In the early hours of Saturday, June 17th, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington DC. Despite initial White House dismissals of the crime being nothing more than a “third-rate burglary”, the Nixon Administration would be dismantled in the next two years leading ultimately to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. The mainstream narrative has held that the heroic journalism of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the way in piercing the veil of secrecy surrounding Nixon and his men. However, time has shown that the events surrounding the break-in and the coverup by the White House are murky at best. Author Nick Bryant (The Franklin Scandal, 2009) provides a succinct breakdown of the crime, the key figures in and around the scandal, and the inconvenient truths dug up by researchers from Jim Hougan(Secret Agenda, 1984), Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin(Silent Coup, 1991).
The role of Richard Nixon in Watergate has never been explicitly stated outside of the obstructions committed after the fact. The five men who were arrested on June 17th consisted of three Anti-Castro Cubans, a former Castro adviser, and one “retired” CIA agent. They were supervised by former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt and former FBI Agent G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy worked for the Committee to Re-Elect the President(CREEP) while Hunt worked for Nixon lawyer/adviser Charles Colson. As the arrests generated headlines, the President’s men began to investigate the matter and discuss it with the President. White House lawyer John Dean would assume a preeminent role in the early aftermath of the bungled crime. However, his role in the conspiracy has always been opaque. After Nixon’s downfall, Dean would be heralded as the flawed hero in the administration. Yet, Bryant highlights how Dean’s actions both before and after Watergate hint at something less than admirable. The botched break-in at the Watergate was just one crime of many in the dirty tricks committed by the men in the Nixon Administration. Nearly 50 years after Nixon’s resignation, the larger role of the CIA in both the before and after is beginning to see the light. The spying on the Nixon Administration by the Joint Chiefs of Staff(Moorer-Radford Affair), the role of a high profile call girl ring operating in proximity to the Watergate(sexual blackmail), and the duplicity of James McCord and Howard Hunt in sabotaging the break-in are all fair game for speculation. The legacy of Woodward and Bernstein is exposed as being mostly mythical as Woodward’s fallacies are scrutinized concerning the true identity of Deep Throat along with Woodward’s intelligence background. Nick Bryant’s pithy but vital history of the conspiracy and crimes surrounding Watergate is an outstanding book and merits being added to the vast library of Watergate books.
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