Richard Nixon Goes to Harvard

[Roger II]

Oy vey

 

[GeographyDude]

. . . or start a genocide in the third world. . .

If you’re referring to Nixon’s 1970 invasion of Cambodia (for several months? ?) and the secret bombing which both preceded, and followed this invasion, well, hell, the North Vietnamese ran supply lines and massively disrespected Cambodia’s sovereignty, too, and also share moral responsibility.

The genocide is a full five years later.

I guess like saying the Nazi Holocaust is mainly the responsibility of good Germans who didn’t fight early or hard enough against the Nazis, we should say the prime responsibility for the Cambodian genocide was the Cambodian leaders, whether they be political, business, informal leaders or just plain citizens who didn’t fight early or hard enough against the damn Khmer Rouge.

And secondarily, China who was the main sponsor for the Khmer Rouge. And just like it took us in the United States a shitload of time to acknowledge that, yes, we pretty much committed genocide against Native Americans, it’s going to take the average Chinese citizen a while to wrap their mind around this and acknowledge, yes, this is a pretty sorry chapter in their nation’s history.

 

[Amadeus]

The book also claims that Nixon pressed Ike to go public with the information but Ike refused.

Not surprising since Ike infamously implied at a press conference that Nixon was basically useless as VP and exaggerating his role in the administration during the campaign. Eisenhower never liked Nixon and only kept him on board to appease the right wing of the GOP. Ike was never going to reveal the info, certainly not for Nixon's sake.

 

[SargentHawk]

Not surprising since Ike infamously implied at a press conference that Nixon was basically useless as VP and exaggerating his role in the administration during the campaign. Eisenhower never liked Nixon and only kept him on board to appease the right wing of the GOP. Ike was never going to reveal the info, certainly not for Nixon's sake.

Except he also kept Nixon as one of the most informed, visible, and active vice presidents in US history. Eisenhower later went back and said how active he was in the administration. The infamous "give me two weeks" was a reply to the last question of a lengthy press conference and eisenhower was more than ready to leave. While some took the two weeks as him saying he would have to think hard on it, it was from what ive read actually just 2 weeks until the next scheduled press conference.

Eisenhower was infamous for stretching out decisions and answers to such questions.

 

[SargentHawk]

Ike also refused to help nixon interefere when MLK was imprisoned during the campaign.

 

[fscott]

My post was specific to the Missile Gap issue during the 1960 election. That we knew the missile gap was a load of nonsense is because of the U-2 flights. Eisenhower refused to refute Kennedy's claims of a missile gap due to the nature of the information. Vice President/Candidate Nixon did not have a choice in the matter. I can only imagine how Ike would have reacted had Nixon decided to go public with the correct information in 1960. My point was that Nixon not revealing the true nature of the missile gap had nothing to do with character.

Like many things in life it could have been leaked. It pissed me off people off but if done in the right way be very hard to prove who did it.