Earl Silbert, a lead prosecutor during the first Watergate trial, describes the various reasons that the parties involved in the Watergate break-in gave for their part in the operation. Silbert believes that the motive for the operation remains an open question. In 1972-73 the prosecutors asked everybody about their motives, but didn't get any clear answers.
About the Richard Nixon Oral History Project
The Richard Nixon Oral History Project was created in November 2006 at the initiative of Timothy Naftali, weeks after he had begun his tenure as director of what was then the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff at the National Archives and Records Administration. (The Nixon Presidential Materials Staff became the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on July 11, 2007, with the incorporation of certain facilities in Yorba Linda, California, that formerly had been operated by the private Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.) The project was intended to preserve the memories and reflections of former Nixon officials and others who had been prominent in the Nixon era by conducting videotaped interviews. Starting in February 2007, Paul Musgrave, Special Assistant to the Director, coordinated the project, which was housed in the Office of the Director.
Naftali insisted from the project's inception that it be a serious, impartial and nonpartisan source of information about President Nixon, his administration, and his times. A second goal of the project was to provide public domain video that would be available as free historical content for museums and for posting on the Internet. Donors to the project neither requested nor received a veto over interview questions or interviewee selection. (Funding for interviews, materials, and support staff came in part from the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace foundation, which ceased to support the project in 2007; in part from donations from Nixon administration alumni; and in part from the appropriated and self-generated funds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library itself.) Accordingly, the project includes interviews with former staff members of the Nixon administration as well as journalists, politicians, and activists who may have been opposed to the Nixon administration and its policies. Taken as a whole, the collection contributes to a broader and more vivid portrait of President Nixon, the Nixon administration, and American society during the Nixon era.
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For more information, please visit the Nixon Library at www.nixonlibrary.gov or contact us at 714-983-9120 or nixon@nara.gov
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