Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On One Man Against Th

Things. When we get to the qanda part of the session. But we ask if you have a question first put it in the form of a question in the second, make your way to the microphone because we are videoing both for our own page and cspan tv is here this evening as well, and they would like to be able to hear your question. And at the end before you come up to get the book signed the stuff was appreciated. The presidency was profiled in a new book by tim weiner thats receiving a lot of attention. Hes quite familiar to many in washington and he lived and reported here for 15 years in the previous books. He got it into the newspaper business after earning a masters degree in journalism at columbia 30 sixes ago and by the early 1980s he had landed at the Philadelphia Inquirer where he worked for a decade. They were right up ready to put the budget to sponsor the Defense Research and that led to the first book. They joined the New York Times in the mid1990s covering National Security issues that he once described as nukes, spooks and kooks. Later he served as the Foreign Correspondent and traveled on the assignment to the range of other garden spots and as afghanistan, pakistan, kenya, sudan and a number of other places. The book legacy of ashes came out and won the National Book award for nonfiction. Not long after that he one and left the newspaper. He is now hes now the director of the Residency Program at the institute of new york which is about to open. And he will also be at princeton this fall teaching the course of the cia. And of course he continues to turn out books on there a challenging subjects. Three years ago in the book enemies come he tackled the history of the secret intelligence operations. And in his new book one man against the world, the tragedy of Richard Nixon the team revisits the spectacular fall of one of the most controversial and complicated president s. Drawing on the documents declassified over the past few years he looks back at the vietnam war and at the the watergate scandal but most of all the torment of complex figure that was central in those tumultuous years. One review was anyone that reads this incisive book will be nostalgic for an xml matter how disastrous the successors. [laughter] i did learn a moment ago tim and his family have a personal connection to the knicks in years. When he was a teenager and the company was down here to march on washington, and when they got back to their car they noticed somebody taking of the license plate number. And they worried that they would get a ticket. They did get audited for the next three years. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming tim weiner. [applause] thank you everybody that works on politics and prose whether they are selling books, buying books or reading books but this is one of the greatest books in the United States and i think Everybody Knows that. [applause] speaking of the successors in my years as a reporter i had a chance to interview president ford who succeeded and then prompted Richard Nixon and jimmy carter was elected after the short and accidental presidency. And a couple years later during the years, senator bob dole sought the state event carter, ford and nixon all gathered together and he says there they are. Speak no evil, hear no evil. [laughter] and on that note i would like to go back about 45 years and i think that many of you will remember this passage in our history. Richard nixon had been president for 14 months. The war in via vietnam wasnt ending during the campaign and he decided to take some extremely drastic measures which led to a series of disasters unlike any that our country had experienced since the civil war. Its the spring of 1970. Mixing was sleepless. I dont think that he ever slept, the General Committee is military aide recalled. He dealt with at night by drinking. President by day fell into a deep state talking with the chief of chief of staff for the past presidency started planning the precise details of his own funeral. He had predicted 1970 with the the worst year of the first term. He proved pressing it. The president s popularity plummeted 11 points of march. The endless war was the cause. It was taking but only in the military caskets caskets that the wounds of the mind. An increasing number of veterans were shellshocked or heroine addicted. When they returned they found the war had come home with them. A body politic and all the while americans were still dying in combat of thousand of month. March 191970 Henry Kissinger told a colleague about a brutal toll from conversation he just had with the president. He told nixon that there wasnt very much that we could do militarily to force vietnam to surrender. Kissinger said he demanded a new set of plans and a hard option and he wanted it on his desk that day. He became frantic and the written notes convened march 23 of the conundrum. Mr. Helms the director of the cia said something might be achieved and he asked how this message could be conveyed to the vietnam. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said it would be clear if we did some bombing. Then out of nowhere the rightwing military junta took power in cambodia and the forces started moving towards the capital 200 miles northwest of American Military headquarters in saigon. Mixing and graced the leader at the cambodian coup the general that no one would forget. President nixon asked me to draft several personal telegrams containing extravagant expressions of friendship and support recalled the marshall. They were treated to the messages in the degree of the u. S. Military support and commitment that exceeded what the government could deliver on given the congressional attitudes in particular. Also regarding them as lacking any qualities needed to leave the country out of its mess. Does any of this ring a bell . Beard ordering the cia into the fight, i want helms to develop a plan where the maximum assistance to the elements in cambodia were instructed. The director promised to support the military effort against the vietcong with untraceable money and can. This proved difficult. Cambodia had no american ambassador, no station chief, no cia or military Intelligence Officers on the ground. This terror incognito. They called the officer with plenty of military experience in africa but none in indochina. They reported back to the white house shortly thereafter and got straight to the point. Nobody knew what was going on. The regime had come to the conclusion that someone had to help them and that someone with the United States. It was an ak47. There were assault rifles and on to become untraceable down payment on the far greater commitments to come. The same week the post had a deadly siege by the communist soldiers. If it fell, they could collapse under the communist control. The crisis demanded immediate action but offered no solution. Kissinger had to plea for the attention. No one will Pay Attention to his war, and it looks like lots of installing. March 14 to center met for three hours with nixon, helms and the key members of the National Security council. The president , kissinger noted wasnt going to let him go down the drain. They had to ask the rightwing military to widen the covert war without congress. He said apologizing for my already i told the president s i realized this decision. But unlike all the factors that seem desirable, nixon commented that it had been necessary to do a number of unpleasant things recently and this was one more that could be taken on as well. There is going to be no announcement, the president said. We are just going to do it. We dont have to explain. The political situation at home was no better than the situation abroad. The secretary of defense had warned him on tuesday march 31 senate was prepared to cut the funds for the strikes in cambodia and nixon responded i will fight such a limitation. In the senate the senate also rejected the nomination of the judge the second of the conservatives attorney general John Mitchell had selected to elevate to the Supreme Court of the ranking republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee Said there were a lot of mediocre people into judges and lawyers entitled to representation. Not on the Supreme Court. Nixon claimed the attorney general for the politically tone deaf nominations. The attorney generals prior selection of the judge was rejected for the record of racism. There were multiple problems bearing in. Set up a political attack and he commanded. We have to declare war. The president ordered the new York City Police officers overseen by John Ehrlichman to conduct undercover investigations. There were four prominent democrats who fought nixons policies as part of nixon called an allout job on the Democratic Leaders including those of the Internal Revenue service to investigate their finances. The cops that were hired for members of were members of the staff with special assignments come and he had paid off the books with the secret Campaign Cash filled out. Nixons personal lawyer and political for nearly two years the department of 30 tricks was on the case. By april 19, they were 20 miles from the cambodian border. President nixon returning from the nearly fatal move in the mission briefed by the admiral john mccain commanderinchief for the pacific. The admiral whose son was still a prisoner of war captivated mix in with a hairraising report. The president ordered him to return with him to san clemente on april 20 and meet with kissinger. The briefing was graham if the communists took them to South Vietnam would be next and the war would be lost. Mccain emphasized the need for speed in a precarious situation he felt the United States should send every weapon that could to South Vietnam across the cambodian border and squadrons of the b52 to bombard the communists. The joint chiefs of staff quickly assembled weapons for the cambodian army. That was the easy part. Now the president needed a plan for the invasion of cambodia. There was the office for the South Vietnam. American war planners envisioned it as a communist nerve center of bamboo pentagon construct beneath the canopy. They thought if you could blow up the cause of you could cripple the enemys capacity to command and control attacks on the forces in South Vietnam into the admiral said the United States should these troy if and when the war but they never understood that it wasnt a place. It couldnt be bombed. It has no fixed address. It was a small mobile group of communist officers that could be located only by their radio signals transmitted. But the location could only be fixed by the antenna that be used for transmission that would be many miles away from the men that were on the air. And the enemy only seemed to know where the b52s were coming. The north vietnams into the tent is far better than american intelligence on the enemy. Mixing different states more than an hour april 21. Before dawn he dictated a disturbing note to kissinger i think we made a bold move in cambodia. I do not believe they will survive. There is a chance that they might. In any event, we must do something. Nixon immediately ordered large crossborder attacks by the South Vietnam and cambodia with support from american artillery and fighter jets. He hadnt gotten to the question of the american Ground Forces that attacked cambodia. The war councils were split three ways. The secretary defense beltran and secretary of state bill rogers wanted the invasion when it hit. Kissinger favored the attack on the cambodian sanctuaries across the border but without american ground troops. The military wanted a full assault on cambodia and the headquarters of americas voters leading the charge. So did the Vice President spirit wagner whose personal qualities included. Nixon resented the implication that he wasnt being tough enough. The remark provoked nixon to go for an allout attack with american Ground Forces. The joint chiefs of staff never drew up the formal plan for the cambodian operation. There wasnt any time. Nixon is still split plus and summoned kissinger, the admiral, the joint chiefs of staff and the director in the white house and in a fury the president said that the secretary of state rogers and the defense were sabotaging plans for the invasion. Haldeman noted in the diary president is moving rationally without thinking through the consequences. Kissinger called him to ask what he thought of the decision. The cia director replied it seemed to me that it was prepared for the fallout. He obviously was. Helms said he hoped so. The secretary of state continued to object to the invasion of cambodia on april 28 of the president ordered them into the oval office. The attorney general John Mitchell laid down the law. There would be no arguments. There would be no dissent. In the silence they were dismissed from the oval office. Mitchell wrote the president stated the purpose of the meeting was to advise those present in the decisions they had reached. There was no discussion. On thursday april 30 after another night with one hour of sleep the president addressed the nation in a nationally televised speech announcing the invasion of cambodia. This is not an invasion of cambodia. Nixons head of a classic contradiction. I see tonight all of the offers and and a and to purchase me to previously remain on the conference table whenever ready but if the enemy response to the most were the peaceful negotiation continues to increase, we shall react accordingly. My fellow americans, we live in an age of anarchy both abroad and at home. We see mindless attacks on the institutions that have been created by the civilizations in the last 500 years. Even here in the United States the great universities are being systematically destroyed. Small nations find themselves attacked from within. If when the chips are down the worlds most powerful worlds most powerful nation, the United States of america acts like a pitiful helpless giant the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten the recommendations and institutions throughout the world. The secretary of state was in his Hideaway Office on the seventh floor of the state department that it might as nixon night as nixon concluded his remarks about the u. S. Appearing to be a pitiful helpless giant, the secretary of state said the kids are going to retch. The morning after the speech was made, the storm started on the college campuses. College newspapers called for a strike ended in march and a new march on washington was set for the coming week. After suffering another insomniac night extended to the pentagon where they should map the detailing the cleanest forces occupied cambodia. They showed the major sanctuaries far beyond the target of the invasion. Quote, i made it a very on the spot decision. Nixon recorded. I said i want to take out all the sanctuaries. Make whatever plans are necessary, knock them all out so it cant be used against us after. Within the briefing combines are recovered to some of the offers and the pentagon the president seemed to. He conquered he was really beat him he wrote in the diary diary a few hours later we need some good rest. Leaving the briefing trailed in the lobby of the pentagon by a few reporters with tape recorders mix and compared american soldiers are the greatest of american students, they are blowing up the campuses. The statements that he later realized only added fuel to the fire of dissent. Monday may 4, he went to the executive Office Building hideout with some bad news. Something came over the wire about the demonstration at penn state. He said National Guard opened fire into some students were shot. Are they bad, they asked, im afraid so. To have been killed and four in four had been injured in the campus. They recorded the president s reaction. He is very disturbed. Really sad to see this added to the worry about the war. He. Hes out on a tough limit and he knows it. This makes it a lot worse. He has to take the heat for having caused it and he obviously realizes that will not admit the remark was very harmful. In the telephone call with nixon to start hard as a rock, he said. The countries begin to be run by children, god help us. Kissinger played the tough guy. Haldeman recorded. Kissinger just wants to let the students go for a couple of weeks and then move in and clobber them. They could be hit with anything harder than the bullets of the National Guard wasnt the question. He was very concerned we havent given in any way. They could really call for them if we wait for the cambodian success. And now a quote from a National Security Agency History the invasion of cambodia declassified a year and a half ago. The incursion was a medicated disaster. The most famous of the attempt they were always on the move always able to get out of the way in the stripes, which as we know were predicted with great accuracy from the intelligence and repeated strikes over the years never did any damage. Kissingers inhouse expert remembered vividly when he heard the reports that nixon was going after. By the time i stopped laughing i almost felt like crying, he said he then wondered who