Roosevelt won his unprecedented third election on the vow that he wouldn't send American boys to war: "While I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one more assurance. I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars." This was almost surely a lie.
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Truman never met a government program he didn't like. He imposed wage, price and credit controls; tried to take over the entire health-care industry; and expanded government in dozens of other ways. He confiscated the American steel industry and said he had a right to seize any industry he wanted.
He tried to draft striking railroad workers into the Army during peacetime, created the military-industrial complex, initiated the wasteful foreign-aid program, and posed as a communist-fighter while stopping the Senate from investigating the hundreds of security risks in his own administration.
He constantly lied to the American people – about Republicans, about the government, about almost anything. He was one of America's very worst presidents.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower lied about our spy flights over the Soviet Union, even after one flier on such a mission was shot down. He deceived the nation and the world about the U.S. involvement in the coup that overthrew a democratic government in Guatemala. That coup brought on a succession of military juntas that took tens of thousands of lives. Eisenhower deceived the nation about the U.S. role in subverting a government in Iran because it was offending multinational oil corporations. The United States put the Shah of Iran back on the throne, and his secret police tortured and executed thousands of his opponents.
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Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all lied to the nation about what was happening in Vietnam. Kennedy said the United States was not involved in the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem. And Kennedy repeatedly claimed that American fliers were not involved in the bombing of Vietnam, even though he sent two helicopter companies there as early as 1962, with the U.S. military dropping napalm shortly thereafter.
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Johnson and Nixon both lied when they claimed only military targets were bombed (reporters knew the greatest number of deaths was among civilians). And Nixon deceived the nation about the secret bombing of Cambodia.
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Nixon lied constantly to protect his isolation. He lied to his closest staff members, to his Cabinet, to the nation, to the world. The Nixon staff lied to one another and to the President. Then they wiretapped one another, stole one another's files, examined one another's phone records, all in a hopeless effort to find out the truth under the layers of lies. It was, "a White House of lies, a house organized for deception...even the insiders themselves could no longer penetrate to reality." Two of the most startling examples of the culture of deception occurred at summit meetings Nixon had with the Soviets and the Chinese. In both cases, Nixon and his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, asked the foreign leaders to join them in lies to deceive Nixon's own Secretary of State, William Rogers.
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Former President Jimmy Carter “lied then†about firing a U.S. attorney in 1978 investigating Democratic officials in Philadelphia and “lies now†in condemning the Bush Administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys and calling for Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales to go.
“All this Sunday school teaching does not seem to have the intended effect,†said the U.S. attorney removed by Carter, David Marston of Philadelphia, in a reference to the former President’s avocation as a Bible School teacher on Sundays.
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Reagan lied to the nation about his covert and illegal support of the contras in Nicaragua. He lied about the importance of Grenada in order to justify the 1983 invasion of that little island.
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George Bush lied about the reasons for invading Panama in 1989, saying it was to stop the drug trade. In fact, the United States has allowed the drug trade to flourish. Bush also deceived the nation about his real interest in the Persian Gulf. He pretended to be anguished about the fate of Kuwait while he was actually more concerned about enhancing American power in Saudi Arabia and controlling the region's oil deposits.
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There is substantial and credible information supporting the following eleven possible grounds for impeachment:
1. President Clinton lied under oath in his civil case when he denied a sexual affair, a sexual relationship, or sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.
2. President Clinton lied under oath to the grand jury about his sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
3. In his civil deposition, to support his false statement about the sexual relationship, President Clinton also lied under oath about being alone with Ms. Lewinsky and about the many gifts exchanged between Ms. Lewinsky and him.
4. President Clinton lied under oath in his civil deposition about his discussions with Ms. Lewinsky concerning her involvement in the Jones case.
5. During the Jones case, the President obstructed justice and had an understanding with Ms. Lewinsky to jointly conceal the truth about their relationship by concealing gifts subpoenaed by Ms. Jones's attorneys.
6. During the Jones case, the President obstructed justice and had an understanding with Ms. Lewinsky to jointly conceal the truth of their relationship from the judicial process by a scheme that included the following means: (i) Both the President and Ms. Lewinsky understood that they would lie under oath in the Jones case about their sexual relationship; (ii) the President suggested to Ms. Lewinsky that she prepare an affidavit that, for the President's purposes, would memorialize her testimony under oath and could be used to prevent questioning of both of them about their relationship; (iii) Ms. Lewinsky signed and filed the false affidavit; (iv) the President used Ms. Lewinsky's false affidavit at his deposition in an attempt to head off questions about Ms. Lewinsky; and (v) when that failed, the President lied under oath at his civil deposition about the relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
7. President Clinton endeavored to obstruct justice by helping Ms. Lewinsky obtain a job in New York at a time when she would have been a witness harmful to him were she to tell the truth in the Jones case.
8. President Clinton lied under oath in his civil deposition about his discussions with Vernon Jordan concerning Ms. Lewinsky's involvement in the Jones case.
9. The President improperly tampered with a potential witness by attempting to corruptly influence the testimony of his personal secretary, Betty Currie, in the days after his civil deposition.
10. President Clinton endeavored to obstruct justice during the grand jury investigation by refusing to testify for seven months and lying to senior White House aides with knowledge that they would relay the President's false statements to the grand jury -- and did thereby deceive, obstruct, and impede the grand jury.
11. President Clinton abused his constitutional authority by (i) lying to the public and the Congress in January 1998 about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky; (ii) promising at that time to cooperate fully with the grand jury investigation; (iii) later refusing six invitations to testify voluntarily to the grand jury; (iv) invoking Executive Privilege; (v) lying to the grand jury in August 1998; and (vi) lying again to the public and Congress on August 17, 1998 -- all as part of an effort to hinder, impede, and deflect possible inquiry by the Congress of the United States.
