“He can undisappear if
we want him to” (June 23, 1972)
The two men who coordinated the burglary of the
Democratic National Committee headquarters from a
Howard Johnson's across the street, James McCord
and Howard Hunt, were close associates of the Nixon
reelection campaign and White House. Covering up
those ties was the original task of the cover-up. Here,
Nixon and chief of staff Bob Haldeman brainstorm a
phony motive for the break-in to launder through the
press. The burglars were Cuban, so blaming Cuban na-
tionalists—who were always showing up in the news
committing crimes against supposed allies and enablers
of Fidel Castro—was one possibility. They note how
the White House taping system “complicates things”—
i.e., provides an evidentiary record of their ongoing
obstruction of justice. Then when they realize that doc-
umentary evidence limits their ability to isolate their
crimes from the White House, Nixon, frustrated, re-
hearses a line to distract the media: “the committee
isn't worth bugging.”Later, they arrive at an apparently foolproof plan.
FBI investigators were on the verge of cracking the
case, to Nixon's dismay. Howard Hunt was a former
CIA operative who helped lead the attempt to over
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents.
Contributors: Rick Perlstein - Editor, Richard Nixon - Author.
Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ.
Publication year: 2008.
Page number: 232.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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