BFD. What about Nixon sending Madam Chiang to Paris to tell Thieu (sp?) that he would get a better deal from Nixon so he scuttled the peace talks. Stinks of treason. Just like the Repukes in the 30's trying to oust FDR, the October surprise of 1980 and on and on. Fucking traitorous motherfuckers.

Some might think that what we don't know won't hurt us but...we certainly are hurt by politicians, leaders of our country, who manipulate various channels to make sure their particular ideology survives. I'm not such a Democrat that I don't believe Johnson had his own little twists and turns but Nixon was sure one for the history books in that regard. What really stinks is that no one in the media had the guts or journalistic instincts to let us...the lesser Americans know about these manipulations. In the long run, and that is how policy should be judged, American lives were lost for wars that had no real purpose or need: the saddest part.

Thanks for mentioning the 1980 October Surprise. The infor that has come out so far (with more to come) shows that old man Bush committed treason by contacting the Iranians and getting them to wait until Regan took office to release the hostages. Just another repuke legacy from the Nixon Era. When will it end?

Whether it’s been plotting in secret to murder a popular president, or to rape Vietnam, or to make deals with the Iranian mullahs to finance the Honduran fascist dictatorship’s war against Nicaragua, or to rig the “election” of a president, or to put their country on a permanent war footing by levelling (or conniving at levelling) the Twin Towers and murdering three thousand mainly Americans, or to lie their country into a war of blatant aggression, the political class will rightly fear an existential threat to the whole political system of “the 99% elect them, the 1% buy them”. They will sink their faux differences and close ranks “right”, “left” and “centre”: ‘The public mustn’t get to know, the system must be protected’.

The political class isn’t just the bought pollies, it’s an integrated and heavily financed Praetorian guard of pollies, commentators, key public “servants”, brasshats, media management, party management - all knowing that when the chips are down nobody’d better rock the boat. Look at their united hysteria over Bradley Manning and Wikileaks! What they fear most is democracy, and this has been shown right back to the antidemocratic structure agreed to in the framing of the American Constitution.

The chicanery and craziness about Viet Nam goes back further than most realize. Toward the end of WWII, when the Japanese were forced to retreat from SE Asia (including Viet Nam), the French began to plan to return to control of their old colonial Fiefdom. Ho Chi Minh, representing the aspirations of the Vietnamese to regain control of their own country for the first time in centuries, went to the Generals in charge of the US forces in SE Asia, and requested that they help prevent the French from resuming colonial power. He was essentially laughed out of the tent. Then the Viet Nam war really started. The Vietnamese finally defeated the French, in spite of major help in weapons and aircraft from the US, at Dien Bien Phu in May, 1954. Talks were held in Geneva, and the French agreed to withdraw, recognizing Ho Chi Minh as leader in the North, with elections to be held in the South. The US decided to intervene, cancelled the elections and installed a puppet government in the South. The entire war was an unnecessary mistake made by US Expansionist and Colonialist interests. There never was an actual will to survive as a separate state on the part of the South. The partition of the country was devised to create an excuse for the war of Colonial Expansion by the US, as were all the claims of Communist threats in the region. Nixon's chicanery was just a sordid addition.

Some have asked why there was such a close connection between Russia and Viet Nam. When Ho realized he was going to have to fight the US, a much more formidable opponent than the French, he needed far more weapons and support than had been needed to defeat the French. He was reluctant to seek more help from China since China had been one of the colonial powers over Vietnam in the past, so he tried to balance the situation by playing the Russians off against the Chinese, using the rivalry that had developed between the two of them. Ho had been educated in France and was involved with the Ideology of Communism. I feel that the incredible pressure of the war plus the enforced closeness with both Russia and China led to the growth of excessive authoritarianis m in the Vietnamese government. Since Vietnam has never shown any interest in expansion, and has respected the sovereignty of its neighbors, I see real hope of an eventual liberalization and growth of freedom in the country. One of the reasons I did not disbelieve totally when Bush claimed WMD in Iraq was the feeling that no US president would ever make the mistake of again creating a war of aggression for no good reason, after the awful lessons of Viet Nam. How wrong I was.

"(Rober Parry) ... has for decades doggedly stuck to reporting each and every new machination and sordid revelation relating to ... (including) corrupt arms deals preceeding the Iran-Contra Scandal.

Well, unfortunately the vast majority of great reporters are themselves afraid to reveal much deeper and darker and more dangerous (to reporters) matters, especially the huge drug cabal behind much of the sordid deeds of the violent money / power factions of our 'shadow govt', and their paramilitary goons, that operate to a great degree via the most top-secret "halls" of our government, ....the "Iran-Contra" affair a prime example not to mention JFK's assasination. Well known authors that have accomplished widespread distribution thus readership know very well that there is a line that if they cross will surely endanger the lives of mostly their families, and most-often ruin their careers by expert character assasination (if not physical assasination) by empire goons with unlimited resources. That reality is exactly why some powerful figures get away with murder (even thousands of innocent women and children) and treated like heroes while others receive the full wrath of empire machinery for getting a blow job.

It is no mere coincidence at all that the Vietnam / Laos war (the French Connection), and the "Iran-Contra" drug bust affair, and the short battle in Grenada (mostly for recapturing control of their small off-route airport used by drug smugglers), and the short Panama battle to capture Noriega (because he was pulling a bin ladden and trying to break his own drug cartel away from CIA control), and the Afghanistan war (the planets largest supplier of opium / heroin), and the Iraq war (logistical support for the Afghan opium / heroin operations, like the vietnam war was for the U.S. opium / heroin cabal in Laos), and our insurgency into Pakistan (same filth); .....All of which revolve(d) around control of the planet's biggest expensive hard drugs sources and supply networks ever since WWII.

Got bit confused on who was president in one of the statements. Nixon supposedly went out at night and told Protesters the War was not going to close up.
But I know I take the word of Christian Science Monitor with a grain of salt.

One of there latest conclusions is that extinction of animals doesnot happen as fast as is indicated. I would like to see them at some toxic spills explain destruction of the creatures and plants.
I guess as long as the extinction takes longer it is okay>
Second note on CSM was they have okayed the Chemicals in Fracking saying they are safe. So I would like to see these Board Members and Journalists come here to Pa and drink these chemical, let their family also.

Everyone was bugged, Hoover and McCarthy helped us with this Paranoia. We are still bugging everyone including the internet. God Bless Democracy

Nixon is an example of the fact that the truth comes out eventually. In Nixon's case it ruined him and still is. Good Actions, good reactions and bad actions, bad reactions. As you give so you will receive. Politicians haven't learned anything about running a country with character and integrity. The Republican party specifically, has been built on falsity and it gets clearer everyday as to why we're where we are today. When Bush pointed his finger at the television and warned us of an "axis of evil", he had three fingers pointing back at himself. After 8 years of living with the horrible things that Bush did, it's hard to believe that the GOP has the guts to try and dupe the people again. So, do we put the "axis of evil" back in? I hope not.

This whole subterfuge is covered in great and revealing depth in Larry Berman's excellent book "NO PEACE, NO HONOR" in which the sabotaging of the Paris Vietnam peace talks by Nixon and his uber-criminal accomplice Henry "Mr. Hubris" Kissinger, who was actually the true manipulator of these events and the mess, death, destruction, environmental degradation, Cambodian horrors and ultimate US defeat that followed.