Nixon's Booknotes Appearance

Booknote ^

[Valin]

C-SPAN SPECIAL Nixon's Booknotes Appearance Marking Monday's 30th anniversary of the resignation of Pres. Richard Nixon, Book TV is reairing a Booknotes from February, 1992, with Richard Nixon on his book, "Seize the Moment: America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World." Watch early Sunday morning at 12:30am ET or Sunday evening at 5pm ET.

[tkathy]

There is a lot of evidence that Nixon won the election in 1960.

I have wondered, if he had been president instead of the phoney JFK, Nixon never would have sent ground troops to Vietnam. (Eisenhower refused to send ground troops, and I bet that Nixon would never have.)

[Charlemagne on the Fox]

Thanks for the warning--it's always disquieting to turn on the tube at 12:30 am and see what looks like a live picture of RMN . . .

[VOA]

ping...

[Fedora]

If Nixon had been elected JFK wouldn't have screwed up the Bay of Pigs operation and we'd still have had the missiles in Turkey that JFK removed after the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I think would've had an indirect impact on the course of events in Vietnam and elsewhere. However, Eisenhower did advise JFK in 1961 that defending Laos was key to keeping the Communists from taking over SE Asia. As far as I know LBJ never consulted him on whether or not to commit ground troops in Vietnam so I don't know what his initial thoughts were on that, but once troops were committed, Eisenhower's advice to LBJ was to "untie Westmoreland's hands. . .we have now appealed to force in South Vietnam, and therefore we have got to win." When antiwar Senators began arguing against ground escalation in 1965, Eisenhower advised LBJ, "When you once appeal to force in an international situation involving military help for a nation, you have to go all out! This is war, and as long as the enemy are putting men down there, my advice is do what you have to do!" He added that if the Russians "did not bring about some understanding we will have to go all out." Once ground troops were sent in, Eisenhower's reaction was, as reported by Andrew Goodpaster, "We must now be sure to put in enough to win. [Eisenhower] would err on the side of putting in too much rather than too little. He thought that overwhelming strength on our side would discourage the enemy, as well as keep down casualties." Eisenhower was critical of LBJ's policy of gradual escalation and how he didn't allow Westmoreland decision-making freedom. (quotes/info from Stephen Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower)