PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/21/1972 - HFSID 262721

RICHARD NIXON
Richard Nixon sends a typed letter of congratulations on reaching 70 birthdays.
TLS: "RN" as President, 1p, 5½x8¼. The White House, Washington, 1972 June 21. To aircraft manufacturer and inventor William P. Lear. In full: "We rejoice with your family and friends on your seventieth birthday and send you our warmest congratulations and good wishes for every happiness on this occasion. Pat and I are proud of the warm friendship and generous support you and Moya have given us over so many of these years. We hope that the future will bring you a full measure of the satisfaction you so richly deserve. Sincerely" The Watergate tapes reveal that four days after the Watergate break-in, on June 21, 1972, the day Nixon wrote this letter, at 9:30 A.M., the President asked Bob Haldeman: "What is the dope on the Watergate incident? Anything break on that?" Haldeman: "There's nothing new...John [Mitchell] laid out a scenario, which would involve this guy Liddy at the committee confessing and talking, moving the thing up to that level, saying, yeah, I did it, I did it. I hired these guys, sent them over there because I thought it would be a good move and build me up in the operation. I'm the little guy." Nixon: "You mean, you'd have Liddy confess and say he did it unauthorized?" Haldeman: "Unauthorized. You establish the admission of guilt at a local level and get rid of it, rather than letting it imply guilt up to the highest levels, which is, of course, what they're trying very hard to do. By they, the press and the Democrats." Nixon: "Well, sure it is. I understand that." Tape residue at top edge, else fine condition.