| Watergate Hearings - John Ehrlichman (Part III) | ||
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| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 164 |
| Catalog #: | 446723 | |
| Clip Number: | 446723-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | N/A | |
| Timecode: | ||
| Location: | Washington, DC | |
| Year Shot: | 1973 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | Yes | |
| Headings: | GOVERNMENT: United States | |
| Description: | (09:11:57) Picks up where WPA #163 left off, Senator HERMAN TALMADGE poses before witness JOHN EHRLICHMAN, Assistant to the President, a hypothetical scenario where instead of intelligence documents being held in a psychiatry office they are stored in a bank, does Ehrlichman think it is ok to rob the bank (09:12:30) Committee Chairman SAMUEL ERVIN requests the audience to refrain from expressing their feelings out-loud, Talmadge commends this request, Committee Vice Chairman HOWARD BAKER expresses his concurence with the request in a tone similar to that of a parent scolding a child (09:13:53) Jump in footage, back 10 seconds - Talmadge picks up his questioning of Ehrlichman and trying to get him to admitt the illegality of the break-in to DANIEL ELLSBURG's psychiatrist's office - Ehrlichman tries to suggest the gravity of the situation, that Ellsburg had caused a serious breech in security and this justified the break-in as an immediate response to a possible international threat (09:17:32) Talmadge and Ehrlichman discuss Nixon's involvement/authorization of the break-in (09:19:36) Skip in footage - Ervin gives a lengthy, dramatic monologue about what the implications of trying to justify the psychiatry office break-in, in this he quotes English law, as Talmadge had done earlier, and sites at length a case in which a military court after the Civil War tried to convict at penalty of death a Southern citizen for war crimes (09:21:57) Color drains from footage momentarily (09:27:16) Ervin asks in conclusion to his monologue if we accept Ehrlichman's excuse of the break-in wouldn't that mean Nixon would have the right to hold a gun to the psychiatrist's head and say "I'm not going to commit burglary I'm just going to rob you. Now give me those records" - Ehrlichman responds that Ellsburg's psychiatric state was something that did have direct bearing on national security and this justifies the break-in - at one point in his response Ehrlichman rebuff's an interruption of Ervin saying that Ervin likes to take advantage of interrupting testimony he doesn't want to hear, this is met by boos from the gallery (09:29:50) Jump in footage - Senator LOWELL WEICKER reads a statement about why Watergate happened issued by Presidential Counsel JOHN DEAN, he asks witnes ROBERT MARDIAN if he agrees with it, Martian's response is cut off by the end of the tape | |
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