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Letters

ACLU Would Impeach Nixon

To The Editor

On Sept. 30, the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Nixon. I forward a copy of the resolution and request that you publish it for the information of citizens on both sides of this question.

Two observations about this action are in order. First, each of the particulars in the resolution is based on already known events or on events attested to by Mr. Nixon's aides or by Mr. Nixon himself in public statements and press conferences. Second, the expertise of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers on the issues set forth in the resolution is unexcelled by any portion of the American bar.

GLYN JONES
Mount Hermon

ACLU RESOLUTION ON IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON
September 30, 1973

WHEREAS, there is now substantial public evidence of President Nixon's participation in high crimes and misdemeanors; and

WHEREAS, these acts have violated the civil liberties of the people of the United States and the rule of law;

THEREFORE, the American Civil Liberties Union calls upon the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States to initiate impeachment proceedings against Richard M. Nixon.

Impeachment should be predicated on the following grounds affecting civil liberties:

He and his closest aides have organized and conducted a deliberate assault on civil liberties by authorizing massive invasions of the First Amendment rights of citizens of the United Sates. On July 25, 1970 he personally approved the "Huston plan" for domestic political surveillance and espionage by such methods as burglary, wiretapping and eavesdropping, mail covers, and military spying on civilians. These methods of political surveillance were employed against dissenters, political opponents, news reporters and government employees. He and his aides employed governmental powers to harass and punish critics of his administration regarded by them as "enemies." He and his aides interfered with a free press through the use of wiretaps, FBI investigations, and threats of criminal prosecutions. He secretly recorded conversations in his own office without advising the participants. He and his aides interfered with the right of peaceable assembly and protest as in the arrests of thousands of persons on Mayday, 1971 and on many other occasions.

He has usurped the war making powers of Congress as in the bombing of neutral Cambodia and he deliberately concealed the bombing from Congress and the people of the United States; and he has announced he would do so again under similar circumstances.

He established within the White House a personal secret police (the "plumbers") operating outside the restraints of the law, which engaged in criminal acts including burglaries, warranties, wiretaps, espionage and perjury.

He and a principal aide offered a high federal post to the presiding judge during the Ellsberg trial and for a prolonged period, he withheld from the court knowledge of the burglary of the office of Dr. Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

He and his aides interfered with and distorted the administration of justice through such acts as his effort to limit the scope of the FBI investigation of the Watergate break in. He and his aides caused the politically motivated and unjustified prosecution of dissenters and corrupted the constitutional function of grand juries to make them instruments of political surveillance and harassment.

He has perverted and attempted to pervert the operation of various federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the National Security Council, the Secret Service, the State Department, the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency by engaging them in political surveillance and in the falsification of information made available to Congress and the American public.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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By late 1973, President Nixon had become one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of the United States. As a candidate, Richard Nixon had promised to end the nation's participation in the Vietnam War. Instead, during his Presidency, the United States invaded Cambodia and intensified bombings in North Vietnam. These actions were largely seen as both disastrous and illegal. President Nixon had used government agencies to illegally spy on United States citizens. The President also hired people to burglarize the homes of his political opponents. The American Civil Liberties Union drew up a resolution calling for the impeachment of the President for "high crimes and misdemeanors". This document was reprinted in "The Greenfield Recorder" at the request of a local western Massachusetts citizen. Ultimately, rather than face a trial before the United States Senate, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency after the House of Representatives, in July of 1974, drafted official Articles of Impeachment.

 

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"ACLU Would Impeach Nixon" letter in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

publisher   Greenfield Recorder
author   Glyn Jones
date   Nov 10, 1973
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
height   6.75"
width   3.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L06.052


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See Also...

"Anarchists Blamed for Dissension" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

"Showdown Looms On War Powers Issue" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper

"Senate Bill Would Limit U.S. Combat" article in The Greenfield Recorder newspaper


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