WASHINGTON 鈥� The Nixon White House, particularly its misdeeds, may seem to have been exhaustively documented. But even Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who with Carl Bernstein did so much to bring the president down in the wake of the Watergate scandal, found new facts.
A few years ago, Woodward met for the first time Alexander Butterfield, a Nixon aide whose office was next door to the Oval Office for three years and was the first to reveal that conversations in the Oval Office were taped.
Butterfield is 89 now, Woodward tells 草莓传媒鈥檚 Mark Lewis, and 鈥渉as a fabulous memory.鈥� Even better, though, he had about 20 boxes of documents in his California home, including 鈥渁 lot of new material that I had never seen that鈥檚 not in any of the books or the articles,鈥� Woodward says. 鈥淭o be honest, I was shocked at some of them.鈥�
The results can be found in Woodward鈥檚 new book, 鈥淭he Last of the President鈥檚 Men,鈥� and the most shocking revelation for Woodward was the cynicism with which Nixon managed the Vietnam War 鈥� a conflict Woodward says 鈥渟till casts a shadow over this country.鈥�
In one memo from Nixon to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, the president sums up years of bombing in Southeast Asia as 鈥淩esult = Zilch.鈥� For three years before that, Nixon had ordered almost 3 million tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Worse yet, another million tons were dropped afterward.
Connecting the information with that found on other tapes and documents, Woodward says, the prosecution of the war 鈥渨as driven in large part so Nixon would be re-elected. 鈥� It turns history on its head.鈥�
He adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 sure Nixon, in fairness, wanted to win the war. But you connect all this up and you realize the war was lost, and he continued it. And he cites polls to Kissinger [regarding] the popularity of the bombing. 鈥� One of the most sacred trusts a president, as commander-in-chief has, [was used] in large part for political purposes.鈥�
It seems hard to believe that Butterfield could simply walk out of the White House with such a treasure trove of sensitive documents, but Woodward says that Butterfield鈥檚 very job 鈥� he controlled the flow of documents, memos, briefing papers and correspondence to Nixon 鈥� put him in position to pull it off.
鈥淗e was the one in charge of preventing others from taking documents,鈥� Woodward says. 鈥淭he cop is always the one who can commit the crime.鈥� He and his wife simply backed their cars up to the White House and loaded them up.
Nixon has been out of office for more than 40 years, and has been dead for more than 20, but we can still draw lessons from his administration and how the country reacted to it, Woodward says, particularly in this election year: The vetting of presidential candidates, he says, is not sufficient: 鈥淚t鈥檚 poll-driven; it鈥檚 people giving their emotional reactions or their gut reactions, and a lot of conclusions, and not enough hard evidence to really say 鈥楾his is who Donald Trump is鈥� 鈥� 鈥榯his is who Hillary Clinton is鈥� 鈥� This book is about Nixon, but in many ways it鈥檚 a warning: God help us, let鈥檚 hope we do not get another Nixon or anybody with these tendencies toward secrecy and criminality. 鈥�
鈥淭he public persona [Nixon] presented was false. In private, he was raging and plotting and obsessed with slights, obsessed with the Kennedys 鈥� it鈥檚 a very ugly story.鈥�
The key, he says, is to find out the kind of information that tells voters who the candidates really are 鈥� where they鈥檝e come from, what kind of mistakes they鈥檝e made and how they鈥檝e bounced back. 鈥淎nd I think that鈥檚 the responsibility of those of us in the media.鈥�
