WATERGATE JOB BOTCHED ON PURPOSE, SAYS NIXON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580009-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0404580009-3
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6 April 1984
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Watergate.jo bo__
b tched
on purpose, s4ys
Nixon
i By Wesley Pruden One of the reasons that the re- collection of automobiles. He says,
THE W SHINGTON TIMES lease of the Pentagon Pavers 'Oh, no, no, no' . He says, 'I never
caused great concern in the CIA," want to use a Dictaphone machine.'
The Watergate burglars he saxs "wast atoneo t ei~item He said, 'I don't like to dictate into
"wanted to get caught," former in the Pentagon apers cou on y an impersonal machine, and then
President Richard M. Nixon says have come from the fact t, we with a little sort of wink, he said,
in a remarkable new television in- had Leont rexhnev s car 'I'd much rather dictate to a pretty
terview, and only "the cockeyed d,,
girl ...You know, when you wake up
notion" that he might have been ! i_t ~- int lli Pn~o ?encies "bug - in the middle of the night and want
destroying evidence kept him CQ gn leaders Air N9-nn to make a note, it's always very use-
from destroying the tapes that de- "but we don't do it here" ful to have somebody there in the
stroyed his presidency. . Embassies are often the targets room to give it to.' " -
of electronic surveillance, he says. Mr. Gannon, his'interviewer, asks
The Watergate break-in, on "For example, it's been quite well whether the "gossip" a president
June 17, 1972, was so clumsily known that both in this country and receives from the National Secu-.
done, Mr. Nixon says, "that I in the Soviet Union we attempt to rity Council and the State Depart-
would have to say that a pretty bug each other's embassies and we ment tells a president whether a
good case could be made, and attempt to bug a lot of other embas- leader with whom he is negotiating
some have made it, that it was de- sies in this country, and we should, "plays around with women"
_liberately botched up:' because that's expected Re lies the former
c he ko s. to be done. P president:
Mr. Nixon chides those who say So far a n
Howe Mr T T,-n "Oh, yes." This sort of information,
he has never apologized for the said, neither the State Department he says, is of more than merely pru-
Watergate episode. nor the CIA bueg Mr._ Brezhngv rient interest. "You've got to know
"There's no way that you could M
at Blair Ho L id or nt r. Nixon'sLformer home n San are apologize what
that is more eloquent, Clemente - though he concedes pointed questions, discusses
more decisive, more finite or to non's say that that it could have been done withot;t his intimate emotions about his
you are sorry, which his knowledge. wife - and about the impression
would exceed resigning the that Mr. Gannon characterized as
presidency of the United States. The late Soviet premier was de
scribed by Mr Nixon as a "ladies' widespread that the Nixons have
"That said it all. And I don't in- man" who was so obsessed with sex endured a "loveless marriage" kept
tend to say any more" - that he brought his "masseuse" - together for the sake of their two
The interviews, conducted over "a very handsome full-bosomed daughters and politics.
38 hours by Frank Gannon, a for- Russian girl - with him to Camp "Look, Mr. Nixon says, "when I
mgr White House fellow who had David. Once, while the president hearpeopleslobberingaroundpub-
worked with the former president and Mrs. Nixon were walking down licly' 'I love her' and all that stuff,
on his books, will be televised Sun- a "welcome line"at an airport in the that raises a question in my mind as
day night on CBS' "60 Minutes" Soviet Union, the Soviet leader of- to how much of it is real. [That is]
and on Tuesday night on the CBS fered Mr. Nixon his pick of "the just the way I am, it's the way she
program "American Parade" pretty girls" is, too. We just don't go for those
In these interviews, for which and so forth," says Mr. Nixon. "Mrs. e
T Asks Mr. Gannon, bluntly: "Do
CBS paid S500,000 to Mr. Gannon Nixon did not particularly appreci- you love her?"
and the former president, Mr. ate that aspect of him. I mean, not "...of course, I certainly do, and
Nixon describes with astonishing., that she's prudish about it.,, I respect her, too, and she respects
candor how as president he en-- me. We don't hold hands in public.
tered a world where. "bugs" and On another occasion when Mr. do.
hidden cameras recorded the Brezhnev was visiting in the United Now, I don't mind other people
Nixon it. But that's the way we are. And
nd
most intimate details in the lives States, Mr. Nixon recalled, he con. sometimes love, I think, is much
of world leaders and visitors to sidered giving the Soviet leader a greater when you don't make a big
embassies in capitals around the Dictaphone as "a minor state gift:' point of showing it off and talking
world. "I asked Brezhnev whether he about it. It's much deeper, in my
used the Dictaphone," Mr. Nixon view"
says. "We had already agreed to Mr. Nixon said that extensive re-
give him another luxury car for his cording equipment was already in
place in the White House when he
became the tenant on Jan. 20,1969.
"The amusing thing about thatis
C~-`~rtrra~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0404580009-3