The Watergate Scandal in United States History (8 page)

Nixon knew that he would have to yield the tapes. They produced another problem. Two of the subpoenaed tapes did not exist. The June 20, 1972, telephone conversation with John Mitchell took place from the residential section of the White House. That part of the building lacked a recorder. The April 15 conversation with John Dean was not recorded either, because the machine had run out of tape.

But Nixon said he had notes of that meeting. He suggested to advisors J. Fred Buzhardt and Leonard Garment that he create a tape of the conversation and submit it to the grand jury. They were taken aback by the idea. How could the president, himself a lawyer, even think of creating false evidence?
²

Another surprise awaited Judge Sirica. The key June 20, 1972, tape had several minutes of conversation missing. Former advisor H. R. Haldeman’s notes verified that this “gap” covered a conversation about Watergate between Haldeman and Nixon.

Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods said she had erased part of the tape. She was transcribing the tape when the telephone rang. She said she reached back for the phone while accidentally pressing the “record” instead of the “stop” button and keeping her foot on a pedal. Woods claimed she held the position for about five minutes. The White House released a photograph of the secretary in the position she described. An acrobat, much less a secretary, could not have held that pose for five minutes. The loyal Woods did little with her testimony except humiliate herself. Besides, Woods said she erased only five minutes of tape. In all, eighteen and a half minutes were missing.

What caused the gap? Chief of Staff Alexander Haig hinted at “sinister forces.”
³
Sirica believed the forces were human ones. A panel of recording experts appointed by the judge concluded that several different erasures had caused the gap.

Who erased the tapes? Haldeman guessed that Nixon himself might have done it. Whether he erased the tapes or not, Nixon recognized the consequences of the altered tape. “Most people think my inability to explain the eighteen and a half minute gap is the most unbelievable and insulting part of the whole of Watergate,” he commented in his memoirs.
⁴

Nixon’s crises mounted in November. A newspaper reported that he earned more than $200,000 in 1970 but paid only $793 in taxes. He made a similar amount of money in 1972 but paid only $4,300. The president discussed his finances in a television address on November 17. “I’ve never profited from public service,” he claimed. “People have the right to know whether their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.”
⁵

Crooked or not, many of Nixon’s tax deductions were against the law. In April 1974 the Joint Congressional Committee on Taxation reviewed Nixon’s tax records. The committee ruled that several of his deductions, including those for his vice-presidential papers, were illegal. Nixon agreed to pay $476,431 in back taxes.

Operation Candor

Richard Nixon still had allies. His family, especially his daughter Julie, openly backed him. Friends Bebe Rebozo and Robert Abplanalp remained loyal. A Providence, Rhode Island, rabbi named Baruch Korff took out a full-page ad in
The New York Times
defending the president. Alexander Haig and Press Secretary Ron Ziegler were constant advisors.

Nixon also had some allies in Congress, though not many. In late 1973 he invited Republicans and Southern Democrats to discuss Watergate with him. Nixon called these discussions Operation Candor.

The operation was not entirely successful. Some Republicans and even a few Democrats remained solidly behind him, but many Republicans resented that Nixon had done little to help their campaigns in 1972. They owed him nothing. Some were not willing to support Nixon unless he turned over the requested tapes. Several Republicans secretly hoped Nixon would resign. They feared the Nixon scandals might mean a disaster for their party in the 1974 elections.

Richard Nixon addressed Congress in late January 1974. During the annual State of the Union Address, he declared, “One year of Watergate is enough!”
⁶
Booing Democrats obviously did not agree.

Those boos meant little. Nixon would have liked their support, but he did not need it to stay in office. If all Democrats voted against him, he would be impeached. However, he could survive if fewer than two thirds of the senators voted to convict. He felt confident that he had the thirty-four Senate votes needed. Besides, most Americans polled still opposed impeachment. They wanted the “smoking pistol,” evidence that proved beyond any doubt that Richard Nixon was guilty. The representatives would surely watch the poll results.

“What Did the President Know . . . ?”

The beginning of 1974 was no better for Richard Nixon than the end of 1973. His legal counsel, Charles Alan Wright, resigned in January. Wright was angry at not being allowed to listen to the tapes. Nixon named a Boston attorney, James St. Clair, to lead his legal team.

Nixon’s poll ratings collapsed every month. As late as April 15, 1973, he had enjoyed a 60 percent favorable rating in the Gallup Poll. That rating tumbled to 31 percent in August, during the Senate Watergate hearings. By late January it was 23 percent, an all-time low for a president.

Demands kept pouring in for the tapes and other evidence. New Special Prosecutor Jaworski sought more than twenty tapes in early January. When Nixon refused, Jaworski warned that not turning over the tapes might be an impeachable offense. Jaworski requested sixty-four additional tapes on April 16. Judge Sirica issued a subpoena two days later.

The Senate Watergate Committee concluded its testimony in late 1973. Now it wanted nearly five hundred documents. Nixon said no. Once again, the president claimed that turning over the material would destroy the confidentiality of his conversations. Senator Howard Baker’s frequently asked question—what did the president know, and when did he know it?—would remain unanswered for now.

When the Watergate grand jury asked Nixon to testify, lawyer St. Clair sought a compromise. Would the grand jury accept answers in writing? No, it would not, the jury responded. In that case, the president declined to appear.

Former advisor John Ehrlichman also sought Nixon’s testimony. He claimed that he was following Nixon’s orders when he arranged the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office. Nixon’s attorneys advised that Nixon “respectfully decline to appear.”
⁷

The House Judiciary Committee also sought information. Committee members voted to grant Chairman Peter Rodino subpoena power. The House of Representatives later gave Rodino the power by a 410–4 vote. Rodino immediately subpoenaed tapes and other documents.

“Unindicted Co-conspirator”

On March 1, the Watergate grand jury handed down indictments against seven former Nixon administration officials. Former Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, former Domestic Affairs Advisor John Ehrlichman, former United States Attorney General and CRP Director John Mitchell, former Special Counsel Charles Colson, former Haldeman aide Gordon Strachan, former Assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, and CRP attorney Kenneth Parkinson all faced criminal charges. These charges included conspiracy with other persons “known and unknown” to obstruct justice, to arrange hush money for Watergate burglars, to offer executive clemency, and to destroy documents.
⁸
“There had never been such wholesale criminal proceedings against the top men in the administration of an American president,” Sirica noted.
⁹

Nixon avoided indictment. His lawyers questioned whether he, as president, could be indicted. Any trial of political figures would be difficult enough without including this constitutional issue.

However, Watergate prosecutors did not want to pretend that Nixon might not have been involved in illegal activities. They also wanted to assure that evidence of his taped conversations could be used in criminal trials on the case. Richard Nixon was named an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
¹⁰
He was not charged with any crime, but was considered to be involved in Watergate-related activities. The grand jury, however, did not announce Nixon’s status.

“Expletive Deleted”

Both Judge Sirica and Judiciary Chairman Rodino stepped up their demands for Nixon’s tapes. The tapes put Nixon in a dilemma. If he held onto them, impeachment was almost certain. Release them (particularly the June 23 tape) and conviction was likely. Nixon sought another alternative.

Nixon hastily edited manuscripts of the tapes. He removed material that he considered irrelevant, including words he considered obscene. He would release these materials instead of the requested tapes.

Haig met with Jaworski on April 28. He showed the special prosecutor a fifty-page statement Nixon planned to issue the following evening. Jaworski was not satisfied with this proposal.

Nevertheless, Nixon went on television on April 29. Behind him were blue bound books that looked like a set of encyclopedias. The 1,308-page document was titled
Submission of Recorded Presidential Conversations to the Committee of the Judiciary of the House of Representatives by Richard Nixon.
The president said the material “will tell it all.”
¹¹

It told a lot. Americans did not like what they heard or read. Pages were peppered with foul words, noted as “expletive deleted.” The transcripts showed Richard Nixon as a rude, mean man who had little or no regard for other people. He referred to former FBI Director L. Patrick Gray as “that dumb dumb Gray.” Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist was part of “that group of clowns we have around here.” Jeb Stuart Magruder, who lied in court to defend the president, was called “a rather weak man . . . sort of a light weight in a very heavy job.”
¹²

Parts of key conversations disappeared. They were replaced by “inaudible” or “unintelligible.” Observers noted that the recording device worked perfectly for trivial conversations. Yet, as Professor William B. Todd observed, there were 367 “inaudible” remarks in one short conversation.
¹³

Nixon’s compromise attempt failed. Two days after his address, the House Judiciary Committee ruled that he had failed to comply with its subpoena. Once again, the president cited executive privilege. He refused to hand over the actual tapes.

The
Chicago Tribune
supported Nixon for president three times. It had a reputation as a “Republican” newspaper. Even the
Tribune
had had enough. The paper called for Nixon’s impeachment. An editorial commented, “We have seen the private man and we are appalled.”
¹⁴

“Are You Running for Something?”

Richard Nixon’s other defenses were not working. Prosecutors and the House Judiciary Committee did not accept executive privilege. Neither the courts nor Congress considered Nixon’s manuscripts adequate. Richard Nixon would take his case to the American people. He would show he was a useful and necessary president.

Nixon went anywhere and everywhere to raise himself in public opinion. He once showed up at Nashville, Tennessee’s Grand Ole Opry Park. Surprised Oprygoers watched their chief executive crack jokes, play the piano, and swing a yo-yo.

He addressed the National Association of Broadcasters in Houston. Reporter Dan Rather tried to get his attention. Then Nixon asked Rather, “Are you running for something?” Rather replied, “No, sir, Mr. President, are you?”
¹⁵

Gerald Ford gave up his seat in Congress when he became vice president. Voters in his Michigan district chose his successor in April. Nixon traveled throughout the district. Despite (or perhaps because of) Nixon’s campaigning, the Republican candidate lost the seat.

French President Georges Pompidou died in April 1974. Nixon attended the Paris funeral. Without giving notice, he left his limousine to shake people’s hands, as if he were a politician running for office.

Nixon considered the Middle East the site of a diplomatic triumph. He went there in early June. Throngs of cheering Egyptians greeted him along the parade route.

Yet Nixon’s popularity among the French and Egyptians meant nothing. In mid-1974 thirty-eight people would decide his fate—the members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Chapter 9

“THE SMOKING PISTOL”

After the impeachment resolutions had been introduced in October, the House Judiciary Committee began its work. The committee spent nearly half a year gathering evidence from any sources available. The Senate Watergate Committee provided some testimony. Civil lawsuits and grand jury testimony provided other information. Judge Sirica turned over a briefcase full of documents. The committee demanded any and all evidence. It accepted no excuses.

The staff investigated the Watergate break-in and cover-up, plus evidence from other areas. These included illegal use of government agencies for political purposes, “dirty tricks,” Nixon’s finances, and the secret bombing of Cambodia. It also considered whether to impeach Nixon for impounding funds, or refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress.

On May 9, 1974, Committee Counsel John Doar was ready to present the evidence. Rodino pounded his gavel. Impeachment proceedings were underway.