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TV, Documentary Watergate episode 1 -BBC
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00:02Watergate, the worst political scandal in American history, finally destroys Richard Nixon.
00:08The president who opened new doors to Russia and China quits the White House in disgrace.
00:14He resigned rather than face impeachment for ordering illegal acts.
00:19Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.
00:23Two years before he resigned, the president's re-election committee had broken into his opponent's headquarters in search of damaging
00:31intelligence.
00:32There was pressure from the White House, from me and from the president, to the committee to get their campaign
00:38intelligence activity going.
00:40The break-in team were caught, and the White House launched the cover-up that ruined Nixon.
00:46The staff itself was not doing very much as a matter of individual initiative.
00:53They were carrying out Richard Nixon's instructions day to day.
00:57Nixon's closest advisers now give evidence that the Watergate break-in was just one in a series of crimes instigated
01:05by the president himself.
01:36The President of the United States
01:55In May 1970, President Nixon's America was in uproar.
02:01He, at one election, pledged to end the war in Vietnam, but now he escalated it.
02:08Thousands of demonstrators laid siege to the White House.
02:12At 4.30 in the morning, I found myself in the Secret Service command post in the old executive
02:17office building.
02:18And then, just out of the blue, out of a loudspeaker, comes the message sort of crackling through
02:23that searchlight is on the lawn.
02:25Well, that just hit me as hard as it can hit you, because that tells you that the president
02:30is outside the mansion, he's out on the lawn, and it's 4.30 in the morning.
02:34He doesn't belong out there.
02:39It was not a good time to have a president on the loose.
02:44Earlier that week, at Kent State University, four students had been shot dead by the National
02:49Guard.
02:52Nixon feared that a war the Democrats had got the country into would cost him his re-election.
02:59There was just an eruption of a fury around the country of a lot of young people descending
03:05on Washington.
03:06So we had to move quickly to try to figure out, how do we protect the White House?
03:11How do we protect the city?
03:14The idea was, maybe we should just, like they did in the Old West, circle the covered wagons
03:20and protect it that way.
03:24Behind the barricade of buses, the president tried to defuse the situation before the big
03:29demo.
03:30He called a press conference in time to reach the students driving to Washington.
03:35You should be seated.
03:37Nixon, who had treated the anti-war movement as traitors, now changed his tune.
03:42What do you think the students are trying to say in this demonstration?
03:48They're trying to say that they want to stop the killing.
03:52They're trying to say that they want to end the draft.
03:55They're trying to say that we ought to get out of Vietnam.
04:01I agree with everything that they're trying to accomplish.
04:05After his press conference, the president was restless, worrying about how his new line
04:10had been received.
04:12At four in the morning, he gave up trying to sleep, and it was then that the White House
04:17aide on duty heard that searchlight was on the lawn.
04:20I immediately put a call through to John Ehrlichman and said, the president is outside, not sure
04:26what's going on.
04:27Bud Krog called me in the middle of the night, woke me up, to say that the president was
04:34moving and that he appeared to be intent on going out to the mall to hobnob with the protesters
04:43and students and the others who were gathered there.
04:46And what should he do?
04:48And he said, go over and render assistance immediately.
04:52The president made for the Lincoln Memorial.
04:56There, at the foot of the steps, Bud Krog caught up with him.
05:00The president was directly engaged in conversation with a number of young people who were wearing
05:08combat clothes, peace symbols, long hair.
05:14He just kept rambling, and he'd go from city to city, and then he'd stop on a city, and if
05:19he thought of a sport in that city, he'd start talking about it.
05:21You know, like he got to California, and he thought of surfing, so then that stopped him,
05:25and he'd look up and say, are there any surfers?
05:27And then he'd start talking about surfing.
05:30Krog nervously maneuvered the president back into the car, but Nixon insisted on continuing his tour.
05:38Just about that time, I guess you could say the cavalry arrived, we had the top White House staff.
05:46I was very relieved to see them.
05:48I was concerned that we know exactly what the president had said and what the kids had said,
05:55so that we had some basis for admitting or denying what took place.
06:03The president said, now let's all walk back to the White House.
06:06And I had to explain to him that he couldn't walk back to the White House.
06:11The White House was barricaded by buses, and we wouldn't be able to get in,
06:15even though he had a pretty good ID card.
06:19The president's gesture of conciliation failed.
06:29Nixon now struck back at the anti-war movement.
06:32He demanded to know who was behind the protesters, who was funding them.
06:36He called a rare summit meeting of his intelligence chiefs.
06:40He ordered the heads of each of the government intelligence agencies,
06:44the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency.
06:47There was a group of, I think, six or eight men gathered in the Oval Office, and I was there.
06:52And the president, he really took the bark off.
06:56He laid it out to them that he was fed up with the bickering between the intelligence
07:01groups and between the directors themselves.
07:04The nut of this was that President Nixon wanted very much to get more information.
07:12And if he could just lay his hands on some foreign element that was supporting this activism,
07:17then he would have a good political axe with which to wage his own domestic war.
07:28The president issued a secret executive order.
07:32It gave the intelligence agencies a free hand to bug telephones, open mail,
07:37and break into private homes and offices, overriding legal safeguards on citizens' rights.
07:44These new powers to spy on Americans at home were, in fact, outside the law.
07:50Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.
07:53If, for example, the president approves something because of a threat to
08:01internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance
08:10is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law.
08:18The FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, balked at this doctrine of the divine right of presidents.
08:26Hoover had outlasted seven of Nixon's predecessors in his 45 years in the job.
08:32In the twilight of his career, he was not prepared to risk his empire.
08:37He knew there would be hell to pay if the president's order leaked out.
08:41It was just then allowed to die. In other words, it was never implemented.
08:46But it was allowed to die because Mr. Hoover simply dug his heels in and refused to cooperate.
08:54Nixon decided the White House would have to do its own dirty work.
08:59To recruit their first undercover operative, he had dispatched John Ehrlichman to New York.
09:05He arrived at LaGuardia on a Washington plane with an entourage of assistants.
09:13Typical, you know, everybody had attache cases, leather cases, newspapers,
09:18bulky papers under their arms. And I stood by waiting. And finally, Mr. Ehrlichman,
09:23very officious, made it known he wished to interview with me in connection with taking an
09:29assignment with the president of the United States.
09:33So for political things, for personal things, things that were non-governmental,
09:39we used a lasso and we paid it.
09:42Mr. Ehrlichman said that should it be disclosed or should it come out, leak out or whatever,
09:48that I was working for the White House, it would be denied.
09:53His first job was to dig up dirt on Chappaquiddick, the controversial drowning incident which destroyed
09:59Senator Edward Kennedy's presidential chances. Ulasovitz traveled the country in search of
10:05damaging information on the Kennedys and Nixon's other enemies.
10:09Who gave me my assignments, they came from anywhere around the throne,
10:14whether it was from Nixon himself, whether it was Haldeman or Ehrlichman,
10:17and it really didn't matter to me. I didn't care if Jehoshaphat was in charge.
10:21I did the job as I was asked to do.
10:30On the 12th of June 1971, Nixon's elder daughter, Tricia, married law student Edward Cox.
10:42The president described it as his happiest day in the White House, but the happiness was short-lived.
10:52The next day, coverage of the wedding was upstaged in the nation's leading newspaper.
10:57The New York Times led with the Pentagon Papers, a massive leak of top-secret documents tracing three
11:04decades of growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. These were the secrets of earlier administrations,
11:11but Nixon's national security adviser hit the roof. Henry Kissinger came in and he just threw across
11:18his desk, the Oval Office desk, or where I was sitting, three telegrams that he received. He said,
11:24these are just some. One was from Canada, one was from Australia. Another one which concerned me very
11:29much was from Ceausescu in Romania, expressing concern about whether or not their conversations that
11:36they had had on a confidential basis were subject to being made public. Henry said,
11:43we are living actually in a revolutionary period. And he says, we have got to stop this.
11:49What kind of a civilization is this where its leaders leak its secrets and betray the nation
11:57to its enemies and, you know, that kind of stuff? It was not simply a leak. It was a theft.
12:05And it was
12:06a theft by somebody that Kissinger knew and hardly disliked.
12:12Two and a half million tons of bombs ago. In October 1969, my friend Tony Russo and I began
12:20copying the Pentagon Papers to give them to the American Congress and share them with the American
12:25public. The American public didn't get them then. It took two invasions later before the newspapers
12:31began releasing them. They've got them now. They've got them now.
12:37As the Pentagon Papers became a bestseller, Nixon learned that Ellsberg had got his hands on yet
12:43more secret documents. They were now in the possession of a Washington think tank,
12:48the Brookings Institution. It was the government in exile for the liberal Kennedy-type Democrats who
12:57hoped to be back in power. And the Brookings Institution had
13:03plans, after the Pentagon Papers came out, to put out a further study with regard to the conduct of
13:12the war in 1969 and 1970. 1969 was the year Nixon came to power.
13:21This new study threatened to expose his own secret negotiations.
13:29I was in the President's office one night and the President turned to me and he said,
13:32you get a hold of John Ehrlichman and you tell him to get a hold of the Pentagon,
13:36to get a hold of the FBI, do whatever is necessary. I want those documents back from Brookings.
13:41The President's private eye was told to case the joint.
13:45They bring me in for this thing with this Brookings Institute. And I went in as a tourist and I
13:54I reported by phone, no written report, that it was certainly a great looking establishment.
13:59All marble halls, well guarded. To get past the guards,
14:04Colson proposed to Ehrlichman an unorthodox approach.
14:08He came up with this idea to start a fire. And in the confusion of fighting the fire,
14:16somebody would go in and lift these papers. I said, I don't care how you do it,
14:22but the President wants the papers back. That's all I know.
14:25Word of Colson's scheme reached the President's young counsel, John Dean.
14:31Two years later, Dean would bring down the Nixon administration by exposing its conspiracies,
14:37including the one that was now brought to him.
14:40He said, Chuck Colson has got a scheme that is the craziest thing I've ever heard.
14:45He wants me to firebomb the Brookings Institute. I said, what are you talking about?
14:49So I immediately went in to see Ehrlichman, told him of the absurdity of this
14:56plan and scheme, and found a very unruffled John Ehrlichman, who sort of looked up over his
15:02glasses at me and raised his eyebrows, and he said, well, maybe we should call it off.
15:08Ten days later, the New York Times published another damaging leak.
15:13An innocuous-looking story gave away to the Soviets the U.S. fallback position in nuclear
15:18missile negotiations. The President summoned Ehrlichman and his protégé, Bud Krogh.
15:25When I walked in, the President was standing up behind his desk. Then he started to pace back and
15:31forth, and he told me that he, that this kind of leak was intolerable, that we just could not stand
15:41any more of them. I remember him slamming his fist into his hand, saying how dangerous this was,
15:48and it had to be stopped.
15:50He wanted lie detector tests given to everybody. He wanted the name of the guy who was responsible.
15:56He wanted telephone taps. He wanted, you know, this and that, and this and that. A lot of
16:01hyperbole, a lot of hubris in the, in the Oval Office. The President's demand for lie detector tests
16:09on a massive scale was recorded, like everything said in the Oval Office, by the hidden taping system
16:15he had just installed. Nixon's first target was his foreign policy staff.
16:24What I want, what I want to apologize, I want that to be done now, that's to include everybody
16:31in the NXVs, that's the family, start with the camera. There's a number of people that were
16:38there. Probably four riders in the state, four riders in the center, and we were headed over at the CIA.
16:48They're clumsy. They ask a lot of tough questions, personal questions about a man's sex life, about what his mother
16:55is like.
16:57I don't know anything about politics, but I don't care.
17:05Put fear into these people was how Ehrlichman noted the President's instruction.
17:10But the FBI dragged its feet and never identified the leakers for Nixon.
17:15He wanted somebody punished. Somebody had deliberately set about to frustrate his bargaining strategy.
17:23The man Nixon wanted punished was Daniel Ellsberg, who he feared had opened the floodgates.
17:29He was made basically a national hero.
17:33If that idea began to permeate through the bureaucracy, with all the leaks that had already occurred,
17:40and the ones, the proliferation of leaks that were developing now,
17:45I knew that if that idea became more and more prevalent, that it would mean that we would be leaked
17:51to death.
17:52His approach was to try and smear Daniel Ellsberg, to get all kinds of derogatory information about him, and to
17:59leak it.
18:00The President was pounding on us every day, what about Ellsberg, what have they found out, and so on.
18:06Finally, we had to say to him, Hoover won't cooperate.
18:10Nixon, once again blocked by FBI Director Hoover, enlarged his private police force.
18:17Instead of a few ex-cops, he now set up a full-time unit within the White House.
18:22Their first task was to deal with Ellsberg.
18:26The problem was, since we can't put the guy behind bars for what he did,
18:30or nobody thinks that the chances are very good,
18:34what else can be done to at least destroy his image?
18:39Hunt put to Colson a plan for the neutralization of Ellsberg.
18:44Ellsberg had been in psychoanalysis,
18:46and Hunt thought his medical notes could be used to smear him.
18:50So he suggested they obtain Ellsberg's files from his psychiatric analyst.
18:57The way we would have met that challenge, back when I was in the FBI,
19:02was we would have pulled what is called a black bag job,
19:05a surreptricist entry, a covert operation, and simply taken the records.
19:10And Hunt said, well, that's a good idea.
19:12Gordon Liddy formed a double act with Howard Hunt
19:15that President Nixon would come to regret.
19:18But when they set up office in the White House,
19:20they came with high recommendations
19:22and were sent on their way with even higher introductions.
19:26I called General Cushman, who was Deputy Director of the CIA at the time,
19:31and asked him to extend courtesies to Hunt.
19:35I was told by the White House, Mr. Ehrlichman,
19:40that a Mr. Howard Hunt had been hired on as a consultant to the White House,
19:45and that he'd be coming to see me,
19:47and it'd be appreciated if I could give him a hand.
19:49And he needed some papers and disguise to establish an alias.
19:55In order to alter my appearance,
19:57I was provided with a pair of German-manufactured glasses.
20:02You'll see that they appear to have Coke bottle-bottom lenses,
20:06and would give any viewer of someone wearing these
20:09the idea that I was just this side of total blindness.
20:15Liddy flew to California with Howard Hunt
20:17to check out Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.
20:21The CIA provided them with further disguises,
20:24made to measure wigs,
20:26a device to alter Liddy's walk,
20:28and another to distort Hunt's speech.
20:31So there we were, walking about in Los Angeles,
20:36in the heat, sweating under these very well-fitting wigs,
20:40I, stumbling along like a cripple,
20:43Howard Hunt, babbling along like this,
20:46all courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.
20:50Their report to the White House
20:52concluded that they could break into the office,
20:55and the psychiatrist would never know it.
20:57Their boss, Bud Krogh,
20:59passed the recommendation up to John Ehrlichman,
21:01seeking approval for
21:02a covert operation to examine all the medical files
21:06still held by Ellsberg's analyst.
21:10I recall seeing it come back,
21:12we had approve, disapprove.
21:14There was an E for Ehrlichman,
21:17by approve,
21:18and underneath that,
21:20he had written in his own handwriting,
21:22if done, under your assurance,
21:24that it will not be traceable.
21:26And that was our written authority
21:30to go out and conduct that covert operation.
21:35Not traceable meant that others
21:37would have to do the actual break-in.
21:39Howard Hunt knew where to recruit them.
21:43I'd come home one day
21:45from a day at the office and working,
21:48and I'd find a note up on my,
21:52in the glass up on the door,
21:53and I picked it up and looked at it and said,
21:55if you are the same barker I once knew,
22:00meet me in such and such a place,
22:03Eduardo.
22:08It was the 10th anniversary
22:10of the Bay of Pigs invasion,
22:11the CIA's attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.
22:18In Miami, a group of Cuban exiles
22:21were sought out
22:21by their former CIA commander,
22:23Howard Hunt,
22:24codename Eduardo.
22:28When we went to meet Eduardo,
22:31it was not just the fun
22:34or the joy to see a friend.
22:36It was the hope
22:37that he could do something.
22:39And coming in that particular day,
22:43you have to think,
22:44that has to be related to Cuba,
22:47whatever he come here to do.
22:51It was in the hope
22:52of driving out Fidel Castro
22:54that the Cubans accepted the Ellsberg job.
22:57Hunt didn't disabuse them.
23:00He said,
23:02we have this organization
23:03at the White House level,
23:05and the CIA and the FBI
23:07respond to this organization,
23:09which is a national security team.
23:13And this is when he said,
23:14they call us the plumbers
23:16because we are there
23:17to stop the leaks
23:18at the White House.
23:20The operation Ehrlichman
23:22had authorized
23:22was ready to go.
23:24But did the president know
23:26what his White House plumbers
23:27were doing in Los Angeles?
23:29Now we have a situation
23:30where the question is
23:34whether Ehrlichman informed me
23:35that these two men
23:36were going to California.
23:37he may well have.
23:39And if he had,
23:40I would have said,
23:41go right ahead.
23:43What we were engaged upon
23:45was something that had
23:46the full and hearty support
23:48of the executive branch
23:49of the United States government.
23:50You can do no wrong.
23:54Now the men
23:55who were to be key figures
23:56in Watergate
23:56undertook their first illegal operation
23:59for the president.
24:01They planned to get in
24:02through a door
24:02they had unlocked.
24:03But to their surprise,
24:05somebody had locked it again.
24:07I said, look,
24:08behind these bushes
24:10is a window.
24:12Now the window
24:13did have steel bars on it.
24:14And I said, you know,
24:15just wrench those off
24:16with this equipment we had.
24:18They were very powerful men anyway.
24:20And they did.
24:20We were looking all
24:22and searching all over
24:23and we could not find anything
24:25with the name of Ellsberg.
24:27And we took a photograph
24:28of some cabinets
24:30that we broke in
24:31just as a proof
24:32that we were there
24:33and we were doing our job.
24:35That was all.
24:37Back in Washington,
24:38Krogh saw the photographs
24:39and realized
24:40that the Ellsberg operation
24:42was more than he had bargained for.
24:44They had gone in
24:46and basically trashed the office.
24:48That rather than it being
24:50a covert operation,
24:51something that would not be traceable,
24:54it looked to me
24:55as if this had been
24:56a major, major mistake.
24:59It mainlined right back
25:01to the president.
25:04Usually when something goes wrong
25:06out in a department
25:07or an agency,
25:09they assume responsibility
25:10and the White House
25:11stands away from it.
25:14When you have White House people involved,
25:16you can't do that.
25:17The problem here
25:19is we didn't have
25:19close enough control.
25:21And as I would say,
25:23I hope that never in the future
25:24does the president
25:25have to have
25:26another so-called
25:27private police force
25:28of four
25:31doing so much work
25:34in a number
25:35of very important areas
25:36and most of which
25:38was justified.
25:40Despite the fiasco,
25:41no one got the sack.
25:42Indeed, Gordon Liddy,
25:44seen here with Nixon,
25:45was promoted
25:46to an even more
25:46sensitive post.
25:48The Ellsberg affair
25:49became one of the president's
25:50darkest secrets
25:51as he prepared
25:52for the election year.
25:56As the campaign began,
25:58the Democrats
25:59threw themselves
25:59into the primaries.
26:02Ed Muskie
26:02fought it out
26:03with his main rival,
26:04George McGovern,
26:04in the contest
26:05for the Democratic nomination.
26:09Nixon upstaged
26:10the primaries.
26:19He pulled off
26:20the greatest
26:20foreign policy
26:21coup of his presidency
26:22and wiped his
26:23Democratic rivals
26:24off the television screens.
26:27His visit to Beijing,
26:28the first
26:29by an American president,
26:30cracked the ice
26:31of the Cold War.
26:33Nixon always talked
26:34about this being
26:34a historic first,
26:36this being the most
26:36of this,
26:37the best of that.
26:39And the election
26:40was just one more
26:41case where we wanted
26:43a coronation.
26:44We wanted the power
26:46that went with
26:46the biggest landslide
26:47in history.
26:51Back home,
26:52Nixon took the gloves off.
26:54He told his chief
26:55of staff to do
26:56whatever was necessary
26:57to get the dirt
26:58on his opponents.
27:00They called it
27:01political intelligence.
27:03He put his best
27:04men onto it.
27:06I have a copy
27:08of a memo
27:08which was one
27:10of dozens
27:11of such memos
27:12sent to me.
27:12And there's an item
27:14in here that says
27:14the Attorney General
27:15discussed with John Dean
27:16the need to develop
27:17a political intelligence
27:18capability.
27:20John Dean
27:21did in fact
27:23move himself
27:24pretty much
27:25into the
27:25whole area
27:27of political intelligence.
27:28We have a responsibility
27:30to the citizens...
27:31The President's
27:32ambitious young counsel,
27:33John Dean,
27:34now helped to arrange
27:36the most improbable
27:37appointment
27:37of the Nixon presidency.
27:39John Dean said
27:41the best way
27:42I could serve
27:42the President
27:43in 1972,
27:45the campaign year,
27:46would be
27:47to be the
27:49political intelligence
27:50chieftain.
27:53That what he wanted
27:56was a full
27:58political intelligence plan.
28:03Liddy moved
28:04across Pennsylvania
28:05Avenue to the
28:06President's
28:06re-election
28:07headquarters.
28:08His new boss,
28:09Jeb Magruder,
28:10was not prepared
28:11for the phenomenon
28:12that the White House
28:13had sent him.
28:14I have lots
28:15to talk about
28:15with people
28:16over the White House.
28:17Liddy was in the office
28:18and I said something
28:20as an aside
28:23that wouldn't it be good
28:24if we could get rid
28:25of Jack Anderson.
28:27Jack Anderson's column
28:28was a thorn in the side
28:30of the Nixon campaign.
28:32Liddy knew
28:33how to remove it.
28:34Gordon Liddy emerged
28:35from the office.
28:37He brushed by me
28:38and he said,
28:41Jeb just told me
28:42to take care
28:43of Jack Anderson.
28:44He said,
28:45what's that?
28:45I said,
28:46I am to kill
28:47Jack Anderson.
28:47I am on my way
28:48to kill Jack Anderson.
28:50He said,
28:50oh my God.
28:51He took off
28:51like a deer
28:52running down the hall.
28:53I then went
28:53into Magruder's office
28:54and I said,
28:55Jeb,
28:56did you just tell him
28:57to rub out
28:59Jack Anderson?
29:00He came back in
29:01and I said,
29:01Gordon,
29:02I was just talking
29:04off the cuff.
29:04I wasn't serious.
29:05Liddy looked at me
29:06with that stern,
29:07you know,
29:08sort of macho look
29:09and he said,
29:10never give me an order
29:11for a hit job
29:12that you don't mean
29:13because I'll do it.
29:16Liddy was impatient
29:17to get on
29:17with his intelligence operation.
29:20Bypassing Magruder,
29:21he went straight
29:22to the White House
29:22to ask John Dean
29:23just how big
29:25he was supposed to think.
29:26I said,
29:27well,
29:27if you're talking
29:28about an all-out
29:29full offensive
29:30and defensive capability
29:32political intelligence
29:34operation,
29:34you're talking
29:35about one hell
29:36of a lot of money,
29:37first of all.
29:37And he said,
29:38how about half a million
29:39dollars for openers?
29:40And I said,
29:41well,
29:41you're in the ballpark there.
29:46Liddy promptly
29:47produced a million-dollar plan.
29:50He needed the approval
29:51of Attorney General
29:52John Mitchell,
29:53whom Nixon had selected
29:54to run his campaign.
29:56In Mitchell's office
29:57in the Justice Department,
29:59the Temple of Law Enforcement,
30:01Diddy presented his plan,
30:02codenamed Gemstone.
30:05Gordon had with him
30:06these very expensive,
30:08well-done charts.
30:09I think there were
30:10seven of them.
30:10Each had different codenames,
30:13and each one described
30:14some type of activity
30:16that would, in a sense,
30:18harass the Democrats.
30:20Each different kind of operation
30:23was given the name
30:24of a precious jewel.
30:27We had so many operations,
30:28we quickly ran out
30:29of precious jewels.
30:30We went into semi-precious jewels,
30:32and by the time we were finished,
30:33we were down to coal and brick.
30:35He said,
30:35clearly one of the major problems
30:37of this campaign
30:37is going to be
30:38the problem of demonstrations.
30:40And he said,
30:41I think, General,
30:42as he told John Mitchell,
30:43we have a good solution to that.
30:45I have retained the services
30:47of some really tough men.
30:49What I can do
30:50is direct these men
30:51to kidnap campaign leaders,
30:54drug them,
30:55and take them below
30:56the Mexican border
30:57and put them out of commission.
30:58Mr. Mitchell said,
30:59well, where do you get
30:59people like that?
31:00And I said,
31:00it's my understanding
31:01they're from organized crime.
31:03And he said,
31:04well, what is that
31:04going to cost us?
31:05I think for Mitchell,
31:07Dean, and I,
31:07it was rather ludicrous.
31:10I mean, here we were,
31:11in a sense,
31:11sitting in the Attorney General
31:12of the United States office,
31:14and here's Gordon Liddy
31:16talking about
31:17some of the more bizarre plans.
31:18He said,
31:19I have made
31:20some preliminary arrangements
31:22to get a Chinese-motifed houseboat
31:26that I can park
31:28on one of the canals
31:29down near the convention center
31:31in Miami,
31:32and it will have
31:34two-way cameras
31:35in this Chinese-motifed houseboat,
31:38and I'll use prostitutes
31:40to go out
31:40and seduce
31:41into the houseboat
31:43high-campaign officials.
31:45They were to linger about
31:47and attract the attention
31:48of mid-range Democratic staffers
31:51who would try to impress them
31:53with how important they were
31:55by saying,
31:56I'll watch tomorrow,
31:57this is going to happen,
31:58that's going to happen.
31:58We would get all of that.
32:00And I said,
32:00Gordon,
32:01you've got to be kidding.
32:03And he really was very offended
32:04by my interruption,
32:06and taking that offense,
32:07he said,
32:08I want to assure the general
32:09these are the finest girls
32:11from Baltimore.
32:12At the end of Liddy's presentation,
32:14John Mitchell took kind of
32:15a long puff on his pipe
32:17and a little cloud came up
32:18over his head
32:19and sort of sat there
32:21for a minute,
32:21and he said,
32:22Gordon,
32:22he said,
32:23I just don't think
32:23this is quite what we had in mind.
32:25So I said to Gordon,
32:26I said,
32:27why don't you cut out
32:28all this other fluffy stuff
32:31that really isn't
32:32what we're looking for
32:33and concentrate
32:34on the electronic surveillance?
32:37On the issue of bugging,
32:38Nixon's attorney general
32:40had taken a high moral tone,
32:42at least in public.
32:43Mr. Mitchell,
32:44how careful will you be
32:45about invasion of privacy
32:46in the matter of surveillance
32:48and wiretakes?
32:50Well,
32:50since I believe so fully
32:51and wholeheartedly
32:52in the protection
32:53of the privacy
32:54of the individual,
32:55I will make sure
32:57that nothing is done
32:58in this area
32:59of electronic surveillance
33:01that will invade
33:03the privacy
33:04of individuals.
33:05This same Mitchell
33:06sat down a second time
33:08to hear Liddy's revised plan
33:09to bug the Democrats' headquarters.
33:12Before he could finish,
33:14John Dean spoke up.
33:16I just said,
33:17gentlemen,
33:17I just don't think
33:18that the things
33:19that are being discussed here
33:20ought to be discussed
33:21in the office
33:21of the attorney general
33:22of the United States.
33:23Dean ran away,
33:25got in an elevator
33:25and took off.
33:27He did not want me
33:29to start building him
33:31a new ass
33:31the way I did the last time.
33:32But I had Magruder
33:34and I really ripped
33:35into Magruder
33:35saying, you know,
33:35what's going on here?
33:37In desperation,
33:39Liddy turned for help
33:39to Howard Hunt,
33:41his old partner in crime.
33:43Liddy said,
33:44look,
33:44you've got this great friend
33:45and principal
33:47in the White House,
33:48Chuck Colson.
33:48He's got all kinds
33:49of influence.
33:50It's very important
33:51to me that this
33:53gemstone project
33:53go forward
33:54because it's my career,
33:55my career.
33:56Will you introduce
33:57me to Colson?
33:58It was about
33:595.30,
34:006 o'clock one night,
34:01a typically frantic day
34:02in the White House.
34:03My secretary says,
34:04Howard Hunt is here,
34:06has a friend with him.
34:07I'd never met
34:07Gordon Liddy.
34:08I started talking
34:09about our problem
34:10about getting a decision
34:11on the gemstone plant.
34:12Colson did not want
34:13to hear about
34:14the gemstone plant.
34:15He said,
34:15wait a minute,
34:16wait a minute,
34:16I don't want to hear
34:16any of this.
34:17What you need
34:18is a decision,
34:19correct?
34:19Yes.
34:20He said,
34:20fine.
34:21Picked up the phone,
34:22called Magruder.
34:22I said,
34:23Jeb,
34:23these guys are in here,
34:24they can't get a decision,
34:26what are you guys
34:27going to do?
34:28Either give them
34:29a yes or a no,
34:30don't leave them hanging.
34:31What he did
34:32was clearly indicate
34:32to me he wanted,
34:34the president wanted,
34:35he always used
34:36the president,
34:37wanted to get
34:37this thing off the dime,
34:39get it going.
34:40So he wanted me
34:41to make a decision.
34:42There was pressure
34:42from the White House,
34:43from me,
34:44and from the president,
34:46to the committee
34:46to get their campaign
34:47intelligence activity going.
34:50Nixon was most concerned
34:52about one Democrat,
34:53Larry O'Brien,
34:54often his most
34:55effective critic.
34:56I thought this administration
34:58was a law and order
34:59administration.
35:00O'Brien was,
35:02at that time,
35:03the chairman
35:04of the Democratic
35:04National Committee,
35:05the head of the
35:06Democratic Party,
35:07and at the same time
35:08was taking into
35:09his own pocket
35:10a very, very
35:11substantial fee
35:12from Howard Hughes.
35:14The billionaire recluse
35:16Howard Hughes
35:17had for years
35:18been making
35:18clandestine payments
35:19to both political parties.
35:22Nixon was determined
35:23to exploit O'Brien's
35:24link to Hughes
35:25to damage the Democrats.
35:27I first saw it
35:29in the form of a memo
35:30that had been dictated
35:32by the president
35:32on Air Force One
35:34to Haldeman,
35:35saying,
35:35isn't it about time
35:36we make Larry O'Brien
35:38accountable
35:39for his retainer
35:41with Howard Hughes?
35:45Larry O'Brien's office
35:46as chairman
35:47of the Democratic
35:47National Committee
35:48now became
35:50the key target
35:50of the bugging operation.
35:52It was located
35:54in the huge luxury complex
35:55called the Watergate.
35:58What Colson wanted me to do
36:00was to get off the stick,
36:01as he said,
36:02and get Liddy's project
36:04to bug Larry O'Brien's phone
36:07and so on
36:08off the ground
36:09and get it funded.
36:11The decision on Liddy's project
36:13would be taken
36:14in Key Biscayne, Florida.
36:16Campaign manager
36:17John Mitchell
36:18was on holiday there,
36:19but Magruder
36:20could wait no longer.
36:21He interrupted
36:22his boss's Easter break
36:23to get the plan approved.
36:26What happened
36:27at this meeting
36:28has always been
36:29a point
36:29of fierce controversy.
36:32Now, did you approve
36:34the Liddy plan?
36:36At the Key Biscayne?
36:37Yes.
36:38I have never approved
36:39the Liddy plan
36:40as we're discussing it
36:41at any time,
36:42and certainly I didn't
36:43approve it at Key Biscayne.
36:45John Mitchell died
36:46in 1988,
36:47still denying
36:48he had ever approved
36:49the Gemstone plan.
36:51The surviving participants,
36:53however,
36:53tell a different story.
36:55Well, the last item
36:57on the agenda
36:57was the Gemstone file,
36:59and the issue now
37:01was that we either
37:02had to approve it
37:03or it was going
37:04to be too late
37:05for us to do anything,
37:06so Mitchell, LaRue,
37:07and I talked about it.
37:08I asked Jeb,
37:09I said,
37:10what the hell
37:10is this electronic
37:12surveillance business?
37:14He said,
37:14well, that's been
37:15in the mail a long time
37:17and I'm getting
37:17a lot of pressure
37:18to get an answer on it.
37:19The president
37:20wants it done.
37:21Haldeman seems to
37:22think it's very important.
37:24Colson's been on my back.
37:26Mitchell read it,
37:26and he looked at me
37:28and said,
37:28have you read this?
37:29I said, yes.
37:29He said,
37:30what do you think of it?
37:31I said,
37:31John, it's not worth the risk.
37:33To me,
37:34it was a throwaway project.
37:35You know,
37:35give Liddy the quarter
37:36million dollars
37:37and let's get them
37:38off our back
37:38and satisfy the White House,
37:40and Mitchell finally said,
37:42okay, let's go with it
37:44and signed off on the page.
37:45Actually put his initials
37:46as he always did
37:47on the approval box
37:49to go ahead with the project.
37:51I've reflected on this
37:53many times,
37:53and
37:56at the Key Biscayne meeting,
37:58or even after that,
37:59had I gone to Mitchell
38:00and said,
38:01John,
38:03this is crazy.
38:04I mean,
38:04this is a harebrained scheme.
38:06It's not going to do
38:07a damn thing
38:07but get us in trouble.
38:11Let's put a stop to it.
38:13If you have to,
38:13go to the White House
38:14and back them off
38:15the damn thing.
38:17Had I done that
38:18and done it forcefully,
38:20John would have listened to me,
38:21and he would have done that,
38:23and this whole mess
38:24could have been avoided.
38:28It's
38:30one of the real regrets
38:31I have about Watergate.
38:40The president's campaign director
38:43had finally allowed
38:44Liddy's plan to go forward.
38:46But did the White House know?
38:49This program has uncovered
38:50the only existing
38:52written evidence
38:53of the authorization
38:53of the Watergate project.
38:55For 20 years,
38:57it was thought
38:57that all copies
38:58of this memorandum
38:59had been deliberately destroyed
39:01by the aide
39:02who wrote it for Haldeman.
39:05I have here
39:06a talking paper
39:07so-called
39:08for John Mitchell
39:09from Gordon Strawn
39:11to me,
39:11and what this is
39:12is a paper
39:13that Strawn
39:14prepared prior
39:15to my planning
39:16to meet with Mitchell.
39:18This is a truly
39:19amazing document
39:20to surface
39:20at this late date,
39:21and what the document says
39:23is that Gordon Liddy's
39:25intelligence operation
39:26proposal,
39:27300,000,
39:28has been approved,
39:29right there
39:30in big black
39:30and white letters.
39:33If Haldeman
39:34knew about this,
39:35there is no doubt
39:37in my mind
39:37that Richard Nixon
39:38knew about this,
39:39because everything
39:41that Haldeman knew,
39:42he knew for the sake
39:43of Richard Nixon,
39:44and it's just inconceivable
39:46to me
39:46that this type
39:47of information
39:48which Nixon loved
39:49would not be shared
39:51with him.
39:58We knew
39:58that Gordon Liddy
39:59had been
40:00set in
40:01as this
40:02campaign council,
40:04but with the responsibility
40:05for intelligence,
40:06and apparently
40:08he had a budget
40:10approved
40:10and was going
40:11to start moving
40:12on doing
40:12whatever he was
40:13going to do.
40:14I was called in
40:17by Jeb Stuart Magruder
40:18to his office,
40:20and he said,
40:21can you get into
40:22the Watergate office building?
40:24We want you
40:25to wiretap
40:26Larry O'Brien's
40:28telephone,
40:29and put in
40:31a room monitoring device
40:32so that conversations
40:33in there can be held.
40:34Anything that's available,
40:36we want it photographed.
40:38To photograph the documents,
40:40Liddy rehired the Cubans
40:42who had handled
40:42the Ellsberg job.
40:44If anything went wrong,
40:45they could not be traced.
40:47But the man
40:48he chose to bug the phones
40:50mainlined
40:50straight back
40:51to the president.
40:53I took the decision,
40:56a dangerous gamble
40:58and risk,
40:58something I had told
40:59people I wouldn't do,
41:00and I recruited
41:03Mr. James McCord,
41:05who was the security chief
41:07of the committee
41:08to re-elect the president.
41:14The president himself
41:16was 5,000 miles away
41:18in Moscow.
41:20He crowned a year
41:22of foreign policy triumphs
41:23by signing the first
41:25nuclear arms limitation
41:26agreement with the
41:27Soviet leader
41:28Leonid Brezhnev.
41:31On Sunday,
41:32the 28th of May,
41:33he concluded
41:34with a speech
41:35to the Russian people
41:36on television.
41:41That same night,
41:43the security chief
41:44of his re-election committee
41:45with his Cuban colleagues
41:47broke into the water gate.
41:49Once we got in,
41:51we found that
41:51Larry O'Brien's door
41:52was locked
41:54to his office.
41:55It had joined
41:56the reception area there.
41:58And so,
41:59there'd been so much
42:02time gone by
42:03and there'd been,
42:04frankly,
42:05so much noise made
42:06and gaining entry
42:07that we just
42:08didn't really want
42:09to proceed
42:10to jimmy
42:11or break another lock.
42:13Instead,
42:14McCord placed a bug
42:15on the secretary's
42:16switchboard
42:16and a second phone nearby
42:18while the Cubans
42:19got to work
42:19on the documents.
42:21It went all right.
42:23We took pictures
42:24and everything
42:24went just fine.
42:27They set up
42:28a listening post
42:29in the Howard Johnson
42:30Motel opposite.
42:31But the bugs
42:32produced only trivia.
42:34I was distressed
42:35by them.
42:36They had nothing
42:37of value.
42:38I'm getting
42:38hairdressing appointments
42:39and things like that.
42:40I talked to Mitchell
42:41and I showed Mitchell
42:42what was the first fruits
42:45of Liddy's endeavor
42:47and he looked
42:48through it
42:49rather quickly
42:50and agreed with me
42:51that these were worthless.
42:52What they wanted
42:53was specifically,
42:55well,
42:55what's Larry O'Brien
42:56up to
42:56and what's he doing
42:57and what's he saying?
42:58We were going
42:59to have to go back
42:59in again
43:00and put in
43:01more devices
43:02and make sure
43:03that we got
43:04what they were
43:04looking for.
43:05Mr. Magruder said,
43:08listen, Gordon,
43:09this is what I want.
43:11I want what Larry O'Brien
43:12has right here
43:13and he struck
43:14his bottom desk drawer
43:17which is where
43:17we kept what we had
43:19on the Democrats.
43:19I was telling Liddy,
43:20look,
43:21I want the real stuff,
43:22the information
43:23that's important,
43:24not the stuff
43:26that you've gotten
43:27for us.
43:27it has no meaning
43:28whatsoever
43:29to the campaign.
43:30I want everything
43:31photographed.
43:33And I said to myself,
43:34my lord,
43:35what was supposed
43:36to be now
43:36a quick five-minute
43:37in-and-out repair
43:38mission
43:39is a multi-hour
43:41photo recon mission.
43:42When they asked us
43:43to go for the
43:44second operation,
43:45they told me
43:45to get up,
43:46I don't know,
43:47a 50 roll of film.
43:50I multiplied 50
43:52for the 36
43:53and I said,
43:54Jesus Christ,
43:54these people
43:55want a lot of pictures.
43:56Entry night
43:57was to be
43:58Friday night
44:00to June 16th
44:02in anticipation
44:03of which
44:04the Miami team
44:06arrived in Washington
44:07that afternoon.
44:10I was not happy
44:11that day
44:12and I was not
44:13happy before
44:15that day.
44:16I mean,
44:16the operation
44:17went in a way
44:18that was not
44:19showing professionalism.
44:21Besides,
44:22I have a personal
44:22problem.
44:23That day
44:24I got divorced,
44:24you know,
44:25and I was
44:27kind of relieved
44:28and upset
44:29at the same time,
44:30you know.
44:31Everything went wrong.
44:33The judge
44:33that divorced me
44:34died that night,
44:35too.
44:37The Cubans
44:38rendezvoused
44:38with their bosses,
44:39Hunt and Liddy,
44:40in the Watergate Hotel.
44:42Jim McCord
44:43and his assistant
44:44were across the street
44:45in the Howard Johnsons,
44:46waiting until
44:47the coast was clear.
44:49There was a man
44:50working in the back
44:51very, very late.
44:53I mean,
44:54he stayed
44:54and he stayed
44:55and he stayed.
44:56It's a Friday night.
44:57I mean,
44:57this was some
44:57dedicated Democrat.
44:58We thought he'd
44:59never go home.
44:59Finally,
45:00about quarter to one,
45:01the word came
45:01from across the way
45:02at the lookout.
45:03Jim said,
45:05to whoever he was
45:06talking to on the phone,
45:07I think we can make a go.
45:09And with that,
45:09he said,
45:10Al,
45:12you're going to remain here.
45:13And he walked over
45:14to the bed
45:15and he took a micro,
45:16I mean,
45:16a walkie-talkie.
45:18He said,
45:18I want you to use this.
45:20It was decided
45:21by Hunt
45:22and Liddy
45:24that
45:27McCord,
45:27who had access
45:29to the building,
45:30would go into
45:31the Watergate building
45:33and go down there
45:34and open the thing
45:36from the inside
45:37and put in tapes
45:38in the door.
45:42McCord collected his men
45:44and tried to go back in.
45:46We came to the back door
45:47and tried the handle
45:48and the door was latched.
45:52Someone obviously
45:53had taken and removed the tape,
45:55taken it off
45:55in that brief period of time.
45:57Had the police been alerted,
45:59McCord's bosses
46:00had to make a snap judgment.
46:02And I said,
46:03let's scratch this.
46:05And Liddy said,
46:06no,
46:07this is McCord's,
46:09this is McCord's show.
46:11He's got to go through
46:12with it.
46:12And it's his fault
46:13that we're here.
46:14And besides,
46:15it's very important
46:16to my career
46:16that we do this.
46:17You know,
46:18I felt like refusing.
46:20Saying,
46:20no.
46:21This is far enough.
46:23But then I figured,
46:24you know,
46:25I was older,
46:25I'm getting older,
46:26I wasn't a young kid anymore.
46:27And my personal feeling
46:31was these people
46:31don't think I'm scared,
46:32you know.
46:34McCord put the telltale tape
46:36back on the doors.
46:37And this time,
46:38the break-in team
46:39made it into
46:40the Democratic Party offices.
46:42We were in contact
46:45by transceiver
46:46with our men
46:48inside the Watergate
46:49and also with the lookout,
46:52Mr. Baldwin,
46:53across the street.
46:54Now the reception area
46:56to the Democratic
46:58headquarters lights up
47:00the actual reception room,
47:03which I can see
47:03directly across
47:04from where I'm standing.
47:06And I know
47:06three individuals
47:07come into the reception area.
47:10Base to Unit 1.
47:13Are any of our guys
47:14dressed casually
47:15or are they in suits?
47:171 to 3.
47:18Negative.
47:18All our people
47:19are in business suits.
47:20Why?
47:21Well, we've got a problem.
47:24Shit.
47:251 to 2.
47:26Are you reading this?
47:26Come in.
47:29Three plainclothes policemen
47:30discovered the break-in team
47:32crouched under some desks
47:33and ordered them
47:34to come out
47:34with their hands up.
47:36Out comes a fellow,
47:37a middle-aged man,
47:38one of the Miami men
47:39dressed in a suit.
47:41They were more nervous
47:42than we were
47:43when they found us there.
47:44I mean,
47:45we were dressed up
47:46and we were another
47:47common burglar.
47:48Here comes a second man
47:50out from behind
47:51the second desk
47:52and he's dressed in a suit
47:53and he doesn't look
47:54like a burglar either.
47:56They come in waving guns
47:57and so forth.
47:58This is the police.
47:59What are you guys doing here?
48:01They were wired.
48:02They were hyper.
48:04They just,
48:05it didn't all add up.
48:06It didn't compute with them
48:07what was going on
48:09and who they had
48:10except they knew
48:10we didn't belong there.
48:13The break-in was over
48:14but for President Nixon,
48:17Watergate had barely begun.
48:51The break-in was over
49:10and he was dressed up
49:12The break-in was over
49:12and the other one
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