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Our ad for our sister podcast "The Richard Nixon Experience" 

We have repackaged our Richard Nixon sections on Vietnam and his Administration and our Landmark  Docuseries on Watergate into an overall Docuseries Rebroadcast that will air over the next year to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Nixon Administration. 

The episodes are still available here on our back catalogue as well. 

The Richard Nixon Experience is available at wherever you get your podcasts. 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1532626 

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“This is not a message of happiness or reassurance,’’ Carter said in his remarks 40 years ago, “but it is the truth and it is a warning.’’ 

In a speech given in July of 1979, witten about here in an article titled "Jimmy Carter and the meaning of Malaise"  from JSTOR Daily:

 "Carter proclaimed that the nation was suffering a “crisis in confidence” which struck “at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.” He called upon the nation to reflect upon its meaning and purpose, and critiqued American materialism.

The immediate response was generally favorable. “No president since Abraham Lincoln had spoken to the American people with such sincerity about matters of the spirit,” gushed presidential historian Theodore White. Polls indicated that 61 percent of the public said the speech inspired further confidence. Seventy-two percent said they were willing to sacrifice to help solve the energy crisis, which had been Carter’s major policy plea. The president’s approval ratings went up twelve points."

But it was in fact, the beginning of the end of the Carter years. With in the next few months he would be challenged by Ted Kennedy, have Sky Lab fall out the sky, have gas lines throughout the country and have the biggest crisis of his term begin in Iran. This speech about "A Crisis in Confidence" in america would come to symbolize the lack of confidence Americans were growing to have in Jimmy Carter.  

Carter would reshuffle his cabinet and try to provide leadership for the nation instead, as one Southern Governor put it " :“Mr. President, you are not leading this nation — you’re just managing the government.’’ Which is an image Jimmy Carter could never really shake with the American public.  Despite many accomplishments Jimmy Carter had during his term much of the feeling that the President was a dour, pessimistic leader, really began with this speech. Though the speech itself was really a call to action to deal with the energy problems the nation had and that Carter believed could be corrected, and that given the proper leadership we as a nation could become an export and energy leader rather than be myriad in problems created by competitors who wanted to hurt the American economy. 

The fact is Jimmy Carter was right. Years later we would become the number one energy producer in the world. This speech actually aged well, long after it could no longer do any good for a President who would be turned out of office after only a single term. 

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The recent disaster of the OceanGate Submersible Titan that took the lives of the  five people on board renewed interest in the April 1912 disaster of the Titanic. We thought it would be a moment in which we could introduce many of you to the story, the ongoing story, of the RMS Titanic. The Titanic sunk on its Maiden voyage from England to the United States taking the lives of over 1500 passengers. 

It had been deemed unsinkable by the White Star Line, who owned and engineered the vessel due to its compartmental , double hull. But it would be proven wrong by an iceberg that ripped across the the compartments and leaving the ship unable to stay afloat. It was another of the warnings from fate not to believe in the arrogance of our own creations. 

Some could argue that as a species we never seem to learn that lesson. That may also be the lesson of the submersible known as the OceanGate Titan. Its founder, Stockton Rush, believed in an experimental carbon based pressure chamber, but many of the experts in the field of deep diving submergence questioned both the shape of the pressure chamber, the experimental alloy being used and the three different types of metal in use. That overtime it could give way and in the depths of the Ocean where they were diving a disaster could strike, like an implosion estimated to have occurred at 1500 miles an hour. 

This is the story of two disasters and we let the survivors and the news agencies tell the story of both the Titanic and the Titan. It is at both gripping and sad, as we must both admire these pioneers of innovation that have made our world safer, more assessable, and allowed us to learn about the world in ways unimaginable in previous generations.  But also we need to heed the warnings of the past that the arrogance of man must never ignore the warnings of an often unforgiving universe. 

We dedicate this Special Edition episode to the memories of Hamish Harding, Shaltzada Dawood, Suliemon Dawood, Stockton Rush,  Paul - Henri Nargeolet and the over 1500 victims of the first Titanic disaster.

And we thank National Geographic,  BBC, British Bathe, CBS, NBC, ABC ,  and FOX News for their coverage. 

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This is the episode where we listen in as Congressman John Jenrette's career comes crashing to its end. A sad ending to what had been an extraordinarily brave career that had seen John Jenrette help so many of his constituents with issue after issue, championing the causes of the nations small farmers, and standing up to protect the African American constituents so long forgotten  or ignored by almost every other leader in the region he had represented. 

We will contrast the unraveling of his career with that of another ABSCAM defendant who put up a fight rather than going quietly about giving up his seat in the Congress. We will look at the expulsion of Congressman Ozzie Meyers, and listen in on his attempt to defend himself on the floor of the House of Representatives. You will also get to hear and contrast for yourself the difference in the two cases involving Meyers and Jenrette. 

Finally, we will read to you several portions of Federal Judge John Garrett Penn's decision in the case of John Jenrette and John Stowe. It is an eye opening opinion in which you can sense his outrage over the government's behaviour in this particular ABSCAM case and especially in the case that was made against John Stowe who was John Jenrette's co-defendant in the case. 

By the time we get to the end of the episode it will certainly paint John Jenrette's case in a far more human light than many have come to perceive it in the 40 years since. 

 

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This preview is for a special set of episodes on our sister podcast "The Richard Nixon Experience" that will be posted on July 3 and 4th. (these shows originally aired here on June 2 after Memorial Day) 

The Richard Nixon Experience  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1532626

Coming July 3 and 4, a special two part 50th anniversary edition of The Richard Nixon Experience featuring stories from Vietnam War Veterans who visited the Travelling Wall in Myrtle Beach S.C., Prisoners of War who were honored at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda California, and the tapes of the two Presidents who worked so hard to stop the high water mark of Communism in the 1960s and 1970s as it was on the march in South East Asia in Vietnam. 

This is a special you will not want to miss. 

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In this episode, we will lay out the case made by the government against Congressman John Jenrette. We will also go through the differences between this one case and literally all the other cases involved in the scandal known as ABSCAM. 

We will also examine the daunting task John Jenrette faced as all of this unfolded as he was indicted and tried during an election year. An election year that would see him having to run in both a primary election and a general election against a formidable Republican candidate, who had once been an aid to Senator Strom Thurmond, in John Light Napier. 

In this episode , our host Randal Wallace  will read to you the oral history from the University of South Carolina of John Napier as he tells his rather remarkable story of how he put together a campaign that would eventually get him elected to the United States House of Representatives, in what would be a stunningly close race against John Jenrette, even though the incumbent Congressman, had been indicted, tried, and convicted, as the race unfolded. 

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In this episode we let you listen to the only set of start to finish tapes that I am aware of that are available to the public, at least that I could find.  These tapes involve Congressman John Murtha , who was targeted but was never indicted.  John Murtha would go on and serve long enough after ABSCAM that he would become the longest serving Congressman in Pennsylvania history. 

I will say that this is a situation that I do not like to do given that Murtha had a long and distinguished career and never was charged, or tried, and certainly never convicted, of any wrongdoing in the case of ABSCAM. So let me just say in this description that we are only using this audio footage because it is the only footage that is available , that we were able to find, that contains an entire meeting between the FBI, the conman, and a sitting member of Congress.  All the the other footage is only segments of the sting the FBI ran on the Congressmen. 

I do feel though that when you listen in on this meeting, with stunningly clear audio, you will get a feel for how these meetings went and how these governmental officials were set up for the ABSCAM sting. 

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What was Abscam? 

In this episode we try an answer that question for those of you who may not remember, or be as familiar with, what many will recall was the second biggest political scandal of the 1970's and early 1980's.  It involved six United States Congressman and one United States Senator.  They were :

• US Senator Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ)
• US Representative Frank Thompson (D-NJ)
• US Representative John Jenrette (D-SC)
• US Representative Raymond Lederer (D-PA)
• US Representative Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D-PA)
• US Representative John M. Murphy (D-NY)
• US Representative Richard Kelly (R-FL)

It was basically a criminal sting operation conducted by the FBI using a known conman, Mel Weinberg, to set up various elected officials at several levels of the Government. It is the same scandal used for the basis of the movie " American Hustle". It was not just Congressman but also 23 other elected and governmental officials who were eventually netted into the criminal takedown. It also included one member of the New Jersey State Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and an inspector for the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service who  were all also convicted. The operation was directed from the FBI's office in Hauppauge, New York, and was under the supervision of Assistant Director Neil J. Welch, who headed the bureau's New York Division, and Thomas P. Puccio, head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Task Force for the Eastern Division of New York.

In all of these cases it stemmed from an investigation into theft, forgery, and stolen art. The FBI enlisted the help of a convicted conman to help them run a sting on criminals but as they made their way up the food chain they found they could nab some high ranking elected officials. All of the elected officials were somehow connected to this investigation. 

All but one. 

That one case that was the exception was the case of Representative John Jenrette of the 6th District of South Carolina, OUR CONGRESSMAN. 

In this episode you will hear from the conman himself, you will listen in as the FBI moves in on the congressmen in question, and you will listen in just as the nation did as all of this unfolded. Ironically, the only story they rarely  talked about in this early stage of the game, will be the story of John Jenrette, and as we will show you there are reasons for that. 

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The Camp David Accords were the crowning achievement of the Jimmy Carter Administration foreign Policy. This episode tells the dramatic story of how Jimmy Carter was able to get these two old warriors together at Camp David in order to make it happen. 

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat  was very ready and willing to try and make the peace but an election in Israel with a surprise outcome changed the entire situation, as the hardline, conservative Likud Party was elected and Menachem Begin became the Israeli Prime Minister. Jimmy Carter found himself in a situation where one side, Egypt, trusted him completely and the other side , Israel, did not trust him at all. 

For thirteen days, the three men, held up at Camp David, and ironed out an agreement. It came after several emotional moments between the three men in which both Begin and Sadat almost walked out of the negotiations. But each time Jimmy Carter managed to figure out ways to save the day and keep both sides talking. The end result was an agreement in principle. That would need to be followed up upon later. 

That later almost never happened, and would not have, without the leadership of Jimmy Carter and his willingness to step up at a moment of great political peril for him personally to insure it would happen. This episode will tell this dramatic story about how the world was made a much safer place by the stubborn leadership of an American President who rarely gets the credit he deserved for the leadership he provided at a pivotal moment in world history. 

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In this episode we will follow the same format we have done with several other of our subjects during the run of our broadcast. We will let the tape roll and listen to advice and stories by former Congressman John Jenrette with out interruption nor narration. 

Here you will listen as Jenrette gives advice on how to win elections, how to be an effective legislator, about family, about getting things done and the show will take a few minutes to introduce you to the start of the scandal that would end his political career. 

John Jenrette was a legendary figure in politics in South Carolina, he was an extraordinarily effective legislator, and an effective campaigner. This episode will show you exactly why and provide you with some useful advice for anyone who needs to be effective at working with people and getting things done for any aspect of life, not just in politics. 

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