The Richard Nixon Experience

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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.  

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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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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 December 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 Venisti , 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 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 job, 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, Williams 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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It is January 1974, and the nation is all a buzz over two missing conversations and an 18 and a half minute gap on subpoenaed tapes from the White House. Judge Sirica has demanded that the tapes all be turned over to him. It is a no win scenario for the White House and for the first time they are losing the public relations war.  The gap would be one of the enduring mysteries of Watergate.

Years later a couple of investigators would attempt to resolve the mystery of "who done it?" with , in my opinion, a less than satisfying answer complete with lots of unprovable innuendo.  The National Archives too would attempt to figure out if there was more to the notes that Bob Haldeman left behind that may give a clue about what was discussed in the famous meeting.  It seems it was a mystery the public never tired of trying tp resolve. 

In the end, the more likely and plausible answer is offered up by Geoff Shepard, who was there, a member of the White House staff who dealt directly with the tapes and the people transcribing the tapes. The machine in question, the Uher 5000, had a history of various recording issues and there is some evidence of a faulty plug in the wall of Rose Mary Woods' small working office.  Here in this episode you will get to hear every version of what could of happened that I could find, but if you are a believer in the old adage the most likely version is the least complicated one, you will probably be right. However, this is one mystery we will likely never know the answer too. 

There are also other issues on the front burner in January of 1974. One of them is a growing Energy Crisis, that grew to a serious crisis over the winter of 1974. In this episode we revisit a symposium with the major players as they remember the crisis and how the President dealt with it. We also feature an oral history with James Schlesinger , the cabinet member who had to help develop the strategy to combat the issue. In it he talks about the environmental President who is so responsible for how clean our air and water is today as he sought solutions to those problems and he moved us closer towards energy independence as well. 

We also hear how Watergate began to hamper every other initiative the administration was working on as 1974 began and President Nixon once again took to the stage for his  State of the Union address. He was under siege over a scandal that was crippling his administration even as our Union was the strongest it had ever been in its nearly 200 year history under the leadership Richard Nixon  had provided. 

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This is our second episode where we listen to lectures from Geoff Shepard that deals directly with two of the most important, and frankly, sinister factors that led to the downfall of Richard Nixon. 

Judge John Sirica, often portrayed as the hero of Watergate, was in fact a known attention seeker with one of the worst records of any Judge on the D.C. Court. He was famous for disregarding the rights of defendants. It is combination of these weaknesses and his desire to play the hero, all fed to him by private meetings he was having with those interested in seeing that Richard Nixon would eventually be politically hurt by the case. It is a damning indictment of his behavior on the Bench that had it been known at the time would have led to his disbarment.  

Then we get a look at the Watergate Special Prosecutors Task Force, a team of lawyers we have labeled the Sinister Force of Watergate. They were formed with only one target in mind and they never hid it. That target was Richard Nixon and over these lectures you will see a case form that should scare any person who has ever thought that somehow they could end up in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system. 

This is an excellent overview of the way things unfolded that led to the resignation of President Nixon. It is following this road map, complete with historical documents and various news reports from the time period that our podcast will soon begin to move you through the events of early 1974 that would lead to indictments of the President's top aids and the naming of President Nixon as an unindicted Co-Conspirator on March 1, 1974. 

Links to lectures and Website below: 

1. https://youtu.be/hZIF0oSXBJE  Mysteries of Watergate Lecture Nixon Library  May 29, 2010

2. https://youtu.be/qXA2T23yoFU  Geoff Sheppard lecture Richard Nixon Library  August 11, 2015

3. https://youtu.be/9EPgLIWpFKA    Geoff Shepard - Special Prosecutors: Yesterday and Today
November 21, 2018 St. Vicente College 

4. https://youtu.be/gHRv7WG7yTM  Watergate lecture at Hillsdale College  November 6, 2018

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

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In this first of two episodes,  we have culled several important points on the case that Geoff Shepard has laid out in his three books from several lectures he has made that are available on the internet and at his site. The links to which are below. 

This episode centers on various theories of Watergate that have been out there for a number of years, the role of Senator Ted Kennedy and his various staffers, and finally a focus on the role of former White House Counsel to the President,  John Dean. 

This is an excellent overview of the way things unfolded that led to the resignation of President Nixon. It is following this road map, complete with historical documents and various news reports from the time period that our podcast will soon begin to move you through the events of early 1974 that would lead to indictments of the President's top aids and the naming of President Nixon as an unindicted Co-Conspirator on March 1, 1974. 

Links to lectures and Website below: 

1. https://youtu.be/hZIF0oSXBJE  Mysteries of Watergate Lecture Nixon Library  May 29, 2010

2. https://youtu.be/qXA2T23yoFU  Geoff Sheppard lecture Richard Nixon Library  August 11, 2015

3. https://youtu.be/9EPgLIWpFKA    Geoff Shepard - Special Prosecutors: Yesterday and Today
November 21, 2018 St. Vicente College 

4. https://youtu.be/gHRv7WG7yTM  Watergate lecture at Hillsdale College  November 6, 2018

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

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Who in the World is Geoff Shepard?

This show is an attempt to introduce you to him and exactly who he is. We have discussed him at various times in our 1973 episodes but this as an indepth look at who he is and why he is a man of unquestioned stature. 

I also wanted to put this show together because of my own experience with coming to learn about this man and his work.  I also wanted to address the usually skillful way the other side of this debate undermines everyone with a different viewpoint in the eyes of the public and how it actually usually works, and for a brief while even with me. It's also a way to keep a skillful eye on current events too.

The first time I had ever heard of Geoff Shepard I was arguing with a former anchor at my local television station over drinks.  Since the advent of social media I have developed a reputation as a rabid Nixon defender.  My friend, who was on WPDE - TV 15 in Myrtle Beach, was not a Nixon fan. Over the course of our argument he said something along the lines of me believing looney conspiracy theories, and through out Geoff Shepard's name. I had never heard of him but was aware that a little cottage industry of hairbrained conspiracy theories had cropped up over Watergate and various other historic events from the Lincoln Assassination to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the Bermuda Triangle for that matter.  But for me after the back and forth with the anchorman, I mostly forgot about it. 

A while later I got to talking with a friend of mine who was the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Myrtle Beach. He was the young man who had broken up the fist fight years before between our Mayor Mark McBride and a City Councilman Wayne Gray in executive session.  That fight had made national news at the time.  The Assistant City Attorney had since moved on before I was elected, but we became friendly acquaintances. He had seen some of my posts on Facebook about President Nixon and had told me about his own legal work with Geoff Shepard and how Shepard had told him all about his time working with Richard Nixon. Then he sent me an article that had been in The Atlantic Magazine. 

It was a fascinating look at what had really happened in Watergate.  That is when I realized that there may be more to this man than what the anchorman had portrayed to me earlier.  When Geoff Shepard's second book came out "The Real Watergate Scandal (Collusion , Conspiracy and the plot that brought down Nixon) "  I went out and bought a copy. It was a stunning, shocking, mesmerizing book that I almost highlighted from cover to cover. It was one of the best books on Richard Nixon and Watergate I had ever read.  So I did some research on the author.  

What I discovered was he is a very serious man, and more importantly, a very credible one with a long resume of experience both as part of the Nixon Administration an after.  So with this episode I want to establish with you, our audience, that Geoff Shepard is not a conspiracy theorist, not a person pedaling a story of a vast intricate plot of espionage designed to destroy a President, but a serious man who has uncovered a rather simple case of Prosecutorial Misconduct that has sadly occured in courtrooms and legal cases all over America. 

 It is a simple case of partisans in a political scandal who took control of the wheels of justice, with no real supervision, with over 100 of the best partisan lawyers and investigators in America, and a willing press covering it all, and then made a case up out of a mountain of materials and tapes they were able to force the President to turn over to them in an unprecedented way , with massive historical consequences for the country and the President it had overwhelmingly elected to office. 

*** You can look at the documents we use at ShepardonWatergate.com