rap2016_ch30

Quiz for Document 30–1: Transcript from Tape-Recorded Meeting, March 21, 1973

Choose the best answer to each question.

1. What was the “cancer” within the presidency that John Dean was referring to?

The corruption scandal surrounding Vice President Agnew

The scandal around the Pentagon Papers

The conspiracy around the Watergate break-in

The investigation of Watergate by Democrats in Congress

2. Why did President Nixon and Dean think they were being blackmailed?

A journalist had threatened to expose Nixon’s role in Watergate unless they paid him.

Someone had stolen copies of tape recordings of sensitive meetings in the Oval Office.

Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist had threatened to expose the plumbers’ burglary of his office.

The men apprehended in the Watergate burglary were demanding funds for their legal defense.

3. What were the “soft spots” described by Dean?

Missing records that would prove Nixon had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in

Persons involved in the Watergate break-in who might implicate high officials in the administration

Journalists who would reliably produce articles that portrayed the Nixon administration positively

Spouses and acquaintances of the plumbers who could not be fully trusted.

4. What strategy to stymie investigations did President Nixon discuss with his aides?

Claiming executive privilege

Destroying evidence of communication

Citing national security concerns

Denouncing the plumbers’ actions