Chapter 5 From doing whatever you want to doing whatever you want

Brother Lu: Hello! As you can see from the last letter, the "Watergate case" itself is very simple.To be honest, after watching the whole process, at the beginning, I couldn't even imagine that such an extremely absurd "incident" would have anything to do with the senior leaders of the White House.The reason for this lies precisely in the absurdity and apparent unprofessionalism of the whole affair. Let's first take a look at the people who were seized together with the stolen goods in the "Watergate Case".Four of them are Cuban refugees in the United States, that is, Cubans who fled to the United States after the Cuban Revolution. Most of them live in Florida, which is close to Cuba. Is the same, knowing is the external object straight, he is a consultant who has long left the CIA.It also belongs to the category of idlers.Judging from these perpetrators, they really have nothing to do with the White House.

The problem is that when the "Watergate incident" happened, who were the two leaders squatting in the opposite hotel and commanding?They were actually employees of the Nixon White House.These two people, one is Hunter and the other is Li Di. Here I would like to talk about what is meant by the so-called "people in the White House" in the United States.In a general sense, the White House is the home of the president during his tenure, and the family of the president of the United States lived here during the past few years.However, there is a very famous Oval Office in the White House, which is the place where the president works every day.In this way, the White House is no longer a simple residence.Since the president works in the White House, there is also a team that works most closely around the president and has an office in the White House.For example, Secretary to the President, security, travel arrangements, etc.

Therefore, in addition to the main building of the White House, there are also administrative buildings where these people work in the courtyard of the White House. Even so, there are not many people working in the White House.You must remember that Sha believed that only intuitive knowledge was "true knowledge".The epistemology of idealism is that I once said that President Clinton had to appoint a minister of justice to be approved by Congress, and it was very difficult to do so repeatedly.Relatively speaking, the president has much greater power to appoint White House employees.This set of people is equivalent to the president's personal team, and generally he can make a decision on his own.But, having said that, although these people work in the White House, which symbolizes the center of power, and are also advising the president, they do not hold much power for a country.

Therefore, it is well known that previous US presidents often arranged some of his cronies in the White House.Of course they also receive a salary from the treasury.However, firstly, they do not actually have much power, and secondly, their numbers are not large, and Congress cannot interfere much with the prerogative of the president.As a result, in the White House, there will be some employees with ambiguous titles.They are usually named "White House Assistant", "White House Counselor".After all, the president is also a mortal, and when he encounters a headache, he always consults with a few trustworthy people, which is understandable.It is not inappropriate to say that they are "consultants".

The question is, what kind of person is the president looking for to act as a "senior counselor".People can often see a president's behavior style and his style tendency from the "advisors" who hang around the president. Hunter was a "White House adviser" to President Nixon.His background is a longtime CIA employee.Li Di also had a background in intelligence work, but the reason why he was favored by Nixon, in addition to his work background, was his extreme conservative views (Della F Volpe, 1897-1968), Colletti (Lucio Colletti, 1924-, And the desire to "dedicate oneself to the country" with a fantasy type. Speaking of Li Di, I really want to say a few more words.

Li Di was really my "old friend" for a while.Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I know him.It was a period of time when I was working in a warehouse, and while I was working, I kept listening to "talk shows" on the radio to strengthen my English listening.Liddy is now the number two "talker" on conservative "talk shows," and I hear him on the radio almost every day. Li Di on the radio today can be said to be the most extreme conservative.Back then, when others recommended Li Di to President Nixon, Nixon read his article first.After reading it, even Nixon, who thought he was conservative enough, smiled and shook his head and said, this guy is really conservative.After many years, Li Di has not changed his original intention at all.He's always been on the "talk show," attacking any view he considers "liberal" with the most vehemence.

For example, he lashed out at someone who suggested that the government increase funding for AIDS research.He said that AIDS was caused by some people's "ugly behavior" (referring to homosexuality), so why use taxpayers' money to study how to cure them.Another example is the compilation of lost articles.See "Huan Tan" in "Literature". , He said that all the claims about the destruction of the earth's environment were fabricated by "liberal vampires".By this they are trying to disenfranchise the landowners. (Because in the United States, there are a series of laws to protect the environment that conflict with the interests of landowners).Of course, he was also vehemently against abortion, angrily saying that there was only ten centimeters between murder and abortion, and so on.

I didn't know at the beginning that this "famous mouth" on the "talking show" was one of the key figures in the famous "Watergate Case".The ridiculous thing is that there has always been a lot of legal propaganda in his program. It can be said that I have learned a lot of American legal knowledge from his program, and he has always defended the Constitution there.Finally, one day, I suddenly realized that he was the heartless and ridiculous Li Di in the "Watergate Incident", and then I understood why he mentioned the Democratic Party President Clinton and his wife as if they were mentioning some sworn enemies It seemed like a murderous look.I also understand why he always yells "I'm back" every time before a show!After making a fuss for a long time, it is because of the "Watergate incident" that I was imprisoned, and now I have "killed" back from the prison.

So, why did President Nixon hire such two people with intelligence work backgrounds in the White House?What exactly is their role in the White House?How did they leave the White House and have such a deadly hand in the Republican campaign?All of this is inseparable from Nixon's style of conduct.It was also Nixon's attitude towards the power in his hands that eventually led to the inevitable result of the "Watergate Incident". It should be said that among the previous US presidents, Nixon was a very prominent politician who was pragmatic but unscrupulous.This is not only because of what he has done, but also because of the domestic machinery, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the elimination of all exploitative systems and exploiting classes. Deep down in his heart, he did not have the basic starting point that an American president must have, that is, for the Constitution, In awe of the contract between the people and the government.

I'll start with how the two guys who ended up in trouble, Hunter and Liddy, ended up in the White House. That was 1969, shortly after Nixon came to power.He is very clear that getting rid of the Vietnam War is an important step to stabilize the domestic people.However, his plan to withdraw troops was frustrated at the beginning, so he could only change his strategy and planned to attack first and then retreat, so he ordered the bombing of Cambodia.At the same time, he was very afraid that this move would cause public protests in the United States. Therefore, this bombing order became the top secret of the White House.What was very strange at the time was that Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and the Soviet Union all remained silent.Just when it was about to pass safely, the "New York Times" made a detailed report on the bombing order of the White House.

This is what I mentioned in my letter last year. If the U.S. government wants to keep something secret, the only way is to keep a close eye on it, and don’t let the press get it.Once it's in the hands of the press, there's little you can do to stop it from being published. Nixon's view was the opposite.He has always believed that it is the government, not the press, that decides whether a document or news can be published.Unfortunately, in the United States, it is the Constitution, not the President, that has the final say. During Nixon's tenure, he was always in a state of constant war with the press.Although he privately hated the press, he said that he must not be soft.But, in fact, Nixon knew very well in his heart that under the absolute authority of the "freedom of speech" of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he could do nothing to the press.So, in the end, all he can do is to try his best to control the White House where he lives. Because the press is outside the White House system.Any news that the president considers to be a high-level secret first goes through the various channels of the White House.If the news channels in the White House's work process are closed, and the "pipes" are not leaky, then the press will have nothing to take advantage of.They can only helplessly stand outside the fence of the White House. However, other White House information has leaked from time to time, including the information I mentioned above from the New York Times.Therefore, Nixon made up his mind to "prevent leaks and stop leaks" in the White House.He wondered which node leaked the message.Of course, everyone knows that the easiest way is to install bugs in the White House staff office.However, Nixon knew that to wiretap legally, he had to obtain a wiretapping permit from another branch of the U.S. government, the judicial system.He also understands that under the protection of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on personal privacy, he can never imagine obtaining such a license from the judicial system on the grounds of protecting state secrets.So what should he do? Everyone knows that the FBI and CIA in the United States today have the world's most advanced equipment and a group of the most capable intelligence personnel who have received professional training.In theory, they all belong to the administrative branch of government.Their directors are appointed by the president and then approved by Congress.If the White House wants to do something, shouldn't it be done immediately? However, in the American power structure, the FBI and CIA are so-called "independent federal agencies" that, like the Federal Reserve Board, FCC, and FAA, are not really part of the presidential executive branch jurisdiction.Their statutes must be approved by Congress, the legislative branch of government power, and their operations must be supervised by Congress.The scope of responsibility of the CIA in the United States is entirely against foreign countries. In principle, it is directly responsible to the president.The FBI's role is to investigate domestic (interstate) criminal activity, theoretically under the executive branch, the Department of Justice.Although they are quite independent, they still have a certain relationship with the administrative branch of the government. The problem is, Congress places strict limits on their activities.For example, under the National Security Act of 1947, Congress strictly prohibited the CIA from conducting domestic intelligence activities and interfering in domestic affairs.And the FBI must operate within the limits of the law.That said, the first is that the president cannot use the CIA to investigate domestic cases.Secondly, if he wants to use the FBI, he must also follow the established procedures stipulated by the law and follow the rules.As a result, legal judicial permission must still be obtained.In this way, a circle came back again. When I introduced the U.S. Constitutional Amendment last year, you can see that because the constitution itself is very concise, different problems and understandings have arisen in different eras.Therefore, the Supreme Court of the United States has been making further clear definitions and interpretations of these provisions.When Nixon first came to power, the Supreme Court did not have a clear judgment and explanation on the conflict between national security interests and civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution.Therefore, Nixon wanted to exploit this loophole from the beginning. He initially convinced the FBI to use this loophole to secretly wiretap the White House staff offices without judicial clearance on the special grounds of national security.At the time, this was indeed a legal loophole. However, when the specific executors did it, they also knew that this was not a grandiose behavior.Therefore, when the White House once again proposed to add bugs, it was finally rejected by then FBI Director Hoover. Not long after, the Supreme Court passed a unanimous vote in its jurisprudence to clearly stipulate that when the U.S. government conducts electronic wiretapping for national security cases, it must also first obtain a court permit.This loophole was blocked at once.Nixon had no choice but to watch the FBI rush over and immediately remove all the bugs. During this period, Nixon engaged in a world-famous bout with the press.That was the "Secret Pentagon Papers Case".The day before the document was published, it was Nixon's daughter who got married. The president happily danced with his wife, and everyone watched the live wedding on TV.However, in the next day's New York Times, next to the photo of Nixon and his daughter, there was a headline "Vietnam Files: Pentagon Study Tracing Three Years of American Involvement."Under this title, The New York Times began serializing the famous "Secret Pentagon Papers." The publication of this document brought more and more troubles to Nixon, and Nixon felt deeply hurt.In the end, 12 major newspapers in the United States were involved and reported in series on various actions of the US government on the Vietnam issue.On the one hand, Nixon ordered the White House staff not to have contact with the press. On the other hand, Nixon’s government executive department sued the court, asking the government’s judicial system to rule that the newspaper should suspend the publication of these secret documents on the grounds of national security. After the trial of the district court and the first level of appeal, it was finally finalized by the Supreme Court of the United States.The press won.Hugo Black, Justice of the Supreme Court, famously said in this case: Every attempt to block the press by court decision always results in a notorious and inexcusable violation of the First Amendment. One thing you must have noticed is that throughout this process, the press is protected by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.However, the person who "leaks" state secrets to the press should not be covered by this protection. Here I would like to point out that in the United States, it is indeed much more difficult to keep secrets than in other countries.because of the country Various confidential plans and even national defense projects have the participation of a large number of private enterprises and institutions, and also involve a large number of staff of private enterprises and institutions.And among these people, there are also a large number of new immigrants and even foreigners.Not to mention that leaks to the press are a problem, leaks to foreign spy agencies are commonplace.The crime of espionage in the United States is severely punished.If it is not a spy but merely leaks state secrets to the press, the government agency certainly has the right to sue in court and demand punishment according to law. In this "Pentagon case", there is such a leaker, his name is Ellsberg.When he was working in a private research institution, he secretly copied a large number of government secret documents.His motive for leaking the secrets was not to sell the documents for money.He is just an idealistic anti-war.Although Ellsberg was also a "hawk" who was the main battle, he later changed his position.After the release of the secret documents, he also voluntarily surrendered to the federal authorities to show his anti-war motives and no regrets, and was greeted by anti-war opponents like a hero outside the court.This is also one of the reasons why some political secrets in the United States are difficult to keep secret. In the United States, there are indeed a lot of idealists with their own opinions. This Ellsberg is an idealist who would rather go to jail for anti-war.He claimed that he gave the secret documents not only to the newspaper, but also to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Congress.Through this move, we can see that his thinking is very clear and very American.This means that, firstly, news supervision should play a role on the Vietnam issue; secondly, the legislative branch of the US government (Congress) should perform their supervision of the Vietnam policy of the executive branch through the review of secret documents of the executive system.This is very typical American thinking. Nixon's anger can be imagined.Challenging the press in court not only failed to prevent the publication of the "Pentagon Papers", but increased the prestige of the press.In addition, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee who received the Ellsberg document has always been regarded as a political enemy by Nixon.Therefore, in Nixon's view, this Ellsberg was tantamount to providing the weapons to attack Nixon to his political opponents.However, as the president, Nixon could only witness all this happening, but there was nothing he could do about it. At this time, Nixon still had to perform his duties as president and was busy with Vietnam and China.But at the same time, on the one hand, he made up his mind to punish Ellsberg severely, to make an example of others;However, although Ellsberg is guilty of "illegally possessing relevant national defense information and stealing government property", it is within the scope of the judicial branch to try according to law, and how much should be sentenced (these crimes will not be severely punished) .As for Nixon's executive branch, there was no possibility of even intervening to say hello, let alone meddling. The only feasible way for Nixon was to let the investigative agencies of the executive branch do whatever they could to find out other charges against Ellsberg in the field within his control, and then let the prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice under him prosecute according to the evidence.If the more evidence that can be found and the greater the crime that can be proved, the judicial department will of course impose a heavier sentence.However, the so-called unscrupulous means is to use the investigative agency in hand to conduct some illegal investigations.Because idealists like Ellsberg are not ordinary criminals, it is difficult to find anything through normal investigations, and we must find ways to find out the bones in the eggs. However, it is also very difficult.The reason is that these investigation agencies are not necessarily willing to conduct illegal operations.When it comes to breaking the law, the president's baton often can't even command the administrative agencies below him.This is because, in the operation of the American system, the most basic one is that everyone must be responsible to the law with his own actions when performing official duties.If something goes wrong, anyone must convince the jury that he is convinced that the order is not illegal when he executes the order, otherwise, the executor still has his own legal responsibility, and he should go to jail or have to go to jail.Under this rule, it is very difficult for senior leaders in the United States to arbitrarily promote their subordinates in an illegal act. For example, Hunter, Nixon's "White House adviser" mentioned above, once "advised" such a trick, asking the IRS to investigate radicals whom Nixon hated, and find fault with them in the name of tax evasion.The result was flatly rejected by the IRS.Because in the statutory operations of the IRS, it is illegal to do so.So even though the IRS was under the Nixon administration and did something illegal, they refused, and they couldn't afford to risk a prison sentence for it. Thus, when Nixon tried to use his investigative agencies, he encountered a double failure of the CIA and the FBI.Ellsberg, for example, also worked for the CIA's "Taiping" program in Vietnam, so they had a full file on him.When they were asked to provide this set of data for analysis, they responded reluctantly that it was one thing to provide Castro's data, and quite another to involve a U.S. citizen and become involved in a government case.In the end, under pressure, they only provided some sporadic information. The FBI also showed no cooperation.In fact, the CIA and FBI in the United States have had quite a few illegal operations in history.I remember I told you such a story in a letter last year.These two institutions have always been a source of deep suspicion for Americans.Therefore, the legislation and supervision of these two institutions by the legislative body of the US government are strengthening year by year.This can also be seen from the change in attitude of FBI Director Hoover.Before Nixon came to power, he stopped almost all illegal operations and dismissed a group of staff who had been trained for illegal operations.Hoover became very cautious about "fouling" in his later years. Therefore, under the constraints of the entire system, Nixon found that the power in his hands was as big as it was, and as small as it was, he could not do whatever he wanted.Under such circumstances, if Nixon insisted on going his own way, what else could he do?He can only go to the limited number of cronies in the White House to find a way.Unfortunately, Nixon really took this step. Several "White House advisers" said they could "do it themselves."Nixon agreed.In this way, a "White House Special Investigation Team" headed by Erichmann and Heidemann was established.Their mission is to investigate Ellsberg and investigate to prevent the leakage of secrets.Therefore, the code name of this group is "Plumber", which means "plugging the news pipeline". It doesn't matter that there is a group of "plumbers", the problem is "how to do it yourself".Their so-called "do it yourself" was originally the result of the White House pushing the federal agencies under it to conduct illegal investigations, but they couldn't push it.Therefore, that is, what others are unwilling to do, "we do it ourselves".In this way, the "plumbers" began to embark on a dangerous journey.Of course, Nixon himself only agreed to the establishment of this group, and he was not necessarily clear about many specific operations after the formation. He was just waiting to get the results of the work of the "plumber".Perhaps, he does not know how far the "plumbers" will go on the road of violation, but Nixon must be clear about the direction they set off. So, who should the "plumber" turn to?Although this is an "investigative team" with an office in the White House, it cannot recruit and mobilize staff like other executive agencies because it intends to "operate illegally" from the beginning.It can only find some reliable people through some personal relationships.The problem is also that these people have to be willing to break the law.As a result, of course, there are almost no clear-headed people to be found.This is the reason why Hunter and Li Di, who were so goddamn in the "Watergate Incident", actually went to work in the White House. This guy Liddy, on the one hand is a conservative who hates "liberals" very much. He once said that if he was asked to agree that the liberal way of life prevailed in the United States, he felt that it would be like asking him to fight in World War II. Same as surrendering to the Japanese.He can also be regarded as an extreme right "idealist".At the same time, I suspect that he has watched too many "007" and other movies, and he seems to be fanatically seeking the feeling of a "secret hero".Almost all of his action plans are bold and reckless "ideas", full of a sense of risk.He probably never thought in his entire life that he would be so reused, nor would he have thought that he would have the opportunity to realize all his wild fantasies. Unfortunately, it was Li Di who became the decision-maker for many specific operations of the "Plumber".When Li Di was investigating the "Pentagon Papers" leaker Ellsberg, they had actually rehearsed a "Watergate Incident".They once asked Ellsberg's psychiatrist to hand over his information, but the doctor flatly refused. In the United States, a psychiatrist is like a lawyer. He keeps everything confidential for his clients according to the law.Moreover, this is also a characteristic of the United States, that is, ordinary people live their own lives, and they are not subject to any other constraints and influences except for laws and workplace rules.As long as he does not break the law, he will not buy whoever comes.This is also the reason why an ordinary psychiatrist would not pay attention to the official request at all. Therefore, Li Di decided to break into the psychiatrist's office at night to steal information. Personnel from the "Plumber" office were definitely not allowed to enter, fearing that if they were found out of the White House, they temporarily found a few Cuban refugees.As a result, they get nothing but a mess in the psychiatrist's office.Since he was not caught red-handed, the case was for a long time regarded as an ordinary burglary. When Li Di reported to his superior, Errichmann, the person in charge of the "Plumber", he was obviously frightened by Li Di's misbehavior.He immediately ordered the operation to be stopped immediately.In fact, during the process of investigating Ellsberg, Li Di proposed even more frightening plans. For example, in order to obtain Ellsberg's information at the Brooklyn Institute, Li Di even proposed to throw a Incendiary bombs, and then hired someone to pretend to be a firefighter and rush in to grab documents and the like.It's just that these plans were all rejected by his White House boss. In the end, it can be said that things backfired.Their illegal investigations not only did not play any role in Ellsberg's case, but actually helped Ellsberg a lot, which is another story.What's even more ridiculous is that in "The Plumber", there is a man named Coulson who deliberately disclosed some of Ayersberg's materials he obtained through abnormal channels to reporters in Washington in an attempt to influence the investigation of Ayersberg. Borg's trial.As a result, under the US judicial system and the Constitution that protects the rights of defendants, Coulson's move turned into shooting himself in the foot.He himself was later sent to prison for this, on charges of violating his civil rights during Ellsberg's fair trial. It can be said that once a person like Li Di enters the role, his direct superior should immediately see clearly how dangerous he is.But why is he still able to stay in the White House?This is because Nixon and a few cronies around him were still unwilling to give up the loyal and able-bodied people around them.Indeed, if those professional intelligence personnel get started, this task will be a piece of cake. As for making such a joke?However, regardless of the fact that the president of the United States commands a huge government administrative agency and has "thousands of troops", once he wants to "cross the line" operations, he may not be able to command alone.And those who can even break the law to serve the president are probably at Li Di's level.They are also out of helplessness. As a result, Li Di not only stayed, but also went further and further away. In the spring of 1971, the Republican presidential re-election committee responsible for Nixon's re-election was formed.In the United States, the president's White House and the executive branch of the government are one thing, and the election of candidates put forward by political parties is another.The two should not be confused.Therefore, Nixon's Attorney General Mitchell resigned as Attorney General in order to fully devote himself to the party's campaign affairs and assist Nixon's re-election.This Mitchell is a character that I have not figured out until now.Of course, I know that he is a close friend of Nixon, but, after all, he has been the attorney general for two years, so it is unlikely that he will be involved in illegal matters so deeply. From these cronies around Nixon, you can almost smell the suspicious and dangerous atmosphere in Nixon's White House. At this time, the person in charge of the "Plumber" transferred an official named McGruder under him to the President's Re-election Committee, who was in charge of the former Attorney General Mitchell and served as the vice chairman.Since the establishment of this committee, Li Di has always wanted to show his hand in this confrontational and challenging election campaign.In the end, he got his wish and left the White House to be transferred to the President and serve as a consultant to the finance department of the committee. Of course, he was far from satisfied with such a job.He took the initiative to rush to the forefront, actively proposing more bizarre "action plans" named after various gems.His plans are filled with movie plots, ranging from kidnapping, sabotage, pornographic seduction, all the way to murdering a columnist. Of course, these whimsical plans were immediately rejected by Mitchell, who had been the attorney general.He regretted the incident and said that he should have thrown Li Di out of the window at that time.As the deputy director of the Republican President's Re-election Committee, McGruder, even though he himself was transferred from a "plumber", he couldn't stand a "secret maniac" like Li Di, but the superiors told him to "put the Personal likes and dislikes aside." In the design of the power structure in the United States, the president's room for maneuver is limited.However, Nixon and some of his so-called cronies have formed an abnormal small circle of abusing power as much as possible.The reason why these people do this is to hope that after forming this circle, they can share the benefits brought about by power in the future.This kind of small circle is just a starting point for trying to expand power to cover the sky with one hand.Idealistic fanatics like Li Di are exactly the tools they need.One person in this small circle even said, "Leedy is indeed a Hitler, but he is our Hitler after all." Li Di was indeed too enthusiastic and uncontrollable, but it was impossible for these officials who really belonged to Nixon's small circle to direct those "dirty jobs" in person.Precisely because these are dangerous illegal operations, the fewer links the better.Therefore, a phenomenon that cannot be produced by a normal administrative leadership structure appears here, which is an incredible big-jump structure.As you can imagine, there is a vast and intangible gap between those temporary pawns recruited from the street and the top circle of the White House, and the gap in the middle is filled with only one Lee. Dee goes in. For such a role, the senior officials of the White House must at least be able to see through it, and they must be able to lead street gangsters and the like, and they must be reliable and dare to break the law.It would be nice to find such a Li Di.This is also one of the reasons why the former Attorney General Mitchell wanted to throw Li Di out, but in the end not only did not throw it out, but also left him to entrust him with important tasks. After Li Di's various plans were rejected, he could only gradually restrain his "heroic fantasy" in order to be approved by his superiors. This is how the "Watergate" program was born.Until this proposal, there were still those who insisted that it was not worth the risk.However, under the mentality of some "consultants" around Nixon eager to obtain campaign information, unfortunately, this plan was pressured from above, and was approved by former Attorney General Mitchell, the current Republican president and then chairman of the committee.I don't know if he was able to sleep that night, because the two years of the Attorney General should not be for nothing. The "Watergate incident" is approaching everyone step by step.There is one final question here, which is "Where does the money come from?"I have said it before.The president of the United States is allowed to employ a limited number of cronies in the White House.In other words, these limited number of "consultants" and "assistants" are considered government employees.Their salaries are allowed to be spent from the government's administrative expenses.However, for the other expenses of the president and the White House, Congress said that the audit will be audited.Every cent of its use must withstand the inspection of Congress, and it must be accountable. It is impossible to be taken out of the White House for no reason. Similarly, in the United States, the campaign funds of various political parties come from political donations, and the use of political donations is subject to increasing oversight by Congress.Therefore, as a staff member of the President's Re-election Committee, Li Di was paid, but when he hired someone again, he didn't have the money in his pocket.What's more, to engage in wiretapping and the like, you must have criminal tools. What money will you use to buy them? When the "Plumbers" illegally investigated the leaker Ellsberg in the "Pentagon Papers case", they had already struggled with funding issues time and time again.Once, it took a lot of trouble to get five thousand dollars.They ended up using political donations from the Republican Party, but later found a way to pay back part of it with political lobbying money. The reason why it takes such a lot of trouble is that there is always a way for money, but under the American system, it is very difficult for you to let a large amount of money come in and out without a trace.Even with the measly five thousand dollars mentioned above, once the investigation is started, the ins and outs will be found out very quickly. The American government is rich because it has huge taxes.However, the political parties in the United States are poor, because their activities are funded entirely by donations, and each campaign requires huge expenses.When these people try to carry out some illegal activities and use funds, although the government is rich, as I said before, even the president can't use the government's money to carry out illegal operations.As for party money?他们所接受的政治捐款，不象政府的税收那样，是全民纳税的钱，因此，尽管对于政治捐款也有很多规定，但是在国会监督方面，一开始并不象管政府的钱那样管得严。 这和美国政党的逐步发展也有关系。当美国搭起一个政府构架和制定宪法的时候，还没有什么党派活动。此后，经过很长的时期，党派活动才建立和扩大起来，并且逐步成为政治活动的主角，政治捐款的金额也开始剧增。因此，国会对于党派政治捐款的监督，也是随着不同的时代需要，而在逐步增强的。 在1925年，美国国会有一个“腐败活动法”，该法规定，对于已经获得提名的总统候选人的竞选经费，都必须接受监督。这个法规使得在初选和提名大会之前的筹款和费用就不受监督，也不必报告了。对于各个政党来说，这笔钱可以说是一个漏洞。之所以会留下这个漏洞，也是因为在1925年，这还不是一个非常严重的问题。 但是，正在尼克松竞选连任期间，1972年，国会又根据新的形势通过了“联邦竞选法”，该法生效以后，隐名政治捐款将成为违法行为，所有捐款者和政治捐款，不论在提名前或者提名后，都必须接受国会的监督了。 “联邦竞选法”的生效期在1972年4月7日，所以，就在这项法律生效的前一天，1972年4月6日，李迪拿到了用于“水门行动”的活动经费，这笔钱就是来自共和党收到的政治捐款。因为哪怕是在新的“联邦竞选法”生效之前一天，还是按照1925年的法律规定。也就是说，当时尼克松还没有被正式提名为总统候选人，在新法生效前一天的账，按老规定一般还是不会被检查。这样，他们抓住最后一个机会非法使用政治捐款。 不过，这里还是有问题。就是之所以他们动用了这笔政治捐款，并不是因为它用得无懈可击，用得正当。而是这笔钱虽然是非法使用，但是一般不会被检查，也就是“希望”不会被发现。这就是说，它的“安全性”完全基于“水门行动”的顺利进行。如果一旦“水门行动”本身被抓住，批准动用这笔经费的人还是摆脱不了法律责任的。因此，他们在转这笔钱的时候，还是费了一番脑筋，甚至转到美国境外，通过了一家墨西哥银行。可是，“水门事件”一爆发，联邦调查局通过现场留下的联号百元美钞，还是很快就追到墨西哥，顺藤摸瓜一路摸了过来。 现在你一定理解了，为什么我说“水门事件”存在许多偶然因素，但是它的发生又是必然的。象尼克松这样的总统，掌握了一定权力就试图滥用权力，结果就是，第一，他在整个制度的限制下，滥用权力的范围将有限，从尼克松这里你就可以看到，他始终没有超出国会监督较松的总统白宫私人班子的范围。第二，他很难成功地瞒天过海。 尼克松的滥用权力事实上是在试图钻漏洞，挑战这个制度，挑战整个“收银机”的运作是否真正有效。尼克松总统对于美国的权力制衡，始终处于这样一种跃跃欲试的挑战姿态，那么，他即使不跌进“水门”，也迟早会跌进其他什么“门”。但是，一般来讲，人往往会存侥幸心理，尤其是掌握了很大权力的人，会产生一种错觉，总以为自己会有可能一手遮天。尼克松就是很典型的存有这样的侥幸心理。 不管怎么说，“水门事件”就这样发生了，但是，我一点也没有想到，这只是一个“序幕”，真正的好戏全在后头。而美国制度中“制约与平衡”的作用，也由于尼克松这样一个挑战宪法的总统，在此后充分地进行了一次实战演习。 下一封信再谈吧。 wish it is good! Linda