Coverup surfaces in newly public tapes

In this story:

• Conspiracy of a cover-up
• 'I'm not at my best'
• Interview with Al Haig
• Nixon fought to keep tapes private
• Related stories and sites

From Correspondent Bruce Morton

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It is impossible for a visitor to do anything more than sample from hundreds of Nixon Administration tapes made public Monday by the National Archives.

The tapes, the crux of Richard M. Nixon's downfall, bring back a time that lives now only in the history books.

One tape holds an April 1971 conversation between President Richard M. Nixon, his chief of staff Bob Haldeman, and Chief Domestic Advisor John Erlichman, in which they discussed forcing FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover out of office.

"The only way to take him on is to build him up first," Nixon said. "John, we've got to get him out of there."

In another April 1971 conversation, Nixon and Haldeman happily discussed a staff meeting of Democratic Sen. Ed Muskie's presidential campaign. Nixon told Haldeman, "This idea of the candidate sitting down, talking to his staff about what he wants to do ... is very, very poor strategy."

Haldeman told Nixon, "I've got a transcript," and they both laughed -- they had an informant in the Muskie meeting. Then, Nixon told Haldeman, "I'd like to get Teddy (Kennedy) taped. There's something going on there."

Conspiracy of a cover-up

As the clouds gathered concerning the Watergate burglary of Democratic headquarters, the tapes offer Nixon plotting to cover up the break-in.

In July 1972, Erlichman told Nixon, "Whatever we come up with has got to be watertight." Nixon responded, "the coverup, the coverup thing will be... John, if they had the confessions of some, that's really what..."

Erlichman responded, "and they'll not only have the five burglars, but the two mystery men: (G. Gordon) Liddy and (Howard) Hunt."

"That'll give the public a lot of blood," Erlichman went on. "That'll give the Democrats a lot to chew on."

By 1973, tapes reveal a different Nixon, more depressed and brooding. In one midnight telephone call to Haldeman in April 1973, he told his adviser, "We gotta really think about how the hell do you save what there is left of the president, of the presidency."

'I'm not at my best'

A month later, he told his new chief of staff, Alexander M. Haig, that he was thinking about resigning. "Wouldn't it be better to just check out?" he asked. "Because, you see, I'm not at my best. I've got to be at my best, and that means fighting this damned battle."

He allowed Haig to talk him out of quitting. "It would be the greatest shock this country ever had," Haig told the president, more than a year before Nixon gave up his office.

On Monday Haig told CNN's Inside Politics that Nixon had been "terribly shaken" when he had to fire Haldeman and Erlichman. "He had been loyal to both and terribly upset by it."

	Al Haig on CNN's Inside Politics
On Nixon's threat to resign		(47 sec./418K AIFF or WAV sound)
On the tapes		(7 sec./74K AIFF or WAV sound)
On publishing transcripts of the tapes		(22 sec./245K AIFF or WAV sound)
On Richard Nixon		(19 sec./211K AIFF or WAV sound)

Haig suggested the entire story would have been less damaging in a different era. "I would suggest this would never have happened had it not been for the Vietnam War, and the unsettled demeanor of the American public with respect to authority and the American presidency," he told Inside Politics anchor Judy Woodruff.

Nevertheless, Haig said, Nixon should have realized how many damaging things he was committing to tape, and destroyed the tapes.

In fact, in April 1973 he seems to have thought about it. "Frankly, I don't want to have on the record discussions we've had in this room about Watergate. You know, we've discussed a lot of that stuff," Nixon said.

A year later, in the summer of 1974, a subpoenaed tape revealed Nixon's attempt to have the CIA tell the FBI to drop the Watergate investigation on grounds of national security.

Nixon fought to keep tapes private

The tapes are among 201 hours of Nixon tapes, many unintelligible, made public Monday. Nixon and his daughters fought for 22 years to keep them secret; last April, the family estate finally gave up.

According to Nixon historian Steven Kutler, there is probably nothing in the newly-released tapes that will exonerate Nixon in terms of his role in Watergate, and his other abuses of power. However, if he had destroyed them before they became public, he probably could have stopped the investigation and served out his term.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

Related stories:

• Documents: Dole urged probes of Democrats during Nixon years - October 17, 1996
• Senator says aide saw IRS records in FBI files - June 25, 1996

Related sites:

• Richard Nixon @ whitehouse.gov
• Richard Nixon Library

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