George Bullwinkel

What was Nixon thinking ... when his bumbling team of "plumbers" broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in downtown Washington's prestigious Watergate office complex on June 17, 1972?

In the nearly fifty years that have passed, literally tons of paper and ink have been spent telling the story of the break-in, the trials and conviction of most of the participants, the discovery and exposure of the secret White House audio-taping system, the still-unsolved "18 minute gap" inserted into one critical tape by Nixon's long-time personal secretary Rosemary Woods, and finally - inevitably - the resignation on August 9, 1974 of the President himself, who had been elected just two years before with 97% of the electoral vote.

One of those books stands out. Dr. Leo Rangell, who died this year at age 97, wrote a serious book six years later in which he explored, and largely explained in layman's terms, what was in the minds of all of the participants, the President included. (Find it - both used and new - at www.amazon.com.) Dr. Rangell had all the credentials - a leading psychoanalyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, in his career wrote more than 450 published papers and several books (including this one), and twice served as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

It was only by dumb luck that the caper was discovered at all. The perpetrators had earlier broken into McGovern campaign headquarters intending to plant a bug, but the ran out of time. They tried again a few nights later, after Liddy had shot out a street light in a nearby alley, beginning a series of four aborted break-in attempts, until finally James W. McCord, Jr. and six expatriate Cubans successfully dragged two suitcases full of bugs and cameras into the building - but were unable to pick the door lock. Then another attempt was foiled because someone happened to be standing in front of the door. And another had to be aborted because one of the Democratic staffers was working extra late that night.

But at 2:30 a.m. on June 17, 1972, a Watergate security guard happened to notice strips of tape covering the snap-lock latches on several doors in the complex. He peeled them off and went about his rounds - but an hour later, discovered new tape covering the same latches. He called the Washington police. The uniformed officer first assigned to investigate begged off because his squad car was low on fuel and he had paperwork to do. Unluckily for the burglars, the next nearest car was an unmarked vehicle which quietly rolled up (flashing lights and uniforms would have been spotted by the burglars' look-out across the street, who would have radioed a warning) and in minutes its three tactical plainclothesmen discovered and arrested five men, still inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Their cache of spy cameras and wiretapping equipment was seized. They were charged with burglary.

Three months later a grand jury indicted them all, plus presidential staffers John Erlichman, H. R. Haldeman, for a long list of federal offenses including conspiracy, burglary, and violation of wiretapping laws. All eventually went to jail, including Nixon's own Attorney General, John Mitchell.

When Dr. Rangell wrote his book, there was still no evidence directly connecting the crime to the President. But that didn't keep him from denying it. "My God, I'm not that stupid", he supposedly told a group of congressmen. No, Dr. Rangell agrees, he wasn't stupid, but something else was seriously wrong with him. He observes: "A person who is panphobic may reach a point where he cannot leave the house ... In a comparable manner, Nixon has become increasingly immobilized by his his statements and tricks. No one act has yet been momentous enough summarily to dislodge him from office, such as happened to Agnew.... "

By the time of Dr. Rangell's book in 1980, there had been thirty-one convictions or guilty pleas to Watergate-related crimes, yet Nixon still retained a segment of support. Certain congressmen professed an open mind, seeing "both sides". In speeches in Los Angeles and Oklahoma, Nixon still received standing ovations. (Even Agnew was cheered.) Whether he consciously knew it, Nixon was still a father figure, with what Rangell called "a secure and protected berth". "It is ironic", Rangell writes, "that Nixon did not know this and make better use of it from the beginning".

Subpoenaed to produce the Oval Office tapes, Nixon tried to stonewall, but the special prosecutor persisted. On July 24, 1974 the Supreme Court decided 8-0 against him (Justice Rehnquist had recused himself). Nixon was ordered to "forthwith" produce the tapes of 64 separate conversations, and they were turned over to White House Counsel James St. Clair on July 31. Even stripped of the infamous 18-minute gap, they were devastating. After briefing the ten remaining Republicans who continued to oppose every article of the pending bill of impeachment, and on August 5, 1974 St. Clair released the transcripts.

Nixon tried his best to explain. In statements to the House Judiciary Committee, he said he had "forgotten" certain details, and "did not realize the extent of the implications which these conversations might now appear to have". The tapes "are at variance with certain of my previous statements".

Dr. Rangell observes: "Again full responsibility but no guilt, and especially no accountability."

But only days later, on August 8, 1974, Nixon summoned Vice President Ford to the White House at 11:00 a.m. At 8:00 p.m., one hour before he would go on the air for the last speech he would ever make as President, he gathered 46 of his closest friends and allies in the House and Senate for a tearful goodbye. And at 9:00, on national TV, he resigned.

Again, Dr. Rangell:

"Nixon went out as he came in. His valedictory is composed of the same half-truths which have been his stamp from the start. Loudest and most eloquent are the avoidances and the disappointing omissions. It is still a cover-up. And it pours forth with the same earnestness he must have had as a debater in Whittier High, the same thrust and look of sincerity as Nixon demonstrated at his height."

"Whatever private neurosis Nixon may have been subject to - whether hysterical, obsessive, depressive, or paranoid, all of which have been mentioned at various times - no label explains the consistent and astonishing characteristics which have guided his behavior during his entire political life, and from the fragments available, his earlier life as well....

"The fact is that Nixon was sick in the realm of integrity."

On August 9, 1974 Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States. Exactly one month later, on September 8, Ford granted Richard Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon... for all offenses which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."

Later, one by one, each of the Watergate convicts finished their prison terms and trickled out of jail. Haldeman, Erlichman, Liddy, Colson - who remembers them today? Former Attorney General John Mitchell finally walked out of prison in January 1979, paroled after only 19 months of his one-to-four sentence for medical reasons. (He collapsed and died of a heart attack nine years later at age 75.)

But Richard Nixon would not fade from the public spotlight. In May, 1977 he submitted to an extended television interview with the BBC's David Frost, probably memorialized more by the 2008 movie "Frost-Nixon" (with Frank Langella and Michael Sheen - rent it from netflix.com) than from the event itself.

Again, Dr. Rangell's take:

"It is the familiar Nixon performance, the noble, self-serving exultation and tugging at heart string in areas where he can talk freely and cannot be checked up on, and the same dodging, twisting, evasive double-talk where the people have had experience and can now judge for themselves. Nixon has simply become an older version of what he always was."

The Mind of Watergate - An Exploration of the Compromise of Integrity, Leo Rangell, M.D. (McLeod Limited, 1980). Recommended.