When Bennedict Arnold, a general in the American army contacted the British army, gave the enemy information about Washington's military plans and then joined the British army as a general leading forces against Washington and the colonials, that was clearly treason.
When Robert E. Lee, an officer in the United States Army resigned his commission to fight for the Confederacy, to destroy the United States, that clearly was treason.
But if Trump uses the stuff Russian hacks produce to frame Hillary Clinton, to suggest she has some criminal or unsavory doings buried in her emails, is that treason because the source of all this was Russia or Wikileaks?
Thinking about the use of foreign powers to foster success in American elections, Richard Nixon becomes a case study.
Of course, we can never know whether or exactly how Nixon contacted the leader of South Vietnam, Nguyen Thieu, in the fall of 1968 to convince him President Johnson was going to sell out South Vietnam in the Paris Peace talks, and to promise that if Nixon won, Thieu would get a better deal. But there is a paper trail and while some dispute it, it looks pretty convincing.
1968 was a pretty eventful year: Martin Luther King was murdered in March; Bobby Kennedy was murdered a few months later. Eugene McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic primary and did not beat LBJ but showed well enough to shock everyone: Johnson got something like 49%, McCarthy 43% and George Wallace was eventually in the mix in later primaries. The Democratic Convention was a horror show and blood flowed in the streets of Chicago as demonstrators on the outside were bludgeoned by a police riot using what Senator Abraham Ribicoff described from the convention podium as "Gestapo tactics" while Mayor Daley screamed "Fuck you!"
As the election neared, LBJ finally agreed to stop bombing Vietnam and the North and the Viet Cong then agreed to meet South Vietnam and America at the table. Nixon reached Thieu through a woman intermediary, Anna Chennault, and Thieu refused to join the talks and the pre election hope of a settlement of the war collapsed.
Nixon was elected, and the war ground on for another 7 years with 20,000 more American deaths and untold Vietnamese deaths.
Whatever Trump may have done, nobody is accusing him of sacrificing the lives of American soldiers so he can attain office, but the idea of manipulating public opinion by intrigue with foreign players does sound familiar.
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| Arnold |
When Robert E. Lee, an officer in the United States Army resigned his commission to fight for the Confederacy, to destroy the United States, that clearly was treason.
 |
| Righteous Treason |
But if Trump uses the stuff Russian hacks produce to frame Hillary Clinton, to suggest she has some criminal or unsavory doings buried in her emails, is that treason because the source of all this was Russia or Wikileaks?
Thinking about the use of foreign powers to foster success in American elections, Richard Nixon becomes a case study.
Of course, we can never know whether or exactly how Nixon contacted the leader of South Vietnam, Nguyen Thieu, in the fall of 1968 to convince him President Johnson was going to sell out South Vietnam in the Paris Peace talks, and to promise that if Nixon won, Thieu would get a better deal. But there is a paper trail and while some dispute it, it looks pretty convincing.
1968 was a pretty eventful year: Martin Luther King was murdered in March; Bobby Kennedy was murdered a few months later. Eugene McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic primary and did not beat LBJ but showed well enough to shock everyone: Johnson got something like 49%, McCarthy 43% and George Wallace was eventually in the mix in later primaries. The Democratic Convention was a horror show and blood flowed in the streets of Chicago as demonstrators on the outside were bludgeoned by a police riot using what Senator Abraham Ribicoff described from the convention podium as "Gestapo tactics" while Mayor Daley screamed "Fuck you!"
 |
| Ms. Chennault |
As the election neared, LBJ finally agreed to stop bombing Vietnam and the North and the Viet Cong then agreed to meet South Vietnam and America at the table. Nixon reached Thieu through a woman intermediary, Anna Chennault, and Thieu refused to join the talks and the pre election hope of a settlement of the war collapsed.
Nixon was elected, and the war ground on for another 7 years with 20,000 more American deaths and untold Vietnamese deaths.
Whatever Trump may have done, nobody is accusing him of sacrificing the lives of American soldiers so he can attain office, but the idea of manipulating public opinion by intrigue with foreign players does sound familiar.
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