What Nixon says is catching. Nixon talks about "international speculators" who both create and then profit from the very "crisis" they create. And, his assessment is essentially truthful. That is how they do things.

Nixon was wrong to go to a floating exchange rate system (speculators love this) but he had people like John Connally and George Schultz advising him. Note also that he imposes a 10% tax on imports! Of course, back in 1971 this country still produced it's own physical wealth and didn't require cheap imports.

Is it possible that Nixon may have been character assassinated in a bloodless "coup d'etat" with Watergate of 1971, just as JFK had been physically assassinated in a "bloody" coup d'etat in Dallas of 1963? Did the Watergate coup plotters no longer need "Tricky Dicky" after he ended the Bretton Woods Monetary System? See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzr1QU6K1o

Terry, I agree with you. Nixon made big mistakes with his bombing and withdrawal with Honor. But I've always felt sorry for him after Watergate. A penny ante burglary and the President has to resign. He was the butt of more jokes on TV, radio, etc. for so long; more than any other person I can remember (except maybe O.J. Simpson).

He was so proud to be President at his Inaugurations. I think he felt he was doing his mother proud. I think that was his drive. But this thing happened while he was in China and he had nowhere to go exept down. He was alcoholic and also took sleeping pills, according to Billy Graham. These tendencies grew as he was castigated. Also, people were surprised that he cursed so much. The funniest thing to me is when he was with Haldeman, he'd refer to Henry Kissinger as "Jewboy." For me, finding out that he cursed made me like him.

Under all the pressure, he deteriorated physically and mentally. But possibly after a drink or two, he gave such a great Au Revoir speech to his staff and America.

Another one bites the dust.

Kathy

I believe I'm right in recalling that Nixon's actual purpose in doing this was to close the gold window as he had France demanding repayments of its dollars in gold. There was not enough physical official gold to meet this demand and thus he took the action he did.

I have always seen this move as something that would've have got him elected to office (if he wasn't already there) not abadoned, as it opened up the way for the world of debt we now live in.

David

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"...Nixon's actual purpose in doing this was to close the gold window as he had France demanding repayments of its dollars in gold. There was not enough physical official gold to meet this demand..."

I wasn't aware of this fact at the time, but I vividly recall my father always castigating the French for not having paid the U.S. back for the war debts they incurred and owed to us from WWI and WWII.

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"The funniest thing to me is when he was with Haldeman, he'd refer to Henry Kissinger as "Jewboy." For me, finding out that he cursed made me like him."

But seriously, and all religious slurs aside, when people labeled Nixon as a paranoid, I would venture to say that after witnessing Dallas 1963, standing by while Johnson announced his intentions of not seeking presidential office for another term, then finally running, being elected and exercising his own style of foreign policy with China, led him to come to terms with what his shadow gov. really had in mind for him. In a way, he was trying to run the gov. with the same idealistic fervor that JFK had, albeit from a Republican platform. I believe he saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, when he discovered that Kissinger was already a part of that cabal, which most likely had him elected for the express purpose of using him as a puppet. Kind of like they've done with every president since, and including, Reagan.

Making that diplomatic trip to China, back in the day when China wasn't even allowed to be a member in the United Nations General Assembly, had to have put many a Cold War Hawk's nose out of joint. But Nixon, as a Naval officer in WWII, had made allied contacts with China in the war against Japan. He obviously held those contacts in higher esteem, and may have recognized the absurdity of Winston Churchill's brandishing the term "Iron Curtain," as a means of creating a barrier against our former allies, the Soviet Union, Mainland China, and the whole Communist Bloc, as well. But, I'm merely speculating in this paragraph, here.

I do believe Nixon's suspicions were in the right place as to what he believed Kissinger's role in the Conservative Party actually consisted of. Big money, corporate oligarchy, and the usurpation of the centralized government of the United States for the benefit of this new World Bank, the IMF aka the International Monetary Fund, a cartel of international bankers, out to use the U.S. taxpayers money, savings, pension funds, etc., as a way of leveraging and financing their war machine efforts. But, that's just my humble opinion on the subject.

Terry,

I think it likely that things were more complex to this than most imagine.

There was much animosity between the US and France dating back from the way De Gaulle was treated by Churchill and Roosevelt. You might recall that France left NATO and threw it out of Paris. De Gaulle also suspected (or wanted to suspect) that the US was behind attempts to assassinate him. So, I expect there was more to the French demand to have their dollars converted to gold than met the eye at the time.

On the US delayed decision to participate in WWII, there has also been quite a bit of conjecture and high feelings. On the one hand there was a large volume of pro-Hitler sentiment at the corporate level. Hitler was financed by America and had powerful allies in Britain and France also. On the other hand, US interests were served by entering the war only after Europe and Britain had been sufficiently pummelled by the Nazis that the US would emerge as the dominate world power by a long shot.

The still secret War and Pace Study project by the Council on Foreign Relations that commenced in 1939 (what is known about it anyway) clearly spells out America's national interest to be gained from the war.

From: http://shwi.alternatehistory.com/American%...Geopolitics.txt.

Quote:

AMERICA'S MINIMUM LEBENSRAUM- THE GRAND AREA

The extensive studies and discussions of the Council group determined that, as a minimum , most of the non-German world, as a new American 'Grand Area', was needed for elbow room.' In its final form, it consisted of the Western Hemisphere, the United Kingdom, the remainder of the British Commonwealth
and Empire, the Dutch East Indies, China and Japan itself.(50) Noam Chomsky summarizes the concept of American Lebensraum:

"The Grand Area was to include the Western Hemisphere, Western Europe, the Far East, the former British Empire (which was being dismantled), the incomparable energy resources of the Middle East (which were then passing into American hands as we pushed out our rivals France and Britain), the rest of the Third World and, if possible, the entire globe."(51) The whole China was also included.

Unquote

David

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From: http://shwi.alternatehistory.com/American%...Geopolitics.txt.


"It was John O'Sullivan who in 1845 formulated the concept of American Lebensraum - the Manifest Destiny Doctrine. He coined the term to signify the mission of the United States "to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."(1)

For Josiah Strong, the American missionary imperialist par excellence, the Manifest Destiny had geopolitical destination-the creation of a world empire. The Americas would be the greatest of all empires. "Other nations would bring their offerings to the cradle of the young empire of the West, as they had once taken their gifts to the cradle of Jesus."(2) Since the destiny and its destination were preordained by God, Americans possessed supreme title to space, preempting and superseding the right of others. Combined with the Monroe Doctrine, the theological rationale of the Manifest Destiny Doctrine provided an almost evangelical explanation of the geopolitical manifest design to conquer and subjugate space, first the whole Western Hemisphere and then, beginning with the war against Spain in 1898, the whole world. As Carl Schmitt has pointed out, in 1898 USA embarked on a war against Spain and latter against the world which has not ended yet. In this context the American war against Yugoslavia is only a continuation of the one hundred years war which the United States began in 1898.

In the history of the United States the expansionist impulse has been as powerful as religion. The continuity of American expansionist war aims since the time of the Manifest Destiny Doctrine has been the most predominant feature of American foreign policy in which the three components of American expansionist Weltanschauung confluence: The Manifest Destiny Doctrine - the theological component - conquest preordained by God and Providence to carry the will of the Almighty, and subsequently, conquest to establish democracy or in the interests of democracy or mankind, The Monroe Doctrine - the geopolitical component and the Open Door Doctrine - the economical component.

It was at the end of the last century that the intellectual foundations of the American geopolitical doctrine were formulated by Frederick Jackson Turner, Brooks Adams, Admiral Mahan, and its implementation begun by Theodore Roosevelt and subsequently Woodrow Wilson. The geopolitical concepts advanced by Frederick Jackson Turner, Brooks Adams and Admiral Mahan "became a world view, an expansionist Weltanschauung for subsequent generation of Americans and ... important to understand America's imperial expansion in the twentieth century," writes the noted American historian William Williams. The policies of American Lebensraum, called "Open-Door" imperialism, and the enlargement of the American empire through expansion of the perimeter of the Monroe Doctrine, is the explanation of America's foreign policy during this century, including the present policies of NATO expansion, assertion of American preponderance of power over the whole Eurasia and the war against Yugoslavia.

The architects of the American Lebensraum provided also the rationale for NATO. NATO as a geopolitical construct is firmly anchored in the "Frontier thesis" of the American expansionist foreign policy, appearing as a function and instrument of the Atlantic Grossraum, as envisioned by Turner, Adams and Mahan. Or as Senator Tom Connally stated: "the Atlantic Pact is the logical extension of the Monroe Doctrine." The creation of the NATO signified the extension of the Monroe doctrine to Europe - Europe would become for the United States another Latin America, points out the American historian Stephen Amrose. (3)"

Thank you for providing that link, David.

I must tell you that I have, since first learning of the concept of Manifest Destiny in Elementary School, abhorred the very basis upon which it was formulated. For one thing, the twisted issues involving the methods of teaching it to school children. I would never have connected The Monroe Doctrine, which I was taught was aka, The Policy of Isolationism, which would have seemed antithesis to the expansion policy of Manifest Destiny in my little pea-brain of mind. At least, that's the way it had been explained to me, as a child. Why would the robber barons be hellbent on expanding and taking over every square foot of real estate they could get their hands on, if their ultimate goal would be to isolate themselves from the rest of the world?

Also, the treatment of the people who were already established in their own civilizations here in the Western Hemisphere, why were they not considered as human beings, and treated as viable traders, merchants, and commerce entities, in and of themselves? Which has always left me with a disconcerting question as to who gave these European moneyed venture capitalists the "divine" right to ride roughshod over those who were already established on this continent and in this hemisphere?

It is cited that this continent was "pre-ordained by God and Providence..." according to whom? Some bible thumping religious fanaticism which deemed it the right to automatically subjugate and plunder property, preempting and superseding the rights of others? Can you see how sanctimonious and utterly detestable this all comes across as?

You may counter that it was the sign of the times, or that this was the way the world was perceived from an 18th Century P.O.V. But, that doesn't make it morally sound. We have quite a few large, indelible stains on this tapestry known as The United States of America and its Manifest Destiny Doctrine[s]. I certainly need not use this post to point them out, without risk of appearing rhetorically redundant on the subject.

There were only three instances in the historical record that I can recall where I ever felt even a modicum of national pride in the United States, as a country. It was during Abraham Lincoln's term of office and what he stood for with the Emancipation Proclamation, his Gettysburg Address, and the Fourteenth Amendment, the United State's involvement in WWII, with the defeat of Axis powers, and during John F. Kennedy's administration and his attempts to make good the rights of all men, equal before the law, the New Frontier, Peace Corp, and his foreign policy in bridging the chasm between Communism and Capitalism.

Other than those three, I cannot think of anything glowing and illustrious to say about carbon monoxide-emitting combustible engines, petroleum energy resources, strip-mining for coal and other minerals, clear-cutting of rain forests, and other ecological abuses perpetrated against the earth and its people by global industrial and manufacturing power-based cabals.

It's a distinct possibility that man has finally burned out his welcome here on this planet. The race has certainly shown no signs of slowing down it's sense of propagation, nor its insatiable consumption. In the end, we will eventually get what we deserve, and end up reaping what we've sown.

Thanks for enlightening me, which has served to reinforce my prior disgust and contempt for these bombastic, preferential-seeking, supreme opportunists, attempting to disguise their chicanery, and the malcontented rationale they used to justify their irresponsible abuse of power and annexation of other's personal property, in the name of God and Providence, no less.

Terry, I dont want to be off topic ,however, my comments on a previous thread (about Watergate) may be on spot. I dont think today Nixon's economic views would not get establishment support. (Watergate- a political/ media assassination IMHO) . SEE post BELOW for previous economic comments on Nixon. (most of post is how Ellsberg may not be what he seems)


I have made a case to look at Ellsberg (when you add analysis of Simkin's Watergate timeline) with suspicion. = Please see the Watergate : what was it all about ? thread
Now read Ellsberg's advice to the Democratic Party.....a political trap ????????
http://www.rense.com/general78/yes.htm
+++++++ modified post below from , Watergate: What was it all about ? thread. ++++++++++
Dear John, the black informant in the Glass House Tapes said that at one point that Hunt said there would be an assassination of Nixon and he (informant) could be part of this op. XXXX Now around 1977 I talked to Daniel Ellsberg in a call in Radio show (I think it was KMET here in PASADENA/LA area) . I asked about oil in Vietnam...he replyed NO OIL IN VIETNAM (????) only BORAX. XXXXX Now a book published by (dont know title but Im sure it could easily be found) DeGloyer and McNaughton in late 1950s talked about potential great oil in Vietnam/Cambodia......(and now proven true). Wouldnt CIA have this BOOK ??? XXXXX Crazy anti-nuke protests headed by Ellsberg in isolated cold high desert (one KID died of cold) on railway tracks. SO- SO far away from areas of major MEDIA coverage (use to be closer,repeat use to be closer = and got higher media coverage). XXXX In 80s saw Ellsberg on right-wing TV show with so called inventor neutron bomb. Neutron Bomb inventor ranting against "" liberal"" Ellsberg . Ellsberg replyed ,"Im more conservative than you think. I didnt release all the Pentagon Papers."XXXX When we see how the CIA reclassifed papers and then some were re-released (and rewritten) showing NOW = NOW they predicted KOREAN invasion ...and that overall the PENTAGON PAPERS showed how they (re-written ???) predicted this and that and that .and ..that.. others didnt follow their (CIA) sound advice on Vietnam .....XXXXX NOW Watergate,gets rid of NIXON politically (with Mockingbird help). CIA wanted to get rid of Nixon (per your timeline) NIXON. FAR right of JCS/NAVY wanted to remove NIXON for Nixon's CHINA opening. (they were added latter by CIA) . Elites wanted to get NIXON -NIXON supported negative income tax - this far from the elite Chicago School of economics= taking USA towards a few at top = many at bottom economy-which is happening as we speak. THANKS I hope this adds to your DATUM on Watergate sg

This post has been edited by Steven Gaal: Aug 26 2007, 09:14 PM

I have always been interested in what Lester Prouty said in regard to the Korean and Vietnam wars, when he revealed that at the end of WWII, the massive stockpile of US war materiel was divided in two and sent to Korea and Indochina.

I don’t know, but suspect that clarification of this would be found in the aforementioned CFR War and Peace Study Project and that this is one of the reasons it remains secret.

But it is hard not to conclude from this tidbit of information, that both these wars were planned prior to the end of WWII.

On Nixon and the closing of the gold window (1971), I cannot think of another action in the history of the world that has so benefited bankers. Debt is their lifeblood and without ample quantities of it to bolster them, they are merely paper shufflers with limited power. But with massive debt under their control, they become masters of the universe. Witness the following:

The US national deficit in 1971 was $2.8 billion (0.03 of GNP). This leapt for fiscal 1971 to $23.0 billion. Thereafter:

1972 $23.4 bn
1973 $14.9 bn
1974 $6.1 bn (debt offset by the quadrupling of the oil price in that year)
1975 $53.2 bn
1976 $73.7

Today, it is $8.9 trillion.

And the community of bankers, as was their plan back in the 1930’s, now reign upon Mount Olympus handing down their diktats for people like Bush and Brown to enact.

David

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"I have always been interested in what Lester Prouty said..."

Pardon me David, but that's Col. L. Fletcher Prouty. A mentor of mine.

And, that "community of bankers" you refer to? I prefer to address them as a "cartel," which seemed to have acquired their strength, in numbers, by becoming united through the enactment of The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. But, that's just my humble opinion, and I'll stand corrected should I somehow be over-generalizing the situation, at hand.

You stand confirmed.

Ashton

"I have always been interested in what Lester Prouty said..."

Pardon me David, but that's Col. L. Fletcher Prouty. A mentor of mine.

And, that "community of bankers" you refer to? I prefer to address them as a "cartel," which seemed to have acquired their strength, in numbers, by becoming united through the enactment of The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. But, that's just my humble opinion, and I'll stand corrected should I somehow be over-generalizing the situation, at hand.
[/quote]

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Actually, you can be seated if you'd like. No matter, you get no argument from me. A 'thank you' to both you and David for a nice cluster of postings.
JG