The Richard Nixon Experience

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In this episode, we see President Nixon moving in on what he believes will be peace in Vietnam. However, it is not without issues and games being played by not only our enemies in Hanoi, or their allies in Peking and Moscow, but also by our own friends in Saigon too. 

This is a fascinating look at the end of the War in Vietnam that so divided the nation and we listen in on the thoughts of the men who brought that war to an end, Richard Nixon and one of his assistants General Alexander Haig.  These calls cover mostly 1972. 

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In this second episode on General alexander Haig , we will listen in on the phone calls between the President and the Assistant National Security Advisor Al Haig. These are the calls from 1971 and they cover several different subjects from the theft of the Pentagon Papers, to issues in Africa, to the Indian - Pakistan War.  Plus the war in Vietnam. 

We have used some of these calls in our earlier series on Vietnam and some are shared here for the first time. What you will hear is a President in firm control of his foreign policy and the adept way Alexander Haig assisted Henry Kissinger in carrying it out.  

These next three episodes are a chance for you to hear the thinking and the strategy of an American President during war time working to get our troops and POW's out and how the same President handles a various array of issues and problems.  these are the calls between Nixon and Haig and we hope you will enjoy them and find them insightful too. 

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This is the first episode in a four episode special series looking back at the life of General Alexander Haig.  Haig served several Presidents, working most closely with Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan. He has been a major player throughout the time periods we have been covering throughout the entire storyline of our podcast. He has been such a large player throughout the run of our series and  we thought here at what will be his last major appearance in our timeline that now was a time to look back at Al Haig, so that you could get a full picture of this man who played such a major role in four major historic moments in our nation's history: The Vietnam War, Watergate, the Nixon Pardon by Ford, and The Reagan State Department. 

To say Alexander Haig was a major player in all of these events would be a major understatement. All three of these Presidents relied on Haig for advice an understanding of the World. Over the final months of the Vietnam War, Haig helped guide the President to the conclusion, as we shall see in this special series, and it is alleged he may have also later helped guide Richard Nixon out of the Presidency.  Haig's role in the Nixon years, especially, is not without controversy, some of which I was unaware of when I started this podcast several years ago. 

In this episode we will look back at several historic moments from the life of Alexander Haig.  We start first at the moment that most likely ended his political life when he stepped up to the cameras and insisted he was incharge of the government after the assassination attempt on President Reagan.  We will hear from the man himself, from an interview he gave while attempting to run for President in his own right in 1988. We will hear of his role in the pardon of Richard Nixon from Gerald Ford, and we will hear of his successes as Secretary of State including his role in trying to prevent the Falklands War. 

But it is his role at the end of Vietnam, and at the end of the Nixon Administration itself that has engendered the most controversy, including accusations that at some point he may have been involved in a spy ring against the President from the Joints Chiefs of Staff, and also that he may have been a secret source for the Washington Post's journalistic team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, while also managing the Nixon White House as its Chief of Staff.  We will examine it all here in this first of four episodes on General Alexander Haig. 

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Henry Kissinger, a giant of American History, and arguably the nations greatest diplomat died on November 29, 2023 at the age of 100. 

In this episode we look back at his extraordinary 100 years as he worked with Richard Nixon to bring peace to millions of people around the world and keep our nation safe here at home. 

His passing comes at an unusual moment as our rebroadcast of the Nixon Podcast Documentary  is,  in December,  coming to the section that brings to a close the end of the Vietnam War. The bulk of the coming episodes is a window into this extraordinary partnership between one of the four greatest Presidents in American History and one of its  greatest diplomats, as they bring to a close a war that ripped apart the American people as few things have over its nearly 250 year history. 

We invite you to tune in, in December, to a month that will be dedicated to the memory of Henry Kissinger as it shows you in real time the true story of how the Vietnam War ended.  So please join us at "The Richard Nixon Experience" (a link is provided in the chapter lists)  or go through our back catalogue here at "Randal Wallace Presents" for a chance to deep dive into the most comprehensive examination of the Nixon tapes available online, other than at Luke Nichter's www.Nixontapes.org website. You can also visit www.RandalWallace.com to hear our show and read all about these podcasts. 

We want to thank CNN News and FOX News whose reports and two interviews  we used to tell this story, as quickly as we could.

Henry Kissinger was 100 years old. 

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In this special edition we will examine the recently declassified letter written by former President Richard Nixon to President Bill Clinton just after his two week trip to Russia and Europe. In the letter Richard Nixon gives the young President a thorough examination of what he thinks is happening in Russia, Ukraine and in Europe. In it he stresses the importance in helping Russia preserve its new found freedoms and helping it get on its feet economically and he discusses the dire consequences that could happen if we fail. 

It reads as though a psychic wrote it. It is a powerful letter and it was appreciated at the time by President Clinton and it is even more appreciated today. It really puts on display the brilliance of our former President and a man who ranks among our greatest American leaders in the history of the Republic. Here is a fine example, bold, strategic, insightful and full of visionary advice, as to why that latter statement is true. 

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For all of the folks who have said to me that our long documentary on Watergate and the massive evidence of alleged prosecutorial misconduct just did not seem plausible. This special edition is for you. It is a story I had not heard before until our podcast's friend , Geoff Shepard, sent the story to me and then I proceeded to research it. 

It is the story of one of greatest injustices ever perpetuated on a group of our soldiers, accusing three African American fighting men of murder, and causing 47 more, all African Americans, to face trial and court martial for a riot in November of 1944. It would be another 64 years before this injustice was ever set straight. An early investigation had been conducted of the events in question before the Army Prosecutor had been sent to work on the case and that investigation had cleared every single African American soldier involved of any wrong doing. 

But the Prosecutor decided to prosecute all of them  anyway, even though he knew of the report that said they were all innocent men. He actively hid the report refusing to turn it over to a rushed Defense Team knowing they only had 10 days to prepare their case. It was a travesty of American Justice. 

That prosecutor was named Leon Jaworski and the case has many earie similarities to the long national nightmare of Watergate, we just chronicled in our last three season series.  This is a sad, sad , story.  A story that brings new insight to the massive amount of new evidence that has emerged that shows that Richard Nixon, and many of his top aids, may not have been as guilty as we have all been led to believe for the past half century. 

To learn more about the 1944 Fort Lawton riot see these links :  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lawton_riot

KCTS 9 Connects: Miscarriage of Justice

https://youtu.be/Nxil2dibqiU

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In this episode we look back at the relationship between President Richard Nixon and California Governor and future President Ronald Reagan.  As you will see it is obvious that Richard Nixon is actually working to open the doors of opportunity to his fellow Californian as he brings jobs to the state and arranges for Reagan to spend time with dignitaries from around the world too, 

Reagan in turn offers up his own ideas and suggestions on how to handle some of the world situations confronting President Nixon, from appointments to the Supreme Court, to who he thinks would be a good Attorney General, to a rather ugly call in the wake of the United Nations voting to expel Taiwan as it excepted into its membership the People's Republic of China. 

Finally, we will listen in as an embattled President, who has just fired his most trusted advisors in April of 1973, receives a phone call from Ronald Reagan, who offers up his support as only a friend would attempt to do.  It is an intimate look into the relationship between arguably two of the five greatest American Presidents in all of American History.

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In this episode we look back at the early career of George H. W. Bush, as we review his father's term in the United States Senate, his own race for the U.S. Senate against Senator Ralph Yarborough, his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, and his defeat at the hands of Lloyd Bentsen in 1968. All this from a comprehensive report by NBC News with Brian Williams that gives a great overview of the former President's career. 

We will then follow NBC News' Brian Williams  to the look at the help and connections that Bush received from  President Richard Nixon. Nixon had been a friend of Bush's father , Senator Prescott Bush, who was an old golfing buddy of President Dwight Eisenhower. That connection and Nixon's need to elevate the defeated Republican from Texas as cover in order to also place the former Democratic Governor, John Connally, in as the Treasury Secretary, led to the door opening for George Bush to become the Ambassador to the United Nations in New York. It would be in that role that George Bush would shine and see his star finally begin to rise in Republican circles. 

It will be here that we begin to let you listen in to the interaction between the new Ambassador and his benefactor, President Richard Nixon. We will insert into the report full conversations between Nixon and Bush as they discuss issues in the United Nations and positions the President wants Bush to pursue.  One you will get to listen into is the work Bush did in the UN to help Pakistan as it was invaded by the Indians in 1971. It is a fascinating look behind the scenes of American Foreign Policy concerning one of the most dangerous regions of the world both then and now, the border between India and Pakistan. 

You will also again get to listen in as President Nixon moves Kansas Senator Bob Dole out as the Chairman of the Republican Party in order to move George H. W. Bush in after the historic landslide victory of the President by the largest margin in history, a 49 state landslide. But the job won't turn out to be as good as it seemed as Watergate would soon overwhelm the President and put George Bush in as unenviable a position as could possibly be imagined. Then we bring you through the Ford years and the eve of Bush's run for the Presidency in 1980.

Finally our episode will conclude with an interview of George H. W. Bush conducted in 1999 with C-Span's Brian Lamb where the former President discusses these years and his own relationship with former President Richard Nixon, (though this interview was conducted long before we knew so much about the wrongs done to Nixon by the WSPF) It is a fascinating look at the relationship between Bush and the man who made his subsequent career possible, Richard Nixon. 

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In this episode, we look back at John Connally's relationship to President Richard Nixon.  In this episode we feature two calls, one just after Nixon was re-elected President when you see that Connally has enormous influence over the President. He is giving the President advice on how to conduct the second term and which changes he needs to consider making for that term. 

In another call we listen as the men discuss an incident that had occured at the White House just the day before. President Nixon had invited the Ray Coniff Singers to perform for a reception honoring the publishers of the magazine "The Reader's Digest" (My Dad's favorite magazine) . Just as the program was about to begin one of the singers, Carol Firace , confronted the President and implored him to stop the bombing of Vietnam and for God to bless Daniel Ellsberg.  Firace got kicked out of the event. 

We will look back at that event, the young lady it involved, the news coverage, and how it became a significant protest event in the history of the White House. Then we will listen in to President Nixon and JOhn Connally as they discuss what had happened. 

We hope that after these three episodes you will have a better feel as to what a major figure John Connally had been in the previous 20 years of political life in America, especially the Southwest. We hope you also can learn enough to make your own decision as to whether you think he would have tried to sabotage the Carter Administration. 

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In this episode , we look back at the high drama of winning a historic primary and unseating a political giant, only to lose in the general election. Then coming back two years later to finally win a seat in the United States House of Representatives. It was a rollercoaster of a ride with enormously consequential side stories that had far reaching importance. 

For the 1972 race for the 6th District Congressional Seat would open the door for the City of Washington D.C. to finally have some semblance of self governing. For years, John McMillan who chaired the committee that governed the District had prevented any form of self rule , save the schoolboard, from getting out of his committee.  African Americans had decided that the only way to achieve this goal was to unseat McMillan, and they would organize to try it twice, in 1970 when they lost and again in 1972. This time they had a strong candidate and they knew it. John Jenrette was young, talented, and had been a friend to the African American Community for years. 

We will listen as John Jenrette tells the story of how he got in the race, and why he decided to stay in the race even when he had only a 3% name identification in the district. He would get help from Muhammad Ali, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. He would get help from his cousin the State Senator, James Stevens, and the race would be razor thin but John Jenrette would win. 

Then he would face State Representative Ed Young, a Republican, who would get help from John McMillan and many other disgruntled Democrats. He would also have another ace up his sleeve, one of the greatest leaders in American History, Richard Nixon. It would prove to be a mountain to high for John Jenrette to climb and Ed Young would get elected to Congress. 

But two years later all of that would change.  

NOTE: This show features my proudest researching find, the meeting between President Richard Nixon, 6th District Republican nominee Ed Young , and Nixon aid Harry Dent from South Carolina, from the Nixon taping system.