The Wars of Watergate

My debts accumulated in the writing of this book are enormous. But it is a pleasure to thank various institutions and individuals for their extraordinary cooperation.

The University of Wisconsin Foundation administers the E. Gordon Fox Fund, which has supported my research and writing for the past decade. That support, coupled with additional funds from the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin, significantly lightened my task. The staffs of various research centers and libraries offered me unfailing courtesy; in particular, I must note the conscientious professionals at the Nixon Archives and in various branches of the National Archives.

Large and small favors came from Stuart Applebaum, Allen Arrow, Tadashi Aruga, M. Carlota Baca, James M. Banner, Michal R. Belknap, William C. Berman, Paul Blustein, the late Beatrice Braude, Ellen Kuniyuki Brown, Thomas Charlton, R. Taylor Cole, Robert Dallek, Elias Demetracopoulos, Philip A. Dibble, Father Robert Drinan, Elaine Edelman, Leon Epstein, Kelly Evans, Susan Falb, David Frohmeyer, Eric Glitzenstein, Patti Goldman, Fred Graham, Otis Graham, Gerald Gunther, William Hammond, Han Tie, William Hanchett, Jonathan Hart, James Hastings, Robert Henderson, Seymour Hersh, Bernard Hollander, J. Woodford Howard, Richard Jacobson, Victor Jew, Barbara Jordan, Harold Kaplan, Robert Kastenmeier, David Kepley, Judith Kirkwood, Harold Koh, Richard Kohn, David Konig, Benedict Leerburger, Wolfgang Lehmann, Liu Xu-yi, Steve Lynch, Tom McCormick, Richard McNeill, Michael McReynolds, Pauline Maier, Marilyn Mellowes, Martha Minow, Tom Mooney, Charles Moser, Jeanne Oates, William Proxmire, Henry Reuss, Donald Ritchie, Martin Ridge, Morris Schnapper, Stanley Schultz, David Shapiro, Father Don Shea, David Shepard, Geoffrey Shepherd, Diane Sherman, Dianne Smith, Aviam Soifer, John Stennis, Carl Stern, Mary Ternes, Steve Tilley, Jay Topkis, David Ward, Peter Weil, David Wigdor, Graham Wilson, Michael Wreszin, the late Tim Wyngaard, and Jerome Zeifman. Harold Hyman and Leonard Levy, truly
distinguished historians and longtime friends, especially encouraged me at very crucial moments.

A special thank-you to the anonymous source who, in 1973 or 1974, referred to Watergate as the “War of the FBI Succession.”

Willard Hurst and Richard Sewell have again generously extended their editorial talents, moral support, and friendship to me. As always, they have saved me from gross errors, bad judgment, and dreadful writing. They are not responsible, of course, for anything I have done contrary to their counsel.

The wait was worth it, but I finally have had my chance to work with Ashbel Green, vice president and senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf. He saved me from numerous lapses of good taste, not to mention good sense. (He may also be the only book editor able to share memories of the glory days of the Cleveland Indians.) Castle W. Freeman, Jr., provided magnificent copy-editing, while Jenny McPhee and Melvin Rosenthal shepherded me through the book’s production.

Dan Bailey, my incomparable research assistant, did everything from checking a citation to deciphering and helping me master the White House tape transcripts; moreover, he labored strenuously to make sure that I would sound fair in Oshkosh. Susan Bissegger, Joe Ehmann, Dan Ernst, Ellen Goldlust, David Gordon, and Henry Wend also provided research support. Anita Olson valiantly made sense out of many confusing taped interviews. Susan Dewane is Management masquerading as a Secretary. John Wright—what can I say?
Agent extraordinaire, agent provocateur; sans lui, le déluge.

My mother, as always, has taken a keen interest in my labors. Through his time of terrible troubles, my brother always managed to ask, “How’s your work?” I have often thought of my late father, who taught us: “A liar is worse than a thief.” My wife, Sandra Sachs Kutler, and my children, Jeff, David, Susan Anne, and Andy, who contributed in unique ways, like to see their names in print. This book is for them for all the reasons.

S.I.K.
Madison, Wisconsin
August 10, 1989

Some fifteen years after Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States, Watergate remains contested history. Nixon and his partisans still proclaim his innocence, or they dismiss the affair as a minor stumble when measured against his great achievements, or they minimize his responsibility by comparing his sins to similar sins of his predecessors. Nevertheless, apologists and their opponents can agree on the importance of the case: there is no account, no judgment, no history of Nixon without Watergate.

While Watergate is a familiar story for those who were involved and who remember it, for many others today it is merely a word or symbol, dimly recalled or barely and imperfectly understood. This book is addressed to these varied audiences. The perspective of time and the evidence contained in once-unavailable documents add new dimensions to the familiar story of Watergate. The French historian Jules Michelet suggested that history is the “action of bringing things back to life.” But as we revitalize “things,” we also must comprehend them; otherwise the memory will disappear, and we will have learned only to forget.

I hope this book will be a reminder of the importance of most of the characters and the seriousness of the events it describes. Watergate was more than a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in June 1972, more even than the political and legal consequences of that act. The ensuing drama, culminating in Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, was rooted in the tumultuous events of the 1960s in the United States and abroad, and in the personality and history of Nixon himself, going back to his first presidential term and earlier. Since his resignation, Watergate has echoed loudly in our public life. In its time, and since, Watergate raised weighty issues of governance, especially concerning the role of the presidency and its relation to other institutions in the governmental apparatus.