Poisoning The Press

by Mark Feldstein

  Bruce Lambert, “Fred B. Black, 80,” NYT (Jan. 25, 1993), B7; mobbed-up: Wallace Turner, “F.B.I. Use of Listening Devices Prompts Charges and Inquiries,” NYT (July 3, 1966), A25; Lawrence Feinberg, “Ex-Lobbyist Sentenced in Cocaine Scheme,” WP (July 23, 1985), C1; “hospitality suite”: Baker and King, 169; Ford room key, “got oral sex”: Baker intv.; Rometsch: Hersh, Camelot, 388–90; “spread a lot of joy”: Baker intv.; FBI bugs: John P. MacKenzie, “Use of ‘Bug’ Is Admitted by Justice,” WP (May 25, 1966), A1, 4; “hidden listening device”; JA, MGR (Dec. 4, 1970), JAP; secretary’s affair: Denton and Morris, 309, Denton intv.; Hoover blackmail: Baker intv. and Joe Stephens, “Ford Told FBI of Skeptics on Warren Commission,” WP (Aug. 8, 2008), A5.

  deliberately scheduled: Neider, Olivia Anderson intvs.; “I used to think”: Grady intv.; country girls: Mayfield, Olivia Anderson intvs.

  Rose Mary Woods: Morris, 640; Ambrose, Education, 247; Patricia Sullivan, “Rose Mary Woods Dies,” WP (Jan. 24, 2005), B4; “thick-ankled babes”: L. Goldberg intv.; dated important men: McCord, 60; Mitchell, Denton, Whitten intvs.

  3: BUGGING AND BURGLARY

  “New Nixon”: Cabell Phillips, “Nixon in ’58—and Nixon in ’60,” NYT Magazine (Oct. 24, 1958), 11, 68; “more human,” duck social events, dig up dirt: DP, Diaries, 419, 402, 442, 384; Nixon house: Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, “Surreal Estate,” WP (July 12, 2007), C2, and Kirstin Downey, “Nixon . . . Slept Here,” WP (Sept. 16, 2007), C11; Nixon reportedly confided: Costello, 111.

  Anderson revealed: JA, “Harris Quashes Probe of Adams,” WP (May 13, 1958), B21; collected bribes: JA, “The Vicuna Coat Cover-up,” WP (May 20, 1973), C7, and William Safire, “Abominable No-Man,” NYT (Nov. 3, 1986), A23; dominated the news: Ambrose, Education, 490–92; Nixon counterattack: memo, Richard Nixon to Bill Key (June 19, 1958) and memo from “LGG” (June 2, 1958), “DP,” Box 583, RNVPP; “potent questions”: DP, Diaries, 455.

  “mighty blow”: JA and Boyd, 350–51; “studded with gifts,” “indirectly from the American taxpayers”: DP, “Presents to Ike Are Most Lavish,” WP (June 20, 1958), B15.

  caught with bugging: JA and Boyd, 356–60; “revulsion”: “The Goldfine Bug,” WP (July 8, 1958), A12; “grotesque”: “A Very Bad Bug,” New York Journal American (July 8, 1958), 14; “very embarrassing situation”: DP, Diaries, 462.

  “get a congressman,” “raise question of violation of federal law”: memo, William Key to Richard Nixon, “Take Two Goldfine” (ND), DP, Box 583, RNVPP; “disgraceful,” “snooper”: Tom Nelson, “Fire Goldfine ‘Snooper,’ ” New York Daily Mirror (July 8, 1958), 2; “Peeping Tom”: R. P. Kennard, Jr., letter to editor, WP (July 12, 1958), A6.

  White House pressure, Anderson grand jury subpoena: DP, Diaries, 466, 484, 487; “greatest morass”: Pack, 276; “Everybody knew”: JA intv. Gibson; confidential FBI informant: FBI memo, 139-727-14, “I. Irving Davidson,” 5 (Oct. 1, 1958), JFKAA.

  “uneven-handed justice”: DP, “Different Types of Justice Seen,” WP (Oct. 8, 1958), C15; “political investigation”: letter, DP to Robert V. Murray (June 5, 1959), Sherman Adams G225, 1 of 3, DPP; dropped their investigation: James Clayton, “D.C. Hotel Cashier Is Exonerated,” WP (Oct. 24, 1958), A1.

  “embarrassing,” “keyhole”: Sheehan, 10; “greatest pungency”: JA and Boyd, 5; quoted and publicity: JA and Boyd, 358; James J. Butler, “Jack Anderson, Investigative Reporter,” Editor and Publisher (July 26, 1958), 15, 68; and “Stop the Merry-Go-Round,” WP Magazine (Dec. 18, 1977), 5 (reprint of 1958 article [ND]); “pariahs”: JA intv. Gibson.

  Nixon’s conclusion: Nixon, RN, 194; Eisenhower, 127.

  “Since we were both”: JA manuscript, “Chappaquiddick,” 7–8, JAP.

  photographic evidence, “no intention of tattling”: JA and Gibson, 391.

  Anderson said that the photos he saw did not show Kennedy in a “compromising position” and so he told his source that “I can’t prove anything with that.” Kennedy’s playboy senatorial friend George Smathers confirmed to Anderson that the stories of JFK’s womanizing were true but Anderson believed they were not newsworthy because it hadn’t “affected his public conduct.” Smathers told Anderson that JFK “made the great mistake of confessing everything to his wife before his marriage” in “a compulsion to tell her everything.” The result, Smathers said, was that whenever he visited the White House, the First Lady viewed Smathers with hostility; thereafter, according to Anderson, Smathers advised JFK “not to be so candid” about his sexual affairs. JA manuscript, “Chappaquiddick,” 7–8, JAP; JA intv. Gibson.

  “energized him,” “soon discovering”: JA and Boyd, 362, 378.

  “manipulative recluse”: JA and Boyd, 382.

  “really for Richard”: Summers, Arrogance, 157.

  “needs some cash”: Summers, Arrogance, 155; “whistle of astonishment”: Dietrich and Thomas, 281; $1.6 million: www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.

  “don’t give a darn”: Summers, Arrogance, 155; “going too far,” “fishy,” “I want the Nixons”: Dietrich and Thomas, 281–83.

  unorthodox loan: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 21–24; Phelan, Scandals, 84, 88; North-Broome, 88, 93.

  secrecy: Phelan, Scandals, 88; “Eastern division”: Phelan, Scandals, 87; “only instance”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 22.

  What Hughes received: JA and Boyd, 384–85.

  “impossible to verify”: Phelan, Scandals, 92.

  “definitely not a philanthropist”: Summers, Arrogance, 158.

  falling-out: Phelan, Scandals, 89; “clandestine investigative arm”: JA and Boyd, 381.

  accident or burglary: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 24; “purloined”: Summers, Arrogance, 508; Kennedys, who did indeed pay: Phelan, Scandals, 89; equivalent of more than $100,000: www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.

  something “hot”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 25; “I and my father”: North-Broome, 116–17.

  “I don’t know,” “I never heard”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 25; more than one secret meeting: North-Broome, 114.

  “bowled me over,” photographic studio: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 25; “terrific scoop”: Dudman intv.

  “a large sum”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 25; Dietrich role: McCulloch intv.

  “save Nixon’s neck,” “came out in public,” “Fortunately, those were the days”: Maheu and Hack, 83–84; “I pushed for it”: McCulloch intv.; none dared run the story: Drosnin, 312, and JA manuscript, “Prologue: Remaining Segments,” 5, JAP.

  “Jack, this time,” “On the face of it”: JA manuscript, “Prologue: October 1960,” 2, 3, JAP; “If the public”: JA and Boyd, 382.

  public records carefully concealed, “The trouble with,” “I’ve called Jim,” “On my way,” “helping the Kennedy campaign”: Boyd manuscript, “Prologue: October 1960,” 5–9, JAP; “evocative of semisleeping”: JA and Boyd, 383.

  “reluctance to reveal,” “a pride that only”: JA manuscript, “Prologue: October 1960,” 12–13, JAP; internal documents: letters, James J. Arditto to Frank J. Waters (Jan. 30, 1959), Phillip Reiner to F. J. Strickland (April 24, 1957), James J. Arditto to Thomas W. Bewley (June 18, 1957), James J. Arditto to Nadine Henley (July 7, 1958), Eleanor Rohrbeck intv. notes (ND)—all in “Nixon-Hughes Loan 15,” G281, 3 of 3, DPP.

  “It’s late” conversation: JA manuscript, “Prologue: October 1960,” 14–16, JAP.

  “onus of starting,” “agitate the Nixon antennae,” “If Nixon bites”: JA manuscript, “Outline of Remaining Segments of Prologue,” 9–10, JAP; “might yet [try to] lie”: JA and Boyd, 383.

  “about to unload,” “protect our side”: Klein, 416.

  VP BARES, “In an attempt,” “panicked,” “cock-and-bull”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 26; “lost their heads”: Phelan, Scandals, 91; ignored the two most important names: JA and Boyd, 384; “To call it unbelievable”: Maheu and Hack, 85.

  “hesitated to write,” approval and knowledge, dummy owner, “no evidence t
hat the Hughes loan was connected”: DP, MGR (Oct. 25, 1960), JAP; “reason for conflict of interest laws”: JA and Boyd, 385; headlines: “Pearson Bares $205,000 Loan to Nixon Kin by Hughes Lawyer,” Los Angeles Examiner (Oct. 27, 1960), 1, 2.

  refused to allow, could not be located, “Drew did not want”: JA and Boyd, 385–86; “smear”: “Nixon Aide Accuses Columnist of ‘Smear’ over Story of Loan,” NYT (Oct. 27, 1960), 30.

  “not make a flat statement,” “all the documents together”: Anthony Lewis, “An Aide to Nixon to Explain Loan,” NYT (Oct. 28, 1952), 16; “Now fearing the worst”: JA and Boyd, 386.

  “deeply grieved” to “influence outcome”: AP, “Donald Nixon Admits He Got Hughes Loan,” WP (Oct. 31, 1960), 12, and “Brother of Nixon Got Hughes Loan,” NYT (Oct. 31, 1960), 23.

  News accounts: AP, LOAN ADMITTED BY NIXON KIN, Madison (WI) Capital Times (Oct. 31, 1960), 1, 4; citing documents: DP, MGR (Oct. 25, 1960), JAP; “sucker”: Phelan, “Nixon Family,” 26.

  Reiner went public, “all major decisions,” “fantastic attempt”: Robert G. Spivack, “Code Name Hid Dick Nixon’s Role,” New York Post (Nov. 1, 1960), 1, 2, 4.

  “You’re going to lose”: Philip Benjamin, “Throngs Hail G.O.P. Leaders,” NYT (Nov. 3, 1960), 25; “Henceforth”: JA and Boyd, 387.

  “Mr. Nixon has been talking”: script (ND), “Nixon the Candidate,” G281, 1 of 3, DPP.

  special Senate committee: DP, “Proposed Speech for Lyndon Johnson,” “Nixon—Hughes Loan,” G281, 3 of 3, DPP; SUGGEST PRESS STATEMENT: DP, “Press Collect, Cong. Jack Brooks,” “Nixon, Donald—clips,” G282, 2 of 3, DPP; “integrity of our government”: AP, “Conflict of Interest Inquiry Asked by Kefauver,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Oct. 28, 1956), 2.

  “Because Pearson”: Phelan, Scandals, 81; Republican publishers: New England Society of Newspaper Editors, “News Coverage of Two 1960 Presidential Campaign Stories in Forty-Three New England Daily Newspapers” (ND), 5–16, 28–30, “Nixon—Hughes Loan,” G281, DPP.

  “came too late”: Ambrose, Education, 603.

  “I hope”: Nixon, Crises, 698; cost them the White House: Lukas, 364, Drosnin, 466, Ulasewicz and McKeever, 184, Eisenhower, 198, JA and Gibson, 272, Wolfgang Saxon, “Donald Nixon, 72, Dies,” NYT (June 30, 1987), B8; “decisive factor”: Drosnin, 513.

  “most ruthless group of political operators”: Nixon, RN, 225.

  “What lost Nixon”: Phelan, Scandals, 96, 97.

  4: COMEBACK

  all smiles: James Clayton, “ ‘Superb’ Nixon Is Quick to Congratulate Kennedy,” WP (Jan. 21, 1961), B3; “What if I”: Nixon, RN, 224.

  fewer journalists were persuaded, “Red appeaser,” bowing to Khrushchev, “Is Brown Pink?”: Ambrose, Education, 653, 660–61.

  “fucking local yokels,” “sweat off my balls”: Summers, Arrogance, 226.

  twenty-five negative columns: DP, MGR (March 5, March 10, March 11, March 12, March 27, March 29, April 15, April 21, May 16, May 17, May 24, May 28, June 15, June 23, July 8, July 28, Sept. 17, Sept. 27, Oct. 8, Oct. 9, Oct. 18, Oct. 29, Oct. 31, Nov. 2, and Nov. 3, 1962), JAP.

  campaign to persuade Cohen: DP, MGR (June 17, 1959), JAP; “Candy Barr Gets Bail” (ND) and “Cohen Pops Out on the Diamond,” Los Angeles Examiner (June 3, 1961); letters, DP to Mickey Cohen (May 28, 1959), DP to Carl Backman (May 28, 1959), DP to John Metcalf (May 28, 1959), DP to Thomas J. Brown (June 17, 1960), DP to Hon. Price Daniel (May 28, 1959), A. L. Wirin to DP (Sept. 13, 1960), and Jack A. Dahlstrum to DP (Sept. 19, 1960)—all in Mickey Cohen, #267, DPP; “I’m inclined”: DP, Diaries, 549.

  “dynamite-laden,” “family skeleton”: DP, MGR (March 5 and Sept. 27, 1962), JAP; “I must have answered”: Nixon, RN, 243.

  Nixon body language: Ambrose, Education, 669–71; last press conference: “Transcript of Nixon’s News Conference,” NYT (Nov. 8, 1962), 18.

  “press mainly reported”: Klein, 63; “Political Obituary”: Ambrose, Education, 673; “No public figure”: James Reston, “Richard Nixon’s Farewell,” NYT (Nov. 9, 1962), A34.

  “right in the ass”: Summers, Arrogance, 231–32; right-wing fury: Ambrose, Education, 673.

  Anderson moonlighted: Pilat, 25; free stock: Don Digilio, “Columnist Has Interest in Sun,” Las Vegas Review-Journal (Oct. 27, 1970); “loans”: memo, “Jack Anderson,” (Oct. 21, 1957), 2, JA FBIFOIA; complimentary airplane travel: Hoyt and Leighton, 205; plugging these benefactors: JA, MGR (Dec. 21, 1961), JAP, I. Davidson intv.

  Davidson background: I. Davidson intv.; memo, “DAVIDSON: Arms,” 1–2 (March 6, 1963), Fulbright hearings, SFRC; FBI “CORRELATION SUMMARY: I. Irving Davidson” (Dec. 11, 1968), JFKAA; “Handy Andy”: Gordon Chaplin, “The Fantastic Deals of I. Irving Davidson,” WP (March 21, 1976), 246ff.; prostitutes: FBI memo, A. Rosen to G. H. Scatterday, “Isadore Irving Davidson” (Nov. 29, 1961), JFKAA.

  “wardrobe featured”: Hume, 41; office rental: I. Davidson intv. and FBI memo, “Jack Anderson” (May 12, 1967), 15, “I. Irving Davidson, Haiti,” JFKAA; free hotel bills: Fulbright hearings, SFRC, 1616–23; stock tips: FBI memo (Jan. 15, 1955), JA FBIFOIA; paid news source: FBI memo (Oct. 1, 1958), JA FBIFOIA.

  “The only thing”: I. Davidson intv.; “writing articles”: FBI memo, “Jack Anderson” (May 12, 1967), 15, “I. Irving Davidson, Haiti,” JFKAA.

  Anderson repaid Davidson’s generosity in many ways. “Anderson and Davidson frequently worked together in pushing foreign clients of Davidson,” the lobbyist’s secretary told the FBI. Records indicate that Anderson promised to introduce Davidson to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was prosecuting the lobbyist’s clients, and pass on messages to RFK on behalf of the Indonesian dictator Suharto, whom Davidson represented. Anderson also signed an extraordinary confidential letter to Davidson that deputized him to be a reporter for the “Merry-Go-Round” column. “This will authorize you to use my name and facilities in whatever way is necessary to help you gather news,” Anderson wrote. “Remuneration and expenses will be worked out between us on the merits of each case.” The letter served to create a cover for financial transactions between the two men. “Pushing foreign clients”: FBI memo, “Jack Anderson” (May 12, 1967), 15, “I. Irving Davidson, Haiti,” JFKAA; RFK intermediary: memo, I. Irving Davidson to JA (Jan. 8, 1962); FBI memo, A. Rosen to G. H. Scatterday, “Isadore Irving Davidson” (Nov. 29, 1961), and FBI memo, “I. Irving Davidson” (Oct. 26, 1961)—all in JFKAA; “authorize you to use my name”: letter, JA to Davidson (Jan. 5, 1960), DVAP.

  “Remember, God”: Grady intv.

  Senate probe: Fulbright hearings, SFRC passim.

  Checks, hotel expenses: memos, “DAVIDSON: Press” (March 6, 1963) and “Press—3,” Fulbright hearings, SFRC; “expedient”: letter, Irv Davidson to Michael Koll-Nescher and Avraham Simner (July 19, 1962), Fulbright hearings, SFRC.

  “facts relating to the ‘loans’ ”: memo, “Anderson phone call to the Chairman” (ND), Fulbright hearings, SFRC; “out to get him”: Walter Pincus, “Telephone Call from Jack Anderson” (March 8, 1963), Fulbright hearings, SFRC.

  Davidson testimony, hotel bill: Fulbright hearings, 1524–1688 and 1617–23; “influence-peddler”: Bernard L. Collier, “Morse Charges U.S. Uses Lobbyist for Domingo Deals,” New York Herald Tribune (June 11, 1960); investigator later explained: Pincus intv.

  Davidson confided: JA intv. Gibson, JA intv.; “Not long ago”: JA, Washington Exposé, 191.

  Nixon “dismissed everybody from the room,” Anderson quoted Davidson as saying, “and I handed him the $5,000, and he grinned sheepishly.” The cash “probably came from the American taxpayers via foreign aid,” the newsman wrote. “Prosecution would be almost impossible in this case, since the only two witnesses would never incriminate themselves.” Anderson added that Davidson recounted the bribe story in a casual manner and only then because he was amused by Nixon’s “sticky fingers” comment: Davidson “thought it was incredible that [Nixon] would make a remark like that.” Davidson later confirmed the story in an interview wi
th the author. Sources for the above: “dismissed everybody”: JA intv. Gibson; “probably came”: JA, Washington Exposé, 191; “incredible”: JA intv. Gibson; confirmed the story: JA intv. See also JA, “How Foreign Agents Operate in the U.S.,” Parade (Feb. 3, 1963), 12–13, and “Press-6,” SFRC.