White House Chief of Staff
POPULARITY
Send us a textFrank Lavin served under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush in positions as varied as personnel, national security, international trade negotiations, Ambassador to Singapore, among others. In this conversation, we discuss his 8+ years in the Reagan White House from 1981-1989 - which is chronicled in his recent book Inside the Reagan White House. In the Reagan White House, he wore several different hats, was in hundreds of meetings with President Reagan, worked alongside some of the most influential administration officials - culminating in his stint as White House Political Director during the 1988 elections.IN THIS EPISODEFrank grows up in small-town Ohio in a tensely political time...Frank talks the establishment vs. conservative sparring in the GOP of the 1970s...Frank's early campaign activities in the late 70s and working for an IE backing Reagan as a college student in 1980...An important political lesson Frank learned from James Baker in Baker's 1978 race for Texas Attorney General...Memories of how Jim Baker ran the Reagan White House as Chief of Staff...How Reagan borrowed from FDR to become a powerful political communicator...How Reagan led the White House in meetings behind closer doors...Frank's first White House job of letting unsuccessful job applicants down easy...How the White House was a tug-of-war between "true believers" and "pragmatists"...Memories of his time at the Office of Public Liasion and how the President would "freeze" the first 10 minutes of a meeting...The 1984 Democratic challenger the White House was most worried about and how Reagan bounced back from a bad '82 midterm to win an '84 landslide...The difference in "desk truth" and "street truth"...How Reagan staffer Mike Deaver fundamentally changed the way a White House handles presidential travel...Frank's time as a White House national security staffer negotiating with the Soviets and spending time with President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at Camp David...Frank demystifies his role as White House Political Director during the 1988 elections...The origin of the famous Reagan "11th Commandment" maxim...How Reagan initially won - and successfully held - the voters who came to be known as "Reagan Democrats"...Frank's memories of being around President George H.W. Bush...The low point of Frank's time in the Reagan White House...Quick memories from Frank of prominent figures including Karl Rove, Colin Powell, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Roger Stone, and Pat Buchanan...AND Al Haig Disease, Lee Atwater, Jimmy Carter, George Christopher, Bill Clinton, creative tension, Peter DelGiorno, Terry Dolan, Tony Dolan, Frank Donatelli, Mike Dukakis, exotic tendencies, the FEC, fireside chats, forced marriages, force multipliers, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, Barry Goldwater, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bob Haldeman, Warren Harding, Kamala Harris, Gary Hart, hatchet men, horizontal management, LBJ, jelly beans, Dick Lyng, Paul Manafort, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Ed Meese, Walter Mondale, Brian Mulroney, Daniel Murphy, Ed Muskie, NCPAC, neutral recapitulations, the New Left, non sequiturs, Oliver North, John Poindexter, the Reykjavik Summit, Stu Spencer, Robert Taft, Donald Trump, Bob Weed, George Wortley...& more!
"I call it the madman theory, Bob” These words, supposedly uttered by Richard Nixon, and recounted by his chief-of-staff Bob Haldeman, have perhaps never been as relevant as they are today. And they go to the question: Can a powerful leader who we think is a bit crazy, actually make the world a better place? As Nixon thought he might be able to achieve? Enter Donald Trump. The current president of the United States is set to put to the test what’s dubbed the ‘madman theory’ like never before. Today, foreign affairs correspondent Matthew Knott on whether Trump’s volatile approach to geopolitics will produce vital victories, or whether his perceived crazy is just a little too…mad. For more: 'Trump’s happy to play the ‘madman’ to restore global order. But will it work?' Audio credit: 'The truth about the "madman theory'', Richard Nixon Foundation Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
"I call it the madman theory, Bob” These words, supposedly uttered by Richard Nixon, and recounted by his chief-of-staff Bob Haldeman, have perhaps never been as relevant as they are today. And they go to the question: Can a powerful leader who we think is a bit crazy, actually make the world a better place? As Nixon thought he might be able to achieve? Enter Donald Trump. The current president of the United States is set to put to the test what’s dubbed the ‘madman theory’ like never before. Today, foreign affairs correspondent Matthew Knott on whether Trump’s volatile approach to geopolitics will produce vital victories, or whether his perceived crazy is just a little too…mad. For more: 'Trump’s happy to play the ‘madman’ to restore global order. But will it work?' Audio credit: 'The truth about the "madman theory'', Richard Nixon Foundation Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Follow me for more content on these platforms! Twitter- https://twitter.com/Insideforwalls
Joy Reid leads this episode of The ReidOut with Donald Trump drawing his fourth indictment. That is four more indictments than any prior president of the United States has ever faced. Plus, we cover the apparent irony of how Rudy Giuliani, who put dozens of mobsters behind bars using RICO, is now indicted under a similar RICO statute along with Donald Trump in Georgia. Indicted with them is former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who could face the same fate as Nixon's chief of staff, Bob Haldeman, who went to prison for helping to carry out his boss' crimes. With Trump now facing 91 felony counts, most of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination still cannot muster the courage to condemn him. All this and more in this edition of The ReidOut on MSNBC.
Also, Coach Wooden's father's influence, his belief in personal success and did Coach Wooden go visit reviled Watergate conspirator Bob Haldeman in prison.
Finally, the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee cast its vote on the Articles of Impeachment. It is an emotional vote for the congressmen who were thrust into history and totally unprepared for the experience. They did their best they felt, and cast the vote they had to cast. It was strangely an unemotional moment for the President himself. Richard Nixon, worn out by two years of public assault, had prepared himself for the moment, and ever since his talk with Governor George Wallace had felt the vote was coming and it would be bad. He talks about his own emotions in this episode. Then a tape emerges in the subpoenaed 64 conversations that would totally devastate President Nixon's defense. We will let you hear the portion of the tape in question. We will also hear the part of the story that no one in the country knew at the time it was released. Ironically, this conversation and its actual meaning, not the meaning assigned to it by conventional wisdom, the media, and the President's lawyers at the time. But its actual meaning is one of the few things that Geoff Shepard, the President's last defense team member, and John Dean, the main witness against President Nixon, then and now, actually agree about. and you will hear them both in this episode of "Nixon and Watergate". Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcastsThanks for listening!!
In our Richard Nixon and Watergate, 1974 Through the Fire , season 7 finale, all the plotting and planning bares fruit as the Special Prosecutor's get both their indictments and they are able to assist their favorite Judge John J. Sirica into maneuvering himself in as the presiding Judge for most of the big cases on Watergate. He, in turn, helps the Special Prosecutors, in a series of ex parte meetings, maneuver sealed Grand Jury evidence over to the House Judiciary Committee in order to insure what the congressman see as they move forward with a look at impeaching the duly elected President of the United States. It is all here in plain sight, you just had to wait nearly. a half century to have the documents in hand to know what you were looking for rather than flying blind. Here you will hear the plan executed flawlessly, structured in a way preventing the Presidents defense team from ever knowing exactly what crime was he was actually accused of committing and its all covered by a very compliant national press corp, in the form of CBS News. All of this is happening while off camera, as we have discussed and shown you, Henry Ruth, the second in command at the WSPF, is busy with secret dinners at his home, and also extending special invitations to his old friend, John Doar, to hop on over to the office after hours to get a look at all their secret evidence for himself. While also allegedly coming up with a plan to get his hands on it all, keep his staff, and the Congressmen on his committee from ever seeing anything other than what the Special Prosecutor's want them to see. And that is what we will be sharing with you in our final season of Richard Nixon and Watergate. Buzzsprout — Easiest Way to Start a PodcastStart podcasting today. It's the easiest way to start, grow, and monetize your podcast.Brand
In our third special tapes series episode we look at various meetings and calls between the President and his staff. Some of these tapes have been spun to make the President look as bad as possible by liberal historians, Special Prosecutors, and liberal media personalities. However, when you listen to these tapes in there entirety I would argue they paint an entirely different picture for anyone listening with an open mind. So we are sharing these conversations as we did the two earlier meetings in there entirety, or as close to that as we could put together. They include a meeting with Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, phone calls with Domestic Policy Advisor John Ehrlichman, White House Counsel John Dean and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. We listen as John Ehrlichman reaches out to L. Patrick Gray to warn him of John Dean's duplicity. Ehrlichman who has been often vilified for years, also makes a second call to Gray to urge him to just tell the truth on the secret files Gray had destroyed based on the advice given to him by John Dean, the White House Counsel. ( A case we will look at in-depth in a later episode) This single act of kindness toward L. Patrick Gray most likely saved Gray from being indicted. Gray followed the advice Ehrlichman gave him as we will see later. However, it is three calls with Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen that are of the most interest in these calls. Henry Petersen was investigated for his role in the early investigation of the Watergate Scandal because he had kept the President up to date on what the status was of the investigation. Everything that could be done by Prosecutors was done to paint this situation as sinister, as Nixon guiding the investigation away from the targets for a suspicious public. But listen to these three calls yourself and make up your own mind as to what President Nixon was doing in them. He is clear, he gives direct orders as to what he wants to happen, and he instructs the most important of all the witnesses in the case, G. Gordon Liddy, to talk. It is in these calls you walk away realizing that for 5 decades you may not have been told anything close to the truth. You cannot listen to them and come away believing anything other than Richard Nixon was as determined as anyone else in America to know what the truth was in the scandal of Watergate. *** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,comSupport My WorkIf you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " tooThe Lowcountry Gullah PodcastTheculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
The second in our tape series is another meeting held on April 26, 1973 between the President, Richard Nixon, and his then Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman. In it they try and reconstruct what was discussed in the earlier meeting between themselves and John Dean. The You Tube page "I Tape You Bored" describes this meeting this way "A conversation between Nixon and his top aide which might deserve the overused tag of "meta". John Dean has now defected, and is helping the prosecutors; the discussion here centers on the long and involved conversation of March 21, 1973, the famous "cancer on the presidency" session, and what Nixon said there that could be used against them. The two men go over the conversation detail by detail on what makes them legally vulnerable, and what defense they might erect. This long session contains no new revelations, but makes clear how deliberate and involved Nixon was in the cover-up of the scandal. Again and again, the excuse of national security is invoked."However, what is forgotten by this writer and often most everyone else is that up until the March 21, 1973 meeting, President Nixon had been following the advice of his attorney. While he may have had other sources of information, Nixon's main source was his attorney, the White House Counsel to the President. That Counsel had been asked to commit to writing exactly what had gone on. President Nixon was counting on that document, and he had up to that moment been reliant on his counsel. Who was his counsel, his lawyer, the man he had relied on to guide himself and his Administration through this mess, that he, Richard Nixon, had not created.? The man's name was John Dean. John Dean was the hub that connects the issues at the campaign to the staff at the White House. He had gone to the prosecutor's office to get a deal by the time of this meeting. At that point, President Nixon and his Chief of Staff knew that Dean , who they had trusted and who was the White House lawyer, and was who they had relied on through the ordeal, was covering his own steps and throwing others under the bus. Now they were also discovering that Dean had not been telling them the full story while he was also digging the hole they had just discovered they were in. Those facts should be considered as you hear the two men discussing the situation they now found themselves in, because their attorney had proven himself unworthy of the job and trust that he had held. *** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,comSupport My WorkIf you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " tooThe Lowcountry Gullah PodcastTheculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
With this episode we will be introducing our tapes series, this is the first of four such episodes in a row. These will be episodes that center on tapes from either meetings or phone calls involving the President and the various Watergate defendants and other Nixon Administration players. These first four episodes center on the most damning of the Watergate tapes involving the President and used by the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office. Again, no defense attorney was ever given a chance to defend the President nor make his case, nor, most importantly, point out the exculpatory portions of the very tapes the Prosecutor's were only using snippets and sections of in order to derail the President. Here on our show, unlike the situation our President faced in 1974, we believe in FAIRNESS!! So we have provided as much of the tape, or the entire tape available, for you to listen to and make up your own mind about. In some of the episodes we also read to you introductions of the tapes by a Liberal Website called "Itapeyoubored" , in which we allow the common interpretation promoted by Nixon's most ardent detractors to be heard, and then I give my own analysis of what you are about to listen too. In these episodes, we want to go ahead and make you aware that whenever it is a tape of a meeting rather than a phone call, President Nixon himself can be hard to hear. This is especially true in our first two tapes in our series. These are also two of the most damning of the tapes used against the President. They are the infamous "Cancer on the Presidency" conversation involving President Nixon and John Dean with Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman joining the meeting and a later meeting in which Bob Haldeman and President Richard Nixon meet later to try and reconstruct the earlier meeting. This entire first episode in our tapes series is the "Cancer on the Presidency" meeting with John Dean. You will hear the famous line about coming up with money to pay Howard Hunt. You will also hear the President advising both Haldeman and Dean on how to avoid answering questions and not get a perjury charge leveled at them when in front of a Grand Jury where no defense attorney would be allowed to be present. It was the most sensational of all the tapes used to force the President to resign, save the smoking gun tape. However, as we have seen before when dealing with evidence handled by the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office (the Sinister Force) things are not always what they seem. This tape is over an hour and a half long and what you won't hear is an order to pay Howard Hunt, and what you will hear, more than once, is a President who thinks those on his staff that may have been involved in a criminal act need to step forward and "come clean". Another case of things not always being what they seem, nor history being correctly written. *** For more information please go to the following website ShepardonWatergate,comSupport My WorkIf you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " tooThe Lowcountry Gullah PodcastTheculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Tom Davis served seven terms in the House from Northern Virginia, including 2 cycles as NRCC Chair and as Chair of the House Government Reform Committee. In this conversation, he talks becoming obsessed with politics at an early age, working as a Senate page in the 1960s, playing a small role in the political operation of Richard Nixon, 15 years on the Fairfax County Board, 14 years in Congress, protecting the GOP majority in 2000 and 2002 while helming NRCC, why he left elected politics, the work he's most passionate about now, and his expectations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. IN THIS EPISODE..One early moment when the lifelong political obsession started to click for a 6-year old Tom Davis…Working as a teenage U.S. Senate page…Tom spends 30 minutes in the Oval Office with President Nixon…Tom's early stint as part of the Nixon political operation…Tom talks the political legacy of Virginia's famed Byrd Machine…Tom remembers his 14+ years on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors…Tom on the excitement as part of the 1994 House GOP wave…Tom talks the political skills (and flaws) of Newt Gingrich…Early impressions and surprises on his first term in the House…Memories of tough votes surrounding the impeachment of President Clinton…Tom's path to running the NRCC in both the 2000 and 2002 cycles…Inside the candidate-recruitment process of the Tom Davis-led NRCC…Highlights of his tenure as Chair of the House Government Reform Committee…The tough decision to pass on an open 2008 Senate race and ultimately forgo re-election altogether…The two types of lobbyists in Washington…Tom breaks down lessons for Republicans in Glenn Youngkin's 2021 Virginia win…How Tom is thinking about the 2022 midterms…AND Amherst, Appalachian State University, appendages, John Boehner, Harry Byrd, Eldridge Cleaver, Bill Clinger, Carl Curtis, Tom Delay, Harry Dent, Everett Dirksen, David Dreier, Dulles Airport, David Eisenhower, Martin Frost, gay newspapers, George Mason University, Jim Gilmore, Barry Goldwater, Bart Gordon, Bob Haldeman, Jesse Helms, Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Jim Holshouser, Rush Holt, Linwood Holton, John Hostettler, Steny Hoyer, Roman Hruska, Hubert Humphrey, Andrew Jackson, Jacob Javits, Nancy Johnson, Kent State, V.O. Key, lifelong teetotalers, John Linder, Louisiana Smart, Malibu, Mike Mansfield, Terry McAuliffe, Wayne Morse, the Mountain Valley Group, no confidence votes, Oliver North, Barack Obama, Dick Obenshain, Bill Paxon, perfecting amendments, Colin Peterson, Jeffrey Pine, George Rawlings, rental seats, Tom Reynolds, Alice Rivlin, Willis Robertson, Win Rockefeller, the Rotary Club, Antonin Scalia, Chris Shays, slackers, Howard Smith, Billy Tauzin, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Charles Thone, Strom Thurmond, Tulane, Fred Upton, Bob Walker, John Warner, Mark Warner, the Washington Post, Watauga County, Roger Wicker, wiffle ball, Frank Wolf, Jim Wright, Dick Zimmer, Elmo Zumwalt & more!
This episode begins with a simple statement that says it all about the Watergate Scandal from Nixon Speech Writer Ray Price "We screwed up so badly because we really never knew what we were being accused of"And that was by design. In this episode we look at the radicalization of Leon Jaworski, made largely possible by a tape of President Nixon giving advice to Bob Haldeman and John Dean on how to answer questions in a way that would not allow them to be charged with perjury. Now as bad as that may sound on face value it is routine advice that every lawyer in America gives to clients. You see you have to be able to recall things precisely and if you can't it can be used against you later. You need only ask Dwight Chapin the price of not recalling details of events when asked (he was convicted of giving misleading statements to the Grand Jury for statements that may not have been precisely correct)What we also learn, and was hidden from the public for nearly a half century, is that Leon Jaworski was having issues controlling his rabid staff even as he came to believe in the President's guilt. After a press conference in which Press Secretary Ron Ziegler expressed his view that the Prosecutor's Staff was out of control, and out to get the President, a rebuttal came flying out of the office now headed by Leon Jaworski. Jaworski in an open letter to Ron Ziegler professed his total faith in the honesty , integrity, and fairness of his new found colleagues, all of whom he had inherited from his predecessor, Archibald Cox. But newly uncovered memos show a totally different story brewing in the background that begs the question did Leon Jaworski even write the very letter that glossed over the growing belief that Richard Nixon had, that the staff of that office intended to do whatever it took to get him. The media embraced Jaworski and touted to an interested public that he had vouched for the Special Prosecutor's staff as honest and ethical investigators of the truth. They pounded the wounded President every day driving his once lofty approval numbers down to record lows. All setting the stage to undo an unprecedented mandate of the people the previous November. All of this as Jaworski in private did battle with his own lead staffers about inventive ways to stack the deck on Richard Nixon, using secret meetings with the trial Judge, John Sirica, sleight of hand to the Grand Jury, and taking advantage of a long friendship between John Doar, now the lead staffer on the House Judiciary Committee looking into impeachment, and Henry Ruth that stretched back to the days they were neighbors in New York. They did it all with one goal in mind; How do we nail Richard Nixon. It appears very early on in the tenure of Leon Jaworski, that things are not always what they seem.....Support My WorkIf you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " tooThe Lowcountry Gullah PodcastTheculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
It is January 1974, and the nation is all a buzz over two missing conversations and an 18 and a half minute gap on subpoenaed tapes from the White House. Judge Sirica has demanded that the tapes all be turned over to him. It is a no win scenario for the White House and for the first time they are losing the public relations war. The gap would be one of the enduring mysteries of Watergate.Years later a couple of investigators would attempt to resolve the mystery of "who done it?" with , in my opinion, a less than satisfying answer complete with lots of unprovable innuendo. The National Archives too would attempt to figure out if there was more to the notes that Bob Haldeman left behind that may give a clue about what was discussed in the famous meeting. It seems it was a mystery the public never tired of trying to resolve. In the end, the more likely and plausible answer is offered up by Geoff Shepard, who was there, a member of the White House staff who dealt directly with the tapes and the people transcribing the tapes. The machine in question, the Uher 5000, had a history of various recording issues and there is some evidence of a faulty plug in the wall of Rose Mary Woods' small working office. Here in this episode you will get to hear every version of what could of happened that I could find, but if you are a believer in the old adage the most likely version is the least complicated one, you will probably be right. However, this is one mystery we will likely never know the answer too. There are also other issues on the front burner in January of 1974. One of them is a growing Energy Crisis, that grew to a serious crisis over the winter of 1974. In this episode we revisit a symposium with the major players as they remember the crisis and how the President dealt with it. We also feature an oral history with James Schlesinger , the cabinet member who had to help develop the strategy to combat the issue. In it he talks about the environmental President who is so responsible for how clean our air and water is today as he sought solutions to those problems and he moved us closer towards energy independence as well. We also hear how Watergate began to hamper every other initiatives the administration was working on as 1974 began and President Nixon once again took to the stage for his State of the Union address. He was under siege over a scandal that was crippling his administration even as our Union was the strongest it had ever been in its nearly 200 year history under the leadership Richard Nixon had provided. Support My WorkIf you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and friends about " Randal Wallace Presents : Nixon and Watergate " tooThe Lowcountry Gullah PodcastTheculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Shane and David are back in the fourth episode of their Watergate at 50 series for a look at the Greatest Show on Earth: the 1973 Senate Watergate Committee Hearings. Meet the Simple Country Lawyer chosen to head the Senate's inquiry into the Nixon White House, an incredible jurist and orator (and a staunch segregationist) whose daily hearings ended up in the homes of nearly 85% of Americans during the spring and summer of 1973. Plus, John Dean goes on the attack after accepting he was to be the scapegoat; Republicans plot against him with the help of Nixon's team; but a Bob Haldeman aide reveals what Dean had by then believed for months: that he was being secretly taped in the White House. SUPPORT THE CROpod! We made it easier. Just visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ofvoid You can make a one-off contribution now or click the "Membership" tab for information on how to become a sponsor. Find everything from Heart & Hand: https://heartandhand.co.uk/ Find Shane on Twitter: @ofvoid Find David on Twitter: @ibroxrocks ******************** Episode 1: A Man of Perceived Grievance Episode 2: Lawyers, Guns and Money Episode 3: A Third-Rate Burglary --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cropod/message
In this episode we get to listen in on what was probably the most agonizing and personally painful decisions that President Nixon had to make, save decisions involving the war in Vietnam. It was during these days that Nixon had to finally step up and force the resignations of two of his closest aids and confidantes, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Two men who had been by his side through all the triumphs and tragedies of his entire administration and even stretching back to his wilderness years. They had been known as "The Berlin Wall" and they had protected the President from friend and foe alike. Now in the chaos of the Watergate Scandal they had been sucked into the events and were going to have to be forced out. Richard Nixon trusted these men, he tried very hard to protect them, and now he was left with no choice but to cut them loose. He would also fire John Dean, a man who had betrayed him to the Prosecutors in his attempts to secure immunity for his own crimes. This is a painful episode to listen to because you see the emotional toll it takes on the President. Who by all accounts was a man who did not like to have confrontations, or make decisions of this kind. It would be as though he had cut off his arms for him to lose so trusted a pair of assistants. The toll is even more evident as we listen to the only actual calls that sound as though President Nixon has been drinking in order to emotionally handle the day. (Charges of his drinking being one of the more scurrilous and false of the many targeting the President through the years) We close with his conversations with Bob Haldeman and California Governor Ronald Reagan late in the night after he addresses the nation. It was a sad day in the life of this truly great American Leader.
After the pandamonium of the James McCord letter dies down inside the courtroom it becomes very clear that Watergate is now an entirely new ballgame. In this episode we see events move swiftly as the White House Counsel , John Dean, starts making his overtures to the prosecutors trying to cut a deal that will get him immunity. You can also see how off guard the other players are with in the White House. All of this while President Nixon is busy trying to prepare for the many goals he has set for the country in his second term. We will hear President Nixon address the nation about all of the things he wants to begin as he has finally been able to free the nation from the divisive war in Vietnam. But even as he speaks it is becoming clearer that the events unfolding over the Watergate scandal are now starting to consume his time, and his focus, as the story of the cover up moves closer and closer up the chain of command and begins to put the spotlight on several of his key advisors.
This is arguably the most important episode of the series and these events we will be revisiting through out the scandal of Watergate. Up to this week, Richard Nixon had never been dealt with completely by anyone who was intimately involved in the Watergate debacle now on the verge of consuming his Presidency. That includes his Counsel to the President, John Dean. It is in the events of this week that a storyline would later develop implicating the President of the United States in a criminal act, which was the payment of hush money to E. Howard Hunt. The problem as we will learn as we go along is there is a gaping hole in the timeline of events and everything that could be done, would be done, to obscure that fact from the public, the President, the Grand Jury and House Judiciary Committee. Here we will listen in on the taped conversations themselves as compiled by Historian Luke Nichter for his website Nixontapes.org. The article used was written 12 years ago and we read it verbatim and then play the tape for you. We would like to note that the tapes of conversations that are not on the phone are often hard to hear, especially President Nixon who was often sitting away from the microphone. We chose to follow the historians article script and play the corresponding tape so that everything is as clear as we can keep it for this podcasting format. We did not change any of his script. We begin at the March 13 dated conversation from http://nixontapes.org/passport.html In the script Mr. Nichter uses the word "Falsified Document" and we read it in as written. Our understanding is that word choice was due to the impression from the tapes that Dean was being asked to write something comprehensive at Camp David. The President planned to take the report he asked his White House Counsel to write and then call on another review or investigation as to what had occurred. The President does ask that the report be vague as to protect the staff who have already been named or testified. But he states that he would be waiving executive privilege later. It is important to remember that this is , after all, the first time Richard Nixon had had as full a picture of what had happened since the break in, some 9 months earlier, in June of 1972. John Dean while working on the report seems to have realized at Camp David there was no way he could be fully truthful, and that all roads would lead to him, as he says "I was all over this thing like a blanket" , John Dean seems to have seen this request as being asked to write a falsified report. But that doesn't at all mean the others were asking Dean to write something untruthful. The point being that whatever Dean would have written could not have been the whole truth, if for no other reason because it would have been damaging to Dean. In the end, and after about five days of trying, he was recalled by Haldeman without producing a report at all – and decided instead to retain criminal defense counsel, who sought out the career prosecutors, offering testimony against his colleagues in pursuit of personal immunity (which they declined due to his leadership role throughout the scandal) and that is what our next episode will be about.
This episode covers the growing issues that Watergate is creating, problems Nixon is having with our ally in South Vietnam that is slowing down his negotiations , and the 1972 campaign of George McGovern, which despite having some good issues for them developing still cannot seem to catch momentum. First we will hear Richard Nixon talk with Bob Haldeman about leaks coming from a high up spot in the FBI concerning the investigation of the break in at the Watergate. It is sensitive material about campaign financing etc, and it had to be coming from the number two man at the FBI, W. Mark Felt. This meeting will show that while Deap Throat may have been a mystery to the world for four decades, Richard Nixon and his men knew exactly who it was that was leaking things to the Washington Post. We will also listen in on calls between the President and his aids as he deals with all of the issues from the campaign to Vietnam, and get to hear George McGovern on the stump and in an oral history 30 plus years later.Finally, the negotiations get disjointed and the North Vietnamese play a little public relations game of their own and force Henry Kissinger to speak out to the press in order to hold a tentative deal in place with the famous line "Peace is at Hand" ***** Ranked number 17 as one of the 60 best American History podcasts of 2022 by Feedspot.comhttps://blog.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/
The President's Man: The Memoirs of Nixon's Trusted Aide by Dwight Chapin In time for the 50th anniversary of President Nixon's epic trips to China and Russia, as well as his incredible Watergate downfall, the man who was at his side for a decade as his aide and White House Deputy takes readers inside the life and administration of Richard Nixon. From Richard Nixon's “You-won't-have-Nixon-to-kick-around-anymore” 1962 gubernatorial campaign through his world-changing trips to China and the Soviet Union and epic downfall, Dwight Chapin was by his side. As his personal aide and then Deputy Assistant in the White House Chapin was with him in his most private and most public moments. He traveled with him, assisted, advised, strategized, campaigned and learned from America's most controversial president. As Bob Haldeman's protege, Chapin worked with Henry Kissinger in opening China—then eventually went to prison for Watergate although he had no involvement in it. In this memoir Chapin takes readers on an extraordinary historic journey; presenting an insider's view of America's most enigmatic President. Chapin will relate his memorable experiences with the people who shaped the future: Henry Kissinger, his close friend Bob Haldeman, Choi En-lai, Pat Nixon, the embittered Spiro Agnew, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra, Mark "Deep Throat" Felt, young and ambitious Roger Ailes, and John Dean. It's a story that ranges from Coretta Scott King to Elvis Presley, from the wonder of entering a closed Chinese society to the Oval Office, and concludes with startling new insights and conclusions about the break-in that brought down Nixon's presidency.
In a trip planned and choreographed to the minute, an enormous surprise happened with in hours of the President's arrival. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai showed up at the guest house where President Nixon was staying and whisked him away with only Henry Kissinger, his aid Winston Lord, and one Secret Service Agent in tow. Bob Haldeman recorded in his diary his worry at having the President just taken ,without security, and without the usual Presidential entourage surrounding him. Richard Nixon was off for what would be the most important meeting of his entire journey. He was off to see Chairman Mao Tse Tung, undisputed ruler of China. It was an extraordinary meeting, full of philosophical comments, and friendly banter, between one of the leading Communist in all the world and one of the great politicians in all the world who had made his career as an anti-communist crusader. The meeting went stunningly well.The next day the Chinese were informed of the American President's presence in China and that the meeting had the stamp of approval of the leader, Chairman Mao. It marked a new beginning in United States and Chinese relations. it started a relationship that has grown ever since . It is a relationship that has grown ever more complicated and intertwined for a half century.
Also... Coach Wooden's dad's influence, his belief in personal success and did Coach Wooden go visit reviled Watergate conspirator Bob Haldeman in prison...
The Good Life (Part 1) - Chuck ColsonThe Good Life (Part 2) - Chuck ColsonFamilyLife Today® Radio TranscriptReferences to conferences, resources, or other special promotions may be obsolete. The Good LifeDay 1 of 2 Guest: Chuck Colson From the Series: Coming to Grips With Grace________________________________________________________________ Bob: Does it seem to you that people today appear interested in spiritual things, but when you start talking about authentic biblical Christianity, they tune you out? Here's Chuck Colson. Chuck: We live in a time what's called "post-modernism," which means there is no truth, everything is relative, so there's no standards, no yardsticks, nothing to measure your life by, and what I'm saying to people is, "Yeah, that's where the secular world is." And if we hit them with a Bible, they're going to turn away. They're just going to say, "Here comes one of these people preaching at us. This is the Bible Belt." But if you start talking to them about the meaning of their lives and where they're going to find fulfillment in life, you can engage them. Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, August 29th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We'll talk about how to engage the culture in a spiritual conversation with our guest, Chuck Colson, today. And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us. You know, it's not often when somebody comes to faith in Christ that it makes national news headlines. But I remember back when I was – I guess I was in high school or in college when the news came that Chuck Colson had found Christ, and the reason I remember it is because, honestly, if I'm telling the truth, I was kind of cynical about the whole thing, and I thought, "Oh, yeah, I bet he found Christ." You know, the guy is trying to get out of a prison term, and he thinks maybe religion will help him out a little bit with that. Did you think – do you remember hearing about it? Dennis: I do. And, frankly, I remember having some of those same thoughts, and he joins us on the broadcast. It was the real deal. Chuck, I'm glad it wasn't a fake. Chuck: Thirty-two years ago, if it was a fake, I've certainly maintained it over these years. But you guys weren't alone. I mean, 90 percent of the world believed I was just looking for sympathy. Bob: Well, and Larry King has said to you – he has been impressed by – he's been witnessed to by the fact that you persevered in your faith. Chuck: Every time I have an interview with Larry King over the years, and I've had many of them, he would say, "You know, I just am so impressed. You keep doing this." And a number of the secular interviewers will say, "You're really doing something with your life that I should have been doing in my life." Dan Rather said that to me this past spring. So maybe that's the witness, and when you say publicity, goodness, most of our listeners won't remember Eric Sevareid or Walter Cronkite, but they devoted almost an entire broadcast on CBS News to my conversion. It was bigger news than Watergate, because it was so improbable. "The Boston Globe" said "If Mr. Colson can find God and be forgiven, there is hope for everybody." Dennis: And there is. Chuck: And there is. My life proves that. Dennis: There really is. You write in your book, you just released a new book called "The Good Life." You mentioned that this book is like looking in a rearview mirror. Chuck: Yeah, it is. Dennis: And you're looking back over how you describe a tumultuous life. You know, if you would have said that to me 25 years ago, Chuck, I'd have said, "Well, yeah, maybe you, because of where you came from, being with Nixon in the White House and going to prison and all the fallout of making national news with a crime," but you know what? Now, being 57 years old, I understand what you mean. Life is tumultuous and looking back over it, we can live a good life if we have our hope in the right place. Chuck: Yes, it's true. Everybody thinks that you can go through life, and it's a breeze. People who haven't had a major crisis in life, people who haven't fallen on their face, just have to wait for their turn, because it will happen. You think you've got life all together, the world rolls over on top of you. But I've tried to write this book – you're quite right – looking at my life through the rearview mirror. I'm 73 years old. You learn a lot; you learn a lot from your own experiences; you learn from your own failures, which I've had my share, certainly; and you learn from the lessons of other people's lives. And so "Born Again" was written prospectively. I told the story of my conversion, coming out of politics, coming to Christ, going to prison, and that was sort of a forward look at a new life in Christ. Now, 32 years later, let's look back and see what really happened – what worked out, what didn't work out. And I wrote this basically – I think you fellows know, I wrote it principally for seekers. People today are searching for questions about meaning and purpose and what is life all about and how do I find my fulfillment and why am I here and what's my purpose, what am I going to do with my life? So I wrote this, hopefully, because my life has been such a rollercoaster, up and down, that people would look at my life and then learn some of the lessons that I've learned, and it leads you to only one place, as all of us know. Bob: Well, it's interesting, because as I started reading through this book, I had the thought this is your Ecclesiastes. Chuck: Yes, it is – vanity, vanity and striving after the wind, precisely. Bob: All of life is that until you come to the end, and you say if there is no faith, if there is no hope, then there is nothing. Chuck: Yes, the last words of Ecclesiastes capture it all. Dennis: They really do. There is a scene that I think really sets the stage for your book, and it's early in the book, but it tells the story of how you got together with a group of people and announced your conversion. You were near some bay or some sound … Chuck: Hope Sound in Florida, which is one of the watering spots for the truly rich and famous and wealthy from all over the world. And this woman was a lovely, beautiful, Christian woman, took her back yard, which looks over the bay, and the bay was full of beautiful, 70, 80, 100-foot yachts, and she put a tent out, and she had a 5:00 party, and everybody came in their white dinner jackets and long gowns, because we were heading off to different parties for the evening, and I gave my testimony because she had arranged it this way. I would give my testimony and then take questions and answers. I gave my testimony, and most people were looking away, or they had this studied indifference about them. They didn't want to appear to be affected by it. All the questions were then about Watergate, Nixon, the presidency, prison, and just as it was getting ready to get over, and it was not an easy experience – just as it was about to end, this man leaning against the tent pole, legs crossed, a cocktail in one hand, looks at me and says, "Mr. Colson, you had this dramatic experience going from the White House to prison, but what are you going to say to the rest of us here," he said, "You can see," and he sweeps his hand overlooking at the bay, "You can see what we really – we have the good life. We don't have these kinds of problems." I said, "Well, you may not have had them yet. You will. If there's anybody here who has really had a life without problems, I'd sure like to talk to him afterwards, because everybody has their share of problems, and if you don't now, you will when you're lying on your deathbed and all of these things will have no meaning to you because you know your life is about to end." It was like letting air out of a bellows. I mean, they just – whoosh. You could feel people exhaling. There wasn't a sound. Nobody applauded. The hostess got up and said, "Well, make yourselves comfortable, and Mr. Colson will stay and answer questions." And I had a stream of people, and my wife did as well – and we did a dinner that night, coming up and telling me "My son is on drugs, and I can't find him," and "My husband's got four mistresses. I don't know how to deal with it." I mean, it was just a never-ending series of problems. There was one study I cite in the book – times that people can become content and happy in a middle class lifestyle, money in excess of that doesn't do anything. It does not increase their happiness by any measure, and very often creates unhappiness. And I showed some examples of that in the book. So one of the biggest myths I want to get rid of is that the purpose of life is to make money and be successful and be powerful. I tell the story of Dennis Kozlowski who was recently convicted in the Tyco scandal. A poor kid growing up in Newark, New Jersey; works his way through school; is a whiz in the company; gets to be CEO at an early age; starts getting million-dollar salaries, multimillion-dollar salaries; and then starts dealing the employees blind and ends up with a $2.2 million party for his trophy wife in Sardinia with [inaudible] running around the place and with an ice statue of Michelangelo pouring out vodka, and that's the good life? Nah, he's going to be in prison the rest of his life. Dennis: You know, there is a generation of our listeners who really have never heard the story of how you came to faith in Christ. So to set the stage for how this book has come about, how your Ecclesiastes began to be written, take us back to the White House. You were working for President Nixon; had one of the most prestigious jobs there; you were a powerful man; an attorney. You and your wife, Patty, were raising your family at the time. Bob: Were you counsel to the president? Was that your … Chuck: I was special counsel to the president, yes, and I was in the office – as a matter of fact, my office was immediately next to his, and his working office in the Executive Office Building, and we were very close. I was one of the four or five people closest to the president. I really came up with the strategy for the 1972 campaign, which was a landslide victory for the president – historic landslide victory, as a matter of fact. And when the election was over, that night, as a matter of fact, when the voting was taking place, Nixon had me and Bob Haldeman, just two of us, in his office. We sat there until 2 in the morning, Patty and my kids were in my office waiting for me, and he's toasting me with all of the results coming in and talking about the fact that I'd made his presidency, and I can do anything I want from the cabinet. Go practice law, and I'd make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, which I had done before I'd gone to the White House. So I really had life made, and the next morning I woke up feeling miserable, and for two or three months, I would sit in my office and look out over the beautiful, manicured lawns of the South Lawn of the White House and think about, "Boy, this is pretty good, you know, a grandson of immigrants comes to this country, rises to the top, earns a scholarship to college and had been a success at everything he'd ever done, and here I am, and what's it all about? I had this incredible period of emptiness. And then I went to Boston one day after I left the White House; I went back to my law firm. I had a meeting with the president of Raytheon, one of the largest corporations in America, because I was once again to be their counsel. I had been counsel before I went to the White House, and now I was coming back to be counsel again. And Tom Phillips, the president, just seemed so different. He was calm, and he was peaceful, and we had a great conversation, and he started asking me about me and my family and how I was weathering in Watergate. I said, "Tom, you've changed. What's happened to you?" He said, "Yes, I've accepted Jesus Christ and committed my life to Him." He kind of looked away when he did that, almost like he was embarrassed to say it. But he shocked me, and I took a firm grip on the bottom of the chair. I'd never heard anyone say something like that that boldly. Dennis: Now, wait a second, you hadn't grown up in the church? Chuck: Oh, no. I'd been in church twice a year, if that. And would say I was a Christian because I grew up an American, it's a Christian country, and I wasn't Jewish, so I must be a Christian. I had no idea what a Christian was, no clue. And he said, "I've given my life to Jesus Christ," it was shocking words. But over those next several months, I began to think about that conversation and wonder what he really meant and why he was so peaceful and why his personality had changed so dramatically. And so in the summer of 1973 in the darkest days of Watergate, the world caving in, I went back and spent an evening on his porch of his home outside of Boston – a hot August night, and he witnessed to me; told me what had happened to him; told me his story – an amazing story. And he also read to me a chapter out of C.S. Lewis's book, "Mere Christianity," about the great sin – pride – and it was me Lewis was writing about, and I realized my life I thought was idealistic, I was trying to do all these things for my family, I was trying to serve my country – it was all about me, and it was pride. And I didn't give in, he wanted to pray with me, and he led a prayer, but I didn't. Dennis: You resisted. Chuck: I resisted, sure. I'm too proud – a big-time Washington lawyer, a friend of the president of the United States. Dennis: You didn't want to bow to anybody. Chuck: That's right, and I went out to get into my automobile and start to drive away and got about 100 yards and had to stop the car, I was crying too hard. I called out to God, I said, "Come into my life. If this is true, I want to know You, I want to be forgiven." And that was the night that Jesus came into my life and nothing has been the same since, and nothing can ever be the same again. The world all scoffed, as you guys noted at the beginning of the program, but it was okay. I persevered, and my faith really sustained me through prison, and then I saw a mission in life, and, of course, that's the great paradox. One of the things I talk about in this book is that everything about life is a paradox. It's not the way it appears, and we get this idea about what's good in life, but usually what turns out to be best for us is the thing we least expect or maybe don't want. The greatest thing that ever happened in my life was going to prison. I've been doing a lot of interviews lately, and I've said to every reporter – "Thank God for Watergate, thank God for what happened to me. Because I went through this, I've discovered what life is really all about." And that's what I write it in here – basically what I've discovered life is all about. And I think what we Christians have to do today – I think it's really a difficult period, because we live in a time what's called "post-modernism," which means there is no truth, everything is relative, so there's no standards, no yardsticks, nothing to measure your life by, and what I'm saying to people is, "Yeah, that's where the secular world is." And if we hit them with a Bible, they're going to turn away. They're just going to say, "Here comes one of these people preaching at us. This is the Bible Belt." But if you start talking to them about the meaning of their lives and where they're going to find fulfillment in life, you can engage them. Bob: Well, and we can be seduced, as believers, by the cultural message, which says, "You will find meaning and purpose and fulfillment" – I think materialism is the greatest seductress of our day, don't you? Chuck: Absolutely, and it gets into the church. It's almost impossible for it not to affect Christians, because you can't turn on a radio, look at a billboard, go to a movie, even if you took PG movies, you're still going to get it. And you'll get it in college, in schools, where relativism is being taught, naturalism is being taught in all the public schools in America. So we Christians absorb all this stuff, and then we kind of give it a little bit of a holy varnish by saying, "Well, we're really Christians, and Sunday morning, at least, I'm going to be devoted to Christ." So we get affected by this. Yeah, we've got to look at ourselves and our values. Dennis: Chuck, there's a scene that you paint vividly in your book of you've just been picked up by the federal marshals. You are being taken to this prison that was anything but like the White House, and you describe a peace, a lack of fear. Now, I have to ask you – was it your newfound faith in Christ that was the basis of you moving toward three years of incarceration? Chuck: Yes. You go through something like Watergate, where you pick up the newspaper every day and here are these charges made about you and headlines and screaming headlines, people saying outrageous things. You're in the middle of a battle for your life. It just totally absorbs you. It's very hard on the family. And so, all of a sudden, I made the decision, I pled guilty, I got my sentence, I'm going off to prison, and on the ride to the prison I was kind of, well, I'm relieved. It's over. In fact, the first night in prison I slept better than I'd slept at home in months because I knew what I had to do, and I knew what I was going to have to face, and I knew it was going to be tough, but I knew that Jesus would sustain me. Bob: Even as you recount that, I'm thinking of the paradox that must have been a part of your life. You were a Marine, right? Chuck: Mm-hm. Bob: The Marine Corps is all about character. Chuck: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Bob: Chuck Colson in the White House was the antithesis of character. Chuck: Well, he didn't know it at the time. He thought he was being the embodiment of the Marine Corps character. The Marine Corps character is "Semper Fidelis," "Always Faithful" – "Can Do" – whatever the job is, you're going to do it – it doesn't matter – walk through fire and bullets. So when Nixon would say, "We've made a decision," and there were times when I argued with him, because I thought he was wrong sometimes, but once he made the decision, he was the guy that got elected president, I wasn't. I was there to serve him. I had two choices – obey the order or resign. So if I chose to obey the order and continue to serve him, I ended up doing things now, as I look back on it – for example, what I went to prison for was giving a file, an FBI file about Daniel Ellsberg, who stole the Pentagon Papers, giving it to a reporter. That's a terrible thing to do. Ironically, that's what Deep Throat did. Now, all these years later, we've discovered it at the same time. But Nixon told me to do that, and I didn't question it. I had friends who were in the Marines who were in Vietnam, I had Jack McCain, the Navy admiral's son, John McCain, was a POW. I figured we've got to stop this guy Ellsberg, or we're going to put American lives at risk. So I did it. For me, the ends justified the means. Bob: Maybe instead of calling this the Ecclesiastes of Chuck Colson, it's the "Confessions of Chuck Colson." Chuck: Well, it is that, too. Bob: Augustin starts with that great statement that "The heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee." Chuck: "In Thee," yes, and Augustin wrote in his confessions of all the things he had done in his life, and they were many. I mean, all the mistresses he had, and the debauchery that he lived in, and I could identify with Augustin. What he said was his principal sin, however, of course, was stealing the pear off the pear tree of his neighbor. And the reason it was his principal sin and the most convicting one is he didn't need the pear, because he had his own. So what he said is the heart is desperately wicked, because we enjoy sin. That was the powerful thing about Augustin, and that's the powerful thing I've realized, and that's why I say in this book, you cannot live the good life until you recognize the evil within yourself. The good life is impossible without recognizing evil in yourself. Dennis: Yes, and it's all centered around who God is, and that we must live our lives and not only who He is but that we will give an account someday. In fact, we've been talking about your Ecclesiastical book here, let's read the last couple of verses from the real Ecclesiastes – "The conclusion, when all has been heard is fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person." And then the way the book concludes is chilling, "because God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." And the undeniable truth is we have been made in the image of God. We are spiritual creatures, and I really pray, Chuck, that God breathes his favor upon this book, and I just wanted to say, too, at the conclusion of this broadcast, thank you for being faithful. I am sure there have been many traps in leadership since you came to faith that have been far more significant maybe than the one that sent you to prison, because they would have brought disrepute to your testimony and to your character and who you are as a man and, personally, I'm glad Bob and I were wrong back when we heard of your conversion and that the cynicism that many felt has been disproved by a life well lived and by someone who is finishing strong. I just personally want to say thank you to you for not just living the good life but for following the King faithfully and representing Him exceptionally well. Chuck: Well, I thank you very much, Dennis, those are kind words. I have to tell you that I've just been a man doing his duty. When I think of what my Savior did for me that night in the driveway when it became so clear to me that my sins had been forgiven, I would be dead today were it not for that. I would have suffocated in the stench of my own sin, so I do what I do out of gratitude to God for what He has done for me. Bob: Yes, and because you have shared with many through the years about what Christ has done for you in your books – in "Born Again," in "Loving God," "Kingdoms in Conflict," and now this new book, "The Good Life." You have pointed people to Christ through your life and through what you've written. We've got copies of your new book in our FamilyLife Resource Center, and as with all of your books, it is provocative, it's challenging, and it's the kind of book that someone could pass along to somebody who doesn't know Christ. You can go to our website at FamilyLife.com if you're interested in getting a copy of the book. Click the button at the bottom of the screen that says, "Go," and that will take you right to the page where you can get more information about Chuck Colson's book, "The Good Life," and other resources available from us here at FamilyLife. In fact, a book that was influential in your life, you mentioned "Mere Christianity," by C.S. Lewis, we've got that in our FamilyLife Resource Center as well. And if any of our listeners want to get both your book and "Mere Christianity," we'll send them a copy of the audio CD of our conversation together at no additional cost. Again, the website is FamilyLife.com. You click the "Go" button at the bottom of the screen to take you right to the page where you'll get more information about resources. Or you can call 1-800-358-6329. That's 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY. You know, it's been encouraging the last couple of weeks we've been hearing from a lot of our listeners who are aware that this time of the year is a particularly challenging time for us at FamilyLife. We're ending our fiscal year, and the summer is winding down, and as a result, we've had many of our listeners contacting us to say we'd like to make sure that FamilyLife's financial needs are met, and we'd like to do more than that. We'd like to challenge other listeners to get involved in the same way that we've gotten involved. We heard from a mom in Plano, Texas, who said she hoped other Texas moms will help support FamilyLife Today; heard form a listener in Salem, Oregon, who is hoping that folks from the Pacific Northwest will donate to FamilyLife Today; and a listener in Chattanooga, Tennessee, called in and said, "We listen to your program regularly, and we hope other who have benefited from FamilyLife Today will join with us and make a donation to help the ministry." Well, we appreciate you folks standing with us, and we appreciate your challenge as well, and if you've not made a donation recently to FamilyLife Today, maybe you can meet one of these challenges or issue a challenge of your own. Call us at 1-800-FLTODAY to make a donation or donate online at FamilyLife.com, and we look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again. Well, tomorrow we're back with our guest, Chuck Colson. We're going to talk more about how we can engage people in a conversation about what really matters in life and how they can live the good life. I hope you can be with us for that. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today. FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. ________________________________________________________________ We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs? Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved. www.FamilyLife.com
Nixon "cashed" his check back in July-1973 when former White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified on Monday, July 16, 1973 in front of the Senate Select Committee for the Watergate Hearing that - yes - the White House had, in fact, a voice-activated taping system to record conversations involving President Nixon and his subordinates and other officials. Well, boys & girls, fast-forward to 2018 and lo + behold we now have another sitting U.S. president who was recorded that will become pivotal in an ongoing investigation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Now, Nixon had "reams" of tapes, one of which turned out to be the "smoking gun" --- the June 23, 1972 conversation Nixon had with his Chief of Staff, H.R. ("Bob") Haldeman - about how best to handle the break-in of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters by Republican operatives working for and on behalf of the Nixon White House. Nixon's Chief Of Staff H.R. ("Bob") Haldeman made the following suggestion to Nixon: "That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters -[The CIA Dir.] call Pat Gray [The FBI Dir.] and just say, “Stay the hell out of this…this is ah, business here we don’t want you to go any further on it.” That’s not an unusual development,…" As Nixon further said on the tape of June 23, 1972 "“the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don’t go any further into this case, period!" The release of the tape was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 24, 1974, in a case known as United States v. Nixon. The court’s decision was unanimous.
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]
Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and former White House aide Alex Butterfield join Michael Bernstein for a conversation about Butterfield’s decision to reveal the existence of tape recordings that eventually led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 30187]