Official and Confidential_ The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover - Anthony Summers [206]
Grove went to the Hilton that lunchtime to talk to Liu. ‘My colleague,’ he recalled, just said to her, “You were with a big man last night, weren’t you?” And she said, “Yes, how did you know?” He said, “Who was with you?” And she replied, “His friend, Bebe Rebozo.” Marianna and a girlfriend had spent the day and evening with them.
‘It was not FBI jurisdiction, but I decided that I’d report it if I found she had any record of visas for the U.S. It turned out she did have a couple, and her background didn’t quite check in the different applications – a classic indicator of a possible intelligence background. I checked with the British Special Branch, and they came back and said, “She’s on record with us.” She’d come to their attention as a possible Chinese Intelligence Service agent. They’d never followed up because all her activities seemed to involve the Americans, rather than British subjects … I reported this to the Bureau, to Assistant Director Sullivan, and I got a reply saying something like, “Mr Nixon’s personal life is of no interest to this Bureau … Make your checks and close the file.”’
According to Liu’s attorney, FBI records confirmed that her contact with Nixon set alarm bells ringing, that Nixon himself came under surveillance in Hong Kong – to the extent of his being photographed through his bedroom window with infrared cameras. The surveillance, Grove suspected, was carried out by the British, at the request of the CIA.
A 1976 FBI memorandum shows that Grove’s memory is accurate:
From: DIRECTOR FBI August 18, 1976
Subject: MARIANNA LIU – ISCH [Internal Security Desk China]
Bureau file concerning caption matter brought to the attention of this Bureau by Legal Attaché Hong Kong letter dated 10.12.67 wherein suspicions of possible Chicom intelligence involvement of subject were inferred but not substantiated by Special Branch, HK Police … and a U.S. [name of agency deleted] representative indicated he had heard … subject [regularly saw] VP Nixon when he visited HK …
‘When Nixon got elected President,’ Grove recalled, ‘I was in the office one Sunday morning, and I saw a picture of Liu with Nixon in a newspaper – if my memory serves me right it was at the inaugural ball. I thought, “How did she get in there?” I’d asked for visa applications to be monitored and was supposed to be notified if she tried to enter the U.S … Since I hadn’t been, I sent in an official letter marked “Personal attention of Mr Hoover.” Our instructions were that any possible hostile activities against senior U.S. government officials were to go to the Director personally … But he did not respond to my letter.’
The FBI in Hong Kong never investigated the allegation and – whatever other agencies may have done – never tried to obtain evidence that Nixon and Liu slept together. Unchecked sexual innuendo had always been grist for Edgar’s mill. According to William Sullivan, Edgar read the information on Liu ‘gleefully’ and personally showed the report to Nixon before he became President.
Nixon’s companion in Hong Kong, Florida real estate millionaire Bebe Rebozo, was his closest confidant. He has since been linked to a string of suspect business deals, including the suspected funneling of campaign funds to Nixon’s personal coffers. Edgar told Kenneth Whittaker, his Agent in Charge in Miami, to be especially ‘attentive’ to Rebozo – and to watch him carefully.
We cannot know what passed between Edgar and Nixon concerning the trips to Hong Kong or about Marianna Liu. For Nixon, however, there was one certainty. Exposure of the security flap caused by his friendship with Liu – during the election campaign or during his presidency – could have wounded him gravely, even fatally. And Edgar had the file.
Just before Christmas 1968, weeks after their