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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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The second episode of a two part look back at the Vietnam War on the 50th Anniversary of its end. In this episode you will hear from private soldiers,  to the tapes of the two Commander and Chiefs, as we hear the struggles of the two Presidents who had to preside over the war, and the troops who fought the war. and several of the Prisoners of War. 

The audio for these two episodes came from the ceremonies sponsored by the Military Appreciation Committee of the City of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as the Memorial Day events centered this year on the Travelling Vietnam War Memorial, the 50th Anniversary of the release of the Prisoners of War reunion  sponsored by the Richard Nixon Foundation, and held in Yorba Linda, California, the audio tape recordings of both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and the audio from the original POW Dinner at the White House in May of 1973. 

It certainly will show you that Freedom is not free. 

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The first episode of a two part look back at the Vietnam War on the 50th anniversary of its end. In this episode you will hear from military front line privates, to the tapes of the two Commander and Chiefs, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon,  as we listen in on the struggles of the two Presidents who had to preside over the war ,  the troops who fought the war, and several of the Prisoners of War too. 

The audio for these two episodes came from the ceremonies sponsored by the Military Appreciation Committee of the City of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as the Memorial Day events centered this year on the Travelling Vietnam War Memorial, the 50th Anniversary of the release of the Prisoners of War reunion  sponsored by the Richard Nixon Foundation and held in Yorba Linda, California, the audio tape recordings of both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and the audio from the original POW Dinner at the White House in May of 1973. 

It certainly will show you that freedom is not free. 

Questions or comments at  , [email protected] ,  https://twitter.com/randal_wallace   , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this episode we look back at several of the accomplishments of John Jenrette's time in the United States House of Representative. In many ways it laid the groundwork for  much of the enormous growth we have seen in our region over the past 40 plus years. 

We will look at the start of the Tourism and Travel Caucus that allowed the tourism industry to finally have a group in Congress to protect its interests and help the nation develop a strategy to make the industry grow.  And grow it has to a 1.2 Trillion Dollar industry that employs one in ten Americans all over the country. John Jenrette created the Tourism and Travel Caucus and it is still in existence today. The fact is that John Jenrette, then representing a regional tourism destination, had put Myrtle Beach on the map as the leader in tourism innovation and in a place of leadership for the industry.  Today the Grand Strand welcomes 20 million tourists annually. 

John Jenrette was also a leader in protecting the interest of small farmers in an era when Agribusiness was taking over the Agriculture world. Secretary Earl Butts was the face of Farming policy in America and his philosophy was "Go big or go home" and that put America's small farmers at an enormous disadvantage. However, in Congress the small farmer had one true champion to keep that mentality in check and it was universally seen as Congressman John Jenrette.  From defending the pesticide Miramax to fight fire ants, to investigating prices during the era of price controls in order to protect the small farmers,  John Jenrette  also tripled the exemption on the inheritance tax so that those small farmers, and small business people for that matter too, were protected from having to sell their family farms because they had ended up land rich but cash poor, a benefit that is still protecting the common man to this day.

Finally, it was in constituent service that John Jenrette had a record that is the stuff of legend. He helped any and everyone who came to him for help. One of the most consequential is the help he gave a future member of the South Carolina Hall of Fame, Ron McNair.  A man who dreamed of becoming an Astronaut, who grew up in the segregated southern town of Lake City , South Carolina. He would go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earn a doctorate in science. In an era when there were over 10,000 applications to get into the NASA Space Program, Ron McNair applied and then went to his friend Thelma McClam who worked for Congressman John Jenrette to see if he could get help to get in the program.  

In this episode we tell the story of how John Jenrette worked overtime to win over the entire South Carolina Congressional delegation and then the President of the United States in order to help Ron McNair get in the Space Program. Ron McNair today is seen as a hero to people all over America, especially in South Carolina and in his hometown of Lake City, S. C. 

Finally we will tell the story of the building of the Georgetown Bridge over the Sampit River. A bridge John Jenrette got raised to over 60 feet and opened Georgetown County up to easy commerce. It is a physical symbol of the enormous success he was able to accomplish for his state in his 6 years in Congress. 

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It was a new era in Washington D.C. and the United States of America. Finally, the great gash in modern American history, The Vietnam War and the Watergate Crisis, was in the rearview mirror.  It was all symbolized by a new American President from Georgia, who had risen out of seemingly nowhere to be elected President.  He represented a refreshing change, with a big toothy smile, and Baptist Minister like promise that he would never lie to the American People,  a peanut farmer ushered in an outsider tenure, and rested away the reigns of power from the Washington insiders many saw as having nearly driven the country off a cliff. 

Now Jimmy Carter would address the nation and do something we had not seen since the days of Thomas Jefferson in the Presidency. He got out of the limousine and walked the full length of Pennsylvania Avenue. It was as shocking in the moment as it was refreshing for the American People to see for themselves a new President, a President who was one of us. 

In this episode we let you relive the Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his full address, and a good chunk of his walk down Pennsylvania  Avenue as though you were right there watching it as it happened. 

Questions or comments at  , [email protected] ,  https://twitter.com/randal_wallace   , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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