Blind Ambition: Chapter 4

(Note: I’d long meant to tackle John Dean’s recounting of Watergate, “Blind Ambition” and have recently started reading it. I will be giving short recaps of the book over the following weeks.)

Blind Ambition

Chapter Four: Linchpin of Conspiracy

Synopsis: Fred Fielding (photo above) calls boss John Dean to let him know that the Washington Post has broke the story that James McCord of President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee and four unnamed Cubans were arrested trying to bug Larry O’Brien’s office at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. One of the Cubans has a check from Howard Hunt, a CIA Operative and member of the White House “plumbers” unit. Fan, meet shit.

Mitchell, Ehrlichman and Haldeman all play it cool, while most in the White House blame G. Gordon Liddy, even though they all knew he was a lunatic in the first place and continued to let him operate. Everyone works – generally with Dean’s help – to get themselves and the President distanced from the stupid affair, which only serves to pull everyone deeper into trouble. The fact that the money used for the operation was from Nixon’s campaign fund is a big issue, as the campaign has had a total scofflaw attitude regarding campaign finance laws. Dean takes a while before he realizes he’s just as screwed as everyone else as the cover up continues unabated, as everyone from Nixon on down plots how they should handle things. More money is siphoned from the campaign funds for a clandestine “hush money” payment to the Cubans and McCord.

Money quote 1: “John, never, I repeat, never, has an Attorney General that I know of, as long as I’ve been here, and that’s quite a while now, reversed a major case after an investigation has begun and turned up evidence of a criminal violation.” — Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson to John Dean, after Dean had been instructed to find out if the Justice Department had some type of vendetta against union labor leaders.

Money Quote 2: ” … And there was a phony State Department cable, whose obvious purpose was to convince the reader that President Kennedy had ordered the assassination of Vietnam’s President Diem. The phony cable was accompanied by several memos between Hunt and Coulson on how to leak the contents to Bill Lambert of Life Magazine.” — Dean’s recollection of what he found when going through Howard Hunt’s White House safe. Other findings included a pistol.

Previous:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

–WKW

Save