and i interviewed richard helms, the director of the cia under nixon, whom he hated and sdru d distrusted, many times. he said nixon kept coming to him through haldeman and others and saying, i want the kennedy administration's pbay of pigs files on cuba. he wanted evidence that john kennedy had ordered the assassination of fidel castro. also they wanted material, as you had on the tape, on the coup against the president of south vietnam in 1963. they thought if they were to tie jfk to the murder of the president and his brother, that that would appeal to catholics in the united states. >> was that unprecedented, intelligence agencies are relatively modern things, but is this an innovation of richard nixon, this idea that he could take the levers of government and look for them to dig up dirt, basically do watergate over and over again? >> it was with the cia, maybe that was a little bit innovative. but franklin roosevelt abused the fbi, he asked for fbi files that he could use against his opponents. same thing with lbj, same thing with some other presidents. and i think the pertinence to