DEAD DOG DID IN RICHARD NIXON
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:
The Watergate political
espionage case that forced Richard
Nixon to resign the U.S. presiden-
cy in 1974 had antecedents in a
1945 animal cruelty case at UCLA,
alumnus Clancy Sigal wrote in a
reminiscence of the late H.R.
“Bob” Haldeman, published in the
November 27 New York Times.
Haldeman was Nixon’s chief of
staff, assisted by former UCLA
classmates John Erlichman and
Alexander Butterfield. “Bob, a
Beta Sigma Tau pledge master,
was held responsible when fresh-
men beat a dog to death during a
hazing ceremony,” Sigal recount-
ed. “As he would later do over
Watergate, he tried to cover it up.
The campus newspaper ran the
story. Since Frank Mankiewicz, a
liberal, was the editor, it was
obvious to Bob that there was a
liberal conspiracy to ruin his repu-
tation…Bob remained convinced
[at a 1975 class reunion] that
Mankiewicz, later a Kennedy aide,
carrying a 30-year grudge, had
masterminded the ‘liberal line’ that
torpedoed the Nixon presidency.
That is, the Watergate coup d’etat
had been caused by a dead dog.”
