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Hunt, however, claimed that the Watergate target was not then a part of the plan. Yet Dean, Magruder and Mitchell had all testified that it had been in the scheme presented by convicted Wiretapper G. Gordon Liddy almost from its inception — testimony Hunt apparently had not heard or did not believe.
Defending the Watergate operation as legal because of its high official sanction and as a matter of national security, Hunt expressed no ethical misgivings about his other admitted acts. He said he had helped direct the burglary of Los Angeles Psychiatrist Dr. Lewis Fielding's office as part of a Colson-approved plan to discredit Daniel Ellsberg in the press. He showed no regrets at having fabricated State Department cables to link the Kennedy Administration with the assassination of South Viet Nam's Ngo Dinh Diem. He did so, he said, on instructions from Colson. The aim was to show "that a Catholic U.S. Administration had, in fact, conspired in the assassination of a Catholic chief of state in another country."
No matter how partisanly political such acts might be, Hunt seemed to consider them as routine in the life of the professional spy and beyond doubting. Said he: "My 26-year-record of service to this country predisposed me to accept orders and instructions without question and without debate."
The feisty Buchanan took refreshing exception to the litany of Hunt and other Watergate figures that a man cannot be condemned for following orders.
Snapped Buchanan: "Men are responsible for what they do." Born in Washington, D.C., and educated at Georgetown and Columbia (M.S. in Journalism) universities, Buchanan is proudly conservative and unabashedly bright. Except for one newspaper job—as editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat—his career has been spent as one of the most loyal of Nixon's aides.
He writes speeches for Nixon, supervises his daily news summary, prepares the President for press conferences. He is probably most valued for his imaginative political advice and Agnew-style rhetoric (he has also written some of the Vice President's bluntest speeches).
Quick-witted and fast-talking, Buchanan took the offensive from the moment he assailed the committee in his opening statement until the Senators excused him with relief more than five hours later. He was easily the Administration's most effective witness to date.
Buchanan attacked the committee staff for conducting a "covert campaign of vilification" against him by leaking derogatory information to the press before his appearance. Chief Committee Counsel Sam Dash, Chairman Ervin and others quickly deplored such leaks but professed an inability to check them.
Confronted by the staff with some 34 memos he had written, Buchanan protested brightly: "I don't think I need a counsel; I need a librarian more."