All the President’s Men
Chapters 6&7
Ally Mangine, Caroline Puts, and Madison Sangster
Chapter 6 (pages 112-135)
Characters:
1. Alex Shipley
● assistant attorney general of the state of Tennessee
● he was approached by Segretti who offered him a job in the Black Operation
● gave Bernstein information on Segretti and the Black Operation
2. Donald Segretti
● an attorney
● trying to recruit people for the Black Operation
● he denied all involvement
3. Robert Meyer
● 29-year-old former Newsweek stringer
● hired to track down Segretti
● interrogated Segretti
Summary:
Bernstein was called by a friend of Alex Shipley, saying he had information
involving Watergate. He said that Shipley had been asked by someone to help
Nixon campaign. Bernstein called Shipley who told him about the Black
Operation, which consisted of sabotaging the Democratic campaign. Then
Shipley told him that the man who had approached him was Donald Segretti. He
then went on to describe how Segretti asked him to recruit people from around
the country. Segretti also told him about all of the plans they had to disrupt the
Democratic primaries. Bernstein tried to contact Segretti and left his and
Woodwards phone numbers, but when Segretti called Woodward, he told
Segretti that he was from the Washington Post. Segretti would no longer talk to
them, so they hired Robert Meyers, the Post’s west coast correspondent to follow
Segretti.
Once Meyers had found Segretti, he questioned him about his relationship
with Alex Shipley and the Black Operation. Segretti denied everything or simply
said “no comment”. After Meyers told Bernstein and Woodward about what
Segretti said, the reporters decided to look into Segretti’s acquaintances. They
found out that many of Segretti’s friends from college, including Ron Ziegler,
Dwight Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Mike Guhin, and Gordon Strachan, were all part of
the White House staff. With the help of another reporter at the Post, Woodward
and Bernstein found out that Segretti, Ziegler, Chapin, and Elbourne were all
involved in helping Nixon’s campaign.
Bernstein talked to man from the Justice Department, who got very angry
about the new information and also confirmed it. The man also confirmed that the
slush fund would be used to fund the sabotaging. Near the end of the
conversation, he accidentally let it slip that this issue might even go higher than
John Mitchell.
Woodward did not think that they had enough information to run the story,
so he went to talk to Deep Throat. He said to “check every lead” because
“everything was part of it - nothing was free-lance”. Deep Throat then confirmed
that more than fifty people in the White House and CRP were involved.
Chapter 7 (pages 136-158)
Characters:
1.Marilyn Berger
● national staff reporter who cover the State Department
● told Bernstein that the Canuck Letter was written by Ken Clawson
2.Ken Clawson
● Deputy Director of Communications in the White House
● writer of the Canuck Letter
● denied writing the Canuck Letter
3.Larry Young
● lawyer in California
● college friend of Segretti
● he told Woodward about Segretti’s involvement with the Nixon campaign
Summary:
Marilyn Berger, a reporter at the Post, told Bernstein that Ken Clawson wrote the
Canuck Letter. Woodward called Clawson and he completely denied writing the letter,
saying that it was all a misunderstanding. He was very worried about the fact that he
was in her house while having the conversation saying that he wrote the letter.
Based on Berger's account of Ken Clawson’s confession and Segretti’s stories of
sabotaging the Democrats, Woodward and Bernstein published a very important and
risky story. Following the releasing of the story Ron Ziegler declined twenty-nine times
to discuss the Post story while talking to reporters.
Frank Mankiewicz, a proffesional at the McGovern campaign, called Woodward
to tell him about many acts of sabotage that happened to the campaign that he
suspected was the work of the Republicans. Against Woodward’s will, this information
was used in a follow-up story. Bernstein then talked to Edmund Muskie of the
Democrats who also told him about the Republicans sabotaging his campaign, including
his family being followed.
Robert Meyers finds Segretti’s friend, Larry Young, to whom Segretti had said a
great deal. Young described how Segretti had told him that he had been questioned by
the FBI about his connections with E. Howard Hunt. Segretti said he had been working
for a wealthy lawyer and was getting paid by a special lawyers trust fund but he didn’t
say who it was. Woodward believed the lawyer to be Herbert Kalmbatch, the personal
attorney to the president. Young’s statements also proved the relationship between
Segretti and Dwight Chapin. Young agreed to go on the record and Woodward
published the story.