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P: What the hell do they expect though? Do they expect clemency in a reasonable time? What would you advise on that?
D: I think it is one of those things we will have to watch very closely.
P: You couldn't do it, say, in six months.
D: No . . . This thing may become ... a vendetta. This judge [Sirica] may go off the deep end in sentencing.
Nixon declares that the people most disturbed about Watergate are "the [adjective deleted]" Republicans, who are "highly moral. The Democrats are just sort of saying [expletive deleted] fun and games." Dean mentions Donald Segretti, practitioner of dirty tricks on be half of Nixon's campaign.
P: [Expletive deleted] He was such a dumb figure, I don't see how our boys could have gone for him. But nevertheless, they did. It was really juvenile! But, nevertheless, what the hell did he do? Shouldn't we be trying to get intelligence? Weren't they? . . .
D: Absolutely!
P: Don't you try to disrupt their meetings? Didn't they try to disrupt ours? [Expletive deleted] They threw rocks, ran demonstrations, shouted, cut the sound system, and let the tear gas in at night.
Dean continues to assure the President that Watergate is not getting out of control.
D: I had thought it was an impossible task to hold together . . . but we have made it thus far, and I am convinced we are going to make it the whole road and put this thing in the funny pages of the history books rather than anything serious because actually —
P: It will be somewhat serious but the main thing, of course, is also the isolation of the President.
D: Absolutely! Totally true!
∎
P: [Expletive deleted] Of course, I am not dumb and I will never forget when I heard about this [adjective deleted] forced entry and bugging. I thought, what in the hell is this? What is the matter with these people? Are they crazy? A prank! But it wasn't! It wasn't very funny. I think our Democratic friends know that, too. They know what the hell it was . . . They don't think I would be involved in such stuff . . . They think I have people capable of it. And they are correct, in that Colson would do anything.
The President worries that John Mitchell might be in trouble if he is called upon to testify before the Watergate committee.
P: Mitchell won't allow himself to be ruined. He will put on his big stone face. But I hope he does and he will. There is no question what they are after. What the committee is after somebody at the White House . . . Haldeman or Colson, Ehrlichman.
D: Or possibly, Dean. You know, I am a small fish.
P: Anybody at the White House they would — but in your case I think they realize you are the lawyer and they know you didn't have a [adjective deleted] thing to do with the campaign.
MARCH 13, 1973,12:42 P.M.
The Oval Office. Present: the President, Haldeman and Dean.
In the second week of his confirmation hearings, Gray has revealed that he regularly gave Dean FBI reports on the Watergate burglary investigation. Nixon has just issued a statement prohibiting any of his White House aides, past or present, from appearing before the Watergate committee on grounds