(8 of 8)
WHAT DID NIXON KNOW? Dean contended that he discussed these payoffs with Nixon, and that the President said it would be "no problem" to raise $1,000,000 for this purpose. Haldeman, who listened to two tapes of this conversation, claimed that Nixon added a key phrase: "But it would be wrong." Only the tapes themselves can resolve this conflict.
The testimony does not legally prove that the President was an active participant in the cover-up (much less that he ordered or knew about the bugging). The damning testimony to that effect is the testimony of John Dean, which is still uncorroborated at key points. Dean's account has been challenged by Mitchell, Ehrlichman and Haldeman; their own credibility has been assailed in turn by other witnesses.
Although Nixon's involvement in the cover-up is not proved by courtroom standards, by any other rational standard it is extremely difficult to believe that he did not know of it or encourage it. He was warned early of cover-up activities undertaken by his closest aides; he then professed total unawareness for some nine months, despite his position at the apex of a tightly organized reporting system.
Throughout all the internal conflicts and ambiguities in the testimony, an overall pattern seems clear. Unwilling to trust regular agencies of Government to deal with genuine, though exaggerated, threats to domestic order, Nixon approved illegal means to fight them. When those were rejected by self-protecting bureaucrats, he created his own White House squad of undercover operators. They used some of these same illegal tactics against whatever forces the White House considered threatening, whether a Daniel Ellsberg, a Dita Beard or a talkative official. Eventually they were used against the Democrats.
Aside from these specific acts, the Watergate hearings produced evidence of an alarming atmosphere around the President. Whether it was John Ehrlichman's defense of spying on the drinking and sexual habits of politicians, John Dean's advocacy of using agencies of Government to "screw our political enemies," or Bob Haldeman's desire to "put out the story" on Communist money falsely alleged to be supporting Democratic candidates, an amorality prevailed that went well beyond normal standards of politics. It degraded the White House.
There was too the incessant secret taping, most notably by Nixon himself. The untested technicality of Executive privilege to protect the President's tapes, whatever its constitutional merits, seems insufficient cause to withhold evidence that might dispose of some of the accusations against him. Until and unless further evidence or explanations emerge from the President's expected statement, that is where the matter stands.