Tricky Dick

Interview from 1977 (after the Watergate Scandal)FROST: So what you are saying. . . the president can decide that it's in the best

interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON:Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST:By definition.

NIXON:Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

FROST:So, that in other words. . . the dividing line [between right and wrong] is that in fact, the dividing line [of] the president's judgment?

NIXON: Yes

It has often been said that in the United States we have the rule of law, not men. What do you think this means?

Does President Nixon's statement that "when the president does it [something illegal], that means that it is not illegal" support the idea that the United States has the rule of law, not men? Why or why not?

AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY• EXECUTIVE = MOST

POWERFUL BRANCH OF U.S. GOV’T DUE TO: GREAT DEPRESSION WWII COLD WAR

• NIXON WANTED TO MAKE EXEC. BRANCH EVEN MORE POWERFUL . . . TO MAKE THE PRESIDENT LIKE AN “EMPEROR”

• CAUSED TENSION WITH CONGRESS

AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY• REFUSED TO SPEND $ FOR

PROGRAMS HE OPPOSED

• INVADED CAMBODIA WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL

• KEPT AN “ENEMIES LIST”:– USED THE FBI AND IRS TO HARASS

POLITICAL OPPONENTS

• NIXON’S PERSONALITY WAS:– SHY– INSECURE– ALOOF– SECRETIVE– PARANOID– VINDICTIVE

All the President’s Men• RELIED ON A SMALL

GROUP OF LOYAL ADVISORS:– H.R. HALDEMAN

(WHITE HOUSE- CHIEF OF STAFF)

– JOHN EHRLICHMAN (DOMESTIC ADVISOR)

– JOHN MITCHELL (ATTORNEY GENERAL)

• BELIEVED THEY WERE ABOVE THE LAW

THE PENTAGON PAPERS• Internal Govn’t investigation

finding released to newspapers- Among other things, papers showed:

• LBJ began planning to wage overt war in 1964, a full year before the depth of U.S. involvement was publicly revealed

• Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam in 1965 despite the judgment of the U.S. intelligence community that it would not cause the North Vietnamese to cease their support of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

THE PENTAGON PAPERS• SHOWED THE GOV’T LIED

ABOUT VIETNAM• PUBLISHED IN THE NYT• OBTAINED FROM DANIEL

ELLSBERG (FORMER DEPT. OF DEFENSE EMPLOYEE)

• NIXON ADMINISTRATION ASKS SUPREME COURT TO BLOCK PUBLICATION

• COURT UPHOLDS NYT’s FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The “Plumbers”• “PLUMBERS” = TEAM OF WHITE

HOUSE INVESTIGATORS CREATED TO: PREVENT GOV’T SECRETS FROM

LEAKING TO THE PRESS HELP ENSURE NIXON’S 1972 RE-

ELECTION

• BURGLARIZED OFFICE OF ELLSBERG’S PSYCHIATRIST TO GET DAMAGING EVIDENCE TO DISCREDIT HIM

A BUNGLED BURGLARY• WATERGATE HOTEL,

WASH. D.C., JUNE 17, 1972

• “PLUMBERS” CAUGHT BREAKING INTO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE HQ

• PLANNED TO PHOTOGRAPH DOCUMENTS AND WIRETAP PHONES

A BUNGLED BURGLARY

• TIES TO WHITE HOUSE: JAMES McCORD, LEAD

“PLUMBER”, WAS A FORMER CIA AGENT

ALSO WORKED FOR THE COMMITTEE TO REELECT THE PRESIDENT OR “CREEP”

PAPERS FOUND ON BURGLARS LED BACK TO WHITE HOUSE STAFF MEMBER

A BUNGLED BURGLARY• A COVER-UP OF THE WHITE

HOUSE CONNECTION BEGAN: WORKERS SHREDDED

DOCUMENTS NIXON URGED THE FBI TO

STOP INVESTIGATING THE BREAK-IN (WOULD HARM NATIONAL SECURITY)

“CREEP” PAID “HUSH” $ TO THE WATERGATE BURGLARS

WOODWARD & BERNSTEIN

AT THE WASHINGTON POST NEWSPAPER: YOUNG REPORTERS BOB WOODWARD AND

CARL BERNSTEIN CONTINUED TO INVESTIGATE

LINKED NIXON ADMINISTRATION TO THE BREAK-IN

HELPED BY FBI INFORMANT CODE NAMED “DEEP THROAT”

A SERIES OF ARTICLES BECAME THE BOOK ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

BERNSTEIN & WOODWARD

THE ELECTION OF 1972

THE ELECTION OF 1972• DEMOCRATS RAN

GEORGE MCGOVERN: ANTIWAR CANDIDATE

• NIXON CAMPAIGN: CLAIMED HIS POLICIES

WERE BRINGING PEACE TO VIETNAM

SAID McGOVERN WAS IN FAVOR OF “ACID, AMNESTY AND ABORTION”

• NIXON WINS IN A LANDSLIDE: 520 TO 17 IN ELECTORAL

COLLEGE 60.7% TO 37.5% IN POPULAR

VOTE

THE COVER-UP UNRAVELS• DURING THE TRIAL OF THE

“PLUMBERS”, McCORD ADMITS HE LIED UNDER OATH

• McCORD NAMES JOHN DEAN (LEGAL COUNSEL TO NIXON) AND MITCHELL AS BEING INVOLVED

• RESIGNATIONS AND FIRINGS: DEAN, HALDEMAN, & EHRLICHMAN

• NIXON CLAIMS HE DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE BREAK-IN

• NIXON APPOINTS A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE (ARCHIBALD COX)

THE COVER-UP UNRAVELS• THE SENATE SETS UP

ITS OWN INVESTIGATION

• WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS “EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE”: CONGRESS CAN ONLY

QUESTION PAST OR PRESENT EMPLOYEES WITH NIXON’S APPROVAL

VIOLATION OF “CHECKS AND BALANCES”

STARTLING TESTIMONY• DEAN REVEALS NIXON

INVOLVED IN COVER-UP

• DENIED BY NIXON

• ALEXANDER BUTTERFIELD REVEALED THAT NIXON TAPED VIRTUALLY ALL WHITE HOUSE CONVERSATIONS!!!

• BOTH THE SENATE AND PROSECUTOR COX DEMAND TO HEAR THE TAPES!

BATTLE OVER THE TAPES• SATURDAY NIGHT MASSACRE:

COX TAKES NIXON TO COURT FOR THE TAPES

NIXON FIRES COX (PROSECUTOR THAT NIXON HIMSELF APPOINTED)

COX IS REPLACED BY LEON JAWORSKI

JAWORSKI IS ALSO DETERMINED TO GET THE TAPES

• MEANWHILE . . . VICE PRESIDENT SPIRO AGNEW RESIGNS: TAX EVASION, EXTORTION, BRIBERY

WHILE GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND GERALD FORD BECOMES NEW VICE

PRESIDENT

• Above photo shows the location of the oval office and the Nixon hide out office where he bugged himself and the residence where he sat in the Lincoln bedroom and listened to the tapes.

NIXON RELEASES THE TAPES• 7 PRESIDENTIAL AIDES ARE

INDICTED FOR PERJURY AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

• NIXON OFFERS TO RELEASE WRITTEN SUMMARIES OF TAPES

• INVESTIGATORS DEMAND ORIGINAL TAPES

• NIXON REFUSES, CLAIMING “NATIONAL SECURITY”

• COURTS DISAGREE WITH NIXON

• NIXON TELLS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC : “I AM NOT A CROOK.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M

NIXON RELEASES THE TAPES• HOUSE JUDICIARY

COMMITTEE APPROVES IMPEACHMENT ON THREE CHARGES: OBSTRUCTION OF

JUSTICE ABUSE OF POWER CONTEMPT OF

CONGRESS (TAPE REFUSAL!)

• NIXON TURNS OVER THE TAPES: SOME TAPES “MISSING” ONE TAPE HAS AN 18

AND ½ MINUTE “GAP”

• The 18 And 1/2 Minute GapOn the first tape requested from Nixon's secret taping system

• The 18 and 1/2 minute gap in the Nixon tapes occurs on tape 342, a meeting on June 20th, 1972 between H.R. Haldeman and President Nixon in the Executive Office Building. This is just three days after the Watergate break-in.

• The White House claims the gaps was made accidentally by Rose Marry Woods when she answered the telephone during a period of time she was typing transcripts of the tape. It was later determined that the eraser was made by hitting the erase button nine times.

NIXON RELEASES THE TAPES• NIXON MAKES MORE TAPES PUBLIC THAT

SHOW: SIX DAYS AFTER THE BREAK-IN NIXON KNEW ABOUT THE

BREAK-IN AND AGREED TO HELP COVER IT UP HAD LIED TO CONGRESS, THE PEOPLE, AND EVEN HIS OWN

LAWYER!

• THE EVIDENCE WAS OVERWHELMING• THE HOUSE OF REPS. MOVED TO IMPEACH

NIXON

THE EFFECTS OF WATERGATE

• BEFORE THE IMPEACHMENT VOTE BEGAN NIXON RESIGNED (AUGUST 9, 1974): ADMITTED NO GUILT ONLY “ERRORS OF JUDGMENT”

• 25 MEMBERS OF THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION SERVED PRISON TERMS RELATED TO WATERGATE

• DEEP DISILLUSIONMENT: PUBLIC AND PRESS REMAIN CYNICAL

TOWARDS POLITICIANS AND GOV’T

FORD PARDONS NIXON• BLANKET PARDON:

NO INDICTMENT “OUR LONG NATIONAL

NIGHTMARE IS OVER”• PUBLIC REACTION:

ANGER – SEEMED LIKE FAVORITISM

SUBORDINATES IN PRISON BUT NIXON PARDONED

FURTHER DISILLUSIONMENT & DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT

FORD DEFEATED IN THE ’76 ELECTION