I’ve reported how President Richard Nixon had threatened the top of the CIA, saying: “I do know who killed JFK.” When he was pushed out of workplace, Nixon refused the safety of the Secret Service. This current tried assassination was based on their confirmed playbook. Use a claimed lone shoot, kill him to verify there’s by no means a trial, and the issue is eradicated. I’ve usually mentioned that historical past is merely a map to the long run, for human nature by no means modifications.
There have been assassinations and tried assassinations of Roman emperors by rivals and typically bureaucrats who had been making an attempt to weasel in to seize energy, just like the story of Sejanus, who had the emperor’s son poisoned by his spouse so he may marry her after which took out Tiberius to take the throne, there was additionally the equal of the Secret Service in Roman occasions – the Praetorian Guard.
Through the Republican interval, they had been usually simply bodyguards for elite politicians. It was not till 27 BC that the Senate bestowed the title “Augustus” upon him, and he turned the primary emperor of Rome. From then on, the Praetorian Guard was established, and so they turned the emperor’s private safety escort—the traditional model of the Secret Service.
Nixon refused the safety of the Secret Service as a result of he was additionally a scholar of historical past. John O’Hurley is popping out this August with a documentary on Watergate, which he hopes will rehabilitate Nixon’s legacy. I met Nixon on the seashore on Lengthy Seashore Island years in the past after he left the White Home. I don’t recall the dialog, however I did get the sense he knew his historical past. I additionally recall he didn’t appear to have Secret Service on the time.
What the Deep State did to Nixon was to discredit him and his legacy to cowl up the darkish facet of their anti-Democratic thirst for energy. This, Nixon’s historical past, is problematic, for it definitely distorts their accomplishments and his battle towards the left and the rising pattern of communism, the place he honed the fashion of red-baiting, the place he would denounce an opponent as an anarchist, communist, Marxist, socialist, or Stalinist. His well-known 1959 Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev established his perception in freedom and capitalism.
There’s undoubtedly precedent for fearing the Secret Service. Traditionally, 13 Roman Emperors had been assassinated by their Praetorian Guard – the very elite group who had been to protect the emperor. There was roughly a 20.5-year interval on common between these assassinations. It’s three such intervals since Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963 – 61 years to 2024.
Killed by the Praetorian Guard
Caligula (17-41AD)
Galba (68-69AD)
Commodus (177-192AD)
Pertinax (193AD)
Caracalla (198-217AD)
Elagabalus (218-222AD)
Balbinus (238AD)
Pupienus (238AD)
Gordian III (238-244AD)
Philip II (244-249AD)
Aurelian (270-275AD)
Probus (276-282AD)
Numerian (283-284AD)