Word: esker
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...officially billed as fiction. The basic source is John Ehrlichman's roman à clef, The Company, and all the famous names have been changed to protect the guilty. Even so, it is not hard to identify such major characters as President Richard Monckton (Jason Robards), ex-President Esker Scott Anderson (Andy Griffith), CIA Chief William Martin (Cliff Robertson) or National Security Council Head Carl Tessler (Harold Gould). Lesser Watergate lights-from Hugh Sloan to Howard Hunt-should be recognizable to anyone who has seen All the President...
...more plausible. Because Ehrlichman writes about clearly recognizable figures in the not-so-distant-past, you could even say that his plot is more ludicrous. He starts with a quick summary of the 1960s: President William Curry (Harvard grad) dies in a plane crash and is succeeded by President Esker Anderson (who "exudes...a crude inelegance" and decides not to run for reelection). The main story begins with the presidential campaign between Republican Richard Monckton and former Vice-President Edward Gilley...
...murder, boss of The Company. Why? Because the new President is aware of the secret order and of Martin's guilt. Armed with that knowledge, he tries to indulge in a little friendly blackmail to get CIA files for use in the next election. This President, Esker Scott Anderson, is portrayed as a vast, salty-tongued, womanizing hick and a "pluperfect egomaniac" who dotes on the appointments of the presidential plane. (Even the candy wrappers aboard, Ehrlichman writes, come emblazoned with the words Air Force...