Haig Said Nixon Joked Of Nuking Hill

President Richard M. Nixon jokingly threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Capitol Hill in March 1974 as Congress was moving to impeach him over the Watergate scandal, according to transcripts of telephone conversations among his closest aides that were released yesterday.

"I was told to get the football," White House Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig Jr. told Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger less than five months before the president's forced resignation, during a conversation in which the two men exchanged stories about Nixon's increasingly erratic behavior.

"What do you mean?" asked Kissinger, who had called Haig to express concern that the president might unwittingly unleash a Middle East war with his new, get-tough policy against Israel.

"His black nuclear bag," replied Haig. "He is going to drop it on the Hill."

(snip)

In the March 20 transcript, neither Kissinger nor Haig seems alarmed by threats to bomb Congress or "to go after the Israelis" after "he is through with the Europeans."

"He is just unwinding," Haig told Kissinger. "Don't take him too seriously."

On other occasions, as in December 1970, when Nixon proposed an escalation in the bombing of Cambodia, Kissinger and Haig felt obliged to humor the president while laughing at him behind his back. During that episode, Kissinger was still serving as national security adviser, and Haig was one of his deputies.

The Air Force is "not designed for any war we are likely to have to fight," Kissinger told Nixon after the president railed against U.S. pilots for "farting around doing nothing" over Cambodia and "running goddamn milk runs in order to get the air medal." Both men suspected North Vietnamese guerrillas of using Cambodia as a sanctuary and supply line to South Vietnam.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58802-2004May26.html

I bet he would have. He is like the Jesus of Neo-cons

The bad news, the People's republic of Nixon.

jsut a reminder

Bush is going to be more reviled than Nixon.

You could say a few good things about the Nixon presidency. Not so the Bush presidency.

including the White House. :nuke:

There's never been any doubt in my mind. Haig is the man.

:nuke: :smoke:

Makes me shiver when I think about what Bu*sh will do when he sees the end of his holding power nearing.

Nixon looks so sane and reasonable compared to George. Maybe it's the distance of time.

Now, if George made that joke, if Cheney made that joke, I wouldn't be sure it was a joke.

I never thought he was as bad of a President as Reagan, and not even close to Bush. Nixon was at least smart. He unfortunately was paranoid at a delusional level, and that's what led to his downfall. But he did some good things as President, like opened trade with China, developed better relations with the USSR, and supported civil rights. He did some bad things in connection with the Vietnam War, but he did end the draft.

Reagan sold arms to our enemies(who supported terrorism), guys who held our own people hostage, in order to give the funds to support drug-dealing, nun-murdering terrorists in central america, because Congress refused to support them. After all, they were fighting communists. Drug dealing nun-killing terrorists must be better than the communists. In addition, the CIA was looking the other way while the contras imported and sold cocaine in this country. At the same time, the administration declared a war on drugs that was resulting in small time dealers getting long sentences for the same offenses. He took the cold war into overdrive in order to bankrupt the USSR. It worked, but it almost bankrupted us in the process. And this is just the stuff that everyone knows about. The people the administration sold arms to in order to finance it's private war in central america were in the mean time financing attacks against american troops in the Middle East (Lebannon), possibly using some of the very weapons our government sold them.
For the freepers who call everyone who disagrees with the GOP a traitor, well, if Iran/Contra isn't treasonous, then how can a movie that criticizes the government be treasonous?

After that, Nixon looks pretty good.

Bush makes Reagan look good-I didn't think anyone could do that.

First of all, Nixon began the sordid Republican challenger tradition of meddling in foreign policy to enhance their electoral chances. His minions persuaded the South Vietnamese to torpedo the Paris peace talks and thus ensure that the Vietnam War would continue long enough to get Nixon elected. Second, Nixon used the IRS, the FBI, and the CIA to attack his political enemies. He continued the Republican President tradition of launching preemptive wars and overthrowing democratically elected governments with the illegal bombing of Cambodia and Laos and the overthrow of Allende in Chile. The direct result of the Cambodian bombing was the destabilization of the Cambodian government to the point that the Khmer Rouge were able to take over and commit their horrendous atrocities. The overthrow of Allende and support of Pinochet in Chile left Nixon and Kissinger with even more blood on their hands. Nixon also began the Republican tradition of excessive secrecy in government which continued during Reagan and has achieved a pinnacle of sorts under Cheney/Bush. He also started the Republican tradition of attacking the free press as the "liberal media" when he unleashed William Safire, Spiro Agnew, and Pat Buchanan. As for ending the draft - that was pretty much forced on him. I also find it hard to credit him too much on China as it was Congressman Nixon and Senator Nixon who red-baited the Democrats and promoted "Red China" isolation until it became convenient to pit the Chinese against the Soviet Union. Other than all that and Watergate, I guess he wasn't so bad.

nuking congress. Reagan joked about nuking the Soviet Union. And G.W. Bush - well, he is a joke.

He'd be roaming the WH looking for a football. He'd fall off the trike again while looking for it.

JM

No wonder our Congress won't turn on Bush.