The Arrogance of Power (77 page)

44.
In 1971, Nixon and Haldeman discussed using Teamsters thugs to beat up antiwar demonstrators and “smash some noses.” Two days earlier assailants had broken the nose of Abbie Hoffman. “. . . they got him . . .” Haldeman now told the president.

45, 46.
Nixon visited South Vietnam to encourage U.S. troops. At home, in l970, he rushed out in the middle of the night to meet with demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial, then had his valet make a speech in the deserted House of Representatives.

47, 48.
Nixon's crowning achievement was the breakthrough to China, marked by the meeting with Mao Zedong in early 1972. Months later, he became the first American president to visit Moscow. At the first of three meetings with Leonid Brezhnev, he concluded a historic arms limitation agreement.

49.
Henry Kissinger, national security adviser and later secretary of state, was the helmsman of Nixon's foreign policy. He saw “Walter Mitty” dimensions in the president's personality.

50.
Chile's President Salvador Allende, shortly before he was found shot dead on the day of his overthrow by General Augusto Pinochet. “The Nixon administration wanted a violent coup,” according to a senior CIA official.

51, 52.
The president and
(left to right)
Haldeman, Kissinger, and Stephen Bull midway through his first term. Determined to win reelection, Nixon put his trust increasingly in covert operations run by special assistant Charles Colson. “We did a hell of a lot of things,” Colson said, “and never got caught.”

53.
Break-in at the Watergate, spring 1972

54.
Gordon Liddy made the plans.

55.
Howard Hunt recruited the burglars.

56.
James McCord testified that he planted bugs.