Chapter 20: The Seventies: Under Control? (notes)

Chapter 20 Notes: The Seventies: Under Control?

- In the 1970’s 40% of “professional people” had low political trust in the government, while 66% of “unskilled blue-collar workers” had low trust.

- Americans showed to be unwilling to come to the aid of countries in need after 7 years of intervention in Vietnam.

- In 1971 Honeywell Corporation was being picketed by antiwar supporters because of their production of “antipersonnel weapons” in Vietnam.

- Honeywell Corporation created a “deadly cluster that had riddled thousands of Vietnamese civilians with painful, hard-to-extricate pellets”.

- 131 of the 231 Honeywell employers surveyed believed they should stop making excessively dangerous weapons. (“How may we have pride in our work when the entire basis for this work is immoral?”)

- Polls in the early 1970’s began showing “widespread, basic discontent and political alienation”.

- The number of voters who classified themselves as “independent” rose from 20% in 1940, to 34% in 1974.

- Juries were freeing and refusing cases in where citizens spoke out or acted in rebellion towards the government, as if they wanted to allow it.

- The Watergate scandal was a large contribution to the national mood of hostility towards the government.

- The Watergate scandal led Richard Nixon to the first historic resignation from presidency in August 1974.

- One of the 5 men caught breaking into the offices of the Democratic National was James McCord, Jr. who worked for the Nixon campaign as “security officer” for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP).

- The burglars were accidentally connected to Nixon’s administration and Nixon himself when the police announced the arrest of the burglars unaware of their connections to the White House and the CIA.

- During the grand jury trial of the burglars a whole series of illegal actions against political opponents and antiwar activists were discovered, most leading back to Nixon or his advisors.

- Attorney General, John Mitchell, was discovered to control a secret fund of $350,000 to $700,000 (for usage against the Democratic Party) that went towards forging letters, leaking false news items to the press, and stealing campaign information.

- Corporations such as Gulf Oil Corporation, ITT, and American Airlines made illegal contributions of millions of dollars to the Nixon campaign.

- Nixon paid off the caught burglars $450,000 for their promise to keep quiet.

- Nixon’s advisor, John Erlichman, kept material from a series of illegal wiretaps from government officials and journalists that once belonged to the FBI, in his safe at the White House.

- The US had secretly bombed Cambodia between 1969-1970 without telling the American public or even Congress.

- A poll of three hundred corporate executives was taken 6 months before Nixon resigned, and almost all had voted for Nixon in the 1972 election. However, now “90% of Wall Street would cheer if Nixon resigns”.

- After the departure of Nixon from office and the election of Ford as his replacement, there was a “mood of relief, of gratitude” because it gave the opportunity for restoration.

- Even though Nixon resigned from office and was considered for impeachment due to the Watergate affair, his policies (foreign and domestic) were still continued to be used.

- The best quote to summarize what happened after Nixon’s resignation regarding his policies was stated by a Wall Street financer: “What we will have is the same play with different players”.

• Gerald Ford was a conservative Republican who supported all of Nixon's policies previous to the Watergate scandal, he was nominated for president in 1974.

• The House Committee on Impeachment against Nixon wanted to hide the characteristics of his behavior which were also found in other presidents, and could be repeated in the future.

• The House Committee on Impeachment against Nixon did not mention his dealings with powerful corporations, the bombing of Cambodia, and on “fundamental policies continuous among American Presidents”.

• Interesting quote: “All the rotten apples should be thrown out. But save the barrel” - Theodore Sorensen.

• Alexander Haig, one of Nixon's closest advisers, had helped “process” the tapes of Watergate before turning them over to the public and providing them with misleading information, was then appointed by president Ford to be head of the armed forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

• One of Ford's first actions was to pardon Nixon, which would save him from “possible criminal proceedings”.

• Those who were punished for breaking the rules were let off easier than usual, with short jail sentences in “easygoing federal institutions”, as well as given special privileges not given to other prisoners.

• Corporations would donate money to both political parties, so that which ever side won they would have friends in the administration.

• For more than ten years (starting in 1963), many government officials and journalists has been promising victory in Vietnam, but finally it was Ford in 1975 who predicted correctly, for two weeks later the war was over.

• In March of 1975 a Catholic organization poll stated: “The people running this country (government, political, church and civic leaders) don't tell us the truth.” To this statement, more than 83% agreed.

• The US began concerning itself with showing its determination to continue being a world power. Without the support of its citizens and the media exploiting the mistakes of their officials, their power was slowly decreasing in the eyes of other countries.

• Ford bombed the Cambodia mainland without having proven an attack or threat against the US because “it was necessary to show the world that giant America, defeated by tiny Vietnam, was still powerful and resolute”.

• “The Establishment” began believing in the idea that American authority needed to be asserted around the world, therefore they praised the attack on Cambodia with words such as “admirable efficiency” and “melodramatic and successful”.

• In the 1950s, the CIA had tested the drug LSD to random Americans for research on its effects. One of the people given this drug was an American scientist who ended up leaping from a New York hotel window and instantly dying. This was one of the many “secret operations” being performed by the CIA.

• The CIA had introduced African swine fever into Cuba in 1971 to bring disease and slaughter as well as plotted the assassination of Cuban leader, Castro.

• Most of the hidden “top secret” information was edited out of investigations, press coverage, mild television coverage, and thick books of reports. But usually this information was limited to the public and not thorough, it was only enough insight to give the “impression of an honest society correcting itself”.

• The Church Committee believed that to attempt to kill a hear of state (Fidel Castro) was more of a crime than military interventions in where civilians were accidentally killed.

• The Church Committee also discovered that the CIA was using American academics (in universities and colleges) as strategic propaganda. More than a thousand books had been sponsored or produced by the CIA before the end of 1967.

• By the middle of the 70s, the US was attempting to rid itself of its “rascals” and restore it to a respectable state. They did this through the resignation of Nixon, succession of Ford, and exposure of CIA and FBI secrets. All these things were aimed to regain whatever confidence what left in the American people.

• Most Americans were unhappy with the government because of their current economic state of crisis. Inflation and unemployment rates were rising and this troubled citizens.

• Not even those with higher incomes were as optimistic about the Government as they used to be.

• The government was underestimating the amount of poverty as well as the amount of unemployment. Instead, they averaged the “annual figure” , which always seemed better than the real number.

• In 1976, America restored its patriotism as well as united people to put aside their protest, however not all were united. Rebellion was still present in places like the Boston Harbor, where “Gulf Oil” and “Exxon” packages were dumped into the water.