[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 48 (Thursday, April 28, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             RICHARD NIXON

                                 ______


                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 28, 1994

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I arrived in Congress in 1973 and I was one 
of the first Members of this House to support the impeachment of 
Richard Nixon. With due respect to his family and friends, because we 
are all entitled to a private life, Mr. Nixon's public life is not one 
in which I find much doubt about how it should be remembered.
  The country has never fully recovered from the damage Richard Nixon 
caused this country and the American presidency. Earlier today, Mark 
Plotkin gave a commentary on Richard Nixon which I believe is right on 
target. I commend it to by colleagues as we reflect on Mr. Nixon's 
legacy.

                                 Nixon

       When I think of Richard Nixon--I think of the year 1968.
       It was a terrible year for the country. A war 10,000 miles 
     away was raging, hundreds of Americans were dying each week, 
     and there didn't seem to be any end in sight.
       In April, Martin Luther King was assassinated and in June 
     we lost Robert Kennedy. Two men full of idealism who sought 
     to change the world.
       After all the pain, tears, hurt, and tragedy, who came out 
     on top, but Nixon.
       It seemed to me then, so unfair and so wrong. How could the 
     country grant the highest office in the land to this man?
       Now with all the eulogies pouring in and the revisionist 
     history being played out, I believe some things should be 
     remembered.
       Remember in 1968, Nixon said he had a ``Plan to End the 
     War.'' But he wouldn't tell us what it was. That was pure 
     Nixon.
       It symbolized who he was. We were to trust him and vote for 
     him and then after he got elected he would let us in on the 
     plan.
       The inference was that the plan would end the war and the 
     killing would stop and the boys would come home.
       But from 1969 to 1973, over 29,000 Americans died in 
     Vietnam. More than in the previous four years.
       In fact Nixon sought not to end the war but to expand it. 
     In May of 1970, he went into Cambodia and would have stayed 
     had Congress not stopped him.
       From the start of his political career to its disgraceful 
     end--Nixon was the ultimate practitioner of the theory 
     ``anything goes'' as long as I win.
       Whether it be calling people Communists--when they were 
     not--or collecting names for an enemy, his brand of politics 
     was to deceive and divide.
       Richard Nixon cheapened the profession of politics and by 
     his actions brought shame and dishonor to the Office of 
     President and to our nation.
       The flag of our country should not have been lowered.

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