3;• The , 23> 4-N W,f}nOMIEVEINO Watergate Watershed A Turning Point for • A Nation and a Newspaper By Katharine Graham n Saturday morning, June 17, 1972, Howard Simons, The Post's manag- 0 ing editor, called to say, "You won't believe what happened last night." He was COPYRIGHT BY MARK GODFREY right. First he told me of a car that crashed Katharine Graham with reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in The Post's into a house where two people had been newsroom: "Is it all going to come out?" the publisher had asked at one point. Fla., at the time. His press secretary, Ron month later, revealed the connection of the PERSONAL HISTORY Ziegler, dismissed the incident as "a third- burglars to the Committee to Re-elect the rate burglary attempt," adding, "Certain el- President (CRP). making love on a sofa and went right out ements may try to stretch this beyond what The Post was ahead on the story from the other side. To top that, he related the it is." None of us, of course, had any idea the beginning. And from the beginning, Nix- fantastic story that five men wearing surgi- how far the story would stretch; the begin- on began making threats of economic retali- cal gloves had been caught breaking into ning—once the laughter died down—all ation against the paper. "The Post is going the headquarters of the Democratic Nation- seemed so farcical. to have damnable, damnable problems out al Committee at the Watergate office build- The story of the break-in appeared on of this one. They have a television station ing. the front page of Sunday's paper. Among . and they're going to have to get it re- President Nixon was in Key Biscayne, the staff writers contributing to the story newed. [Tihe game has to be played were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. awfully rough." Of our lawyer, Nixon said, "I This article is adapted from the This was the beginning of their famous col- wouldn't want to be in Edward Bennett Wil- forthcoming book "Personal History" by laboration. Their first big story, over a See GRAHAM, D2, Col. 1 Katharine Graham, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf • A woman's plum In the boardroom. Page D2 Post was intensifying. The investigation of such a tangled GRAHAM, From Dl web of crime, money, and mischief was made much harder given the unveiled threats and harassment by a president liarns's position after this election. We are going to fix the and his administration. Bearing the full brunt of presidential son of a bitch, believe me." wrath is always disturbing. Sometimes I wondered if we Two weeks later, a seminal Bernstein and Woodward arti- could survive four more years of this kind cle appeared on Page 1 of The Post. They had dug up informa- of strain. I particularly loathed reports that personalized the whole tion that there was a secret fund at CRP that was controlled dispute, implying that some sort of personal vendetta had by five people, one of whom was then Attorney General John poisoned the relationship between The Post and the adminis- Kitchell, and which was to be used to gather intelligence on tration. I had already begun to hear a chorus of rumors con- the Democrats. Thus the story reached a new level. cerning my own feelings about Nixon, a chorus that warmed In an effort to check it out, Bernstein called Mitchell direct- up with some help from Sen. Bob Dole, who made a charge, ly, reaching him at a hotel in New York, where Mitchell an- picked up and carried all over the airwaves, saying I had told swered the phone himself. When Carl told him about the story, a friend that I hated Nixon. Dole made the leap to saying Kitchell exploded with an exclamation of "JEFFFEEESUS," so that that was the reason The Post was writing all the nega- violent that Carl felt it was "some sort of primal scream" and tive Watergate stories. thought Mitchell might die on the telephone. After he'd read him the first two paragraphs, Mitchell interrupted, still Frozen Out screaming, "All that crap, you're putting it in the paper? It's all been denied. Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big To no one's surprise, President Nixon was reelected by a fat wringer if that's published. Good Christ! That's the most landslide, with 61 percent of the vote and 49 out of 50 sickening thing I ever heard." Bernstein was stunned and called Ben Bradlee at home to read him Mitchell's quotes. Ben told Carl to use it all except the specific reference to my "tit." The quote was changed to states—evidence of how little impact Watergate had had. read that I was "gonna get caught in a big fat wringer." Ben However, instead of becoming more secure with his victory decided he didn't have to forewarn me. (Later he told me, in hand and working to unite the country, Nixon immediately 'That was too good to check with you, Katharine." I would turned to vengeance and to strengthening his hold on power. have agreed with Ben's decision.) As it was, I was shocked In a speech at his victory dinner with members of the admin- to read what I did in the paper, but even more so to hear istration, he mentioned The. Washington Post several times. what Mitchell had actually said, so personal and offensive After the election, partly in response to the escalating were the threat and the message. campaign we felt was being waged against the reputation of It was quite a temper tantrum on Mitchell's part—and es- The Post, I began to make more speeches defending the pad* strange of him to call me Katie, which no one has ev- press in general and The Post in particular. One of the first er. called me. Bob Woodward later observed that the inter- big ones was in San Francisco. As my plane landed, the man esting thing for him was that Mitchell's remark was an across the aisle from me leaned over to say, ;Hello, Mrs. gam* of the misperception on the part of the Nixon peo- Graham, can I help you with your bag?" I looked up into the ple that I was calling all the shots. In any case, the remark eyes of Sen. Dole. He was very friendly, helped me off the lived on in the annals of Watergate and was one of the princi- plane, and did indeed carry the bag for me. We talked pleas- pal public links of me with the affair antly, and I finally worked up my nerve to say, "By the way, Senator, I didn't say I hated Nixon." "Oh, you know," he cas- Pressure Points ually replied, "during a campaign they put these things in In October, the tempo of the whole story picked up. The your hands, and you just read them." His reaction afnazed me, dismissing so lightly something that had had such a pow- Post printed an article that described the original break-in as part of a massive, nationwide campaign of political spying erful effect on all of us at The Post, especially me. and sabotage conducted in behalf of the President's reelec- That fall, at the same time that the administration granted an exclusive interview to the Washington Star, it started a tion efforts and directed by White House and reelection com- mittee officials. boycott of sorts on us. We were not to have 'our calls an- That day Ziegler began his morning briefing at the White swered, not to be dealt with professionally in any way; ad- House charging that "stories are being run that are based on ministration people were not to come to editorial lunches, and certainly not to my house for dinner. A uniquely ludi- hearsay, innuendo., guilt by association. [lit goes, without saying that this administration does not condone sabotage or crous, petty and rather weird form of vengeance took place espionage or surveillance of individuals." That same after- when the administration excluded our charming, much re- noon, Clark McGregor, Nixon's campaign chairman, said spected and even loved senior society reporter Dorothy that The Post's "credibility has today sunk lower than that of McCardle, then 68 years old, from covering parties and George McGovern," the Democrat running against Nixon. made her sit alone cooling her heels in the pressroom, bar-. During these months, the pressures on The Post to cease ring her from one social event after another. The strategy backfired, for Dorothy soon became something of a heroine and desist were intense and uncomfortable. I was feeling be- leaguered. Many of my friends were puzzled about our re- to her colleagues in the Washington press corps. In fact, the Star gallantly ran an editorial supporting us and opposing the porting. Joe Alsop was pressing me all the time. And I had a distressing chance meeting with Henry Kissinger just before ban, stating that, if The Post couldn't cover the parties, the the election. "What's the matter? Don't you think we're go- Star didn't want any favors; its social reporter, Isabelle Shel- ing to be reelecteir Henry asked me. ton,-would join Dorothy in the pressroom, declining to attend Readers, too, were the events as long as Dorothy couldn't. writing to me, accusing The Post of ulterior motives, bad We found out later that at one point Nixon had a plan to journalism, lack of patriotism.