Truth and Reconciliation, why we should not pardon someone who has not confessed or been convicted.

  I've posted in other places about how pardoning Richard Nixon without making him confess allowed him and Henry Kissinger to regain influence in American politics decades later.  The other day, I was reading a post on Stonekettle Station, a blog by Jim Wright, which brought up the subject.  Before I get into my thoughts, just let me say, I regularly read Stonekettle Station, Jim Wright is a smart fellow, and his words are worth considering. I would encourage everyone who cares about American politics to read that post, and consider tossing him a few dollars, I do.  The post that got me thinking about this is located here:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/03/the-second-coming-of-richard-millhouse.html

  So here's my take on this.  President Lyndon Johnson's papers were unsealed recently after 40 years along with tapes from the Whitehouse phone system and so on. It shows that Richard Nixon, who was running for president, arranged for Henry Kissinger, President Johnson's advisor in the "Paris Peace Talks", to tell the S Vietnamese to pull out of the talks.  Presumably because it would allow Nixon to win, and Nixon would give them the war they wanted.  When they pulled out of the peace talks, Nixon won, and gave them their war, and an additional 20,000 Americans died while the war continued.
  Just think about that for a while, and let it sink in.  20,000 Americans died, so Nixon could become the next Republican president.

  You might remember that when Nixon later became president he resigned over a burglary at the Watergate Hotel to steal some information from the Democrats.  Everyone thought it was election information, but it appears to have been an attempt by Nixon to learn what President Johnson knew about Nixon's role in sabotaging the peace talks.  You see, for Nixon to arrange for someone to sabotage matters of state would be treason, a capital offense.

  That sounds kind of like 47 Senators who sent a letter to Iran,   When S. Vietnam pulled out, the US stayed in Vietnam for another 7 years, killing 20,000 people. I've covered this half a dozen times, the modern Republican party (since 1948 or so) are largely self-concerned pricks, who would sabotage their mother for a vote. And these bastards in congress, these 47 Moronin, are doing it again.
But I am digressing from my main point. 

  I think Nixon resigned not over concerns about getting caught instigating a break-in, he resigned over fears they had proof he committed treason, for which he could have been tried, and if convicted put to death. But it never happened, he was pardoned without being forced to divulge his crimes. And that process, pardoning something for which the person never confessed, or for which they were never convicted, is a poison in American politics.

  I propose, that if you want to get pardoned, you need to be pardoned for specific actions.  This means you have to either confess the thing you are being pardoned for, so they are fully disclosed and people can understand the crime, or you have to go to court, be convicted, and get a pardon for the thing you were convicted of.  I got the idea from the South African "Truth and Reconciliation Commission"  In South Africa it really would have to try everyone, so they had them write up their crimes, and they forgave what was documented.  If you later did more bad stuff, well, trials for everyone!

  This modern notion of letting people go free because it would be too disruptive to prosecute them is poison, and has to end.