Word: ehrlichman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...John Ehrlichman's latest effort, Witness to Power, fits right into the pattern established by previous "Nixon years" memoirs. The book's very title reflects Ehrlichman's notion of his own historical importance. In his mind, he is no mere former White House side and political back, but a "witness to power," a man privileged by history to share the secrets of national leadership. Unfortunately for Ehrlichman, there really isn't very much in the book to support his inflated self-image. To begin with, he is obliged to admit that Nixon--like most of the American public--never stopped...
...Witness to Power: The Nixon Years, Ehrlichman...
...wily Hoover, Ehrlichman writes, regaled Nixon and Mitchell during a dinner at the FBI director's home with anecdotes about "bag jobs" in which his agents entered private homes and offices without warrants. When his guests did not protest, Ehrlichman surmises, Hoover felt he had tacit approval to continue the illegal acts...
...Ehrlichman adds to the J. Edgar Hoover legend by recalling that Hoover once informed Nixon that his agents had come across a report that Haldeman, Ehrlichman and another White House aide, Dwight Chapin, were homosexual "lovers." The FBI dug into the rumor, Hoover told the President, and turned in a report proving that it was unfounded. Ehrlichman suspected that Hoover manufactured the rumor so as to win White House favor by disproving...
...Ehrlichman somewhat melodramatically recalls how the long Watergate ordeal affected him. Standing in the pilot's cabin aboard Air Force One on a trip with Nixon, Ehrlichman momentarily considered a quick solution: "I could end everyone's troubles by throwing myself against the controls, wedging myself between the pilot's control yoke and the pilot. We'd all be gone in about a minute and a half." Some of the unfortunate former officials portrayed in Witness to Power may wish that Ehrlichman had not dismissed the idea. -By Ed Magnuson