Tag Archives: Carl Bernstein

Watergate ► The End of the End

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Dateline August 8, 1974 – President Richard Milhous Nixon tenders his resignation, effective noon the following day, and becomes the first — and so far only — President of the United States to resign in disgrace. This was the culmination of events that began on June 17, 1972 when police arrested 5 men for Breaking & Entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. At the time White House Press Secretary Ron Zeigler dismissed it as a “third rate burglary.” While it might have been “third rate,” it was the third rate burglary that brought down a president. The story didn’t get much traction until August 1st, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote their first story for the Washington Post. From that moment on the drip, drip, drip of stories in the Post and other newspapers isolated President Nixon. Once it was proven that Nixon participated in the Watergate cover-up, it was all over for his presidency.

There are so many ironies in this story, but here are just three:

President Nixon posing with the
“expletive deleted” transcripts.

► The “Smoking Gun” tape of March 21, 1973 that proved Nixon was up to his ears in the cover-up, was made by a secret automatic recording system that Nixon had installed to preserve his historical legacy. Once the existence of the recordings were made known, Nixon could have had them destroyed; they had yet to be subpoenaed and therefore were not yet evidence. Once they were subpoenaed Nixon tried to tough it out, first claiming Executive Privilege, and then trying to get away with just releasing poorly edited transcripts of the Oval Office conversations. That’s when the words “expletive deleted” became a national punchline.

► Nixon’s resignation letter (above left) was addressed “Dear Mr. Secretary,” which was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. However, it was Kissinger’s apoplectic reaction to earlier leaks, such as the New York Times printing the Pentagon Papers, that led to the creation of the infamous “Plumbers Unit” created to stop the “leaks.”

► Nixon’s presidency was brought down by Frank Wills, a minimum wage Security Guard at the Watergate Hotel Complex. Wills discovered duct tape on a door in the building while making his rounds, so he removed it. One of the “third rate” burglars saw the tape had been removed and, instead of it alerting them to the fact that the jig was up, replaced the tape. On his next round Wills noticed the tape was back and called police, who arrested the “third rate” burglars in the middle of their “third rate” act. Harry Nilsson dedicated “A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night” to Frank Wills and included a small picture of Mr. Wills on his lapel in the cover photograph. [The other picture is Harry’s son Zak, who I am proud to call a friend.] Frank Wills was also memorialized in the song “The Ballad of Frank Wills” by folk artist Ron Turner.

Further Reading on The Aunty Em Ericann Blog:

Watergate ► The Beginning of the End
Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

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Watergate ► The Beginning of the End

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Then

It hardly seems like 40 years. However, four decades ago today the Washington Post published the first article by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on what was to become known as Watergate. The White House tried to dismiss the break in at the Watergate Hotel as a “third rate burglary.” However, this would roil the country for more than 2 years, until President Nixon could no longer run from the cover-up in which he participated. He resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.

No evidence has ever surfaced that Nixon knew of the break in beforehand. However, his loyalty to his staff, and blindness to what was the right thing to do, enmeshed him in the greatest political scandal ‘Merka has ever known. Once it was learned he participated in the cover up it was just a matter of time before he resigned, which he did as Articles of Impeachment had already been passed by the House of Representatives.

Now

By 1972 I was already a long-time Nixonophile. Nixon had become Vice President to President Eisenhower in 1952, the year of my birth. From that moment on he was a presence in my life, whether I was aware of him or not. It seemed stunning to me that he won the ’68 election, especially after his defiant “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” speech after he lost the race to become Governor of California in 1962.

Just some of my books about and by Richard Nixon

My fascination never really ended. I collected books and read as much as I could about Watergate and Richard Nixon in order to better understand what made him tick. That turned out to be an impossible task. Nixon is a knot of contradictions which no author has completely unraveled.

James Rosen of Fox “News”

Nor have all the secrets of Watergate been unraveled. It’s that grey
area that allows revisionist authors like Fox “News” reporter James
Rosen to muddy the waters on who was responsible for Watergate and who
bears no responsibility for Watergate. In his book “The Strong Man”
about John Mitchell, Nixon’s chief law man, and the head of Nixon’s
re-election campaign (with the ironic acronym CREeP), Rosen pins
Watergate on everybody BUT John  Mitchell, who was such a misunderstood individual. I’ve written about my fight with Rosen, and it wouldn’t hurt you to take a look.

However, it was “Woodstein,” as they were sometimes known, the two dogged reporters who kept at the scandal until the whole house of cards came falling down. There’s been a lot of Watergate navel-gazing this year. However, if you only read one recent article take a look at Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought.

Woodward and Bernstein donated their Watergate papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. If you’re as obsessed as I, or just a casual reader, this is a fascinating look at a unique moment in ‘Merkin history.