There are times when I think I am only person that remembers US history. Well maybe just one of a few who remember history. This is especially so in the wake of Donald Trump's secret plan to defeat ISIS. Does nobody remember that Nixon did the exact same thing in 1968?
In the spring of 1968, Nixon began providing "'private' end-the-war disclosures" to certain media figures and national security officials. He began to promote this claim of a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War throughout the 1968 presidential campaign and it was a major reason why Nixon won that election.
The problem is that the plan did not exist. Nixon campaign aides have admitted this:
Nixon's defense adviser in the '68 campaign, Melvin Laird, said flatly of a Nixon pre-election intention to gradually pull US troops out of the war: "He had no such plan."
That bald-faced lie to the American people would be bad enough, but Nixon also purposefully scuttled Vietnam peace negotiations so that he could keep this as an issue. This meant that the US continued to fight in Vietnam for 5 more years. 5 years during which John Kerry was wounded. 5 years during which John McCain was imprisoned and tortured. 5 years where 22,000 American soldiers were killed. 5 years when the US expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia which lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands people.
Can somebody PLEASE ask Trump why we should believe his secret plan when Nixon made the same pledge and lied to the American people?