Word: haldemans
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...miles up the beach from San Clemente, both in dark suits, jets droning over every few minutes. Frost led with the real question--were you ever part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice? What was on the 18-minute gap on the June 20, 1972 tape conversation with H.R. Haldeman? Nixon answered the gap contained only his and Haldeman's discussion of the political ramifications of Watergate; that their main concern was "whether or not the other side was bugging us." And his motive for keeping the thing secret? No cover-up, just that "in everything I was saying...
...line and went skipping off into the blue Pacific. The last half hour was pure Nixon, corny maybe, but the Nixon who sold like Pringles to all those people in 1968, and to many more in '72--never mind those additives that give you cancer. Nixon on finally firing Haldeman and John Ehrlichman...
Ehrlichman then came in. I knew that Ehrlichman was bitter because he felt very strongly he shouldn't resign. Although, he'd indicated that Haldeman should go and maybe he should stay. And I took Ehrlichman out on the porch at Aspen--you've never been to Aspen I suppose...
Frost begins gently, asking Nixon to characterize his role in Watergate. Assured but wary, Nixon defers. He says he would rather answer Frost's specific questions. They follow rapidly, as Frost turns chilly. What did Nixon really say to his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, during the notorious 18½-minute gap on an Oval Office tape recording made on the morning of June 20, 1972? That was only three days after the Watergate burglary, and the vacationing Nixon had just returned to Washington...
Nixon replies calmly that he merely ordered Haldeman to launch "a public relations offensive on what the other side is doing." That same day the Democrats had filed a $1 million lawsuit against Nixon's re-election committee for the raid in the night. Nixon's explanation meshes neatly with a note Haldeman made at the time about the conversation. It said: "What is our counterattack? P.R. offensive to top this...