with the police or anything complicated, i probably wouldn't have done it. where to begin? we've had a long time to chat with bob haldeman and we have the opportunity and the question is where to start. here you were working -- you worked four years in washington as nixon's number two man, nixon's sob as you called. never went to a game without you. never went anywhere without you. >> pretty close to right. >> what you're accusing yourself of is a cloudy crystal ball. that's hardly what the american

public thinks it's titled to, that's the issue. >> whale maybe the american public is wrong. i know in my own heart and head what i did, why i did it. >> okay. >> i know that i made mistakes, i deeply regret those mistakes. >> as richard nixon's right hand man he was recorded on the tapes. >> i had the rare privilege for four years for serving on the white house staff under one of america's greatest presidents. >> h.j. haldeman found guilty on five counts in the watergate trial. >> do you regret what happened and what you did? >> sir, the country lost motion, a lot of the good things that we were working on in the way of domestic reforms were lost in the mess. you can't help but regret an

aftermath of that kind. a lot of good people had their lives spoiled in the process. >> john ehrlichman, gives you the idea they are holding something. >> domestic advisor john ehrlichman guilty. >> the references to like an era of criminality or people there were trying to rape the country of it's democracy, i mean, i just don't see it that way. >> he was linked in several reports to the watergate case, alleged sabotage with the

campaign. >> he was charged with lying to the grand jury. >> you can't take that piece of history which may be the darkest days of his career and construct something that tells you about that man.

♪ ♪

do you richard milhouse nixon do solemnly swear.

>> i do solemnly swear. >> that you will faithfully execute the office. >> that i will faithfully execute the office. >> of president of the united states. >> of president of the united states. states. states. >> and will to the best of your ability. >> and will to the best of my ability. >> preserve, protect and defend. >> preserve, protect and defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states. >> so help you god? >> so help me god. [ applause ] >> the new president was in his office here at the white house at 7:30 this morning before anyone else on his staff and after only about four hours sleep. he's felt for some time he can do this job pretty well and he

was eager to get at it. >> president elect nixon today named another long-term aid h.r. haldeman served as chief of staff for the nixon campaign. haldeman is the closest thing to an alter ego the president has known for conservative views, his crew cut and non-stop video taking. ♪ ♪ >> it was just an extremely exciting time for all of us. it was terribly hard work and very, very long difficult hours, but it was exciting because you were building something. there was no great aid trust involved in this and no thought at all of becoming permanently involved in either politics or government. it was, it was the thing i felt would be an interesting experience where i could make a

contribution and something that would be a learning experience and an interesting experience for me. so that's why i did it. >> the white house staff as it evolves, i think you'll find will be smaller than it's been in the past. i know you'll find it will probably be the youngest one in history, certainly one of the youngest. >> also named as a special assistant was another man, 27-year-old dwight chapin. he seconded as mr. nixon's personal aid. >> you got to keep in mind i was 27 years old at that point, and we had just gone through this campaign, and i was just waiting to see what unfolded. the day i went in and interviewed for the job, and i met this young 35-year-old crew cut guy by the name of bob haldeman and bob haldeman changed my life. i've never laughed as much as

when i worked in the nixon white house. the sense of humor was the leveling factor. things, messes we would find ourselves in or whatever it might be. >> i think a lot of younger staff people here find that he can far excel than in terms of energy and stamina. >> i took a camera on all my trips, a super 8 and i have quite a collection of film. >> john ehrlichman, a lawyer that went on the campaign tour will have an advisory role. >> i think this first year we'll see as basically the time of reform. >> ehrlichman is chief of affairs and under study. >> i was not a passoniate nixon person going in, probably if some college friend invited me to go advance for john kennedy,

i might have gone. there were very few illusions about richard nixon, i think, among senior staff as we got into things, a good deal of kind of dry humor about his mannerisms and prejudices but nevertheless, you work for the president of the united states. he's the only president around. you-all elected him. we all worked for him and it's up to us to make it work. >> it was a very unnatural kind of life, and you had the feeling you were in the middle of a great big, brilliantly lighted, badly run television show. i was taken a whole movie of this throughout. ♪

>> i advanced the first trip to europe, eight countries and found myself hobnobbing with the king of belgium and the pope and all these folks and it got to be very heavy very fast. ♪

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germans and describe their office as the build in war. i spoke to the advisors, henry, john ehrlichman and haldeman. everyone these days knows who henry kissenger is but h.r. haldeman's job is not an easy, tighty one to describe and of the three he's been by his own choice the least visible to the public. he's one of the three to never give an television interview until now. his friends talk of his brilliance, his efficiency, telephone dedication to the president and his lack of personal ego or jealousy. people call him cold, arrogant. this interview was filmed a week ago in mr. haldeman's office at the white house. you have no calendar? you really follow the president's day.

you're available, as i understand it, from 7:00 in the morning and on and on and on. what does this do to your personal life? >> well, it poses some problems in it sometimes, but i have fortunately, a very understanding wife and four very interested and understanding children. >> do your sons want you to grow your hair longer? >> i was afraid you would probably ask that. you've probably seen the picture of my sons that we sent out for christmas, but -- because my older son has what i would call very long hair and my younger son has pretty long hair. >> they don't look like daddy? >> they don't. i face the fact they are is this in style and i'm out of step in hair styling and i'm afraid they are right and i'm wrong on that one. >> you have said, i'm using one of your quotes again, i often find it fascinating to ponder by what standards history will judge nixon when all the partisan battles are over. well, how do you think he will

be judged? >> if he has the opportunity to move ahead with what he's trying to do, i think there isn't any doubt he'll be judged as one of the great presidents. >> good morning. man is about to launch himself on a trip to the moon. the expectation of landing there. man going to the moon here this morning from this florida complex with the rocket. the rocket will put the men into orbit 115 miles above the earth for 1.5 orbits and then the third stage will put them on their way -- ♪

>> go ahead, mr. president. this is houston. >> hello, neal and buzz, i'm talking to you by telephone from the oval room at the white house and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the white house and as you talk to us from the sea of tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth. for one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this earth are truly one, one in their pride in what you have done. >> armstrong is on the moon, neal armstrong, 38-year-old american standing on the surface of the moon on this july 20th,

1969. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for man kind. a typical day for me, haldeman would pick me up around 7:15. the car would get bob, then it would get larry higby, bob's aid, and then it would swing by my house and then into the white house. i am responsible for the scheduling and also for the president's daily activities. our thing was a machine, and i knew my place.

it really reflected a lot about richard nixon, the degree to which he wanted things controlled. >> it literally was from 6:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night every day of the week and saturdays and sundays, too. and that pace was unremitting, totally consuming for somebody like me. i was very tough on people feeling that i had to be. there is something about the presidency that i've been ridiculed from my picking up the navy term of zero detects that you have to operate as close to zero defect as you can. and i was not overly concerned with whether people like me as a result of it or not, i was only

concerned with the result the president wanted that carried out. changing hands online. that's why the internet needs a new kind of server. one that's 80% smaller. uses 89% less energy. and costs 77% less. it's called hp moonshot. and it's giving the internet the room it needs to grow. this ...is going to be big. it's time to build a better enterprise. together.

[ inaudible ]

why didn't you burn the tapes? surely you talked about it. >> well, the question came up at one point, should the tapes be destroyed, and my strong recommendation was that they should not be destroyed. >> that was a mistake, wasn't it mr. haldeman? >> yes, sir, i would say given happened, it was a disastrous thing to have done but there was never a thought that one word of those tapes would be played in public or be played to other people, and when it got to the point of having to release them

or having even to consider the possibility of releasing them, they should have been, in my opinion now, should have been destroyed. >> i had no idea about the taping system. no, no. >> did you ever talk to haldeman about that? >> no, never. >> john, you didn't know about the taping system in the oval office, did you? >> no. >> did it come as a surprise? >> it did. our white house staff was essentially a dysfunctional organization. i think nixon believed that he didn't have to share every piece of information with everybody. listening to the tapes is very revealing because he's talking to others about me, and what i should know and what he didn't want me to know. and he did the same thing with

kissenger and the same thing with a lot of people. several times i recall his saying to me, don't tell henry. he kept little watertight compartments of information, and it didn't work very well. >> dan rather, who has closely observed the nixon presidency reports now on the first year in office. in 12 months richard nixon proved himself to be under estimated, a political manager to be remembered as a politician like franklin roosevelt. nixon was supremely disciplined. his mind methodical, cautious, given to worry, yes, but never, never let the worries show. control the byword for every public appearance calculate at non-flamboyance. one year does not make or break any president, a first year does

set directions, but the past year is the principle directions of the nixon direction are reforming the machinery of government at home and laying political foundations that will have republicans repressing democrats as the majority party ñc

president nixon's primary focus, person attention was almost totally dedicated to ending the war on vietnam. ending the war on vietnam. nixon tried to move into the committed areas of welfare reform, some areas of economic reform but the one factor which really totally overrode all of those factors was vietnam. >> i had been in the office, in the president's office several different occasions where he had

a hanker chief out and writing notes to parents of the kids that had been killed. so i came from the president was doing the very best he could, and he was trying to end it, and that he -- so i -- i didn't have much compassion for the people in the streets. i respect their right to demonstrate because that's, you know, that's what the country is about. but i mean, i was of the opinion that the demonstrators prolonged the war. they didn't help us get out. they made it worse. and that's just how i view it.

>> mr.er accomplish >> hello? >> yes, sir. >> john, are you home or at the office? >> still at the office. >> that's too bad, too bad. with regard to the matter job with regard to the matter job me, with regard what we do on the things tomorrow -- just a second. yeah, let's face it, it isn't as bad as berkeley had or san francisco had yet. >> i think you can expect these people will be in very massive numbers and that probably the police department will be swamped. they will not be able to handle the numbers. >> what do you mean massive numbers?

>> oh, i think in any one of these 20 intersections, you'll have anywhere from 700 to 1,000, 1,500. something on that kind. >> who is organizing it? >> it's high structured. it's beautifully organized by rennie davis and a whole group of professional organizers have have been at this for a long time. the general conclusion we came to is we should not call troops. >> no, god, no -- >> don't let em say marshall law about the war or this -- >> we leave it to jerry wilson and the police department to conduct their affairs in the normal way. >> what do you want? what do you want? what do you want?

>> good evening. marching behind flags and banners and picket signs demanding peace now, at least 200 thousand anti-war protestors jammed the streets in washington today which was the biggest peace demonstration to be held since six years ago. despite the huge crowd no nixon official spoke at the rally or appeared at the capital platform. ♪ last night i had the strangest dream, i never dreamed before ♪ ♪ i dreamed the world would put an end to war ♪ sing it again. ♪ last night i had the strangest dream, i never dreamed before ♪

♪ i dreamed the world had all the things to put an end to war ♪ sing it again. >> what is important is not just that we are here today because we have been here before, you and i. we've been here before, and we've been other places, and what we have to decide is that we're going to keep coming back until this war ends. >> yes. >> mr. ehrlichman is here. >> hello? >> yeah? yes, sir. >> i bet the television wouldn't show the raunchy ones. >> they did show some. they softened it a good deal. they didn't describe the profanity or any of that sort of thing.

>> so they came off better on television? >> they came off better than they should have been considering what they pulled. >> well there you are, yeah. the postal service is critical to our economy. delivering mail, medicine and packages, yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service and want to layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue

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good evening, my fellow americans. a few weeks ago i saw demonstrators carrying signs reading lose in vietnam, bring the boys home. ai any american has a right to reach that conclusion and advocate that point of view, but as president of the united states, i would be untrue to my oath of office if i allowed the policy of this nation to be dictated by the minority that hold that point of view and try to impose it on the nation by amounting demonstrations in the street. so tonight, to you, the great silent majority on my fellow americans, i ask for your support. i pledged in my campaign for the

presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace. i have pledged to you tonight that i shall meet this responsibility with all of the strength and wisdom i can command in accordance with your hopes, mindful of your concerns, sustained by your prayers. thank you and good night. >> hello? >> yes, sir. >> that was great. i must say i put an awful lot of emotion into it. i don't know whether it got through. >> it sure did. the last part, of course, was a -- was quite a work of art to be frank with you. >> it sure was. >> put that and compress it with that and say it without being -- and yet, to have emotion with

style. >> it sure was. >> did you talk to the vice president? >> yeah, i talked to him. >> and gram? >> and gram. i talked to those three because i felt i should. rockefeller called, the hell with him but it was a god damn good speech. >> that is coming through, all the way through. >> want to give me a run down? >> sure, o'neil at the new york daily news said it was the most effective job you've done yet and adequately answered critics but retained the responsibility you'll need in the time ahead. it will really get through to the american people. it was honest and sincere. >> uh-huh. >> and george mcgovern didn't like it. he said it won't change anything. >> that's great. wouldn't want him to say anything. well, what the hell?

it doesn't make any difference. as i say, tomorrow, we'll just live through the day and we've heard from only the cabinet officers, which i expected. >> we had more than that. >> no, that's all. rogers, mitchell, hodgson. >> we isn't heard from conly, though, that the curious. >> call him and ask him what he thought of it? >> sure. >> want me to call you back then? >> if you would. yes. >> all right. ♪ we are americans, we hope that you are, too ♪

♪ our soles are here for you ♪ ♪ ♪ [ cheers ] it was irish night at the white house, a solute to the visiting prime minister with dancers from castle shannon, yet the crowd could hardly wait, the president and mrs. nixon ended it in a suspensionble move. >> i understand i'm supposed to make a surprise announcement. [ laughter ]

>> the difficulty is that every time i'm supposed to make a surprise announcement, i find someway it's leaked before i get to make it. even though the information may have leaked out, until i say it, it's not official. [ applause ] [ laughter ] >> and so tonight, mrs. nixon and i are very honored to announce the engagement of our daughter tricia to mr. edward cox of new york. [ applause ] ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [ applause ] ro oll-ars." it sounds like you're saying "dollus."

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. now to common rate this event we have a special guest. it's very difficult to describe them. most of you have heard them, and if the music is square, it's because i like it square. [ laughter ]

>> president nixon, stop bombing human beings, animals and vegetation. you go to church on sunday and pray to jesus christ. if jesus christ were here tonight, you wouldn't drop another bomb. bless daniel ellsberg. [ music playing ] ♪ ♪

>> new york times began publishing a partial test of the study in the pentagon relating to the origins of american involvement in vietnam. five days later, ""the washington post" began with the same report. on the 22nd, the boston globe joined the times and post and had additional information. it was classified so according to the government, they were not to be made public. ♪ ♪ >> the president, the attorney general call add couple times about these "new york times" stories and he's advised unless he puts "the times" on notice he'll waive any right of prosecution. >> to prosecute the times? >> yes. >> i wouldn't prosecute the

times. i would prosecute the pricks that -- >> if you can find out who that is. >> the single name has been mentioned as the possible source of the times document. daniel ellsbury, something of a phantom figure. >> i think we cannot at all let the officials of the executive branch determine for us what it is that the public needs to know about how well and how they are discharging their functions. ♪ ♪ >> he went, he volunteered for service in vietnam. he's so nuts he drives around vietn vietnam.

[ applause ] >> the pentagon report is only the beginning in itself in complete history. there will be much more. then temptation will be great for a witch hunt, the unmasking of vil longs. the president was famous. kissenger was furious. it was just a tense, tense time. >> the irony of pentagon papers is they were not critical of

nixon. they were very critical of the johnson administration but nixon said that classified documents, sec fret documents ought not toe stole and get away that got into the hands of foreign governments and part of them in the papers and the president and kissenger were upset this man would be doing these things. you were so mad at this dirty guy, i don't have to tell you or anyone else that the anger and the resentment towards ellsberg was near hysterical levels in the white house. this didn't develop into hay friday for ellsberg but cold-blooded and in my view a misguided attempt to discredit ellsberg in the public eye. because at the time daniel bells burg was being made a public hero and there was an effort to show this man was gnat nenot

necessarily the great savior of the nation many portrayed him s as. >> i think i've changed during the time i was in the white house. ♪ ♪ >> i'm not sure whether it was for the better, it probably was not for the time i was there. when you first go in there, at least when i first went in there, i asked a lot of hard questions. why are we doing it this way? what's the justification for this program? why are we spending this money? why does this fellow work here? those kinds of things. after a couple years, i felt

like i was defending the status quo rather than challenging it and trying to get it repaired and changed and made better. and that was not satisfying to me at all. i had a sense that i was becoming part of the problem and not the solution. and i remember one day thinking i had just moved that pile of firewood from over there to over here and i would have to move it from back to there over here and thinking to myself how strange it was to come to this historic place, dealing with great issues, seeing the president of the united states two or three times a day and feeling like i was just in the business of moving firewood around. i thought to myself, well, if it's come to that point, i was out of here. nixon and haldeman talked me

into staying. >> {indiscernibleindiscernible][

he got into the discussion with me about henry losing tactic. he feels that he is too much of a good guy telling people what they want to know whether than what we want them to know and offered the need for kissen ger to be more discreet in publish and washington d.c. he feels it's okay for him to be a swinger in california but shouldn't be in washington and the white house is next to the most glamorous anymore but near some intelligent and interesting woman instead.

good evening. i have requested this television time tonight to announce a major development in our efforts to build a lasting peace in the world. i sent dr. kissinger national security during his recent world tour for having talks. the announcement i shall now read is being issued same tine usely in the united states. on behalf of the government of the people's republic of china

extended an invitation to president nixon to visit china at an appropriate date before may 1972. president nixon has accepted the invitation with pleasure. ♪ ♪ >> in two decades, every american president has been presented to the chinese people and the arch enemy with hate l capitalism and imperil list m. most recognize it as a momentum step that can change the whole complexion of this world. >> i found out i was going to china from bob haldeman. i was the acting chief of political for that trip, and it was one of the great mountain top experiences. the thing about the flight to

china was one of the things was that it was just kind of surreal. the plane is taking off to go to china and we got a television set there watching us take off. i mean, it -- everything about that trip was televised. i mean, it was a production from start to finish. >> the president will journey in the dead of winter, severe in the chinese capital issued at 4:00 a.m. time and the first american president to visit mainland china. >> as president nixon pointed out on a number of occasions, he shall try in the meetings with the leaders of the people's republic of china to seek a direction of the two countries and end the isolation of the two great peoples from each other.

>> four hours after his arrival. mr. nixon is taken. the fact that chairman mow is considered significant by diplomatic observers. >> funny, when i came out of my room and meeting with the chairman, he was holding a tangerine in his hand, took a bite of it and about half the tangerine in one bite. indiscernibl[indiscernible].

>> included is an evening at the opera to see a ballet that depicts the over throw of the cruel landlord but female communest partisan. >> the evening ballet performance was quite an experience. a complete properaganda operati extremely well done. the people behind me explained the aspects of the ballet and when they stood on points. it was whether on sight to see the president clapping at the end for that kind of thing, which would have been horrifying at home, but it all seems to fit together somehow here.

>> it's been somber in pea king but a light snow has fell. men and women with brooms began sleeping it up flakily flake and had no dimming affect on president nixon and the third long conversation.

>> i got to tell you the story on henry is really -- he called me last night about it. >> oh, it's unbelievable. henry talks about the china trip and said the thing appealing to the public is i -- he, henry -- did it alone. he said it did it all by myself, the whole china initiative. what happened? was there some girl he met at a party or something. >> rogers made to me yesterday and said henry is always very careful in what he says publicly to build up the president but never private life. when he knows he'll be quoted he

makes a point of how great the job the president is doing but never privately. whenever he knows of what a great job the president's doing but where it really ends he builds himself. >> call me back. i'm going to leave at 11:30. bye. >> bye.

we all have kids the same age, at ice skating parties, just all kinds of things. we're in our 30s and we're, you know, living. ♪ ♪ >> there were pranks. there were these incredible friendships. and it was our -- our senses of humor and our personalities that made it all, you know, nice. >> illegal bugging apparently was one of aim of the team which

broke into the democratic national headquarters in washington over the weekend and the political background in the men involved kicked up a storm. the watergate office complex in washington has a fortress like appearance and noted for security, but the burglars penetrated it to break into the sixth floor offices of the democratic national committee. material from files was found in their possession. they called the information mundane. here in the adjoining hotel police took expensive photograph a and eavesdropping gear. >> it's hardly five men. one of them, clearly, under contract and employed by both the republican national commit knit and the campaign to reelect the president, this, i thought, this administration was a law and order administration and i have never seen such a violation of individual rights as we have

seen in this instance. >> i must say that it's the legacy of years of wiretapping and snooping and violation of privacy in which the government itself has been too deeply involve involved. >> tonight i proudly accept your nomination as president of the united states. [ cheers ] >> and let us take ourselves to a greater victory in this november of 1962. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ nixon now ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

president nixon's victory in the election is surely one of the biggest land slides ever. let's look to the popular vote with all of the countings. nixon ahead. this adds up to a record-breaking 521 electoral votes for president nixon who won 49 states mcgovern had 17 electoral votes. >> at first it was called the watergate caper, five men apparently caught in the act of burglarizing and bugging

democratic headquarters in washington but the episode grew more sinister the longer a caper, -- affair escalating into a high level campaign into sabotage. the charges center about a man whose very name in italian is secrets. >> donald segretti reports say white house aids recruited segretti for dirty tricks against democrats. he went to college with several men in the white house. he was particularly choice to dwight and more. they are investigating.

>> the only obvious problem is the watergate claim deal -- >> yeah. how are you going to handle that? >> i'm of mixed minds but i thought one approach would be to attack the post for picking on a fine, clean, outstanding patriotic young man that came to washington -- >> hearsay. >> and done his part. >> why don't you use the word mccarthy -- >> i had that in mind. >> use that line. >> all right. being absolutely mum about the dirtiest campaign against a president in history. there is never been an editorial or reaction at all and it's shocking all the news. >> right. ed. >> good luck. >> all right.

i, richard nixon, do solemnly swear. >> i do richard nixon do solemnly swear.

>> that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states. >> and i will faithfully execute the office of the president of the united states. >> and i will to the best of my ability. >> and i will to the best of my ability. >> preserve and defend the constitution of the united states. >> preserve and defend the constitution of the united states. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. [ applause ] >> john said have you given any thought to the -- what you're going to do next? and i said john, what in the world are you trying to tell me? and he said well, i think you need to figure out what you're going to do next. and i said does bob know this? and he said bob asked me to talk

to you. i could not believe it. so the next day i flew to camp david and bob met me and we went to a cabin and talked and we were both crying, and he said it looked like it was going to be a political problem for the president because of this stuff, and this guy samm irvin may hol hearings and it's probably better for your career and stuff if you move on. it was just horrible. i -- there is nothing that can describe how i felt. so i sucked it up, said yes, sir, went into the men's room to get myself straightened up and there is the attorney general of the united states richard bawling like a baby. he had just met with him. i'm thinking to myself, this

thing is surreal. i can't believe it. so i went and got on the helicopter and started figuring out my life. >> leon said if the american people have not demanded action in the watergate scandal, it might have grown into outrages as great as those in nazi germany. >> here again, you're into this verbal excess thing that just seems to be as easy to do after the fact -- >> question, what was the mentality? what was the mind set in the nixon white house that led to watergate? >> watergate didn't lead from there. didn't come from the nixon white house and i don't think there

was a mind set that led to watergate. the president is out of office. men in the nixon white house went to jail. what was the mind set? what happened? >> that's the problem. i don't know what happened. >> burglary had nothing to do with richard nixon at the time it occurred. if he kept distance between himself and that whole episode, he didn't know about that in advance. i never heard anybody come forward with evidence that he did. if he had kept distance between himself and that episode and just said, you know, those guys did it, they will have to take their punishment, that is what could have saved richard nixon i'm persuaded. quick surgery, but he was the compulsive man. he had to get involved. he had to -- he had to dabble in this -- in this conspirator spy

stuff, and he pulled it all into his office. what is the dumbest thing you did? the dumbest thing i did was not to go to him when i realized this and say look, if you don't go out there and make a clean part of this thing, i'll go to the press room and tell them everything i know about this and walk out of here. >> do you think you would have the courage to do that? >> obviously i didn't. i just was -- i was not playing with a full deck. i just didn't know at the time one, that there were tapes, two, that he was as deeply involved as he was. >> president nixon has requested time on the networks this evening for a report on vietnam. >> good evening. i have asked for this radio and

television time tonight for the purpose of announcing that we, today, have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in vietnam and in southeast asia. the following statement is being issued at this moment in washington. at 12:30 paris time today, january 1937 t73 it was issued hen henry kissinger. let us resolve together to make the peace we have achieved, a peace that will last. thank you. and good evening.

>> haldeman, please. >> thank you. >> yes, sir? >> would be amused to hear dan rather and they were green and sick. they are all just sick about the fact -- they weren't happy about it [ male announcer ] break the grip of back or arthritis pain

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. democrats chose sam irvin to incest gate the watergate bugging case. it will be a half million dollar budget.

it was learned some watergate conspirators were in the actions that related to the papers case. it took on a new and more sinister air. >> two burglarize the office of a psychiatrist of ellsberg to get files on him. >> the message of watergate, as i read it, is the same as the message of the pentagon papers, from the eyes of the people that work for the president, all laws stop at the white house fence. >> the entire political system, the entire standard of politics in the country has reached an all-time low. >> the president and his cabinet and his administration oh this

country an explanation and apology. >> i don't respect the type of journalism, the shabby journalism practiced by "the washington post." >> the sources say it was the watergate prosecution that set off the recent series of explosions and further time bombs in president nixon's hands. >> we're in late april of 1973, and i'm really getting beat up in the press. >> yeah, let me get up here to the door and then i'll -- okay. excuse me. here we are. >> i'm going to be following the unvarying practice of having no comment on this matter until the final disposition. >> i have fbi agents in and out of my office all the time and all of a sudden it's dawned on me that i have a serious

problem, nixon has a serious problem and haldeman and others have a serious problem. >> the president flew south to look at damage in mississippi to the senator in the presidential party were h.r. haldeman and john ehrlichman. >> we're on air force one. we're going off to dedicate a john stenus memorial rocket launcher in mississippi, and i'm standing in the flight deck and it occurred to me, for about 30 seconds, that i could crash this airplane, and that would put an end to everybody's problems. mine and nixon's and haldeman's and everybody, everybody who was aboard. i stepped off that airplane and usually the drill is richard nixon steps off the airplane and all the cameras click away and

all that. he got off and nobody paid attention to him. i got off and they were all take taking morgue shots. >> the very last conversation i had with him there, we were talking about this break in in california, the ellsberg psychiatrist break in and he said i didn't know about that. i had to -- i had to indicate to him that he did know about it. that of course, is a totally, totally out of our hand. have you ever heard of such a -- >> yes, sir. >> chief, i've never heard of it. i should have been told about that, shouldn't i?

[ inaudible ] >> i didn't know the tape existed in the room at the time. since that occurred to me he was doing it for the record among other things but at the same time i'm convinced he really didn't know the difference between what was true and what wasn't true. for a long time, and he could

persuade himself of almost anything. which is kind of too bad. >> hello? [ inaudible ]

good evening. president nixon moved at the highest level today to cleanse the white house of the taint of the watergate scandal. the president asked me to announce that he has today received and accepted the regular significant nation of two of the closest friends and must trusted assistants in the white house. in there statements of

resignation. er. >> today i acre cemecepted two closest people in the white house, bob haldeman, johner lich man. i mean to leave no implication whatever of personal wrongdoing on their part and i leave in implication tonight of implication on the part of others who have been charged in this matter. god bless america and god bless each and every one of you.

hello? >> hi. >> i hope i didn't let you down. >> no, sir you got your points over and now you're -- you got to sit right and move on. you're in -- right where you ought to be. >> well, it's a tough thing pop for you, for john, the rest but goddamnit i'm never going to discuss this watergate thing again, never, neverer never. >> interesting thing we never heard -- the only cabinet officer that's called is cap windier bless his soul. waiting to see what the polls show but let me say you're a strong man goddamnit and i love you -- >> [ laughter ] >> and i love john and the all the rest and my god, keep the faith, keep the faith you got to win this. >> i don't know if you can get

reactions and call me back. would you mind? >> i don't think i can. >> i agree. >> don't call a soul. any cabinet officer wine burger an hour afterwards and thank god and no staff member -- >> when i call, the bored says they were instructed not to put any calls through so to held with that. >> i told them to put all the calls through. >> that may be why you haven't got them. >> all right. i'll change it. i'll change it. >> all right. >> god bless you boy, god bless you. i love you as you know. >> okay. >> you're like my brother. >> all right. >> all right. keep the faith. >> right. ance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know some owls aren't that wise? don't forget i'm having brunch with meghan tomorrow.

who? meghan, my coworker. who? seriously? you've met her like three times. who? (sighs) geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know.

president nixon's former appointment secretary was found guilty of lying to the grand jury during the 1972 presidential campaign. >> i will never ever under any circumstance have a regret for any contribution or hardships that have come out of the work that i've done with richard nixo

nixon. >> i loved what i did. and it was very important to me, and i think these friendships just, you know, are golden, and they still exist. >> john ehrlichman is behind bars tonight, the highest-ranking president aid to go to prison so far. >> for myself, i went through a process of being absolutely stripped bare. i woke up realizing there was

nothing left, there just really wasn't anything and it occurred to me that there might be an opportunity, you know, to do it over again, simpler and better. >> h.r. bob haldeman is here to see his daughter graduate from law school. on wednesday, haldeman reports to the federal prison in long pope, california to begin serving a 2.5 to 8-year

sentence. >> i spent five years in a legal defense against, first of all, an investigation and then a charge and then a trial and then a year and a half in prison, all of that time had to work on my defense. the time is here to stop defending, at least on my part and start looking ahead. there is a lot more to my life than watergate. there is a lot more to my life than politics.

♪ ♪ ♪

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

we interrupt programming -- >> we don't know precisely what happened. >> oh my god, he's been shot. >> the president of the united states has been shot. >> i could see it through the viewfinder. even now -- >> an inch from his heart. >> he was minutes away from not making it. >> who is the shooter? >> then he says, if you know about that, you know about everything. >> a bizarre motive. >> he felt the relationship was real. >> he was a really severely disturbed person. >> and his crime changed history. the shooting of ronald reagan, next.