Posted on 06/01/2005 4:57:54 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
Re: The "news" that former FBI agent Mark Felt broke the law, broke his code of ethics, broke his oath and was the main source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's articles that helped depose Richard Nixon, a few thoughts.
Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?
Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.
That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.
When his enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:
1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.
2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.
So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me.
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu, and author of "Ben Stein's Diary" each month in The American Spectator. Click here to subscribe.
Fantastic! Thanks for the ping.
Sometimes the best essays are the short ones.
Ben Stein is really good! I was supposed to see him in St. Louis with my local college republican group a few months back but he cancelled due to an illness. Oh well!
The Khmer Rouge was not in power when Nixon bombed, and then invaded, Cambodia. So, this article is very mistaken.
The U.S. under Nixon invaded Cambodia, which had been a neutral power during the war in Vietnam. The subsequent chaos of this invasion assisted the Khmer Rouge to gain power in Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge did not gain power in Cambodia by its' own accord. The weakness of the Cambodian royalty to deal with this small extremist party was caused largely by American involvement in Cambodia.
Stein is 100% right about the consequences for Vietnam and Cambodia. But the Left and the liberals will never, ever, accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions. That is beyond the limits of their personalities.
It should be noted that a major reason the Left was after Nixon was that he beat their hero, McGovern, by a landslide.
Rubbish.
This is a typical disinformation from the Left, who do not want to take responsibility for what their disastrous policies did to the people of Southeast Asia.
Nixon "invaded" Cambodia because the communists were using it as a base of operations against South Viet Nam. The communists did not move in to take advantage of chaos supposedly caused by the United States; the communists were already there.
I have been a fan of Ben Stein (truly the King of All Media) for decades, from Ferris Buehler to this latest essay. I wrote a note to American Spectator praising it and Ben wrote me a quick email. I was very happy about hearing from him.
I used to read about his father in the Nixon White House, so I think I go a long ways back with Ben's family. I have watched his son grow up in print.
The point in my AS response was: Watergate became a historical turning point in the worst sense of the word. The savage, illegal, and unconstitutional conduct of the opposition press and Democratic Party set the stage for undermining the trust in all leadership in America. We have never recovered as a nation from that.
I thought Nixon was wrong about most things and too eager to please the liberals who loathed him. However, nothing he did excused the rabid attacks against him. Those of us who are older will remember when such attacks were considered unseemly and more likely to indict the attacker than the attacked. Now we have an even worse Radical Left stooping to tactics that make the Watergate antagonists look normal and sane in comparison.
Let us not forget that Hillary (Lady Macbeth) used Watergate for her teething ring and learned how much could be done with enough biting, scratching, weeping, and wetting. Watergate taught her and the others how to win through destruction, how to avoid the rule of law by using hysterical manipulation. She helped make the Clinton White House the worst reign of terror our country has known.
That said; am making copies of this. . .will share them; ie leave on windshield on any car that has a Kerry sticker - or any such car 'otherwise identified'. . .and leave a few behind at Starbucks. . .
Think O'Reilly should read this as well. . .though he would probably take more than a few exceptions . . .
A recent Freeper? Very recent I see.
Cambodia's genocide was Nixon's fault! I recall hearing some brain-washed Canadian students explain that the Berlin Wall was necessary because the West was stealing the best and brightest from Communist Heaven in East Germany. Your logic reminds me of that catechetical lesson.
Uh, sorry, but no. That party had allowed the conditions that led to the invasion - unopposed sanctuary for people who were killing our troops and using that border for protection. Nixon did nothing but respond to a condition that only allowed that party to maintain office through connivance with the North Vietnamese. Twisting that to blame him for the Khmer Rouge was very popular back when it was chic to blacken his reputation by any means necessary (e.g. The Killing Fields) but is a historical injustice of the first order.
I love Ben Stein.
Always have.
Who then used those relations to build up their strength till now they're becoming a major geopolitical competitor with us, and quite possibly a national security problem over the next few decades. Not something I'd be proud of if I were in his shoes.
kharmic bump. . .
Nixon was guilty of tampering with the electorate*? Do you know what the vote count was that year, 1972?
"Political espionage?" Political espionage as the reason for the Watergate break-in? What the hell for?
All polls at the time of the break-in indicated the election was over. So why did they do it? Nixon won 49 states in 1972 -- 521 electoral college votes to McGovern's 17.
Some say that getting the goods on the DNC's ILLEGAL use of prostitutes for well-heeled D.C. visitors was more likely the reason for the break-in. I don't know.
Whose phone at the Watergate was tapped? If you know and have a source please provide it, it will save me the trouble of searching. TIA.
RE: "plotting to thwart the FBI investigation"
Yes, as I recall he did try to tell the FBI that the break-in was a CIA operation.
And yes, Republican stalwarts like Sen. Goldwater told President Nixon that it was hopeless, time to give it up. He'd be impeached.
*tampering with the electorate -- as in the Kennedy/LBJ people tampering with the 1960 election (Chicago and Texas)? See
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36425-2000Nov16?language=printer
What do you think of my tag line? Just curious.
This is one of Ben's best......BUMP
FReeper VOTES needed on this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1414487/posts
POLL: Was Mark Felt a hero?
And the left hated Nixon for going after that Commie Alger Hiss!
bump
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