What was said between Nixon and his Chief of Staff H.R. Halderman during the infamous 18 1/2 gap on a tape from June 20,1972? The question has tantalized historians and Watergate aficionados since the information was confirmed by Judge John Sirica on December 7, 1973. At that time, Sirica was grilling poor Rosemary Woods, Nixon’s personal secretary, about how she could have possibly accidentally erased such crucial evidence. Mrs. Woods explanation became part of Watergate lore.
Woods had been transcribing the June 20 tape when the phone rang. As she leaned over to answer it, her foot accidentally moved from the “play” function to the “reverse” function on the foot pedal controls for the tape recorder. At the same time, her hand must have accidentally pressed the “record” button on the machine.
Since experts later testified that there were between 5 and 9 separate erasures, Mr. Woods evidently got quite a few phone calls.
Of course, no one believed her. And it’s to Sirica’s credit I think, that he didn’t charge Mrs. Woods with obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, or any other serious crime. He must have realized that it wasn’t Woods who erased the tape in the first place.
If not Woods, who?
The answer to that question reveals the problem facing many Watergate buffs this morning. While Mark Felt was certainly in a position to reveal information to Wood/Stein about the FBI’s investigation, there’s very little doubt he could not have known about the tape gap. And yet, in a story dated almost a month before Mrs. Woods grilling by Judge Siraca, the intrepid Post reporters had the story of the tape gap and immediately recognized its significance.
Here’s Nixon biographer Jonathon Aiken:
This was the story in the Washington Post of November 8, 1973 saying that a crucial White House tape of June 20, 1972 featuring Nixon and his chief of staff, H R Halderman, had been “doctored” and that the problems on the tape were of a “suspicious nature”.
Deep Throat told Bob Woodward that this tape contained “deliberate erasures”. This was the sensational story of the 18-and-a-half minute gap on the tape. It remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of Watergate because it contains the probable identity of Deep Throat.
When Deep Throat leaked the information about “deliberate erasures” to Woodward at some time in the first week of November 1973 only six people in the White House, or for that matter in the world, knew about the problem of the gap in the tape. They were Richard Nixon; Rose Mary Woods (Nixon’s personal secretary); Alexander Haig (The White House chief of staff); Haig’s deputy, Major General John C Bennett and two trusted Nixon White House aides, Fred Buzhardt and Steve Bull.
I saw Haig on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country last night and the old guy gave some very strange answers. He kept insisting he had Felt pegged all along as Deep Throat. He just couldn’t get the revelation to his publisher in time to make the deadline for the publication of his second book(!) And the look on his face when others on the panel were talking bordered on triumphant.
I may be imagining this because my personal choice for one of the Deep Throats had always been Haig. As many authors that chronicled Nixon’s last days have pointed out, Haig pretty much orchestrated the entire endgame of Nixon’s resignation. One book even goes so far as to attempt to tie Haig to a coup d’etat by the military and other elements in the national security apparatus who wanted Nixon out. The book’s claims are as sensational as they are loony. But it gave an accurate portrait of Haig as someone with vast contacts in many areas of government - contacts that he could have used to disseminate a lot of information about Watergate.
Many historians have speculated that Deep Throat is a composite of at least 2 and possibly 3 different people. That’s because Wood/Steins information came from someone or a couple of someones who were privy to information from both the Department of Justice and the highest levels of the executive branch. If Deep Throat were one individual, someone with that type of access would stick out like a sore thumb. Since no one person would seem to fit the bill, I believe it likely that Alexander Haig could be another, equally important source, for Wood/Stien’s Watergate stories.
The confirmation by Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstien of Felt’s role as Deep Throat said nothing about there not being another source. Bradlee seemed to go out of his way to put an exclamation mark on the story when he said “The last secret of Watergate” had been revealed. And Woodward himself may be relieved that Felt had taken some of the attention away from other candidates. That’s because Woodward’s association with Haig may reveal more than just the General being a source for Watergate. In a subject I’ll cover in full later today, Woodward’s commanding officer while he was in the Navy was Admiral Thomas Moorer who was involved in one of the most bizarre incidents in the history of the executive branch, the so-called Moorer-Radford Affair. This incident is one of the least known and aspects of the entire Watergate matter. And Woodward, as an aide to Moorer, used to brief Alexander Haig on a regular basis.
This proves nothing, of course. But it’s interesting nonetheless. So until proven otherwise, I will continue to believe in multiple Deep Throats.
It ain’t over yet.
9:11 am
IF MARK FELT WAS SUCH A PATRIOT WHY DID HE SNEAK AROUND IN THE DARK TO PUT FORTH HIS INFORMATION. IF HE FELT SO STRONGLY ABOUT RIGHTING THIS WRONG HE SHOULD HAVE HAD THE COURAGE TO STAND UP AND IDENTIFY HIMSELF. AFTER ALL HE WAS THE #2 MAN IN THE FBI AND TOOK AN OATH TO ENFORCE THE LAWS OF THE US.
9:34 am
I’m sorry as hell that Hunter H. didn’t stick around to see this final piece fall into place. He would’ve iced this cake with a machete and silenced every other voice in the process re: what finally equaled the quintessential conflict between loyalty to country and idiot dedication to the worst of one’s self. Nixon was one of the most gifted politicians we’ve ever produced. He was also one of the most essentially dishonest. His was a Yin/Yang that embodied us too well, and no one knew or could explain that better than H.S.T. Dude, I miss you!
10:25 am
I disagree that Nixon was a great politician,
He was an average politician, personally unpopular even with conservatives. He ran against a gravely wounded Hubert Humphrey and nearly lost. And by 1972, the dems put up a surrender monkey to run against him - slam dunk.
He did as much for the welfare state as LBJ which the libs never gave him credit for. And the elites loved his foreign policy.
A great politician? Don’t think so.
10:26 am
In order for justice to be done and criminal activity brought to light we have and need a “silent Observer” and let the hound dogs follow a trail rather than political spin doctors trying to discount the credibility of whistle blower like we do currently. Hat’s off to people with enough courage to expose corruption while trying to save their head!
10:32 am
Regardless of Nixon’s shortcomings, they don’t compare to the reprehensible lapse of judgment made by the Number two person at the FBI. Thank God this sleazy little bastard wasn’t made Director. Hero? Was Judith Campbell Exner a hero? No, he is just another whore.
10:44 am
A lie about a lie about a lie?
If Deep Throat was Mark Felt, then Woodward was lying. About Deep Throat, of course. And if Woodward was lying, considering that Deep Throat was Woodward’s (and Bernstein’s) construct, then why the fuss about Deep Throat? I’m just not buying….
10:58 am
Rick writes:”He was an average politician, personally unpopular even with conservatives.” He was unpopular with conservatives because he wasn’t one. He used to ask Buchanan, “What do they want.” The “they” being conservatives. They try to lump Nixon in with the Conservative movement to discredit the same– but those of us who were active then NEVER saw Nixon as even remotely a conservative.
12:31 pm
Nixon was a brilliant strategist and a political visionary. While he may not have understood the conservative movement, he did understand politics quite well. I think you are being unfair to his political skills. IIRC he only lost one election, that being the presidency in 1960. He also had the decency not to contest it, though he could have. Would that Al Gore had learned that lesson.
1:35 pm
Strategist…you got me there. However, he never connected to the American people like a Clinton or Reagan or come to think of it any President after him. They all had a resevoir of support that Nixon didn’t have.
It payed off for Reagan during Iran Contra and Clinton with Monica. Nixon just couldn’t overcome his difficulties.
2:24 pm
That’s a fair point. His reservoir of support among conservatives was pretty shallow too, I guess. Still, take a look at some of his old campaign photos. The guy was pretty popular for a time. The revisionist notion of him always being this sinister figure in the White House out to knife everybody who got in his way just wasn’t operative before Watergate.
6:47 pm
of all the talk about how great or not is irrelevent when you take into account that 50,000 Americans died because Nixon did`nt have what it takes to be a real American, and that is humility.
12:55 am
Tom–
What the eff are you talking about?
a. What makes you think Nixon had no humility? He resigned didn’t he? (More than one can say for another president of recent vintage I can name.)
(b) What does humility have to do with being a “real” American?
(c) What does being a “real American” have to do with 50,000 Americans dying?
I think there may a point in there somewhere, but I didn’t see what it was.
7:31 am
FELT BELIEVED IN HIS OWN INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW, AS LONG AS IT MET HIS PERSONAL OBJECTIVES. TOO BAD HE CANNOT BE CHARGED UNDER THE APPLICABLE STATUTE AT THIS POINT. WHAT NEXT? MAYBE A PROGRAMMER IN THE PENTAGON WHO IS NOT HAPPY AND GIVES OUT SENSITIVE DATA BECAUSE HE DIDN’T GET PROMOTED. THE MEDIA LOVES THESE KIND OF PEOPLE, LABELING THEM HEROES.
9:25 am
DEEPTHROAT WAS A REAL AMERICAN HERO.HE EXPOSED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY THAT WENT ALL THE WAY TO OUR WHITE HOUSE.
I HOPE THERE IS A DEEPTHROAT WATCHING THIS WHITE HOUSE AND HAS THE COURAGE TO EXPOSE THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY THAT THE BUSH MOB DOES ON A DAILY BASIS.
9:33 am
CC:
Already happened. Ever hear of Daniel Elsberg?