Video: 'Richard Nixon John Dean Full Cancer on the Presidency Session March 21 1973'

(Wednesday, March 21, 1973, 10:12-11:55 a.m. EST; during the Watergate scandal) — In a private conversation that was recorded in the Oval Office, White House Counsel John Dean warned U.S. President Richard Nixon today of what he called “a cancer on the presidency” because the Watergate burglars had been paid money in return for their silence.

Dean was referring to the Nixon administration’s continual attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972, break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building and the arrest of five perpetrators.

“I think that there’s no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we’ve got,” he told Nixon (transcript). “We have a cancer within—close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily. It’s compounding. It grows geometrically now, because it compounds itself.”

Dean pointed out that he, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell had all been “involved in that” and “that’s an obstruction of justice.”

Video: 'PBS Nixon (1990)_3of3' (Mar. 21, 1973, at 12:00)

Dean continued, saying that burglar Howard Hunt was blackmailing the White House demanding money immediately.

Nixon replied that the money should be paid: “… just looking at the immediate problem, don’t you have to have—handle Hunt’s financial situation damn soon? … you’ve got to keep the cap on the bottle that much, in order to have any options.”

Dean pointed out that he, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell had all been “involved in that” and that burglar E. Howard Hunt was demanding more money.

Nixon replied, “Don’t you have to handle Hunt’s financial situation damn soon? You’ve got to keep the cap on the bottle…” the first suggestion of an obstruction of justice ordered by the president.