Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 6/1/1972 Nixon addressed Congress on his recent visit to Moscow; he declared that "the foundation has been laid for a new relationship between the two most powerful nations in the world."
  
• 6/1/1972 The first phone logs prepared by Baldwin and McCord were handed to Liddy. There was nothing of value in terms of political intelligence, so Liddy didn't turn them over to Mitchell. (Will p235-6)
  
• 6/3/1972 Foreign ministers of the Four Powers sign the final protocol of the agreement that becomes the founding document for arrangements in Berlin until the reunification of Germany.
  
• 6/4/1972 Angela Davis is cleared by an all-white San Jose, California jury of charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.
  
• 6/5/1972 After days of worthless results from the Watergate bugs, Liddy decided to deliver the logs to Magruder to give to Mitchell. But Magruder decided that the conversations about peoples' personal lives were of no interest, so he didn't forward them to Mitchell. (American Life p209)
  
• 6/6/1972 Nixon memo to Mitchell, urging that McGovern be linked in the public's mind to people like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
  
• 6/6/1972 McGovern victory over Humphrey in California primary.
  
• 6/7/1972 James Reston commented in his column, "The question now...is whether the American voters are ready for a radical change in US foreign and domestic policy." Reston almost seemed to endorse Nixon.
  
• 6/8/1972 Congress passed a bill for federal aid to college and university students. It includes a provision delaying court-ordered busing for up to 18 months and allocates $2 billion to help elementary and high schools desegregate.
  
• 6/8/1972 Kleindienst was confirmed as Attorney General.
  
• 6/8/1972 Lengthy Pat Buchanan memo on campaign strategy. He warned that as McGovern was trying to campaign as the "outsider" candidate, RN had to take that stance himself (attacking the elite Left in and out of government). "We need to shed the 'in bed with Big Business' image." Stand for less government and spending and lower taxes. "McGovern can be charged, among Democrats, with 'packing' caucuses, with 'stealing' the nomination from the more popular candidate, with not representing the average man in the Democratic party...we should also wait until his people take delegates from Wallace - and then charge him with 'stealing' delegates from a man in a hospital bed...To reverse the underdog image of Mr. McGovern - we should, upon his nomination, cease speaking of an easy win...We should leak polls showing us worse off than we are..." Also play up the economic devastation caused by McGovern's defense cuts: "scare the hell out of the public...Shultz and/or John Connally should give a hair-raising speech on what the McGovern proposals would mean to American society, and the American economy and the stock market...When McGovern backs off some of these Black radical schemes, as back off he must - we should continue to hang them around his neck - and then mail his recantation to the black media...speakers should argue against the McGovern integration proposals - and in favor of retaining the integrity and value of ethnic neighborhoods..." Warn Americans that a McGovern administration "would leave our prisoners in Hanoi." Use quotes against him from Democratic opponents in the primaries.
  
• 6/8/1972 Liddy later said this was the day he passed the first envelope of intelligence from the first DNC break-in to Magruder to be sent to Mitchell. (Will)
  
• 6/8/1972 Nixon spoke with Mitchell on the phone from 10:30 to 10:51am.
  
• 6/9-12/1972 Kissinger makes a private visit to Tokyo, and talks with Japanese leaders about security and economic issues.
  
• 6/9/1972 (Nine days prior to the Watergate break-in) A front-page article runs in the Washington Post stating that a prostitution ring has been uncovered by the FBI that is "headed by a Washington attorney and staffed by secretaries and office workers from Capital Hill and involved at least one White House secretary." Among evidence seized during this investigation are address books that name not only the hookers, but their clients.
  
• 6/9/1972 Washington Star published an article by Winston Groom and Woody West, "Capitol Hill Call-Girl Ring" "The FBI here has uncovered a high-priced call girl ring allegedly headed by a Washington attorney and staffed by secretaries and office workers from Capitol Hill and involving at least one White House secretary, sources said today. A 22-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury names Phillip M. Bailley, 30, as head of the operation. Sources close to the investigation said that among the clients of the call girl operation were a number of local attorneys holding high positions in the Washington legal community and one lawyer at the White House. The clients were not named in the indictment, but sources at the US Attorney's Office said some of them will be called to testify at the trial. The indictment, handed down this morning before US District Court Chief Judge John J. Sirica, alleges that Bailley violated the Mann Act…" According to prosecutor John Rudy, within an hour of the Star's article being published, John Dean called Rudy to say that they were very concerned about White House personnel being involved, since it was an election year. Rudy brought over to the White House Bailley's address books to check the names involved. Dean's secretary copied all of the pages. People in both parties were prominently listed in it. (Secret Agenda p172-3)
  
• 6/9/1972 Magruder asked Liddy whether he could organize a second break-in; Liddy said he would. Magruder said he would have a decision for Liddy by the following Monday. Liddy writes that Magruder felt the results of the bugging were a waste of time and money, and asked if the defective bug on O'Brien's phone could be fixed. (Will p236-7)
  
• 6/9/1972 Magruder turned over transcripts to Mitchell, who was not satisfied with the information. Mitchell would later heatedly deny this allegation, calling it a "palpable, damnable lie."
  
• 6/9/1972 McCord rented office space at the Arlington Towers complex in Rossyln, Virginia. There he established a new firm, Security International Inc., headed by a former CIA officer named William Shea (whose wife, Theresa, had previously worked as McCord's secretary). The company had signed 25 to 30 (never identified) new clients in its first nine months of existence. (3/28/1973 McCord testimony) The high-security Arlington Towers was the domestic staging ground for CIA/military/State Dept pacification programs in Vietnam, including Phoenix. After the Watergate break-in, Lou Russell continued to work for McCord's company.
  
• 6/9/1972 Nixon phoned Mitchell twice today (10:34-10:47am and 4:55-5:07pm).
  
• 6/10/1972 (Saturday) Nixon memo to Buchanan; he charged that the media was trying to help McGovern get elected by portraying him in as favorable a light as possible. "It is very important in terms of the final campaign that the media be effectively discredited." Around this time, polls showed that if the election were held now, Nixon would get between 43% and 53% (depending on Wallace being in the race), with McGovern at 30% to 34%. 1
  
• 6/11/1972 (Sunday) Nixon called Mitchell from 10:41 to 10:54am.
  
• 6/12/1972 (Monday) Numerous memos circulating through the White House on political campaign strategy.
  
• 6/12/1972 Liddy claimed this was the day he received approval for the second break-in at the DNC; Magruder told him to photograph "everything" in the Democrats' files, specifically Larry O'Brien's desk. The bugging devices were a secondary objective. Magruder sounded like the matter was urgent, and Liddy believed that what Magruder meant was to find any scandalous, derogatory information O'Brien had about Nixon. Liddy also found out on this day that Gordon Strachan was aware of the break-in. (Will p237)
  
• 6/12/1972 The hardcore X-rated film Deep Throat, starring Linda Lovelace, premieres.
  
• 6/12/1972 McCord instructed Baldwin to visit the DNC's headquarters, using a pretext, to pinpoint the location of O'Brien's office. Baldwin pretended to be a friend of Spencer Oliver, who was out of town. He was then introduced to Oliver's secretary Maxie Wells, whose desk key was later found on Eugenio Martinez when he was arrested. But McCord already knew where O'Brien's office was, so Baldwin appears to have been sent to learn the location of her desk. Liddy told Jim Hougan he knew nothing about this matter. (Secret Agenda p178-9)
  
• 6/14/1972 (Wednesday) EPA announces a ban on the chemical pesticide DDT to take effect 12/31.
  
• 6/14/1972 Liddy told Hunt about the plans; Hunt was skeptical: "Looks like high risk, low gain to me."
  
• 6/14/1972 Actor Warren Beatty holds the fifth concert-fundraiser for McGovern at Madison Square Garden; this one features the re-united Simon & Garfunkel.
  
• 6/15/1972 (Thursday) Liddy, Magruder and others met with Mitchell. The meeting was not about the DNC bugging, and others were at the meeting who did not know about it. According to Liddy, he simply left a package of DNC transcripts on Mitchell's desk. Liddy told him that "the problem we have" would be fixed that weekend, and Mitchell nodded. Liddy began to tell him about some of the pranks he had planned for McGovern in Miami, but Mitchell told him to cease and desist. (Will) Mitchell denied every receiving an envelope from Liddy, and scarcely remembered meeting with him that day. This was the last time Liddy would speak with Mitchell.
  
• 6/16/1972 (Friday) Judge Charles Richey ordered that Phillip M. Bailley be committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital for a psychiatric examination.
  
• 6/16/1972 Mitchell, Magruder and other administration officials left for San Clemente.
  
• 6/16/1972 At the National Airport, Jack Anderson encounters Frank Sturgis, whom he has known since the early 60s. With him were two Cubans, including Bernard Barker. (The Anderson Papers) There was later some question whether Anderson had really gone to Cleveland as he said he had. But according to Jim Hougan, Anderson did speak that night in Cleveland, at the annual dinner meeting of the Sigma Delta Chi, a fraternity of professional journalists. (Willoughby [Ohio] News-Herald, 6/19/1972)
  
• 6:15 PM It was a hot, humid night in Washington. At 6:15pm, McCord left the CRP offices and drove to the Howard Johnson's. He went up to room 723, where Alfred Baldwin was waiting. McCord had Baldwin run out to get some batteries, and left McCord alone for some time. Meanwhile, Lou Russell had gone to Benedict, Maryland to establish an alibi among some neighbors of his daughter, and then drove to the Howard Johnson's motel.
  
• 8 PM McCord was seated in the ground-floor restaurant of the Hojo's. Peyton George, a former FBI agent, and his son, stopped at the Hojo's for an ice cream. George saw McCord, they chatted briefly, and then George left. Sturgis and Martinez entered the Hojo's restaurant to meet McCord. In the process, Sturgis literally bumped into actor Burt Lancaster. "He said he was in town to make a movie and, later, when I got out of jail, I went to see it. Burt Lancaster in Scorpio. It's funny the movie's about this CIA guy who's betrayed by the agency. Sorta like what happened to us, y'know? I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Watergate was a CIA setup. We were just pawns. Anyway, I met Burt Lancaster." (Secret Agenda p183) Three restaurant employees recalled seeing McCord, Sturgis, Martinez, and Gonzalez dine together at the Watergate Hotel, though Sturgis would deny that McCord and Gonzalez were there. Around this time, Lou Russell arrived at the Howard Johnson's. He would tell the FBI he dined there from 8:30 to 10:30pm, did not go there to see McCord, and only went in there by coincidence. Russell would tell conflicting stories about why he was there that night. McCord left the Watergate, saying he was going to the Hojo's. In fact he went to his office at CRP. He talked to security officer Millicent Penny' Gleason, and told her, "Penny, I want to thank you for what you've done for our office." Her impression was that his remarks seemed more like a "goodbye" than a "thank you." (7/1/1972 FBI interview) McCord returned to the Howard Johnson's. Baldwin returned to the room with the batteries, and then McCord left to buy some speaker wire. Apparently, McCord called Liddy and told him that the lights were still on in the DNC. Lou Russell left the restaurant around 10:15pm and drove again to his daughter's house in Benedict. McCord signed in at the Watergate office building at this time according to security logs. He took the elevator to the 8th floor and began to neutralize a series of locks on doors leading from the building's stairwell to corridors and reception areas on the 8th and other floors. One some doors, McCord wedged open the locking mechanisms with balls of paper, then placed strips of tape vertically along the edge of each door (not horizontally as Liddy had wanted, hoping to make it look like the work of a maintenance man), covering the latches and making sure that each lock was held in a permanently open position. It took McCord about 10 minutes to do this, and he put tape on many more doors than was necessary (including ones on the 8th floor, where the Federal Reserve was located). Then he went to the room in the Watergate that Hunt and Liddy had rented. He told them the doors were secured, and then returned to the Howard Johnson's. The DNC offices were still occupied. Security guard Frank Wills arrived at the Watergate to begin his midnight-to-8am shift. He discovered the doors stuffed with paper and tape, and assumed maintenance men had done it. He took the tape off the locks and reported the discovery in his log.
  
• 6/17/1972 (Saturday) DNC volunteer Bruce Givner, the last person in the DNC offices, left the building. Givner and Frank Wills went across the street for something to eat at Hojo's. He had turned off the lights before leaving. Hunt and Liddy came back to the Watergate hotel, though McCord falsely told them that the lights were still on in the DNC. Hunt shared the elevator with French film actor Alain Delon (Lancaster's co-star in Scorpio). After about 20 minutes, Wills brought his take-out order back to the Watergate.
  
• 6/17/1972 Wills talked with his supervisor, Bobby Jackson, on the phone; Jackson told Wills to check the other doors in the building for tape. Wills delayed in carrying out the order, nearly an hour.
  
• Around 1am, Lou Russell arrived back at the Howard Johnson's. Around this time, McCord left Baldwin in the hotel room. McCord claims he went to the Watergate's underground garage, made sure the doors were still open, then reported to Hunt, Liddy and the Cubans that all was well. But Wills had cleared the tape from those doors an hour earlier. McCord left Hojo's about 12:50, and arrived at Hunt's room at 1:05am. They had demanded an explanation for McCord's 15-minute delay, and he explained that he had checked the locks.
  
• 1:10 am The entry team arrived in the underground garage at the B-2 level of the Watergate office building. They found the door locked and the tape missing. McCord said that the tape must have just been removed in the last few minutes. Gonzalez picked the lock, Sturgis stood guard, and McCord, Barker and Martinez returned to talk to Hunt and Liddy about what to do. Hunt wanted to scrap the operation. (Undercover p240-1; Will p244) But McCord wanted to go ahead, according to Hunt and Liddy. Amazingly, McCord denies going back to talk to Hunt and Liddy, saying he instead returned to the Hojo's and rejoined Baldwin. McCord then called Liddy to tell him to proceed with the operation. (Piece of Tape p29-30) Baldwin says McCord did not return to the hotel room. Barker and Martinez agree with Hunt and Liddy. Meanwhile, Sturgis and Gonzalez had gotten past the first door (retaping it), and set to work on another door. Barker and Martinez rejoined them. Finally, the door to the DNC had to be removed from its hinges. McCord had disappeared by this time. Martinez: "He said he had to go someplace. We never knew where he was going."
  
• 1:40am (approx) McCord rejoined the burglary team. By this time, Frank Wills had finally checked the other doors. He also discovered that the basement door had been re-taped. He returned to the lobby to talk to Federal Reserve Board guard Walter Hellams, who insisted that the police be called. Wills hesistated, deciding to check with his superiors, Fletcher Pittman and Bobby Jackson.
  
• 1:47am Wills finally called the Washington Police Dept, reporting a possible burglary in the Watergate office building.
  
• 1:52am A police unit was requested to respond to the Watergate. Officer Carl Shoffler and two plainclothesmen, who were a block and a half away, picked up the call. Wills showed the cops the taped doors in the garage. They went upstairs, and Martinez heard them coming. McCord had falsely told Martinez that he had removed the tape from the garage door so as not to attract attention. He told Barker to turn off his walkie-talkie so the static wouldn't be heard.
  
• 2:30am Shoffler and his colleagues found McCord and crew hiding behind a desk in the secretarial cubical next to O'Brien's office. The cops were surprised to see the men wearing business suits and surgical gloves. Martinez tried but failed to dispose of the key to Maxie Wells' desk that he possessed. Baldwin, meanwhile, was watching the whole thing through the window from his room at Hojo's, and reporting it to Hunt and Liddy. As cops were coming into the building, Wills inadvertently let out of the lobby an "unidentified white male," whom the police were unable to locate. (Secret Agenda p203) Hunt and Liddy failed to santize their own room or the Cubans' room; Hunt had insisted that the Cubans register at the Watergate, collected their ID's before the burglary, and then placed them in a briefcase and left it in their hotel room. Hunt then told the Cubans to keep the keys to their room while going on the break-in. Martinez later said, "I don't know why. Even today, I don't know." The result was that the police very quickly traced them to the White House. At police headquarters, the arrested men had little to say; they were booked under aliases: "Frank Carter" (Barker), "Raoul Godoy" (Gonzalez), "Gene Valdez" (Martinez), "Frank Fiorini" (Sturgis) and "Edwin Martin" (McCord). They were carrying lock-picking equipment, surgical gloves, $2400 in sequentially numbered new $100 bills, blank keys and screwdrivers, 39 rolls of film, two Minolta cameras, a light stand for document photography, false ID, three bugs, an ARI smoke detector converted into a room bug, and a pop-up telephone desk directory belonging to Martinez that contained the listing "Howard Hunt W. House." Hunt headed for his old office at the EOB. He placed some materials in the safe and took out $10,000 in cash to be used for bail and legal fees. He then called Douglas Caddy to represent the arrested men; Caddy had ties to the Mullen company. (Secret Agenda p216) Hunt then went to the building that housed the Mullen company, phoned Clara Barker to tell her of her husband's arrest.
  
• 3:30am Baldwin drove the van full of McCord's electronic equipment to McCord's house and left it there. The FBI failed to search McCord's premises, which prompted McCord to ridicule the FBI in an article for the Armed Forces Journal ("What the FBI Almost Found," 8/1973).
  
• 4:00am By this time, the Washington Post had learned of the break-in. Carl Shoffler had called the paper since the suspects weren't talking. Within a few hours of the arrests, Liddy was shredding documents at CRP.
  
• 10:00am Police officer Gary Bittenbender, who had served as McCord's liaison between the CRP and police intelligence, recognized him and informed his superiors. Bittenbender would later tell the Senate that McCord said on the day of the arrests that the break-in was "a CIA operation." (Nedzi report p442-3)
  
• 2:30pm Police and FBI agents arrived at the Watergate Hotel and searched rooms 214 and 314, rented to the burglars. They found more surgical gloves, electronic equipment, $3200 in sequentially numbered $100 bills, an address book belonging to Bernard Barker that contained the entry "H.H. W.H." with Hunt's White House telephone number. Among's Barker's belongings was a check for $6.36 made out by Hunt to the Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, Maryland. FBI agents Dennis W. Fiene and Allen B. Gilbert conducted a "physical check" of the DNC's headquarters. They didn't find any surveillance equipment. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. checked all the phones in the DNC and found no bugs.
  
• 6/17/1972 At the arraignment this afternoon, the judge asked McCord his occupation. "Security consultant," he replied. He admitted to having recently retired from the CIA. (All The President's Men p18)
  
• 6/17/1972 This afternoon, SS agent Michael Mastrovito made inquiries about McCord at the CIA, and was told that the agency was concerned about McCord's "stability" before he retired. Mastrovito agreed to downplay McCord's CIA ties. (Baker Report)
  
• 6/17/1972 Jeb Magruder phones John Dean in the Phillipines. John Dean takes the next available flight on Sunday, June 18 at 8:15am Phillipine Airlines flight 428 bound for Tokyo.
  
• 6/17/1972 Liddy receives a phone call at noon Washington time from Jeb Magruder. Magruder said that Mitchell wanted Liddy to find Dick Kleindienst and get McCord out of jail immediately. He was told to tell Kleindienst that "John sent you" and that it's a "personal request from John." (source: Will, recollections of Moore). Liddy and Moore went to Burning Tree Golf course at 12:30pm. Liddy told Kleindienst that the break-in, the publicly reported facts of which Kleindienst was already aware, was an intellige nce operation of the CRP and that Liddy, himself, had been in charge. Liddy then told him that he had a message from Mitchell to spring McCord and that it was a "personal request from John". Kleindienst's reaction, later reported to the Watergate committee, was "instantaneous and abrupt .... The relationship I had with Mr. Mitchell was such that I do not believe that he would have sent a person like Gordon Liddy to come out and talk to me about anything. He knew where he could find me twenty-four hours a day." Kleindienst flatly refused Liddy's request.
  
• Conversation between the President and Dean concerning June 17th. John Dean: The next point in time that I became aware of anything was on June 17th when I got the word that there had been this break in at the DNC and somebody from our Committee had been caught in the DNC. And I said, "Oh (expletive deleted)," you know, eventually putting the pieces together-- Richard Nixon: You knew who it was. John Dean: I knew it who it was. So I called Liddy on Monday morning ...
  
• 6/18/1972 (Sunday) At about 7am, McCord's deputy security chief, Robert Houston, arrived at CRP to remove certain files belonging to his boss. Two co-workers saw him "remove all of McCord's writings…accomplished this without any direction, as if the procedure were part of a prearranged plan." Houston told Penny Gleason that the papers were to be burned. Houston denied this at first, then he admitted he had taken a few things but returned them. (FBI interviews)
  
• 6/18/1972 Barker is identified as a wealthy real-estate man with ties to the GOP in Florida. McCord's ties to CRP and RNC are disclosed. Mitchell states that "this man and the other people involved were not operating either on our behalf or with our consent."
  
• 6/18/1972 CIA's chief of station in Miami sent to Langley a cable concerning Martinez, but did not mention his earlier reports about Hunt.
  
• 6/18/1972 G. Gordon Liddy goes to bed about 3 AM this morning and tells his wife: "There was trouble. Some people got caught. I'll probably be going to jail."
  
• 6/18/1972 Washington Post Story : 5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office Here By Alfred E. Lewis
  
• 6/18/1972 Tony Ulasewicz in an interview with Colodny and Gettlin and later in his autobiography recalls that he received a telephone call on June 18th from Caulfield who was calling on behalf of John Dean. Ulasewicz was told to fly to Washington immediately.
  
• 6/18/1972 from The Haldeman Diaries: At Key Biscayne. The P is still over at Walker's this morning. I talked to him over the phone. I reported to him on Shultz's meeting with Meany yesterday, which came out to be pretty interesting. Meany had called him, wanting to meet with him, and so they had a game of golf during which Meany told him under no circumstances could he possibly support McGovern. That he was working to try and get Humphrey the nomination still, but if that failed he could not support McGovern. The big flap over the weekend has been news reported to me last night, then followed up with further information today, that a group of five people had been caught breaking into the Democratic headquarters (at the Watergate). Actually to plant bugs and photograph material. It turns out that there was a direct connection (with CRP), and Ehrlichman was very concerned about the whole thing. I talked to Magruder this morning, at Ehrlichman's suggestion, because he was afraid the statement that Mitchell was about to release was not a good one from our viewpoint. Magruder said that we plan to release the statement as soon as the fact that the Committee is involved is uncovered, which it now has been. It says that we've just learned that someone identified as an employee of the Committee was one of those arrested (James McCord, Jr., CRP's security coordinator). He runs a private security agency and was employed to install the system of security at the headquarters. He has a number of clients. He's not operating on our behalf or with our consent. We have our own security problems, not as dramatic as this but of a serious nature to us. We don't know if they're related but there's no place for this in a campaign. We would not permit or condone such a thing. The real problem here is whether anything is traceable to Gordon Liddy (formerly with the White House plumbers unit, and then with CRP). He (Liddy) says no, but Magruder is not too confident of that. They were thinking of getting Mardian back to Washington (Mitchell, Mardian, Magruder, and LaRue are out in California) to keep an eye on Liddy. (Mardian was formerly Assistant Attorney General in charge of internal security, now one of Mitchell's assistants at CRP. LaRue was CRP Deputy Director.) They think that McCord, our security guy, will be okay, but he's concerned about Liddy because of his lack of judgment and reliability. He's also concerned that two or three others are implicated. Apparently there's some cash and Magruder thought it was the DNC's, but it turns out it was ours. I talked to Ehrlichman after that and he thinks the statement is OK and we should get it out. I talked to Colson to tell him to keep quiet. It turned out that one of the people (implicated) was on our payroll until April 1. A guy named Howard Hunt, who was the guy Colson was using on some of his Pentagon Papers and other research type stuff. Colson agreed to stay out of it and I think maybe he really will. I don't think he is actually involved, so that helps. So far the P is not aware of all this, unless he read something in the paper, but he didn't mention it to me.
  
• 6/19/1972 (Monday) The Supreme Court rules that no domestic group or individual could be wiretapped without a warrant.
  
• 6/19/1972 Hunt's name is found in address books of Barker and Martinez. Clawson later says that Hunt's employment was terminated on this day, though the White House claimed it was 3/29.
  
• 6/19/1972 Joan Hall memo to Colson: "Approximately 6 or 8 weeks ago in a casual conversation, I asked Howard Hunt why he had not turned in any time sheets. He replied, 'That is being taken care of elsewhere.'"
  
• 6/19/1972 The CIA told the FBI that none of the arrested men were known to the Agency except for McCord. On or about this day, Martinez's case officer Robert Ritchie was ordered to return immediately from Miami and drive directly to headquarters without talking to anyone. (From Ritchie's testimony before a federal grand jury; Secret Agenda p221)
  
• 6/19/1972 Ziegler tells the press that he will not comment on this "third-rate burglary attempt" and predicts that "certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it is."
  
• 6/19/1972 L. Patrick Gray memo laying out Sturgis' background in detail. It mentioned that he was "now associated with organized crime activities..."
  
• 6/19/1972 Helms met with other Agency officials to discuss the implications of the break-in. Angleton expressed fear that the press might blame the affair on the CIA. After looking at photos of Hunt, Angleton was relieved to find that "I'd never seen him before in my life." Helms said nothing of his ties to Hunt. (Secret Agenda p220)
  
• 6/19/1972 It is announced that McCord has been fired. Nixon and Haldeman return to Washington.
  
• 6/19/1972 This evening, Magruder (having returned from California) burned the Gemstone files in his home fireplace.
  
• 6/19/1972 Bob Woodward talked on the phone with a high government source known as "Deep Throat." This person was already an "old friend" of Woodward's.
  
• 6/20/1972 Washington Post story by Bob Woodward. "In it was the information that Howard Hunt's name appeared in the burglars' address books, that one of Hunt's signed checks had been found on the person of one of the Cubans, and that Hunt had been a consultant to White House Special Counsel Charles Colson."
  
• 6/20/1972 A White House conversation between Nixon and Haldeman; the tape of the conversation later contained an 18.5 minute "gap." Nixon recalled that Haldeman said "half-jokingly...that maybe it would be better if we just said that yes, we were spying on the Democrats...because we were scared to death that a crazy man was going to become President and sell the country out to the Communists!" (RN)
  
• 6/20/1972 Richard Nixon telephones H.R. Haldeman and tells him to tell John Ehrlichman that "this whole group of Cubans is tied to the Bay of Pigs." When asked what the Bay of Pigs has to do with Watergate, Nixon replies: "Ehrlichman will know what I mean."
  
• 6/20/1972 Haldeman calls a meeting for 10:00am. The Meeting is held in Ehrlichman's Office. In Attendance: Haldeman, Mitchell, Kleindienst, Dean. After the meeting, Dean accompanied Kleindienst to the Justice building where they were joined by Henry Peterson. Dean wanted to get a hold of the FBI 302s. In testimony, Kleindienst stated: "The representation that he [Dean] made to me and to Mr. Petersen throughout was that he was doing this for the President of the United States and that he was reporting directly to the President."
  
• 6/20/1972 Presidential meeting. 11:26am - 12:45pm The 18.5 Minute Gap. The tape was most probably electronically erased. According to Colodny and Gettlin, the most likely candidate for the gap was Alexander Haig. They site the following: "... The gap has usually been attributed to a mistake on the part of Nixon's personal secretary Rose Mary Woods, and/or to a deliberate attempt by a mechanically clumsy president to erase information detrimental to him. But there was a more sinister aspect to the affair than has previously been understood, and it involves Haig and Buzhardt and an especially well-timed and dramatic revelation by Deep Throat."[SC,371] They also quote a passage in All the President's Men where Woodward and Bernstein report that sometime in the first week of November: "Deep Throat's message was short and simple: One or more of the tapes contained deliberate erasures."[quoted in SC,376] Haig was one of four people who knew of the erasure. If Nixon made the erasure, it makes his announcements around the date of its revelation puzzling. Quote from Silent Coup regarding Deep Throat: It may be that the inconsistencies in Woodward's and Bernstein's characterization of Deep Throat as a source are only the result of Woodward's attempt to hide his source and to lend appropriate literary drama to his book. Despite Woodward's demurrer, Deep Throat may have been a composite of several sources, as some historians and journalists have concluded. Despite Woodward's other demurrer about the source still being alive, Deep Throat may have had more than a touch of Buzhardt in him. The identity of Deep Throat is a phantom that is no longer of any importance to chase. It was always a cover story designed to lead detectives in the wrong direction, and has now outlived its usefulness. What is apparent is that in November of 1973, Chief of Staff Alexander Haig played a key role in feeding damaging information about the White House tapes to his former Navy briefer, Bob Woodward, on the eve of Nixon's Operation Candor, on which the president had pinned such high hopes.
  

4:35pm - 5:25pm Executive Office Building
Nixon:
Haldeman: [McCord's] on a regular monthly retainer, a fee.
Nixon: Does he have other clients?
Haldeman: And he had a regular monthly fee at the National Committee also. ... Apparently he set up, installed some television closed circuit monitoring stuff, and then they have six guards and some supervisors.... McCord, I guess, will say that he was working with the Cubans, he wanted to put this in for their own political reasons. But Hunt disappeared or is in the process of disappearing. He can undisappear if we want him to. He can disappear to a Latin American country. But at least the original thought was that that would do it, that he might want to disappear, (unintelligible) on the basis that these guys, the Cubans -- see, he was in the Bay of Pigs thing. One of the Cubans, [Bernard] Barker, the guy with the American name, was his deputy in the Bay of Pigs operation and so they're kind of trying to tie it to the Cuban nationalists...
Nixon: We are?
Haldeman: Yes. Now of course they're trying to tie these guys to Colson, [and] the White House.... It's strange -- if Colson doesn't run out, it doesn't go anywhere. The closest they come, he [Hunt] was a consultant t o Colson. We have detailed somewhat the nature of his consulting fee and said it was basically (unintelligible). I don't know.
Nixon: You don't know what he did?
Haldeman: I think we all knew that there were some--
Nixon: Intelligence.
Haldeman: --some activities, and we were getting reports, or some input anyway. But I don't think -- I don't think Chuck knew specifically that this was under way. ...
Nixon: Well, if he did ... second-guess...
Haldeman: He seems to take all the blame himself.
Nixon: Did he? Good.
Haldeman:He was saying this morning that it was damn stupid for him to not learn about the details and know exactly what was going on. ... They sweep [for bugs] this office and your Oval Office twice a week ....
Nixon: This Oval Office business [i.e. that taping system] complicates things all over.
Haldeman: They say it's extremely good. I haven't listened to the tapes.
Nixon: They're kept for future purposes.
Haldeman: Nobody monitors those tapes, obviously. They are kept stacked up and locked up in a super-secure -- there are only three people that know [about the system] ... If they get all the circumstantial stuff tie d together, maybe it's better ... to plead guilty, saying we were spying on the Democrats. Just let the Cubans say, we , McCord ... figured it was safe for us to use.
Nixon: Well, they've got to plead guilty.
Haldeman: ...[A]nd we [the Cubans] went in there to get this because we're scared to death that this crazy man's going to become President and sell the U.S. out to the communists...
Nixon: How was he [Hunt] directly involved?
Haldeman: He was across the street in the Howard Johnson Motel with a direct line of sight room, observing across the street. And that was the room in which they have the receiving equipment for the bugs.
Nixon: Well, does Hunt work for us or what?
Haldeman: No. Oh, we don't know. I don't know. I don't know if that's one -- that's something I haven't gotten an answer to, how -- apparently McCord had Hunt working with him, or Hunt had McCord working with him, and with these Cubans. They're all tied together. Hunt when he ran the Bay of Pigs thing was working with this guy Barker, one of the Cubans who was arrested.
Nixon: How does the press know about this?
Haldeman: They don't. Oh, they know Hunt's involved because they found his name in the address book of two of the Cubans, Barker's book and one of the other guy's books. He's identified as "White House." And also beca use one of the Cubans had a check from Hunt, a check for $690 or something like that, which Hunt had given to this Cuban to take back to Miami with him and mail. It was to pay his country club bill...
Nixon: Hunt?
Haldeman: Hunt, yes. Probably so he can pay non-resident dues at the country club or something. But anyway, they had that check, so that was another tie.
Nixon: Well, in a sense, if the Cubans--the fact that Hunt's involved with the Cubans or McCord's involved with the Cubans, here are the Cuban people.... My God, the committee isn't worth bugging in my opinion. That's my public line.
Haldeman: Except for this financial thing. They thought they had something going on that.
Nixon: Yes, I suppose.
Haldeman: But I asked that question: If we were going to all that trouble, why in the world would we pick the Democratic National Committee to do it to? It's the least fruitful source--

• 6/20/1972 Colson memo: "The last time that I recall meeting with Howard Hunt was mid-March...I also talked to him on the telephone the night George Wallace was shot simply to ask him for his reactions on what he thought might have been the cause of the attempted assassination. (Hunt was known [as] something of an expert [on] psychological warfare and motivations when in the CIA.)....[In February] both he and Liddy said that they had some elaborate proposals prepared for security activities for the Committee, but they had been unable to get approval from the Attorney General."
  
• 6/20/1972 FBI memo from agent Arnold L. Parham stated that Hunt was being used by the CIA on an ad hoc basis" at the same time he was employed by the White House.
  
• 6/21/1972 The FBI contacted James McCord at the DC jail, but he refused to cooperate and be interviewed. (FBI memo 8/3/73)
  
• 6/21/1972 FBI discovered two notebooks in Martinez's car at the Miami airport. An informant had told the CIA two days before that Martinez's car was there, but the Agency waited before telling the FBI. A parking stub showed that the car had been brought there after Martinez's arrest. One of the notebooks, written in Spanish, later disappeared without a trace. (Secret Agenda p226-7; Baker Report)
  
• 6/22 or 21/1972 A fire to destroy evidence occurred at McCord's home. Present was Lee R. Pennington, Jr, who claimed to have just "dropped in" and found McCord's wife, Pennington's secretary Donald Sweany and wife Lucille (McCord's secretary) burning every scrap of paper in the house belonging to McCord. McCord's wife claimed to have received a bomb threat via a telephone call from Houston, Texas on 6/19. The Ervin committee would fail to question McCord about the matter. Right after the fire, Pennington contacted his CIA case officer, Louis W. Vasaly, told him what had occurred, and Vasaly passed the information on to Paul Gaynor. (Nedzi report p973)
  
• 6/22/1972 Richmond News Leader editorialized that Democratic claims that Republicans were behind the Watergate break-in were "predictable election-year Mickey Mouse, of course, but surely the Democrats are pushing our sense of humor too far."
  
• 6/23/1972 Gov. Reagan announced that "espionage is not considered dishonorable" in political campaigns.
  
• 6/23/1972 At this time, Nixon's covert campaign to overthrow Salvador Allende's government is well under way.
  
• 6/23/1972 Nixon/Haldeman Oval Office meeting from 10:04 to 11:39am. The Smoking Gun Tape. President Nixon is recorded on his secret White House tapes talking to H.R. Haldeman about Howard Hunt. Nixon says: "... this Hunt, that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab, there's a hell of a lot of things ... This involves these Cubans, Hunt and a lot of hanky-panky ... just say (unintelligible) very bad to have this fellow Hunt, ah, he knows too damned much, if he was involved -- you happen to know that? If it gets out that this is all involved, the Cuba thing, it would be a fiasco. It would make the CIA look bad, it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it is likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate -- both for the CIA and for the country ..."
  
• Haldeman wrote about the Watergate tapes: "In all of those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, [Nixon] was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination...After Kennedy was killed, the CIA launched a fantastic cover-up...The CIA literally erased any connection between Kennedy's assassination and the CIA...in fact, Counter Intelligence Chief James Angleton of the CIA called Bill Sullivan of the FBI and rehearsed the questions and answers they would give to the Warren Commission investigators." Haldeman seemed to be of the opinion that Castro was behind the assassination, and for some reason the CIA covered this up. (The Ends of Power 39) Syndicated columnist Christopher Matthews wrote 12/24/1995 that Haldeman "repeatedly denied ever writing the passage [about the Bay of Pigs]...Haldeman told me personally in the weeks just before his death that this particular passage in 'The Ends of Power,' was the creation of his ghost-writer." In Haldeman's book, Richard Nixon's former White House chief of staff describes a dramatic confrontation with CIA Director Richard Helms, after which Haldeman came to believe that Nixon knew that, somehow, the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination. After Stone used this information in his film, Matthews went to interview a dying Haldeman, who denied originating the passage and blamed it on his co-writer, Joseph DiMona. But Matthews overlooked the fact that in a paperback version of the book, Haldeman had written that the "writing style is DiMona's. The opinions and conclusions are essentially mine." (p. 422) Further, in an interview with Dr. Gary Aguilar in December of 1995, DiMona said the book went through five drafts. Haldeman made many changes, but none to that passage. In fact, on Feb. 15, 1978, DiMona made a similar comment to the Washington Post about Haldeman's editorial control, which Matthews either missed or ignored.
  

Haldeman: okay -that's fine. Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the-in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them, and they have, their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they've been able to trace the money, not through the money itself, but through the bank, you know, sources - the banker himself. And, and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go. Ah, also there have been some things, like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this guy, Barker, and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letter head documents and things. So I guess, so it's things like that that are gonna, that are filtering in. Mitchell came up with yesterday, and John Dean analyzed very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with Mitchell's recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we're set up beautifully to do it, ah, in that and that...the only network that paid any attention to it last night was NBC...they did a massive story on the Cuban...
Nixon: That's right.
Haldeman: thing.
Nixon: Right.
Haldeman: That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, "Stay the hell out of this...this is ah, business here we don't want you to go any further on it." That's not an unusual development,...
Nixon: Um huh.
Haldeman: ...and, uh, that would take care of it.
Nixon: What about Pat Gray, ah, you mean he doesn't want to?
Haldeman: Pat does want to. He doesn't know how to, and he doesn't have, he doesn't have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He'll call Mark Felt in, and the two of them ...and Mark Felt wants to cooperate because...
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: he's ambitious...
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: Ah, he'll call him in and say, "We've got the signal from across the river to, to put the hold on this." And that will fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is. This is CIA.
Nixon: But they've traced the money to 'em.
Haldeman: Well they have, they've traced to a name, but they haven't gotten to the guy yet.
Nixon: Would it be somebody here?
Haldeman: Ken Dahlberg.
Nixon: Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?
Haldeman: He's ah, he gave $25,000 in Minnesota and ah, the check went directly in to this, to this guy Barker.
Nixon: Maybe he's a ...bum.
Nixon: He didn't get this from the committee though, from Stans.
Haldeman: Yeah. It is. It is. It's directly traceable and there's some more through some Texas people in--that went to the Mexican bank which they can also trace to the Mexican bank...they'll get their names today. And pause)
Nixon: Well, I mean, ah, there's no way... I'm just thinking if they don't cooperate, what do they say? They they, they were approached by the Cubans. That's what Dahlberg has to say, the Texans too. Is that the idea?
Haldeman: Well, if they will. But then we're relying on more and more people all the time. That's the problem. And ah, they'll stop if we could, if we take this other step.
Nixon: All right. Fine.
Haldeman: And, and they seem to feel the thing to do is get them to stop?
Nixon: Right, fine.
Haldeman: They say the only way to do that is from White House instructions. And it's got to be to Helms and, ah, what's his name...? Walters.
Nixon: Walters.
Haldeman: And the proposal would be that Ehrlichman (coughs) and I call them in
Nixon: All right, fine.
Haldeman: and say, ah...
Nixon: How do you call him in, I mean you just, well, we protected Helms from one hell of a lot of things.
Haldeman: That's what Ehrlichman says.
Nixon: Of course, this is a, this is a Hunt, you will-that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things and that we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt, and a lot of hanky-panky that we have nothing to do with ourselves. Well what the hell, did Mitchell know about this thing to any much of a degree?
Haldeman: I think so. I don 't think he knew the details, but I think he knew.
Nixon: He didn't know how it was going to be handled though, with Dahlberg and the Texans and so forth? Well who was the asshole that did? (Unintelligible) Is it Liddy? Is that the fellow? He must be a little nuts.
Haldeman: He is.
Nixon: I mean he just isn't well screwed on is he? Isn't that the problem?
Haldeman: No, but he was under pressure, apparently, to get more information, and as he got more pressure, he pushed the people harder to move harder on...
Nixon: Pressure from Mitchell?
Haldeman: Apparently.
Nixon: Oh, Mitchell, Mitchell was at the point that you made on this, that exactly what I need from you is on the--
Haldeman: Gemstone, yeah.
Nixon: All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest. Thank God it wasn't Colson.
Haldeman: The FBI interviewed Colson yesterday. They determined that would be a good thing to do.
Nixon: Um hum.
Haldeman: Ah, to have him take a...
Nixon: Um hum.
Haldeman: An interrogation, which he did, and that, the FBI guys working the case had concluded that there were one or two possibilities, one, that this was a White House, they don't think that there is anything at the Election Committee, they think it was either a White House operation and they had some obscure reasons for it, non political,...
Nixon: Uh huh.
Haldeman: or it was a...
Nixon: Cuban thing-
Haldeman: Cubans and the CIA. And after their interrogation of, of...
Nixon: Colson.
Haldeman: Colson, yesterday, they concluded it was not the White House, but are now convinced it is a CIA thing, so the CIA turn off would...
Nixon: Well, not sure of their analysis, I'm not going to get that involved. I'm (unintelligible).
Haldeman: No, sir. We don't want you to.
Nixon: You call them in.
Nixon: Good. Good deal! Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it.
Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it.
Nixon: Yeah, when I saw that news summary item, I of course knew it was a bunch of crap, but I thought ah, well it's good to have them off on this wild hair thing because when they start bugging us, which they have, we'll know our little boys will not know how to handle it. I hope they will though. You never know. Maybe, you think about it. Good!
**********
Nixon: When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: "Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that" ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case", period!
Haldeman: OK
Nixon: That's the way to put it, do it straight (Unintelligible)
Haldeman: Get more done for our cause by the opposition than by us at this point.
Nixon: You think so?
Haldeman: I think so, yeah.

• 6/23/1972 Nixon/Haldeman Oval Office meeting from 10:04 to 11:39am.
  

Haldeman: Now, on the investigation....we're back to the - in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them...their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they've been able to trace the money...through the bank...and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go...the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, 'Stay the hell out of this...that is, ah, business here we don't want you to go any further on it.'...Mark Felt wants to cooperate because...he's ambitious...the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is. This is CIA.
Nixon: But they've traced the money to 'em.
Haldeman: Well, they have, they've traced to a name, but they haven't gotten to the guy yet...Ken Dahlberg...he gave $25,000 in Minnesota and...the check went directly in to this...guy Barker....and there's some more through some Texas people in - that went to the Mexican bank which they can also trace to the Mexican bank...
Nixon: ....well, we protected Helms from one hell of a lot of things.
Haldeman: That's what Ehrlichman says.
Nixon: Of course, this is a, this Hunt, you will - that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab, there's a hell of a lot of things and that we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt and a lot of hanky-panky that we have nothing to do with ourselves. Well, what the hell, did Mitchell know about this thing to any much of a degree?
Haldeman: I think so. I don't think he knew the details, but I think he knew.
Nixon: Well, who was the asshole that did? Is it Liddy? Is that the fellow? He must be a little nuts.
Haldeman: He is.
Nixon: Thank God it wasn't Colson.
Haldeman: The FBI interviewed Colson yesterday...they concluded it was not the White House, but are now convinced it is a CIA thing...
Nixon: Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it...When you get in these people...say: 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that'...ah, without going into the details...don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, 'the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing again. And, ah, because these people are plugging for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case,' period!
Nixon/Haldeman meeting, Oval Office, 1:04-1:13pm: tape quality is often unintelligible.
Nixon: ...very bad, to have this fellow Hunt, ah, you know, ah, it's, he, he knows too damn much and he was involved, we happen to know that. And that it gets out that the whole, this is all involved in the Cuban thing, that it's a fiasco, and it's going to make the FB - ah, CIA look bad, it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it's likely to blow the whole, uh, Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate for CIA and for the country at this time, and for American foreign policy...I would just say, 'Look, it's because of the Hunt involvement...'
Nixon/Haldeman meeting, EOB office, 2:20-2:45pm
Haldeman: Gray had called Helms, which we knew, and said, uh, uh, I think we've run right into the middle of a CIA covert operation.
Nixon: Gray said that?
Haldeman: Yeah, and Helms said, 'Nothing, nothing we've got at this point'...well, the problem is that it tracks back to the Bay of Pigs...So at that point Helm's kind of got the picture...he said, 'We'll be very happy to be helpful to, ah, you know, and we'll handle everything you want'....One thing Helms did raise is he said that, that Gray, he asked Gray why he felt they're going into a CIA thing and Gray said, 'Well, because of the characters involved and the amount of money involved.'

• 6/24/1972 McCord called Lou Russell and urged him to remain silent. Baldwin said he was under a lot of pressure and might have to make a deal with authorities.
  
• 6/25/1972 Buchanan memo to Colson, urging that McGovern be pinned as the man who "personally urged Daniel Ellsburg [sic]...to fence those documents with the New York Times...McGovern is a hypocrite."
  
• 6/26/1972 The Air Force unveiled its new F-15 jet fighter.
  
• 6/26/1972 FBI interviewed Robert Swartburg, an employee of the architectural firm that designed the Miami Beach Convention Hall. He said that Bernard Barker, in late 1971 or early 1972 had tried to acquire the plans for the Democrats' convention center. (Interview obtained through FOIA; Secret Agenda p98)
  
• 6/28/1972 Helms instructed the FBI to "desist from expanding this investigation into other areas which may well, eventually, run afoul of our operations."
  
• 6/29/1972 Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment.
  
• 6/29-30/1972 The FBI again searched the DNC for evidence of electronic surveillance, and found none.