It would take all Nixon’s political skills to persuade the two men who knew his dirty secrets to sacrifice themselves to save him. ibid.
Dean finally agreed to tell the prosecutors about his conversation with the President, including the one in which Nixon had said he could get a million dollars to pay off the burglars. ibid.
Dean had struck an excellent deal. He would write a statement that described everything he had done in the cover-up but the Republicans would be prevented from seeing it in advance. ibid.
John Dean now set out to destroy the President of the United States. Dean’s appearance was carefully staged. ibid.
His tapes, the evidence that proved his involvement in Watergate were certain to be subpoenaed. Now he was faced with a crucial decision. She he destroy them? ibid.
‘I felt that it would be an admission of guilt to destroy them.’ ibid. Nixon’s Frost interview
He had ordered the cover-up of the bugging of Democratic Party headquarters at at The Watergate. This was a criminal obstruction of justice. Now the President’s former counsel John Dean had given evidence against him the cover-up was coming to light. Watergate IV: Massacre
The revelation that the President had had all his meetings automatically recorded meant that the tapes must have the answer to the key question – Was the President directly involved in the cover-up? ibid.
Cox [special prosecutor] Probes Nixon Home Purchases: Whether Campaign Funds Helped for San Clemente Is Key Issue. ibid. Los Angeles Times 1973
Agnew [Vice-President] had been trying to escape a trial in the courts. He claimed the constitutional process was for a vice-president to be impeached before a Congress. ibid.
Cox struck first and the TV networks carried it live. ibid.
At Cox’s public show of defiance, Nixon resolved to have him sacked at once. ibid.
No-one yet knew it but the Saturday night massacre had begun. ibid.
When the White House announced what they’d done, the media reported it as a naked attempt by the President to overthrow the rule of law. ibid.
The special prosecutors’ office was besieged by reporters. ibid.
The rump force of special prosecutors sat tight. ibid.
Congress now began talking impeachment. ibid.
22 October 1973: The Watergate crisis was closing in on Richard Nixon. The public mood turned against him when he tried to kill off the Watergate investigation and sacked the special prosecutor in charge of the case. Watergate V: Impeachment
Miss Woods: Tape Erased By Accident. ibid. The Washington Post 27th November 1973
[Leon] Jaworski heard Nixon and his aides plotting how to testify falsely without risking a charge of perjury. ibid.
The decision about Nixon could no longer be avoided. ibid.
The briefcase full of evidence which connected the President to the Watergate cover-up was handed over to the Chief Counsel of the House Impeachment Committee. ibid.
The public were appalled by the language and fascinated by the number of expletives deleted. ibid.
‘We were all reluctant to pay that sword out of the scabbard.’ ibid. Republican Congressman William Cohen
1972: Washington DC police arrest five burglars with political connections at the highest levels. The president is under fire. The Final Report: Watergate, National Geographic 2007
What does the Nixon campaign hope to learn? ibid.
The next morning the story of the break-in falls to two low-ranking reporters at the Washington Post. ibid.
‘I could not muster much moral outrage over a political bugging’. ibid. Nixon’s memoires
A federal grand jury indicts the five Watergate burglars along with Liddy and Hunt. ibid.
Nixon is now facing both a criminal probe from the Justice Department and a political inquiry in the Senate. ibid.
Nixon releases edited transcripts of the White House tapes. ibid.
The House Judiciary Committee passes an article of impeachment. ibid.
He [Nixon] created the Plumbers Unit. ibid.
Nixon’s crime was the Watergate cover-up which he instigated. ibid.
‘This was much worse than we thought. Nixon was worse than we thought. What happened was worse then we thought.’ All the President’s Men Revisited, Carl Bernstein, Discovery 2013
Because the American people had learned the truth about Richard Nixon … Nixon’s downfall had begun two years earlier when five men were caught spying and wiretapping at the Democratic National Headquarters at an office complex called Watergate. ibid.
Nixon’s Law and Order platform was very popular. ibid.
There was something just as odd about the White House response: ‘A third rate burglary’. ibid.
It was a Haldeman operation; it was driven by Nixon. ibid.
‘We are going to use any means; is that clear? ibid.
Woodward met with a highly placed government official … Deep Throat. ibid.
[Mark] Felt was Deep Throat … The number two guy at the FBI. ibid.
Congress: What did the president know and when did he know it? ibid.
‘John Dean’s testimony was on for four days. It was mesmerizing.’ ibid. Alexander Butterfield
Watergate was becoming a bloody mess. Nixon was a wounded president. ibid.
Some 40 people pleaded guilty to Watergate-related crimes. ibid.
‘His dislocated relationship with truth.’ ibid. David Frost
‘I don’t think the public ever really understood the real sin, the crime, the import, of Watergate.’ Watergate: The Secret Story, Walter Cronkite, CBS 1992
‘This was third-world dictatorship. This was lawlessness. This was above the law and beyond reproach. These were people who had satisfied themselves they could not be touched.’ ibid. Berl Bernhard
20 years ago on June 17th 1972 in the dead of night a group of men working for the Committee to Re-Elect Richard Nixon President broke in to the offices of the Democratic National Committee here at the Watergate office complex. ibid.
There were two break-ins: the first was actually undetected, but when the burglars discovered one of the wire-taps they planted wasn’t working they went in a second time. ibid.
The president was unaware his own phone had been bugged. ibid.
The money trail was leading to a slush fund. ibid.
Nixon refused to give up the tape, and Archibald Cox was about to have him held in contempt. ibid.
Three days after the Saturday Massacre, 22 bills of impeachment were introduced in Congress, and the president released the subpoenaed tapes. ibid.
In July 1973 the detection of Nixon’s taping system would lead to the discovery of the Watergate cover-up, the indictment of key members of the White House staff and the end of the Nixon presidency. Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment. One of the original articles of impeachment addressed the concealment of the Cambodian bombing from Congress. When the impeachment was dropped so was the investigation into the secret bombing. The Trials of Henry Kissinger, director Eugene Jarecki, 2002
It wasn’t a third-rate burglary; first off, there were four attempts to burglarize the workaday offices of the Democratic National Committee; plus, the very same crew tried to break into the Chilean embassy here in Washington looking for the same thing. Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann radio show 2012, Youtube part I
The Mafia [connection with Nixon] is the reason for Watergate. ibid. part II
Nixon could not let this information – that one secret Cuban dossier compiled by Fidel Castro … He did not want all that stuff to come out. ibid.
It wasn’t just Woodward & Bernstein … James McCord [CIA]: wrote a letter … to the judge … The story would have died but for McCord’s letter. ibid.
The police said they were thoroughly professional, the suspects are saying nothing, and the Democrats say they have no idea who would want to spy on them. ABC News: Dark Days at the White House: The Watergate Scandal and the Resignation of Richard M Nixon, Youtube 1.00.33, news
McCord implicated two Nixon aides in the break-in. ibid.
‘While the president was involved, that he did realise or appreciate at any time the implications of his involvement.’ ibid. John Dean, evidence to committee
‘Let others wallow in Watergate; we’re going to do our job.’ ibid. Nixon press conference
White House Tapes: 18 Minute Hum. ibid. caption