so thank you, richard nixon. [applause] >> so, let me unpack all of those questions and answer one of them. the decision to name richard nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator is an interesting story and involves some insight baseball. we were the first to listen to the first traunch of tapes, produced after the saturday night massacre, incidentally the event that i think was the most responsible for the change in america's opinion about richard nixon. i think even after the spectacular hearings in this room by the committee, most americans were still prepared to give richard nixon the benefit of the doubt, all of his aides contradicted what john dean was saying. it was a he said-she said times through. without the tapes -- times three. without the tapes, i don't think richard nixon would've remotely have been forced to resign his office, in the way that he was. but we listened to the so-called cancer on the presidency speech, in which john dean, who has great credit, attempted to get nixon to realize that the cov

richard nixon, as a private citizen presidential candidate working with his campaign director john mitchellinterfes in the paris ace talks with a woman named anna chennault, washington socialite. anna chennault since a message from the nixon campaign to stall the south vietnamese government, to tell them that richard nixon will give them a better deal as president, and to put a fine point on this, what we see -- what we now understand is richard nixon kept the vietnam war going for his own political benefit in the fall of 1968, kept american servicemen dying in the jungles of vietnam because he thought it would help him when the election. in the final hours of the campaign, president johnson discovers this treachery, confronts riard nixon. richard nixon denies it and the clock runs out. effectively, he wins the election before johnson is able to take action. johnson decides for the good of the country to bury this treachery. these are some of the most serious, credible allegations approaching outright treason that we have against any politicafigure in the 20th century, but johnson decides h

bob haldimand was called into the oval office by richard nixon. and nixon told him, newsday is doing in investigation on me and bebe rebozo and our finances. bebe rebozo was his best friend and bankrate keeping your skin. and all of them and said to him, who's doing the investigation? and nixon said, those two. it is on the nixon tapes. and all of them and said to him, marty sham? and he said yeah, some guy named greenberg or greenbaum or something like that. at that point, i have to interject the other fellow leading the investigation in fact and -- of the whole team i, was part of it, was bob greene, g.a.r. iain e., a big irishman, who is now buried in the and the our lady of the who high catholic church in long island. but as far as nixon was concerned, who is investigating he seeing his finances? the jews. that's how he felt. [laughter] i think eventually the investigating would have been done. but what bob and caused it to, and the genius of what they did, was to be ordinary old school reporters and that coupled with their own instincts really

he was experiencing perhaps the apex of his more than 11 year career working with richard nixon. dwight was born in kansas, attended the university of southern california, and join to the nixon for governor team in 1962 at 21 years old. he had caught the political bug. his hard work and uncanny ability would take him to nixon's side throughout the entirety of the historic 1968 campaign and into the white house on january 20th, 1969. dwight has written a terrific new memoir -- the president's man, which you can see here to my left. much of it deals with his work with president nixon. the president's man is it without a doubt one of the most important contributions to the understanding of the nixon presidency and nixon as a person that has yet been written. dwight will speak this evening with frank ann and. frank joined the nixon white house in the summer of 1961 as a white house fellow assigned to donald rumsfeld and bob finch. he worked with john glickman on the domestic council staff along with colonel brennan and a handful of other staff members. he was asked to fly aboard air f

in comes richard nixon. he stayed the course for a while, then, all of a sudden, pentagon papers come out, then now we see mcnamara lied, johnson lied, all these liberals who were running the show lied. richard nixon should never have resigned. he started to bring down the military movement in vietnam, and then they come out and impeached him. before they could remove him from office, he resigned. he should have never resigned. now, today, you talk about the washington post has done everything it could to get into all the crap that went on with donald trump and the fbi? all the crap that went on with donald trump and the fbi? that is a falsehood. >> he was right there was a lot of lying. he decided he needed to get out of vietnam. vietnam had torn the country apart and that we were in a situation that was essentially not -- a war. and he were to try to de-escalate the war. that is separate from the things that ultimately brought him down. i think we have to be able to look at the totality of the presidency.

and he was experiencing packed perhaps the apex of his was an 11-year career working with richard nixon. like this morning canvas, attended the university of california, and joined for the nixon for governor team a night is did to a 24 years old. he got the political bug and these hard work and uncanny ability would take him to nixon's side throughout the entirety of the historic 1968 campaign and into the white house on january 20th, 1969. the work has written a terrific new memoir the president men, which you can see here to my left, and much of it it deals with his work which president nixon. the presidents men is -- one of the most important contributions to the understanding of the nixon presidency of president nixon as a person, that has yet been -- . it will speak this evening with frank -- . frank joined the nixon white house in the summer of 1971 as a white house fellow assigned counselors to the president node one sailed and dog bob fitch. he then worked for john ehrlichman on the domestic council -- handful of -- you passed by president nixon to fly whatever was one in the fi

it's the style, the modus operandi of richard nixon. >> the key to understanding richard nixon is thatnever self-confident that he could easily win a

something we still see playing out in the papers literally day by day right now begins with richard nixon . that in fact before nixon, before watergate, the idea of there being an executive privilege had never been codified. had never been formally recognized by the court ndand it's the battle that nixon takes all the way up tothe supreme court . >> this is fundamentally fiabout taste, an unwise moment to recallall these conversations in the oval office . as these various investigations are underway, subpoenas are arriving for the release of the tapes to the investigators. and the nixon white house refuses to do that initially completely. on the basis of executive privilege and the need for confidentiality by the executive arm and then attempts ultimately failed to broker a compromise where basically richard nixon himself is going to examine the tapes and release the bits he wants to release and keep the rest. one of the things that fascinated me was realizing ea for that final year of nixon's presidency he does all nothing but listen to the tapes. that he you know, when you are president

well that tape that conversation that's turned over to the grand jury after richard nixon. a fires archibald cox the american people and the political class in this country are so angry at nixon nixon is a phrase can be impeached now. that's one of the things when we look at the differences between the 70s and now we've got to think about public opinion. because this was bipartisan revulsion. there would not have been an impeachment process of richard nixon had he not fired archibald cox the leaders of the democratic party were against impeachment. despite the senate watergate hearings despite the john dean very influential testimony. if it had not been for nixon's overreach. in in the fall of 1973 you would not have had the impeachment process. so it's it's nixon in a sense. who who gives rope to his opponents the sword? yeah, well again the sword and and so when you have what if you have a president who doesn't care? who knows that you know, the history of impeachment was all by the way norm based, it's george washington who said, you know if you ask me for information to

at this point i have no idea richard nixon has ordered this.uspected that might be the case, but i didn't know for certain. >> i'd heard the president say, "i don't care what it takes, goddammit, firebomb the place, firebomb the brookings institute and get in there and get that safe." >> i told erlichman about the insanity of it all, the danger of it all. finally he leans back in his desk, picks up the white house phone, and says to colson, "chuck, young counsel dean is out here, does not think the brookings plan is very good, cancel it, thank you." boom. i left. i'd been in the white house for about a year. i was losing my respect for these people quickly. did i really want this kind of life? went back to the white house. told haldeman that i thought i had done the best i could and that i had opportunities that i really want to explore. i thought he'd say, well, that's great, thank you for the job you've done. but that isn't the reaction he had. he just said, "you owe it to us to stay. in fact, if you want to be an enemy of this administration

stand and the biggest why really is inside nixon's hey, right, i mean and where do you end up with richard milhouse nixon at the end of all of this. i mean with well what what it's so fascinating and ultimately i think so about nixon is he would. on any other measurement stand as one of the most consequential figures of the 20th century. he is the hinge i think actually upon which the entire 20th century changes, you know, the ushers out the era of the new deal and the great society, you know reinvents the republican party he appears on the national ticket five times between 1972 and 1952 and 1972 record tied only by fdr. he creates the epa. he creates osha. he signs title nine he is he reopens relations with china. he's the first president to visit moscow. he's the first president to visit p king. he's the first president to visit a communist country. he's the first he signs strategic, you know arms treaties with the soviet. and ushers in the era of dayton, you know, this is an arrow. so jake i mean genuine vision genuine vision deep strategic. he i mean his game plan. yeah, he'll game pl

it's the style, the modus operandi of richard nixon. >> the key to understanding richard nixon is that richard nixon was never self-confident that he could easily win a national election. we had left the 1960 election, which he lost narrowly to john f. kennedy with bitterness. in a sense, the election had been stolen from him. this allowed the demons that he always had within him to play during elections. >> it's about lust for power and absence of morality. >> it was all about holding on to power. no one can find out about this, whatever it takes. >> when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. >> i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. >> there will not be a cover-up. there will not be an abuse of power in this office. >> when you have a president who thinks he can do anything -- >> he develop weapons of mass destruction. >> i just want 11,780 votes. >> and that's really when you reach a tipping point in a democracy. that's how dictators come to power. . >> within hours of the arrests at the watergate, the nixon white house started covering up.

and it comes into his relationship with richard nixon. it was complicated relationship. nixon originally asked him to be a member of the cabinet. in 1968 when he was assembling the cabinet. there were no black members and that's because the two black people he had turned him down. of those people was broke. -- the election on the table was for attorney general. i think what is that look like if ever looks former senator edward brooks his attorney general as watergate is happening. but it doesn't happen. he remain the senate. he is part of a group that goes to -- that travels overseas and southeast asia to answer questions. and to bring back to nixon. he pulled in time and time again on race, economics, in particular, urban housing questions. questions of urban housing. he is constantly pulled in. he is very vocal and what he thinks nixon should be doing and what nixon is doing wrong. there is one point in the story that brooke tells in his paper where he is sitting on the plane with richard nixon and he says you can't run a complaint -- a campaign that's called law and or

lifelong sense of grievance and paranoia. >> you don't have nixon to kick around anymore. >> richard nixone up every morning angry, feeling under siege. and he is someone sort of at every stage of his political career who chooses the low road. >> reporter: nixon's low road spawned a sprawling and unpredictable culture of criminality, but the president wasn't looped in on the watergate break-in. >> the funniest bit of the cover-up is that nixon can't fathom what anyone would want to break into the democratic offices and can't believe anyone would be that stupid. >> reporter: and then there is the deeper story of deep throat. >> just follow the money. >> reporter: in 2005, former f.b.i. associate director mark feld stepped out of the shadows, but he long denied he was deep throat. >> no, no, i am not deep throat. the only thing is i can say is i wouldn't be ashame to be. >> reporter: garrett, you're pretty tough on deep throat. he was a bureaucrat trying to succeed jd edwards -- >> this is not someone waking up in the morning trying to protect american democracy. this is someone who wants a

at this point i have no idea richard nixon has ordered this.ted that might be the case, but i -- i didn't know for certain. >> i've heard the president say i don't care what it takes, goddamn it. fire-bomb the place. fire-bomb the brookings institute. and get in there and get that save. >> i told ehrlichman about the insanity of it all, the danger of it all, and finally he leans back in his desk, picks up the white house phone and says to colson, "chuck, young counsel dean is out here, does not think the brookings plan is very good. cancel it. thank you." boom. i left. i had been in the white house for about a year. i was losing my respect for these people quickly. did i really want this kind of life? went back to the white house, told haldeman that i thought i had done the best i could and that i had opportunities that i really wanted to explore. i thought he'd say, well, that's great. we thank you for the job you've done. but that isn't the reaction he had. he just said, "you owe it to us to stay. in fact, if you want to be an enemy of this a

and it comes into his relationship with richard nixon, a complicated relationship. nixon asked him to be a member of the cabinet in 1968. when he is assembling the cabinet, there are no black members because two of the people turned him down in one of them was brooks. allegedly, one of the conditions on the table was for attorney general, and i always wonder what that looks like, former senator edward rooks is attorney general is watergate is happening. but he remains in the senate. he is part of a group that travels overseas to southeast asia to answer questions and bring them back to nixon. -- to ask some questions and bring them back to nexen. he is pulled in time and time again on questions of race and urban housing. he is constantly pulled in. he is also very vocal on what he thinks nixon should be doing and is doing wrong. there is one point in the story that he tells in his papers where he is on a plane with richard nixon it says you can't run a campaign that is called law & order, law & order, law & order. he said, people are going to call that racist food an

the richard m. nixontes is impeached for a high crimes and misdemeanors. and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the senate. >> in the end, the facts were so clear that they convinced almost a third of the republican members of the committee that impeachment not only was justified theoretically, but that they themselveses would have to vote for it. >> i. >> i. >> i. >> i. >> i. >> i. >> i. >> aye. >> aye. >> it's one of the most unpleasant things i've ever had to do in my life. >> ms. holtzman? >> iowa aye. >> 27 members have voted aye. 11 members have voted no. >> and pursuant to the regulation article i, that resolution is adopted and will be reported to the house. >> it was good blueprint for how things should be handled. it with so fair and so thorough and so bipartisan that i thought it would never happen again that we'd set the lesson for future presidents. we have a different kind of dilemma today, which is not only that we don't have the same kind of people of courage and ch

that is something that two of you did not accuse richard nixon that.el. >> it certainly is because richard nixon resigned. he went to the south lawn, got on the helicopter, and went into private life. donald trump was trying to attempt to not leave the white house, to continue illegally as the president of the united states. i think there is another really important thing to look at and consider here, that what made nixon go were courageous republicans. judy: when it comes to republicans, the willingness to stand up to a president, there were a number who stood up to president nixon. it is different today. >> in the end, all the republican stood up against nixon, and goldwater carried that message, but what will happen tomorrow night in these primetime hearings is, i think, a seminal moment, political moment, a teaching moment for the country, and even people who support trump really ought to look at it, because they are making a case and people may accept it or not, but they ought to listen. they may not like it, but it is critical that what i know ab

my dad was appointed by richard nixon to be federal marshal of southern central california. and he was the one who was originally supposed to subpoena nixon in 1972. no, 73. and i was in high school. i have the same name as my dad. so a bomb threat was called in against me in high school, and my dad's marshals had to come and put me in a protective custody while the bomb squad checked my car. so that happened, and into saturday night massacre happened. and then in 74, the new one was hired and my dad was given orders to serve nixon with two subpoenas down inclined -- san clemente. he had given me a surfing pass to serve in front of his house. when i entered the marine corps base next to nixon's estate, which is on -- the guard at the kiosk saw that it was campbell. they are going to come up to see you. and he took my passed away and borrowed my past, threw down on the ground. and my surfing but he was with me. we all looked at each other and we couldn't believe what was happening. and he goes, don't ever come on navy property again. so we went down the street and surf there,

with the watergate scandal, it eroded considerably more, so by the time richard nixon left office in august of 1974, trust was way, way down. only a minority of americans trusted -- said they trusted government some or all of the time to do the right thing. i think the interesting thing is not simply what watergate did to push down trust in government or, in a sense, to shatter americans' ' faith in government, but it marked a dividing line between an era of trust and, now, a very long era of distrust. that chart, as people can see, has never really returned to anywhere close to what it was pretty watergate and pre-vietnam -- pre-watergate and pre-vietnam. the have been a couple moments, 9/11 being one of them, where the american people rallied together with their government and had a stronger feeling about trust in government. but that receded again very quickly. pew came out with an updated version of this on the sixth of june, and at this point, i think it showed only 20 percent of americans said they have trust in government to do the right thing. watergate is a dividing line in

he wasn't sure i could be loyal to richard nixon, and this was something that was very important to them, that there be blind loyalty to nixon that, you know, whatever nixon said was the final word. >> the unconditional loyalty is how people maintain their hold, and we see this in a lot of different contexts. we see it in authoritarian regimes. we see it in organized crime. we see it in cult. it's a powerful control mechanism that helps enable corruption and misconduct. >> deep in the middle of all this at camp david, the "l.a. times" issues a story based on jim mccord's talking to his neighbor who is an "l.a. times" reporter that i had somehow been involved in the planning of watergate. >> the the "los angeles times" without disclosing its source said mccord named white house lawyer john dean and deputy campaign director jeff mcgruder as having advanced knowledge of the operation. >> the story in the "l.a. times" were defamiliar trip. i certainly hadn't, as mccord has suggested, ordered the watergate break, but after the arrest i had gotten increasingly involved, and i had become a targ

his district has voted 80% for richard nixon in november of 1972.f an impeachment inquiry the president. but one thing i will mention is on the house voted to authorize the impeachment inquiry. 410 members voted in favor of starting the inquiry. not necessarily impeaching the president, but starting the inquiry. you would never get the level of bipartisanship today. >> that's funny, that's my question for you, elizabeth. the seven house republicans from the house judiciary committee of the time voted to impeach richard nixon for abuse of power. this go around, only two house republicans are willing to associate themselves with the january six committee. one of whom is retiring, the other who is likely to be defeated in her primary. what do you, how do you explain the differences here? is it just different times or is that something bigger? >> well, it's hard to understand what happened in watergate in terms of the house judiciary committee. it's that, excuse me, the republicans were willing to follow the facts. they didn't necessarily want to agree

richard nixon did not won. >> the familiar thought they were working for him. >> to keep tp familiar quiet, the louis nix son white house, their salaries through the end of the trial. >> i went into meet with the cia. >> we had a frank conversation. those arrested at the dnc, appeared to have connections with the cia. they're now in a lot of trouble. >> the cia could come in and take care of them. >> the cias what? why? ? we are not going to pay your pies. that's going to make the you think. john mitchell, he saids the services are at combat. the fundraiser for reelection committee. >> her come back, $250,000 to the burglar. >> i didn't stop to ponder. i didn't want to spoernd. i think you -- >> it is not just people in the government covering up something. it really aimed at paying people to lie to protect higher ups and hon going grand jury investigation. >> dean was an essential part of the criminal enterprise. >> he's the one who helped to deliver the money for the particular. he's the one that got information from the justice department and help squash that was going on. >> i th

well that tape that conversation that's turned over to the grand jury after richard nixon. a fires archibald cox the american people and the political class in this country are so angry at nixon nixon is a phrase can be impeached now. that's one of the things when we look at the differences between the 70s and now we've got to think about public opinion. because this was bipartisan revulsion. there would not have been an impeachment process of richard nixon had he not fired archibald cox the leaders of the democratic party were against impeachment. despite the senate watergate hearings despite the john dean very influential testimony. if it had not been for nixon's overreach. in in the fall of 1973 you would not have had the impeachment process. so it's it's nixon in a sense. who who gives rope to his opponents the sword? yeah, well again the sword and and so when you have what if you have a president who doesn't care? who knows that you know, the history of impeachment was all by the way norm based, it's george washington who said, you know if you ask me for information to

with richard nixon's resignation again, the book comes out in june 74. two months later nixon has resigned so it is a centerpiece of the conversation. the book is a centerpiece of the conversation. as watergate is hitting its climax. and even more popular than the book. is the cinematic version of all the president's men? the cinematic version it came out in april of 1976. to rave reviews to rave reviews it was a critical and commercial success. all the president's men and far more people have seen the movie. then i've read the book. then the third factor perhaps is important is the other two was this year's long guessing game? about the identity of a super secret source that woodward had a high-level government source with whom he met periodically in 1972 in 1973. the source had the code name deep throat. who was deep throat? became a parlor game an unending parlor game in effect in washington, dc. for many years so let's take a look at each of these factors very briefly. all the president's been. runaway success. it was serialized in playboy before it c

s. president. journalists revealed that richard nixon, eustace power against political opponents, wife. but he, for a year earlier, nixon had told his chief of staff that he wanted the use to use wire tapping, and a tailing and other shady to illegal forms of a intelligence gathering against the democrats. so while nixon didn't know about the watergate break in advance, he had he was morally responsible for it. the i'll be getting these hearing. did nixon commit a crime? that was an investigative committee, tried to clarify that, but he refused to testify or resign than they stumbled upon oval office recordings of conversations. after resisting the probe, the nixon administration agreed to turn in the tapes on my attorney. later it became clear that a crucial passage of the recordings was missing to watch the one in which he ordered a cover up of watergate. but at this point, impeachment proceedings against nixon were already underway. under the pressure became to march committee, the leave office before my term is completed as abhorrent that every instinct in my body but as president,

richard nixon obviously did things both presidents believe they were above the war. our president nixon, i believe, ordered the break in, at the wire gate, he orchestrated the cover up of the watergate scandal. but the trunk, did you know, things that were even more egregious in terms of going to the heart of our system and the peaceful transfer of power that every president has undergone, or since the republic was founded? now, president nixon was disgraced and the republicans made him go. the danger for you as democracy passed, president trump is still very much a force to be reckoned with. no question about it. and what's even worse and more dangerous is that there are people who are buying into this big lie or the president trump won the election. and some of these people are actually going to be on the ballot this november to be in charge of elections in various states. so yes, this is, this is a danger that has not passed on this. they're trying to do exactly what they did last time, but this time they're trying to put their own people in charge of the elections

s. president, journalists revealed that richard nixon, eustace power against political opponents, good wife, buddy for a year earlier. nixon had told his chief of staff that he wanted the use to use wiretapping and a tailing and other shady to illegal forms of intelligence gathering against the democrats. so while nixon didn't know about the watergate breaking in advance, he had he was morally responsible for it to be, i'll be getting these her did nixon commit a crime? that was an investigative committee, tried to clarify that, but he refused to testify or resign. then they stumbled upon oval office recordings of conversations. after resisting the probe, the nixon administration agreed to turn in the tape. so minutes later it became clear that a crucial passage of the recordings was missing to watch the one in which he ordered a cover up of watergate. but at this point, impeachment proceedings against nixon were already underway. under the pressure became to march, ready to leave office before my term is completed, is abhorrent. every instinct in my body. but as president, i must book

richard nixon obviously did things both presidents believe they were above the law. our president nixon, i believe, ordered the break in, at the watergate he orchestrated the cover up of the watergate scandal. but the trunk, did you know, things that were even more egregious in terms of going to the heart of our system and the peaceful transfer of power that every president has undergone, or since the republic was founded? now, president nixon was disgraced and the republicans made him go. the danger for you as democracy passed, president trump is still very much a force to be reckoned with. no question about it and was even worse and more dangerous is that there are people who are buying into this big lie are the president trump won the election and some of these people are actually going to be on the ballot this november to be in charge of elections in various states. so yes, this is, this is a danger that has not passed on this. they're trying to do exactly what they did last time, but this time they're trying to put their own people in charge of the elections in k