Watergate: The Myth and Reality

Following the death earlier this week of neofascist militant G. Gordon Liddy, the independent British scholar John Simkin emailed his backgrounder on Watergate to a group of Kennedy researchers. I find Simkin’s primer on the Watergate scandal and the fall of Richard Nixon to be one of the most insightful commentaries I’ve read on the subject. So I’m posting Simkin’s analysis, which he originally published on his educational web site, for all interested readers:

Richard Nixon believed that Watergate was a conspiracy organized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to remove him from power. It is one of the few things that I think Nixon was right about. It is not a coincidence that all those involved in Watergate were either officers or assets of the intelligence services - McCord and Liddy (FBI) - McCord, Hunt, Barker, Gonzalez and Martinez (CIA).

Before he became president, Nixon received information from a source within the intelligence services that both the CIA and the FBI were involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and its cover-up. Nixon told his key aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman about this as early as 1969. Nixon said that he would use this information to exert pressure on these organizations. (1)

Nixon also decided to create his own intelligence agency. After his election he appointed Jack Caulfield, as Staff Assistant to the President. In March 1969, Caulfield met with Anthony Ulasewicz, a former member of the NYPD's Bureau of Special Service and Investigation. "Caulfield outlined the big secret. He said the White House wanted to set up its own investigative resource which would be quite separate from the FBI, CIA, or Secret Service... The new administration, Caulfield said, was finding government intelligence methods to be deficient... Caulfield claimed that Ehrlichman, Nixon's Counsel at the White House, had assigned him to check out what it would cost to set up an off the books, secret intelligence operation." (2)

Nixon had been told the Bay of Pigs operation held the key to understanding the assassination. Haldeman claims in his book The Ends of Power (1978): "Ehrlichman had found himself in the middle of this feud as far back as 1969, immediately after Nixon assumed office. Nixon had called Ehrlichman into his office and said he wanted all the facts and documents the CIA had on the Bay of Pigs, a complete report on the whole project. About six months after that 1969 conversations, Ehrlichman had stopped in my office. 'Those bastards in Langley are holding back something. They just dig in their heels and say the President can't have it. Period. Imagine that! The Commander-in-Chief wants to see a document relating to a military operation, and the spooks say he can't have it.' ". (3)

Although he had his own secret intelligence operation (Operation Sandwedge) Nixon still wanted to get more control over the intelligence services. In 1970 Nixon commissioned one of his aides, Tom Charles Huston, the former leader of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom, to write a report on how the different agencies could work together against the threat from the "New Left". Huston's 43-page document called for six activities, some of which were clearly illegal. They included electronic surveillance of persons and groups "who pose a major threat to internal security"; monitoring of American citizens by international communications facilities; the relaxation of restrictions on the covert opening of mail by federal agents; surreptitious entries and burglaries to gain information on the groups and the recruitment of more campus informants. The most controversial aspect of the recommendations was the creation of a new interagency intelligence command responsible for internal security. (4)

The Huston Plan was presented at a meeting with J. Edgar Hoover (FBI), Richard Helms (CIA), Lieutenant General Donald V. Bennett (Defense Intelligence Agency) and Noel Gayler (National Security Agency) in early June 1970. Hoover and Helms saw this as an attempt by Nixon to gain more control over their agencies. In his memoirs Nixon argued that "Hoover's dissent... was primarily a case of his inability to overcome his natural resistance to cooperating with the CIA or the other intelligence agencies... I knew that if Hoover had decided not to cooperate, it would matter little what I decided or approved... On July 28, five days later, before the plan could be implemented, I withdrew my approval." (5)

On 17th June, 1972, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord were arrested at 2.30 am during a break-in at the Watergate Hotel. Soon afterwards E. Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy were also arrested. John Dean, counsel to the president, reported to H. R. Haldeman that the FBI believed that the Watergate break-in was a CIA operation: "The FBI is convinced it’s the CIA. McCord and the Cubans are all ex-CIA people. Practically everyone who went in there was connected to the agency. And now the FBI finds a Mexican bank involved which also sounds like the CIA." Dean added that L. Patrick Gray (acting FBI director) was "looking for a way out of this mess" and suggested that he should ask Vernon Walters (Deputy Director of CIA) to "turn off" the investigation in Mexico. (7)

John Dean contacted Jack Caulfield to discover what had happened. He confirmed that G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt had been involved in the operation. Jeb Magruder, special assistant to the president, then rang Dean on behalf of John N. Mitchell, the Attorney General. "Listen, John, this is all that dumb... Liddy's fault. He blew it. The stupid bastard. He should have never used McCord. He never told us he was using McCord. It was stupid. The mess is all his fault." When Dean contacted Liddy he admitted organizing the break-in but claimed that E. Howard Hunt "was the guy who got me the Cubans." (8)

Dean managed to persuade Gray, the acting FBI director, to take part in the cover up by destroying documents in Hunt's White House safe. This included notebooks that Hunt had used as an operational diary during his CIA years. "These reportedly contained the names of CIA agents and officers, their telephone numbers, code words and operational details that collectively amounted to a diary of E. Howard Hunt's clandestine career" and details of CIA's illegal activities during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. (9)

Nixon told H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, before their meeting with Richard Helms, the director of CIA, on 23rd June 1972, that they should insist on talking about the involvement of Hunt and the Bay of Pigs operation as a lever to get the CIA to help in the cover-up. "Hunt... will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things... tell them we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further... Tell them it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it's likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs which we think would be very unfortunate for the CIA." (10)

In his account of the meeting, The Ends of Power (1978) Haldeman claimed that after Helms refused to help with the cover-up he "played Nixon's trump card". Haldeman said: "The President asked me to tell you this entire affair may be connected to the Bay of Pigs, and if it opens up, the Bay of Pigs may be blown." In response to this: "Helms gripping the arms of his chair leaning forward and shouting, 'The Bay of Pigs had nothing to do with this. I have no concern about the Bay of Pigs.' Silence. I just sat there, I was absolutely shocked by Helm's violent reaction. Again I wondered, what was such dynamite in the Bay of Pigs story?" (11)

This account, published in 1978, proved to be very embarrassing for Helms. When he wrote his own interpretation of the meeting in 2003 he admitted that Haldeman raised the issue of the Bay of Pigs, but denied that he got angry with him and said "I did not shout in the White House, and cannot even remember ever having shouted in my own office." Helms claims all he said was "The Bay of Pigs hasn't got a damned thing to do with this. And, what's more, there's nothing about the Bay of Pigs that's not already in the public domain." (12)

The best person to know the connection between the Bay of Pigs and Watergate Scandal was E. Howard Hunt as he was involved in both events. He remained silent although his wife Dorothy Hunt threatened to reveal details of who paid him to organize the Watergate break-in. On 8th December, 1972, Dorothy Hunt had a meeting with Michelle Clark, a journalist working for CBS. According to Sherman Skolnick, Clark was working on a story on the Watergate case: "Ms Clark had lots of insight into the bugging and cover-up through her boyfriend, a CIA operative." (13)

As Peter Dale Scott pointed out: "Of the more than a dozen suspicious deaths in the case of Watergate... perhaps the most significant death was that of Dorothy Hunt in the crash of United Air Lines in December 1972. The crash was investigated for possible sabotage by both the FBI and a congressional committee, but sabotage was never proven. Nevertheless, some people assumed that Dorothy Hunt was murdered (along with the dozens of others in the plane)... Howard Hunt, who dropped all further demands on the White House and agreed to plead guilty (to the Watergate burglary in January 1973)." (14)

Hunt died of pneumonia on 23rd January, 2007. His memoir American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond was published a few months later. In the book he admitted being paid "hush money" to keep quiet about what he knew about the background details of Watergate. He also felt guilty that he received $250,000 as a result of his wife’s death: "She waved, I waved back, and she entered the doors of the airline ticket office. Once inside, she did her shopping, and, apparently as an afterthought, she bought $250,000 in accident insurance from an airport vending machine." However, he did not believe his wife had been murdered. (15)

Despite attempts to hide the connections between the Nixon administration and Watergate break-in, most of the details reached the public domain and Nixon was forced to resign and several of his close associates were sent to prison. This was mainly due to articles written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Woodward later revealed that on 19th June 1972 he telephoned a man who he called "an old friend" for information about the burglars. This man, who Woodward claims was a high-ranking federal employee, was willing to help him as long as he was never named as a source. Instead he became known as Deep Throat. (16)

Most of the information that brought down Nixon came from Deep Throat. Woodward and Bernstein refused to identify their source but in May 2005 a lawyer working for Mark Felt, the former Associate Director of the FBI, told Vanity Fair magazine that his client was Deep Throat. On 3rd June 2005, Bob Woodward wrote an article in The Guardian confirming that Felt was Deep Throat and that he had provided him with important information during the Watergate investigation. (17)

Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post at the time of Watergate, also said that Felt was Deep Throat. However, Carl Bernstein was quick to add that Felt was only one of several important sources. Bernstein is clearly right about this. Some of the information leaked to the journalists could only have come from someone in the higher echelons of the CIA. Deborah Davis, the author of Katharine the Great (1979) also believes that Deep Throat was a former senior official of the CIA. Her candidate is Richard Ober, who worked under James Jesus Angleton at the CIA. Ober, as head of Operation CHAOS (domestic espionage project targeting the American people from 1967 to 1974 whose mission was to uncover possible foreign influence on domestic race, anti-war and other protest movements), was given an office in the White House and worked closely with Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman during this period. (18)

The claims that Davis became even more convincing when the book was originally published in 1979, Katharine Graham (probably under instructions from the CIA) persuaded the publishers William Jovanovich, to pulp the 20,000 printed copies of the book. It was not only revealing Ober as one of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein sources that got her into trouble. It was also the fact that she exposed Ben Bradlee as a CIA asset as far back as 1952 when he was serving as a press attaché in the American embassy in Paris. (19) Bradlee was also a childhood friend of Richard Helms and was at Harvard with Ober. Both men left in 1944 to serve in the war: Ober (Office of Strategic Services) and Bradlee (Office of Naval Intelligence). (20)

In their autobiographies both Richard Helms and E. Howard Hunt say they are puzzled by Nixon's belief that the CIA, the Bay of Pigs Operation and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy were in some way connected. It has to be remembered that Nixon first made this claim in 1969, three years before Watergate. It was a time when few JFK researchers were making this link. This only became mainstream conspiracy thinking after the publication of The Last Investigation in 1993. The book's author, Gaeton Fonzi, the staff investigator with the House Select Committee on Assassinations, pointed out, this was not just about recruiting angry Cubans from the failed operation, but the way Kennedy reacted to the disaster by threatening to "splinter" the CIA into "a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds". (21)

There are two important questions that need to be asked about the Watergate break-in. The first is what were the motives behind the break-in. As Richard Helms later pointed out in his autobiography: "Press reports soon indicated that Hunt and McCord and their confederates were attempting to photograph files, bug the telephones, and arrange electronic monitoring of the Democratic Committee. I could not understand why anyone would think there was anything to be gained from such a half-baked and technically difficult operation that would possibly warrant the risks involved." (22)

Helms is correct, the operation does not make any sense at all. The second question is even more important. Why was it done so badly? The operation involved several people who had carried out other successful intelligence operations. It was also in direct contrast to other Nixon dirty tricks campaigns. Why did the burglars leave so many clues behind that made it inevitable that they would be caught and at the same time provide links to the Nixon administration? Why did James W. McCord at the preliminary hearing confess to being a former member of the CIA? Bob Woodward admits that this was the reason why he decided this was an important story. (23)

Here is a list of some of the mistakes they made in the Watergate operation that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon:

(1) The money to pay for the Watergate operation came from CREEP. It would have been possible to have found a way of transferring this money to the Watergate burglars without it being traceable back to CREEP. For example, see how Anthony Ulasewicz got his money from Nixon. As counsel for the Finance Committee to Re-Elect the President, G. Gordon Liddy, acquired two cheques that amounted to $114,000. This money came from an illegal U.S. corporate contribution laundered in Mexico and Dwayne Andreas, a Democrat who was a secret Nixon supporter. Liddy handed these cheques to E. Howard Hunt. He then gave these cheques to Bernard L. Barker who paid them into his own bank account. In this way it was possible to link Nixon with a Watergate burglar.

(2) On 22nd May, 1972, James W. McCord booked Alfred C. Baldwin and himself into the Howard Johnson Motor Inn opposite the Watergate building (room 419). The room was booked in the name of McCord’s company. During his stay in this room Baldwin made several long-distance phone calls to his parents. This information was later used during the trial of the Watergate burglars.

(3) On the eve of the first Watergate break-in the team had a meeting in the Howard Johnson Motor Inn’s Continental Room. The booking was made on the stationary of a Miami firm that included Bernard L. Barker among its directors. Again, this was easily traceable.

(4) In the first Watergate break-in the target was Larry O'Brien’s office. In fact, they actually entered the office of R. Spencer Oliver, the chairman of the association of Democratic state chairman. Two bugs were placed in two phones in order to record the telephone conversations of O’Brien. In fact, O’Brien never used this office telephone.

(5) E. Howard Hunt was in charge of photographing documents found in the DNC offices. The two rolls of film were supposed to be developed by a friend of James McCord. This did not happen and eventually Hunt took the film to Miami for Bernard Barker to deal with. Barker had them developed by Rich’s Camera Shop. Once again the conspirators were providing evidence of being involved in the Watergate break-in.

(6) The developed prints showed gloved hands holding them down and a shag rug in the background. There was no shag rug in the DNC offices. Therefore it seems the Democratic Party documents must have been taken away from the office to be photographed. McCord later claimed that he cannot remember details of the photographing of the documents. Liddy and Jeb Magruder saw them before being put in John Mitchell’s desk (they were shredded during the cover-up operation).

(7) After the break-in Alfred Baldwin and James McCord moved to room 723 of the Howard Johnson Motor Inn in order to get a better view of the DNC offices. It became Baldwin’s job to eavesdrop the phone calls. Over the next 20 days Baldwin listened to over 200 phone calls. These were not recorded. Baldwin made notes and typed up summaries. Nor did Baldwin listen to all phone calls coming in. For example, he took his meals outside his room. Any phone calls taking place at this time would have been missed.

(8) It soon became clear that the bug on one of the phones installed by McCord was not working. As a result of the defective bug, McCord decided that they would have to break-in to the Watergate office. He also heard that a representative of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War had a desk at the DNC. McCord argued that it was worth going in to see what they could discover about the anti-war activists. Liddy later claimed that the real reason for the second break-in was “to find out what O’Brien had of a derogatory nature about us, not for us to get something on him.”

(9) Liddy drove his distinctive Buick-powered green Jeep into Washington on the night of the second Watergate break-in. He was stopped by a policeman after jumping a yellow light. He was let off with a warning. He parked his car right outside the Watergate building.

(10) The burglars then met up in room 214 before the break-in. Liddy gave each man between $200 and $800 in $100 bills with serial numbers close in sequence. McCord gave out six walkie-talkies. Two of these did not work (dead batteries).

(11) McCord taped the 6th, 8th and 9th floor stairwell doors and the garage level door. Later it was reported that the tape on the garage - level lock was gone. Hunt argued that a guard must have done this and suggested the operation should be aborted. Liddy and McCord argued that the operation must continue. McCord then went back an re-taped the garage-level door. Later the police pointed out that there was no need to tape the door as it opened from that side without a key. The tape served only as a sign to the police that there had been a break-in.

(12) McCord later claimed that after the break-in he removed the tape on all the doors. This was not true and soon after midnight the security guard, Frank Wills, discovered that several doors had been taped to stay unlocked. He told his superior about this but it was not until 1.47 a.m. that he notified the police.

(13) The burglars heard footsteps coming up the stairwell. Bernard Barker turned off the walkie-talkie (it was making a slight noise). Alfred Baldwin was watching events from his hotel room. When he saw the police walking up the stairwell steps he radioed a warning. However, as the walkie-talkie was turned off, the burglars remained unaware of the arrival of the police.

(14) When arrested Bernard Barker had his hotel key in his pocket (314). This enabled the police to find traceable material in Barker’s hotel room.

(15) When Hunt and Liddy realized that the burglars had been arrested, they attempted to remove traceable material from their hotel room (214). However, they left a briefcase containing $4,600. The money was in hundred dollar bills in sequential serial numbers that linked to the money found on the Watergate burglars.

(16) When Hunt arrived at Baldwin’s hotel room he made a phone call to Douglas Caddy, a lawyer who had worked with him at Mullen Company (a CIA front organization). Baldwin heard him discussing money, bail and bonds.

(17) Hunt told Baldwin to load McCord’s van with the listening post equipment and the Gemstone file and drive it to McCord’s house in Rockville. Surprisingly, the FBI did not order a search of McCord’s home and so they did not discover the contents of the van.

(18) It was vitally important to get McCord’s release from prison before it was discovered his links with the CIA. However, Hunt or Liddy made no attempt to contact people like Mitchell who could have organized this via Robert Mardian or Richard Kleindienst. Hunt later blamed Liddy for this as he assumed he would have phoned the White House or the Justice Department who would in turn have contacted the D.C. police chief in order to get the men released.

(19) Hunt went to his White House office where he placed a collection of incriminating materials (McCord’s electronic gear, address books, notebooks, etc.) in his safe. The safe also contained a revolver and documents on Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Kennedy and State Department memos. Hunt once again phoned Caddy from his office.

(20) Liddy eventually contacts Magruder via the White House switchboard. This was later used to link Liddy and Magruder to the break-in.

(21) Later that day Jeb Magruder told Hugh Sloan, the FCRP treasurer, that: “Our boys got caught last night. It was my mistake and I used someone from here, something I told them I’d never do.”

(22) Police took an address book from Bernard Barker. It contained the notation “WH HH” and Howard Hunt’s telephone number.

(23) Police took an address book from Eugenio Martinez. It contained the notation “H. Hunt WH” and Howard Hunt’s telephone number. He also had cheque for $6.36 signed by E. Howard Hunt.

(24) Alfred Baldwin told his story to a lawyer called John Cassidento, a strong supporter of the Democratic Party. He did not tell the authorities but did pass this information onto Larry O’Brien. The Democrats now knew that people like E. Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy were involved in the Watergate break-in.

References

(1) H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (1978) page 49

(2) Anthony Ulasewicz, The President's Private Eye (1990) page 177

(3) H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (1978) page 49

(4) Jim Hougan, Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA (1984) page 99

(5) Richard Nixon, Memoirs (1978) page 474

(7) H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (1978) page 54

(8) John Dean, Blind Ambition: The White House Years (1976) pages 92-97

(9) Jim Hougan, Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA (1984) page 225

(10) Richard Nixon, Memoirs (1978) page 474

(10) H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power (1978) pages 640-641

(12) Richard Helms, A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (2003) pages 8-10

(13) Sherman Skolnick, The Secret History of Airplane Sabotage (8th June, 2001)

(14) Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993) page 306

(15) E.Howard Hunt, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond (2007) page 264

(16) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President's Men (1974) pages 71-74

(17) Bob Woodward, The Guardian (3rd June, 2005)

(18) Deborah Davis, Katharine the Great (1979) pages 266-267

(19) Deborah Davis, interviewed by Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press (1992)

(20) Deborah Davis, Katharine the Great (1979) page 225

(21) Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (1993) page 44

(22) Richard Helms, A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (2003) pages 7-8

(23) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President's Men (1974) page 18