As noted earlier, in June 1971, in response to the news that the Nixon administration had expanded fighting in the Vietnam War to Cambodia, Daniel Ellsberg, a former government intelligence officer, leaked the “Pentagon Papers” to the New York Times, which printed the material. The Pentagon Papers “revealed a long history of government lies—of lies spoken to foreign governments, lies transmitted to Congress, lies offered to the American people.” (Carroll, p. 19.)
The Nixon White House reacted to the Ellsberg leak by establishing a group called “The Plumbers,” former CIA operatives, whose purpose was to stop all leaks. (Id.) This private White House internal security group, paid for in part by illegal campaign contributions, engaged in a wide range of criminal acts, including phone tapping and burglary, against those on its “enemies list.” One of The Plumbers’ first actions was the burglary of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.
Consistent with the aforementioned secret political intelligence activities, in 1972, when President Nixon was running for re-election, The Committee for the Re-election of the President (aka “CREEP”) authorized another series of questionable activities. It hired Donald Segretti to stage “dirty tricks” against potential Democratic nominees, which included mailing letters that falsely accused one candidate of homosexuality and fathering an illegitimate child. They also considered a plan to use call girls to blackmail Democrats at their national convention and to kidnap anti-Nixon radical leaders. CREEP also authorized $250,000 for intelligence-gathering operations. Four times it sent burglars to break into Democratic headquarters. (Jennings and Brewster, pp. 434-440.)
Shortly after 1 a.m. on June 17, 1972, a security guard at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Complex spotted a strip of masking tape covering the lock on a basement door. He removed it. A short while later, he found the door taped open again. He called the police, who found two more taped locks and a jammed door leading into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Inside, they discovered five men, members of The Plumbers group, who were carrying cameras and electronic eavesdropping equipment. The idea for the break in came from one of Nixon’s underlings, G. Gordon Liddy. (Carroll, pp. 140-153.)
The Nixon camp decided to stonewall the situation and initially denied any link to the Watergate break in. The arrested Plumbers kept quiet and refused to reveal any connection to CREEP or the Nixon Administration. In order to avoid testifying at trial, under Administration pressure, they entered guilty pleas. However, there was one exception: James McCord, a former Nixon aide, decided to write a letter to Federal District Court judge John Sirica, who was in charge of the criminal matters arising out of the Watergate burglary. McCord’s letter detailed much of the Plumber’s activities and led to further investigations and prosecutions without the availability of guilty pleas. In January 1973, Liddy and others were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. Two months later, top White House staffers H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, plus attorney general Richard Kleindienst all resigned as sacrificial lambs in the hope of redirecting attention away from President Nixon. (Carroll, Id.)
“Meet Me at the Watergate,” words and music by Malvina Reynolds (1973), provides a general summary of the Watergate events. Apparently this song has not been recorded, but the music to this song appears at Broadside No. 123 (2nd quarter, 1973) and Sing Out!, Volume 22(3) (1973), p. 22. (http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr200.htm)
Chorus:
Meet me at the Watergate,
The Watergate, the Watergate,
Meet me at the Watergate,
We’ll tap a couple of lines.We’ll put on our dark glasses
And our most ingenuous smiles,
We’ll bug the walls and furniture
And raid the private files.
We’ll round up exiled Cubans
And another five or ten,
And we’ll fix up our dear President
So he’ll never run again.We’ll send some dirty letters
Over someone else’s name,
We’ll run their weakest candidate
And the Left will get the blame,
We’ll peek into the doctor’s file
For something good and low,
And we’ll fix up our dear President
So he’ll have to feed on crow.Chorus
The President has robbed the poor,
The lame, the halt, the blind,
So there’ll be plenty millions
For the cloak and dagger kind.
For you and me, I.T. and T.
There’ll always be enough,
Cause those who backed the President
Are lousy with the stuff.Chorus
If something happens to go wrong
As we go round and round,
We know our loyal President
Will never let us down,
And as for us, we’ll never talk,
We’ll do each other good,
For each gave each at Watergate
The kiss of brotherhood.Chorus
“The Night They Drove Dick Nixon Down,” is a parody of the Watergate affair based on Joan Baez’s and The Band’s song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” written by Airfarcewon. No audio for the lyrics printed below has been found, but compare the music of the original song which is found at (https://youtu.be/2CDli4k8y6k).
Nixon, Dick was his name and he served as our President
Until calamity struck and back to Cali he went
In the winter of “Seven-Three”
That’s when the news came up on TV
December sixth, Richard had fell
It’s a time we remember, oh so well,The Night They Drove Dick Nixon Down
And Watergate broke open
It came and flooded DC town,
All the people were talkin’They went
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my…Five men arrested, caught inside
Dem Headquarters, charged and tried
They put wiretaps
On phones of Democrats..
Like rats for cheese, they gnawed
And they were known as “The Dirty Tricks” squad
G. Gordon Liddy, and E. Howard Hunt
Had done the planning of every illegal stuntThe Night They Drove Dick Nixon Down
And Watergate broke open
It came and flooded DC town,
All the people were talkin’They went
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my..Left black marks on the country,
Spoiled and soiled the land
It took a subcommittee
To make true justice stand.
One nineteen minute missing tape.
And from that, Nixon could not escape
We hope it’s a time that won’t repeat
When Nixon had to resign and go down in defeatThe Night They Drove Dick Nixon Down
And Watergate broke open
It came and flooded DC town,
All the people were talkin’They went
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my, my, my, my, my,
My, my..