Politics: Flying as Falling

 

Politics: Flying as Falling

Peter Schultz

 

                  There is an interesting passage in Ray Locker’s book, Haig’s Coup which draws on Richard Nixon’s memoirs regarding Watergate and John Dean:

 

                  “But, as Nixon soon realized, the facts did not matter. ‘I was worried about the wrong problem … I went off on a tangent, concentrating … on trying to refute Dean by pointing out his exaggerations, distortions, and discrepancies. But even as we geared up to do this, the real issue had changed. It no longer made any difference that not all of Dean’s testimony was accurate. It only mattered if any of his testimony was accurate.’” [109]

 

                  If “facts” didn’t matter, what did? If Dean’s misleading testimony didn’t matter, why not? What was “the real issue?”

 

                  The real issue had become Richard Nixon, not Dean. The real issue was not what had Nixon actually done regarding Watergate, but what he had done politically. The real issue had become Nixon’s politics, just as when Nixon had successfully taken on Alger Hiss, the issue had become Hiss’s politics, his alleged communism, and not what he had actually done.

 

                  So, because Nixon was to be judged politically, Dean’s testimony did not have to be completely accurate. It only had to be “more accurate than [Nixon’s] had to be,” and refuting Dean point by point would not help or save Nixon, as Nixon eventually realized.

 

                  But Nixon could not adequately defend himself politically because he had acted duplicitously. He had secretly bombed Laos and Cambodia, and he had told the Chinese and the Soviets that he would not, after “a decent interval” had passed, defend South Vietnam to prevent it becoming communist. Were he to reveal his duplicity it would only confirm his untrustworthiness and, more importantly, it would subvert the legitimacy of the American political order by exposing its duplicitous character. Nixon could not adequately defend himself for the same reason he did not expose the Joint Chiefs of Staff spying on his administration. To have done so would have undermined the legitimacy of the Joint Chiefs and of the political system more generally. Nixon’s only option was to try to cover up the Watergate burglary and other actions of his administration such as the Huston Plan, the bugging by the FBI of NSC staff members and journalists, and the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office., as well as questionable campaign financing decisions and actions.  

 

                  “Funny how falling feels like flying…...for a little while.” Duplicity facilitated Nixon’s successes but also led to his downfall. More generally, it might be said that political life is characterized by the same scenario, a vicious circle of duplicitous behavior that only works for “a little while.” Ala’ the Declaration of Independence: Oppression leads to revolution, revolution leads to government, government eventually becomes oppressive, leading to another revolution, and on and on it goes. The arc of history does not bend toward justice, except of course for “a little while.”