WHITE HOUSE: Nixon's Thin Defense: The Need for Secrecy

With ever-increasing force, the waves of Watergate had been slamming for weeks against the doors of the Oval Office. Neither the repeated denials of presidential involvement in the scandal nor Richard Nixon's all-too-general television address of April 30 had stilled the pounding of multiple congressional hearings, grand jury investigations and relentless press probings. If the President was not to be rendered totally incapable of governing, he would have to grapple more directly with the specific charges against him.

In the court of public opinion, he stood accused of participating in or at least knowing of a massive conspiracy to conceal...

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