Johnson, Rostow and other senior Democrats who were privy to the secrets apparently thought that -- in their silence -- they were doing what was good for the country.
"Some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I'm wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have a certain individual [Nixon] elected," Defense Secretary Clark Clifford told Johnson in a conference call on Nov. 4, 1968. "It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country's interests."
However, by not trusting the American people with such vital information, these Democrats set the stage for the depressing drama that has played out over the ensuing four-plus decades. With the evidence of Nixon's "treason" kept under wraps, Republicans could fancy themselves the real victims in the Watergate scandal and thus could justify doing whatever was necessary to protect some future GOP president from similar treatment.
From then on, whenever some major scandal threatened Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush, the right-wing attack machine would fire up and mow down anyone who got too close to the truth.
Some examples include evidence of another October Surprise dirty trick in 1980 (with Reagan's campaign frustrating President Jimmy Carter's efforts to free 52 American hostages in Iran), the Iran-Contra sequel (as President Reagan traded more arms to Iran for more U.S. hostages in 1985-86), the Iraq-gate scandal of secretly arming Saddam Hussein (which put President George H.W. Bush on the spot after the Persian Gulf War in 1991), or the Plame-gate affair (which involved George W. Bush's administration leaking the identity of a covert CIA officer to get back at her husband for exposing a lie behind the Iraq War in 2003). [For more on this history, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege or Consortiumnews.com's "New October Surprise Series."]
Whitewater Revenge
The Right's attack machine was there, too, to take down Democratic presidents over even minor "scandals." For instance, in the 1990s, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing operatives pounded President Bill Clinton over murky questions about an old real-estate deal known as Whitewater.
A dark eminence behind the assault on Clinton was none other than Richard Nixon, who even in his disgraced retirement continued to counsel Republicans on how play hardball politics. Ironically, Nixon plotted to destroy Clinton even as Clinton was extending a hand of friendship to Nixon.
As Monica Crowley reported in her book, Nixon Off the Record, Clinton called Nixon seeking advice on everything from foreign policy to time scheduling. The first contact -- a 40-minute conversation -- was made on March 2, 1993, barely a month after Clinton entered the White House "and their unexpectedly close relationship was born," wrote Crowley, a personal aide to Nixon who recorded many of the ex-president's commentaries in his final years.
After the first call, Nixon sounded genuinely touched that Clinton had reached out. "He was very respectful but with no sickening bullshit," Nixon told Crowley. "It was the best conversation with a president I've had since I was president."
Six days later, Nixon traveled to Washington for an announced public meeting with Clinton in the White House, an honor that Nixon had not received from Clinton's Republican predecessors who had snuck Nixon in the back door for unannounced private meetings. Again, Nixon seemed sincerely moved by Clinton's gesture.
"Clinton is very earthy," Nixon told Crowley. "He cursed -- 'a**hole,' 'son of a b*tch,' 'bastard' -- you know. He's a very straightforward conversationalist." Nixon also acknowledged, in an edgy tone, that the formal White House meeting with Clinton "was more than either Reagan or Bush ever gave me."
But typical of Nixon, he was soon scheming to undo the Democratic president who had reached out to him. Nixon exploited his personal knowledge of Clinton to offer back-channel political advice to Sen. Bob Dole, whom Nixon correctly considered to be the likely Republican nominee in 1996.
Nixon also privately hoped that the Clintons' troubled Whitewater investment would turn into a second Watergate that would humiliate both Clinton and his wife -- and somehow settle an old score Nixon felt toward Democrats and anti-war demonstrators.
In one such comment on April 13, 1994, four days before the stroke that led to his death, Nixon called Crowley and chortled about the surging Whitewater scandal. "Clinton should pay the price," Nixon declared. "Our people shouldn't let this issue go down. They mustn't let it sink."
Nixon said he had even called Dole to make sure that aggressive questioners were put on the Whitewater committee.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
