Operation Sandwedge
Operation Sandwedge was a proposed clandestine intelligence-gathering operation against the political enemies of the Richard Nixon presidential administration, put together by H. R. Haldeman and Jack Caulfield in 1971. Caulfield, a former police officer, detailed a plan to target the Democratic Party and the anti-Vietnam War movement, inspired by what he believed to be the Democratic Party's employment of a private investigation firm.
Sandwedge was passed to G. Gordon Liddy, who abandoned it in favor of a strategy of his own devising, Operation Gemstone, which detailed a plan to break into Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex. Liddy's plan eventually led to the downfall of Nixon's presidency, which Caulfield believes would have been avoided had Sandwedge been acted upon.
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[edit] Overview
In late 1971, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman directed White House Counsel John Dean to assemble an intelligence plan for then-president Richard Nixon's re-election campaign for the 1972 presidential election. Dean delegated the task to a member of his staff, former New York police officer Jack Caulfield.[1]
Caulfield prepared a twelve-page draft proposal detailing an intelligence-gathering strategy, aimed at the opposition Democratic Party. The proposal, dubbed "Operation Sandwedge", would also assess the capability of the anti-Vietnam War movement of damaging the campaign. Nixon's staff also anticipated that the Democratic campaign would employ the services of Intertel, a private investigation firm led by former Department of Justice officials who had served under Robert F. Kennedy. Caulfield's noted that this firm had the potential to employ "formidable and sophisticated" intelligence-gathering techniques, and Sandwedge was his attempt to create a Republican counterpart to it.[1] The plan would involve black bag operations, targeting political enemies of the campaign.[2]
[edit] Cancellation
The proposed Operation Sandwedge was passed along to G. Gordon Liddy, as John N. Mitchell—who had served as Attorney General under Nixon's first term, and directed the 1972 re-election campaign[3]—wanted to have a lawyer in charge of the campaign's intelligence-gathering.[1] Liddy built upon the proposal to create his own "Operation Gemstone", a more expansive plan of espionage. Liddy's initial draft of Operation Gemstone was deemed "too extreme" by campaign officials, but a scaled-down version was later approved in 1972. This revised plan included a range of illegal activities, including a proposal to break into Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex.[4]
Caulfield has suggested that the operation's cancellation was an error in judgement on behalf of the administration, and may have been "the most monumental of the Nixon Presidency". He believed that had Sandwedge been followed through as the campaign's strategy, "there would have been no Liddy, no Hunt, no McCord", and the subsequent Watergate scandal would not have occurred.[1]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Caulfield, Jack. "Watergate.com's Nixon Era Times: In Their Own Words -- Jack Caulfield". Mountain State University. http://www.watergate.com/ownwords/caulfield.asp. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
- ^ Genovese, p. 27
- ^ Meyer, Lawrence (November 10, 1988). "John N. Mitchell, Principal in Watergate, Dies at 75". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
- ^ Knight, p. 725
[edit] References
- Genovese, Michael A (1999). The Watergate crisis. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313298785.
- Knight, Peter (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576078124.
