Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings

of judgment the Watergate hearings he's made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting this is a police photograph of James W McCord he is one of five person who surprised and arrested yesterday inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington a corps that I was appalled at this senseless illegal action and I was District Court Judge John Sarika today said bail at $100,000 each for two former Nixon re-election campaign Sarika in Los Angeles Times quotes Watergate defendant James McCord as saying that Dean and former presidential aide Jeb Stuart Magruder knew in advance of the platitudes of my presidency I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the White House Bob Haldeman John Ehrlichman two of the finest public servants there can be no whitewash at the White House committed will come to holla I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency what did the president know and when did he know it the Senate caucus room it's a squirrel room a little pompous but practical just across from the Capitol on Constitution Avenue hello I'm Charles McDowell in this room Senate committees have investigated assorted embarrassments in our political history from teapot dome to Joe McCarthy and here 10 summers ago the Senate Select Committee on presidential campaign activities held hearings on the darkest passage in American politics Watergate it started in 1972 as a break-in at a campaign headquarters police court stuff but the burglars turned out to have White House connections the effort to cover up those connections became a conspiracy in the White House to obstruct justice and to place the president above the law when the truth came out President Richard Nixon resigned to get at the truth of Watergate the Senate committee brought to this room a remarkable parade of burglars and fixers and men of standing including the president's principal assistants and a former attorney general the committee that examined them was a fascinating collection itself headed by an old senator who seemed somehow to have sprung out a southern folklore to guide us through a constitutional crisis with country wit beyond the personalities and the whodunit aspects of the story Watergate was about big themes the constitutional separation of powers the protection of individual rights the function of a free press the people of the United States were caught up in all this to a degree that might seem unlikely to anyone who didn't experience it day after day week after week we watched the drama played out in one disclosure after another it was all on television and through television the people became a part of the process of judgment in the summer of 1973 so let's go back to early 1973 President Nixon was settling into his second term he'd won the 72 election by a landslide in spite of a potentially troublesome incident during the campaign the arrests of burglars on a political spying mission inside Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate office building the Nixon managers denied any part in such goings-on and most of the news media lost interest after a while but some gritty investigative reporters in a stubborn Judge John Sirica kept pursuing evidence of White House involvement in the break-in Watergate wouldn't go away so the Senate prodded by the Democratic majority leader Mike Mansfield set up a special investigating committee looking around for a chairman who wouldn't seem too partisan ourselves seeking Mansfield was drawn to a 76 year old senator from North Carolina Sam Ervin was the man for the job he was a Democrat but conservative a former judge his fellow senators knew him as a non partisan authority on the Constitution and the Bible and as wily an old country boy as ever came out of North Carolina chairman is fond of pointing out from time to time that he is just a country lawyer he'll MIT's to say that he graduated from Harvard Law School with honors episode 2 from Tennessee will heal I'd like to say a word I won't defense on I have a friend introduced me to North Carolina audience Issei understood I was passing the Harvard Law School but thank God nobody would ever suspected I went to Morganton North Carolina to visit senator Ervin now 86 years old and retired for some recollections of that historic summer of Watergate senator Ervin why you how did you come to be chosen as chairman of the Watergate committee Mike Mansfield I think's one of the finest human beings I've ever known and he wanted the investigation to be fair and not only want to be fair but he wanted to prepare to be fair so the first thing he did was rule out for membership among the Democrats any Democrat that was suspected of being won't to be President or vice president that includes most of the Democrats in the Senate and so I haven't done that he told me he won't be chaplain for three reasons the first was that I had had more judicial experience than anybody in the Senate the second was I was the most non partisan Democrat he had in the Senate and the third was that nobody could just accused me of ever having harbored vice presidential law or presidential ambitions what did you expect to discover at the beginning do you think it would reach the president I didn't imagine however the president was involved you did I thought we would find that some of his overzealous aides had overstepped the bounds of political decency did it dawn on you slowly or of a moment that the president was involved well if I became suspicious that the president wasn't a okay toting pal whether you use a North Carolina term or the country in the matter because as soon as committee was set up before it had had an organization meeting all had a heart a signal or head President Nixon issued a public statement in which he said under the doctrine of executive privilege he would not permit any of his aides or former aides to testify before the committee but I have noticed a long time that a person isn't being investigated or tried and they have an information that power that would exonerate them they can't run fast enough to catch to the fact-finder the other fact finders on the Watergate committee intentionally were chosen from among senators who are not especially well-known or outwardly ambitious for higher office for the Democrats besides Ervin herman talmadge of georgia Josef Montoya of New Mexico and Daniel in a way of Hawaii I tried my best to convince my colleagues that we were not prosecutors somehow we gave the impression to the people in the United States that we were out to determine the guilt or innocence of persons involved that was not our job three Republicans sat on the committee with the four Democrats up-and-coming Howard Baker who'd been a tiger as a trial lawyer in Tennessee became vice chairman the other Republicans were Edward gurney of Florida who emerged as President Nixon's chief defender on the committee and Lowell Weicker of Connecticut a maverick whose sense of moral outrage came out in very tough questions I think a lot of people feel because of the tough questions that I posed that I started out you know quote against Richard Nixon or a Nixon hater not so at all that took a lot of learning over a lot of months before I got to the point where I felt that there were some problems as far as the president and the presidency were concerned Sam - the Georgetown University law professor who became the committee's chief counsel reflects on what the committee knew is it began its investigation in March in April of 1973 there was some newspaper reporting suggesting perhaps White House involvement that was all suggestion there was no evidence no indication that could establish any relationship our investigation began there Fred Thompson a political friend of Howard Baker's from Tennessee was the minority counsel this young Republican came to Washington thinking the hearings would last only about a month and assuming there wouldn't be much evidence of wrongdoing among the higher-ups at the White House well when I started I hoped and believed that the hearings would clear clear up any questions about who was involved and and who was not involved and I certainly believe that at that time there was no reason to believe the President or any of the people who had responsible positions under the president were involved - and Thompson recruited a staff of investigators they worked around the clock in crowded offices in the Senate basement sorting out a tangle of leads and interviewing prospective witnesses gradually they began to piece together a complex and bizarre story of diverted campaign funds wiretap and still more burglaries early on a dispute developed over the order of witnesses to be put on the stand in the caucus room and there was some sentiment for calling the big names first and getting it out and and really kind of going to the horse's mouth the Haldeman's the ehrlichman's and the Mitchells and really find out what was there if anything and getting it over with I think there was a lot of sentiment that this was something that for the sake of the nation and everyone else should not be dragged on forever so there was some thought to doing that senator Baker I think initially favored that approach some others on the Democratic side Sam - I think primarily wanted to go kind of bottom from the bottom to the top and bring in the the lesser lights the witnesses and piece of case together as much as you would in a trial and after discussion that was that was the way in which the committee decided to proceed May 17 1973 after the two frantic months of preparation the hearings began the three commercial networks and Public Television were there with live coverage these would become the most extensively televised congressional hearings before or since Scott Armstrong a committee investigator remembers the shock when he walked into the room that first day when we walked into the hearing room and suddenly saw all those cameras it just it was a circus that we hadn't expected I think all of us somewhat recoiled from the notion that the kind of public scrutiny that was going to be given us and the committee and the way in which it looked into the White House it made us very self-conscious and wondering if we were fully prepared at 10:02 a.m. senator Ervin brought down the gavel the aim of the committee is to provide full and open public testimony and although that the nation can proceed towards the heating the wounds that now flicked the body politic the nation history itself for watching us we cannot fail our mission we will inquire into every fact and follow every lead unrestrained by any fear of where that lead might ultimately take us the atmosphere that first day was like the first day of school part ceremony part uncertainty nothing really heavy on the schedule reflecting - is build from the bottom plan the first witness was not a showstopper but one robert Odle counseling call the first witness will mr. Robert Odle please come to the witness a table he was the former office manager of the committee to re-elect the president known as creep I would like to use this opportunity to make just one brief point I joined the staff of the committee for the re-election of the President more than two years ago because I believed in President Nixon and in his hopes and dreams for America the public's fascination with Watergate mounted by the day as the intense coverage by the news media soaked in there were complaints from people who miss their soap operas after the first week the network's began taking turns covering the sessions live the infant public television service covered live in the daytime from Washington and then rebroadcast the hearings in prime time every night into the wee hours aggressive investigative reporting in newspapers and magazines particularly the work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for the Washington Post had laid the basis for the Senate investigation as for the relatively new medium of television its importance to these hearings to the process of public judgement cannot be overestimated I wanted every American citizen to be able to hear and see the witnesses for themselves and make their own judgments not have the judgment of somebody else and the only way to do that if they couldn't come to the caucus room and see and hear the witness themselves is to watch it and the only thing we have today and god bless it that we have it is through television and it was that and not because we wanted publicity for the committee but in order to be able to bring all of America into a democratic process which is the working of their Congress and it worked I think it did work the public's curiosity and concern were reflected early every morning in the lines that formed on Constitution Avenue to get into the hearings Watergate also was the talk of Main Street from May to August in that summer of 1973 millions of Americans sat in their living rooms and watched this remarkable story played out in the caucus room by real people some of whom became as familiar as the neighbors in the course of the hearings over a million and a half letters poured into the committee most but not all were favorable Terry Lenz nur one of Sam Dash's principal assistants we were flooded with mail thousands of letters every week we received over 100 to 200 telegrams a day I received telephone calls at my home throughout the night and at the office during the day many people in this country perceived this to be a national callin show where they could in fact offer questions that they wanted asked to these very important figures in government and have them in fact asked and get their their questions put on every day and I thought that was an extremely healthy kind of participation by the citizens of this country in what they perceived to be a quiz show but a one of a very high nature and a very important nature democracy had never worked quite this way before never had a nation participated so intimately in an investigation of its government the early witnesses here in the caucus room could have been characters out of a crime story in the tabloids the cop on the beat the wire man who tapped telephones the bagman who delivered hush money gradually the witnesses constructed the story members of the committee to re-elect the president planned the burglary the object was information to embarrass the Democrats members of the White House staff were involved in authorizing hush money for the burglars and it was all coming out because the break-in was botched at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate on the night of June 17 1972 the committee quiz the policeman who's beat was the Watergate so that the time what you're saying is the time from when you believe Baldwin to have seen you to the time that you apprehended the defendants was a period of five minutes at the mostess next the committee heard from one of the burglars James McCord he demonstrated how to bug a telephone cover would be taken off of the telephone and two of the wires connected with this would be interconnected in series with the wiring within the phone itself McCord was known as a good wire man but the good wire man was not proud of his part in Watergate my participation in the Watergate operation on my part for whatever reasons I may have had at the time whatever race now on me that at the time was an error was a mistake in a very grave mistake which I regret he thought that he was a patriot that he thought he was doing things for his country perhaps he had to know better but he did have a higher perception of his goals and that he did at least think that he was doing something for his president doing something for the White House even though it was something he should have known better about doing and that when he realized that the White House and the president were not going to back him up and they were not going to stand behind him and admit that yes we authorized this and this was a White House operation and that he was going to go down in history as simply a burglar a common criminal the core James McCord couldn't stomach that is a fact now miss or that you presently stand convicted on a multi count federal indictment charging burglary electronic surveillance and conspiracy arising out of the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate it's correct and are you now awaiting sentence on that conviction that is correct a few months before the start of the hearings McCord had written a letter to Judge John Sirica who presided over his trial in federal court McCord revealed political pressure from the White House to remain silent the judge made the letter public it was the first crack in the cover-up when the wall of silence cracks that crack begins to widen widen widen in the world crumbles and any good investigator once that first crack we got it McCord was it political pressure from the White House was conveyed to me in January 1973 by John Caulfield to remain silent take executive clemency by going off to prison quietly and I was told that while there I would receive financial aid and later rehabilitation and a child he saw that one of the strategy strategies of the White House was to blame it all on the CIA - and he it was a great lawyer listing seven to the CIA and therefore he decided that he was going to revolt against that angered speaking of my own feelings and at the time the letter was written angered because of what appeared to me to be a ruthless attempt by the White House to put the blame for the Watergate operation on CIA where it did not belong I sought to hit it off by sending a letter to Caulfield dear jack I am sorry to have to write you this letter if Helm's goes and the Watergate operation is late at CIA's feet for it does not belong every tree in the forest will fall it will be a scorched desert James McCord's presentation had been somber Anthony you Eliza whit's a former New York City policeman brought a touch of Damon Runyon humor to the caucus room cheerfully he told the committee of his role as the hustling messenger between the burglars and the White House besides messages he delivered hush money to some of the burglars from Herbert Kalmbach Richard Nixon's personal attorney and unofficial fundraiser I take it you were having these conversations phone booth to phone booth between yourself and mr. Kahn back that is correct and we you load it down with change mr. glass well yes indeed and how did you carry that change well when I started out I started with kind of a little box deal and when I finished up I had a bus guys one of these things that you quarters and dimes and nickels did you report that back to mr. Cahn recorded that back to mr. comeback and how to await his call back again all of these were again precluded I call him wait for comeback and and I began to call him come back come back holes I think he was quite a character on television but the issue was what he was doing I suppose that I like many others can't fault in any way what is a wonderful sense of humor mr. Elance words but I must confess that a long time ago I lost my sense of humor on the activities that you've described here today I tell my friends as a matter of fact that it seems that today is Watergate joke becomes tomorrow's testimony and I I would only ask you this question to try and appropriately frame the description which you gave to me you know where mr. Liddy is right now yes sir where he's in prison mr. hunt he's in prison this is hunt she's dead mr. Barker in prison I believe mr. Gonzalez in prison I'm not certain that I mr. Sturgis the shame mr. Martinez same I think what we see here is not a joke the very great tragedy I have no further questions if indeed yellow @ y alas acquits is funny then I can assure you politics is gonna get dirtier and dirtier in this country that's the reason why I blew the whistle on him senator Waker like his reaction to my questioning of tony'll assets was uh was very negative by the same token I felt personally the joy the day after day of attention and drama it would not hurt to have some bouncing humorous incidence Jeb Stuart Magruder had been the deputy director of the committee to re-elect the president this ambitious young executive coolly explained how the break-in and a whole scheme of political espionage had been masterminded by the reelection committee and he charged the John Mitchell a former attorney general of the United States had personally authorized the Watergate break-in when he was running the Nixon campaign g gordon Liddy the counsel for the reelection committee was the author of the plan did there come a time when you had a third and final meeting with mr. Mitchell on the lytic plan on or about March 30 1972 yes we had there had been a delay in the decision-making process at the committee because of the ITT hearings mr. Mitchell was on vacation at Key Biscayne I went down to Key Biscayne mr. LaRue was there and we met and went over approximately 30 to some 30 some decision papers mainly relating to direct mail and advertising the other parts of the campaign the last topic we discussed was the final proposal of mr. Liddy's which was for approximately 250,000 dollars we discussed it brought up again the pros and cons I think I can honestly say that no one was a particularly overwhelmed with the project but I think we felt that the information could be useful and mr. Mitchell agreed to approve the project and I then notified the parties of mr. Mitchell's approval what was that project specifically it was specifically approval for initial entry into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington and that had a further date if the funds were available we would consider an entry into the presidential contenders headquarters and also potential at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami that also include use electronic surveillance including electronic surveillance and photography of documenter photographing of documents at one point senator Baker asked him to explain why the committee to re-elect the president had authorized a burglary if you were concerned because the action was known to you to be illegal because you thought it improper or unethical that you thought the prospects for success were very meager and you doubted the reliability of mr. Liddy what on earth would it have taken to decide against that plan not very much sir was the incentive thought rate or the prospects for success so tantalizing that you felt it irresistible let me I knew you would get to this line of questioning so why do I give you what I think is the appropriate response here I had gone to college as an example under an had a course in ethics as an example under William Sloane coffin who I respect greatly have great regard for he was quoted the other day as saying well I guess mr. Magruder failed my course in ethics and I think he's probably correct tells me my ethics are bad and yet he was indicted for criminal charges he recommended on the Washington Monument grounds that that if students burned their draft cards and that we have mass demonstrations shut down the city of Washington now here are ethical legitimate people who I respected I respect mr. coffin tremendously he was a very close friend of mine I saw people I was very close to breaking a law without any regard for for any other person's pattern of behavior or belief and I believed as firmly as they did that the president was correct in this issue so consequently and let me just say when when these subjects came up and although I was aware they were illegal and I'm sure the others did we had become somewhat ignored to using some activities that would help us in accomplishing what we thought was a cause of legitimate cause now that's absolutely incorrect two wrongs do not make a right I fully accept the responsibility of having made an absolute disastrous decision or at least participated I didn't make the decision but certainly participated in it I said a decision really that is going to affect history that was made in almost a casual way yes sir Jeb Magruder gave the appearance of a man who was sorry for what he'd done and he helped the committee not so Magruder's superior John Mitchell the former attorney general didn't remember much what he did remember was not heavily laden with regret Mitchell in the phrase of the day was stonewalling he had tried to protect the president from knowledge of Watergate in the beginning and now he would loyally try to protect him from the consequences of it John Mitchell's allegiance to Richard Nixon went back several years to the time Nixon joined Mitchell's New York law firm the law partners also became close personal friends in 1969 the new president made Mitchell his Attorney General for three years Mitchell advanced his president's promises of law and order in a mirror but mitchell was in on some unlawful conniving it was in his office at the Justice Department the G gordon Liddy proposed a scheme of wiretaps and break-ins against the Democrats in the 1972 campaign mrs. Mitchell the outspoken Martha raised eyebrows in the Washington establishment her late-night phone calls to reporters made headlines Mitchell never got along with the inner circle around the president at the White House but he remained fiercely loyal to Richard Nixon he agreed to head the reelection campaign and resigned as Attorney General two weeks after the Watergate break-in he left the campaign and went back to New York after the Senate hearings he was indicted for trying to block a government investigation of financiers vesco in exchange for a contribution to the Nixon campaign he was acquitted on that charge Mitchell later served 19 months in prison for his part in the Watergate cover-up now disbarred Nixon's old law partner works in Washington as a business consultant my reaction was representative of most of my colleagues that here was a valiant soldier standing up for his general the Ervin committee wanted to know if Mitchell had indeed authorized the Watergate break-in as Jeb Magruder said he did Mitchell denied it the Senators tried to get some idea of what the President had known about Watergate Mitchell didn't make it easy for them when do you think the president found out about what agate in the cover-up I haven't any idea senator I haven't any idea at all why hadn't Mitchell taken it upon himself to tell the president that his re-election committee was behind the break-in not only had he kept quiet about that he hadn't told the president about earlier proposals for illegal activities Mitchell himself call those plans the White House Horrors he had not told the president about any of it Mitchell said in order to protect him now you state that you are kept silent concerning the things you knew because you considered the the election reelection of President Nixon of such extreme importance that is correct sir I wonder for your Steve Munoz not to be changed a little bit you say that you didn't want President Nixon to find out about the White House Horace isn't it the fact that his isn't it the fact that you didn't want American people to find out about well I think that's one in the same because as I testified before that if the President had found out about it obviously he would pursued his responsibilities in that area very vigorously and you were afraid to tell the press rather you will I'm gonna say afraid that you are preferred not to tell the president and didn't tell the president because you didn't want to present do what you call law in the boom that's exactly that if he had loaned Lord the boom room while the thing would been exposed I don't think there's any doubt and the American people would learned about it they would have learned of it and it might have affected the votes of the American people it's quite consistent I don't expect to the extent were - some of us might believe I think that's a matter for debate but it certainly could very well have affected you know I have all high opinion American people in net I think that the President had lowered the boom if you'd told the president the president lowered the boom and come out performing his constitutional duty to see that the laws be faithfully take care the laws be faithfully executed I think he would have made his election more sure than ever some of the Senators were incredulous that Mitchell could even have listened to Gordon ladies astonishing proposal for assorted law-breaking in the campaign after all he was Attorney General of the United States there's one man that is has got to stand above all else in this nation in a sense of enforcing our laws it's the Attorney General of the United States I know that mr. Mitchell figures why he toughed it out on behalf of his boss but I don't think there's anything the boast about there I think he should have toughed it out on behalf of the people the United States I must confess mr. Mitchell that as I have sat here and listened to your testimony the only difficulty I find with it is it is sometimes difficult to realize that we have sitting before the committee not some administrative assistant to some deputy campaign director but we have the campaign director sitting before this committee and indeed we don't have some deputy assistant attorney general sitting before the committee we have the Attorney General of the United States sitting before the committee senator Wiker kept pressing Mitchell why hadn't he been appalled by the Liddy schemes why hadn't he reacted in a way that would put an end to this kind of thing that eventually led to the plan for a burglary at the Watergate now on the 27th of January 1972 gordon Liddy presented a plan in your office in the office of the Attorney General of the United States and that plan complete with visual aids included to elaborate charts of electronic surveillance and breaking and entering and prostitution and kidnapping and muggy now you've indicated that in hindsight probably should have thrown him out of the office out of the window and out of the windows in hindsight the life of every American his or to a great degree his Liberty protection of all of his rights it's in the hand of the Attorney General of the United States and do you mean to tell me that you sat there through that meeting and in fact actually had the same man come back into your office for a second meeting without in any way alerting appropriate authorities in this particular case the president the United States that is exactly what happened senator and as I say in hindsight the grievious era senator Baker tried to understand Mitchell's concept of the presidency is the presidency so shrouded in mystique is there such an aura of magnificence about the presidency is there such an awesome responsibility for a multitude of problems and undertakings of this nation that the presidency in some instances must be spared the detail must be spared the difficulty of situations which in more ordinary circumstances might be considered by some at least to be frank open declarations of criminal offense is the presidency to be protected in that way is the splendor of the isolation so great that the president must be protected and if so in what cases it is my opinion and my concern with respect to this particular presidency that he should not have been involved in connection with these matters that board directly upon his election and he should have been protected from the knowledge of in the end times I've in the interest of his re-election why isn't that a presidential grade decision why of all decisions that might be made by the man the candidate for president of the United States why shouldn't he be permitted to make that decision what is it that irrigates that authority to someone else other than the president to take a material step that will significantly affect not only his election prospects and chances but his presidency elected because of the consequences that would obviously flow from it why shouldn't he make that decision if he were to make the decision there would be no alternatives he would have a choice of being involved and what you all referred to as a cover-up or he would be involved in the disclosures which would affect his reelection all of those things were inferior and importance to the ultimate reelection of the president I have no doubt about it at that time and I have no doubt about it now didn't it unfair that he's now undergoing the hostility and the suspicion of a nation in this respect with the allegations of cover-up with the lingering suspicion about what he knew well that greatly in that far that's a statement that I'm not prepared to accept sundar I do not believe the nation feels that way and I don't believe that anybody has come to the line come to the joint wearing come to the point where they have one shred of evidence that he was knowledgeable of the break you know that I think you and I are talking about two different things I'm talking about suspiciously because we generally get along fine well we still do get along fine and I'm delighted that I have this opportunity to probe into a great mentality of a great man well senator Baker found himself in a very unique role he never made any bones about the fact that he wished that his friend Richard Nixon and John Mitchell and he lives and some of the others you know John Mitchell picked up the phone one day and asked Howard Baker if he'd like to be on the Supreme Court the United States I mean you don't you don't proceed as if those things never happened what you do is acknowledge them and then do what you got to do after two and a half days of testimony the committee excused John Mitchell but not before the normally controlled Sam day she made an indignant observation that mr. Mitchell do you draw the strength distinction and you've made it some time to time that it was your purpose noting islands or anything that distinction between not volunteering and lying well it depends entirely on the subject matter no you asked the direct question and you don't volunteer the direct answer you might say you're not volunteering but actually you're lying honest well I think we'd have to find out what the specifics are of what particular occasion and what case well I'll go back to the February the July of five question of the FBI as to whether or not you had any information on the DNC break-in and your answer only what you read in newspapers I found that John Mitchell tried to evade us and to avoid answering questions he got the award for stonewalling surely the most memorable witness of the summer was John Dean the former counsel to the president unlike so many of the president's men Dean came here to tell all he knew his testimony became the standard against which all future witnesses would be tested until Dean the hearings were about burglars and fixers after Dean the hearings were about the present and the obstruction of justice John Dean was a young man in a hurry soon after he came to Washington he was serving the most powerful men in government at the age of 30 he landed a job high in the Justice Department working directly with John Mitchell then the Attorney General they became good friends after two years he went to the White House as counsel to the president but he wasn't able to get close to Richard Nixon the White House inner circle men like Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman blocked his access then came the Watergate break-in soon Dean was coordinating the cover-up that made him important to the President and he was in and out of the Oval Office when the cover-up began to fall apart Dean suspected his superiors were setting him up as a scapegoat he went to the prosecutors with his story soon afterward Dean was fired it happened the same day that Haldeman Ehrlichman and Richard Kleindienst resigned two months later John Dean emerged as the star of the Senate hearings he also was the key government witness in the trial of the major Watergate defendants his cooperation got him a relatively light prison term of four months for obstruction of justice he now lives in California with his wife marine disbarred he works as a freelance writer and radio producer third John Bean was the most devastating witness I heard and often as a lawyer and the judge on the legislature I've spent many years of my life listening to witnesses from the beginning it was obvious that John Dean could be an important witness as counsel to the president he knew the internal workings of the White House and he was willing to talk but he wanted immunity and he didn't want to tell what he knew to the staff and committee in advance as other witnesses were asked to do he was worried that the that our Republican members of the committee as well as a Republican staff of our of our committee would report back to the White House his cooperation and therefore if he had to appear before our staff or our committee there'd be no cooperation I figured out a way to work with John Dean and avoid that danger I suggested to him that we have what I called non meetings that I would go outside the Senate office building meet with him at any place he suggested he suggested his home Sam - began going to John Dean's house late at night to meet with Dean and his lawyer Charles Schaffer there the real story of Watergate began to come out clearly Dean was indispensable and - had to convince the committee and staff to bring him to the witness table on his own terms of course I raised hell about that and it was a question of whether or not Dean was going to have to abide by the rules that we had or whether or not he had become irresistible and I lost he had become irresistible Dean's preparedstatement 245 pages long laid out what he knew about others involvement in the Watergate affair and his own role as the coordinator of the cover-up in a sometimes shaky monotone he told a tale that could devastate the Nixon administration it's a very difficult thing for me to testify about other people it's far more easy for me to explain my own involvement in this matter the fact that I was involved in obstruction of justice the fact that I assisted another in perjured testimony the fact that I made personal use of funds that were in my custody it's far easier to talk about these things myself than to talk about what others did some of these people all dejen referring to our friends some are men I greatly admire and respect and particularly with reference to the president night estates I'd like to say this it is my honest belief that while the president was involved that he did not realize or appreciate at any time the implications of his involvement and I think that when the facts come out I hope the president is forgiving when Dean talked about what the president knew about Watergate he was drawing on direct knowledge he recalled a conversation in the Oval Office a few months after the break-in when he realized the president was aware of the cover-up the president told me I've done a good job and he appreciated how difficult a task it had been and the president was pleased that the case had stopped with Liddy I responded that I could not take credit because others had done much more difficult things than I had done as the president discussed of the present status of the situation I told him that all I've been able to do was to contain the case and assist in keeping it out of the White House I also told him that there was a long way to go before this matter would end and it certainly I certainly could make no assurances that the would not come when this matter would not start to unravel Dean told of another meeting with the president a few months later when the cover-up was increasingly difficult to manage the convicted Watergate burglars were demanding money I told the president about the fact there was no money to pay these individuals to meet their demands he asked me how much it would cost I told him I could only make an estimate that it might be as high as a million dollars or more he told me that that was no problem he also looked over at Haldeman and repeated the same statement Dean said he was exasperated by the president's unwillingness to see how serious the situation was it was my particular concern with the fact that the president did not seem to understand the implications of what was going on for example when I had earlier told him that I thought I was involved in an obstruction of justice situation he had argued with me to the contrary after I'd explained it to him also when the matter of money demands had come up previously he had very nonchalantly told me that there was no problem I did not know if he realized that he himself could be getting involved in an obstruction of justice by having by having promised clemency to hunt what I had hoped to do in this conversation was to have the president tell me we had to end the matter now accordingly I gave considerable thought to how I would present this situation to the President and try to make as dramatic a presentation as I could tell him how serious I thought the situation was that the cover-up continued I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed the President himself would be killed by it I also told him that it was important that this cancer be removed immediately because it was growing more deadly every day Dean felt he had warned the president he was worried about his own culpable - he was afraid he was being made a scapegoat for Watergate so John Dean went to the prosecutors I told the president that I had gone to the prosecutors and I did not believe that this was an act of disloyalty but rather in the end would be an act of loyalty I told him I felt this matter had to end I informed the president that I had told the prosecutors of my own involvement in the involvement of others the president almost from the outset began asking me a number of leading questions which was somewhat unlike his normal conversational relationships that had with him which made me think that the conversation was being taped and a record was being made to protect himself although I became aware of this because of the nature of the conversation I decided I did not know it for a fact and that I had to believe that the president would not tape a conversation toward the end of the conversation the president recalled the fact that at one point we had discussed the difficulty of in raising money and that he said the $1,000,000 was nothing to raise to pay to maintain the silence for the defendants he said that he had of course only been joking when he made that comment as the conversation went on and it is impossible for me to recall anything other than the high points of it I became more convinced that the president was seeking to elicit testimony from me and put in perspective put his perspective on the record and get me to agree to it the most interesting thing that happened during the conversation was very near the end he got up out of his chair went behind the chair to the corner of the executive office building off office and in a nearly audible tone said to me he was probably foolish to have discussed Hunt's clemency with Colson I do not recall that I responded Dean's disclosures had amazed the committee in the country but many had trouble believing what they'd heard when John Dean first appeared on the scene I did not believe the most substantial part of his testimony my experiences is nobody nobody lies completely and some people tell the truth completely but but nobody tells all falsehoods so I gave him credit for that he's very smart obviously but I thought that he was twisting things to his favor I doubt if any one of us at the outset believed them it was too fantastic for four days the committee questioned John Dean taking him back through crucial passages in detail senator Baker asked the question that would be heard many times during that summer probably but the central question at this point is simply put what did the president know and when did he know it there was an effort by some of the Republicans to discredit Dean they seized on information about Dean's own finances he admitted he'd taken money from a White House safe for personal use part of it to pay for his honeymoon being maintained he'd planned to return the money I recall in your testimony that you said that you had neglected or forgotten to get some money out of an account in New York and that's why that you took the four thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars is that correct that is correct i from time to time would call my broker when I felt I needed money and just asked him to send me money did you ever call him for four thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars to replace this not until early this year I mean not early this year was in March or April this year why didn't you replace it too shortly after this time well at one point I did put in back in what I had into the account and but in November when I was trying again to to get a honeymoon in I took it back out again how much senator I have no idea the question was if you didn't use the money for that what did he use the money for he put it in his pocket little things that she would ask any witness on cross-examination to question their credibility I don't believe that it did anything more to show or than show that John Dean was an ambitious opportunist type young man who might have engaged in some peccadilloes of that kind at one point Dean disclosed that the White House kept lists of its enemies he admitted he'd participated in this effort to harass an assortment of people seen as unfriendly to the administration mr. Dean I would like to now refer to a memo dated August 16 1971 and you have testified that this was prepared for mr. Haldeman mr. Ehrlichman and others at the White House it is dated August 16 1971 it's classified confidential subject dealing with our political enemies I'd like to read part of this sir this memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our administration stated a bit more bluntly how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies in your testimony you have submitted several exhibits with lists of names politicals members of congress members of the media members of the entertainment field etc etc and taking this memo together with that list I might add also senator before we go forward I don't believe that list is complete in and of itself it just happens to be a part that I received and had access to before my files were shut down there may well be additional names and additional information available on that Dean I believe one list would have been enough it turned out that Senator Wiker himself had been a White House target in an emotional speech he called for a higher standard of morality in the executive branch there gonna be no more threats no intimidation no innuendo no working through the press to go ahead and destroy the credibility of individuals if the executive branch of government wants to meet the standards that the American people set for it in their minds and the time has come to stop reacting and stop playing this type of a game I say before you and I say before the American people in this committee that I'm here as a Republican and quite frankly I think that I express the feelings of the 42 other Republican senators that I work with and the Republicans of the state of Connecticut and in fact the Republican Party far better than these illegal unconstitutional and gross acts which have been committed over the past several months by various individuals let me make it clear because I've got to have bipartisan moment Republicans do not cover up Republicans do not go ahead and threaten Republicans do not go ahead and commit illegal acts and God knows Republicans don't view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed but rather I can assure you that this Republican knows that I serve with look upon every American as human beings to be loved and one thank you very much mr. Dean's testimony produced a number of shocks the enemies list was one of them but it was Dean's story in its entirety the implications of the whole pattern of operations in the White House that ultimately was so devastating I think John Dean's testimony turned the hearings around completely I think we we were leading up to a raison d'être a meaning for the what Watergate was all about it as I've indicated transformed the meaning of Watergate from a political burglary to a message to the public that something dangerous it happened in the United States John Dean's testimony changed the course of the hearings and of history but at the time when it was also hard for some people to believe dean was david challenging goliath nobody had yet stepped forward to back him up Dean stood alone and he knew it I quite aware of the fact that in some circumstances it's gonna be my word against one man's word it's gonna be my word against two men to be my word against three men and probably in some cases gonna be my word against Foreman but I'm prepared to stand on my word and the truth in the knowledge and the facts I have and I know the truth is my ally in this and I think ultimately the truth is going to come out but how would the truth come out who would possibly confirm Dean's story surely not the president not his closest aides who could be expected to testify that Dean was lying how would we ever know after a brief station break I just have a hunch we'll discover the White House tapes summer of judgment the Watergate hearings is made possible in part by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting this is PBS the Public Broadcasting Service this is PBS

Channel: YorkVid

Views: 148,519

Rating: 4.706275 out of 5

Keywords: WETA-TV, Public Broadcasting Service (TV Network), Impeachment (Literature Subject), United States Senate (Governmental Body), Richard Nixon (US President), Watergate Scandal (Event), Nixon White House Tapes (Literature Subject), 1970s (Event), Senate Watergate Hearings, Documentary (TV Genre), HR Haldeman, John Erlichman, John Dean (Politician), Nixon, 1973, All The President's Men (Award-Winning Work), Politics (TV Genre), Watergate

Id: tINCO6TfoPg

Length: 57min 20sec (3440 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2015

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Part 2