Part 35 (1/2)

The federal commissioner of public services reported 771 bomb threats in federal buildings in 1971 and 35 explosions. In January, police in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago defused bombs set in eight banks sent by a group calling itself the Movement for Amerika. A manhunt was under way for the alleged perpetrator-a former army radio operator who went AWOL, then reenlisted in the summer of 1971 under an a.s.sumed name-just as Stanford announced that Professor H. Bruce Franklin, who kept on taking over buildings, might become the first professor to lose tenure there in seventy years. On January 17, his supporters set fires around campus and a black-powder bomb was found taped to a circuit breaker. The next day, in Miami, antipollution activists shut down a Pepsi bottling plant by cementing over a drainage pipe. That same day, Mayor Daley held a press conference announcing the arrest of two college students, nineteen and eighteen years old, for conspiracy to poison Chicago's drinking water with a typhoid microorganism found in their house. Their plan had been to inoculate members of their group, which they called Rise, in order to survive and form a master race.

The berserk was breaking out on every side. Sometimes it was hard to tell tell the sides. The Plumbers and their patron harbored no such doubts. The left were the aggressors. Everyone else was just playing defense. the sides. The Plumbers and their patron harbored no such doubts. The left were the aggressors. Everyone else was just playing defense.

The aggressors worked, for instance, by defiling religion. The president endured a receiving line at a White House dinner honoring voluntarism; ”Typical of the group,” he complained to Haldeman, ”was a fellow who came through the line from California who said he was a Quaker. He was an obvious, roaring f.a.g.” The aggressors poisoned the airwaves. When the president flipped through the channels after a ball game he wanted to watch was rained out, he came across an episode of CBS's All in the Family All in the Family in which an old buddy of Archie's came out of the closet. ”The show was a total glorification of h.o.m.os.e.x.... Is this common on TV?-destruction of civilization to build h.o.m.os. Made the h.o.m.os the most attractive type.” He added a fillip on cla.s.sical civilization: ”You know what happened to the Greeks! h.o.m.os.e.xuality destroyed them.” in which an old buddy of Archie's came out of the closet. ”The show was a total glorification of h.o.m.os.e.x.... Is this common on TV?-destruction of civilization to build h.o.m.os. Made the h.o.m.os the most attractive type.” He added a fillip on cla.s.sical civilization: ”You know what happened to the Greeks! h.o.m.os.e.xuality destroyed them.”

The aggressors poisoned the minds of the innocent young. Two University of Michigan English professors published a textbook with Random House composed entirely of articles from insurgent underground newspapers, ”a logical culmination of the trend toward 'relevant' readers for composition courses,” the preface read. Black Viewpoints, Black Viewpoints, a Signet paperback for high schoolers, included Eldridge Cleaver's ”Revolution in the White Mother Country,” and H. Rap Brown's ”Die n.i.g.g.e.r Die” (”Discussion and Study Questions...3. How does Brown's idea of 'neo-colonialism' fit into the scheme of colonized peoples as clarified by Cleaver, Forman, Jones, and others?”). Gynecological clinics opened up at universities; Michigan's booked nine hundred appointments in September alone; Boston University's was booked months in advance, though it hadn't been publicized in the student paper for fear of reaction from conservative regents. At Princeton a coed told a newspaper, ”There's a general feeling that the examination is cursory and the doctors don't really care. They're just there to dispense contraceptives.” a Signet paperback for high schoolers, included Eldridge Cleaver's ”Revolution in the White Mother Country,” and H. Rap Brown's ”Die n.i.g.g.e.r Die” (”Discussion and Study Questions...3. How does Brown's idea of 'neo-colonialism' fit into the scheme of colonized peoples as clarified by Cleaver, Forman, Jones, and others?”). Gynecological clinics opened up at universities; Michigan's booked nine hundred appointments in September alone; Boston University's was booked months in advance, though it hadn't been publicized in the student paper for fear of reaction from conservative regents. At Princeton a coed told a newspaper, ”There's a general feeling that the examination is cursory and the doctors don't really care. They're just there to dispense contraceptives.”

Black Panther George Jackson's prison letters were reviewed in the New York Times New York Times by Julius Lester: ”after reading this book, whites will long for the good old days when all they had to think about was Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown.” On August 21, Jackson was shot to death at San Quentin in an armed rescue attempt (mourners were asked to contribute guns in lieu of flowers to his funeral). A black crime wave broke out in Wilmington, North Carolina, and a vigilante group called Rights of White People sprang up that local law enforcement warned was more dangerous than the Ku Klux Klan. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a group of circuit-riding black militants were arrested after a gun battle the by Julius Lester: ”after reading this book, whites will long for the good old days when all they had to think about was Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown.” On August 21, Jackson was shot to death at San Quentin in an armed rescue attempt (mourners were asked to contribute guns in lieu of flowers to his funeral). A black crime wave broke out in Wilmington, North Carolina, and a vigilante group called Rights of White People sprang up that local law enforcement warned was more dangerous than the Ku Klux Klan. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a group of circuit-riding black militants were arrested after a gun battle the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times reported was part of a plan ”to take over towns across the United States and give them 'back to the black people.'” In upstate New York the police chief in Syracuse complained he was powerless to stop the black teenagers who'd begun ”guerrilla-type warfare-hit and run” against his officers. reported was part of a plan ”to take over towns across the United States and give them 'back to the black people.'” In upstate New York the police chief in Syracuse complained he was powerless to stop the black teenagers who'd begun ”guerrilla-type warfare-hit and run” against his officers.

And, 109 miles to the west of Syracuse as the crow flies, the Labor Day revels of the good townsfolk of the village of Attica, New York, were disturbed by terrifying reports that the prison where the town's husbands and brothers and fathers worked was about to erupt.

The uprising started after inmate leaders who'd signed a July pet.i.tion in protest of ”brutal, dehumanized” conditions met, inconclusively, with the New York State commissioner of correctional services. The next week a routine scuffle broke out in D Block. Before long, a riot was raging. Prisoners started fracturing guards' skulls with pilfered lengths of pipe, pieces of chain, broomsticks, hammers, and baseball bats. They captured the exercise yard and burned the schoolhouse and chapel, stripped correctional officers naked and forced them through a club-swinging gauntlet.

It was chaos-until some Black Power acolytes got ideas.

They started taking hostages-thirty-eight prison guards. Two leaders from each cellblock formed a negotiating team. They demanded that a facility designed for 1,600 not hold 2,250, that they deserved more than one shower a week, that Muslim wors.h.i.+p not be forbidden by the rule against ”inmates congregating in large groups.” They grew bolder: they asked for amnesty, for ”reconstruction of ATTICA PRISON to be done by inmates and/or inmate supervision,” for their ”speedy and safe transportation out of confinement to a non-imperialist country.”

The TV cameras arrived. ”We have composed this declaration to the people of America to let them know exactly how we feel and what it is they must do,” a twenty-one-year-old spokesman announced, cool and confident. ”The entire incident that has erupted here at Attica is not a result of the dastardly bushwhacking of two prisoners September eighth of 1971 but of the unmitigated oppression wrought by the racist administrative network of this prison throughout the year.

”We are men men! We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten and driven as such....

”We will not compromise on any terms except those terms agreeable to us. We call upon all the conscientious citizens of America to a.s.sist us in putting an end to this situation that threatens the lives of not only us, but each and every one of you as well.

”We have set forth demands...”

And what kind of upside-down world was it where prisoners presented ”demands”?

They were, in part, successful-arranging for Bobby Seale, Tom Wicker, Congressman Herman Badillo from the Bronx, William Kunstler, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and others to be brought in as their advocates. The state prison commissioner was confident that the local team on the ground could defuse the situation without violence, that to otherwise regain control would require a ”furious hand-to-hand battle” that would end up with hostages dead. Negotiators, observers, and prison officials pleaded for Governor Rockefeller to come, but he chose to stay behind. The talks grew more complicated; the standoff continued; Tom Wicker, the liberal New York Times New York Times columnist, addressed townspeople in the rainy parking lot about the state of play. He announced he had spoken to five of the hostages. They were being well treated, he said; and what's more, they supported the inmates' demands for amnesty. columnist, addressed townspeople in the rainy parking lot about the state of play. He announced he had spoken to five of the hostages. They were being well treated, he said; and what's more, they supported the inmates' demands for amnesty.

”I want to add my further testimony to the unity that's shown in the yard. To the unanimous testimony of these men that regard themselves as being aggrieved by the treatment that they say that they have received in the prison in past years. And they appear to be unwilling to give up the hostages-give up their situation in the prison-for anything short of complete amnesty.”

A townsperson, s.h.i.+vering in the evening drizzle, shouted, ”Is there complete amnesty for murder?”

”Why don't you talk about the unity of the guards, you double-crossing b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!”

A wild-eyed man in prison-guard clothes, the father of one of the hostages, seething beyond control: ”n.i.g.g.e.r lover! We have to go in and bring those people out. Wet-nursing those convicts won't do it. We have to get our sons back or just bomb the h.e.l.l out of the place!”

”Brutality? I don't give a good G.o.dd.a.m.n!”

”I'd like to show them a little brutality!”

”Rapers, murderers. Do you want 'em on the street? They're in there because they belong in there.”

”Brutal? My husband brutal?”

”What kind of white man are you? Standing on a platform with a n.i.g.g.e.r...helping n.i.g.g.e.rs against your own.”

Nelson Rockefeller said by phone he had no const.i.tutional authority to act. Until, that is, he decided he'd had enough and signed off on a rescue attempt, the details of which he left up to the commanders on the scene.

Monday morning, September 13. State police snipers and strike teams secreted themselves out of sight of the prison yard below.

Inmates who believed negotiations still ongoing made a bluff to strengthen their hand: they displayed eight of the hostages on an open walkway, bound and blindfolded, with blades pressed to their throats. Revenge-minded officers fired indiscriminately. Troopers in their vision-obstructing gas masks shot hostages. When the choking, blinding fog of CS gas cleared, scores of bodies littered the ground, writhing or motionless. Nine hostages and twenty-six inmates died immediately, four more of wounds in the days to come.

Pacification accomplished, false rumors spread among the officers: that one of the hostages had been castrated. That all of the hostages had died with their throats gashed. It spurred corrections officers to subsequent rounds of torture, as they took turns beating naked inmates.

The Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune ran man-on-the-street reactions. A man with long hair and a beard said ”it was a disaster. Uncivilized. Inhuman.” A couple of women said the authorities overreacted. The consensus, however, was represented by the man who said, ”There has to be law and order. That's all.... They did what they had to do.” ran man-on-the-street reactions. A man with long hair and a beard said ”it was a disaster. Uncivilized. Inhuman.” A couple of women said the authorities overreacted. The consensus, however, was represented by the man who said, ”There has to be law and order. That's all.... They did what they had to do.”

Politicians struggled to make sense of it. Liberals such as John Lindsay, who'd dealt with his own prison riot at the Tombs in 1970, spoke to the imperative of prison reform; Vice President Agnew said Lindsay had fallen ”right into line” with ”the utopian leftists” and ”on the side of the criminals.” Nelson Rockefeller shocked his liberal fans with Reagan-style p.r.o.nouncements: the blame must be placed on those who ”exploit legitimate grievances not because they want to correct them, but because they try to use them for the overthrow of society.” Edmund Muskie said, ”The Attica tragedy is more stark proof that something is terribly wrong with America. We have reached the point where men would rather die than live another day in America.”

Which was pretty nihilistic for a presidential front-runner. But it matched the nihilistic national mood-such as Richard Nixon, reflecting that summer in a speech to media executives upon the columns of the National Archives Building: ”Sometimes when I see those columns, I think of seeing them in Greece and Rome. And I think of what happened to Greece and Rome, and you see only what is left of great civilizations of the past-as they have become wealthy, as they lost their will to live, to improve, they became subject to the decadence that destroys the civilization. The United States is reaching that period.”

He said that on July 6, even as Chuck Colson was putting together his White Housebased secret police. Seven weeks later, as Attica readied to blow, the Plumbers prepared for their first black-bag job.

Bud Krogh, nervous, showed late for the rendezvous in Room 16 with G. Gordon Liddy to hand over a fat envelope containing $5,000 in cash laundered from the a.s.sociated Milk Producers by Joseph Baroody, the son of the president of the American Enterprise Inst.i.tute. Krogh, a Christian Scientist, didn't exactly have ice water in his veins: ”Here it is. Now, for G.o.d's sake, don't get caught.”

Hunt and Liddy flew out to Los Angeles. The entry team traveled separately the same day. Their leader, Bernard Barker-code-named Macho-had been Hunt's number two at the Bay of Pigs; they had renewed their acquaintance, like old college buddies, at the tenth anniversary reunion in Miami. The Cubans Barker had recruited were active, along with Barker, in the CIA's Miami station, which had continued running propaganda and sabotage operations against Castro in Cuba-and, against the CIA's charter, within the United States. They hadn't been hard to convince. ”E. Howard Hunt, under the name Eduardo,” Barker explained to them, ”represents to the Cuban people their liberation.”

The base camp was the Beverly Hills Hilton; it had sight lines to Dr. Fielding's office. At 9 p.m. on September 3, two Cubans in the guise of Air Express couriers delivered a trunk to that office containing camera equipment and cheap RadioShack transceivers. Upon their exit, they made sure the rear door to the building was unlocked.

From base camp Liddy placed a call to ensure the doctor was safely at home. Green light: at midnight the Cubans arrived, Liddy standing sentry in the parking lot in a rented car. But they discovered that the rear door was no longer unlocked. They located a relatively well-concealed window to break. They realized an adjacent loud air conditioner would keep them from hearing an enemy approach. So Liddy, who was supposed to remain in his car lest the operation be traced back to the White House, broke operational protocol, pulled out his retractable Browning hunting knife, and guarded the crime scene until they achieved entry.

Tinkling gla.s.s; Liddy returned to his car.

Howard Hunt pulled up, agitated: Dr. Fielding was no longer at home. Liddy broke radio silence to see how near the Cubans were to being finished.

No response. They had forgotten to turn up the volume on their radios.

Just then the Cubans providentially rustled into view, and the group reconvened at the hotel, where Hunt was chilling champagne in antic.i.p.ation of a successful mission.

The Cubans reported that they had had to pry open the file cabinets with a crowbar, leaving behind physical evidence of their presence. Hunt asked what they'd found.

”Nothing, Eduardo. There's no file with his name on it.”

”Are you sure sure?” Hunt asked, worriedly.

The Cubans pulled out photographs of the jimmied cabinets, explained how they'd pawed through every one, then strewn pills around to make it look as if a junkie had forced the window. A proud enough Liddy wrote in his memoirs, ”At least the operation had been 'clean': in and out without detection. We decided to celebrate that, at least, with the champagne.” He called Krogh, who green-lighted a recon mission for a possible future hit on Fielding's apartment.

Back in Was.h.i.+ngton, in the White House bas.e.m.e.nt, Krogh inspected Liddy's knife incredulously: ”Would you really have used it-I mean, kill somebody?”

Of course, Liddy replied.

Krogh instructed him to keep it sharp and recommended him for a salary increase.

The Plumbers sketched out possible future projects. Dosing Ellsberg with LSD before he spoke at a fund-raiser, during the soup course? (”A warm liquid is ideal for the rapid absorption and wide dispersal of a drug.”) Revisiting the Brookings firebombing plan? (Maybe they could acquire a fake D.C. fire engine, suit up their Cubans like firemen, and time the bomb to go off after hours, just as the Weathermen did-though the idea was shot down because a fire engine cost too much.) On September 8 the president grilled Ehrlichman on the Plumbers' progress: ”We had one little operation,” he responded. ”It's been aborted out in Los Angeles, which, I think, is better that you don't know about. But we've got some dirty tricks under way. It may pay off.” Ehrlichman brought up their attempts to hang alleged John F. Kennedy misdeeds around the Democratic Party's neck. ”Some of this stuff is going to start surfacing,” he promised, though he warned that the CIA had not been as forthcoming with cla.s.sified diplomatic cables as they would like.

Hearing of his lack of control of any lever of government always sent Richard Nixon into flights of rage. He started ranting about the IRS.

”We have the power but are we using it? To investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributors to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing everybody...” He trailed off. ”You know, they really tried to crucify Ho Lewis”-Hobart Lewis, but are we using it? To investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributors to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing everybody...” He trailed off. ”You know, they really tried to crucify Ho Lewis”-Hobart Lewis, Reader's Digest Reader's Digest's president and executive editor, who had been audited. ”Are we looking into Muskie's return?...Hubert? Hubert's been in lots of funny deals.... Teddy? Who knows about the Kennedys? Shouldn't they be investigated?” (Like old hens, they started gossiping about Teddy's marriage.) The next week the president took it up with Haldeman: ”Bob, please please get me the names of the Jews, you know, the big Jewish contributors of the Democrats.... Could we please investigate some of these c.o.c.ksuckers?” get me the names of the Jews, you know, the big Jewish contributors of the Democrats.... Could we please investigate some of these c.o.c.ksuckers?”

The Plumbers were part of Nixon's reelection master plan. It was the same strategy he'd chartered in 1966: set Democrats at each other's throat. The motive behind implicating JFK in the murder of Ngo Dinh Diem was to tarnish the Kennedy name among both antiwar Democrats and Catholics (Diem was Catholic). Edmund Muskie was also also Catholic, and his foreign policy adviser-the dreaded W. Averell Harriman-could also with some creativity be implicated in the deed. Catholic, and his foreign policy adviser-the dreaded W. Averell Harriman-could also with some creativity be implicated in the deed.