George H.W. Bush 1991 The Clarence Thomas Hearings
Randal Wallace Presents : "George H. W. Bush" a four season look back at his extraordinary life, career, and his single term as President of the United States. A term that saw the high point of American Leadership around the world as he steered the world through the fall of the Communist superpower, the former Soviet Union. It also saw the United States lead a worldwide coalition against aggression by the Middle Eastern Dictator Saddam Hussein, and setting the example on how to fight such a war with textbook accuracy, overwhelming force, with a clear set of objectives, and leaving after those objectives were met. A lesson sadly we did not seem to learn in subsequent foreign entanglements. Then we will watch the changing of the guard as the Vietnam Generation leads a campaign in 1992 to transfer power from the generation of leadership that won the Cold War.
In this our 12th and 13 Seasons, we will look back at the Bush Administration and the historic sweep of freedom that changed the world from 1990 through Christmas 1991. It was a historic time. We saw the Gulf War begin as Bush led a multinational coalition to beat back the Iraqi Dictator, Saddam Hussein, after he invaded Kuwait. In August of 1991, hard liners in Moscow would attempt a coup to bring down Mikhail Gorbachev and his many reforms that were changing the Soviet Union. The coup would fail but it would help launch the career of the Moscow Mayor, Boris Yeltsin. That would, by Christmas Day, 1991, lead to what had been unthinkable for the past 70 years, the end of the Soviet Union. We would also see President Bush lead the way to reunify Germany, and a fight for the future of the United States Supreme Court would erupt after the nomination of Clarence Thomas was made to replace Thurgood Marshall. It all happened without firing a shot, which is an enormous success story for the ages.
We invite you to come along with us on a wild ride through the high points and low moments of modern American History, in an effort to show the citizens of today that we are an amazing and resilient nation.
Our Podcasts are separated by individual Documentary style titles. --
Season 1 : Bridging the Political Gap episodes 1 -11 --- Season 2 : Lessons in Leadership : --- The GIANTS of the Senate and Joe Biden episodes 14 - 16 ---- World War 2 Episodes 17 - 20 --- General MacArthur You're Fired Episodes 21 - 23 ---- A Celebration of the life of George Shultz episodes 26 - 28 ---- November 1963 : The end of the Age of Innocence episode 29 --- Season 3 ----The Johnson Treatment episodes 32 - 39 ---- Upheaval 1968 episodes 40 - 50 ---- Season 4: Richard Nixon 1968 -1971 The Man Who Saved the Union episodes 51 -67 ----- Season 5 Richard Nixon 1972 The Foundation of Peace episodes 71 - 96 -----1973 Ten Days in January 97 - 100 -- Season 6 Richard Nixon 1973 : Enemies at the Gate 101 - 125 ---- Season 7 Richard Nixon 1974 Through the Fire 126 - 147 ---- Season 8 Richard Nixon 1974 - 1994 The Fall and the Re-Rise of Richard Nixon. 148 - 174 plus bonus materials --- Season 9 Gerald Ford Beyond Watergate 175 -190 -- Season 10 John Jenrette. & Jimmy Carter too 191 - 224 -- Season 11 George H.W. Bush : The Leadership Lessons 225 - 250 --- Season 12: Mayor Hirsch 253 - 259, George H.W. Bush : The Sweep of History 260 - 285, Season 13 George H.W. Bush The Gulf War, The Coup, Clarence Thomas & the Cold War's End 286 - 318, Season 14 George H. W. Bush 1992 The Changing of the Guard 319 -
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George H.W. Bush 1991 The Clarence Thomas Hearings
Episode 121: RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1973 Enemies at the Gate (Part 21) OCTOBER 1973 (Part D) All at Once, At War at Home and Abroad
Spiro Agnew resigns on October 10, 1973, the Arab Forces go on another offensive on October 11, 1973 all the while the Special Prosecutor's continue to push forward trying to get their hands on the Presidential recordings. Tom Brokaw of NBC News is right to describe the situation as "Richard Nixon was a President under siege." He seemed to be facing historic level crisis everywhere he looked.
Nixon went right to work to insure the Israeli government would have everything they needed to defend themselves and he was given some hope by his Attorney General that finally a deal could be struck not to hand over the tapes. He was determined not to give in to the mounting pressure of allowing the prosecutor's free run over the Nixon White House. That hope would turn out to be false.
Attorney General Elliot Richardson would waffle around on a proposal for third party verification of the tapes, in a compromise originally proposed by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox himself. But when it was originally proposed Richard Nixon had turned the idea down and pursued his options in court. The court would rule against him 5 -2 but add that they wanted the party's to find a deal themselves. So Richardson took the initiative to re propose the compromise that had been earlier rejected. It is a little murky as to what exactly happened or if it was all a misunderstanding but an idea was proposed that a prominent, well respected Senator, John Stennis, a Democrat from Mississippi would listen to the tapes and verify what he heard on them.
Stennis was a man of unquestioned character, (though he was a southerner and a segregationist) , he was also elderly, hard of hearing, and a huge supporter of the Republican President. The Prosecutors wanted no part of this deal and I actually can understand the reasoning on this point. However, it was Archibald Cox's idea, and though he now had a court decision saying he should get the tapes he had asked for, it could reasonably be argued that in good faith he should have honored his original proposal. But either way he chose to hold a press conference and face down the President of the United States while the President was dealing with an enormous crisis in Israel and for that a showdown became inevitable.
This episode takes you right up to that moment just before the most famous of showdowns happened and it includes Archibald Cox's press conference.
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