Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 1/1972 Britain: inflation is at double-digit levels and unemployment was at its highest since the 1930s.
  
• 1972: An unnamed criminal was quoted by Michael Dorman in his book, Payoff: The Role of Organized Crime in American Politics (1972): You know, the Federal government has been harassing Carlos (Marcello) for the last ten years, and it's all because of politics.... In 1960, when Bobby Kennedy was managing his brother's presidential campaign, he sent a guy down here to see Carlos. This was before the Democratic National Convention. He wanted Carlos to use his influence to swing the Louisiana delegation for Kennedy at the convention. Carlos said that he was sorry, but that he'd already promised his support at the convention to Lyndon Johnson. The Louisiana delegation went for Johnson. Even though Jack Kennedy got the nomination and picked Johnson for Vice President, Bobby was pissed off at Carlos and promised he'd get even. When he became attorney general, the first thing he did was start a campaign to put Jimmy Hoffa in the pen. The second thing he did was go after Carlos's ass... All the Feds have been harassing Carlos ever since... Once these things get started in Washington, it's hard to stop them no matter who's President.
  
• 1/3/1972 Pat Nixon attends the inauguration of Liberian President William Tolbert.
  
• 1/7/1972 Rehnquist Appointed to Supreme Court; Dodges Allegations of Racial Harassment Deputy Attorney General William Rehnquist is sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring John Harlan. Rehnquist was active in the Arizona Republican Party, and became well-known in the state as a conservative activist who, among other things, opposed school integration. Rehnquist befriended fellow Phoenix attorney Richard Kleindienst, who, after becoming attorney general under Richard Nixon, brought Rehnquist into the Justice Department. Rehnquist faced little difficulty in his confirmation hearings in the Democratically-led Senate Judiciary Hearings. [Oyez (.org), 9/3/2005] Rehnquist may have perjured himself during those hearings. He was confronted with charges that, as a Republican Party attorney and poll watcher, he had harassed and challenged minority voters in Arizona during the 1962, 1964, and 1966 elections. Rehnquist swore in an affidavit that the charges were false, even though the evidence available to the Senate showed Rehnquist did take part in such activities, which were legal in Arizona at the time. (Rehnquist will again deny the charges in 1986, when he is nominated for chief justicesee September 26, 1986). Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean will observe: "After reading and rereading his testimony, it appears to me that what he was really saying to the Senate [in 1971] was that he was not quite sure himself of his behavior, but he could not bring himself to tell the truth. Thus, his blanket 1971 denial forced him to remain consistent to that denial in 1986, and since his blanket denial was a lie, he had to continue lying. His false statement to Congress in 1971 was a crime, but the statute of limitations had passed. His false statement to Congress in 1986, however, was pure perjury." [Dean, 2007, pp. 129-137]
  
• 1/7/1972 Dr. Lattimer examines JFK autopsy photos and X-rays (or 1/8)
  
• 1/7/1972 Donald Stewart and Fred Buzhardt (at Buzhardt's request) reinterviewed Welander; Welander again admitted that Radford had brought him White House documents. Buzhardt falsely used the President's name to drill Welander about a particular document concerning Haig's talk with South Vietnamese president Thieu. Welander said he had seen that document and shown it to Moorer.
  
• 1/31/1972 Arthur Bremer bought a new .38 revolver. He had also acquired a 9mm 14-shot semiautomatic Browning pistol at some point before the attempt on Wallace.
  
• 1/15/1972 Margrethe is proclaimed the new Queen of Denmark.
  
• 1/17/1972 CIA memo for the chief of Security Research Staff, Gen. Paul Gaynor, alleges that Jack Anderson was involved in a Mafia-Zionist-leftist conspiracy "to attack conservative organizations, Members of Congress and high public officials who want to crack down on Communists, rioters and assorted left-wingers." This conspiracy theory (which James McCord also advocated) originated with a 7/1/69 article in the right-wing Washington Observer Newsletter.
  
• 1/17/1972 Bangladesh: Mujibur Rahman orders Bengali rebels to throw down their arms.
  
• 1/18/1972 Brian Faulkner, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, banned all parades and marches in Northern Ireland until the end of the year.
  
• 1/19/1972 James McCord becomes full-time security coordinator for CREEP and for the Republican National Committee.
  
• 1/22/1972 European Common Market was enlarged to 10 nations, now including UK, Denmark, Ireland and Norway.
  
• 1/22/1972 Northern Ireland: An anti-internment march was held at Magilligan strand, County Derry, with several thousand people taking part. As the march neared the internment camp it was stopped by members of the Green Jackets and the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, who used barbed wire to close off the beach. When it appeared that the marchers were going to go around the wire, the army then fired rubber bullets and CS gas at close range into the crowd. A number of witnesses claimed that the paratroopers (who had been bused from Belfast to police the march) severely beat a number of protesters and had to be physically restrained by their own officers. John Hume accused the soldiers of "beating, brutalising and terrorising the demonstrators".
  
• 1/24/1972 Nixon submits to Congress a $246.3 billion budget for FY 1973 with a record deficit of $25.5 billion.
  
• 1/24/1972 NY Times reported, in a story by Wallace Turner, that in 1961 RFK had done an investigation into the Nixon-Hughes loan, and found that no laws had been violated, though the investigation did not deal with the IRS reversal on Hughes' Medical Institute. The results of this investigation were not publicized in 1961.
  
• 1/24/1972 Moscow recognizes the new nation of Bangladesh.
  
• 1/25/1972 Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) announces she will enter the presidential race.
  
• 1/25/1972 Nixon tells the nation that he has submitted to the Communists through secret channels an 8-point program to end the war. He also announces that Kissinger has been conducting secret peace negotiations in Paris since 8/1969.
  
• 1/26/1972 Anti-war leader Rev. Daniel Berrigan is paroled.
  
• 1/27/1972 According to John Dean and Jeb Magruder in sworn Senate testimony, this is the day "The Liddy Plan" (Gordon Liddy) is first unveiled in Attorney General John Mitchell's office. It involves not only break-ins and buggings, but also kidnappings and muggings. Magruder has since written of the proposed kidnappings: "As noted previously, the Senate Intelligence Committee established that Liddy accompanied E. Howard Hunt to a secret meeting with a former CIA physician, during Hunt's alleged plot to drug and/or murder columnist Jack Anderson." Meeting in Mitchell's office with Liddy, Mitchell, Magruder and Dean; Mitchell recalled Liddy presenting a complicated dirty-tricks plan (Operation Gemstone) that included "mugging squads, kidnapping teams, prostitutes to compromise the opposition and electronic surveillance." He used charts that had been made for him by the CIA's graphic studio. (Will p193) Mitchell told Liddy that this was "beyond the pale" and to come up with a more "realistic" plan. Magruder recalled that Liddy also "explained that the proposed kidnap squads would seize radicals, and inject them with some drug that would render them unconscious..." (An American Life) Gemstone included the following code-words and elements: Ruby: infiltration of the Democratic camp; Emerald: use of a chase plane' to eavesdrop on Democratic candidate's plane and buses when they were using radio telephones; Quartz: microwave interception of telephone traffic; Sapphire: use of prostitutes to compromise Democrats aboard a houseboat rigged for surveillance Crystal: electronic surveillance; Garnet: counter-demonstrations; Turquoise: operations making use of the air-conditioning system at the Democrat's convention hall Topaz: photographing Democrats' documents in the course of Crystal emplacements; Opal: four clandestine break-ins; targets would include Washington headquarters of Muskie and McGovern, the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, and a fourth unnamed target. Liddy also provided for a special action group to carry out kidnappings, drugging and forcible deportation of anti-war leaders. Liddy told Mitchell this group would be staffed by "professional killers who have accounted between them for 22 dead so far…" (Will 193-8) There was no mention of any plans to be taken against George Wallace. Mitchell later testified, "In hindsight, I not only should have thrown him out of the office, I should have thrown him out of the window."
  
• 1/27/1972 Maurice Stans resigned as Commerce Secretary to become chief fund raiser for the campaign.
  
• 1/28/1972 Meeting between Mitchell, Nixon and Haldeman to discuss campaign strategy; this was one of only three meetings between these three men on politics for the first six months of '72, according to White House logs.
  
• 1/29/1972 Liddy Proposes Operation Gemstone' to Gather Intelligence on Democrats "Plumber" G. Gordon Liddy lays out an elaborate $1 million proposal for a plan for political espionage and campaign "dirty tricks" he calls "Operation Gemstone" to Attorney General John Mitchell. Mitchell is preparing to leave his post to head the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEPsee March 1, 1972). "Gemstone" is a response to pressure from President Nixon to compile intelligence on Democratic candidates and party officials, particularly Democratic National Committee chairman Lawrence O'Brien. Liddy gives his presentation with one hand bandagedhe had recently charred it in a candle flame to demonstrate the pain he was willing to endure in the name of will and loyalty. Sub-operations such as "Diamond," "Ruby," and "Sapphire" engender the following, among other proposed activities: bullet disrupt antiwar demonstrators before television and press cameras can arrive on the scene, using "men who have worked successfully as street-fighting squads for the CIA" [Reeves, 2001, pp. 429-430] or what White House counsel John Dean, also at the meeting, will later testify to be "mugging squads;" [Time, 7/9/1973] bullet kidnap, or "surgically relocate," prominent antiwar and civil rights leaders by "drugging" them and taking them "across the border;" bullet use a pleasure yacht as a floating brothel to entice Democrats and other undesirables into compromising positions, where they can be tape-recorded and photographed with what Liddy calls "the finest call girls in the country… not dumb broads but girls who can be trained and photographed;" bullet deploy an array of electronic and physical surveillance, including chase planes to intercept messages from airplanes carrying prominent Democrats. [Reeves, 2001, pp. 429-430] Dean, as he later testifies, is horrified at the ideas. [Time, 7/9/1973] Mitchell seems more amused than anything else at Liddy's excesses, he merely says that "Gemstone" is "not quite what I had in mind." He tells Liddy and Liddy's boss, CREEP deputy director Jeb Stuart Magruder, to come back with a cheaper and more realistic proposal. [Reeves, 2001, pp. 429-430]
  
• 1/30/1972 Melvin Laird announces that no men will be called up for military duty until April.
  
• 1/30/1972 Northern Ireland: "Bloody Sunday" in Londonderry: 13 unarmed civilians killed by British troops; an Irish mob in Dublin stormed and burned the British Embassy. 'Bloody Sunday'. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march against internment was meant to start at 2.00pm from the Creggan. The march left, late (2.50pm approximately) , from Central Drive in the Creggan Estate and took an indirect route towards the Bogside area of the city. People joined the march along its entire route. At approximately 3.25pm The march passed the 'Bogside Inn' and turned up Westland Street before going down William Street. Estimates of the number of marchers at this point vary. Some observers put the number as high as 20,000 whereas the Widgery Report estimated the number at between 3,000 and 5,000. Around 3.45pm most of the marchers followed the organisers instructions and turned right into Rossville Street to hold a meeting at 'Free Derry Corner'. However a section of the crowd continued along William Street to the British Army barricade. A riot developed. (Confrontations between the Catholic youth of Derry and the British Army had become a common feature of life in the city and many observers reported that the rioting was not particularly intense. At approximately 3.55pm, away from the riot and also out of sight of the meeting, soldiers in a derelict building opened fire (shooting 5 rounds) and injured Damien Donaghy (15) and John Johnston (59). Both were treated for injuries and were taken to hospital. John Johnston died on 16 June 1972. Also around this time (about 3.55pm) as the riot in William Street was breaking up, Paratroopers requested permission to begin an arrest operation. By about 4.05pm most people had moved to 'Free Derry Corner' to attend the meeting. 4.07pm (approximately) An order was given for a 'sub unit' (Support Company) of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment to move into William Street to begin an arrest operation directed at any remaining rioters. The order authorising the arrest operation specifically stated that the soldiers were "not to conduct running battle down Rossville Street" (Official Brigade Log). The soldiers of Support Company were under the command of Ted Loden, then a Major in the Parachute Regiment (and were the only soldiers to fire at the crowd from street level). At approximately 4.10pm soldiers of the Support Company of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment began to open fire on the marchers in the Rossville Street area. By about 4.40pm the shooting ended with 13 people dead and a further 13 injured from gunshots. [Most of the basic facts are agreed, however what remains in dispute is whether or not the soldiers came under fire first. The soldiers claimed to have come under sustained attack by gunfire and nailbomb. None of the eyewitness accounts of those shot saw any gun or bomb being used. No soldiers were injured in the operation, no guns or bombs were recovered at the scene of the shooting.]
  
• 1/31/1972 Dean told Haldeman and Ehrlichman that Jack Anderson was pursuing the Hughes loan.
  
• 1/31/1972 Dean memo to Haldeman on "Potential Disruption" by leftist groups at the GOP convention in San Diego.
  
• 1/31/1972 Reginald Maudling, British Home Secretary, made a statement to the House of Commons on the events of 'Bloody Sunday': "The Army returned the fire directed at them with aimed shots and inflicted a number of casualties on those who were attacking them with firearms and with bombs". Maudling then went on to announce an inquiry into the circumstances of the march.
  
• 2/1972 Billy Graham met with Nixon to discuss ways he could be helpful during the campaign. Graham recommended that Nixon try to increase his appeal to religious conservatives, whom he felt were becoming more politically active. (With God on Our Side p146)
  
• 2/1/1972 Nixon and Mitchell met with Gov. Reagan.
  
• 2/1/1972 Edward Heath, British Prime Minister, announced the appointment of Lord Widgery, then Lord Chief Justice, to undertake an inquiry into the 13 deaths on 'Bloody Sunday'.
  
• 2/2/1972 The funerals of 11 of the dead took place in the Creggan in Derry. Tens of thousands attended the funeral including clergy, politicians from North and South, and thousands of friends and neighbours. Throughout the rest of Ireland prayer services were held to coincide with the time of the funerals. In Dublin over 90 per cent of workers stopped work in respect of those who had died, and approximately 100,000 people turned out to march to the British Embassy. They carried 13 coffins and black flags. Later a crowd attacked the Embassy with stones and bottles, then petrol bombs, and the building was burnt to the ground.
  
• 2/4/1972 The sixth round of the SALT talks adjourns in Vienna.
  
• 2/4/1972 Liddy discussed a scaled-down plan with Mitchell, Dean and Magruder. Magruder recalls that Liddy now wanted to deploy hookers in Washington to trap the Democrats. Everyone supposedly opposed this idea, though Liddy writes that in March prostitutes were retained as a component of the plan and that this was done with Magruder's approval. "Magruder didn't want to let the subject go. If he could justify a trip to Miami, could I fix him up with our girls? Jesus, I thought, the wimp can't even get laid with a hooker by himself." (Will p207) Mitchell still wasn't comfortable with Liddy's plans, and Dean suggested that this kind of discussion shouldn't be held in the Attorney General's office. Outside, waiting for the elevator, Dean told Liddy he didn't want to know any more about his plans; Liddy assumed this meant Dean only wanted plausible deniability. Of this meeting, only Magruder claims that Mitchell okayed targeting the DNC and Greenspun's safe in Las Vegas. Mitchell strongly denied saying any such thing, and Liddy agrees with him. (Secret Agenda p102-103)
  
• 2/5/1972 It is announced that the US has agreed to sell 42 F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.
  
• 2/7/1972 Nixon signed into law the Federal Election Campaign Act, requiring that all candidates report all campaign contributions received and spent. It also limited campaign spending for media advertising.
  
• 2/7/1972 James Earl Ray makes a failed escape attempt from Brushy Mountain Prison.
  
• 2/9/1972 Nixon delivers his third annual State-of-the-World address to Congress.
  
• 2/11/1972 Life cancels plans to publish Clifford Irving's "autobiography" of Howard Hughes.
  
• 2/11/1972 Rep. Wilbur Mills enters the presidential race.
  
• 2/11-13/1972 an anti-war rally in Versailles, France, denounces US policy in Indochina.
  
• 2/12/1972 Ted Kennedy advocates amnesty for draft resisters.
  
• 2/15/1972 16 CIA agents, using 8 cars, were dispatched to shadow Jack Anderson and three of his colleagues. Photographic equipment was installed in an "observation nest" across from his office. One of those involved was a Brit Hume; Jim Hougan does not say whether this is the same man as the future White House correspondent. (Secret Agenda p85) Project Mudhen was solely a CIA operation; it appears no one else in the government (including the White House) knew about it. The surveillance lasted until early April.
  
• 2/15/1972 White House announced that Mitchell would resign (effective 3/1) as attorney general to head the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Richard Kleindienst would replace him.
  
• 2/17/1972 Nixon departed on his historic trip to China.
  
• 2/17/1972 Hunt and Liddy were sent to Los Angeles by Magruder to plot the Greenspun break-in with a Howard Hughes operative.
  
• 2/18/1972 Delegates from 34 states attend the beginning of the 20th National Convention of the Communist Party, USA, in New York.
  
• 2/18/1972 California Supreme Court abolishes the death penalty in that state.
  
• 2/20/1972 Thomas Gregory was recruited to infiltrate the Muskie campaign.
  
• 2/20/1972 Nixon arrived for his visit in China.
  
• 2/20/1972 Billy James Hargis wrote in his Christian Crusade Weekly newsletter about Nixon's sins: "His enthusiastic support for unilateral disarmament; his suicidal Red China policy; his blundering mistake in supporting pro-Red Chinese Pakistan in the Indian-Pakistan War; his determination to send military aid to avowed enemies, such as Communist Yugoslavia and Communist Chile, prove that the man had something in mind besides what benefits the nation."
  
• 2/21/1972 Nixon visited Peking.
  
• 2/22-23/1972 Nixon met with PM Chou En-lai. On the 22nd he met with Mao for an hour.
  
• 2/23/1972 British embassy in Dublin was firebombed and destroyed in retaliation for "Bloody Sunday."
  
• 2/24/1972 Nixon stood on the Great Wall of China and hoped that "walls erected - whether like this physical wall or whether other walls, physiological and philosophical - will not divide peoples of the world...what is most important is that we have an open world."
  
• 2/25/1972 West Germany paid Arab hijackers of a jumbo jet $5 million for the release of the passengers.
  
• 2/27/1972 Nixon and Chou En-lai release a joint communique showing the results of their talks.
  
• 2/28/1972 Murder trial of Angela Davis begins in San Jose, California.
  
• 2/28/1972 Nixon ended his successful visit to China, the first ever by a US president. At the same time, the Taiwan foreign ministry issued a statement denouncing the US-Sino communique.
  
• 2/29/1972 Cesar Chavez signs Florida's first contract for migrant farm workers.
  
• 2/29/1972 Jack Anderson disclosed a memo from ITT's Washington lobbyist, Dita Beard, which connected the settlement of the anti-trust suit with the funding of the Republican Convention.
  
• 2/29/1972 Bangladesh PM Rahman flies to Moscow for a goodwill trip.
  
• 3/1972 this month's issue of Win magazine, an anti-war publication, prints a collection of documents on political surveillance stolen from the FBI's Pennsylvania office a year ago.
  
• 3/1972 Al Haig, age 47, was promoted by Nixon to major general.
  
• 3/1972 Shortly before the 3/30 meeting between Mitchell and Magruder, Eugenio Martinez met with his CIA case officer to raise the subject of his relationship with E. Howard Hunt. The case officer then arranged an interview between Martinez and CIA's chief of station in Miami, Jake Esterline. Martinez told Esterline that Hunt was employed by the White House, and asked Esterline if he was certain that he had been apprised of all CIA activities in the Miami area. Esterline immediately asked Langely about Hunt's status. Cord Meyer replied in a cryptic manner, the message arriving in Miami 3/27. Meyer told Esterline not to "concern himself with the travels of Hunt in Miami, that Hunt was on domestic White House business of an unknown nature and that the Chief of Station should cool it.' The tone of the letter infuriated the Chief of Station and left him uneasy about the matter…" (Baker report) The case officer then instructed Martinez to write a vague report about the manner, which was delivered to Esterline 4/5/72 and forgotten about. Right after this occurrence, Martinez's case officer was removed and sent abroad, and was replaced by Robert D. Ritchie, was sent down from Langley. Ritchie would later become an employee of Edwin P. Wilson. (Secret Agenda p110)
  
• Late 3/1972 James Hosty surreptitiously looked at his personnel file, and found that the answers he had given to FBI headquarters 12/1963 had been changed to imply that Hosty had had "full detailed knowledge of Oswald's contacts with the Soviets and Cubans, and therefore had been derelict in not interviewing him...I had been sold down the river." But Hosty had saved a copy of his original answers; he felt that his answers had been changed by Shanklin and Malley under pressure from Jim Gale. (Assignment Oswald 178)
  
• 3/1-2/1972 Paul E. Gilly is found guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter.
  
• 3/1/1972 Thomas Gregory infiltrated the Muskie campaign team.
  
• 3/1/1972 Arthur Bremer attended an organizational meeting for George Wallace at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.
  
• 3/1/1972 John Mitchell resigned as Attorney General to become chairman of CRP.
  
• 3/2/1972 J. Edgar Hoover made his last appearance before Congress; old friend Rep. John Rooney (D-NY), commented that many "left-wing foul balls" had been attacking the FBI director. Hoover responded, "You are honored by your friends and you are distinguished by your enemies. I have been very distinguished."
  
• 3/2/1972 Colson memo to Doug Hallett: "I need to talk to you about getting in touch with your friends in the McGovern camp for a secret suicide mission - theirs, not yours, that is."
  
• 3/2/1972 US space probe Pioneer 10, designed to go past Jupiter, is launched from Cape Kennedy.
  
• 3/3/1972 Black September Palestinian terrorists tried to assault the London quarters of Hussein I, king of Jordan.
  
• 3/7/1972 Haldeman "action memo" requesting someone to find out who is going to be financing the Democratic National Convention.
  
• 3/7/1972 Klaus Schulze, age 19, is shot while trying to escape the GDR.
  
• 3/7/1972 New Hampshire primary; Muskie got 46% to McGovern's 37.5%.
  
• 3/8/1972 Nixon signs an executive order to limit the practice of classifying government documents, and to speed up the process of declassification.
  
• 3/8/1972 Haldeman memo recommending that "perhaps...we should ask the Host Committee to give the money back to IT&T...We've got to find a way to turn around the PR on this." Memo from Colson to Noel Koch recommending that it be publicized that the Democratic Convention is being financed by AT&T.
  
• 3/8/1972 The Richmond News Leader editorialized: "In spite of his relatively strong performance [in New Hampshire], it would be wrong to take Senator McGovern seriously."
  
• 3/10-12/1972 the first National Black Political Convention is held in Gary, Indiana.
  
• 3/11/1972 Bob Dole released a statement jabbing at the Democrats for their financial ties to AT&T.
  
• 3/11/1972 Nixon memo to Kissinger, recommending that an announcement that the last US combat troops are out of Vietnam be made before the Democrats meet at their convention; he also believed that a negotiated settlement with Hanoi would probably not come until after the election.
  
• 3/11/1972 The Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Federation end a 35-year split and merge at a New York convention.
  
• 3/12/1972 The Arizona Republic editorialized: "McGovern has about as much chance as Pat Paulsen of getting the Democratic presidential nomination in Miami."
  
• 3/14/1972 Florida Democratic primary; Wallace 42%; Humphrey 18.5%; Muskie 9%; McGovern 6%; Shirley Chisholm 4%.
  
• 3/14/1972 Nixon memo to Haldeman: "I want you to get me a report today on how much IT&T grew during the three Kennedy years and the five Johnson years...[they] failed to bring action to stop the growth of IT&T whereas this administration did so."
  
• 3/15/1972 Project Mudhen memo stated that "at no time should the Director [Helms] be made aware of" the surveillance operation against Jack Anderson. It also stated that Helms' upcoming lunch with Anderson should be put under surveillance.
  
• 3/15/1972 Liddy memo to Mitchell on the "Democratic National Convention Finance Investigation." "Hunt advised further that the Spanish language (Cuban) radio in Miami is carrying a news item to the effect that the Republicans are 'looking around town' to 'get something on the Democrats' in connection with the convention."
  
• 3/15/1972 Hunt travelled to meet with Dita Beard.
  
• 3/17/1972 Nixon proposed to Congress a moratorium on busing to achieve racial balance.
  
• 3/17/1972 Richard Helms met with Jack Anderson for lunch at the Madison Hotel in Washington. Helms wanted to dissuade Anderson from publishing certain classified material in his next book.
  
• 3/20-30/1972 Nixon Confirms Plan to Bug Democrats According to the FBI's Watergate investigation, John Mitchell, the director of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), and his aide Jeb Stuart Magruder discuss the proposal made by G. Gordon Liddy to plant electronic surveillance devices on the phone of the chairman of the Democratic Party, Lawrence O'Brien (see March 20, 1971). Magruder telephones President Nixon's chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, and Haldeman confirms that Nixon wants the operation carried out. [Spartacus Schoolnet, 8/2007] On March 30, in a meeting held in Key Biscayne, Florida, Mitchell, the former Attorney General (see March 1, 1972), approves the plan and its budget of approximately $250,000. [O.T. Jacobson, 7/5/1974 pdf file] Other sources list this decision as coming almost a year earlier (see March 20, 1971). In this case, the FBI timeline is almost certainly in error, since the "Plumbers" break-in of the offices of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist came well before this date (see Late June-July 1971 and September 9, 1971).
  
• 3/21/1972 A Mr. Bill Baranek called the White House, wishing to talk to John Dean about having overheard Mitchell, Dita Beard and John McLaren at the Watergate discussing the IT&T "deal." In return for his not going public with this information, he wanted his job at the Post Office back; he felt he had been fired for his political views.
  
• 3/22/1972 Senate ratified the Equal Rights Amendment by 84 to 8.
  
• 3/23/1972 Democratic newspaper publisher William Haddad wrote to Larry O'Brien to say that "sophisticated surveillance techniques" were being used against the Democrats. (Secret Agenda p79)
  
• 3/23/1972 US delegation to Paris peace talks announce an indefinite suspension until Vietcong and North Vietnam enter into "serious discussions."
  
• 3/23/1972 Arthur Bremer appeared at a Wallace benefit dinner and rally.
  
• 3/24/1972 Around this date, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy met with Dr. Edward Gunn at the Hay-Adams hotel near the White House, and discussed ways to murder Jack Anderson. Liddy remembered the meeting taking place in February. (Will p207-08) Hunt placed the meeting on or around 3/24 in his Senate testimony. Gunn was a "retired" CIA doctor known for using medical and chemical techniques to dispose of people. Liddy privately felt that Gunn was still in the CIA, and assumed that Hunt was acting on Colson's orders. Hunt claimed the idea of "neutralizing" Anderson was Colson's, which Colson denied. The conversation was carried out in a hypothetical manner, and Anderson's name was never mentioned in connection with the plot. But when discussing the feasibility of a vehicular "accident," Gunn suggested a site near Anderson's home and on his way to work. Liddy gave Gunn a $100 bill "to protect Dr. Gunn's image as retired.'" They also discussed the possibility of administering a massive dose of LSD to make him behave erratically in public; Gunn explained that drugs were too unpredictable. Liddy suggested murder; all agreed that this was easier to accomplish. They decided that it would be good to make Anderson look like the victim of a fatal mugging. Liddy said that if necessary he would take care of the job himself. (Will p209-10; Secret Agenda p92-93) Jim Hougan believes that Hunt's plans against Anderson came not from Colson but from the CIA's Office of Security. Hunt did not tell Liddy that Dr. Gunn was an associate of James McCord's. Hougan feels that Liddy came "within an ace of being a patsy" in a murder case.
  
• 3/24/1972 New York: the first Cuban Film Festival here was broken up by anti-Castro youths.
  
• 3/27/1972 Two of the Soledad Brothers, Fleeta Drumgo and John Cluchette, are found innocent of the 1970 slaying of a guard at Soledad prison.
  
• 3/27/1972 Nixon memo to Haldeman: "As the election approaches the media are going to step up their attempts to cut us down..."
  
• 3/28/1972 SALT negotiations begin a seventh round of talks.
  
• 3/29/1972 Buchanan memo to Nixon: "we should have Republicans cross over and vote for George McGovern."
  
• 3/30/1972 Kissinger briefed 36 conservative Protestant church leaders at the White House.
  
• 3/30/1972 Colson memo to Haldeman; he pointed out that Klein's memo of 6/30/71 had spelled out "the $400,000 arrangement with ITT" and a copy of that memo had been sent to Mitchell. "This put the AG on constructive notice at least of the ITT commitment at that time and before the settlement, facts which he has denied under oath. We don't know whether we have recovered all the copies."
  
• 3/30/1972 The third meeting about Operation Gemstone. At Key Biscayne, (according to Magruder) Mitchell gave Magruder the go-ahead for Gemstone. Also present was Fred LaRue; he and Mitchell both denied that Magruder was given approval for the $250,000 plan. Magruder claims it was agreed that Liddy's first task was to wiretap O'Brien's telephone at the Watergate. But it wasn't until a month later that Magruder told Liddy to bug O'Brien, and another month before it was actually done.
  
• 3/30/1972 Larry O'Brien memo to John Stewart telling him about Haddad's information and asking him to follow up on it.
  
• 3/31/1972 Nixon signs an executive order blocking for 60 days two impending rail strikes by the AFL-CIO.
  
• Spring 1972 Manuel Elizalde, Jr., a Philippine Cultural Minister, announced that he had discovered in the rain forest of Mindanao, on the southernmost island in the Philippines, a tribe of people who had never had contact with the outside world before and who still used stone-age tools. The tribe was called the Tasaday. CBS aired a documentary about the tribe titled "The Last Tribes of Mindanao" on Jan. 12, 1972. The tribe continued to receive intense media attention until 1974 when martial law was proclaimed in the Philippines. In April, 1986, shortly after Marcos was overthrown, a Swiss journalist named Oswald Iten travelled into the jungle to see the Tasaday. He found the caves deserted. Local Tboli and Manobo peoples living nearby admitted to him that they had participated in a hoax. They explained that Elizalde had manipulated them into posing as a Stone Age tribe. "We didnt live in caves, only near them, until we met Elizalde...Elizalde forced us to live in the caves so that we'd be better cavemen. Before he came, we lived in huts on the other side of the mountain and we farmed. We took off our clothes because Elizalde told us to do so and promised if we looked poor that we would get assistance. He gave us money to pose as Tasaday and promised us security from counter-insurgency and tribal fighting."