Martha Mitchell Quotes
I think this administration has turned completely against my husband. In other words, they're desperate, and I will not under any circumstances let them pin it [Watergate] on my husband. I think my husband has become the whipping boy for the whole administration, and they want to hide who is really involved.
Martha Mitchell, 1918-1976, Wife of Attorney General John N. Mitchell during the Nixon administration, Telephone call to New York Times, March 27, 1973
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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.
Sung to the tune of an old English pub song, "Down at the Olde Bull and Bush." The Congressman also fancies himself a pianist.
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.
Martha Elizabeth Beall Mitchell was the wife of John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General under President Richard Nixon. She became a controversial figure with her outspoken comments about the government at the time of the Watergate scandal.
