Our Nixon Page #5

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Democratic spokesmen

called the file

information very mundane.

Here and in the men's rooms in

the adjoining hotel, police

confiscated expensive

photographic and electronic

eavesdropping gear, as well as

several thousand dollars in

consecutively numbered bills.

-Apparently about five men,

one of them clearly under

contract and employed by both

the Republican National

Committee and the campaign to

re-elect the president.

Uh, this, I thought, this

administration was a law and

order administration.

And I've never seen such a crass

violation of individual

rights as, uh, we have seen

in this instance.

-I must say that it's the, uh,

legacy of years of wire

tapping, and snooping, and

violation of privacy in which

the government, itself, has

been too deeply involved.

[crowd cheering]

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

Well, I--

I, again, proudly accept your

nomination for President of

the United States.

[crowd cheering]

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]: And

let us pledge ourselves to win

an even greater victory this

November, in 1972.

[crowd cheering]

-Four more years.

Four more years.

Four more years.

Four more years.

[MUSIC - MIKE CURB CONGREGATION,

"NIXON NOW"]

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]:

President Nixon's victory in

the election is surely one of

the biggest landslides ever.

Let's look at the popular

vote now, with

almost all of it counting.

With 98% of the precincts

reporting, it's Nixon--

45,800,000.

McGovern--

28,400,000.

This adds up to a record

breaking 521 electoral votes

for President Nixon,

who won 49 states.

McGovern carried only

Massachusetts and the District

of Columbia, for 17

electoral votes.

-At first it was called

the Watergate Caper.

Five men, apparently caught in

the act of burglarizing and

bugging Democratic Headquarters

in Washington.

But the episode grew steadily

more sinister.

No longer a caper but the

Watergate Affair, escalating

finally into charges of a high

level campaign of political

sabotage and espionage

apparently unparalleled in

American history.

The charges center about

a man whose very name

in Italian is secrets.

[inaudible]

reports.

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]:

Donald Segretti.

Reports in major newspapers

say White House aides

recruited Segretti for secret

intelligence work and dirty

tricks against the Democrats.

Segretti went to college

with several men now

in the White House.

He was particularly close with

Dwight Chapin, and several

press reports document

recent links

between Chapin and Segretti.

A grand jury is investigating.

WARREN BURGER [OFFSCREEN]:

I, Richard

Nixon, do solemnly swear--

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

I, Richard

Nixon, do solemnly swear--

WARREN BURGER [OFFSCREEN]:

--that I will faithfully

execute the office of President

of the United States--

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

--that I will faithfully

execute the office of President

of the United States--

WARREN BURGER [OFFSCREEN]:

--and will, to

the best of my ability--

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

--and will, to

the best of my ability--

WARREN BURGER [OFFSCREEN]:

--preserve, protect, and

defend the Constitution

of the United States.

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

--preserve, and protect, and

defend the Constitution

of the United States.

-So help me, God.

-So help me, God.

[music - "hail to the chief"]

DWIGHT CHAPIN [OFFSCREEN]: Phone

rings, it's John Dean.

And he said, have you given

any thought to what you're

going to do next?

And I said, John, what

in the world are you

trying to tell me?

And he said, well, I think you

need to figure out what, what

you're going to do next.

And I said, does

Bob know this?

And he said, Bob asked

me to talk to you.

I could not believe it.

So the next day I flew

up to Camp David.

And Bob met me, and we went over

to one of the cabins, and

talked, and we were

both crying.

And he said that it looked

like I was going to be a

political problem to the

president because of all the

Segretti stuff, and

this guy Sam Ervin

may hold some hearings.

And, therefore, it's probably

better, for your career and

everything else,

if you move on.

I mean, it was just horrible.

I, I, I-- there's nothing that

can describe how I felt.

So I sucked it up.

Said, yes, sir.

Went into the men's room

to get myself kind of

straightened up, and there is

the Attorney General of the

United States, Richard

Kleindienst,

bawling like a baby.

He had just met with

Ehrlichman.

I'm thinking to myself,

this thing's surreal.

I mean, I can't believe this.

So I went back, got on the

helicopter, and started

figuring out my life.

-Leon Jaworski said, "if the

American people had not

demanded action in the Watergate

scandal, it might

have grown into outrages as

great as those in Nazi

Germany."

-Well, here again, you're,

you're into this, this verbal

excess thing that it, it just

seems to me is, is, uh, uh,

easy to do after the fact.

-Question.

What was the mentality--

what was the mindset

in the Nixon White

House that led to Watergate?

-Watergate didn't

lead from the--

didn't come from the Nixon White

House, and I don't think

there was any mindset that

led to Watergate.

-Well, you--

the president is

out of office.

Men in the Nixon White

House went to jail.

What was the mindset--

what, what happened--

-That's the problem.

I--

I don't know what happened.

-The burglary had nothing to do

with Richard Nixon at the

time that it occurred.

If he had kept distance

between himself

and that whole episode--

he didn't know about that in

advance, I'm persuaded.

I've never heard anybody

come forward with any

evidence that he did.

If he had kept distance between

himself and that

episode, and just said, you

know, those guys did it,

they're going to have to

take their punishment.

That is what could have saved

Richard Nixon, I'm persuaded.

A little, little

quick surgery.

But he was the compulsive

minutia man.

He had to get involved.

He had to-- he had to dabble in

this, in this, uh, um, uh,

conspiratorial, um,

uh, spy stuff.

And he pulled it all

into his office.

-What's the dumbest

thing you did?

-The dumbest thing I did was,

was not to go to him when I

realized this, and say, look, if

you don't go out there and

make a clean breast of this

thing, I'm going out to the

press room, and I'm going to

tell them everything I know

about this.

And then I'm going to

walk out of here.

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]: Do

you think you'd have the

courage to do that?

-Well, obviously, I didn't.

I just was, I was not playing

with a full deck.

I just didn't know,

at the time, one--

that there were tapes.

Two-- that he was as deeply

involved as he was.

[rewinding tape]

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]:

Ladies and gentlemen,

President Nixon has requested

time on the networks this

evening for a report

on Vietnam.

-Good evening.

I have asked for this radio and

television time tonight

for the purpose of announcing

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