A key conversation in the Watergate scandal

For a change of pace, I recently came upon something in my old files that is of exceptional interest. It is a 12-page section from Stanley Kutler’s remarkable collection of Watergate tapes, Abuse of Power, published in 1997. The passage, which extends from page 247 of the book to page 259, and which you can read here at Google Books, covers President Nixon’s conversation with John Dean and Bob Haldeman on March 21, 1973. Instead of being meandering and difficult to follow, as many of the Watergate tapes are, the March 21 conversation is extraordinary in that it shows Dean laying out the entire story of the break-in and the pay-offs to the Watergate defendants, with Nixon—even as he hears Dean’s strongly voiced concern about the criminal nature of the pay-offs up to this point—okaying further pay-offs and speaking of his personal ability to find $2 million for that purpose. The transcript even shows Nixon personally seeking pay-off money. On page 257, an hour after the meeting with Dean ends, Nixon calls in his secretary, Rosemary Woods, and asks her if she can retrieve a large amount of cash for personal purposes that had been put aside years ago, apparently for emergencies, in an office safe. She indicates that it’s in the neighborhood of $100,000 and says she can get it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 07, 2008 04:50 PM | Send