The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It
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* That argument is outlined in the prologue.
* See Part IV, here. Note: The November 1973 tapes hearing indicates that Bull obtained the April 15, 1973, conversation with me at that time.
* See Part I, here.
* See www.cbsnews.com/videos/who-erased-18-minutes-of-nixon-watergate-tapes/.
* See Part I, here.
* I have asked other Nixon historians familiar with his behavior and recorded conversations in other areas, such as the war in Vietnam and the planning for his China initiative, if he was similarly obsessive when discussing other matters, and I was told that to some degree he was but, from what I can gather, not as obsessive as he became with Watergate.
* Notwithstanding that he was highly knowledgeable and intimately involved in virtually all decisions about how to portray the White House’s relationship to the Watergate scandal as it unfolded over some twenty-six months, Ziegler was never the focus of any investigation or prosecution, and he gave only a few general interviews when it was all over. Ziegler never wrote the book he once contemplated and never provided the Nixon library with an oral history; his White House files are little more than the product of the White House Press Office. Ziegler died of a heart attack on February 10, 2003, at age sixty-three.
* See Appendix A.
Table of Contents
Also by John Dean
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Preface
List of Principal Characters
Prologue
PART I: COVERING UP | June 20 to July 1, 1972
June 20, 1972 (Tuesday) | Before and After the 18½-Minute Gap
June 21, 1972 (Wednesday) | Creating the Cover-up Scenario
June 22, 1972 (Thursday) | First Watergate-Related Press Conference
June 23, 1972 (Friday) | Firing the “Smoking Gun”
June 24 to July 1, 1972 | Martha’s Breakdown, John’s Resignation and Another Scenario
PART II: CONTAINING | July 1972 Through December 1972
July 6 to July 18, 1972 | The Call from Gray and a Walk on the Beach
July 19 to August 16, 1972 | Concern over Magruder’s Testimony
August 17 to September 15, 1972 | Investigations, Indictment and the President Meets with His White House Counsel
Late September Through October 1972 | Segretti Merges with Watergate
November 1 to December 30, 1972 | Reelection, Reorganization, a Dean Report Considered, Chapin’s Departure and Dorothy Hunt’s Death
PART III: UNRAVELING | January to March 23, 1973
January 1973 | Keeping Magruder Happy, Giving Hunt Assurances, and the Watergate Break-in Trial
February 3 to 23, 1973 | Senate Watergate Committee and Gray’s Nomination
February 27 to March 15, 1973 | Nixon Discovers His White House Counsel, and Gray Puts Me in the Spotlight
March 16 to 20, 1973 | Return of the Dean Report, the Ellsberg Break-in and Hunt’s Blackmail
March 21 to 23, 1973 | A Cancer on the Presidency and Nixon’s Response
PART IV: THE NIXON DEFENSE | March 23 to July 16, 1973
March 23 to April 13, 1973 | Options and Indecision
April 14 to 30, 1973 | Pricking the Boil and Cleaning House
May 1 to 10, 1973 | New Team, Tough Tactics and Rough New Issues
May 11 to 22, 1973 | A Preemptive Defense Statement
May 23 to July 16, 1973 | Discrediting Dean and the Beginning of the End
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix A | Break-in at the Democratic National Committee
Appendix B | The 18½-Minute Gap
Notes
Index