The Truth Must Be Told

I didn't realize how much I had lived the events shown in the movie "All the President's Men," until seeing the movie this evening. I lived and worked on Capital Hill from 1971-1973, when these events were taking place.

My wife and I would often joke about the FBI watching us as we went to work across the street from the Capital Building. We would imagine that the blinking red light from the top of the Washington Monument was really J. Edgar Hoover looking at us through infrared goggles, as we walked home in the evening after work.

Our time in the the city was remarkably exciting. National news was our local news. I remember walking across the Capital lawn when Richard Nixon was sworn in for his second term on a bitterly cold January day.

We used to eat at the Hot Shops Restaurant across the street from the Watergate complex, and attend concerts at the nearby Kennedy Center.

Most of our young adult friends, many with long hair, paisley dresses and blouses, bellbottom pants, and of course, beads were convinced that the FBI and even the CIA had set up surveillance cameras outside our apartments and places of work. It felt exciting, and it energized those of us who were working for one peace cause after another.

I am still horrified over the Watergate affair. How can otherwise patriotic citizens work in such a dedicated way to undermined the foundations of our country? "Washington Post" publisher Ben Bradley was so right with his observation that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all the freedoms of the First Amendment were at stake.

Thank you, once again, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward for your tireless journalism. May I do the same if I am ever thrust into a situation such as this. May my students rise up, if ever they discover such news as this about which the truth must be told.