Thursday, May 15, 2014

How Richard Nixon Blackmailed Bill Clinton

From Elizabeth Drew's new book:Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall:
In perhaps the most brazen act of his effort to be a foreign-policy guru, he blackmailed Bill Clinton into consulting him on Russia. A few months after Clinton took office in 1993, Nixon got word to him that if he weren’t paid proper respect as a foreign-affairs expert he would write an op-ed in a major newspaper attacking the president’s handling of foreign policy. Following Nixon’s subterranean threat and some lobbying by his allies, Clinton telephoned him, appearing to seek his advice. Still under pressure from the Nixon camp, Clinton then reluctantly invited him to the White House on the eve of a two-man summit with Boris Yeltsin in April 1993. The meeting was held at night so that no press would be around to ask questions and take pictures of Clinton and Nixon together.


2 comments:

  1. Isn't that business as usual in these circles?

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  2. British Interests in Ukraine
    By Golem XIV on May 15, 2014 in latest

    What are we doing in Ukraine, who is doing it, why are they doing it and for whose benefit? Simple questions but to answer then, even to begin to answer them, we have to take a step back from the official drivel of championing democracy, respecting the will of the people and protecting the integrity of established national borders. We are always told, these days, that our interventions in other countries are motivated by the purest of concerns. Sometimes mention might be made of ‘national interests’. But are the interests that we intervene to protect really ‘national’, that is pertaining to and benefiting us all as a nation? Or are they more likely to be the interests of a smaller group of people?

    When we in the West look at other countries, especially those we assume are corrupt, such as Russia or Ukraine, we have no trouble seeing through the customary claims of ‘being democratic’ and ‘respecting the rule of law’, and clearly perceive that in reality it is the shady coalitions of wealthy men and their political allies who shape what goes on and for whose material benefit policies are formed, actions are taken, people are arrested and wars started.

    http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2014/05/british-interests-ukraine/

    ReplyDelete