The Burning House
May 1, 1973
The British destroyer
HMS Hampshire is shadowed for several hours by an unidentified submarine in the Pearl River Estuary on the border of Hong Kong territorial waters.
May 3, 1973
The Soviet Frigate
Suirepyy, the helicopter carrier
Lenningrad and the destroyers
Krasnyy Krym and
Ordanenoyy and a North Korean corvette of the
Sariwon class escort four Soviet merchant ships through the Gulf of Tonkin and into Vietnam. They are trailed by the
USS Constellation carrier group which also tracks one submarine submerged beneath the flotilla and notes two Chinese fishing trawlers shadowing the Soviets at a discrete distance.
( from Anonymous [1]
Behind the Fortress Walls)
Brezhnev never stopped believing that Spiro Agnew had engineered Richard Nixon's downfall: he convinced himself that Agnew had been the real power all along and that Nixon had been his dupe. According to the General Secretary, Agnew had planned it all and had used this McKeithen, a provincial governor of no distinction, as his tool to bring down Nixon. By doing so he had discredited the peace party which Nixon and his man Kissinger appeared to represent. On taking power Agnew pursued the policy of confrontation and war in Vietnam, which Brezhnev discerned as the true policy of the ruling oligarchy in the United States. All Nixon had done could be discarded as lies and deception. Only the Ambassador to the United States Anatoli Dobrynin tried to dissuade him from this thinking; but Brezhnev was so convinced that he began to suspect Dobrynin was an American agent spreading disinformation.
The Soviet policy in regard to Vietnam was to do all we could to give Agnew the war he seemed to want. The fact that our submarine sunk one of their destroyers (it was an unfortunate accident, the captain had been aiming for the Chinese warship nearby but missed) and that the Chinese took some of the blame was all the better. Agnew had his cause for war; and our leadership was content to let him wallow in it for the next few years.
Regarding the Chinese, Brezhnev was under intense pressure from within the Party leadership to deal a blow to those ingrates. Mao's alienation from the international cause had been the source of great embarrassment and no little blame fixing over the previous two decades. Most agreed that Mao was ungrateful, and Khruschev had been a fool in his handling of Peking. Leonid Brezhnev did not wish to fall into this category. Both he and Kosygin had been embarrassed by the events of 1969, when China provoked a war, and then humiliated Kosygin when he visited Peking to offer reconciliation. Indeed, our tepid response had lead Mao and Chou Enlai to believe that they could deal with the United States as an equal, and so by implication become an equal with us. That was an affront, not to mention a political scandal of the first order among our party cadre, and that is why Brezhnev determined to bring down the hammer on the rice eaters at the first opportunity.
The murder of Mikhail Gorbachev by the Chinese was a provocation which helped us. It was unfortunate the steel safe on his plane did not explode as expected; our engineers could not understand why it failed to explode when the Chinese tampered with it. KGB Chairman Andropov had the answer: one of more of the engineers and technicians we had sent to Vietnam with Gorbachev had been Chinese agents and had not died in the crash, but he or they was/were still alive in China. This spy, or spies, had given the rice eaters the combination to the safe. From this information we knew they had planned the event beforehand. You could feel a chill come over the room when Chairman Andropov announced that his service was searching for other Chinese spies inside our government and party.
When we lost the use of the Chinese port, the supply operation directly into Haiphong became more dangerous. But Defence Minister Andrei Grechko convinced the executive committee that it was necessary to keep the North Vietnamese equipped. Even with the patriotic engineers from the German Democratic Republic, aided by Yugoslav mercenaries (who despite their bourgeois motives knew their craft), building them tunnels and bunkers, the heavy American bombing was taking its toll. That is how we came to supply them with armed convoys. Grechko and Foreign Minister Gromyko were convinced that neither the American Navy nor the worthless Chinese flotilla (one could hardly call what the rice eaters had a navy in the true sense) would attack our warships. But it would provoke Agnew to a greater commitment on the side of his puppet.
That is what Brezhnev wanted, that and to humiliate the ingrates in Peking. He expected that with an eventual Vietnamese victory and a humiliated United States driven from Asia once and for all, we would have China surrounded and in a place where they would come crawling back to us.
No one counted on the invasion into Mongolia. Initial reports of the accumulation of forces along the Chinese border were dismissed as sabre rattling by Mao and his clique. Too late, we saw when they invaded that they meant business. There were also flanking attacks along the Siberia-Manchuria border, which kept us from reinforcing the 29th Army in Mongolia from that quarter. Marshall Grechko refused to send substantial forces East from Europe, fearing that Agnew would use such a move to spur NATO into some mischief there. Thus the battle in Mongolia became a stalemate. Our forces were inferior in number to theirs, but the quality of Red Army forces was such that we could fend off the hordes of rice eaters for over a year. The Red air Force destroyed theirs in no time though. Only the caution of Air Force Chief Marshall Kutakhov restrained our pilots from all out attacks on the Chinese interior.
One interesting side light of this episode occurred in the People's Democratic Republic of Korea when that country's leader, Kim Il Sung, panicked during the opening Chinese moves, and displayed an annoying vacillation between ourselves and Peking. He was summoned to Moscow to account for himself, and while he was here a Korean People's Army General named Hyung Ju overthrew him, massacring Kim's rather large extended family in an abrupt coup. General - now First Grand Marshall of the Eternal Korean People's Republic - Hyung, preferred neutrality, but he allowed us to use assets of the Korean People's Navy for our sea operations, so the executive committee was content to let him be for now. Kim Il Sung was thrown into Valdimirov prison and later sent to a labour camp, where I understand he died.
[1] This is said to be the inside account of a Soviet Politburo member with close access to the leadership; the author often uses the pronoun 'we' when discussing acts of the Soviet leadership, leading some analysts to speculate that this work is the ghost written journal of a senior Soviet leader, although this cannot be verified. This account has been translated form a German language text that first appeared in Western Europe around 1979. The racial epithet 'rice eater' is translated from the original text and in no way reflects the views of the editors. It has been left unchanged to reflect the original language and context of the author's work.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 4, 1973
Inspired by the example of his elder brother (and under some family pressure), John Ellis ‘Jeb’ Bush, second son of George Bush sr., a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, enters the USAF OCS training program at Lackland AFB in Texas.
President Agnew orders Deputy Attorney General (Acting AG) Jospeh T. Sneed to fire US attorney George Beall. Sneed refuses to do this and is fired by Agnew. Solicitor General Erwin Griswold, the next in seniority at the Justice Department, also declines to fire Beall, and he too is fired. Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal counsel, who is now acting Attorney General, Ralph Erickson, fires Beall.
These mass firings, dubbed by the press as
The Friday Night Massacre, first draw the Washington press corps attention to the corruption probe going on in Baltimore County (which to this point has been local news, in whose coverage the name Spiro Agnew has yet to be mentioned). The Washington reporters are slow to pick-up on it at first because these firings take place late on a Friday night, after the news filing deadlines.
May 7, 1973
George Beall's older borther J. Glen Beall, Maryland's junior Republican Senator, attempts to intervene with the Agnew White House on his brother's behalf. He is rebuffed by Rumsfeld.
May 9, 1973
Under mounting pressure from Congress and the press, acting AG Erickson is compelled to name a special prosecutor in the Baltimore County investigation. Erickson names former Solicitor General and Warren commission Chief Counsel J. Lee Rankin (a Republican) as the special prosecutor.
May 10, 1973
In an address to the nation from the Oval Office President Agnew makes use of areal photos of the Soviet flotilla to make a case that the Soviets are building up North Vietnam as a threat to stability and peace in Southeast Asia, and ‘making possible North Vietnam as a base for destabilizing the region.’ He cites the Sino-Soviet tension as a sign of ‘Communist aggression.’
’I know many of you are nervous about our policy toward Vietnam, given the long and unpleasant history of our involvement there. I ask you to believe me that I wish we could end this tomorrow and leave. However, I cannot in good conscience, with the trust of this office, abandon our allies in the region to the mercy of the Communists. The fact remains that we disengaged too rapidly over the last two years, and the power vacuum which this policy created is being exploited by aggressive forces with the intent of subjugating Asia to the yoke of Communism. Our mission in the next few months must not, and will not be, to prolong this conflict, but to apply a measure of force to bring stability to the region. Only by being strong will we bring our adversaries to the negotiating table, which has been our policy all along. Only when they realize that the United States will allow no aggression to go unchallenged, will they relent in their de-stabilizing and aggressive pursuits. Only then will we be able to assure a lasting peace for which fifty thousand young American men have already given their lives. Let us not run away, and make their sacrifice in vain. Let us instead, as a just and strong nation, ensure that their sacrifice will long be remembered as contributing to the lasting peace of our world.’
During the speech Agnew also praises Alexander Haig as a ‘fine soldier, who understands war, and hates it. Having seen war, he wants peace more than anyone, but not peace at any price, and not the humiliation of appeasement. My friends who love this country, and I believe that is most of our hard-working, decent citizenry from across this great land, I call upon you to tell your Senator to help me defend this country. Send letters telling your Senator that you want General Al Haig confirmed as Secretary of Defense. I need him to help defend our nation, and I hope you will lend me your pens to the cause of his being confirmed as soon as possible.’
Senators receive many letters, about evenly split on the question of Haig’s confirmation. There is strong support for the President’s call in the mid-West and South though.
May 11, 1973
The House votes 261- 174 to cut off funding for war activity in Vietnam. The Senate follow suit two days later with a vote of 61 – 39 in favour of cutting off funding for the war. President Agnew vetoes the bill, citing the president’s constitutional authority in the conduct of war operations. Neither Houses of Congress can muster the two-thirds votes required to override Agnew’s veto (66 in the Senate; 290 in the House).
Operation Bold Eagle continues.
Governor McKeithen at Auburn University - May 12, 1973
We are faced with grave perils, that I will not deny. However, I must ask, which of these perils are imposed upon us, and which are we imposing on ourselves? Don't get me wrong. I stand by our fighting men in uniform in all circumstances. Having served in uniform myself, and having faced enemy fire, I understand the great challenges and dangers our armed forces face. My heart goes out to the families of the crew of the
USS Fox, especially to those who have lost loved ones in that incident. I agree with our
acting President that we must stand strong whenever and wherever our armed forces are challenged in the lawful pursuit of their duties. But, at the same time, we must be careful that we do not allow one incident to serve as justification for a policy which opens the door to greater disaster.
Are we not well rid of Vietnam; have not those distant jungles taught us a lesson in caution and prudence? Having withdrawn our troops, why should we now be so eager to re-engage? Russian and Chinese support of North Vietnam is not a new thing. I looked it up; President Eisenhower made remarks about it nearly twenty years ago, as did President Kennedy after him. Yet each President before 1964 approached the problem of Vietnam with caution. Years later, and after fifty thousand casualties, do we not look back at those days with nostalgia? Do we not wonder about the cost of expedient folly?
My friends, I campaigned against President Nixon last year on a variety of issues, but during that campaign I never directly criticized his policy of turning the war in Vietnam over to the Vietnamese and withdrawing our troops. It was the correct policy. I fear that under the present leadership, all of that has been lost. So, I come before you, and ask you to write your Congressman and tell them to resolve this matter, so that we can restore the equilibrium in our foreign affairs. Won't you help me do that?
May 14, 1973
Gallup and Harris polls show that after his speech, support has risen for President Agnew rising in the wake of the Wounded Knee incident and the
Fox incident. Polls give Agnew 51% approval on law-and-order; 53% on
Operation Bold Eagle (With the caveat that it will swiftly end the Vietnam-Tonkin conflict) and only 32% on the economy. Poll participants when asked about increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam said, by 54% of those polled, that they favoured U.S. involvement provided the military action was ‘quick’, ‘decisive’ and ‘would end the war quickly.’ 58% thought that giving up in Southeast Asia under the present circumstances would only lead to more international trouble for the United States; 61% of those polled thought that the
Fox had been attacked because America’s adversaries had lost respect for American power. Only 43% favoured a full scale war in Vietnam, but 51% thought two years was adequate time to allow the armed forces to ‘win a decisive victory’ over the North Vietnamese. 59% thought Congress had been wrong to try and cut-off funds to the military. 57% supported the choice of Alexander Haig as Defense Secretary. 75% of respondents felt that the House should give-up on the pointless ballots for the presidency if no winner was to be chosen. Those polled were evenly divided between Richard Nixon and John McKeithen as to which candidate they would like to see win the House ballot. President Agnew’s overall approval was at 51% with the highest level of dissatisfaction, 68%, on the question of the economy. Asked if the U.S. would be diminished by a defeat in Vietnam, 63% of respondents agreed. Support for Agnew’s policies tended to be lowest among those under 30 and between 55 and 65. Agnew’s support was strongest in the 30-55 group, and among those over 65. His support also tended to be strongest in mid-western and Southern states, with lower levels of support in the Northeast and on the West Coast. (Agnew said of the latter, ‘normal Americans are with me.’). Most of these polls do not take into account the effects of
The Friday Night Massacre or subsequent legal events.
( from Don Clancy [1]
Congress Wars: How I Survived Washington And Lived to Tell You About It)
By May of seventy-three I was getting thousands of letters and calls from angry voters who were fed-up with the damn election. 'Get it over with.' 'End it.' Was the repeated message. Every other representative from across the country, both Democrat and Republican, was getting the same sort of calls. The problem was - and I tested this by talking to a few of the callers and letter writers - deciding how to end it. I did an informal poll and guess what: fifty percent wanted me to vote for Nixon (which is what I was doing - note Nixon had carried my district in the November election) fifty percent wanted me to vote for McKeithen, and two odd-balls wanted me to swing it for George Wallace. So which way was I supposed to go?
After the Supreme Court rulings in March we tried to get down to business as usual, but everyone was still bitter from the constant balloting in January and February. Pete Rodino, the Democrat House Whip, and Del Clausen, a Republican from California, had nearly come to blows over it. Ron Ginn of Georgia (Democrat) and Larry Hogan of Maryland (Republican) reportedly did have a donnybrook which sent them both to the hospital. No one talked about it. At least after the Court ruled we were doing it only once a week; that lessened the pain of a pointless exercise.
Things boiled over again when the Democrats started a resolution to cut-off funding to any military operations in Vietnam. Was Spiro Agnew a cretin, as they loudly accused him of being? I suppose he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but that charge was excessive. He was our President - well
acting President - and he was trying to lead us through a crisis. I supported him out of loyalty, and because I thought it was wrong to undercut our troops when they were facing peril. A lot of the Democrats didn't get that; they wanted to cut and run, when it was their Presidents who had caused the problem over there in the first place. They were being ingrates and cry-babies - period.
Like a lot of my colleagues in the Republican caucus, we thought President Nixon and Kissinger had solved the Vietnam problem. Obviously we had been premature, and he had got us out too quickly. He had been thinking too much about the 1972 election and not enough about military and political issues in Vietnam, some said. They were right. Look at what fishing for the anti-war vote in '72 got him? Really, I blame Nixon for being too soft for what happened with the 1972 election. He should have stuck it out in Vietnam for another few years, the peace-nicks be damned. Then we wouldn't have had this problem that Agnew had to fix (still better than Bayh, at least the Senate got that choice right).
Still, in the contingent ballots, I stuck with Nixon, just as the Democrats stuck with their guy, out of principle, or because some of us were afraid of Senator Dole's party Gestapo (Bob Strauss at the DNC had the same sort of thing going) which was holding our futures hostage. Me I was a Nixon man, and if I was going to piss-off some of my constituents, I was at least going to show a little integrity in doing it. At least fifty percent of the voters in my District were with me, and that's better than being out on a limb all by yourself.
Ralph Regula, a fellow Republican from the sixteenth district, gave-up in frustration and presented a blank slate (no vote or abstained) long about the middle of May to protest the whole thing. A Democrat from Indiana changed sides, but in both cases it made no difference. The Republicans in New England decided to sit on their hands, which gave McKeithen a big swing, but all that happened at the end of July, and of course by then everything changed.
To this day, when people ask me about it - and they still do a lot - I still say I stuck by Richard Nixon to the bitter end because I believed in him. That was before the Watergate crap came out, of course, but at least I stood my ground when it counted.
[1] Rep. Donald D. Clancy (R - Ohio 2nd)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 17, 1973
Televised hearings of the
Senate Watergate Committee begin.
May 23, 1973
After a contentious debate, Alexander Haig is confirmed as Defense Secretary by a vote of 52-47 in the U.S. Senate. He is supported by 40 Repulicans and 3 Independents, plus 9 Democratic Senators - John Stennis, Henry Jackson, James Allen, James Eastland, John Sparkman, Lee Metcalf, Bennett Johnston, Russell Long and Gale McGee. The 5 Republicans who vote against Haig are Edward Brooke, Margaret Chase-Smith, Charles Mathias, Robert Stafford and Richard Schweiker. Hemran Talmadge is absent from the vote.
May 29, 1973
Harvard Law Professor and former United States Solicitor General Archibald Cox is hired by the Justice Department as a special prosecutor to investigate the growing Watergate scandal.
May 31, 1973
Some militants associated with the American Indian Movement attempt to abduct former President Richard Nixon outside the Nixon and Mudge law firm offices in New York. This action is an attempt to exact revenge for the massacre at Wounded Knee in March. The attackers are driven off by Nixon’s Secret Service detail after a shootout which kills two agents and five of the attackers. Richard Nixon is seriously wounded during the attempt. It is later discovered that a number of the attackers are veterans of the U.S. military who have had combat experience in Vietnam.
Nixon is seriously wounded and rushed to hospital. After emergency surgery he is pronounced to be stable but in guarded condition. Doctor’s inform the press that while Nixon’s injuries are serious, there is no irreparable damage to major organs and no paralysis as a result of the shooting.
June 1, 1973
The Greek military junta abolishes the monarchy and proclaims a republic. President Spiro Agnew, a Greek-American, proclaims his support for a Republic as a ‘more just form of government.’ Some observers are dismayed by this comment because the Greek Republic is in fact a dictatorial Junta.
June 2, 1973
Lead elements of
Operation Bold Eagle land in South Vietnam under the command of Lt. General Henry “Gunfighter” Emerson. Colonel H. Nomran Schwartkopf serves as his adjutant.
Captain Oliver North USMC, a Vietnam combat veteran, is detailed to lead an Marine Recon unit which prepares field intelligence reports on North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
Pamela Agnew-DeHaven 29, the daughter of President Spiro Agnew is abducted by a group of people later identifying themselves as the Black Liberation Army, militant off-shoot of the Black Panther Movement. Zayid Malik Shakur, Assata Shakur, Sundita Acoti and Adbul Majid abduct Pamela DeHaven from her home in Towson, Maryland and hide her in a basement in Baltimore, Maryland. Even though she it the child of the sitting President, as an adult over twenty-one Mrs. DeHaven did not receive Secret Service protection under the rules then in force.
The BLA demands the release of all political prisoners, the establishment of a ‘sovereign black people’s republic’, one hundred billion dollars and a nuclear bomb to return the President’s daughter.
President Agnew says that he will not cave-in to terrorists. He gains more sympathy, which shows-up as higher poll numbers.
June 8, 1973
George Bush Sr. is confirmed as Secretary of State by a Senate vote of 61-38. Philip Habib is confirmed as UN Ambassador by a vote of 72-27.
Adminsitration Televison Advertisment - June 9, 1973
QUE:
John Wayne walks across a western town set.
Wayne: Good evening folks. Our President has asked me to give him a hand by having a word with you. Right now our country is going through a lot of troubles at home and overseas, and I'm glad that Spiro T. Agnew is at the helm, guiding us with a steady hand.
A few years ago I made a film about the war in Vietnam called
The Green Berets. I hope you saw it. Back then, in doing rehearsals and research, I got to travel to Vietnam and meet some of our Vietnamese friends. I also met with our fine young fighting men, and their counterparts in the South Vietnamese Army. You know what I saw: plain, ordinary, honest, hard working, friendly folks fighting for their families, their homes and their freedom. Many of the people I met disagreed about a lot of things, but that is their right in a free society. What they all agreed on was that they wanted to be free of Communist oppression and the tyranny coming from the North. They were willing to fight to be free, as you would for your family, like your fathers and grandfathers did. I saw their battlefields, their Valley Forge, their Yorktown, their Gettysburg. The places were different, the temperature hot, the plant life exotic, but the call to freedom and family, that was just like our own.
Lately we've heard a lot about how we lost the Vietnam War. I think some of our leaders gave-up, without really trying. I know when I made my movie a few years back, our soldiers were ready to win it. They just needed the politicians to give them green light, but it never came. We left, and today its a mess, and its spread out on the seas. American sons are still dying, but now its in international waters while trying to help others.
If that makes your blood boil the way it does mine, the way it should any red-blooded, patriotic American, then I say to you stand-up for our country, stand-up for freedom, stand-up for our Republic and our free way of life. Call your Congressman and Senator, and tell 'em that you support our great President in this tough time. Tell them that you want them to support our President too. Join with me in standing behind President Agnew when he needs us most. Thank-you.'
June 16, 1973
Pamela Agnew-DeHaven is killed in a shoot-out between her abductors and the FBI and Baltimore Police. Three of the abductors are killed, and one, Sundita Acoti is wounded and taken into custody. Most controversially, a young child is killed during the shoot-out: police claim the BLA militants killed him, while the BLA’s supporters claim he was gunned down by the police and FBI.
June 21, 1973
Sprio and Judy Agnew receive sympathetic press coverage at the funeral of their daughter in Towson, Maryland. Pat Nixon attends, representing her husband, while both John McKeithen and George McGovern attend to lend their support to Agnew over the tragedy.
June 25, 1973
Former White House counsel John Dean begins his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee.
June 28, 1973
Elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which would have lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time are disrupted by armed attacks on polling places. PIRA attacks are up; the British government blames in influx of weapons from foreign supporters as the reason for this.
A confrontation between LAPD and several Black Panthers explodes into urban violence which will grip Los Angeles over the next three weeks in the
Southeast Riot of 1973. While militants protest the shooting of BLA militants in Baltimore, the larger portion of the community protests the economy and Agnew’s policies. The situation quickly degenerates into urban chaos and Governor Ronald Reagan sends in the National Guard with orders to ‘break heads’ if needed to restore order. A kind of urban strife continues for over two weeks after the Guard moves in, resembling – according to a number of veterans who witness it – the sort of urban guerrilla warfare they have experienced in Vietnam. The riots end after three weeks with 4 Guardsmen killed and 102 seriously injured, 3 LAPD officers dead and 53 injured, an estimated 91 civilians dead and around 6,000 injured.
Angela Davis: ‘We’re at war; Whitey is doing to us what they’ve been doing in Vietnam – committing cold blooded murder, slaughtering our people. It’s time to hit back at the pigs. Six thousand is just the beginning; Baltimore and Los Angeles are the first battles. Pick-up the gun brothers and sisters and shoot any Whitey who comes your way, because the man is coming for you, and it ain’t to give you a check!’
Ronald Reagan: ‘We have acted to restore order. Those police and soldiers who were murdered, they are true American heroes. They fought against anarchy and violence, they stood for true American values. The people who caused this, the rioters, they have blood on their hands. Blood as red as the foreign ideology that started all of this trouble. Let no one be in doubt, honest, decent Americans will fight to preserve our democratic way of life, especially against those who want to take it away with violence and terror.’
June 30, 1973
A very long total solar eclipse occurs. During the entire 2nd millennium, only 7 total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality.
July, 4, 1973
President Agnew announces a sixty-day moratorium on the bombing of North Vietnam (which has been going on for fourteen months) in order to allow ‘the North Vietnamese leadership a period to reflect on the course of war or peace.’ In reality the USAF and USN need the down time in order deal with issues of operational strain and to deploy new resources. A classified estimate shows US air losses at nearly 500 aircraft, 1,025 airmen killed and 1,200 or more missing and presumed captured. Estimates of damage to North Vietnam’s infrastructure and war fighting capability vary from ‘total’ to ‘uncertain.’ Secretary Haig suggests they assume ‘60% of capacity has been damaged beyond repair.’
The North Vietnamese Army, which has been re-deployed to remote jungle locations to get it away from American bombers, in fact remains at close to 75% of its 1972 capabilities. Also, Yugoslav and East German engineers have built a warren of bomb resistant bunkers around Hanoi which serve as a virtual underground city from which the North Vietnamese government leadership and military can operate with relative impunity.
Loud anti-war protests in 23 American cities disrupt Independence Day celebrations. A number of these turn ugly as protesters clash with police, turning into mini-riots in some cases. Police officials later claim militants started the violence. 650 protesters, including Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Bill Cosby are arrested and thrown in jail. Among the protester chants are:
Hey, hey, ho ho, Spiro has got to go! *
Zero Spiro, burnin’ it down just like Nero. *
Agnew the agony *
Pat Buchanan: ‘What these people did is spit on our flag and all those who have sacrificed to make this country free. We have no sympathy for a bunch of spoiled kids and pampered celebrities who want to spend their time destroying the country that gives them freedom they enjoy. Jail is where they belong.
(from Abbie Hoffman -
America: Burn it Down and Piss On It! )
The pigs were just butchering anyone; you didn’t have to be really loud or in their face to feel the club and the boot. Agnew was the biggest pig of them all. I’d called Nixon a pig, but compared to old Tricky Dick brain Zero Spiro was the warthog! The King Pork with blood dripping out of his snout. He wanted to make sure everyone died. Just when it looked like we were out of Vietnam for good, this schmuck was pulling us back in.
Were we violent? Sure! Yeah man we were breaking out with our fists because they were coming after us with clubs and guns and why? To start up a war again that they’d lost. Man, if that wasn’t looking at the world through your asshole, I don’t know what was. So yeah, Zero Spiro – burn it baby, burn it down!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July, 7, 1973
Facing indictment and prison time for tax fraud and bribery, Jerome Wolff admits that he funnelled bribes and kick-backs to Spiro Agnew from 1966 through to 1969. Wolff tells Special Prosecutor Rankin and the Grand Jury that he delivered the last pay-off to Agnew personally in January 1969 at the White House, after Agnew had become Vice President.
July, 9, 1973
An attempted drug arrest at the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago sparks a four day riot in that city. 29 people, including 2 Chicago Police officers are killed in the violence. Fire damages a portion of the housing project, leaving hundreds homeless.
Pat Buchanan: ‘They want to burn their homes down, they can find the money to rebuild. This administration hasn’t go one
red cent to give rioters.’
Paul H. Nitze is confirmed as CIA Director by a Senate vote of 89-10
July, 11, 1973
Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA) introduces a motion to impeach acting President Agnew on grounds that he has ‘licensed and permitted murder, and he's a crook. The
acting President can’t even act like a real President. The man’s a disgrace and he needs to be sent packing!’
Dellums’ motion is defeated.
July, 16, 1973
Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
July, 17, 1973
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
July, 19, 1973
J. Clifford Wallace is confirmed as Attorney-General of the United States in a 58-41 vote of the United States Senate.
U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam exceed 100,000, the first time they have reached that level since mid- 1971.
July, 28, 1973
The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, New York, a massive rock festival featuring The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band, attracts over 600,000 music fans. Senator George McGovern is invited to speak, and he uses the forum to denounce the policies of the Agnew administration. This leads to an anti-war, anti-Agnew demonstration.
New York State Police, supported by units of the National Guard, move in to quell the demonstration, which quickly escalates into a riot.
Pat Buchanan (for Agnew): ‘This government will not give in to a mob of dirty, hairy anarchists. We stand for civilization and the rule of law and we commend Govenror Rockefeller on his correct action to prevent this festival of punk induced violence from getting out of hand.’
July, 29, 1973
At the conclusion of a lenghty meeting in the New York apartment of Richard M. Nixon; after assorted lawyers and aides have been asked to leave so that the two candidates can share a private word.
'I hardly have the words to express what a momentous thing you have chosen to do, Mr. President,' John McKeithen said. 'For my part, I'm still willing to flip a coin.'
'Thank-you, Governor. But a simple count of the members in the House, and a look where the problem is, makes it obvious that getting you elected will be the easier task,' Nixon replied. 'To say I have mixed feelings is an understatement, but this cannot go on.'
'I salute you as a Statesman, sir.'
'Statesman is a fine word to describe someone who has to tear out their own teeth for the better good, and smile while doing it,' Nixon said.
'I'll remember that, Mr. President.'
'Oh? Where you're going, Governor, you'll get the chance to live it - believe me,' Nixon said with dry sarcasm. 'Tell me, how soon do you think we can finish this?'
'I'm on my way to New England to speak with six or seven Republican House members. I think, with your announcement, we should add five states to my ballot by next week. After that, I have meetings out west.'
'You need me to call anyone, just let me know. We'll get this done, get Agnew out of there. I wish I could go speak to our members in person, but my doctors want me to stay put for now,' Nixon said.
'Not to mention the Secret Service,' McKeithen replied. 'I've had more trouble with them since your incident.'
Nixon chuckled. 'Get used to that, Governor.'
’When it’s all done, you can take comfort in one thing you’ve bequeathed me.’ McKiethen said with a wry smile.
’What’s that?’ Nixon asked, a troubled frown descening across his rumpled face.
’Vice President Spiro Agnew.’
After a moment of stunned silence Richard Nixon broke into a deep, hearty belly laugh.
(from Richard M. Nixon The Memoirs of Richard Nixon)
When I chose Ted Agnew to be my running mate, I had seen in him the sharp, dynamic qualites which I thought would make for a good Vice President, and I thought he could be moulded into an excellent candidate for the Presidency over the following eight years. Four years of working with him at close proximity had disabused me of that notion. In 1972 I had seriously considered replacing him on the ticket with John Connally, only to have Connally tell me in no uncertain terms that he was not interested in the Vice Presidency. By July of 1973 I wished I had tried harder, and that I had ignored those who told me that I needed Agnew on the ticket because he was popular with the conservatives. Mitchell ahd told me I needed Ted to lock-up the conservative and blue-collar vote because, thanks to the speaking engagemetns we'd assigned Agnew to, and the speeches Safire and Buchanan had written for him, he was very popular with those voters. Evidently, he hadn't been popular enough with them, or the nation wouldn't have ended up in the deplorable situation that we found ourselves in that summer. I can't see how I could have lost anymore by asking him not to run with me. But that was the past, and I had to deal with the present as it was.
It is difficult to blame someone for the deficincies of character for which they are not personally to blame. Some things come to us from our nurture, some from our genes, and even more from the unique circumstances that make-up their lives. That the combination in Ted's case was not sufficent to make him a good acting President was not his fault. In the end, I must blame myself for being the one to place him in that position. I knew better, but failed to act while there was still time. For that I accept my measure of responsibility.
But, at the same time, Ted had stubbornly eschewed good advice from many sources. He had allowed himself to fall in with that circle of second-raters who ensnared him almost from the first day, and from them he received a very jaundiced view of the world. That expressed itself in how he conducted the Office of the President, and the mess he made of our foreign affairs. Foreign affairs had never been Ted's forte, and he had resisted my efforts to school him in it. That, in itself, should have been a clear signal of his failings. I had left Henry behind in the belief that he would guide Ted through the rough spots, and that between them they could establish the same cordial and productive relationship I had had with my National Security Advisor. Henry was certainly capable of adapting to the new man; Henry had a gift for that sort of thing. To my astonishment, Agnew fired Henry after only six of seven weeks. Henry later told me that the man was cordial, but that the court around him, Rumsfeld and Haig in partiuclar, were impossible to get along with. Al Haig had wasted no time in adapting to the new order; he almost literally walked over Henry's prone body to get what he wanted. To this day I regret not sending Haig back to the Army before I left office, and packing Rumsfeld off to the depths of the Commerce Department or something as remote, for I left Ted in a very vulnerable position around these vipers.
Being shot and lying in the hospital after they have dug three bullets out of me made me reflective. I can't say my life passed before my eyes, but certain choice moments paid me a visit in my dreams. By the time I was released, I came to realize that there was only one thing to be done that would correct this mess.
I spoke with Governor McKeithen several times in June and July, both from my hospital bed and while I was recuperating at my New York apartment, and I found that despite our political differences, he did have a good head on his shoulders. That in itself eased my mind and helped me to finalize my decision. Of course he was agreeable, though he made clear that he did not envy me the decision. I found John McKeithen to be a gentleman of the long standing Southern tradition, and to my mind, he would have made an fair to good President. It really is very sad that it didn't come to pass through an act of blind fortune.
My decision was not just for myself, or Governor McKeithen. I chose my next step for the welfare of our nation, and for the security of the world. As I told John McKeithen, there seemed only one path open to the impasse, and I had to take the step. To his credit he offered to do the same, but as it was apparent to both of us, if I stepped aside, the path would be easier for him, than it might be if our situations were reversed. So we agreed. It was done, and I was much relieved.
What I chose to do I did for Ted as well. I hoped that in releasing him from the burden of the acting Presidency he might again find a measure of stability in his life. Unlike some, I did not wish him ill. I hoped he would return to a life better suited to his limitations, and that our country could heal under a new President.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
July, 30, 1973
Richard M. Nixon makes the following statement to the press:
’I have today decided to concede the Presidential election to former Governor John J. McKeithen of Louisiana. I have sent a letter to House Speaker Carl Albert asking that my name be immediately withdrawn from further consideration in the contingent election currently being conducted by the House of Representatives. Governor McKeithen and I have spoken at length, and I have congratulated him on his victory. Many of my supporters are puzzled and astonished by this decision, and let me say, I understand their feelings on this. I do not choose this course easily. For me to quit before the contest is done and walk away is abhorrent to every instinct in me; I am not a quitter. However, I recognize that the current deadlock in the House of Representatives is unlikely to be resolved, and this nation cannot continue at this perilous time with the Presidency in a state of uncertainty. Therefore, for the well-being of the United States, I encourage the House of Representatives to elect Governor John McKiethen at once to the office of President, and let the matter be resolved. Let our nation face these times of peril with strong leadership, clear of the uncertainty we have experienced these last six months. It has created a state of uncertainty in the world which our adversaries are exploiting to their own ends. I stand ready to support President-elect McKeithen in any way he should require of me. God Bless the United States.’
Speaker Albert: ‘I congratulate President Nixon on his statesman-like stand and I applaud his patriotism at this hour of crisis. Richard Nixon has today proven his deep and abiding love for the well being of his country and all of its people . Of course, it will be up to our individual members to make the final decision.’
The Washington Post runs a three part in-depth report on the corruption scandal in Baltimore County. In that investigative story
The Post documents pay-offs to Spiro Agnew during his Maryland political career, and includes portions of Jerome B. Wolff's statements about delivering bribe money to Vice President Agnew at the white House in 1969.
July, 31, 1973
Delta Air Lines Flight 173 DC9-31 aircraft lands short of Boston's Logan Airport runway in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3,000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 87 passengers are killed, 1 of the passengers dying several months after the accident. John J. McKeithen is among the passengers on board who is killed in the crash.
JOHN J. MCKEITHEN DEAD
Presumptive President-elect dies in Boston Airplane crash
(AP) BOSTON John Julian McKeithen, 55, former Governor of Louisiana and Democratic candidate for President was killed in plane crash this morning. Delta Airlines flight 173 from Manchester, New Hampshire to Boston crashed on approach to Logan International Airport, killing all but two of the 87 passagners and 6 crew members on board.
Governor McKeithen had flown to Manchester for a speaking engagement to the New Hampshire Democratic Association after meeting with former President Richard Nixon in New York on Saturday. Governor McKeithen did not campaign in last year’s New Hampshire Democratic primary, nor did he carry that State in the Presidential Election. According to his spokesman, the Governor had gone to Manchester to mend political fences. He also met with key New Hampshire Democratic Party leaders, and New Hampshire’s two U.S. Representatives, Lewis C. Wyman and James c. Cleveland, both Republicans who had previously voted for President Nixon in the contingent election. Also present was Vermont’s lone Representative Richard W. Mallary and Maine Republican William S. Cohen. Between them the four representatives controlled the votes of three delegations in the House of Representatives (Maine had been deadlocked).
After President Nixon’s surprise announcement just yesterday that he was conceding the Presidential election to Governor McKeithen, many began to presume that McKeithen would be the President-elect as soon as the House of Representatives cast their next round of ballots. No word has yet been received on the status of the contingent election given these developments. Governor McKeithen was accompanied by three Secret Service agents who provided his personal protection. They also perished in the crash. He was flying on a commercial flight as he was not entitled to government transport since he held no official position with the United States government. His flight was paid for by the Democratic National Committee.
Governor McKeithen was flying in to Boston to meet with the Massachusetts Democratic Committee and planned to visit Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday (both have been deadlocked in the House vote). No information has been released yet about funeral arrangements.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker Albert: ‘This is a tragic and most unexpected development.’
August, 1, 1973
The Agnew Administration files a request for an injunction against any further votes in the House, citing the death of John McKeithen and the concession of Richard M. Nixon as grounds for declaring the Presidency vacant, so that Vice President Spiro Agnew can formally succeed to the Presidency. Nixon’s concession of July 30 is described in the Agnew submission, crafted by Robert Bork, as ‘a forfeiture of his candidacy.’
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is the venue chosen for this because the United States Supreme Court is in summer recess. The DC Court issues a stay against any further House ballots until it can hear the matter
en banc. Richard Nixon’s lawyers file an objection, citing that matters have changed since his concession two days earlier, and that he wishes to renounce his concession.
George Wallace files an objection against both Agnew and Nixon, arguing that there is still a viable candidate on the ballot currently before the House, and that it is him. He asks the DC Court to enjoin the House of Representatives to elect him as President as he is the only one of the three candidates still in active consideration.
Governor Wallace tells the press, ‘I’m still here, I’m not dead and I haven’t conceded a damn thing. I didn’t take any bribes, which the IRS proved beyond a shaodw of a doubt last year, thanks to Mr. Nixon, and I didn't order-up any key stone cop burglaries.’
Attorney General Wallace meets privately with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Robert Bork. He informs President Agnew's senior advisors that Baltimore Special Prosecutor Rankin is about to receive a grand jury indictment charging the former Governor of Maryland Spiro Agnew with conspiracy, extortion, bribery and tax fraud from a period dating from 1966 up to 1969, including receiving a pay-off in the White House. AG Wallace tells the others that as far as he can tell it is a very solid case. Upon examination of the documents, Bork concurs. All three decide to keep quiet about it for the time being.
The film
American Graffiti is released.
August, 2, 1973
Archibald Cox serves a subpoena on Richard M. Nixon demanding that he produce the Oval Office tapes ‘immediately and in good order.’ Nixon’s lawyers go to federal court to block the subpoena on the grounds that the tapes contain national security matters which are highly classified and which, since they were made when Nixon was still in office, are protected by executive privilege.
Cox files a second motion asking that a Special Master appointed by the court take the tapes into custody to safeguard them.
August, 3, 1973
Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Bork and Spiro Agnew have a closed door meeting at which the Maryland indictments are discussed. No notes of the meeting are kept.
The United States District Court for DC orders Richard M. Nixon to surrender the master copies of all Oval Office tapes to a Special Master appointed by the court. They will be held, but not transcribed, pending litigation by both sides.
August, 4, 1973
Jesse Jackson, Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda lead what they call a 'million person' march on Washington DC, emulating the August 1963 Civil rights march on Washington at which Martin Luther King jr. gave his famous 'I have a dream' speech. The point of this march is to protest the return to Vietnam, and to call for the resingation of Spiro Agnew. Some three hundred thousand protesters converge on Washington for the march. The main event features speakers on the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial (from where King spoke in 1963) and some musical events on the Mall.
Later in the day protesters surround the White House grounds in a circle and chant peace now. Jesse Jackson attempts to deliver a petition to President Agnew at the West Gate of the grounds. He gets into a scuffle with White House Police, which quickly escalates to mini-riot outside of the White House. President Agnew then calls in troops to disperse crowds across Washington, which leads to further violence with protestors. That night another riot breaks out at the overcrowded DC jails.
Spiro Agnew: 'This government will never surrender to these vagrants. This so-called protest is nothing more than an excuse to indulge in violence and vandalism for the sake of personal gatification. I shed not a tear for any hooligans hurt in all this, they brought it on themselves. My feelings, and my time, is reserved for those patriotic young Americans serving their country in uniform and in the police. They are what this country is about, not these long-haired freaks.'
August, 5, 1973
Black September members open fire at the Athens airport; 3 are killed, 55 injured.
August, 7, 1973
Special Prosecutor Rankin receives a true bill indictment from a Maryland Grand Jury charging Spiro T. Agnew with criminal tax evasion, fraud and accepting bribes while Governor of Maryland and as County Executive of Baltimore county.
The Wall Street Journal
AGNEW INDICTED
Baltimore Grand Jury Indicts Acting President for Conspiracy, Tax Fraud
August, 8, 1973
A closed door meeting between Senate President pro-tempore Sen. James Eastland (D-MS), Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-MT), Sen. Hugh Scott (R-PA) [Senate Majority and Minority Leaders], Speaker of the House Albert, Rep. John J. McFall (D-CA) and Rep. Gerald Ford (R-MI) [House Majority and Minority Leaders].
Eastland: Gentlemen, we must do something. This country is falling apart in front of us and we have to stop it!
No one disagrees.
The Cabinet and Senior Administration Personnel on August 7, 1973
President: Spiro T. Agnew
acting
Vice President: Spiro T. Agnew (Constitutional position)
Secretary of State: George H.W. Bush
Secretary of the Treasury: George Schultz
Secretary of Defense: Alexander Haig
Attorney General: J. Clifford Wallace
Secretary of the Interior: Rogers Morton
Secretary of Agriculture: Earl Butz
Secretary of Commerce: Peter Peterson
Secretary of Labor: James Hodgson
Secretary of Health Education and Welfare: David R. Kellum
acting
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: James Thomas Lynn
Secretary of Transportation: Claude Brinegar
Director of Central Intelligence: Paul H. Nitze
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Thomas C. Smith
United States Ambassador to the United Nations: Phillip Habib
President's Chief of Staff: Donald Rumsfeld
Assistant Chief of Staff: Richard Cheney
Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs: William Casey
Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy: Paul Weyrich
Press Secretary: Patrick Buchanan
White House Counsel: Robert Bork
Chairman President's Counsel of Economic Advisors: Milton Friedman
----------------------------------------------------------------------------