THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1971-1979:
1973
- OPEC moves to nationalize many of the Middle Eastern oil industries. Combined with their oil embargo against the West and the unilateral setting of oil prices, this creates a major oil crisis in America and Europe, frightening and enraging many Western nations. (CBS)
- During 1971 and 1972, Republican political strategist Karl Rove, the executive director of the College Republican National Committee, conducts a series of seminars that instruct fellow GOP political operatives on a variety of campaign dirty tricks, including rummaging through a rival's garbage to obtain inside memos and contributor lists. He also says that the myriad of illegal campaign tactics comprising the Watergate scandals are brilliant, but the mistake made by the Nixon campaign was getting caught. Rove is already a bright light in the Texas GOP, and will work tirelessly over the next twenty years getting a variety of Texas Republicans elected to office using his repertoire of underhanded political tactics, culminating in the election of George W. Bush to the governorship and later to the presidency. Republican National Committee chairman George H.W. Bush tells the press he will "get to the bottom" of charges that Rove teaches political espionage and dirty tricks to the members of his seminars, but nothing comes of the so-called investigation; in fact, on September 6, 1972, three weeks after announcing his intent to investigate Rove, he names Rove chairman of the CRNC. Rove's friend and mentor Lee Atwater, who got his start as an intern with diehard segregationist Strom Thurmond and a veteran of the Nixon-era College Republicans who made "ratf*cking" such a memorable term for political dirty tricks, takes Rove's job as the CRNC's executive director. (Moore and Slater, Joe Conason and Gene Lyons)
- January: President Richard Nixon, in the early throes of fighting the Watergate scandal, asks for the undated, written resignations of all of his administration members so he can use them when and if he desires; all, that is, except for GOP chairman George H.W. Bush. "Eliminate everyone except George Bush," says Nixon. "Bush will do anything for our cause." Bush, as chairman of the Republican Party, brings in the Heritage Groups Council, an organization with a number of Nazi sympathizers. (Bushwatch)
- January - September: George W. Bush supposedly volunteers full-time at PULL, by his account at the request of Houston Oilers tight end John White. He has now failed to report for Guard duty at Ellington AFB or any other TANG unit for well over a year, and should now be officially classified as a "deserter." Although Bush's criminal records have been scrubbed and hidden away from public view, it is possible that Bush was arrested and convicted of possession of cocaine in Texas, and was forced to perform community service in 1973 by working for minority children's program PULL. (J.H. Hatfield, author of the Bush biography Fortunate Son, claims that Karl Rove is one of three sources confirming the cocaine conviction and ensuing community service. Hatfield claims that a high-ranking Republican source -- Rove? -- confirmed to him that Bush had been convicted of cocaine possession in 1972, and had his record expunged by a friendly judge. Hatfield also quotes one of Bush's Yale classmates as saying the judge expunged the record as "one of those 'behind closed doors in the judge's chambers' kind of thing between the old man and one of his Texas cronies who owed him a favor...." Hatfield further claims that when he asked Bush spokesman Scott McClellan about the cocaine conviction, McClellan muttered, "Oh sh*t" and then said, "No comment."
- Hatfield's biography of Bush, Fortunate Son,, was fiercely attacked by the Bush campaign and was pulled from the shelves within a week of its publication by publisher St. Martins Press, apparently bowing to pressure from the family and the Republican Party. Hatfield is found dead from apparent suicide on July 20, 2001, shortly after Hatfield had found another publisher and was celebrating the renewed sales of his book. The Bush campaign will never flatly deny allegations of Bush's youthful drug use, instead claiming that Bush has been drug-free since 1974. The elder Bush denies that there was ever any cocaine conviction, and denies that he intervened with a judge for any reason concerning his son.) The record of that arrest is later expunged, meaning he apparently received the equivalent of Youthful Offender status at the age of 26. Bush will continue with PULL until September 1973, when he leaves Texas to attend Harvard Business School. (Bush attends Harvard as a "legacy," given preferential status because of his father's previous attendance, after he is denied admission to the University of Texas law school. Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett says Bush continued to serve in the National Guard while in Boston, though no documentation supports his claim. A classmate recalls Bush sitting in the back of his class wearing a National Guard bomber jacket, chewing tobacco, and spitting into a cup.) Bush's records have been hidden by his campaign, and are not available for public scrutiny; they are believed to be walled up somewhere in his father's presidential library in Houston. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones, UggaBugga, Progressive Southerner, Kevin Phillips, Ian Williams)
- January 6: George W. Bush makes his single documented appearance as an active member of the National Guard, a visit to a military dentist in Alabama. (The question remains as to why he could have dental work done in Alabama but couldn't have his physical there.) He still owes the National Guard a physical, a board review, and two years of military service, plus whatever criminal penalties for desertion the National Guard chooses to enforce. (Ian Williams)
- January 8 - 9: Kissinger and Le Duc Tho resume negotiations in Paris. All remaining differences are resolved between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. President Thieu, once again threatened by Nixon with a total cut-off of American aid to South Vietnam, now unwillingly accepts the peace agreement, which still allows North Vietnamese troops to remain in South Vietnam. Thieu labels the terms "tantamount to surrender" for South Vietnam. (Vietnam War Timeline)
Roe v. Wade decision
- January 22: The US Supreme Court renders its final verdict in the Roe v. Wade abortion case. Justice Harry Blackmun reads the majority opinion, which legalizes abortion throughout the United States for the first trimester of a woman's pregnancy. The Court places legal restrictions on abortions during the second and third trimesters. The Court splits its decision 7-2, with Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist the sole dissenters. Liberals and women's rights groups celebrate the decision; conservatives, religious groups, and anti-abortionists vow to fight the decision, beginning with their intent to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortions in the United States. They also plan to ram through as many state restrictions against abortion as possible within the framework of the Court decision, and vow to cut off federal and state funding for abortions. In 1983, the Court will refuse to allow any restrictions on first-trimester abortions by the states, in apparent defiance of President Ronald Reagan's public declarations that he will do everything possible to restrict abortions. In 1989 a much more conservative Court will return limited powers to restrict abortions to the states, an opinion many see as an end-run around the Roe decision. In 1993, President Clinton will lift the "gag rule" imposed years earlier that forbids federally funded clinics to counsel women about abortions. And the original "Roe" plaintiff, Norma McCorvey, becomes an evangelical Christian, renounces her support for the decision that bears her psuedonym, and becomes a staunch advocate against abortion rights. (D.J. Herda)
- January 22: The related Supreme Court decision to Roe v. Wade, Roe v. Bolton, strikes down restrictions on facilities that could be used to perform abortions. The decision gives rise to a new kind of medical facility, the abortion clinic. (CBS)
Paris Peace Accords
- January 23: Nixon announces that an agreement has been reached which will "end the war and bring peace with honor." Four days later, the Paris Peace Accords are signed by the US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Under the terms, the US agrees to immediately halt all military activities and withdraw all remaining military personnel within 60 days. The North Vietnamese agree to an immediate cease-fire and the release all American POWs within 60 days. An estimated 150,000 North Vietnamese soldiers presently in South Vietnam are allowed to remain. Vietnam is still divided. South Vietnam is considered to be one country with two governments, one led by President Thieu, the other led by the Viet Cong, pending future reconciliation. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- January 27: Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces the draft is ended in favor of voluntary enlistment. The last American soldier to die in combat in Vietnam, Lieutenant Colonel William Nolde, is killed. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- January 30: Verdicts are handed down for the Watergate burglars in a courtroom presided over by Judge "Maximum John" Sirica. Sirica is determined to find out what is truly behind this "third-rate burglary," and brooks no nonsense or political shenanigans from the defendants. Hunt, Barker, Martinez, Gonzalez, and Sturgis plead guilty in hopes for lighter sentences; Liddy behaves like a captured soldier, barking out little else but his name and position, and is found guilty. McCord, the former CIA agent, says he is not going to go down quietly, and refuses a White House promise of leniency if he will plead guilty and stay mum about what he knows. Sentences are not pronounced for nearly two months. (David Fremon)
- February 7: The US Senate votes 70-0 to authorize a commission to investigate "irregularities" stemming from the 1972 presidential election. The commission, to be informally known as the Senate Watergate Committee, is headed by Democratic senator Sam Ervin, a prominent Constitutional scholar. The ranking Republican on the committee, Senator Howard Baker, will try his level best to keep the investigation from harming the White House, and is later found to have leaked secret information from the committee to Nixon officials. Other members include partisan Republican Edward Gurney, who with Baker tries to keep the investigation from finding out anything potentially damaging to Nixon, and Republican Lowell Weicker, who is far less ideologically driven, and actually opens his own investigation. Democrats Daniel Inouye, Joseph Montoya, and Herman Talmadge attempt to remain impartial at the beginning of the investigation, as does Ervin, but all four will be shocked and horrified at the extent of the crimes their investigation will uncover.
- The committee is torn by party-line divisions from the outset, with Republicans insisting on a short investigation, and Ervin pressing for a fuller investigation that will take longer and involve more witnesses. Ervin also finds himself in conflict with newly appointed special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who worries that if witnesses testify in front of the committee, it will endager possible chances of prosecuting them for crimes. Ervin insists that it is more important for the committee to inform the public of exactly who in the Nixon administration is responsible for what, than it is for "the courts to send a few people to jail." Nixon consistently blocks subpoenas and requests for information by the committee through the use of "executive privilege," insisting that Congress has no authority to demand his testimony or even the cooperation of anyone in the White House. Ervin angrily turns down a proffered compromise where White House officials will testify, but not in person and not under oath; Nixon will eventually give in and allow his officials to testify before the commission, but steadfastly refuses to appear himself. The hearings are televised, and it is not long before they become a daily staple of American viewing habits, with soap operas and other programming cancelled in favor of the hearings, and the hearings broadcast in workplaces and bars around the country. Ervin sets the tone of the hearings early by stating that if the charges surrounding the Watergate burglary are true, then the burglars were trying to steal "not the jewels, money, or other property of American citizens, but something more valuable -- their most precious heritage, the right to vote in a free election." The committee's first witnesses will testify in May. (David Fremon)
- February 12: Operation Homecoming begins the release of 591 American POWs from Hanoi. Many POWs are not returned, and their fates are still a mystery. (Vietnam War Timeline)
Wounded Knee massacre
- February 27: The American Indian Movement seizes control of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in protest of the officially sanctioned government as well as severe damage done to the community by strip mining and other grievances. AIM declares Wounded Knee to be the first community of the newly reconstituted Lakota Nation. The US government disagrees, and sends a force of federal marshals and National Guardsmen to retake the town. After 71 days and two deaths of AIM members, AIM surrenders. Over 1200 American Indians and supporters are arrested. (ZMag)
- February 28: L. Patrick Gray demands to be named permanent director of the FBI; Nixon eventually acquiesces, but Gray must first pass the Senate confirmation hearings. They are disastrous. Gray is forced to admit that he allowed White House lawyer John Dean to sit in on the questioning of Watergate suspects. When Gray is asked what happened to the incriminating documents given to him by Ehrlichman and Dean, he says he burned them in his fireplace. David Fremon writes, "A candidate for law enforcement director destroying evidence? His confirmation was doomed." After receiving no assistance from the White House, a humiliated Gray withdraws his nomination and, by the end of April, resigns as acting FBI director. (David Fremon)
- March 21: Discussing the growing demands for hush money from Howard Hunt and others, John Dean tells Nixon, "There is a cancer growing on the presidency." Dean says it is likely that the burglars will blackmail the White House for over a million dollars during the next two years; Nixon dismisses Dean's worries, saying the money can be raised. (David Fremon)
- March 23: Judge Sirica hands down the sentences for the 7 Watergate defendants. First, however, he reads a letter to him from burglar James McCord that tells Sirica of the pressure to remain silent. McCord also informs Sirica that there has been massive perjury during the case, with numerous witnesses for the Nixon administration lying under oath, and that though the other four burglars might have thought the burglary was a CIA operation, in fact it was not. After stunning the court with McCord's letter, Sirica hands down a raft of sentences against the burglars, sentences much harsher than anyone had imagined. Liddy is sentenced to 6-20 years in prison and fined $40,000. Hunt receives 30 years in prison. The five burglars each receive 40 years. He informs the shocked defendants that he might consider lowering their sentences if they cooperate with the upcoming Senate Watergate Commission. But Sirica is not finished. He blames the prosecution for running a slipshod case, and for not unearthing the reason why the burglary took place. Sirica orders a new grand jury to delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding the Watergate burglary. (David Fremon)
US withdrawal from Vietnam
- March 29: The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come." America's longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes. During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths. 153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. Over 2400 American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for as of 1973. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- March - April: White House counsel John Dean and CREEP Deputy Director Jeb Magruder, unbeknownst to one another, both contact government investigators and tell what they know about the Watergate burglary and the surrounding crimes by the Nixon White House and re-election campaign. Dean has been ordered by Nixon to write a full report on Watergate; Dean stalls, knowing the report will probably be used against him, and spends his days pretending to work on the report and his evenings talking to government investigators. Both Dean and Magruder implicate H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and former CREEP head John Mitchell. (David Fremon)
- April: President Nixon and President Thieu meet at San Clemente, California. Nixon renews his earlier secret pledge to respond militarily if North Vietnam violates the peace agreement. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- April 15: Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst and his deputy, Henry Peterson, both go to Nixon, tell him that they have information of criminal activities among his top officials, and demand the firing of Haldeman and Ehrlichman. Nixon says he will consider it. Afterwards, Nixon has a meeting with counsel John Dean, a meeting that Dean says is "strange." According to Dean, Nixon, who grills Dean with a series of pointed questions, behaves almost as if he were tape-recording the meeting. At one point Nixon goes over to a corner and mutters that he was only joking about offering hush money to the Watergate burglars. (David Fremon)
- April 16: Nixon gives counsel John Dean two letters, one a letter of resignation and one a request for a leave of absence, and demands that Dean sign both. Both letters have Dean admitting complete responsibility for the Watergate break-ins. Dean refuses to sign, saying that he won't resign unless Haldeman and Ehrlichman resign, too. Meanwhile, Ehrlichman is busily persuading Nixon to cut loose John Mitchell, one of Nixon's oldest and closest friends, and let the investigators pin the blame on him. (David Fremon)
- April 17: Nixon claims to have just learned of the illegal cover-up of his re-election campaign's illegal activities, and asks for "intensive new inquiries." In fact, Nixon has known of the activities since at least June 1972. (Chronology of Watergate Crisis)
- April 18: Frederick LaRue testifies to the Watergate grand jury that Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy participated in the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychatrist. Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson is shocked by the testimony, but notes that Nixon seems unsurprised by the revelation. (David Fremon)
- April 29: Nixon fires his two top aides, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, for participation in the Watergate crimes. Nixon also fires Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst and appoints a new Attorney General, former Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson, who is mandated by Congress to appoint a special prosecutor for Watergate. Richardson will name Archibald Cox as special prosecutor. Cox, who is unfairly characterized by Henry Kissinger as "frantically anti-Nixon," had served in the Justice Department under Democrats Kennedy and Johnson. As special prosecutor, Cox was free of any supervision by the White House; only the Attorney General could fire him, and then only for "extraordinary improprieties." (Chronology of Watergate Crisis, David Fremon)
- April 30: In a nationally televised statement, Nixon says that he has accepted the resignation of top aides Haldeman and Ehrlichman; he also tells the country that John Dean has resigned, though Dean has not yet tendered his resignation; the announcement constitutes Dean's firing. Nixon then claims that "There is no whitewash in the White House," that he didn't know about the Watergate burglary and its connections to his re-election campaign until March of 1973, and that once he found out, he demanded an immediate investigation. The public finds it difficult to imagine that Nixon, who has always prided himself on having inside information, remained ignorant of such a wide-ranging scandal in his own administration for over nine months. People also wonder, if Haldeman and Ehrlichman were the "fine public servants" that Nixon says they are, why they are resigning without explanation. (David Fremon)
- May: Three months of televised Watergate hearings begin in the Senate, chaired by Democrat Sam Ervin. The hearings reveal the existence of enemies lists, money drops, illegally obtained campaign funds, and harassment by IRS of political enemies; most importantly, a secret tape-recording system in the White House is discovered. (Chronology of Watergate Crisis)
- May 2: George W. Bush's National Guard commander at Ellington AFB says in Bush's service evaluation that he has not seen Bush, so he cannot evaluate him: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report. A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama." He is ordered to report to summer camp duty at Ellington AFB; he fails to show up. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones, UggaBugga, Ian Williams)
- May 18: On the second day of testimony in the Watergate hearings, burglar James McCord talks freely about his involvement in the affair. He tells the committee that John Dean, Jeb Magruder, and John Mitchell all approved the Watergate burglary. He tells of the January 1973 offer of clemency from White House lawyer Jack Caulfield in return for his guilty plea before the Sirica court and his continued silence. He also tells the committee of Caulfield's veiled threat: that if McCord talks, the administration will "take steps to defend itself." Former campaign treasurer Hugh Sloan testifies that he helped move massive amounts of unrecorded monies and donations through CREEP to unknown destinations; Sloan, who is portrayed as an honest, tortured soul by Woodward and Bernstein, says he resigned from CREEP rather than lie in court about the money. CREEP deputy head Magruder offers the most damning testimony, admitting that he had knowingly perjured himself in Sirica's courtroom, and implicates himself, Dean, Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, and others in criminal activities surrounding the re-election campaign. Magruder stops short of implicating Nixon himself. (David Fremon)
- May - July 1973: George W. Bush is credited with 36 days of duty in the Guard, but there are no records of his service, and he cannot recall what he did during that time. It is established that he did not fly during this period. Resultingly, he is credited with 35 "gratuitous" inactive Air Foorce Reserve points -- non-attendance inactive Reserve credit time. No one has ever stepped forward to say that he saw Bush attend any Guard functions or perform any Guard duties during this time. In June his evaluation, which confirms he has not been observed on duty, is returned to Texas with the request for a Form 77a, requiring that Bush be rated in his position. His former commander, family friend Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, no longer attempts to cover for Bush, and concurs with the request. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones, John Covington, UggaBugga, Ian Williams)
- June: Evidence surfaces that shows a number of large corporations were pressured to donate huge amounts of money to the Nixon re-election campaign. $17 million of those monies had been used to refurbish private Nixon residencies in San Clemente, California, and Key Biscayne, Florida. A memo uncovered by the Senate Watergate Committee shows that the Nixon Justice Department offered to drop a lawsuit against communications giant ITT in return for campaign contributions to the Republican Committee. (David Fremon)
- June 19: Congress passes the Case-Church Amendment which forbids any further US military involvement in Southeast Asia, effective August 15, 1973. The veto-proof vote is 278-124 in the House and 64-26 in the Senate. The Amendment paves the way for North Vietnam to wage yet another invasion of the South, this time without fear of US bombing. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- June 25: After delays in the Watergate testimonies caused by, among other things, a summit meeting between Nixon and the USSR's Leonid Brezhnev, former White House counsel John Dean testifies before the Watergate commission. Dean's testimony is shocking. He accuses Nixon himself of being involved in the Watergate coverup, and implicates himself and former Attorney General Mitchell in the illegal activities of the Nixon re-election campaign. Dean testifies for an entire week before the commission, revealing detail after damning detail of illegal, unethical, and unconstitutional practices within both the White House and the re-election campaign of Nixon. Among other things, he reveals the existence of Nixon's "enemies list," a list of over two hundred individuals and corporations including prominent Democrats, labor leaders, corporate heads, newspaper publishers, and even entertainers. Liberals and conservatives, political activists and apolitical citizens alike appear on the list, whose single thread seems to be people who have in one way or another displeased Nixon and are listed for some kind of retaliation. (Dean says the White House never took action against anyone on the list.) Though shocking, Dean's implication of Nixon does not constitute proof of Nixon's complicity in the web of crimes engulfing his administration. Dean's testimony is followed by a much shorter appearance by John Mitchell, Nixon's former Attorney General and campaign manager; Mitchell is much less forthcoming than Dean, and seems bent on protecting Nixon even if it means committing perjury in front of the commission. (Wikipedia. David Fremon)
Bakke decision
- June 28: The California Supreme Court orders the admission of white medical student Alan Bakke into the UC-Davis medical school, finding the idea of admission quotas by race illegal. Bakke argues that he was discriminated against when the medical school used admission quotas to admit minority students with lesser qualifications than his to the school over him. Bakke's argument of "reverse discrimination" wins a 5-4 decision, though the court reaffirms the idea of affirmative action. Later, the US Supreme Court will uphold the decision, finding that although racial quotas are illegal, race and other considerations can be used as "factors" in deciding collegiate admissions. Other lawsuits attempting to overturn the entire structure of affirmative action, many filed by conservative groups, will flood the courts in following years, most of which will fail. (African-American Registry)
- July 16: The Senate Armed Forces Committee begins hearings into the secret bombing of Cambodia during 1969-70. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- July 16 - on: Former Haldeman aide Alexander Butterfield drops a bomb in the Watergate hearings when he testifies that Nixon has secretly taped White House conversations since at least 1971. The commission is stunned by the revelation, but is quick to realize that, if the tapes exist, they could provide all the proof the commission needs of Nixon's potential guilt. Nixon, predictably, refuses to turn over any of the tapes, citing, among other objections, his personal privacy, executive privilege, and national security. Inside the White House, Nixon's new chief of staff Alexander Haig shuts down the taping system, and he and other advisors debate whether or not to destroy the tapes. After Butterfield's revelations, former Nixon aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman testify before the now-hostile commission. Ehrlichman is combative and contemptuous of the committee, and contradicts the testimony of 18 previous witnesses. After one particularly egregrious statement, Senator Daniel Inouye leans back in his seat and mutters, "What a liar!" His words are picked up by his microphone and become a media sensation.
- Haldeman's testimony is quiet, polite, and thoroughly evasive. According to Haldeman, he can remember virtually nothing about anything the senators wish to know. He does, however, testify to knowledge of the Nixon tapes, and says he knows they will prove Nixon innocent -- he knows because he has taken two of the tapes home and listened to them. Committee chairman Sam Ervin erupts: "The United States Senate can't hear these tapes and you, a private citizen, can?" he roars. Haldeman's testimony stiffens the commission's determination to have these tapes turned over to it. Shortly afterwards, the commission adjourns until September. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says privately that the tapes must have "real dirt" on them for Nixon to fight so hard to hold on to them. When asked if Nixon is refusing to relinquish the tapes because he wants to preserve the powers of the presidency, Kissinger replies, "He cares about the office, but he cares about Richard Nixon more." (David Fremon)
- July: After Butterfield's testimony, special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox demands that Nixon turn over a number of the White House tapes to his office; when Nixon refuses, Cox asks for, and receives, a subpoena from Judge John Sirica for the tapes. Nixon defies the subpoena. The 23-member grand jury investigating Watergate then asks for the tapes at Cox's request; Nixon continues to refuse to turn the tapes over. (David Fremon)
- July 17: Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger testifies before the Armed Forces Committee that 3500 bombing raids were launched into Cambodia to protect American troops by targeting NVA positions. The extent of Nixon's secret bombing campaign angers many in Congress and results in the first call for Nixon's impeachment. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- July 17: Afghanistan's King Mohammad Zahir Shah is deposed by a coup led by his former prime minister and cousin Sardar Mohammed Daud Khan. The coup in Afghanistan is supported by the USSR, which later leads to the 1979 revolt. (Afghanistan Republican Coup, History Lesson: Middle East Timeline)
Agnew resigns
- August - October: At first protesting his innocence, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns, pleading "no contest" to a barrage of Watergate-related and other charges, including income-tax evasion, bribery, conspiracy, and extortion. Agnew is known as a foul-mouthed, racially and socially prejudiced conservative, who is almost universally loathed and feared by his political opponents; he is, however, a favorite among what Nixon likes to call the "silent majority" of hard-line conservatives. Agnew has largely avoided involvement in the Watergate scandal, largely because Nixon refuses to include Agnew in just about any policy decisions. In June, evidence that Agnew demanded bribes and kickbacks from his underlings during his days as Maryland's governor surfaces; Attorney General Elliot Richardson privately admits he has never seen a stronger case against anyone, and if prosecuted, Agnew could be convicted of up to 40 counts of criminal activity. Evidence that Agnew demanded bribes even after ascending to the vice-presidency also surface. An August 7 Wall Street Journal story pins Agnew against the wall, accusing him of extortion, bribery, and tax evasion. Agnew asks for help from Nixon, but the president, embroiled in the Watergate scandal, refuses to intervene. Agnew eventually trires to cut a deal, agreeing to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor tax evasion charge. When Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson publicly claims that the Justice Department has Agnew "cold," an infuriated Agnew goes public himself, shouting during an address to the National Federation of Republican Women, "I will not resign if indicted!" On October 10, he pleads nolo contendere to almost 70 pages of charges against him. He is fined $10,000 and given three years' probation, and resigns from office. The day before his resignation, Nixon wishes him luck; the two will never speak again. After pondering the choice of John Connelly, Nixon names Gerald Ford as his new vice president, partially as "impeachment insurance" -- he knows that no one took Ford seriously as a potential president, and hopes that the specter of Ford, generally portrayed as an affable buffoon, as president will help ensure his retention in office. (Chronology of Watergate Crisis, David Fremon)
- August 14: US bombing activities in Cambodia are halted in accordance with the Congressional ban resulting from the Case-Church amendment. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- August 22: Henry Kissinger is appointed by President Nixon as the new Secretary of State, replacing William Rogers. (Vietnam War Timeline)
- August 29: Judge John Sirica directly orders Nixon to turn over the White House tapes. Nixon appeals Sirica's order; the appeal is denied by the US Court of Appeals. Nixon then offers a compromise: he will provide written transcripts of the tapes, with a neutral third party being allowed to hear the tapes and compare them with the transcripts. Nixon proposes Republican senator John Stennis as the third party. Stennis, though perceived as honest, is a staunch Nixon ally who seems willing to accept Nixon's arguments that the tapes should remain private for national security reasons; Stennis also suffers from poor hearing. Special Prosecutor Cox is dead set against the proposal. Nixon aide Alexander Haig informs Cox that this is Nixon's final offer, and furthermore, no other subpoenas or requests for evidence from Cox will be honored. (David Fremon)
Chile's Salvatore Allende assassinated by the CIA
- September 11: The democratically elected Chilean government is overthrown after a mere three weeks in office, putatively by the Chilean armed forces. President Salvador Allende dies in the fighting, and is succeeded by General Augusto Pinochet, who will rule Chile as a totalitarian dictator until 1990. The coup is orchestrated and assisted by the CIA, and backed by several large American corporations. Many of Pinochet's highest officials are on the CIA payroll, and the CIA and Pentagon advise one US administration after another to tolerate Pinochet's savage record of human rights abuses. The Pinochet forces are backed by Nixon, Kissinger, and receive financial support from two multinational corporations operating in Chile, Anaconda Copper and ITT, both with strong ties to the Republican adminstration. Kissinger later says that he saw no reason why Chile should be allowed to "go Marxist" just because "its people are irresponsible." The Chilean economy is retooled as a supposedly free-market economy under the tutelage of US economist Milton Friedman and others of the "Chicago school" of economics; in reality, the Chilean economy is revamped to blatantly favor the numerous American corporations who control over 85% of the Chilean market. Senator Frank Church, the head of the committee which will later investigate illegal CIA activities, will say, "Like Caesar peering into the colonies from distant Rome, Nixon said the choice of government by the Chileans was unacceptable to the president of the United States. The attitude in the White House seemed to be, 'If in the wake of Vietnam I can no longer send in the Marines, then I will send in the CIA.'" Pinochet will oversee the murder of at least 3,100 Chileans, the disappearance of at least 1,100 more, and will torture and jail thousands. He will close the Chilean Congress, ban all political parties, censor the press, and take over the universities. His 17-year reign will become synonymous with human rights abuses in Chile and terrorist activities abroad. (Wikipedia, Killtown, Buzzflash, Amy and David Goodman)
- September 18: George W. Bush applies for an early discharge from the National Guard in order to attend Harvard Business School. He is granted the discharge within a single day. (Ian Williams)
- October: A federal appeals court rules 5-2 that Nixon is not "above the law" as president, and must give over the tapes demanded by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. (Chronology of Watergate Crisis)
George W. Bush "honorably" discharged from TANG
- October 1: Instead of being court-martialed for desertion, George W. Bush is prematurely discharged, with honors, from the Texas Air National Guard, and is assigned to the inactive reserve in Massachusetts. (He will receive his final inactive reserve discharge in November 1974.) He still owes two years of active service, and deserted his post before his four years of reserve duty were complete. In 2002 he will quip, "I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." Senator Daniel Inouye, who will request an explanation for Bush's missing years of service, will say, "During my service, if I missed training for two years, at the least, I would have been court-martialed." Inouye's request is never answered. During the 2000 election, several requests are made for Bush to release his military records; those records are never produced. The Army manual "What We Know About AWOL and Desertion" states plainly, "[A]ny soldier who has taken an unauthorized leave from his/her training or duty station is considered AWOL. On the 31st day of AWOL, this status is officially changed to Dropped From Rolls (DFR), or desertion. This can be considered the 'administrative' definition of the term. From a legal standpoint, individuals are considered deserters when they have been convicted of the crime through a court martial." By this definition, George W. Bush would definitely be a deserter in the eyes of the US Army, though since he was never convicted of, or even chargedwith, the crime by the TANG, he is not legally a deserter. (AWOLBush, Mother Jones, UggaBugga, Protalion, Army Research Institute, Ian Williams)
- A remarkably complete set of documents pertaining to Bush's military service can be obtained at the Coldfeet link below. All documents were obtained using the FOIA. (Coldfeet)
Yom Kippur War
- October 6: The Yom Kippur War is launched when combined forces of Egypt and Syria invade Israel, largely to drive Israel out of the Sinai Peninsula. Nine other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait, support the invasion. The USSR provides support to the Arab invaders, though not as much as Sadat requested; the US provides support to Israel, including airlifts of critically needed supplies. The attack on the Jewish holy day leads to initial success by the invading forces, partially because Israeli PM Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan insist that Israel must not strike first in order to ensure US support (Israeli intelligence had provided enough warning of the imminent attack for the Israeli Air Force to launch a preventative strike), but Israeli counterattacks swiftly repulse the Arab strike. US Secretary of State Kissinger convinces the Soviet Union to stay out of the fight. The war ends 18 days later in defeat for the Arab coalition, though many Israelis are critical of the government's hesitation to strike first and save the lives lost in the initial Arab strike. Meir resigns during the post-war negotiations, and is succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin. After fitful attempts to bring Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries into the US sphere of influence, the Arab-Israeli War sees Arab oil producers quadruple the price of their oil. By 1975, oil becomes a critical factor in the CIA's planning; by the time George H.W. Bush takes over the directorate of the CIA in December 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will make it clear that the US will go to war to protect its interests in Middle Eastern oil. Jimmy Carter will restate the pledge in 1979. Although the US is avidly looking for alternative oil suppliers, particularly in Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria, it is still dependent on the Middle East for a quarter of its oil. (ZNet, Jewish Virtual Library, FactMonster, Kevin Phillips, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, David Fremon)
- October 11: According to telephone transcripts released in May 2004, President Nixon is too drunk to talk on the phone to British prime minister Edward Heath about the Yom Kippur War. Instead, the call is handled by National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Heath calls the White House about 8 pm. According to the phone transcripts, Kissinger asks his assistant Brent Scowcroft, who has told him of the urgent call, "Can we tell them no? When I talked to the president, he was loaded." Scowcroft replies, "We could tell him the president is not available and perhaps he can call you." Kissinger tells Heath that Nixon will be available in the morning, and discusses the situation with Heath himself. (London Free Press)
- October 19: Former White House counsel John Dean pleads guilty to obstruction of justice charges before Judge John Sirica, and admits supervising payments of "hush money" to convicted Watergate burglars Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. It is almost a year before Sirica sentences Dean to between one and four years in prison; however, Dean spends most of his prison term in a witness protection facility in Fort Holabird, Maryland, talking to investigators and providing damning testimony in the trials of John Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson. Dean successfully appeals for a reduction of sentence, and is released on January 8, 1975. (Wikipedia. David Fremon)
"Saturday Night Massacre"
- October 20: Special prosecutor Archibald Cox demands the tape recordings from Nixon's secret recording system, and refuses to accept White House-produced summaries (later proven to be remarkably inaccurate). Nixon orders Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox; Richardson refuses and resigns, commenting, "A government of laws may be on the verge of becoming the government of one man." Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus also refuses, and Nixon fires him before he can resign. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork fires Cox. Nixon then abolishes the office of special prosecutor. The public reacts with outrage and disbelief. In its first-ever editorial, Time magazine states "The President Should Resign." The events are later termed the "Saturday Night Massacre." Republican congressman John Anderson predicts, "Impeachment resolutions are going to be raining down like hailstones." (Chronology of Watergate Crisis, David Fremon)
- October 22: Twenty-one US Congressmen offer articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. Although some Republicans rise to Nixon's defense, the underlying message is clear: Nixon needs to turn over the White House tapes in order to avoid immediate impeachment. (David Fremon)
- November 1: Bowing to pressure, Nixon names a new special prosecutor for the Watergate investigations, Leon Jaworski. Jaworski is a highly respected Republican attorney from Texas. This time, removal of Jaworski will require the approval of Congress. Jaworski also presses for the White House to turn over Nixon's tapes; one problem is that two of the subpoenaed tapes do not exist. The June 20, 1972 phone conversation between Nixon and John Mitchell took place in the residential section of the White House and was not recorded; the April 15, 1973 conversation between Nixon and John Dean was not recorded, because the machine ran out of tape. Nixon says he has notes of the two meetings and suggests to his legal advisors Leonard Garment and Fred Buzhardt that he "recreate" the tapes, a suggestion that appalls both lawyers: how can Nixon even suggest creating false evidence? The suggestion is tabled. Worse, a critical portion of the June 20, 1972 tape has a suspicious 18-minute gap. Haldeman's notes verify that the gap contained a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman about Watergate. Nixon's secretary, diehard loyalist Rose Mary Woods, apparently perjures herself before Congress by testifying that she accidentally erased the tape while taking a phone call; it would be phyisically impossible for her to do so, given the physical setup of the tape machine's controls. Alexander Haig blames "sinister forces;" a panel of experts eventually decides that the gap is caused by several erasures. Haldeman later writes that he believes Nixon himself erased the tape. In his memoirs, Nixon will write that most people find the erasure "the most unbelievable and insulting" incident in the entire Watergate debacle; he never explains how it happened. (David Fremon)
- Early November: Nixon's tax returns show that he made over $200,000 in 1970 but paid less than $800 in taxes; the year before, he made a similar amount but paid only $4300. In a television appearance partially devoted to explaining how he could have paid so far below the required amount, he tells the public that he has never profited from public service (a lie; Nixon parleyed his years in public service into becoming a multi-millionaire), and says, "People have the right to know whether their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook." Crook or not, an April 1974 review of his taxes will show that Nixon chronically underpaid his taxes going back to his days as vice-president; he will be forced to repay nearly a half-million dollars to the IRS. (David Fremon)
War Powers Resolution passes over Nixon's veto
- November 7: Congress passes the War Powers Resolution requiring the president to obtain the explicit authorization of Congress within 90 days of sending American troops abroad. While a president can commit troops overseas without Congressional approval, he must withdraw them within 60 days unless Congress approves their deployment. The measure passes when Congress overrides Nixon's veto by substantial margins in both the House and Senate: 284-135 and 75-18 respectively. Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, frustrated at Nixon's cavalier continuance of the war without Congressional support, vote against the veto. Between 1973 and early 2007, presidents have submitted 119 reports "consistent with" the War Powers Resolution. (Vietnam War Timeline, Edward Kennedy/Raw Story)
- November 12: The Texas Air National Guard personnel office sends Form 77a back for now-discharged Lieutenant George W. Bush; the form reads simply, "Not rated for the period 1 May 1972 through 30 Apr 1973. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons." (Ian Williams)
- Late 1973: Nixon launches "Operation Candor," an effort to win back some credibility by offering to talk candidly about Watergate with Democrat and Republican lawmakers. The effort is largely a flop. Many Republicans aren't happy with Nixon, not so much because of the mounting evidence of his criminality, but because he was little or no help to them in winning elections in 1972. Many Republicans are privately pushing for Nixon to release the White House tapes and be done with it, especially before the mushrooming scandal can endanger their hopes for the 1974 elections. (David Fremon)
1973-present
The right-wing conspiracy to control the US media is launched
- Post-Watergate anger among Republicans leads to forming of a conservative media infrastructure to challenge the mainstream media. Led by former Treasury Secretary William Simon and financed by, among others, right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife (heir to the Mellon fortune), the effort gains ground in the 1980s when Reagan officials and right-wing figures form a close association with the Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times and other emerging right-wing media outlets such as R. Emmett Tyrrell's American Spectator, which is largely bankrolled by Scaife. Conservative watchdog groups such as Accuracy in Media attack journalists who attempt to expose details of the Iran-contra scandal, the drug trafficking by Nicaraguan contras, and Bush's involvement in the BCCI scandal. Conservative activists work alongside Reagan's "public diplomacy" apparatus, which borrows psychological operations specialists from the U.S. military to conduct what is termed "perception management." Their goal is to manage the perceptions of the American people about key foreign-policy issues, such as Central America and the threat posed by the Soviet Union. "The most critical special operations mission we have is to persuade the American people that the Communists are out to get us," explains then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, J. Michael Kelly.
- Mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post begin to pile on the bandwagon. The Reagan and Bush administrations are largely successful in deflecting the media's attention from the Iran-contra and BCCI/Iraqgate scandals. During the Clinton administration, mainstream media journalists find that they can make big money by shifting from traditional media outlets to well-funded conservative attack outlets. This comes to a head during the 2000 Presidential campaign, when the mainstream media piles on in reporting one fraudulent news report after another about Gore's so-called "serial lying," while Bush's actual lies, misstatements, and cover-ups are routinely ignored. Months after 9/11, a consortium of news agencies completes a year-long review of the 2000 election results; while the results show that by any legal standard Gore compiled more votes than Bush, most media sources choose to report that Bush won the recount, mostly by choosing to ignore the "overvotes," which would have legally been part of the recount numbers.
- During the buildup to the 2003 Iraqi war and throughout the war itself, American television news outlets, particularly cable news, compete with each other to see who can produce the most "patriotically correct" news from Iraq, sanitized to emphasize the "feel-good" aspects of the war and carefully excising all mention of civilian casualties, strategic difficulties, and the like. "There have been times, living in America of late, when it seemed I was back in the Communist Moscow I left a dozen years ago," wrote Rupert Cornwell in the London-based Independent. "switch to cable TV and reporters breathlessly relay the latest wisdom from the usual unnamed 'senior administration officials,' keeping us on the straight and narrow. Everyone, it seems, is on-side and on-message. Just like it used to be when the hammer and sickle flew over the Kremlin." And Senator Robert Byrd, the most outspoken critic of the administration in Congress, said, "No matter to what lengths we humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of squeezing out through the cracks, eventually. But the danger is that at some point it may no longer matter. The danger is that damage is done before the truth is widely realized." In 2003, economist ahd writer Paul Krugman will observe, "[A] good part of the media are essentially part of the machine. If you work for any Murdoch publication or network, or if you work for the Rev. Moon's empire, you're really not a journalist in the way that we used to think. You're basically just part of a propaganda machine. And that's a pretty large segment of the media." (Consortium News, Buzzflash, David Brock)
- Richard Mellon Scaife is probably the most important financier of the resurgent conservative movement, funding dozens of organizations and publications; according to the Washington Post, he contributed over $200 million to conservative causes between 1974 and 1992. He became politically involved after Barry Goldwater's loss in the Presidential campaign of 1964, and contributed over $1 million to Nixon's 1972 campaign. The conservative Heritage Foundation is largely funded by Scaife money. Scaife is no paragon of family values. He kept a mistress for years during his first marriage, and eventually divorced his wife to marry the mistress but never lived in the same house with her. He has had numerous problems with alcoholism; his sister Cordelia characterizes Scaife, their sister Sarah, and herself as "gutter drunks." Relations between Scaife and his family are poor; he stopped speaking to his sister over 25 years ago when her husband was found dead of mysterious causes. (Scaife bitterly opposed the marriage, but no evidence of Scaife's possible involvement in the death has ever been presented.) In 1999 a Las Vegas man whose hobby was denouncing Scaife on the Internet was found dead in Scaife's office building; the death was ruled a suicide. Scaife's newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, said the man was "unhinged [and] pushed over the top by liberals...who joined the Clinton White House and their friends to demonize Dick Scaife." Scaife is obsessed with privacy, and once yelled at a female journalist who tried to question him, "You f*cking Communist c*nt, get out of here." (David Brock)
1973-76
- Major fighting continues between Kurds and other Iraqis, with the US initially supporting the Kurds. Over 130,000 Kurds flee to Iran. In 1975, Iran and Iraq reach an agreement that leads to Iran's sealing of the border and the resulting massacre of thousands of Kurds. The US refuses to give the Kurds refuge or to condemn Iraq; Henry Kissinger dismisses the slaughter by saying, "covert action should not be confused with missionary work." (ZNet, FactMonster, MidEast Web)
