The Left HAD to get rid of Nixon. The reason wasn't important. It could have been for spitting on the sidewalk, or using the wrong fork at a state dinner.
As long as Nixon was in power, South Vietnam was viable and could have developed like South Korea did. The U.S. and South Vietnam had successfully eliminiated the guerilla threat from the Viet Cong. The process of Vietnamization of the military forces defending the south was nearly complete. The only way North Vietnam could conquer the south was through a conventional invasion with long columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers and towed guns. Because of the limited entry points for a motorized conventional army into the south, it was a perfect target for US air attack which would quickly turn any invasion route into a "highway of death" and had no chance.
A conventional invasion of the south was a violation of the Paris Peace Accords, and Nixon told everyone that if the north invaded the south, he would bomb.
After 1968 the Left took control of the Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media, and was fully invested in the defeat of South Vietnam. If South Vietnam survived and prospered like South Korea and developed over time into a reasonably free and successful country, then everything the Left said in the 1960s would have been shown wrong and Nixon right.
That could not be tolerated. Nixon had to go. The Left with a weaker president and enough votes in Congress could cut off aid to South Vietnam and prevent the bombing of a northern invasion force. And that is exactly what they did.
If South Vietnam did not survive then the Leftwing myth about American imperialism and corrupt capitalism and militarism and oppression of indigenous peoples would live on in countless Hollywood movies and books and the Mainstream Media and be indoctrinated in generations of American schoolchildren. If South Vietnam did survive as a free and prosperous country then all of that would be exploded as a lie.
THAT is why Nixon faced impeachment and resigned.
That really enrages me after you lay it out like that.
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it and all the other writers who wrote me on this subject. I learned something new about President Nixon and what happened and why he had to go.
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it and all the other writers who wrote me on this subject. I learned something new about President Nixon and what happened and why he had to go.
You forget that Nixon was the Prosecutor in the Algier Hiss trial. Algier Hiss was the DARLING of the Liberals in the 1950s. That he turned out to be a communist spy and that Nixon got him convicted created SERIOUS animosity on the part of the Liberal segment of society. They hated his guts! (Nixon made them look like chumps for supporting and partying with a convicted communist spy.)
I really enjoyed your explanation of President Nixon and South Vietnam. We have a number of friends who were refugees from South Vietnam. If one believed the John Kerry and Hollywood version of our involvement in South Vietnam you would think that they would hate American service men and service women, and have some serious reservations about America. Quite the contrary... they are some of the most patriotic Americans that we know, and they are very respectful to our veterans and especially Vietnam veterans. Many have told us of how they were helped and even saved by our service men and service women.
I say this because my wife has the largest collection of women’s service uniforms that I am aware of on the West Coast. She sets up displays at schools, museums, special events and fund raisers. She maintains the collection with the help of some of her Vietnamese friends. She has spent so much time with them in the last few years that she has become pretty good at understanding the Vietnames language. We have heard the same version of events from people who lived through it. Saddly this is not what our children are taught in school. We fear that soon the version told by Hollywood and the Left will be all that is remembered by our society. So please keep repeating the truth to whoever will listen.