The Senate Watergate Hearings

The Senate Watergate hearings got underway May 17 and were the major focus of Watergate developments during the summer. A parade of clean-cut, young, contrite former CRP and White House aides appeared, some to admit perjury during earlier investigations. They drew a picture of political sabotage that went far beyond Watergate, motivated by extreme loyalty to Nixon and by a belief that any tactics against people who had supported anti-Vietnam war demonstrations were acceptable. Perhaps the most important revelation of the committee hearings came as a result of closed-session questioning of Alexander P. Butterfield, that the President's offices were equipped with a special voice-activated system which tape recorded all conversations. The existence of the tapes entirely changed the Watergate case; presumably the evidence existed to prove or disprove Dean's allegations.