Watergate: Firefighting 5

Continued excerpts from John Dean's best-selling 1976 autobiography, Blind Ambition.

Murray laughed. "Hell, Agnew's got a great idea. I hope he has a good plan worked out. It would save us a lot of trouble if we dispensed with the "seventy-two campaign." Murray wasn't taking my visit as seriously as I was. We joked about (U.S. Vice-President) Agnew for a few minutes before I could get him to focus on my problem, and he had the answer. "If the President (Richard Nixon) wants you to turn the IRS (Inland Revenue Service) loose, then you turn the IRS loose. It's that simple, John."


"I really don't think it's necessary, Murray. The President's already got (Attorney-General) Mitchell investigating it. The FBI, I guess."

"I'll tell you this. If Richard Nixon thinks it's necessary you'd better think it's necessary. If you don't, he'll find someone who does."


I was not convinced and said so, but nicely. "Okay, but let me ask you this, Murray. You're a lawyer. Isn't it illegal and therefore crazy to use IRS to attack someone the President doesn't like?"


"Not so," he snorted. He stopped and retrieved the calm he rarely lost. "John, the President is the head of the executive branch of the damn government. If he wants his tax collectors to check into the affairs of anyone, it's his prerogative. I don't see anything illegal about it. It's the way the game is played. Do you think for a second that (former U.S. president) Lyndon Johnson was above using the IRS to harass those guys who who were giving him a hard time on the war? No, sir. Nor was Lyndon Johnson above using IRS against some good Republicans like Richard Nixon. I'll tell you he damn near ruined a few."


TO BE COINTINUED.

The Watergate Conspiracy 2

FIRE-FIGHTING
Continuation of excerpts from John Dean's fascinating Blind Ambition (W.H.Allen & Co. Ltd, 1977), an eye-opening account of his personal involvement in the infamous Watergate conspiracy...

.... Was it possible that he (President Nixon) had a secret plan to cancel the election and the Bill of Rights? I was embarrassed by the thought. Now I cannot look back at the episode without laughing, but then I was not at all loose about it. It was the President of the United States talking. Maybe he was right.

On the due date I wrote my first memorandum to the President, explaining the hazards of a lawsuit and the wisdom of waiting to see what an FBI investigation produced. I thought the affair had been put to rest. Not so. Back came another action memorandum from the staff secretary. The President agreed with my conclusions, but he wasn't yet content. "It was requested," said the memorandum, "that as part of this inquiry you should have the Inland Revenue Service conduct a field investigation on the tax front."

This was the "old Nixon" at work, heavy-handed, after somebody. I began to fret. How could anything be at once so troubling and so absurd? The President was asking me to do something I thought was dangerous, unnecessary and wrong. I did nothing for several days, but the deadline was hard upon me. I couldn't possibly respond, "Dean opposes this request because it is wrong and possibly illegal." I had to find some practical reason for doing the right thing or I would be gone. I called Bud Krogh several times, but he was out. Then I thought of my recent acquaintance, Murray Chotiner and arranged to meet him.

"I need some counsel, Murray."

"You're the lawyer.You're the one who's supposed to give counsel around here," he said with a chuckle.

"I'm still trying to find the water fountains in this place," I said. "Murray, seriously, I need some advice. The President wants me to turn the IRS loose on a shit-ass magazine called Scanlan Monthly because it printed a bogus memo from the Vice-President's office about canceling the 'seventy-two election and repealing the Bill of Rights."

To be continued...