02.09.2018 - By Ryan, Phil, Darryl & Sly
We spent last episode complaining about Obama's Foreign Policy and Neo-liberalism and now it's only fair to dump on a much, much worse president, Richard Nixon. No, he's not some intricate balance of complex good and bad issues, he's a straight up piece of garbage. But what are some of the standout parts of his presidency? And how is Trump aping his style and grace? Pretty much whenever he can. Crooks of a feather, I suppose.
Everyone's talking about Watergate nowadays. And adding gate to the end of everything. So what actually happened? What was the Saturday Night Massacre? And why was he called DeepThroat? Darryl walks us through the scandal and the cover-up. And a lot of people praise ol' Tricky Dick for opening trade with China. Why was that such a big deal? Phil helps give some brief (more or less) history of China and some of the economic implications of opening up our economies.
Ryan walks us through some history of Cambodia, and how Nixon fueled the fires, staged coups, and led to one of the more forgotten and heinous genocides in modern times. A genocide America refused to acknowledge for decades! And finally Sly continues Nixon's foreign policy disasters with how we intervened in Chile and pushed Friedman economic policies on behalf of American corporations and at the expense of the South American people. Oh, and don't forget, Nixon started the war on drugs because he hated black people and was terrified of Jews! Also Henry Kissinger is scum, too.
Content warning: We speak extensively on some very heavy issues, primarily genocide.
Nixon's Cambodian Invasion
Operation Menu
Cambodia's Prince
The Genocide
An overview of the whole Cambodian Operation
Milquetoast New York Times' Chile Article
The War On Drugs
Come join our discord: https://discord.gg/yzFT6sk
All past episodes, other blogs and podcasts by the hosts, and more can be found at our website.
And please continue the conversation at our facebook group.
Organize and donate against candidates at Swing Left
And as always, all the shows on our network can be found at Comrade Radio, including our other show, Divisive Issues.