(5 of 5)
While his own involvement obviously is extensive, so is his knowledge of the whole affair. Last week, after first assailing stories in the New York Times and Washington Post in which Dean claimed he had met with Nixon some 40 times this year on Watergate as an attempt "to destroy the President," the White House retracted its denial and conceded that there had been, indeed, many such conversations. The Post carried the most damning—and as yet unverified—Dean assertion: that Nixon had asked him personally how much it would cost to keep the convicted Watergate conspirators silent. When told by Dean that it might take $1,000,000, the President is supposed to have replied that this would be no problem.
Nixon has denied any personal participation in attempts to keep the low-level Watergate burglars from telling all they knew. The stage is thus set for a showdown in credibility between the President and his fired counsel. In most situations that would be no great contest. But Watergate continues to enlarge its claim as one of the most unusual —and perilously unpredictable—political events in U.S. history.
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