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The second in our tape series is another meeting held on April 26, 1973 between the President, Richard Nixon, and his then Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman. In it they try and reconstruct what was discussed in the earlier meeting between themselves and John Dean.

The You Tube page "I Tape You Bored" describes this meeting this way

"A conversation between Nixon and his top aide which might deserve the overused tag of "meta". John Dean has now defected, and is helping the prosecutors; the discussion here centers on the long and involved conversation of March 21, 1973, the famous "cancer on the presidency" session, and what Nixon said there that could be used against them. The two men go over the conversation detail by detail on what makes them legally vulnerable, and what defense they might erect. This long session contains no new revelations, but makes clear how deliberate and involved Nixon was in the cover-up of the scandal. Again and again, the excuse of national security is invoked."

However, what is forgotten by this writer and often most everyone else is that up until the March 21, 1973 meeting, President Nixon had been following the advice of his attorney.  While he may have had other sources of information, Nixon's main source was his attorney, the White House Counsel to the President.  That Counsel had been asked to commit to writing exactly what had gone on. President Nixon was counting on that document, and he had up to that moment been reliant on his counsel. Who was his counsel, his lawyer, the man he had relied on to guide himself and his Administration through this mess, that he, Richard Nixon,  had not created.?  The man's name was John Dean.

John Dean was the hub that connects the issues at the campaign to the staff at the White House.  He had gone to the prosecutor's office  to get a deal by the time of this meeting. At that point, President Nixon and his Chief of Staff knew that Dean , who they had trusted and who was the White House lawyer,  and was who they had relied on through the ordeal, was covering his own steps and throwing others under the bus. Now they were also  discovering that Dean had not been telling them the full story while he was  also digging the hole they had just discovered they were in.  Those facts should be considered as you hear the two men discussing the situation they now found themselves in,  because their attorney had proven himself unworthy of the job and trust that he had held.

*** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,com

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With this episode we will be introducing our tapes series, this is the first of four such episodes in a row. These will be episodes that center on tapes from either meetings or phone calls involving the President and the various Watergate defendants and other Nixon Administration players.  These first four episodes center on the most damning of the Watergate tapes involving the President and used by the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office.  Again, no defense attorney was ever given a chance to defend the President nor make his case, nor, most importantly, point out the exculpatory portions of the very tapes the Prosecutor's were only using snippets and sections of in order to derail the President.

Here on our show, unlike the situation our President faced in 1974, we believe in FAIRNESS!!

 So we have provided as much of the tape, or the entire tape available,   for you to listen to and make up your own mind about. In some of the episodes we also read to you introductions of the tapes by a Liberal Website called "Itapeyoubored" , in which we allow the common interpretation promoted by Nixon's most ardent detractors to be heard, and then I give my own analysis of what you are about to listen too.  In these episodes, we want to go ahead and make you aware that whenever it is a tape of a meeting rather than a phone call, President Nixon himself can be hard to hear. This is especially true in our first two tapes in our series. These are also two of the most damning of the tapes used against the President.  They are the infamous "Cancer on the Presidency" conversation involving President Nixon and John Dean with Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman joining the meeting and a later meeting in which Bob Haldeman and President Richard Nixon meet later to try and reconstruct the earlier meeting.

This entire first episode in our tapes series  is the "Cancer on the Presidency" meeting with John Dean. You will hear the famous line about coming up with money to pay Howard Hunt. You will also hear the President advising both Haldeman and Dean on how to avoid answering questions and not get a perjury charge leveled at them when in front of a Grand Jury where no defense attorney would be allowed to be present. It was the most sensational of all the tapes used to force the President to resign, save the smoking gun tape.

However, as we have seen before when dealing with evidence handled by the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office (the Sinister Force) things are not always what they seem. This tape is over an hour and a half long and what you won't hear is an order to pay Howard Hunt, and what you will hear, more than once, is a President who thinks those on his staff that may have been involved in a criminal act need to step forward and "come clean".

Another case of things not always being what they seem, nor history being correctly written.

*** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,com

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There was absolutely no one else on Earth with the stature, respect, influence, and as beloved as Queen Elizabeth 2nd.  She was the last major figure left who had served in some capacity during World War 2. She had been on the thrown of Great Britain for  70 years. To put that into some perspective when she became the Monarch of England and the Commonwealth of nations, Harry Truman was President of the United States, Winston Churchill was residing at 10 Downing Street, and Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union. In most of the World, only one in ten women worked outside the home, America had 48 States, Cary Grant was one of Hollywood's biggest stars,   Richard Nixon was not yet Vice President, and Strom Thurmond had not yet been elected to the United States Senate. 

Through all the years, all the advances in technology, all the changes on the political map around the world,  an almost entirely different world had emerged, but  she had never gone away.  Queen Elizabeth 2nd  was the one constant through it all. The very foundation of her nation and the steadfast symbol of stability in an ever changing World. She was to so many of us what appeared to be the last adult on the world stage. 

In this special episode, we look back over the life of the only Monarch of Great Britain 80% of her  countrymen  has ever known. 14 United States Presidents,  15 British Prime Ministers, the age of radio, television, the internet, and social media have all come, and in some cases gone, under her reign. She has somehow  figured out a way to steer her nation and commonwealth of nations through all of that dynamic, cultural, and ethnic change, and she has done it all while becoming the World's most beloved public figure. No easy feet for any one, in any office, to have achieved.

Here you will hear her speech as a 14 year old child, requested by Winston Churchill, with the hope of swaying public sentiment in the United States during the early days of World War 2, her speech at age 21 pledging to serve her country with dedication and loyalty for the rest of her life, her Speech after the horrific death of Princess Diana, her inspirational  Christmas messages in 2016 and 2021, and, finally, her message of instruction to Parliament on its opening day of 2021. We will also hear the first words from King Charles 3rd as he becomes the new Monarch of the nation of Great Britain. 

It is a thank you to  a Queen who gave all for 70 years, as the great children's character Paddington said,  "thank you for everything" 

God Save the King!! 

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"Charles W. Colson, the Republican political operative who boasted that he would “walk over my own grandmother” to ensure the reelection of President Richard M. Nixon and went on to found a worldwide prison fellowship ministry after his conversion to evangelical Christianity, .......

Mr. Colson’s reputation as a “dirty tricks artist” overshadowed his achievements as a darkly brilliant political strategist. He helped lay the groundwork for the Nixon landslide of November 1972 by appealing to disgruntled Democrats and blue-collar minority voters.

A self-described “hatchet man” for Nixon, Mr. Colson compiled the notorious “enemies list” of politicians, journalists and activists perceived as threats to the White House. And most fatefully, he helped orchestrate illegal activities to discredit former Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who was suspected of leaking a top-secret history of the Vietnam War to the New York Times and The Washington Post. "   ------ Washington Post Obituary written by Michael Dobbs

This is what most everyone thinks they know about Chuck Colson. What has been the most stunning thing I have learned about the Watergate Scandal has been how little the Prosecutor's actually had to make a case on Chuck Colson. The case was weak and they all knew it. But Leon Jaworski, while simultaneously working to protect William Bittman from an alleged overwhelming case of guilt, was determined to see Chuck Colson imprisoned.

In this episode we will let you listen in on how the case was maneuvered, and how Chuck Colson was scared into a plea deal. We will also introduce you to Chuck Colson, what his role was in the Nixon White House, and finally you will hear his own opinion on what happened to him at the hands of the Sinister Force of Watergate. A Sinister Force who literally stole a portion of this man's life and destroyed his reputation too.

*** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,com

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It's February of 1974 and the Special Prosecutor's Office,  the Sinister Force of Watergate, has gone to work to lay down their indictments of those accused of orchestrating the cover up of the Watergate burglary. But they also have fanned out into other areas of interest and zeroed in on targets for no other reason than for the effective leadership they have provided for the President they loathed.

Here you will listen in as a Grand Juror talks about the reaction of his fellow Grand Jurors to being told they could not indict the President. Hear as the Prosecutor's develop a plan to move the evidence they have gathered, without a Defense Attorney ever being present, from the Grand Jury to the Watergate Judge, an on to the Judiciary Committee of the Congress. The Committee investigation  was then just forming and its lead staffer, John Doar,  was an old friend of the Prosecutor's second  in command, Henry Ruth.

This episode also zeroes in on another potential target.  That of E. Howard Hunt's Attorney, William Bittman. An old Washington hand and protector of former President Lyndon Johnson. He had aided his client in shaking down the White House for more and more money to pay for legitimate expenses and enormous legal bills too, some of it  owed to.... William Bittman. The entire Special Prosecutor's Staff wanted to indict Bittman but another old LBJ protector stepped in to protect him.

His name was Leon Jaworski, The Special Prosecutor himself.  A determined friend for  William Bittman, no matter what the staff said, and a determined enemy of Chuck Colson, no matter what the staff said.

No one would care enough about Justice nor the long term destruction to the reputation of Chuck Colson to protect him,  even though he had barely if at all been involved in any of what the office was supposed to be investigating.  We will be telling that story in our next episode of Richard Nixon and Watergate. 

*** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,com

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If you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " too

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This episode begins with a simple statement that says it all about the Watergate Scandal from Nixon Speech Writer Ray Price "We screwed up so badly because we really never knew what we were being accused of"

And that was by design.

In this episode we look at the radicalization of Leon Jaworski, made largely possible by a tape of President Nixon giving advice to Bob Haldeman and John Dean on how to answer questions in a way that would not allow them to be charged with perjury. Now as bad as that may sound on face value  it is routine advice that every lawyer in America gives to clients.  You see you have to be able to recall things precisely and if you can't it can be used against you later. You need only ask Dwight Chapin the price of not recalling details of events when asked (he was convicted of  giving misleading statements to the Grand Jury  for statements that may not have been precisely correct)

What we also learn, and was hidden from the public  for nearly a half century, is that Leon Jaworski was having issues controlling his rabid staff even as he came to believe in the President's guilt.  After a press conference in which Press Secretary Ron Ziegler expressed his view that the Prosecutor's Staff was out of control, and out to get the President, a rebuttal came flying out of the office now headed by Leon Jaworski.

Jaworski in an open letter to Ron Ziegler professed his total faith in the honesty , integrity, and fairness of his new found colleagues, all of whom he had inherited from his predecessor, Archibald Cox. But newly uncovered memos show a totally different story brewing in the background that begs the question did Leon Jaworski  even write the very letter that glossed over the growing belief that Richard Nixon had, that the staff of that office intended to do whatever it took to get him.

The media embraced Jaworski and touted to an interested public that he had vouched for the Special Prosecutor's staff as honest and ethical investigators of the truth. They pounded the wounded President every day driving his once lofty approval numbers down to record lows. All setting the stage to undo an unprecedented mandate of the people the previous November.

All of this as Jaworski in private did battle with his own lead staffers about inventive ways to stack the deck on Richard Nixon, using secret meetings with the trial Judge, John Sirica, sleight of hand to the Grand Jury, and taking advantage of a long friendship between John Doar, now the lead staffer on the House Judiciary Committee looking into impeachment,  and Henry Ruth that stretched back to the days they were neighbors in New York. They did it  all with one goal in mind; 

 How do we nail Richard Nixon. 

It appears very early on in the tenure of Leon Jaworski,  that things are not always what they seem.....

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If you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " too

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In this special edition we lay the foundation for much of the story to come. At various times we will be listening in on history and truly examining the tapes of the Richard Nixon Administration. We will be focusing on the time period in which the most question has been raised about President Nixon's personal involvement in the cover up of the Watergate burglary.  After his "Cancer on the Presidency" conversation with John Dean and subsequent conversations into late May of 1973.

We have made this special edition in order to explain what we are doing and to help not confuse  our listeners because we will be bouncing back and forth between the events unfolding in 1974 and the fact that almost all the evidence and focus will be on events that occured after March 21, 1973.  that is the universally accepted time that both President Nixon and his chief accuser, John Dean , agree that he had set down to inform the President fully as to what had been going on.  A little later we will be hearing the entire Cancer on the Presidency conversation.

This episode will explain what we are doing, and also focus on a figure who is leaving the scene just as we begin the tale end of 1973 and entering 1974,  Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Our assessments of him will probably surprise you, and in telling his final story as Special Prosecutor we will  begin to show the little details that point to the manipulative powers of the partisan staff he has assembled. How he personally had come to the conclusion that the one person who needed to pay for the criminality of Watergate was,  John Dean, and how the staff he put together was more concerned with destroying Richard Nixon than actually finding justice in the case of Watergate.

Finally, we thought it only fair to take a second to let John Dean tell his version of the story and what he felt he himself was trying to achieve by the actions he took that helped bring down the Nixon Administration. What we found was a fascinating interview on the ABC News program "Nightline with Ted Koppel" from January 2000. It was just after the National Archives started releasing the Nixon tapes for the public to hear.  It is an opportunity for John Dean to give his defense of Watergate, The Dean Defense.

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In our third episode in our look at the various people whose oral histories we will be focusing on during our next two seasons of shows, we leave behind the events of October 1973, and look back on who these people are, and how they got to be players in the Watergate Scandal.  This episode will concentrate on five people, Henry Ruth, Jill Wine Banks, Richard Ben Veniste , Alexander Haig and Ray Price.

Three of them are Special Prosecutors and two worked for President Nixon. One other person who worked for President Nixon, Geoff Shepard , we have devoted an earlier entire show into profiling.  This show will allow you to listen in on their earlier careers and how they came to have the positions they held. It is a fascinating look at how people build their careers and what influences their decision making during a historic moment in our nation's history.

You will also very subtly learn tidbits of information that will come to be very important later. The most important is the long standing relationship between Henry Ruth , the second in command at the Special Prosecutor's office, and John Doar, the lead lawyer and staffer for the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives for the inquiry into the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

 It is a relationship that will grow to be of monumental importance, and may be the key to how secret Grand Jury evidence, normally sealed, gathered without defense attorneys' being present, in which only  the Prosecutors control access to the Grand Jury members, could be moved to the committee inquiring as to whether there would be grounds to impeach a duly elected President of the United States.  All of which was done without the benefit of a Defense Attorney having so much as the ability to raise an objection or ask a question.

This is the first layer of a foundation of alleged misconduct that will stagger you, subtly  hidden in this oral history of Henry Ruth.

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In this second episode re-chronicling the Saturday Night Massacre a very disturbing picture will begin to emerge about the Watergate Special Prosecutor's office. You will begin to see a pattern of  behaviour where paranoia, arrogance, and an overall belief in the correctness of their cause emerges. That latter shows itself in decisions that get made where they themselves are willing to take matters into their own hands, without even consulting the very person who is supposed to be in charge of their office.

Listen as they proudly discuss removing evidence from the office, weeks before the showdown that led to Archibald Cox's termination. The belief that they could defy the Federal Bureau of Investigation officers who had been sent to the office, even threatening violence at one point at the officers. They admit to sneaking more evidence out in the underwear of one of the staffers wives, they imply that they believe the FBI would ransack their files even though they later have to admit that at no time did that ever occur.

They also openly discuss the contempt they held the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, even as he assumed the awesome responsibility of acting Attorney General and worked diligently to protect their jobs, even as he had to carry out the order from the President to fire the Special Prosecutor,  Archibald Cox. The picture that emerges is one of an out of control office, with no respect for any person of authority over them, whether it be a President they had targeted as a criminal, the former Attorney General that they accused of not acting in good faith, the new Acting Attorney General who protected their jobs, or even the man they were supposed to be working for who they lectured on how to conduct a criminal investigation and hid actions they took upon themselves , by removing evidence from the office weeks before a confrontation with the President had even occurred.

And it will get worse from here.

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In this episode we are going to step back to October of 1973. The singular event that changes everything in Watergate was the Saturday Night Massacre. When we originally told the story we did so from the overall perspective of the Nixon White House and the news media that covered it. We travel back in this episode and let you hear the story from the oral histories of the members of the Special Prosecutor's office whose boss was fired.

It is, we thought, the best way to introduce you to several people whose oral histories will take you to the very end of our Podcast Documentary look at Richard Nixon. While this episode centers more on the Special Prosecutors you will hear from two top level Nixon staffers, Ray Price and an oral history of Alexander Haig, read by me. You will also hear from Elliot Richardson, William Ruckelshaus, and Robert Bork.

But at the end you will get a play by play from three members of the special prosecutor's office we have only brushed upon in our earlier episodes. They are the number two man in the office, Henry Ruth, who will one day become the Special Prosecutor,  along with Richard Ben Veniste, and Jill Wine Banks.  It will give you some insight as to what it was like for those in the office on the night of the firing of Archibald Cox.

This is the first of three episodes centered on the people of the Watergate Scandal and their roles in it.

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If you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " too

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