The Watergate Scandal in United States History (3 page)

Tempers escalated inside Chicago’s International Amphitheater as the Democratic National Convention wore on. Outside, things were worse. Police clashed daily with antiwar demonstrators. On the Wednesday of the convention, officers beat and arrested hundreds of people. Some of those arrested were violence-prone radicals. Others were innocent passersby.

Nixon might have thought the chaotic convention assured his election. It did not. Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s vice president, won the Democratic nomination. At first he supported Johnson’s war policies, and his campaign went nowhere. In late September, however, Humphrey changed his stance. He started opposing the war, and Democratic support came back to him.

Republicans who had thought they could breeze through election day now had to sweat through it. Former Alabama Governor George Wallace ran as an independent and put up a challenge in the South. Nixon won, but by only seven hundred thousand votes over Humphrey.

Nixon worked hard his first term. He concentrated on his favorite field, foreign policy. He reduced the number of American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. Under his “Vietnamization” program, South Vietnamese troops would be prepared to fight their own war. While continuing the Vietnam War, he negotiated with the two communist superpowers. Nixon moved to establish diplomatic relations with mainland China. He also signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union.

The Democrats continued their chaos in 1972. South Dakota Senator George McGovern, a man disliked by many party professionals, won the nomination. For a running mate he chose Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton. A few days later media reported that while hospitalized for depression, Eagleton had received electric shock treatments. It sounded horrible to many Americans. They questioned Eagleton’s ability to face the pressures of high office. They also questioned McGovern’s judgment in choosing him. Eagleton, under pressure from McGovern, resigned from the ticket.

Nixon won re-election by a huge margin. McGovern out-polled the Republican only in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

That election night in 1972 should have been the happiest night of Richard Nixon’s life. After all, he had triumphed with one of the greatest landslides in American history. Instead of smiling, though, Richard Nixon fretted. He had problems on his mind—problems that would destroy his presidency less than two years later.

Chapter 3

“WHITE HOUSE HORRORS”

Americans knew of the Watergate break-in when they cast their votes for president in November 1972. It seemed to make little difference. Perhaps they would have felt differently if they knew all the facts. In the coming months they would learn of other illegal acts—what Nixon Campaign Manager John Mitchell referred to as “White House horrors.”
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Plugging Leaks

Richard Nixon inherited the Vietnam War. He wanted to remove the United States from it. There were three ways to leave Vietnam. He could go all out and order the destruction of North Vietnam, but few Americans desired this kind of war. He could withdraw all troops immediately, but Nixon was afraid such a move would look like a sign of weakness to the communist superpowers. Or he could train and arm the South Vietnamese army while gradually withdrawing United States troops. Nixon chose the third option.

The plan involved bombing Vietcong (communist) bases in South Vietnam. Neighboring Cambodia, although officially neutral, also harbored Vietcong bases. Nixon ordered those bombed. Word of the Cambodian bombings reached the American press.
The New York Times
printed stories denouncing the bombings.

Nixon was furious. Someone in his administration was “leaking” information to the press. This information, he claimed, could cost American lives and disrupt national security. He ordered the FBI to place wiretaps on the phones of thirteen government officials and four prominent reporters.

These wiretaps did little to halt antiwar protests. Thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., in late 1969. More than four hundred colleges and universities had demonstrations against the war. In May 1970 at Ohio’s Kent State University, the governor called out the National Guard. Instead of keeping the peace, panicking guardsmen shot at the crowd. Four students died, and several more were injured.

Like many Americans, Nixon feared antiwar protests were communist-inspired. His theory, however, received no support from the nation’s intelligence agencies. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover refused to help Nixon gather information on antiwar leaders. The CIA investigated the matter. It found no links between communists and opponents of the war. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) refused to investigate the tax-exempt status of antiwar groups.

A former U.S. Army intelligence officer named Tom Charles Huston proposed a domestic spy network. Nixon discussed the Huston plan with heads of the nation’s security agencies. Hoover thought the plan was a terrible idea.

Unhappy with the government agencies, Nixon decided to start his own intelligence-gathering force. This unit would be composed of White House (presidential) staff and would answer only to the president. Domestic Advisor John Ehrlichman would head this top secret outfit. Egil “Bud” Krogh and David Young assisted him. The unit became known as the “Plumbers,” because their job was to fix security leaks. The Plumbers did not have to wait long for an assignment.

Plumbers

A
New York Times
story on June 13, 1971, startled the nation. “Vietnam Archive Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement,” the headline declared. Other stories followed. The published documents, which made public a secret study of the war, became known as the Pentagon Papers.

These papers described presidential administrations earlier than Nixon’s. Nonetheless, the president raged. These papers were top secret. Release of them should be considered treason. The government sued to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court, however, upheld the right of the
Times
and other newspapers to print them.

Failing to stop the publication of the papers, the White House could at least attack their leaker. Daniel Ellsberg, a former official in Lyndon Johnson’s administration, at one time supported the war. When he changed his mind, he collected the documents, then turned them over to the press.

Nixon’s administration sought to get back at Ellsberg. He was indicted and charged with unauthorized possession of national defense information and the theft of government property. Legal retaliation was not enough. Nixon also wanted to discredit Ellsberg.
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The FBI would be no help. Director Hoover was a friend of Ellsberg’s father-in-law. The CIA wrote a psychological profile on Ellsberg. “There is no suggestion that the subject saw anything treasonous in his act,” the report read. “Rather, he seemed to be responding to what he deemed a higher level of patriotism.”
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This was not exactly the kind of incriminating report the “Plumbers” wanted.

Ehrlichman and the other Plumbers realized they would have to gather their own information. There seemed to be an easy solution. Ellsberg was seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. An “unannounced” visit to Fielding’s office might produce some interesting information.

Nixon advisor Charles Colson, who once said he would “walk over my grandmother” for the president, knew the man to head the break-in.
⁴
Ex-CIA agent E. Howard Hunt had worked on the 1961 Bay of Pigs mission. The botched revolution attempt failed to topple Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, but it made Hunt a hero in Miami’s anti-Castro Cuban community. Hunt signed on with the White House staff as a $100 per day consultant.

The Plumbers picked up another colorful recruit. G. Gordon Liddy, as a lawyer, once fired a blank pistol in court to impress a jury. He disciplined himself by holding his hand over a candle even after the flesh burned. Liddy was willing to engage in illegal activities to stop those opposing the administration. “As far as I was concerned, anything went,” he said.
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Hunt also recruited a Bay of Pigs partner, Bernard Barker. Miami real estate agent Barker then enlisted fellow Cuban exiles Eugenio Martinez and Felipe de Diego. Hunt hinted that if the Cubans helped him with the break-in, he could get government support for a revolution to topple Castro.

Liddy and Hunt flew to Los Angeles in late August 1971. They looked over Fielding’s office building. A break-in should be easy. A week later Barker and Diego, disguised as deliverymen, entered the psychiatrist’s office. They found nothing. Ehrlichman was unimpressed by the failed mission. He ordered it scrapped.

CRP

Vietnam was not the only worry of the White House in late 1971. Another major concern was the 1972 election. Richard Nixon appeared to face stiff opposition. He must be re-elected—at all costs.

Nixon set up a re-election campaign committee called the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP). Foes called the committee “CREEP.” The name well described the nature of the campaign.

The White House staff loaned members to the campaign staff. There was little distinction between the two groups. H. R. “Bob” Haldeman ran Nixon’s staff with an iron hand. A former colleague described Haldeman as “a completely obnoxious man who was totally uninterested in what anyone else thought.”
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He and Ehrlichman controlled all access to the president. Mitchell, now United States attorney general, doubled as a presidential campaign advisor. A young attorney, John Wesley Dean III, served as special counsel (advisor) to the president. Jeb Stuart Magruder, who was formerly a White House staffer under Haldeman, headed the CRP.

Nobody claimed that the Nixon group was a happy squad. Mitchell loathed Ehrlichman. Communications Director Herb Klein called Colson “one of the meanest people I ever knew.”
⁷
Magruder thought Liddy was unstable and wanted him fired. Gordon Strachan, a CRP deputy, reassured Magruder by saying, “Liddy may be a Hitler, but at least he’s our Hitler.”
⁸

Money, Money, Money

Money is the lifeblood of politics. Without it, few campaigns go anywhere. Richard Nixon’s team made sure that his campaign would not be short of funds.

The Democrat-controlled Congress passed an election reform bill in early 1972. Nixon signed it, and the bill became law. The previous law required campaigns to list contributors only for general elections. The new law demanded equal disclosures for party primary elections as well. The old law expired in early March 1972. The new one took over on April 7. That left a month for the CRP to gather limitless amounts of money from donors who could remain anonymous.

Maurice Stans excelled at the art of collecting money. The CRP finance director and former United States commerce secretary knew hundreds of corporate directors on a first-name basis. He was not afraid to request huge sums from them. Some of these businesspeople might have been encouraged by the help they could get from a friendly White House. Others feared revenge if they did not contribute.
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Stans’s fund-raising skills helped the Nixon campaign collect $20 million before the disclosure law went into effect.

White House and CRP staffers shuttled around the country picking up these contributions. One hundred thousand dollars was the standard campaign request. CRP’s finance committee was so busy it had to turn down donations of “only” fifty thousand dollars.

G. Gordon Liddy was one of the emergency couriers. He picked up two contributions that did not get cashed until after April 7. One was a set of four checks totaling $89,000. The other was a check for $25,000.

Liddy did not deposit them in the CRP account. Instead, he placed the checks in Bernard Barker’s Miami bank and immediately cashed them. If he had known the trouble the checks would cause, he would have torn them up and thrown them away.

Liddy walked out of the bank carrying a wad of one-hundred-dollar bills. Barker’s bank, by custom with large cash transactions, recorded the serial numbers of the bills. Instead of “laundered” money that was clean and free from detection, Liddy now carried bills that were easily traceable.

Dirty Tricks

Who would Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential opponent be? The Democrats had several strong choices. Senator Edmund Muskie from Maine had run for vice president with Hubert Humphrey in 1968. People around the country admired his cool dignity. Humphrey was another potential candidate. If he ran, he could be a tough foe. Edward Kennedy, brother of the late president John F. Kennedy, attracted a legion of followers. Former Alabama Governor George Wallace might do well in the South. If he ran as a third-party candidate, he could draw votes from Nixon. Finally, George McGovern represented the antiwar wing of the party. He might attract young people and radicals, but few other voters. To Richard Nixon and his allies, McGovern was the preferred foe.

How could voters be lured to nominate the weakest candidate? Hunt had a plan to disrupt Edward Kennedy’s campaign. He spliced together old CIA cables. The new phony cable claimed that John F. Kennedy had ordered the assassination of South Vietnamese Premier Ngo Dinh Diem. If Catholic voters saw that a Catholic president helped murder a Catholic premier, perhaps they would turn to the Republicans.

Another sabotage campaign helped ruin Muskie. Haldeman had a former college classmate who was capable of dirty tricks. Donald Segretti entered the presidential campaign.