Our Nixon Page #6

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that we, today, have concluded

an agreement to end the war and

bring peace with honor in

Vietnam and in Southeast Asia.

The following statement is being

issued at this moment in

Washington and Hanoi.

At 12:
30 Paris time today,

January 23, 1973, the

agreement on ending the war and

restoring peace in Vietnam

was initialled by Dr. Henry

Kissinger on behalf of the

United States and special

adviser Le Duc Tho on behalf

of the Democratic Republic

of Vietnam.

Let us consecrate this moment by

resolving together to make

the peace we have achieved

a peace that will last.

Thank you, and good evening.

-Senate Democrats have chosen

North Carolina's Sam Ervin to

investigate the Watergate

bugging case.

The committee would have full

subpoena power and a half

million dollar budget.

-When it was learned today that

some of the Watergate

conspirators had been involved

in illegal actions relating to

the Pentagon Papers case, the

whole affair took on a new,

and more sinister, air.

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]: Two

of the convicted Watergate

conspirators, Howard Hunt and

Gordon Liddy, burglarized the

offices of a psychiatrist of

defendant Daniel Ellsberg to

get files on Ellsberg.

-The message of Watergate, as I

read it, is the same as the

message of the Pentagon

Papers.

That from the eyes of people

who work for the president,

all law stops at the

White House fence.

-The entire political system,

uh, the entire standard of

politics, uh, in the country has

reached an all time low.

-The president, and his

cabinet, and his

administration owe this country

an explanation, first

of all, and, secondly,

an apology.

-I don't respect the type of

journalism, the shabby

journalism that is being

practiced by "The Washington

Post."

-Informed sources say it was the

Watergate prosecution that

set off the recent series of

explosions, and that there are

further time bombs in President

Nixon's hands.

JOHN EHRLICHMAN [OFFSCREEN]:

We're in, uh, late April of

1973, and I'm really getting

beat up in the press.

Uh, we're going to make it.

Yeah, let me get up here to

the door, and then I'll--

OK.

Excuse me.

There we are.

I'm going to, uh, be following

the unvarying practice of

having no comment on this

matter until its final

disposition.

I have delegations of FBI agents

in and out of my office

all the time.

And all of a sudden it has

dawned on me that I have a

very serious problem, that

Richard Nixon has a very

serious problem, that Haldeman

and a lot of other people have

serious problems.

-The president flew south to

look at flood damage, and

dedicate a Naval training

station in Mississippi to

Senator John Stennis.

In the presidential party were

HR Haldeman and John

Ehrlichman.

JOHN EHRLICHMAN [OFFSCREEN]:

We're on Air Force One.

We were going off to, uh,

dedicate a John Stennis

memorial rocket launcher or

something in Mississippi.

And I'm standing on the flight

deck, and it occurred to me

for about 30 seconds that I

could crash this airplane, and

that would put an end to

everybody's problems--

mine, and Nixon's, and

Haldeman's, and everybody,

everybody who was aboard.

I stepped off that airplane,

and usually the drill is

Richard Nixon steps off the

airplane and all the cameras

click away, and all that.

He got off-- nobody paid

any attention to him.

I got off, and then, boy, you

know, they were all taking,

uh, mugshots.

The very last conversation I

had with him there, we were

talking about this break-in in

California, the Ellsberg

psychiatrist break-in.

And he said, I didn't know

about that, did I?

And I had to, I had to indicate

to him that he did

know about it.

JOHN EHRLICHMAN [OFFSCREEN]:

Now, I didn't know there was a

taping system in the

room at the time.

Uh, since then it's occurred to

me that he, he was talking

for the record, among

other things.

But, at the same time, I--

I'm convinced he really didn't

know the difference between

what was true and what wasn't

true at any given moment for a

long time [inaudible].

And he could, he could persuade

himself of almost anything--

which is kind of too bad.

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

Hello?

RICHARD NIXON [OFFSCREEN]:

Yeah.

FEMALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]:

Thank you.

There you are.

WALTER CONKRITE [OFFSCREEN]:

Good evening.

President Nixon moved at the

highest level today to cleanse

the White House of the taint

of the Watergate scandal.

-The president has asked me to

announce that he has today

received and accepted the

resignation of two of his

closest friends, and most

trusted assistants, in the

White House.

-In their statements of

resignation, Haldeman and

Ehrlichman blamed many of their

problems on the press.

Whether the president plans to

incorporate any such statement

in his nationwide address

tonight is unknown.

-Today, in one of the most

difficult decisions 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 it has been my

privilege to know.

I want to stress that, in

accepting these resignations,

I mean to leave no implication

whatever of personal

wrongdoing on their part.

And I leave no implication

tonight of implication on the

part of others who have been

charged in this matter.

God bless America, and

God bless each and

every one of you.

-Dwight Chapin, President

Nixon's former appointment

secretary, today was found

guilty of lying to the

Watergate grand jury

investigating political

sabotage during the 1972

presidential campaign.

-I will never, ever, under any

circumstance, have a regret

for any contribution, or any

hardships, or anything else,

that have come out of the work

that I have done, uh, with

Richard Nixon.

I loved what I did, and it

was very important to me.

And, and I think these

friendships just, you know,

are golden, and they

still exist.

-John Ehrlichman, President

Nixon's domestic affairs

adviser, is behind bars tonight,

the highest ranking

former Nixon aide to go

to prison so far.

-For myself, I went through

a process of being just

absolutely stripped bare.

I woke up one day realizing that

there was nothing left.

There just really

wasn't anything.

And it occurred to me that there

might be an opportunity

in all of that to do it over

again simpler and better.

FEMALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]: HR

"Bob" Haldeman, convicted for

his part in the Watergate

scandal, is here to see his

daughter graduate

from law school.

On Wednesday, Haldeman reports

to the federal prison in

Lompoc, California, to begin

serving a two and a half to

eight year sentence.

-I've spent five years in a

legal defense against, uh,

first of all an investigation,

and then a, a

charge, then a trial--

MALE SPEAKER [OFFSCREEN]:

Yeah.

---and then a year and

a half in prison.

All of that time, had to

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