On the night of Saturday, October 20, 1973, Nixon purged
Attorney General Elliot Richardson, his assistant William
Ruckleshaus, and Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
The reason for this blatant display of executive power lay not
in the “Battle of the Tapes,” but more in the fact that Cox
had initiated a widening investigation into Nixon confidant
Bebe Rebozo, who, perhaps more than any other person,
knows the intimate details of Nixon’s presumed criminal activities.
Cox’s strategy was based on the notion that the
tapes were not going to reveal much, which appears to have
been correct in light of the most recent revelations about the
“missing tapes.” Impeachment depended on demonstrating
Nixon’s criminal activity, and therefore the investigation had
to go beyond the tapes. Prior to the “Saturday Night Mas-
sacre,” Nixon already had begun to launch his attack, charging
that Cox and his staff were conducting a political vendetta
against him and that the specific Watergate charges were being
ignored.
Of course, Cox’s prosecution was political. Cox is a long-
time Kennedy family aide and supporter. He was a member of
John Kennedy’s brain trust in the 1960 campaign against
Nixon, working as a liaison to the Eastern Establishment,
many of whom were Republicans. When President Kennedy
set up the new administration Cox was named Solicitor
General. Many of his top staff in the Watergate investigation
worked with Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the Justice Department. Thus, the prosecutor’s office became the liberal
Establishment’s spearhead for an attack on Nixon and his
administration. The Kennedy’s and other ruling groups shared
a common interest in toppling, or at least weakening, Nixon
and the economic interests he represents.
Nixon Needs a Prosecutor:
Enter Jaworski
Leon Jaworski was a long-time friend and counsel to
Lyndon Johnson. His Houston law firm, Fullbright, Crocker &
Jaworski, is one of the largest in the nation with 149 partners and associates, and has branch offices in Washington, D.C. and
Mexico City.
Nixon’s selection of Jaworski as the new Watergate prose-
cutor was a shrewd one. Jaworski, 68 years old, has long been
identified with the Democrats’ conservative wing. Besides
having been a confidant of Johnson, Jaworski is close to the
former chairman of “Democrats for Nixon,” John Connally.
Nixon undoubtedly had input from Connally on the Jaworski
choice. When former Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough was
asked whether Jaworski might yield to pressure that will arise
during the course of his duties as Special Prosecutor, he
responded: “There might not be any pressure on him because
of his predilections. I’m sure he and Connally drank alot of coffee together before this situation was ever dreamed of.”
Another indication that Jaworski has stayed close to Connally
politically is that he joined Connally in supporting Nixon in
1972. The important point is that Jaworski, although a
long-time Democrat, is much closer to Nixon than Cox in
terms of the political and economic interests they relate to.
However, Cox’s 80-member staff remains intact and is cau-
tiously working under Jaworski.
One real test of how far Jaworski will dig will center around
the milk scandal, in which John Connally has been implicated.
According to the Wall Street Journal (November 5, 1973),
former Treasury Secretary John Connally has been, or soon
will be, handed a subpoena by the Senate Watergate
Committee demanding that he explain “his role in persuading
the Nixon administration to boost government milk-price
supports in the Spring of 1971.” Connally is known to have
discussed milk prices with Harold S. Nelson, then general
manager of the Associated Milk Producers, Inc. of San
Antonio, Texas, a giant dairy cooperative which made a
“commitment” to contribute as much as $2 million for
Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign. In addition, some of the
dairy money was funnelled to Democrats for Nixon which
Connally headed. Jaworski’s staff wants to know whether the
Special Prosecutor will push the criminal investigation of the
milk-price increase, for which Cox had begun to gather
evidence.
For a better understanding of what direction the new Special Prosecutor might take we need to know what interests
Jaworski represents. First, he takes his legal professional
seriously. Jaworski was the 1970 president of the powerful
American Bar Association. One of his special interests seems to
be “law and order.” He was a member of President Johnson’s
Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of
Justice. In Texas, as a member of the executive committee of
the Southwestern Legal Foundation, he helped channel federal
law and order funds (from the Law Enforcement Assistance Ad-
ministration–LEAA) to train new southern prosecutors. Inter-
nationally, as a trustee of the M. D. Anderson Foundation, he
apparently helped secretly conduit CIA funds to the Inter-
national Commission of Jurists in Geneva. Nixon probably appreciates Jaworski’s past experience with coverup opera-
tions. He was appointed Special Counsel to the proposed
Texas inquiry into the assassination of President Kennedy; but
since it never materialized, Jaworski joined the Warren
Commission as a counsel.
Nixon & Jaworski: Two of a Kind
Politically, Nixon and Jaworski are two of a kind-
right-wing Establishment. In 1963, Jaworski defended the
University of Texas against attempts by black students to
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desegrate a dormitory. At the same time, he was denouncing
the right-wing “super patriots” and “witch hunters,” Jaworski
also defended Establishment control of the Houston anti-
poverty agency of which he was chairman. Adding poor people
to the program’s controlling board was “illogical” argued
Jaworski in 1965. In a “shades of Nixon” speech, he de-
nounced the student rebel manifestoes because they reminded
him of “… gibberish propaganda ground out by the Nazis.”
Jaworski’s Corporate Links:
Where Lyndon Roamed
Jaworski’s economic interests start with Texas sunshine and
stretch to plundered Brazil. He is counsel and director of three
financial institutions: Bank of the Southwest, Intercontinental
National Bank, and the Ben Franklin Savings Association.
Until May 1970 he was a director of Pan American Sulphur
(Pasco) which has large mining operations in Mexico. Now,
under the name Pasco, it is controlled by Studebaker.
Worthington, a long-time client of Nixon’s law firm. Nixon’s
law partner Randolph Guthrie was chairman of Studebaker-
Worthington when it absorbed Pasco in 1971. Jaworski also
was a director and counsel of Anderson Clayton (ACCO), the
world’s largest trader of cotton and other agricultural com-
modities. Of ACCO’s $3.8 million earnings for fiscal 1968,
$2.8 million were squeezed out of Latin America (primarily
Mexico and Brazil). The status of another Jaworski director-
SUBSCRIPTION FC
ship and client is somewhat uncertain: Central States Gas
Producing Company’s stock sales were stopped by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in summer 1973
after complaints that the firm violated contracts to sell gas to
the cities of Austin and San Antonio. In October the SEC
forced the appointment of new directors-Jaworski’s fate on
the board was uncertain at the time he was appointed Special
Prosecutor-now, however, he has supposedly cut all his
corporate ties.
Whether he has direct ties to corporations or not, the
interest he represents remain the same-as summarized by the
New York Times (November 4, 1973): “His Houston law firm
… represents bankers and big business, and his political
loyalties have never strayed far from those of his clients.”
Sources:
Navigating the Rapids 1918-1971,From the Papers of Adolf A
Berle, Edited by Beatrice Bishop Berle and Travis Beal Jacobs,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973, p. 713.
Washington Post, February 26, 1967.
New York Times, February 25, 1970.
Wall Street Journal, October 2, 1973.
New York Times, November 4, 1973.
Wall Street Journal, November 5, 1973.
NACLA’s Latin America & Empire Report, April, 1973,
“Anderson Clayton Knows No Bounds” by Paul Silberstein.
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