Nixon's Watergate Scandal and NATO.

• Author: Baker, Bob
• Position: Richard Nixon, North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Viewpoint essay - Personal account

Title: Nixon's Watergate Scandal and NATO

Author: Bob Baker

Text:

In a November 1973 nationally televised press conference, President Richard Nixon denied his involvement in the Watergate cover-up and declared "I am not a crook." In the U.K., where I was working in the U.S. embassy, British television showed the scene repeatedly as part of its daily coverage of the Watergate break-in scandal.

As an assistant cultural affairs officer in the London embassy, part of my job was to improve the U.S. image and British understanding of our policies. I did not agree with all of our policies, but focused my work on the best in U.S. policy and culture. That included keeping British support for NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, our main alliance in the cold war with the Soviet Union.

For months, President Nixon twisted on television every day as investigations led toward him. He wanted to avoid blame for his role in the burglary at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. His almost daily interviews on television had eroded British trust in the United States. How could Brits trust the U.S. as a strategic partner in NATO if the President was a crook?

Not Just a Domestic Nightmare

Moscow constantly probed for ways to split the U.S. from its European NATO allies, including Britain. Watergate had become not just an American domestic nightmare, but also a NATO problem. With many contacts among younger Brits in politics, the media and academia. I saw how the scandal affected them powerfully.

The U.K., unlike the Continent, shared most American assumptions about limits on the role of politicians. Brits were scandalized by the Watergate investigation of White House dirty tricks. Our common foreign policy goals had made the U.K. for decades our chief ally. The Watergate turmoil appeared every night on British television and every day in the press. It made many Brits feel the U.S. was falling apart.

I sent two telegrams (cleared by my boss, the Public Affairs Officer, and the Ambassador) to the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) Washington headquarters. I asked for policy guidance on the single most important issue of the day, the Watergate affair. Neither telegram was answered.

After my second telegram, USIA headquarters told me by telephone to stop asking. Washington, with profound bureaucratic wisdom, remained silent and gave no policy guidance. Our career guys in headquarters likely feared doing any more than passing...