The Wars of Watergate

by Stanley I. Kutler

  40. HJC, Testimony of Witnesses, 3:82–83, 96–104.

  41. HJC, Testimony of Witnesses, 3:360–62; 412–42, 320, 361–62, 508–09. Colson’s later views are contained in Colson to Author, November 16, 1988.

  42. HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:1868–71.

  43. HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:1723, 1732, 1885–87; HJC, Transcripts of Eight Recorded Presidential Conversations; Franklin Polk to Hutchinson, May 31, 1974, Hutchinson MS, FL.

  44. Geoff Shepard to Haig, July 15, 1974, SSF, Box 157, NP; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:574; Ken Khachigian to Haig and Ziegler, July 16, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 36, NP; Max L. Friedersdorf to Hutchinson, June 19, 1974, Hutchinson MS, FL. The Special Prosecutor’s transcription of the March 22 tape is identical to the House’s version.

  45. NYT, July 13, 1974.

  46. HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:1889–1908; Railsback Interview, June 11, 1975; Flowers Interview, June [17], 1975.

  47. HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:1926–36.

  48. Butler Interview, June 19, 1975; HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:2035–93; Minority Memorandum on Facts and Law, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 93 Cong., 2 Sess. (July 22, 1974). The committee allowed Jenner to make a response to Garrison’s presentation.

  49. HJC, Impeachment Inquiry, 3:2105–28. Flowers Interview, June [17], 1975; Fish Interview, June 25, 1975.

  50. Cohen Interview, June 20, 17, 1975; Railsback Interview, June 11, 1975; Fish Interview, June 27, 1975; Rhodes and Arends to House Republicans, July 24, 1974, Hutchinson MS, FL.

  51. Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa, Douglas Matthews, The Almanac of American Politics, 1974 (Boston, 1973); Edwards Interview, July 15, 1986; George V. Higgins, “The Judge Who Tried Harder,” Atlantic, April 1974, 88.

  52. Unless otherwise noted, the remarks of the coalition are taken from the tape transcripts of their 1975 interviews with Father Don Shea and Tom Mooney, which they made available to the Author.

  53. Polk Interview, December 18, 1986; Mooney Interview, July 14, 1986; McClory Interview, May 8, 1987.

  54. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:636; PPPUS:RN, 1974, 596; John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power (New York, 1982), 395–96, 399–407.

  55. Nixon Memoirs, 2:580, 633, 636, 638–39.

  XIX: JUDGMENT DAYS: THE SUPREME COURT AND THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: JULY 1974

  1. Stanley I. Kutler, Judicial Power and Reconstruction Politics (Chicago, 1968), Ch.2; Learned Hand, The Bill of Rights (Cambridge, 1958), 29.

  2. Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 655 (1952); William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court (New York, 1987, 94, 95, 89–90; Rehnquist to the Conference, William Brennan MS, Box 329, LC.

  3. WSJ, July 8, 1974; PPPUS: RN, 1969, “Remarks Announcing the Nomination of Judge Warren Earl Burger to be Chief Justice of the United States” (May 21, 1969), 388.

  4. The oral arguments, as well as the complete briefs for both sides and the American Civil Liberties Union, are reprinted in Leon Friedman (ed.), United States v. Nixon (New York, 1974), 523–96. The transcript is taken from audio tapes. My account also benefited from St. Clair Interview, April 10, 1987, and from examination of materials in the Leon Jaworski Oral History Memoir, Texas Collection, Baylor University.

  5. Yoshida International, Inc. v. United States, 378 F. Supp. 1155 (1974).

  6. Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (New York, 1979), 285–347, revealed some of the inner workings of the Court during the case, largely through interviews with former clerks. Much of the complex maneuvering during the drafting of the opinion can be confirmed in the memoranda and draft opinions in the William J. Brennan and William O. Douglas Papers, LC. The following account is based on the book and the materials. Howard Ball, “United States v. Nixon Re-Examined,” a paper delivered at the 1987 Nixon Conference at Hofstra University, offers a useful analysis of the Court’s development of the opinion.

  7. Dent Interview, September 24, 1986; Chapin to Nixon, May 14, 1969; Ehrlichman to Nixon, December 16, 1970, January 18, 1971, FG-51, Box 1, NP; WP, June 13, 1974.

  8. Douglas to Burger, July 12, 1974, William Brennan Papers, LC; Woodward and Armstrong, The Brethren, 339–43; Leon Jaworski Oral History, Texas Collection, Baylor University, 2:641; Presidential Logs, NP.

  9. Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (paperback ed., New York, 1979), 2:629–40; St. Clair to Jaworski, July 10, 1974, Jaworski MS, Texas Collection, Baylor University; Lichenstein Interview, July 16, 1986.

  10. United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974).

  11. Raoul Berger, Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth (Cambridge, 1974); U.S. v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 712 (1974); “Executive Privilege,” Presidential Studies Quarterly (Spring 1986), 16:237–246. Ball, “United States v. Nixon Re-Examined,” op. cit., and Mark J. Rozell, “President Nixon’s Conception of Executive Privilege,” both unpublished papers from the 1987 Nixon Conference at Hofstra University, offer valuable commentaries on the decision. Does the Court follow election returns? The next day, the Justices rejected a comprehensive busing plan for Detroit schools. Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974).

  12. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:640–41; Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1974; NYT, June 3, 1952.

  13. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:649; St. Clair Interview, April 10, 1987; St. Clair to Author, May 5, 1987.

  14. Ken Khachigian to Haig, July 16, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 36, NP; Congressmen Abdnor, Lagomarsino, Martin, Regula, Shuster, Towell, Steelman, and Gilman to Nixon, FG-51, NP.

  15. Debate on Articles of Impeachment, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 93 Cong., 2 Sess. (July 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, and 30, 1974), 1–4. Hereafter cited as HJC, Debate.

  16. HJC, Debate, 4–6.

  17. The following account is reconstructed from a taped conversation between Representative M. Caldwell Butler and Thomas Mooney of the House Judiciary Committee staff, July 31, 1974, and from draft copies of the Articles of Impeachment. Material courtesy of Mr. Mooney. Additional material is based on McClory Interview, May 8, 1987, and on interviews with members of the “fragile coalition” done in 1975. Some of this material was made available to the New York Times team that described the existence of the “Fragile Centrist Bloc,” NYT, August 5, 1974.

  18. HJC, Debate, 23–28, 46–49, 75–80, 57–61, 66–68, 68–71; Railsback Interview, June 11, 1975; Fish Interview, June 25, 1975; Cohen Interview, June 17, 1975; Flowers Interview, June [17], 1975; Mann Interview, June 19, 1975; Butler Interview, June 19, 1975.

  19. HJC, Debate, 137–49; McClory Interview, May 8, 1987; McClory unpublished memoir, 39.

  20. Mann Interview, June 19, 1975.

  21. HJC, Debate, 149–203.

  22. HJC, Debate, 204–50. Wiggins to Author, July 18, 1985; Cates to Author, November 29, 1988.

  23. HJC, Debate, 251–331. Fish notes with Father Don F. Shea’s “fragile coalition” Interviews.

  XX: “I HEREBY RESIGN.” AUGUST 1974

  1. Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (paperback ed., New York, 1979), 2:642–45. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Final Days (New York, 1976), dramatically portrayed the tensions of the last two weeks of the Nixon presidency. But their depiction of the Administration and the nation as dependent at the time upon Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger is overdrawn. After the manuscript was written, Haig insisted that he refused to talk to Woodward. Haig told Buzhardt that Woodward wanted to check facts, not because they “might be in error, but because he wanted to be sure that he was being fair to me!” Haig to Buzhardt, February 12, 1973, copy furnished by Mrs. J. F. Buzhardt.

  2. HJC, Debate, 334–35.

  3. HJC, Debate, 335–36, 340–42.

  4. HJC, Debate, 357–71, 385–93, 427–28, 445–47.

  5. HJC, Debate, 449–50, 454, 455, 473, 488–89; Polk Interview, December 18, 1986.

  6. Mann Interview, June 19, 1975; Cohen Interview, June 20, 1975; Fish Interview, June 25, 1975.

  7. HJC, Debate, 491, 495, 500, 516–17, 517�
��21, 522–24, 525–26, 531, 553–54; Mann Interview, June 19, 1975; Cohen Interview, June 17, 1975; Dixon Interview, January 24, 1985; Edward Mezvinsky, A Term to Remember (New York, 1977).

  8. Theodore White, Breach of Faith (New York, 1975), 407; Cohen Interview, June 20, 1975; Flowers Interview, June [17], 1975; Mann Interview, June 19, 1975; Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal (New York, 1979), 12; Curtis to Hutchinson, August 2, 1974, Hutchinson MS, FL; Patman to Danielson, Mezvinsky, and Rangel, August 5, 1974, HBC Papers.

  9. Austin Ranney, Channels of Power: The Impact of Television on American Politics (New York, 1985), 167.

  10. Alvin Snyder to Ron Ziegler, July 30, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 38, NP; Henry Rahmel to Alvin Snyder, July 31, 1974, August 7, 1974, ibid., Boxes 38, 39; Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang, The Battle for Public Opinion: The President, the Press, and the Polls During Watergate (New York, 1983), 168; NYT, August 5, 1974.

  11. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:645–47. Nixon’s memoirs imply that St. Clair read the transcript before Haig—a highly unlikely situation. Nixon also emphasized it was the first time Haig had read a “transcript.” But Haig had handled the tape before and he was in regular contact with Buzhardt, his close friend.

  12. General Brent Scowcroft to Haig, July 30, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 37, NP; Ken Clawson to Haig, July 31, 1974, ibid., Box 36, NP; William Timmons to St. Clair, August 2, 1974, ibid., Box 39, NP.

  13. Burch Interview, May 6, 1987; Burch to Nixon, June 6, 1974, and Haig to Nixon, July 8, 1974, WHSF/WHCF, Confidential Files, Box 12, NP; Bull Interview, May 6, 1987; Lichenstein Interview, July 16, 1986.

  14. NYT, July 28, 29, 31, August 1, 3, 1974; Phillips Interview, August 23, 1985.

  15. Ford, A Time to Heal, 2–3.

  16. TT, the President and Haldeman, June 23, 1972 (10:04 A.M.–11:39 A.M.; 1:04 P.M.–1:13 P.M.; 2:20 P.M.–2:45 P.M.), U.S. v. M, NA.

  17. PPPUS:RN, 1974, 621–23; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:630, 641.

  18. Jaworski Oral History, 2:683; Geller to Files, Haig Interview, July 3, 1975, WGSPF Records, NA; Woodward and Bernstein, The Final Days, 263; St. Clair Interview, April 10, 1987; Garment Interview, April 12, 1988; Laird Interview, June 27, 1985; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:578; Mitchell Interview, April 11, 1988.

  19. Harry Reasoner, ABC News, Commentary, August 6, 1974; NYT, November 15, 1973; Flanigan to Haig, February 6, 1974, WHCF Confidential Files, Box 12, NP.

  20. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:654–59; Conable Interview, May 28, 1985 (quoting his diary).

  21. Edwards Interview, July 15, 1986; Gilbert Gude (R–MD) to Hutchinson, August 6, 1974, Hutchinson MS, FL; Conable Interview, May 28, 1985; St. Clair Interview, April 10, 1987; Wiggins Interview, February 5, 1985; NYT, August 5, 1974; Ford, A Time to Heal, 17.

  22. PPPUS:RN, 1974, March 6, 1974, 236; St. Clair Interview, April 10, 1987.

  23. Impeachment of Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, Report, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives (August 20, 1974), 93 Cong., 2 Sess., 359–493, 495–502, 511–14; Polk Interview, December 18, 1986; Shepard Interview, April 4, 1988.

  24. Barry M. Goldwater with Jack Casserly, Goldwater (New York, 1988), 275.

  25. Lichenstein Interview, July 16, 1986; Burch Interview, May 6, 1987; Goldwater, Goldwater, 275–76.

  26. Ford, A Time to Heal, 22; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:666–68; Goldwater, Goldwater, 277–79; Woodward and Bernstein, The Final Days, 413–17; Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: Richard Nixon, 1974 (August 7, 1974), 10:1010–12.

  27. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:659–60; H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (New York, 1978), 311–13; John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power (New York, 1982), 409–10, differ in their rendition of the sequence and content of the calls.

  28. Whitehead Interview, May 25, 1988; Jerald F. terHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency (New York, 1974), 181–81; Ford, A Time to Heal, 24; NYT, August 26, 1974, has an extensive account of the transition process.

  29. Richard Reeves, A Ford, Not a Lincoln (New York, 1975), 11–12; terHorst, Gerald Ford, 177–78; Ford, A Time to Heal, 5, 115–16; NYT, July 28, 1974.

  30. Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (New York, 1980), 30–40, 80–88, 97, 106–07, 116–17, 122–52; Ford, A Time to Heal, 140, 122; Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside (Chicago, 1978), 36.

  31. Ford, A Time to Heal, 10–15.

  32. David Parker, Background Paper for Cabinet Meeting, August 6, 1974, Hoopes Papers, Box 20, NP; Saxbe to Author, May 15, 1987. Nixon said that the meeting continued; Dean Burch confirmed the Saxbe story: Burch Interview, May 6, 1987. Also see Ford, A Time to Heal, 19–21; Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (Boston, 1982), 1202–04.

  33. James Kilpatrick Interview, Washington Star, May 14, 1974; Butler Interview, Roanoke Times, July 27, 1975; Nixon to Rose Mary Woods, June 8, 1974, NPF, Box 4, NP.

  34. Rose Mary Woods to Nixon, May 11, 1974, NPF, Box 8, NP; Norman Vincent Peale to Rose Mary Woods, May 13, 1974, ibid.; Jesus Monrow Telephone Communication, August 7, 1974, ibid., Box 19; Kilpatrick, Washington Star, August 10, 1974.

  35. Nixon, Memoirs, 1:23–24; 2:548.

  36. Haldeman, Ends of Power, 309; Kenneth Khachigian to Haig, July 14, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 36, NP (the phrase was used by Pat Buchanan in a memo to Nixon, May 3, 1973, NPF, Box 6, NP); Bull Interview, May 7, 1987; Moore Interview, December 5, 1987; Greenspan quoted in International Herald Tribune, June 3, 1987; Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Pat Nixon: The Untold Story (New York, 1986), 408–09; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:661–65.

  37. David Frost, “I Gave Them a Sword”: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews (New York, 1978), 96; Woodward and Bernstein, The Final Days, 384–425; Mitchell Interview, April 11, 1988. Various presidential aides at the time, such as Stephen Bull, Bruce Herschensohn, and Pat Buchanan, have complained that they were misquoted or that contrary evidence they offered Woodward and Bernstein was ignored. Victor Lasky, “The Woodstein Ripoff,” AIM Report, October 1976. Buzhardt complained about numerous errors, many of which involved him as a source, in an unsent letter to Woodward: copy furnished by Mrs. J. F. Buzhardt. John Dean has made a substantial case for Haig as “Deep Throat,” the alleged White House source for Woodward. John Dean, Lost Honor (Los Angeles, 1982), 326–54. For Goldwater’s autobiography, Haig obligingly described Goldwater as “one of the good guys” of the resignation moment; at the same time, Goldwater painted Haig in heroic terms. Goldwater, Goldwater, 281.

  38. William Timmons to Haig, August 7, 1974, Haig Papers, Box 39, NP; Timmons to Author, August 7, 1987; Robert McClory, “Was the Fix in Between Ford and Nixon?,” National Review, October 14, 1983, 1264–66; McClory Interview, May 8, 1987.

  39. Frost, “I Gave Them a Sword,” 272; Albert Interview, United States Capitol Historical Society, 37–38; Nixon, Memoirs, 2:678–79.

  40. NYT, August 25, 1974; WP, August 24, 1974; NYT, July 4, 1974.

  41. The relevant messages were furnished by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

  42. Moorer Interview, June 25, 1985; Major General John S. Lekson to Author, May 6, 1986; General Bruce Palmer, The 25-Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam (Lexington, KY, 1984), 140; Palmer Telephone Interview, December 17, 1986 (Palmer’s references to later events reflected his criticism of Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North, and Admiral John Poindexter); Nomination of Alexander M. Haig, Jr., to be Secretary of State, Hearings, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 97 Cong., 1 Sess. (January 14, 1981) 2:69; Newsweek, July 16, 1979, 54. General Brown’s legal aide did not believe that major military commanders would have responded to extraordinary orders from Haig, considering their personal contempt and animosity toward him. Finklestein Interview, May 30, 1985. Garment Interview, April 11, 1988, provided some special insight into Haig, given Garment’s vantage point in the Nixon White House and as a writer and consultant for Haig in 1981–82.

  43. Joseph Spear, Presidents and the Press (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 235.


  44. Nixon, Memoirs, 2:685–86.

  XXI: THE “BURDEN I SHALL BEAR FOR EVERY DAY.” THE PARDON: SEPTEMBER 1974

  1. Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal (New York, 1979), 4.

  2. Nomination of Gerald R. Ford to be Vice President of the United States, Committee on Rules and Administration, U.S. Senate, 93 Cong., 1 Sess. (November 5, 1973), 124.

  3. Seymour Hersh, “The Pardon,” Atlantic, August 1983, 55; Pardon of Richard M. Nixon and Related Matters, Hearings, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 93 Cong., 2 Sess. (October 17, 1974), 94; Walter Pincus, “Origin of Pardon Idea in Question,” WP, February 1, 1976; Buzhardt Draft in Buzhardt MS, Courtesy of Mrs. J. Fred Buzhardt; Ford, A Time to Heal, 148.

  4. Whitehead Interview, May 25, 1988; Richard Reeves, A Ford, Not a Lincoln (New York, 1975), 73; Jerald F. terHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency (New York, 1974), 217; Benton Becker to Author, March 3, 1986. Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (New York, 1980), is useful for the conflict between the Nixon and Ford retainers.

  5. NYT, August 16, 14, 15, 17, 27, 1974; Becker Interview, December 5, 1985.

  6. Meeting Notes, August 7, 8, 1974, Nixon File #11, WGSPF Records, NA.

  7. Lacovara to Jaworski, August 16, 1974; Richard J. Davis to Jaworski, August 19, 1974; Richard Ben-Veniste to Jaworski, August 19, 1974; Neal to Jaworski, August 27, 1974; Charles R. Breyer to Jaworski, August 27, 1974; Jay Horowitz to Jaworski, August 29, 1974; Nick Akerman to Jaworski, August 29, 1974; Frank Martin to Jaworski, August 29, 1974; Richard Weinberg to Jaworski, September 4, 1974; Thomas P. Ruane to Jaworski, September 4, 1974; Phil Bakes to Jaworski, September 3, 1974; Kenneth Geller to Jaworski, September 5, 1974; Sidney M. Glazer to Jaworski, September 4, 1974; Stephen Haberfield to Jaworski, September 6, 1974, Special Prosecutor’s Files, Nixon File #11, WGSPF Records, NA.

  8. William C. Berman, William Fulbright and the Vietnam War: The Dissent of a Political Realist (Kent, OH, 1988), 193–94; NYT, August 24, 1974.