790 Chapter 29 From Camelot to Watergate: 1961–1975
Democrats were up to. In any case, the affair did not
materially affect the election. When brought to trial
early in 1973, most of the Watergate burglars
pleaded guilty.
McCord, who did not, was convicted by the
jury. Before Judge John J. Sirica imposed sentences
on the culprits, however, McCord wrote his letter.
High Republican officials had known about the
burglary in advance and had paid the defendants
“hush money” to keep their connection secret,
McCord claimed. Perjury had been committed dur-
ing the trial.
The truth of McCord’s charges swiftly became
apparent. The head of CREEP, Jeb Stuart
Magruder, and President Nixon’s lawyer, John W.
Dean III, admitted their involvement. Among the
disclosures that emerged over the following months
were these:
■Large sums of money had been paid to the bur-
glars at the instigation of the White House to
ensure their silence.
■Agents of the Nixon administration had bur-
glarized the office of a psychiatrist, seeking evi-
dence against one of his patients, Daniel
Ellsberg, who had been charged with leaking
the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.
(This disclosure led to the immediate dismissal
of the charges against Ellsberg.)
■CREEP officials had attempted to disrupt the
campaigns of leading Democratic candidates
during the 1972 primaries in a number of ille-
gal ways.
■A number of corporations had made large con-
tributions to the Nixon reelection campaign in
violation of federal law.
■The Nixon administration had placed wiretaps
on the telephones of some of its own officials as
well as on those of journalists critical of its poli-
cies without first obtaining authorization from
the courts.
These revelations led to the dismissal of John
Dean and to the resignations of most of Nixon’s
closest advisers, including Haldeman, Ehrlichman,
and Attorney Generals John Mitchell and Richard
Kleindienst. They also raised the question of the
president’s personal connection with the Watergate
scandal. This he steadfastly denied. He insisted that
he would investigate the Watergate affair thor-
oughly and see that the guilty were punished. He
refused, however, to allow investigators to examine
White House documents, on grounds of executive
privilege, which he continued to assert in very
broad terms.
In the teeth of Nixon’s denials, John Dean, tes-
tifying under oath, stated flatly and in circumstan-
tial detail that the president had ordered him to pay
the Watergate burglars to conceal White House
involvement; if true, the president had been guilty
of obstructing justice, a serious crime.
Dean had been a persuasive witness, but many
people were reluctant to believe that a president
could lie so cold-bloodedly to the entire country.
Therefore, when it came out during later hearings of
the Senate committee investigating the Watergate
scandal that the president had systematically made
secret tape recordings of White House conversations
and telephone calls, the disclosure caused a sensation.
It seemed obvious that these tapes would settle the
question of Nixon’s involvement once and for all.
Again Nixon refused to allow access to the evidence.
One result of the scandals and of Nixon’s atti-
tude was a precipitous decline in his standing in
public opinion polls. Calls for his resignation, even
for impeachment, began to be heard. Yielding to
pressure, he agreed to the appointment of an “inde-
pendent” special prosecutor to investigate the
Watergate affair, and he promised the appointee,
Professor Archibald Cox of Harvard Law School,
full cooperation.
Cox swiftly aroused the president’s ire by seek-
ing access to White House records, including the
tapes. When Nixon refused to turn over the tapes,
Cox obtained a subpoena from Judge Sirica order-
ing him to do so. The administration appealed this
decision and lost in the appellate court. Then,
while the case was headed for the Supreme Court,
Nixon ordered the new attorney general, Elliot
Richardson, to dismiss Cox. Both Richardson, who
had promised the Senate during his confirmation
hearings that the special prosecutor would have a
free hand, and his chief assistant resigned rather
than do as the president directed. The third-
ranking officer of the Justice Department carried
out Nixon’s order.
These events of Saturday, October 20, promptly
dubbed the Saturday Night Massacre, caused an out-
burst of public indignation. Congress was bom-
barded by thousands of letters and telegrams
demanding the president’s impeachment. The House
Judiciary Committee began an investigation to see if
enough evidence for impeachment existed. (The
House of Representatives must vote to indict federal
officials for impeachment; the actual impeachment
trial is conducted by the Senate.)
Once again Nixon backed down. He agreed to
turn over the tapes to Judge Sirica with the under-
standing that relevant materials could be presented