Word: ehrlichmans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Most of the press attention centered on Ehrlichman's claim that Chief Justice Warren Burger "on several occasions" attended White House meetings at which "Nixon, [Attorney General John] Mitchell and I openly discussed with the Chief Justice the pros and cons of issues before the court." The topics, contends Ehrlichman, included school busing at a time when the issue was about to come before the Supreme Court. While Nixon apparently stressed his antibusing views to Burger, the Chief Justice clearly was not swayed. He ended up writing a pro-busing opinion in the North Carolina case then pending. Still...
...Ehrlichman, a convicted Watergate coconspirator, took meticulous notes on White House and other high-level meetings. His account includes devastating characterizations of many of the people around Nixon. Burger had "aggrandizing tendencies" and wanted to give an annual "State of Justice" address to Congress, Ehrlichman writes, with prime-time television coverage similar to that of the President's State of the Union speech. Vice President Spiro Agnew, in Ehrlichman's view, "wasn't too bright." Gerald Ford "had achieved his maximum potential in the Congress. When he became President, he exceeded it obviously...
...Ehrlichman describes Kissinger and his wife Nancy as "the tenders of a flame: the historical reputation of Dr. Henry Alfred Kissinger, the Nobel laureate. They stand four-hour shifts, alert to attack, shielding the flame with their bodies and souls." Actually, Ehrlichman contends, Nixon became so tired of Kissinger's frequent threats to resign and his National Security Adviser's continual denunciations of Secretary of State William Rogers that he considered firing Kissinger...
Kissinger on one occasion called Rogers "a positive danger to the peace of the world." On another, Ehrlichman claims, "Henry arrived at a meeting wearing that most solemn expression he reserved for discussions of his resignations. 'I shall return to Harvard,' he said." When Ehrlichman asked what was wrong, Kissinger is quoted as replying, "It's Rogers, of course. . .I've discovered he has been holding policy meetings on the Middle East over at the State Department. That I cannot tolerate...
...Finally, Ehrlichman writes, "Nixon wondered aloud if Henry needed psychiatric care," and urged, "Talk to him, John." Added Ehrlichman: "I could think of no way to talk to Henry about psychiatric care. I had no confidence that that was what would help Henry, nor could I bring myself to confront Henry with the President's apparent lack of confidence in his mental stability...