LETTERS

Nixon was between ‘rock and hard place’

Posted 8/5/15

To the Editor:

August 9, 2015 will be the 41st anniversary of President Richard Milhous Nixon’s resignation of the Office of President of the United States.  Nixon resigned because he knew that …

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LETTERS

Nixon was between ‘rock and hard place’

Posted

To the Editor:

August 9, 2015 will be the 41st anniversary of President Richard Milhous Nixon’s resignation of the Office of President of the United States.  Nixon resigned because he knew that his opponents in the United States Senate believed that he was guilty of obstruction of justice in the Watergate burglary scandal. A trial in the Senate would have been long and unproductive. 

Six of the seven people who carried out the burglary of the Headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972 had many years of experience working for the CIA. Two members of this burglar team held leadership positions with the CIA. As was shown in the Valarie Plame incident, it was Nixon’s duty as President of the United States to do all he could to keep the names and activities of these former CIA agents secret.  

On the June 23, 1972 Smoking Gun tape, Nixon approved a plan to ask the FBI to curtail their investigation of the Watergate burglars.  According to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, this action constituted obstruction of justice by President Nixon.

What Jaworski and most other Watergate investigators didn’t realize was that the FBI carried out Nixon’s orders. The FBI’s final report never mentioned the burglars’ connections to the CIA and the FBI’s final report never determined what the burglars were looking for at the DNC.  The burglars were convicted of attempted burglary and attempted wiretapping.

Most Watergate conspirators were convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.  One Watergate conspirator was convicted of two misdemeanors for distributing illegal political campaign literature.

Nixon was between a rock and a hard place. His lawyers could not mention the burglars’ connections with the CIA to the United States Supreme Court. Nixon was ordered by the Supreme Court to make his private taped White House conversations public. Once the Smoking Gun tape became public, Nixon knew that his political opponents in the United States Senate would prevail and he resigned the presidency. 

However, Nixon, during his five years in office, signed more important pieces of legislation (The Clean Air Act, The Title 9 Act), created more important programs (the war on drugs, the EPA), and made more successful foreign policy decisions (the Yom Kippur War peace agreements, the signing of the “Principles of Relations and Cooperation Between Egypt and the United States”) than any other American president.

Today’s history textbooks fail to mention Nixon’s many accomplishments while in office. I feel that Nixon should be given credit for his many accomplishments while in office.

Kenneth Berwick

Smithfield

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