The Watergate Scandal a.k.a. How to succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Well, Nixon’s White House was not really like that!
It was rather more like this:
Alright. I know that the Custer analogy is totally obvious. Yet the important thing to remember here is that this is how Nixon perceived his situation by 1973–a general watching his command slowly being stripped away by really pissed off Indian warriors.
The events leading up to Nixon’s resignation in August, 1974, became ever more dramatic, as revelations gradually revealed the extent of the coverup. So, how did those threads begin to unravel? One of the first was the death of the spouse of one of the watergate burglars, Dorothy Hunt. Married to E Howard Hunt, she was killed in a plane crash in Chicago in 1972, and yet in her purse was approximately some $10.000 in sequential bills.
Some agencies, such as the FBI (and Mark Felt, whom some of you may know by his nom de plume, "deep throat") knew instantly when the money was found, that there was mischief afoot. And, so began the long journey (after the break-in), towards the awful conclusion to this whole affair--
The Resignation.
From the beginning of Nixon's presidency, we saw dirty tricks, yes. But this was on an entirely new scale. Nixon’s paranoia led to the creation of The Plumbers and their mess-up of the multiple petty anty crimes in which Howard Hunt, and G Gordon Liddy excelled.
Now, how does one begin to describe Liddy? As a top former CIA operative, and FBI agent? Nope. As a man with rather severe illusions of grandeur? Yup. As a father who loved his children? Yup. No one individual is ever one dimensional, you know?
This clip takes place in early 1982, after Liddy's memoir entitled "Will" came out. "Will." Y-e-a-h.
And, yet, here was definitely one of the mastermind's behind the Watergate break-in. Both he and Hunt were equally, culpable, although perhaps Hunt was a tad more competent.
I wonder what Maxwell Smart would have said? Under the cone of silence, of course:
Ah, well. If Max and Liddy weren't long on brains, they at least had both flair and style!
One of the mysterious figures attached to this era, was E. Howard Hunt, a former CIA operative, a man who had been intimately involved with the White House, from the Bay of Pigs, through the events of 1972. Here was a man who clearly had a past and a half when it came to nefarious doings related to the White House. It was also his misfortune to have the following inscribed in one of the arrested Watergate burglars’ diaries:
"H.H. at W.H."
No, I am not kidding you.
And, yes, the rest of the Watergate affair was doused in a singularly bad shade of silly. Tragically so.
As I have already posted something about the burglars’ aubsequent arrest, I won't rehash the issue. This epistle is really meant to consider the scandal from the executive office.
It was John Dean, special assistant to the White House counsel's office, who was given the job of overseeing the scandal. And, so he did. And yet, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, largely due to the efforts of newspaper icons like Walter Cronkite, Ben Bradlee, Kitty Graham, and Sandy Stern, the pressure mounted, and the knot began to unwind. There were, of course, other important reporters, such as Woodward and Bernstein (of course!), Connie Chung, and Leslie Stahl. We also much not forget the work of the New York Times in this matter. Remember, also, that the fourth estate was different from the media universe we know today. In the world of msnbc, fox news, and cnn, who now thinks about the media as the public conscience? I think the closest media personality, who even comes closest to telling the truth, is in my less than humble opinion, Rachel Maddow. But, then recall that I am a fan of Edward R. Murrow. And my fantasy also includes the belief that the media might regain their honor someday----
Due to their work, men such as John Dean, were hard pressed to oversee the cover up. He was a young lawyer, who had a good reputation during his tenure at the Dept. of Justice. One day, Dean was asked to come to the White House, to begin work as White House Council (really an assistant). He was in his early 30s.
As the burglars' went to court, one of them wrote a damning letter to the Judge in the case, John Sirica. The author of that letter was James McCord--a white house staffer. In this letter, McCord wrote that the president had known of the break-in prior to the fact, and had approved it. He also went on to say that this was just one in a series of illegal actions carried out by the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). This was another fact in this 'series of unfortunate events', which would end by taking out the president.
And then, to back-track a little, there was the death of Hunt's wife. These things, when coupled with the increasingly embarrassing reports coming out of the TV, New York Times, and Washington Post, didn't help matters much for Dick's White House. By all accounts, Nixon wasn't too worried about his abilities, or those men on his staff, to handle the cover-up of ALL the illegal activities. Yet, John Dean soon found himself trying to handle the whole mess from his office--a job that became increasingly more and more impossible to handle.
It also became apparent, that there were rather dogged reporters, who were not going to let go of the story that they were on to. It was too apparent that there was a deeper well here. And, let us not forget, Dear Reader, the estimable Mark Felt, whistleblower extraordinaire. And, no, I don't care why he leaked what he did. In my books, he is a great hero of the American experience. I laud Deep Throat all the way!
But, back to my long story.…. As the reporters, chiefly from the new york times and the washington post, kept digging into the scandal, the more paranoid Nixon and his White House became. Nixon began referring to his 'enemies list'--a list of people and organizations he both feared and perhaps hated--he became obsessed with the thought that he was under constant scrutiny and attack. For my money, one of the saddest moments of Nixon's tenure as president, and also one of the most telling, was when one night, very late, he suddenly wished to go to the Lincoln Memorial. To the consternation of the Secret Service, I might add. There, Nixon met several dozens of the Vietnam War protesters--angry young people who had little tolerance for the white middle class. There he had a bizarre conversation with some stunned youngsters, and then just as suddenly left them standing there, absolutely bewildered. But, this was Nixon--at times brilliant, but always with this huge chip on his shoulder, which perhaps prevented him, or thwarted his bid for greatness. That sense of inadequacy led to Watergate, of that I have no doubt. He just had this very difficult time believing in his own abilities.
As the scandal gained the attention of the American people, largely due to 'Woodstein', the New York Times, and Walter Cronkite, Nixon's self-perceived embattled demeanor continued, much to the consternation of his staff. He began to have to deal with things like growing public outrage, and a dropping approval rating in the polls--the bane of every president's existence.
And ‘all the president’s men’, such as Halderman, Erlichman, Dean, and Chuck Colson to name just a few, were increasingly left out in the cold. As the newspaper reports kept coming out about this high fallutin’ office complex known as the Watergate, all of the aforementioned men began to fear—because as the heads began to roll, from the burglars to the White House aides, it became clear that Nixon would protect no one.
The trouble came when the reporters Bob Woodward And Bernstein began to uncover a slush fund, if you will, this was run by CREEP, the committee to reelect the president. The question was who would oversee the slush fund and what was purpose? Just who was paying out chunks of cash to prominent members of the republican party, and also to increase the amount of money that Nixon had to fund his campaign. When it came to light that John Mitchell, head of the committee, controlled this slush fund, then the jig was up, And Nixon began firing his top people right and left.
There is a funny story associated with this particular call that was made by Carl Bernstein rather late at night to John Mitchell, in this call, Carl Bernstein read to John Mitchell who actually answered the phone, his article on who controlled the slush fund. By the time Carl got to paragraph two John Mitchell started to swear. He didn’t let Carl get too far. Finally he said “ if Catherine Graham posts this article, she’s going to get her tit caught in the big wringers.” Needless to say, Mrs. Graham didn’t bow down to such a bully. She published the article and many more of besides .
And now I need to say something about deep throat. His name was Mark Felt, and he was in charge of the investigation into Watergate, with the FBI. It was relatively soon, that Mark found out about the origins of Watergate, and he also found out about the break-in to Daniel Ellsberg‘s psychiatrists office, by Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. When Mark found out about the two incidents, he began to put a picture together of Nixon’s White House. How completely lawless, or at the very least cavalier, that Nixon & Co. had become. Nixon’s unshakable belief, in terms of the awesome breadth of the president’s power, was nothing short of monarchical. And thus Felt was pushed to do something. Yet, how to do this? He began, by talking to his longtime friend and, by the way, neighbor, Sandy stern. Stern was a reporter with TIME magazine, and Felt began to discuss his ongoing investigation with Stern. Then, Felt eventually began to discreetly (I mean, come on!! A darkened underground garage?) reached out to a reporter for the Washington Post. His name, of course, was Bob Woodward.
It was Felt, who kept Woodward pointed in the direction of the money, which we would later find out, was used to grease various illegal ‘wheels’ of men working in both the party, and for the campaign.
When the newspaper reports started coming out, as I’ve already said, Nixon began to panic, and heads began to roll. I’ve already asked the question why Felt did this—leaking these stories to the press—there are some who say that he was bitter that he was not made Director of the FBI, after the death of J Edgar Hoover. But, I believe that Felt’s frustration with the fact that Nixon was pressuring the new Director of the FBI, Patrick Gray, to limit the investigation to the burglars, was his chief motivation. There was also the fact that Nixon did not want the investigation to lead back to his White House. And so, Felt began to leak parts of his investigation to reporters that he personally knew.
When Felt began to discuss the FBI investigation, with regards to Watergate, when he shared that investigation with reporters, he began to unravel the knot of Watergate for the American people.
And so, Dear Reader, it all really began with Mark Felt when he decided that it was time to leak his investigation it all began to crumble. Nixon’s administration was forfeit to Cell‘s sense of wrongdoing and also being passed over for his promotion why in other words should he be loyal to a president to a man who had so disrespected the FBI.
Post script recently, as recent as yesterday, I found out that when Nixon was running for president in 1968 he had secret back door negotiation with the head of the south Vietnamese governor he urged them to not comply with LB jays peace initiative rather he wanted them to hold off on the Paris peace talks and then reassemble after he, Nick, became president. He just goes to show you one of the truths about history is that they constantly changes. And Lest we forget deer reader the Vietnam War ended in 1974 1975. Don’t forget Nixon was first elected president in 1968. You do the math…
I think about those men (and women) who all died, and I thank them always for their service and their sacrifice
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