POINTS AFTER
COVER STORY
We had sworn not to write anything about Watergate, since it
was hard to imagine how anything new could be added - particularly
after the incisive piece by Harold Rosenberg in this issue. But we do feel
compelled to make some general observations about the implications of
this Grade B political scenario.
• The White House was able to invoke the idea of national secu–
rity because there is no clear and accepted idea of national security.
The members of the Senate Select Committee never fundamentally chal–
lenged the notion that any belch on the left, especially on the lunatic
fringe of the left, shook the foundations of the country, because they had
been brought up on the idea that all radical activities, not only crazy
and sectarian ones, were alien to what is assumed to be the American
Way. Hence a handful of "infantile" left-wingers could be used to jus–
tify the furtive maneuvers of the White House staff to extend its powers.
• Similarly, the Senators and the lawyers of the Watergate com–
mittee rarely pushed the "witnesses" very far. One kept wondering why
double-talkers like Haldeman and Ehrlichman, who were vague when
they should have been specific, and specific when nothing was at stake,
were repeatedly permitted to get off the hook. The only explanation we
can think of - other than incompetence - is that the Committee simply
did not want to press the case very far, because all of them - not only
the loyal Republicans - were part of the system of assumptions and
conclusions represented by the administration. They must have felt,
perhaps not so consciously, that to press the case very far would put
them outside the premises of the entire system of politics in this country.
• The critical question of who was responsible for the various Wa–
tergate plots was rarely touched on, and then very lightly. Obviously,
those who were caught were not acting on their own. Some of the more
important witnesses talked as though participatory democracy prevailed
at the White House, with everyone simply doing his thing, without or–
ders from above and very little communication with fellow-conspirators.
• In this respect, it must be said that the brazen performances of
some of the actors, like Haldeman and Ehrlichman, suggest that they
could count on the support - and ignorance - of a large section of the
