The Mysteries of History (June 17 Edition)
Statue of Welcome; Watergate Roaches
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana, 1905
1885 — Immigrant from France Arrives in the U.S.
stylized/“poetic license” (and anachronistic) image of the Statue of Liberty’s 1885 arrival in New York generated using Google Gemini
She came broken down into 350 individual pieces, carefully packaged into over 200 shipping crates. It was originally hoped that the “Statue of Liberty” (named Liberty Enlightening the World by its sculptor) would be completed in time for the Nation’s Centennial in 1876, but was delayed several years. One of the reasons was problems with funding. In the end, the French people paid the equivalent of 5.5 million dollars to create this gift to the American people.
The Statue was not reassembled and erected until spring of the next year, 1886, as its pedestal had to be formed and poured first. The architect of the statue had figuratively put his own mother on a pedestal in the creation of the 151-foot tall sculpture (at 154 feet, the pedestal is a little taller than the effigy), as she was his model for it.
The Statue of Liberty was the subject of a poem written by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) named The New Colossus. Ms. Lazarus wrote it to raise funds for the building of the pedestal. In part, the poem reads:
… her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; . . Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
On its dedication in 1886, then-President Grover Cleveland said, “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home.” The statue was at first copper-colored, but over time has faded, turning a somewhat sickly bluish-green.
A few years after the dedication, in 1892, Ellis Island, the primary port for immigration, opened nearby.
Questions: Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty? If so, did you climb the stairs to the top of it? Is the U.S. still a “mother of exiles,” welcoming “the homeless, tempest-tost”? How many generations back do you have to go before you find an ancestor who came to the U.S. from another country? Did they arrive at Ellis Island? What was their (or your) experience like?
1972 — Creeping Creeps Arrested at the DNC
image generated using Bing Image Creator
The following is what I wrote about the Watergate break-in and scandal in my book Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History — Volume 2: 1914-2006:
“I doubt that a country can live in freedom where its people can be made to suffer physically or financially for criticizing their government, its actions, or its officials.”
—Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black
“I think that Watergate is the greatest tragedy this country has ever suffered.”
—Senator Sam Ervin, Jr.
“It was an attempt, on the national level, to subvert the two-party system, which is right at the roots of our system. It was a naked attempt to use power for the perpetu ation of power, and down that road dictatorship thrives and democracy cannot sur vive. It was a naked attempt to circumvent the democratic system of law that its perpetrators had sworn to uphold.”—Walter Cronkite
“People have been hurt so many times, they can’t trust any more. Every time a promise was made, it wasn’t kept. We live not as our ancestors had planned, but as their worst nightmare, a nation of bureaucrats of the worst kind. We have become so imbalanced in our world that the chances of getting punished for doing a good job are higher than for doing a bad job. If each one should speak out, we could begin to trust each other once again and respect each other for having the courage to try and change.”
—Robin Powell, Chippewa
Although Richard Nixon was a shoe-in to be re-elected as President later this year, Nixon staff members, part of CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) broke into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. “Tricky Dick,” as the President was known by col leagues and the press, had already been involved in “dirty tricks” against Dem ocratic challengers. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein from The Washington Post tenaciously tracked down leads and discovered the White House was involved in the Watergate break-in.
June 17th, five burglars were arrested. These men, dressed as “plumbers,” were sent there to plug breeches regarding the Pentagon Papers. They also planted bugs at Democratic headquarters, so they could listen in on strategy sessions held there. Nixon’s campaign manager, former U.S. Attorney Gen eral John Mitchell, led CREEP. One of the “plumbers” who was nabbed was carrying an address book which contained E. Howard Hunt’s contact info. Hunt had been a CIA agent; he had been head of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hunt was assistant to Charles Colson, Nixon’s Special Counsel. His address, as noted in the burglar’s address book? “The White House.” Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, CREEP’s general counsel, were indicted on charges of bur glary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. After their convictions, Nixon’s aides began to talk.
Many of the President’s aides who were involved resigned, including Nixon’s closest advisers, John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman. Vice President Spiro Agnew admitted to filing a bogus tax return and accepting bribes while he was Governor of Maryland. Agnew eventually (late 1974) resigned. It was requested of Nixon that he hand over copies of his taped White House conversations (he had secret recording devices planted all over the White House, and obsessively recorded virtually every official conversation he ever had there). When Nixon finally complied, and turned over the tapes to prosecutors, one of the tapes had an eighteen minute gap—whatever had been on the tape had been erased.
Showing just how strong his position as incumbent was, even after the break-ins, Nixon defeated George McGovern and won reelection. Soon after his second term began, though, more and more of the dirty laundry, some related to Watergate, and some random other shenanigans, came to light about the Nixon administration. Among “Tricky Dick’s” laundry list of dirty rotten imbecilic tricks and shady shenanigans were:
• John Mitchell controlled secret monies used to finance a campaign of forged letters and falsified “news items” intended to damage the Democratic party.
• Major U.S. corporations had contributed millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.
• Hunt and Liddy had burglarized the office of “Pentagon Papers” whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in an attempt to discredit Ellsberg.
• There was a plan to physically assault Ellsberg, as well.
• Nixon had promised clemency and money to the Watergate burglars if they remained silent.
• FBI files on the Watergate break-in were turned over to Nixon’s attorney John Dean by L. Patrick Gray, who was Nixon’s nominee to replace the deceased J. Edgar Hoover.
• Nixon directed the CIA to instruct the FBI to not investigate Watergate.
• Nixon redirected/diverted (stole) $10 million dollars of taxpayer money to make improvements to his personal homes.
• In 1969 and 1970, the U.S. had secretly bombed Cambodia without the consent (or even knowledge) of Congress.
Soon-to-be (but not soon enough) ex-President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon asserted that his administration was not involved in the Watergate break-in. That was a creepy-faced lie.
Investigative journalists extraordinaire Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward uncovered the dirt swept beneath the carpet in Nixon’s administration.
The excrement struck the rotating blades when a “domino” effect began toppling various government officials involved in the scandal and its coverup: criminal convictions, resignations, and firings galore occurred until the inevitable comeuppance finally arrived for the horrendously corrupt Nixon.
It actually took over two years from the time of the arrest of the roach-like “plumbers” (who had been carrying out their misdeeds in the dark and scurried for cover when the light exposed them) until Nixon was outed, implicated, in danger of being impeached, but then resigned before it could come to that.
Questions: If you were alive and aware of current events in 1972, what was your reaction to the Watergate scandal? If you were not, what was your reaction when you first heard about it (perhaps you were “today years old” at the time)? Have you read the Woodward and Bernstein book All the President’s Men? Have you seen the movie of the same name?
