412 The Nation. October 7, 1991 BOOKS & THE ARTS. tion for seven years and have interviewed most of the principals in the Watergate Bob & Al's Bogus Journey affair; waded through the complete Oval ROBERT SHERRILL and Gettlin seem to have banged up Office logs of the Nixon presidency and pretty badly. many documents from the Senate Water­ SILENT COUP: The Removal of a Pres­ gate Committee, the National Archives, ident. By Len Colodny and Robert e'll get back for a much closer look the F.B.I. Archives, etc.; and along the Gett/in. St. Martin's. 507 pp. $24.95. W at Woodward in ( moment. But way uncovered secret documents relating first, a rundown on how Silent Coup re­ to Watergate that have never been made . It used to be that hardly anyone interprets the events of Watergate. public before-the Woodward-Bernstein dared criticize the things the legend­ Most Americans familiar with recent version of Watergate history is dead ary Bob Woodward wrote. After history will recall that the greatest political wrong on all points. Silent Coup offers all, wasn't he portrayed by, hey, scandal of this century began shortly after strong evidence that the guy who sent wow, Robert Redford in the movie All the midnight on June 17, 1972, when burglars the burglars into the D.N.C. offices on President's Men? But Woodward received were caught inside the Democratic Na­ their last and fatal visit was none other a severe blow recently when St. Martin's tional Committee's headquarters in the than the "whistleblower" John Dean, not Press published Silent Coup: The Remov­ Mitchell, and that the reason Dean sent al ofa President, a book by Len Colodny Watergate building in Washington, D.C. Why were they there, and who sent them? them was not to get dirt on Larry O'Brien and Robert Gettlin-which, despite the The Woodward-Bernstein version has but to find and confiscate a little black biased opposition of a New York Times book containing the names of prostitutes review and the panicky opposition of The it that former Attorney General John Mitchell, who was running Nixon's re­ who had romped with D.N.C. employees. Washington Post, the two most impor­ The implication is that Dean was try­ tant newspapers in America when it election campaign, dispatched the bun­ gling burglars to dig up dirt that could ing to protect someone. Which "some­ comes to selling books, fought its way one"? Well, we are told that the madam up to the Number 3 spot on the national be used against Larry O'Brien, chair of the D.N.C. of the call-girl ring servicing the D.N.C. best-seller list, largely with the help of was the close friend and sometime room­ radio and TV talk shows. In some parts mate of Maureen Biner. Ms. Biner was of the country, such as Los Angeles, it then Dean's girlfriend and would later reached the Number I spot. Silent Coup offers become his wife. Granted, in recent years there has been Coincidentally, when Washington po­ some strong criticism of Woodward's evidence that the lice arrested a young lawyer-pimp in­ post-Watergate reporting techniques. But volved in the call-girl ring, they seized an Silent Coup is much more radical, going Watergate burglars address book. Now we learn that among back to the root of his fame and fortune. the many names in the book was Mo It asserts that what he and Carl Bernstein were sent by none other Biner's, as well as her code name, wrote about Watergate for The Washing­ "Clout." Silent Coup details the crafty ton Post and in All the President's Men than John Dean. way Dean went about getting a copy of and The Final Days, although generally that book, while keeping its existence a accepted as gospel, is to a significant de­ secret from the press. gree based on tainted sources and faulty Then came the cover-up, an effort to When the Watergate burglars were reporting. And so far as I'm aware, no­ steer the cops and Congress away from caught, Dean's sole effort thereafter, ac­ body before Colodny and Gettlin had the White House's ties to the burglary. cording to Silent Coup, was to cover up been so impudent as to look back even The Woodward-Bernstein version argues his part in sending them in, and the rea­ further, into the pre-Watergate life of that the cover-up was to protect Presi­ son for sending them in. To protect him­ Woodward, and use it to question his dent Nixon. self, he was willing to throw suspicion on truthfulness. In the Woodward-Bernstein history everybody else, and thus he became the Bernstein won't suffer much from the of Watergate, two antiheroes of a sort chief stool pigeon in the Senate's Water­ accusations in this book because he has emerge: John Dean, the young White gate investigation, posing as the naive since pretty much disappeared into the House counsel with the eyeglasses and yuppie who had been misled by sly old swampland of Time magazine's staff. slicked-down hair and oh-so-candid dogs like John Mitchell. But Woodward is different. As an as­ voice, is portrayed as a whistleblower; If there is a villain in Silent Coup equal sistant managing editor at the Post, and Gen. Alexander Haig, Nixon's last in treachery to John Dean, it is Alexander he heads the paper's investigative team Chief of Staff, is portrayed as the patriot Haig. To understand his viliainy, Colod­ and has turned out several big-bucks with the firm hand who kept the Nixon ny and Gettlin ask you to go back to books. His success depends entirely on Administration from winding up on the 1970-71, when the Pentagon had a spy his credibility, which authors Colodny shoals after Nixon lost his grip. ring inside the White House. But according to the findings of Colod­ The reason for the spy ring, they say, Robert Sherrill has reported extensively ny, a private investigator:. and Gettlin, was to keep Adm. Thomas Moorer, the on Watergate and followed the develop­ who was a national reporter in the New­ right-wing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ment o/Silent Coup for several years in house Newspapers Washington Bureau­ of Staff, informed about the secret plans casual conversations with the authors. who have been working on this investiga- Nixon and Henry Kissinger had for end- October 7, 1991 The Nation. 413 ing the war in Vietnam and for improving all-knowing, insider source of informa­ "He still remained very conservative," relations with Communist China and the tion that he introduced to the world as she told them, and he often scolded her sJ,Viet Union. To Admiral Moorer and Deep Throat? How did Woodward man­ for becoming involved with the radical other hard-liners at the Pentagon, this age to make that connection? Why would Students for a Democratic Society. Colod­ back-channel search for peace was trea­ a source like Deep Throat want to unload ny and Gettlin note that Woodward was sonous. So the Pentagon conspirators­ his powerful ammunition through some­ tapped for membership in the very estab­ beiieving, as Colodny and Gettlin put it, body like Woodward, who was at that lishment Book and Snake, one of Yale's that "the president of the United States time a mere rookie at The Washington top four secret societies. was out of control" -planted a spy, Navy Post? His only previous newspaper expe­ On to the Navy. Woodward owed the Yeoman Charles Edward Radford, on the rience had been on a suburban Maryland Navy only four years' active service. He J.C.S.'s liaison team with the National weekly. And before that he had been a stayed for five. According to Woodward, Security Council, Kissinger's domain. Navy lieutenant with-or so he claimed­ it was red tape that kept him in place that Following orders, Radford stole all the one of the dullest jobs in the Navy. extra year, but Woodward's father told top-secret information he could from Kis­ Colodny and Gettlin that his son volun­ singer's desk and briefcase and elsewhere. teered to stay because he was excited What was the ultimate purpose in about the assignment, which was to be Radford's project? Colodny and Gettlin, General Haig may "in the basement of the White House," in their interview with Radford, led up to at least part of the time. that question and got a stunning answer. have been the main In several interviews Woodward said he "Well," he said, "bringing Nixon down. was "miserable" in the Navy because his Really, getting rid of Kissinger-Kissin­ source around which job was merely directing men who han­ ger was a real monkey wrench in things," Woodward and Bern­ dled communications traffic and was those "things" being the conduct of the "awful and boring ... strictly nuts and cold war. The existence of the spy ring stein built their expose. bolts.'' But in fact, our authors discov­ was finally discovered by the press and by ered, he was an important intelligence Nixon, but not its full dimensions and officer: a "briefer," a member of that very not the sinister purpose behind its activ­ Ah, but there-in the phrase "so he close-knit fraternity that deals in the top ities. Those would continue to be covered claimed"-is the key to it all. Colodny secrets of government and whose job is to up until the publication of Silent Coup. and Gettlin found, in some of the best brief the highest military and intelligence Bear in mind that while General Haig investigative work they did, that Wood­ officers on the latest policy decisions, was ostensibly Kissinger's assistant at the ward's background, from high school global dangers, inter- and intragovern­ N.S.C., he could more accurately be de­ through Yale through the Navy and mental feuds, bureaucratic adventures, scribed as the J.C.S.'s man inside the through his earliest journalism work, was backstabbings and voodoo rites. White House. Eventually, after Bob often far different from what he claimed. (Once out of that service, the briefers Haldeman's disgraced exit as Nixon's They checked with his first wife, with his keep in touch as an old-boy network that Chief of Staff, Haig moved into that job father, with his former schoolmates and includes such worthies as Dr. William and held it from May 1973 until Nixon re­ professors, with his former Navy associ­ Bader of the Stanford Research Institute, signed. Colodny and Gettlin pile up evi­ ates and with his first publisher-and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and dence that Haig as Chief of Staff had two found what the authors call an elaborate Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, former Deputy goals: (I) to continue to cover up the real shroud of fuzzy and often misleading Director of the C.I.A. It was through this purpose of the military spy ring that had data that Woodward wrapped himself in, network, said Dr. Bader, that he learned existed in the White House and (2) to, as apparently to discourage scrutiny. Woodward was "one of us.") Radford put it, "bring Nixon down" by Colodny and Gettlin point out, for ex­ One of the big shots Woodward regu­ giving him faulty information, steering ample, that Woodward came from a Re­ larly briefed was Admiral Moorer. An­ him in the wrong direction for his defense publican home. His high school com­ other, Colodny and Gettlin discovered, and urging him to do things that made mencement speech was an adaptation of was General Haig. For two years (1969 him look guiltier. They argue that Haig remarks from Barry Goldwater's The and 1970), "after briefing Moorer at nine not only directed Woodward to the infa­ Conscience ofa Conservative. But then, in the morning ... Woodward would mous eighteen-and-a-half-minute tape they continue, "in the carefully con­ often travel to the West Basement offices erasure but that it is possible that Haig structed version of his own life that he of the White House, carrying documents himself did the erasing. gave to interviewers, Woodward recalled from Moorer, and would then deliver (No, no, Colodny and Gettlin are not . a sea change while at Yale.'' He told these and brief Alexander Haig about Nixon apologists. They believe Nixon Leonard Downie Jr. for The New Muck­ the same matters he had earlier conveyed was guilty of collusion in the cover-up, rakers and David Halberstam for The to Moorer." but not to the degree that Woodward­ Powers That Be that when he became When Colodny and Gettlin interviewed Bernstein have insisted. Silent Coup aware of how wrong the Vietnam War Woodward for this book, he claimed that makes Nixon out to be more of an unsta­ was, he had a "crisis!' But Kathleen Mid­ he had never met or talked to Haig until ble sucker and a patsy than a crook.) dlekauff Woodward, who had known Bob "some time in the spring of 1973"-three since high school days and often visited years after leaving the Navy and a year o now we come back to Woodward. him at Yale (she became his first wife), after the Watergate scandal started break­ S One of the most puzzling questions told Colodny and Gettlin that she didn't ing. Further, he vehemently denied that of modern journalism is, How did Bob notice any big change in her lover's atti­ he had ever been a briefer: "I wasn't," he Woodward come up with that all-seeing, tude toward the war or any other topic. said. "It never happened. I'm looking you 414 The Nation. October 7, 1991 in the eye. You have got bad sources." He lay his reputation on the line with an en­ and Gettlin "never talked to me.... I went further: "I defy you to produce dorsement: "I'm here because I believe never heard of them." someone who says I did a briefing." in the extraordinary importance of this The Kurtz story was sent out to the Colodny and Gettlin produced several book .... I'm here too as a historian be­ newspapers that subscribed to the Wash­ somebodies. Admiral Moorer said Wood­ cause the research and documentation ington Post Syndicate, and it was a dev­ ward was one of his briefers and "sure, underlying Silent Coup is so very impres­ astating blow to the book's chances of of course," he also briefed Haig. Former sive." He cried shame on the journalists getting reviewed elsewhere. It was also Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird told and historians who, out of laziness, are quite misleading and unfair. Kurtz failed Colodny and Gettlin, "Yes, I was aware content to stick with the fallacies in the to mention that at the New York press that Haig was being briefed by Wood­ original version of what happened ("fic- conference at which St. Martin's Press ward," and Jerry Friedheim, who used tion," he calls it). ..- launched Silent Coup, transcripts of the to be Laird's aide, agreed. Roger Mor­ If Scheer's and Parmet's and Morris's taped interview with Moorer (and others ris, who was a member of Kissinger's appraisals catch on generally, it will be confirming the Haig-Woodward connec­ N.S.C. staff until resigning to protest the dangerous and costly to a lot of power­ tion) were distributed to reporters, in­ Cambodia bombing (and who later be­ ful people and institutions. For one cluding a reporter from the Post (Kurtz came the pre-eminent biographer of pre­ thing, we can expect to hear air escaping says he wasn't aware of the transcripts). Watergate Nixon), contends that Wood­ from The Washington Post, which has The Washington Times, the Post's fee­ ward "knew Al Haig well, and had been been increasingly inflated with arrogance ble competitor, promptly ran an accurate back and forth in the West Basement in since it crowned itself King of the Water­ rebuttal, pointing out that "at least four those early days." gate Expose. of the persons or organizations quoted in All of which makes Colodny and Gett­ the Post story either contradict com­ lin understandably suspicious. "Wood­ ments attributed to them or say the Post's ward seems to cover his past associations quotes did not fully reflect their views." with shadows in order to conceal strong, The press has begun The Times also pointed out that when its ongoing connections to the military hier­ reporters confronted Admiral Moorer archy, and to protect people in that hier­ to sound suspicious, with transcripts of the tapes, he admitted archy who are or have been his journal­ that his disclaimer to the Post was false. istic sources," they write. sometimes even To this day the Post has not mentioned If their suspicions are correct, it's no contemptuous, of the taped interviews or corrected its story. wonder that General Haig comes out as CBS's 60 Minutes crew spent three something of a hero in the Woodward­ Woodward. days going through the Colodny-Gettlin Bernstein accounts of Watergate, for files and two days taping the authors, but that must mean that he was, as many then canceled a segment based on Silent have suspected, the main source of the And if it were generally felt that Wood­ Coup, even though Mike Wallace, the leaks-some of them inaccurate and self­ ward could not be trusted in what he show's anchor, admitted that "a lot of serving-around which Woodward and wrote about Watergate, or that he has lied it was very persuasive, very persuasive." Bernstein built their famous expose. about his background, his credentials Some believed the cancellation was the would be knocked into a cocked hat. If result of pressure from Katharine Gra­ oes Silent Coup deserve to be taken he was untrustworthy about that, why ham, the Post's primary owner, on her D seriously, or should it be considered should we believe what he (and Scott old friend Larry Tisch, top dog at CBS. · "a lunatic piece of work" (Carl Bern­ Armstrong) wrote about the Supreme It wasn't the first time she was suspected stein) and "absolute garbage" (John Court (The Brethren)? Or what he wrote of pressuring the suppression of a book Dean) and "bogus" (Haig)? about John Belushi (Wired: The Short critical of the Post. Or did Post editor Los Angeles Times correspondent Life and Fast Times of John Belushi)? Or Ben Bradlee lean on his Hamptons play­ Robert Scheer, one of the best journal­ what he wrote about Director of Central mate, Howard Stringer, who heads the ists in the business, says, "There is just Intelligence William Casey (Veil: The Se­ CBS Broadcast Group? too much troubling documentation for cret Wars of the C.I.A. 1981-1987)? Or Time paid $25,000 to excerpt Silent this book to be dismissed out of hand as what he wrote recently about the men Coup, but then decided not to, explain­ some critics have done.... And the list who decided to go to war in the Persian ing lamely that it was "a very interesting of those interviewed, including Wood­ Gulf (The Commanders)? book but difficult to excerpt because ward himself, is trul;y impressive." Pride-isn't the only thing at risk here. its arguments are complex and tightly Herbert Parmet, the City University of Millions of bucks are also at risk. That's woven." Some believe that the real reason New York's distinguished history profes­ the kind of money Woodward can de­ Time backed off was to keep staff mem­ sor and a Nixon scholar, says that Silent mand and that his publisher, Simon and bers Carl Bernstein and Hays Gorey (co­ Coup's "conclusions bring us as close to Schuster, can make from his books (S&S author of Maureen Dean's Watergate what actually happened as we are likely has published all of them). memoir) from throwing a fit. to get for some time." So the establishment struck back. The Meanwhile, The New York Times Roger Morris was so convinced of the day after Silent Coup was published, The Book Review was about to do a favor for book's value that he wrote (without pay­ Washington Post's media c;ritic, Howard Simon and Schuster. A vicious review, ment) its foreword, in which he describes Kurtz, quoted Admiral Mgorer as saying discrediting Colodny and Gettlin, would Silent Coup as "the excavation of some his confirmation of the lli;:ig-Woodward not only help salvage the reputation of vital hidden history." He turned up at the connection in the book w~s "ridiculous" S&S author Woodward but would also press conference launching the book to and a "flat lie," and claiming Colodny help protect Stephen Ambrose, the third 416 The Nation. October 7, 1991 volume of whose Nixon biography; about Post editors who didn't press Janet heard from all corners of the press. to be published by Simon and Schuster, Cooke for the sources (she had none) for Then came The Commanders, Wood­ was in danger of seeming outdated before "Jimmy's World," the hoax that won ward's account of how the decision was it even reached the stores (and, though (and lost) a Pulitzer Prize in 1981. made to go to war in the gulf. It triggered of only minor importance, it also might But mainly his reputation is getting a new wave of taunts about his research protect the Hays Gorey-Maureen Dean kicked around because he seemingly con­ technique. James Atlas, writing in The memoir, also published by S&S, from siders himself too important to. be held New York Times Magazine, wondered if seeming even more worthless than it is). to the basic rules of historical writing. Woodward made things up: "Are his So whom did the Times Book Review His books are stunningly free of foot­ 'quotations' actual quotations, or Wood­ select to review Silent Coup? None other notes and sources. He seems to feel no ward's version of what people told him than Professor Stephen Ambrose. He de­ need for proof. At first his reputation, others said?" And to Anthony Lewis's livered a review of singular nastiness, full born of Watergate, let him get away with recommendation that The Commanders of inaccuracies. But what he didn't reveal it. No more. has "the ring of authority," Atlas re­ in his review was that a year before Silent The dike began to burst and the criti­ sponded, "But is it true?" Coup was published, he had written cism to flood through when Woodward Suddenly we are on a more dramatic Colodny at the suggestion of "Bob wrote his book about the C.l.A., in plateau of skepticism, and the reaction to Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and oth­ which he claimed that he had somehow Silent Coup may keep us there. Doug Ire­ sneaked into Director Casey's hospital land, media critic for The Village Voice, ers," offering to trade "findings and con­ room and received a deathbed confession puts Atlas's query even more harshly. Re­ clusions." When Colodny refused, Am­ that Casey had been involved in the viewing Silent Coup, he opened with the brose phoned him and, according to Iran/contra illegalities. Did Woodward question: "Is Bob Woodward a liar?" Colodny's notes on the conversation, have the confession on tape? No. Did When a reporter's peers begin asking that said, in what could have been taken as a he have witnesses? No. Readers just had question publicly, even if he is the most threat, that "a historian like himself could to take his word for the unlikely epi­ famous reporter in the country, he is in make or break this type of book." When sode. Many didn't. Hoots and jeers were real trouble. D evidence of Ambrose's conflict of interest was presented to the Times, it was forced to issue an apology, saying on July 7, "If the editors had known of Mr. Ambrose's Meinory's Citizen letter and Mr. Colodny's response, the JESSICA GREENBAUM there is wisdom in the slender hour book would have been assigned to a dif­ which arrives between two shadows. ferent reviewer." But of course this apol­ ROSE. By Li-Young Lee. BOA Editions It is not heavenly and it is not sweet. ogy did nothing to lessen the damage of Limited. 71 pp. Paper $8. It is accompanied by steady human the review. weeping, The whole episode was so embarrass­ THE CITY IN WHICH I LOVE YOU. and twin furrows between the brows, ing to the Times that when the New York By Li-Young Lee. BOA Editions Limited. but it is what I know, Post got hold of a letter protesting the 90 pp. $18. Paper $9. and so am able to tell. Ambrose review from St. Martin's editor Some of the biographical background George Witte to Review editor Rebecca ometimes poets seem like the orators at Speakers' Corner-I for this solemn introduction is well known Sinkler, one of the top editors at the Re­ by now. Both Lee's books carry bio- . view became so hysterically furious as can see them now, stacking their well-built stanzas like orange graphical notes (a whole page in The City to call St. Martin's and tell them not to S in Which I Love You) and his interview crates, stepping to the top with a deep bother to send any more of their cata­ in Bill Moyers's WNET series breath and saying what they have to say. The Power logues-in effect putting the publishing of the Word supplied more. Lee was born house on the Times's hit list. Tom Mc­ Readers, meanwhile, mill about the edges of the literary park, hoping to be caught in 1957, to Chinese parents then living in Cormack, chair of St. Martin's, took the Jakarta, Indonesia. His father had been by a poet's music or gossip, by the tele­ threat seriously enough that he called Mao's personal physician and then pro­ scopic insinuation of worlds or by the ex­ from London, where he was buying titles, fessor of English and philosophy at pansive description of them. Sometimes to try to work things out with the Re­ Gamaliel University in Jakarta. These­ a poet's voice distinguishes itself by car­ view. (That account comes from Colod­ nior Lee ended up a political prisoner rying authority and by addressing a sin­ ny; frightened flacks at St. Martin's deny under Indonesia President Sukarno and gular authority. That has been my expe­ the story.) spent two years in prison before escaping rience reading Li-Young Lee's poems. We will have to wait to see what influ­ and fleeing the country. A nearly five­ Lee's first book, Rose (1986), opens ence Silent Coup has on other Nixon his­ year trek through Hong Kong, Macao with "Epistle," his letter to the world, as torians besides Morris and Parmet. But and Japan led the family to the United Dickinson called her poems. It ends: the book's effect on Woodward is bound States, where Lee's father, "the critical to be felt almost at once. Before it all gets wiped away, Jet me say, 'myth' " of Lee's work, became a "Pres­ The press, normally so defensive of byterian minister in a tiny western Penn­ one of its heroes, has begun to sound sus­ Jessica Greenbaum, who has won the sylvanian town, full of rage and mystery picious, sometimes even contemptuous, DIScovery-Nation poetry prize and PEN's and pity, blind and silent at the end." of Woodward. Many aretired of his quest New Writer award, is an.editor at Choice Lee's father died in 1980. · for what he calls "holy shit" stories. Magazine Listening, a free literary peri­ The above quotations are from Gerald Many remember that he was one of the odical-on-tape for the blind and disabled. Stern's introduction to Rose. In the late