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Kick Nixon Out

By VVAW

Since 1969, when Richard Nixon was "elected," the American people and people in other parts of the world have suffered increasing attacks against them by the Nixon Administration. Although touted to be a "peacemaker," Nixon is responsible for more deaths and bombs dropped in Indochina or any other war than any one human being. He brought death to millions in his bombings of North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. His policies are responsible for continuing the war at all costs, even to the point of hiding American involvement in the fighting now raging in Southeast Asia. At home he has brought inflation, secret police and severe political repression. Now the American people are asked to let the courts and the Congress decide what should be done, the same courts and Congress that did nothing to stop Nixon's policies in the first place. If Nixon's conduct of the war is not enough, then look at the facts of his actions while in office.

INDOCHINA

In Vietnam, Nixon unleashed the most massive terror bombing campaign in the history of humanity. Over 6 million people were either killed, maimed or made homeless. In 1973, Cambodia was subjected to weeks of terror bombings, unauthorized by Congress, even after American troops had been "withdrawn" from Vietnam. The bombing of Cambodia was deliberately concealed; in a speech at a convention in New Orleans on August 20, 1973, Nixon said that he would do it again if he felt it necessary. Some 441 border crossing operations into Laos took place in 1970 after Congress passed legislation, in December 1969, prohibiting the use of US ground troops in Laos. The General Accounting Office, in a report released in October 1973, has said that the US military team in Cambodia actually is functioning as an advisory group despite the Cooper-Church amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act which said that no American aid could be used to "provide US advisors to or for the Cambodia military forces."

CIVIL LIBERTIES

On July 23, 1970, Nixon adopted the "Houston Plan." It called for surveillance of dissenters, political opponents, news reporters and government employees through burglary, wiretapping, eavesdropping, mail covers and spying by the CIA and other agencies; these operations were discovered in 1974 to have been in operation since 1970. In the same speech, Nixon told of creating the "Plumbers" unit of Watergate fame - a secret police within the White House acting outside the law by engaging in burglary, illegal wiretaps, espionage and perjury. This same unit was responsible for the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatric files and the planning of the break-in at Watergate. Under Nixon, special Grand Juries were formed across the country to intimidate and jail political activists: the Gainesville 8, Harrisburg, the Chicago 7, Seattle and many others. Nixon also began pushing for the IRS to investigate "leftist" foundations and institutions.

CORRUPTION

A connection between settlement of a Justice Department anti-trust suit against International Telephone and Telegraph and an ITT pledge of 400,000 dollars to the Republican Party was suggested in a June 25, 1971 Dita Beard memo, and a March 30, 1972 memo from White House special counsel Charles Colson to H.R. Haldeman, in which Colson said the Senate Judiciary hearings could produce revelations about the ITT case "that would lay this case on the President's doorstep." On October 31, 1973, former Attorney General Richard Kleindienst admitted that Nixon called him in April 1971 and with no discussion ordered him to drop the ITT case. A representative of the Associated Milk Producers, Inc. wrote a letter to Nixon on December 16, 1970 promising $2 million in campaign contributions if Nixon would curb dairy imports; on December 30, 1970, Nixon imposed quotas on certain dairy products. Seven major corporations have pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to CREEP, and Nixon's private secretary, Rose Mary Woods, kept a file of these contributions.

THE ECONOMY

Nixon imposed the wage-price controls that have totally failed to curb inflation. While allowing prices to rise at their own rates, wages have been held at strict levels. He passed on inside information to giant grain companies about the impending Soviet wheat deal, enabling them to make huge profits from the sale at the expense of the consumer, farmers and the taxpayers. Nixon and his administration have allowed them to force out independents and make huge profits on inflated prices; at the same time shipping out huge quantities of oil to dictator governments like Thieu of South Vietnam.

With the trials and indictments of almost all of Nixon's top advisors - his former Attorney General and several top corporate friends - it becomes clear that the problem in government is not Nixon alone, but the whole system that is crooked. The corruption, the chaotic economy, the political repression and other crimes are not because of one bad apple in the cart. The way things are run in the United States, the government, the courts, the police are all set up to serve the interests of the privileged elite, the corporate giants at the expense of the poor and working people of this country. Nixon was doing his job, serving big business -- not the American people -- and that is the crime. Getting rid of Nixon will not drastically alter the problems facing the majority of Americans, but it will show that the people are fed up with a system that places them last in its list of priorities. Nixon must be held accountable for the policies of exploitation and aggression as well as the "minor" crimes of Watergate. We must not wait for Congress to decide for us what is to be done. We must unite together and

Kick Nixon Out!