Ex-Interior Secretary Walter Hickel dies at 90

The Associated Press reports:

Walter Hickel studies a question during an interview in his office in Washington, D.C. on June 12, 1970. (AP)

Hickel was fired from his Interior post in late 1970, after sending Nixon a letter critical of his handling of student protests following the National Guard shootings at Kent State and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

The letter helped to stir national debate about the growing generational rift over the Vietnam War.

"I believe this administration finds itself today embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans - our young people," Hickel wrote.

Days before he lost the post in Nov. 1970, Hickel had told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he would not quit under pressure. He said he would only go away "with an arrow in my heart, not a bullet in my back."

Continue reading this story >>>