Informationer

Nixon tape conversation 41-43

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger

June 22, 1973

1:51 p.m.

Song: Bloc Party, “The Pioneers (M83 Remix)”

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was stateside from June 18-24 in 1973 for meetings with President Nixon. Brezhnev’s visit occurred a month after the Watergate Committee began televising their hearings, though these were paused in the interests of diplomacy for Brezhnev’s visit.

This is the final telephone conversation between Kissinger and Nixon recorded; Nixon ordered the taping system to be disconnected a month later on July 18 after Alexander Butterfield revealed the system’s existence to the Watergate Committee on July 16.

Butterfield's revelation was fatal to Nixon's presidency and is ultimately responsible for these tapes becoming public.

Nixon opens by commenting on Kissinger “unfortunately” not being on stage with himself and Brezhnev. Nixon and Kissinger were notoriously jealous of each other’s media attention.

Note Nixon’s slip calling it a “treaty” as opposed to an “agreement,” which would require congressional authorization.

They dump on Secretary of State Bill Rogers, who was sidelined for Nixon’s entire presidency by Kissinger in his role as National Security Advisor. Kissinger would later take over Rogers’ role while retaining his own.

“Every war is started by breaking a treaty.”

With growing risk that he’ll have to resign the presidency, Nixon clings to the notion his personal relationship with Brezhnev is vital to keeping the U.S. and U.S.S.R. out of nuclear war.

Nixon and Kissinger enjoyed boosting their own accomplishments, but these agreements weren’t terribly significant. In RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Nixon describes them as “better than nothing” (p. 880-881). The Soviets wanted a treaty on the complete nonuse of nuclear weapons, Nixon thought that would “prevent, or at least inhibit, us from using nuclear weapons in defense of our allies or of our own vital interests,” an admittedly a fair interpretation of the word “nonuse.”

Episode 15b - Age of Violence (Kids With Guns)

Nixon Tapes - 5/16/72 (131a)

From Camp David, President Nixon calls Special Council (later convicted felon, later still born-again Evangelist) Chuck Colson to talk about the PR response to the shooting of George Wallace. He then discusses the liberals' supposed “Age of Violence” with Attorney General John Mitchell, who was also convicted for involvement in Watergate.

Song: Kids With Guns by Gorillaz, instrumental here.

Episode 15 - Bobby and Bernie

AJ and Matt talk briefly about how history tends to out and comment on Bernie’s South Carolina speech on August 21st.

The opening song is “Wrong Time Wrong Planet” by Does It Offend You, Yeah? mixed with a call between the Kennedy brothers in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs. For more background, see this excerpt from Red Heat by Alex von Tunzelmann.

The second song is an extended version of Alphaville’s “Forever Young” mixed with audio from a CBS News program in 1967 entitled “Town Meeting of the World,” featuring Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan answering questions from an international panel. Link here.

AJ returns from Greece.

Interfluidity on Greece.

Piketty on Germany.

Episode playlist.

Nixon with Bill Rogers and Hobart Lewis, April 30, 1973.

More talking in a week or so. In the meantime:

Audio is a Cornel West speech at The Nation Institute on May Day '95.

https://youtu.be/iNlSnSDfsT4?t=1h21m44s

Informationer, Episode 13

AJ and I this week talk on Warren Buffet, Bernie Sanders, how robots are taking all the work and how to make that a good thing.

The song this week, on the theme of the Iraq War, is set to “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds. Most of the clips come from the 2013 BBC Documentary entitled The Iraq War.

Along with a few clips from elsewhere, including:

John Dickerson asks George W. Bush about his "biggest mistake."

Bed: IZ-US by Aphex Twin

Informationer, Episode 12

Seymour Hersh|er

The Article In Question:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

Playlist:

Tame Impale’s “Keep On Lying” v. Seymour Hersh on Democracy Now! last week on the OBL raid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3COsYaJ47o

Kanye West’s “Paranoid” v Hersh in 1983 on C-Span discussing Kissinger with Brian Lamb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGKlTpzcTqU

Bed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwPM7u0jvO4

Rundown:

First Ten Minutes: Hersh v. Tame Impala

10m20-21m15: AJ and Matt on Hersh

23m20-Finish: Alex and Matt on Hersh

Informationer, Episode 11

On the UK General Election, 2015.

Playlist:

Ed Miliband: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Wy4Vh-4bM&list=PL5iVS_UFEbj5lAZifStpmdMDbk8GM8GvD

Labour documentaries on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5iVS_UFEbj7T0akv5_pK2gmuJMwhVHUP

With extended cuts of "Don't You Want Me?" by The Human League and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears for Fears.

Beds:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_1EKF4FvhU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfq5bAy5uU

Informationer, Episode Ten!

Informationer’s new regular contributor AJ Williams and I discuss:

Yanis Varoufakis, Greece, Europe http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21649491-immovable-yanis-varoufakis-absent-professor

The concept of a Unconditional Basic Income (via Ralph Nader Radio Hour: https://overcast.fm/+Bmix3FZTE)

Jeb Bush at the National Review Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lIQLWrOJPAVolunteering and not volunteering for Bernie Sanders Hillary as GOP TrollRand Paul, Martin O’Malley, and Chris Christie as becoming irrelevant.Finally, a wider view on rioting.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5iVS_UFEbj4hp9xIUDbPfftha-p7-6a6Playlist:A conversation with Yanis Varoufakis at the Brookings Institution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkxnTTCIR24Mixed with:Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra - Austerity Blues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-6Rf7C8Kd8Beds:https://soundcloud.com/user48736353001/plinkyplonkhttps://soundcloud.com/user48736353001/suzannehttps://soundcloud.com/user48736353001/2tonecamborne-college-mixhttps://soundcloud.com/user48736353001/28-organ

James Baldwin and William F. Buckley debate whether "The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro." Mixed with slowed songs from Aphex Twin's "Syro."

On YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w

The first 23 minutes contain arguments on both sides by Cambridge students.

23m45s: James Baldwin speaks.

48m14s: William F Buckley speaks.

More on the debate here:

Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/when-james-baldwin-met-bill-buckley/255787/

Open Culture:

http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/james_baldwin_bests_william_f_buckley_in_1965_debate_at_cambridge_university.html