Lessons From History

Watergate And The Reputation Of Richard Nixon

Lessons From History
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Created on Saturday, 08 January 2011 11:26

On May 28, 1972, five men broke into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. and were arrested while they were still in the building. American politics has never been the same since then. 

What seemed like a routine break-in was actually the tip of a mammoth political iceberg, which ran from the intelligence operatives to members of the White House staff and finally to President Nixon himself, a man whose mission to find dirt on his opponents led to his ultimate and extremely public downfall.

This Discovery Channel retrospective (produced in 1994) is, bar none, the most comprehensive, intelligent and exhaustive documentary you could ever find on the subject. Going far beyond a basic rehashing of the events, Watergate takes the viewer painstakingly through the entire scandal, from break-in to resignation. The documentary utilizes video footage, newspaper coverage, those infamous White House tapes, and most impressively, interviews with all the in 1994 still living participants in the Watergate scandal (with the exception of Henry Kissinger), some reading from their own notes.

It's amazing to hear the details of America's biggest political debacle straight from the horses' mouths–Haldeman, Erlichman, Liddy, John Dean, even Nixon himself via his 1977 interview with David Frost.

This is a 4 hour clear-eyed portrait of Watergate from the inside that covers this fascinating chapter of American history better than any other previous documentary with regard to this subject.

The Reputation Of Richard Nixon

 

Whistle-Blowers: A Conversation with Ellsberg and Dean

Lessons From History
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Created on Monday, 14 June 2010 15:47

What lessons do the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the "War on Terror" offer about the abuse of power by the executive branch in times of national crisis?

Join Daniel Ellsberg, the RAND strategist whose leak of the Pentagon Papers helped bring down the Nixon presidency and end the Vietnam War, and John Dean, White House counsel to Nixon and later a key whistle-blower on the Watergate scandal, for a conversation about the perils — then and now — of presidential overreach and excessive secrecy.

The event, sponsored by the Open Society Institute National Security and Human Rights Campaign, comes on the eve of the U.S. premiere of the feature documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith present clips from the film.

Ann Beeson, executive director for U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute and former associate legal director at the ACLU, moderates the discussion with Ellsberg and Dean.

 

The Secret Government

Lessons From History
Published on

Created on Saturday, 28 March 2009 14:22

This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer's 1987 scathing critique of the criminal act of subterfuge by the Executive Branch of the United States Government, to carry out operations which were clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today than when it was made.

The world is now faced with a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack in human history (in case you haven’t figured it out yet: 9/11 was an Inside Job) and have declared a fraudulent so-called "War on Terror".

The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are now banging the war drum against Iran. The USA has the PATRIOT ACT which has stripped Americans of many of their basic civil rights justified by the terror of 9/11, a crime that was perpetrated by the US Government.