by Geoff Shepard, August 9, 2019
August 9 is the 45th anniversary of the resignation of
Richard Nixon, the only president in American history to resign or be removed
from office. We know what triggered his resignation. He was already on the
ropes after two and a half years of Watergate revelations, but what ended any
and all defense was the release of the “smoking gun” transcript on August 5. It
showed that Nixon had concurred with his staff’s suggestion that they get the
CIA to tell the FBI not to interview two Watergate witnesses.As astonishing as it may be to Americans, who have been assured that the smoking gun tape is proof positive of Nixon’s early cover-up involvement, every person connected to that particular conversation now agrees that the CIA gambit was an effort to prevent disclosure of prominent Democrats who had made substantial contributions to Nixon’s re-election campaign under assurances of absolute secrecy.
I should know. I was there: a member of Nixon’s Watergate defense team, the third person to hear the smoking gun tape, the one who first transcribed it, and the one who termed it “the smoking gun.” Here is a much fuller explanation of what actually happened. But the bottom line remains unchanged. Nixon’s Watergate defense lawyers completely misinterpreted the tape, and their mistake ended his presidency.
John Dean, Nixon’s principal accuser, has known of this mistaken interpretation from the very outset, but found it in his interest to keep quiet. He was, after all, the one who had suggested the CIA gambit to Bob Haldeman in the first place. Yet it was not until his 2014 book, The Nixon Defense, that he finally got around to admitting the truth. Read his full footnote, which concludes, “had Nixon known that he might have survived its disclosure to fight another day. In sum, the smoking gun was shooting blanks,” here..........To Read More, a lot more....
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