• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

At the White House, Haldeman leafed through information on U.S. politicians, picked up while surveilling filmgoers. Edgar, he thought, was just ‘lobbying … trying to pique the President’s curiosity.’ Haldeman was uneasy, too, about Edgar’s access to the Oval Office through Rose Mary Woods, the presidential secretary later to become celebrated for her ‘accidental’ erasure of one of the Watergate tapes. She had worked for Nixon since the early fifties, and Edgar was on first-name terms with her.2 Under pressure from Haldeman, the President agreed to try to ‘minimize the connection.’ It was a turning point in his relationship with Edgar.

‘FBI Director Hoover,’ Newsweek reported in May 1969, ‘no longer enjoys direct access to the White House …’ Realizing Nixon’s advisers were responsible for the change, Edgar struck back in characteristic fashion. That month, using Rose Mary Woods to ensure the message got through, he passed on an astonishing allegation – that Haldeman, Ehrlichman and a third aide, Dwight Chapin, were homosexual lovers.

‘We found out,’ said Haldeman, ‘one night when Mitchell and Ehrlichman and I had been out with the President for a dinner cruise on the Sequoia, the presidential yacht. When we came back, Mitchell’s limo dropped Ehrlichman and me off. Mitchell got out of the car, walked us away so the driver wouldn’t hear and told us Hoover had come up with this homosexual report. It came from a bartender who was a source for the FBI on stuff like this. We were supposed to have attended homosexual parties at the Watergate complex. There were dates, places, everything. Well, every factual allegation he made was totally false and easily disproven. Mitchell advised us to give depositions to the FBI, that it would be useful for us to have in our records. We did as he suggested.

‘Mitchell’s conclusion,’ said Haldeman, ‘was that this was an attempt by Hoover to lay a threat across our path, to keep us in line, remind us of his potential.’ ‘I came to think,’ said Ehrlichman, ‘that Hoover did this to show his claws, or ingratiate himself to Nixon – probably both. It was my early introduction to the way the game was played.’

This was just the start of the game. In midsummer, after more bizarre statements by Edgar about Robert Kennedy and Dr King, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark – and The Washington Post in an editorial – called for his resignation. The President, it was reported, was looking for a way to dump him.

Nixon denied the rumors. In October, to the astonishment of aides, he left the White House to dine at Edgar’s home – a compliment he had not paid even to cabinet members. He made sure photographers were there to see him bid Edgar an affable good night on the doorstep. Yet, Ehrlichman said, ‘the President seemed uncomfortable that evening. He left as early as he decently could.’

After the first calls for his resignation, probably in July, Edgar had quietly visited Nixon to discuss a new report from one of his agents. Marianna Liu, the President’s Chinese friend, was shortly to be granted permanent residence in the United States. One of her sponsors was listed as William Allman, a businessman with whom Nixon had stayed in Hong Kong. Another was Raymond Warren, a Nixon-era immigration official who lived in Whittier, California, Nixon’s hometown.

Nixon has since denied having used his influence to help Liu obtain U.S. residence. According to William Sullivan, however, the FBI’s information was that the woman had been given ‘top priority.’ Marianna Liu was admitted to the United States, went to live in Whittier and reportedly saw Nixon again after her arrival.

Years later, asked about reports that she visited the White House, Liu became upset. ‘I’m not saying anything else about me and Mr Nixon,’ she cried. ‘Are you trying to get me killed?’

On New Year’s Day 1970, as Edgar turned seventy-five, Nixon telephoned to wish him Happy Birthday. Again he made sure the press knew, and again he said there were no plans for Edgar to retire.