THE WATERGATE TAPES
A DRAMATIZATION OF TAPED CONVERSATIONS AT THE NIXON WHITE HOUSE

By Nicholas Gordon
Copyright 2021

All dialogue is taken either from the Government Printing Office's transcripts of taped conversations that took place in the Nixon White House, or the scanned typewritten copies of those conversations, which can be found here. There are some minor discrepancies between the two. I have filled in an occasional deleted expletive or an unintelligible but obvious name or phrase and have at times added a full name or title to clarify who is being referred to. I have also made some grammatical corrections and smoothed out the numerous uhs, interruptions, and hesitation sounds. Other than that, every word that is spoken in this play has been taken in sequence from the transcripts. However, the text has been substantially cut (though never rearranged) to sharpen the dramatic focus. While the transcripts include some indications of pauses or laughter, most of the stage directions are the playwright's imagination of what might reasonably dramatize the recorded words.

Document Poems and Plays

Poems for
Free

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

John Dean, White House Counsel.

John Ehrlichman, Asst. to the President for Domestic Affairs.

Bob Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff.

Richard Nixon, President of the United States.

Henry Petersen, Head of the Criminal Division of the Dept. of Justice.

Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary.

REFERRED TO BUT NOT APPEARING

William Bittman -- Attorney for Howard Hunt.

Jack Caulfield -- Former NY City policeman, hired as a security operative by the Nixon Administration.

Chuck Colson -- Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.

The Cubans -- The four burglars who, with James McCord, Jr., were caught during the second break-in at the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate Complex. They included Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzales, Eugenio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis (not Cuban). All four were involved in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and various other CIA sponsored anti-Castro activities. Martinez was also one of the burglars involved in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

Clifton Daniel -- Head of the Washington Bureau of The New York Times, formerly the Managing Editor.

Daniel Ellsberg -- An economist working for the Rand Corporation who released to a number of newspapers a top-secret copy of The Pentagon Papers, a Defense Department study of the Vietnam War. His psychiatrist's office was burglarized in an attempt to obtain information that might be used to besmirch his character.

Erwin Committee -- Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Erwin, U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

Seymour Hersh -- Investigative reporter for The New York Times.

E. Howard Hunt -- Former CIA agent involved in various activities in Latin America, including the Bay of Pigs invasion. Later became a member of a special investigations unit called The Plumbers, and with Liddy was involved in the break-ins at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist and the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate Complex.

Richard Kleindienst -- Deputy Attorney General, then Attorney General of the United States, assuming the post after John Mitchell resigned on March 1, 1972, to run Nixon's re-election campaign.

Bud Krogh -- Head of a special investigations unit called The Plumbers. Approved the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

G. Gordon Liddy -- Attorney and former FBI agent who worked as a special assistant for narcotics and gun control in the Dept. of the Treasury. Later an aide to John Ehrlichman, then transferred to the Committee to Re-elect the President, where he was a member of a special investigations unit called The Plumbers, in which capacity he planned the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Later planned the break-ins at the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate Complex.

Jeb Magruder -- Deputy Director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

James McCord, Jr -- Former CIA agent involved in various anti-Castro activities, then worked for the Committee to Re-Elect the President. One of the five burglars arrested in the second break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Complex.

George McGovern -- Senator from South Dakota; Democratic Candidate for President in 1972; lost to Richard Nixon.

John Mitchell -- Attorney General of the United States; resigned in 1972 to serve as Chairman of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Edmund Muskie -- Senator from Maine; Candidate for Vice-President in 1968; Candidate for President in the 1972 Democratic Presidential Primary; lost to George McGovern.

Paul O'Brien -- Attorney for the Committee to Re-elect the President.

Herbert Porter -- Director of Scheduling for the Committee to Re-elect the President.

The Scottsboro People, the Berrigans, Alger Hiss -- Famous cases in which leftists and liberals raised money for the legal expenses of the accused.

Donald Segretti -- A political operative for the Nixon Administration and Committee to Re-Elect the President in charge of a dirty tricks campaign, including forged letters.

Charles Shaffer -- An attorney for John Dean

Earl Silbert, Seymour Glanzer, Donald E. Campbell -- The three prosecutors for the Dept. of Justice in the Watergate case.

Gordon Strachan -- Aide to Bob Haldeman.

Harold Titus -- United States Attorney, immediate supervisor of the three prosecutors in the Watergate case.

Bob Woodward -- Investigative reporter for The Washington Post.

ACT 1

(The Oval Office in the White House. JOHN DEAN and RICHARD NIXON are sitting across from each other on either side of NIXON'S desk. Both are frozen in position on a semi-dark stage as the VOICEOVER begins.)

VOICEOVER: March 21, 1973. The Oval Office in the White House. It is over nine months since five men were arrested after they broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C. Since then, Richard Nixon has been re-elected President of the United States, two former aides of the President, G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr., have been convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping, and the five men arrested in the Complex, including E. Howard Hunt and four Cuban burglars, have pled guilty to similar charges. John Dean, Counsel to the President, has come to the Oval Office to update the President on the state of the Watergate investigation.

(NIXON and DEAN come to life as the lights go up.)

DEAN: Let me give you my overall first.
NIXON: In other words, your judgment as to where it stands, and where we will go.
DEAN: I think that there is no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we've got. We have a cancer within, close to the Presidency, that is growing. It is growing daily. It's compounded, growing geometrically now, because it compounds itself. That will be clear if I explain some of the details of why it is. Basically, it is because, one, we are being blackmailed; two, people are going to start perjuring themselves very quickly that have not had to perjure themselves to protect other people in the line. And there is no assurance --
NIXON: That it won't bust?
DEAN: That that won't bust. So let me give you the sort of basic facts, talking first about the Watergate; and then about Segretti; and then about some of the peripheral items that have come up. First of all, on the Watergate: how did it all start, where did it start? OK! It started with an instruction to me from Bob Haldeman to see if we couldn't set up a perfectly legitimate campaign intelligence operation over at the Re-Election Committee. Not being in this business, I turned to somebody who had been in this business, Jack Caulfield. I don't remember whether you remember Jack or not. He was your original bodyguard before they had the candidate protection, an old city policeman.
NIXON: Yes, I know him.
DEAN: I said, Jack, come up with a plan that, you know -- a normal infiltration, buying information from secretaries and all that sort of thing. He did, he put together a plan. It was kicked around. I went to Ehrlichman with it. I went to Mitchell with it, and the consensus was that Caulfield was not the man to do this. In retrospect, that might have been a bad call because he is an incredibly cautious person and wouldn't have put the situation where it is today. After rejecting that, they said we still need something so I was told to look around for someone who could go over to the re-election campaign and do this. That was when I came up with Gordon Liddy. They needed a lawyer. Gordon had an intelligence background from his FBI service. I was aware of the fact that he had done some extremely sensitive things for the White House while he had been at the White House and he had apparently done them well. Going out into Ellsberg's doctor's office --
NIXON: Oh, yeah.
DEAN: And things like this. He worked with leaks. He tracked these things down. So the report I got from Krogh was that he was a hell of a good man and not only that -- a good lawyer -- and could set up a proper operation. So we talked to Liddy. He was interested in doing it. I took Liddy over to meet Mitchell. Mitchell thought highly of him because Mitchell was partly involved in his coming to the White House to work for Krogh. Liddy had been at Treasury before that. Then Liddy was told to put together his plan, you know, how he would run an intelligence operation. This was after he was hired over there at the Committee. Magruder called me in January and said, "I would like to have you come over and see Liddy's plan."
NIXON: January of '72?
DEAN: January of '72. "You come over to Mitchell's office and sit in on a meeting where Liddy is going to lay his plan out." I said I don't really know if I am the man, but if you want me there, I'll be happy to. So I came over and Liddy laid out a million dollar plan that was the most incredible thing I have ever laid my eyes on: all in codes, and involved black bag operations, kidnapping, providing prostitutes to weaken the opposition, bugging, mugging teams. It was just an incredible thing.
NIXON: But, uh -- that was not --
DEAN: No.
NIXON: … discussed with --
DEAN: No.
NIXON: … other persons --
DEAN: No, no, not at all. Mitchell just sat there puffing and laughing. After Liddy left the office, I said that is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. He said I agree. And so Liddy was told to go back to the drawing board and come up with something realistic. So there was a second meeting. They asked me to come over to that. I came into the tail end of the meeting. I wasn't there for the first part. I don't know how long the meeting lasted. At this point, they were discussing again bugging, kidnapping and the like. At this point I said right in front of everybody, very clearly, I said, "These are not the sort of things, one, that are ever to be discussed in the office of the Attorney General of the United States" -- that was where Mitchell still was -- "and I am personally incensed." And I was trying to get Mitchell off the hook. He is a nice person and doesn't like to have to say no when he is talking with people he is going to have to work with.
NIXON: That's right.
DEAN: So I let it be known. I said, "You all pack that stuff up and get it the hell out of here. You just can't talk this way in this office, and you should re-examine your whole thinking."
NIXON: Who all was present?
DEAN: It was Magruder, Mitchell, Liddy, and myself. I came back right after the meeting and told Bob Haldeman, "Bob, we have a growing disaster on our hands if they are thinking this way," and I said, "The White House has got to stay out of this, and I, frankly, am not going to be involved in it." He said, "I agree, John." I thought at that point that the thing was turned off. That is the last I heard of it, and I thought it was turned off because it was an absurd proposal.
NIXON: Yeah.
DEAN: So Liddy went back after that and was over at the campaign committee, and this is where I come into having put the pieces together after the fact, as to what I can put together about what happened. Liddy sat over there and tried to come up with another plan that he could sell. They came up, apparently, with another plan, but they couldn't get it approved by anybody over there. So Liddy and Hunt apparently came to see Chuck Colson in the White House, and Chuck Colson picked up the telephone and called Magruder and said, "You all either fish or cut bait. This is absurd to have these guys over there and not using them. If you are not going to use them, I may use them." Things of this nature.
NIXON: When was this?
DEAN: This was apparently in February of '72.
NIXON: That could be. Colson know what they were talking about?
DEAN: I can only assume, because of his close relationship with Hunt, that he had a damn good idea what they were talking about, a damn good idea. He would probably deny it today and probably get away with denying it. But I still --
NIXON: Unless Hunt --
DEAN: Unless Hunt blows on him.
NIXON: But then Hunt isn't enough. It takes two, doesn't it?
DEAN: Probably. Probably. But Liddy was there also and if Liddy were to blow --
NIXON: Then you have a problem -- I was saying as to the criminal liability.
DEAN: Yeah.
NIXON: OK.
DEAN: I will go back over that and tell you where I think the soft spots are.
NIXON: Colson, you think, was the person who pushed?
DEAN: I think he helped get the thing off the dime. Now something else occurred though --
NIXON: Did Colson -- did he talk to anybody here?
DEAN: No. I think this was an independent --
NIXON: Did he talk to Haldeman?
DEAN: No, I don't think so. But here is the next thing that comes in the chain. I think Bob Haldeman was assuming that they had something that was proper over there, some intelligence gathering operation that Liddy was operating. And through Gordon Strachan, who was his tickler, he started pushing them --
NIXON: (Sighs.) Yeah.
DEAN: … to get something, to get some information, and they took that as a signal -- Magruder -- took that as a signal to probably go to Mitchell and to say, "They are pushing us like crazy for this from the White House." And so Mitchell probably puffed on his pipe and said, "Go ahead," and never really reflected on what it was all about. So they had some plan that obviously had, I gather, different targets they were going to go after. They were going to infiltrate, and bug, and do all this sort of thing to a lot of these targets. This is knowledge I have after the fact. Apparently after they had initially broken in and bugged the Democratic National Committee. They were getting information. The information was coming over here to Strachan and some of it was given to Haldeman, there is no doubt about it.
NIXON: Did Haldeman know where it was coming from?
DEAN: I don't really know if he did, Sir.
NIXON: Not necessarily?
DEAN: Not necessarily.
NIXON: Strachan knew what it was from.
DEAN: Strachan knew what it was from. No doubt about it. And whether Strachan -- I have never come to press these people on these points because it hurts them to give up that next inch, so I had to piece things together. All right, so Strachan was aware of receiving information, reporting to Bob. At one point Bob even gave instructions to change their capabilities from Muskie to McGovern, and passed this back through Strachan to Magruder and apparently to Liddy. And Liddy was starting to make arrangements to go in and bug the McGovern operation.
NIXON: They had never bugged Muskie, though, did they?
DEAN: No, they hadn't, but they had infiltrated it by a secretary.
NIXON: By a secretary?
DEAN: By a secretary and a chauffeur. There is nothing illegal about that. So the information was coming over here, and the next point in time that I became aware of anything was on June 17th, when I got the word that there had been this break-in at the DNC and somebody from our Committee had been caught in the DNC. And I said, "Oh, my God!" You know, eventually putting the pieces together --
NIXON: You knew what it was.
DEAN: I knew what it was. So I called Liddy on Monday morning and said, "First, Gordon, I want to know whether anybody in the White House was involved in this." And he said, "No, they weren't." I said, "Well, I want to know how in God's name this happened." He said, "Well, I was pushed without mercy by Magruder to get in there and to get more information. That the information, it was not satisfactory. Magruder said, 'The White House is not happy with what we are getting.'"
NIXON: The White House?
DEAN: The White House. Yeah!
NIXON: Who do you think was pushing him?
DEAN: Well, I think it was probably Strachan thinking that Bob wanted things, because I have seen that happen on other occasions where things have been said to have been of very prime importance when they really weren't.
NIXON: Yeah.
DEAN: All right now, we have gone through the Watergate trial. I don't know if Mitchell has perjured himself in the Grand Jury or not.
NIXON: Who?
DEAN: Mitchell. I don't know how much knowledge he actually had. I know that Porter has perjured himself in the Grand Jury.
NIXON: Porter?
DEAN: He is one of Magruder's deputies. They set up this scenario which they ran by me. They said, "How about this?" I said, "I don't know. If this is what you are going to hang on, fine."
NIXON: What did they say in the Grand Jury?
DEAN: They said at the trial and in the Grand Jury that Liddy had come over as Counsel and we knew he had these capacities to do legitimate intelligence. We had no idea what he was doing. He was given an authorization of $250,000 to collect information, because our surrogates were out on the road. They had no protection, and we had information that there were going to be demonstrations against them, and that we had to have a plan as to what liabilities they were going to be confronted with …
NIXON: Right.
DEAN: … and Liddy was charged with doing this. We had no knowledge that he was going to bug the DNC.
NIXON: Well, the point is that's untrue.
DEAN: That's right.
NIXON: Magruder did know that --
DEAN; Magruder specifically instructed him go back in the DNC.
NIXON: He did?
DEAN: Yes.
NIXON: You know that?
DEAN: Yes.
NIXON: I see. O.K.
DEAN: I honestly believe that no one over here knew that. I know that as God is my maker, I had no knowledge that they were going to do this.
NIXON: Haldeman wouldn't have known that either.
DEAN: Bob … I don't believe specifically knew that they were going in there.
NIXON: I don't think so.
DEAN: I don't think he did. I think he knew that there was a capacity to do this, but he wouldn't, wasn't giving it specific direction.
NIXON: Did his assistant, Strachan, know?
DEAN: I think Strachan did know. So -- those people are in trouble as a result of the Grand Jury and the trial. Mitchell, of course, was never called during the trial. Now --
NIXON: Mitchell has given a sworn statement, hasn't he?
DEAN: Yes, Sir.
NIXON: To the Bureau?
DEAN: To the Grand Jury.
NIXON: Did he go before the Grand Jury?
DEAN: Mitchell was actually called before the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury would not settle for less, because the jurors wanted him.
NIXON: And he went?
DEAN: And he went.
NIXON: Good!
DEAN: I don't know what he said. I have never seen a transcript of the Grand Jury. Now, (sighs.) what has happened post the break-in on June 17? I was under pretty clear instructions (laughs.) not to investigate this, that this could have been disastrous on the election if all hell had broken loose. I worked on a theory of containment --
NIXON: Sure.
DEAN: To try to hold it right where it was.
NIXON: Right.
DEAN: All right. Now post June 17th: Liddy said that they all got counsel instantly and said that we'll ride this thing out. All right, then they started making demands. "We have to have attorney's fees. We don't have any money ourselves, and you are asking us to take this through the election." All right, so arrangements were made through Mitchell initiating it. And I was present in discussions where these guys had to be taken care of. Their attorney's fees had to be done. They brought your personal attorney, Kalmbach, in. Kalmbach raised some cash.
NIXON: They put that under the cover of a Cuban Committee?
DEAN: Well, they had a Cuban Committee and they had -- some of it was given to Hunt's lawyer, who in turn passed it out. You know, when Hunt's wife died in the plane crash in Chicago, she was actually, I understand after the fact now, was going to pass $10,000 to one of the Cubans -- to meet Hunt's lawyer in Chicago and pass it to somebody there.
NIXON: I would certainly keep that … (laughs.) that cover for whatever it's worth.
DEAN: That's the most troublesome post-thing because, one, Bob Haldeman is involved in that; two, John Ehrlichman is involved in that; three, I am involved in that; four, John Mitchell is involved in that. And that is an obstruction of justice.
NIXON: In other words, the fact that you're taking care of the witnesses.
DEAN: That's right.
NIXON: How was Bob involved?
DEAN: Well, they ran out of money over at the Re-election Committee. Bob had $350,000 in a safe over here that was really set aside for polling purposes. And there was no other source of money, so they came over and said you all have got to give us some money.
NIXON: Right.
DEAN: I had to go to Bob and say, "Bob, they need some money over there." He said, "What for?" So I had to tell him what it was for because he wasn't just about to send money over there willy-nilly. And Ehrlichman was involved in those discussions. And then we decided there was no price too high to pay not to let this thing blow up in front of the elections.
NIXON: I think you should be able to handle that one pretty fast.
DEAN: Oh, I think --
NIXON: That issue, I mean.
DEAN: I think we can. But now here, here is what is happening right now.
NIXON: Yeah.
DEAN: What sort of brings matters to the present is, one, this is going to be a continual blackmail operation by Hunt and Liddy and the Cubans who participated in the burglary. No doubt about it. And McCord, who is another one involved. McCord has asked for nothing. McCord did ask to meet with somebody, with Jack Caulfield, who is his old friend who had gotten him hired over there. And when Caulfield had him hired, he was a perfectly legitimate security man. And he wanted to talk about commutation, and things like that. And as you know, Colson has talked indirectly to Hunt about commutation. All of these things are bad in that they are problems, they are promises, they are commitments. They are the very sort of thing that the Senate, when they start their hearings, is going to be looking most for. I don't think they can find them, frankly.
NIXON: Pretty hard.
DEAN: Pretty hard. Damn hard. It's all cash. All right, now, the blackmail is continuing.
NIXON: Is Hunt out on bail?
DEAN: Pardon?
NIXON: Is Hunt out on bail?
DEAN: Hunt is on bail. Correct. Hunt now is demanding another seventy-two thousand dollars for his own personal expenses; another fifty thousand dollars to pay attorney's fees; a hundred-and-twenty some thousand dollars. Wants it, wanted it as of the close of business yesterday. 'Cause he says, "I am going to be sentenced on Friday, and I've got to be able to get my financial affairs in order." I told this fellow Hunt sent, O'Brien, "If you want money, you came to the wrong man, fellow. I am not involved in the money. I don't know a thing about it. I can't help you. You better scramble about elsewhere." O'Brien is a ball player. He carried tremendous water for us."
NIXON: He isn't Hunt's lawyer?
DEAN: No, he is our lawyer at the Re-Election Committee.
NIXON: I see, good.
DEAN: So he's safe. There's no problem there. But it raises the whole question of Hunt has now made a direct threat against Ehrlichman. As a result of this, this is his blackmail. He says, "I will bring John Ehrlichman down to his knees and put him in jail. I have done enough seamy things for him and Krogh, they'll never survive it."
NIXON: What's that, on Ellsberg? Was he talking about the break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office?
DEAN: Ellsberg, and apparently some other things. I don't know the full extent of it.
NIXON: I don't know about anything else.
DEAN: I don't either, and I (laughs.) hate to learn some of these things. (Pause.) So that's where we are now. Now we're at the soft points. How many people know about this? Hell, well, let me go one step further in this whole thing. The Cubans that were used in the Watergate were the same Cubans that Hunt and Liddy used for this California Ellsberg thing, for the break-in out there.
NIXON: Yeah.
DEAN: So they're aware of that. How high their knowledge is, is something else. Hunt and Liddy, of course, are totally aware of it, and the fact that, of course, it was run right out of the White House.
NIXON: I don't know what the hell we did that for.
DEAN: I don't either. So there is the problem of the continued blackmail, which will not only go on now, it'll go on while these people are in prison, and it will compound the obstruction of justice situation. It'll cost money. It's dangerous. People around here are not pros at this sort of thing. This is the sort of thing Mafia people can do: washing money, getting clean money, and things like that. We just don't know about those things, because we are not criminals and not used to dealing in that business.
NIXON: That's right.
DEAN: It is a tough thing to know how to do.
NIXON: Maybe we can't even do that.
DEAN: That's right. There is a real problem as to whether we could even do it. Plus there is a real problem in raising money. Mitchell has been working on raising some money. He is one of the ones with the most to lose. But there is no denying the fact that the White House, in Ehrlichman, Haldeman, and Dean, are involved in some of the early money decisions.
NIXON: How much money do you need?
DEAN: I would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years.
(Pause.)
NIXON: We could get that. On the money, if you need the money you could get that. You could get a million dollars. You could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten. It is not easy, but it could be done.
DEAN: Let me continue a little bit right here now. When I say this is a growing cancer, I say it for reasons like this. Bud Krogh, in his testimony before the Grand Jury, was forced to perjure himself. He is haunted by it. Bud said, "I have not had a pleasant day on my job." He said, "I told my wife all about this. The curtain may ring down one of these days, and I may have to face the music, which I am perfectly willing to do."
NIXON: What did he perjure himself on, John?
DEAN: Did he know the Cubans? He did.
NIXON: He said he didn't?
DEAN: That is right. They didn't press him hard.
NIXON: He might be able to -- I am just trying to think. Perjury is an awful hard rap to prove. If he could just say that I -- Well, go ahead.
DEAN: Well, so that is one perjury. Mitchell and Magruder are potential perjurers. There is always the possibility of any one of these individuals blowing. Hunt. Liddy. Liddy is in jail right now, serving his time and having a good time right now. I think Liddy in his own bizarre way is the strongest of all of them. So there is that possibility.
NIXON: Your major guy to keep under control is Hunt?
DEAN: That is right.
NIXON: I think. Because he knows …
DEAN: He knows so much.
NIXON: … about a lot of other things.
DEAN: He knows so much. Right.
NIXON: Just looking at the immediate problem, don't you have to handle Hunt's financial situation damn soon?
DEAN: I talked with Mitchell about that last night and --
NIXON: It seems to me we have to keep the cap on the bottle that much, or we don't have any options.
DEAN: That's right.
NIXON: Either that or let it all blow right now.
DEAN: There are two routes. One is to figure out how to cut the losses and minimize the human impact and get you up and out and away from it in any way. In a way it would never come back to haunt you. That is one general alternative. The other is to go down the road, just hunker down, fight it at every corner, every turn, don't let people testify - cover it up is what we really are talking about. Just keep it buried, and just hope that we can do it, hope that we make good decisions at the right time, keep our heads cool, we make the right moves.
NIXON: And just take the heat?
DEAN: And just take the heat.

BLACKOUT

ACT 2: Scene 1

(An office in the Executive Office Building. HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN are seated on a sofa facing the audience, in front of which is a long, low coffee table running the length of the sofa. NIXON is seated in an armchair stage right of the coffee table. On the opposite side of the coffee table, facing the sofa with its back to the audience, is an empty office chair. All three are frozen in position on a semi-dark stage as the VOICEOVER begins.)

VOICEOVER: April 14, 1973. An office in the Executive Office Building. A Grand Jury has continued to investigate the aftermath of the Watergate break-in. Meanwhile, a Senate investigative committee has subpoenaed several Nixon administration officials to testify. Ehrlichman and Haldeman are meeting with President Nixon to try to get out in front of the swiftly unraveling coverup.

(All three come to life as the lights go up.)

NIXON: I don't think there's anybody that can talk to Mitchell except somebody that knows this case. Now there's one or two people. I mean I versed myself in it enough to know the god-damn thing, but I am not sure that I want to know. I want to say, Mitchell, look, I think that the attorneys for the Committee, and I found this out, and I found out that, and I found out that, and the Grand Jury has told me this that -- I just don't know, you know what I mean. I am not trying to duck it. The thing, John (To EHRLICHMAN.), is that there's nobody really can do it except you. And I know how Mitchell feels. But you conducted this investigation. I would, the way I would do it -- Bob, you critique this -- I'd go up, and I'd say, (Getting up and addressing the empty chair.) "The President has asked me to see you." That you (indicating EHRLICHMAN.) have come today with this report; that these are the cold facts indicating, of course, that the Grand Jury is moving swiftly. "Magruder will be indicted. Under the circumstances, time is of the essence. You can't be in the position that you didn't go to the Grand Jury and say, 'I am responsible. I did not know, but I assume the responsibility. Nobody in the White House is involved,' and so forth and so on. We did try to help these defendants afterwards, yes." (Turns back to EHRLICHMAN.) He probably would not deny that anyway. He probably was not asked that at an earlier time. But the defendants are entitled to that --
EHRLICHMAN: Well now you're glossing it. I don't think he can do that.
NIXON: All right.
EHRLICHMAN: I wouldn't want to --
NIXON: All right. Fine. Fine. What would you say to him?
EHRLICHMAN: I'd say, ah --
NIXON: (Turns and gestures towards the empty chair.)
EHRLICHMAN: (Gets up and walks around the coffee-table to take his turn at the empty chair. HALDEMAN also gets up and stands next to him, stage left of the empty chair, while NIXON remains standing stage right of the empty chair.) I'd say, "The jig, you know, basically the jig is up, John. And, you know, I've listened to Magruder, and he's, in my opinion he's about to blow, and that's the last straw."
NIXON: (Also to the chair.) "And, also, Hunt is going to testify, Tuesday, Monday, we understand."
EHRLICHMAN: "We've got to think of this thing from the standpoint of the President, and I know you have been right along, and that's the reason you've been conducting yourself as you have."
NIXON: Right.
EHRLICHMAN: "It's now time, I think, to rethink what best serves the President and also what best serves you in the ultimate outcome of this thing."
NIXON: Right.
EHRLICHMAN: "And we have to recognize that you are not going to escape indictment. There's no way. Far better that you should be prosecuted on information from the U.S. Attorney based on your conversation with the U.S. Attorney, than on an indictment of a Grand Jury of 15 blacks and three whites after this kind of investigation."
NIXON: "We're right at the door of the White House, and we're trying to protect you."
EHRLICHMAN: "If the Grand Jury goes this way, you've been dragged in by the heels. If you go down first thing Monday morning or yet this afternoon, and talk to the U.S. Attorney, and say, 'O.K., I want to make a statement,' then, two things happen: One, you get credit for coming forward. Two, you serve the President's interest. And I am here on behalf of the President --"
HALDEMAN: "Well, and three, you have the dignified opportunity to discuss this in the office of Earl Silbert instead of in the Erwin Committee, with the whole country watching it on television."
EHRLICHMAN: "And I'm here at the President's request to ask you to do that."
NIXON: Yeah.
EHRLICHMAN: "He has reviewed the facts now."
NIXON: That's right.
EHRLICHMAN: "He has no alternative, John, but to send me here and ask you to do this."
NIXON: Right. "If you want to hear it personally --"
EHRLICHMAN: "Pick up the phone."
NIXON: No. "Come down and see him."
(They step away from the empty chair, all three still standing.)
HALDEMAN: I have a couple of modifications to that. One, a minor question, not to what you say but in setting it up. It would be helpful in doing that if I called Mitchell and said that the President wants you (to EHRLICHMAN.) to talk with him. Then there's no question in his mind that you're operating unilaterally.
EHRLICHMAN: Absolutely.
NIXON: Right. Right.
HALDEMAN: And, secondly, that if at all possible, he should come down here. My reason for it is: (A) you get him here under your circumstances; (B) if you make your case, which you may at this point -- 'cause he may be on the same track, maybe at the same point.
NIXON: Yeah.
HALDEMAN: If he is, you might be able then to swing a "let's get Silbert right now and go on over." See, he may say, "I've got to talk to the President before I do this."
NIXON: Yeah.
HALDEMAN: And then run him in to do it. (To EHRLICHMAN.) One part of your scenario really worries me. You say, "I listened to Magruder."
EHRLICHMAN: Well, I can't say it quite that way.
HALDEMAN: You can say what Magruder is going to do.
EHRLICHMAN: I can say --
NIXON: (Turning back towards the empty chair.) "We have learned that Magruder is going to testify."
EHRLICHMAN: (To NIXON and HALDEMAN.) I can say -- well, I can start out by saying, "Look, I can't vouch for any of this first-hand." (Turns to the empty chair.) "A tremendous amount of what I know is second-hand, but I have every reason to think that Magruder is in a frame of mind right now to go down there and tell everything he knows."
NIXON: (Coaching from the sidelines.) That Hunt's going to go Monday.
EHRLICHMAN (To the chair.) "Hunt's going to go Monday."
NIXON: "And Liddy" -- well, you can't say Liddy.
EHRLICHMAN: (To the chair.) "I have reason to think Liddy has already talked."
HALDEMAN: (To the chair.) "You know they're calling Strachan, so they're obviously moving on the cover-up."
NIXON: Yeah.
EHRLICHMAN: Let me get around that by suggesting what I think Mitchell's response would be.
NIXON: Yeah.
EHRLICHMAN: His response will be, (Sitting down in the empty chair, back to the audience, as though he were Mitchell were speaking from it.) "Look, Ehrlichman, you're supposed to be a lawyer. You know better. Somebody who is a target in an inquiry of this kind and someone tries to pressure him into giving up his rights -- this is sort of the antithesis of what rights I would have if I were a defendant. You're in the executive branch, a government official. You're supposed to tell me that I have a right to counsel and read me the Supreme Court thing and so forth. Instead of that you just suggested that I divest myself of all my rights and you asked me down here for a highly improper conversation. You haven't even suggested that I bring my attorney. And I think that what you are doing, you're acting as the prosecutor in this case."
HALDEMAN: (To EHRLICHMAN/MITCHELL in the chair.) How do you come off doing that?
NIXON: (As EHRLICHMAN gets out of the chair and resumes his former self.) He won't do that, in my opinion. He is more likely to say, (Sitting down in the empty chair as speaking as though he were MITCHELL.) "Oh, damn it. Look, John, you know there are people in the White House who are deeply involved in this, and you know that Colson and Haldeman" -- he may say this -- "pressured this poor boy Magruder over here." (Getting up from the chair.) I think Mitchell will take the offensive. Don't you agree, Bob?
HALDEMAN: You see, I am not at all sure but what Mitchell may think I am involved. I am sure he probably thinks Colson's involved, because Magruder has used that.
NIXON: Is Magruder planning to go see Mitchell?
HALDEMAN: Yes, Sir, if he decides to go, if he decides to talk.
NIXON: If he decides to talk --
HALDEMAN: And he is just about on the verge. I just assume that what he has decided, he is either going to talk or he's going to take the Fifth. He's not going to lie.
EHRLICHMAN: If Mitchell comes back to me with a line like: "You're not serving the President well; if you made any kind of investigation, surely you know people in the White House are involved."
NIXON: What do you say?
EHRLICHMAN: (Turning towards the empty chair.) I say, "Look, John, we're past the point where we can be concerned about whether people in the White House are involved. We're not protecting the President by hoping this thing will go away."
NIXON: (To the chair.) "The people in the White House are going to testify."
EHRLICHMAN: (To the chair.) "This thing is not going to go away, John, and by your sitting up there in New York pretending that it is, is just making it worse. And it's been getting steadily worse, by you sitting up there for the last couple of months. We're at the point now where we had no choice but to ask you to do this."
HALDEMAN: And you could say, (To the chair.) "We have a whole series of people who have remained mum in order not to create problems for you, who, it's now clear, can no longer remain mum. They don't intend to create problems for you, but, I mean --"
NIXON: (To HALDEMAN.) Who do you mean? Liddy?
HALDEMAN: No. I mean Mitchell's calls to Dean.
EHRLICHMAN: I could say that, (To the chair.) "When I got into this, I discovered that there were all kinds of people sitting around here who had bits of information. They were hanging on to them because they said they didn't know where they led. And because they were afraid they would hurt John Mitchell. And I've had to put this whole thing together. And now, having put it together, you guys know there's no escaping from it."
HALDEMAN: (To the chair.) "There's no escape. It's got to get proved whether --"
NIXON: (To the chair, overlapping with HALDEMAN.) "Confident as a lawyer --"
HALDEMAN: (To the chair.) "There's nobody that can do it that would be able to persuade anyone else."
NIXON: (To the chair.) "There's nobody else that can do it."