The White House would then prepare summaries of the subpoenaed conversations for investigators, which Stennis could authenticate by listening to the tapes themselves. Second, Dean tells us, with studied vagueness, that Magruders new version of what really happened at the Watergate was that the DNC mission, as Dean summarizes, had been cooked up at the White House. In reality, Haldeman had been far more specific: He said Magruder was now charging that what really happened on the Watergate was that all this planning was going on and Dean set it up and was involved in it and in getting the planning worked out. Why was the second half of Haldemans sentencethe part about the origin of the Watergate break-in, where Magruder identified Dean as the one who set it up and got the planning worked outdeleted from Deans summary? Dean himself had to intervene to squash an outlandish plan to firebomb the Brookings Institution, a thinktank in Washington where classified documents leaked by Ellsberg were being stored. This Hero Helped Break the Watergate Scandal Which Led to Nixon's Resignation. David Mandel, who directed the series, said he learned about Watergate when he was growing up from All the Presidents Men, the book and movie about how two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, broke the scandal that brought down Nixon. The timing was bizarre. I can actually hear myself sigh at times, exasperated with the reaction Im getting. Thats not in any way to excuse the many stupid things Richard Nixon and his cronies did. Big Media never tires of repeating two enormous lies -- their versions of Joe McCarthys investigations and the Watergate Scandal. While Dean stated in the foreword to Blind Ambition that writing the book required him to review an enormous number of documents as well as my own testimony, he later admitted: Im going to be very honest with you. Mr. Dean told the news organization Axios on Sunday, in response to Mr. Trumps tweet, that he was actually honored to be on his enemies list as I was on Nixons when I made it there., This is a president I hold in such low esteem, he said, I would be fretting if he said something nice., Remember John Dean of Watergate Fame? George Frampton, another WSPF lawyer, actually concluded that one key meeting Dean had described, deeply damning to Mitchell, apparently didnt take place, adding: We probably would do well simply to omit Deans testimony about this. In the same document, Frampton wrote about California attorney Herbert Kalmbach, the chief fundraiser of the hush money that was delivered to the Watergate burglars and their attorneys. Hunts wife later died in a plane crash, and the series nods (but only nods) to an old conspiracy theory We didnt want to Oliver Stone it, Gregory said that it might not have been an accident. I took him through every problem he had and, to my amazement, he had an answer for everything I thought was a problem. Now, four decades later, John W. Dean III, a central figure in the Watergate saga, has arrogated the same authority to himself, with The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (Viking, 784 pp). I'll tell, let me tell what the st-, I can go through that process for you. John Dean on Capitol Hill on 10 June 2019. I and others have argued that the true motivation for these criminal acts by Dean, and for his false claim to have acted only at the direction of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, was that he was working feverishly to conceal a larger, authorial role in the original crime: the break-in and wiretapping at the DNC. In October 1973, with impeachment proceedings looming as a result of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon proposed a compromise to the courts and to members of Congress, who were demanding access to the secret tapes of Nixons conversations with aides. Frequently Dean interrupts his running narrative of the new tapes to tell us what other speakers were thinking when they spoke. John Mitchell was charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury in April 1974. Taylor Branch denied making up anything in Blind Ambition. I had actually scratched my cornea. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. He has now clarified his memory and figures that hes got tohes now got toif theyre going to haul everybody up [to the grand jury], hes got to clean himself up, too. He then publicly turned against Nixon by testifying to the Senate Watergate committee becoming the first White House official to accuse the president of being directly involved in the cover-up. Their revelations shocked the world and forever changed our understanding of politics, of journalism, and of Washington behind closed doors. This is demonstrated by mounds of evidence uncovered by writers starting with Jim Hougans inSecret Agenda. Now an investment Plumbers is based in part on a book by Egil Bud Krogh Jr., a Nixon White House staff member who served time for authorizing the Ellsberg psychiatrist break-in. So this means that John Dean either lied under oath or is lying to his readers in his autobiography. This assertion is offered in support of Deans complaint that Nixon and his men were bent on elevating me from a message-carrier to the mastermind of the cover-up once Dean had turned on them. Despite its star power, that show failed to make much of a ripple in ratings or awards, earning four technical Emmy nominations and no wins. Im sad to say, you probably have a lot of people that have no idea that there was Watergate, he said. In it the man who helped bring Nixon down draws a direct line from the Watergate break-in on 17 June 1972 to the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, taking stock of a half century that has seen the media fragment, the Republican party embrace authoritarian tendencies and presidents become less accountable. Watergate meets "Veep" in "White House Plumbers," an at-times-surreal HBO limited series that occasionally feels a little too over the top, mostly because the real-life characters actually were. I had worn contacts during the Cronkite interview and noticed I was just blinking madly. Its very lucky that the system worked as it was designed., He continues: Its very hard to look at Watergate without looking through the lens of Trump where it didnt work, or hasnt yet. Starz's 'Shining Vale' Tells the Strange Tale of a Writer Will There Be a Season 2? WebNixon repeatedly declared that he knew nothing about the Watergate burglary, but former White House counsel John Dean III testified that the president had approved plans to Starring Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, and Dan Stevens in the lead roles, Gaslit on Starz offers a glimpse into the extraordinary life of Martha Mitchell, the socialite who was kidnapped in an attempt to stop her from breaking the news about the Watergate break-in. Hunt and Liddy are well-known to historians and Watergate buffs, but they are compared to a Dean, Haldeman or Mitchell secondary players in a scandal that toppled a presidency and whose particulars have faded from the popular memory over five decades. Offers may be subject to change without notice. . Magruder came back to Liddy, claiming it was approved. And he occasionally works to explain away uncomfortable moments on the tapes where his own conduct, stubbornly resistant to his deep massage of the record, interferes with his long quest for rehabilitation. Literally you just said, "Ya know, we didn't have much to do with Larry O'Brien." First and foremost, it was a great story with larger-than-life characters and astonishing twists and turns, Gregory said. While his footnotes frequently cite Blind Ambition, he never mentions that he has elsewhere admitted he never read his own book cover to cover prior to publication. Nor are Deans displays of triumphalism limited to those who testified opposite him. Is it still the riveting tale of malfeasance that it was 51 years ago? All of which raises fundamental questions: Where else in The Nixon Defense does Dean play so fast and loose with his summaries of Watergate conversations? Questioned about these statements in an August 1995 deposition, Magruder claimed he had been quoted out of context. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. He wants them now. Haldeman, and domestic-policy chief John Ehrlichman. Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA. But Watergate remains a singular chapter in American history that has continued political relevance. I really liked him, liked playing him, he said, adding: I dont fall in love with his politics or his ethics; I did fall in love with his spirit.. Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. For his part, Mr. Dean has long maintained his colleagues sought to make him a scapegoat. Theroux said he felt conflicted as he portrayed Liddy. Dean was set free immediately after trial without ever having spent a single night in a jail cell. During that period, Trump attempted to overturn the 2020election, the Black Lives Matter demonstrations were touched off whenMinneapolispolice killed George Floyd, and the violentJan. 6 rioting eruptedat the Capitol, leading to subsequenthearings all of which makes framing a political scandal as a comedy, even a black comedy, a bit of a challenge, even for the crew that brought the world Veep., In Veep, we were going for the hard jokes, Huyck said. Watergate.com has for almost two decades been operating as an informational site for Watergate and Nixon related stories and materials. This months 50th anniversary of the break-in is being marked by books, exhibitions, TV dramas and a four-part CNN documentary series, Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal, narrated by Dean himself. From sustained immersion in Deans canonthe tapes, the testimony, the books, the articles, the interviews, the lectures, the lawsuits, even the made-for-TV miniseries of Blind Ambition (1979), starring Martin Sheen, in which the alert viewer will find embedded some bizarre clues to Deans true role in Watergatethe picture that emerges is of a tragic figure who never transcended, let alone learned from, the epochal event in which he became embroiled at the age of 34, largely through his own initiatives. Enter White House Counsel, John Ehrlichman, Air Force hero of WWII and wealthy Seattle zoning lawyer, but a man totally ill-suited for the sensitive post he was given. Theres just no choice. Ever since then, Deans true role in Watergate has attracted vigorous debate. Dean was part of a gross conspiracy with John Ehrlichman, Bob Haldeman, (Attorney General) John Mitchell - and with I was never worried about the country and the government during Watergate but from the day Trump was nominated, I had a knot in my stomach and, until he left, I never got rid of it, Dean, 83, tells the Guardian via Zoom from a Washington hotel. ET. Thats not in any way to excuse the many stupid things Richard Nixon and his cronies did. WebNixon. Hunt, defeated and incarcerated for his role in Watergate, learns that Nixonhas resignedby overhearing two fellow inmates talking as he is folding T-shirts in a prison laundry. Trump, a total incompetent, is bungling and botching his handling of Russiagate.. The photographer who covered the event asked her if she'd like to do something a little more interesting, and as so often happens, one thing led to another. If Deans transcriptions are someday made available for verification, and if it is determined that he did not omit relevant materialtall hurdles, for sure, and practices uncharacteristic for Dean, as illustrated abovewe would understand that Nixon appears to have known earlier than we thought about the fitful payments of hush money to the burglars and their attorneys, and about how the whole story was destined to end. It was Dean who had reviewed the contents of Hunts White House safe and secreted away his notebooks for later destruction. Here's what we know about him. Ive often thought he did that to impress upon me that all presidents are ruthless to a degree because Im the one who had blown up the the plan to firebomb the Brookings Institution. His testimony and cooperation, though, aided the downfall of Nixon, who resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. Production on White House Plumbers was delayed by the Covid pandemic, which occurred amidturmoil, division and disruption in the country. Dismantling decades of lies, Silent Coup tells the truth. This is demonstrated by mounds of evidence Even the Plumbers creators acknowledge that the Watergate offenses seem quaint compared to, say, Donald Trumps effort to overturn an election that he lost by about 7 million votes. Dismissed by the White House press secretary as a third-rate burglary, the break-in set off a chain of events that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974. There has been no shortage of Washington intrigue and scandal since Nixon resigned, including the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, the impeachments of presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and the Iran-Contra arms-for hostages scandal that shadowed Ronald Reaganssecond term. At the time I thought it was right and it was understandable because I knew he couldnt govern with Watergate hanging over him. He wasnt who I thought he was, says Dean. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. It wasnt just Stenniss infirmities, of course, that rendered Nixons proposal laughable at the time; it was the suggestion that the president, by then identified as an actor in the Watergate saga, could be trusted to appoint the sole arbiter of the critical evidence in the case. Dustin Hoffman, left, and Robert Redford portrayed the Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in All the Presidents Men, the 1976 film based on the reporters book. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. The Watergate Scandal is so deeply embedded in the psyches of Americans that anytime something remotely More importantly, though, the photo should lend some flesh and blood substance to the life of a woman whose ghost has hovered over the Watergate saga for years now. A new HBO slapstick tragedy mostly avoids the Oval Office in favor of the men who actually executed the infamous burglary that brought down a president. He captivated the attention of Americans, though, with his televised testimony in June 1973 before the Senate Watergate Committee. McCord dragged out the operation and left so many clues it was impossible the burglars would not be caught. CIA people doubtlessly were told to sabotage the operation. But she had as many Republican clients as Democrats. You can just write completely straight dialogue and let it sit there, and it will be funny., White House Plumbers Revisits the Fringes of Watergate, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/white-house-plumbers-hbo-watergate.html. It would have consumed his presidency but so I understood it, but in the long run it codified the memo that was prepared then re-prepared during the Clinton presidency, that a sitting president cant be indicted. As White House counsel, I got the title I didnt get the job, Dean says wryly. When Ehrlichman moved on,John Deangot to be White House counsel, thanks to his connections to the Goldwater family. pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice on Oct. 19, 1973, Francesca Orsi, HBOs head of drama series, said Plumbers is exploring the scandal from the point of view of the foot soldiers on the ground.. Case in point: Dean repeats his longstanding claim that Haldeman or Ehrlichman, Nixons two closest White House aides, either instructed or approved my every move in Watergate. Mr. Trump took issue with the story on Twitter, saying on Sunday morning that Mr. McGahn cooperated with his blessing. Forty years later, the former wunderkind is still suffering that death, over and over again, doomed to an eternity of evidentiary sifting and kneading. A 2009 post on nixontapes.org, states that Nixon's White House Counsel, John Dean, said the break-in was executed following a tip that claimed the Democrats were engaging in potentially-illegal fundraising activities: "Dean's new revelation is that the origin of the Watergate break-in was a "tip" that Nixon received about an alleged Democratic As it happens, there's a good deal of evidence that a call girl operation Heidi was running in 1972 triggered the infamous break-in that led to the downfall of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. If you didn't know before what it takes to get into the jet set party girl business, well, now you've got a pretty good idea. Season 1, Episodes 6 and 7 of Gaslit capture the testimonies Martha, John Dean (an attorney who served as the White House counsel between 1970 and 1973), and others gave in front of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. That even so angry, litigious, and dishonest a character should suffer so sad a fate should offer, to the charitable among us, some reason to feel sorry for John Dean. Explore the scintillating May 2023 issue of Commentary. Of the Washington Post, he sneers, Much of their information was wrong; and he accuses the celebrated Judge John J. Sirica, who presided at both major Watergate trials, of acting as both prosecutor and judge and of practicing judicial extortion with his heavy sentencing. The first to crack was John Dean. Rather than just target DNC chief Larry OBrien though, they went after the secretary of an obscure DNC official,Spencer Oliver. It is also only fair to point out that virtually all the more conventional Watergate histories-but especially the more-or-less official version as propounded by the Washington Post-dismiss it out of hand as dangerous "revisionist" history. The Watergate story really begins in 1969, when Nixon took office. It was frankly too good a title at 31 years of age to pass up, although I knew I would be doing the grunt work.. Not so much Trump but now the whole Republican party has shifted into this authoritarian stance. John D. Ehrlichman's and H.R. Attorney General Richard He knew that and he was worried, maybe, I thought presidents shouldnt do things like that. Liddy also went to prison, in Danbury, Conn. (The reporter who wrote this story also covered his release in 1977; he is in the background over Liddys left shoulder.). In doing so, he was repeating the story he had told the Senate in 1973, where he had testified that Mitchell was the ultimate authority behind the break-in. I know, that's why I came -don't you - I wanted to be fair this is a difficult enough book to write and you don't nor -. Hunt, right, seen during the Senate Watergate Committee hearings, went to prison for his part in the break-in. But, when youre near broke, its amazing how tastes can change. In factand not counting the previously quoted conclusion of the WSPF that Dean exercised somewhat more discretiongetting Kalmbach into the picture than he has admittedthere were at least two other, and likely many more, overt acts that Dean committed in furtherance of the Watergate conspiracy, undertaken without informing his superiors and cagily withheld both from the prosecutors, at key junctures, and from readers today.
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