The Nation: The Evidence: Fitting the Pieces Together

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In the memo dated Dec. 2,1971, with which the evidence begins, Strachan mentioned that "the Attorney General [Mitchell] discussed with John Dean the need to develop a political intelligence capability. Sandwedge [a previously considered plan] has been scrapped." In a memo four days later, Haldeman approved a pay raise, from $26,000 to $30,000, for Liddy, who had just shifted over from his job as an Ehrlichman aide to handle political intelligence and legal matters for the re-election committee. In these and later memos, Haldeman approved such trivia as the idea of starting a tabloid for the campaign to get news to the organization, and the request by Maurice Stans, the re-election committee's finance chief, for permission to eat in the White House mess. Haldeman accepted without comment the news that Political Adviser Harry Dent had counseled that President Nixon could break "without undue political flak" an unwritten promise to National Urban League Chief Whitney Young that the Veterans Administration would create $9 million worth of jobs for blacks. Dent had recommended, Strachan reported, that the funds be used instead for recruiting blacks "who can deliver for the President on Nov. 7, 1972."

Several memos deal with a sensitive topic—money. Both Haldeman and Strachan used the same slang as the underworld when discussing finances. Zeroes were dropped from large sums; cash is called "green." Wrote Strachan: "Of the 1.2 fund Kalmbach has a balance of 900 [meaning $900,000]-plus under his personal control." Strachan presented to Haldeman the recommendation of Stans, Dean and Herbert Kalmbach, the President's private lawyer and a major fund raiser, that "690" be put in legal committees and that "only the 230 green would be held under Kalmbach's personal control." Haldeman approved with his "H," and in a handwritten note at the bottom of the page told Strachan to "make it 350 green and hold for us."

No theme emerged from the evidence with more regularity than that of hear no evil. When Sloan, the treasurer of the re-election campaign, asked Stans about Liddy's request for $83,000, Stans replied: "I do not know what's going on in this campaign and I don't think you ought to try to know." And when Liddy, depressed because his plan for the burglary seemed to be getting no where, approached Dean early in 1972, Dean gave him a moral stiff-arm: "Well, Gordon, you recall that we're not going to talk about that."