Tuesday, August 5, 2014

New Revelations About Nixon's Planned Attack on Brookings

A plot to firebomb and burglarize a well-known think tank in Dupont Circle?  Yes, those were the wild days of the 1970s.

It is the 40th anniversary of  President Richard Nixon's resignation stemming from Watergate, and a variety of new books are coming out about the scandal as well as other Nixon plans and plots, including one against the venerable think tank Brookings Institution.  Here is more from a recent article about three new Nixon books:

Ken Hughes, who helps run the Miller Center's Presidential Recording Program at the University of Virginia, said that a year before the Watergate break-in, Nixon's aides drew up plans to cover up a crime Nixon committed during his 1968 campaign.
Hughes, who also has researched the White House tapes of Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, said the president had ordered the men to break into the Brookings Institution to steal documents about Vietnam.
Hughes said he uncovered evidence suggesting Nixon wanted the documents because they prove he manipulated South Vietnamese policy in 1968 to boost his popularity.
"He asked the South Vietnamese to sabotage the 1968 peace talks until after the election," said Hughes.
"Liddy and [coconspirator E. Howard] Hunt came up with a plan to firebomb the Brookings and send in burglars dressed as firemen," said Hughes.
The plan was abandoned. "The White House told them it would be too expensive to get a fire truck," said Hughes.

Here is more about the plans Nixon had for Brookings.  Yes, there is actual recorded proof of this.