War Crimes Edition

With self-styled Secretary of War Pete HIC!seth's Leave No Survivors rules of engagement in the present regime's gratuitous War in the Caribbean, Graphical History Tour takes a look at war crimes of the past.

"Das Ende" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Dec. 1, 1945

80 years ago on November 30, a German U-boat commander and two of his subordinate officers were executed for war crimes.

It was during World War II, in the South Atlantic. The German submarine U-852 under the command of Captain Heinz-Wilhelm Eck torpedoed the Greek-flagged ship Peleus on March 13, 1944.

The submarine commander Eck feared the steamer’s debris would be observed by a passing airplane, and give enough information to Allied reconnaissance to enable it to find his ship. He therefore surfaced and attempted to have the debris field eliminated by machine-gunning and grenading it into the watery deep.

Per German rules of engagement:

No attempt of any kind should be made at rescuing members of ships sunk, and this includes picking up persons in the water and putting them in lifeboats, righting capsized lifeboats and handing over food and water. Rescue runs counter to the rudimentary demands of warfare for the destruction of enemy ships and crews … Be harsh, having in mind that the enemy takes no regard of women and children in his bombing attacks of German cities.

"Spectator" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 3, 1945

The execution of Captain Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, August Hoffmann, and Walter Weisspfennig, was overshadowed by the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi high command, accused of the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and Socialists.

"Nuernberg" by David Low in London Spectator, ca. Dec. 2, 1945

The Nuremberg trials came to pass because the Allies were triumphant in the War. Germans did not bring the Nazis to trial. 

Nobody was put on trial for the carpet bombing of Dresden. Or for immolating the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The rules of war were followed there.

"My Lai?" by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1971

A generation later, in another war, the world was shocked by the March 16, 1968 massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians by U.S. soldiers in the Vietnamese villages of My Lai and My Khe. Expecting to find a Viet Cong battalion there, two Companies of U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped, mutilated, and slaughtered women and children when they couldn't find any men of military age in the town, then burned their homes to the ground. It was the largest confirmed massacre of civilians by U.S. ground forces in the 20th Century.

"Another Victim of My Lai" by William Roberts in Cleveland Press, March 30, 1971

The massacre had been documented in horrific photographs which were printed in national newsmagazines and on television.

The My Lai Massacre was an egregious, but not isolated case, according to an October, 1968 letter from Tom Glen, a 21-year-old soldier of the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, to General Creighton Abrams:

"What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated."

"Guilty" by Don Wright in Miami News, March 30, 1971

The responsibility for the massacre was taken all the way up to an Army Lieutenant, William Calley, Jr.. Calley's court martial became national news after a whistle-blower's letter prompted Congress to open an investigation. Calley testified that he had been following orders from his superior, Captain Ernest Medina. One witness testified that Medina's orders were that "anybody that was running from us, hiding from us" was to be shot. 

"Murderer" by Leonard Borozinski in Wisconsin State Journal, March 31, 1971

Calley received a guilty verdict in March of 1971 and sentenced to life in prison; yet, as the above cartoons suggest, emerged as a sympathetic figure. He was paroled in 1974 to very little public outcry.

"Time to Come Out of Hiding" by Wally "Trog" Fawkes in Punch, London, April, 1971

Meanwhile, in separate courts martial, Captain Medina and Captain Eugene M. Kotouc were acquitted of all charges. Commanding officer of Americal Division, Major General Samuel W. Koster was charged with covering up the massacre and acquitted, but demoted to Brigadier General.

"It's Not So Difficult Once You Get the Hang of It" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, March 31, 1971

Before moving on, we would be remiss if we did not also remember U.S. Army pilot Hugh Thompson, Jr., who landed his helicopter between the villagers and the soldiers, interrupting the slaughter and evacuating some survivors to safety.

"This in a Land Where One Humiliation Is Worth a Thousand Retributions" by Mark Streeter in Savannah Morning News, May 3, 2004

In 2004, the U.S. was embarrassed by its soldiers staffing the military prison at Abu Ghraib torturing prisoners of war. The soldiers had even posted photos on the internet of themselves humiliating naked Iraqi prisoners, chaining them like dogs, and piling them up on top of each other. The most widely circulated photo was of one hooded prisoner standing on a box with arms outstretched while hooked up to electrical wires.

Punishment was limited to the lowest level grunts.

"Chain of Command" by John Sherffius in Boulder Daily Camera, August 20, 2004

What the Dubya Bush administration learned from this fiasco was to rely more and more on outside contractors, like Blackwater, whose civilian paramilitary employees massacred 17 Iraqis at a traffic roundabout in 2007. Said employees were not invited to the Blackwater annual Christmas party that year.

Two years later, the outside firm was ArmorGroup, hired by the U.S. State Department to provide security at the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. CBS broke the story that ArmorGroup guards and supervisors engaging in what can only be described as a combination of the worst fraternity hazing with spring break at Fort Lauderdale.

for Q Syndicate, Sept., 2009

Hazing victims included Afghan nationals employed at the base, according to a Sept. 1, 2009 letter from Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: 

"There is also evidence that members of the guard force and their supervisors have drawn Afghan nationals into behavior forbidden for Muslims. For example, photographs show guards posing with Afghan nationals at the U.S. facility at Camp Sullivan as both the guards and nationals consume alcoholic beverages in scenes that suggest drunkenness, and one photo shows a near-naked U.S. guard who appears to have urinated on himself and splashed an Afghan national."

And again, there were plenty of photos, posted to the unit's social media page. It's always the pictures that get people into trouble.

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War crimes have been committed by many countries other than the United States. Is it even possible to have a crime-free war, fought strictly according to the Geneva Accords? 

Seemingly not. That, however, takes us into Current Events, which are not in our Graphical History Tour's itinerary.

Not yet, anyway.

A Letter from the Editor

From time to time, I devote these Graphical History Tours to reports of books I have recently bought.

Having taken my sister to the airport in Milwaukee this week, I was obliged to stop in at the Renaissance Book Store in the concourse. I frequently find old books of editorial cartoons there, and this visit was no exception.

Cover cartoons by Karl Hubenthal, Paul Conrad, Robert Graysmith, and Jeff MacNelly

The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year — 1974 is one that was not already in my collection, so I had to bring it home. The cartoons are from 1973: the year the U.S. withdrew from the Vietnam War; the Watergate scandal burst wide open; Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency; Syria and Egypt attacked Israel; the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on Western Europe, Canada, and the United States, resulting in a severe energy crisis; and U.S. troops massacred Native American protesters at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

It was also the year the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, but there is no mention of it in this particular book.

I was really struck, however, by the book's forward, written by Washington Star-News editor Newbold Noyes. In light of the state of newspaper editorial cartooning these days, I'd like to quote it in full; so aside from a few cartoons from the book and my credit lines, the rest of today's GHT is Mr. Noyes:

"The Boss Says Make It Funny" by Bill Crawford (for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Sept. 4, 1973) on back cover

So far as an editor is concerned, the cartoon on his editorial page is that white-hot point of light beneath the burning glass. Here the newspaper's editorial statement is reduced to its simplest and strongest terms. More readers are likely to register the cartoonist's message, on any given day, than any other commentary. For better or worse, this pictorial comment comes closer to embodying the spirit of the newspaper than any other element in its pages.

So far as the editor is concerned, this is not always for the better. We have to be candid about this: for an editor, the power focused in the cartoonist's penpoint is something of a problem. When editors meet, the things that really are on their minds do not appear on the formal agenda — they surface in talk around the bar.

When the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors met the other day on the shores of Arizona's Lake Powell, its members did not devote their first cocktail session to the beauties of the second largest man-made body of water, or even to Watergate. They talked instead about the Los Angeles Times' decision to move its editorial cartoon to the the "op-ed" page, that kaleidoscope of other opinion appearing opposite the newspaper's own editorials.

"Alas, Poor Agnew..." by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1973

Was the switch being made on general principles, or because of some clash of opinion on a major issue developing between editor and cartoonist? Was it a good idea for the rest of us? How about moving the cartoon off the editorial page only on those days when it evidenced a major departure from the views of the editor? How would their cartoonist [Paul] Conrad react?

Evidently, the Times' just-announced move touched a sensitive and responsive nerve in editorial circles.

The problem, of course, was not a new one; it was just that here was somebody doing something about a situation that, subliminally, had perplexed us all. I hearkened back, as the talk rolled on, to the time when our morning competitor in Washington warmly supported Eisenhower in its editorial columns, while its editorial cartoonist [Herblock] persisted in presenting the General as the very personification of Simple Simon. The town took wry delight in the Post's embarrassment, but the newspaper somehow survived. It seems to me the cartoonist went on a vacation, or something.

I am going into all this not to suggest that editorial cartoons no longer belong on editorial pages (which seems to me a dubious proposition), but only to make one point: there is potency in this branch of journalistic commentary. A good argument could be advanced, I think, that the editorial cartoonists in this country have more immediate impact on public opinion than editors, or columnists, or TV anchormen, or any other group.

What makes a good cartoon? Everyone has his prejudices. I, for instance, happen to be partial to those that make a serious point with a humorous twist. In times such as these, however, when very little that happens is at all funny, it is fortunate indeed that a good cartoon can be sad, or bitter, or furious.

Some say that, because cartoons rely on over-statement or exaggeration — distortion, if you will — they must be basically mean. I don't agree; a number of my favorite cartoonists, including Gib Crockett of the Washington Star-News, are consistently good-natured in their approach. That quality should be no more unwelcome on an editorial page than it is in real life.

"Yankee Gone Home" by Gib Crockett in Washington Star-News, January, 1973

The essence of good cartooning, needless to say, is simplicity. This is true of almost any sort of artistic expression, graphic or otherwise, but in cartooning it is the name of the entire game. You cannot be subtle in a cartoon. You cannot be balanced. You cannot worry too much even about being fair.

The cartoonist produces his effect by over-simplifying — by stripping away all the qualifications, the "yes, buts" and "on the other hands," and reducing his message to one pure unequivocal statement.

That, obviously, makes editors uneasy. One such pure, unequivocal statement says far more to more readers than a thousand carefully considered, nicely balanced words. So in addition to being more influential with public opinion in general, the cartoonist may even have more effect than the editor on the public's perception of his newspaper's stance.

This is why the editorial nose is always out of joint in relation to cartoonists — more than usual these days, because of the unusually complex and critical nature of the issues we are trying to deal with. My own guess is that, despite their discomfiture, most editors will let cartoonists continue to dominate the editorial pages, just as they have all along.

The reason, in one pure and unequivocal statement, is that the editorial page would be so damn dull without its cartoon!

—NEWBOLD NOYES, November 5, 1973

"And That's the Truth" by Mike Peters in Dayton Daily News, August 16, 1973

Ask Not for Whom the Lon Nols...

This week's stop on the Graphical History Tour is the year 1975, marking a half century since the Fall of Southeast Asia to the Communists.

North Vietnam had used the period after the 1973 Paris Agreement, ending U.S. military involvement, to improve and fortify the Ho Chi Minh trail to the South. Skirmishes between the Armies of South Vietnam (ARVN) and North Vietnam (PAVN) prompted South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu to declare the peace treaty null and void in 1974, just as the Watergate scandal was removing U.S. President Richard Nixon from the picture.

"It Makes a Nice Shield" by Dick Wright in San Diego Union, ca. Jan. 16, 1975

The beginning of the end came as the year got underway. Attacking through Cambodia, PAVN quickly took Phước Binh. Reflecting American sentiment against putting more U.S. lives on the line, Congress refused President Gerald Ford's request for military aid. Demoralized ARVN forces retreated against PAVN advances.

"Rathole" by William "Zee" Zellar in Imperial Beach/Chula Vista Star News, Calif., Jan. 30, 1975

I've had been unable to discover who the cartoonist drawing as "Zee" was [update: see comments below, and thank you to D.D. Degg], but this cartoon perfectly illustrates the American mindset the Ford administration was up against. All that is missing are the lives, American and Vietnamese, lost down the "rathole."

(I did find a fellow Ole — class of '05 — selling a collection of Zee originals on eBay, but they didn't know Zee's identity, either. What I do know is that Zee drew steadily for the Star News papers of San Diego's suburbs from the 1960's until January, 1978, often on local topics.)

"Looks Like a Double-Header" by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, ca. Mar. 12, 1975

Cambodia had been in civil war ever since the U.S.-backed military coup led by Prime Minister Lon Nol overthrew the monarchy of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970. The communist Khmer Rouge continued fighting without interruption in spite of the 1973 Paris Peace Accord amongst North and South Vietnam and the United States, and in spite of a cut-off of arms from North Vietnam.

The alliance between the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam was an uneasy one of mutual distrust. Still, it was no coincidence that the Khmer Rouge launched an offensive in January, 1975 as PAVN advanced into South Vietnam.

"You've Got to Carry It, Sam" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, March 19, 1975

Popular support in the U.S. for the Lon Nol regime was practically non-existent. He had assumed the presidency of the Khmer Republic in 1972 after a blatantly rigged election, and his military (Forces Armées Nationales Khmères, or FANK) was rife with graft and corruption.

"How About Changing Leaders in Midstream" by Tom Curtis in Milwaukee Sentinel, March 12, 1975

Mike Mansfield (D-MT) in Tom Curtis's cartoon was the Majority Leader of the Senate, later U.S. Ambassador to Japan under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

"Towering Inferno" by Mike Lane for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. March 26, 1975

In desperation, Lon Nol sought out the advice of mystics and soothsayers, even sprinkling a circular line of consecrated sand intended to magically defend the capital city, Phnom Penh.

It didn't help.

"See the Light at the End of the Cambodian Tunnel" by Paul Conrad for Los Angeles Times, March, 1975

You didn't need a telescope to see the end of the Khmer Republic. FANK was low on ammunition and morale. By the end of March, the Khmer Rouge controlled all of the country but Phnom Penh and the Preah Vihear Temple on the Thai border, and were known to have an extensive list of Cambodian officials they intended to execute, starting with the man at the top. 

The scale of the genocide that was to follow would be beyond anything imagined by the outside world.

by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1975

Nol resigned and fled the country to California by way of Indonesia on April 1, 1975, and died there of cancer ten years later.

Pursuit of the Naked Truth

If you've been following these Graphical History Tours of mine since the centennial of World War I, you know that most of my posts are about whatever was in the news 100 years earlier. But every once in a while, I like to come forward a bit to discuss some of the major news events from fifty years ago that I can actually remember: the Vietnam War... the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy... Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and Apollo 13 making it back to Earth... the Watergate break-in... the Six-Day War...

So let's take a look at this monumental, life-changing news story from March, 1974:

"The Nudity Crisis" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 9, 1974

Streaking.

Spring was just around the corner, so college students naturally shed their winter parkas and started running around au naturel, as one is wont to do. 

And news media loved it. Catching snapshots of studly students and comely co-eds dashing through the quad in their birthday suits was a welcome break from reporting the news of rising oil prices, a looming recession, and the criminal indictment of seven of President Nixon's closest aides.

"They Say Streaking Is a Phenomenon Directly Related to the Pressures and Frustrations of Our Society. Was That Who I Thought It Was?" by Don Wright in Miami News, March 5, 1974

I remember the Chicago Tribune, Time, and Newsweek devoting entire pages to streaker photos. (I recall a large photo in the Tribune spread of a guy with one leg in a cast streaking on crutches!) Television had to be a bit more careful about what got caught on camera, but bare all they did. Which begat more streaking, which begat more photo spreads, which begat more streaking... The fad was seemingly everywhere … even on stage at the Oscars!

"The Object of 'Streaking'..." by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1974

Certainly the nation's editorial cartoonists were eager to join in the fun.

"Again Eluding the Congress and the Courts..." by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, March 6, 1974

We editorial cartoonists fancy ourselves to be serious journalists, speaking truth to power. Distilling important news down to its bare essence! Exposing hypocrisy and corruption! But deep down, we are also the kid in the back of the class drawing pictures of the school principal saying "Poop!" in our notebooks.

(Ask Clay Jones to show you his.)

"Streaking" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, March 6, 1974

Even the great Herblock in the capital's newspaper of record couldn't resist dashing off a cartoon of the President in the altogether.

"Good Grief..." by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond Times-Leader, ca. March 11, 1974

Likewise Jeff MacNelly, then early in his newspaper career. What he got right in this cartoon was that many collegiate streakers protected what was left of their modesty by pulling a balaclava over their face.

Had enough of Nixon in the nude? Yeah, me too.

"Senior Streaker" by Lou Grant for Los Angeles Time Syndicate, ca. March 14, 1974

We can now be grateful to Lou Grant for putting Richard Nixon in a streaking cartoon yet mercifully leaving him fully dressed.

"Streaking through 1974" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, March 7, 1974

With the Watergate scandal and economic hardship dominating the news, Republicans were taking a beating in local elections. That included losing the House seat of newly-minted Vice President Gerald Ford.

"We've Been 'Streaking' for Years" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1974

For cartoonists (or their editors) who were leery of depicting the President of the United States in the nude, a safer alternative — especially for the dwindling number of Nixon defenders such as Ed Holland — was to draw John Q. Public stripped bare by the Internal Revenue Service.

"Streaking" by Gene Basset for Scripps Howard Newspapers, ca. March 14, 1974

Or one could draw Jane Q. Consumer losing everything to Inflation Bar Sinister.

"Streaker" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Democrat, ca. March 16, 1974

Or heck, why not draw about inflation and taxes? There's no limit to the kinds of major expenses that you could draw stealing the shirt off your back and the pants off your tush.

But you can leave your hat on.

"Like Father Like Son" by Jim Lange in Daily Oklahoman, March 7, 1974

Returning whence the fad began, I'm not sure whether Jim Lange was commenting on the economy in general or college tuition in particular. But I do know that the tuition grant I was awarded a couple years later, a significant amount at the time, would barely cover the cost of one semester's textbooks today.

The average college tuition in 1974 was $1,650/year for a public college, $3,420/year for a private college. Today, adjusted for inflation, that would be $12,155 and  $21,395, respectively. With the proliferation of fees since the '70's, looking at the actual cost of college today is like comparing apples and fruit salad; but the average cost for a four-year public college last year was $21,878, and for a private college, it was $47,961.

"Vulgar Indeed, Miss Finch..." by Clyde Peterson "C.P. Houston" in Houston Chronicle, ca. March 9, 1974

That's enough math and calculus. I'll bring today's NSFW romp to a close with a couple of cartoons that expressed relief that college and university students were blowing off steam in harmless, frivolous ways, in contrast to students of only a few years prior. 

(Side note: I've seen the C.P. Houston cartoon with the word "mirthfully" instead of "joyously"; I do not know which word appeared in the Houston Chronicle. And the Doug Marlette cartoon below must have been drawn for national syndication in place of the local-issue cartoon of his with a streaking theme that appeared in the Charlotte Observer.)

"Once a Campus Revolutionary..." by Doug Marlette for Charlotte Oberver, ca. March 13, 1974

P.S.: If you caught a Joe Cocker earworm a couple paragraphs back and would rather get rid of it, try this one.

Try to Get Over the Toons of October

"And Now for the Latest Stunning Development" by Tom Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, October 1973

I've been seeing a lot of cartoons this week echoing the sentiment of this one by Tom Darcy half a century ago.

October of 1973 was a momentous month, and not in a particularly good way. Last Saturday's deadly surprise attack by Hamas targeting Israeli civilians as they celebrated Sukkot called to mind the Yom Kippur War almost exactly 50 years ago, when the Israeli military was caught similarly unprepared.

"Hello? Mr. Nixon? Mr. Brezhnev?" by Pat Oliphant in Denver News, October, 1973

After the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel had pre-emptively anticipated attacks from its neighbors on all sides and ended up seizing the Golan Heights from Syria, the Western Bank from Jordan, and the entire Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the Israeli military was seemingly invincible. But the Yom Kippur War would be, in the words of a Newsweek headline, "a war that broke the myths."

The UAR in Pat Oliphant's cartoon refers to the United Arab Republic, at the time a proposed union of Syria and Egypt that never actually came about. The two nations attacked Israel simultaneously, taking many Israeli soldiers captive. Egypt recaptured much of the Sinai; Syria, despite backing from Iraq, was soon driven back out of the Golan.

"An Eye for an Eye" by Corky Trinidad in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October (?) 1973

There was an Arab-language cartoon at the time that mocked Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who had lost an eye during World War II, wondering whether the outlook for Israel would be worse with two eyes, but I've been unable to find what book or scrapbook I have it in. Suffice it to say that Corky Trinidad's cartoon here riffs on an oft-cited biblical saying in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by referencing both Dayan's eyepatch and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's signature sunglasses.

Trinidad's cartoon expresses a view that both sides in the conflict are to blame for the cycle of violence that seems as never-ending now as it did half a century ago.

"You Guys Are Breaking My Back" by Ralph Yoes in San Diego Tribune, Oct. 1973

Ralph Yoes was not alone in suggesting, however, that there was plenty of blame to go around beyond the immediate belligerents. The United States was selling weapons and fighter planes to Israel, and the Soviet Union was arming the Arabs.

"Latter-Day Israelites Wandering 40 Years in the Wilderness" by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, Oct. 21, 1973

Wherever one has chosen to allot the blame, there has been one party who has consistently been, and remains, the victim. For way, way over that 40 years now. 

"Hell No, I Won't Go" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Today, October, 1973

Meanwhile, a U.S. District Attorney's investigation of corruption of Baltimore, Maryland officials discovered evidence linking Vice President Spiro Agnew to kickbacks from state contractors while he had been governor, and continuing after he was elected Richard Nixon's Vice President. Citing as precedent an 1826 House of Representatives investigation of Andrew Jackson's Vice President John C. Calhoun, Agnew argued that a vice president was immune from indictment by the criminal court system.

Deferring to the charges filed by the D.A., Speaker of the House Carl Albert (D-OK and third in line for the presidency) declined to open congressional investigation of the charges. As you may already know, both the House Judiciary Committee and the Nixon administration were quite occupied with other important matters in October of 1973.

"Yes, Thank You for Your Support, Mr. President" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, October, 1973

Agnew pleaded no contest to felony charges of tax evasion and resigned on October 10. Mike Peters's cartoon the next morning referenced a novelty watch and Agnew's dashed presidential hopes.

No caption, by Mike Peters in Dayton Daily News, Oct. 11, 1973

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, passed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, authorized the president to nominate a new Vice President, in this case Congressman Gerald R. Ford, subject to confirmation by the Senate.

"I Hate to Criticize the Framers of the Constitution" by Phil Interlandi in Los Angeles Times, Oct. 23, 1973

Thus the nation turned its eyes back to Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, and just in time for the "Saturday Night Massacre."

"Sure I Did It" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, October 22, 1973

Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, working for the Department of Justice, convinced Federal Judge John Sirica to subpoena nine White House tape recordings, the existence of which had been made public in Senate testimony that summer. In a bold attempt to quash Cox's investigation, Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire him.

Instead, Richardson resigned, followed by his Deputy, William Ruckelshaus. The next in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork did Nixon's bidding.

"Simple" by Tom Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, October, 1973

Blowback was swift. Time magazine and newspapers across the country called for Nixon to resign. At last, Nixon relented, promising to allow Judge Sirica to listen to the tapes...

"Well, First Let Me Emphasize My Complete Faith in Judge Sirica" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, Oct., 1973

... then announced that two of the subpoenaed tapes were missing. And it only got worse from there.

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I had originally intended to post today a report of last week's joint convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and our Canadian counterpart, but others have said just about anything I had in mind, and said it better than I would have.

I will say that it was a pleasure to meet with others in my beleaguered profession. That includes some, such as Al Goodwyn, whom I met for the first time at this convention. I know his work mainly because GoComics places him alphabetically first on its page (until Aaron Abelard comes along), and his views there are invariably opposed to mine. 

The AAEC had seen an exodus of conservative editorial cartoonists in recent years — perhaps because liberals like me keep getting elected to the governing board. But the purpose of the AAEC is not now, nor has it ever been, to push an ideological agenda. It exists first and foremost to promote editorial cartooning — right, center, or left — and to stand for professionalism and honest debate.

Nowadays, vulture capitalists are bleeding newspapers dry, reducing them to withered husks of what they used to be. The bean-counters at McClatchy summarily dismissed three Pulitzer-prize-winning editorial cartoonists in the months leading up to our convention; another was fired from a prominent position less than a week before our gathering. 

So discussion always turns to: if not newspapers, what? Patreon? Books? Television? Movies? Bar coasters? (Seriously. Bar coasters.)

In our element at the Cartoon Art Museum

One final note: I was excited to find a book of Vaughn Shoemaker's editorial cartoons in this room of the Cartoon Art Museum during our opening reception. I hoped that it would include the cartoon featuring my father when he was 5 years old. Unfortunately, the cartoons in the book dated from the 1950's, two decades too late. Aw, shucks.