The Wars of Watergate
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30. Dean, Blind Ambition, 88, 97; Herbert Klein, Making It Perfectly Clear (New York, 1980), 329–30; Noah Dietrich and Bob Thomas, Howard, The Amazing Mr. Hughes (Greenwich, CT, 1977), 286; Michael Drosin, Citizen Hughes (New York, 1985), 417–34.
31. Nixon to Haldeman, August 9, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 179, NP.
32. G. Gordon Liddy, Will (New York, 1980), 237; McCord Testimony, SSC, Hearings, 1:164; Agnew remarks, National Press Club Transcript; Louise Gore to Elias Demetracopoulos, September 27, 1968 (courtesy of Mr. Demetracopoulos); Agnew Interview, January 14, 1989; Democratic National Committee, news release, October 31, 1968: “Nixon-Agnew-Pappas Relationships”; Boston Globe, October 31, 1968; NYT, October 16, 1968; New York Daily News, August 9, 1968; London Sunday Times, September 29, 1968. The KYP–CIA connection is discussed most recently in Christopher Simpson, Blowback: The First Full Account of America’s Recruitment of Nazis, and its Disastrous Effect on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy (New York, 1988), 280. Demetracopoulos Interview, May 5, 1987; Helms Interview, July 14, 1988; Kostas Tsimas, then Deputy Director, KYP, to Author, telephone conversation, January 5, 1987. “I have worked for the CIA anytime my help was requested,” Pappas told a Greek interviewer in 1968: Evans and Novak column, Baltimore Sun, July 16, 1975.
33. FBI Director William Webster to Representative Don Edwards (D–CA), April 11, 1984 (courtesy of Mr. Demetracopoulos); Eliot Janeway, Prescriptions for Prosperity (New York, 1984), 42–43; Evans and Novak, quoting the Greek Ambassador, WP, September 3, 1979; Demetracopoulos Interview, May 5, 1987.
34. Caulfield to Ehrlichman, October 3, 1969, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 30, NP; Greece, Spain, and the Southern NATO Strategy, Hearings, Subcommittee on Europe, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, 92 Cong., 1 Sess., 64–71, 459–63; Boston Globe, November 13, 1971; Tasca to Rogers and Mitchell, July 26, 1971, State Department Files, Internal Security Division Memo, August 10, 1971, DOJ; Abshire to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff, November 3, 1971, Abshire to John Dean, December 29, 1971, with enclosures. (All documents courtesy of Mr. Demetracopoulos.)
35. Demetracopoulos Interview, May 5, 1987; Jack Anderson, WP, February 12, 1975; Louise Gore to Demetracopoulos, January 24, 1972 (courtesy of Mr. Demetracopoulos).
36. TT, the President and Haldeman, April 26, 1973 (8:55 A.M.–10:04 A.M.), WP, May 1, 1977; Raymond Bonner, Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Foreign Policy (New York, 1987), 14; Washington Times, January 19, 1988; Testimony of Dean, SSC, Hearings, 4:1402; TT, the President, Haldeman, and Dean, April 26, 1973, WP, May 1, 1977; HJC, Testimony of Witnesses, 2:48; TT, the President and Dean, March 21, 1973 (10:12 A.M.–11:55 A.M.), U.S. v. M, NA; Pappas File, WGSPF, NA, February 7, 22, 1974. These documents, supplied by the Author, also have been used by Christopher Hitchens, Prepared for the Worst (New York, 1988), 287–96, reprinting his essay “Watergate—the Greek Connection,” The Nation, May 31, 1986, 242:745, an account that offers the best extended treatment of this whole affair. Dean, Blind Ambition, 173–174.
37. See Seymour Hersh, The Price of Power (New York, 1983), 138, for Tasca’s testimony; the transcript remains classified. Pappas and the Cyprus invasion are discussed in General Gregorios Bonanos, The Truth (Athens, 1986), 218. Kilpatrick in Washington Star, July 30, August 10, 1972.
38. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:346–47, 363–64.
39. See, for example, Sam Ervin, The Whole Truth (New York, 1980), 12; Silbert Diary; Nomination of Earl J. Silbert to be United States Attorney, Hearings, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 93 Cong., 2 Sess. (April 23, 1974), 1:5–55.
40. Office of Planning and Evaluation, “FBI Watergate Investigation,” 10–11, 13–19, 23–24, 41–45, 52–55, FBI Watergate Papers, offers a review of investigative events following the break-in. The report largely is self-serving, but nevertheless it is valuable as a guide to the investigative process. Other sources for this summary are in WFO to Gray, July 3, 1972; C. Bolz to Assistant Director Bates, July 3, 1972, FBI Watergate Papers; Richard Kleindienst, Justice: The Memoirs of an Attorney General (Ottawa, IL, 1985), 46.
IX: “WHAT REALLY HURTS IS IF YOU TRY TO COVER IT UP.” WATERGATE AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1972
1. Haldeman Notes, September 11, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; WP, September 16, 1972; Ehrlichman Notes, September 14, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP; TT, the President, Dean, and Haldeman, September 15, 1972 (5:24 P.M.–6:17 P.M.), HJC, Statement of Information, 3:370–71. The opening remarks between Nixon and Haldeman are taken from the House Judiciary Committee version; otherwise, I have followed the transcript prepared by the Special Prosecutor for use in U.S. v. Mitchell.
2. John Dean, Blind Ambition (New York, 1976), Ch. 1; William Safire, Before the Fall (New York, 1975), 471–72; Jeb Stuart Magruder, An American Life (New York, 1974), 108.
3. Dean, Blind Ambition, 134; John Sirica, To Set the Record Straight (New York, 1979), 271; Richard Kleindienst, Justice: The Memoirs of an Attorney General (Ottawa, IL, 1985), 142–44; John D. Ehrlichman, Witness to Power (New York, 1982), 34–35. Dean ignored his firing by the law firm in Lost Honor (New York, 1982), 55.
4. Griswold Interview, May 4, 1987; Clark R. Mollenhoff, Game Plan for Disaster: An Ombudsman’s Report on the Nixon Years (New York, 1976), 234; Santarelli Interview, August 26, 1987.
5. Dean to Higby and Strachan, May 11, 1972, Dean Papers, Box 84, NP; Colson to Dean, September 1, 1971, Dean to Colson, September 8, 1971, Fred Fielding to Dean, November 16, 1971, Dean to Buchanan, November 16, 1971, Dean Papers, Box 97, NP; Dean, Blind Ambition, 38; Dean to Dell Publishing Company, November 27, 1972, Dean Papers, Box 6, NP; Dean to Elmer B. Staats, November 20, 1972, in Executive Privilege, Secrecy in Government, Freedom of Information, Hearings, Subcommittees on Separation of Powers and Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 93 Cong., 1 Sess. (April–May 1973), 1:129. Not without irony, the dust cover of Haldeman’s memoirs depicted the presidential seal.
6. Dean, Blind Ambition, Ch. 2; Haldeman Interview, May 4, 1973, SSC Records, NA.
7. Magruder Testimony, SSC, Hearings (June 14, 1973), 2:816; Magruder Talk, Hofstra Nixon Conference, November 20, 1987.
8. Dean, Blind Ambition, Ch. 4; H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (New York, 1978), 28–29; Gray Interview, July 18, 1973, Gray Witness File, WGSPF Records, NA; TT, Telephone Conversation, Ehrlichman to Robert Novak, August 28, 1972, and Melvin Laird, September 23, 1971, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 28, NP; Moore Interview, December 5, 1987; Mitchell Interview, April 11, 1988.
9. Gray Interview, July 18, 1973, Gray Witness File, WGSPF Records, NA; Petersen Interview, August 23, 1985; Petersen Testimony, SSC, Hearings, 9:3613–15.
10. Haldeman Notes, HJC, Statement of Information, 2:246; Haldeman, Ends of Power, 217–18, 17–18, 23.
11. TT, the President and Haldeman, June 23, 1972 (10:04 A.M.–11:39 A.M.), U.S. v. M, NA; HJC, Statement of Information, Appendix III, 56, 65, 67.
12. TT, the President and Haldeman, June 23, 1972 (1:04 P.M.–1:13 P.M.), U.S. v. M, NA; Haldeman, Ends of Power, 31–32; Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (paperback ed., New York, 1979), 2:129.
13. TT, the President and Haldeman June 23, 1972 (2:20 P.M.–2:45 P.M.), U.S. v. M, NA; ibid., HJC, Statement of Information, Appendix III, 83. At General Walters’s confirmation hearings after his nomination as United Nations Ambassador during the Reagan Administration, the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised no questions regarding his CIA connections or the Watergate episode.
14. Helms Interview, July 14, 1988; Gray Interview, July 18, 1973, Gray Witness File, WGSPF Records, NA.
15. Ehrlichman Notes, June 23, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 12, NP.
16. “CIA Chronology,” Statement of Patrick Gray, Gray Witness File, WGSPF Records, NA; Dean Testimony, SSC, Hearings, 3:945–48; Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters, Hearings, Special Sub
committee on Intelligence of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, 93 Cong., 1 Sess. (October 23, 1973), 15–17; SSC, Final Report, 39; Memorandum, Gerald Goldman to Richard Ben-Veniste (January 10, 1974), “Evidence of Haldeman’s Participation in the Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice,” Haldeman Witness File, WGSPF Records, NA; Ehrlichman Notes, July 6, 7, 8, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 12, NP; David Frost, “I Gave Them a Sword”: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews (New York, 1978), 226.
17. Frost, “I Gave Them a Sword”, 223, 254; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:135.
18. Helms Interview, July 14, 1988; Helms to Author, July 28, 1988.
19. Ehrlichman Notes, July 10, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 12, NP.
20. Dean to John Nesbit, April 19, 1973, SSF, Box 113; PPPUS:RN, 1972, Press Conference, August 29, 1972, 872.
21. Ehrlichman Notes, July 31, August 3, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 12, NP; August 11, September 2, 5, 7, 14, 1972, ibid., Box 13, NP.
22. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:176–77; Haldeman Notes, September 15, 1971, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Haldeman Interview, May 4, 1973, SSC Records, NA.
23. The transcript prepared by the Special Prosecutor has this reference to Democratic senators. Curiously, it was omitted in the House Judiciary Committee’s version.
24. TT, the President, Dean, and Haldeman, September 15, 1972 (5:27 P.M.–6:17 P.M.), U.S. v. M, NA. For Dean’s account, see Blind Ambition, 135–39, 143.
25. NYT, September 15, 26, 1972; Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang, The Battle for Public Opinion: The President, the Press, and the Polls During Watergate (New York, 1983), 27–29.
26. U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Albert Interview (October 5, 1976), 37–38.
27. Lewis Interview, July 14, 1986.
28. “Chronology,” HBC Papers. Maurice Stans, The Terrors of Justice (Chicago, 1984), 194–95; for Brown’s role, see SSC, Hearings, 5:2182–2207.
29. WP, September 2, 6, 9, 1972.
30. Patman to Kenneth Parkinson, September 11, 1972, HBC Papers.
31. Patman to Committee, September 12, 1972; “Chronology,” HBC Papers; Stans, Terrors of Justice, 196.
32. Mollenhoff, Game Plan for Disaster, 229.
33. Minutes, October 3, 1972, HBC Papers.
34. Reuss Interview, May 15, 1985; Lewis Interview, July 14, 1986; SSC, Hearings, 3:1183–89, 5:2199–2204.
35. Minutes, October 3, 1972, HBC Papers; Reuss Interview, May 15, 1985; Lewis Interview, July 14, 1986.
36. Marjorie Boyd, “The Watergate Story: Why Congress Didn’t Investigate Until After the Election,” Washington Monthly, April 1973, 37, 41–45; Lewis Interview, July 14, 1986.
37. Will Wilson to J. Edgar Hoover, November 16, 1970, Hoover to Henry Petersen, December 9, 1970, ibid., January 27, 1972, Brasco File, FBI Papers; New York Daily News, December 3, 1973; NYT, March 22, 1978; Lewis Interview, July 14, 1986.
38. WP, October 3, 4, 1973; Reuss Interview, May 15, 1985; Grand Rapids Press, June 21, 1973; Brown’s statement in SSC, Hearings, 5:2182–87; Brown Interview, October 7, 1987; Jerald F. terHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency (New York, 1974), 167; Frankfort State Journal, June 3, 1973.
39. Demetracopoulos Interview, July 16, 1988. FBI Director William Webster to Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal, June 8, August 2, 1982; Rosenthal to Vincent Burke (Riggs National Bank), April 19, 1982; Thomas Wren (Riggs National Bank) to Demetracopoulos, September 16, 1985; documents courtesy of Demetracopoulos. FBI reports in Demetracopoulos’s possession, released in 1986, demonstrate that twelve general indexes in the New York Field Office file on Wright Patman and Demetracopoulos had been “destroyed.” Congressman Rosenthal’s investigation in 1982 was in effect the last congressional investigation of the Watergate affair.
40. Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1976; Mollenhoff, Game Plan for Disaster, 236; terHorst, Gerald Ford, 163, 166; Holtzman to Levi, October 18, 1976, Levi to Holtzman, October 20, 1976, Lynch Papers (courtesy of Stephen Lynch); Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford (New York, 1979), 427.
41. Patman to Elmer B. Staats, October 4, 1972; Patman to Sirica, October 5, 1972, HBC Papers.
42. Minutes, October 12, 13, 1972, HBC Papers.
43. Dean, Blind Ambition, 144; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:212.
44. Lewis Interview, July 23, 1985; Ervin to Patman, June 25, 1973, HBC Papers.
45. Stans to Nixon, October 5, 1972, NPF, Box 15, NP.
46. WP, October 29, 1972. David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (New York, 1979), has an excellent account of the Post’s coverage, including the charge that publisher Katherine Graham worried about the paper’s reputation at the time of the election (676).
47. Ehrlichman Notes, July 20, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 6, NP.
48. Ehrlichman Notes, November 20, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP; ibid., November 29, 1971, Box 6, NP; Nixon to Connally, July 24, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 162, NP.
49. Haldeman Notes, October 4, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Dent Interview, September 24, 1986; Mitchell to Nixon, November 27, 1972, NPF, Box 12, NP. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1972 (New York, 1973), 341–47, has some useful electoral data.
50. Haldeman Notes, October 11, 14, 15, et passim, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Nixon to Haldeman, November 15, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 179, NP.
51. George McGovern, An American Journey: The Presidential Campaign Speeches of George McGovern (New York, 1974), 232–33.
52. Haldeman Talking Paper to Colson, March 7, 1973, Haldeman Papers, Box 179, NP; Ehrlichman Notes, December 18, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP. Stans, Terrors of Justice, 198, typically blamed Dean for the cover-up. The same line was pursued with greater venom in Ehrlichman’s and Kleindienst’s memoirs.
53. Dean to Haldeman, December 1, 1972, with marginal notes of May 2, 1973, done by Bruce Kehrli or Kenneth Cole, SSF, Box 113, NP; Haldeman Interview, May 4, 1973, SSC Papers, NA.
54. Bull Interview, May 7, 1987.
55. TT, Telephone Conversation, the President and Colson, March 21, 1973 (7:35 P.M.–8:24 P.M.), WP, May 1, 1977; FBI Watergate Investigation: OPE Analysis (July 5, 1974), 61, FBI Papers.
X: “THE COVER-UP IS THE MAIN INGREDIENT.” A BLACKMAILER, A SENATOR, AND A JUDGE: NOVEMBER 1972–MARCH 1973
1. NPF, n.d., Box 187, NP; PPPUS:RN, April 30, 1973, 328–33. The inadequacy of press coverage of Watergate was first publicized in Ben H. Bagdikian, “Election Coverage ’72: The Fruits of Agnewism,” Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 1973, 9:23.
2. Buchanan to Nixon, December 8, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 230, NP; H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (New York, 1978), 230; Garment to Haldeman, January 19, 1973, Garment MS, LC; Garment Interview, May 29, 1985.
3. Nixon to Ehrlichman/Ken Cole, December 28, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 162, NP; Haldeman Notes (“exhausted volcano”), September 16, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP.
4. Haldeman Notes, November 8, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Richard Nathan, The Plot That Failed (New York, 1975), 8, 63, 68–69; Vernon Walters, Silent Missions (New York, 1978), 604; Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York, 1979); Helms Interview, July 14, 1988. The White House view is reflected in Haldeman, Ends of Power, 169–80, and John D. Ehrlichman, Witness to Power (New York, 1982), 363. Ehrlichman, whose own power would have been greatly aggrandized if Nixon had been successful, is uncharacteristically reticent and perfunctory on the subject.
5. Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (paperback ed., New York, 1979), 2:275–79.
6. Colson to Ehrlichman, November 29, 1972, Colson Papers, Box 7, NP; Colson to Nixon, November 27, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 14, NP.
7. “The New Majority,” c. March 8, 1973, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 68, NP. The document appears to be the product of White House aide Ken Clawson or Ehrlichman.
8. Haldeman Notes, November 17, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:285.
9. Ehrlichman Notes, Au
gust 3, 1972, Box 6, NP; Haldeman Notes, November 13, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Ehrlichman to Nixon, December 7, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 14, NP; Webster to Author (telephone conversation), August 4, 1987.
10. Haldeman Notes, November 13, 16, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; February 10, 1973, ibid., Box 47, NP; Ehrlichman Notes, November 27, December 8, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP.
11. Ehrlichman Notes, November 14, 16, 17, 22, 24, 30, December 7, 13, 18, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP.
12. Ehrlichman Notes, January 4, 1974, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 14, NP; Haldeman Notes, January 16, February 8, 13, 1973, Haldeman Papers, Box 47, NP; Ehrlichman, Witness to Power, 156.
13. Ehrlichman Notes, December 11, 1972, Ehrlichman Papers, Box 13, NP; TT, the President and Dean, February 28, 1973 (9:12 A.M.–10:23 A.M.), HJC, Transcripts of Eight Recorded Presidential Conversations, 41.
14. Haldeman Notes, January 27, 1973, Haldeman Papers, Box 47, NP.
15. Haldeman Notes, January 8, 9, 12, February 10, 1973, Haldeman Papers, Box 47, NP; Johnson to Nixon, November 8, 1972, “Post-Presidential Name File,” LBJ Library.
16. TT, Dictabelt Recording of Howard Hunt and Charles Colson, November 1972, U. S. v. M, NA; John Dean, Blind Ambition (New York, 1976), 146.
17. Memorandum, November 14, 1972, copy in Jaworski MS, Baylor University (also exhibit in U. S. v. Mitchell); NYT, November 4, 1974; Dean, Blind Ambition, 181.
18. Haldeman Notes, November 15, 1972, Haldeman Papers, Box 46, NP; Moore Interview, December 5, 1987; Dent Interview, September 24, 1986; Herbert G. Klein, Making It Perfectly Clear (New York, 1980), 278–79.