Richard Nixon Watergate 1973 The POW's Come Home (Part 1)

The Richard Nixon Experience

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Our Season 3 Premier and the first in our NIXON and WATERGATE series:
This season opens just as the Vietnam War ends for America. Even as the treaty is signed there are still last minute maneuverings that President Nixon and Henry Kissinger have to deal with in order to get our Prisoners of War out of Vietnam. You will listen in on the discussions between the President and his speech writer Ray Price and then Dr. Henry Kissinger as the war finally comes to an end.
Then we will listen to the memories of the brave soldiers of that war and the ordeals they suffered through as Prisoners of War in the Hanoi Hilton. The most famous of which, the future Senator from Arizona, John McCain, recounts his years in the prison and the moment that the Vietnamese almost broke his indominable spirit. You will hear several other soldiers tell their stories as well.
Then we will shift gears to the burgeoning scandal that would soon dominate the Nixon Administration, Watergate. You will hear ABC News set the stage for the coming sentencing of the Watergate burglary defendants and we will be introduced to a cast of characters from G. Gordon Liddy, to Judge Sirica to future Chairman of the Watergate Committee in the Senate Sam Irvin of North Carolina.
In this episode we will also meet Geoff Shepard, the last living defense Attorney for Richard Nixon, he had been a mid level employee, and White House Fellow , there working on policy. He would move up to being Nixon Attorney Fred Buzhardt's right hand man. He will play a major role in the telling of our story on "Bridging the Political Gap" over the next three seasons.
You can read up on Mr. Shepard and get copies of his three landmark books at his website:
https://shepardonwatergate.com/
and starting with this episode you will hear excerpts from his extraordinary podcasts with the Nixon Foundation and its then President Hugh Hewitt titled "Known Unknowns" , here is a link to the first episode and you can then go from there to the rest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWxWKSK0cmc
We will be using a lot of these conversations throughout our series on Watergate over the next three seasons
Finally our show will then return to the POW's as they are released and we get to hear their stories of returning, finally, home.
It remains perhaps the true high point of one of the greatest Presidencies in all of American History, the Presidency of Richard Nixon.