New Nixon Tapes Reveal Empathy For Vietnam Protesters

[Grassy Knoll]

Run time: 02:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5ebFSAZmdY   Posted on YouTube: November 11, 2011 By YouTube Member: fal2grace Views on YouTube: 334   Posted on DU: November 12, 2011 By DU Member: Grassy Knoll Views on DU: 2381

 

[bluestateguy]

1. That scene is in Oliver Stone's movie "Nixon"

When I saw it in the movie years ago I was sure that it was just Hollywood fluff, but learned that in fact that did really happen.

[deminks]

2. Empathy for the ones killed in Ohio? Or the ones that he condascended to talk to?

The ones he snuck out in the middle of the night so no one would see him talking to dirty hippies, then he could write about how magnanimous he was to talk to them - those protesters? Empathy? Nixon? In the same breath, those two words? I am skeptical.

[freshwest]

3. Agnew usually did the trash talk. But Nixon was seriously bad news. No one should be fooled by this.

I lived through the whole thing and remember it well. He was a vicious, conniving man with mental issues. And a lot of people were maimed and killed and his appointees and friends kept on ruining the world. He was one of the worst presidents ever. The only thing that made his administration look good was a Democratic majority that tried to respond to the causes of the protestors. Not Nixon.

[MADem]

4. Yeah, he was a real charmer!

Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD593z4kzXU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTPyE6f7GnQ&feature=related

Even when you hear him, you just can't believe anyone would talk like that!

[Tom Ripley]

11. His deep psychological insight into the Jewish psyche is projection at its finest

[MADem]

12. I used to have a friend who could be very ironic at times....

He was Jewish, and used to do a killer imitation, full of bitter amusement and well before Watergate got boiling, of Nixon railing about "the Joooooooooooooooooz" -- we'd laugh, and say "Oh, that's so OVER THE TOP! What a hoot--how...outrageous!"

Years later, hearing these tapes, I gotta say--he was close to the mark!

[freshstart]

6. I'm skeptical too.

Wasn't it Nixon that called those killed at Kent State bums?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FakLUusNlXc

[pam4water]

5. I'm so sick of the rehabilitate Nixon crap I could vomit.

[Deep13]

7. Why is the POTUS talking unsupervised to the public considered one of the "oddest" episodes?

One would think it would be standard practice.

Regarding the indignation over the "rehabilitation" of Nixon: Nothing can undue the damage he did. But lets not forget that his capacity for evil does not make him any less human than we are. In fact, given human name, the capacity for evil is partly what defines human nature. Nixon, Stalin, Hitler, Torquemada, Bush, Michelle Bachman, and their accomplices are all exactly as human as you and me. They have feeling, including positive ones. They operate from mixed motives. They were capable of compassion and courage as well as craven hatred. Turning our enemies into cartoonish super-villains is a way to distance ourselves from their evil acts. I'm not like them. I would never do that. Well, hopefully that is true, but we are all the same species and we are all capable of evil. By dehumanizing them we miss the essential lesson: we must always be on guard against mass violence because anyone of us could be the next Nixon or Hitler. I am finishing a class on genocide right now and what is striking about every example is how ordinary the perpetrators were. So, I don't forget what Nixon did, nor do I forgive. But let's not pretend that he was made of stone.

[Bucky]

8. Richard Nixon was the smartest drugged-up manic depressive president we've ever had.

And that's saying something. Too bad about all those thousands of Cambodians he murdered.

[fascisthunter]

9. was he really bi-polar?

[alphafemale]

10. Yet he founded the EPA. He supported the ERA. How far the republican party has fallen.

I do think Nixon had a front load of mental health issues though.