Examing the Record of That Meeting in March

Other Watergate events may yet prove more pivotal to President Nixon's possible impeachment, but last week a critical controversy centered on a meeting that took place in the President's Oval Office on March 21, 1973. At issue was whether Nixon then had approved or tacitly accepted or pointedly rejected the payment of hush money to the original Watergate burglars as part of the criminal cover-up conspiracy.

The 110-minute meeting was attended by Nixon and his former counsel, John Dean. Also present for about 40 minutes was H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's former chief of staff. The conversation was secretly recorded by Nixon and, despite strenuous White House resistance, the tape was acquired by Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski. After listening to it, a federal grand jury two weeks ago indicted Haldeman for perjury growing out of his Senate Watergate testimony about the conversation. By implication, Nixon also stood accused of having lied to the American people because his version of the conversation closely paralleled Haldeman's in significant areas. Last week Nixon strongly defended his previously expressed version of the meeting, but added some fresh nuances. As a result there now are three differing accounts of the conversation. The three:

DEAN gave his version in testimony to Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate committee last June 25. Denied access to his White House files and working from memory, Dean at the time mistakenly thought that much of the crucial conversation had taken place on March 13 rather than on March 21. Dean testified: "I told the President about the fact that there were money demands being made by the seven convicted defendants . . . I told the President that there was no money to pay these individuals to meet their demands. He asked me how much it would cost. I told him that I could only make an estimate that it might be as high as a million dollars or more. He told me that that was no problem, and he also looked over at Haldeman and repeated the same statement.

"He then asked me who was demanding this money, and I told him it was principally coming from [E. Howard] Hunt through his attorney. The President then referred to the fact that Hunt had been promised executive clemency. He said that he had discussed this matter with [John] Ehrlichman and, contrary to instructions that Ehrlichman had given [Charles] Colson not to talk to the President about it, that Colson had also discussed it with him later."

HALDEMAN gave his account in testimony to the Ervin committee last July 30. Said Haldeman: "He [Dean] indicated concern about two problems, money and clemency. He said that Colson had said something to Hunt about clemency . . . The President confirmed that he could not offer clemency, and Dean agreed . . . He also reported on a current Hunt blackmail threat. He said Hunt was demanding $120,000 or else he would tell about the seamy things he had done for Ehrlichman. The President pursued this in considerable detail, obviously trying to smoke out what was really going on . . . He asked how much money would be involved over the years, and Dean said probably a million dollars--but the problem is that it is hard to raise. The President said there is no problem in raising a million dollars, we can do that, but it would be wrong."

NIXON gave his account at last week's press conference. "For the first time on March 21, he [Dean] told me that payments had been made to the defendants for the purpose of keeping them quiet, not simply for their defense. If it had been simply for their defense, that would have been proper. But if it was for the purpose of keeping them quiet--you describe it as hush money--that, of course, would have been an obstruction of justice. . .

"We examined all of the options at great length during our discussion . . . I pointed out that raising the money, paying the money, was something that could be done, but I pointed out that that was linked to clemency, that no individual is simply going to stay in jail because people are taking care of his family or his counsel. . . and that unless a promise of clemency was made that the objective of so-called hush money would not be achieved. I then said that to pay clemency was wrong. In fact, I think I can quote it directly. I said, 'It is wrong, that's for sure.' "

Mr. Haldeman was present when I said that. Mr. Dean was present. Both agreed with my conclusion. Now when individuals read the entire transcript of the 21st meeting or hear the entire tape where we discussed all these options, they may reach different interpretations. But I know what I meant and I know also what I did. I meant that the whole transaction was wrong, the transaction for the purpose of keeping this whole matter covered up. That was why I directed that Mr. Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman, Mr. Dean and Mr. Mitchell meet . . . so that we could find what could be the best way to get the whole story out."

The conflicts are clear--although they could be quickly resolved if Nixon would merely allow the tape to be played in public. By Dean's account, Nixon raised no objection at all to the hush money for Hunt and, further, admitted that he was aware that Hunt had been promised clemency. Haldeman claimed that both Nixon and Dean had concluded that clemency could not be promised. Haldeman also contended that, specifically, the President had said it would be wrong to pay hush money. Nixon confirmed Haldeman's version that he and Dean had ruled out clemency, but claimed that his judgment that "it is wrong" was meant to apply not just to clemency but to payoff money as well.

Nixon's version also contains one significant difference from an earlier written account of the payments that he gave on Aug. 15. "I was only told that the money had been used for attorneys' fees and family support, not that it had been paid to procure silence from the recipients," he said then. Last week he admitted that Dean had told him the true and illegal use of the cash. The fact that Nixon also conceded last week that he and Dean had "examined all of the options at great length" indicated that the illegal payments were not rejected out of hand by the President--as they should have been.

There are serious problems with the Haldeman and Nixon versions. The grand jury cited Haldeman for perjury in claiming that the President had said "but it would be wrong." If the jurors had any doubt at all about how to interpret the tape, they would hardly have considered Haldeman's statement to be indictable. Certainly, if Nixon had clearly declared that the payment of hush money was wrong, even though he may have linked it with clemency as well, the jury similarly would not have accused Haldeman of lying.

Nixon said in his press conference that he did not think his disapproval of clemency or hush money could be misinterpreted at all. "My actions and directions were clear and very precise," he contended. But the indictment details a chain of actions by high Nixon officials, allegedly starting with Haldeman, right after the March 21 meeting that led to a delivery of $75,000 to Hunt's attorney that same evening. Asked about this, Nixon made no effort to explain how his "precise" orders could have been disobeyed. "I have no information as to when a payment was made," he said. "All I have information on is as to my own actions and my own directions."

There is also a problem with Nixon's claim that, having learned of these illegal cover-up activities from Dean on March 21, he then convened a meeting the next day at which he urged his top aides "to get the story out." That meeting was attended by Nixon, Mitchell, Ehrlichman, Haldeman and Dean. According to the Senate testimonies of the last four, the President made no attempt at all at that meeting even to quiz them on whether Dean's allegations of their individual involvement in the cover-up were true. No one testified that Nixon had urged that Dean's allegations be reported immediately to the Attorney General or the FBI for investigation.

There is no dispute over the fact that Nixon asked Dean to go to Camp David and write a report on what he knew about the conspiracy. What Nixon planned to do with Dean's report is unclear. When Dean decided not to write such a paper but began dealing secretly with the Justice Department prosecutors instead, Nixon assigned Ehrlichman on March 30 to investigate Dean's charges. Since Dean had told Nixon that Ehrlichman was one of the participants in the coverup, he was a curious choice for investigator.

Nixon apparently never reported the Dean allegations to the proper federal investigators. Instead, on April 15, they finally brought such information to him. It was after Dean and Jeb Stuart Magruder, the deputy chief of the Nixon re-election committee, had begun talking to the prosecutors that Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and his deputy, Henry Petersen, went to the White House and told Nixon of the extensive involvement of his aides, including Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean.

The Dean testimony, which apparently has stood up well under grand jury scrutiny and in comparison with the Nixon tapes, further challenged the President's claim that he had rejected both clemency and hush money for the Watergate burglars. At a meeting last April 15, Dean testified, Nixon "went behind his chair to the corner of the office and in a barely audible tone said to me he was probably foolish to have discussed Hunt's clemency with Colson." According to Dean, Nixon also said that "he had, of course, only been joking" about his remark on March 21 that it would be no problem to raise the $1 million in hush money.

This poses a vexing question: Why would any such disclaimer by Nixon be necessary if he had, in fact, clearly stated that such hush payments were wrong? Indeed, if a tape of this April 15 meeting were to corroborate Dean's charge, it would undermine the President's defense. After a tape of the meeting was subpoenaed by former Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, the President claimed that it was "not in existence" because a White House recorder had run out of tape.

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