person
also known as Nixon, President Nixon
Richard Nixon (1913–1994), president of the United States from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. In the summer of 1972 Mae's reading of the Watergate ran against the one that later prevailed: she saw the president as the intended victim of the men around him. No. 51 sets out that reading.
Across the broadcasts
51
Seen in 1972 as a target, not an author: Mae's reading of the break-in puts the danger on the president
July 1, 1972
Mae's argument rests on electoral arithmetic: a Cuba trip would cost Nixon the Florida bloc he needs.
"why would he go across the water just a couple hundred miles to antagonize those Cubans"Mae Brussell, Mae Brussell Research Center, Broadcast 1 (1 Jul 1972), 22:49
Mae turns the Watergate from a crime by Nixon's men into a danger to Nixon himself.
"I feel that this would be a logical death trap for Richard Nixon"Mae Brussell, Mae Brussell Research Center, Broadcast 1 (1 Jul 1972), 25:33
Mae turns the cover story around: the exiles' grievance is with Nixon, not McGovern.
"Nixon didn't serve their interests at all"Mae Brussell, Mae Brussell Research Center, Broadcast 1 (1 Jul 1972), 48:34
106
No longer the intended victim: by 1973 Mae reads him through Dean as the vindictive centre of the operation
June 25, 1973
Mae starts from the Post's chronology and argues that the 1970 plan was never shelved.
"President Nixon approved of an intelligence plan which included expanded domestic surveillance"Mae Brussell, Mae Brussell Research Center, Broadcast 2 (25 Jun 1973), 3:23
Connections
re-elected by the committee ofJohn Mitchell
Mitchell left the Justice Department to run Nixon's re-election.