WILL: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy
The date was June 4, 1973, the setting a closed session of Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate Committee. G. Gordon Liddy was scheduled to testify before newsmen and TV cameras. But first he had to be sworn in for preliminary quizzing, and Ervin drawled the routine question: "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" Liddy's frank answer to the committee: "No."
It was Liddy's refusal to talk about his role in the Watergate scandal that sent him to prison for a longer term than any other Watergate figure. Convicted of nine felonies, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and served nearly five before President Carter reduced his sentence. During this time, Liddy steadfastly refused to speak, earning notoriety or, for some, admiration, as "the Sphinx." Now the Sphinx has finally decided to talk. He does so in an autobiography titled simply Will (St. Martin's Press; 384 pages; $13.95). The book, out this week, was kept under tight wraps; a first printing of some 100,000 copies was on its way to U.S. booksellers before they were even aware of its existence.
Why is Liddy finally lifting his self-imposed lid? In a preface he explains that the statute of limitations has run out on the Watergate crimes; thus his story cannot now cause his former colleagues any legal problems. He explains that he has been persuaded that he "owes a debt to history." Besides, although he does not mention it, he still has to finish paying off a $40,000 fine and some $300,000 in debts to lawyers.
Liddy sticks with a lawyer's precision to those acts in which he was a participant. He does not speculate about what Richard Nixon knew and when he knew it. He describes the reasons behind the Watergate break-ins, adds new detail to accounts of the bungled burglaries and contradicts the testimony of some of the other principal figures. He portrays the CIA as quite willing to involve itself in domestic politics, even providing derogatory cartoons of Ted Kennedy for use if the Senator had decided to seek the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination.
What is most striking about Will is what it reveals about the kind of man who will do anything to stop those he sees as his country's enemies. Liddy tells how he plotted to kill Columnist Jack Anderson and drug Daniel Ellsberg for revealing classified information. After Howard Hunt, his Watergate crony, cooperated with investigators, Liddy fully expected to get, and made plans to carry out, an order to kill him. Liddy remains unrepentant. He regrets only that so many others failed to keep their silence. Perhaps more than any of the Watergate characters, Liddy embodied the principles underlying the scandal that destroyed a President. Some excerpts from his book follow:
Rats, Lightning and Terrors of Childhood
Born on Nov. 30, 1930, George Gordon Battle Liddy grew up in Hoboken, N.J., within a few blocks of the Hudson River docks. His father was a successful Manhattan attorney. The elder of two children, Gordon Liddy was a sickly, timid child.
My first memory: absolute, overwhelming fear.
Lying on the floor as my paternal grandmother lashed me with a in harness shouting, "Bad! Bad!" Fear. My mother insisting I not use my left hand as she