Obama disappointed us because he seemed to promise so much hope … Something scared him. Oliver Stone
President Kennedy was murdered by a conspiracy that was planned in advance at the highest levels of our government. And it was carried out by fanatical and disciplined cold warriors in the Pentagon and CIA’s covert operation apparatus, among them Clay Shaw here before you. It was a public execution and it was covered up by like-minded individuals in the Dallas police department, the secret service, the FBI and the White House – all the way up to, including J Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson, whom I consider accomplices after the fact. JFK ***** 1991 starring Kevin Costner & Sissy Spacek & Tommy Lee Jones & Kevin Bacon & Laurie Metcalf & Gary Oldman & Michael Rooker & Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau & Joe Pesci & John Candy et al, director Oliver Stone, Garrison
Do not forget your dying king. Show this world that this is still a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Nothing as long as you live will ever be more important. It’s up to you. ibid.
I’m afraid based on my own experience that fascism will come to America in the name of national security. Jim Garrison
By disgracing and degrading the presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream. Hunter S Thompson
Throughout the war in Vietnam the United States has exercised a degree of restraint unprecedented in the annals of war. Richard Nixon
No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then and it is misreported now. Richard Nixon
Throughout the years of negotiations we have insisted on peace with honor. Let us be proud of the young Americans who served with honor and distinction. Richard Nixon
As this long and difficult war ends I would like to address a few special words to the American people. Your steadfastness is supporting our insistence of peace with honor had made peace with honor possible. Richard Nixon
The great silent majority. Richard Nixon, broadcast 3rd November 1969
North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that. Richard Nixon, 1969
We must maintain the integrity of the White House. And that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House. Richard Nixon, address 30th April 1973
I made my mistakes but in all my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I’ve earned every cent. And in all of my years in public life I have never obstructed justice … I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President in a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. Richard Nixon, speech press conference 17th November 1973
Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal. Richard Nixon, interview David Frost 1977
I gave ’em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing. ibid.
I hope to restore respect to the presidency. Richard Nixon
We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another. Richard Nixon
I let the American people down. Richard Nixon
At the moment Nixon was enjoying his greatest political achievement, the seeds of his eventual downfall were being sown. Reports were coming in of a seemingly insignificant break-in at the Watergate building in Washington. On June 17th 1972 five men were caught installing bugging devises in the offices of the Democratic Party in the Watergate Complex. Two of the men had CIA connections. Another was James McCord – Nixon’s Public Security Chief. Days that Shook the World s1e10: Assassination of JFK & President Nixon, BBC 2003
Last October Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned over charges of tax evasion. His wasn’t the only resignation of 1973. Domestic Affairs Assistant John Ehrlichman resigned pending trial for Obstruction of Justice. And most damaging of all, the Attorney General John Mitchell, apparently the ring-leader of the Watergate bugging team, was forced to quit. ibid.
For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon. Henry Kissinger, attributed
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over ... Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy. Gerald Ford, inauguration speech
The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents to by-pass the regular party organization and dictate the terms of a national election. Gerald Ford
Now, therefore, I, Gerald R Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these present do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974. Gerald Ford
In the course of hundreds of interviews in the US, Europe and the Middle East I’ve been told repeatedly that individuals associated with the Reagan campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the presidential election. For this favor, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel. Gary Sick, Congressional evidence 5th February 1992, author The October Surprise
For forty years a secret government has been growing behind these stately tributes to American ideals. Growing like a cancer on the constitution. Bill Moyers, The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis, 1987
The United States had defied its own embargo on arms to Iran. Ronald Reagan was offering weapons to the Ayatollah Khomeini in return for the release of American hostages. The President went on television to deny it. ibid.
All this: the contempt for Congress, the defiance of law, the huge mark-ups and profits, the secret bank accounts, the shady characters, the shake-down of foreign governments, the complicity and death and destruction, they did all this in the dark, because it would never stand the light of day. Secrecy is the freedom zealots dream of. ibid.
But the Secret Government had also waged war on the American people. The Hearings examined a long train of covert actions at home, from the bugging of Martin Luther King by the FBI and of Kennedy and Johnson to gross violations of the law and of civil liberties in the 1970s. ibid.
How does it happen that to be anti-communist we have become anti-democratic, as if we have to subvert our society to save it? This is partly the answer: the powers claimed by presidents in national security have become the controlling wheel of government driving everything else. ibid.
John Lennon murdered. John Kennedy murdered. Martin Luther King murdered. Gandhi murdered. Jesus murdered. Reagan – wounded. You know, bad fucking choice. Bill Hicks, on stage
I’ve noticed a certain anti-intellectualism going round this country, man, ever since 1980. ibid.
America will never make concessions to terrorists. Ronald Reagan
It is time for us to start a build-up, a rebuilding of the military might of America. Ronald Reagan
The charge has been made that the United States has shipped weapons to Iran as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon. That the United States undercut its allies and secretly violated American policy against trafficking with terrorists. Those charges are utterly false. Ronald Reagan, televised address
We have had nothing to do with other countries and their shipment of arms. Ronald Reagan, news conference 19th November 1986