The Corps, And The Corps, And The Corps

October 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Book Review, Military, Nixon Library events | 4 Comments 

Vietnam War scholar Bob Sorley, third-generation West Point graduate, brought his copy of the 1952-53 Bugle Notes (indispensable handbook for each class of plebes, or freshmen, at the U.S. Military Academy) to the Nixon Library last week. He was in Yorba Linda to talk about his new book, Honor Bright: History And Origins Of the West Point Honor Code And System. Copies of Honor Bright were on sale. The Bugle Notes were not. Sorley would just as soon give you his right arm. The well-worn volume contains this answer to the question of what advantages an Army career has to offer, which he read out to his audience:

The answer is, paradoxically, practically none; [but,] in another sense, everything that is worthwhile in life. It depends entirely on your viewpoint….If you measure success by things accomplished, by a niche well filled, by the gratification of duty well and faithfully done, if your joy in life finds fulfillment in playing the game for the game’s own sake, of winning the love and respect of the men serving under you…, if you do not count the work, the trouble, the cost to yourself and do not stop to think of where the credit will go, but only of the success of the team, then in the Army you will find contentment.

Bolstering this countercultural vision of community and mission-critical interdependence is West Point’s honor code: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” Cadets violated the code most famously in 1951, when 90 were dismissed (with the personal acquiescence of President Truman) after one revealed the existence of an academic cheating ring designed to help members of the football team, and in 1976, when an instructor read this on a cadet’s computer science paper: “This is not entirely my own work.” Over 150 cadets were involved that time, though many were permitted to return after a redemptive year off. Sorley says the returning cohort did just as well making colonel (an important benchmark in an Army career) as those who weren’t involved in the scandal.

The friendly and phlegmatic scholar choked up just once, and just a little, as he talked about his and Virginia Sorley’s (his wife and a former CIA librarian) friendship with West Point graduate Dawn Halfaker, severely injured while leading troops at Baquba, Iraq in June 2004. Among many other activities, Halfaker is now vice president of the Wounded Warrior Project. Recruited to play basketball at West Point, she had no special calling to military service until she arrived at the academy and got to know her instructors and coaches and her brother and sister cadets. Sorley said she told him later, “I’d found my tribe. These were the people I wanted to be with.”

After Sorley’s talk, the last question was posed by Orange Countian Lee Hobbs, who’d brought his son, Tobin, West Point ‘96, a veteran of service in Bosnia and now a Chapman University law student as well as a major in the Army reserves. Such is the bond in the long grey line that, before the applause had died, Bob Sorley was making his way up the aisle to shake the hands of a fellow cadet and his proud father.

 

McCain, McCain, And Vietnam

October 22, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Iraq War, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events, Richard Nixon, Vietnam | Leave a Comment 

Boston Globe:

Admiral McCain [Sen. McCain's father] was the subject of Nixon’s ire because he had complained to the White House that Nixon was imposing too many restrictions on his ability to bomb North Vietnam. The admiral soon went into retirement, keeping private his disagreements with Nixon and publicly praising the president’s “Vietnamization” strategy, in which the United States cut back its involvement as control of the war was gradually turned over to the South Vietnamese.

Now, as Senator John McCain seeks the presidency, he often says that the lessons from the Vietnam War helped shape his views on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what is little-noted is that one of his key lessons came from what he perceived as a failure by his father. Senator McCain has excoriated the way his father failed to make public his misgivings about Nixon’s Vietnamization strategy. If the older McCain and other commanders had spoken up, his son believes, it might have changed the course of the war.

Assuming reporter Michael Kranish is being attentive to the nuances of the latter years of the Vietnam War, it’s hard to believe that Admiral McCain really thought that more bombing during 1969-73 would’ve been politically sustainable. The campaigns President Nixon did order in May and December 1972 prompted massive criticism while nonetheless blunting the North Vietnamese invasion that spring and, late in the year, setting in motion the events that led to the Paris Peace Accords and the return of John the younger and his fellow POWs.

As for Vietnamization, whether or not Admiral McCain thought it was a failure, historian Bob Sorley (coming to the Nixon Library on Oct. 24) has argued in A Better War that the policy succeeded, only to be sold out by a Democratic Watergate Congress in 1973-75 which let our allies in South Vietnam run out of bullets. RN would’ve been the first to say that he shared in that debacle by letting Watergate get out of control and losing his leverage over Congress. As a result, Vietnamization wasn’t given a chance to work. The next President’s challenge: An Iraqification that is given a chance.

Library Diplomacy

September 17, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China, Economic issues, International Affairs, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events | Leave a Comment 

At the Nixon Library on Tuesday, the United States and China arrived at major commercial agreements at the 19th annual JCCT (US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade) after extensive talks led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez along with Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer representing the United States, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan representing China.

Among other items, of particular note was Vice Premier Wang Qishan’s (pictured above) speech during the afternoon press briefing. Qishan announced that China would lift its ban on U.S. beef imports, albeit by compelling the U.S. to consider more stringent regulatory health guidelines. Qishan also announced that China would also be lifting the ban on Avian flu related poultry in six U.S. states, and that it will lower the capital requirement for U.S. businesses by 50 percent. In sum, he re-affirmed China’s central commercial principle of its 30 year open-door economic policy:

We will follow the model of socialism with Chinese features.

Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez (above) also honored the 37th President’s diplomatic legacy in his remarks this afternoon:

Nixon and Mao started the fastest growing and largest economic relationship we have ever seen.

Today, two-way trade can be estimated at over $380 billion up from the $4 billion when China inaugurated its open economy 30 years ago.

Secretary Gutierrez also announced other “robust outcomes” from the conference including bilateral cooperation in solving statistical discrepancies in trade data and the establishment of 12 working groups to address - in part - issues involving intellectual property rights.

Secretary Gutierrez embraces Vice Premier Qishan during a light hearted exchange.

In light of more turbulent times on Wall Street, Secretary Gutierrez also addressed the impact of U.S. trade policy with China, emphasizing the importance of China’s $65 billion export market, and vital investment flow.

U.S. Trade Ambassador Susan Schwab also gave a short press briefing.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer (pictured signing one of many agreements with a Chinese trade official), concluded the closing ceremony on a hopeful note:

Bring people together by trade is the most beautiful thing we can do.

For more information, check out the Department of Commerce’s outcome fact sheet from yesterday’s conference.

Awaiting Great Things (Not To Mention Lunch!)

September 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Economic issues, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library events | 1 Comment 

At 10:30 this morning, U.S. and Chinese officials were 90 minutes into their private talks in the Nixon Foundation Board Room. Meanwhile 30 reporters and photographers, including legendary AP lensman Nick Ut (right), awaited the start of the plenary session:

Every detail has been attended to in the Library’s East Room:

Members of the Library’s elite corps of volunteer Docents, including Dianne Sickles, were standing by to make this elite event go smoothly:

 

Following The Little White Ball Of Peace

August 5, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library events | 1 Comment 

Here’s a summary of media coverage of June’s “Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch,” co-sponsored at the Nixon Library by the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries, and USA Table Tennis.

“The Strong Man” Visits Yorba Linda

July 3, 2008 by James Rosen | Filed Under Foundation News, National Archives, News media, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events, Nixon family, Presidential libraries, Richard Nixon, Watergate | 6 Comments 

Greetings once again, supporters and students of Richard Nixon! Just a note to report on my visit to the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda this past June 17, and to thank all the folks there who made it a special and unforgettable experience for me.

John H. Taylor and Sandy Quinn of the Nixon Foundation, and Tim Naftali and Paul Musgrave of the National Archives, and their respective associates, were unfailingly gracious as they led me through the museum and archival areas, and various meals, explaining the storied past and bright future of the institution.

Exceptionally powerful and moving was the personal tour I received from Olivia Anastasiadis, the Library Curator, of the small frame house where President Nixon was born. The smell of history literally overcomes you as you step inside and see firsthand the modest but proud home where the young Nixon grew up, buffeted by illness, financial anxiety, and family tragedy. You commune, trance-like, with the era just before the Great War, represented in the period antiques, piano and sheet music, and other artifacts furnishing the home, many the original possessions of the Nixon family. It was a real challenge to contain my emotions as I stepped foot into the small bedroom where Richard Nixon was born; there I pondered the incongruous enormity of the life he led — the global stakes of his atomic-age presidency, with its virtuoso masterstrokes and sad ending — and the humbleness of its origins. That the house is just a few steps away from the simple, spare headstones and burial places of the former president and Mrs. Nixon inevitably adds to the emotional impact. I can’t imagine anyone, Nixon supporter or detractor, or the previously disinterested citizen, coming away from the experience unmoved, and I strongly recommend it to all Americans.

As a former college intern, in the summers of 1987 and ‘88, at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, the branch of the National Archives that (for now) controls the presidential papers and tapes, it was a pleasure to meet the many students donating their time to the archives this summer. “See what you can become?” Tim Naftali said jokingly to the interns, as we posed for a photograph together. Whether I make a fitting model toward which any young person should aspire I am reluctant to say, but I am unhesitating in stating here my admiration for these students’ passion for history and their earnest dedication to government service.

The discipline of “Nixon Studies” is, of course, in its infancy, and the plans for the institution’s expansion, including the construction of a 15,000-square foot facility to accomodate the presidential materials and the researchers who will examine them, are exciting, indeed. No regime in human history has ever been, or likely ever will be, as well and richly documented as the Nixon administration; as a result, students and scholars will have a grand time of it over the next century and beyond, poring over all the papers and tapes and enjoying the window they offer, uniquely, into policymaking at the highest levels of the postwar American government. The decisions taken now by those helming the Foundation and Library will shape this emerging discipline for decades to come, and one hopes the Nixon family will also remain actively engaged in these decisions.

That evening, in the Library’s auditorium — soon to be demolished and remodeled — John Taylor introduced Tim Naftali, who then introduced me for a brief lecture before a generous audience. Tim then served as moderator during a robust question-and-answer session. First, however, the audience was treated to a long-lost clip from NBC News’ coverage of the federal indictments, issued on May 10, 1973, of John Mitchell and Maurice Stans, in connection with the so-called Vesco case — charges on which both men were eventually tried and fully acquitted. The clip, led off by anchor John Chancellor, neatly conveyed the immediacy of broadcast news in the saturation-coverage era of Watergate, and, too, the camera-crew frenzy that surrounded those, like Mitchell and Stans, caught in the middle of the maelstrom.

After my impromptu remarks, the audience poured forth with questions submitted to the moderator on index cards which I saved after the event, and whose contents I reproduce below. We didn’t get to all of the questions reproduced below, but we covered a lot of them; I reprint them as evidence of what was on the audience’s mind.

Lastly, there was a book-signing in the well-stocked gift shop. There I happily purchased two shot glasses adorned with the embossed seal of the Library, and was pleased to make the acquaintance of the volunteer staff, an irrepressible gang of the kindest, loveliest ladies you’ll ever meet, each and all attractively attired in red, white, and blue uniforms that bespoke their patriotism and unmistakable inner goodness.

Thanks again to all those in Yorba Linda who made my trip such an informative and enlightening visit, with especial thanks to Jonathan Movroydis, my Sherpa, chauffeur, hard-nosed interrogator, and master of this blog.

Yours gratefully,

James Rosen

Author, “The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate” (Doubleday)

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED AT MY LECTURE:

1. How has [sic] the media changed since Watergate?

2. Why is it that all inquiries about John Dean’s Watergate role seem to end up in the hands of judges rather than historians?

3. What did the break-in at Watergate actually give to the people who ordered it?

4. Please comment on MacGruder’s [sic; Jeb Magruder's] statement [IN 2003] that he heard President Nixon approve [the] Watergate break-in.

5. Should John Mitchell have turned down the Atty. Genl. job?

6. On Joint Chiefs [spying against Nixon and Kissinger] — elaborate please.

7. What do you consider to be John Mitchell’s greatest accomplishment?

8. You received an award in 2003 for being the funniest journalist [sic; celebrity!] in D.C. What earned you this honor, and, can you tell us a joke?

9. How do you view Mitchell’s 1987 recorded opinion that the CIA was behind the whole [Watergate] thing? [brackets in original]

10. You developed an early interest in Richard Nixon. In what ways did you “reach out”?

11. So what are we to believe out of Congress?

12. What sparked your interest in writing this book? And what will your next book be about?

13. How involved was H. [Hillary] Clinton in changing the testimony of witnesses between the executive sessions and the public sessions[?] Who was involved in the changing of the testimonies[sic]? [sic; the questioner confused my discussion about the variations in testimony between the executive vs. public sessions of the Senate Watergate committee with the hearings of the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment deliberations, on which Senator Clinton worked as a young attorney, and which I did not discuss at all]

14. You seem to dismiss Martha Mitchell as a ridiculous + inconsequential figure. Was her role totally w/o importance in the history of the Nixon administration?

“The Strong Man”: Mitchell and Secrets of Watergate

June 15, 2008 by James Rosen | Filed Under History, National Archives, News media, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events, Presidential libraries, Richard Nixon, Vietnam, Watergate | 3 Comments 

Greetings, supporters and students of Richard Nixon! Just a note to thank you in advance for welcoming me to the Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda this coming Tuesday, June 17, at 7 pm, when I’ll be reading from, taking questions about, and signing copies of my new book, The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate (Doubleday).

June 17, of course, marks the thirty-sixth anniversary of the fateful arrests inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex, the catalyst for the amazing and improbable sets of events that climaxed, more than two years later, in President Nixon’s resignation from office. What was the true purpose of the Watergate break-in and surveillance operation? Who ordered it? And what was the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the operation? These were always, and remain today, the central mysteries of the Nixon era, far more important and consequential than, say, the identity (or identities) of Deep Throat; yet no court of law ever addressed these questions, and none of the major investigative bodies, trials, or books that followed ever produced satisfactory answers, either. Drawing on more than 250 original interviews and an exhaustive review of all the preceding literature and literally hundreds of thousands of previously unpublished documents and tapes, many newly declassified pursuant to my own Freedom of Information Act requests, my book, The Strong Man, uses the extraordinary life of John Mitchell to reexamine these and related questions, and I look forward to addressing them with you on Tuesday. But be prepared for surprises: The scandal presented in The Strong Man is not your father’s Watergate.

Until now, no book has ever been written by, or about, John Mitchell — yet here was the man who ran Richard Nixon’s two winning campaigns for the presidency; who served as attorney general of the United States, the nation’s top law enforcement offcer, during a uniquely turbulent and scary time in American history, one that saw the killings at Kent State, the rise of subversive radical groups like the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers, and unprecedented controversies and crises like the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the discovery that the Joint Chiefs of Staff were spying on the commander-in-chief in wartime; and who, by virtue of his involvement in the Watergate cover-up, became the highest-ranking government official in American history ever to be convicted on criminal charges and to serve a prison sentence. Even prior to all that, before his association with Richard Nixon, Mitchell had led a fascinating life as a child of the Depression; a Navy officer in the South Pacific during World War II; a “master of the universe” on Wall Street, where he pioneered the use of “moral obligation” municipal bonds; an intimate of Nelson Rockefeller and scores of other politicians and officials across the country; and, of course, the husband of the inimitable and tragic Martha Mitchell. What explained John Mitchell’s unparalelled fall from power and prestige? How, in the space of ten years, did so brilliant and accomplished a man go from the very pinnacle of the legal profession to nationwide vilification and incarceration in federal prison? Is not John Mitchell’s — in a country that considers itself a “nation of laws” — the ultimate cautionary tale? These questions, too, I look forward to addressing with you at the Nixon Library and Birthplace.

I may even be amenable to taking a question or two about Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Brit Hume, or Megyn Kelly, my colleagues at Fox News, where I have served as a Washington correspondent for the past decade, covering the White House, the State Department, and the current presidential campaign! So please come on Tuesday, bring two books for me to sign — one for yourself and one for a lucky friend or relative — and come prepared to learn about some amazing characters and times in our country’s recent history. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

On Average, POWs Are Tougher Than The Rest

March 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Election 2008, Nixon Library events, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

Ellen Goodman asks if Sen. McCain shouldn’t be seen by a neurologist owing to his age:

[O]nly 24 percent of Americans under 35 think McCain is too old while 40 percent of those over 65 believe it. Do they know something we should know about a man who would be 72 on Inauguration Day and 80 at the end of two terms?… [W]e have grown to expect a thorough health report on candidates. We knew about John Kerry’s prostate cancer and Joe Biden’s brain aneurysms. We know about McCain’s war injuries and his melanoma, his cholesterol and his allergies. We expect full assessments from every doctor except, well, neurologists. If airline pilots, some judges, and people in other occupations are subject to cognitive tests, why not presidential candidates?

Having raised the subject, Ms. Goodman might have taken into account the possible salutary effects of McCain’s six years as a POW in North Vietnam. At a reunion in Texas several years ago, one of the former prisoners told me that some of them were participating in a study offering a sophisticated, day-long annual physical to measure the long-term consequences of their imprisonment. He said that compared to their age cohort in the broader population, they were healthier physically and psychologically. Perhaps one reason was that these were not guys who took life for granted or sweated the small stuff. One said, “Every day you wake up in a room with a doorknob on the inside is always going to be a fantastic day.”

Not that McCain isn’t still bearing the scars of the experience, especially the abuse he endured after refusing the communists’s offer of early release in recognition of his being the son of an active-duty admiral. His arms were broken in his initial crash. The breaks were never properly treated, and his captors paid special attention to his arms when torturing him. Because of his limited range of motion, his posture while writing is not what one would call ergonomically optimum. When visiting the Nixon Library for lectures and book-signings, he’d ask us to have a big bowl of ice water standing by. Every 50 books or so, without interrupting his unfailingly cheerful exchanges with well-wishers, he’d plunge his signing hand into the bowl for a minute or so.

Upfront, Once And Future

March 23, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under National Archives, Nixon Library events, Presidents | Leave a Comment 

From Pantagraph.com deep in the Land of Lincoln, a survey of Presidential libraries revealing that the private Nixon Library didn’t present the only rosy scenario:

And while the archives preserve history, the museums preserve the public spotlight on our nation’s past leaders. The newer museums especially strive to be interactive and kid-friendly. The private side of the museums makes for some interesting approaches to the telling of history. While President Nixon’s museum is upfront about the Watergate scandal, for example, President Clinton’s portrays Kenneth Starr as a political pit bull out to thwart Clinton’s good works, and the name Monica Lewinsky is barely mentioned.

One hesitates to look a friendly ref in the mouth, but still. Our private Watergate gallery was removed by our federal colleagues a year ago. We await the replacement. We did argue that Watergate was a political struggle colored by our nation’s argument with itself over Vietnam. But assertions by scholars and reporters that ours included “lies” have not held up.  It’s also good to remember that private Presidential foundations, which help solve the National Archives’s unending storage problems, are used to getting reasonably friendly museums in return.

From Henry To Richard

February 28, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Culture, Nixon Library events | Leave a Comment 

Academy Award-winning scriptwriter Peter Morgan’s latest is “The Other Boleyn Girl.” He wrote “The Queen” and the play “Frost/Nixon”; Ron Howard’s film of the latter opens late this year. Howard’s shown here with volunteer Docent Dolores Andicochea on a ‘06 visit to the Nixon Library, where he shot some scenes last summer.