79-11-A7
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A Different Watergate Story[edit]
Transcript[edit]Maurice Stans joined the Nixon administration as it first secretary of commerce. During the 1968 campaign, he had served the Nixon effort as head of its finance committee. He did his job so well that when it came time to get the campaign ball rolling for 1972, Stans was persuaded to leave his position at Commerce -- a job he liked -- to serve as chairman of the finance committee for the Nixon re-election. What followed is well-known history. But, it is history Stans would like very much to correct. Many Americans associate Maurice Stans with that amorphous mass of crimes and indiscretions known as Watergate. After all, he raised the money in what was the most successful political fundraising effort in U.S. history. His name rolled off the tongues of many a newscaster during the days of the fever-pitched reports on Watergate. He went to trial in New York on conspiracy and perjury charges, along with former Attorney General John Mitchell. He was acquitted on all charges, though he did plead guilty to five highly technical fundraising violations, ones which could have been as easily applied to the Democrats, had the prosecution been so inclined. Now, Stans has told his story in a new book, "The Terrors of Justice." He gives us an account of Watergate based on documented facts and a step-by-step unfolding of the various episodes which have been erroneously lumped together as "Watergate." Stans' primary theme is that Watergate should not be examined only as a political scandal in which the "good guys" finally prevailed over the "bad guys." Watergate was also an episode in which the lives of many innocent individuals were disrupted. He exposes the tactics of the Ervin committee, which he said had a unique two-category classification system for witnesses: you were either "guilty with penitence" or "guilty without penitence." Those who were willing to come before the committee and the national television audience and bend over backwards to admit their guilt were treated well by the chairman. But those who had the nerve to insist on their innocence, as Stans did, were subject to plainly abusive treatment. Maurice Stans waited for the sensationalism to cool before offering us his orderly, straightforward account of these events. It is not a spicy account that will provide Washington gossip-mongers with titilation. But, for those who wish to expand their understanding of Watergate beyond the one-dimensional accounts, Stans' book is worth reading. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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