Original subtitles

I just don't understand it, Bob. I've logged a lot of miles.

I've followed the sales textbook by the letter.

I've applied myself diligently.

I mean, I try and I try, and Ijust cannot get in the door.

- I mean... what am I doin' wrong? - Earl, sit down.

Sure, you've got a great product,

but you have to remember what you're really selling: yourself.

So it's not necessarily what I say as how I say it?

That's right, Earl. A good salesman can sell anything.

And I remember when you were a good salesman at the beginning.

Something's changed. I don't want to pry,

but is everything all right at home, with Margie?

[Stone] There were two theories about what the burglars were looking for

in Lawrence O'Brien's safe.

O'Brien was the Democratic national chairman,

and he was a former consultant to the eccentric industrialist, Howard Hughes.

0121, mark.

OK, listen up. Fire team discipline in there at all times.

Keep your radios on at all times during the entire penetration.

Check yourselves. False IDs?

- Jim. - No wallets, no keys?

We rendezvous where? The Watergate, room 214. When?

- At 0300 hours. - Jawohl, mein fartin' fuhrer.

I swear, Frank, I'm gonna make you a new asshole.

Let's get the fuck out of here.

Years of decency and clean living are over.

If anything goes wrong, sit tight. You'll hear from me or Howard.

Personally, if anything goes wrong,

I'll be calling the President of the United States.

[Stone] There had been the 1956 Hughes loan to Nixon's brother Donald,

Donald's continuing relationship with the Hughes empire,

and more dangerous had been illegal Hughes contributions

of $100,000 in $100 bills aFter the '68 campaign,

held by the president's friend, Bebe Rebozo, in a safe deposit box

in Key Biscayne.

So Nixon could have been paranoid about that.

When they broke in the first time, they found nothing of this nature.

So the burglary was for nothing for that effect.

Once that happened, by the way, it's over,

because the legal process is a machinery, a huge piece of machinery.

Once that starts, it's very hard to stop.

You've got paperwork, files, people who are interested.

And this booking is the key to the case because, once they're booked,

there's a crime and investigation in motion. The investigation

has to lead back to Nixon. Although we owe a lot to Woodward and Bernstein

for keeping this in front of the American public and their newspaper,

they were not quite the solvers of the equation.

The solver of the equation was the legal machinery,

which you will see through time in the movie is numerous men,

like Archibald Cox, who move... and Sirica, who move this case forward.

[man] Good evening, General Haig.

[Stone] But O'Brien, when all this came to a head,

Larry O'Brien made a very funny comment. He said the concept of him having

the Hughes documents was a phantom. He never knew about Hughes money.

[TV] Judge John Sirica today sentenced the Watergate burglars

to terms ranging up to 40 years.

[Stone] He was quoted, "If I knew, you wouldn't have to break into my office.

I would have told the world."

[man] John Dean testified before the Senate Watergate committee

that the scandal reaches to the highest levels.

[woman] Presidential aides Haldeman and Ehrlichman

were ordered to resign today.

In a stunning announcement, White House aide Alexander Butterfield

revealed the existence of a secret taping system.

[man] Vice President Agnew resigned after pleading no contest

to a charge of income tax evasion.

[woman] The president fired Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox,

provoking the greatest constitutional crisis in history.

[man] Eight resolutions calling for the impeachment

of the president were referred to thejudiciary committee by the House.

[woman] It was disclosed to Judge Sirica there is an 18-and-a-half-minute gap

in a June 20th, 1972 taped conversation

between the president and Bob Haldeman.

Shock and anger are coming from all sectors of the nation.

[man] Sirica ordered the president to turn over tapes

to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.

The tapes contain conversations between the president and his aides

and are believed to include discussions of the scandal.

The White House has not yet responded to Judge Sirica's order

and it is not yet known whether the president will comply.

[Nixon] Yeah.

These are the tapes you requested, Mr. President.

[Stone] The key to the case was the five arrested men.

If they had been dealt with, perhaps, in a more generous way by Nixon,

if he had truly defended his men, as a military commander would,

and taken very good care of them, he possibly have slipped out of the noose.

But he didn't. At first, the money was good.

Large accounts through Liddy were paid

for legal fees for all seven of the men who eventually were arrested,

- including Howard Hunt. - [Nixon] Cocksucker!

Nixon's never been good with these things, Al.

I'll take care of it, sir. Do you mind, sir?

- Sorry. - OK. Go on.

[Stone] But each delivery was less than what was needed and promised,

and disillusionment started to set in. McCord was the first to make a deal.

You know, Al,

if Hoover were alive,

these tapes would never have gotten out.

I want the little shit back.

- Mr. Hoover was a realist, sir. - Yeah. Not like the others.

Dean, McCord, the rest.

We never got our side of the story out, Al.

People have forgotten.

Such violence.

The tear gassing, the riots,

burning the draft cards,

the Black Panthers.

We fixed it, Al, and they hate me for it.

'Cause it's Nixon. They always hated Nixon.

You're all set, sir.

- OK. - Good night, Mr. President.

Good night, Al.

Hey, Al.

Men in your profession,

give 'em a pistol and then leave the room.

I don't have a pistol, Al.

[Stone] He was sensing the sponsors were not gonna provide payments or pardons,

especially aFter the November election when Nixon easily defeated McGovern.

They should have been pardoned. He couldn't. The Watergate thing

had heated up so much by November, he couldn't pardon.

He would have looked culpable, of course.

Pause.

Start.

- [Nixon] They did what? - [Haldeman] Bugs and photograph.

It was a fishing expedition. It was their fourth attempt at the DNC.

[Nixon] O'Brien doesn't use that.

[Haldeman] Looking for an illegal Hughes donation to the Democrats,

so they couldn't make an issue of your Hughes money.

[Nixon] It was a legal contribution.

[Ehrlichman] Not clear they knew what they were looking for.

They were headed for McGovern's office later that same night.

[Stone] This meeting is not in the White House.

It's the executive office where he does a lot of his real work.

That is the look of the office, next door to the White House.

You get there through a tunnel. Nixon liked that EOB office.

He found the White House a little too ceremonial to work in.

He liked to read there, take his first drink of the night there,

and just relax.

We feel the bigger concern is Gordon Liddy.

- Liddy? That fruitcake? What about him? - That's just it, sir. He is a nut.

Used to work with the plumbers, turns up running this Watergate caper.

Remember his plan to firebomb Brookings using Cubans as firemen?

- What's Liddy got? - He was using some campaign cash

that was laundered for us through Mexico, the FBI's onto it.

- We could have a problem with that. - That's a campaign finance violation.

- So if... - Liddy takes the rap for Watergate,

we can take care of him and that lets us off the hook.

I don't have time for this. Just handle it, Bob.

Keep it out of the White House. I gotta see Kissinger.

He's throwing a tantrum, threatening to quit. Again.

What else?

Well, sir, one of the people implicated is still on the White House payroll.

Who? Not another goddamn Cuban.

No, sir. A guy named Hunt.

Howard Hunt, sir.

Hunt? Howard Hunt?

Left his White House phone number in his hotel room.

He works for Colson. He used him on the Pentagon Papers.

After arrest, he dumps his wiretapping stuff into his White House safe.

We're trying to figure out when he stopped being a White House consultant.

Howard Hunt is working for the White House? Jesus Christ.

This is goddamn Disneyland. Since when?

Since Chappaquiddick. He wanted dirt on Kennedy.

- Colson brought him in. - You know Hunt, sir?

Yeah, on the list of horribles.

I know what he is and I know what he tracks back to.

- He was involved in the plumbers? - Definitely.

Colson had him break into Bremer's apartment after Bremer shot Wallace

to plant McGovern's campaign literature.

I had nothing to do with that.

- He was in this Ellsberg thing? - Yes. You approved it.

- I did? - Right after the Pentagon Papers broke.

They went in to get his psychiatric records. We were working on China.

[Stone] The period following the arrest of the burglars

at the headquarters, Haldeman discussed what happened with the president.

But Haldeman was receiving information at this time

from Mitchell, Ehrlichman, Colson, Dean, which he was giving to the president.

The big thing was the search through the Beverly Hills office

of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, because aFter the Pentagon Papers

were exploded on the front pages of The New York TTmes,

the belief being either Ellsberg was insane or agent of the KGB or both.

No file was discovered.

- Where's Hunt now? - He's in hiding.

- He sent Liddy in to talk to Dean. - And?

- He wants money. - Pay him.

Pay him? I told him get out of the country. It's crazy to start...

What the hell are you doing, John, screwing with the CIA?

I don't care how much he wants. Pay him.

- What are we paying him for, sir? - Silence.

But you're covered. It's only this Ellsberg thing,

and if that comes out, it's national security.

Cut ourselves loose from these clowns, and that's all there is to it.

No, it's more than that. I want Hunt paid.

We've never done that before, sir. How do we do it?

We should set up a Cuban defense fund on this and take care of all of 'em.

- Should we talk to Trini about paying? - Keep Trini out.

And for God's sake, keep Colson out.

It's time to baptize our young counsel here, Mr. Dean.

That means John can never talk about it. Attorney-client privilege.

So get to it. John, you stay close to this, OK?

- Don't worry, sir. - Good.

- [door closes] - OK.

Did I approve the Ellsberg thing?

[Stone] Daniel Schorr refers to Nixon's life in terms of "four grand delusions."

I think "delusion" is an interesting word.

The first would be the Bay of Pigs secret,

which comes up repeatedly in the tapes we have been allowed to hear.

He spoke oFten to aides about this deeply hidden scandal connecting with

the '61 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and assassination against Castro.

That was not revealed to the American public till '75.

So this is still very important stuff.

And it was supposed to involve the CIA and Kennedy.

So Nixon talked of nailing Kennedy on the Bay of Pigs.

And he kept demanding that his aides produce for him the full secret file

he was sure the CIA was hiding.

The files were never produced.

Tell him Hunt and his Cuban friends know too damn much,

and if he goes public, if Hunt goes public,

it will be a fiasco for the CIA.

[Stone] So we have Schorr telling us these four grand delusions

are the Bay of Pigs, the Diem assassination plot by Kennedy,

the bugged campaign plane by Johnson that might reveal his relationship

with the South Vietnamese for the election.

Then you have the Hughes-O'Brien threat, which we've talked about.

So we have four major things going on in Nixon's head.

Imagine this poor guy. He's got four major problems in his head.

He thinks any one of these can derail him.

Probably he had about ten others, I bet.

So this is a very complicated man, Richard Nixon.

Bay of Pigs? That was Kennedy's screw-up.

- Why would that threaten us? - Just do what I say, Bob.

[Haldeman] The only problem with that, sir,

- it gets us to obstruction ofjustice. - [Nixon] Nothing to do with justice.

- It's national security. - How is this national security?

The president says it is.

Now, this isn't a moral issue, Bob.

Myjob is to protect this country from its enemies,

and its enemies are inside the walls. We gotta keep our enemies at bay,

or our whole program goes down the tubes.

Vietnam, China, the Soviet Union.

- Look at the big picture... - Damn.

...we end up doing a hell of a lot of good in this world.

Let's not screw it up with a shit-ass, third-rate burglary.

[Haldeman] What should I tell Ziegler to tell the press?

[Nixon] Tell 'em what we always tell 'em. Anything but the truth.

- Fuck! - Say the president believes

it's gonna open up the whole Bay of Pigs thing again.

- Put me in this position. - [Haldeman] Bay of Pigs?

- Expose me like this. - Why would that threaten us?

Why don't they fucking shoot me?

[John F. Kennedy] In the election of 1860...

[Stone] Nixon was obsessed with the idea that Kennedy could be damned

for having ordered the assassination of the Diem brothers,

which is outrageous because it was never true.

Kennedy was shocked.

Lucien Conein, who last saw the Diem brothers, saw me before he died.

Told me very clearly that this was not an assassination.

They were getting the Diem brothers out of the country.

But it was the Diem brothers who went back to the palace

at the last second. The plane was ready. Went back and never were seen again.

They were killed by their own people.

[Nixon] I have met with the legislative leaders...

- Be quiet. - Relax, everybody, relax.

...discussions with 35 presidents, nine prime ministers,

- two emperors and the Shah of Iran. - Jesus Christ.

Has he told them how many push-ups he can do yet?

- ...hydroelectric power. - What the hell happened?

He just got out of the hospital. He hasn't taken one hour off.

When we consider the line-up of the world,

we find there are 590 million people on our side,

800 million people on the Communist side...

- Shoulda slapped makeup on. - It's not a beauty contest.

- We'd better hope not. - ...600 million people who are neutral.

What are you doing to him, Murray? He's not well.

- He doesn't have to debate Kennedy. - The odds are 5-3 against us.

- When it comes to politics... - He can win without this.

[man] Senator, one minute for rebuttal.

Castro is only the beginning of our difficulties throughout Latin America.

Oh, shit, he's gonna do it. Here it comes.

We've seen Cuba go to the Communists.

Eightjet minutes from the coast of Florida.

We must attempt to strengthen the democratic anti-Castro forces in exile.

These fighters have had no support from our government.

- Son of a bitch! - What?

Kennedy was briefed last week by CIA. He's using it against us.

We can't respond, he welshed on a deal.

- It's a disgrace. - ...we might never have had Castro.

- Why didn't we? - Mr. Nixon?

- Man, he's treading water. - All right, come on.

He violated national security. Attack the bastard.

...Constitution of the United States, so help me God.

[Stone] But Nixon wanted Hunt to forge a message,

and Hunt forged it, saying that Kennedy approved the Diem assassination.

And Hunt tried, unsuccessfully, to peddle the forgery to Life magazine.

Never got anywhere with that, although Nixon, at a press conference,

went public with the assertion that we got into Vietnam by overthrowing

Diem and the complicity in the murder of Diem.

...a violation of international law,

it would be an open invitation for Mr. Khrushchev...

[man] It's still very close.

Senator Kennedy's lead is about 700,000.

[Haldeman] Think Daley stuffed the ballot boxes?

In Texas, they had the goddamn cattle voting.

It was the closest race in history, Dick, and he stole it. Son of a bitch.

He outspent us and he still cheated.

A guy who's got everything.

I can't believe it.

We came to Congress together. We were like brothers...

[Stone] Because Nixon lost the vote by so little, like 25,000 votes,

Nixon seriously considered a recount. But as Murray Chotiner said,

played beautifully by Fyvush Finkel...

You don't see him much in the film. He's a wonderful vaudeville-trained

Yiddish actor. Been in Yiddish theater a long time. Chotiner, who says,

"Even if you do contest it and you're wrong, your career will be finished.

The other way, it's gonna be a mess." So the country goes down the drain

during that period. It had never been done. Nixon backed out

of calling for the recount in the hopes of reviving his political career

later in time.

- It's a disgrace. - "Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar.

[Stone] Harry tyruman actually said that. It's a tough statement.

If you vote for Nixon, then you oughta go to hell." Harry S. Truman.

[Stone] "Vote for him, you oughta go to hell."

- The way tyruman talked, but gosh. - Let the Democrats get away with this?

Goes to Harvard. His father hands him everything on a silver platter.

All my life, they've been sticking it to me.

Not the right clothes, not the right schools, not the right family.

And then he steals from me.

He says I have no class, and they love him for it.

Dick, you're only 47.

If you contest this election, you'll be finished.

You gotta swallow this one. They stole it fair and square.

We'll get 'em next time, Dick.

We'll get 'em next time.

What makes you think there's gonna be a next time, Murray?

Because if he's not this Nixon,

he's nobody.

- [man] Good morning, sir. - Hi.

- Hi. - Hi.

We lost.

I know.

I hate to lose.

It makes us human.

It's not fair, Buddy.

I can take the insults, I can take the name-calling.

But I can't take the losing. I hate it.

We don't have to put ourselves through this again, Dick.

We worked for it. We earned it.

- It's ours. - It is. We know that.

And it's enough that we know.

Just think of the girls.

They're still young.

We never see them.

I lost my parents when I was young. I don't want them to lose theirs.

Maybe I should get out of the game.

What do you think, Buddy?

And go back to being a lawyer.

End up with something solid, some money at the end of the line.

You know, I, uh...

I keep thinking of my old man tonight.

- He was a failure too. - You're not a failure, Dick.

You know how much money he had in the bank when he died?

Nothing.

He was so damned honest.

But I miss him.

I miss him a hell of a lot.

[dogs barking in distance]

- Dad! Dad! - I got the beets for him.

- Dad. - Is she in there?

I don't have time for you right now. I got work to do.

- How is thy son? - Very well, thank you.

- What'd he say? - He said, in life,

- there's no free ride. - What'd you say?

I told them I didn't need a ride, I need a suit.

Oh, no. Harold, he doesn't respond well to humor.

Maybe Mother can help straighten it out.

I'd rather get a whippin' than listen to another of her talks.

- Relax, Dick. - [cash register rings]

Donald, finish thy sweeping, then pick out the bad apples.

Yes, Mother.

I'm working.

Richard, come with me, would thee?

[stammers] Why me?

Because Harold hast thy father's will is no reason to admire him.

Let Harold's worldliness be a warning to thee, not an example.

Yes, Mother.

Harold may have lost touch with his Bible,

but thee must never lapse.

Now, give it to me.

Do not tell a lie, Richard.

The corn silk cigarette Harold gave thee behind the store this morning.

I don't have them. Mother, I...

I promise I didn't smoke.

I see.

Well, then Richard, we have nothing more to talk about, do we?

Please!

Please.

Mother, I'm sorry. It was...

It was just one time. I'm sorry.

So am I.

Thy father will have to know of thy lying.

No, please, don't... don't... don't tell him.

I'll never do it again, I promise. Please.

- Richard, I expected more from thee. - Please, Mama.

I shall never let thee down again.

Then this shall be our little secret.

Remember, I see into thy soul.

Thee may fool the world, even thy father,

but not me, Richard. Never me.

Mother...

...think of me always as thy faithful dog.

[Stone] This concept actually appeared in a letter Nixon wrote to his mother

as a ten-year-old, which he closed, "Your good dog, Richard."

I think, for the formative years of Nixon, the influence of his family

take a look at Bela Kornitzer's The Real Nixon:

An Intimate Biography, 1960.

Also Fawn Brodie, the psychological historian who discussed an in-depth

discussion of his relationship with his mother.

- Richard. - Is it my turn?

[Stone] Fawn Brodie wrote The Devil Drives

and wrote her book called Richard Nixon.

I'll do it. There's a couple of things I wanna say.

Could thee at least remove thy apron, Frank?

This blood pays the bills, Hannah. I'm not ashamed of how I earn my money.

[Stone] Material about Nixon's bringing up with his mother.

Heavenly Father,

you told Adam in the garden, after that business with the snake,

that man would have to earn his way by the sweat of his face.

Well, as far as I can tell, Father,

what was true in Eden is true in Whittier, California.

So we ask you now to remind certain of our young people

the only way to get a new suit to go to the promenade with Margaret O'Herlihy,

who happens to be a Catholic, by the way,

is to work for it. Amen.

- Amen. - Amen.

- Amen. - Are we gonna pray now, Daddy?

- Don't be silly. - You think this is funny?

Maybe a trip to the woodshed'll straighten you out.

Pretty soon you boys are gonna have to get out there and scratch.

'Cause you're not gonna get anywhere on your good looks.

Just ask those fellas.

Charity's only gonna get you so far,

even with saints like your mother around.

Struggle's what gives life meaning. Not victory, struggle.

When you quit struggling, they've beaten you.

And then you end up in the street with your hand out.

[Nixon] My mother was a saint,

but my old man struggled his whole life.

They could call him a little man, a poor man,

but they never beat him.

I always tried to remember that, when things didn't go my way.

Let's really get fired up now!

- [man] Get on your stand, Nixon! - Twenty-eight, 44!

- [grunting] - [men singing fight song]

- What's Nixon doing here? - He thinks he can make it.

Four years of being a tackling dummy. Poor guy.

- All right! Let's go, defense! - Hike!

[referee blows whistle]

Worst athlete I've ever seen. But he's got guts.

- [clapping] - [panting]

OK, let's go! Let's do it!

[man] California's gubernatorial race, Nixon returned to the political arena

in a long and acrimonious bid against popular incumbent Edmund G. Brown.

Brown's campaign has benefited greatly from the support of President Kennedy,

while Nixon has had trouble convincing voters

this is not another run for the presidency.

With only a few precincts left unreported,

all indications are of another defeat for Nixon,

who lost the presidencyjust two years ago by a paper-thin margin.

It seems his brief political comeback

- is in ruins. - Making a statement?

Thank you, Fidel Castro.

- You're not going to blame Castro? - [Richard] I sure am!

Goddamn missile crisis united the country behind Kennedy.

He was supporting Brown. People were scared.

[Stone] Maybe the Watergate burglars were looking for information

on the Democrats receiving illegal contributions from the North Vietnamese.

It's interesting. Nixon, of course, allied in this nefarious interaction

with South Vietnam, would naturally be paranoid then of the North Vietnamese

supporting the Democrats. It follows as day to night. If you're paranoid

and understand Hamlet, there's method to this madness.

So it's quite possible. I would not be surprised if that was the reason.

Liddy was so nuts, but he was... Liddy said Miami contacts told him

there was a companion rumor Fidel Castro was secretly funding the Democrats.

So none of this is out of the realm of possibility when you consider

the Chinese Army, People's Liberation Army, financed a lot of the campaign

for the Democrats in '96. We had a series of Chinese contributions,

Indonesian contributions, Asian... It's a very bizarre story.

So this is not out of the realm of a Richard Condon novel, believe me.

Buddy?

[Pat] I have always stood by you.

I campaigned for you when I was pregnant.

During Checkers, when Ike wanted you out, I told you to fight.

This is different, Dick.

You've changed.

You've grown more bitter, like you're at war with the world.

You weren't that way before.

[sighs] I'm 50 years old now, Dick.

How many millions of miles have I traveled?

How many millions of peoples' hands have I shaked I just don't like?

How many thank-you notes have I written?

It's as if I, I don't know, just went to sleep a long time ago

and missed the years between.

I've had enough.

What are you saying? What are you talking about?

I want a divorce.

My God. Divorce? What about the girls?

The girls'll grow up. They only know you from television anyway.

- [Richard] It'll ruin us, our family. - No, you're ruining us.

Ifwe stay with you, you'll take us down with you.

This isn't political. This is our life.

Everything's political.

- I'm political, you're political. - No, I'm not. I'm finished.

Well, this is just what they want, Buddy.

Don't you see?

They want to drive us apart, to beat us.

We can't let them do it.

We've been through too much together.

We belong together.

That's what you said the first time we met.

You didn't even know me.

Oh, yes, I did.

I asked you to marry me, didn't I?

On our first date.

I said it because I knew...

I knew you were the one.

So solid.

So strong.

- So beautiful. - Hi, I'm Pat Ryan.

Richard Nixon.

[Stone] Nixon theorized the Democratic National Committee books

would reflect foreign contributions.

Those are mostly likely kept in the files of Larry O'Brien

in the Watergate office building.

So the night of May 28, '72,

offices were entered, rolls of photographs taken by the entry team,

James McCord bugged O'Brien's office and tapped his phone.

The developed film showed the contents of O'Brien's desk drawers,

but no account books or lists of Democratic contributors.

You were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I don't want to lose you.

- Ever. - Dick, don't.

You really want me to quit?

We can be happy.

We really can.

The girls and I love you, Dick.

And if I stop,

there'll be no more talk of divorce?

I'll do it. No more.

Are you serious?

Yeah. I'm out.

Is that the truth?

I'll never run again. I promise.

Yeah.

I love you, Buddy.

I love you.

[whispers] I love you.

Where are they?

- You don't have to make a statement. - No!

[man] Gentlemen, Mr. Nixon is a man who is graceful in defeat,

and if he was here with us...

[people clamoring]

Can I have some quiet, please?

Give the... Just a second!

Some quiet, please. Quiet!

Thank you!

- [man] Mr. Nixon! - Uh... Ahem.

I believe Governor Brown has a heart,

even though he believes I do not.

I believe he's a good American,

even though he feels I am not.

I'm proud of the fact that I defended my opponent's patriotism.

You gentlemen didn't report it, but I'm proud I did that. And...

And I would appreciate, for once, gentlemen,

if you would just print what I say.

For 16 years, uh, ever since the Hiss case,

you've had a lot of fun. A lot of fun.

But recognize you have a responsibility,

if you're against the candidate, to give him the shaft.

But if you do that, at least put one lonely reporter on the campaign

who will report what the candidate says now and then.

I think, all in all, I've given as good as I've taken.

But as I leave you, I...

I want you to know, just think what you're gonna be missing.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.

Kick around anymore.

[crowd murmuring]

Uh... [clears throat]

Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

- Thank you and good day. - Is this the end of politics for you?

[reporters shouting in unison]

[man] Will you run again?

[male reporter] In California, we can officially write the political obituary

of Richard Milhous Nixon. A small town lawyer like Lincoln,

Nixon became a representative at 33 and a senator at 35,

as part of the postwar Republican sweep of the congressional elections

that attacked FDR's big-government New Deal.

[man 2] Running as a veteran, victories over Congressman Voorhis

and Senator Helen Gahagan Douglas made it clear that, to Nixon,

politics was war. He didn't have opponents, he had enemies.

[Nixon] She's pink, down to her underwear!

[man] Nixon became a leading light on the notorious

House Un-American Activities Committee, questioning labor leaders,

Spanish Civil War veterans, Hollywood celebrities.

- They'd all be sent back to Russia. - [man 3] It was the Alger Hiss case

that made Nixon a household name.

One of the architects of the United Nations,

intimate of FDR and Oliver Wendell Holmes,

Alger Hiss was a State Department diplomat

accused by freelance journalist Whittaker Chambers

of passing secret documents to the Soviet Union.

- Hiss is lying. - Hiss claimed he was being set up

by Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover to discredit the New Deal's policies.

I am not, and never have been, a member of the Communist party.

[Stone] If you know the Nixon story, you laugh at the double-ness of things.

The Hiss papers, the pumpkin papers were filled with photographs also.

And they were ridiculous photographs of fire extinguishers and stuff

on Navy vessels in the 1930s. There was no pictures there of any importance.

A bunch of silly pictures. Nixon, this is the second time

he gets in trouble with pictures. A lot of double-ness in Nixon's life.

Two brothers die. The two Kennedy brothers die. We'll get into that later.

[man] ...and the Democratic party for losing mainland China in 1949,

and blamed the Korean War on a weak foreign policy.

I promise to expose and to continue to expose the people that have sold

- this country down the river! - [man] His speeches, if more subtle

than those of his Republican ally, Joe McCarthy, were just as aggressive.

[Nixon] The direct result of Truman's decision is China has gone Communist!

Mao is a monster! Why?

Who in the State Department is watching overAmerican interests?

Who has given the Russians the atomic bomb?

The Soviet Union is an example of the slave state in the ultimate development.

[man] Driven by demons that seemed more personal than political,

Nixon became Eisenhower's vice presidential candidate in 1952.

But then came the Checkers crisis.

Nixon was accused of hiding a secret slush fund.

About to be kicked off the ticket by Ike, he went live on television

- in an unprecedented appearance. - ...give this television audience

a complete financial history. Everything I've earned...

[man 2] The list included their house, Oldsmobile,

Pat's Republican cloth coat. And lastly, in what was to become history,

a sentimental gift from a Texas businessman.

You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate

that he'd sent all the way from Texas,

black and white, spotted. And our little girl Tricia,

the six-year-old, named it Checkers.

- [man] Fifty-eight million people saw. - Like all kids, they love the dog.

[man] It was shameless. It was manipulative.

Regardless ofwhat they say about him, we're gonna keep him.

[man] It was a huge success.

He stayed on the national scene, serving two terms as vice president

under Eisenhower, against Khrushchev at the Kitchen Debate in Moscow

and stoned by Latin mobs in Venezuela. Nixon once again became a national hero.

But it all came to a crashing end against Kennedy in 1960

and Pat Brown in California in '62.

[man 2] And thus ends a great American political story.

The truth is we never knew who Richard Nixon really was,

and now that he is gone, we never will.

[Stone] So they come up with nothing.

During the entry, these bozos, this is like the Stooges.

McCord put in a microphone that didn't have good sound. [laughs]

And they went back for a reprise on the night of June 16th.

McCord was to replace one of the microphones, among other things.

They were supposed to look again, although there were indications

that the building guard was alerted. Liddy forced the issue.

Liddy was the alpha male there.

The five men who entered the DNC offices were arrested. As a result,

James McCord made a separate peace with the government

and received a light prison sentence. The other guys all got fucked.

The Miami guys, Cuban guys from the Bay of Pigs,

most of them were heroic guys doing their service to America.

A right-wing America they perceived as anti-Castro.

Nixon was the most anti-Castro of all. So they were very loyal.

These guys were rugged guys. I met a few of them.

Good guys, not bad guys. Guys who believe. They're soldiers.

And they were reduced to near beggary. Legal bills are hard.

When Hunt, who had the most experience, because he'd been

in the Agency the longest, since the days ofWorld War II,

but he had retired at this point. He was hired by Liddy to be

in the plumbers unit at the White House.

Hunt was the smartest and most experienced. He figured it out

that when he asked for money, his overtures were perceived as blackmail

by the Nixon people, and Nixon particularly.

That was a mistake because if you're into clandestine spy work like this,

these are obligations, like military. You bring back your men. You pay.

You get them out. You don't nickel and dime them.

And it was not blackmail. He took the fall, you get him out.

Howard Hunt I met on the set. He came to the set.

It was very interesting to meet this legendary Doonesbury figure

because he was not an imposing man, not a very powerful face.

He's obviously a man who was at the crux of many different things in history.

But he had a hard life as a result ofWatergate, and I empathized with him

because not only did he get abandoned by his bosses here,

thrown into jail, but his wife Dorothy is killed in a plane crash

in December which people think was a conspiracy. I don't at all.

It was a natural plane crash. She had a lot of money on her.

She was carrying a lot of cash. But more importantly, Hunt had

four motherless children to care for, and he's in jail.

How is he gonna go through trial? So he's trying to make a deal.

He cooperated with the grand jury. AFter that, Liddy never talked to him again.

Gradually, Nixon's intimates were all snagged, one by one.

It was like a fishing operation. But it was a slow net.

It was like you had to get them one at a time.

Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean. Hunt was in prison all this time.

He watched it all. Couldn't believe it, as these bigger guys were going down.

It was clear to Hunt that the prospects for his release, the release of his men,

were non-existent. But he continued to lie to the grand jury

and Sam Ervin's Senate investigating committee.

He still believed by protecting the presidency,

he could hope for a reduction of his 35-year sentence.

Thirty-five years. Four children, no wife.

AFter a year in prison, he was released only on appeal.

But his children had already scattered,

effectively dissolving his once happy family.

Once Hunt got out and read transcripts of the Oval Office tapes,

he realized that the president, who he had admired,

was completely indifferent to his fate.

That was a turning point. He resolved to testify truthfully.

And did so from then on. So there's another one who breaks.

You have McCord, you got Hunt, it's inevitable. The machinery's in progress.

They're not gonna go to jail for a president not loyal to them.

Oddly enough, Hunt's appeal was denied.

And then he returned to prison for the balance of this 35-year sentence.

He was finally paroled in '77. He was lucky enough to remarry

and father two more children.

But Watergate cost him the disruption of a family, legal fees nearly $800,000,

the fall of the Cubans who trusted him. That's very important to Hunt.

Publishers' resistance to his books,

aFter a long and successful writing career as a spy novelist,

the permanent labels of "Watergater" and "burglar" and 33 months in prison.

That's what he got out of it.

[jazz music playing]

- Name it, baby. - That little convertible?

I'll buy you a diamond ring. I'll buy you one.

- [woman] Thank you. - Hello, baby.

Hey, wait, wait, wait.

This is Julie there. And that's Tricia.

- Oh, yeah. - She reminds me a bit of you, Sandy.

She really is wholesome. But what about you?

- What do you like? - Well, I like music.

- I likejazz. - Jazz, yeah. Guy Lombardo.

How about rock and roll?

- Elvis Presley? - Yeah, he's good. Yeah.

- Decent guy. - Well, I guess,

for me, it also depends on what I'm doin' to the music, Dick.

- Yeah. - So, what's it like bein' so famous?

A vice president!

Well, it's not like that, Sandy.

You see, the reason I got into politics in the first place was,

well, to do something for the people.

So, how are you two doing?

You know, Dick, there's more privacy in the back of the...

- No, Trini, we're fine here. - OK.

Hell, Kennedyjust pissed Cuba away to the Russians. Just pissed it away.

And he doesn't know what the hell he's doin' in Vietnam.

These are dangerous times, especially for business.

- Agreed. - We know what you tried to do for Cuba.

If you had been elected in '60, Castro would be dead now.

Gentlemen, I tried. I told Kennedy to go into Cuba.

He heard me and he made his decision. I appreciate your sentiments.

I've heard them from many fine Cuban patriots.

But it's nothing I can do anything about.

It's a long drive to Dallas. Trini and I have a plane to catch tomorrow. So...

- Dick, these boys want you to run. - Absolutely.

- That's right. - Now, they're serious.

They can deliver the South and put Texas in your column.

They would have done it in '60.

Only if Kennedy dumps Johnson. That'll never happen.

I don't think you know how much people hate Kennedy down here.

He's comin' to town tomorrow, and they will run his ass outta town on a rail!

- Damn right. - That we will.

We are willing to give you a shit pot full of money to get rid of him.

More than you ever dreamed of.

Nobody's gonna beat Kennedy in '64 with all the money in the world.

Suppose Kennedy don't run in '64.

Not a chance.

Yeah.

Well, gentlemen, I promised my wife I... I'm out of politics.

You just came down here for the weather, is that right, Mr. Nixon?

I came down here to close a deal for Studebaker.

- What about '68, Dick? - Five years, Trini.

In politics, that's an eternity.

Dick... your country needs you.

Unfortunately, the country's not available right now.

[Stone] Howard Hunt. "The villainy you teach me, I will execute.

And it shall go hard."

The Merchant ofVenice.

"Paint me as I am," said Cromwell. "Less than truth, my soul abhors."

Churchill, an illustrious successor,

thought truth so precious as to require a bodyguard of lies.

In June, '72, a bodyguard of otherwise honorable men

began shielding Nixonian truth with lies.

That was the beginning ofWatergate and the fall of Richard Nixon.

Clear was Nixon's contempt for those he sacrificed to lighten his sinking boat.

He sacrificed everybody. Intimate friends, longtime supporters,

advisors, until all were gone and he sank alone,

rejected and un-regretted.

I even suggest in the movie that he sacrificed his family by lying to them.

And Joan Allen, playing Pat Nixon,

although we don't have any proof of her taking on or challenging her husband,

I took dramatic license of allowing her to be the only one who talked to him

head-on-straight, which probably she never did

because Pat Nixon, I think, was a deeply unhappy woman

who resigned herself to the compromise.

[march plays on snare drum]

Look, Edgar, these, uh... these guys were really strange.

- You know, extremists. - What do you mean by "strange"?

- Right-wing stuff. - Birchers?

- Birchers, yeah. - This thing's pretty straight.

- [man] In Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald... - Oswald's got a Cuba connection?

- To Castro? - ...maximum security facility.

- Mrs. Kennedy... - [Richard] He's a real Communist.

Well, that makes sense.

OK, well, thank you, Edgar.

[man] Senator Ted Kennedy, arriving early this morning

with his mother and sister.

Hoover says this Oswald checks out as a beatnik,

- a real bum. - Dick, you should call Bobby.

He doesn't want me at the funeral.

- You don't have to go. - De Gaulle's gonna be there.

- McMillan. Adenauer. - [man] We go now to the rotunda...

Nixon can't not be there.

[Pat] Then call him. I'm sure it was an oversight.

[Stone] This is what movies are for, heighten realism

to make the point that somebody should have talked to him, helped him.

Somebody could have helped him to get outside himself.

Perhaps as simple as a psychiatrist.

You can see a psychiatrist as a president. Don't have to be ashamed.

Somebody to let out your frustrations. Or, you know, people say

the stress hormone brings on anger.

There's a strong stress hormone in Nixon all the time.

You always see his frown, unhappiness.

And you think he didn't do much exercise. He hated exercise.

So he lacked that kind of body. Perhaps that was a shortcoming too.

Been able to get on a treadmill or swimming pool,

he might have worked out some of that stress and anger he felt

and would have been a happier man.

Hold him tighter. Hold him tighter.

- [screaming] - Hold him tighter.

[Stone] But everyone said he was a sourpuss.

Although he could be a charming man at times.

Wasn't comfortable in one-on-one conversations. He liked to address

groups. One of the great scenes is when he goes to the Lincoln Memorial

to talk to the students. He never really focuses on any of the kids

until one of the girls forces him to, which is the way he talked to people.

Not all the time, but...

Unless it was business, Nixon didn't want to talk.

He was bad at small talk. Bob Scheer, one of our consultants,

columnist for the LA Times, very helpful, knew Pat Nixon too,

told us how brilliant Nixon would be one-on-one in discussing policy.

The same time, how awkward he would be talking one-on-one about anything

less than policy.

Whether it would be surfing, the Redskins, football,

it was embarrassing and awkward. He was very clumsy

and start to sweat and mumble.

[boy] You're it!

No. No, don't!

If I'd been president, they never would've killed me.

[man] Vice President Johnson, shown here being sworn in...

- [Pat] Dick, are you gonna call? Bobby. - Hmm?

[sighs]

I'll go through Johnson. We'll be invited.

[Lyndon Johnson] This is a sad time for all people.

I ask for your help.

...and are going to see Vietnam through

to an honorable peace...

...to defend an honored cause,

whatever the price, whatever the burden,

whatever the sacrifice that duty may require.

Accordingly... I shall not seek...

...and I will not accept...

...the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

Good night, and God bless all of you.

[man] Johnson's withdrawal resurrects Richard Nixon

as a strong Republican candidate with a secret plan to end the war.

His mother, Hannah Nixon, just before her death last year,

commented on her son's chances.

Mrs. Nixon, do you think your son will ever return to politics?

I don't think he has a choice.

He has always been a leader.

Do you think he'd make a great president, Mrs. Nixon?

If he's on God's side, yes.

[man] You must be very proud of your son.

I have always been proud of all of my children.

[Hannah] Of course, no one can see into the future.

We didn't know this day would come.

- [man] Where'd he go? - [man 2] In the side door.

- Is that Mitchell? - Shit! Missed him.

[doorbell buzzes]

I thought that guy was gonna kiss your hand on the side of it.

- Congratulations, sir. - Yeah, thanks.

Jesus, Dick! I've never seen anything like it.

Even the goddamn Times is saying you've got it.

- Vietnam's gonna put you in there. - We got the press this time.

- We got the big mo. We're back. - So you've decided.

Were you planning to tell me?

We haven't announced anything yet, but...

Jesus. Uh... Pat?

Wait in the living room, will you, fellas? What is it, John?

You need her, Dick. In '60, she was worth five, six million votes.

Yeah. Don't worry. I'll use the old Nixon charm.

In there. OK.

Who could resist that?

Buddy?

You should be going.

Primaries are soon, aren't they? New Hampshire.

I love you, Buddy. I need you.

I don't want them to love me.

But I need you out there.

It won't be like the last time. The war's crippled the Democrats.

I can win. We deserve it.

It's ours, Buddy, at last.

Nobody knows that better than you.

Frank Nixon's boy.

Do you remember what Mom said? We're not like other people. We...

We don't choose our way.

We can really change things, Buddy.

We got a chance to get it right. We can change America.

It was our dream, Buddy, together, always.

- Do you really want this, Dick? - Yeah. This, above all.

- And then you'll be happy? - Yeah, you know I will. Yes! I will.

Then I'll be there for you.

And we are gonna win this time. I can feel it.

Yeah!

You're the strongest woman I ever met, Buddy.

- Can I just ask for one thing? - Anything.

- Would you kiss me? - Yeah!

[jazz playing]

We're gonna win the race.

My thanks to all of you. It's on to Chicago and let's win there. Thank you.

I would never question Senator Kennedy's patriotism.

But going around the country, promising peace at any price

is exactly what the North Vietnamese want to hear.

[man] Cue the crowd.

Go to this bald guy. Yeah, he's great, isn't he?

[Nixon] I, unlike Senator Kennedy,

have a plan to end the war immediately.

But not for peace at any price, but peace with honor.

[Stone] Brian Bedford is a fine Canadian actor.

Been excellent in theater for years. He was a delight to work with.

That's why Nixon's always been useful.

- [Tolson speaking Spanish] - [man replies]

Hold still.

[Stone] "Hold still" means, "Don't get your erection up."

No, we gotta have a Negro. This guy right here.

Negro, front row.

- Mr. Nixon, sir. - Yeah.

We all know you have built your career

on smearing people as Communists.

And now you are building your campaign

on the divisions in this country,

stirring up hatred and turning people against each other.

- What the fuck's he doing? A speech! - Cut him off.

- I can't. This isn't Russia. - Sounds like a Negro.

- Saying Negro things. What's he doing? - Sounded white when we screened.

Doesn't sound white now, sounds like Angela Davis.

When are you gonna tell us what you really stand for?

- Go to commercial! - There are no commercials.

- You bought the whole half hour. - Shit!

When are you going to take off that mask and show us who you really are?

[man] Shut up and sit down!

- [Nixon] OK. OK. - It's a high hard one, chief.

- Park it. - There are divisions in this country.

- That's because you created them. - I did not. The Democrats did.

If it's dialogue you want, you're more likely to get it from me

than people burning down cities. Just think about it.

- Dr. King said the same thing. - Oh, please.

You know, young man, who a great hero is? Abraham Lincoln.

- Abraham Lincoln. - Lincoln. Is he beautiful?

- He believed in common ground. - [Stone] "Common ground"

was a very smart ploy, which allowed Nixon to move to the center.

"Common ground, Lincoln." He got away with it, just.

- I have another question. - [Stone] I just love the dialogue.

I think Woods probably improvised that one. "I want the agitator who

let him in here get fired." Right aFter "I love Lincoln, I love Nixon,

I love common ground." [laughs] I'm sure Jimmy Woods

is way beyond the hyper region of Bob Haldeman, who was hot-tempered.

Nothing could be like Jimmy. Jimmy's like a ballistic missile.

Closest thing we have to Henry De Silva for this generation, if not better.

And he's a great actor.

But boy, does he get into these roles, heart and soul.

And throw himself to the wolves sometimes.

- My dad sold it before they found oil. - My dad sold it before they found oil.

- But it was all we had. - But it was all we had.

- My dad built the house with his hands. - You're new here. What's your name?

Joaquin, Mr. Hoover.

Oh.

My father sacrificed everything he had so that his sons could go to college.

- A gentle Quaker mother quietly wept... - [Stone] He's jealous, the beach boy

is looking at his buddy. I'm making fun, and I think going over the top here.

[laughing] But I couldn't resist. I don't know.

Call me crude again, but it was fun. Movies have to be fun, too.

You know Hoover was weird. Everyone knows that.

Whether he was a guy who was a real fruitcake or not,

another question. Whether he had relationships with Colson,

he may have been neutral. The point was he was weird

because he was hiding it and not coming out.

And it makes it even weirder, all the forms it took.

And his relationship with his mother, if you read Hoover's books,

it's bizarre, a bizarre life.

And the concept of snitching and tattling on the other guy,

being an informer and having power. Avery strange life, Edgar Hoover.

Very depressing. I read several books on him.

[trumpet plays Call to the Post]

[horses nicker and neigh]

[gate bell ringing]

- [crowd cheering] - [horses whinnying]

[announcer calling race]

Your boy's on the way up.

You know, I met this guy years ago in Havana. You know that.

Come on!

He's folding, Johnny.

No, no, no. You just wait a second.

[announcer] Olly's Boy on the inside!

[man] Come on! Come on!

- [people gasping and shouting] - [horses whinnying]

[announcer] And a tragedy! Olly's Boy has fallen on the sixteenth pole.

Sunday's Chance goes on to win it in 25,000...

A bit extreme, isn't it?

It's the drama. Look, the crowd loves this shit.

May I have your autograph?

[Johnny] Hey, there's Randolph Scott. Look at that.

Cash these for me, would you, Johnny?

[whinnies]

- Easy! Easy, easy! - It's a two-dollar bet, Edgar.

You got thousands coming on this. I mean, what the fuck?

I told you, just cash it, Johnny. And don't swear around me. Come on.

Uh-huh.

Hello.

Edgar. Wonderful to see you.

- Clyde. - Mr. Nixon.

- Hi. - Thank you for coming, Richard.

OK. Winning?

Actually, I've just had a bit of luck. Are you gonna win?

You should ask Bobby.

- Little Bobby. - Yeah, Bobby Kennedy.

Yeah.

Would you walk with me down to the paddock?

- I'd like to look at the horses. - Can we talk here?

I got the police chiefs in San Diego.

Actually, I'm trying to spare you an embarrassment.

That was Johnny Roselli you just passed. He's on his way back.

Roselli? Johnny Roselli?

Yes. You know him, Richard? No? From Cuba?

[mambo music playing]

- Hey, Johnny Roselli. How're you doin'? - Dick Nixon.

How are you?

I never met the man. Uh...

Well, I know you've...

...been very careful not to. That's why I'm so concerned.

OK.

- [gate bell ringing] - [announcer] Off and running!

[Stone] He didn't bring us law and order.

Like Hitler, he promised it, but brought us disorder

and the breaking of the law.

He did not bring us peace, but four more years of war.

That's what you have to tally when you add it up for Nixon.

You cannot forget the facts.

Those who support him deny that. If you visit the Nixon Library in Whittier

where they try to preserve his home and his tape recordings,

it's such a Soviet museum

in the fact that they omit, like, everything that's derogatory

about Nixon. It's the weirdest... You should just take your kids there

to teach them about disinformation. It would take a few hours to learn.

Then aFter you walk through the museum, have them look at something more serious

like our film or read a book or something.

- I wanna fightjust as dirty, Edgar. - His women. Use his women.

Any information you have.

The son of a bitch is not gonna steal from me again.

Can you back me up on this? Can I count on your support?

I look at it from the point of view that the system can only take so much abuse.

- It adjusts itself eventually. - Yeah.

But there are times... There are savage outbursts.

The late Dr. King, for example. Amoral hypocrite.

Screwing women like a degenerate tomcat,

stirring up the blacks, preaching against our system.

Sometimes the system comes very close to cracking.

We've already had one radical in the White House.

I don't believe we could survive another.

[whinnies]

- Well, like I said, Edgar... - You ask...

...if you can count on my support.

As long as I can count on yours.

Yeah.

[Nixon] Yeah, the old queen did it on purpose.

No, he wasn't protecting me.

- He was just putting me on notice. - [Haldeman] That he knew Roselli?

- No. - Hoover knew a lot of gangsters.

Johnny Roselli wasn'tjust any gangster.

Johnny Roselli was one of the gangsters who set up Track Two in Cuba.

Oh, well, I know all about that.

I don't understand it. Track Two is Chile.

[Nixon] Yeah, Chile, Congo, Guadalajara, Iran, Cuba.

Wherever there was need for an executive action capability,

there's Track Two.

In Cuba, Track One was the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Track Two was our idea.

We thought that the invasion wouldn't work unless we got rid of Castro.

So we asked ourselves, "Who else wants Castro dead?"

The Mafia or money people?

So we put together Track Two.

First assassination attempt was in '60.

- Just before the election. - Before? Eisenhower approved that?

Yeah. Well, he didn't veto it.

I ran the White House side,

and the Mob contact was Johnny Roselli.

One of the CIA guys was this jackass, Howard Hunt.

- Jesus. - Yeah.

Notjust Howard Hunt, but Frank Sturgis

and all those other Cubans.

All of them in the Watergate.

They're all involved in Cuba.

Yeah, Hunt reported to my military aide.

I don't know how much Hunt knows or the Cubans, but...

...you never know.

So you wanted Castro dead. Everybody wanted Castro dead.

You know, if Hunt and the others are CIA...

...why don't wejust dump this back in the CIA's lap,

- let Dick Helms take the fall? - Because...

Because Helms knows too much.

If there's anyone in this country who knows more than me,

it's Hoover and Helms, and you don't fuck with Dick Helms, period.

All right. But why, if Kennedy was so clean in all this,

- didn't he cancel Track Two? - 'Cause he didn't even know about it.

The CIA never told him. Theyjust kept it going.

[Stone] This is what I think is new and key.

Some people agree on this or not, but "a life of it's own" is important.

Kennedy certainly became involved heavily aFter the Bay of Pigs disaster.

[Nixon] Two days after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy called me...

[Stone] I love bringing in Fever here.

- He just found out about Track Two. - [Haldeman] You never told him?

I didn't want him to get the credit.

He said I'd stabbed him in the back

and called me a two-bit grocery clerk from Whittier.

[ Peggy Lee: Fever]

[Stone] Counter-imagery.

Counter-cut. Different mood inside of him.

The man inside... hurt.

See, when I saw Bobby lying there on the floor,

- arms stretched out like that... - [Stone] Key moment.

...his eyes staring...

...I knew then I'd be president.

His death paved the way, didn't it?

Yeah. Vietnam, the Kennedys

cleared a path through the wilderness just for me.

Over the bodies.

Four bodies.

[Stone] I love this moment.

You mean two.

- Two bodies. - [Stone] Almost like a mystery movie.

"Four."

- [thunder rumbling] - Four.

[Stone] Cut axis on it too.

He's talking about his two brothers and we're right back into the second death.

Two and two. It's an odd symmetry in Nixon's life, as all lives.

Sometimes we have double, sometimes we have twins.

Back in the Lincoln Room alone. Canted angle again. I love the wallpaper.

Where would we be without death?

[Stone] This is where people get confused about the drinking

because they think he keeps drinking. But this is the same glass. [laughs]

Who's helping us?

Is it God, or is it...

...death?

[coughing and retching]

[wheezing]

Harold.

Harold, why don't you sit down, huh?

Here.

That was a whopper.

You'll be able to do it now.

- What? - Go to law school.

- Mom and Dad'll be able to afford it. - Harold.

Mama expects great things from you.

Can I... Can I get you anything?

Relax, Dick.

It's just me, all right?

The desert's so beautiful, isn't it?

I want to go home, Dick.

Time to go home.

You... You're not gonna quit on me now, are you, Harold?

[wheezing breaths]

[singing The Itsy-Bitsy Spider]

Richard.

- I can't. - [Hannah] You must.

This law school, it's a gift from thy brother.

He had to die for me to get it?

Something has to come of this.

It's meant to make us stronger.

Thee art stronger than Harold, stronger than Arthur.

- God has chosen thee to survive. - What about happiness, Mother?

Thee will find thy peace at the center, Richard.

Strength in this life, happiness in the next.

[applause]

[Stone] Nixon never could mesmerize a crowd, but he had ability to polarize

and to anger. He was an angry man. And he gave off that anger.

He represented, in 1968, the taking back from the new generation

to our father's generation, taking back the power from the Kennedys.

He represented Agnew and Mitchell. These were all old men.

Tough men. They were the Republicans. They were also my father's generation.

The money, the serious men. That was what it was about.

Law and order and taking back. I think, in order to do that,

Nixon devised the Southern strategy, Southern Republican strategy.

He used civil rights... He used every trick in the book.

When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down

for four years in a war in Vietnam with no end in sight,

when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy,

when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law

is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness,

when a nation that has been known for a century for equality of opportunity

is torn by unprecedented racial violence,

when the president of the United States cannot travel abroad

or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration,

then it is time for new leadership for the United States ofAmerica.

[cheering]

As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame,

millions ofAmericans crying out in anguish,

"Did we come all the way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy

and Valley Forge for this?"

I pledge to you that the current wave ofviolence

will not be the wave of the future.

[cheering]

Now let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth,

to find the truth, to speak the truth and to live the truth.

A new voice is being heard across America today.

It is not the voice of the protesters or the shouters.

It is the quiet voice of the majority ofAmericans who've been forgotten,

the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators.

They're the good people. They work hard and they save and they pay their taxes.

Now, who are they? Let me tell you who they are.

They're in this audience by the thousands.

They're the white Americans and black Americans,

Mexican Americans and Italian Americans.

They're the great silent majority,

and they have become angry, finally. Angry, not with hate,

but angry, my friends, because they love America

and they don't like what's happened to America these last four years.

Let us understand North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States.

Only Americans can do that!

I say to you tonight...

I say to you tonight we must have a new feeling of responsibility,

of self-discipline. We must look to renew state and local government.

We must have a complete reform of a big, bloated federal government.

Those of us in public service know

we can have full prosperity in peacetime.

Yes, we can cut the defense budget.

We can reduce conventional forces in Europe.

We can restore the natural environment.

We can improve health care, make it more available to all people.

And yes, we can have a complete reform of this government.

We can have a new American revolution!

[cheering]

[chanting] The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!

[man] It'd be a disaster.

There's a lot of sympathy out there for Cambodia.

Tiny, little, neutral Buddhist country.

They'll be rioting in the streets, on your front lawn!

Building the Cambodian army up? That would be harder than a Vietnamese Army.

They have no tradition. Mr. President, the government there will collapse.

- So you're saying do nothing. - No, sir, continue the bombing.

The same old horseshit. Well, that's not good enough.

I'm sick of being pushed around by the Vietnamese

like we're some, you know, pitiful giant.

They're using our POWs to humiliate us.

What we need now is a bold move into Cambodia

and go right after their VC base camps

and, uh... make 'em scream, hit 'em in the ass.

- What do you think, Henry? - Well, as you know,

most of my staff have weighed in against this incursion.

They believe it will fail to achieve anything fundamental militarily

and will result in crushing criticism domestically.

I didn't ask what your staff thinks. What do you think, Henry?

What I think is they're cowards.

Their opposition represents the cowardice

of the eastern establishment. They don't realize, as you do, sir,

that the Communists only respect strength

and they will only negotiate in good faith

if they fear the mad man, Richard Nixon.

Exactly! Unpredictability is our best asset.

We gotta take the war to 'em, hit 'em where it hurts, right in the nuts.

- More assassinations. Right, Al? - That's what they're doing.

See, your people in the State Department, Bill, they don't understand.

- Mr. President... - Electrify people with bold moves.

Bold moves make history. Like Teddy Roosevelt, TR,

rushing up San Juan Hill. Small event, but dramatic.

- People took notice. - They'll take notice, all right.

Ifwe sneak out of this war, another will start a mile down the road.

We bite the bullet here in Cambodia. There.

We bomb the hell out of these people.

[whistling descents]

[Nixon] Tonight, American and South Vietnamese units

will attack the headquarters

for the entire Communist military operation in South Vietnam.

This is not an invasion of Cambodia.

We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia,

but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam.

[Stone] People all have the knowledge of lying in their lives,

so they recognize the little lie. And that's the social contract.

To really get away with it, you have to make a really big lie

because that's so outrageous that no one will believe it.

I think Nixon was not as practiced about it as Hitler

because Hitler was really a mass manipulator of crowds and studied them.

Part of the reason Jim Morrison studied him, too, because he knew

that Hitler knew how to mesmerize crowds. He was a great speaker.

So I don't think Nixon ever really... Nixon told little lies.

I don't think he ever told a big enough lie to get away with it, as Hitler did.

See, when I think of those kids out there in Vietnam doing their duty,

I bet they were scared. I was when I was there.

But when it comes down to it,

you have to look up to these men because they're the greatest.

[Stone] I love his awkwardness with the soldier without a leg. Pure Nixon.

I mean, you see these bums, you know,

blowing up the campuses, burning books and so forth.

And they call themselves "flower children."

I call them spoiled rotten. And I tell you what would cure them.

A good, old-fashioned trip to my Ohio father's woodshed. Right, Julie?

- Right, Dad. - That's what these bums need.

- Well, thanks and congratulations. - Thank you, sir.

[Stone] Hopkins is gruff and beautiful.

[gunfire]

- [siren blaring] - [shouting]

[woman wailing]

[man 3] Less than 24 hours after President Nixon called them bums,

four students were shot dead at Kent State University in Ohio.

Student groups are calling for a general strike tomorrow to shut down...

I tell you, the soldiers were provoked. Now, stop this pussyfooting around.

Jesus Christ, dead kids.

How the hell did we give the Democrats a weapon like this?

Well, one way or the other, Kent State is not good.

- We have to get out in front of this. - Follow the money.

- Sir? - These kids are manipulated

by the Communists, like Chambers and Hiss.

What's the matter with you?

- This isn't '48. They'll never buy it. - How do you know that, John?

What's Hoover found, for God's sake?

He called the other day, sir. He asked for President Harding.

[laughter]

- We can have a national prayer day. - Never complain, never explain.

Come on, these are not fraternity pranks, John.

No, this is anarchy. It's a revolution.

- I wouldn't go that far, sir. - Why not?

Well, is it worth it, sir? I mean, is the war worth a one-term presidency?

Right now I think that's what we're looking at.

I will not go down as the first American president to lose a war.

Going to Cambodia, bombing Hanoi, bombing Laos buys us time

so we can get out and give the South Vietnamese a chance.

- Exactly, sir. - Ifwe keep our heads, we'll win this.

- What, win Vietnam, sir? - No, no.

No, but we can drive a stake through the heart of the Communist alliance.

Henry's getting strong signals from the Chinese.

They fear the Vietnamese more than the Russians

and they're worried about a united Vietnam.

Now, ifwe stick it out, we'll end up negotiating separately

with both the Chinese and the Soviets.

And we'll get better deals than we ever dreamed offrom both.

- That is triangular diplomacy. - [Kissinger] Exactly, Mr. President.

That's what geopolitics is about.

The linking of the whole world for self-interest.

You tell me, Ron, how the hell I can explain that on TV

to a bunch of simpleminded reporters and weeping mothers.

[Ron] But what am I telling the press

- about Kent State? - Tell 'em what the hell you like.

- They don't understand anyway. - Excuse me, sir.

Are you saying you're gonna recognize Red China?

That would cost us our strongest support.

No, I can do this because I spent my whole career

- building anti-Communist credentials. - If Kennedy or Johnson tried it,

they'd have crucified them, and rightfully so.

Damned risky, Mr. President. Why don't we wait until the second term?

- This will get us a second term. - This will get me a second term.

Damn it, without risk, there's no heroism, there's no history.

Nixon was born to do this. Give history a nudge.

- Come on! - Hear, hear.

If Cambodia doesn't work, we'll bomb Hanoi ifwe have to.

That's right. And if necessary, I'll drop the big one.

We have to entertain the possibility.

Goddamn it! Who cooked this damn steak?

Manolo, there's blood all over my plate. Take it away.

I'm sorry, sir.

[Stone] The poignant scene between Mitchell and Nixon

is something that Nixon said to somebody who was close to him.

You all right?

Yeah.

My brother, Harold, was the same age as those kids, John.

- Tuberculosis got him. - It wasn't your fault.

The soldiers were kids too. Theyjust panicked.

Yeah.

They were throwing rocks, John, just rocks.

They don't think I feel,

but I feel too much sometimes.

I just can't let a whole policy be dominated by our sentimentality.

[Stone] It seemed fitting because Mitchell was his age, generation

and his outlook, close to his outlook and a friend of his, in a sense.

As close as you could get to Dick Nixon.

Until Martha got in the way. But I thought he would

at least reveal these feelings to somebody like Mitchell,

who, because he came from that same era, might understand the difficulties

that Nixon had. It's an interesting speech. It talks about the underdog

and being the outsider, being whipped

and fighting your way into the system with a harder willpower

than the insiders have. The way Richard Nixon viewed it.

And viewed it as a victory.

I'd like to. I'd like to offer my condolences.

[Stone] Unfortunately, he went one step further to try to grind it in.

The bitterness was still there and that emotionality cost him,

in the sense that he wanted not only to beat his enemies but to destroy them.

[man] Enraged student groups across the country

are calling for a general strike tomorrow

to shut down the entire university system until the Vietnam War is ended.

[Nixon] This is nothing compared to Venezuela.

When I was vice president, Ike sent me down there like a blocking tackle.

They threw rocks, broke out the windows.

Almost overturned the car. Read Six Crises, Bob.

- I did, sir. - Pat was brave.

[indistinct shouting]

Jesus, they're serious. Why are we stopping? Come on, move it!

- Jesus! - [Nixon] Get that little punk!

Tackle! Go on, get him!

Yeah!

[indistinct shouting]

Yeah. Reminds me of my days at Whittier.

- These kids are useless. - [Haldeman] Probably flunking.

Nothing to do except come here and chase girls.

Their parents' fault. They're poisoning the upper class, Bob.

- Too soft, too many cars, color TVs. - Don't forget the South, the West.

Good football colleges. More with than against you.

Let's not forget they're just kids. They don't vote.

This is the fall of the Roman Empire. Are you blind?

We're putting the fig leaves on the statues.

[Stone] The limo scene leads to the CIA, a powerful scene.

Helms asserts his superiority, in my belief.

Mr. President.

- Bob. - I don't know what to say, sir.

Soon as we learned from the Secret Service...

[Stone] Coming out of that scene, Nixon realizes he's a strong man.

But he's being body-checked here by the CIA.

He asked the CIA aFterWatergate, his first breaking of the law

was to ask Haldeman to contact Helms and the CIA and ask him to call off

the FBI, saying it was a domestic surveillance program

that the CIA had been running. The FBI should exonerate these guys,

get them out of prison, hurry it up. Helms never did it, did he?

Which opens up another whole theory which we'll get to later.

- How's the job going, Bob? - Frankly, it stinks, sir.

I have no access.

- We'll see to that. - [sigh] He's nervous, sir.

He's heard you're looking for a new director.

- Certainly isn't acting like it. - That's Helms.

He's the epitome of sang-froid. A world-class poker player.

Yeah? Well, I own the fucking casino.

I'm honored, Dick, that you've come all the way out here

to Virginia to visit us at last.

- My friends call me Mr. President. - Then so shall I.

- Mr. Helms. - Arrange for some coffee,

will you, General Cushman?

Gentleman, please.

[doors closing]

Bob Cushman is a lieutenant general in the Marine Corps,

deputy director of the CIA.

- This is what you use him for? - I didn't choose him as my deputy.

- You did. - You live pretty well out here.

I understand why you keep your budgets classified.

I suppose you're unhappy...

...because I haven't implemented your domestic intelligence plan.

Yeah, you're correct.

I'm concerned these students are being funded by foreign interests

whether they know it or not. The FBI's useless in this area.

I want your full attention on this matter.

We've tried, but so far we've come up with nothing.

Then find something! I want these leaks stopped.

Jack Anderson, The New York Times, the State Department.

- I wanna know who's talking. - I'm sure you realize

that this is a tricky area,

given our charter and the Congressional oversight committee.

Screw congressional oversight. I know damn well, going back to the '50s

this agency reports what it wants and buries what it wants.

- Pay close attention to this. - Is something else bothering you?

Yes.

It involves some old and forgotten papers...

...things I signed as vice president.

I want the originals in my office and I don't want copies anywhere else.

You're referring, I believe,

to chairing the special operations group

- as vice president. - Yeah.

As you know, that was unique.

Not an operation so much as an organic phenomenon.

It grew, it changed shape,

it developed appetites.

It's not unusual in such cases that things are not committed to paper.

That could be very embarrassing.

I, for one, saw to it that my name was never connected with these operations.

Diem.

[gunfire]

Trujillo.

Lumumba.

Guatemala.

- Iran. - [sirens blaring]

Cuba.

It's a shame you didn't take similar precautions, Dick.

I'm interested in those documents that put your people together

with the gangster elements.

- All the documents. - President Kennedy threatened

to smash the CIA into 1,000 pieces.

You could do the same.

I'm not Jack Kennedy. Uh...

- Your agency is secure. - Not if I give you all the cards.

[sighs]

I promised the American people peace with honor in Southeast Asia.

That may take time. Two, maybe three years.

But, in the meantime, your agency will continue

at current levels of funding.

Current levels may not be sufficient.

Well, the president will support a reasonable request for an increase.

And me?

Of course, you will continue as DCI, Dick.

You're doing a magnificentjob.

Of course, I accept. I'm flattered.

And I want you to know that I serve only one president at a time.

Yes. And you'll give General Cushman full access.

[deep breath]

It could take a little time.

But I'll order a search for your papers.

- Good. - It does raise...

- ...a troubling issue. - What?

Castro.

- Yes? - We have recent intelligence

that a Soviet nuclear submarine

- has docked at Cienfuegos. - We'll launch a formal protest.

I don't think we can treat this as a formality.

Mr. Kennedy gave the Russians a verbal promise that he would not invade Cuba.

But you authorized Dr. Kissinger to put this in writing?

- Are you tapping Kissinger? - Myjob, unpleasant at times,

is to know what others don't want me to know.

Not if you have spies in the White House.

It is not my practice to spy on the president.

Dr. Kissinger manages to convey his innermost secrets to the world

without my help.

Dick...

We've lived with communism in Cuba for ten years.

But it's never been the policy of this government to accept that.

- And it's certainly not CIA policy. - CIA policy?

The CIA has no policy except what I dictate to you.

I tried to adjust to the world as it is today,

not as you or I wanted it to be ten years ago.

Is that why you and Kissinger are negotiating with the Chinese?

This is a very dangerous direction, Mr. President.

Terrible consequences can result from such enormous errors ofjudgment.

Ifwe were able to separate China from Russia once and for all,

we can, we could create a balance of power

that would secure peace into the next century.

And offer Cuba to the Russians as a consolation prize?

- Cuba would be a small price to pay. - So President Kennedy thought.

I never thought Kennedy was ready for the presidency.

Well, now...

...I would never...

...never consider...

His death was awful.

It was an awful thing for this country.

Yeah.

Do you ever think of death, Dick?

Flowers are a continual reminder of our mortality.

- Do you appreciate flowers? - No.

No, they make me sick and they smell like death.

I had two brothers die young.

Let me tell you,

there are worse things than death.

Yes.

There's such a thing as evil.

You must be familiar with my favorite poem by Yeats,

The Second Coming.

Black Irish, very moving.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things fall apart

The center cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

And everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is lost

The best lack all conviction

And the worst are full of passionate intensity

But it ends so beautifully ominous.

What rough beast

Its hour come round at last

Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

Yes.

This country stands at such a juncture.

Manolo?

Mano?

- [Manolo] Mr. President. - Yeah.

I'm sorry. I was asleep.

What can I get you?

- Well, you know. - Of course.

[Stone] And then, of course, Manolo and Dick coming aFter that

shows you the real vulnerability of Dick Nixon. He's been defeated by Helms.

Do you miss Cuba, Manolo?

Yes, Mr. President.

We let you down, didn't we? Your people.

That was Mr. Kennedy, sir.

You don't think he was a hero, do you?

He was a politician.

Did you cry when he died?

Yes, sir.

Why?

I don't know.

He made me...

...see the stars.

How did he do that?

Those kids.

Why do they hate me so much?

[helicopter buzzing overhead]

[choir singing Battle Hymn of the Republic]

[students murmuring]

Hi, I'm Dick Nixon.

Hi, there.

- Where you from? - Syracuse.

Oh, yeah, the, uh, Orangemen.

Now, there's a football program.

Jim Brown and that other tailback,

- the one with the blood disease. - Ernie Davis.

Yeah, right, right, right.

I used to play a little ball myself at Whittier.

Of course, they used to use me as a tackling dummy.

We didn't come here to talk about football.

Yeah, I understand that.

- How old are you, young lady? - Nineteen.

Yeah.

Well, probably most of you think I'm a real SOB. I know that.

I understand how you feel. But, you know,

I want peace too. But peace with honor.

- [woman] What does that mean? - [man] Bullshit.

Well, you can't have peace without a price.

Sometimes you have to be willing to fight for peace,

and sometimes to die.

Yeah? Tell that to the GIs who are gonna die tomorrow in Vietnam.

- What lets you kill women and children? - What you have to understand

is we're willing to die for what we believe in.

- That's the truth. - Yeah.

Yeah.

Look, that man up there, he lived in similar times.

Oh, he had chaos, civil war, hatred between the races.

- [man] This is all bullshit. - Sometimes I go to the Lincoln Room

at the White House and just pray. But, you know,

liberals act like idealism belongs to them.

That's not true.

My family went Republican because Lincoln freed the slaves.

My grandmother was an abolitionist.

It was Quakers who founded Whittier, my hometown...

- [woman] Address the issues. - ...to abolish slavery.

They were, you know, conservative Bible folk,

but they had a powerful sense of right and wrong.

Forty years ago, I was like you.

- Looking for answers. See? - [woman] Come on.

[man 2] Tricky Dick himself.

[Nixon] My mother used to feed hobos stopping over at our house.

[Haldeman] We got him.

- [man] Don't push, pig. - Move away.

It's OK, Bob, we're just rapping, my friends and I.

In fact, we agree on a lot of things, don't we?

No, we don't. You say you want to end the war,

- so why don't you? - Change always comes slowly.

I pulled out more than half the troops.

I'm trying to cut the military budget for the first time in 30 years.

I want a volunteer army.

But it's also a question ofAmerican credibility.

- Our position in the world. - [man] Come on, Mr. Nixon.

- It's a civil war between Vietnamese. - You don't want the war.

- We don't want the war. - [Stone] This girl, Joanna Going,

who was relatively new, was effective and surprising as a young radical.

It was the sweetness of her face, a young Winona Ryder, in contrast

to her hard logic and reasoning.

You can't stop it, can you?

Even if you wanted to.

- [helicopter buzzing] - 'Cause it's not you, it's the system.

The system won't let you stop it.

There's... There's more at stake here

than what you want or what I want.

Then what's the point?

What's the point of being president? You're powerless!

No! No, I'm not powerless.

Because I understand the system, I believe I can...

I can control it, maybe not control it totally,

but tame it enough to make it do some good.

Sounds like you're talking about a wild animal.

Yeah, maybe I am.

We really must go, Mr. President. Please.

[Stone] He goes for, in a sense, salving at the Lincoln Memorial,

but he doesn't find it. The beast catches up to him.

Entire entourage of Secret Service and Woods and Haldeman, Ehrlichman

coming to get their master like Dobermans.

Pull him back into the White House.

Which is what happened. They caught up to him

aFter he'd been talking a while and brought him back.

So it's much deeper than the original yacht-Manolo-Lincoln...

Lincoln Memorial, which works too. It goes from the yacht to Manolo,

and Manolo's a soFter scene, quieter scene, does follow the yacht.

Then you go from Manolo right to the Lincoln Memorial

and the montage and the wedding, which is great. What do you lose?

You lose this concept of Nixon

taking a humiliation from the CIA, which is part of the build

into his madness because he takes a licking from Helms,

and now you're gonna see he's gonna take a licking coming up in 1971

from... from the protests.

He's gonna take a licking from Daniel Ellsberg and Pentagon Papers.

Then he's gonna take a licking from his wife, Pat.

The power was lying in the street.

Just waiting for someone to pick it up.

Communists have never been closer than now.

Now is the time to get back to the old themes.

The ones that made you president.

Let the communists know you're on to them.

Little bastards think they can ruin Tricia's wedding

by dancing naked in the reflection pool.

Don't listen to 'em. And don't quit.

Remember, Kennedy and King were against the war.

Where are they now?

How the hell The Times got a hold of this Ellsberg stuff is a disgrace.

Yeah. We can't keep a damn secret in this government.

They're stealing papers right out of this office.

Johnson had the same damn problem

- until he bugged his own office. - We took that system out.

That was a mistake.

The White House was full of Kennedy people then.

- It still is. - Who's behind this?

Well, you have CIA people all over this place.

Helms has seen to that. Then there's Kissinger's staff.

Kissinger himself, I believe, may be the leaker.

Kissinger?

He's obsessed with his own image.

He wants his Nobel Peace Prize a little too much.

And as the late Dr. King proved,

even an ape can win a prize with good press.

Jesus, I'd like to book him into a psychiatrist's office.

He comes in here ranting and raving, dumping his crap all over the place.

- Could you prove it, Edgar? - Mr. President,

I always get my man.

Yeah, you do.

This damn tie. Could you help me?

Yeah.

- See, I'd be bugging myself. - Look.

- Who'd get the tapes? - No one. Your property.

And it would prove your case.

Why do you think Kissinger is taping all your calls?

For history.

His word against yours.

And right now, he's got the records.

I'll get Manolo to do this.

Thanks.

You know, Churchill once said to me,

"If you want your own history written properly,

you better write it yourself."

The only thing is, Edgar,

I don't want this to come back and haunt me.

It won't, as long as I'm here.

Good.

[big band jazz playing]

This way.

What's wrong?

We'rejust not going to buckle to these people.

- [chanting] No more war! - [Stone] In which his fate was sealed

by the creation of the plumbers.

So it goes. If you think about it, go back several years in time,

from 1971, go back to 1963

and think of November '63.

Think of the same weekend John F. Kennedy is killed and buried

and Lee Harvey Oswald is killed,

Lyndon Baines Johnson is having a meeting on Sunday

in the White House with his main people

and his chief of staff and his Pentagon crew

and talking about the war in Vietnam.

Of such stuff, history is made.

I'm very proud of you today, Princess. Very.

Thank you, Daddy.

[Stone] I think any dramatist would appreciate the irony here.

The question is finding them through time. You have to do research and dig.

Certainly, we know surface stories are not the ones to be believed.

Some secret essays on Vietnam have been leaked to The New York Times.

I know, I know. Not now, Chuck.

- The New York Times. - Get Ron over here.

It's the happiest day of my life.

[man] The New York Times began publishing the first in a series

of 47 volumes of top-secret Pentagon tapes relating to the war in Vietnam.

The papers, leaked by defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg,

reveal a pattern of government lies and American involvement in the war.

[Kissinger] Mr. President, we are in a revolutionary situation.

We are under siege. The Black Panthers, the Weathermen.

The State Department under Rogers is leaking like a sieve.

And now this little, insignificant little shit, Ellsberg,

publishing all the diplomatic secrets of this country

is destroying our ability to conduct foreign policy.

I wonder if people wouldn't think ten years in prison

was cheap if they could contribute to ending this war.

The man has become a drug fiend. He shot people from helicopters in Vietnam.

He's had sexual relations with his wife in front of their children.

He sees a shrink in LA. The man's all fucked up.

And now he's trying to look good for the liberals.

And if he gets away with it, everybody will follow his lead.

- This man must be stopped at all costs. - I'm as frustrated as you are, Henry,

but don't you think this is a Democrat problem? They started the war.

- It makes them look bad. - But, Mr. President, the Russians,

the Vietnamese... it makes you look like a weakling!

Goddamn it. How long have we had this jackass dog? Two years?

Doesn't come. We need a dog that looks happy when press is here.

- He's photogenic. Try new biscuits. - Ah, fuck it.

He doesn't like me, John. It's your fault, Henry.

- I beg your pardon? - It's your people talking to the press.

[Stone] Pentagon Papers scene in the original, stayed with the same formula.

We added one more thing. We went from the Pentagon Papers

to the cockfight in this version of the movie. Then we went from there

up to the Pat and Dick scene where they're talking straightforward

to each other. Nixon is more or less telling Pat the love between them

is not there. It's a sad scene. Very telling scene.

Nixon seems to be coming undone from his wife.

The wall has come up between him and her. He's allowed the wall to create

Nixon, the third party. "Nixon needs to be relaxed.

Nixon's being attacked. Nixon is being destroyed.

You don't understand, Buddy. You don't understand.

This country is falling apart. It's falling apart."

This is a very strong emotion in Dick Nixon.

Uh, he believes in teamwork, the spirit of the team.

Football ethic. Very strong.

I really believe he believed that. I have no doubt in his sincerity.

I believe there was an innocence in Dick Nixon too.

As well as the lying side, there was this great innocence in him.

That's the way it worked.

Naivety oFten coexists alongside manipulation and treachery.

It's a bizarre mix, the human being.

Not to say that I figured him out.

But perhaps that's one thing that keeps me going in terms of interest.

Figuring out the mystery of human behavior.

Truman cut the shit out of my investigation of the Hiss case in '48.

- What he did was illegal. - With this kind of thing,

you got to be brutal. A leak happens, the whole damn place should be fired.

Really, I mean, you do it like the Germans in World War II.

They went through these towns, and a sniper hit one of 'em,

they'd line the whole goddamn town up and say,

"Until you talk, you're all getting shot."

Really, I think that's what has to be done.

I don't think you can be Mr. Nice Guy anymore.

You just whisper the word to me, and I'll shoot Ellsberg myself.

- We're not Germans. - Yeah. Ellsberg's not the issue.

The Pentagon Papers aren't the issue.

It's the lie.

- Mr. Hiss is lying. - Yeah.

Remember, John, back in '48?

Nobody believed Alger Hiss was a communist except me.

They loved Hiss like they love this Ellsberg character.

He was their kind: Ivy League establishment.

- I am not, and never have been... - Mr. Hiss is lying.

- Mr. Hiss? - I was dirt to them, nothing.

- And Dick kicked the shit out of 'em. - I wouldn't have if Hiss hadn't lied

about knowing Chambers. The documents were old and out of date,

just like these Pentagon Papers.

The key thing we proved was that Hiss was a liar.

Then people bought that he was a spy.

It's the lie that gets you.

All right, Henry, we're gonna go your way.

Crush this Ellsberg same way we did Hiss.

There is no other choice.

We'll hit him so hard, he'll look like everything that's sick and evil

about the eastern establishment. You and your plumbers,

you get all the dirt on this guy.

See him going to the bathroom in front of the public.

And when we finish with him, they'll crucify him.

Then we'll get our second term.

- [rooster crowing] - [mambo music playing]

[Stone] In so far as in this new cut of the film,

which I've been able to remake aFter five years,

which is really a luxury, considering the pressures

and economics of the scale of moviemaking.

DVD is a wonderful medium.

And I hope a lot more directors will be re-cutting their films.

You'll have two versions, whatever you like.

But with playing with the idea of making the new movie thicker

and a little bit more contrast-y in the rises and falls of Dick Nixon,

the lunatic behavior growing even more powerfully

out of the highs and lows, I really pushed it here in the second half

of the film to densify and push the madness of King Lear, so to speak.

Part of that is putting the CIA back in earlier, aFter the yacht scene,

and that was a big scene. The CIA and yacht scene coming on to him.

I had Waterston slicing his tendons open practically,

then Manolo hurting him in his own innocent way.

The Lincoln Memorial was a wipe-out for him.

Emotionally hollow.

Protests, like a nightmare, continue for another year into '71.

June '71.

Then went to the wedding and from the wedding

to the Pentagon Papers and the cockfight.

Then we had that scene between Pat and Dick when they circle each other

and Pat telling him, "They'll never love you, Dick."

Ending with the break-in, the Watergate. So that was an action spine.

But in the course of the DVD, since the spectator can walk away

when he so wills or watch half of it now or half of it later, whatever,

this is where it seems to me you can put the more complex movie.

You know, I was just thinking tonight.

Remember when you used to drive me on dates with other boys?

- Yeah. - Didn't let me out of your sight.

Yeah. Sure.

It was a long time ago.

Yes, it's been a long time.

Now, look, Buddy.

I don't need that.

I'm not Jack Kennedy.

No, you're not.

So stop comparing yourself to him. You have no reason to.

You have everything you ever wanted. You earned it.

- Why can't you just enjoy it? - [sighs] I do.

- I do in my own way. - Then what are you scared of, honey?

I'm not scared, Buddy. You don't understand.

They're playing for keeps, Buddy.

You know, the press, the kids, the liberals out there.

They're out there trying to figure out how to tear me down.

- They're all your enemies? - Yes.

- You, personally? - Yes!

Listen, this is about me. Why can't you understand that?

I mean, you of all people.

It's not the war. It's Nixon!

It's not Vietnam, it's Nixon. They want to destroy Nixon.

If I expose myselfjust the slightest bit, they'll tear my insides out.

You want that? You know? You want to see that, Buddy?

It's not pretty!

Sometimes I think that's what you want, Dick.

What the hell are you saying?

Are you drunk?

Jesus, you sound just like them now.

I gotta keep fighting, Buddy, for the country.

These people running things, the elite!

They're just soft, chicken-shit faggots.

They don't have the long-term vision anymore.

Theyjust want to cover their ass and meet girls and tear each other down.

Oh, God, this country's in deep, deep, deep trouble, Buddy.

I have to see this through, you know.

Mother would have expected no less of me.

I'm sorry, Buddy.

I just wish you knew how much I love you, that's all.

It took me a long time to fall in love with you, Dick, but I did.

And it doesn't make you happy.

- You want them to love you. - No, I don't.

- I'm not Jack Kennedy. - They never will, Dick.

No matter how many elections you win, they never will.

[Stone] AFter the Nixon-Pat scene, in the old movie we went to the break-in.

Then from there to Chairman Mao in China for the last act.

But we went back in this up and down behavior.

We see the unstable Nixon in one of the most powerful scenes

where he really was wonderful. I don't know why I cut it.

But I cut it thinking that it was perhaps redundant or over the top

or perhaps length was an issue. But those are the scenes you die for.

You think of them through the years like children, and they're gone.

Except here's a chance for some people who really do care

to see this wonderful scene where Anthony Hopkins blows me away

with his mannerisms. He's so interesting.

OK? The permissiveness of this year is over.

The belts are coming off and people are gonna go to the woodshed.

'Cause the government cannot survive with a counter-government inside it.

I know how traitors operate. I've dealt with them all my life.

I've worked with these cases.

It's never little people. The little people do not leak.

It's always some smooth son of a bitch like Ellsberg.

The Harvard Hebrew boys who leak.

I hear people say, "But Ellsberg did it for the good of the country.

People's right to know."

Well, that's in every case. Alger Hiss said the same thing.

So did the Rosenbergs. Look what happened to them.

[mimics electrical crackling] Old Sparky got 'em.

They always underestimated old Nixon, see.

We're gonna fightjust as dirty. This is sudden death, gentlemen.

We're gonna get 'em on the ground,

stick in our spikes and twist and show them no mercy.

So, uh, starting today, no one in this room talks to the press

without checking...

[Stone] What that scene does emotionally

is just jack you up again aFter that long scene with Pat and Dick

where you kind of... It's a nice scene but dropping down into melancholy

and sadness so there's less energy.

They're both defeating each other. Both end up stalemated in a way.

Sapped of energy. Now you shoot up with this cabinet meeting.

I think of the cabinet meeting being the endorsement of his anger.

He's come... reminds me very much of the first act

of him doing the same thing when he told Pat he would never run for president

in 1962 in California. Cut to the next scene.

He's resigning from politics, saying, "You won't have Nixon to kick around."

That anger.

That's the gang in there, looting and stealing.

They broke into Ellsberg... Couldn't find anything on him.

Ultimately, he was exonerated. These guys have done break-ins.

This was not the first one. They tried to firebomb the Brookings Institute.

Here we go from the cabinet to the break-in to Mao.

All these montages have a reason. There's a motif, symbolic lead motif,

which is the flower, the orchid with Helms. It's the bombs in Cambodia.

The reverse montage of his life you see when he pushes back the tape

as if he could pull back his entire life and go backwards again in time.

Never seen a reverse montage like that. We really love montage.

I'd like to do more of it. It tells the story faster.

[Mao speaking in Mandarin]

[interpreter] Don't ever trust them. They never tell the truth

or honor their commitments.

Vietnamese are like Russians.

Both are dogs.

Mr. Chairman, there's an old saying in my country:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[interpreter] That has the added virtue of being true.

[Kissinger] Your writings have changed the world, Mr. Chairman.

[interpreter speaking Mandarin]

[speaks in Mandarin]

[translator] Bullshit. My writings mean absolutely nothing.

- I want to know your secret. - [Kissinger] My secret, Mr. Chairman?

[speaking in Mandarin]

How a fat man gets so many girls.

Power, Mr. Chairman, is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

[speaking in Mandarin]

[interpreter] You know, I voted for you in your last election.

I was, uh, the lesser of two evils.

[interpreter] You are too modest, Mr. Nixon.

You are as evil as I am.

We are the new emperors.

We are both from poor families and others pay to feed the hunger in us.

In my case, millions of reactionaries.

In your case, millions of Vietnamese.

Civil war is always the cruelest kind ofwar,

but our two nations were forged by revolution.

The United States, China.

[interpreter] Peace? Is peace all you're interested in?

The real war is in us.

[speaking in Mandarin]

History is a symptom of our disease.

[man] In a surprise Christmas bombing of Hanoi,

President Nixon delivered more tonnage

than was used at Dresden in World War II.

It is without doubt the most brutal bombing in American history.

Newspapers are calling it a Stone Age tactic

and Nixon a maddened tyrant. Nixon's response:

"When the Vietnamese take the Paris peace talks seriously, I'll stop."

A penny for your thoughts.

Just think of the...

Think of the life Mao's led.

In '52, I... I called him a monster.

Now he could be our most important ally.

Only Nixon could've done that.

You're a long way from Whittier.

Yep. Yes, I am.

- Congratulations, Dick. - [door opens]

- Mr. Ziegler. - Mr. President,

the press guys asked if you could come back.

- The hell with them. - I'll go back, Mr. President.

No, they want you, Mr. President. I...

I think it would be a good move.

- Who's back there? - Everybody.

OK.

Gentlemen, I go now to discover the exact length,

width and depth of the shaft.

[reporters chuckling, murmuring]

Ladies and gentlemen, the president.

- Hi. - Hi.

- Mr. President... - [man] Congratulations, sir.

- Well done! - Thank you, sir!

[Stone] Nixon with the ranchers has a lot of guts in this scene

for standing up to them. He's confident he'll win, but can't be sure.

He takes them on and really pisses them off.

Well, it looks to me

like we're gonna lose a war for the first goddamn time.

- Yep. - You're goin' right along with it,

buyin' into this Kissinger bullshit,

this... detente with Communists.

Detente. Sounds like a couple of fags dancin'.

[Stone] He does win the election in a landslide.

Jack, we're not living in the same country you and I knew in '46.

Our people are just not gonna sacrifice in major numbers for war.

Can't even get 'em to accept cuts in their gas tax.

Now, the Arabs and the Japanese are draining the gold reserves...

Whose fault is that?

Ifwe'd won in Vietnam, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Nobody's fault, Jack. It's change. It's a fact of history.

Even that old cocksucker J. Edgar Hoover's dead.

Now who'd have thought that possible?

How's the food over there in China, Mr. Nixon?

It's delicious, if you're president.

[Stone] You'd think that landslide would give him the security

to carry on with a respectable and healthy second term.

But the opposite was true. The bigger the landslide,

like some ego-maniac tsar out of an Eisenstein film,

he had to have 99 percent of the population say yes

as opposed to settling for a simple 51 percent. That's the sad part.

- He got crazier. - [man] So Kissinger stays.

Just like Castro, Mr. Nixon.

Yeah. He stays.

And you are comfortable with that decision?

[Jack] Desi's got a point.

What the hell are we gonna do about the Communists in our own backyard?

What do you really mean, Jack?

I mean, I got federal price controls on my oil.

And the rag heads are beatin' the shit out of me, Dick.

And your EPA environmental agency has got its thumb so far up my ass,

- it's scratchin' my ear! - I think it's time for us to be...

- Let him finish, Bob. - I got a federal judge orderin' me

to bus my grandkids halfway across this town to go to school with nigger kids.

Now, Dick, Mr. President,

aren't you forgetting who put you where you are?

The American people put me where I am, Jack.

Really?

- Well, that can be changed. - In a heartbeat.

Jack, I've learned politics is the art of compromise.

I learned it the hard way. I don't know if you have.

Well, let me tell you this, Jack.

If you don't like it, there's an election in November

and you can take your money out in the open and give it to Wallace.

How about it, Jack? Willing to do that?

Hand this country over to some pansy poet socialist like George McGovern?

'Cause if you're not happy with the EPA up your ass,

try the IRS.

Goddamn, Dick.

- You're not threatening me, are ya? - Presidents don't threaten, Jack.

They don't have to.

Good day to you, gentlemen. Thank you.

[man] With third party candidate George Wallace...

[Stone] To understand Nixon, you almost have to go back into the war

because you have to understand that it was during the war

that the American government started to get into bed with the Mafia

because we were fighting a war. We needed help.

Lucky Luciano. We'd had...

The troopship, Normandie, was sunk

right in Manhattan. The Nazis were infiltrating the docks and shipyards.

There was Nazis all over Montauk, Long Island. There were places in Long Island

with names... America was mostly German. Sixty percent.

Especially in sections of Long Island.

There were stories that Germans moved freely out in Montauk.

We developed a friendship between the Mafia and Office of Strategic Services

which is OSS, precursor to the CIA.

We made a pact. We went into Sicily.

They helped us on the docks.

It was Governor Tom Dewey of New York

who was Nixon's greatest supporter, actually.

Political supporter early in his career.

It was Dewey who busted Lucky Luciano and sent him to a New York prison.

But it was also Dewey who now agreed to deal and transferred Luciano

to a much easier prison. Then he signed parole papers right aFter V-E Day

for Luciano because Luciano had done work for the government in Sicily

and on the docks in New York.

So that was a beginning of this relationship. And in '47,

when Congress passed that very, very controversial National Security Act,

Truman created the CIA,

which was given a secret budget and a charter written so loosely

that it could probably grant the agency everything.

But they were not supposed to do domestic spying.

They were supposed to stay off the mainland.

From then on, in '47, the Mafia helped us with the French port of Marseilles,

breaking up the communist strikers there.

The Mafia later worked Southeast Asia's golden triangle for its heroin.

The CIA was accommodating, sending planes, providing safe passage

for the first leg of the heroin journey from the poppies of Laos.

Then in 1948, they wanted Tom Dewey in as president so bad, the CIA funneled

more than a million dollars into his secret budget.

And Meyer Lansky, the big Jewish gangster partner of Lucky Luciano,

he also supported Dewey.

So Dewey, who had been this very incorrupt prosecutor,

very known as incorruptible. Eliot Ness ended up

being majorly associated in a strange way with this Mafia.

You have to understand that Dewey has a major influence on Nixon's thinking.

If Dewey's willing to do some kind of business,

whatever his intention, with the Mafia, it must not strike Nixon as wrong

to do business with the Mafia. It just strikes me as evident.

Nixon gets elected to the House of Representatives in '46.

He'd just gotten out of the Navy and basically was a nobody.

His credentials were slim. The FBI had rejected him.

His law clients thought him naive and a little embarrassing.

His war record was mediocre. No combat.

But Nixon ran with a manic madness, slandering his opponent, Voorhis,

as a communist. He won.

In '47, Dewey recruited Nixon's vote

to help establish the CIA.

Dewey was a fierce anti-communist and it was Dewey, 1948,

who really helped Nixon the most during this Alger Hiss mess.

Whittaker Chambers claimed Hiss was a communist.

The House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC,

was investigating a lot of people and was just about to let Hiss go.

Just about to let Hiss go when Nixon suddenly asked to take over the case.

Why?

He was jeopardizing his entire political career, as he admitted.

But he never told the people in his book, Six Crises,

that he was given secret information by Dewey.

Also, John Foster Dulles,

who was Dewey's foreign policy advisor in the '48 campaign,

had turned on Hiss. It was Dewey and the Dulles brothers

that informed Nixon that Hiss had belonged to the Communist Party.

That's what made Nixon jump back into the case.

And Dewey was looking for a chance to embarrass Truman

as president.

In which case, he would have helped his cause.

So it all ties together to politics. It's an interesting story

if you know these people.

The scandal went back and forth. Nixon getting secret information.

I also heard stories that he did get information from the FBI too.

When Hiss finally reappeared before HUAC and under Nixon's questioning

began to retreat from former statements, he was lost.

But the evidence, many people have told me, and have stated publicly,

was fed to him as a freshman congressman by the CIA,

Dewey and the Dulles brothers.

But the scandal gave him a national reputation.

In 1950, he led the attack on the Senate, attacking Helen Douglas,

the wife if Melvyn Douglas, the actor.

It was an ugly campaign.

For that, Nixon was hated for many years by many

liberals of a more polite nature.

And he never overcame that campaign.

In keeping with Mafia tradition, Lansky invested money in the campaign.

It was Mickey Cohen, even, Southern California gambling chief from the Mob,

he admitted to helping finance the early stages of Nixon's career.

You got a lot of people financing Nixon.

Six years into politics, he's vice president.

His nomination is really put through by Dewey's back-room maneuvering.

When Dewey abandoned presidential ambitions, he supported Eisenhower

over Robert TaFt from Ohio.

It was at Dewey's request Eisenhower pick Nixon as his running mate.

Allen Dulles, who becomes CIA deputy director in '51,

he arranges CIA backing for the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket.

Political intelligence, as if oFten done, reports of Korean War mistakes

embarrassing Truman are leaked to the media.

Which is another trick Nixon uses about Vietnam. Later on, he leaks

maybe some of the ugly stuff about Vietnam, as Johnson did.

And probably was involved in delaying the peace talks

until he could get into power. Putting obstacles in front of peace talks

through Anna Chennault and the South Vietnamese regime.

Nixon's first trip to Cuba was in 1940.

And he loved it. He came back quite a bit.

He got more and more mixed up with these people,

including George Smathers,

a very famous Florida senator, and a playboy,

who introduced him to Richard Danner, his campaign manager.

Danner's an important figure 'cause he's a former FBI agent.

He plays a role all through Nixon's life

because he later worked for Howard Hughes,

as Hughes' liaison to Nixon. He becomes a pivotal character

in Watergate later.

Meanwhile, Nixon's socializing

with Miami's fast-buck guys,

the entrepreneurs, Charles "Bebe" Rebozo.

But it all leads to Watergate, ultimately, because you get into

this mess between Howard Hughes giving money to Nixon and to his brother

and you get this man, Robert Maheu, who sets up the CIA,

who helps set up the CIA with Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana,

and various other gangsters.

Maheu works for Hughes

and he also claims great credit for being a front for the CIA

and very connected there. Hughes, at that point,

was hiring ex-CIA employees as administrators of his huge company

because he wanted to get big deals from the military.

And he was buying Nixon. That was a small buy for him.

In '56, he gives Nixon a secret $100,000

to help fight this "Dump Nixon" move by Harold Stassen.

Then in December '56, Hughes loans $25,000 to Nixon's brother,

played by my son, Donald, for a hamburger restaurant.

It was never repaid.

So Hughes and Nixon are connected in the '50s.

That will come back to haunt Nixon in the Watergate affair,

as we will soon see. Meanwhile, Castro comes in,

syndicates are thrown out of Cuba, the Mafia loses a fortune.

Lansky's furious. They try to get Cuba back at the Bay of Pigs.

Whole thing gets screwed up.

You have to realize the Bay of Pigs was undertaken in the spirit of Nixon

as vice president would be president in 1960,

and the Bay of Pigs would be going ahead under his approval.

Allen Dulles, in 1960, August, subcontracted the job to kill Castro.

He enlisted the help of Maheu, the ex-FBI agent,

who had worked for the CIA since 1954 under retainer.

Maheu also worked for Hughes.

The CIA guys gave Maheu the right to enlist Mob guys for the Castro murder,

authorized him to pay $150,000 for the hit.

Several hits were tried, missed.

Not only were they failed assassinations, but you have Nixon

defeated in 1960 by Kennedy and that blows the whole scheme.

When Kennedy came in, he's presented with the Bay of Pigs as a fait accompli.

And he had very little choice.

In fact, no choice but to go along.

The veteran CIA director, Allen Dulles, tells Kennedy...

He warns him that if he calls off the plan, there'd be a "disposal problem,"

with the CIA's 1,200 exile soldiers.

[laughs] "We can't have them wandering around the country telling everyone

what they've been doing," Dulles tells Kennedy.

So the Bay of Pigs is a big shock to the right. We lose.

It's the biggest shock since probably Korea and China in 1949.

Kennedy gets it, takes the fall. But meanwhile, backstabs and throws

Dulles out in the fall of '61.

I had to remind him who he was talking to.

So I was wondering, what's such dynamite in this Bay of Pigs thing?

Sir.

Though it was clearly effective because all of a sudden it was no problem

for Helms to go to the FBI and try to put a lid on Watergate.

- What about the documents promised? - He'll give us the documents.

But I think ifwe offer him an ambassadorship,

the ambassadorship to Iran, we can get rid of him. He'll go...

- No, I promised Iran to Townsend. - Townsend in Belgium. It's available.

He gave us 300 grand. Belgium's not worth more than 100, 150.

What about England?

Forget it. Annenberg's paid three times that much.

Helms wants Iran, or there might be a problem.

All his old buddies are over there making a fortune...

When does this end, Bob?

- [Dean] Executive clemency. - What?

Hunt and the Cubans have nothing to lose now. Pardon them all.

Nobody investigates a crime for which criminals have been pardoned.

- Yeah, I like that. - But it'll never do.

Pardoning them means we're guilty. Press, the people'll go nuts.

Am I supposed to sit here and watch them coming closer,

eating their way to the center?

Lyndon bugged, so did Kennedy.

FDR cut a deal with Lucky Luciano. Christ, even Eisenhower had a mistress.

What's so special about me?

What about Lyndon? He could make a couple calls to the... Hell, and...

...shut this whole damn thing down.

- Anyone talk to him? - I have.

- What'd he say? - No dice, he hit the roof.

Why?

He said if you go out with a story about how he bugged your plane,

he's gonna reveal...

He's gonna reveal...

- ...Vietnamese peace talks... - All right.

All right! Stop!

What's the matter with you?

I know. I just know we've made too many enemies.

There's another thing. Bob and I have to testify before the urban committee.

No, you're not. You're gonna claim executive privilege.

You're gonna stonewall it all the way.

Plead the 5th Amendment. I don't give a shit.

They can't force the president's people to testify.

Executive privilege looks like we're covering.

We are covering up for God's sake.

Some petty, stupid shit.

There are things I can say, when other people'd say them, they'd be lies.

When I say them, nobody believes me anyway.

Then, we're going to have to give them Mitchell.

Mitchell's family.

Either it goes to Mitchell, or it comes here.

John's right, boss.

It's not personal. It's just the way the game is played.

Sometimes you gotta punt.

[kicks desk]

Jesus.

I'm so goddamn worn-out with this.

Who's gonna tell Mitchell?

- You do it. - Why me?

'Cause he hates you. It's worse when you get it from someone you trust.

Hey. He's wrong, you know.

About Kennedy and LBJ and Truman.

How so?

Well, I mean, sure, they did stuff, Bob, but nothing like this.

I mean, forget about the break-in, the enemies list, the... You know?

You got the attempted firebombing of the Brookings Institution.

Planting McGovern stuff on the guy that shot Wallace?

Trying to slip LSD to Jack Anderson?

Old man plays politics harder than anybody else.

You think this is about politics?

Do you think LBJ would ever have asked Hunt to forge a cable

implicating Kennedy in the assassination of the president of Vietnam?

How long have you known him, Bob, 20 years?

This is the Roosevelt Room, named after our 26th president...

Twenty years, you ever shake hands with him?

Ever have a real conversation with him?

No, this... This is about Richard Nixon.

You got people dying because he didn't make varsity football.

You got the Constitution hanging by a thread

because he went to Whittier and not to Yale.

And what is this Bay of Pigs thing?

Goes white every time you mention it.

- It's a code or something. - Well, shit, even I figured that out.

I think he means...

- The Kennedy assassination... - Yeah?

They went after Castro and in some crazy way it got turned back on Kennedy.

I don't think the old man knows what happened. But he's afraid to find out.

He's shitting peach pits every time he thinks about it.

Created a Frankenstein with those damn Cubans.

Eight words back in '72:

"I covered up." "I was wrong." "I'm sorry."

And the American public would've forgiven him.

But we never opened our mouths, John.

We failed him.

Dick Nixon saying "I'm sorry"? [chuckles] That'll be the day.

His whole suit of armor would fall off.

- So, you tell Mitchell. - Yeah.

And John, you do know that we're next, don't you?

[thunder rumbles]

[siren blaring in distance]

You're early, John.

If you'd been that stealthy at the Watergate, we wouldn't be in this mess.

- I was sorry to hear about your wife. - Yes.

Take out the money.

The president would like to know if that was the last payment.

- I'll bet he would. - Is it?

In Richard Nixon's long history of underhanded dealings,

he's never had better value for his money. If I were to open my mouth,

all the dominoes would fall.

Can I ask you a question?

How the hell do you have the temerity

to blackmail the president of the United States?

That's not the question, John. The question is, why is he paying?

- To protect his people. - I'm one of his people.

The Cubans are his people. And we're going to jail for him.

Howard, you will serve no more than two years, then he'll pardon you.

Maybe. Maybe not.

But you don't leave your men on the beach, John.

You don't make them beg for their money like thieves.

You don't dump men with families who've served their country.

He didn't know. This thing has gotten out of hand.

You think a man as controlled as Richard Nixon would've allowed a break-in

at the Democratic National Headquarters without knowing it?

You think Mitchell or Haldeman wouldn't have run it by him at least once?

The president's men did nothing,

nothing without Richard Nixon's permission.

John, sooner or later...

Sooner, I think, you're going to learn the lesson that's been learned

by everyone who's ever gotten close to Richard Nixon.

That he's the darkness reaching out for the darkness.

And eventually, it's either you or him.

Your grave's already been dug, John.

[man] FBI director-designate L. Patrick Gray

shocked the Senate by revealing that John Dean

has been secretly receiving FBI reports on Watergate.

Crown, this is Echo Six. How are you, sir?

[man] Gray also said that Dean lied when he claimed Howard Hunt

did not have an office in the White House.

- How is he? - He's in a bad mood.

He's running late. Have a seat.

[Dean] This is the sort of thing Mafia people can do.

Washing money, things like that. We don't know about these things

- because we're not criminals. - [Nixon] How much you need?

I would say these people will cost a million dollars over the next two years.

We could get that.

Get a million dollars in cash. I know where it could be gotten.

I'm still not confident we can ride through this.

Some people are gonna have to go tojail. Hunt's not the only problem.

Haldeman let me use the $350,000 cash fund in his safe to make the payments.

Ehrlichman had a role, a big role, in the Ellsberg break-in.

Oh, I don't know about that.

And... And I'm...

I think it's time we begin to think in terms of cutting our losses.

[Nixon] Are you... You're saying cut our losses, John, and all the rest.

And, you know, suppose the thing blows and they indict Bob and the others?

Jesus, you'd never recover from that, John. I mean...

No, it's better to fight it out instead and not let people testify.

Sir, I... I still don't think we can contain this anymore.

There's a cancer on the presidency, and it's growing with every day...

Jesus, you know, every...

Everything's a crisis among the upper intellectual types, the softheads.

The average people don't think it's much of a crisis.

For Christ's sake, this is not Vietnam. No one's dying here.

I mean, isn't it ridiculous?

- I agree. It's ridiculous but... - It's goddamn crazy!

Goldwater was right when he said,

"For Christ's sakes, everybody bugs everybody else." We know that.

It's the cover-up, John, not the deed, that's really bad here.

If only Mitchell could step up and take the brunt of it, you know.

Give 'em the hors d'oeuvre. Maybe they won't come back for the main course.

You know, that's the tragedy in all this. Uh...

Mitchell's gonna get it anyway, so it's time he assumed responsibility.

You're not paying attention.

He won't. He's told Ehrlichman he won't.

You tell my good friend Dick I got suckered into this thing

by not paying attention to what these bastards were doing.

I don't have a guilty conscience, and he shouldn't either.

Yeah.

Well, he's right.

Maybe it is time to go the hang-out route, John.

A full and thorough investigation.

We've cooperated with the FBI. We'll cooperate with the Senate.

- What have we got to hide? - No, we've nothing to hide.

No. Nothing to hide.

You know, the only...

The only fault in the plan is they're not gonna believe the truth.

- That's the incredible thing. - I agree. It's... it's tricky.

Everything seems to lead back here.

- People would never understand. - No.

John, I want you to get away from this madhouse.

I want these reporters.

I want you to go up to Camp David for the weekend and write up a report.

Put everything you know about Watergate in there and say,

"Mr. President, here it all is." OK?

You want me to put it all in writing over my signature?

Well, nobody knows more about this thing than you do, John.

You know, the details. That stuff I don't know. But...

Sir, I'm not going to be the scapegoat for this.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman are in itjust as deep as I am.

No, now, John, you don't wanna start down that road. I remember...

...Whittaker Chambers telling me back in '48.

He was a man who suffered greatly.

And he said, "On the road of the informer, it is always night."

Now, it's beyond you, or even me, John. It's the country. It's the presidency.

- I understand that, sir. - You know how I feel about loyalty.

I'm not gonna let any of my people go tojail, that I promise you.

The important thing is to keep this away from Haldeman and Ehrlichman.

I'm trusting you to do this, John, and I have complete confidence in you. OK?

- I'll work on it. - OK.

Say hi to that beautiful wife of yours, will you? Good.

- Shit. - It happens.

The place is a shambles.

Hey!

I was determined that we should get to the bottom ofWatergate

and the truth should be fully brought out, no matter who was involved.

Today, in one of the most difficult decisions of my presidency,

I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the White House,

Bob Haldeman And John Ehrlichman,

two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know.

More light, Chief?

No, Bob.

Six bodies.

[Nixon] The counsel to the president, John Dean, has also resigned.

I will not place the blame on subordinates,

on people whose zeal exceeded theirjudgment,

and who may have done wrong in a cause they deeply believed to be right.

In any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility.

That responsibility, therefore, belongs here in this office and I accept that.

There can be no whitewash at the White House.

Two wrongs do not make a right.

Now, I love America.

God bless America, and God bless each and every one of you.

[man] And we're clear.

Out.

Thank you.

Are you going to Key Biscayne?

- Yeah. - Excuse me, sir.

When?

Tomorrow.

Ron told me that... Bob Haldeman has been calling,

but you won't talk to him.

If he's convicted, will you pardon him?

No.

Why are you cutting yourself off from the rest of us?

Can't we discuss this?

- What exactly do you want to discuss? - You. What you're doing.

- What am I doing? - I wish I knew. You're hiding.

- Hiding what? - Whatever it is you've been hiding.

You're letting it destroy you, Dick.

You won't even ask for help...

Manolo...

Mrs. Nixon's finished.

I am the only one left, Dick.

If you don't even talk to me...

Brezhnev's coming in three days.

I don't wanna deal with them and him and you.

How much more? How much more is it going to cost?

When do the rest of us stop paying off your debts?

I'd like to finish my dinner in peace

if it's not too much to ask.

No, it isn't.

I won't interfere with you anymore. I'm finished trying.

Thank you.

"Thank you"?

Dick, sometimes I understand why they hate you.

[gavel pounds]

[man] The committee will come to order. Counsel will call the first witness.

Mr. John W. Dean, III.

After I departed the president's office

I went to a meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman to discuss the matter.

The sum and substance of that discussion was,

the way to handle this now was for Mitchell to step forward.

It was a disappointment to me because it was quite clear that the cover-up,

as far as the White House was... was concerned, was going to continue.

Why is he doing this? He's our goddamn lawyer.

If he had a problem, why didn't he come talk with us?

Remember, the weasel's got no proof.

[Stone] A Russian montage when he meets Brezhnev,

which balances out the Mao montage. It's interesting to compare the two

and see what it's like. The three most powerful men,

Mao, Nixon and Brezhnev, meeting separately, and Mao and Brezhnev

were hating each other. Brezhnev was taking shots at Mao.

Nixon's in the middle. Instead of benefiting from it,

which would have been the ironic triumph that Nixon comes out ahead

of Brezhnev and Mao, beats them both in single negotiation.

Instead, you see Nixon sitting there having nightmares about John Dean,

Watergate and all this petty bullshit while he's trying to negotiate

a SALT II treaty. It's hilarious. So there's another form of montage.

We're telling a story quickly through dissolving overlaps, images

and symbolic. I believe in icons very much. I try to photograph them

because some people have called my films iconic or mythologic.

I have no problem with that. I think that's great.

It's poetry, too. It doesn't have to always be realistic

or whatever. As I said earlier, there's different styles of filmmaking.

And I could make mythic style like Robert Flaherty

or D.W. Griffith or Francis Coppola.

Mythic movies. I love those.

Frank Capra, Ford. That's all it's about.

Movies that you remember. I hope to make some.

I think people remember icons. But as long as they're presented

in a realistic context. When they're misused,

as some movies do, always misuse them. They use them for gratuitous purposes

or for making money or manipulating an emotional reaction

from the audience at that specific time or making it into a revenge movie.

It's not what it's about. That's when it cheapens it.

It's up to filmmakers to really work hard and try to keep the integrity

of the image iconic and pure because it is an icon.

[speaking Russian]

[Julie] Did you?

- Daddy? - What?

Did you cover it up?

You think I'd do something like that, honey?

Well, then you can't give up. You just can't.

You're one of the best presidents this country has ever had.

You've done what Lincoln did, brought this country back from civil war.

You can't let your enemies tear you down.

You've gotta stay and fight.

I'll go out there and make speeches. Nobody knows the real you,

how sweet you are, how nice you are to people.

I'll tell them.

You're the most decent person I know.

[Nixon] I just hope I haven't let you down, Kitten.

[Julie] Theyjust don't know the real you.

Theyjust don't know.

Tricky Dick always knew what was goin' on.

Every last goddamn detail.

And my husband is not going to take the rap this time.

They know they can't shut me up. Probably end up killin' me.

She doesn't know what she's talking about. Stop bothering her!

Hell, she's nuts. You bastards have seen to that.

Will you get together again?

Our marriage is finished, thank you. Stick that up your keister!

Now, were the visitors that went into the White House warned

that their conversations with the president would be taped?

Again, I am not aware of the technical details.

On Friday, we have the high school students from Ohio.

Saturday is the National Women's Republican Club.

[man] ...Watergate wide open, former White House aide

Alexander Butterfield testified before the Senate Select committee.

He revealed a taping system that may have recorded conversations...

[Stone] The taping system in the White House was pretty crude

in terms of technology, but there was, in February '71...

You saw the Hoover scene.

Seven microphones were placed in the Oval Office.

Five were in the president's desk. One on each side of the fireplace.

Two other microphones in the cabinet room near the president's chair.

All nine devices were wired to the Sony recorder in a locker room

in the basement of the White House.

In April '71, four more microphones were installed in the EOB office,

which is where he spoke the fatal smoking gun tape to Haldeman.

Also, they wired Camp David.

- [Dean] ...cancer on the presidency... - [Stone] Nixon, according to Hunt,

was the "action officer for the Bay of Pigs operation."

- [Nixon] ...be a fiasco for the CIA. - They're like love letters.

[rewinding]

You should burn 'em.

Why didn't you?

They're evidence. You can't legally destroy evidence.

You don't expect me to believe that for one minute, do ya?

Does it matter what's on 'em? Really? Murder, Dick?

Sex? Your secrets, your fantasies?

- Or is itjust me and you and... - Don't be ridiculous.

[Pat] I rememberAlger Hiss.

I know how ugly you can be.

You're capable of anything.

See, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day what's on them,

because you have absolutely no remorse. No concept of remorse.

You want the tapes to get out. You want them to see you at your worst.

- You're drunk. - Oh, yeah!

No one'll ever see those tapes, including you.

And what would I find out that I haven't known for years?

What makes it so damn sad is that you couldn't confide in any of us.

You had to make a record for the whole world.

[sighs]

- They were for me. They're mine. - They're not "yours." They are you.

You should burn them.

[gasps]

- What has changed in you, Richard? - Go away!

[Nixon] These guys went after Castro seven times, ten times.

What, do you think people like that, just gave up? Theyjust don't walk away.

- What, do you think...? - I never said this.

- Seven times, ten times. - Ten times.

- You think people like that gave up? - Never.

Castro. These guys went after Castro.

If this got out, they'd blame me...

[Stone] We know the famous store of Robert Dole

pointing at a Washington banquet to a picture of former presidents Ford,

Carter and Nixon. They were standing solemnly at the funeral of some leader.

He observed, "Look at them. See no evil, hear no evil and evil."

[laughs]

But there is no question in Dole's phrase that no matter if it was the age

of Nixon, that's maybe a curse on it, but it polarized the country.

Also, it created the lie in a bigger and bigger way, perhaps.

But there's no question, because of his length in power and off the stage

in the wings, Nixon was the dominant American political figure

of the second half of the 20th century, which is sad for us as a country

because, ultimately, he was not De Gaulle in his greatness.

[groans]

[wheezes] My God.

Pat!

- Has he had chest pains? - He woke up coughing blood!

I'm in charge here!

Has he been short of breath?

- No, and he's sure that he has TB! - Why TB?

Because his family had it. His brother had it.

- I think it's flooded. - [Hannah] Richard.

[nurse] Get those IVs started.

[Pat] Please lie down, Dick.

- They need you to lie down! - Sedate him!

Dick. Dick.

[Hannah] Richard?

- [Nixon] Mother. - [Frank] Soon, you boys'll have to...

Maybe a trip to the woodshed'll...

[Julie] Daddy?

[monitors beeping]

[big band jazz playing]

[coughing]

[thunder rumbles]

[man] Vice President Agnew has resigned today pleading no contest

to charges of income tax evasion.

This follows Watergate Special ProsecutorArchibald Cox's

continuing investigation into President Nixon's finances.

The president paid no income tax

- in 1970, '71 and '72 - [Pat] They need you to lie down, Dick.

...and may have used funds to improve his residence in San Clemente...

[Pat] Where's the blood coming from? What's wrong?

He's got an acute viral pneumonia and a very serious phlebitis.

If a clot were to break loose, it could go into his lungs.

Oh, no.

[man] The president has returned to the White House.

But Archibald Cox has declared war by issuing a subpoena

- for nine of the president's tapes. - [Nixon] Over my dead body.

It's the president's personal property.

I'll never give up tapes to a bunch of Kennedy-loving, Democrat cocksuckers.

This could trigger the impeachment. They'll go to the Supreme Court.

I appointed three of those bastards. I'll never give them my tapes.

[Haig] Can the president afford to ignore a subpoena?

Who the hell does Cox think he is? I've never made a dime from public office.

I'm honest. My dad died broke. Jesus.

That son of a bitch Cox, he went to the same law school as Jack Kennedy.

The last gasp of the establishment.

Yeah, they got the hell kicked out of 'em in the election

so now they gotta squeal about Watergate

'cause we were the first real threat to them in years.

My God, we would've changed it so they couldn't have changed it back in years.

Yeah.

- If only the... - [Haig] Mr. President.

- Sir, Congress is... - No, over here, sir.

Sir, Congress is considering four articles of impeachment.

- Yeah. For what? - They're very serious charges, sir.

- First, abuse of power. - Yep.

- Second, obstruction ofjustice. - What else?

Third, the failure to cooperate with Congress.

- And last, bombing Cambodia, sir. - Can't impeach me for Cambodia.

The president can bomb anybody he likes.

- [Ziegler] That's true. - We'll win that, but the other three...

- Fred, they sell tickets. - It's Ron, sir.

They sell tickets to an impeachment like a damn circus.

OK, so they impeach me. Well, fuck 'em!

Yeah, well, it's just a matter of mathematics.

How many votes we have in the Senate?

- [Haig] About a dozen. - A dozen?

Jeez, I got half of 'em elected.

OK, so I got the South and Goldwater and his boys.

I'll take my chances in the Senate.

- Yes, we should. - This damn leg.

[Stone] Nixon saw it as, "They wanna kill me, put me on trial,"

which would have been painful with his phlebitis.

He went through hell aFter the resignation, fighting off prosecution.

Yeah, well, plenty of people did their best writing in prison.

- Gandhi, Lenin. - [Ziegler] That's right.

What I know about this country, I could rip it apart.

If they want a public humiliation, that's what they'll get.

- Yes, they will. - I'll never resign this office. Never.

- Where the fuck am I? What's in there? - The POWs and their families.

- I'm supposed to be... - Compassionate, grateful...

- Proud. - Sir?

- Proud. Of them. - Oh, yes, of course.

- Fire him. - Who?

- Cox. Archibald Cox. Fire him! - He works for the attorney general.

- Only Richardson can fire him. - May I echo my concern, sir?

- Then tell Richardson to fire him! - Well, Richardson won't do that, sir.

- He'll resign. - The hell he will. Then fire him too.

If you have to go down to the janitor at thejustice department,

fire that son of a bitch.

Mr. President, may I just say something, sir?

I think that you should welcome this subpoena.

- Why? - Well, sir,

the tapes can only prove that Dean was a liar. Right?

That's right, sir.

Well, there's more.

There's more than just me.

You can't break, my boy.

[Stone] The eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap comes

around the time of the smoking gun

and raises many questions.

But we'll never know what was said, but when you read conversations

and hear them, they're very funny. Very blackly funny.

Like when Haldeman says...

He asks Nixon, "How is this national security?" He's puzzled.

Nixon replies, "Because a president says it is.

My job is to protect this country from its enemies. Enemies are in the walls."

That reads hilariously on paper. When you dramatize it with a star player

like Tony Hopkins, give it the human edge he does, it becomes funnier,

in fact, clearer. That is one of the deep joys leFt to me.

Writing and watching drama.

Employing living beings as biofeedback. You're watching history played out

in a dramatic way. It opens your own eyes.

I think, although Nixon was a statesman for peace, yes,

and he trained himself in the footsteps ofWinston Churchill and De Gaulle,

both of whom he admired,

by the end of his life, he'd failed to reach his objective

because of the flaws in that character. That's what this movie is about.

I've grown to think if Kennedy was prologue, Nixon was epilogue.

The framing device of using these two powerful men to understand

our country in those turbulent years,

it's probably given me as much satisfaction in my work as anything.

Comparable to completing the three Vietnam films as a cycle.

As with Kennedy, I finally believe there was a fundamental mystery about Nixon.

The dark man of the silence and secrets.

Part paranoid Macbeth, part wholesome, fear-struck Quaker.

And much more. All of which he took with him to the grave.

It's this quality that's important, not who said what to whom about what,

what the Bay of Pigs meant or didn't, who Howard Hunt was with Cubans.

Nixon is not about conspiracy and layers of reality, as was JFK.

It is about a conspiratorial mindset that destroyed the greatness in a man.

Deletion marks in the transcripts make it look as though you...

you do nothing but swear?

It soils my mother's memory.

You think I want the whole goddamn world to see my mother like this?

Raising a dirty-mouth?

We could start again, sir, but we don't really have the staff to do that.

Then start over! Just start over!

The world will see only what I show 'em!

From page one, Al. Page one, Ron!

Ron, get in there and do something.

All this stuff.

- [door slams] - Five seconds, Mr. President.

And four, three, two...

Good evening, my fellow Americans.

Tonight I'm taking an action

unprecedented in the history of this office.

I had no knowledge of the cover-up till John Dean told me about it

- on March 21st, a year ago. - I think I'm going to throw up.

...no payment to Hunt or anyone else be made.

- He's lost touch with reality. - I've made my mistakes,

but in all my years of public life, I have never profited.

Can you imagine what this man would have been

- had he ever been loved? - I've earned every penny.

In all of my years of public life I have never obstructed justice.

It's a tragedy because he had greatness in his grasp.

- I welcome this examination. - But had the defects of his qualities.

- I made $250,000... - [Haig] They'll crucify him.

[Kissinger] Does anybody really care anymore?

...which many of you were good enough to purchase.

And what happens after?

...every year.

When I, in 1968, decided to become a candidate for the president,

I decided to clean the decks and to put everything in real estate.

So that's where the money came from. That's all I own.

That's what we have, and that's what we owe.

Because people have got to know whether or not their president...

...their president is a crook.

Well, I am not a crook. I've earned everything I have...

...doesn't have a mink coat.

She does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.

And I always tell her that she'd look good in anything.

There has never been any feathering of nests. Not in this administration.

Now, let mejust say this.

And I want to say this to the television audience...

[man] Supreme Court ruled eight to nothing that Nixon's claims

of executive privilege cannot be used in criminal cases.

- He must turn over subpoenaed tapes. - [man 2] Judiciary Committee

has voted 27 to 11 to recommend impeachment to the House.

The deliberations now go to the House floor.

In its report, the committee offers evidence Nixon obstructed justice

on at least 36 occasions, that he encouraged his aides to commit perjury

and that Nixon abused the powers of his office.

In a separate report, the Senate Select committee

details the misuse of the IRS, the FBI, the CIA

and the Justice Department.

It denounces the plumbers and it raises the question

ofwhether the United States had a valid election in 1972.

[music playing on record player]

[knock on door]

[knocking on door continues]

Come in.

Victory at Sea, Al. Henry. The Pacific Theatre.

Christ, you can almost hear the waves breaking over the decks.

- [chuckles] - [lowers volume]

I'm afraid we have another problem, Mr. President.

[Manolo] Excuse me, gentlemen.

June 23rd, '72, sir.

Your instructions to Haldeman regarding the CIA and the FBI.

So?

Your lawyers feel that it's the smoking gun.

Totally out of context. I was protecting the national security.

Sir, the deadline is today.

Can we get around this, Al?

It's the Supreme Court, sir. You don't get around it.

If, uh...

If you resign, you can keep your tapes as a private citizen.

You could fight them for years.

What if I stay?

You have the army.

The army?

Lincoln used it.

That was civil war.

How do you see this?

[Stone] This smoking tape, the June 23rd '72 tape,

when Nixon refers to the Bay of Pigs and its connection to Watergate,

uh, Haldeman came to say, aFter he went to jail,

that the reference was actually to the JFK assassination.

You should see Haldeman and DiMona's book, The Ends ofPower,

pages 37 through 40,

"It seems that in all those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs,

he was referring to the Kennedy assassination."

I don't know about that.

You mentioned the Bay of Pigs several times.

Sooner or later, they're going to want to know what that means.

They're going to want to know what's on that gap.

It's gone. No one will ever find out what's on it.

They might if there was another recording.

We both know it's possible.

I know for a fact that it's possible.

I've spoken to Ford.

There's a very strong chance that he'll pardon you.

I don't need a goddamned deal, for God's sake. I...

This is something that you will have to do, Mr. President.

I thought you'd rather do it now.

I'll wait outside.

Sir.

May I say, sir, that if you stay now,

it will paralyze the nation and its foreign policy.

You always had a great sense of timing, Henry.

When to give and when to take.

How do you think Mao and Brezhnev will react?

Do you think they'll remember us, Henry,

after all the great things you and I did together,

as some kind of... of crooks?

They will understand. To be undone by a third-rate burglary

is a fate of biblical proportions.

History will treat you far more kindly than your contemporaries.

Yeah.

Depends who writes the history books.

I'm not a quitter, never have been.

But I'm not stupid either.

A trial would kill me. That's what they want.

They won't get it. Fuck 'em.

If they harass you, I too will resign, and I will tell the world why.

Don't be stupid. The world needs you, Henry.

You always saw the big picture.

You were my equal in many ways.

You're the only friend I got, Henry.

Do you ever pray?

You know, believe in a supreme being?

Not really. You mean on my knees?

My mother used to pray a lot.

It's been a long time since I really prayed.

Let's pray, Henry.

[Stone] I just love the idea in the middle of this solemn moment,

which is true by all accounts. How do I know?

It had to be leaked by the only person in the room, Kissinger.

Kissinger leaked, so we couldn't resist the impulse to go in and have Kissinger

make a joke, "This is not gonna leak, which would have been appropriate.

This is not going to leak, is it?

[Stone] What Kissinger didn't know is Nixon might have been looking,

knowing he was the leaker. That's why a smile runs through Nixon there.

Nixon knew more about Kissinger's leaking than Kissinger knew.

But it's also a moving scene because it's pathos.

The pathos of Nixon, that emotional need that was never met.

[sobbing] God.

How can a...

How can a country come apart like this?

What have I done wrong?

I opened China. I made peace with Russia.

I ended the war.

I did what I thought was right.

God, why do they hate me so?

It's unbelievable. It... It's insane.

Oh, Mom, I'm sorry. God, please forgive me, God. I didn't mean it.

I never wanted to do... I don't want this to... Is it me?

Is this happening? I can't believe...

Al.

[Stone] One historian, Stephen Ambrose, has written volumes on Nixon,

implies I'm saying in the movie that Nixon was in on the assassination

of JFK. Nothing could be further from the truth, if you look at the scene.

What I was trying to express is the Kennedys had died by the time Nixon

came to office in early '69, which paralleled in a strange way

the deaths of his own two brothers in his youth.

There's significance. This is not saying he's responsible

for the death of Kennedy,

but that it was through his brothers' sudden deaths he was given the medal

of leadership, which can lead, as we know, to a vastly accelerated

pressure on yourself to succeed, resulting in a syndrome of suffering

called survivor guilt.

The notion being that one success is due to the death of another.

So in that scene with Haldeman set in the executive office building,

the four deaths scene,

I tried to show only that Nixon had some feelings about Kennedy's death

and may have felt responsible because of his involvement

in the Cuban invasion plan and Castro assassination prior

to Kennedy's arrival. Which may have resulted in the blowback

and Kennedy's murder in Dallas.

Furthermore, the death of John may have necessitated Robert Kennedy's demise

in 1968, which given the strange circumstances

of his murder in Los Angeles, is still open to speculation.

'Cause of the Los Angeles Police Department's incredible,

insane investigation

of that case, in which they lost most of the records.

There was a strong likelihood the anti-war candidate, Kennedy,

would have beaten Nixon at the polls.

I open... This all, these deaths open the door for Nixon to become president.

That's the key in the middle of the movie.

The importance of a state of near civil war existing between Kennedy, Nixon

and the country, as well,

as the opening and closing affects their presidencies, each from '60 to '74,

is something historians have not paid enough attention to

with that ideology restive in the background.

When they look at you, they see what they want to be.

When they look at me, they see what they are.

Dick, please don't.

I can't.

I don't have the strength anymore.

It'll be over soon.

No, it's going to start now.

Oh, Buddy. If I could just sleep.

- If I could just sleep. - There'll be time for that.

Yeah.

You know, once when I was sick as a boy,

my mother gave me this stuff and she made me swallow it.

It made me throw up all over her.

I wish I could do that now.

I'm so afraid.

There's darkness out there.

I could always see where I was going. But it's dark out there.

God, I've always been afraid of the dark.

Buddy.

[Nixon] There are many fine careers. This country needs good farmers,

good businessmen, good plumbers,

good carpenters.

I remember my old man.

I think that they would have called him sort of a...

Sort of a little man, a common man.

Well, he didn't consider himself that way.

You know what he was? He was a streetcar motorman first.

Then he was a farmer.

Then he had a lemon ranch.

It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I can assure you.

He sold it before they found oil on it.

Then he was a grocer.

But he was a great man

because he did his job.

And everyjob counts up to the hilt

regardless ofwhat happens.

Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother.

Well, I guess all of you would say this about your mother.

My mother was a saint.

And I think of her two boys dying of tuberculosis

and seeing each of them die. And when they died...

Yes, she will have no books written about her.

But she was a saint.

Now, however, we look to the future.

I remember something Theodore Roosevelt wrote

when his first wife died in his 20s.

He thought the light had gone from his life forever.

But he went on, and he not only became president

but as an ex-president, he served his country

always in the arena, tempestuous, strong,

sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

But he was a man.

And as I leave, that's an example I think all of us should remember.

See, we think sometimes when things happen that don't go the right way,

we think that when someone dear to us dies,

when we lose an election,

or when we suffer defeat, that all is ended.

Not true. It's only a beginning, always,

because the greatness comes, not when things go always good for you,

but the greatness comes when you're really tested,

when you take some knocks, some disappointments,

when sadness comes,

because only if you've been in the deepest valley

can you ever know how magnificent it is

to be on the highest mountain.

So I say to you on this occasion,

we leave, proud of the people who have stood by us and worked for us

and served this government and this country.

They want you to continue to serve in government,

if that is what you wish.

Remember, always give your best.

Never get discouraged. Never be petty.

Always remember, others may hate you.

But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them.

And then, you destroy yourself.

And so we leave with high hopes and good spirits and with deep humility.

And I say to each and every one of you,

not only will we always remember you

but always, you will be in our hearts.

And you'll be in our prayers.

And only then will you find what we Quakers call "peace at the center."

[Stone] At the end of the day, you have to ask if hubris brought him down,

what happened to America?

With Nixon, vanished for future presidents all but a trace

of that trust and confidence that may yet prove to be indispensable commodity

in American politics.

[Bill Clinton] He gave of himself with intelligence and energy

and devotion to duty.

[man] Nixon was buried and honored by five presidents on April 26, 1994.

Less than a year after his beloved wife, Pat, had died.

Nixon always maintained that, if he had not been driven from office,

the North Vietnamese would not have overwhelmed the South in 1975.

In a sideshow, Cambodian society was destroyed and mass genocide resulted.

The second half of the 20th century will be known as the age of Nixon.

In his absence, Russia and the United States returned to a decade

of high-budget military expansion and near war.

Nixon, who was pardoned by President Ford,

lived to write six books and travel the world as an elder statesman.

For the remainder of his life, he fought successfully to protect his tapes.

The National Archives spent 14 years indexing and cataloging them.

Out of 4,000 hours, 60 hours have been made public.