1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,500 >> NARRATOR: The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum presents 2 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:08,500 A selection from the White House Tapes: Conversation 886-008, 3 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:12,500 which took place on March 21, 1973. 4 00:00:12,500 --> 00:00:17,000 >> JOHN DEAN: Uh, the reason I thought we ought to talk this morning is because in, in our conversations, uh, 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:23,500 uh, I have, I have the impression that you don't know everything I know 6 00:00:23,500 --> 00:00:27,000 >> PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: That's right. >> DEAN: and it makes it very difficult for you to make judgments that, uh, 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,500 that only you can make >> PRESIDENT NIXON: That's right. >> DEAN: on some of these things and I thought that-- 8 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:33,000 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: You've got, in other words, I've got to know why you feel that, 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 uh, that something... 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000 >> DEAN: Well, let me >> PRESIDENT NIXON: ...that, that we shouldn't unravel something. >> DEAN: let me give you my overall first. 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,000 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: In other words, you, your judgment as to where it stands, and where we go now. 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 >> DEAN: I think, I think that, uh, 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000 there's no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we're, we've got. 14 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 We have a cancer within, close to the Presidency, that's growing. 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,000 It's growing daily. It's compounding, it grows geometrically now 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,500 because it compounds itself. 17 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:07,000 Uh, that'll be clear as I explain, you know, some of the details, 18 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000 uh, of why it is, and it basically is because (1) we're being blackmailed; 19 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,000 (2) uh, people are going to start perjuring themself very quickly 20 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,000 that have not had to perjure themselves 21 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,000 to protect other people and the like. And that is just -- and there is no assurance-- 22 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: That it won't bust. >> DEAN: That that won't bust. >> PRESIDENT NIXON: True. 23 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,000 >> DEAN: So, let me give you the sort of basic facts: talking first about the Watergate; 24 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,000 and then about Segretti; and then about some of the peripheral items that, uh, 25 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:37,500 have come up. 26 00:01:37,500 --> 00:01:42,500 First of all, on, on the Watergate: How did it all start, where did it start? 27 00:01:42,500 --> 00:01:47,000 It started with an instruction to me 28 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,000 from Bob Haldeman 29 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:56,000 to see if we couldn't set up a perfectly legitimate campaign intelligence operation over at the Re-election Committee. 30 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:01,000 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Hmm. >> DEAN: Not being in this business, I turned to somebody who had been in this business: 31 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,500 Jack Caulfield, who is -- I don't know if you remember Jack or not. 32 00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:06,000 He was your original bodyguard before >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. >> DEAN: they had 33 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,500 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. >> DEAN: candidate, candidate protection 34 00:02:07,500 --> 00:02:11,000 >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. >> DEAN: an old New York City policeman. >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Right, I know, I know him. 35 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000 >> DEAN: Uh, Jack had worked for John and then was transferred to my office. 36 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,500 I said, "Jack, come up with a plan that, you know, is a normal infiltration, 37 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:22,000 I mean, you know, buying information from secretaries and all that sort of thing." 38 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:28,000 He did, he put together a plan. It was kicked around, and, uh, I went to Ehrlichman with it. 39 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,500 I went to Mitchell with it, and the consensus was that Caulfield wasn't the man to do this. 40 00:02:33,500 --> 00:02:37,000 Uh, in retrospect, that might have been a bad call, 41 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,500 'cause he is an incredibly cautious person and, and wouldn't have put 42 00:02:41,500 --> 00:02:44,000 the situation to where it is today. >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. 43 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,500 >> DEAN: All right, after rejecting that, they said, "We still need something." 44 00:02:48,500 --> 00:02:52,000 So I was told to look around for somebody that could go over to 1701 and do this. 45 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,500 And that's when I came up with Gordon Liddy, who-- they needed a lawyer. 46 00:02:56,500 --> 00:03:00,000 Gordon had an intelligence background from his FBI service. 47 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 I was aware of the fact that he had done some extremely sensitive things 48 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,000 for the White House while he'd been at the White House, and he had apparently done them well. 49 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:14,500 Uh, going out into Ellsberg's doctor's office >> PRESIDENT NIXON: Oh, yeah. >> DEAN: and things like this. 50 00:03:14,500 --> 00:03:19,000 He'd worked with leaks. He'd, you know, tracked these things down. And, uh, and [coughs] 51 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:26,000 so the report that I got from Krogh was that he was a hell of a good man and, and not only that, a good lawyer, 52 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,500 uh, and could set up a proper operation. 53 00:03:29,500 --> 00:03:33,500 So we talked to Liddy; Liddy was interested in doing it. 54 00:03:33,500 --> 00:03:37,500 Took, uh, Liddy over to meet Mitchell. Mitchell 55 00:03:37,500 --> 00:03:44,500 thought highly of him because, apparently, Mitchell was partially involved in his even coming to the White House to work for, for Krogh. 56 00:03:44,500 --> 00:03:49,000 Uh, Liddy had been at Treasury before that. 57 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:55,000 Then, Liddy was told to put together his plan. You know, how he would run an intelligence operation. 58 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:00,000 And this was after he was hired over there at the, the Committee. 59 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Magruder called me in January and said, "I'd like to have you come over and see Liddy's plan." >> PRESIDENT NIXON: January of '72? 60 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,000 >> DEAN: January of '72. [Noises in background] 61 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Like, "You come over to Mitchell's office and sit in on a meeting where Liddy is going to lay his plan out." 62 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,500 I said, "Well, I don't really know as I'm the man, but if you want me there I'll be happy to." [clears throat] 63 00:04:18,500 --> 00:04:20,000 So, I came over 64 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:26,000 and Liddy laid out a million dollar plan that was the most incredible thing I have ever laid my eyes on. 65 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:33,000 All in codes, and involved black bag operations, kidnapping, providing prostitutes, 66 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,500 uh, to weaken the opposition, bugging, 67 00:04:36,500 --> 00:04:42,000 uh, mugging teams. It was just an incredible thing. 68 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:50,000 >> NARRATOR: For more information, please visit www.nixonlibrary.gov