Gold Water Gate Rules

[H2O Man]

10. Very good.

Let me respond to your second point first.

A reading of the Senate Committee Report on Watergate, we find that the vast majority of the unethical, often illegal activities took place during -- and focused almost entirely -- upon disrupting the Democratic primaries. (It is an error to identify "Watergate" in a manner limited to the headquarters and psychiatrist's offices. Or to the "plumbers." It was far, far larger than that.)

The identified goal was to damage both Muskie and Humphrey, leaving McGovern as the candidate for the fall. You are correct in that McGovern was wrong to pretend the war could possibly be ended in a day. Even though many wanted to hear that, it was no more accurate than Nixon's 1968 "secret plan" to end the war.

In fact, McGovern was fully aware of the plan that LBJ had in the summer of 1968, after he opted out of the primary contests. And that plan is almost exact to the agreement Nixon (Ford) finally used.

It was those too often forgotten parts of Watergate that led to the increasingly risky "plumber" activities. Those break-ins were the flowering of a deeply rooted plant.