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On Tape: 'We Protctad Helms,' Nixon Told Haldeman

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On Tape: 'We Protctad Helms,' Nixon Told Haldeman ws On Tape: 'We Protctad Lyle Denniston Waslungion Sur Suit Wruer It is somewhat after 10 in the Helms,' Nixon Told morning. June 23, 1972. In the Oval Office at the White House, presiden- tial assistant H.R. Haldeman is talk. ing — quite excitedly — to President Richard M. Nixon. Haldeman "You seem to think the thing to do is to get them to stop?" Haldeman asks, referring to the FBI investiga- The charmed life of Richard Helms — Part 3 tion of the Watergate burglary just six days before. -"Right, fine," Nixon answers. forced the president to resign. "They say," Haldeman says, "the probed by a variety of con- only way to do that is from White But the references to Helms may gressional committees. have meant something significant House instructions. And it's got to be Pages upon pages of to Helms and to — ah, what's his then. If ever explained fully, they committee hearings track name — ? Walters." He goes on: may mean something significant in back and forth over the the future. "And the proposal would be that Plumbers incident, CIA For the time being, however, they sponsorship of some of for- Ehrlichman and I call them in, and are merely in the record of history, say, ah — mer CIA officer E. Howard posing still lingering questions about Hunt's adventures, meet- He doesn't finish the scenario. Richard Helms and the Watergate ings that Helms attended at Nixon interrupts: ''All right, fine. scandals. the White House as the How do you call him in — I mean you Those scandals included, of course, Watergate case began to just — well, we protected Helms not only the burglary at the Demo- unfold, and .the variety of from one hell of a lot of things." cratic Committee headquarters at ways in which top Nixon Haldeman agrees. "That's what the Watergate complex, and the• aides leaned on the CIA. Ehrlichman says." "cover-up" of the White House role Still, it is uncertain that in trying to stop the FBI probe, but everything there is to be " THE "HELMS" they say has been also the use of the White House known about any of that has protected is Richard Helms, at the "Plumbers" team for a 1971 break.ir, .been disclosed. Some of the time the director of the CIA. at a California psychiatrist's °Moe CIA's own tape recordings His name comes up again that day during the White House-led investi- have been destroyed. Not et the White House. a few hours gation of the Pentagon Papers leak. all of the White House tape recordings have been dis- later. Again, Haldeman is talking It is one of the ironies of Helms' closed. about the plan to get the FBI to stop current problems that he and his as- There is no indication, the Watergate investigation, relying sociates believe that he was fired as though• that Helms faces on Helms to do it. CIA chief, and sent off to be ambas- legal problems because of The President says: "If it gets out sador to Iran, solely because he the scandals beyond the that this is all involved, the Cuba would not cooperate with Nixon and potential difficulty in the thing would be a fiasco. It would his aides on those scandals. Justice Department's year- make the CIA look bad, its going to "The word was passed around at old perjury investigation of make Hunt look bad, and it is likely the time," recalls a friend of Helms. some of his congressional to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing "that Helms had not been able to get testimony. The whole mat- which we think would be very unfor- along with (Henry) Kissinger. That ter seems largely closed. tunate — both for CIA, and for the is totally false. The real reason is country, at this time, and for Ameri- that Helms had stood up against WHAT HAS come out can foreign policy. Just tell him to Nixon on the Watergate cover-up." publicly has raised, but not lay off. Don't you?" answered, at least these Haldeman agrees, and seems See HELMS, A4 questions about Helms and satisfied with the solution. "Yep. Continued From A-1 the scandals: That's the basis to do it on. Just leave PART OF the proof that • What did Nixon mean it at that." persuades Helms' associ- about having "protected" As that part of the conversation ates that he was punished Helms? closes, Nixon again mentions Helms for being ''obstructionist" • Why was Nixon confident in a cryptic way: "Helms is not one on Watergate is that, on that Helms would go along to (unintelligible) . ." leaving the CIA, he did not with the idea of using a get the National Security "national security" ruse to THE REFERENCES to Helms Medal — something that a stop the FBI investigation meant little when that day's tran- retired CIA chiet might of Watergate? script came out in the late summer of aormally expect. The idea • Why did neither Helms nor any other CIA official 1974. The mentions of Helms, in fact• was suggested, but never were largely passed over then amid acted upon at the White tell Watergate prosecutors the sensational revelation of Nixon's House. about these pressures or own early role in the "Watergate Helms' conduct in each of about past associations with Howard Hunt when they cover-up" — the revelation that the scandals has been first learned he was tied to the Watergate burglary? "You have to define what A. Walters — about the plan after 1 p.m. eisewhere to • Why didn't they tell the a president can do under to "limit" the FBI probe. the White House: in Ehr- prosecutors about Nixon the term 'national Helms, however, did regard lichman's office on the sec- campaign aide James W. security,' " suggests one of that as "odd," he has testi- ond floor. This was called to McCord's attempts to %earn Helms' long-time associ- fied. put into effect the plan that the CIA that the White ates. the president and Halde- House was trying to make The Watergate scandals SEN. STUART Syming- man had just agreed to fol- seem almost a classic case Watergate look like a CIA ton, D•Mo., a close friend of low. study of extreme answers plot in order to protect its Helms, has suggested that Haldeman and Ehrlich- to that. Very early and secrecy? the Nixon administration man were there, and so throughout, the one theory • Did anyone at the CIA put Walters in as Helms' were Helms and Walters. upon which aides — and know, in advance, about the When Helms first dis- Watergate break-in? Nixon himself — sought to deputy to insure that one of justify their actions was "their men" would be in a cussed that meeting at a • What does it mean that congressional hearing in "national security." But it controlling spot at CIA. Howard Hunt. an ex-CIA May 1973, he said the is not even clear that offi- Walters had been an official officer: was involved in Watergate burglary was both the Plumbers incident cials felt obliged to define interpreter for Nixon dur- what they meant; merely ing some of his foreign trips not discussed. However, and in the Watergate bur- when he next discussed it, reciting the phrase often as vice president in the glary? in August 1973, after seeing • Why did the CIA try to seemed to be enough. 1950s. a memo by Walters en the head off FBI inquiries into That is the same Walters, meeting, Helms said White House aide John D. IT IS APPARENT, how- however, whose name Haldeman did mention the Ehrlichman's dealings with eoer, that when White Haldeman had trouble burglary and had said that the CIA over the Plumbers House officials turned to the remembering when he talk- "the opposition" (presum- incident a year before CIA, they did not bother to ed of going to CIA officials ably, the Democrats) was Watergate? go into detail about security about the FBI. "capitalizing on it." What is the full story be- justifications. Ordering the • There is one fact:. Helms He said Haldeman made hind Helms' firing as CIA agency into action was was removed as CIA direc- some ''incoherent reference director? justification enough. Helms, in 1973 testimony tor at the end of 1972, before to an investigation in Mexi- on the scandals, gave some the Watergate scandal co, or an FBI investigation, THOSE QUESTIONS, in began to unravel publicly. running into the Bay of turn, lead to others, broad- in.lication of what he felt wt s expected of him. He Beyond that, there is his Pigs." er in scope and perhaps own testimony that he did That, as Helms said he harder to answer, about described his reactions at a fight against misuse of the learned later, was a refer- Helms and the CIA in the key White House meeting in 1972 this way: CIA in the cover-up. ence to the fact that some . Nixon era. In May 1973, Helms told money from Nixon's cam- They involve the degree "Here was Mr. Halde- the Senate Foreign Rela- paign organization had been to which CIA's intelligence man, Mr. Ehrlichman. the tions Committee that the 'laundered" through Mexi- duties are carried out here two most senior officials in the White House next to the CIA had "totally and 100 co before it wound up in the at home, the sensitivity - president himself, giving percent resisted" attempts bank account of one of the or lack of it — at the White this instruction.
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