John Ehrlichman

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John Ehrlichman (1969)

John Ehrlichman ( listen ? / I ; born March 20, 1925 in Tacoma , Washington ; † February 14, 1999 in Atlanta , Georgia ) was an American lawyer, politician and author. He was US President Richard Nixon's chief internal affairs adviser from November 4, 1969 to April 30, 1973 . He was part of Nixon's closest circle with Bob Haldeman and was one of the key figures in the Watergate affair . Audio file / audio sample

Life

Ehrlichman was born the only child of Lillian Catherine (née Danielson) and Rudolph Irwin Ehrlichman in Tacoma , Washington state . In his youth he was a very dedicated and decorated boy scout and active angler. He married three times in his life and was the father of a total of 6 children from his first two marriages. During World War II , John Ehrlichman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service as B-24 navigator in the 8th US Air Fleet for 26 missions over Germany . His father also served in the Canadian Air Force in the military and was killed in a crash in Torbay Newfoundland in May 1942 . Following his military service, he studied political science with a soldiers' scholarship until 1948 at the University of California , where he achieved a BA degree . In 1951 graduated he then at the Stanford Law School in Law and was then from 1951 to 1968 partner in a law firm in Seattle .

Political career

His entry into politics came in 1960 when he worked on Nixon's campaign committee in his first presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy . He was also active in Nixon's unsuccessful campaign for the election of California's governor in 1962. In Nixon's election victory in 1968 , he was instrumental in his campaign and he was then appointed on January 20, 1969 as legal advisor to the White House . On November 4 of the same year, he became the President's chief internal affairs advisor, advancing into Nixon's closest circle. Together with Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman , whom he knew from college, he largely shielded the president from the outside world. Because of this shielding and their German-sounding family names, the two were later dubbed the "Berlin Wall". Outside of the White House, however, Ehrlichman and Haldeman were fairly isolated.

After Daniel Ellsberg published the secret Pentagon papers (about the Vietnam War ) , Haldeman and Ehrlichman installed the illegal group of "plumbers" in 1971 to seal press leaks. The first activity of the "plumbers" was breaking into the practice of Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to harm Ellsberg. However, nothing useful was found during the break-in, only the name Ellsberg in a notebook.

Ehrlichman's role during his time in the White House was essentially limited to tracking down Nixon's enemies and eliminating them. He was therefore also known as the "White House firefighter".

Watergate scandal

The confidential conversations between Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman in the Oval Office were taped on a White House tape system and they show that Ehrlichman and Haldeman were the key figures in the Watergate scandal.

For example, one of the recorded conversations between Nixon and Ehrlichman on November 1, 1972, shows that there was a conspiracy. Both discussed measures against the Washington Post , which exposed the scandal:

NIXON: And now they're finished.
EHRLICHMAN: Believe me, I would be very disappointed to see us now forgive and forget.
NIXON: There ain't going to be no forgetting, and there'll be Goddamn little forgiving, except they're going to know (unintelligible). They're off the guest list, they don't come to the Christmas.
EHRLICHMAN: That to my way of thinking would be not nearly as important as coming down the pike - there will be our main chance. There will be a license application--
NIXON: Oh, I know. I know that, sure.
EHRLICHMAN: But I would love to see you fire the silver bullets.
NIXON: How can I?
EHRLICHMAN: Well, your day will come.
NIXON: But John, how do you fire a silver bullet at the Post without them saying you're taking the FCC and trying to get after somebody?
EHRLICHMAN: I think you could get away with it (Abuse of Power, The New Nixon Tapes, pp. 174-175).

At a very emotional meeting at Camp David on April 30, 1973 between Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Nixon persuaded his two advisors to resign over Watergate in very personal one-on- one meetings . Nixon later said in an interview with British television journalist David Frost : "I told him that I prayed, even begged, before bed last night, that I would not wake up." Nixon also mentioned this sentence in his memoir. Presumably Ehrlichman was his friend (at least according to Nixon), not least because of his constant closeness to the president.

Condemnation

Ehrlichman never had any awareness of his role in the Watergate scandal (which was already evident at his hearing before the investigative committee) and accordingly pleaded "not guilty" during his trial. In 1975 he was rated 2½ on conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury Sentenced to 8 years in prison and sentenced to 20 months to 5 years for breaking into Ellsberg's psychiatrist in 1971. He was imprisoned on October 28, 1976 in Safford, Arizona Federal Prison , where he served a total of 18 months before being released in April 1978. He was banned from practicing law after he was released for a criminal offense.

"Was On Drugs"

The journalist Dan Baum published records of his research from 1994 in the magazine "Harpers" in 2016. At that time he asked Ehrlichman as part of his book project about the politics of drug prohibition. Ehrlichman cut off his questions and described the motives for Nixon's War on Drugs :

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. "

“The 1968 Nixon campaign and the following government had two enemies: the anti-war leftists and the blacks. Do you understand what I mean by that? We knew we couldn't forbid being anti-war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and the blacks with heroin and severely punishing both, we could discredit those groups. We could arrest their leaders, search their homes, end their meetings, and denigrate them on the news night after night. Did we know we lied about the drugs? Of course we knew that! "

Three Nixon government officials Jeffrey Donfeld, Jerome H. Jaffe, and Robert DuPont responded to this statement and sent a letter to The Huffington Post . In this they contradicted the representation. If Ehrlichman really made these statements, they are only an example of his sharp sarcasm. As a result, the Huffington Post published reprints of quotes from Nixon that were more in support of Ehrlichman's version, such as derogatory remark about African Americans. Nixon called them "the 'little Negro bastards' on welfare [who] 'live like a bunch of dogs'" ( those little Negro bastards who lived on welfare like a pack of dogs ).

Late years

After his release from prison, he moved to Santa Fe and worked as a commentator and freelance writer. When Ehrlichman was interviewed in 1981, he described Nixon as "a very pathetic figure in American history." In 1982 his book "Witness To Power" was published. Ehrlichman - now completely disaffected - let Nixon appear in his book in a particularly negative light.

John Ehrlichman died in Atlanta in 1999 as a result of a complication of diabetes following dialysis treatment. Until his death he believed that Henry Kissinger was "Deep Throat" and not Mark Felt .

Works

  • The Company (1976)
  • The Whole Truth (1979)
  • Witness to Power: The Nixon Years (1982)

media

In the film Nixon by Oliver Stone Ehrlichman was from JT Walsh shown.

Web links

Commons : John Ehrlichman  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b https://www. britica.com/biography/John-D-Ehrlichman
  2. ↑ http://wwii.ca/memorial/world-war-ii/115959/flight-lieuter-rudolph-irwin-ehrlichman/
  3. ↑ a b c d http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/16/us/john-d-ehrlichman-nixon-aide-jailed-for-watergate-dies-at-73.html
  4. ↑ https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
  5. ↑ https://medium.com/@ReachCASP/health-scientist-blacklisting-and-the-meaning-of-marijuana-in-the-oval-office-in-the-early-1970s-71ea41427b49
  6. ^ "Jeff Donfeld - 'Nixon's Youth Corps'" , 60s Survivors . Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  7. ↑ Hilary Hanson: Nixon Aides Suggest Colleague Was Kidding About Drug War Being Designed To Target Black People . In: The Huffington Post . March 25, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Ehrlichman, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician, chief adviser to US President Richard Nixon
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Tacoma , Washington
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1999
Place of death Atlanta , Georgia