The Shame of Riehard Nixon
GLAZER, NATHAN & BELL, DANIEL
Perspectives THE SHAME OF RICHARD NIXON BY DANIEL BELL AND NATHAN GLAZER We write on December 31, 1972. The bombings, after 15 days, have been halted. Negotiations are to resume January 8....
...constitutionally, overrode the veto...
...Negotiations are to resume January 8. Whether a cease-fire or some other form of agreement will be worked out we have no way of knowing...
...It is said that Henry Kissinger had sought to separate the political from the military issues, to seek a ceasefire on the military front and to let the parties to the dispute the Thieu regime, the Buddhists, the Vietcong and others settle the political issues among themselves, but that under the President's instructions he had raised political issues, particularly the extent of the Thieu regime's sovereignty...
...We have to understand what has been happening...
...the President vetoed the bill and the Congress...
...It is now up to Congress to find means to limit the power of a President who can use as a counter in negotiations the laying waste of foreign cities...
...One can say of Nixon, perhaps, what was said of the earlier Caesar: Ye gods, it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world...
...In any event, it is irrelevant...
...We are thankful that the Paris talks have resumed...
...He alone makes the decision and gives the order to bomb, consulting none of the Congressional or other political leaders...
...Nixon may have learned "that" lesson: Anything I say might create a storm, therefore, say nothing...
...We do not know and cannot argue that proposition...
...Why the bombings, and why of this character...
...We are unable to assess who was at fault...
...He never came forth with a word of regret that the Paris meetings had broken down...
...Yet when three B-52s can lay waste in one pass As the reports assert they do An area that in Manhattan would stretch from 34th Street to 68th Street and from Second Avenue to Fifth Avenue, the victims could hardly notice that the "military objective" was "really" Grand Central Station...
...His actions mock the democratic process of consultation...
...Either or both or neither may be true...
...And the President calls himself a "strict constitutionalist...
...Nixon chose the most cruel and punitive meansschreck-lichkehto prepare a resumption...
...It is also said that "hard intelligence" shows the North Vietnamese, while preparing to agree to a settlement, were preparing to violate it as soon as the treaty was signed...
...His speech unleashed an unexpected reaction, resulting in the shutdown of almost every campus in the country...
...It has been widely noted that in recent years the powers of the Congress have been whittled down and those of the President expanded...
...What we do know?indeed, this has been the singular lesson of Vietnam for John Kennedy, for Lyndon Johnson, and, we would have hoped, for Richard Nixon is that the means should not be disproportionate to the ends...
...In the last session, the Congress passed an appropriations bill for spending on environmental pollution...
...One is the character of the President...
...Nixon has treated the American people the way the Russians and the Chinese treat theirs: Follow orders and ask no questions...
...This silence is no less ominous than the bombing...
...even if provoked or taunted, say nothing...
...For the first time in 10 years of war And, ironically, when everyone believed the war was "finally" over the United States engaged in "carpet" or pattern bombing of cities...
...The silence is ominous on two levels...
...Nor should Congress...
...But whatever the actions of the President, this is still a free nation...
...Some years ago, the European journalist Amaury de Riencourt predicted that the concentration of power in the American Presidency would create a set of "coming Caesars...
...When American troops invaded Cambodia, Nixon went on nationwide television with an apocalyptic speech asserting that this action tested our will and character as an historic people (how sad such tattered dramaturgical images are, and those who supply them to the President...
...Now the Secretary of Defense has said the President would continue the war even if Congress denied funds...
...That may be...
...You were accepting peace because we told you to...
...Yet we cannot forget the bombings and the behavior or, more specifically, the silence of the President...
...It is asserted that President Nixon is a tough-minded realist and he felt that if the North Vietnamese had such fire power they would not have hesitated to use it against the South...
...From the time of Kissinger's December 16 press conference not one word, not one word...
...The President has treated the people of the United States as if they were the subjects of a totalitarian state: They need to be told nothing, only to do their duty and support their leader...
...Now accept war because that is what we have decided...
...The fact remains that negotiations had to be resumed and North Vietnam stood ready to resume them...
...The ends here were negotiations...
...And bear the palm alone...
...he alone gives the signal to stop...
...The other level is the concentration of power into the hands of the single person of the President himself...
...Both are troublesome portents...
...It may be that he cannot trust himself, and if that is so, how can we trust him...
...The official American spokesmen insisted that only military objectives were "targeted...
...Yet after the bill was law, the President, unilaterally, decided not to spend the monies appropriated for the programs, thus directly and deliberately blocking the will of the Congress...
...But what can one think of a President who won reelection with a 60 per cent majority when he dares not trust the people or himself with a single explanation...
...He never appealed to world opinion to help speed a renewal of the talks...
...Talks had broken down...
Vol. 56 • January 1973 • No. 2
