RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1974 Through the Fire ( Part 13 ) Recounting The Cancer on the Presidency Conversation , a meeting on April 26, 1973 (Special Tape Series 2 )

The Richard Nixon Experience

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The second in our tape series is another meeting held on April 26, 1973 between the President, Richard Nixon, and his then Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman. In it they try and reconstruct what was discussed in the earlier meeting between themselves and John Dean.
The You Tube page "I Tape You Bored" describes this meeting this way
"A conversation between Nixon and his top aide which might deserve the overused tag of "meta". John Dean has now defected, and is helping the prosecutors; the discussion here centers on the long and involved conversation of March 21, 1973, the famous "cancer on the presidency" session, and what Nixon said there that could be used against them. The two men go over the conversation detail by detail on what makes them legally vulnerable, and what defense they might erect. This long session contains no new revelations, but makes clear how deliberate and involved Nixon was in the cover-up of the scandal. Again and again, the excuse of national security is invoked."
However, what is forgotten by this writer and often most everyone else is that up until the March 21, 1973 meeting, President Nixon had been following the advice of his attorney. While he may have had other sources of information, Nixon's main source was his attorney, the White House Counsel to the President. That Counsel had been asked to commit to writing exactly what had gone on. President Nixon was counting on that document, and he had up to that moment been reliant on his counsel. Who was his counsel, his lawyer, the man he had relied on to guide himself and his Administration through this mess, that he, Richard Nixon, had not created. The man's name was John Dean.
John Dean was the hub that connects the issues at the campaign to the staff at the White House. He had gone to the prosecutor's office to get a deal by the time of this meeting. At that point President Nixon and his Chief of Staff knew that Dean , who they had trusted and who was the White House lawyer, and was who they had relied on through the ordeal. Now they were discovering that Dean had not been telling them the full story while also digging the hole they had just discovered they were in. Those facts should be considered as you hear the two men discussing the situation they now found themselves in because their attorney had proven himself unworthy of the job and trust that he had held.