From The New Book 'The Nixon Tapes"... Spying On Teddy Kennedy...

This is an op from an old thread that just happens to tie in nicely to the recent revelation from Ehrlichman about Nixon's "War on Drugs"...

In their new book 'The Nixon Tapes', historians Douglas Brinkley and Luke A. Nichter have done the dirty work of transcribing and publishing some of the 3,000 hours of secret recordings released to the public over the past 40 years. Their 700-odd page book (and website, http://nixontapes.org/) is a treasure trove for historians, giving an inside look at the decision-making and personalities of the Nixon administration. The Nixon Tapes is a must for anyone researching US-Russia disarmament policy, or the Vietnam War, or the opening to China.

But the book also has...


<snip>

On turning the potential of a Kennedy assassin into an informant:

After Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace was shot and paralyzed in 1972, the Nixon administration decided to give Secret Service protection to other presidential candidates. Kennedy, who was not a candidate, was still given Secret Service protection so that the Nixon administration would be covered politically if something happened to the high-profile Senator.

“You understand what the problem is,” Nixon said. “If the son of a bitch gets shot they’ll say we didn’t furnish it <protection>. So you just buy his insurance. Then after the election, he doesn’t get a goddamn thing. If he gets shot, it’s too damn bad.”

Those Secret Service men could function as spies on Kennedy, Nixon decided: