American Apologies |
A site dedicated to apologizing for all of the embarrassments, failures, and injustices done by the United States, as well as the Americans who have betrayed the ideals of one of the greatest countries in the world. Send questions or comments here or there. Full List | Twitter | Facebook | Contact | RSS |
Criticisms of Richard Nixon will definitely make an appearance on this site eventually, but for now it’s worth looking at his less-referenced Vice President, Spiro Agnew. Agnew had one of the fastest rises in U.S. political history, going from his first election as County Executive to Vice President in six years. His Vice Presidency was the highest-ranking United States political office ever reached by either a Greek American citizen or a Marylander, and yet all this would get fucked up because he was greedy and took bribes as a Governor of Maryland. During his tenure as Vice President to Nixon, he was known for his strange alliteration in speeches (“nattering nabobs of negativism”) and for being generally aloof. Nixon resented Agnew for being less visionary and even planned on abandoning him for the 1972 election before reconsidering. Agnew, who had used his position of power to make friends with celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, resigned as Vice President and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion in 1973, the beginning in a long series of problems for the Nixon administration. Tax evasion was sweet talk for what was really his taking bribes amounting to about $250,000, which he would later pay back to Maryland in 1983 after being sued by people that thought he got off too easy (which he did). He remains the only Vice President to ever resign because of criminal charges.
