The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It by John W. Dean Read Free Book Online

the President”) after Howard Hunt and the men arrested at the DNC, plus a lawyer, Douglas Caddy, who had shown up to try to bail the burglars out despite the fact that those arrested had made no telephone calls to anyone. 2 (Hunt had retained Caddy and given him this assignment. 3 ) Another
Post
story reported E SPIONAGE P OSSIBILITY P ROBED IN 2D B REAK-IN AT W ATERGATE , and described an earlier break-in attempt at the complex, noting that the men arrested on June 17 had been registered at the Watergate Hotel on another night when a break-in had been tried at two other offices in the Watergate Hotel. On May 28, 1972, “the police records show someone attempted to unscrew the locks on the offices of the Democratic National Committee [but had been] unable to gain entry, investigators said.” 4 A
Post
editorial titled M IS SION I NCREDIBLE opined: “
Mission Impossible
it wasn’t; experts in these matters all agree the job was bungled at almost every stage of the way.
Mission Incredible
it certainly is, both in terms of the execution and, more important, in terms of the motives that could conceivably have prompted so crude an escapade by such a motley crew.” The piece questioned whether the Nixon administration could “bring itself to use every means at its command to prosecute perpetrators of the Watergate raid.”
    That day’s presidential news summary contained disquieting information. NBC News had reported that those arrested at the Watergate “may have been involved in [an] earlier DNC break-in (May 28)” and “DNC lawyer Edward Bennett Williams plans to take depositions from [Nixon’s reelection committee] and White House staffers next week.” CBS and ABC quoted Larry O’Brien boldly claiming, “[T]here’s a clear line of direction to the Committee for Re-election and a developing clear line to the White House.” 5
    According to the desk diary log kept for Haldeman by his secretary, Mitchell and Ehrlichman returned with him after the 8:15 morning staff session to his office, where they spoke from 8:45 A.M. to 9:25 A.M. , when the president buzzed for Haldeman. Although none of the three men could later recall much about it, their meeting that morning was a pivotal one, for it was here that they concocted the first scenario for a Watergate cover story. Haldeman, however, described it in his June 21 diary entry: “The bugging deal at the Democratic headquarters is still the main issue of the day. Mitchell and Ehrlichman and I talked about the whole thing again this morning and Ehrlichman came up with the possible scenario of moving the guilt level up to Liddy. Having him confess and going from there. * The problem is apparently we can’t pull that off because Liddy doesn’t have the authority to come up with the amount of money that was involved and that’s now under the campaign spending act requirements. So it would have to go up to Magruder in order to reach a responsible point. And that they, I’m sure, won’t want to do.” 6 Haldeman shared some of this information in his subsequent briefing with the president.
    Mitchell, in fact, had totally reversed his opinion regarding the White House and Watergate. He originally urged Haldeman to have nothing to do with the matter. His new position was prompted by what he had learned the preceding evening from his top lieutenants, Bob Mardian and Fred LaRue, who earlier that day had met with Gordon Liddy in LaRue’s Watergate apartment. 7 Liddy had confessed to his participation in the Watergate operation, which they already knew about, but also told them of his involvement with Hunt in the White House–sponsored California break-in at Dr. Fielding’s office during the Ellsberg investigation, and he revealed that two of the meninvolved in that operation were now in the DC jail in connection with Watergate. This disclosure stunned Mardian, who, as assistant attorney general in charge of the Internal Security Division of the Justice Department, had been