The Fall of Richard Nixon by Tom Brokaw

Author:Tom Brokaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

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Elaborate schemes to get a tank of gas were the 1970s equivalent of winning the lottery. Unexpectedly, David Brinkley called and in his familiar clipped speaking style asked, “Do you and Meredith like horse racing?”

“Er, sure, I guess so. Why?”

David: “My son works at a gas station and managed to get a full tank of gas. There’s a nice little horse track in West Virginia, and I’m driving over. Why don’t you and Meredith join Susan and me?”

As we made our way to West Virginia, in the middle of Watergate, the Arab oil embargo, and the deep political division in the country, the horse track promised to be a welcome diversion.

David’s presence brought with it the full VIP treatment, including a private box on the finish line with copies of the Daily Racing Form opened to the evening’s rundown. David, who had reached a pay grade way above mine, was an active player. I knew just enough about the Racing Form to win a few and lose a few. Most of all the excursion was a welcome relief from the daily pressure of covering the president and all the complexities of Watergate, which grew more tangled with every passing day.

Nixon was rarely in public. We later learned that beginning in his first term he’d isolate himself late at night with yellow legal pads, scribbling goals to define himself. “Compassionate, Bold, New, Courageous…Need to be good to do good…Need for joy, serenity, confidence, inspiration.”

When the Watergate tapes were made public, the nation heard a different Nixon instructing his chief of staff, Bob Haldeman, to have Richard Helms, director of the CIA, tell the FBI to break off its investigation into Watergate because it was a national security matter. Later the president is heard on tape saying it would not be a problem to get the money to pay off the Watergate burglars to buy their silence.

That and more was yet to come, but a night with the horses and David was a treasured respite.

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