bruno debaenst flee the country. Nevertheless, he was right and the Dreyfus case showed many deficiencies in the government, the military and the judiciary. His actions in the end led to the rehabilitation of Dreyfus. Another interesting case on the interaction of the public opinion, the media and the Rechtsstaat is the Vietnam War.46 In 1971, The New York Times published fragments from the so-called Pentagon Papers, revealing how the American army for years had been lying to the American public about the true situation of the war in Vietnam and the fact that the war could not be won. This disclosure, together with the growing anti-war movement and the daily footages of the war in the media, helped turning public opinion against the war. There was even a spin off. Alarmed by the leaks, President Nixon installed a “plumber unit” to deal with whistleblowers. This led to the infamous Watergate affair, where Nixon’s men broke intothe officesof the Democratic Convention Headquarters.In the aftermath, Nixon tried everything within his power to organize a massive cover-up operation, but the press played a pivotal role in uncovering the events. In 1974, the journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein published their bookAll the President’s Men.47 This book, together with other revelations in the press, eventually forced President Nixon to abdicate, to avoid impeachment. There are other examples where public opinion came to the rescue of the Rechtsstaat. In Belgium, public outrage over a criminal scandal forced legislative changes. In the 1990s, Marc Dutroux, had been abducting and abusing young girls. When the police finally managed to arrest him, it soon became obvious that they had been making many mistakes. To make things worse, Dutroux managed to escape from captivity, only to be arrested a few hours later by a forester. Public outrage was huge and the ministers of justice and of the interior had to resign. A few days later, 300.000 people silently manifested in Brussels during the so-called White March. The public outrage led to a parliamentary investigation commis46 Bowman, Frank O. III, High Crimes and Misdemeanors. A History of Impeachment for the Age ofTrump. Cambridge 2019. 47 Woodward, Bob, Bernstein, Carl, All the president’s men, New York 1974. 73
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