August 1974 JCS order countermanding Nixon

Factual Questions
1

There was a Top Secret order from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that went out to U.S. military forces at the beginning of August, 1974 when it was feared that Richard Nixon, at the end of his tether and observed to be psychologically somewhat… unstable… might use the Marines or the 82nd Airborne to do something drastic to hold onto power. The order was not to obey anything issuing from the White House.

Well, at any rate, the above is the most dramatic version of this ugly little chapter in American history that I’ve come across. I happened to see an article by Milton William Cooper titled “The Secret Government,” written in 1989. The way he told it, it was the JCS who issued the Top Secret order overruling the POTUS, and that this constituted a military coup d’état.

Cooper, as you recall, was formerly a Naval Intelligence officer and the author of Behold a Pale Horse, a full-blown paranoid conspiracy theory that the U.S. government as we know it is only a sham and the real power is controlled by MJ-12, under the influence of flying saucer aliens. It was MJ-12 who gave the order to assassinate President Kennedy (because he had decided not to play ball with the aliens any more) and who forced Nixon from office (because they were afraid a thorough Watergate impeachment investigation would blow their cover).

Ohhh-kayyyy… :rolleyes:

Paranoid conspiracy theorists must only find their darkest suspicions confirmed by the fact that Cooper was killed by law enforcement officers under murky circumstances. But to return to the topic, pardon the digression.

I had a vague memory of such a countermanding order that went out during Nixon’s final days, but needed to get the Straight Dope. I looked it up in Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon by Anthony Summers, and found that Cooper had seriously distorted the facts to make the situation look more sinister than it probably was. It was, in fact, SecDef James Schlesinger (a civilian) who issued the order to the JCS. It said that military forces should wait until the SecDef countersigned any order before acting upon it. They went along with it, as by law they are required to do when given a direct order by the (civilian) SecDef.

Of course, nothing untoward happened, thank goodness. The SecDef was acting in defense of the Constitution to make sure the White House did not make war on Congress. As such, he was probably within his rights, because the Constitution is supreme above all else in this country. If Cooper’s version had been accurate, that raises a disturbing scenario where we have a choice of either the military buggering the Constitution or the POTUS buggering the Constitution; either way, we’re screwed. Fortunately, this scenario seems to be a mere hysterical delusion. Does anyone know what really happened in the Pentagon that first week of August?

2

It’s basically a bunch of nonsense. First, while the JCS are by law the highest ranking military officers (the Chairman being the highest) they are an advisory committee, and not actually in the chain of command. Command authority goes directly from the President, to SecDef, to the Unified Combat Commanders (CENTCOM, et al) or other temporary high-level structures that the CiC may by executive order create. Any attempt by them, or even the SecDef to order a military unit without the President’s knowledge would be a severe federal crime.

As for orders being countersigned, well, the exact method by which Presidential orders are transferred to subordinate commands are classified. But I can’t imagine a scenario where the SecDef wouldn’t be directly involved regardless. That said, remember that military officers are duty-bound to refuse an unlawful or immoral order. It is very unlikely that any Marines would blow up Congress, regardless of who was telling them to do so.

3

I dunno, that part in Mars Attacks where Granny says, “Look! They blew up Congress!” was damn funny.

But you’re right. No senior officer in their right mind would follow such an order without question. There’d be some serious reprecussions if the Vice-President didn’t immediately step in and relieve the President from power if such a thing were to come to fruition.

Yeah, the President calls the shots, but ultimately, there’s subtle checks and balances in the system that prevent just this sort of thing.

Tripler
Trust me, ‘I am not a crook’.

4

No idea what happened in the Pentagon , but something twigs the memory about something recently read in the papers. That nixon wanted to send a serious message to the soviets , and went to defcon 2 or 3.

Scrambled the bombers , sent them to their fail safe points, sortied the ballistic boomers , apparently never mentioned it to the military, just picked up the phone ,and said make it so.

Declan

5

According to a pretty smart guy I know of, the order given by SecDef was simply that commanders report to him any “unusual” orders they received from POTUS. Cecil’s comment, in a column that doesn’t seem to be part of the on-line archive yet, tongue-in-cheek speculates that Schlesinger was afraid Nixon might torch the planet in a fit of pique.

6

[Devil’s Theorist]
The concern might not have been that Nixon would order the 82nd Airborne to attack someone in the United States—like Congress—but that he might order them to do something that would spark an attack by Russia. Like…I dunno, having the 82nd try to “take back” East Berlin, or something.

[/Devil’s Theorist]

It’s probably all just a bunch of “hooey,” anyway.

7

According to Anthony Summers, Schlesinger took into account which troops were stationed closest to Washington and how soon they could be mobilized there. (Answer: the 82nd Airborne, stationed 5 hours away at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and the Marines at Quantico in northern Virginia. There was also some division or other stationed already within the District of Columbia.) The fear was not that Nixon would order actual firing on anyone, but that troops might be used to surround either the White House or the Capitol.

What would have happened to the United States government if Nixon had actually gone berserk and surrounded the Capitol with troops? If he had been impeached but refused to go quietly? Don’t you think Schlesinger would have had to at least take the likelihood of such a scenario into account?

8

In the last few days of his administration, Nixon went around darkly hinting at suicide and other drastic measures. To Al Haig he muttered something about leaving a soldier alone in a room with a loaded gun. “The honorable way out.”

In a visit to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as Watergate revelations caught up with him, Nixon said, “We gentleman here are the last hope, the last chance to resist.” Chief of naval operations Adm. Elmo Zumwalt said, “One could come to the conclusion that here was the commander in chief trying to see what the reaction of the chiefs might be if he did something unconstitutional … He was trying to find out whether in a crunch there was enough support to keep him in power.”

I don’t think there’s any way to interpret the Pentagon decisions as a “military coup d’état.” On the contrary, it looks to me as though Schlesinger was taking precautions to defend the Constitution, if it should ever come to that. Just in case.

9

I have substantially the same memory. Schlessinger was worried not that Nixon would send troops to Washington, D.C., but might do something like send troops to the Middle East either to a) start a war and divert Congress away from impeachment or b) to end the Middle Eastern conflict once and for all (forcibly) and have that be Nixon’s final, crowning act as President.

Schlessinger then told the various commanders to let him know if they received any order from the White House that didn’t follow the normal chain of command.

It doesn’t sound all that sinister to me. If you’re the comptroller of a company, and you knew an employee was on the verge of being fired, you might well tell everyone who handles the corporate checkbook to let you know if said employee were to ask for any unusual checks to be cut.

10

Nixon’s cabinet would officially inform the President Pro Tempore of the Senate that Nixon was a nutcase, and under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, VP Ford would be immediately made Acting President, and would rescind the orders.

11

First off, remember that “impeached” means accused. Nixon (like Clinton) would remain President until 2/3 of the Senate voted to convict him.

IF that had happened, it wouldn’t much matter whether Nixon would choose to leave quietly or hole himself up in the Oval Office with hand grenades and an M-16. His term as President would have ended the instant the Clerk of the Senate certified the vote and he would have no more power over the military than you or I.

Considering that Gerald Ford was Vice President, and that Nixon’s entire Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of staff and all the military commanders were still in place (and not in immediate danger of being ousted), I don’t think Nixon would have been able to muster the troops for a coup d’etat.

12

Nonsense!
Who do you think was on the other end of that phone, if not “the military”?
And what bombers did he scramble, then? Do we have some non-military ones around? (Maybe the Forest Service’s water-dumping planes count as bombers? Ah yes, Nixon planned to ‘put out the fire’ at Congress by water-bombing them into submission!)

This whole thing sounds preposterous. Are you sure your memory isn’t mixing this up with some movie you saw?

13

From the Federation of American Scientists:

For a comparison:

Nixon fired Archibald Cox (the Special Prosecutor) on October 20, 1973.

Nixon resigned on Aug 8, 1974.

14

Obviously the military was on the other end of the phone.

Does Strategic Air Command ring a bell, or are you suggesting that the strategic deterrent of the time , was some canadair water bombers ?

Whats with the snide remarks anyways ?

If I am mixing anything up , its the time , not the circumstances

Declan

15

The incident that I remembered reading , took place in oct of 69

Declan

16

Measure for Measure referred to the night of October 20, 1973. President Nixon was under investigation for his involvement in Watergate. The country was without a Vice President because Spiro Agnew had pled “No Contest” to criminal charges in another matter and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford had not yet been confirmed as Vice President.

Former Attorney General John Mitchell had already had to resign because of his involvement in Watergate. President Nixon had appointed Elliot Richardson as the new Attorney General with the understanding that the new AG would be able to appoint an independent Watergate Special Prosecutor.

Attorney General Richardson had appointed Archibald Cox who was doing too thorough a job and wanted the tapes from the Oval Office.

On the night of October 20, 1973, President Nixon told Attorney General Richardson to fire Archibald Cox. Richardson “resigned” rather than carry out the order.

Next in line was Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. He also resigned that night rather than carry out the President’s order to fire Cox. It was the Solicitor General, Robert H. Bork, who finally fired Cox.

These events were known as “the Saturday night massacre.” Pretty scarey at the time.

Robert Bork, btw, was later nominated for the Supreme Court but Congress failed to give its consent.

If you are interested in the Saturday Night Massacre, here is a link to the Washington Post’s coverage the next day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm