The American retreat from Vietnam

The Kent State tragedy

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

The Pentagon Papers

Détente with the Chinese and Soviets

Watergate

Another Arab-Israeli War (October 1973)

Congress brings down Nixon – and
        Vietnam

The horrible aftermath of Congress's
        "anti-imperialism" in Indochina

A very sad American Bicentennial (1976)

America moves from Christianity
        towards Secularism

The textual material on page below is drawn directly from my work A Moral History of Western Society © 2024, Volume Two, pages 319-332.

With Pompidou now President of France, the applications for admission to the EEC by Britain, Denmark, and Ireland finally moved forward without a French veto this time, being accepted in 1972 with actual membership effective as of 1 January 1973.1  Norway, also scheduled to join at the same time, ultimately did not join – because the Norwegian citizens, in a national plebiscite held about the matter in late September of 1972, themselves  rejected the entry, 46.5% voting yes, 53.5% voting no. 1Greece had been admitted as an EEC associate member in 1961 but had its membership suspended in 1967 after a military coup established a Greek government run by a group of colonels.  In 1962 Spain had tried to gain EEC membership, but was ultimately rejected in 1964 because the country was still under Franco’s dictatorship.  Greece would be restored to membership in 1981 and Spain and Portugal would be admitted in 1986 … those countries no longer under dictatorial rule. THE AMERICAN RETREAT FROM VIETNAM Clearly, Vietnam was the American all-consuming issue of those years.  Because it was the biggest issue going into America’s national elections in 1968, Johnson had cut back considerably the bombing of North Vietnam in the hopes of moving the Paris peace talks forward.  However, not having succeeded in that political move, just prior to those elections he stopped the bombing altogether – in order to push South Vietnamese President Thieu to accept some of Johnson’s peace proposals … and to improve Humphrey’s image going into the elections.   Actually, Nixon had secretly informed Thieu not to accept Johnson’s proposals … that although Nixon had promised American voters a full withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, he would continue to give full support to South Vietnam by other means.  Johnson knew about this Nixon proposal to Thieu (he had wiretapped both the South Vietnamese embassy and members of Nixon’s staff) but dared not exploit the fact for fear that his wiretapping would be discovered.  Also Humphrey was so certain of victory in the election that he did not bother to bring the matter up at the time.  Indeed, the Democrats would later try to bring this matter forward as a serious violation of the Logan Act making it illegal for a civilian to get involved in diplomatic dynamics.  But the effort did not go over well with much of the American populace, who understood Nixon’s action to be a very logical move of someone headed for the presidency.  Thus the matter was dropped.   But American politics at that point was intensely antagonistic … political partisanship becoming vastly more important in the DC political game than national consensus-building. But moving forward on the Vietnam issue was not going to be easy for Nixon.  First of all, the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) was going to need some considerable development.  And North Vietnam needed to get the clear message that the withdrawal of American troops did not mean the end of American interest in Vietnam.  Strong airpower protecting the South would remain in place.  Consequently, at the same time that he announced the schedule for the withdrawal of American ground forces (to be completed fully just prior to the 1972 November national elections) he also upped the bombing of Communist positions. But he needed to get the South as well as the North to understand the game plan.  Convincing Thieu of his seriousness about the withdrawal was as difficult as convincing the North Vietnamese about the continuance of American commitment in the South. To demonstrate his resolve to do things his way, in April of 1970, he sent a huge military force into neighboring Cambodia to shut down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail that had been used to bring vast amounts of supplies from the North to the Viet Cong operating in the South.  Militarily, the Cambodian assault was a huge success.  President Nixon and troops in Vietnam He stayed the course of troop withdrawal ... despite the lack of support from the American "Left" THE KENT STATE TRAGEDY But politically, it served as the cause for another huge anti-war protest in America, led here and there across the county in early May by the SDS.  Tragically, at Kent State University in Ohio, the National Guard had been called out to protect the campus after the SDS had students burn down the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) building on campus … and an accidental firefight ended up with the National Guard killing four students and wounding nine other students. The outrage over the Kent State killings quickly led to protests held at over 300 campuses across the country.  But when the protests spread to New York City, "hard hat" workers came out in violent protest against the younger protesters … and things got very ugly.  And that divisive spirit showed itself again when Nixon was invited by Billy Graham to speak at a combined 4th of July celebration and campus crusade he was holding at the University of Tennessee … and protesters tried to shout down his speech, only themselves to be shouted down by a wildly supportive audience!  American battle lines were deepening.   A horrible scenario occurred on the campus of Kent State University The burning ROTC building at Kent State University - May 2, 1970 Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University campus - May 4, 1970 National Guardsmen firing on students at Kent State University - May 4, 1970 Jeffrey Miller killed at Kent State - May 4, 1970 At the same time the Left-Right political divide deepens further "Hard Hats" react to a Kent State memorial demonstration in New York City with a protest of their own  - May 1970 VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR Despite the fact that Nixon was pulling American troops out of Vietnam in a quite orderly fashion, this seemed not to soften the anti-war mood of young America.  Thus in April of 1971 a protest against the war (and Nixon’s refusal to simply quit Vietnam) led a huge number of Vietnam veterans to gather in DC to demonstrate their opposition to Nixon and his handling of the war. At the same time, despite the fact that the Vietnam mess was a Johnson byproduct, the Democratic Party was doing what it could to lay the Vietnam issue at the feet of Nixon in the hopes of undercutting his national popularity.  Thus the rising moral voice of the Democratic Party, "Chappaquiddick Ted" Kennedy, invited a young Army Lieutenant, John Kerry, to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate as to the horrible things his fellow soldiers were doing in Vietnam.  He was very graphic about the atrocities that he had heard about (not actually witnessed) – making him the hero of the hour … forming the foundations for his own eventual rise in national politics alongside Kennedy.   Trashing fellow Americans – even America itself – was now understood to be the correct way to demonstrate an individual’s own "anti-fascist," thus saintly, moral character … a common feature of "Liberal" American politics in those days (and largely since then) … thanks to the rise of the Boomers – and the support and encouragement of their political mentors (such as Kennedy).  The anti-war protests continue ...despite Nixon's deep troop withdrawal. "Protest" has simply become an ingrained spirt among many Boomer Americans A Vietnam Vet tossing his Bronze Star on the Capitol steps as the conclusion of Operation Dewey-Canyon III - April 23, 1971 Vietnam Vets protesting the war during the Operation Dewey-Canyon III Sen. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry on the Mall at Dewey Canyon III - April 21, 1971 Vietnam Vet Lt. John Kerry (future Massachusetts senator, Democratic Party presidential candidate and Secretary of State) testifying in the U.S. Senate about all the war crimes reportedly committed in Vietnam by fellow U.S. soldiers (none of which he himself actually witnessed) - April 21, 1971 THE PENTAGON PAPERS Adding to this mood was the publication in June of 1971 by The New York Times of secret documents that were part of a 1967 study commissioned by Johnson’s Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, to give him details on how the Vietnam War actually got up and running.  What the Times published, in what would come to be termed The Pentagon Papers, was very unflattering of the Johnson Administration … and to some extent the Kennedy Administration before him.  Truly shocking was Johnson's huge deception (not exactly unknown in DC) involved in getting Americans onboard with his desire to make Vietnam a testimony to his supposed diplomatic skills ... which sadly it did – for a while anyway.   But what should have shocked Americans as much was how Democratic Party politicians were able to transfer the blame for everything from Johnson on to Nixon. Nixon actually had no part whatsoever in the startup of the war – or anything else found in The Pentagon Papers!  But instead of letting blame fall on Johnson for the Vietnam disaster, the lesson that the Democratic Party (and America’s Liberal press) wanted Americans to come away with over all this was how dangerous it was to trust any "imperialist" in the White House – and most importantly, the imperialist occupying that position at that very time: Nixon.    In June of 1971  the New York Times began front-page publication of the "Pentagon Papers" ... which is skillfully used to undercut  the "Imperialist President " Nixon ... though he had nothing to do with any of the events covered by the report Daniel Ellsberg (right) and John Vann (center) with Vietnamese village official - 1965. At this time a superhawk, Ellsberg later reversed his position as he assembled policy papers for McNamara – which he leaked to Neil Sheehan of the New York Times 1972 - more young American Vietnam-War Vets demonstrate against the continuation of American support of the Saigon Government Vietnam Veterans in protest against the War - San Francisco, 1972 ... despite the fact that all US combat troops will be out of Vietnam in August of 1972 In mid-summer of 1972 America is shocked to see a well-known American movie star, Jane Fonda, on her own "peacemaking" mission to North Vietnam ... at about the same time that America was attempting to force North Vietnam to agree to a peace that respected the existence of the pro-West Saigon Government in South Vietnam. For multitudes of Americans this made Fonda out to be a war-time traitor. Actress "Hanoi Jane" Fonda visiting North Vietnam and caught on camera with an anti-aircraft gun - July 1972 DETENTE WITH THE CHINESE AND SOVIETS Being the consummate practitioner of Realpolitik (Political Realism) Nixon, along with his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, knew that they had to bring the major powers, Russia and China, into the game so that the American withdrawal from Vietnam did not turn into a Cold War catastrophe.  Nixon had to make it worth Russia and China’s while, because of America’s scheduled withdrawal from Vietnam, not to slide into the picture as Vietnam’s liberators.   Following a testing of the waters with China in the sending of an American table tennis team to China (April 1971), Nixon followed this up by sending Kissinger on a secret mission to China (July), then making a well-publicized visit with his wife to China in February of the next year (1972) … where Nixon indicated that America was ready to end its isolationist stance with respect to China (obvious at that point) – even exchanging officials between themselves as something like ambassadors. Unlike Johnson, the political Realist Nixon did not see the Communist world as a monolithic superpower bloc … but instead merely as an array of nations who, most often, had only the label "Communist" identifying them – and little else by way of mutual national interest holding them together.  Actually, Russia and China were very much competitors in the international power game.  Thus Nixon intended to utilize their differences to strengthen the American position even more … globally as well as in the Southeast Asian region.  Consequently, he and Kissinger then flew to Moscow in May of 1972 (only three months after Nixon’s visit to China) to propose a stepping back or détente in the nuclear arms race, not only to ease East-West tensions, but to cut back on the sheer expense of the arms race.  Brezhnev was quite pleased to receive the visit, plus the détente deal Nixon offered. What he offered both Russia and China should have delighted the American Leftists the way it shocked the Right Wing of his Republican Party. Indeed, Americans in general tended to be highly favorable of this development. But the Democrats were in no way willing to acknowledge any kind of political success on Nixon’s part. At the same time, he had to make it clear to the North Vietnamese that he was deadly serious about his intent to keep South Vietnam from falling to the Communist regime of Hanoi.  Thus when, after Nixon had reduced deeply America’s troop presence in the South, and when in March of 1972 North Vietnam reacted by sending 120,000 of their troops South, Nixon ordered a massive bombing of both Hanoi and its harbor at Haiphong … cutting off supplies coming into the North Vietnamese capital. This action, plus Nixon’s recent diplomatic advances with both Russia and China, led China and Russia to lean heavily on North Vietnam to slow up its movement South.  Thus, by that same spring of 1972, Nixon had reduced the American troop presence in Vietnam to a mere 6,000 troops.   This too received no thanks from the anti-war Democrats Nixon decides to send Henry Kissinger on a secret trip to China to probe the possibilities of improved relations - July 9-11, 1971 Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Henry Kissinger in China With the way open, he and Pat Nixon make the journey themselves the following February (21-28, 1972) to mark an official shift in American policy toward China The Nixons visiting China's Premier Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) [left] Nixon, the former Commie hunter, now toasting Chou En-lai in Beijing - February 22, 1972 President Nixon toasts Deng Yingchao, wife of Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-lai in Beijing Nixon in China With Mrs. Nixon at the Great Wall of China Nixon meets with Mao Zedong in Beijing - February 1972 Then to "balance" these new relations, Nixon and Kissinger make a Moscow visit - May 22-30, 1972 Nixon and Brezhnev during Nixon’s visit to Moscow – May 22-30, 1972 Nixon and Brezhnev during Nixon’s visit to Moscow Nixon and Kissinger during their visit to Moscow When in March of 1972 North Vietnam reacted by sending 120,000 of their troops South, Nixon ordered a massive bombing of both Hanoi and its harbor at Haiphong B-52 Stratofortress on bomb run over North Vietnam Vietnam peace agreement signing - Paris, 27 January 1973 "WATERGATE" The 1972 American elections But the American people themselves showed their gratitude that November for the way Nixon brought the country out of the Vietnam mess – by giving him a resounding victory in the November elections.  Nixon received 60.7% of the popular vote against his Democratic Party opponent George McGovern’s mere 37.5%.  And in the electoral college, all except Massachusetts and DC2 voted for Nixon. Yet at the same time in the Congressional side of the elections, although the Republicans gained 12 seats in the House of Representatives, the Democrats continued to hold on to their majority (242 Democrats to 192 Republicans).  And in the Senate, the Democrats actually increased their majority (now 56 to 42) by acquiring two additional senate seats.   Thus a strongly Republican President, facing a strongly Democrat Congress, meant that America was not yet out of the political turmoil that descended on it in the mid-1960s. Nixon under attack And very stupidly, members of Nixon’s reelection committee would give the Democrats the opportunity to get rid of the President they hated so much … when they were caught by police in attempting to break into Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Apartment complex in DC.  These individuals were tried and convicted for their crimes.  But it was Nixon that the Democrats wanted to see behind bars.   He was not accused of ordering the break in.  But the assumption was that certainly he would have done something (as would have any DC politician) to "correct" the very embarrassing situation his staffers created.  So a Senate investigation committee was set up in February of 1973 by the saintly Ted Kennedy3 to see what Congress could find that could incriminate the President … which Nixon helped move along by firing special investigators appointed to look into the matter. As 1973 rolled along, tensions got so high over the Watergate event that the well-publicized Congressional hearings replaced the afternoon soap operas as what Americans preferred to watch. Trying to conduct foreign policy during the Watergate era As one last effort to convince both North and South Vietnam of Nixon’s commitment to South Vietnam – and before a strongly Democratic Congress, which made it clear that they wanted full abandonment of Vietnam, was back in session – Nixon ordered the "Christmas bombing" again of Hanoi and Haiphong.  This time both North and South Vietnamese representatives at the Paris talks finally signed the Paris Peace Accords (January 1973). But in June of 1973, with the Watergate hearings going full blast, Congress felt itself fully empowered to pass the Case-Church Amendment – which stated that at the end of a two-month period, the President would no longer be allowed to provide any kind of military aid to Vietnam!   In short, in taking over American foreign policy in Vietnam, Congress undercut all the terms that had led to the Paris Peace Accord … and left an open door for the North – still getting military aid from Russia – to resume its assault on the South. Congress strips the President of his discretionary spending powers Nixon had promised the American people in his run for the presidency that he would work hard to cut back on government spending.  And this he proceeded to do, impounding or refusing to release funds for various spending programs put in place by the Democratic Congress.  This irritated congressmen badly (including many Republicans) because they counted on being able to show local voters how much federal spending that they were able to direct back to the folks back home ("pork barreling").  And of course the powerful Washington bureaucracy was strongly opposed to Nixon’s spending cuts.  Thus now with Nixon on the defensive, Congress went after the president, enacting the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act.  This prohibited the president from undertaking any spending cuts without Congressional approval … eliminating presidential budgetary powers that reached back to 1801, during Jefferson’s presidency.  And all this was done in the name of democratic anti-imperialism. To ensure that the president was put under strict surveillance on this matter, Congress also set up the Congressional Budget Office … not realizing they were also creating a government agency that would make very clear to spending critics exactly how much political pork barreling was actually going on in Congress.  Oops! 2The DC vote went 78% in favor of McGovern … not surprising because since Johnson (and Roosevelt before him), the Democratic Party had come to identify itself with the idea that the country would be best run not from the Middle America "out there" in Georgia, or Kansas, or North Dakota – but instead from Washington, DC … where supposedly America’s real political brains were to be found!  In the more recent national elections, the Democratic Party vote in DC has topped 90%!  You might wonder why there are any Republicans at all in DC! 3For various reasons, however, it would be Sam Erwin, not Kennedy, who would chair the Senate Committee doing the investigation. One explanation offered was that having Kennedy head up this committee, a man who had high hopes of being the Democratic Party's Presidential nominee in the 1976 national election, might make the investigation look partisan!  An unspoken explanation was that Kennedy's own moral credentials since the Chappaquiddick incident were hardly admirable. The Watergate apartment complex – Washington, D.C. where the Democratic national headquarters were located The Watergate burglars   James McCord        Virgilion Gonzales           Frank Sturgis            Eugenio Martinez          Bernard Baker Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein (left) and Bob Woodward (right) ANOTHER ARAB-ISRAELI WAR (OCTOBER 1973) While all of this anti-imperialist democracy was going on in America, tensions had been building in the Middle East between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  Nothing had changed for the Arabs since the 1967 catastrophe … including Arab anger over the postwar situation.  Israel still controlled the Sinai Desert all the way up to the Suez Canal and West-Bank Palestine remained in Israeli hands – as well as Syria’s Golan Heights.   In the meanwhile, Nasser had died in 1970, and was replaced by Anwar Sadat, who approached his Egyptian presidential duties not from the showy political stage that Nasser liked to play on, but quietly from his own version of Realpolitik.  By 1972, he was cleverly putting together a plan that would indeed catch Israel off guard … and, at least for a bit, throw Israel into retreat in the effort to regain lost Egyptian territory. Egypt had long been gaining military support from Russia, helping enormously to modernize the Egyptian military … although with the American détente, the Soviets were losing interest in this expensive involvement with Egypt.  But in any case, without any warning or explanation, in July of 1972 Sadat simply ordered the 20,000 Russian advisors out of Egypt.  He then, over the summer of 1973, began to conduct extensive military exercises – ones that always put Israel on alert … although nothing further came from any of these episodes.  At the same time Sadat had been sending out diplomatic missions to see if he could get some international help in getting the situation (as actually called for by a U.N. resolution ... though ignored by Israel) back to some kind of benefit to the Arab world.  And secretly, he had been working with Syria’s President Hafiz al-Assad and with the Arab-dominated oil cartel (OPEC) to get them to agree to cooperate in case of some kind of Egyptian action against Israel. Then on October 6th of 1973, another of these exercises turned into the real thing … when Sadat’s troops crossed the Suez Canal and charged into the Sinai Desert, this time well protected by extensive Egyptian air power.  Although this was timed to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, in which the Israelis were supposedly focused elsewhere, the Israelis actually were not unprepared for the event. In fact some of the Israeli officers suspected something was afoot and wanted to strike first.  But Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was adamant that the Israelis must not strike first, lest it cause them to lose the sympathy and support of the West, especially in America. But the Egyptian attack proved to be much bigger and more effective than the Israelis had anticipated … with the Egyptian army and air corps, aided by Surface-to-Air missiles (SAMs), quite able to match up with the Israeli equivalent.  Both ground and air combat was therefore proving highly destructive to both sides.   At first the only field that Israel was able to move to its own advantage was against Syria in the Golan Heights.  This they regained … then headed to Damascus, the Syrian capital.  But the intervention of Iraqi troops blocked that move. And as each side ran out of guns, tanks, and planes, the conflict eventually turned onto a matter of resupply, Egypt getting new supplies from Russia as of the 9th of October, and Nixon and Kissinger directing American supplies to Israel … though with some of America's European allies refusing to cooperate in this move, delaying the American delivery until the 14th of October. But when on the 19th of October Nixon asked Congress for $2.2 billion in aid for Israel, OPEC swung into action … cutting back oil production and blocking all oil sales to America, Portugal, and the Netherlands (the European countries allowing America to use its airspace to run supplies to Israel).  Russia and America finally got the U.N. to come up with a ceasefire proposal on the 22nd of October.  But with things on the ground finally going Israel’s way, Israel ignored the ceasefire and even crossed the Suez Canal in order to surround an exhausted Egyptian army.  Only when the Soviets threatened to intervene directly did the action come to something of a standstill (October 28th). In the meantime, with OPEC production cut back even further, oil prices skyrocketed from $3 to over $11 per 42-gallon barrel.  A huge international energy crisis thus exploded.  Nixon tried to meet the challenge by opening American oil reserves – and reducing the speed limit on America’s highways to 55 miles an hour – although this ultimately did little to address the energy crisis. At the same time, OPEC members4 now found themselves to be fantastically rich – creating a new political dynamic … one which the Saudis handled wisely by making sure that the new wealth was distributed widely among its population.  But in the Shah’s Iran, that wealth went largely to a few wealthy families … bypassing the huge peasant population that was facing an enormous jump in the price of energy and fertilizer – with international food prices not moving up with those costs (American food production kept those prices fairly steady).   The new dynamic was therefore making multitudes of Iranians actually poorer – much poorer.  This would quickly translate into a huge political problem for the Shah … one he seemed to not know how to address. 4Neither Egypt or Syria were oil producers, and therefore suffered from the rise in oil prices … like the non-Arab world! The "Yom Kippur War" – October 6 to 26, 1973 Egyptian President Anwar as-Sadat A C-5 Galaxy unloads an M-60 Patton tank at Ben Gurion International Airport during Operation Nickel Grass The 1973 War in the Sinai, October 6-15 The 1973 War in the Sinai, October 15-24 Yom Kippur War - October 1973. Israeli paratroops breaking through an Egyptian commando ambush in a sandspit leading to Fort Budapest on the Sinai front Egyptian soldiers killed during the October or Yom Kippur War – 1973 Yom Kippur War - Syrian Theater "Syrian tanks at Israeli anti-tank ditch in the Golan. A tank, hit by Israeli fire, has fallen off one of the two bridges the Syrian laid across the ditch. Another knocked out tank lies in the ditch. To the left is the roadway the Syrians later succeeded in opening through the barrier." King Khalid overlooking a model of a $8.5 billion military city, to be paid for with increased oil revenues – mid-1970s. CONGRESS BRINGS DOWN NIXON – AND VIETNAM ... AND BRINGS FORD TO THE PRESIDENCY Congress cuts off all support of South Vietnam By early 1974, the energy crisis shaking the world also hit South Vietnam hard, the government unable to pay for fuel for its military.  In May, Nixon asked Congress for supplemental funds to help Vietnam to get through the remaining time until it was up for renewed support under the new fiscal year only a month away (the end of June).  But not only did Congress refuse this request, it also announced that America would be ending all further financial support of South Vietnam as of the end of 1976!   What in essence Congress was doing was inviting Russian-supported North Vietnam to undo whatever progress America – under Johnson – had undertaken to achieve, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, both American and Vietnamese.  This was to be a key move of Liberal America in its effort to end America's "imperialist" program … especially the part under the Nixon presidency.   But Nixon was the one who had brought the boys home … and had offered in its place economic support (plus air action if North Vietnam violated the Peace Accords).  And since when did economic support to a struggling ally constitute imperialism?  America had been doing this very effectively since the days of the Marshall Plan. But political rhetoric rather than well-thought-through foreign policy was what this was all about.  Politics was becoming a media event, not a well-planned and wisely-led government program. Nixon's resignation, and Ford's assumption of the Presidency By early August of 1974, it was quite clear that a Democratic-Party-controlled House of Representatives was ready to impeach Nixon.  And although the  Senate would require a 2/3rds majority to convict, the Republicans – many going into elections that fall – were certain that any Congressional action was likely to hurt the Republicans deeply.  Thus they pleaded with Nixon to resign.  He agreed to do this. Consequently on August 8th, Nixon appeared before the press to announce his resignation – and then flew off … to leave the presidency in the hands of his Vice President Gerald Ford. But Gerald Ford was well liked on Capitol Hill.  After all, it was Congress, not the American people, that elected him to the vice-presidency … when criminal charges were brought to Nixon’s original vice president, Spiro Agnew, and Agnew was thus forced to resign.   But there were two problems that came with the Ford presidency.  Congress, because it voted him into power, believed that it owned him.  And secondly, Ford was a man of deep Christian integrity.  He knew that the political Left was not finished in what it intended to do to Nixon now that he was a private citizen and subject to prison time.  Thus Ford, after much prayer on the matter, came to the decision to issue Nixon a presidential pardon … knowing the fury this would stir on the American Left.  But America had other business it needed to attend to.  And it was time to stop this attempt to lynch an American president.5 5The American Left, which "forgave" (actually merely ignored) Ted Kennedy over the death of a young lady in his company, would never let up on Nixon – making sure that the history taught in American schools and universities would always present Nixon as the "evil president."  Actually, Nixon would recover stature privately, and would be sought quietly by future presidents and public officials for his wise counsel. Nixon resigns the Presidency - August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon announces his resignation – August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon departs from the White House before Gerald Ford was sworn in as President Nixon bids good-bye Ford's first steps toward his new duties as President – August 9, 1974 Gerald R. Ford - President 1974-1977 Ford attempts to carry forward Nixon's high diplomatic legacy abroad President and Mrs. Ford, Vice Premier Deng Xiao Ping, and Deng’s interpreter have a cordial chat during an informal meeting in Beijing, China - 1975 But the Liberal Left was not in a mood to see Nixon's legacy survive under any terms ... no matter what it would cost not only America but even the larger world.   That cost will eventually run high ... very high. Reaction of Secret Service agents, police, and bystanders approximately one second after the (2nd) assassination attempt on President Ford -- this time by Sara Jane More, September 22, 1975. THE HORRIBLE AFTERMATH OF CONGRESS'S "ANTI-IMPERIALISM" IN INDOCHINA Tragically, it became quite apparent that the South Vietnamese government was not going to be able to stand up to the offensive orchestrated by the Soviet-supported North Vietnamese government when Congress announced its ending of all support of the South.  Step by step the North advanced against the South … until it was on the edge of full defeat (losing some 80,000 soldiers killed in the process).  At this point (the end of April 1975) the decision was made to pull out all American personnel remaining in the South … with terrorized Vietnamese trying to find a way themselves to make just such an escape. The pictures of Americans fending off desperate Vietnamese as Americans made their own escape was truly humiliating.  But there was nothing that the Ford Administration could do about a situation that was now directed from a "democratic" Congress … and not the presidential office. But the horror did not stop there. A huge number (perhaps a million) Vietnamese were carted off to Communist "re-education" camps … where they suffered terribly, many dying in the process.  Also South Vietnamese farms were "collectivized" Stalinist and Maoist style, which of course crippled the economy and brought on mass hunger.   Without American support, the social-political system of South Vietnam quickly dissolves Vietnamese searching for survivors of a North Vietnamese rocket attack on Saigon South Vietnamese troops' last stand before Saigon And a now-helpless America is forced simply to abandon the country to its new Communist masters South Vietnamese seeking escape out of Vietnam with American servicemen South Vietnamese and Americans head for the helicopters out of Saigon South Vietnamese heading for the helicopters out of Saigon South Vietnamese and Americans trying to get into the American Embassy compound  April 29, 1975 The Evacuation of Saigon from atop an apartment building housing CIA employees - April 29, 1975 Desperate Vietnamese trying to escape Saigon with the departing Americans - April 29, 1975 Vietnamese trying to escape Saigon Fending off Vietnamese attempting to flee Saigon ahead of the Communist takeover - 1975 Vietnamese attempting to escape advancing communists – April 1975 A North Vietnamese tank breaks through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon - April 30, 1975 North Vietnamese troops welcomed into Saigon President Ford deliberates with his National Security Council concerning the fall of Saigon in 1975 The Communist "Re-Education Camps" punishing formerly pro-American Vietnamese But next door in Cambodia, the situation became even worse, when the shift in the regional power picture allowed the Communist Khmer Rouge to take over "neutral" Cambodia – and impose a Maoist-style regime in the country … Maoist in the sense that these Communists hated urban society and were determined to convert all of Cambodia into some kind of rural paradise, or at least wipe out those elements of urban society unlikely to make such a conversion.  Thus the residents of the capital city, Phnom Penh, were moved to work camps in the countryside – or were simply executed on the spot … especially if they were suspected of being of the intellectual or Westernized variety of citizens. Of course all of this collapsed the Cambodian economy, producing mass starvation – and further execution of individuals suspected of non-cooperation with the Khmer Rouge revolution.  Thus were produced the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia – estimates running from 2 to 4 million Cambodians dying in the process, half by execution the other half by starvation.  This "Communist" dynamic also spills directly over into Cambodia ... producing the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia The new Communist Khmer Rouge rulers simply exterminate  more than a million of their own people in order to build a new "purified" society Phnom Penh – Khmer Rouge attacking the capital where over a million people had sought refuge just as the Vietnamese Communists were about to overrun Saigon) Skeletons of Cambodian victims of the Khmer Rouge, discovered when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia – December 1978 A pile of human bones as the by-product of the Khmer Rouge's revolution in Cambodia – 1979 Photo records of the victims of the Khmer Rouge security police, some of the million Cambodians slaughtered by Pol Pot's Communist regime – 1975 The "boat people" By 1978-1979, millions of Vietnamese (and others) were trying desperately to escape the horror that had descended on their world, some heading overland in their effort to escape to Malaysia or Thailand but most simply taking boats and heading to the open sea in the hopes of being picked up by passing Western ships.  Tragically, many died in the effort.  But ultimately some 800,000 "boat people" were picked up … and settled in America.  Another quarter million were able to get to Europe or Britain’s Commonwealth countries and to settle there.  Vietnamese "boat people" seeking escape from Vietnam But so many of them did not make the journey successfully.  Tragically, so many of them will die at sea. Some, however, will be fortunate enough to be picked up by friendly ships While Vietnamese were taking to the sea to escape Vietnam, many others fled overland to surrounding countries ... with similarly tragic results Many made it to overcrowded refugee camps of neighboring countries ... such as the Pulau Bidong Island Camp in Malaysia where some 36,000 were located as of this 1979 photo. Vietnamese refugees rest as crewmen aboard the guided missile cruiser USS FOX (CG-33) give them something to drink - 1 June 1982 Evaluating it all Did Congress ever acknowledge its role in starting up this catastrophe with its abandonment of its South Vietnamese ally?  The answer to that is a very clear "no."  This was not a matter that Congress – or any of the American Left – wanted to bring up for discussion.  So the whole tragedy was simply ignored by those now directing superpower America. A VERY SAD AMERICAN BICENTENNIAL (1976) Certainly a huge effort was undertaken to make the celebration of America's 200th year since the signing of its Declaration of Independence as grand an event as possible.  But it was just too hard to wipe away the sentiment that something was deeply wrong with America.  Yes, America had come a long, long way in its development over those 200 years.  But the last decade had been confusing … and at times just highly dispiriting. Anyway, another national election was coming up that November, and the necessity of finding a leader to take America forward seemed more important that simply celebrating the past.   Governor Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford debating at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. - September 23, 1976 The 1976 Presidential Elections The Democratic Party "Progressives" now control all of Washington politics AMERICA MOVES FROM CHRISTIANITY TOWARDS SECULARISM ... AS THE NATION'S MORAL-SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION America heads down the Secular road … with the Supreme Court leading the way The Constitution that the American Republic officially brought into being in the late 1700s spelled out a very limited government, one designed simply to keep the 13 now-independent American states joined together in a new Federal union … and moving together (not in competition with each other) down the road of independence that they had maintained – even against British efforts to end that independence – at that point for a century and a half.  The Constitution spells out no moral-religious conditions for its existence … though it was well-testified at the time that American society itself was understood to stand on strong Christian moral-spiritual roots.  Indeed, the First Amendment, demanded by America's leaders as a condition of acceptance of the Constitution, spells out very clearly that Congress was to make "no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise" … the very first of the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.  America's religion belonged to the people … not to Congress (meaning also, any Federal authority).  And that's where things stood in America … all the way up until the beginning of the 1960s. As we have seen, the ACLU took it upon itself to go – not to Congress but to the Supreme Court – to begin its campaign to replace America's Christian moral-spiritual foundations with the "religious Humanism" (to quote the Humanist Manifesto of 1933) as the nation's moral-spiritual foundations.   Of course the ACLU no longer called its religious ideology "religious Humanism," but posed itself as the voice of "science" rather than "religious superstition."  In any case, according to the ACLU, God had no place in America's public life.   Thus in 1962 it got prayer in the nation's public schools shut down by the Supreme Court … and in 1963 the reading of the Bible, a sacred document that had long formed the moral-spiritual instruction set that America was built on.  And it got a "Progressive" (Democratic-Party-controlled) Congress and a naive Christian leadership to undercut any effort by way of a further amendment of the Constitution, an amendment seeking to make absolutely clear what the First Amendment meant by "no law … prohibiting its free exercise" … which is exactly what the ACLU succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to do:  prohibiting – by the Supreme Court's own self-assumed law-making powers – religion's free exercise. But the matter did not stop there.  In 1971, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of a lower court that public funds used in Pennsylvania to pay for textbooks in Catholic schools did not violate the constitution, the Supreme Court instead deciding in the Lemon v. Kurtzman case that in fact this activity violated the Jeffersonian "separation of church and state" principle of the First Amendment.  But the Court went further in specifying (the famous "Lemon test") that the government can act only when such action serves a purely "secular legislative purpose" … in order to avoid "an excessive government entanglement with religion." In short, a secular purpose rather than a Christian purpose was to guide American education.  But Secularism is a worldview or religion like any other … specifying the basic Truths that guide all existence – Truths that people believe in and live by as the fundamental principles of life.  By the design of the American people themselves, Christianity used to play that role … and led a Christian America forward over the centuries to rather grand success as a thriving democracy.  But now – according to the authoritative ruling of the Supreme Court – only Secularism can play that role.   That action by the Supreme Court supporting Secular principles in opposition to Christian principles was therefore the equivalent of enacting a law "respecting an establishment of religion" (Secularism) … as well as prohibiting the "free exercise" of America's long-standing religious traditions – both actions expressly forbidden by the Constitution, a Constitution that the Supreme Court was supposed to be upholding … not amending or revising along political-ideological lines. In short, the vital moral idea of a God who clearly had guided previous American generations – and most importantly its leadership – was now NOT to be taught – or even mentioned – to any rising American generation in its schooling. Enjoying a great victory, but nervous that its support of "religious Humanism" in the 1930's Humanist Manifesto, would get it in trouble, Humanists were quick to authorize a Humanist Manifesto II in 1973 … a new document that declared that its Humanist principles were secular and thus scientific – not religious. But this would not be the end of the momentum in which American "Progressives" would act to replace Christian religious principles with Secular-Humanist religious principles.  The very "Liberal" Warren Burger Supreme Court Alton Lemon (above) was named as the leading plaintiff in the suit against the Pennsylvania Superintendent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania, David Kurtzman (below) for his (actually his Office's) support of religious schooling. Go on to the next section:  Very Positive Developments in Europe   Miles H. Hodges