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June 01, 2005
Wallowing in What-if-gate?
Earlier today, Glenn Reynolds linked to Ben Stein's rather grim "what-if" reflections on Watergate and the Deep Throat fallout: 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:Expressing his disagreement with some of the above, Glenn characterized Stein as "a bit hysterical" as well as ahistorical: ....I don't see any reason to think that events in Cambodia would have gone differently had Nixon finished his term.I think it's very hard to second guess history. (And for starters, I'm not sure that Felt is even the right Deep Throat....) I think the Khmer Rouge were hell-bent on genocide, and couldn't have cared less about Watergate. Had Nixon finished his term, it's tough to say now what might have happened. However, Henry Kissinger and others have complained about a post-Watergate malaise as a reason for American paralysis -- not just in Cambodia, but in other places around the world. That includes the Iranian hostage mess (which sowed the seeds for today's predicament). I don't need Kissinger's or anyone else's opinion as confirmation, though, because remember the post-Watergate malaise quite well. I reached adulthood right in the middle of it. And while I think it's problematic to attribute specific historical events to Watergate, there is little question in my mind that but for Watergate, there'd have been no post-Watergate malaise. Hell, I think that but for Watergate (which led to directly to that peculiar arrogance which sprang quite understandably from post-Watergate media triumphalism), there might not have been talk radio. And but for talk radio, there might not have even been a blogosphere. (Which means that some good did come from the post-Watergate malaise.) One thing is for certain: but for Watergate, I would not be writing this post. (Just don't ask me to write an alternative history, OK?) MORE: Commenter Clint raises the distinction between the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam malaise. A good argument can be made that Watergate was seen by the Communists as their carte blanche: We are all familiar with the number of US casualties in the Vietnam war, a figure around 57,000. Lost in the annals of revisionist history is the fact more people of South Vietnam were killed by the communist North Vietnamese in the six months following the US withdrawal then in the entire ten year conflict. And this was after the North had already "won" the war. When the Watergate 'scandal' hit, all media attention was focused on Nixon, and he quickly lost the ability to run the nation, and resigned. US troops were rapidly pulled out of Vietnam and all supply to Cambodia and South Vietnam was cut off. The North Vietnamese general leading the aggression, upon hearing of the resignation of Nixon, stated on record that he knew they would now win the war. Soon south Vietnam fell to the communist north invaders, 600,000 south Vietnamese residents took flight in make shift rafts into the south China sea fearing the communist invaders. Most of them drowned. An additional 1,000,000 (1 million) South Vietnamese residents were executed. I would like to see these 1.6 million names added to the Vietnam memorial. Neighboring Cambodia fared much worse posted by Eric on 06.01.05 at 06:46 PM
Comments
Of course the Iranian hostage crisis sowed the seeds for today's mess. Israel has nothing to do with it. blogesota · June 2, 2005 12:28 AM I support Israel 100%. Because they liked Alger Hiss, a Communist, they hated Whittaker Chambers and they hated Richard Nixon, and, when Nixon became President, when he was re-elected, defeating McGovern, they sought his impeachment. They got President Nixon impeached, but that did not give them McGovern. It gave us President Ford instead. They hated President Ford, so they attacked him for pardoning President Nixon and they then got their McGovern, Jimmy Carter. They gave us a Communist Viet Nam, a totally, genocidally Communist Cambodia, an America-hating Iran, and a weakened America. I condemn them. I support President Ronald Reagan instead. Upon ending his second, final, term in 1989, President Reagan said: Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · June 2, 2005 12:58 AM A good argument can be made that Watergate was seen by the Communists as their carte blanche... Except that the text that follows is not such a "good argument," only a recitation of atrocities, and a vague "post hoc ergo propter hoc" link. Nowhere does anyone even attempt to prove that these atrocities resulted from Watergate, rather than, say, American incompetence in handling affairs in SE Asia, and the resulting loss of the American people's trust. I find the timing of this post interesting: you're blaming critics of a past President for that President's political failures, at a time when the current President is trying to blame his critics for his own shortsightedness and the resulting failures of his policies. Blaming Americans for the misdeeds of tyrants on the other side of the planet? I thought only leftists did that. Whoever is doing it, it's ignorant, transparent, despicable, and unmanly. Raging Bee · June 2, 2005 09:06 AM Believe me, I'm no fan of the left, or of the MSM as it is today. But Nixon himself is the cause of Watergate, and the one human most responsible for 30+ yrs. of cynicism in US politics. Not Deep Throat. Blaming Deep Throat and the WaPo is like blaming Monica Lewinsky for getting in the way of The Clinton Agenda. Nixon was a hero for bringing down Hiss. (It took until last month for the USG to finally disavow Hiss's creation at Yalta -- which I didn't know was the case until I read Witness by Whitaker Chambers). If only he had stopped there. I blame Nixon and the criminality of his administration for Carter and the effects of that disastrous presidency, and for the MSM as it is today. Deep Throat and (even tho I hate to say it) WoodStein are heroes in my book. rodander · June 2, 2005 10:03 AM What is being forgotten is that Watergate was a burglary which Nixon never authorized. He did authorize the coverup because he thought that would save his administration -- and the coverup was what brought him down, by giving his enemies solid grounds to force his resignation. I think that much of the cynicism results from years of moralistic posing and lecturing by people who wanted to get Nixon for years and who finally got him. Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment, and his enemies claimed they had "saved" the country. I think that it made a lot of people cynical to see the raw pursuit of power posing as a morality play. As for "blaming Americans for the misdeeds of tyrants on the other side of the planet," the only Americans I'd blame were the ones who supported the tyrants. Most Americans were completely blameless. Eric Scheie · June 3, 2005 09:54 AM As for "blaming Americans for the misdeeds of tyrants on the other side of the planet," the only Americans I'd blame were the ones who supported the tyrants... And who, exactly, are you accusing? First you foist off a ham-handed insinuation that the people who wanted Nixon out somehow enabled certain genocidal acts in SE Asia; now you're back to blaming unspecified Americans for having supported the tyrants. Your paranoid blame-games are getting both vague and shifty. Raging Bee · June 3, 2005 11:27 AM |
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For what little it's worth, my $0.03:
If Watergate hadn't happened, we'd call the malaise of the '70's the post-Vietnam malaise.