Just a quick tip of the hat to Kenneth Dahlberg, without whom the Watergate scandal would have been far harder to unravel. Dahlberg, a Minnesota businessman who earned the Distinguished Service Cross in World War II, died last week at age 94. A $25,000 check that he gave to the Nixon Committee t0 Reelect the President – on behalf of a friend, as it turned out – was passed along by that Committee to the Watergate burglars to pay for petty expenses (leading to an important lesson in covering up criminal conspiracies: don’t pay by check.)
Dahlberg was immortalized in the “smoking gun” tape that recorded President Nixon’s conversation with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, on June 23, 1972. “Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?” Nixon asked and then added hopefully, “Maybe he’s a bum.”
Sadly for Nixon, but luckily for us, he was no bum.
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Had a nice write-up in the Post that used the same photo of him that was used in the movie, “All The President’s Men.”
The scene where Woodward (played by Redford) is going back and forth on the phone with Dahlberg and Clark MacGregor to get to the bottom of the $25,000 check he was a single shot and truly classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLTTW9tDkfk
Rest in Peace, Mr. Dahlberg