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In August 1970, according to Colson, ITT Vice President Edward J. Gerrity Jr. had written to Agnew, an old friend from Army days: "Our problem is to get John Mitchell the facts concerning McLaren's attitude because . . . McLaren seems to be running all by himself." In a meeting between ITT President Harold S. Geneen and Presidential Assistant John Ehrlichman, Gerrity continued, Ehrlichman had "said flatly that the President was not enforcing a bigness-is-bad policy [against ITT], and that the President had instructed the Justice Department along these lines." This document, Colson noted, was embarrassing because it "tends to contradict John Mitchell's testimony" (before the Judiciary Committee) that he had not been directly involved in ITT negotiations. His fear, Colson added, was that this "revelation" of President Nixon's instructions "would lay this case on the President's doorstep."
Later in 1970 Ehrlichman wrote Mitchell of an "understanding" he had reached with Geneen. On May 5, 1971, Ehrlichman again wrote to Mitchell, alluding to the "agreed-upon ends" at the high level of the President and Mitchell in resolving the ITT case, and asking Mitchell whether Ehrlichman should deal directly with McLaren in the sensitive matter.
The previous year, ITT Executive John F. Ryan, in a memo to William R. Merriam, a corporate colleague, had made a cryptic reference to "Dita and dollars," then reported: "I was asked by Ned [Gerrity] to get some feel for you from Dita as to what is required." On June 25, 1971, Dita Beard wrote to Merriam, her superior, that ITT's "noble commitment" of funds for the Republican Convention had "gone a long way toward our negotiations on the mergers eventually coming out as Hal [Geneen] wants them."
Worst Context. In the meantime, on June 17, 1971, McLaren reversed his previous position by proposing a compromise settlement in the ITT case. The proposal was by no means totally favorable to ITT; it permitted the company to retain the highly prized Hartford Fire Insurance Co., though it did require that it get rid of several other subsidiaries, including Canteen Corp. and the fire-protection division of Grinnell. A month later, the Republican National Committee announced its decision to hold its 1972 convention in San Diego—though it did not make any mention at the time of the offer of financial assistance from the ITT-owned Sheraton Corporation.
Neither the White House nor ITT had any comment on the Colson memo last week; neither did McLaren, who on Dec. 2, 1971, was appointed by President Nixon to a federal judgeship. Colson, however, insisted that as "a good staff guy," he had merely been playing the part of "a devil's advocate"—outlining the problems that the Judiciary Committee might raise "in their worst context."