A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 23

Merle Haggard recorded "Okie From Muskogee" mostly as a joke, but it became a kind of anthem for many who thought the country was in big trouble in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

The Nixon administration started talking about the "silent majority," the people the administration said quietly supported the administration in contrast to the loud protests of the administration's opponents.  Vice President Spiro Agnew led a war against the media and termed many in the media establishment as "effete snobs."

The war dragged on, but Nixon began a process of what was called "Vietnamization" of the war.  It was intended to gradually reduce U. S. involvement in the war and turn the war over to the South Vietnamese.

Nixon went to China, which was probably his greatest foreign policy achievement.  We had the Pentagon Papers controversy when the behind the scenes story of the Vietnam war was revealed and the Nixon administration tried to suppress publication of the information.

There was what Nixon called a "third rate burglary" at the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, which was to have major ramifications.

More to come