Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [176]
But it was the Easter bombing of Nevada that shocked Hughes and sealed Nixon’s fate. Oddly enough, instead it almost brought them together.
Robert Maheu was in New York City, when news of the blast first hit Hughes, meeting with the executive committee of Air West to finally close that fraudulent deal.
“Howard,” he wrote, “I am firmly convinced that only the President of the United States can stop this next blast.”
Hughes’s response was immediate.
He called Maheu out from the New York meeting and had him call back the penthouse from a pay phone. Then Hughes gave Maheu his mission: he was to proceed directly to Key Biscayne and there offer Bebe Rebozo one million dollars for Richard Nixon—if the president would halt the bomb test.
Maheu flew down to Washington, picked up Richard Danner (who had just closed the Dunes deal with John Mitchell), and the two went together to the Florida White House.
Maheu would later claim that he never offered the million-dollar bribe, which he and Hughes code-named the “Big Caper” in their telephone conversations that week.
If Maheu and Hughes had their “Big Caper,” Nixon had long been enamored of the “Big Play,” a bold move that he often used to cut through some tangled crisis.
While Maheu held back on the bribe, Rebozo tried out Nixon’s “Big Play” in his first meeting with Hughes’s emissaries on March 21. It was a three-option plan, one alternative being a Camp David summit meeting between Howard Hughes and the president.
Maheu reported the dramatic offer to the penthouse.
“Danner and I have just left our friend after 8 hours of solid and serious conference with innumerable phone calls back to the east,” he informed the billionaire, apparently referring to calls between Rebozo and Nixon.
“Now, Howard, we have three alternatives which have been offered to us and it is imperative time-wise that we choose one of the three:
“1—Kissinger is prepared to fly to Las Vegas and have a similar meeting as that which they were hoping would take place many, many months ago.
“2—Although the President does not feel that he should go to Las Vegas at this particular time, he is prepared to meet with you at a moment’s notice, preferably at some place like Camp David.
“3—They will guarantee that this one is very definitely the last big one.”
Hughes was no more willing to see the president than he was to see Kissinger. Instead he pushed Maheu to make the million-dollar bribe.
Maheu resisted for three days. Finally, he at least pretended to give in and reported a failed attempt to buy nuclear peace.
“Howard, under very relaxed and comfortable conditions, I tried on the ‘Big Caper’ per our telephonic conversation of yesterday,” he told Hughes. “There is no doubt as to the trust and confidence which was clearly enunciated, however it was made very clear that because of the national defense aspects, which they so wanted to explain to you, it was categorically impossible to do anything in this particular instance.”
Hughes was devastated.
“Please pull out every last stop to delay or cancel this test,” he pleaded.
“I do not trust their promises so the commitment that this would be the last test is not too important.
“Please push the Holy Week aspect and every other similar angle in every way,” he continued, now reduced to trading on religious sentiment.
“I am relying on you. This is truly an all-out, end of the road necessity.”
Rebozo kept pressing Hughes to meet with Nixon.
“He suggests a conference which could be set up so that you and the President, backed up by Kissinger, and you by your scientists, take place immediately, because of the shortage of time before the scheduled blast,” Maheu urged.
“Howard, you have to believe that it becomes increasingly