On August 5, 1974, the White House released the transcript of the celebrated "smoking gun" taped
conversation of June 23, 1972 iWatergate break-ins. Chairman George was one of the leading Nixon Administration figuresn which Nixon discussed ways to frustrate the investigation of the
consulting with Al Haig in the course of the morning. When Bush heard the news, he was very
upset, undoubtedly concerned about all the very negative publicity that he himself was destined to
receive in the blowback of Nixon's now imminent downfall. Then after a while he calmed down
somewhat. One account describes Bush as "somewhat relieved" by the news that the coup de gracetape was going to be made public, "an act probably fatal," as Haig had said. "Finally there was some (^)
one thing the national chairman could see clearly. The ambiguities in the evidence had been tearing
the party apart, Bush thought." [fn 50] At this point Bush became the most outspoken and militant
organizer of Nixon's resignation, a Cassius of the Imperial Presidency.
A little later White House Congressional liaison William Timmons wanted to make sure that
everyone had been fully briefed about the transcripts going out, and he turned to Nixon's political
counselor Dean Burch. "Dean, does Bush know about the transcript yet?", Timmons asked. Burch
replied, "Yes." "Well, what did he do?", Timmons asked.
"He broke out in assholes and shit himself to death," was Burch's answer. [fn 51]
But why, it may be asked, the dermal diahhrea? Why should Bush be so distraught over the release
to the press of the transcript of the notorious White House meeting of June 23, 1972, whose
exhcanges between Nixon and Haldeman were to prove the coup de grace to the agony of tregime? As we have seen, there is plenty of evidence that the final fall of Nixon was just thehe Nixon
denouement that Bush wanted. The answer is that Bush was upset about the fabulous "smoking
gun" tape because his friend Mosbacher, his business partner Bill Liedtke, and himself were
referred to in the most sensitive passages. Yes, a generation of Americans has grown up recalling
something about a "smoking gun" tTexans," he meant George Bush. ("Das Bekannte ueberhaupt ist darum, weil es bekannt ist, nichtape, but not many now recall that when Nixon referred to "the
erkannt," as even old Hegel knew.)
The open secret of the much-cited but little analyzed "smoking gun" tape is that it refers to Nixon's
desire to mobilize the CIA to halt the FBI investigation of the Watergate burglars on the groundsthat money can be traced from donors in Texas and elsewhere to the coffers of the CREEP and
thence to the pockets of Bernard Barker and the other Cubans arrested. The money referred to, of
course, is part of Bill Liedtke's $700,000 discussed above. A first crucial passage of the "smoking
gun" tape goes as follows, with the first speaker being Haldeman:
H: Now, on the investigation, you knowarea because the FBI is not under control, because [FBI chief] Gray doesn't exactly know how to the Democratic break-in thing, we're back in the problem
control it and they have --their invesitgation is leading into some productive areas because they've
been able to trace the money--not through the money itself--but through the bank sources--the
banker. And, and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go. Ah, also there have been some
things--like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami who was a photographer or hasa friend who was a photographer or has a friend who was a photographer who developed some
films through this guy Barker and the films had pictures of Democratic national Committee
letterhead documents and things. So it's things like that that are filtering in. Mitchell came up with
yesterday, and John Dean analyzed very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with
Mitchell's recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we're set up beautifully to do it, ah,in that and that-- the only network that paid any attention to it last night was NBC--they did a
massive story on the Cuban thing.
P: [Nixon] That's right.
H: That the way to handle this now is for us to have [CIA Deputy Director Vernon] Walters call Pat
Gray and just say "Stay the hell out of this--this is ah, business here we don't want you to go any