[december 21st] auspicious day

Today is December 21st, one of the two shortest days of the year. It was significant, in 1971, for another reason.

Richard Nixon's major priority, in late 1971, was that nothing occur to derail his re-election. He had come to Washington deeply suspicious of a Democrat dominated town of liberal tendencies and thus a siege mentality began to define the White House [according to Colson later].

Two very interesting themes came out which did not feature in the received wisdom about Watergate, but in the light of the release of classified documents, explain a lot. They're of interest today in the way they show the workings of the presidency and the oval office.

The Moorer-Radford spy ring

Nixon's secretive manner, the way he scrutinized things before acting on information [or not], the way he bi-passed his official utilities from the Secretary of State to the Joint Chiefs, even down to sending in warships on his own say so, can be taken two ways.

It meant that the military industrial complex Eisenhower had mentioned would now have little say in policy on major issues, except through their man Kissinger, a complex character in himself [click for a clearer view]:



On the other hand, almost like throwing a dog a bone, what these official organs did receive was a "backchannel", a way to indirectly access the President through Kissinger, whom many feared, even Nixon. Why such a man was kept on when he clearly made all and sundry uncomfortable is another story. For his part, Kissinger revealed, in Nixon, a man who shied away from disciplining subordinates or enemies but rather "getting something on them", to bring them into line:



These very "extraordinary procedures" convinced the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they were being circumvented:




So the JCSs set up a spy ring within the White House and in particular, within Kissinger's baby, the NSC, which had not been used since the Kennedy days but was a clear ploy to bring national policy firmly inside the purview of the White House itself.

The method was to use a naval yeoman, Radford, who acted as PA to Kissinger and Haig on foreign trips, to actually rifle through their briefcases and copy sensitive material of use to his military superiors. He was shocked when some of that material appeared in Jack Anderson's news column, high grade material at that and then more appeared over and over.

Nixon was incensed about Anderson in particular but when he heard about the spy ring itself, he reacted seemingly strangely. This is part of the transcript from the tape of the meeting on December 21st, 1971:

EHRLICHMAN: Well Bob, it doesn't happen that way of course. [INAUDIBLE] He says, "He stated that this practice began with Admiral Robinson, who instructed him to 'keep his eyes open.' The subject construed this to mean that he should furnish Admiral Robinson whatever information might be an advantage to support the liaison's office and the Admiral."

NIXON: Now, wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. [PAUSE] I'm suggesting that it was Moorer who must take responsibility for this Anderson's column. It's possible, right?

Later they discuss whom they can trust:

NIXON: I mean, uh, and particularly Henry. Henry is, uh, is not a good security risk.

MITCHELL: He's not a good security risk the way he runs that office.

NIXON: [INAUDIBLE] he stole . . . so indiscreetly. The main thing is that, the main thing is that, it's to me that reason that [POUNDING OF DESK WITH EACH WORD] He—had—to—know—that he was getting stuff from Kissinger's and Haig's briefcase. That—is—wrong! Understand? I'm just saying that's wrong. Do you agree?

MITCHELL: No question about it, that the whole concept of having this yeoman get into this affair and start to get this stuff into the Joint Chiefs of Staff is just like coming in and robbing your desk.

NIXON: Yes it is.

HALDEMAN: The thing that disgusts me about this is, if they'll do that—

NIXON: Yeah.

HALDEMAN: - What else are they doing?

EHRLICHMAN: You know, military drivers, military gals, military everything around here.

NIXON: Yup, yup, yup, yup.

HALDEMAN: Christ. We've all used this office. [INAUDIBLE]

One of the key chiefs, Welander, was brought in for questioning and he made a confession:



Rather than hit the key JCSs, Nixon decided to tread carefully and in particular, he didn't want Haig touched. There's been much speculation on Nixon's reaction, especially that his prime motivation was to keep the backchannel open:



Of even more interest was Haig's and Kissinger's relationship, given that Kissinger was the public hawk and Haig the dove:




The Watergate key

The general consensus accepted at the Senate hearings was that the burglars had gone in to wire tap and dig up the dirt on the Democrats for political advantage.

Another story which emerged but was never pursued, for some reason, stemmed from the point where the burglars were lined up along a wall with their hands on that wall and then the bugging equipment was found. The investigative officer noticed that one of them at the far end of the line, Martinez, kept moving his hand to his chest so many times that when the officer reached into his coat, he found this:



Much was made of the contents of the book but the key, surprisingly, did not feature al that much in subsequent testimony. In fact, the focus became how much Nixon knew and when but not on the burglary itself, which had enough holes in it to drive a bus through. It was too incompetent to be true.

The obvious question was:

"Why would a Watergate burglar have a key to a DNC secretary, Maxine Wells's desk in his possession and what items of possible interest to a Watergate burglar were maintained in Wells's locked desk drawer?"

Into this came a character called Bailley:

According to Silent Coup Bailley was eventually arrested and indicted for violations of the Mann Act (transporting under-age females across state lines for immoral purposes), extortion, blackmail, pandering, and procuring. As a result, Bailley's address books were seized. Silent Coup also notes that Maureen Biner's name appeared in Bailley's address books.

Maureen Biner was John Dean's wife:

The implication of Colodny and Gettlin's narrative is that the June 17, 1972, the Watergate break-in was ordered by Dean so that he could determine whether the Democrats had information linking Maureen Biner to the Bailley/Rikan call-girl ring and whether they planned to use such information to embarrass him.

Why would no one wish to pursue that line, apart form G Gordon Liddy? The allegation was that that key opened a desk at the DNC HQ and that inside that desk were the photos and contact details of girls, many underaged.

It's long been maintained by both pundits and leaks from the establishment that the higher echelons of Washington operate not unlike Salon Kitty was supposed to have, way beyond mere call girls and involving some very sick stuff. Now, if the DNC ran a show like that for visiting VIPs, would the GOP have been any different?

The effect on 1971 America would have been devastating, had that come out.