James M. Cannon Quotes
… a lying crook in the Presidency
James M. Cannon, Historian & Biographer, Description of Richard M. Nixon, Republican Congressional Staffer & Special Assistant to NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller (Republican), Time & Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History, 2004
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Nixon however turned out to be very dishonest with the Watergate scandal allowing the public to see and hear what Nixon was really like. He was the only American President who resigned, as he did that to save himself from being impeached and tried for various fenonies he committed. Vidal had his number. However, Nixon was not a crook in the usual sense of the word. His violations of law and ethics did not enrich him fiscally. His corruption was the drive and mania for power and control.
Kerry had just finished a formal presentation, and thought that the microphones he was wearing had all been removed. Some opponents accuse him of knowing that he was overheard by live mikes.
President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.
The memo proposed having a good novelist write a fictional novel with Nixon as the main character. The great Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck was approached for the project. See {629628} for his reaction.
The Slavery issue was so contentious that many Northern Congressmen had just given up on the abolitionist cause or never agreed with it even though in many areas of the country the majority of their constituents supported abolition.
Before the 1968 election, President Johnson, and gotten the North Vietnam Communists to agree to Peace Talks with the U. S. and South Vietnam. Then Candidate Nixon thought that if the peace talks were ongoing and making progress, there would be more support for the Democrats and Nixon's opponent Hubert Humphrey. So Nixon secretly send a secret emissary to South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu telling him that he would not get a very good deal because President Nixon claimed that President Johnson was too eager to end the Vietnam war. He suggested that if Thieu boycotted the peace talks, then when Nixon was elected, he would guarantee a much better deal for South Vietnam and Thieu personally. President Thieu boycotted the peace talks and there could be no progress. However there is a Federal Law, the Logan Act, that makes it a felony for a private American citizen to conduct or interfere with foreign policy or negotiations with a foreign government. President Johnson found out about Nixon's sabotage of the Peace Talks, called Nixon (see {583263}) and threatened him with prosecution if he interfered further. LBJ had decided that with the left wing at odds with the U. S. Government over the Vietnam war, a prosecution of Nixon would cause the Right Wing to challenge the government also and the country didn't need further polarization. He would do that only if Nixon did not heed the President's warning. But when Nixon won the election and became President, he was terribly anxious that his pre-election crimes would be made public, and spent much of his time and staff effort trying to find out who knew about his politically self-serving felony and who might make his crime public.
Nixon’s remark {583773} had been suppressed by the Nixon family and McGovern and the world first heard it 40 years after the fact.
Nixon had lied to Ford as well as the American people. Ford, having been selected by Nixon as VP, felt it was his obligation to defend Nixon until he was about to become President himself. At that point he would have destroyed his presidential credibility on top of Nixon if he kept on with the Nixon lies.
James M. Cannon was a historian, author and former Assistant to the President of the United States for Foreign Affairs during the Gerald Ford administration. Prior to his work with Ford, he served as an aide to both Governor of New York and Vice President, Nelson D. Rockefeller after a career as a journalist. After leaving the White House at the end of the Ford Administration, Cannon became Ford's official biographer, publishing Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History.