1974

January 4th 1974 Nixon still refusing to hand over tapes and documents subpoenaed by the senate Watergate committee. In March seven men were indicted including Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and White House Special Counsel Charles Colson – for conspiracy to obstruct justice and the Grand Jury decided Nixon was involved with the WG cover-up. He was subpoenaed top produce tapes for an impeachment inquiry on April 11th. So Nixon announced the release of edited transcripts of some secretly made WH tapes, but contained suspicious gaps. On May 9th the House Judiciary Committee opened hearings into whether to impeach Nixon.
In May, Congress began impeachment proceedings against Nixon .

Edward Heath who’d been pm since, 18th June 1970. lost election to Labour – Harold Wilson became pm

April 1974
April 10th1974 Deng Xiaoping vice premier announced to the UN GA a more moderate Chinese Foreign policy.
George HW Bush was the new head of liaison office – arrived in China for talks with Deng Xiaoping. Nixon went back to China for talks with Chen en Lai, Xiaoping and foreign minister Qiao Guanhua.

25th April 1974 – The Portuguese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest triggered revolution.

May 1974
Richard Nixon was interviewed by David Frost on May 4th. Nixon had been in seclusion the previous two months.
May 23rd the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Halderman, Ehrlichman & John Mitchell. 1975?

June 1974
Cuba – first realisation of Castro’s commitment to bring “People’s Power” to the whole of Cuba within a few years. People’s Power was tried as a one year experiment in province of Matanzas. “The 1974 elections for municipal delegates [held on June 30 1974] in the Matanzas province were competitive and by secret ballot. Candidates were nominated by neighbourhood groups without communist party participation interference. The municipal delegates, in turn, elected delegates to the higher bodies.” COCKBURN 1979.

July 1974
July 12th Ehrlichman and 3 others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist. July 13th Senate Watergate Committee proposed sweeping reforms to prevent another Watergate.
18th July Lennon got another final go day order slapped on him. “Walls And Bridges” got to number one. Lennon turned up at Bowie’s “Young Americans” sessions.
July 19th House Judiciary Committee recommended Nixon should stand trial in the senate for any of 5 impeachment charges against him.
July 24th The Supreme Court rules that a president could withhold national security material but Watergate was a criminal matter. July 27th The House Judiciary Committee voted 27 to 11 to recommend Pres Nixon’s impeachment on charge that he had engaged in a “course of conduct” designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
July 29th the second impeachment vote against Nixon by the House Judiciary Committee.
July 30th Ehrlichman went prison for his role in breaking into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office. Ehrlichman also created the WH unit that was called the ‘plumbers’ because it was intended to plug leaks.
Nixon released three tapes to the public on

August 1974
August 5th – one making it clear that Nixon had bee involved from the start. Three days later he announced his resignation, he had finished himself off with the “June 23rd tape”. “Time had suggested that the media was overstepping its bounds” in a midsummer cover-story – asked “Has the press gone too far?” Then the “smoking gun” tape surfaced and Nixon went.

China  - Nixon’s initiatives were “hamstrung” by the Watergate scandal. August 9th 1974, impeachment trial imminent, Nixon resigned. It took until 1979 when US established full diplomatic relations with China, to finish Nixon’s work.

Gerald Ford was sworn in as  the 38th US president on August 9th, the 6th since the Vietnam troubles began. He pardoned Nixon on September 8th, otherwise there’d had been a messy court case, with all kinds of stuff being aired in public. September 22nd Special Prosecuter subpoenas Nixon. October 1st Nixon aides Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardias, Nixon’’s Chief of staff Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell went on tiral for conspiracy to obstruct the Watergate investigation.

“In the late fall of 1974 Katherine Graham, boss of the Washington Post Company, rose to address the annual meeting of the Magazine Publisher’s Association. It wa a year of supreme triumph for the “Post”. After the long siege of Watergate, Richard Nixon had tumbled on August 7th. The “Post’s” reporters, Woodward and Bernstein were credited with bringing him down. After two years of abuse by the Nixon administration the “Post” was vindicated. Journalists across the country were casting themselves as “investigative reporters”, eager to do battle with vested power, the high and the mighty.”
Mrs Graham told her audience that we “should…be rather careful…we may have acquired some tendancies about over-involvement that we had better overcome. We had better not yield to the temptation to go on refighting the next war and see conspiracy and cover up where they do not exist.”
“Vested power, in whose ranks stands K Graham, always fears movements of populist opportunity.”
“The people had seen insititutions corrupted, politicians plying corporate leaders for the beneficence of a bribe. They were eager for a change. It was the profound, urgent task of vested power to contain that urge and to deflect it.”
Journalists “should stop trying to be sleuths”, and instead “master the ability to comprehend a number of extremely arcane fields” – from “macro economics to geology to antitrust”.

In 1974 Congress appropriated only $700m for Vietnam, leaving a shortfall for the South Vietnamese Army, which resulted in a decline of military readiness and morale.

Ford, concerned about the levels of draft evasion and military deserters, introduced a clemency program, which till March 31 1975. It was a failure. Only 22,500 out of 124,000 men eligible took up the offer.
The North Vietnamese Politburo decided to launch an invasion of the south in 1975. They violated the Paris agreement on December 13th by attacking Phuoc Long Province in the South. Ford responded with diplomatic protests but no military force, due to the congressional ban on all US military activity in SE Asia. North Vietnam’s leaders met in Hanoi to form a plan for final victory.

Kissinger
Kissinger gained extraordinary powers after the fall of Nixon. He became the Sec of State in 73, but ensured that he retained his previous post  as Special Assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, or National Security advisor. This made him the first and only Sec of State to hold chairmanship of the elite and secretive Forty Committee, which approved and considered covert actions of the CIA. This meant every important intelligence plan passed across his desk. Roger Norris, Kissinger’s former NSC aide said that made him “no less than acting Chief of State for National Security”.
Kissinger pursued détente with the USSR but this policy grew unpopular. Frequently he came under attack from congress, the media and the Republicans. Some of his main initiatives reversed and détente ultimately failed.

Bob Dylan released “Blood on the Tracks”;
David Bowie’s massive US tour and Diamond Dogs. 1974

The Presidency Of Gerald Ford
Background
Ford had been appointed to the post of VP under terms of the 25th amendment in 1973. He took up the position of President on August 9th 1974, and granted a pre-emptive pardon to Nixon. Nelson Rockefeller became VP.

Involved in Kennedy assassination whitewash

Administration
State –kissinger
Treasury – William e simon
Ag  William b saxbe 75    /   Edward lev 77
Interior – rogers morton 75   /   Stanley k Hathaway 75   /  Thomas kleppe 77
Agriculture – earl l butz 76   /    John a knebel 77
Commerce – Frederick b dent 75    /   Rgers morton 76   /    Elliot l Richardson 77
Labor – peter j brennon 75   /   John t Dunlop 76   /   Wj usery 77
Defense james r Schlesinger 75   /    Rumsfeld 77
Health – caspar Weinberger 75   /   Forest d matthews 77
Housing and urban dev – james t lynn 74   /   Carla a hill 77
Transportation – caude s brinean 75   /  William t coleman 77

On August 10th David Frost secured the exclusive right to interview Nixon.

September 1974
From Tony Benn’s diary entry of Monday 16th September 1974, “The CIA, through William Colby, the Director General, has been giving evidence in Washington and has openly admitted that the CIA spent $4m undermining the Allende Govt in Chile. This of course is worse than Watergate though it receives very little public comment; and it is a candid admission of how they do it. One has to keep an eye out for the role of British Intelligence here at home. Apparently a man called Cord Meyer was sent to London by the CIA to work with the British Labour Movement, and one would be foolish to underestimate the extent to which American business is secretly mobilising in order to defeat the Labour Government, and particularly policies on which we are going to fight the election.” Is Tony Blair the end result of such a project? – look into plot against Harold Wilson.
Congress passed an amendment requiring the president to report non-intelligence CIA operations to the relevant congressional committees in a timely fashion.
See David Wise & Thomas B Ross, “The Invisible Government”, NY, Vintage Books, 1974 reprint, see 1964.

In September U2 reconnaissance flights saw construction of a permanent base for Soviet nuclear submarines in the deep-water bay at Cienfuegos. Some of Nixon’s advisors advocated a confrontational response to force Moscow to desist. Nixon and Kissinger sought to resolve the crisis through “quiet diplomacy” (It was Robinson who helped draft Nixon’s secret warning to USSR to keep missiles out of Cuba).

October 1974
October 3rd the Watergate trial began. Without Nixon.
Kissinger increased his power base, and Chile set up as a bona fide Neo Nazi dictatorship. My Lai convict William Calley got out of jail free after only 3 ½ years of house arrest for the murder of 22 civilians. That’s nearly two months per murder. Wow. And the Vietnam War very nearly came to an end, the US pulling out as fast as they could.
Ford nominated Rockefeller as V-P, but confirmation hearings focussed on Rockefeller’s wealth. He was eventually sworn in.
G Gordon Liddy was released September 7th 1977 after more than 4 years in prison, for Watergate conspiracy.

Ex Attorney General Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman were convicted of cover up charges on January 1st. They were sentenced to between 2 ½ years and 8 years in prison on 21st February.
Mitchell, former AG, got out on parole after 19 months in an Alabama prison on January 19th 1979.

Nixon himself received a pardon from Ford on September 8th – a “full free and absolute pardon”.

After ousting Nixon and putting the safe and controllable Gerald Ford into office, the elite had pulled off their damage limitation exercise, but now had to clear up the political damage that had been done. There followed a struggle between the CIA and those in the various branches of government who felt that the CIA was dangerously out of control. There was also an expensive carefully planned corporate campaign to recapture the culture. The elite were in a state of panic. Samuel Huntingdon of Harvard University and Nelson Rockefeller’s Trialteral Commission wrote of the need to curb the “excess of democracy” in the US, Japan, and Western Europe. “Comments at the conference Board meetings indicate that CEOs believed a popular uprising could be iminnent, “can we still afford one man, one vote?” “One man one vote has undermined the power of business in all capitalist countries since WW2.”
In the wake of Watergate congress “addressed the corrupt campaign finance system in a spasm of law-making. The Federal Election Commission limited individuals to gifts of $1,000 to federal candidates and $25,000 to the national parties. It also created political action committees (PACs) which are authorised to give $500.” Enough loopholes were left in the legislation that money power could take advantage of. Since Watergate to 1998 some 4,000 PACs have emerged. – Source: Washington Babylon.
Congress was moved to hold hearings on CIA crimes after much public outrage. Senator Frank Church headed the Senate investigation – known as the Church Committee – and Representative Otis Pike heads the House investigation. (Church and Pike were defeated in subsequent elections against a 98% incumbency re-election rate) The investigations led to a number of reforms intended to increase the CIA’s accountability to Congress, including the creation of a standing Senate committee on intelligence. However the reforms prove ineffective, as Iran-contra proves. It turns out that CIA can either control, bamboozle or side step congress with alacrity.
Ford is concerned about this Church committee business – actually it was more to do with George Bush – and created a Rockefeller Commission to white-wash CIA history and propose toothless reforms . the commission’s namesake, VP Nelson Rockefeller is himself involved with the CIA. Five of the commission’s eight members are also members of the Council on Foreign Relations, a CIA dominated organisation.

October 1974
October 30th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_in_the_Jungle

`October 24, “a constitutional commission was appointed by the central committee of the communist party, consisting of lawyers and constitutional experts from the party, the government, and the mass organisations” ROMAN 1999 “and briefed to draw up a preliminary draft constitution”. COCKBURN 1979.

November 1974

NOTES 1974
The USSR backed down and ceased construction of the base. Nixon had been the first in the Eisenhower administration to advocate a military solution to the Cuban problem. Summer 1970 the Cubans worried that Nixon as president was planning a direct military invasion. Cuba wanted reaffirmation of the Khrushchev / Kennedy understanding for reassurance. The USSR had tried to gain such a reaffirmation from Nixon. Both sides confirmed their commitment after the Cienfuego affair. Soviet warships continued to make frequent visits to Cuba after this. USSR however would not consider Cuba’s membership of the Warsaw Pact  - but military commitment grew greater than ever.

Lennon’s Rock n Roll album with Phil Spector – ended suddenly when Spector fired guns in the live room before taking a crap in the elevator. DATES?
Lennon met David Bowie in March, introduced by Elizabeth Taylor in LA – and they hit it off.

Richard Helms was allowed to plead no contest to two misdemeanour charges for withholding information regarding the Chilean Coup in 1973. Retired CIA officers paid his fine. His attorney Edward Bennett Williams said Helms would “wear his conviction like a badge of honor”. NO DATE

General Ernesto Geisel became president of Brazil in 1974 and introduced reforms to allow limited political activity and elections.


The Conservative Party in New York got James Buckley to the Senate. Nelson Rockefeller re-elected to his 4th term as Governor of New York.

Books
“The trial of Henry Kissinger” by christopher Hitchens (London) Verso 2001
“Silent Coup”
“Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the destruction of Cambodia” – one of the earliest criticisms of Kissinger
William Blum’s book – “Killing Hope”, and  his connection to Cambodia?

How the Black Radical Movement was Beaten
Trial of the Chicago eight. Daniel Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Ronnie Dours, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Robin, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Searle. Year?
FBI dirty tricks – charged “intersate travel with intent to incite riot” – concocted a threatening letter to jurors written by the “Black Panthers” and called obviously bogus witnesses.
Trail of Panther leaders Searle and Ericka Huggins 1970 to 1971. For the murder of Alex Rackley, a young Panther candidate from NY. Rackley had been bad-jacketted as a police infiltrator by a Panther captain named George Sams who was an FBI agent who’d carried out Rackley’s interrogation, Shackling him to a bed, and scalding him for days before shooting him to death.
Worst examples of FBI engineered convictions were black anarchist Martin Sostre (imprisoned 30 to 41 years for selling narcotics from his radical bookstore/ meeting place in Bufallo, NY – Sostre was the head of a community anti-drug campaign).
Wayland Bryland; Ronald Williams; Harold Robertson. Memebrs of the Alabama Black Liberation Front sentenced to 20 years each for defending themselves against a nioght riding “Shriff’s posse”.
Ahmed Evans – sentenced to death for returning fire against a police raid on his home in Cleveland.
Lee Otis, SNCC organiser in Texas sentenced to 30 years for allegedly passing a single joint of marijuana to an undercover agent.
Connie Tusker – leader of the Junta of Militant Organisations (JOMO) sentenced to 5 years for allegedly possessing enough marijuana to construct 2 joints – the only evidence produced in court being rizla.

In upstate  New York, Attica State Penitentiary, there was a riot. Nelson Rockefeller, New York Governor, refused to negotiate and 10 hostages, 29 prisoners, ended up dead.

FBI infiltrator on film, and Tommy Tonyai in late 60s, detailed crimes they were ordered to commit by the FBI.

Richard Nixon found out that his brother was meeting secretly with one of Howard Hughes’s representatives, called John Meir. Nixon was concerned because of his own dealings with Hughes (& so did Attorney General Mitchell) and didn’t want the risk of exposure.-“J EDGAR HOOVER: THE MAN AND HIS SECRETS”, CURT GENTRY (page 625).
$100,000 pay-off to Nixon from Hughes / the Dune’s acquisiiton / & Hoover? – Gentry page 649.

Post Watergate crisis
We are expected to believe that just this once the plucky press managed to stand up for democracy against this evil and crooked President, neither of which was true.
The Washington Post - Katharine Graham was the boss of the WP Company. Reporters were elated over their newly realised powers to topple the president. They felt they could do anything. They hadn’t realised that they’d been used as pawns – unleashed on Nixon – but now had to be reigned back in again.
From 1974 ill 1975 the Conference Board met – they were the top CEOs who wanted to win over the press. “Expensive, carefully planned corporate campaign to recapture the culture”…”panic among the elites in the mid-70s was very high.”
Samuel Huntington of Harvard and Nelson Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission wrote of the need to “excess of democracy in the US, Japan and Western Europe. Unions were still relatively powerful. Corporations felt they had “raised expectations that we can’t deliver on.” So they set about buying up intellectuals.
In 1973 – the Business Round Table had formed and reactivated the US Chamber of Commerce. AEL was founded in 1943 – but had faded by now.
John M Olin Foundation bunged money at “right thinking” intellectuals such as Alan Bloom, Irving Kristol, David Brook (Brock?).
Joseph Coors started Heritage in 1973
- funded Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation
- reclusive Council for National Policy (the far right’s CPR)
- Hoover institution
- American Defense Institute
- Accuracy in media

Richard Mellon Scaife by 1981 had given $11m or more to “a score of right wing institutions.”
- Gerogetown University’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies
- Committee on Present Danger
- James Watt’s Mountain States Legal Foundation
- The American Spectator Magazine

Others
Cato Instsitute; Manhattan Intstitute; ethics and public policy centre; Reagan took staff from American Enterprises Institute and Heritage- this period saw the rse of the Golden Rolodex.

The Vietnam War
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html for comprehensive timeline
To work out what the US attempted to achieve in Vietnam  we should look at what they did achieve. Chomsky “for reason of state” p.56/57.

East Timor 1974 to 1976
US aid to Indonesia in 1974 was $12m – see 1975 nvention of East Timor and quadrupled arms sales to Indonesia.
Congressional hearings before the international relations committee confirmed that several major US weapons systems sold to Jakarta during this period – including 16 Rockwell OV-10 “Bronco” counter insurgency aircraft, 3 Lockheed C-130 transport aircraft and 35 Cadillac-Gage V-150 “Commando” armoured cars were sued directly in East Timor. Other weapons linked to East Timor occupation included 5-61 heliopters, patrol craft, M-16 rifles, pistols, mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, ammunistion, and extensive communications equipment.
But in 1977 when Indonesia found itself short of weapons the Carter administration accelerated the flow.

Bolivia
President banzer replaced civilians with memers of the armed forces and suspended political activities in 1974.