what Richard Nixon could have done to get out of the watergtate scandal

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by ovcatto

The tapes were not private property

If this is so, then to who did they belong?

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by ovcatto

I suggest that you stop relying on your memory because John Mitchell was most assuredly Attorney General when he authorized the payment of the Watergate burglars as chairman of Nixon's reelection committee....

I believe you're mistaken.

John N. Mitchell : Biography

In early 1972 Mitchell resigned as attorney general to become director of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). Later that year Gordon Liddy presented with an action plan called Operation Gemstone.... On 20th March, Liddy and Frederick LaRue attended a meeting of the committee where it was agreed to spend $250,000 "intelligence gathering" operation against the Democratic Party. One of Liddy's first tasks was to place electronic devices in the Democratic Party campaign offices in an apartment block called Watergate.... This was not successful and on 3rd July, 1972, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord returned to O'Brien's office. However, this time they were caught by the police....

I'm not aware of any evidence, let alone proof, that Nixon was aware of plans for the Watergate break-in before it occurred, and had he allowed/insisted on a thorough investigation of it when he first learned of it, he would not have been guilty of the cover-up. If not guilty of prior knowledge of it or of the cover-up, he'd likely have survived any impeachment efforts. Mitchell would have insisted that he alone or he, Liddy, Haldeman and Ehrlichman had OK'd the break-in and subsequent cover-up without Nixon's knowledge, and that would have been a believable statement... to most.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

I believe you're mistaken.

I sit corrected, partially. Prior to resigning John Mitchell while serving as Attorney general was in charge of the secret slush fund used to pay for the Watergate burglary.

I'm not aware of any evidence, let alone proof, that Nixon was aware of plans for the Watergate break-in before it occurred, and had he allowed/insisted on a thorough investigation of it when he first learned of it, he would not have been guilty of the cover-up.

Just for clarity's sake, when in the timeline do you suggest that Nixon should have "come clean." On the day after the burglary, because Mitchell and Ehrlichman surely knew of the connections. September 15th 1972 when the members of were indicted by a grand jury?

It is easy with 20/20 hindsight to see the developing pattern of events, but at the time how could Nixon not attempt to coverup such a broad reaching scandal when he had no way of knowing who would talk, as James McCord, or John Dean did?

Nixon did come clean in May of 1973, and forced the resignation of H.R. Halderman, John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Kleindienst, but that only fueled the fires setting the stage for the appointment of a special prosecutor, the Watergate hearings, Nixon's indictment as an unnamed co-conspirator and eventual resignation on the eve of impeachment. The fact that Nixon resigned speaks very clearly about his chances of survival.