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Watergate: Dean’s Honor Roll of Enemies Includes Scientists

Former presidential counsel John W. Dean, HI, tes-
tified on 27 June before Senate Watergate investigators
that, like W. S. Gilbert’s lord high executioner in the
Mikado, the Nixon henchmen had a little list of so-
called “enemies” of the White House, and that Dean
himself participated in considering ways, as he wrote,
to “use the available Federal machinery to screw” them.

The Dean’s list of 200 names included prominent
show business figures, labor leaders, journalists, academ-
ics, people in the field of education, a sprinkling of
Harvard professors, two distinguished economists, and
at least one scientist who aided the scientists committee
to help reelect the President.

There was some serious reaction to the list afterwards
—a number of those contacted for comment said it con-
firmed their fears that liberally oriented academic peo-
ple were just not welcome in the White House, Bernard
Feld of the Council for a Liveable World and M.LT.,
who was cited, stated, “There has been pretty much a
feeling that coming from M.I.T. was not exactly the best
credential to get something in Washington”; ‘and with a
touch of vengeance, Noam Chomsky, asked for his re-
action to being on the President’s list by a Baston news-
paper, retorted, “Nixon’s on my list.” One not on the list,
William O. Baker, who is believed to be close to the Pres-
ident, denied he has heard of or seen a list but added:
“One was conscious of a considerable political sensi-
tivity about how these issues were received by certain
political elements.” But he calied the published list “abso-
lute trash” and “pure illusion.”

Presidents of three major universities are on the list
of White House enemies: Derek Bok, Harvard; Jerome
B. Wiesner, M.I.T.; and Kingman Brewster, Yale. °

There are several education figures: Samuel M. Lam-
bert, former executive secretary of the National Educa-
tion Association; and George Fischer, also of the NEA;
Charles Palmer, former president of the National Student
Association; Lloyd N. Morissett, associate director of the
University of California’s education program; and David
Selden, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

More cloak-and-dagger tragicomedy was provided by
Dean’s revelation of White House plans to obtain files
from the Brookings Institution by infiltrating the secu-
rity force there. When aid Charles Colson learned that
that would be difficult, he ordered a fire-bombing of
Brookings to get the files “during the commotion,” ac-
cording to Dean. Brookings, along with the Black Pan-
thers, is on the list of enemy organizations, and scholars
Leslie Gelb and Morton Halperin are singled out for spe-
cial mention.

Besides Bok, Harvard has three other associates list-
ed John Kenneth Galbraith, professor of economics, and
Matthew Meselson, professor of biology, as well as for-
mer junior fellow Joseph Rhodes, who was attacked by
Vice President Agnew when on the Scranton Commis-
sion on Student Unrest.

Galbraith, asked if he thought his phone was bugged,
replied, “I’ve assumed that, if the FBI were listening in,
and had to make their way through the social and

amorous conversations of my offspring to wait for me
to come on the line and say something sensitive, they’ve
earned their keep.” Meselson, asked if he suspected his
phone was bugged, said, “The telephone service in Lex-
ington is terrible. We have atrocious telephone service.
But I, like everybody else, have thought of it.” Rhodes
could not be reached for comment.

M.I.T. fared better—or worse—than Harvard. Its
Nobel economist, Institute Professor Paul Samuelson,
who also writes a column for Newsweek, was listed
under the White House’s heading of “media” enemies.
Samuelson reacted, “I was hurt that I wasn’t included
among the academics.” Daniel Elisberg, who formerly
was in the political science department, Chomsky, Feld,
Wiesner, and Edwin Land, who has an M.I.T. profes-
sorship as well as being president of Polaroid Corpo-
tation, were also listed from M.LT.

Other journalists—besides Samuelson—included Rob-
ert Manning, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, who said
that he had had income tax audits for 3 of the last 4
years. Many political writers and news broadcasters were
listed, but only one science writer, William Hines, of
the Chicago Sun-Times, who has written columns of
opinion which, he said, were critical of the President
on health policy, population, and marijuana issues. Asked
why in his view there was only one science writer,
Hines said, “. . . Maybe the science press is less im-
portant, .. . by and large the science writers fall wide
of the mark.” Hines added, “maybe it'll make us dig
in and try harder.”

Other prominent academic figures, such as Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., of City University of New York; Walter
Heller, of the University of Minnesota; Herbert Ley,
Jr., former commissioner of the Food and Drug Admin-
istration; and Henry Rowan, former president of the
Rand Corporation, now at Stanford University, were
listed, as well as two executive di.ectors of public in-
terest groups associated with arms issues, Sandy Gottleib
of SANE and Jeremy Stone of the Federation of Amer-
ican Scientists. Besides Brookings and the Rand Cor-
poration, a smaller think tank, the Institute for Policy
Studies, in Washington, D.C., was mentioned.

Tronically, one of the White House “enemies,” the
famous heart surgeon Michael de Bakey gave advice to
the scientists and engineers committee to reelect Nixon
in 1972. And two others—-MecGeorge Bundy, president
of the Ford Foundation and Thomas J. Watson, of IBM
—are about as far away from the antiestablishment as
anyone on the planet. The fact that people like Land
and Watson were evidently being fingered by the White
House provoked this comment from Chomsky: “Sup-
pose the list had had me, David Dellinger, Howard Zinn,
and Angela Davis on it—do you think that it would
have made the New York Times? That’s what people
expect to happen to dissidents. My reaction to the list
is the same as my reaction to Watergate. The kinds of
tactics that have been reserved for dissidents in this
country were contemplated for use against people close
to the center of power. Those aren’t the rules.”—D.S.

 

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