Video: 'Nixon's Enemies List'

(Thursday, September 9, 1971; during the Watergate scandal) — What would become known as U.S. President Richard “Nixon’s Enemies List,” prepared by White House Public Liaison Charles Colson, was sent today in the form of attachments to a memorandum written by Colson to White House Counsel John W. Dean, initially with 250 names.

The official purpose, as described by the White House Counsel’s Office, was to “screw” Nixon’s political enemies, by means of tax audits from the Internal Revenue Service, and by manipulating “grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc.”

The list would become public knowledge on June 27, 1973, when Dean mentioned during hearings with the Senate Watergate Committee that a list existed containing those whom the president did not like.