Nixon Guilty of War Crimes

The current media commentary about Richard Nixon caused by Oliver Stone's film is certain to ignore some very important things.

Nixon in his campaign speeches promised to end the Vietnam war. Instead, he escalated that war, and it continued for four more years. Nixon secretly bombed Cambodia. The massive carpet-bombing of the Cambodian countryside caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and increased peasant support for the murderous Pol Pot. It helped facilitate the genocide that occurred later in Cambodia.

Nixon and Kissinger made no secret of their dislike of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Through economic pressure and CIA activities, this government was overthrown, and the right-wing dictator, Pinochet, was brought to power. Thousands of students, intellectuals, union organizers and, in general, people who tried to help the poor were arrested, tortured and killed. Watergate, which receives nearly all the publicity, is really a small incident in comparison to these events.

In a sane and decent society, instead of being lionized in death by the media, Richard Nixon should have been tried while still living for the tremendous crimes against humanity in both Cambodia and Chile! --Gary Sudborough

Editor's Note:

The innacuracies that Matei Mihalca listed in her letter last Saturday about Fabian Giraldo's arts article were due to editing errors.