It was one of the saddest moments of Watergate, a turning point that could have averted the disaster to come. Nixon, shy and desperate as always to avoid personal confrontation, couldn’t take the opportunity to have a real conversation or inquire about the truth—even with one of the closest and most trusted aides in his world, a man who perhaps had no more foreknowledge of the burglary than he did. Mitchell followed the direction, announcing soon after, “I have found that I can no longer [carry out the job] and still meet the one obligation which must come first: the happiness and welfare of
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