WI - Watergate Tapes leaked to the press and published in October 1972

I'm quite moved at how much this period became a living memory for you.:eek: Even though I've been studying this period through period media among other things for nearly three years now, this is long before my time and I rarely get a chance to get such a unique perspective. I salute you.

Re impeachment: Could Nixon have survived? Possibly yes, but like Clinton after Lewinsky and Johnson after the showdown with the Radicals, he would've been a lame duck and completely ineffective in domestic affairs: a placeholder waiting for the inevitable 1976 massacre and the term's expiry. It was a way, like Ford did so well, of healing the nation.

I always thought Nixon's crime was the cover-up, not such acts themselves, which were hardly uncommon for both parties before 1974.
Thank you very much RogueBeaver. I apologize for all the grief I've given you in earlier posts. I also confess I thought YOU were much older that I, maybe 60-70. I guess I've been so angry all these years, and you're absolutely right, it was the coverup that destroyed him. I remember listening on the radio. They were covering the House Judiciary Committee proceedings vote-by-vote. When they announced the article of impeachment for conducting an illegal war in Cambodia was defeated, my mother (supremely politically disinterested) declared: "Just as well. If Congress got rid of a President every time he did something they didn't like we wouldn't have any Presidents!" I can't believe I'm remembering this! What neither of us knew was my mother was quoting Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers!:)
Another thing that was brutally hurtful at the time was the first thing I did (after calming down) was ask my mother why he resigned. "Well, he wanted to save his pension." That did NOT help my feelings. Do you know what finally enabled me to move on? About what you'd expect for an adolescent. I read a page in a magazine that listed famous sayings by the founding fathers in the left column, and INFAMOUS sayings (which I had never heard or read before) by Nixon in the right column. They were meant to seem "similar", but they really only serve to reveal the most direct statements Nixon made on the coverup and who was co-operating with Congress, and who wasn't.

The magazine? Mad! They should have gotten a Peabody...

Thank you again RogueBeaver. Your own perspective has been invaluable.
 
Last edited:
In retrospect, Nixon ought to have listened to his 1968 opponent: "Old Irish rule from Boston: never write it down." There are reasons why the fog still hasn't entirely lifted from Mongoose. ;)

P.S.: How could you have thought I was a senior citizen when my profile says "College Student"?
 
In retrospect, Nixon ought to have listened to his 1968 opponent: "Old Irish rule from Boston: never write it down." There are reasons why the fog still hasn't entirely lifted from Mongoose. ;)

P.S.: How could you have thought I was a senior citizen when my profile says "College Student"?
When I went to college, I had senior citizen co-eds sitting next to me. Besides, you seemed far too mature and erudite to be some young whippersnapper.:)
 
Top