Title Card: I Am Not a Crook

NARRATOR: In May, the president and Mrs. Nixon welcomed the returning POW's to the White House.

Pres. NIXON: It is always the custom at a dinner at the White House to have a toast to the honored guest. The difficulty tonight is that there are so many honored guests that we would be drinking all night and into the day. Somebody just said, "What's wrong with that?"

NARRATOR: New Watergate charges were erupting daily, but the POW's remained loyal to their commander-in-chief.

FORMER POW: And sir, I would like to state for all of us that we never lost faith in your integrity or your courage and we are proud to be citizens of the United States.

NARRATOR: But the public's faith in the president would soon be severely tested. The Senate Watergate Committee began hearings that would keep the nation spellbound throughout the summer.

PETER JENNINGS, ABC News: The historic Caucus Room was jammed today with cameras, newsmen, 200 seated spectators and more standing.

NARRATOR: One of the largest audiences in television history watched on May 17 as Senator Sam Ervin opened the investigation of Nixon's re-election campaign and the Watergate break-in.

Senator SAM ERVIN, (D) Chairman, Watergate Committee: The committee will come to order.

NARRATOR: Even the president's staff watched as a parade of witnesses implicated Haldeman, Ehrlichman and others high in the administration and the Nixon campaign. But in the first month of testimony, the president himself escaped direct charges of wrongdoing. Then the committee summoned its star witness John Dean. In a seven-hour opening statement, Dean described the atmosphere of the Nixon White House.

Mr. DEAN: [testifying] The Watergate matter was an inevitable outgrowth of a climate of excessive concern over the political impact of demonstrators, excessive concern over leaks, an insatiable appetite for political intelligence, all coupled with a do-it-yourself White House staff, regardless of the law.

SAM DASH, Chief Council, Senate Watergate Committee: He spoke in almost a monotone as he began to tell some of the most outrageous stories about what had occurred. And coming from a monotone, it was the facts, rather than his personality that came out at the public.

NARRATOR: Dean described his meeting on March 21, when he warned Nixon about the burglars' escalating demands.

Mr. DEAN: [testifying] I told the president about the fact that there was no money to pay these individuals to meet their demands. He asked me how much it would cost. I told him I could only make an estimate, that it might be as high as a million dollars or more. He told me that that was no problem. He also looked over at Haldeman and repeated the same statement.

Mr. DASH: That story came out. It was the very first time in the hearing, the very first time any evidence came forward that really put the president in on the obstruction of justice, the president who said he knew nothing about these things, the president who said he had started an investigation to find out who was involved. And here was an eyewitness, a person who was involved, who was testifying to the president's very deep involvement in the obstruction of justice and the cover-up.

NARRATOR: It was now the word of the president against his 34-year-old former counsel. The White House tried to undermine Dean's testimony by spreading rumors about his credibility and character. With no way to determine who was telling the truth, Nixon believed he would prevail.

Then, on July 16, everything changed for Richard Nixon.

ALEXANDER BUTTERFIELD, former White House Aide: My name is Alexander Porter Butterfield.

Senator ERVIN: Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?

Mr. BUTTERFIELD: I was aware of listening devices. Yes, sir.

Mr. DASH: And so that if either Mr. Dean, Mr. Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman, Mr. Colson had particular meetings in the Oval Office with the president on any particular dates that have been testified before this committee, there would be a tape recording with the president of that full conversation, would there not?

Mr. BUTTERFIELD: Yes, sir.

Mr. DASH: One last question. If one were, therefore, to reconstruct the conversations at any particular date, what would be the best way to reconstruct those conversations, Mr. Butterfield?

Mr. BUTTERFIELD: Well, in the obvious manner, Mr. Dash, to obtain the tape and play it.

Mr. DASH: I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.

NARRATOR: Nixon was in the hospital with viral pneumonia when he learned about Butterfield's testimony. He wrote on a bedside pad, "Should have destroyed the tapes after April 30th." Nixon knew controlling the tapes was the key to his survival. He would appeal to historical precedent and argue that the tapes were like presidential papers. They belonged to the president, not to Congress or the courts. The president had a right to keep them private. The battle for the tapes began with the president rallying the White House staff.

Pres. NIXON: I was rather amused by some very well-intentioned people who thought that, you know, some of the rather rough assaults that any man in this office gets from time to time brings on an illness and that after going through such as illness that I might get so tired that I would consider either slowing down or even, some suggested, resigning. Well, now, just so we set that to rest, I'm going to use a phrase that my Ohio father used to use. "That's just plain poppycock." We're going to stay on this job till we get the job done. And let others wallow in Watergate, we're going to do our job.

NARRATOR: The continuing investigations placed new pressures on the White House. The Watergate Committee issued a subpoena for the president's tapes. Nixon refused to comply and risked being found in contempt of Congress. But even that was not his biggest concern. Pressured by Congress, Attorney General Elliot Richardson agreed to appoint an independent special prosecutor. He chose Archibald Cox and gave him sweeping powers to investigate the Nixon White House.

Seventh REPORTER: What if this trial leads into the Oval Office at the White House?

ARCHIBALD COX, Watergate Special Prosecutor: Well, as I replied then, the trail should be followed wherever it leads.

NARRATOR: Nixon later described Cox as "the partisan viper we had planted in our bosom."

Mr. PRICE: We saw Archie Cox in political, rather than legal terms. He was sort of the high guru of the Kennedy government-in-waiting in Cambridge. And the idea that these Kennedy government political operatives were going to be demanding to run barefoot through all the most private files of the Nixon White House was utterly appalling and absolutely outrageous.

NARRATOR: Cox and his staff requested sensitive White House files. Nixon reluctantly complied. Cox also demanded nine of the president's tapes. Nixon refused. Cox took his case to court.

Mr. COX: As I have said before, I'm sure that the president's legal position is presented in good faith. I think it's quite wrong.