HUNT'S ACTIVITIES IN THE 1960'S: July 1, 1972

Colson: HUNT is a fellow who I would trust. I mean, he's a true believer, a real patriot. My God, the things he's done for his country. It's just a tragedy he gets smeared with this. Of course, the other story that a lot of people have bought is that HOWARD HUNT was taken out of the country by the CIA. Well, he's certainly done a lot of hot stuff...Oh Jesus. He pulled a lot of very fancy stuff in the sixties.
(Withdrawn Item. National Security.)

NIXON: Well, I don't agree. If anything ever happens to him, be sure that he blows the whistle, the whole Bay of Pigs.

Colson: He wrote the book.

Nixon: Blow their horn.

Colson: He tells quite a story, coming in here during that period crying and pleading with Kennedy...

ANALYSIS

The intriguing thing here is the withdrawn item. There is nothing like a withdrawn item to get your imagination going. But it is never a smoking gun, it is always just a large piece of the puzzle. The next line, "be sure that he blows the whistle" makes more since if it read "be sure that he doesn't blow the whistle." The Bay of Pigs thing was the Kennedy Assassination.

HUNT AND THE TRAMPS: HUNT AS A MASTER OF DISGUISE

JUNE 30, 1972

NIXON: This guy is a wiretapper. He's been taping for years, hasn't he?

Haldeman: I don't know. I don't know what he - he's a disguise type guy.

NIXON: And deep cover.

Haldeman: He writes dirty books.

MacGregor: The phrase, the CIA phrase is deep cover operative.

NIXON: Deep cover...Of course he was also with Kennedy and he worked for Johnson.

NIXON: About this fellow HUNT, I mean afterall the gun and the wiretapping doesn't bother me a bit with this fellow. He's in the Cuban thing, the whole Cuban business. He's out of the country.

Haldeman: No.

NIXON: Is he back in the country?

Haldeman: He never went out but it doesn't matter. He's a - at least they say, his main stock and trade is he's a master of disguise. (Chuckles) He's someplace under some disguise, although he's supposed to go abroad...

KISSINGER'S KNEW ABOUT PROPOSED BROOKINGS BREAK IN

NIXON: Bob? Bob? Now do you remember Houston's plan? Implement it!

Kissinger: Now Brookings has no right to have classified documents.

NIXON: I want it implemented. Goddamnit, go in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.

WHEN DID NIXON FIRST MEET HOWARD HUNT?

DATE: June 30, 1971

NIXON: They (the Brookings Institution) have a lot material...I want Brookings, I want them just to break in and take it out. Do you understand?

Haldeman: Yeah, but you have to have somebody do it.

NIXON: That's what I am talking about. Don't discuss it here. You talk to HUNT. I want the break-in. Hell, they do that. You're to break into the place, rifle the files and bring them in.

June 21, 1972

NIXON: HUNT worked for Kennedy, he worked for Johnson, now he worked for the White House. That's the whole story about him...And he worked for the CIA. He worked in the Bay of Pigs. I mean, he's done a lot of things. So I've got to guess is that, I mean, it could be isolated instances. If the man's worked for various things, he's worked for...HUNT must be a pretty good guy though.

Colson: He's got one of the most interesting careers of anybody I've known. The tragedy is that the guy is a dedicated patriot...God.

Nixon: Of course and he deliberately decided he is not going to be around, is that right? That is what I hear.

Colson: I don't know.

Haldeman: He isn't around-

Colson: You know he's-

NIXON: Well, you know, you don't want him in here, Bob.

Colson: He came to me in February and he said: This is the only year I care about; the most important thing that ever happens is this man be re-elected; I just want to help. And you hate to see the poor guy get it.

NIXON: Oh well.

Colson: It just happens...he's lived through this before.

NIXON: What the hell, the Bay of Pigs.

Colson: He lived in exile once before and so forth.

Haldeman: He's used to this sort of stuff...It's part of his life.

Nixon: He's written 42 novels.

June 30, 1972

NIXON: He wouldn't do such a stupid thing. The White House thing, I mean this fellow, what's his name, HUNT?...This HUNT fellow, did you ever meet HUNT? I've never seen him.

April 28, 1973

NIXON: You know the thing about that is that Colson never told me about HUNT, that he knew HUNT, until after the Watergate thing.

Erlichman: Is that right?

NIXON: I never heard of E. HOWARD HUNT, no, sir, no. No sir...I had understood he said he doesn't know HUNT well, or something like that. I think that's apparently been his line...But afterwards he said he was an intimate friend.

ANALYSIS

HUNT may have met NIXON when HUNT was a CIA Chief of Station in Latin America, however, this would have been a brief and forgettable encounter. In Give Us This Day HUNT described NIXON as the White House Action Officer for Bay of Pigs. It was during this period that HUNT had his first significant contact with Vice President NIXON. As documented in Coup D'Etat in America Data Base NIXON worked with HUNT on the assassination of NIXON'S rival, John Kennedy, in 1963. In 1971 NIXON reassembled many of the members of this hit squad and used them against other political rivals. At this point NIXON expressed a familiarity with the talents of HUNT as evidenced by the June 30, 1971 reference to HUNT. NIXON knew that one of HUNT'S talents was serreptious entry. On June 21, 1972 NIXON pretended he was not well aquainted with HUNT: "HUNT must be a pretty good guy though." It is interesting to note the reference here to HUNT having lived in exile. There is no such reference to a period of exile in Undercover, HUNT'S autobiography. Haldeman had HUNT disappearing to a Spanish speaking country:

Haldeman: But HUNT disappeared or is in the process of disappearing. He can undisappear if we want him to. He can disappear to a Latin American country. But at least the original thought was that that would do it, that he might want to disappear (unintelligible) on the basis of these guys, the Cubans-....

Perhaps this explains HUNT'S murky assignment in Spain in 1964, the nature of which remains unknown even to the CIA. Note that NIXON knew the exact number of novels authored by HUNT. On June 30, 1972 NIXON denied he had ever met HUNT and on April 28, 1973 NIXON claimed he had never even heard of HUNT until after Watergate. This contradicts earlier recordings and clearly demonstrates that NIXON was a liar.

HOW FAR BACK DID HUNT'S MISDEEDS GO?

NIXON: Of course, this, HUNT, that will uncover a lot of, a lot of, you open that scab there's a hell of a lot of things in it that we just feel that this would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further.

NIXON: The one that is really going to pull the plug on Colson is HUNT... I don't think he'd pull the plug on his earlier ventures for us, do you? (April 10, 1973)

NIXON: Well, your major guy to keep under control is HUNT - because he knows about a lot of other things. (March 21, 1973)

NIXON AND HOOVER

NIXON:...I told you that bizarre story that Edgar Hoover refused to investigate because Louis Marks, Mark's daughter was married to that son-of-a-bitch Ellsberg. (May 8, 1973)The problem we've got with some of this in the Ellsberg stuff, you see, Edgar Hoover wouldn't do the job because (Patricia) Marks, his closest friends daughter, was married to Ellsberg and wouldn't do it, and that's why some of that crap was done in the White House. (April 29, 1973).

ANALYSIS

FRANK STURGIS and BERNARD BARKER, and other members of the Watergate group, attended J. Edgar Hoover's funeral. They said they were there to beat up any leftists who attempted to disrupt the service. The new NIXON tapes reveal that NIXON hated Hoover. What was his motivation in having his crew there if he hated Hoover?

NIXON AND THE DOROTHY HUNT PLANE CRASH

NIXON: I said of course commutation could be considered on the basis of his wife, and that is the only discussion I ever had in that light. (March 21, 1973)

Haldeman: Then I've got a subpeona to appear in Federal Court in Illinois...

NIXON: What's that about?

Haldeman: In that matter of the murder - of the plan to murder several dozen people.

NIXON: On what grounds are they getting you there?

Haldeman: The airline crash where Mrs. HUNT died. They apparently have me as a factor in crashing the airplane of something. (exhales)

NIXON: Keep the faith.

Haldeman: Yes sir.

NIXON: God

Haldeman: Never worry (May 11, 1973)

KIDNAPPING AND ASSASSINATION SQUADS

Dean: So I came over and Liddy laid out a million dollar plan that was the most incredible thing I have ever laid my eyes on: all in codes and involved black bag operations, kidnapping, providing prostitutes, uh, to weaken the opposition, bugging ah, mugging teams. It was just an incredible thing. (March 21, 1973)

NIXON: Dean actually could answer it in another way. He could say, look, I was the counsel. I was sitting in on it in that fashion...I did not discuss it with Haldeman because - because it was turned off, I didn't report it.

Ehrlichman: The way you get at that then: 'Well, Mr. Dean, you're responsible for keeping the President out of legal trouble, aren't you?' 'Yes sir.' 'You sat in a meeting where a man named Liddy proposed a million dollars worth of kidnapping and wiretapping and assassination and on and on and on, and you didn't jump in a taxicab and rush back to the White House and burst in on Bob Haldeman and say, you know what those crazy guys on the committee are doing?'

NIXON, VESCO AND CHOTINER

Ehrlichman: Vesco...was going around hot-shotting, saying that the White House was behind me and so on, and I had to say that he was to get no special favors or consideration. Just after he got out of jail, he was using Mitchell's name and my name and everybody's name - I've just met him. I don't know him. But his people have been brought into my office... Murry Chotiner's been working for him.

NIXON: What the hell's he doing for him?

Ehrlichman: He (Chotiner) comes in. He tried to see me and I wouldn't see him. My assistant (Tod R. Hullin) talked to him and he had a deal. Vesco would fix us up in South America. He'd act as an operative down there and he'd do this and that if we got him off the criminal prosecution. And then there's an element of blackmail, that the worst isn't yet out and that its going to hurt the administration if they tell all they know, and this, that and the other thing.(March 16, 1973)