First Thoughts on the Grand Jury Testimony:
A Case Study on Selective Memory Loss
There was not a single answer in the Nixon testimony that did not involve either the phrase “I do not recall” or extended ramblings about why he could not, despite the fact that the events in question took place only a few years prior. Nixon claimed to have been preoccupied with the Chinese initiative, Americans being killed in Vietnam, etc, etc, etc. Nothing much new, and no lies because, well, it’s impossible to prove that “I cannot recall” is a lie.
The blank pages left in place of “classified information” are the most intriguing parts of the testimony. If the public had access to the actual evidence—the lists of names and the notes kept by senior officials like Ehrlichman, for example—perhaps the full story of Watergate truly would emerge. The people on the lists or mentioned in the notes could be tracked down and asked what they know about what happened. This, of course, raises privacy concerns, but it would seem that someone accountable only to the public should be able to see the entirety of the evidence—not government officials who may have their own reasons for keeping the information secret (perhaps orders from above?), or grand jurors who saw the evidence before many of the Watergate players had been given the opportunity to tell their sides of the story and before many of the tapes had been reviewed and released. The people named in the classified pages were likely questioned at the time of the investigation, but evidence that has been exposed in the years since may shed a new light on the entire case.
The conspiracy theorist in me loves to speculate; the realist in me knows that even if the classified evidence was made public, it would likely be of little consequence to the scandal itself, as those who were going to go down for the crimes already have, and most relevant stones were turned during the highly publicized, widely observed investigation.
It would be quite the story if the Bilderberg Group had ordered Nixon to spy on the DNC, or if Jimmy Hoffa had erased the tapes and been aided in his disappearance four years later by Nixon himself. But Watergate, as it stands now, is still a gleaming monument to conspiracy theories proved true, a vindication for “conspiracy theorists” everywhere. Watergate provides a solid example of a situation in which an outrageous story—wrought with espionage, government malfeasance, courtroom drama, and celebrity, with plenty of Good Guys and Bad Guys to root for and against—turns out to be even more twisted and complex than first thought, with even more powerful players—and entirely true, to boot! Best of all, the bad guy goes down in the end (kind of).
So for Watergate, let us both mourn and give thanks: we mourn that Nixon was never truly brought to justice and that the tale cannot continue, but we give thanks that we had such an intriguing story, one that gave us the strength to continue believing that Jimmy Hoffa is buried at Giants Stadium and Elvis bought a popsicle in Central Park last week—or at least, to continue salivating at the rumor.
I avoided the news media while writing my initial analysis, but I must include an addendum. In reporting on the release of the Grand Jury testimony, Fox News stated that “On Watergate, Nixon reaffirmed what historians now generally believe: that he did not order the infamous break-in that triggered his fall from power, and did not have any advance knowledge that it would be carried out.”[1] I find it almost sad that Nixon is no longer around to see that his dubious version of the truth is not being ignored, but has in fact been adopted by a major media outlet—and, consequently, a section of the American public.