01x03 - Suspicious Minds

[bunniefuu]

- FBI chief
J. Edgar Hoover's death

had a hidden side effect,
unleashing Nixon's impulse

to gather intelligence
on his enemies illegally.

And six weeks later, the
Watergate break-in occurred.

Congressman Wright Patman

launched an investigation
into the burglary,

but the Nixon White House
used blackmail

and political pressure
to thwart him

one more opponent sidelined.

Okay.

Put yourself back in time
to the year 1972.

Like a lot of people, you're
watching Watergate unfold

and trying to make sense of it.

When do you think
it would have hit you

that the whole thing could be
a massive conspiracy?

- Some kids have
a bad time...

- If you had a dark hunch

that you were not being told
the full story,

I think December 8, 1972,
would have been a day

when your ears perked up
a little bit.

- Good evening.

There has been
a bad plane crash in Chicago

near Midway airport.

The plane was
United's Flight 553,

which left Washington
at 1:40 this afternoon,

scheduled to land at Midway...

- On that snowy afternoon,

United Airlines Flight 553
was a minute away

from landing at Midway airport
in Chicago

when it crashed
on a residential street

on the city's South Side.

- We heard this jet,
and I look,

and I saw
I saw the plane, like,

hit the garage
and go through it.

And then I saw it
go up in flames,

and I ran over there,

and I could hear
people screaming.

And people were trying
to get in...

- I'm telling you
about this plane crash

because it happened
about six months

after the Watergate break-in.

Because among the dead
was Dorothy Hunt,

the wife of E. Howard Hunt,

one of the burglary's
masterminds.

Because when they found
her body,

she was carrying
$10,000 in cash,

which, seeing as Hunt
was about to testify

about his involvement
in the burglary,

looked like
it may have been hush money.

- There was
a lot of screaming,

and we opened that hatch
to crawl out,

but we're already
inside somebody's house...

- And because
an abnormally large number

of FBI agents
around 50 or so

arrived at the site
directly after the crash.

- You'll leave
the investigation

up to the federal authorities?

- Well, the men are doing
everything they can.

- And finally
because the day after,

Richard Nixon nominated

the head of his infamous
Plumbers unit to the position

of Undersecretary
of Transportation,

giving him direct control
over the agency

that would be investigating
the crash.

- Any indication why
the plane was that low, sir?

- No, but
the investigating team

will start its work tonight
when they arrive.

- Now, do I think Nixon
orchestrated a plane crash

to eliminate Hunt's wife
so that she wouldn't squeal?

No, that's insane.

But at the time of the crash,

if you had said that Nixon
was involved in Watergate,

most Americans would have
called you insane too.

If you want to know
what it was like

to try to understand Watergate
as it was happening,

to try to figure out
what was actually true

and what was
a crackpot theory,

I think the crash
illustrates a tension

that you would have felt
back then,

a tension
that delayed Watergate

from becoming a massive story.

- I think the people
in this country

have a right to know
if the United Airlines

is being used to get rid
of a witness.

- Because Watergate was
such uncharted territory,

it presented
a unique challenge

for anyone trying
to make sense of it.

How do you tell the difference
between a coincidence

and a conspiracy?

- We shall try tonight
to pull together the threads

of this amazing story

quite unlike any
in our modern American history.

- It is my constitutional
responsibility

to defend this great office

against false charges...

- What was it like
to live through Watergate

without knowing
how it was all going to end?

- Is causing this nation
to neglect matters

of far greater importance.

- One way to find out

is to look at that moment
of American history

as seen through the eyes
of the people who lived it

back when they had no idea
what was coming.

- If we learn the important
lessons of Watergate,

we can emerge
from this experience

a better
and a stronger nation.

- I'm Leon Neyfakh.

This is "Slow Burn."

- As it crashed,
the jet hit a row of houses

about a mile and a half
from Midway airport

on Chicago's South Side.

There is still no...

- The crash of
United Airlines Flight 553

got a lot of coverage

on both television
and in the papers.

And while most of the press
focused on the death toll

and what may have gone wrong
with the plane,

there was someone,
a much less mainstream voice,

who covered the crash
from a very different angle.

Her name was Mae Brussell.

- This is
"Dialogue Conspiracy,"

a public affairs presentation
of KLRB News.

- Hello, and we'll get right
into the events of the week,

"Dialogue Conspiracy."

And we're gonna start right
off with the Watergate affair.

- Brussell's radio show
was broadcast out of KLRB,

a small, left-wing FM
rock station in California.

She had been following
the Watergate story closely

from the beginning.

And when Howard Hunt's wife,
Dorothy, died,

Brussell did not think
it was just a coincidence.

- I just want to mention
something which was shocking.

If you've been following
the Watergate story

and listening to my program,
we talk about Howard Hunt.

And Mrs. Howard Hunt died
on that plane crash in Chicago

December the 8th,
carrying money.

- She also had
some ideas about the cash

that Dorothy Hunt was carrying
at the time of the incident.

- The money came
from El Paso Gas.

It had something to do
with John Mitchell.

There were cyanide traces in
the bloodstream of the pilot.

- I think
you could kind of see

where she was going
with all this.

- The people in this country
have a right to know

if the United Airlines
is being used

to get rid of a witness

of a conspiracy trial
like the Watergate.

- For Mae Brussell,
United Flight 553

was another dot
that she could connect

in the ever-expanding
conspiracy of Watergate.

And while she had some

pretty far-fetched ideas
about it,

she was one of the only people
at the time

to really pay attention
to Martha Mitchell.

- Martha Mitchell got
on the telephone on Thursday

from out in California.

She said,
"If you could see me,

"you wouldn't believe me.

"I'm black and blue.
I'm a political prisoner.

"They left me in California

"with absolutely
no information,

and they don't want me
to talk."

- No!
No.

Yeah, editing.

That's a good question
about Mae Brussell.

A lot of us suggested,
"Mae, talk slower."

"Mae, stop and explain
a little bit about this."

My name is David Bean,

and I was program director
at KLRB FM radio

while Mae Brussell was
broadcasting her program.

Mae felt an affinity
with Martha Mitchell...

- And you can place
all the blame

right on the White House.

- Because she felt Martha
Mitchell was being muzzled,

and Mae knew she was right.

- And it wasn't
just Martha.

Mae Brussell was one of
the first public voices

to assert,
as it was happening,

that Watergate was
a government cover-up.

- The way the government
covers up things

when they're caught,
it shows a parallel

to the way they covered up
being caught in the office

of the Democratic Party
this week.

- Mae sourced her information
from newspapers, primarily.

She was cutting out clippings.

She was filing the clippings
in boxes.

She'd say, you know,
"This newspaper

"just reported this,
and this guy did this,

"and that means this guy...

"And they don't even know
about the relationship

to another guy
that I've discovered."

- You know, I just piled up
the newspaper articles,

and I cut the paper

just 'cause I take
eight papers a day,

and I have a section of things
to read right away

and then things
I can read later.

And then the right away,
I separate into

whether I want to copy them
and cross-file them

or put them
in particular categories.

- Her whole life
became this research.

- Now, I feel compelled
to say here

that Brussell covered
a lot of ground,

and she espoused many theories
that I just don't believe in.

She thought the government
was using chemical weapons

as mind control.

- The CIA has a laboratory
and facilities

to spread germ warfare
inside the USA,

and I don't have any doubt
that they will be doing this.

- Also, she was really
fixated on dune buggies.

Brussell believed
that they were essential

to the military
industrial complex

and were being used
to carry out

all kinds of covert
operations.

- He gave
a lot of warning about

the dune buggies
seen in the last few months,

with plans in mind

that one is to plow
into the hippie communes

and the other is to k*ll


- That's right
dune buggies.

But for someone
who hosted a show

called "Dialogue Conspiracy,"

her background
was pretty conventional.

- Mae Brussell grew up in
a wealthy Los Angeles family

descended from a California
department store owner.

It was a pretty
comfortable upbringing

with dinner parties
and vacations.

She studied philosophy
at Stanford.

Afterwards, she got married
and settled into a quiet life

as a stay-at-home mother
in L.A.

She said
that during this period,

she was just a housewife

interested in tennis courts,
dancing lessons,

and orthodonture
for her children.

That life ended
on November 22, 1963.

- Put me on, Phil!
Put me on!

Phil, am I on?

We understand
there has been a sh**ting.

We know
it's the presidential car.

I can see Mrs. Kennedy's
pink suit.

There's a Secret Service man
spread-eagle

over the top of the car.

- Just a moment.
Just a moment.

We have a bulletin coming in.

- President Kennedy
has been assassinated.

It's official now.
The president is dead.

- JFK's assassination
transformed

how Mae Brussell
saw the world,

and she no longer felt the
government could be trusted.

- At the time
that John Kennedy was k*lled,

the answers were so pat
in the news media.

I wanted to know
what kind of a world

I was going to raise
my family in.

- She disputed the Warren
Commission's conclusion

that Kennedy's k*ller,
Lee Harvey Oswald,

had acted alone.

- The trajectory of the b*llet
has been questioned.

We want the undeveloped X-rays
of the body.

We want the names
of the people involved.

- And
to better understand

what she suspected
was a cover-up,

for Christmas,
she bought herself

all 26 volumes
of the commission's findings.

- I really wanted to know
if Oswald was a patsy.

- And your findings?

Oswald was a patsy.

- It became a splitting point
with her husband,

that he didn't like her
doing this Kennedy research.

But Mae was
an incredibly strong,

unique woman.

She went out on her own.

She took her life,
her thoughts,

her beliefs, and her research;

moved to Carmel, California,
with her kids;

and did
what she was meant to do.

- She started
to give lectures,

and by 1971,

she had a whole Sunday
afternoon radio show on KLRB

devoted to her theories
on the JFK assassination...

- Just like they tried to say
that Oswald

was a Communist
and k*lled John Kennedy

when actually the anti-Castro
Cubans were involved.

- Which meant that
when Watergate happened

the following year,

Mae Brussell was primed
and ready for it.

- History will prove
that my research is accurate

right down the last sentence.

- Seven years,
and now it's all coming to

- It's all coming home.

- On her first show
after the break-in,

she latched on to something

that she firmly believed
was not a coincidence.

- But it's interesting
that the anti-Castro Cubans

were in this office,
and I wondered who they were,

'cause I have it all here,
and time's running out.

- As her research

into the JFK assassination
expanded,

she began to notice
a recurring subplot

playing in the background

Cubans doing secret work
for the American government.

- The cast of characters,
all those people

were involved with
the Bay of Pigs invasion.

- It was
a curious thread to pull,

but she was right to,

because once you start putting
together all the reasons

those four Cuban expats
were there that night,

you start going to some
pretty interesting places.

- Operation Peter Pan
was a program

that was initiated by
the United States government

to bring the children
of the underground

who were fighting
against the Castro regime

to the United States while
their parents were fighting.

Over 14,000 minors
came that way.

I was one of them.

My name
is Maria de Los Angeles Torres.

I'm a political scientist,

and I study and write
about Cuban exiles.

Cuba was a country
that aspired

to have its own
independent government,

for democratic institutions.

- This is only the beginning.

The last battle will be fought
in the capital.

You can be sure.

- I remember when Fidel
came into Havana,

my father picked me up,
took me, and, you know,

we went and greeted
the rebels.

And finally we're gonna get

a government that responds
to the people.

- Viva Cuba libre!

- Fidel had promised
elections,

and he decided
not to hold them.

All of a sudden,
everything that you were doing

was subject
to somebody listening

and somebody reporting on you.

So when Fidel starts using
firing squads

and k*lling
some 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds

who had just been
supporters of him

but now were demanding that he
bring democracy and elections,

that's where, I think,
a lot of people turned.

- Turned and fled
to America,

where many landed in Miami.

These newly arrived exiles

left their homeland because
they had been living in fear,

because in some cases,

they'd seen loved ones k*lled
in the streets

all because of
a Communist dictator.

So in the early 1960s,
all of a sudden,

there was a growing army
of very motivated men

looking to do all they could
to fight Communism,

this time on American soil.

It created a geopolitical
match made in heaven...

or so it seemed at the time.

On April 17, 1961,

a newly formed military group
of Cuban exiles,

trained and funded by the CIA,
invaded Cuba

and tried to overthrow
Fidel Castro.

- Here on the beaches
around the Bay of Pigs,

the invasion flounders.

Those able to move
beyond the beaches

were trapped in swamp
or high growth,

which was burned off.

Communication disappeared

with the sinking
of a Liberty ship,

which carried all the signal
equipment and much ammunition.

- The Bay of Pigs
invasion failed miserably,

and most of the hundreds
of Cubans who fought

were either k*lled
or taken prisoner.

- It is not the first time
that Communist tanks

have rolled over
gallant men and women

fighting to redeem the
independence of their homeland.

- Right after the failure
of Bay of Pigs,

there are people who continue

to have an aspiration
of overthrowing the government.

And, indeed,
the Kennedy administration

continues with its plans
to overthrow the government.

This time, it's more covert.

It is titled
Operation Mongoose.

- From its headquarters
in Miami,

Operation Mongoose launched

hundreds of covert
CIA operations

deploying Cuban exiles

like this man...

- Bay of Pigs veteran
and future Watergate burglar

Eugenio Martinez.

- This went on
all throughout the 1960s,

hundreds of little jobs
like this

denting Communist Cuba
whenever possible,

the backdrop of the Cold w*r
providing just cause.

- One of the grim realities
of American foreign policy

was a Communist state 90 miles
off the coast of Florida.

- The rhetorics
of anti-Communism

were alive and well
in the United States

and maybe felt
a little bit more personally

in the Cuban exile community.

These were soldiers,
freedom fighters

who take very seriously
their tasks

of combatting Communism.

I think there's a certain
vulnerability

that allows for the CIA
and people like Howard Hunt

to then prey
on their sentiments.

- It was Hunt who
employed a handful of Cubans,

Martinez among them,
to provide extra security

for J. Edgar Hoover's
memorial service.

- It was an unusual service
in several ways.

For one thing, security was
unusually heavy

around the National
Presbyterian Center,

apparently on the theory
that someone might try

to disrupt
today's solemn ceremony,

but no one did.

- By June of 1972,

the Cubans had built
a reputation

for pulling off a unique brand

of not-exactly-official
political work.

- I can imagine
all the Watergate burglars,

looking back on that night,
felt the same way.

It was technically wrong,
but they were the good guys,

fighting the good fight.

But I think if there's one guy
in this whole story

who took that most to heart,

it was the one
who designed the break-in.

- Howard Hunt
certainly styled himself

as this sort of
James Bond figure.

He was a CIA operative
who had been

one of the people in charge
of the Bay of Pigs operation.

- By the way,
Martinez knew Howard Hunt

by his Bay of Pigs
nom de guerre, Eduardo.

- Roll it!

Action!

- Yes,
one of the architects

of the Watergate break-in
also wrote spy novels.

These are just a few
that he wrote

under various pseudonyms.

And if you read
my personal favorite,

"The Coven,"
published the very same year

that Hunt orchestrated
Watergate,

you might come away
with a better idea

for why this whole thing
happened.

- The plot was basically

our indefatigable,
sort of stalwart investigator,

who's clearly a doppelganger
for the real Howard Hunt,

discovers that a figure

who very closely resembles
Edward Kennedy,

Senator Kennedy,

was actually running
a literal Satanic death cult.

You almost see an allegory

of that way
of seeing the world.

People who believed,
to the core of their being,

that politics was a battle

between the forces of good
and the forces of evil

and therefore, basically,
the ends justify any means.

- There were actually
a few attempts made

before June 17th

to break into the DNC
headquarters at Watergate.

- But on
that particular night,

DNC staffers worked late,

preventing any opportunity
to break into their office.

A few weeks later, though,
after another failed attempt,

they got their chance.

- While making security check,

I found that the latch
on the basement door

had been taped.

I returned later and found
that the same door

had been re-taped again,
the latch.

At that time,
I proceeded upstairs

to make a call
to the police precinct.

- On that same night,
just a few blocks away,

Roger Stone was house-sitting

for CREEP scheduling director
Bart Porter...

When he heard
the telephone ring.

- Jim McCord was on the line,
and he said,

"This is Jim McCord.
Is Porter there?"

I said, "No, sir,
he's away for the weekend.

Could I take a message?"

And he said, "Damn.

All right, well,
you expect to hear from him?"

And I said,
"Well, I really don't,

but if I do, I'll be happy
to relay a message."

He said, "No, never mind."
And he hung up.

About an hour later,
Gordon Liddy called.

"I'm looking for Porter."

I said, "He's not here."

"Where is he?"

I said,
"He's on the West Coast.

I'm just house-sitting."

He said, "Do you expect
to hear from him?"

I said, "No."

He said, "Well, if you do,

tell him
Liddy's looking for him."

I said, "Yes, sir."

The next morning, of course,

I saw theWashington Post
headlines

that men had broken
into the Watergate.

A spokesman for the Committee
to Re-Elect the President

said that this had
no connection to the committee

and they knew nothing about it.

I immediately began to suspect,
because of those two calls,

that was not the case.

- Five men were arrested
early Saturday

while trying to install
eavesdropping equipment

at the Democratic
National Committee,

and it turns out that one of
them has an office...

- This is a very big story,

this break-in
at the Watergate.

Another man that was arrested
was Eugene Martinez,

who's listed
as a real estate agent

and a soldier of fortune.

- When the first
Washington Post stories

about what happened
at the Watergate landed

in American living rooms,

they barely registered
as a blip.

- No detergent
gets out every stain.

Cotton?
How, Sheila?

- Now look.
- Clean as cotton!

- It was the height
of the primary season

for the '72 Nixon
re-election campaign,

so most of the bureau
was assigned

to different candidates
out there,

so the bureau
was pretty empty.

They had very little choice
but to send me.

I'm Lesley Stahl.

The first story I covered
for CBS was Watergate.

I was just sent to cover the
arraignment of the burglars.

There was
only one other reporter

in the whole courtroom,

and it just so happened
that it was Bob Woodward,

who was the other reporter

covering for the metro page
of The Washington Post,

not even for their
main section.

That's how insignificant

all the news outlets
thought it was.

Hello, sir.

How come
you're all here today?

- Depositions being taken.

- How come all these people
are here to take deposition?

But with each tick,

it got a little more
and a little more suspicious.

Bob, particularly, had the
feeling almost immediately.

- We knew we were on
to quite a story

that very first day.

My name is Barry Sussman.

I was the editor in charge
of Watergate coverage

for The Washington Post.

Our police reporter
was told in advance

that he might be allowed to
look at some of the belongings

of the arrested men,

and he saw address books.

One of them had in it
the name "Howard Hunt, WH."

They also found a check
for $6.36

that Howard Hunt
had left behind

in one of their hotel rooms.

Woodward called
the White House,

asked to speak to Howard Hunt.

Hunt answered the phone,
and Woodward said,

"Do you mind telling me,
why was your name

"in the address of these men

who were arrested
at the Watergate?"

And Hunt said something like,
"Holy sh*t,"

saying, "This matter's
under adjudication,

and I can't speak to you."

The break-in was Saturday.

This is now Monday afternoon,

and we had the links
to the White House,

the links
to the re-election committee

down cold.

- This set the stage

for the most consequential
cat-and-mouse game

probably ever played
in American politics.

On one side
were the journalists,

tasked with uncovering
what really happened.

And on the other
was the White House,

where the staff was doing
all they could

to make sure they failed.

- It was really
just the company line

"We don't know anything
about this.

"We're not involved in this.

Go back to your scheduling,
and don't worry about it."

- Neither President, obviously,

or anybody in the White House

or anybody in authority
in any of the committees

working for the re-election
of the president

have any responsibility for it,

and therefore there's no reason
why it should be

a matter of concern
to the American public.

- The White House today
simply refused to comment.

Presidential press secretary
Ronald Ziegler refused comment

a total of 23 times.

- The president's
press secretary said

of this incident,
"I'm not going to comment

"from the White House

on a third-rate
burglary attempt."

- When Ron Ziegler said it was
just a third-rate burglary,

it became one of those great
Watergate phrases.

A third-rate burglary
that's all it was.

I'm Connie Chung.

I covered Watergate
for CBS News.

It's sort of like
"no collusion."

It kept getting repeated
and repeated and repeated.

And that was
the White House line.

- Presidential press secretary
Ronald Ziegler

called the bugging a
"third-rate burglary attempt."

- I think the American public
has a better perspective

on the relative insignificance
of the Watergate matter.

- ThePost said the Republicans
had a secret fund

to pay for political spying
and sabotage.

The White House denied it.

- The Posthas maliciously
sought to give the appearance

of a direct connection
between the White House

and the Watergate.

- The administration fought it,

tried to come down hard
on The Washington Post,

make it seem like
we were an instrument

of the Democratic campaign.

- I don't respect
the type of journalism,

the shabby journalism
that is being practiced

by The Washington Post.

- A spokesman for the Committee
to Re-Elect the President

called theWashington Post
story

"fiction and absurdities."

- These stories have been based
on hearsay

and unidentifiable people
who say they heard someone say

or say that someone said
something.

It's just gone too far.

- It was a deft
media strategy that paid off,

especially since,
if you were wondering

just how far up the chain
Watergate went,

the man at the top
was doing all he could

to keep his distance.

- The reporters couldn't get
to Nixon.

But one day, I walked in
to the west gate,

and all of a sudden,
I see Nixon standing there.

And he's been in the bunker.

You have not been able

to either see or hear
from him at all,

and here he was,

standing in his normal,
you know, sort of position.

And Secret Service men,
they swarmed around me,

but I kept walking
directly up to him,

and they didn't wrestle me down
or anything,

so I began to talk to him,

and I began asking him
questions.

I was afraid to take out
my notebook,

because I was afraid
he wouldn't talk to me

if I wrote things down.

So I was trying to remember
what he was saying.

Well, he didn't really say
very much.

I was asking him all kinds
of Watergate questions,

and he would dance around.

And finally he said to me,
"How much money do you make?"

And I said, "What?"

And he said, "How much money
do you make?"

"Well, I make $27,000 a year,

"but if I do
a Cronkite news report,

"I get an extra $35,

"so if I churn
the radio spots out,

"I can get my salary up
to maybe $29,000 a year,

almost $30,000 a year."

And he listened
to this ridiculous rendition

of how much I made,
and he said,

"You know what?
You have to make more money."

And then he walked away.

- With an election
coming up,

Nixon was working hard
to beat back the story

of Watergate.

And it was working.

- I think Nixon has done
a good job with us so far.

- What about
the Watergate incident?

- I don't knowwhat that means.

- What was frustrating, mainly,

was that the public interest
in this wasn't heightened.

What were those men after
at the Watergate?

Who sent them?
How were they paid?

And I guess we were
more curious than frustrated.

Why aren't the American people

as upset and affected by this
as we are?

We do live in a little
fish bowl in Washington,

and what was going on
right outside the environs

frustrated us.

Or what wasn't going on.

- One evening,
there was a knock on my door,

and it was Carl Bernstein.

He literally put his foot
in the door

so I couldn't close it.

And he said, "I want to ask you

about the Committee
to Re-Elect the President."

And I said,
"I have nothing to say."

I then realized
that Watergate was not over

and that they were going
to continue to dig.

- Carl Bernstein called
John Mitchell

to question Mitchell's
involvement,

and he apparently woke
he woke Mitchell up.

Mitchell said,
"What time is it?"

And Bernstein said,
"It's 11:00."

Bernstein told him, then,
why he was calling,

and Mitchell said,

"You guys are doing some story
on us, huh?

"Well, we're going to do
one story on you

when all this is over."

He said, "Katie Graham

is gonna get her tit caught
in a wringer."

- It was around that time
that I remember looking back

and saying, "Uh-oh.

"We're way out on a limb,
aren't we?

And we'll never get back."

From that period on, I began
to think of the story

as not a story
about a break-in,

about campaign contributions,

but about Nixon.

- "We're way out
on a limb"

is a great way
to understand the stakes,

because at that time,
the idea that the president

could be involved
in a criminal conspiracy

was just unimaginable.

- In two centuries,
only 36 tenants

have occupied the White House,

on temporary lease

from that most demanding
and generous of landlords,

the people
of the United States.

The man who occupies
this historic office

must fulfill many roles

statesman, strategist,
ceremonial leader,

guardian of the nation's
spirit and honor.

- This compulsion to believe

that we are lead
by honorable men,

that our nation is honorable

very much drove
an almost willful inability

for our Americans to accept

that this might have had
anything to do

with Richard Nixon.

- Now,
that might sound like

a lofty interpretation
of Nixon,

but that's because
we think of him

through the lens of Watergate

and everything
that it revealed.

When he was first elected,

Americans saw him
in a much different light.

- The night is long,
and it is still dark.

As far as civilization goes,

well, we will never be perfect,
for man is not perfect,

but we are on the way.

- On the day
Nixon was sworn into office

in January of 1969,

a rabbi named Edgar F. Magnin
offered this blessing.

- Our fathers' god, to thee,
author of liberty,

to thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light.

Protect us by thy might.

- I think
it's a good window

into the expectations
that people had for Nixon

as an American president.

- There are a few faint streaks
of pink in the sky.

We await the dawn.

Almighty God,
bless our country

and him who will be our leader

and our guide
in the coming years.

Amen.

- By the way,

this rabbi who offered
the stirring prayer for Nixon

was actually
Mae Brussell's father.

Now, if, on that day,

Brussell shared her father's
hopes for the president,

four years later, they had
been thoroughly dashed.

- Mr. Nixon, President Nixon

I call him "Mister"

because I do not recognize him
as my president.

He may be yours,
but I call him "Mr. Nixon."

Four more years!

Four more years!
Four more years!

- Despite her insistence

that a conspiracy was afoot,

there was every indication

that Richard Nixon would stand
on that same podium

and be sworn in
for a second term.

But there was someone else,

someone with a much bigger
audience than Mae Brussell,

who was also trying
to get in the way.

- Four more years!

- At first, it was called
"the Watergate caper"

five men
apparently caught in the act

of burglarizing and bugging

Democratic headquarters
in Washington.

But the episode grew
steadily more sinister,

no longer a caper
but the Watergate affair.

- Cronkite was the man

that everybody watched
on television.

My family used to sit around
and watch Walter Cronkite.

We were CBS News devotees.

We'd gather together and watch
Uncle Walter every night.

- Good evening,
this is Walter Cronkite

at CBS News headquarters
in New York.

- At the end, he would say,
"And that's the way it is."

- And that's the way it is

Monday, September 11, 1972.

- He was incredible.

We loved Walter
America loved Walter Cronkite.

- As weeks, then months passed
and television had no coverage

of Watergate,

Walter Cronkite
kind of got fed up.

- Most of what is known
of the Watergate affair

has emerged
in puzzling bits and pieces

through digging
by the nation's press

and television newsmen.

- And on a Friday night
not long before the election,

Walter Cronkite spent
maybe 20 minutes

of his half-hour show
reporting Watergate.

- Watergate was only part of,
in The Washington Post'swords,

"a broad campaign
of political espionage

and sabotage against
the Democratic party."

- There were individuals

with 20 years' experience
in the CIA

and several years
with the FBI.

We were working for
the former attorney general,

so I couldn't question the
legality of what was going on.

I just took my orders and did
what I was instructed to do.

- There was no news in it.

It was all stuff that we'd had
in The Washington Post.

But to many of the viewers
nationwide, it was news.

- In our next report, the money
behind the Watergate affair.

- Cronkite announced
on that Friday night

that he was gonna have
a follow-up story on Monday.

- Cronkite's
first report on Watergate

terrified Nixon.

This was a man, after all,
who once said,

"The American people
don't believe anything's real

until they see it
on television."

- Shadows, as usual.

- And I think
he really meant that.

- They won't see it.

- Yeah, but it is.
I

It's hard to see the page
as well

while I'm moving around.

See, the shadow comes
directly on the page.

See what I mean?

If you just knock it
off the page,

I can read a little easier.

- Nixon was very much
like our current president

in that respect.

He understood
the impact of television,

and so does
our current president.

- Well, I'll just put it

I'll move it over to the side
here a little,

if that's all right.

- That's fine.

- I'll sit and read it
from this way.

You can get a good picture,
can't you?

- The thing
that's really striking

about Richard Nixon's
relationship

to the medium of television

is that it really created him
as a national hero

during the Checkers speech
in 1952...

- Ladies and gentlemen,
Senator Richard Nixon.

- In which he looked
the American people in the eye

and convinced them

that he had not committed
financial improprieties.

- We did get something, a gift,
after the election.

It was a littleCocker spaniel dog,

and our little girl, Trisha,
the six-year-old,

named it Checkers.

And I just want to say thisright now,

that regardless
of what they say about it,

we're gonna keep him.

- It probably undid
his presidential campaign

in 1960.

- I costed out the cost
of the Democratic platform.

- His infamous debate

in which he kind of
broke out in a sweat

and was kind of stammering
compared to

this confident, handsome,
young John F. Kennedy.

- This was the week
that changed the world.

- It made him a hero again
when he was in China

and people saw these
glorious, sumptuous images

of him, you know, making peace
with America's ancient enemy.

- The president departs
for home

after his historic week
in China.

- He thought very deliberately

and very consciously
and very obsessively

about how he came across
on television.

- Okay.

All right, all set?

- All set.
- Mm-hmm.

- And so,
with the prospect

of another Cronkite report
on Watergate,

Nixon launched a behind
the scenes counterattack

that, at the time, I think

only a conspiracy theorist
could have conjured.

- The second part
was ready to air.

Walter Cronkite was ready
to deliver it.

All of a sudden,
the White House

apparently called
William Paley,

the owner of CBS.

We got a call

saying, "We need
to cut it down for time."

It was very suspicious.

- I don't know
why Paley stopped him.

I think
if Paley were alive today

and somebody asked him,
"Why did you stop him?"

he would most likely say,
"I made a mistake."

And that was it;
that was the extent

of the television coverage
of Watergate

before the election.

- It was so smoothly handled,

no one really noticed,

not even Mae Brussell.

- Walter Cronkite
did 15 minutes this week

on the funding
of the Watergate,

and I think,
one or two years from now,

people are gonna be sorry

that they didn't take
those allegations seriously.

- Just a few weeks later,

Richard Nixon
was re-elected president

in one of the biggest
landslides

in American history.

- I simply want to say,
from the bottom of my heart,

thanks for making
our last campaign

the very best one of all.

Thank you.

- When Nixon was re-elected
after all this,

um...it was hard to believe.

Yeah, it was frustrating
to those people

who saw that he was involved
with a lot of this.

- How about that?

The election's over,
and we made it.

We've survived a couple
of days, almost a week.

- For Mae, she never felt
like she was finished.

It wasn't over.

She still needed to do more.

- It was almost
business as usual

the day after
at the White House...

but not quite.

News secretary Ron Ziegler
described the mood here

as one of satisfaction.

- For anyone
who believed

that Nixon had something to do
with Watergate,

his re-election made
the burden of proof

that much heavier.

And as 1972 turned to 1973,

most people just seemed
to move on.

Rousing America

from its national indifference
to Watergate

was going to require
a serious jolt.

- Seven men
went on trial today

in a Washington federal court,

charged with the break-in
and burglary

of Democratic
national headquarters

in the Watergate building
last June.

- In January of 1973,

the grand jury trial for
the Watergate burglary began.

The five men caught
breaking in,

plus the two men
who orchestrated it,

Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt,

were all charged
with burglary and conspiracy.

But seeing as no one higher up
was brought to trial,

interest in the story
continued to lag.

- If you watch
the Watergate trial,

they call 60 witnesses here.

But they're calling 60 people

that had nothing to do
with the case.

They're not calling
Martha Mitchell.

They're not calling
John Mitchell.

In these early
court hearings,

each time a new bit
of information would come out,

I would run to a pay phone

this is the way we did
our reporting in those days

I would run to a pay phone
and put a dime in...

And do my radio report
on the phone.

And by the time
I got to the pay phone

on the third floor
of the courthouse,

I was out of breath,
so all my reports sounded

as if it was, you know,
a five-alarm fire.

Like that.

And I learned

that not one of those reports
was ever put on radio.

They would take them in
and not use them.

- After 16 days

and more than 100 pieces
of evidence,

the seven men charged

were convicted of conspiracy,
burglary, and wiretapping

the Democratic party's
Watergate headquarters.

- I think when the record
in this case becomes known,

anybody who has a fair mind
about it

and is looking at it
objectively

would be able to conclude
that this has been

the most comprehensive, deep,
thorough investigation

that the FBI has ever made.

- And were it not
for Judge John Sirica,

that story might have stuck.

- Judge John Sirica indicated
he was going to be tough

to avoid any accusations
of whitewash.

When Hunt's lawyers objected,

he said,
"I don't want to hear you.

You can argue till Doomsday."

- He set a sentencing
date for March 23rd,

and given his demeanor
throughout the trial,

it seemed to be a safe bet

that he was going
to throw the book at them.

- He was known
as a hardnose judge

who liked to take the big ones
on his own.

- He was basically chastising

the prosecutor for not asking
more pointed questions

and continuing to ask
these burglars

I remember this
"Who were the higher-ups?

"You weren't the top
of this pyramid.

Who were the higher-ups?"

And it was as if Sirica knew
it went into the White House.

And he was insistent,
and I thought,

"This is inappropriate.

A judge shouldn't be
doing that."

I was kind of appalled at it,
but it did the trick.

- Up until the trial,

Howard Hunt had been willing
to keep quiet for Nixon.

But facing what could be
extended jail time,

the cost of his silence
skyrocketed.

- Hunt sent a threat
to me directly

through one of the re-election
committee lawyers.

He said,
"You just tell Dean this,

"that if he isn't paid
$120,000, like, yesterday,

"he's gonna have
seamy things to say

about what he did
for John Ehrlichman."

- We don't know
exactly what happened,

but Hunt did not break.

- I'm a believer in the law.

I understood then
and understand now

the consequences
of breaking it.

- Another one
of the men on trial,

James McCord,
who had been in charge

of the bugging portion
of the job,

likely received
a similar offer.

- He had been sort of
an electronics janitor

at the CIA,
where he was responsible

that nobody was bugging
the Langley headquarters.

When he retired,
he was going to set up

a private consulting
and security firm.

- Those plans
were in jeopardy

now that he'd been found
guilty of a federal crime.

- Although he was hoping
for the best,

he, as well as I,
was not shocked at the verdict.

- And with a full
two months

before the sentencing date,
McCord had ample time

to remember how he got there
in the first place.

- All he knew
is what Liddy told him,

and a lot of it was false.

Liddy needed a "wire man,"
as he called it,

somebody who knew

how to conduct
electronic surveillance.

And it appears
he got McCord to do it

by, in essence, lying to him

about, you know,
what the authority was

and paying him,
paying him a lot of money.

McCord needed the extra money

because he had
a handicapped child,

and so I think that's how
McCord got sucked into it.

- Everything came
to a head

on the day of sentencing,
March 23, 1973.

- Judge Sirica was ill
that day.

Court started late.

The judge was going
into his offices

to take a Pepto-Bismol
or something.

His stomach
was really bothering him.

And he said, "I'm gonna have
something for you

in ten minutes."

So we had no idea what it was.

- What would happen
transformed Watergate

from something history
probably would have remembered

as a third-rate burglary

and turned it into
the rich political epic

that we now know it to be.

- Good morning, Mr. McCord.

- Judge Sirica revealed

that one of the defendants,
James McCord,

had written him a letter.

- Judge John Sirica opened
by saying

he had received a letter
from McCord.

McCord wrote that several
members of his family

expressed fear for his life
for disclosing what he knows.

Then came the bombshells.

"There was political pressure
on the defendants

to plead guilty
and to remain silent,"

wrote McCord.

Perjury occurred
during the trail.

Others involved
in the Watergate operation

were not identified
during the trial.

- When he read
James McCord's letter,

it wasit broke a big dam.

- A sensational development
in the Watergate trial today.

One of the key defendants says
there was political pressure

and perjury involved
in the trial.

- Reporters were stunned
nobody knew this was coming

and ran out of the courtroom
to make phone calls.

- This was supposed to be
the finale

for the seven
Watergate defendants,

the day of sentencing.

But instead, the case broke
wide open again.

- Mr. McCord, you did say
in your letter

that your family had been
afraid for your life

and that you, too,
had feared retaliation.

What did you mean by that?

- I'll have no further comment.

- The man who will head
a special Senate investigation,

North Carolina's Sam Ervin,

said he hopes the White House
will now be more cooperative

in bringing out all the facts.

- The McCord letter
was the tipping point

of the Watergate saga.

But apart
from lighting the fuse

that would eventually burn
down Nixon's administration,

it did something else
pretty extraordinary.

At least for one day,

it aligned
the Mae Brussells of the world

with the Woodwards
and Bernsteins.

- It was a very important day
for the Watergate group,

because now
we're in a different ballgame.

- The McCord letter

made Watergate a conspiracy
officially.

- This has caused shockwaves
in Washington,

and we'll have
detailed coverage.

- And all of a sudden,

everyone who disregarded
the odd coincidences

of the Flight 553 crash
in Chicago

and in the end,
that's all they proved to be,

mere coincidences-

they had to now start
paying closer attention

to the widening scope
of this story,

because Watergate now
had legs.

- We're right in the middle
of a very important time

in American history,

and I try to turn people on
to the history of their times.

That's what this is all about.

- I have mixed feelings
about Mae Brussell.

I think she was looking
for answers

to better understand
a world that she didn't trust,

answers that she believed
would protect her children.

But that effort led her
and her listeners

to some dark
and unlikely conclusions.

In this instance, though,
Watergate proved her right.

The government really did lie
and cheat and steal.

And it abandoned its people
to maintain power.

- The stage was now set

for the next chapter
of Watergate.

And much to the horror
of Richard Nixon,

it would all play out
on live television.

The Senate Watergate hearings,
just weeks away,

were about to become
the greatest show on Earth.

- Programs regularly scheduled
for this time

will not be seen today

in order
that we might bring you

the following NBC News
special report.

- Good morning.

This is the Senate caucus room
in Washington, D.C.,

and it's jammed this morning

jammed with spectators,
newsmen,

Senators, and their aides.

And the scene adds
to the sense of drama

as the Senate opens
what is likely to become

the most serious investigation
it has ever made

an investigation of
the American political system