The White House Plumbers or simply The Plumbers is the popular name given to the covert Nixon White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971. Its job was to stop the leaking of confidential information (hence the "Plumbers" title) to the media during the Nixon administration. Its members branched into more nefarious projects working for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or the more derogatory CREEP) including the Watergate first break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States of America. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The Committee to Re-elect the President, often abbreviated to CRP or CREEP (which was also the way it was pronounced), was a Nixon White House fund-raising organization headed by John N. Mitchell, who had previously served as United States Attorney General. ... The Watergate first break-in on May 28, 1972 has been cited in testimony, media accounts, and popular works on Watergate as the pivotal event that led ultimately to the Watergate Scandal. ... The term Watergate refers to a series of events, spanning from 1972 to 1975, that began with U.S. President Nixons administrations abuse of power toward the goal of undermining the Democratic Party and the opposition to the Vietnam War. ...

History

The group was formed in an almost direct response to the release of The Pentagon Papers in The New York Times beginning June 13, 1971. The papers contained documents detailing America's involvement in Vietnam. Initially White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman downplayed the event to Nixon, stating the information mainly made the Kennedy and Johnson administrations look bad. However, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and special counsel Charles Colson advocated a severe response to the act¹ in the form of publicly discrediting the leaker of the papers, former State Department and Defense Department employee Daniel Ellsberg. The Pentagon Papers is the colloquial term for United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, a 47 volume, 7,000-page, top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... June 13 is the 164th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (165th in leap years), with 201 days remaining. ... Harry Robbins (Bob) Haldeman (October 27, 1926 - November 12, 1993) was a U.S. political aide and businessman, best known for his service in the Nixon White House, and for his role in the Watergate scandal, for which he was convicted and imprisoned. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). ... Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German-born American diplomat, Nobel laureate and statesman. ... Booking photos of Charles Colson, 1974. ... The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst who precipitated a national uproar in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, the US militarys account of activities during the Vietnam War, to The New York Times. ...

On July 1, David Young joined the White House and together with Egil Krogh penned a memorandum to Nixon advisors Haldeman and John Ehrlichman advocating the formation of a White House Special Investigations Unit.² Haldeman and Ehrlichman agreed to the plan and obtained the approval of Nixon. Young was put in charge of the unit and reported to Krogh. The nickname the "Plumbers" came to being when Young posted his name on his office door which read "David R. Young/Plumber".³ July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... David R Young, Jr. ... Egil Krogh (far right) during Elvis Presleys visit with Nixon on December 21, 1970. ... John D. Ehrlichman as Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, May 13, 1969. ...

Members

The Plumbers came to include several Watergate figures. E. Howard Hunt was recommended by Colson and G. Gordon Liddy was recommended by Krogh. Liddy coined his own sensitivity indicator for the group in the form of "ODESSA" for "Organization Directed to Eliminate the Subversion of the Secrets of the Administration".⁴ The name reflects Liddy's admiration for German-style intelligence operations as ODESSA was also the name of a Nazi fugitive network. Everette Howard Hunt (born October 9, 1918 in East Hamburg, New York, United States) worked for the White House under President Richard Nixon. ... G. Gordon Liddy George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for President Richard Nixons White House Plumbers unit. ... A sensitivity indicator is a term in the intelligence community referring to the use of a name to indicate documents or projects contain sensitive classified information. ... Odessa (Ukrainian: Одеса, Odesa; Russian: ) is a city in southwestern Ukraine, a major port on the Black Sea, and the administrative centre of the countrys Odessa Oblast. ... National Socialism redirects here. ...

Another member of the group was its liaison to the CIA, John Paisley. In recent years Paisley's involvement has led to speculation the CIA had a far greater hand in the operations of the Plumbers than originally thought at the time. What is known is Paisley was assigned to the CIA's Office of Security (OS), of which Hunt was once a member. On August 9, 1971, David Young's memo indicates he met with Paisley and OS Director Howard Osborn in which Paisley provided a list of objectives for the Special Investigations Unit ⁵-- a clear indication the CIA had a heavy role in identifying objectives and providing assistance to the Plumbers. CIA redirects here. ... John Arthur Paisley (d. ... August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. ...

Operations

The Plumbers first task was the burglary of the office of Ellsberg's Los Angeles psychiatrist, Lewis J. Fielding, in an effort to uncover evidence to discredit Ellsberg. The operation was reportedly unsuccessful in finding Ellsberg's file and was so reported to the White House. However, Fielding himself stated the file was in his office, he found it on the floor on the morning after the burglary and quite clearly someone had gone through it.⁶ In a September 1971 conversation, Ehrlichman advised Nixon, “We had one little operation. It’s been aborted out in Los Angeles which, I think, is better that you don’t know about." Eventually the case against Ellsberg was dismissed due to government misconduct. This article is about the largest city in California. ...

Aside from the Fielding burglary there are scarce few other activities the Plumbers were engaged in. Hunt reportedly looked into Teddy Kennedy's Chappaquiddick affair and Liddy investigated reported Kennedy administration involvement in the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.⁷ Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Ted Kennedy, (born February 22, 1932, in Brookline, Massachusetts) is the senior Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts. ... Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Ted Kennedy, (born February 22, 1932, in Brookline, Massachusetts) is the senior Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts. ... Official language Vietnamese Capital Saigon Last President Duong Van Minh Last Prime Minister Vu Van Mau Area  - Total  - % water 173,809 km² N/A Population  - Total  - Density 19,370,000 (1973 est. ... «ngoh dihn zih-ehm» (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of the Republic of Vietnam (1955–63). ...

After the California break-in Liddy was recruited by White House Counsel John Dean to perform an intelligence gathering operation for CRP. Liddy was transferred to CRP and involved Hunt in the operations which would later include the Watergate burglary. John Dean, May 7, 1972. ...

Notes

• Note 1: Hougan, Jim (1984). Secret Agenda. Random House. ISBN 0-394-51428-9. p.29-30
• Note 2: Ibid. p.32-34
• Note 3: Ibid. p.36
• Note 4: Liddy, G. Gordon (1980). Will. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-88014-6. p.147-148
• Note 5: Hougan, Secret Agenda, p. 38-40
• Note 6: Ibid. p.47
• Note 7: Liddy, Will, p.149

Additional Sources

• The Watergate Files. The Watergate Files presented by The Gerald R. Ford Museum & Library. Retrieved on March 6, 2005.
• G. Gordon Liddy deposition on December 6, 1996 in Maureen K. Dean and John W. Dean v. St. Martin's Press et al United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Case No. 92 1807 (HHG) [1]