haunting quote from the movie 'Nixon'

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http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-06-20/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-154989.asp


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"It's not just that you have no right to a lawyer, it's that you have no right to even have a hearing," he said. "If that is true, then there is really no limit to the President's power to label U.S. citizens as bad people and then have them held in military custody indefinitely."

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the quote from the movie is when (i think the president's lawyer) tells him 'there's always the army', when the watergate thing was really starting to pressure him.


honestly, it took me maybe the third time through the movie before i even realized what was being proposed. (saw movie, waited years, saw movie, waited years, etc.)


nixon *did* fire AG who wouldnt back off, but he never did anything like this, and nixon had a very very real and massive shooting war and a very very strong and real anti-US movement in the US, with some very prominent people actually guilty of treason against the US through aiding the enemy. (although they were obviously never prosecuted)


in light of this, i think its time to rethink how horrible tricky dick was. by the way, my view of the real dick nixon, since im too young for any real knowledge, comes from philip k. dick. ( for those not familiar, 'monster' is too generous for dick's description.)


brad

"nixon had a very very real and massive shooting war and a very very strong and real anti-US movement in the US, with some very prominent people actually guilty of treason against the US through aiding the enemy. (although they were obviously never prosecuted)


in light of this, i think its time to rethink how horrible tricky dick was"


A lot to cover here:


1) The war was never declared, a violation of the U.S. Constitution. This war was an invasion of Vietnam by the United States. Millions of people died, mostly civilians, mostly killed by the United States, mostly deliberately. Nixon expanded the war; his only plan to end it was to threaten to use nuclear weapons. Larry Berman's recent book, No Peace, No Honor, convincingly demonstrates that Nixon intended to go back into Vietnam with a vengeance after the "peace" agreement was signed and that he tried to sabotage peace in 1968 so that he could win the presidency.


It wasn't as if we were defending our country like we did after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. We invented a country, installed a brutal dictator, claimed we were fighting for democracy, and murdered people. It was a gigantic lie, on a par with the type of lie associated with Communist regimes.


2) There was a strong anti-U.S. movement. But this was not the anti-war movement which was trying to end the brutal killing described above. The anti-U.S. movement was the people who lied to us from day one and who deliberately violated laws and killed civilians because they could get away with it.


Disagreeing with U.S. policy does not make on anti-U.S. Vioating our principals, as our leaders do, does make one anti-U.S. The traitors were in Washington, not in the streets.


I believe you think that Noam Chomsky's writings are persuasive. You should read his writings about the Vietnam War.


3) Richard Nixon did more to harm this country than any American in the 20th century, except perhaps Joe McCarthy. He was an ignorant bigot, a self-absorbed pathological liar, a crooked and deceitful traitor who should have been tried for war crimes and for other crimes committed during Watergate. I suggest Anthony Summers' The Arrogance of Power (read with caution, however) and Stanley Kutler's Abuse of Power as starting points to see what kind of man we're talking about here, as well as the above-mentioned No Peace, No Honor by Larry Berman.


I agree it's time to reevaluate how horrible he was. He was much more horrible than most people imagine.

first of all, i agree completely with everything you said.


in my initial post i stated that the real dick nixon was worse than a monster.


however, he never called out the army against the american people, when he actually had what a lot of people would consider a good reason(or what he could have deceieved people into believing), and thats the point i was making.


compare all of this with bush. (in 5 years we'll know for sure)


brad


p.s. also he stated publicly in his memoirs that he thought bohemian grove was disgusting, which i personally think counts for something,(maybe it shows he wasnt totally evil) although you may not know im talking about.


also theres an outsided chance kissinger will live to be tried for war crimes, although i doubt it.

Yes, I know about the Bohemian Grove. There was a great book written about it a while back by G. William Domhoff.


Sorry if I misinterpreted your post. Got a little carried away there about Nixon, didn't I?


But what do you expect from a guy who doesn't understand 80% 2 bets, 35% 3 bets, 10% 4 bets?