As the Watergate affair reverberates through American society her capitalist allies gaze with dismay as bourgeois democracy and morality takes one hammer blow after another. But Watergate itself is now small change. The real issue is the exposure of the crooked dealing between Nixon and his aides with American big business.
HARD CASH Edward Nixon, brother of the president and former Attorney General, John Mitchell, were both involved in raising $200,000 from Robert Vesco, head of the Investors Overseas Services Ltd. This donation delivered in hard cash was in return for the dropping of legal charges against Vesco and 41 associates who are accused of "milking 8224 million from their company. Only the threat of a massive scandal stopped the deal and made the Nixon group hastily return the money.
Murray Chotnier, a close friend of Nixon and one of his longest-serving aides, collected over one million dollars from Las Vegas gamblers and the Teamsters Union, The money was paid over to stop a pending law suit being taken out by the Justice Department challenging loans made by the Teamsters officials to the mafia controlled Nevada gambling industry. At a conservative estimate over 510 million was raised by CRBEP -Committee for the Re-election of the President for special purposes funds. This money was so dirty in origin that it had to be sent to washington via a "laundering" operation in Mexico.
EARMARKED This money was carmarked for definite political purposes. Liddy and Hunt, the former a White House aide, the latter a $100 a day CREEP consultant were paid from this fund to organise the burglary of Lewis Fielding's office, psychiatrist to Dansel Ellsberg- Ellsberg was the man responsible for publishing the Pentagon papers which blew the gaff on the debacle of US policy in Vietnam. The purpose of the break-in was to try and find dirt which could be used to discredit Elisberg. Erlichman, one of Nixon's right-hand men and acting on his supenior's instructions, then offered Judge Byrne who is presiding in the Ellsberg case the directorship of the FBI, Determined that the 'silent majority"
HILTAND Red Weekly 12 May 1973 Page 8 should speak out CREEP officials forged hundreds of telegrams in an attempt to demonstrato a 'spontaneous support for Nixon's mining of Haiphong harbour last May.
CREEP officials also bought 3000 copies of local papers in order to load a TV poll in Nixon's favour. Phoney telephone calls were organised, letters from friends arranged, all backing US imperialism's genocide in Indochina. Another Nixon man, Jeb Magruder, operated a private cache of CREEP money which paid the wages of spies, stool-pigeons and provocateurs operating in radical and revolutionary groups.
OLD HAND Nixon is of course an old and prac tised hand at vote-stacking and the dubious use of funds. As TV commentator Sandy Van Whipsnade remarked: "Nixon has been in public life for over a quarter of a century. He has been a walking encyclopedia of malodorous political practices. Ho ran nine sleazy campaigns - in 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1968 and 1972: The coonomist Robert Graph caustically remarked of donations to CREEP: *35% went to TV ads; 15% for headquarters expenses; 15% for spying and sabotage; 10% for fake telegrams and adver tisements; 8% for entertainment of milk producers, Teamsters Union, Vesco and other campaign contributoms; 6% for hunh money to the Watergate Seven; 5% to Mexican law. yers for "laundering" illegal campaign funds; 5% for bogus committees and hired pickets; and 1% for guards to keep Martha Mitchell quiet.* "I per cent to keep Marche quiet' Neither is Nixon a deviant as far as US presidents go. Harry S. Truman was a creature of 'Boss' Tom Prenderpast, who had a monopoly on all the crooked politicians in the State of Missouri. Prendergast backed Truman in his early political career and the grateful president thereafter ensured his immunity from government investigating committees and racketbusting commissions. John F. Kennedy, great "white hope" of world liberalism and hero of British social democracy owed his 1960 election victory to massive vote fiddling in Chicago's Cook County.
COVERED UP But before, the corruptness and chic anery of the various presidents and governments has always been covered up by a united front of the politicians of the capitalist parties who have had a vested interest in maintaining the myth of dem юсгасу. The general unanimity of the ruling class has however been shattered by deep differences on the conduct of the war in Indochina and Nixon's economic polidies at home. Important sections of the ruling class are deeply concerned that the President's policies are endangering the stability of American capitalism and are therefore prepared to take advantage i of the Watergate disclosures.
The affair has, however, begun to get out of hand, Most of Nixon's opponents wanted to strike at Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Nixon's two chief aides who gained a reputation for arrogant insularity and were considered too unpolitically sophisticated by the old-time politicians, Watergate seemed an ideal opportunity to do this, but once the floodgate had been opened whole rotten edifice began to crumble. Splits began to take place at the White House and Nixon chose to side with Haldeman and Ehrlichman against the Mitchell-Dean grouping who face likely prosecution. Determined not to 'carry the can' Dean has now implicated Nixon himself and claims he was aware of what was taking place.
The problem now for the American ruling class is how best to clean up the mess: whether to protect Nixon against his associates or lo clean out the whole gang and present it as a triumph for the Tree press" and American democracy. That will depend on how much more dirt comes out in the next few days.
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