50th Anniversary of Watergate

An Interview with Wayland Alumni

As we approach the 50^th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation due to the Watergate scandal, two Wayland alumni give us their personal perspectives on the historical time. John Unland `70 was a White House intern in 1974, witnessing the outcome of the Watergate scandal first-hand. Fred Snow `73 is an attorney who has a keen interest in Watergate from a historical and constitutional point of view.

This interview was conducted by Tami Posnanski Carpenter `88, Vice President of Wayland’s Alumni Board.

 

Q: John, tell us about your experience with the White House intern program.

John: I had graduated from Wayland four years prior and was attending Colgate University. The White House program was essentially a summer internship, and I was fortunate enough to receive an offer for one of 20 openings. Richard Nixon was President at the time, with Gerald Ford acting as his Vice President. After applying for the internship in late fall of `73, I was notified of my acceptance in the spring of `74. I was studying abroad at the London School of Economics when I received a telegram on May 30th from the White House, indicating I had been accepted to the 1974 Summer White House intern program to which I had applied. I was to arrive at the White House at 9 am on June 3, giving me only four days to move for the summer.

 

Q: How did you get from London to D.C. in only 4 days?

John: Here I am, 22 years old, with hair down to my shoulders and certainly no suits, ties, or suitable shoes— really anything appropriate to show up at the White House in. I called my parents, and my dad says, “Go to Brooks Brothers. I’ll give them my credit card. Buy two suits, three shirts, some neckties and shoes and, for God’s sake, get your hair cut.” I flew into Dulles airport and fortunately, I already had a place to stay in Washington. I got a haircut (kind of) and showed up with the other interns where we were given our assigned offices to work for the summer.”

 

Q: What were some of the offices to which the interns were assigned? Which one were you assigned to, and what was the mood in the White House that summer?

John: Some offices include the White House Press Office where Ron Ziegler was the Press Secretary, the First Ladies’ office of Pat Nixon, and the Office of White House Personnel. I was assigned to The White House Office of Public Liaison, which was recently formed by Melvin Laird after John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman left the White House. This was an office of ‘outreach’— essentially centered around public relations. Our charter was a liaison with constituencies of government agencies as they related to the administration’s policies. For example, those affected by the Department of Education, such as teachers’ unions, were gathered in certain forums where we would explain the President’s educational policies. We also brought in congressional leaders involved with education legislation, the Secretary of Education from the cabinet, and then the President, who would close out the meeting with a few remarks.

Regarding the atmosphere: in June, things were relatively calm regarding Watergate. Business was getting done. Keep in mind, I was new at that time and didn’t have a solid handle on what was going on or anything to compare it to. The Senate Watergate Committee hearings were on television and being watched in every office. As a history major in college—with my interest in history fostered by Mr. Burdett Loomis’s history course at Wayland— I was in my element working in the White House. I arrived to work at 5:30 in the morning; I didn’t want to miss a thing. I thrived in the environment and enjoyed being surrounded by government staff.

For work itself, I conducted research around topics to be leveraged into speeches made by my boss, Bill Baroody, an Assistant to the President. He headed up the office with a staff of around 10 to 12 people. Mr. Baroody was very good to me, and gave me responsibilities relating to all kinds of speeches. These ranged from speeches defending President Nixon, highlighting his policies on different issues such as defense, environmental protection, the clean water act, as well as writing speeches against possible impeachment around Watergate. These proved to be a bit of a challenge but were very rewarding work.

As summer moved on, evidence of the Watergate cover-up quickly unfolded and Nixon’s involvement in the conspiracy became clearer. Along with these revelations, the mood within the White House shifted. With Supreme Court decisions pending around the release of critical Watergate tapes, the scandal had engulfed the spirit of the work environment. By early July, it became clear that impeachment was imminent, and the vibe became quite somber and subdued.

One can read the history books to follow the details of the Senate Watergate Hearings, Supreme Court decisions, etc. There were those who believed in the President and held out hope, but for me it was obvious that impeachment was impending which, of course, Nixon and his attorneys were desperately trying to avoid.

Despite the grim events at hand, there were many memorable moments. On July 4th, all the interns were invited to see the fireworks on the White House lawn. The evening was beautiful with the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial in the background, but it was far from a celebratory atmosphere.

On August 8th, Nixon announced that he would be delivering a speech to the nation at 9 pm that night. Those of us inside the White House knew what was coming, and I think most people around the nation and the world knew as well. Chief of Staff Alexander Haig held a meeting in Room 450 of the Old Executive Office Building with top-level staff. That afternoon, around 4 o’clock, I went into the Rose Garden by myself and sat in a chair maybe 15 to 20 yards just off the steps to the Oval Office and watched the camera crew set up the lights and microphones by the President’s desk, the Resolute Desk. I sat there for quite a while, just watching. I just sat and watched people coming in and out of the Oval Office, knowing that within an hour or so history was about to transpire in a big way. It was very humid, and the Oval Office had a yellow glow from the lights. Soon, a secret service agent came over and politely asked me to leave, which I did, and I then went back to Mr. Baroody’s office and watched the speech with the staff.

 

Q: After watching the speech where Nixon said he would be resigning the next day, what did you do?

John: There had been protests occurring since July, and I wanted to see how the President’s speech went down with the protesters. I just stepped outside in my Brooks Brothers suit and tie. And when I did, I saw that the street was just mobbed; people with signs stating, “Down with Nixon,” and the like. You have to remember that the Vietnam War was still going on, so there were war protesters in addition to those protesting against Nixon. There was quite a bit of anger focused on him and his presidency at this time, and I just wanted to get a sense of it.

 

Q: August 9^th was the actual resignation. What was that like?

John: I came into work early that morning—probably around 5 am. A group of us gathered at the office and walked over to the East Room where President Nixon was going to deliver his resignation speech to the staff and the nation. I stood in the back of the room, probably 20 yards from him, behind Henry Kissinger and other cabinet members. There were probably around 300+ people in the room.

In my opinion, having heard President Nixon speak many times, it was his most memorable speech because it was so personal. I always found him to be a bit awkward, lacking emotions and sincerity. But this time he was different; He spoke from his heart. He spoke of his mother, his upbringing, and even though his voice quavered, he held it together. It was emotional on his end—I thought, “Finally, there’s a human being within that body.” That’s really what I thought as he was speaking.

Then we all walked outside to the South Portico, which we see often enough on television. The President walked down to the diplomatic reception room and was escorted out to the presidential helicopter, Marine One, by the Vice President and Mrs. Ford. This is now around 10:00 AM, and Nixon was going to be President for only about two more hours, as Vice President Ford was to be sworn-in at noon. Many people might recall that as President Nixon was boarding Marine One he gave that infamous, historic wave goodbye just before the helicopter lifted off.

During my time at the White House, I carried with me my camera—my Nikon with a zoom lens. And on that day, I stood on the South Portico next to the White House chef with a clear field of vision watching the President getting into the helicopter. I snapped a photo of President Nixon’s historic wave in his very last moments as President of the United States. And luckily, I still have it.

 

Q: After President Nixon left, then what?

John: I went back to my office, and everybody quietly left. President Ford was due to be sworn in in two hours at that point. I was dumb enough to stay in my office for the swearing in. Several off the staff did attend the inauguration and the reception following, but let me tell you about what I noticed that was astonishing. I decided to head back to the West Wing not long after the swearing-in of President Ford. When I got there, all the pictures of President Nixon had already been taken down from the walls—every single one. They’d been replaced by photos of Gerald Ford, the new President of merely an hour or so. There were pictures of him with his golden retriever Liberty, with his wife Betty, with his kids Steve and Susan, skiing in Colorado, just happy family pictures—they showed normalcy. Gone were the pictures of Richard Nixon with Brezhnev, Nixon in Russia, Nixon with Chairman Mao on the famous diplomatic trip to China, everything of Nixon had vanished. All within 90 minutes all images were replaced, and with it came a totally new and uplifting feel around the White House. One picture that I recall was of (then) Vice President Ford making breakfast at his home in Alexandria, Virginia—cooking bacon and eggs—showing what a down-to-earth man he was, and now he was President.

I went back to Mr. Baroody’s offices and, to my surprise, there was personnel from the National Archives. They instructed us to photocopy every single piece of paper in our drawers and file cabinets immediately, because every piece of paper that we had at that time pertained to the Nixon Administration and needed to go to the National Archives. These files could not be taken out of our offices for any reason whatsoever; they established strict instructions not to be violated. Those were the days of Xerox machines when you put a piece of paper down on glass, closed the lid, punched a button, a green glow scanned the paper, the copy came out, you lifted the lid, repeat, repeat, repeat. I copied documents for the next two days. We boxed them all up and the staff from the National Archives took them away. And that ends my time in the White House during the Watergate era.

 

Q: How did Wayland help prepare you for this situation?

John:  It’s hard to say specifically what Wayland did for me, or any of us. As I look back at my time in the White House and my career, I realize that Wayland showed me how to navigate situations involving a variety of people with different opinions. This institution taught me how to embrace people’s differences, and how to survive, and even excel in different environments. At the age of 14 or 15, you’re living with 200+ students and faculty members— you have to get accustomed to dealing with a wide range of people in order to succeed. That’s quite a gift that Wayland gives all of us.

As for this part of my life, yes, it was cool, but there are so many successful people from Wayland all over the globe. For me, I just happened to be there.

 

Q: Was there an overall lesson that you learned from that summer in ‘74 that you can share with us?

John: Treasure the Constitution. It’s four pages long. Four pages of handwriting on parchment paper. Don’t let those four pages disintegrate. Beware of abuse of power. In the case of Watergate, the Constitution kept the ship afloat peacefully. Let’s keep it that way.”

 

Q: Fred, can you explain what exactly was the Watergate scandal?

Fred: On August 9, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon became the first US President to resign from office. Nixon resigned facing probable impeachment based on covering up a burglary that took place at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, located in the Watergate Office Building. This burglary was conducted by “the Plumbers” to install electronic eavesdropping devices.

At the time of the burglary in 1972, Nixon’s trusted White House team had organized his second presidential election staff within an organization named The Committee for Reelection of the President (often referred to by detractors as “CREEP”) and lead by the Attorney General. Nixon enjoyed a sizable lead over his opponent, George McGovern. However, Nixon was paranoid about political enemies undermining his presidency and the election base. This was in part of press reports about how Nixon handled the Vietnam War, which appeared to be based on information leaks from members of his own administration.

Nixon’s staff organized a unit called “The Plumbers” for the purpose of sealing information leaks from White House staff and others. Ironically, on election day, Nixon won reelection by one of the largest landslide victories in presidential election history, 520 electoral votes to thirteen.

We do not know what knowledge Nixon had of the work and tactics of The Plumbers. The group initially reported to White House staff and subsequently to CREEP staff. While Nixon was likely aware of The Plumbers, their work, and the tactics of its members, he defended the activity as necessary to protect vital US secrets and his view that the gathering of illegal intelligence about opponents was common practice among his predecessors.

After the arrest of The Plumbers, evidence reflects that Nixon and staff participated in criminal activity to conceal the White House from further investigation regarding the burglary of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters.

The location of the burglary, Watergate, soon became synonymous with any political scandal. Insulating the White House from the Watergate burglary proved difficult because 1) most members of The Plumbers cooperated with federal prosecutors in exchange for lighter prison sentences; and 2) Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein showed interest in the case. This is partially due to animosity against the Nixon administration because of its attempts to impede the newspaper’s effort to gain broadcast licenses from the Federal Communications Commission.

A Senate investigation ensued due to the Washington Post reports and the resignation of the Attorney General. In this investigation, a White House aide revealed the existence of a voice-activated recording system installed to record conversations in the Oval Office. After Nixon refused to deliver such recordings to the special prosecutor, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Nixon, and he authorized the recordings to be delivered to the special prosecutor.

 

Q: How did Nixon's resignation head off impeachment proceedings?

Fred: Following the Senate and special prosecutor investigations and his declining political support in the Congress, Nixon decided to resign rather than face impeachment and trial. Commentators have reported several potential reasons. 1) Senators close to Nixon told him that he faced certain conviction in the Senate. 2) Nixon desired to maintain his reputation. 3) Nixon was not wealthy and needed to protect his stipend (which impeachment would have eliminated). 4) Nixon believed, perhaps incorrectly, that the House lacked legal authority to impeach him if he was no longer “President” as set forth in the Constitution’s impeachment clause. 5) Nixon may have believed Gerald Ford would issue a pardon to avoid criminal charges.

 

Q: Seems the last one held true.  Was he right in that the constitution does not allow impeachment of a former President once out of office?

Fred: The constitution does not address former Presidents, which leads to dangerous room for interpretation. Should the President escape impeachment or trial merely through resignation or expiration of term? If the Congress has the authority to impeach and try former presidents, vice presidents and civil officer, this could become a political tool to impeach, convict, and disqualify political opponents from holding future Federal office positions.

 

Q: Under the constitution, does a President or former President enjoy executive privilege for holding classified information?

Fred: In United States vs Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Nixon’s claim of absolute executive privilege and held that the Watergate tape recordings were subject to the subpoena authority of the Watergate special prosecutor. Thus, in this case, no, the President did not enjoy an absolute executive privilege.

 

Q: In closing, tell us how Wayland fostered your passion for law and the Constitution.

Fred: I think Wayland created an environment that helped me develop critical thinking skills. Moreover, Mr. Lilly fostered my interest in the historical record. He required students sit in a circle, instead of rows, for class so that no one could sit in the back and hide, driving more engagement.