30, 1973 Former Nixon aides Liddy & McCord + 5 others convicted in Watergate break-in
April 30, 1973 WH staff Haldeman, Ehrlichman, AG Kleindienst resign; counsel Dean, fired
May 18, 1973 Senate Watergate hearings begin, special prosecutor appointed
June-July more & more dirt dug up, revealed
Oct. 20, 1973 Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon fires spec. prosecutor, AG resigns
Nov. ’73–July, ’74 More dirt, Nixon won’t cooperate, Supremes order him to
July 27, 1974 Hs Jud. Comm. passes 1st of 3 articles of impeachment, for obstruction of justice
Aug. 8, 1974 Nixon resigns—2 yrs after DNC break-in, 22 mos. after the election he rigged

I have not made a point-by-point comparison with the current fiasco. The lines between legitimate campaign tactics and criminal intent seem even more blurred these days than in the days of Nixon’s “dirty tricks,” with fewer courageous Republicans willing to challenge the president.

The FBI has identified Russian attempts to swing the 2016 US presidential election. The intelligence community has identified several questionable and possibly unconstitutional contacts of members of Trump’s campaign with Russian officials dabbling in US foreign affairs prior to Trump’s being sworn in and possibly conspiring to swing the election itself.

How much did he know, and when did he know it? The kind of obfuscation we’ve been getting from the White House is reminiscent of Nixon’s and his staff’s stonewalling throughout the beginning of his second term, until his resignation nearly two years after his reelection.