1971 Nixon

There has been a lot of buzz about Watergate lately. I'm not sure if there is an anniversary, or what the occasion is. A couple of new books and new tape transcriptions have come out. It was serendipitous for me to have picked this time to read Mallon's novel on the subject. This excerpt, however, comes from George Will's column.

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At about 5:15 p.m. on June 17, 1971, in the Oval Office, the president ordered a crime: “I want it implemented on a thievery basis. Goddamn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.”

The burglary he demanded was not the one that would occur exactly one year later at the Democratic National Committee’s office in the Watergate complex. Richard Nixon was ordering a break-in at the Brookings Institution, a think tank, to seize material concerning U.S. diplomacy regarding North Vietnam during the closing weeks of the 1968 presidential campaign.

-- George F. Will at The Washington Post

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This is about Nixon's illegal interference with peace talks between the LBJ administration and Vietnam.

Microwave Ovens

We got a new microwave oven. Pop didn’t wear his bargain-hunter’s cap. He got a nice one this time. Maybe he was tired of the cheapy one we had. It was still pretty new. The deal is that Kay’s microwave oven broke, and Pop made that kind of tight-fisted move that is typical of him. He gave her our old one and got himself a new one, rather than simply get her a new one. I wonder if she feels a little resentment over that. It reminds me that I should not take it too personally when Pop does that kind of thing with me. That’s just the way he is. He is not a cruel man, but he is very self-interested. I am afraid I have that from him, too; it just doesn’t come out as much because I have no social life and no money.