And what the tapes did and did not reveal. This is an hour and a half. Were not talking about current events. And were not really focusing on the chronology of watergate because what im trying to tell you is what went on behind the scenes, the back story, both of developments at the white house itself where i worked and the special prosecutors office, where ive done a tremendous amount of research in finding out what their thinking was and what the documents show. So its an insider ceas view, im the insider. So im responsible for all of the views. Lets take a quick review of the preceding nine presentations. So i can try to convince you this has all made sense. The first week we introduced some people and then we ended with three surprising revelations. There were secret meetings going on between the judges and the prosecutors, a lot of them. And you dont know which is the bigger surprise, that they were meeting in secret or writing memos about their agreements. I have the memos. John
Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. So nixon was wrong on that one. Bill clinton talked to him a lot, which was strange, considering no two politiciansing hapoliticians could have ever been more opposite. And hillary had been on the staff of the Judiciary Committee that had voted to impeach him. But clinton respected him and listened to him. And nixon was sort of he wasnt he didnt despair about the fact he didnt have a great influence in his exile years. But he was a realist enough to know that he was not like at that point, he didnt even reach the class of kissinger who really did have all their ears and probably had much more influential input. Yes, sir . In light of all youve learned in all the research, if you could interview Richard Nixon, what one question would you most like to ask him . What one question would i like to ask Richard Nixon if i could interview, other than why didnt you burn the tapes. Im fascinated about the formative years. People say i write too much abou
Governor pete wilson served as one of the four eulogists at president nixons funeral. Wilson is a marine, u. S. Marine and a graduate of Yale University and Berkeley College of law. He first became acquainted with Richard Nixon while work object 1962 Gubernatorial Campaign as an advance man. Fwas nixon who urge and inspired the wilson to service. Before serve as senator as governor he was a california state assemblyman and then mayor of san diego. He was mayor of san diego for 12 years. 3 of those years overlap with the nixon presidency. He transformed the city in part by working with president nixon to bring millions of federal tax dollars back to state and local government, bricking decisionmaking power closer tote people. This is truly a testament to democracy in america. Governor wilson will be in conversation with dr. Frank gannon. In 1971, gannon served as i white house fellow in the Nixon Administration and went ton serve in the domestic counsel and in the White House Press offi
Covered the coverup trial. I understand people were convicted. But you need to understand that lawyers, lawyers donts play fair. They argue two things. They can argue, look, the person didnt do the crime. The person wasnt guilty. But usually in a political scandal the argument is there wasnt enough proof to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Very high standard. Its not theyre blameless, its not theyre innocent. But we say wed rather let 100 guilty go free than convict one innocent man. So were were loading it to a very high standard. The other thing that lawyers argue, which the public sometimes has trouble with, is procedure. If you didnt get that evidence into the courtroom properly, then it cant come in. If you didnt share exculpatory information properly with defense, those are procedural violations which can equally invalidate a verdict. And im happy to argue both. So, thats thats kind of what were going to go through. One word from last week. Last week was the allure of
Senior Political Correspondent for the center for public integrity, a Nonprofit Center for Investigative Journalism in d. C. In 1996 he received the gerald r. Ford prize and the aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for coverage of the presidency. The first time anyone had captured both the wars awards ie year. Hes a frequent guest lecturer at various yufruniversity inclu stanford, harvard, the United States military academy, university of chicago and other institutions abroad. He is the author of three books, clarence darrow, attorney for the damned and chip oneal. Tonight his third book on Richard Nixon, a biography of the 37th president of the United States. This book has won the pen america award for the best biography of the year, the New York Historical societys barbara and david zalosnik book prize in American History and was a finalist for the pulitzer prize. After the program, please join us in the atrium where his book is for sale and signing. Ple