"We haven’t bled enough. It’s never enough for these sons of bitches."

[shadowmayor]

50. Nixon kept us in the Viet Nam war

ND-Dem,

Interesting and true points. Except for the first. Yes Nixon gave us the EPA - a reasonable calculation and this shouldn't be a conservative vs. liberal issue, and yes he made nice with China for various political reasons. He also weaned and whelped a couple of nasty puppies like Rumsfeld and Cheney. However, he did not get us out of Viet Nam. After the first election, in early 1969 the tapes have a conversation with Haldemann and Kissinger telling Nixon that Johnson's boys were right: That the war was unwinnable even with ten years and 1 million troops. Kissinger then advised Nixon to continue the war up to 72 to insure his reelection. The original plan was to start the wind down in the fall of 72 during the election and to bank against anything going awry with the withdrawal that might affect the election. Always the calculator, he eventually did call for the end much later after being securely enthroned in 72. Keep in mind, he sabotaged the Johnson peace talks in 68 to prevent Johnson from his getting elected again. So I never ever give credit to Nixon for ending the war - he continued it for his political gain. Kissinger's own phone records have him saying that they could end the war any time they chose. They chose the latest possible time. The same Kissinger who stated that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

As a liberal minded progressive, I will give credit to a republican were deserved and blast a democrat when called for. But Nixon rigged an election by meddling in our country's peace process, paving the way for Reagan to convince the Iranians to hold the hostages to screw Carter and just this week we had a big chunk of the republican senate do the same openly.

All of which begs the sad question: "Why have the democrats utterly refused to call out the republicans for these crimes?"