Lincoln was our first presidential coup, Kennedy the second. Nixon number three. Trump four.
They tried with Reagan but failed.
Same with Andrew Jackson.
You are correct on the rest.
In every society their is always a struggle for power.
Right before the gap in Nixon’s Watergate tapes he says something like “It will bring up the whole Cuban thing.”
I always thought that may have been related to Kennedy’s assassination and the involvement of the CIA or Johnson or something.
The Cuban “plumbers” used by Nixon have been rumored to be tied into Kennedy somehow.
Years after coming up with that idea on my own, I think it was Halderman in his book that believes that was what Nixon was referring to. Who knows.
And - I’m not implying Nixon had anything to do with it - but he was attempting to protect the CIA or presidential office in general.
Nixon tried really hard (employing dirty tricks, etc.) to prevent the release of “The Pentagon Papers”. But those documents were related to President Johnson’s terrible handling of the war. Nixon could have used them for his political gain, but instead didn’t want America (or the war effort) to be weakened.
Andrew Johnson may have been our second. Although the Radical Republicans failed to oust him, he was pretty much neutralized following his impeachment.
“Lincoln was our first presidential coup,...”
But what if the plot had failed completely? How would we remember Lincoln today? His plans for Southern ‘Reconstruction’ would have been strenuously opposed by the ‘Radical Republicans’ in the House and Senate who wanted the South treated much more harshly than Lincoln.
As a war-time President, Lincoln could wield a lot of power in his role as Commander-in-Chief. But after the South’s surrender, I doubt if Congress would have willingly let Lincoln run the show. One of those ‘what if’ questions that can make history so interesting.