The First of the Nixon Tapes

When the taping system was installed, Alexander Butterfield explained to the present how the system worked. The transcript is available here.

The audio can be listened to here.

This conversation took place sometime between 7:56 am and 8:58 am on Tuesday 16th February 1971.

Coverage of the Watergate Hearings

PBS broadcast this programme about TV coverage of the Watergate Hearings.

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The Watergate Tapes

I was in Oxford today for a conference on Watergate: 40 years on. I presented a paper about the Watergate Effect on the November 1974 elections entitled, "Who's the Daddy: The Influence of the Watergate Scandal in the Election of the "Watergate Babies".

But the conference's highpoint was a spell-binding hour and a half during which Alexander Butterfield, Deputy Assistant to President Nixon; and John R Price, Special Assistant to President Nixon for Urban Affairs - shared their memories; observations and thoughts about Richard Nixon. I can't express how incredibly fascinating their talks were - and will return to some of them in later posts.

The video below shows Butterfield before the Senate Watergate Committee - and captures the moment when the investigation takes a completely new turn - and the rest, as they say is history...

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Memories

Forty years ago today, I attended a meeting in Walsall at which the Leader of the Opposition of the time, Harold Wilson, spoke. A week later he was Prime Minister, after an eventful general election and a weekend in which Ted Heath attempted to put together a coalition in order to remain in power.

I'd been introduced to politics four years previously. During the general election of 1970 my father had taken me to a number of political meetings. I met Roy Jenkins and George Brown - leading figures in the Labour Party at the time. (Jenkins signed my autograph book, Brown refused to - he was defeated at the election - coincidence????) My father was never active himself, but gave me the opportunity to explore politics. My interest continued during the years of the Heath Government - I followed closely the moves towards Britain's entry into the EEC (now the EU). As I was the first male in my family for at least three generations not to go straight from school down the mines - I took a keen interest in the Miner's Strike which led to the calling of the 1974 General Election. At that election my parents let me go to some of the local meetings - where I met Bruce George (who I was later to work with) and Geoff Edge (who became my local MP - and who encouraged my interest in politics (and Milton Keynes - where he had been an Open University lecturer and councillor)). These two young would-be MPs both gave me useful advice and I shall always be grateful to both of them.

On the Sunday before the election, there was the rally in Walsall Town Hall. Geoff & Bruce spoke - as did the other Walsall candidate - John Stonehouse. Harold Wilson was the main speaker. For me February 24th has always been seen as my political "birthday". I'd taken an interest before then, but afterwards, I became truly involved. Although too young to join the Labour Party, I helped give out leaflets (and in the October 1974 election helped cut up copies of the electoral register to paste onto cards for the "Get Out the Vote" activities on election day - I'm glad technology has moved on!)

For me 1974 was a momentous year. Sadly my Grandfather passed away on March 31st. We had been down in South Wales as his end neared. I'd seen him for the last time in the afternoon, & my mother stayed on at the hospital until he died a couple of hours later.  She remained with my grandmother as my father drove my sister and I back home to Aldridge. I guess I'm one of the few people who can remember exactly where they were at the moment the local government map was massively redrawn. At midnight old counties disappeared - and new ones emerged, as did many councils. It was exactly midnight as we crossed the border from Wales into England (quite possibly we were the last people to leave the historic county of Monmouthshire - which at that moment became Gwent). I learned a lot about my grandfather's story in the subsequent weeks - which further radicalised me. He had been a coalminer - who suffered long periods of unemployment in the 1930s.

My interest in politics extended to US politics - and the year was dominated by the unfolding Watergate story. Then in August Nixon finally resigned (& I spent hours glued to the TV)!. In Britain we had a second general election - and I had my first time as a candidate!

During the election Ted Heath came to Aldridge for a question and answer session. I was offered a ticket by someone I had met during the February election when I had attended meetings of all the major parties. (I'm convinced that he thought that I might be persuaded out of my preference for Labour!). At the invite-only meeting Ted Heath was asked questions which were all along the lines of "tell us how wonderful you are, Mr Heath?". As a very nervous young lad of 14 I stuttered out a question about the EEC, which while hardly piercing, was not sycophantic. The next day I was told that my question got onto the late night regional news summary. The Labour Candidate in our school mock-election, immediately stood down and I was made the Labour candidate - making my first speech in the school hall. If I recall, I pushed the vote for Labour up from 10 (the result in February) to 113. The rest is - as they say - history. (if not a particularly glorious one!!!!).

November 21 saw the Birmingham bombings. We were less than 10 miles away. One of the girls in my class had a sister who had been in Birmingham that evening, but had moved onto another pub. It was a shocking time. That news overshadowed another piece of local news. One of the three Labour MPs for Walsall was missing, believed drowned off Miami Beach. John Stonehouse had been the most senior of the three Labour MPs elected for Walsall constituencies in 1974. He had been a former minister. I was genuinely saddened. I hadn't got to know him as I had Bruce George and Geoff Edge. He was more aloof, but I had briefly met him. The next shock was to come on Christmas Eve. In the newspapers was the report that he had turned up in Australia. The local police thought they might have discovered the infamous Lord Lucan - instead it was the missing MP.

So for me, 1974 has a lot of memories - was it really 40 years ago!!!

Philip Lacovara

I'm currently making (I hope) final amendments to my Ph.D. dissertation on Whips in the UK Parliament and US Congress. While searching for the date of a particular event (the event was described in a previous section on 95th Congress, but is being shifted to a description of the challenges faced by John Brademas [Majority Whip in the 95th and 96th Congresses], so I needed the date) - I discovered an interview in the "Washington Lawyer" of January 2005.

It was given by Philip Lacovara. My interest in him resulted from his resignation as head of an investigation into the Koreagate scandal. A South Korean, Tongsun Park, had been seeking to buy influence with members of Congress. He was ultimately indicted for bribery and corruption. [He escaped punishment in exchange for testimony but reappears in the Iraq "Oil for Food" scandal, for which he served time in prison]. Lacovera resigned because of disagreements he had with the Ethics Committee chair, John J Flint. John A Farrell ["Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century"] says the argument was "over [Lacovara's] aggressive pursuit of John Brademas and John McFall", while contemporary newspaper stories refer to concerns that Lacovara had about the infrequency of committee meetings hampering his investigation. [Congressional Quarterly Almanac 1977] In the 2005 article he said "I had a flap with the committee chairman, who, in my view, was obstructing the investigation"

Lacovara had been an assistant to the Watergate special prosecutors, Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski. He appeared before the Supreme Court to argue that Nixon should be ordered to hand over the tapes of meetings he had been involved in. [US v Nixon]. At the time of his involvement in investigated Watergate and Koreagate, he was only in his early thirties. The interview can be accessed here.

Watergate - Let us never forget

From the time the story was developing (I was a schoolboy at the time), I have been fascinated by Watergate. I might even go as far to say that it developed my life long interest in both US Politics – and the issue of how to control the abuse of power. [I am a lecturer in Constitutional Law – and I always stress (some might say ‘bore for England’) the importance of the first part of Lord Acton’s dictum that “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely” – and the consequent need for scrutiny of the use of power].

Over the years I have collected a number of books and other resources about the break in and the subsequent events. If you look at my Facebook profile – (jdavidmorgan) you’ll see that I list “All the President’s Men” as one of my favourite films – I watch that as often as some people watch “The Sound of Music”. If you haven’t watched it – I thoroughly recommend that you do so. Guess what I’m planning to do on Sunday? I have the autobiographies of Richard Nixon, Chuck Colson, G Gordon Liddy, Mark Felt (‘Deep Throat’), H R Haldeman’s “The Ends of Power”; and a copy of the Ervin Committee Report (and of course Woodward and Bernstein’s two books – ‘All the President’s Men’ and ‘The Final Days’). I have the Frost interviews as well as the more recent book and film about them, and many books about Nixon.

It can be too easy in a mature democracy to forget how far people are prepared to go to acquire and hold on to power. Too often we can concentrate on describing political events and procedures; discuss policies and personalities – but we should never forget the importance of scrutinising and controlling the use of power.

Richard Nixon

Today would be the 99th Birthday of President Richard Nixon - one of the most controversial, and interesting, Presidents. Follow this link to C-SPAN for resources on his life.

The most significant President?

One of our "Washminster community" posed the following question - "who do you consider to be the most significant US President post WW2?" (full comment here)

What an interesting question - and I'll happily publish any comments that you might make. Our original contributor wrote "Personally I think Nixon is very significant - a man who was in many respects a successful president, but unfortunately isn't always regarded in this manner. .. Whilst being significant at the time, was Watergate really as big a presidential faux-pas as historians would like us to believe in the light of more recent political scandals and failure - I think not."

I have to say I find Nixon endlessly fascinating. I probably agree that "Watergate" is actually one of the lesser criticisms that can be made of the man. I'm currently looking at the other conflicts he had with Congress - over impoundment (where Congress authorised certain expenditure and voted to appropriate it - but Nixon refused to comply with the decision of the legislative branch) and over War Powers (back yet again!). These are serious constitutional issues - about the proper roles of the Executive and the Legislative branches - and of course there were his claims about the extent of Executive Privilege.

LBJ was another fascinating President - I have to say, I don't think I could have stomached him personally, but he certainly got things done!

I'll return to the question soon - but in the meantime - do let me have YOUR comments

Colombey-les-Deux Eglises

Yesterday, I posted about Nixon's "final" press conference. Six years later he became President - after a short withdrawal from public life. Charles de Gaulle also retired from public life, only to return - finally as President of the Fifth Republic. In fact he retired so often that - as an entry in Wikipedia says (and which appears word for word in a disturbing number of other webpages!) "Colombey became widely used as a political metaphor for a statesman's temporary withdrawal from political life, until his country would come calling for him again."

Nixon says farewell

Victory speeches are often remembered - concession speeches seldom are. But here is a reminder of a famous one. Nixon had lost two elections in a row - the Presidency in 1960 and the election for Governor of California in 1962.



The text of the speech can be accessed here. He said "I leave you gentlemen now and you now write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know- just think how much you're goign to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."

Ten years to the day after this speech, he won a massive re-election to the Presidency.

Election

Today is election (and referendum day) in Britain - so I thought I'd share this video with you



I'm your top prime cut of meat, I'm your choice
I wanna be elected
I'm your yankee doodle dandy in a gold Rolls Royce
I wanna be elected

Kids want a savior, don't need a fake
I wanna be elected
We're gonna rock to the rules that I make
I wanna be elected, elected, elected

I never lied to you, I've always been cool
I wanna be elected
I gotta get the vote, and I told you about school
I wanna be elected, elected, elected

Hallelujah, I wanna be elected
Everyone in the United States of America
We're gonna win this one, take the country by storm
We're gonna be elected

You and me together, young and strong
We're gonna be elected, elected, elected
Respected, selected, call collected
I wanna be elected, elected

(note: this was a bit of fun - heavily ironic)

St David

As a Welshman (well to be strictly correct, of Welsh ancestry - I was born in a part of Coventry - which at the time was in the district of Meridan - which is the geographic centre of England), I will today be celebrating the Welsh national day. St David was a welshman (note to my English & Scottish friends - it's a good idea to have as your patron saint someone from the country! St Andrew was from Palestine and St George - if he ever existed! - would have been Turkish), born in the late fifth or early sixth century. He was both the founder of many churches, (including the 'bed-hus' or chapel, which he is said to have founded in the village of "Betws" where my mother's family come from.) and an able administrator.

A webpage about St David can be found here.

If you are thinking about visiting Wales - the Tourist Board's website is here.

Many famous Americans have Welsh ancestry - including Presidents Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, and Nixon; Confederate President Jefferson Davis; Vice President Hubert Humphrey - Secretary of State Clinton and many others.

There is a book about the 150 most famous Welsh Americans.

Richard Nixon

As February 6th approaches, expect to hear from conservatives about the birthday of Ronald Reagan - it will be the centenary of his birth. We probably won't hear too much today about another Presidential birthday. Richard Nixon was born on this day in 1913 (yes, that's right - the Vice President from the 1950s was younger than the 1980's President!)

Whatever else may be said about the 37th President - he was most of the most interesting characters of the Twentieth Century.

Final Address to Staff



Books about Nixon









One of my favourite movies of all time

93rd Congress

Election Day (November 7th) 1972 saw a massive landslide for the incumbent President, Richard Nixon. He carried 49 States - winning 520 votes in the Electoral College. His Democratic opponent, George McGovern gained just 17 Electoral College votes on 37.5% of the popular vote. He didn't even win his own state of South Dakota.

On the face of it, Nixon couldn't have done better - but problems were not far from the surface. The greatest, the Watergate Scandal, was growing - and just 20 months later Nixon had become the first US President to resign in disgrace. The Vice President elected that November day (Spiro Agnew) was himself out of office after being charged with bribery and pleading "no contest"  to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967.

The Watergate scandal involved the bugging of the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate Building in Washington DC. The arrest of the burglars in the office occured on June 17th - and the conversation which was to bring down Nixon occured on June 23rd - accessible here. Watergate was to dominate the work of the 93rd Congress.

The elections of November 7th 1972 had not been as bad for the Democrats as the disastrous Presidential Election. They lost 13 seats in the House of Representatives, but still held a comfortable position with 242 seats to the Republicans' 192. (51.7% of the popular vote - down a mere 1.3%). In the Senate the democrats gained a net two seats - resulting in a 56-42 split. Joe Biden was one of the newly elected senators who defeated a Republican. The Senate results though saw the Democrats' popular vote fall by 6.9% while the Republicans increased their popular vote by 12.5%.

Before the Congress came into existence, the ruling Democratic caucus had elected Tip O'Neill as the new Majority Leader. It has also made changes to the seniority rules which were to be further reformed at the start of the 94th Congress. New members entered the House which set the scene for major changes in the House's  practices. In February the Democratic caucus voted to to require all House Committee hearings to be open (unless for National Security or Personal matters). A bipartisan committee was set up under Richard Bolling to consider reforms to the House Rules - which recommended major changes, but this was sidelined by the Democratic caucus. Instead the matter was referred to the Hansen Committee - which was more modest.

Congress had already attempted to investigate aspects of Watergate. An earlier Washminster post has considered the investigation in the summer of 1972 by the Committee on Banking and Currency. It ended its investigation - but the 93rd Congress saw the establishment of the Ervin Committee in February 1973. The hearings were televised. In 1974 the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee were authorised to investigate whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach President Nixon.

It was also in Congress that the fate of Agnew was sealed. He had come under investigation in August 1973 after a federal Grand Jury looking at claims that Maryland public officials had received kickbacks from architects and engineers who had gained contracts for public works projects, had found evidence of payments to the (former) Governor of the State. In order to forestall indictment, Agnew came up with the idea of submitting his case to the House of Representatives. While he could face impeachment, the process could have been dragged out for many months. In late September he called on the Speaker, Carl Albert, and requested that the House, rather than the Baltimore grand jury, judge his case. There was an 1826 precedent for this. Tip O'Neill, who was later to be Speaker, was sceptical of the request. An attempt by Albert to the Judiciary Committee was out-manouevered by O'Neill. Days later Agnew resigned the vice-presidency. A detailed description of the events can be found in John A Farrell's "Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century".



The 93rd Congress also passed much legislation - the most well known today being the War Powers Resolution. It was vetoed by Nixon - but the veto was overridden on 7th November 1973. A Congressional Research Service paper on the topic - prepared in 2004 - is available here.

Nixon Impeachment Hearings

Contemporary Reports on the Hearings



The Vote



Some Background