The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency

by Egil "Bud" Krogh, Matthew Krogh

Overview

NOW A FIVE-PART HBO SERIES, STARRING WOODY HARRELSON AND JUSTIN THEROUX

The true story of The White House Plumbers, a secret unit inside Nixon's White House, and their ill-conceived plans stop the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, and how they led to Watergate and the President's demise.

On July 17, 1971, Egil “Bud” Krogh was summoned to a closed-door meeting by his mentor—and a key confidant of the president—John Ehrlichman. Expecting to discuss the most recent drug control program launched in Vietnam, Krogh was shocked when Ehrlichman handed him a file and the responsibility for the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, later to be notoriously known as “The Plumbers.”

The Plumbers’ work, according to Nixon, was critical to national security: they were to investigate the leaks of top secret government documents, including the Pentagon Papers, to the press. Driven by blind loyalty, diligence, and dedication, Krogh, along with his co-director, David Young, set out to handle the job, eventually hiring G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who would lead the break-in to the office of Dr. Fielding, a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg, the man they suspected was doing the leaking. Krogh had no idea that his decisions would soon lead to one of the most famous conspiracies in presidential history and the demise of the Nixon administration.

The White House Plumbers is Krogh’s account of what really happened behind the closed doors of the Nixon White House, and how a good man can make bad decisions, and the redemptive power of integrity. Including the story of how Krogh served time and later rebuilt his life, The White House Plumbers is gripping, thoughtful, and a cautionary tale of placing loyalty over principle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250851628
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/27/2022
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	339,311
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Egil "Bud" Krogh (1939-2020) made headlines as a Nixon Administration official who went to prison for his role in what would lead to the Watergate scandal. He was a Navy veteran, a lawyer in Seattle, Washington, special assistant to the president, and under secretary of Transportation. In 1973, he pled guilty to “conspiracy against rights of citizens” for his role in the 1971 break-in at the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding and served four and a half months in prison. After serving his time, he rebuilt his reputation, resuming his law practice and speaking and writing on ethics. He was Senior Fellow on Ethics and Leadership at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress and Counselor to the Director at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, D.C.

Matthew Krogh (1970 - ) is a professional change maker focused on issues of climate change, fossil fuels, and policy. Mostly based in Bellingham, Washington, he has spent his career in nonprofit activism at various organizations, and has worked as a freelance writer, ranger, and geographic analyst. He currently co-owns Warthog Information Systems, a company focused on using geographic information to make the world a better place. He is grateful for the opportunity to amplify his dad's important life lessons through co-authoring The White House Plumbers, along with its earlier iteration Integrity.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prologue 1

1 Two Decisions in Two Days 13

2 The Plumbers Gather in Room 16 37

3 A New Leak for the Plumbers 53

4 Sparring with the CIA, FBI, and "Deep Throat" 65

5 A Proposal Gone Awry 77

6 Blind Loyalty Ensnares Me in Watergate 99

7 Pleading Guilty 109

8 From Courthouse to Jailhouse 123

9 The Road Home 133

10 Making Amends, and a Final Parting 143

11 Closure 153

Timeline 171

Oath of Office (1966, PL 89-554) 177

Letter of Resignation 178

Statement of Egil Krogh, Jr., to the Court 180

Acknowledgments 183

Index 185

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2022

In this breezy memoir, the basis for a forthcoming HBO series, Egil “Bud” Krogh, who died in 2020, recounts his role as head of the Nixon administration’s Special Investigations Unit, whose members later committed the Watergate break-in. Writing with his son, Matthew, a climate change activist, Krogh recalls vetting cabinet nominees as a member of Nixon’s transition team in 1968, “long before I understood the seriousness of the many responsibilities I would be given.” After defense contractor Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Krogh’s mentor and “surrogate father” John Ehrlichmann tasked him with directing a team, later known as “the Plumbers,” to investigate “who was part of the conspiracy.” Krogh admits to orchestrating the theft of Ellsberg’s psychiatric files, but notes that he was kicked off the Special Investigations Unit before Watergate for refusing to authorize a warrantless wiretap. Ultimately, Krogh suggests that former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy bears much of the responsibility for the break-in. Krogh is an amiable narrator, but he covers well-trod ground here and takes pains to highlight his own naivete. This Watergate history is best suited to completists. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Reflective . . . . A slender but thoughtful memoir by one of the foot soldiers of Watergate." —Kirkus Reviews

"General readers on both sides of the political aisle will welcome this instructional, conscience-stricken account." —Library Journal (starred review)

"A concise and important view of one domino that would topple Richard Nixon’s Presidency . . . a heartfelt mea culpa—soon to be an HBO miniseries—emphasizing that redemption is always possible and integrity not entirely lost, even in the wake of historic scandal." —Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2022

The late Nixon aide Egil Krogh (1939–2020) presents, in concert with his son Matthew, this clearly written first-person confession for his role in some of the Nixon administration's crimes. After the Pentagon Papers leak by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, Krogh was made co-director of Nixon's Special Investigations Unit ("the Plumbers"), charged with preventing future leaks, purportedly in the interest of national security. In September 1971 Krogh assented to have the Plumbers break in to the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to look for information to discredit the leaker. Eight months later, the Plumbers would form the core of Nixon's Watergate burglars; by then, Krogh had left the unit, after refusing to use a warrantless wiretap. Krogh was implicated in the Nixon administration's crimes when Watergate broke in 1973; he pled guilty for a reduced sentence (part of his effort to atone, he writes here) and was the first person incarcerated for activities in the Nixon White House. Later, he lectured on accepting responsibility and making ethical choices when loyalty to people and principles conflict. VERDICT General readers on both sides of the political aisle will welcome this instructional, conscience-stricken account and will want to compare the book to the five-part miniseries based on it (to appear on HBO in 2022).—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

Library Journal

2022-01-11
A slender but thoughtful memoir by one of the foot soldiers of Watergate.

Coming on the heels of Dwight Chapin’s The President’s Man, one-time White House staffer Egil Krogh delivers a more rueful remembrance assisted by his son. Krogh, who served a short prison term for his role in Watergate, spent years afterward wrestling with the bad choices he made in committing crimes that sent him to jail and drove Nixon from the White House. The usual ingredients were there: youth, ambition, and a desire to serve a president and country in “an emergency context”—namely, the release of the Pentagon Papers, which Nixon insiders considered threat enough to national security to burglarize Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office. Not long after, having assembled a crew including G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt (who brought in a merry band of Cuban “plumbers” from the Bay of Pigs days), Krogh oversaw the burglary of the psychiatrist’s office. Though the unit operated under the grand rubric the Special Investigations Unit, it was oddly amateurish. There are a couple of ironies involved, too, one a ploy to get the FBI to approve lie-detector tests on suspected leakers, a petition denied by FBI executive Mark Felt, later revealed as “Deep Throat.” The author allows that his “absolute loyalty to President Nixon, both personally and to his view of the national security threat, had skewed my perspective.” Refreshingly, however, he doesn’t try to explain himself away (as does Chapin) but instead writes that it was his term in federal prison that afforded him the opportunity to reflect on “why we so often choose courses of action that inflict harm on those we would help.” It’s good that he does so, since, as he notes, Nixon never accepted guilt for Watergate and the cover-up that ended his presidency. The author’s story is in development for a miniseries on HBO.

A reflective, long-overdue apologia for misguided service to a corrupt leader.

Kirkus Reviews