and we broke into daniel ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.e men i used in that operation i used at the watergate, and they're now in the d.c. jail, we've got to get them out." at that point i look upon liddy as pretty radioactive. so i start walking back up towards the executive office building. and he stops me. he said, "you know, i know i've screwed up terribly, and i can understand if you want to take me out. just don't do it at my house." don't do it at my house because i've got children, i don't want anybody there to be injured, but whatever street corner you want me on whatever time you want me there, i understand if you have to do that. and my reaction -- after grasping what he was telling me, i said something to the effect, "gordon, i don't think we're at that stage yet." when i got back to the white house, i went immediately to erlichman's office. to tell him of my conversation with liddy. and erlichman, who is a good poker face, didn't even blink. "john," i said, "i have no background in the criminal law. i don't have anybody on my

and we broke into daniel ellsberg's psychiatrist office.ey're now in the d.c. jail. we've got to get them out. at that point, i look upon liddy as pretty radioactive. so i start walking back up towards the executive office building, and he stops me, and he said, you know, i know i've screwed up terribly, and i can understand if you want to take me out. just don't do it at my house. don't do it at my house, because i've got children. i don't want anybody there to be injured. but whatever street corner you want me on, whatever time you want me there, i understand if you have to do that. my reaction, after grasping what he was telling me, i said something to the effect, gordon, i don't think we're at that stage yet. when i got back to the white house, i went immediately to ehrlichman's office to tell him of my conversation with liddy. and ehrlichman, who is a good poker face, didn't even blink. john, i said, i have no background in the criminal law. i don't have anybody on my staff. i don't know anybody on the white house staff who has crimina

bless daniel ellsberg. >> and so nixon wants something done about it.t to stop these people and that's what led to the plumbers. >> nixon comes up with the idea of creating a unit within the white house that he can have direct control over. they are called the plumbers because they are tracking down leaks. >> the key figures in the plumbers were g. gordon liddy, e. howard hunt, bud krogh, chuck colson and david young. but the two most dangerous were g. gordon liddy and e. howard hunt. g. gordon liddy had been a special agent of the fbi and e. howard hunt had been with the cia. >> in order to protect the lives of our people abroad, we would be justified in a homicide. >> g. gordon liddy used the symbol of the ss when he signed memos. so he is no friend of democracy. the plumbers had two objectives. one was to prevent leaks. the second was to discredit his enemies, one being daniel ellsberg. >> the plumbers unit cooks up the idea of breaking into ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. >> the order from ehrlichman was to find psychiatric notes and do this discr

at it amounts to is the creation of the plumbers unit, which then goes on to break into daniel ellsbergsychiatrist office in the fall of 1971, one of the sort of related scandals that comes out later in watergate and actually is the reason the charges are ultimately dropped against daniel ellsberg, as you know. it sort of creates this unit with an overeager imagination and sort of criminal rambunctious nests to punish richard nixon's enemies inside the white house. amy: i want to ask, why was nixon -- ultimately was the burglary of the dnc -- why was it all about that and not the illegal bombing of cambodia or the whole issue of johnson, you know, understanding clearly nixon have prolonged the war, the deaths of 70 the enemies but he was concerned about u.s. soldiers, so he could get her elected? >> this is fascinating to go back and look at all of these event 50 years later because watergate has been handed down to us in popular culture in history, movies like "all the presidents men" with robert redford and dustin hoffman, turned out to capture a very small slice of the overall story.

mr. ellsberg, it's good to have you back on the program of what has happened since you and i spoke last, particularly, and immediate danger that the ukraine war could develop into a direct conflict between russia and the west possibilities very much their nuclear weapons are being used right now, in ukraine, they're being used by poker career war. if you wish to rec, lee conference in the war, not just as a proxy provider weapons in age as it's found, doing other matters. but if you wished horses in the air or on the ground where to confront him directly, he has chosen to remind us of his factory the way you use a gun. when you pointed somebody in a confrontation, whether or not you pull the trigger, you're using the gun. you couldn't be making those kind of damn him unconditionally for doing this because we've been doing it for 70 years. we've been threatening a nuclear weapons often in this has stayed clear of an ultimate challenge of defeating the other unconventional weapons with the threat of using, using for weapons to release, continues at we avoid the direct confrontation which

daniel ellsberg is also a legendary whistleblower who in 1971 released classified documents known as the pentagon papers, which helped to hasten among other things. the end of the vietnam war. mister ellsberg, it's good to have you back on the program of what has happened since you and i spoke last, particularly when we look at russia and ukraine. do you see an immediate danger that the ukraine war could develop into a direct conflict between russia and the west? it's easy to see how it could develop. and i hope that it won't put the possibilities very much there. nuclear weapons are being used right now in ukraine. they're being used by poking to warn us that there's a possibility that he would initiate nuclear war. if the u. s. directly conference in, in the war, not just as a proxy provider or weapons and aid as it's now doing. and it's, it's going somewhat beyond that. it seems, in terms of intelligence, cooperation in other matters. but if you wish, forces in the air or on the ground where you confront him directly, he has chosen to remind us of his status as a nuclear power in

hunt leads back to the ellsberg break-in. hunt leads back to colson, the president's chief strategist and dirty trickster. this was really explosive stuff. >> i was in a meeting in ehrlichman's office and colson wanted to alert everybody to the fact that howard hunt had an office in the executive office building, and that there was stuff in his safe that we should get our hands on. ehrlichman called another staffer and told him to get the contents of his safe and bring them down to my office. my deputy started to go through them. and when i came in, he said listen, we don't want to leave fingerprints on all this. why don't i go over to the doctor's office and get some rubber gloves and handle this information to see what's here? and that's the way it started. >> hunt's safe was loaded. there were some disguises that came from the cia that hunt had used in '71. they were in the safe. >> there was a big briefcase. and in it were chapsticks with wires hanging out of them, electronic equipment. literally, these were from the scen

and when he refers to the plumbers, the plumbers were hired to stop leaks supposedly and one was ellsberg for the pentagon papers p they broke into a psychiatrist office to try to get something to use against him. host: jill wine-banks from back during the investigations in 1973. this dates from a part of the legal team, and then a photo of president nixon's legal team in the oval office. geoff shepard , where are you in the photo. guest: i was probably not in it because that was the public team. i was part of the solicitation team that did the planning and analysis. i am the one who transcribed the tapes. other people went into court. i hired all of the staff but i wasn't porting to st. clair. host: we are taking your calls on this, the 50th in a bursary of the 1972 watergate reagan. let us know your questions and comments. we are going to start with carolyn out of mount vernon, new york, emma kratz line -- democrat's line. caller: if it wasn't for the security guard who discovered the break-in. you keep talking about the break-in, it was an african-american security guard who discovered

and when he refers to the plumbers, the plumbers were hired to stop leaks supposedly and one was ellsberg for the pentagon papers p they broke into a psychiatrist office to try to get something to use against him. host: jill wine-banks from back during the investigations in 1973. this dates from a part of the legal team, and then a photo of president nixon's legal team in the oval office. geoff shepard , where are you in the photo. guest: i was probably not in it because that was the public team. i was part of the solicitation team that did the planning and analysis. i am the one who transcribed the tapes. other people went into court. i hired all of the staff but i wasn't porting to st. clair. host: we are taking your calls on this, the 50th in a bursary of the 1972 watergate reagan. let us know your questions and comments. we are going to start with carolyn out of mount vernon, new york, emma kratz line -- democrat's line. caller: if it wasn't for the security guard who discovered the break-in. you keep talking about the break-in, it was an african-american security guard who discovered

and when he refers to the plumbers, the plumbers were hired to stop leaks supposedly and one was ellsberg for the pentagon papers p they broke into a psychiatrist office to try to get something to use against him. host: jill wine-banks from back during the investigations in 1973. this dates from a part of the legal team, and then a photo of president nixon's legal team in the oval office. geoff shepard , where are you in the photo. guest: i was probably not in it because that was the public team. i was part of the solicitation team that did the planning and analysis. i am the one who transcribed the tapes. other people went into court. i hired all of the staff but i wasn't porting to st. clair. host: we are taking your calls on this, the 50th in a bursary of the 1972 watergate reagan. let us know your questions and comments. we are going to start with carolyn out of mount vernon, new york, emma kratz line -- democrat's line. caller: if it wasn't for the security guard who discovered the break-in. you keep talking about the break-in, it was an african-american security guard who discovered

, the plumbers were hired to stop leaks, supposedly, and really one of their first break-ins was ellsberg for the pentagon papers. they broke into his psychiatrist's office to try and get something to use against him, which they failed to do. >> the photos, just to show our viewers, before we take some calls from those of yours. joel wine-banks, from back doing investigations, 1970, three this picture dates from as part of the legal team and then a photo of president nixon's legal team in the oval office. jeff shepard, where are you in that photo? >> i'm probably not in the photo, because that was the team that appeared in public. i was part of the solicitation team that did the planning and the analysis. on the one who transcribed the tapes, and one that kept the document -- either people went into court to present the case. jim sinclair. i hired all the staff but i wasn't recording to thank my, i was reporting to -- . >> you guys hear, and taking calls on this, the 50th anniversary of the 1972 what a great break in. let us know your questions, your comments. we are going to start with c

that's you know, and you go through a whole series of crimes the creation of the houston plan the ellsberg break-in and so on and i actually find that students when you lay out these things, you know, well before 72 all these illegal activities emanating from the white house. it actually is quite compelling then there's the narrative of the unraveling and the exposure which which i think it is kind of the all the president's men drama, but it does have an inherent drama to it. so i think yes some of the details about you know, the rosemary woods stretch or who was someone had a good line about the huge loan and hugh sloan and you know getting all those details for that. that mean that may sort of be receiving but i do think there's like an inherent drama both to the accumulation of power the white house and then closure of them that remains compelling history department where i taught i spent quite a bit of time in in watergate and i taught it as part of a constitutional unit. so it wasn't entirely chronological. and i found this is a really good way to teach about the institution of the p

and when he refers to the plumbers, the plumbers were hired to stop leaks supposedly and one was ellsberg the pentagon papers p they broke into a psychiatrist office to try to get something to use against him. host: jill wine-banks from back during the investigations in 1973. this dates from a part of the legal team, and then a photo of president nixon's legal team in the oval office. geoff shepard , where are you in the photo. guest: i was probably not in it because that was the public team. i was part of the solicitation team that did the planning and analysis. i am the one who transcribed the tapes. other people went into court. i hired all of the staff but i wasn't porting to st. clair. host: we are taking your calls on this, the 50th in a bursary of the 1972 watergate reagan. let us know your questions and comments. we are going to start with carolyn out of mount vernon, new york, emma kratz line -- democrat's line. caller: if it wasn't for the security guard who discovered the break-in. you keep talking about the break-in, it was an african-american security guard who discovered the

that's you know, and you go through a whole series of crimes the creation of the houston plan the ellsberg break-in and so on and i actually find that students when you lay out these things, you know, well before 72 all these illegal activities emanating from the white house. it actually is quite compelling then there's the narrative of the unraveling and the exposure which which i think it is kind of the all the president's men drama, but it does have an inherent drama to it. so i think yes some of the details about you know, the rosemary woods stretch or who was someone had a good line about the huge loan and hugh sloan and you know getting all those details for that. that mean that may sort of be receiving but i do think there's like an inherent drama both to the accumulation of power the white house and then closure of them that remains compelling history department where i taught i spent quite a bit of time in in watergate and i taught it as part of a constitutional unit. so it wasn't entirely chronological. and i found this is a really good way to teach about the institution of the p