PROLOGUE A PROLOGUE APPEARS on black screen: This film is an attempt to understand the truth of Richard Nixon, thirty-seventh President of the United States. It is based on numerous public sources and on an incomplete historical record. In consideration of length, events and characters have been condensed, and some scenes among protagonists have been conjectured. On a portable screen we read the famous words from Matthew: "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" This FADES into: A BLACK AND WHITE 16-mm sales training FILM. At the moment, the sales manager, BOB, is chatting with EARL, a rookie salesman. BOB Sure you've got a great product, Earl. But you have to remember what you're really selling. (then) Yourself. SCENE ONE INT. WATERGATE HOTEL - CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Seven men in shirts and ties are seated around a table in the darkened room. They are smoking Cuban cigars, idly watching the film. TITLE: "JUNE 17, 1972" Then: "THE WATERGATE HOTEL" A BUSBOY yawns as he clears away the remains of dinner. A WAITER starts pouring Margaritas from a pitcher. A balding man in his early fifties tosses a five onto the table. He is HOWARD HUNT. HUNT Just leave it. The waiter puts down the pitcher, picks up the five, and follows the busboy out of the room. The moment the door closes behind them, GORDON LIDDY is on his feet, locking the door. OTHER MEN are visible, putting on jackets, securing technical equipment from briefcases and bags. They are: FRANK STURGIS, BERNARD BARKER, EUGENIO MARTINEZ, VIRGILIO GONZALES, and JAMES MCCORD. LIDDY (checks his watch) Zero-one-twenty-one. Mark. Sturgis rolls his eyes, drains his Margarita. Liddy pulls a wad of cash from his pocket, starts passing out hundred-dollar bills to his men. LIDDY Just in case you need to buy a cop. But don't spend it all in one place. We're going to do McGovern's office later tonight. McCord shakes his head. LIDDY Orders from the White House, partner. Liddy bypasses Hunt, who is browsing a folded Spanish- language paper. LIDDY Howard... What the hell? What're you doing? HUNT Dogs... Season starts tomorrow. (off Liddy's look) It keeps me calm. I don't like going back into the same building four times. Liddy mutters something didactic in German. HUNT Mein Kampf? LIDDY (translates to English) "A warrior with nerves of steel is yet broken by a thread of silk." Nietzsche. HUNT Personally I'd prefer a greyhound with a shot of speed. LIDDY (to all) Remember -- listen up! Fire team discipline in there at all times. Keep your radios on at all times during the entire penetration. Check yourselves. Phony ID's, no wallets, no keys. We rendezvous where? The Watergate, Room 214. When? At zero-three-hundred. STURGIS Yawohl, mein fartenfuhrer. LIDDY (narrowing, waving his gun) Don't start with me, Frank, I'll make you a new asshole. HUNT (rising past them) Let's get the fuck out of here, shall we ladies? LIDDY Anything goes wrong, head for your homes, just sit tight -- you'll hear from me or Howard. HUNT (aside) Personally I'll be calling the President of the United States. A nervous chuckle as Hunt follows Liddy out the main door. The rest exit through the door behind the screen. The FILM is ending. Bob puts a hand on Earl's shoulder. BOB And remember, Earl: Always look 'em in the eye. (to the camera) Nothing sells like sincerity. A BLACK SCREEN as the film rattles out, followed by a RADIO REPORT over the darkened room, the sounds of doors closing. RADIO REPORT (V.O.) Five men wearing surgical gloves and business suits, and carrying cameras and electronic surveillance equipment, were arrested early today in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. They were unarmed. Nobody knows yet why they were there or what they were looking for... FADE IN TO: SCENE TWO EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT - 1973 TITLES RUN -- A raw November night. We are looking through the black iron bars of the fence towards the facade of the Executive Mansion. A LIGHT is on in a second floor room. We move towards it through the bars, across the lawn. Dead leaves blow past. A SUBTITLE READS: "NOVEMBER 1973" A black LIMOUSINE slides up to the White House West Wing. An armed GUARD with a black DOBERMAN approaches. The window opens slightly. The Guard peers in. Then, he opens the door. GUARD Good evening, General Haig. GENERAL ALEXANDER HAIG gets out, walks up the steps. He carries a manila envelope. As he enters the White House, we hear an AUDIO MONTAGE of NEWS REPORTERS from the previous year. The VOICES fade in and out, overlap: REPORTERS (V.O.) Judge John Sirica today sentenced the Watergate burglars to terms ranging up to forty years... The White House continues to deny any involvement... SCENE THREE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - VESTIBULE - NIGHT HAIG enters, starts up the stairs. The mansion is dark, silent. Like a tomb. REPORTERS (V.O. CONT'D) Presidential counsel John Dean testified before the Senate Watergate Committee that the scandal reaches to the highest levels... MOVING: A low-angle shot of HAIG's spit-shined shoes moving down the long corridor of the second floor of the Residence. REPORTERS (V.O. CONT'D) Presidential aides Haldeman and Ehrlichman were ordered to resign today... In a stunning announcement, White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system... CLOSE: on the manila envelope in Haig's hand. REPORTERS (V.O. CONT'D) The President has fired the Watergate Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox, provoking the gravest constitutional crisis in American history... Haig stops at a door, quietly knocks. No answer. REPORTERS (V.O. CONT'D) Judge Sirica has ordered the President to turn over his tapes... Haig opens the door. SCENE FOUR INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT The room is small, austere, dominated by a portrait of LINCOLN over the fireplace. HAIG stands in the doorway, holding the envelope. HAIG These are the tapes you requested, Mr. President. RICHARD NIXON is in shadow, silhouetted by the fire in the hearth. The air-conditioning is going full blast. Haig crosses the room, opens the envelope, takes out a reel of tape. Nixon sits in a small armchair in a corner. A Uher tape recorder and a headset are on an end table at his elbow. Next to it is a large tumbler of Scotch. Haig hands the envelope containing the tapes to Nixon. NIXON This is June twentieth? HAIG It's marked. Also there's June twenty-third. And this year -- March twenty-first. Those are the ones... Nixon squints at the label in the firelight. HAIG ...the lawyers feel... will be the basis of the... proceedings. Nixon tries to thread the tape. NIXON Nixon's never been good with these things. He drops the tape on the floor. NIXON Cocksucker! Haig picks up the tape. Then he steps to the table, reaches for the lamp. HAIG Do you mind? Nixon gestures awkwardly. Haig turns on the lamp. For the first time we can see Nixon's face: he hasn't slept in days, dark circles, sagging jowls, five-o-clock shadow. He hates the light, slurs a strange growl -- the effect of sleeping pills. HAIG Sorry... NIXON (gestures) ...go on. Haig threads the tape. Nixon, looking at it, remembers. NIXON ...Y'know Al, if Hoover was alive none of this would've happened. He would've protected the President. HAIG Mr. Hoover was a realist. NIXON I trusted Mitchell. It was that damn big mouth wife of his. HAIG At least Mitchell stood up to it. NIXON Not like the others -- Dean, McCord, the rest... We never got our side of the story out, Al. People've forgotten. I mean: "Fuck you, Mr. President, fuck you Tricia, fuck you Julie!" and all that shit, just words, but what violence! The tear gassing, the riots, burning the draft cards, Black Panthers -- we fixed it, Al, and they hate me for it -- the double-dealing bastards. They lionize that traitor, Ellsberg, for stealing secrets, but they jump all over me 'cause it's Nixon (repeats) ... They've always hated Nixon. Haig finishes threading. HAIG May I say something, Mr. President? NIXON There's no secrets here, Al. HAIG You've never been a greater example to the country than you are now, sir, but... but you need to get out more, sir, and talk to people. No one I know feels... close to you. Nixon looks at him, moved by his concern. NIXON I was never the buddy-buddy type, Al. You know, "Oh I couldn't sleep last night, I was thinking of my mother who beat me" -- all that kinda crap, you know the psychoanalysis bag... My mother... The more I'd spill my guts, the more they'd hate me. I'd be what... pathetic! If I'd bugged out of Vietnam when they wanted, do you think Watergate would've ever happened? You think the Establishment would've given a shit about a third-rate burglary? But did I? Quit? Did I pull out? (he stares, waits) HAIG No, sir, you did not. NIXON Damn right. And there's still a helluva lotta people out there who wanna believe... That's the point, isn't it? They wanna believe in the President. He suddenly tires of talking, rubs his hands over his face. HAIG You're all set, sir. Just push this button. Good night, Mr. President. NIXON You know, Al, men in your profession... you give 'em a pistol and you leave the room. HAIG I don't have a pistol. NIXON 'Night, Al... Haig quietly closes the door. Nixon takes a generous slug of Scotch. Then he looks down at the tape recorder. He puts on the UHER headset, and hits the "fast forward" button: high-speed VOICES. NIXON Goddamn! He hits "stop," puts on his eyeglasses studies the recorder a moment. Pushes the "play" button. VOICES. Barely audible at first. Nixon leans closer, listening. NIXON (on tape) They did what?! I don't understand. Why'd they go into O'Brien's office in the first place? HALDEMAN (on tape) Evidently to install bugs and photograph documents. FLASHBACK TO: SCENE FIVE INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG. - PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY (1972) SUBTITLE READ: "JUNE 1972" NIXON'S hideaway office. BOB HALDEMAN, his crew-cut, hard-edged chief of staff, sits across the desk, a folder open on his lap. Nixon, at his desk, seems a healthier man than in the previous scene. Also there are JOHN EHRLICHMAN, portly domestic advisor, and JOHN DEAN, blond, gentrified legal counsel. NIXON (CONT'D) But O'Brien doesn't even use that office. The Democrats've moved to Miami. There's nothing there! HALDEMAN It was just a fishing expedition. Apparently it was their fourth attempt at the DNC. Nixon Their fourth! HALDEMAN It's possible they were looking for evidence of an illegal Howard Hughes donation to the Democrats, so the Democrats couldn't make an issue of your Hughes money. NIXON Contribution! It was a legal contribution. Who the hell authorized this? Colson? EHRLICHMAN (shakes his head) Colson doesn't know a thing about it; he's pure as virgin on this one. It's just not clear the burglars knew what they were looking for. They were heading to McGovern's office later that night. NIXON Jesus! Did Mitchell know? EHRLICHMAN Mitchell's out of his mind right now. Martha just put her head through a plate-glass window. NIXON Jesus! Through a window? HALDEMAN It was her wrist. And it was through a plate-glass door. EHRLICHMAN Anyway, they had to take her to Bellevue. Maybe she'll stay this time. A beat. NIXON Martha's an idiot, she'll do anything to get John's attention. If Mitchell'd been minding the store instead of that nut, Martha, we wouldn't have that kid Magruder runnin' some third-rate burglary! Was he smoking pot? EHRLICHMAN Mitchell? NIXON No! Magruder! That sonofabitch tests my Quaker patience to the breaking point. DEAN The bigger problem I see is this guy who was arrested, McCord -- James McCord -- he headed up security for the Committee to Re-Elect. He turns out to be ex-CIA. NIXON "Ex-CIA?" There's no such thing as "ex-CIA," John -- they're all Ivy League Establishment. Is he one of these guys with a beef against us? EHRLICHMAN McCord?... NIXON Find out what the hell he was doing at "CREEP." This could be trouble. These CIA guys don't miss a trick. This could be a set-up. INTERCUTS of all these people arise as the scene runs -- McCord, Liddy, Magruder, Mitchell, Martha, Hunt, etc. HALDEMAN (with a look to Ehrlichman) We feel the bigger concern is Gordon Liddy... NIXON That fruitcake! What about him? HALDEMAN Well, you know, sir, he's a nut. He used to work here with the "Plumbers" and now he's running this Watergate caper. You remember his plan to firebomb the Brookings using Cubans as fireman? He wanted to buy a damned fire truck! Magruder thinks he's just nutty enough to go off the reservation. NIXON What's Liddy got? HALDEMAN Apparently he was using some campaign cash that was laundered for us through Mexico. The FBI's onto it. We could have a problem with that. DEAN ...But it'll just be a campaign finance violation... HALDEMAN ...And if Liddy takes the rap for Watergate, we can take care of him... NIXON (looking at his watch) I don't have time for all this shit! (to Haldeman) Just handle it, Bob! Keep it out of the White House. What else? Kissinger's waiting -- he's gonna throw a tantrum again if I don't see him, threatening to quit... again. (sighs) EHRLICHMAN (reluctant) Well, sir... it turns out -- one of the people implicated is still, you see, on our White House payroll. NIXON Who? Not another Goddamn Cuban? HALDEMAN No, sir. A guy named Hunt. Nixon stops, stunned. NIXON Hunt? Howard Hunt? EHRLICHMAN He left his White House phone number in his hotel room. HALDEMAN He works for Colson. He used him on the Pentagon Papers. We're trying to figure out when he officially stopped being a White House consultant. After the arrest he dumped his wiretapping stuff into his White House safe. NIXON (incredulous) Howard Hunt is working for the White House? No shit! This is Goddamn Disneyland! Since when? EHRLICHMAN Chappaquiddick. You wanted some dirt on Kennedy. Colson brought him in. DEAN You know Hunt, sir? NIXON (perturbed) On the list of horribles, I know what he is. And I know what he tracks back to. (then) You say he was involved in the Plumbers? HALDEMAN Definitely. Colson had him trying to break into Bremer's apartment after Bremer shot Wallace, to plant McGovern campaign literature. NIXON (lofty) I had nothing to do with that. Was he... in the Ellsberg thing? HALDEMAN Yes, you approved it, sir. NIXON I did? HALDEMAN It was right after the Pentagon Papers broke. They went in to get his psychiatric records. NIXON Fucking hell. HALDEMAN We were working on China... Nixon has taken a seat, shaken. He stares right at us as we: SHARP CUT BACK TO: SCENE SIX INT. OVAL OFFICE - DAY - (1971) The PRESIDENT'S MEN are gathered in somber silence, sharing front page copies of the New York Times. SUBTITLE READS: "JUNE 1971 -- A YEAR EARLIER" INSERT HEADLINE: "Secret Pentagon Study Details Descent Into Vietnam"; "Pentagon Papers Expose Government Lies." The technique we've established of an AUDIO MONTAGE of REPORTERS' VOICES continues over the scene. REPORTER (V.O.) The New York Times began publishing today the first in a series of forty-seven volumes of top secret Pentagon Papers relating to the war in Vietnam. The papers reveal a systematic pattern of government lies about American involvement in the war... NIXON throws down the paper in disgust and attempts to feed his Irish setter, KING TIMAHOE, a biscuit, as HENRY KISSINGER paces the room, the most upset of all. KISSINGER Mr. President, we are in a revolutionary situation. We are under siege -- Black Panthers, Weathermen; the State Department under Rogers is leaking like a sieve. And now this insignificant little shit, Ellsberg, publishing all the diplomatic secrets of this country, will destroy our ability to conduct foreign policy! NIXON (feeding the dog) Here, Tim... Tim. I'm as frustrated as you, Henry, but don't you think this one's a Democrat problem. They started the war; it makes them look bad. Kissinger lowers his voice for effect, pounds the desk. KISSINGER Mr. President, how can we look the Soviets or the Chinese in the eye now and have any credibility when any traitor can leak! Even the Vietnamese, tawdry little shits that they are, will never -- never -- agree to secret negotiations with us. This makes you look like a weakling, Mr. President. HALDEMAN He's right about one thing, sir. I spoke with Lyndon. This Pentagon Papers business has knocked the shit out of him. Complete collapse, massive depression. He feels the country is lost, that you as President can't govern anymore. Nixon is bent from the waist, stiffly extending the biscuit, but the dog still won't come. NIXON (irritated) Goddamn! How long have we had this fucking dog?! Two years, he still doesn't come! We need a dog that looks happy when the press is around. EHRLICHMAN Well, he's photogenic. Let's try dog bones? KISSINGER (end of his patience) Mr. President, the Vietnamese, the Russians... Nixon finally throws the biscuit at the dog, glares Kissinger. NIXON (to Ehrlichman) Fuck it! He doesn't like me, John! (to Kissinger) It's your fault, Henry. KISSINGER I beg your pardon-- NIXON It's your people who are leaking to the Times. Wasn't this Ellsberg a student of yours at Harvard? He was your idea; why are you suddenly running for cover? KISSINGER He was, he was. We taught a class together at Harvard. But you know these back-stabbing Ivy League intellectuals, they can't... NIXON (cold) No, Henry, I don't. KISSINGER He's turned into a drug fiend, he shot people from helicopters in Vietnam, he has sexual relations with his wife in front of their children. He sees a shrink in L.A. He's all fucked up. Now he's trying to be a hero to the liberals... If he gets away with it, everybody will follow his lead. He must be stopped at all costs. COLSON Sir, if I might? NIXON Go, Chuck. COLSON For three years now I've watched people in this government promote themselves, ignoring your orders, embarrassing your administration. It makes me sick! We've played by the rules and it doesn't work! MITCHELL (to Nixon) We can prosecute The New York Times, go for an injunction... NIXON ...but it's not, bottom-line gonna change a Goddamn thing, John. The question is: How do we screw Ellsberg so bad it puts the fear of God into all leakers? COLSON Can we link Ellsberg to the Russians? NIXON Good, I like that. The other issue is: How the hell do we plug these leaks once and for all? Who the hell's talking to the press? (he looks directly at Henry) Henry, for two Goddamn years you've put wiretaps on your own people. KISSINGER To protect you, Mr. President. COLSON (interjects) To protect yourself is more like it. The pot calling the kettle... Kissinger throws COLSON a vicious look, while Nixon ignores it. KISSINGER (aside) Who are you talking to like this, you insignificant shit... NIXON ...and what do we get for it? Gobs and gobs of bullshit, gossip, nothing! Someone is leaking. We've got to stop the leaks, Henry, at any cost, do you hear me? Then we can go for the big play -- China, Russia. COLSON Mr. President, we can do this ourselves. The CIA and the FBI aren't doing the job. But we can create our own intelligence unit -- right here, inside the White House. A slow move in on Nixon as he thinks about it. NIXON Well, why not? HALDEMAN Our own intelligence capability -- to fix the leaks? COLSON Yeah, like plumbers. Nixon smiles. NIXON I like it. I like the idea. EHRLICHMAN Is it legal? (a beat) I mean has anyone ever done it before? NIXON Sure. Lyndon, JFK, FDR -- I mean, Truman cut the shit out of my investigation of Hiss back in ‘48. MITCHELL It was illegal, what he did. NIXON You know, this kinda thing, you gotta be brutal. A leak happens, the whole damn place should be fired. Really. You do it like the Germans in World War II. If they went through these towns and a sniper hit one of them, they'd line the whole Goddamned town up and say: "Until you talk you're all getting shot." I really think that's what has to be done. I don't think you can be Mr. Nice- guy anymore... COLSON Just whisper the word to me, sir, and I'll shoot Ellsberg myself. EHRLICHMAN We're not Germans, sir... NIXON Ellsberg's not the issue. The Pentagon Papers aren't the issue. (almost to himself) It's the lie. A pause. Everyone in the room chews on this for a moment. MITCHELL, the oldest in the group, smokes on his pipe, stoned-faced. MITCHELL The lie? NIXON You remember, John, in ‘48 -- no one believed Alger Hiss was a Communist. Except me. They loved Hiss just like they love this Ellsberg character. East Coast, Ivy League. He was their kind. I was dirt to them. Nothing. As they talk, a MONTAGE arises of ALGER HISS and the days of old -- the photographs of the notorious 1948 Hiss case: HISS CHAMBERS, the YOUNGER NIXON with the microfilm; a headline reading "HISS FOUND GUILTY"; TRUMAN, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, a beaming EISENHOWER shaking Nixon's hand. MITCHELL (to the room) And Dick beat the shit out of them. NIXON But I wouldn't have if Hiss hadn't lied about knowing Chambers. The documents were old and out of date, like these Pentagon Papers. The key thing we proved was that Hiss was a liar. Then people bought that he was a spy. (then) It's the lie that gets you. MITCHELL (to the room) Hiss was protecting his wife. I've always believed that. NIXON (cryptically) When they know you've got something to protect, that's when they fuck you! HALDEMAN What's this faggot, Ellsberg, protecting? COLSON His liberal elitist friends. His Harvard-Ph.D.-I-shit-holier-than- thou attitude. Kissinger waits. Nixon acknowledges him. The camera is moving tighter and tighter on the President. His expression is furious, his words violent. NIXON (CONT'D) Alright, Henry -- we're gonna go your way. Crush this Ellsberg character the same way we did Hiss! KISSINGER (interjects) There's no other choice. NIXON We're gonna hit him so hard he looks like everything that's sick and evil about the Eastern Establishment. (to Colson) You and your "plumbers" are gonna find the dirt on this guy -- let's see him going to the bathroom in front of the American public! And when we finish with him, they'll crucify him! FLASH CUT TO: SCENE SEVEN INT. FIELDING PSYCHIATRIST OFFICE - NIGHT (1971) SUBTITLE READS: "ELLSBERG'S PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE - 1971" ANOTHER BREAK-IN is in effect. LIDDY in wig, thick glasses, false teeth, and THREE CUBANS (Barker, Martinez from Watergate, and de Diego, not at Watergate) are visible, moving through, smashing up the office. In CLOSE-UPS, we see hands jerking open filing cabinets, pulling the drawers out of desks. REPORTERS (V.O. CONT'D) The Nixon Administration responded by filing an injunction against the New York Times to prevent further publication... President Nixon condemned the Pentagon Papers as the worst breach of nation security in U.S. history... Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the papers, was charged today in federal court... While this is going on, a powerful FLASHBULB keeps popping. The photographer, looking for evidence, suddenly catches his partner in the light, his startled face buried beneath a 70's wig -- HOWARD HUNT. Hunt is pissed: "Fuck you -- gimme that fucking film!" SCENE EIGHT INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG. - PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY (1972) RESUME -- CLOSE on NIXON remembering Howard Hunt, as Haldeman looks on. NIXON Howard Hunt?...Jesus Christ, you open up that scab... and you uncover a lot of pus. HALDEMAN What do you mean, sir? Nixon chooses not to answer. NIXON Where's Hunt now? EHRLICHMAN In hiding. He sent Liddy to talk to me. NIXON And? EHRLICHMAN He wants money. NIXON Pay him. EHRLICHMAN Pay him? I told him to get out of the country. It's crazy to start... NIXON What the hell are you doing, Ehrlichman -- screwing with the CIA? I don't care how much he wants -- pay him. HALDEMAN But what are we paying him for? NIXON Silence! HALDEMAN But sir, you're covered -- no one here gave orders to break into the damned Watergate. We're clean. It's only the Ellsberg thing, and if that comes out, it's "national security." NIXON "Security" is not strong enough. HALDEMAN How ‘bout a COMINT classification. We put it on the Huston plan. Even the designation is classified. NIXON "National priority." EHRLICHMAN "Priority?" How about "secret, top secret?" DEAN I was thinking "sensitive." NIXON "National security priority restricted and controlled secret." HALDEMAN We'll work on it. I say we cut ourselves loose from these clowns and that's all there is to it. A beat. Nixon looks out at the Rose Garden. NIXON It's more than that. It could be more than that. I want Hunt paid. EHRLICHMAN Uh, we've never done this before, sir... How do we pay? In... hundreds? (smirks) Do you fill a black bag full of unmarked bills? NIXON (snaps) This is not a joke, John! EHRLICHMAN No, sir. NIXON We should set up a Cuban defense fund on this; take care of all of them. HALDEMAN Should we talk to Trini about paying these guys? Or maybe Chotiner? NIXON No, keep Trini out of this. Chotiner's too old. And for God's sake, keep Colson out. (including Dean) It's time to baptize our young counsel. That means Dean can never talk about it. Attorney-client privilege. Get to it. And Dean -- you stay close to this. DEAN Yes, sir, don't worry -- Prompted, Ehrlichman and Dean leave. When the door closes: NIXON Bob, did I approve the Ellsberg thing? You know, I'm glad we tape all these conversations because... I never approved that break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Or maybe I approved it after the fact? Someday we've got to start transcribing the tapes... HALDEMAN You approved that before the fact, because I went over it with you. But... NIXON Uh, no one, of course, is going to see these tapes, but... HALDEMAN That's right, and it's more a problem for Ehrlichman. He fixed Hunt up with the phony CIA ID's, but... what else does Hunt have on us? Again, Nixon chooses not to answer. NIXON We've got to turn off the FBI. You just go to the CIA, Bob, and tell Helms that Howard Hunt is blackmailing the President. Tell him that Hunt and his Cuban friends know too damn much, and if he goes public, it would be a fiasco for the CIA. He'll know what I'm talking about. HALDEMAN (still confused) All right. NIXON Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we're going to play it. Don't lie to Helms and say there's no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it. Say the President believes it's going to open up the whole Bay of Pigs thing again. Tell Helms he should call the FBI, call Pat Gray, and say that we wish for the sake of the country -- don't go any further into this hanky-panky, period! HALDEMAN The Bay of Pigs?... That was Kennedy's screw-up. How does that threaten us? NIXON Just do what I say, Bob. HALDEMAN Yes, sir, but... do you think Gray'll go for it? NIXON Pat Gray'll do anything we ask him. That's why I appointed him. HALDEMAN He'll need a pretext. He'll never figure one out for himself. NIXON (sighs) Christ, you're right -- Gray makes Jerry Ford look like Mozart. (then) Just have Helms call him. Helms can scare anybody. HALDEMAN The only problem with that, sir -- it gets us into obstruction of justice. NIXON It's got nothing to do with justice. It's national security. HALDEMAN How is this national security? NIXON Because the President says it is. My job is to protect this country from its enemies, and its enemies are inside the wall. Pause. Haldeman is perplexed. NIXON I suppose you thought the Presidency was above this sort of thing. HALDEMAN Sir? NIXON This isn't a "moral" issue Bob. We have to keep our enemies at bay or our whole program is gonna go down the tubes. The FBI is filled with people who're pissed that I put Gray in and not one of their own. Vietnam, China, the Soviet Union: when you look at the big picture, Bob, you'll see we're doing a hell of a lotta good in this world. Let's not screw it up with some shit-ass, third-rate burglary. HALDEMAN I'll talk to Helms. (look at his watch) Oh, Pat asked if you're coming to the Residence for dinner tonight. NIXON No, no, not tonight. Don't let her in here; I have too much to do. HALDEMAN Yes, sir. I'll talk to Helms, and, uh... what's our press position on this Watergate thing? What do I tell Ziegler to tell them? SCENE NINE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT (1973) RESUME SCENE -- NIXON takes another drink, looks up at Lincoln's portrait. NIXON (on the tape, yelling) Tell ‘em what we've always told ‘em! Tell ‘em anything but the Goddamn truth! As the tape grinds on with hard-to-hear DIALOGUE, Nixon searches through a drawer in the rolltop desk next to the fireplace. He finds a small vial of pills, fumbles with the cap. He rips the cap off, the pills scattering on the desk. NIXON Shit! He begins scooping them back into the bottle, his hands trembling with the effort. NIXON (mumbles) Put me in this position... Expose me like this. He downs a couple of pills with the Scotch. NIXON Why don't they just fucking shoot me? Nixon takes another drink, looks down. SHARP CUT BACK TO: SCENE TEN INT. TV STUDIO - NIGHT - (1960) DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- JOHN F. KENNEDY looking straight at the camera. Tanned, impeccable, confident. KENNEDY I do not think the world can exist in the long run half-slave and half-free. The real issue before us is how we can prevent the balance of power from turning against us... If we sleep too long in the sixties, Mr. Khrushchev will "bury" us yet... I think it's time America started moving again. DISSOLVE TO: NIXON does not look well. His clothes are baggy, and he has a slight sheen of perspiration around his lower lip. He seems uncomfortable in his movement, robotic, falsely aggressive with his raised eyebrow and glaring demeanor. (The following essences are taken from four debates and various campaign material; in using a documentary "JFK," we will be cutting around him when off-debate material is used.) NIXON ...When it comes to experience, I want you to remember I've had 173 meetings with President Eisenhower, and 217 times with the National Security Council. I've attended 163 Cabinet meetings. I've visited fifty-four countries and had discussions with thirty- five presidents, nine prime ministers, two emperors, and the Shah of Iran... SCENE ELEVEN INT. TV STUDIO - CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT PAT NIXON, a year older than Dick, watches her champion through the glass booth. The "Mona Lisa" of American politics, she projects deep admiration for, and pride in, her husband. But now she appears perturbed by what she's seeing. A younger HALDEMAN sits watching the debates on monitors with HERB KLEIN, press secretary, and OTHERS in the Nixon circle. Through the glass we see the CANDIDATES. MURRAY CHOTINER, campaign manager, overweight and bow- tied, moves down the row of monitors holding a cigar. He manages to drop ashes on an attractive KENNEDY STAFFER. CHOTINER Excuse me, sweetheart. As he sits next to Haldeman, Nixon drones on. NIXON (on TV monitor) Let's take hydroelectric power. In our administration, we've built more... CHOTINER (privately) Jesus Christ, has he told them how many pushups he can do yet? What the hell happened to him? HALDEMAN He just got out of the hospital, Murray, and he hasn't taken an hour off during the campaign, thanks to you. CHOTINER You could've at least gotten him a suit that fit, for Christ's sake, and slapped some make-up one him. He looks like a frigging corpse! NIXON (TV) ...When we consider the lineup of the world, we find there are 590 million people on our side, 800 million people on the communist side, and 600 million who are neutral. The odds are 5 to 3 against us... HALDEMAN He wouldn't do the make-up. Said it was for queers. JFK's face is on the monitors now. CHOTINER Kennedy doesn't look like a queer, does he? (then) He looks like a God. HALDEMAN Murray, it's not a beauty contest. CHOTINER We better hope not. PAT (upset) What are you doing to him, Murray?! Look at him -- he's not well. He doesn't have to debate John Kennedy. HALDEMAN Mrs. Nixon, we didn't... CHOTINER Pat, baby, listen, when it comes to... PAT He can win without doing this. KENNEDY (TV) ...in attacking my resolve, Mr. Nixon has carefully avoided mentioning my position on Cuba... HALDEMAN Oh shoot! He's going to do it! Here it comes. KENNEDY (TV) ...As a result of administration policies, we have seen Cuba go to the Communists... eight jet minutes from the coast of Florida! Castro's influence will spread through all of Latin America. We must attempt to strengthen the democratic anti-Castro forces in exile. These fighters have had virtually no support from our government! HALDEMAN (whispers to Klein, Chotiner) Sonofabitch! He was briefed last week by the CIA. He's using it against us! He knows we can't respond. CHOTINER It's a disgrace. MODERATOR Mr. Nixon? NIXON looks, astounded, at JFK. He fumbles his response. NIXON I think... I think... that's the sort of very dangerous and irresponsible suggestion that... helping the Cuban exiles who oppose Castro would, uh... not only be a violation of international law, it would be... HALDEMAN (closes his eyes) He's treading water. Don't mention Khrushchev. NIXON ...an open invitation for Mr. Khrushchev to become involved in Latin America. We would lose all our friends in Latin America. KLEIN He just violated national security, Dick! Attack the bastard! KENNEDY I, for one, have never believed the foreign policy of the United States should be dictated by the Kremlin. As long as... Klein hangs his head; Chotiner shares a look with Haldeman. The young Kennedy staffers applaud gleefully. NIXON (V.O.) The sonofabitch stole it! SCENE TWELVE INT. AMBASSADOR HOTEL - SUITE - LOS ANGELES - DAWN (1960) NIXON stands at the center of a room crowded with his MEN. He is despondent, astounded. PAT NIXON watches silently, bitter, nearly in tears. CHOTINER He carried every cemetery in Chicago! And Texas -- they had the Goddamned cattle voting! The final ELECTION FIGURES are coming in over the television. They show Kennedy with a 120,000-voter margin -- 34.1 million -- and run down the electoral college votes. CHOTINER Closest election history, Dick, and they stole it. Sonofabitch! NIXON He outspent us and he still cheated. A guy who's got everything. I can't believe it. We came to Congress together. I went to his wedding. We were like brothers, for Christ's sake. Pat leaves abruptly; she can't take it anymore. Chotiner looks at Dick as if he were incredibly naive. HALDEMAN and KLEIN are at a table, reams of returns before them. KLEIN We've got the figures, Dick! The fraud is obvious -- we call for a recount. HALDEMAN Nobody's ever contested a presidential election. CHOTINER Who's going to do the counting? The Democrats control Texas, they control Illinois. KLEIN We shift 25,000 votes in two states, and... CHOTINER How long would that take? Six months? A year? HALDEMAN Meanwhile, what happens to the country? NIXON That bastard! If I'd called his shot on Cuba I would've won. He made me look soft. KLEIN (reading transcript) "I feel sorry for Nixon because he does not know who he is, and at each stop he has to decide which Nixon he is at the moment, which must be very exhausting."-Jack Kennedy. CHOTINER Bullshit! The CAMERA is driving in on Nixon building to a rage. Klein knows how to get to him. KLEIN (reading) "Nixon's a shifty-eyed, Goddamn liar. If he had to stick to the truth he'd have very little to say. If you vote for him you ought to go to hell!"-Harry S. Truman... That's what killed us, Dick, not Cuba -- the personality problem. Are we gonna let these sonofabitch Democrats get away with this? HALDEMAN (sotto voice) You know, Herb, it's not the time... Nixon in close-up, inner demons moving him. A brief IMAGE of something ugly... in Nixon. Himself, perhaps, drenched in blood, or death imagery. NIXON Goddamn Kennedy! Goes to Harvard. His father hands him everything on a silver platter! All my life they been sticking it to me. Not the right clothes, not the right schools, not the right family. And then he steals from me! I have nothing and he steals. (softly, lethal) ...And he says I have "no class." And they love him for it. It's not fair, Murray, it's not fair. CHOTINER Dick, you're only forty-seven. You contest this election, you're finished. You gotta swallow this one. They stole it fair and square. Nixon looks at him, broken-hearted. He controls his reaction, and exits the room. CHOTINER We'll get ‘em next time, Dick. KLEIN What makes you think there's gonna be a next time, Murray? Chotiner picks up the corner of a campaign poster with Nixon's face on it, the name in bold below. CHOTINER Because if he's not President Nixon, he's nobody. SCENE THIRTEEN INT. AMBASSADOR HOTEL - CORRIDOR & SUITE - DAWN NIXON crosses the corridor which is subdued in the morning light. He hesitates at the door, knocks softly. PAT NIXON stirs quietly as her husband walks to her bed. They occupy separate beds. NIXON We lost... PAT (bitterly) I know... NIXON It's hard to lose... She reaches out to touch him. He allows himself to be touched. It seems that, between them, intimacy is difficult. PAT It makes us human... NIXON It's not fair, Buddy. I can take the insults; I can take the name- calling. But I can't take the losing. I hate it. PAT We don't have to put ourselves through this again, Dick. NIXON What do you mean? We worked for it. We earned it. It's ours. PAT It is. We know that. (then) And it's enough that we know. Just think of the girls. They're still young. We never see them. I lost my parents. I don't want them to lose theirs; I don't want them to grow up without a mother and father... NIXON Maybe I should get out of the game. What do you think, Buddy? Go back to being a lawyer and end up with something solid, some money at the end of the line... You know I keep thinking of my old man tonight. He was a failure too. PAT You're not a failure, Dick. NIXON You know how much money he had in the bank when he died? (beat) Nothing. He was so damned honest... (then) But I miss him. I miss him a hell of a lot. He seems about to cry. Pat reaches out and cradles his head on her shoulder. On his eyes we: CUT TO: SCENE FOURTEEN EXT. NIXON GROCERY STORE - DUSK (1925) A few gas pumps in front, overlooking a dry western, Edward Hopper landscape. A run-down residence at the back. A large man in a bloody butcher's apron, FRANK NIXON (46), crosses. SCENE FIFTEEN INT. NIXON GROCERY STORE - DUSK HAROLD (16), tall, handsome, walks in whistling. He winks at RICHARD (12), who is sorting fruit in the bins. HANNAH (39), a dour but gracious Quaker woman, is behind the counter with a CUSTOMER. RICHARD (whispers) What'd he say? HAROLD What do you think? He said in life there's no free ride. RICHARD What'd you say? HAROLD I said I didn't need a ride. (flashes a smile) I need a suit. Richard buries his face in his hands. RICHARD Oh, no, Harold. He doesn't respond well to humor. (looks at his Mother, worried) ...Maybe if you talk to Mother she can... HAROLD I'd rather get a whipping than have another talk with her. Anything but a talk with her. Richard is terrified Mom might overhear: RICHARD Shhhh! But it's too late. Hannah looks over, very sharp, as her customer departs: HANNAH Richard... come with me, would you... RICHARD (surprised, aloud) Why me? SCENE SIXTEEN INT. NIXON HOUSE - KITCHEN - DUSK RICHARD, obediently seated, pays his Mother heed. He seems a gloomy, unsmiling child in her presence. We sense that this is familiar territory for both. HANNAH, very quiet, penetrating with her gaze. HANNAH Because Harold tests thy father's will is no reason to admire him. Let's Harold's worldliness be a warning to thee, not an example. RICHARD Yes, Mother... HANNAH Harold may have lost touch with his Bible, but thou must never lapse. Then, she extends her hand. HANNAH Now, give it to me... Richard is about to plead ignorance. HANNAH Do not tell a lie, Richard... The cornsilk cigarette Harold gave thee behind the store this morning. RICHARD (lying) I don't... have them. Mother... I swear, I... didn't smoke. HANNAH (withdrawing) I see... Well then, Richard, we have nothing more to talk about, do we? RICHARD (fearful, blurts out) Please, Mother, it... it was just one time, Mother, I'm... I'm sorry. HANNAH So am I. Thy father will have to know of thy lying. RICHARD (terrified) No, no! Please, don't. Don't tell him. I'll never do it again. I promise. I promise... (on the edge of tears) Please, Mamma... HANNAH (pause) I expect more from thee, Richard. He buries his head in her skirt. The faintest smile on Hannah's face as she pockets the cigarette. RICHARD Please! I'll never let you down again, Mother. Never. I promise. HANNAH Then this shall be our little secret. She lifts his face to hers. HANNAH (CONT'D) Remember that I see into thy soul as God sees. Thou may fool the world. Even thy father. But not me, Richard. Never me. RICHARD Mother, think of me always as your faithful dog... SCENE SEVENTEEN INT. NIXON HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT HANNAH puts the food on the table as FRANK NIXON, sleeves rolled up, waits at the head of the table, fuming. ARTHUR (6) and DONALD (9) join RICHARD and HAROLD. (The fifth brother, Edward, has not yet been born.) Hannah takes the remaining food to TWO HOBOS who are standing outside the kitchen door. Harold reaches for his spoon impatiently. FRANK Don't you dare, Harold! HAROLD (a little laugh) I just thought, since the food was here... HANNAH We haven't said grace yet. Richard. RICHARD (nervously) Is it my turn? Hannah nods. Richard puts his hands together, trying to please. RICHARD Heavenly Father, we humbly thank-- FRANK (interrupts) I'll do it. There's a coupla things I wanna say. HANNAH Could thou at least remove thy apron, Frank? FRANK This blood pays the bills, Hannah. I'm not ashamed of how I earn my money. (clears his throat) Heavenly Father, you told Adam in the Garden, after that business with the snake, that man would have to earn his way by the sweat of his face. Well, as far as I can tell, Father, what was true in Eden is true in Whittier, California. So we ask you now to remind certain of our young people... (glares at Harold) That the only way to get a new suit to got to the promenade with Margaret O'Herlihy, who happens to be a Catholic by the way, is to work for it. (then) Amen. Little cute-faced Arthur looks up. ARTHUR I like Margaret O'Herlihy too. She's very pretty. Can we pray now? The boys start giggling. HANNAH Arthur! FRANK You think this is funny? (then) Pretty soon you boys are gonna have to get out there and scratch, ‘cause you're not gonna get anywhere on your good looks. Just ask those fellas... Frank waves to the Hobos, now squatting and wolfing down the food. They look up, embarrassed. FRANK Charity is only gonna get you so far -- even with saints like your mother around. Struggle's what gives life meaning, not victory -- struggle. When you quit struggling, they've beaten you, and then you end up in the street with you hand out. Frank begins eating; the rest follow. NIXON (V.O.) My mother was a saint, but my old man struggled his whole life. You could call him a little man, a poor man, but they never beat him. I always tried to remember that when things didn't go my way... SCENE EIGHTEEN EXT. WHITTIER FOOTBALL FIELD - DAY (1932) FOOTBALL MONTAGE: RICHARD (19), 150 pounds, is on the defensive line as the ball is hiked. ("Let's get fired up!") He gets creamed by a 200-pound offensive tackle. He jumps up, no face guard, hurting, and resets. AD LIB football chatter. We can tell from Richard's cheap uniform that he is a substitute. But: We go again. And again. Building a special RHYTHM of JUMP CUTS showing Nixon getting mauled each time. He doesn't have a chance, this kid, but he has pluck. And he comes back for more. And more. This image of pain and humiliation should weave itself in and out of the film in repetitive currents. As we CUT TO: SCENE NINETEEN Omitted SCENE TWENTY INT. HILTON HOTEL - BALLROOM - NIGHT (1962) We move down past a blizzard of balloons and confetti blown by a hotel air-conditioner to a huge "NIXON FOR GOVERNOR" banner. NIXON thrusts his arms in the air -- the twin-V salute. The CROWD cheers wildy. SUBTITLE READS: "CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP, 1962." SCENE TWENTY-ONE INT. HILTON HOTEL - SUITE - NIGHT NIXON is slumped in an armchair, feet on a coffee table, holding a drink, going through defeat once again. HALDEMAN stares glumly at the TV. PAT sits across the room in grim silence. ON TV -- a NEWSCASTER stands in front of a tally board with the network logo: "Decision ‘62." NEWSCASTER President Kennedy has called Governor Pat Brown to congratulate him... HALDEMAN Are we making a statement? NEWSCASTER ABC is now projecting that Brown will defeat Richard Nixon by more than a quarter of a million votes. NIXON holds up his drink to the screen. Moves to a piano. NIXON Thank you, Fidel Castro. PAT You're not going to blame this on Castro, are you? NIXON I sure am. The Goddamned missile crisis united the whole country behind Kennedy. And he was supporting Brown. People were scared, that's why. PAT I suppose Castro staged the whole thing just to beat you. NIXON Buddy, before you join the jubilation at my being beaten again, you should remember: People vote not out of love, but fear. They don't teach that at Sunday School or at the Whittier Community Playhouse! HALDEMAN (interjects) I should go down and check in with our people. Haldeman leaves quickly. ON TV: GOVERNOR BROWN steps to the podium. A band plays "Happy Days Are Here Again." PAT (back at Dick) I'm glad they don't. You forget I had a life before California, a rough, rough life. Life isn't always fair, Dick... Nixon drowns her out, playing the piano (well) and singing along bitterly. NIXON "--the skies above are clear again. Let's sing a song of cheer again--" ...Cocksucker! Pat turns off the TV. NIXON (continues to play) Don't you want to listen to Brown's victory speech? PAT No. I'm not going to listen to any more speeches ever again. NIXON Amen to that. PAT It's over, Dick. NIXON I'll concede in the morning. PAT Not that. (then) Us. Nixon stops playing, looks at her. PAT (coldly) I've always stood by you. I campaigned for you when I was pregnant. During Checkers, when Ike wanted you out, I told you to fight. This is different, Dick. You've changed. You've grown more... bitter, like you're at war with the world. You weren't that way before. You scare me sometimes... I'm fifty years old now, Dick. How many people's hands have I shaken -- people I didn't like, people I didn't even know. It's as if, I don't know, I went to sleep a long time ago and missed the years between... I've had enough. He moves towards her awkwardly. Pat struggles. She goes to a window, her back to him. She is not one to enjoy "scenes." She tends to accommodate to others to preserve an aura of happiness. NIXON (confused) What are you saying? What are you talking about? PAT I want a divorce. NIXON My God -- divorce? (beat) ...What about the girls? PAT The girls will grow up. They only know you from television anyway. NIXON It would ruin us, Buddy, our family. PAT You're ruining us. If we stay with you, you'll take us down with you. (beat) This isn't political, Dick. This is our life. NIXON Everything's political, for Christ's sake! I'm political. And you're political too! PAT No, I'm not! I'm finished. She is very serious. He sees it. It terrifies him. The same withdrawal he experienced from his mother. NIXON This is just what they want, Buddy. Don't you see? They want to drive us apart. To beat us. We can't let them do it. We've been through too much together, Buddy... We belong together. PAT (ironic) That's what you said the first time we met. You didn't even know me. MARRIAGE MONTAGE: During this scene we have a series of SHOTS of their courtship -- the Whittier College campus, 1930's Los Angeles; driving in a car together; the wedding; the FIRST CHILD; the Pacific NAVAL CAPTAIN underneath a palm tree; running as a first-time CONGRESSMAN with Pat; the EISENHOWER years... NIXON (very tender) Oh, yes I did. I told you I was gonna marry you, didn't I? On the first date... I said it because I knew... I know you were the one... so solid and so strong... and so beautiful. You were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen... I don't want to lose you, Buddy, ever... INTERCUT WITH: NIXON seeking tenderness. He puts a hand on her arm. He tries gently to pull her towards him, to kiss her. PAT Dick, don't... NIXON Buddy, look at me... just look at me. Do you really want me to quit? She stares out the window. A long moment. PAT We can be happy. We really can. We love you, Dick. The girls and I... NIXON If I stop... there'll be no more talk of divorce? A long moment. She finally turns her eyes to him, assenting. NIXON I'll do it. (waves his hand) No more. PAT Are you serious? NIXON Yeah... I'm out. PAT Is that the truth? NIXON I'll never run again. I promise. SHARP CUT TO: SCENE TWENTY-TWO INT. HILTON HOTEL - HALLWAY - NIGHT NIXON stalks down the hallway, fuming. HALDEMAN walks alongside. NIXON Where are they? HALDEMAN (worried, points to a door) Dick, you don't have to make a statement. Herb covered it for you. NIXON No! He bursts through the door into: SCENE TWENTY-THREE INT. HILTON HOTEL - PRESS CONFERENCE - BALLROOM - NIGHT A noisy CROWD of REPORTERS reacts, excitedly, to NIXON's fast entry. The smell of blood in the air. TIME CUT TO: NIXON at the podium. NIXON ...I believe Governor Brown has a heart, even though he believes I do not. I believe he is a good American, even though he feels I am not. I am proud of the fact that I defended my opponent's patriotism; you gentlemen didn't report it but I am proud I did that. And I would appreciate it, for once, gentlemen, if you would write what I say. Time dissolve. NIXON (CONT'D) ...For sixteen years, ever since the Hiss case, you've had a lot of fun -- a lot of fun. But recognize you have a responsibility, if you're against a candidate, to give him the shaft, but if you do that, at least put one lonely reporter on the campaign who will report what the candidate says now and then... HALDEMAN glances at KLEIN. NIXON ...I think all-in-all I've given as good as I've taken. But as I leave you I want you to know -- just think how much you're going to be missing: you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference... A FEW REPORTERS shout questions. There is a loud confusion, but Nixon has vanished. KLEIN What the hell was that? HALDEMAN (beat) Suicide. CUT TO: NIXON HISTORICAL MONTAGE: A grainy "NEWSREEL" treats NIXON as political history, now over. The ANONYMOUS REPORTERS return -- YOUNG NIXON, in his Navy uniform, is campaigning in California in the 1940's against Voorhis and Douglas. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) We can now officially write the political obituary of Richard Milhous Nixon... He came into being as part of the big post-war 1946 Republican sweep of the elections. People were weary of the New Deal and FDR's big government... Images of FDR, TRUMAN, and ACHESON, early Cold War imagery -- the Soviets, Berlin. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) ...The United States had been a strong ally of the Soviet Union, which has lost more than twenty million people in its fight against Nazism. But Nixon, coming from the South Pacific war, won his first term in the House by freely associating his liberal opponent, Jerry Voorhis, with Communism. Images of Voorhis, Hoover... NIXON working a CROWD, standing on the tailgate of a station-wagon, debating Voorhis. REPORTER 2 (V.O.) For Nixon, politics was war. He didn't have opponents, he had enemies. He didn't run against people, he ruined them... He won his California seat in the U.S. Senate in 1950 in a vicious campaign against liberal congresswoman and movie actress, Helen Gahagan Douglas... NEWSFILM of NIXON and CHOTINER at a rally with PAT. Images of DOUGLAS follow. CAMPAIGN WORKERS handing out smear literature. NIXON ("newsfilm look") How can Helen Douglas, capable actress that she is, take up so strange a role as a foe of Communism? Why, she's pink right down to her underwear... REPORTER 3 (V.O.) ...Nixon quickly became the Republicans' attack dog. He tore into Truman for losing Mainland China in 1949, and blamed the war in Korea on a weak foreign policy... His speeches, if more subtle than those of his Republican ally, Joe McCarthy, were just as aggressive... Nixon at another rally with Pat. NIXON ("newsfilm look") ...I promise to continue to expose the people that have sold this country down the river! Until we have driven all the crooks and Communists and those that have helped them out of office!! Images of Truman, the hydrogen bomb, the Rosenbergs, Klaus Fuchs, Oppenheimer, the Chinese taking over in 1949... Mao. NIXON ("newsfilm look") The direct result of Truman's decisions is that China has gone Communist. Mao is a monster. Why?! Why, Mr. Acheson?! Who in the State Department is watching over American interests?! Who has given the Russians the atomic bomb?!... Today the issue is slavery! The Soviet Union is an example of the slave state in its ultimate development. Great Britain is halfway down the same road; powerful interests are striving to impose the British socialist system upon the people of the United States! REPORTER 2 (V.O.) ...Nixon became one of the leading lights on the notorious House Un- American Activities Committee, questioning labor leaders, Spanish Civil War veterans, Hollywood celebrities... NIXON (questioning WITNESS) Can you tell me today the names of any pictures which Hollywood has made in the last five years showing the evils of totalitarian Communism? NIXON surround by REPORTERS outside the HUAC hearing room. REPORTER 4 (V.O.) ...but it was the Alger Hiss case that made Nixon a household name... IMAGES of Alger Hiss' career: clerking for Oliver Wendell Holmes; with FDR at Yalta, with Churchill, with Stalin. REPORTER 4 (V.O.) ...One of the architects of the United Nations, intimate of FDR and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Alger Hiss was a darling of the liberals. (then) But Whittaker Chambers, a former freelance journalist, said he was a Communist. WHITTAKER CHAMBERS testifying before HUAC. CHAMBERS (TV interview) ...if the American people understood the real character of Alger Hiss, they would boil him in oil... REPORTER 4 (V.O.) ...Hiss claimed he was being set up by Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover to discredit the New Deal's policies. The case came down to an Underwood typewriter, and a roll of film hidden in a pumpkin patch. DOCUMENTARY IMAGE -- A DETECTIVE-TYPE reaches into a hollowed-out pumpkin and pulls out microfilm... In his congressional office, NIXON examines the film with a magnifying glass, playing to the cameras with a deadly serious mien... Shots of MRS. HISS, the Underwood typewriter. REPORTER 4 (V.O.) ...Years later the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the film showed a report on business conditions in Manchuria, and fire extinguishers on a U.S. destroyer. None of these documents was classified. Were they planted by Chambers, who seemed to have a strange, almost psychotic fixation with Alger Hiss? NIXON ("newsfilm") I asked Hiss if he'd ever known Chambers before. When he said ‘no,' that's when I knew he was lying. That's when I knew I had him... He was twisting, turning, evading, changing his story to fit the evidence he knew we had... But I tell you this: I vow that we're going to go after everyone responsible for selling this country down the river... NIXON points to a headline -- "Hiss Convicted." REPORTER 1 (V.O.) After two confusing trials, Hiss went to jail for perjury. To the right wing, Nixon was a hero and a patriot. To the liberals, he was a shameless self-promoter who had vengefully destroyed a fine man. Eleanor Roosevelt angrily condemned him. It was to become a pattern: you either loved Richard Nixon or you hated him. A brief IMAGE here that will recur throughout the film. An image of evil -- call it "The Beast." REPORTER 2 (V.O.) Driven by demons that seemed more personal than political, his rise was meteoric. Congressman at 33, senator at 35, Eisenhower's vice- presidential candidate at 39. Then came the Checkers Crisis... Nixon was accused of hiding a secret slush fund. About to be kicked off the ticket by Ike, he went on national television in an unprecedented appearance... INTERCUT Checkers speech -- NIXON, looking and sounding like Uriah Heep, pleads with the American people on TV, as PAT sits uncomfortably in an armchair nearby. NIXON (on TV) ...so now what I am going to do is to give this audience a complete financial history. Everything I've earned, everything I've spent, everything I owe... Nixon forces a smile. Pat is clearly in pain, mortified. REPORTER 2 (V.O.) The list included their house, their Oldsmobile, Pat's Republican cloth coat, and lastly, in what was to become history -- a sentimental gift from a Texas businessman... NIXON (on TV) You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog. Black and white spotted. And... our little girl, Tricia, the six-year- old, named it "Checkers." And you know, the kids love that dog and we're going to keep it... REPORTER 4 (V.O.) Fifty-eight million people saw it. It was shameless. It was manipulative. (then) It was a huge success! DOCUMENTARY REPLACEMENT -- Nixon with Ike in triumph. A clip of Eisenhower praising Nixon. Nixon and Pat standing up to rock-throwing STUDENTS in Venezuela. Pointing his finger at KHRUSHCHEV in the Kitchen Debate. REPORTER 3 (V.O.) Eisenhower put Nixon back on the ticket... Responding to attacks on Truman, Acheson, and the entire Democratic Party for betraying American principles in China, Korea and elsewhere -- it was two- time Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, who perhaps best summed up the nation unease with Richard Nixon... DOCUMENTARY -- SHOTS of ADLAI STEVENSON campaigning in ‘52 and ‘56 against IKE. Images of JOE MCCARTHY precede. The HERBLOCK CARTOON of Nixon crawling out of the sewer system. Others of his cartoons follow. STEVENSON (V.O.) (radio) ...This is a man of many masks. Who can say they have seen his real face? He is on an ill-will tour, representing McCarthyism in a white collar. Nixonland has no standard of truth but convenience, and no standard of morality except the sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call; the land of smash and grab and anything to win... "What, ultimately, shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Ending with more recent SHOTS of Nixon campaigning in ‘60 and ‘62. As the IMAGES spot out in newsreel style: REPORTER 4 (V.O.) It was a great story of its time and, in California where it started, it has come to a crashing end. It is too bad in a way, because the truth is, we never knew who Richard Nixon really was. And now that he is gone, we never will... "March of Time"-type music as we SLOWLY FADE INTO: NIXON (V.O.) "Your father stinks"...They actually said this to Tricia. Two girls wearing Kennedy pins. At Chapin! SCENE TWENTY-FOUR INT. FIFTH AVE APARTMENT - NEW YORK CITY - NIGHT (1963) A New York cocktail party. Society DAMES. Rich, conservative BUSINESSMEN, platters of martinis and hors d'oeuvres carried by white-gloved BLACK BUTLERS. The fashions are Balenciaga and Courreges, tipping to the shorter hemlines; the mood is smoky and upbeat, the folks pressed into airtight packs of loud conversation. NIXON is talking to JOHN MITCHELL (54), his wife MARTHA (40's), and TWO OTHER ASSOCIATES of the law firm he has joined. NIXON (anguished) She was crying when she came home. (shakes his head) She was devastated. MARTHA Poor little Tricia! Well, that's New York -- makes for a tougher animal later in life. NIXON (to the other lawyers) I told her, her daddy couldn't even get a Goddamned job in this city when I got out of Duke. Every white-shoe lawyer firm turned me down. Didn't have the right "look." Hell, I couldn't even get into the FBI. MITCHELL (indicating) Dick, we should catch Rocky ‘fore he leaves. NELSON ROCKEFELLER, Governor of New York, dominates the room. Big smile, horn-rimmed glasses. Next to him is HAPPY, his new wife, much younger. NIXON (glancing) Well, he can walk in this direction too. MARTHA Did you catch that picture of you in the News last week, Dick? You were standing in a crowd on Fifth Avenue, and you were looking straight ahead, and everyone else was looking the other way like you'd just farted or something. (laughs) It said: "Who Remembers Dick Nixon?" I was screaming. It was so funny! NIXON Yeah, that was hilarious, Martha. (for the others) They were all looking the other way ‘cause they were waiting for the light to change. I called AP on that -- typical of the press in this country, they wouldn't correct it. That or they print the retraction right next to the girdle ads. LAWYER Oh, I've read some very nice things about you. MARTHA (puts her hand on Nixon's arm) Maybe where you come from. But where I come from, Dick Nixon is as misunderstood as a fox in a henhouse. And you know why? They all wait. MARTHA (CONT'D) Because, honey, they all think your smile and your face are never in the same place at the same time. Nervous laughter. MARTHA (CONT'D) You and me -- we gotta work on that, sweetie... MITCHELL (guiding Dick away) Someone freshen Martha's drink. I think she's down a quart. MARTHA Well, zippety-fucking-doo-dah! Mitchell moves Nixon away towards the Rockefeller GROUP. MITCHELL Sorry, Dick. She's a little tipsy. NIXON You mean smashed! She called up at midnight last week. Talking a bunch of crap! Pat can't stand her. MITCHELL It's a thing she does. She talks at night. NIXON Talks all day too! How the hell can you put up with her, John? MITCHELL (sheepishly) What the hell -- I love her. And she's great in bed. Rockefeller holds court, not immediately noticing Nixon. ROCKEFELLER ...There are no guarantees in politics. I'm going to roll the dice with everyone else. HENRY KISSINGER (40's), intense, holds a martini. KISSINGER Well, if a Rockefeller can't become President of the United States, what's the point of democracy? Laughter. NIXON The point of democracy is that even the son of a grocer can become president. (laughs) ROCKEFELLER And you came damn close, too, Dick. As Rocky clutches Dick, who doesn't like to be touched: ROCKEFELLER Howya doin'! New York treating you okay? I'm sorry I haven't been able to see you at all... NIXON (cutting off the apology) Well enough. You're looking "happy," Nelson. (with a look to Happy) ROCKEFELLER Oh, Happy! (introduces his new wife) Dick Nixon... You remember him. NIXON Hi, Happy. Well, you're obviously making him happy. ROCKEFELLER Repartee, Dick -- very good. Hey, I feel ten years younger! It makes a helluva difference, let me tell ya! How's the lawyer life? NIXON Never made so much money in my life. But my upbringing doesn't allow me to enjoy it. I did get to argue a case before the Supreme Court. ROCKEFELLER Won or lost? NIXON Lost. ROCKEFELLER Someday, Dick. OTHERS are pressing in on Rockefeller, who is obviously the "star" of the party, so there is pressure to talk fast. NIXON But being out of the game gives me time to write. ROCKEFELLER To what? NIXON Write. You know, a book. I'm calling it "Six Crises." It's a good thing, Rocky -- take some time off to write. ROCKEFELLER (shaking another hand) Hiya, fellow... What were they? NIXON What? ROCKEFELLER The "crises?" NIXON "Checkers" of course, Hiss, Ike's heart attack, Venezuela, the Kitchen Debate, and Kennedy. ROCKEFELLER Sounds like you got a crisis syndrome. Aren't you exaggerating a bit, Dick? Call it three-and-a- half, maybe four... NIXON (laughs awkwardly) Let's wait and see how you survive your first crisis, Rocky... ROCKEFELLER Whatcha mean by that? NIXON You know: how the voters are gonna play your divorce. Rockefeller, who still clutches the visibly uncomfortable Nixon, gives him a squeeze before finally releasing him. ROCKEFELLER Don't you worry about it fellah, and I won't. (about to rejoin his wife) NIXON (smiling) Well, in any case, Rocky, I'll send you my book. "Six Crises." ROCKEFELLER (pauses, aside) Whatcha predicting -- your boy Goldwater's going to split the party? NIXON Some say you are, Rocky. ROCKEFELLER The Republican Party was never a home to extremists. You should know better. This guy's as stupid as McCarthy, and McCarthy never did you any good in the long run, now did he? A pause. It lands home on Dick. Rockefeller turns to Kissinger, who's been listening. ROCKEFELLER Hey, you know Henry Kissinger -- he's down from Harvard. On my staff, foreign policy whiz... NIXON (shakes hands) No, but I liked your book on nuclear weapons. We have similar views on the balance of power... ROCKEFELLER Well, that's wonderful. So get me this "crisis" thing, Dick; I'll be glad to take a look at it. He raps Nixon one more time on the shoulder and moves off into a waiting GROUP. NIXON ...as the old alliances crumble. KISSINGER Finally someone who's noticed! I'm a great admirer of yours too, Mr. Nixon. You are an unusual politician. We share a mutual idol -- "Six Crises" sounds like a page from Churchill. NIXON Churchill, DeGaulle, Disraeli. They all went through the pain of losing power. KISSINGER (smiles) But they all got it back again, didn't they? (proffering a card) We should have lunch sometime. TIME CUT: NIXON and MITCHELL move to the edges of the PARTY, which is now diminishing. They bypass PAT, who is absently staring off in conversation with MARTHA and SEVERAL OTHER LADIES who lunch... Nixon looks back at ROCKEFELLER leaving -- KISSINGER hovering near him. NIXON (seething) Rocky's full of shit! No way he's going to get nominated west of the Hudson with a new wife. He's gonna be drinking Scotches in retirement at some Goddamn country club with the rest of the Republicans. MITCHELL Goes to show you all the moolah in the world can't buy you a brain. NIXON (snags a drink from a passing tray) Well, he seems to have bought Kissinger. MITCHELL The Jewboy's a Harvard whore with the morals of an eel -- selling himself to the highest bidder. NIXON (brays loudly) You're the one who should be in politics, John. You're tougher than I am. You never crack. MITCHELL That'll be the day. NIXON Let's get out of here; it's too painful. I hate it. (then) We went bowling last weekend. Next weekend we're going to the zoo. Whoever said there was life after politics was full of shit. MITCHELL Make some money, Dick, prove yourself to the Wall Street crowd and let Goldwater and Rockefeller take the fall against Kennedy. Nixon looks at him. NIXON Yeah. John, I'm in hell. (then) I'll be mentally dead in two years and physically dead in four. I miss -- I don't know -- making love to the people. I miss -- entering a room. I miss -- the pure "acting" of it. John, I've got to get back in the arena. On Pat glancing over: CUT TO: SCENE TWENTY-FIVE INT. DALLAS CONVENTION SIT - DAY (1963) SPOTLIGHT on a sexy Studebaker car of the era. A RUM ROLL, and suddenly out of the various apertures of the car pop six half-naked HOSTESSES doing the twist. Wild cheers. The ANNOUNCER describes the new gimmicks on the car (AD LIB) as we swing to reveal NIXON, looking uncomfortable in a Stetson cowboy hat shaking hands with AUTOGRAPH SEEKERS and car buffs, posing for cheesecake photographs. A banner behind him reveals: "Dallas Welcomes Studebaker Dealers." The Studebaker GIRLS are fanning out through the sales booths, whistling, swinging whips, as a large man in a Stetson, JACK JONES, accompanied by a suave looking Cuban-born businessman, TRINI CARDOZA, breaks through the autograph hounds to rescue Nixon. JONES That's enough now, let him be. He's just like you and me, folks, just another lawyer... Let's go, let's go, break it up... Moving Nixon out of there. NIXON Thanks, Jack. You sure throw a helluva party. JONES Party ain't started yet, Dick. Got these gals coming over to the ranch later for a little private "thing," y'know... There's some fellows I want you to meet. NIXON Well, uh, Trini and I have an early plane. We were hoping to get back to New York in time for... TRINI It'll be okay, Dick; these guys are interesting... real quiet. And the girls are too. JONES Y'know, it's not every day we Texans get to entertain the future President of the United States. NIXON Like you said Jack, I'm just a New York lawyer now. JONES (chuckles, with a look to Trini) We'll see about that. New FANS circle up, their WIVES giggling. FANS Oh, Mr. Nixon, could you sign...? My wife and I think you are just the greatest. Please run again... More fans flood in, encircling him. On Trini and Jack watching this. SCENE TWENTY-SIX Omitted EXT. JONES RANCH - DAY An entire LONGHORN STEER turns on a spit in a large barbecue pit, basted by black SERVANTS. We see a sprawling Spanish style RANCH HOUSE in the countryside. The parking area looks like a Cadillac dealership. The CROWD is a mixture of CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, CUBANS, and COWBOY-TYPES, some WIVES. TRINI is talking to TWO of the DANCERS, nodding his head in NIXON's direction. They look and smile at him. Across the lawn, Nixon smiles back awkwardly as JACK JONES nudges him. They both eat steaks and corncobs. JONES I know for a fact the one with the big tits is a Republican, and she'd do anything for the Party. NIXON She's quite pretty. JONES Her name's Sandy... Trini joins them, bringing the girls. NIXON By the way, Jack, this looks like a pretty straightforward transaction to me, but we should get into it soon -- take just a few minutes, maybe up at the house... JONES (to Trini, coming up) He's all business, ain't he, Trini? (to Dick) Dick, we could've had our own Goddamn lawyers handle this deal. We brought you down here ‘cause we wanted to talk to you... TRINI Dick, this is Teresa, and this is Sandy. TERESA Hi... Dick. SANDY Hi. NIXON Hello... Pause. SCENE TWENTY-SEVEN INT. JONES RANCH - DAY A walk-in stone fireplace dominates the room; the heavy beams hung with the black wrought-iron candelabra. Thick cigar smoke impregnates the air; the crowd has substantially thinned to the heaviest hitters. The MEN, now in shirt-sleeves, drink from bottles of bourbon... A man -- MITCH -- emerges from one of the side rooms with a DANCER. Off to the side in a semi-private alcove, SANDY, the dancer, tries to make conversation, but NIXON is showing her a picture of his kids. NIXON That's Julie... and that's Tricia. She, uh, reminds me a little bit of you... SANDY ("interested") Oh yeah... she really is... wholesome. Trini interjects, trying to help out. TRINI So what's up?... Uh, I get the feeling Sandy really likes you, Dick. SANDY I like that name, Dick. TRINI Why don't you two disappear in the bedroom there. Come back in half an hour... NIXON Uh... Trini. Trini smiles and, leaving Dick the playing field, vanishes. Sandy, feeling the vacuum, holds Nixon's hand. SANDY What do you say? Do you like me, Mister Vice President? Nixon swallows hard, blushing now. He sweats, very uncomfortable with this intimacy. NIXON (croaks) Yes, of course. But... uh... A brief IMAGE flashes by -- beastlike, offensive, unworthy. NIXON ...I don't really know you yet, Sandy... What do you like? I mean, what kind of clothes do you like? Do you like blue... red? SANDY Oh, I like satin, I like pink... NIXON What kind of, uh... music do you like? SANDY I like jazz... NIXON Yeah... Guy Lombardo... SANDY Elvis I like too. NIXON Oh yeah, he's good. Sandy puts her hand on his face and head. SANDY ...but it depends what I'm doing to the music, Dick... NIXON Uh, is your mother... still alive? SANDY Yeah, she lives in Dallas... NIXON She must be very attractive. Would she like an autograph? She might remember me... Where's Trini? (looking around desperately) TIME CUT TO: Later. The crowd has thinned further to a hard-core dozen. The last man -- Mitch -- comes from the inner bedrooms, zipping up; the Servants, chasing out the straggling Girls. Another round of drinks is served. The cigars are out. JONES Hell, Kennedy's pissed Cuba away to the Russians. And he don't know what the hell he's doing in Vietnam. These are dangerous times, Dick, especially for business... NIXON Agreed. A CUBAN in an Italian suit, one part sleazy, another part dangerous, steps from the shadows. CUBAN We know what you tried to do for Cuba, Mr. Nixon. If you'd been elected in ‘60, we know Castro'd be dead by now. NIXON shares a look with TRINI. NIXON Gentlemen, I tried. I told Kennedy to go into Cuba. He heard me and he made his decision. I appreciate your sentiments, I've heard them from many fine Cuban patriots, but it's nothing I can do anything about. Now, it's a long drive back to Dallas tonight, and Trini and I have got an early flight tomorrow to New York... JONES (interrupting) Dick, these boys want you to run. The "boys" mutter in unison. JONES (CONT'D) They're serious. They can deliver the South and they can put Texas in your column. That would've done it in ‘60. NIXON Only if Kennedy dumps Johnson. JONES That sonofabitch Kennedy is coming back down here tomorrow. Dick, we're willing to put up a shitpot fulla money to get rid of him -- more money'n you ever dreamed of. NIXON Nobody's gonna beat Kennedy in ‘64 with all the money in the world. A beat. CUBAN Suppose Kennedy don't run in ‘64? Nixon looks at him. A subconscious IMAGE again -- something slimy, reptilian. NIXON Not a chance. CUBAN These are dangerous times, Mr. Nixon. Anything can happen. Another pause. Nixon gathers together his papers and briefcase. NIXON Yes, well... Gentlemen, I promised my wife. I'm out of politics. MITCH (insolent smile) You just came down here for the weather, right, Mr. Nixon? NIXON I came down here to close a deal for Studebaker. TRINI What about ‘68, Dick? NIXON Five years, Trini? In politics, that's an eternity. JONES Your country needs you, Dick. Nixon shakes his hand, departs. NIXON Unfortunately, the country isn't available right now. SCENE TWENTY-EIGHT Omitted SCENE TWENTY-NINE EXT. LOVE FIELD - DAY (1963) A CROWD is waiting for Air Force One. People hold banners, signs: "Dallas Loves JFK," "We Love You Jackie." A Cadillac pulls up at the far corner of the tarmac. NIXON gets out with CARDOZA. They walk toward a small executive PLANE. Nixon pauses, looks up. He feels something ominous in the air. NIXON Trini, let's get out of here fast. Go check on the pilot, or they'll hold us up till he's out of the airport. As Trini hurries off to the plane, Nixon takes one last look up at his fate written in the soft white clouds over Dallas. As we: CUT TO: SCENE THIRTY DOCUMENTARY -- JOHN KENNEDY coming off the plane at Love Field with JACKIE, waving to the crowd. The sound of a rushing, monstrous engine. Then wind. CUT TO: SCENE THIRTY-ONE INT. NIXON'S FIFTH AVENUE APARTMENT - DAY (1963) NIXON sits, subdued, in an armchair in a small study, caught between the fire in the grate, the TELEVISION images of the assassination, and the phone call he's on. NIXON (low-key) Look, Edgar, these guys were really strange, I mean, y'know... extremists, right-wing stuff, Birchers, yeah? (listens several beats) PAT, smoking nervously, watches from another chair. Newspapers are strewn all around. DOCUMENTARY IMAGES on the TV show a grieving JACKIE, BOBBY, TEDDY, and the TWO CHILDREN. NIXON I see... Oswald's got a Cuba connection... to Castro? I see. A real Communist. That makes sense. Thank you Edgar. He hangs up. It's evident he's still puzzled, but wants to believe. NIXON Hoover says this Oswald checks out as a beatnik-type, a real bum, pro-Castro... TV images of BOBBY KENNEDY. PAT Dick, you should call Bobby. NIXON He doesn't want me at the funeral. PAT You don't have to go. NIXON (glances at TV) DeGaulle's gonna be there. And Macmillan. And Adenauer. Nixon can't not be there. PAT Then call him. I'm sure it was an oversight. NIXON No. It's his way. He hates me. Him and Teddy. They always hated me. PAT They've lost their brother. You know what that means, Dick. Nixon sighs, watches the TV -- images of a touch football game in Hyannis Port. SHARP CUT BACK TO: SCENE THIRTY-TWO INT. NIXON HOUSE - BEDROOM - DAY (1925) ARTHUR NIXON (7) cries in pain. RICHARD (12) helps FRANK, his father, hold him on the bed as a DOCTOR twists a long needle into the base of Arthur's spine. ARTHUR Daddy! Please! Make it STOP!!! Arthur's eyes roll onto Richard for help, Richard can't bear it, pulls away. SCENE THIRTY-THREE Omitted INT. NIXON HOUSE - PARLOR - DAY (1925) FRANK comes down the narrow stairs, shocked, fighting tears. HANNAH sits reading her Bible. The BOYS linger nervously around their made-up cots in the parlor. FRANK (sobs) The doctors are afraid the little darling is going to die... SCENE THIRTY-FOUR Omitted INT. ARTHUR BEDROOM - DAY ARTHUR laps at some tomato gravy on toast, which makes him happy. His face is angelic, as if he were getting better. HANNAH feeds him, cleans his lips with a napkin, as RICHARD sits close by, squeezing Arthur's hand, puzzled by it all. FLASHES run through his head -- Arthur sitting on his lap, learning to read; Dick swinging Arthur by his arms. DON and HAROLD are also there. The Doctor has gone. ARTHUR (low) Thank you, Mamma, I feel better... I'm sleepy. HANNAH (removing the food) We'll let thee rest now, my little angel. She tucks him in. He yawns. The brothers are awkward, ready to leave. Arthur turns his loving eyes on Richard. ARTHUR Richard, don't you think... I should say a prayer before I sleep? Richard is awkward, stutters. HANNAH (nearly cracking) Yes, Arthur, I do... He smiles at her, then: ARTHUR (murmurs) If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take... He slips off, into a coma. Richard watches, devastated. SCENE THIRTY-FIVE INT. NIXON HOUSE - PARLOR -- ANOTHER DAY RICHARD runs to his mother, HANNAH, who is coming down the stairs with FRANK. She seems very shaken, but quiet, off in another world. The moment Richard reaches her, throwing his arms around her skirt, she snaps him back. A harsh, angry voice. HANNAH No!... No. Don't Richard is shocked as his mother sweeps by in her private grief. SCENE THIRTY-SIX INT. NIXON STUDY - NEW YORK APARTMENT - DAY RESUME NIXON -- his face lost in the silence of the memory. The television SOUNDS fade back in alongside PAT's voice. TV IMAGE -- LYNDON JOHNSON being sworn in. NIXON ...if I'd been president, they never would have killed me. Pat is bewildered by the statement. PAT (O.S.) Dick? Are you going to call? He looks at her, absent. PAT Bobby? He looks back at the TV screen. NIXON (quietly) No... I'll go through Lyndon. We'll be invited. We flash suddenly to Kennedy's head being blown apart. Then back to JOHNSON as we: CUT FORWARD TO: SCENE THIRTY-SEVEN SUBTITLE READS: "FIVE YEARS LATER -- 1968" DOCUMENTARY IMAGE -- CLOSE on LYNDON JOHNSON announcing: JOHNSON ...accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president... CUT TO: SCENE THIRTY-EIGHT INT. NURSING HOME - DAY HANNAH NIXON, in her seventies. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) ...Johnson's withdrawal resurrects Richard Nixon as a strong Republican candidate against the war. His mother, Hannah Nixon, just before her death last year, commented on her son's chances... REPORTER 2 (OFF) Mrs. Nixon, do you think your son will ever return to politics? HANNAH I don't think he has a choice. He was always a leader. REPORTER 2 (OFF) Do you think he'd make a great president, Mrs. Nixon? HANNAH (unsmiling) ...if he's on God's side, yes... SCENE THIRTY-NINE EXT. NEW YORK APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY (1968) REPORTERS flock outside the building as NIXON and his GROUP exit their car, trying to ignore the press. SCENE FORTY INT. NIXON APARTMENT - DAY (1968) NIXON enters, ebullient, with MITCHELL, HALDEMAN, ZIEGLER, taking off their winter coats. MITCHELL Jesus, Dick, never seen anything like it! Even the Goddamn Times is saying you got it. HALDEMAN Vietnam's gonna put you in there this time, chief. ZIEGLER We got the press this time! NIXON And we got the "big mo!" We're back! PAT (O.S.) So? You've decided? They turn. PAT is in the corridor. PAT Were you planning to tell me? NIXON We... haven't announced anything... uh... She's walking away, cold. Dick follows, with a look to his men. NIXON Uh, wait... MITCHELL You need her, Dick -- in ‘60 she was worth five-, six million votes. NIXON Don't worry -- I'll use the old Nixon charm on her. As he goes: HALDEMAN (to the others) The old Nixon charm? Who could resist that. SCENE FORTY-ONE INT. NIXON BEDROOM - DAY NIXON enters. PAT is mechanically taking his identical grey suits from the closets and laying them on the bed. NIXON Buddy?... PAT You should be going... the primaries are soon, aren't they? New Hampshire... NIXON They love you, Buddy. They need you, too. PAT I don't want them to love me. NIXON I need you out there. It won't be like the last time. The war's crippled the Democrats. I can win... We deserve it. Yeah, it's ours Buddy -- at last. Nobody knows that better than you. Frank Nixon's boy. Pat slows her packing. Nixon takes her hand. NIXON Remember what Mom said? We're not like other people, we don't choose our way. We can really change things, Buddy. We've got a chance to get it right. We can change America! She stops, looks at him, feels his surge of power. NIXON It was our dream too, Buddy, together... always. PAT Do you really want this, Dick? NIXON This. Above all. PAT And then you'll be happy? The briefest smile opens her face. He takes the inch, presses in, hugs her. NIXON Yes... you know it! Yes... I will. Yeah! PAT (in his embrace) Then I'll be there for you. NIXON (exultant) You're the strongest woman I ever met. I love you, Buddy. PAT Can I just ask for one thing? NIXON Anything. PAT Will you... would you kiss me? He does so with the earnestness he is capable of. SCENE FORTY-TWO INT. TELEVISION STUDIO - DAY (1968) NIXON, fielding questions, is on a small stage, surrounded by a STUDIO AUDIENCE in a semi-circle. A mike is around his neck, no separation from the people. PAT sits behind him, a campaign smile painted on. Nixon is visible to us on TV monitors inside an engineer's booth. NIXON (on TV) I would never question Senator Kennedy's patriotism. But going around the country promising peace at any price is exactly what the North Vietnamese want to hear! Cheers, applause HALDEMAN (to the TV DIRECTOR) Cue the crowd. Go to the women's group. Get the bald guy, he's great... NIXON (TV) I, unlike Senator Kennedy, have a plan to end the war. But not for peace at any price, but peace with honor! INTERCUT: SCENE FORTY-THREE EXT. LA COSTA COUNTRY CLUB - ESTABLISHING - DAY SCENE FORTY-FOUR EXT. PRIVATE PATIO - LA COSTA COUNTRY CLUB - DAY J. EDGAR HOOVER (60's), short and fat, covered with steam-room sweat, looks like a Roman emperor, as he watches the television intermittently, taking pictures of CLYDE TOLSON (50's), his long-time friend and associate. Tolson has a towel around his waist and one over his head. CLYDE (sarcastic) What do you think this plan is, Edgar? A nuclear attack? HOOVER He's lying, Clyde. Always has. That's why Nixon's always been useful. Hold still. And take your hand off your hip. JOAQUIN, a very young, near-naked Hispanic boy, comes in with refreshments: orange slices, fruit and pastel drinks with parasols. INTERCUT TO: SCENE FORTY-FIVE INT. TV STUDIO - DAY RON ZIEGLER checks his scripts as NIXON continues on the other side of the glass. DIRECTOR (turns) Who's next? ZIEGLER The Negro. We gotta have a Negro. A BLACK MAN appears on the monitors. BLACK MAN Mr. Nixon... NIXON Yes, sir! BLACK MAN You've made a career out of smearing people as Communists. And now you're building your campaign on the divisions in this country. Stirring up hatred, turning people against each other... Ziegler and HALDEMAN are apoplectic. HALDEMAN What the fuck's he doing? He's making a speech. ZIEGLER Cut him off! DIRECTOR I can't cut him off! This isn't Russia! The Black Man turns to the studio audience. BLACK MAN You don't want a real dialogue with the American people. This whole thing's been staged. These aren't real people. You're just a mouthpiece for an agenda that is hidden from us. HALDEMAN (screaming) Go to commercial! DIRECTOR There are no commercials. You bought the whole half hour, baby... The Black Man is walking down the aisle toward Nixon. BLACK MAN (impassioned) When are you going to tell us what you really stand for? When are you going to take the mask off and show us who you really are? Close on Nixon's upper lip, sweating. Haldeman watches intently. HALDEMAN It's a high, hard one, chief. Park it. Nixon gathers himself, looks firmly at the Black Man. NIXON Yes, there are divisions in this country BLACK MAN Who made them -- you made them! NIXON ...but I didn't create them. The Democrats did! If it's dialogue you want, you're most likely to get it from me than from the people who are burning down the cities! Just think about that... The great Doctor King said the same things. You know, young man, who a great hero is -- Abraham Lincoln. Because he stood for common ground, he brought this country together... The audience applauds. Haldeman punches Ziegler's arm. HALDEMAN I love that man! I love him. (then) Fire the sonofabitch who let that agitator in! ZIEGLER (relieved) Okay, go to the little girl. Can he see the little girl? DIRECTOR She's right down front. NIXON I don't know if you can see her, but there's a little girl sitting down here with a sign. Could you hold that up, sweetheart? ZIEGLER Bag the guy. Take the sign! The Camera cuts to a LITTLE GIRL holding a hand-lettered sign. NIXON The sign has on it three simple words. "Bring - us - together!" That is what I want, and that is what the great silent majority of Americans want! The audience loves it. APPLAUSE signs light up. NIXON (shouts over) And that's why I want to be president. I want to bring us together! SCENE FORTY-SIX EXT. PATIO - LA COSTA COUNTRY CLUB - DAY Like a lizard, HOOVER eyes JOAQUIN, the Hispanic boy. TOLSON ...give me a break, Mary. NIXON (V.O. CONT'D) You all know me. I'm one of you. I grew up a stone's throw from here on a little lemon ranch in Yorba Linda... HOOVER (mimics) It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I can tell you that. My father sold it before they found oil on it. NIXON (V.O.) It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I can assure you. My father sold it before they found oil on it. TOLSON (mimics) But it was all we had. NIXON (V.O.) ...but it was all we had. HOOVER You're new. What's your name? JOAQUIN Joaquin, Mr. Hoover. Hoover selects an orange slice, puts one end between his teeth. Wiggles it. Joaquin bends over, bites off the other end. Tolson looks peeved. NIXON (V.O.) My father built the house where I was born with his own hands. Oh, it wasn't a big house... HOOVER Turn this crap off, Clyde. It's giving me a headache... You may go, Joaquin. He takes a drink off Joaquin's tray as Clyde turns off the TV. Joaquin vanishes. HOOVER I want to see him tomorrow, Clyde. CLYDE Edgar, think twice. He works in the kitchen. HOOVER Not Joaquin, you idiot. Nixon. Did you hear what he said in Oregon? About me having too much power. CLYDE It's between Nixon and a Kennedy again, Edgar... Who do you want? HOOVER Kennedy -- never. He'll fry in hell for what he did to me. But Nixon don't know that, which is why I'm gonna have to remind him he needs us a helluva lot more'n we need him. SCENE FORTY-SEVEN EXT. DEL MAR RACETRACK - STARTING GATE - DAY THOROUGHBREDS explode out of the chutes. SCENE FORTY-EIGHT EXT. DEL MAR RACETRACK - CLUBHOUSE - DAY A private box just above the finish line. HOOVER raises his binoculars, watching the race. He is wearing a white tropical suit. Panama hat, white shoes. CLYDE is dressed similarly. JOHNNY ROSELLI, white hair, deep tan, sharp dresser, sits with him in the box, spots someone... ROSELLI Your boy's on the way up... I met him years ago. In Havana. ON THE RACK: TWO HORSES are in a terrific stretch drive. HOOVER watches impassively. ANNOUNCER (O.S.) (frantic) And down the stretch they come. It's Sunday's Chance Son and Olly's Boy dueling for the lead... CLOSE: OLLY'S BOY put a nose in front of SUNDAY'S CHANCE. HOOVER He's folding, Johnny. ON THE TRACK: Sunday's Chance is tiring, falling behind Olly's Boy. ROSELLI You just wait a second. CLOSE: On Olly's Boy's bandaged front legs. Then, Olly's Boy's right foreleg snaps. It sounds like a rifle shot. Olly's Boy goes down over his shoulder. The JOCKEY is thrown across the track. The CROWD is stunned. Sunday's Chance wins easily. Hoover turns to Roselli. TOLSON A bit extreme, isn't it? ROSELLI It's the drama. (gestures to the crowd) The crowd loves that shit. Hey! There's Randolph Scott. You might like that guy, friend of mine. Wanna meet him, Edgar? SHOUTING and CHEERS behind them. They turn. NIXON is making his way down the aisle, waving to the crowd. He is followed by HALDEMAN. Hoover passes Roselli a ticket. HOOVER Not now, Johnny. Cash this for me, would you? ROSELLI It's a two-dollar bet, Edgar. You got thousands coming on this... what the fuck? HOOVER I told you, just cash it, Johnny. And don't swear around me... A beat. Roselli crosses Nixon, who enters the box. NIXON Edgar, wonderful to see you. Clyde... hi. TOLSON Mr. Nixon... HOOVER Thank you for coming, Dick. NIXON Winning? HOOVER Actually, I've just had a bit of luck. ANNOUNCER (O.S.) The management of Del Mar is saddened to announce that Olly's Boy will have to be destroyed... Groans from the crowd. NIXON Oh, my goodness... HOOVER How about you? Are you going to win? NIXON You should ask Bobby. TOLSON (sarcastic) ...little Bobby. HOOVER Would you walk with me down to the paddock? I'd like to look at the horses for the eighth. NIXON Can't we just talk here? I've got the police chiefs in San Diego. Hoover moves close. HOOVER (whispers) I'm trying to spare you an embarrassment. Johnny Roselli is on his way back here. Nixon looks sick. NIXON Roselli? Johnny Roselli? HOOVER Yes. Your old friend from Cuba. NIXON I never met the man. HOOVER I know you've been very careful not to. That's why I'm concerned. Nixon glances at Hoover. Hoover smiles. SCENE FORTY-NINE EXT. DEL MAR RACETRACK - PADDOCK - DAY (1968) Moving with NIXON, HOOVER and TOLSON along the rail outside the walking ring. FBI AGENTS have cleared a circle around them. The HORSES for the next race are being saddled. Nixon waves and smiles to PATRONS of the track. HOOVER You'll win the nomination. NIXON It could be ‘60 all over again, Edgar. Bobby's got the magic, like a Goddamn rock star. They climb all over each other just to touch his clothes! He'll ride his brother's corpse right into the White House. TOLSON Ummm... HOOVER (nods) If things remain as they are... He's got the anti-war vote. NIXON Or he'll steal it like his brother. He's a mean little sonofabitch, Edgar... He had the IRS audit my mother when she was dying in the nursing home... HOOVER I know... TOLSON (casually) ...Somebody should shoot the little bastard. NIXON I wanna fight just as dirty as he does. TOLSON ...Use his women. NIXON ...Any information you have, Edgar. The sonofabitch is not gonna steal from me again! Can you back me up on this? Can I count on your support? HOOVER (amused) I look at it from the point of view that the system can only take so much abuse. It adjusts itself eventually, but at times there are... savage outbursts. The late "Doctor" King for example. A moral hypocrite screwing women like a degenerate tomcat, stirring up the blacks, preaching against our system... (shakes his head) Sometimes the system comes close to cracking. Hoover stops in front of a huge GELDING, pats his muzzle. HOOVER We've already had one radical in the White House. I don't think we could survive another. Nixon feels uncomfortable. Images, vague, disturbing. Even the nostrils on the horse seems to be emitting a devil's fire, and the noises of the snorting animal magnify... NIXON (a beat) Yeah, well, as I said, Edgar... HOOVER (precisely) You asked if you could count on my support... As long as I can count on yours. NIXON (V.O.) (on tape) The old queen did it on purpose. SCENE FIFTY INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT (1973) RESUME SCENE -- NIXON listens as the tape rolls. NIXON (on tape) He wasn't protecting me. He was putting me on notice. HALDEMAN (on tape) What? That he know Johnny Roselli? Hoover knew a lot of gangsters. NIXON (on tape) Yeah, but Roselli wasn't just any gangster. He was the gangster who set up Track 2 in Cuba. SCENE FIFTY-ONE INT. EXEC OFFICE BLDG. - PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - NIGHT (1972) NIXON and HALDEMAN are alone. The lights are on. Nixon's had a couple of drinks. The talk is a little looser. HALDEMAN (confused) I don't understand. Track 2's Chile? NIXON Chile, Congo, Guatemala, Cuba. Wherever there's a need for an Executive Action capability, there's a Track 2. In Cuba, Track 1 was the Bay of Pigs invasion. Track 2... it was our idea. (stands) We felt the invasion wouldn't work unless we got rid of Castro. So we asked ourselves -- who else wants Castro dead? The Mafia, the money people. So we put together Track 2... CUBA MONTAGE Images begin to project from that long-ago time. A YOUNGER NIXON. Macho Cuban "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" in the Keys and Guatemala. The CIA, the MOB -- including JOHNNY ROSELLI. FAT CATS and CASINO BOSSES shaking hands with young Nixon on his visit in the 40's. A Rum and Coca-Cola SONG plays. NIXON (softly) The first assassination attempt was in ‘60, just before the election. HALDEMAN (stunned) Before?! Eisenhower approved that? NIXON He didn't veto it. (then) I ran the White House side. The mob contact was Johnny Roselli. (then) One of the CIA guys was that jackass, Howard Hunt. HALDEMAN Jesus! NIXON And not just Hunt. Frank Sturgis, all those Cubans. All of them in the Watergate. They were involved in Track 2 in Cuba. (then) Hunt reported to my military aide. But I met with him several times as Vice President. That's what worries the shit out of me. I don't know how much Hunt knows. Or the Cubans. HALDEMAN So? You wanted Castro dead. Everybody wanted Castro dead. If Hunt and the others are CIA, why don't we just throw this back in the CIA's lap? Let Richard Helms take the fall. NIXON (pause) Because... because Dick Helms knows too much... If anyone in this country knows more than I do, it's Hoover and Helms! You don't fuck with Dick Helms! Period... Pause. HALDEMAN Alright. But why, if Kennedy is so clean in all this, didn't he cancel Track 2? NIXON Because he didn't even know about it. The CIA never told him, they just kept it going. It was like... it had a life of its own. Like... a kind of "beast" that doesn't even know it exists. It just eats people when it doesn't need ‘em anymore. (drops back in his chair) Two days after the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy called me in. He reamed my ass... DOCUMENTARY INTERCUT: Brief, moving, live-action image of JOHN KENNEDY. NIXON (CONT'D) ...he'd just found out about Track 2. HALDEMAN You never told him? NIXON (softly) I didn't want him to get the credit. He said I'd stabbed him in the back. Called me a two-bit grocery clerk from Whittier. Nixon's face expresses the deep hurt of that insult. NIXON That was the last time I ever saw him. IMAGE -- the "Beast" -- an image of Kennedy perverted, his head blown off... HALDEMAN If they didn't tell Kennedy about Track 2, how did Hoover find out? NIXON He had us bugged. Christ, he had everybody bugged. Yeah, he was gonna support me in ‘68, but he was also threatening me. (then) That was Hoover: he'd give you the carrot, but he'd make damn sure the stick went right up you ass. SCENE FIFTY-TWO INT. AMBASSADOR HOTEL - PANTRY (1968) - DOCUMENTARY DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE of chaos in the pantry. The camera is jostled. Women screaming. A man is being wrestled to the floor. ROBERT KENNEDY lies there, mortally wounded. NIXON (V.O.) When I saw Bobby lying there on the floor, his arm stretched out like that... SCENE FIFTY-THREE INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE BLDG. - PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - NIGHT (1973) RESUME SCENE -- NIXON and HALDEMAN NIXON ...his eyes staring... (then) I knew I'd be president. (beat) Death paved the way, didn't it? Vietnam. The Kennedys. It cleared a path through the wilderness for me. Over the bodies... four bodies. Haldeman corrects him. HALDEMAN You mean two... two bodies? SCENE FIFTY-FOUR INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT (1973) HALDEMAN (V.O.) (on tape) You mean two... two bodies? RESUME SCENE -- NIXON takes a slug of Scotch, then he rubs the bridge of his nose, looks up at the portrait of Lincoln. A pause, softly to Mr. Lincoln. NIXON (slurs) How many did you have? Hundred of thousands... Where would we be without death, hunh Abe? Nixon stands, steadies himself. NIXON (softly) Who's helping us? Is it God? Or is it... Death? CUT BACK TO: SCENE FIFTY-FIVE EXT. SANITARIUM CABIN - PORCH - ARIZONA - DAY (1933) A lunar landscape -- barren, scorched, silent. Suddenly, violent, desperate COUGHING. HAROLD NIXON (23) is doubled over the railing, a long string of bloody mucous hanging from his lips. He is shockingly emaciated -- the last stages of tuberculosis. HANNAH NIXON, in the background attending TWO OTHER PATIENTS, looks on at Harold. RICHARD (19) hurries out of the cabin with a cotton cloth. He holds HAROLD until he stops heaving. Then, he wipes his mouth. HAROLD (gasps) ...that was a whopper. Richard carefully folds the cloth, drops it into a metal container that is already full of them. He stands there, helpless, a solemn boy. HAROLD (panting) Hey... you'll be able to do it now. RICHARD What...? HAROLD Go to law school. Mom and Dad'll be able to afford it now... Richard looks at him in horror. HAROLD Mom expects great things from you... RICHARD Harold... can I get you anything? Harold throws a loving arm around Richard, who tenses. We sense that Harold in some way could have helped Richard, taught him to laugh a bit. HAROLD (a gentle smile) Relax, Dick, it's just me... The desert's so beautiful, isn't it? (then) I want to go home, Dick. Time to go home. RICHARD (stiffly) You're not gonna quit on me, are you, Harold? Harold looks out over the landscape. Silence. SCENE FIFTY-SIX INT. NIXON HOUSE - PARLOR - NIGHT (1933) RICHARD sits staring into the fire. He still wears his black suit from Harold's funeral. HANNAH enters quietly. HANNAH Richard? He looks up at her. RICHARD I can't... HANNAH Thou must. She moves closer. Casting a shadow over his face. HANNAH It's a gift, Richard. This law school is a gift from your brother. RICHARD (bitter) Did he have to die for me to get it?! HANNAH It's meant to make us stronger. (kneels) Thou art stronger than Harold... stronger than Arthur. God has chosen thee to survive... RICHARD What about happiness, Mother? HANNAH Thou must find thy peace at the center, Richard. Strength in this life. Happiness in the next. DISSOLVE TO: SCENE FIFTY-SEVEN INT. REPUBLICAN CONVENTION - NIGHT (1968) ON RICHARD NIXON (55) -- in his prime. A profile of his face -- as the vast crowd goes berserk. Nixon absorbs the adoration: at last, he has arrived. He looks down at someone in the audience. Points, smiles, waves. Then he steps forward, thrusts his arms in the air -- the twin-V salute. The cheers rattle the hall as PAT and their DAUGHTERS join him, followed by vice President SPIRO AGNEW and his FAMILY. Nixon puts his arm around Pat. She waves. The crowd is on its feet. NIXON (privately to Pat) Now tell me you didn't want this, Buddy. Pat smiles back at him, caught up in it. Then she kisses him on the cheek. TIME CUT TO: NIXON addresses the DELEGATES. NIXON It's time for some honest talk about the problem of law and order in the United States. I pledge to you that the current wave of violence will not be the wave of the future! Vast APPLAUSE. INTERCUT WITH: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 1. Civil war. Tanks in the streets of DETROIT. 2. A BLACK PANTHER safe-house in flames surrounded by FBI AGENTS. NIXON (V.O.) ...The long dark night for America is about to end... Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth -- to find the truth, to speak the truth. And to live the truth... A new voice is being heard across America today: it is not the voice of the protestors or the shouters, it is the voice of a majority of Americans who have been quiet Americans over the past few years... a silent majority. DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 3. GEORGE WALLACE whips a DIXIE CROWD into a frenzy. 4. The WOUNDED KNEE SIEGE is under way -- FBI AGENTS and LOCAL MILITANTS pour fire in on the INDIAN MILITANTS. 5. The HIPPIE DEMONSTRATORS outside the CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Chicago POLICE wade in with the nightsticks, tear gas. NIXON (at the podium) Who are they? Let me tell you who they are -- they're in this audience by the thousands, they're the workers of America, they're white Americans and black Americans... We cut among the DELEGATES, seeking to show the face of a populace that is torn by civil war. NIXON (CONT'D) ...they are Mexican Americans and Italian Americans, they're the great silent majority, and they have become angry, finally; angry not with hate but angry, my friends, because they love America and they don't like what's happened to America these last four years! We will regain respect for America in the world. A burned American library, a desecrated flag... Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that! This brings the house down! As we: CROSSCUT TO: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 6. CHICAGO is now a full-scale POLICE RIOT. The COPS have lost all control, swinging nightsticks wildly, breaking heads, dozens of arrests. Closing on NIXON at the podium. NIXON Let's face it. Most Americans today, in a crisis of spirit, are simply fed up with government at all levels. All the Great Society activists are lying out there in wait, poised to get you if you try to come after them: the professional welfare-ists, the urban planners, the day-careres, the public housers. The costly current welfare system is a mess, and we are on the brink of a revolt of the lower middle class. The bottom line is -- no work, no welfare. Our opponents have exaggerated and over-emphasized society as the cause of crimes. The war on poverty is not a war on crime, and it is no substitute for a war on crime. (pause) I say to you, tonight we must have a new feeling of responsibility, of self-discipline. We must look to renew state and local government! We must have a complete reform of a big, bloated federal government. The average American is just like the child in the family. You give him some responsibility and he is going to amount to something. If you make him completely dependent and pamper him, you are going to make him soft, and a very weak individual. NIXON I begin with the proposition that freedom of choice in housing, education, and jobs is the right of every American. A good job is as basic a civil right as a good education. On the other hand, I am convinced that while legal segregation is totally wrong, forced integration of housing or education is just as wrong! We simply have to face the hard fact that the law cannot go beyond what the people are willing to support. This was true as far as Prohibition was concerned. It is far more true with regard to education and housing... Yet those of us in public service know -- we can have full prosperity in peacetime... Yes, we can cut the defense budget. We can reduce conventional forces in Europe. We can restore the national environment. We can improve health care and make it available more fairly to all people. And yes, we can have a complete reform of this government. We can have a new American Revolution. CROSSCUT TO: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 7. The young CHICAGO DEMONSTRATORS are chanting rebelliously at POLICE. DEMONSTRATORS The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching! DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 8. A B-52 unloads BOMBS and NAPALM over jungle. SUBTITLE READS: "LAOS -- SECRET BOMBING CAMPAIGN, 1969-70; 242,000 MISSIONS." CUT TO: SCENE FIFTY-EIGHT Omitted SCENE FIFTY-NINE EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT The lights are blazing late with war talk. SCENE SIXTY INT. SIDE OFFICE - THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT In a small paneled room, the talk is angry: BILL ROGERS, Secretary of State, MEL LAIRD, Defense Secretary, to one side; KISSINGER with HAIG, seen earlier, but now Kissinger's assistant, to the other side of the desk, as NIXON listens; HALDEMAN takes notes. ZIEGLER looks on. Though a stand-up chart displays a large map of Cambodia's border with South Vietnam, we may note there are no military personnel in the room. ROGERS ...I'd be a disaster for us, Mr. President. There's a lot of sympathy out there for Cambodia, a tiny, neutral Buddhist nation. There'd be protests in the streets, right out on your front lawn... LAIRD ...Building this Cambodian army up will be harder even than the Vietnamese army. They have no tradition of... The government there would collapse if we... Nixon's eyes narrow, furious. NIXON So you're saying, "Do nothing" -- that's what you're saying. The same old shit. Well, that's not good enough. I'm sick of being pushed around by the Vietnamese like some pitiful giant. They're using our POWS to humiliate us. What we need now is a bold move into Cambodia; go right after the VC base camps, make ‘em scream. That's what I think. You, Henry? A pivotal moment for Henry. Nixon is clearly scrutinizing Kissinger, who glances at his rivals. KISSINGER Well, as you know, most of my staff have weighed in against this "incursion." They believe it will fail to achieve anything fundamental militarily, and will result in crushing criticism domestically... NIXON (interrupts) I didn't ask what your staff thinks, Henry. What do you think? KISSINGER (pause) What I think is... they're cowards. Their opposition represents the cowardice of the Eastern Establishment. They don't realize as you do, Mr. President, that the Communists only respect strength, and they will only negotiate in good faith if they fear the "madman," Richard Nixon. Nixon lets a dark smile curl one side of his mouth. NIXON Exactly! We've got to take the war to them. Hit ‘em where it hurts -- right in the nuts. More assassinations, more killings. Right, Al? HAIG That's what they're doing. NIXON These State Department jerks, Bill, don't understand; you got to electrify people with bold moves. Bold moves make history, like Teddy Roosevelt -- "T.R." -- rushing up San Juan Hill. Small event but dramatic. People took notice. ROGERS They'll take notice all right. NIXON The fact is if we sneak out of this war, there'll be another one a mile down the road. (pause) We bite the bullet here. In Cambodia. We blow the hell out of these people! ZIEGLER So what should we tell the press? SCENE SIXTY-ONE DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 9. BOMBS dropping over CAMBODIA. DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 10. Combined U.S. and SOUTH VIETNAMESE TROOPS invade CAMBODIA. SUBTITLE reads: "APRIL 1970" NIXON (V.O.) Tonight, American and South Vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire Communist military operation in South Vietnam. This is not an invasion of Cambodia. We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam. CROSSCUT TO: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 11. The Administration Building at BERKELEY is burning. POLICE in riot gear move in. A BATTLE between STUDENTS and POLICE is taking place. REPORTER (V.O.) Across the country, several hundred universities are in turmoil as students battle police in protest against the invasion of Cambodia... CUT TO: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 11. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY -- (1970) A phalanx of NATIONAL GUARDSMEN advances. They look very young and scared. A CROWD of STUDENTS taunts them. NIXON (V.O.) (a speech) When I think of those kids out there. Kids who are just doing their duty... CROSSCUT TO: SCENE SIXTY-TWO INT. THE WHITE HOUSE -- EAST ROOM - DAY The end of a ceremony for a released VIETNAM POW. NIXON, with JULIE, stands before emotional WIVES, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES, and UNIFORMED OFFICERS. The POW sits in a wheelchair at NIXON's elbow, emaciated, the blue ribbon of the CMH around his neck. PAT is also there. NIXON (CONT'D) I'm sure they're scared. I was when I was there. But when it really comes down to it... (turns to the POW) ...you have to look up to these men. They're the greatest! Applause. The POW manages a smile. DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- An ugly stand-off. The STUDENTS confront the GUARDSMEN, jeering. The GUARDSMEN lower their bayonets. STUDENTS (chanting) One - two - three - four. We don't want your fucking war. Someone throws a rock. BACK TO SCENE: NIXON (CONT'D) You see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses, burning books and so forth. They call themselves "flower children." Well, I call them spoiled rotten. And I tell you what would cure them -- a good old-fashioned trip to my Ohio father's woodshed. That's what these bums need. DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- More STUDENTS are throwing rocks. The GUARDSMEN are momentarily panicked, confused. Then, suddenly: they open fire. A melee. Screaming. STUDENTS running. Then: half a dozen BODIES lie on the ground. A young WOMAN crouches over a BODY, crying. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) Today, less than twenty-four hours after President Nixon called them "bums," four students were shot dead at Kent State University in Ohio. SCENE SIXTY-THREE EXT. POTOMAC RIVER -YACHT SEQUOIA - NIGHT NIXON sits at the head of an outdoor dinner table with HALDEMAN, EHRLICHMAN, ZIEGLER, KISSINGER. They are being served steaks by MANOLO, Nixon's Cuban valet. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) Enraged student groups across the country are calling for a general strike tomorrow to shut down the entire university system until the Vietnam War is ended. MITCHELL joins them. NIXON (grim) How many? MITCHELL Four. Two boys. Two girls. And eight wounded. NIXON Jesus Christ! Mitchell One of the fathers was on TV saying, "My child was not a bum." And it's playing like gangbusters. Hell, Hoover told me one of the girls was a nymph. NIXON Shit, the press doesn't care about the facts. Cronkite's sticking it to me. It's their first big hit on Richard Nixon. ZIEGLER The governor says they were rioting. EHRLICHMAN The governor's full of shit. Most of them were changing classes. NIXON Oh, I suppose you would've just let them take over. These aren't fraternity pranks, John. It's anarchy. A revolution! EHRLICHMAN I don't know if I'd got that far, sir. NIXON Why not? EHRLICHMAN Is the war worth it? Is it worth a one-term presidency? Because I think right now that's what we're looking at. NIXON I will not got down as the first American president to lose a war! Going into Cambodia, bombing Hanoi, bombing Laos -- it buys us time so we can get out and give the South Vietnamese a fighting chance. KISSINGER Exactly, sir. That is your historical contribution: to lead boldly in an era of limits. NIXON (drinks) No one understands! -- even my own men. What do you think the Communists respond to? Honesty, liberal guilt, soul-wringing crap, fathers on TV crying? Hell no! I understand the Communist mind, I've studied it for thirty years. They grasp "realpolitik" better than any of us, right, Henry? Henry nods. NIXON (CONT'D) We gotta make ‘em think we're just as tough as they are -- that Nixon's a mad bomber, he might do anything! I played a lot of poker in World War II, Haldeman and Ehrlichman know the story. NIXON (CONT'D) And I won big, and let me tell you this -- unpredictability is our best asset. That redneck, Johnson, left me a shitty hand and I'm bluffing. I've got to play the hawk in Vietnam and the dove in China. And if we keep our heads, we can win this thing. ZIEGLER What? Win Vietnam, sir? ALL No... NIXON No! But what we can do with Vietnam, Ron, is drive a stake through the heart of the Communist alliance! Henry's already getting strong signals from the Chinese. They hate the Viets more than the Russians, and they're worried about a unified Vietnam. The Russians hate the Chinese and are supporting the Viets, you understand? If we stick it out in Vietnam... we'll end up negotiating separately with both the Chinese and the Soviets. And we'll get better deals than we ever dreamed of from both... Kissinger nods. NIXON (CONT'D) That's triangular diplomacy, gentlemen. KISSINGER Exactly, yes, Mr. President. That is my contention. NIXON That's what geopolitics is about -- the whole world linked by self interest... You tell me, Ron, how the hell I can explain that on television to a bunch of simple- minded reporters and weeping fucking mothers! ZIEGLER But what am I telling the press about Kent State? NIXON Tell ‘em what you like; they'll never understand anyway. EHRLICHMAN Excuse me... Are you talking about recognizing China, Mr. President? That would cost us our strongest support. NIXON No... I can do this because I've spent my whole career building anti-Communist credentials. HALDEMAN If Johnson or Kennedy'd tried it, they'd have crucified them, and rightfully so! MITCHELL It's damned risky, Mr. President. Why don't we wait till the second term? HALDEMAN This will get him a second term. NIXON (repeats) This will get me a second term. Damn it, without risk, there's no heroism. There's no history. I Nixon, was born to do this. KISSINGER Mr. President, this cannot be breathed! Especially to our secretary of state -- that cretin Rogers... The Chinese would never trust us again. The only way, I emphasize only way, to pull this off is in secret. NIXON (crackles) This is a major coup, gentlemen -- our own State Department doesn't even know. And if it leaks out of here tonight... (pause, he eyes them) Pause. Discomfort. HALDEMAN Well, one way or the other, Kent State is not good. We have to get out in front of this thing. The PR is going to murder us. NIXON Money. Follow the money. HALDEMAN Sir? NIXON (CONT'D) These kids are being manipulated by the Communists. Like Chambers and Hiss. MITCHELL (smoking his pipe) This isn't ‘48 Dick. They'll never buy it. NIXON (angry) How do you know that, John? Did we try? Are we just giving up like the rest of ‘em. What's Hoover found, for God's sake? HALDEMAN Well, he called the other day, sir. He asked for President Harding. Laughter around the table. KISSINGER He's an idiot... HALDEMAN Seriously, sir, he's gotta go... NIXON We can't touch Hoover-- EHRLICHMAN I thought the gloves were off. NIXON --as long as he's got secret files on everybody. I don't want ‘em used against us. (frustrated) What about the CIA?! Helms's done nothing for us. I want to see him. HALDEMAN Done. MITCHELL With Hiss, Mr. President, you had the microfilm, you had the lie. With the students, we got no proof. NIXON The soldiers were provoked. The students started it, for Christ's sake! EHRLICHMAN Sir, there's dead American kids here. Let's say we don't apologize for Kent State, but maybe we could have a national prayer day... HALDEMAN ...never complain, never explain, John... NIXON (yells) I tell you, the soldiers were provoked. Now stop this pussyfooting around. (irritated) Dead kids! How the hell did we ever give the Democrats a weapon like this? (then) I mean, if Cambodia doesn't work, we'll bomb Hanoi if we have to. They all look at him. He is resolute. NIXON That's right! And if necessary, I'll drop the big one. KISSINGER We have to entertain the possibility... Nixon looks down at his steak. It is oozing blood. Too much blood -- something is very wrong. He shoots back, momentarily terrified. NIXON Goddamnit! Who the hell cooked this steak? (yells) Manolo, there's blood all over my plate! NIXON throws down his knife and fork and walks off. SCENE SIXTY-FIVE Omitted INT. LIMOUSINE - THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY Leaving the WHITE HOUSE, NIXON looks out at ANGRY DEMONSTRATORS giving him the finger, shaking placards -- "IMPEACH NIXON" (spelled with a swastika), "PEACE NOW." With him are HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN. HALDEMAN (with clipboard) ...and we've got the economic guys at five. The Dow lost another 16 points. They're going to want a decision on the budget. Sir?... Are we holding the line on a balanced budget? NIXON (preoccupied) No... a little deficit won't hurt. Jesus, they're serious. Why're we stopping? HALDEMAN (to the driver) Run ‘em over. The presidential limousine has a difficult time negotiating its way through the BLOCKADING BUSES. A MAN with a NIXON mask runs up to the window and peers in, before being peeled off by SECRET SERVICE. It is any ugly, violent scene, but Nixon seems to delight in the threat of action. He's in an upbeat mood. NIXON Get that little fucker! Great tackle! Reminds me of my days at Whittier. Most of these kids are useless. HALDEMAN Probably flunking, nothing to do except come down here and meet girls. Henry's out there with them NIXON There's a poison in the upper classes, Bob. They've had it too soft. Too many cars, too many color TVs... HALDEMAN Don't forget the South, sir, the West. Filled with good football colleges, straight kids. There's more of ‘em with you than against you. Not like these mudmutts. NIXON It's the parents' fault really. EHRLICHMAN Let's not forget they're just kids, they don't vote. HALDEMAN It's the fall of the Roman Empire, are you blind? And we're putting fig leaves on the statues... PROTESTOR Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh is going to win! HALDEMAN Get that fucker! A glum moment. Haldeman stares at him. A PROTESTOR waves a Viet Cong flag in Nixon's face. He gets pulled off the limo. NIXON (exhilarated) But, hell, this is nothing compared to Venezuela. When I was Vice President, Ike sent me down there like a blocking back. They threw rocks, broke out our windows, almost overturned the car. Read Six Crises, Bob. Boy, Pat was brave! HALDEMAN Yeah, we've got to get our vice president off the golf course and back out there on the college circuit. That's top priority. EHRLICHMAN He's in the dumps, sir. Agnew. Every time you have him attack the press, they give it back to him in spades. He's become the most hated man in America. NIXON (chuckles) Yeah, good old Spiro. Well, better him than me. What the hell is he but an insurance policy? HALDEMAN We gotta keep reminding those media pricks, if Nixon goes they end up with Agnew. They all laugh. EHRLICHMAN He's begging for a meeting, chief. He wants to go overseas for a while. NIXON Well, no place where they speak English. That way we can always say he was misquoted. (emits a high, manic laugh) The PROTESTORS are frustrated as the limousine breaks through. SCENE SIXTY-SIX Omitted INT. CIA HEADQUARTERS - LOBBY - DAY (1970) The SEAL of the CIA: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." We CRANE BACK, revealing that the seal is on the floor of the LOBBY as NIXON strides in with his ENTOURAGE. LT. GENERAL ROBERT CUSHMAN hurries out, ruffled, to meet NIXON. CUSHMAN Mr. President, I don't know what to say. As soon as we learned from the Secret Service you were en route, the Director was notified. He should be here any minute. NIXON Where the hell is he? CUSHMAN Uh, he's rushing back from his tennis game, sir... NIXON (impatient) So...Let's go... CUSHMAN (walking with Nixon) He told me to take you to his conference room. NIXON No. His office. (aside) I want a very private conversation. I don't want to be bugged. CUSHMAN Then his office will be fine. SCENE SIXTY-SEVEN Omitted INT. OPERATIONS CENTER & HELM'S OFFICE - DAY They walk past ANALYSTS laboring in isolation behind Plexiglass walls; the hum of computers, a dark austerity to the place. They all glance up as NIXON strides past. NIXON How's the job coming, Bob? CUSHMAN Frankly sir, it stinks. I have no access. I'm lucky Helms lets me have a staff. NIXON (ominous) We'll see about that... CUSHMAN (sensing change) He's nervous, sir. He's heard you're looking for a new director. NIXON Well, he certainly isn't acting like it. CUSHMAN That's Helms. He's "sang froid," a world-class poker player. NIXON (under his breath) Yeah? Well, I own the fucking casino. SCENE SIXTY-EIGHT INT. HELM'S OFFICE - DAY A DUTY OFFICER opens the door of the director's office with a flourish. Nixon catches RICHARD HELMS throwing his trench coat and tennis racket on a chair, obviously hurrying from a secret door. Helms spots Nixon, extends his hand with a reptilian smile. HELMS I'm honored, Dick, that you've come all this way out here to Virginia to visit us at last. NIXON My friends call me "Mister President." HELMS And so shall I. (to Cushman) Arrange for some coffee, would you General Cushman? Cushman stares back a beat, bitterly. Nixon signals to Haldeman and Ehrlichman that he, too, wants to be alone. The door closes. NIXON Robert Cushman is a lieutenant general in the Marine Corps, the Deputy Director of the CIA... and this is what you use him for? HELMS I didn't choose him as my deputy, Mr. President. You did. Nixon paces the office, which is festooned with photos, awards, and an abundance of flowers, particularly orchids. A collector. NIXON You live pretty well out here. Now I understand why you want to keep your budgets classified. Helms sits on a settee, a hard-to-read man. HELMS I suppose, "Mister President," you're unhappy that we have not implemented your Domestic intelligence plan, but... NIXON You're correct. I'm concerned these students are being funded by foreign interests, whether they know it or not. The FBI is worthless in this area. I want your full concentration on this matter... HELMS Of course we've tried, but so far we've come up with nothing that... NIXON (stern) Then find something. And I want these leaks stopped. Jack fucking Anderson, The New York Times, The State Department -- I want to know who's talking to them. HELMS I'm sure you realize this is a very tricky area, Mr. President, given our charter and the congressional oversight committees... NIXON Screw congressional oversight. I know damn well, going back to the 50's, this agency reports what it wants, and buries what it doesn't want Congress to know. Pay close attention to this. Nixon fixes him with his stare. Helms clears his throat. HELMS Is there something else that's bothering you, Mr. President? NIXON Yes... It involves some old and forgotten papers. Things I signed as Vice President. I want the originals in my office and I don't want copies anywhere else. Now knowing Nixon's cards, Helms relaxes -- about an inch. HELMS You're referring, of course, to chairing the Special Operations Group as Vice President. NIXON Yes... Helms wanders over to his prize orchids, fingers them. HELMS As you know... that was unique. Not an operation as much as... an organic phenomenon. It grew, it changed shape, it developed... insatiable, devouring appetites. (then) It's not uncommon in such cases that things are not committed to paper. That could be very... embarrassing. Nixon is embarrassed, and does not like it. Suddenly, the Beast is in the room. HELMS (reminding him) I, for one, saw to it that my name was never connected to any of those operations. On Nixon, waiting. HELMS (fishing) Diem? Trujillo? Lumumba? Guatemala? Cuba?... It's a shame you didn't take similar precautions, Dick. NIXON (very uncomfortable) I'm interested in the documents that put your people together with... the others. All of them... A beat. This is the fastball. Helms pours himself a coffee. HELMS President Kennedy threatened to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces. You could do the same... NIXON I'm not Jack Kennedy. Your agency is secure. HELMS (stirs the coffee) Not if I give you all the cards... NIXON I promised the American people peace with honor in Southeast Asia. That could take time -- two, maybe three years... In the meantime, your agency will continue at current levels of funding. HELMS (sops his coffee) Current levels may not be sufficient. NIXON The President would support a reasonable request for an increase. Helms smiles. HELMS And me?... NIXON Firing you, Mr. Helms, wouldn't do any good. Of course you'll continue as DCI. You're doing a magnificent job. HELMS And of course I accept. I'm flattered. And I want you to know, I work for only one president at a time. NIXON Yes. And you will give General Cushman full access. HELMS (grudgingly accepts that) It will take a little time, but I'll order a search for your papers. Though it does raise a disturbing issue. NIXON What? HELMS Mr. Castro? NIXON (tense) Yes. HELMS We have recent intelligence that a Soviet nuclear submarine has docked at Cienfuegos. NIXON Well, we'll lodge a formal protest. HELMS I don't think we can treat this as a formality. Mr. Kennedy made a verbal promise to the Russians not to invade Cuba. But you authorized Dr. Kissinger to put this in writing. Nixon is taken aback by Helms' inside knowledge. NIXON Are you tapping Kissinger? HELMS My job, unpleasant sometimes, is to know what others don't want me to know. NIXON (cold) Not if you have spies in the White House, it isn't your job. HELMS It is not my practice to spy on the president. Doctor Kissinger manages to convey his innermost secrets to the world at large on his own. NIXON (absorbs this) Mr. Helms, we've lived with Communism in Cuba for ten years... HELMS ...But it has never been the policy of this government to accept that. And it is certainly not CIA policy. NIXON CIA policy? The CIA has no policy, Mr. Helms. Except what I dictate to you... (beat, they stare at each other) I try to adjust to the world as it is today, not as you or I wanted it to be ten years ago. HELMS Is that why you and Kissinger are negotiating with the Chinese? A beat. Nixon stares. HELMS This is an extremely dangerous direction, Mr. President. Terrible consequences can result from such enormous errors of judgement. NIXON But... if we were able to separate China from Russia once and for all, we can -- we could create a balance of power that would secure the peace into the next century. HELMS By offering Cuba to the Russians as a consolation prize? NIXON Cuba would be a small price to pay. HELMS So President Kennedy thought. A disturbing image suddenly appears in Nixon's mind -- KENNEDY with his bead blown off in Dallas. Followed by an IMAGE of his own death. In a coffin. The smell of the orchids in the room is overwhelming. Nixon feels himself dizzy. NIXON I never thought Jack was ready for the presidency. But I would never, never consider... (then) His death was awful, an awful thing for this country. (then) Do you ever think of death, Mr. Helms? HELMS Flowers are continual reminders of our mortality. Do you appreciate flowers? NIXON No. They make me sick. They smell like death... I had two brothers die young. But let me tell you, there are worse things than death. There is such a thing as evil. HELMS You must be familiar with my favorite poem by Yeats? The Second Coming?" NIXON No. HELMS Black Irishman. Very moving. "Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon cannot hear the falconer/Things fall apart, the center cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/And everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned/The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity"... But it ends so beautifully ominous -- "What rough beast, its hour come round at last/Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"... Yes, this country stands at such a juncture. On Nixon, as we CUT TO: SCENE SIXTY-NINE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIXON BEDROOM - NIGHT NIXON has just returned from a dinner party, his tuxedo coming off, on the phone, a Scotch in hand, in high spirits. A series of JUMP CUTS of his phone self follows: NIXON It was sudden death, Trini, but I think I kicked Helms' ass. (laughs) Yeah, and Kissinger's running around like a scared chicken right now; he doesn't know who's gonna grab his power. Yeah... you should see him. I call Haig, Kissinger shits! (laughs) JUMP CUT TO: NIXON (on phone) Did you see the look on Hoover's face? He was redder than a beet. That little closet fairy's got no choice. He hates McGovern and Kennedy so much, he's got to love me. And Lyndon? PAT enters, in a nightdress, smoking. PAT He looked old, didn't he? NIXON (hardly noticing) I asked him, "Lyndon, what would you do, on a scale of one to ten?" And he said, "Bomb the shit out of Hanoi, boy! Bomb them where they live." ...John, do you think I was too soft on TV? JUMP CUT TO: NIXON Bob, I want to get on this energy thing tomorrow -- we really have to rethink our needs to the end of the century. Let's do it at 1:00. And don't forget the budget boys. I'm gonna carve the shit out of ‘em. (beat) Well, no, clear the afternoon and tell Trini I'll be in Key Biscayne by 4:00... No, alone... Pat's staying here with the girls. Pat approaches, nuzzles him. She seems a little strange, tipsy... but sexy in her nightdress. PAT I'd like to go with you. HALDEMAN (O.S.) Hello? NIXON (to Pat) Uh, you should check with Bob... (to Bob) Listen, Bob, I'll call you in the morning. He hangs up, awkward. NIXON Hi, Buddy. What are you doing in here? PAT I've missed you. NIXON (suspecting drink on her breath) Are you okay? PAT Why don't we go down to Key Biscayne together? Just the two of us. NIXON Because... I have to relax. PAT I was thinking tonight -- do you remember, Dick...? Do you remember when you used to drive me on dates with the other boys? You didn't want to let me out of your sight. NIXON Yeah, sure, a long time ago. PAT Yes, it's been a long time... (a signal given) He recoils, embarrassed. A slight sweat. NIXON I don't need that, Buddy. I'm not Jack Kennedy. PAT (rebuffed, distant) No, you're not. So stop comparing yourself to him. You have no reason to... You have everything you ever wanted. You've earned it. Why can't you just enjoy it? NIXON I do. I do. In my own way. PAT Then what are you scared of, honey? NIXON I'm not scared, Buddy. (a pause) You don't understand. They're playing for keeps, Buddy. The press, the kids, the liberals -- they're out there, trying to figure out how to tear me down. PAT They're all your enemies? NIXON Yes! PAT You personally? NIXON Yes! This is about me. Why can't you understand that, you of all people? It's not the war -- it's Nixon! They want to destroy Nixon! And if I expose myself even the slightest bit they'll tear my insides out. Do you want that? Do you want to see that, Buddy? It's not pretty. PAT Sometimes I think that's what you want. NIXON You've been drinking. What the hell are you saying? Jesus, you sound like them now!... (a beat, quietly) I've gotta keep fighting Buddy, for the country. These people running things, the elite... they're soft, chickenshit faggots! They don't have the long-term vision anymore. They just want to cover their asses or meet girls or tear each other down. Oh, God, this country's in deep trouble, Buddy... and I have to see this through. Mother would've wanted no less of me... I'm sorry Buddy. Pat stands, about to leave. PAT I just wish... you know how much I love you, that's all. It took me a long time to fall in love with you, Dick. But I did. And it doesn't make you happy. You want them to love you... Pat waves outward, indicating the world, the public. NIXON (interjects) No, I don't. I'm not Jack... PAT But they never will, Dick. No matter how many elections you win, they never will. She leaves. He is left in the middle of the room. He shuffles to the phone, picks it up. SCENE SEVENTY INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT NIXON (V.O.) Manolo! Where the hell are you? The lights come on, revealing MANOLO SANCHEZ, the valet, in the doorway, wearing bathrobe and slippers. MANOLO I was asleep, Mr. President. What can I get you? NIXON Just... uh... you know. MANOLO Of course. Manolo moves to a cabinet on the far side of the pantry. Takes out a bottle of Chivas, puts ice into a tumbler. NIXON Do you miss Cuba, Manolo? MANOLO Yes, Mr. President. NIXON We let you down, didn't we. Your people. MANOLO That was Mr. Kennedy. NIXON You don't think he was a hero? Manolo pours Nixon a drink. MANOLO (shrugs) He was a politician. NIXON (swallows the drink) Did you cry when he died? MANOLO Yes. NIXON Why? MANOLO I don't know. (then) He made me see the stars... NIXON (looks outside, to himself) How did he do that? (then) All those kids... Why do they hate me so much? SCENE SEVENTY-ONE EXT. LINCOLN MEMORIAL - PRE-DAWN NIXON gets out of the front of the presidential LIMOUSINE. MANOLO follows. Nixon looks up: a surreal scene. The Lincoln Memorial has been turned into a pagan temple. FIRES burn on the broad marble steps, half-naked KIDS sleep on filthy blankets below the immense columns. Hendrix plays faintly on a portable radio. Nixon starts up the steps, picking his way among the sleeping forms. He passes a GIRL, tripping, eyes closed, twirling a long scarf over her head. He stares at her, steps on a sleeping bag. STUDENT 1 Fuck, man. That's my fuckin' leg -- The BOY's jaw drops. Nixon towers over him. An apparition. NIXON You just go back to sleep now, young fella. STUDENT 1 (rubs his eyes) Whoa, this is some nasty shit... Nixon reaches the top of the monument. Taped to one of the pillars is a poster: Nixon scowling, and the motto "Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?" Nixon peers at it, moves inside. He looks up at LINCOLN in the eerie firelight. Banners with peace signs have been draped over his shoulders, bunches of flowers between his fingers. HALF A DOZEN STUDENTS are talking among themselves. They see Nixon, stop. Stunned. Nixon strides toward them. NIXON Hi, I'm Dick Nixon. STUDENT 2 You're shittin' me. NIXON Where you from? STUDENT 2 Syracuse. NIXON The Orangemen! Now there's a football program. Jim Brown. And that other tailback... The one with the blood disease... STUDENT 2 Ernie Davis. NIXON Right, right. I used to play a little ball myself at Whittier. (laughs nervously) Of course, they used me as a tackling dummy... A self-possessed YOUNG WOMAN abruptly interrupts. YOUNG WOMAN We didn't come here to talk about football. We came here to end the war. NIXON (chastened) Yes, I understand that. Pause. Nobody responds. NIXON Probably most of you think I'm a real SOB. I know that. But I understand how you feel, I really do. I want peace too, but peace with honor. STUDENT 3 What does that mean? NIXON You can't have peace without a price. Sometimes you have to be willing to fight for peace. And sometimes to die. STUDENT 3 Tell that to the GI's who are going to die tomorrow in Vietnam. STUDENT 2 What you have to understand, Mr. Nixon, is that we are willing to die for what we believe in. NIXON (looks up at Lincoln) That man up there lived in similar times. He had chaos and civil war and hatred between the races... Sometimes I go to the Lincoln Room at the White House and just pray. You know, the liberals act like idealism belongs to them, but it's not true. My family went Republican because Lincoln freed the slaves. My grandmother was an abolitionist. It was Quakers who founded Whittier, my home town, to abolish slavery. They were conservative Bible folk, but they had a powerful sense of right and wrong... forty years ago I was looking, as you are now, for answers. (then) But you know, ending the war the and cleaning up the air and the cities, feeding the poor -- my mother used to feed hobos stopping over at our house -- none of it is going to satisfy the spiritual hunger we all have, finding a mean to this life... HALDEMAN arrives with SEVERAL SECRET SERVICE AGENTS, looking very worried. The crowd around Nixon has grown much larger. HALDEMAN Mr. President! NIXON It's okay, Bob, we're just rapping, my friends and I. We actually agree on a lot of things... YOUNG WOMAN No, we don't! You're full of shit! You say you want to end the war, so why don't you? My brother died over there last November. Why? What good was his death? NIXON I know. I know. I've seen a lot of kids die too, in World War II. STUDENT 2 Come on, man -- Vietnam ain't Germany. It doesn't threaten us. It's a civil war between Vietnamese. NIXON But change always comes slowly. I've withdrawn more than half the troops. I'm trying to cut the military budget for the first time in thirty years. I want an all- volunteer army. But it's also a question of America's credibility, our position in the world... YOUNG WOMAN You don't want the war. We don't want the war. The Vietnamese don't want the war. So why does it go on? Nixon hesitates, out of answers. YOUNG WOMAN Someone wants it... (a realization) You can't stop it, can you. Even if you wanted to. Because it's not you. It's the system. And the system won't let you stop it... NIXON There's a lot more at stake here than what you want. Or even what I want... YOUNG WOMAN Then what's the point? What's the point of being president? You're powerless. The girl transfixes him with her eyes. Nixon feels it. The nausea of the Beast makes him reel. The students press on him from all sides. NIXON (stumbling) No, no. I'm not powerless. Because... because I understand the system. I believe I can control it. Maybe not control it totally. But... tame it enough to make it do some good. YOUNG WOMAN It sounds like you're talking about a wild animal. NIXON Maybe I am. A silence. Nixon looks at her. Haldeman and the SECRET SERVICE MEN fill the succeeding beat of silence by moving Nixon off. He allows himself to be herded, waving absently to the protestors. HALDEMAN We really must go, Mr. President. NIXON (to all) Don't forget, the most important thing in life is your relationship with your Maker... (over his shoulder to all) Don't forget to be on God's side. This doesn't go down well with the protestors. ("Bullshit!") As Nixon is led down the steps to the limousine: NIXON She got it, Bob. A nineteen-year- old college kid... HALDEMAN What? NIXON She understood something it's taken me twenty-five fucking years in politics to understand. The CIA, the Mafia, the Wall Street bastards... HALDEMAN Sir? NIXON (climbing into the limo, mutters) ..."The Beast." a nineteen-year- old kid. She understands the nature of "the Beast." She called it a wild animal. The door closes. The LIMOUSINE is whisked away under searchlights and heavy security. SUBTITLE READS: "JUNE 1971 - A YEAR LATER" DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE --- The White House is still ringed. ARMED TROOPS patrol Pennsylvania Avenue. The BUSES are drawn up. SMOKE is in the air. The SOUNDS of cherry bombs going off. Signs that read: "End the war! Throw the fascist out! Dick Nixon before he dicks you." SCENE SEVENTY-TWO EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - ROSE GARDEN - DAY Inside the barricades, a fairyland. A white lattice gazebo draped with flowers. TRICIA'S wedding is in preparation. GROUNDSKEEPERS and various PERSONNEL lay out the carpet to the altar. SCENE SEVENTY-THREE Omitted INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING - PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY J. EDGAR HOOVER joins NIXON, pulling on his wedding tuxedo, at a window, looking out at the PROTESTORS. Intermittently, Hoover helps him with his clothes. NIXON (musing) There must be a quarter-million out there, Edgar. They've been at it now for a year. Young kids just like Tricia. I don't know. Do you think they have a point, Edgar? Maybe this whole damned system of government is... HOOVER (suspecting ‘softness') Remember what Lenin said in 1917, Mr. President: "The power was lying in the streets just waiting for someone to pick it up." the communists have never been closer. Now is the time to go back to the old themes. The ones that made you president. Let the Communist know you're onto them. NIXON (laughs) The little bastards think they can ruin Tricia's wedding by dancing naked in the Reflecting Pond. HOOVER Don't listen to ‘em, don't quit. Remember -- Kennedy, Bobby, and King were against the war. Where are they now? Don't give ‘em a Goddamn inch on the war. President Johnson bombed Laos for years and nobody knew or said a thing. How the hell the Times ever got ahold of this Ellsberg stuff is a disgrace! NIXON We can't keep a Goddamn secret in this government, Edgar. They're stealing papers right out of this office. HOOVER Johnson had the same damned problem till he bugged his own office. NIXON (nods) We took his system out. HOOVER That was a mistake. The White House was full of Kennedy people then. It still is. NIXON Who do you think is behind it? HOOVER Well, you have CIA people all over this place. Helms has seen to that. (beat, Nixon remains poker-faced) Then there's Kissinger's staff. Kissinger himself, I believe, may be the leaker. NIXON (stunned) Kissinger? HOOVER He's obsessed with his own image. He wants his Nobel Peace Prize a little too much. As the late "Doctor" King proved -- even an ape can win a prize with good press. NIXON Jesus, I'd like to book him into a psychiatrist's office. He comes in here ranting and raving, dumping his crap all over the place. Could you prove it, Edgar? HOOVER I always get my man. NIXON Yeah, you do. (then) I'd be bugging myself, Edgar... Who'd get the tapes? HOOVER No one. Your property. It would prove your case. Why do you think Kissinger's taping your calls? For history. His word against yours -- and right now he's got the records. Nixon is stung by the comparison, fussing with his bow tie. Hoover helps him. NIXON This damned tie... Will you help me, Edgar? (then) Churchill used to say to me, "If you want your own history written properly, you must write it yourself"... (starts out) All right, Edgar, but just don't let it come back and haunt me. HOOVER (a reminder) It won't. As long as I'm here. Nixon absentmindedly shows Hoover through a small door into his BATHROOM... There is an awkward pause, as both men are too proud to pretend they are cramped in this place together. Hoover clears his throat and exits the regular door. As we hear the Love Theme from "Doctor Zhivago": CUT TO: SCENE SEVENTY-FOUR INT. EAST ROOM - DAY The White House GUARDS wear German comic opera uniforms including tall cylindrical hats with beaks. We see champagne, white lace, the MUSICIANS wearing morning coats. HOOVER and TOLSON are together, very happy. To the sound of wedding MUSIC, NIXON takes a turn with his daughter, TRICIA, in gown. He has never seemed happier. NIXON I am very proud of you today, princess. Very. When one of the GROOMSMEN cuts in, Nixon asks several OTHERS to dance. He retreats to JULIE's side. Julie says something sweet but unheard to him. PAT is at a window, upset, looking out at the PROTESTORS as Julie comes over to get her. JULIE Come on, Mother, join the... (sees her look) What's the matter? PAT We're just not going to buckle to these people. Pat puts on her party face and rejoins the crowd. SCENE SEVENTY-FIVE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CABINET ROOM - DAY (1971) - RAIN CABINET MEMBERS chat, lean back in their chairs, smoking, as NIXON suddenly erupts into the room, a focused fury on his face. He sits, slams The New York Times down. CLOSE -- we can make out the words "Pentagon Papers." NIXON Gentlemen, we've had our last damned leak! This is no way to run a Goddamn government. We're going to prosecute the hell out of Ellsberg and anyone else who wants to leak. And that means any one of you who crosses the line, I'm personally going after... INTERCUTTING among the faces -- KISSINGER predominant. Nixon glances in his direction, pauses on him. NIXON The permissiveness of this era is over. The belts are coming off and people are gonna be taken to the woodshed. This government cannot survive with a counter-government inside it. I know how traitors operate -- I've dealt with them all my life. This bullshit to the effect -- some stenographer did it, some stenographer -- that's never the case. It's never the little people -- little people do not leak. It's always a sonofabitch like Ellsberg who leaks! The Harvard Hebrew boys with the private agendas who wanna be heroes. Nixon grabs the paper, shakes it. NIXON Ellsberg did this "for the good of the country." I suppose you've never heard that one before. Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs said the same damn crap, and you know what happened to them -- ol' Sparky got ‘em. They've always underestimated Nixon, the intellectuals. Well, we're gonna let them know we can fight just as dirty. This is sudden death, gentlemen. We're gonna get ‘em on the ground, stick in our spikes and twist, show ‘em no mercy! Nixon looks around the room. The Cabinet member are stunned. NIXON This administration is a Goddamn disaster. We got bums out there at the gates. We've got thirty-eight of forty pieces of our domestic legislation defeated in Congress. Unless we turn things around, we'll all be looking for jobs next year. (then) Starting today, nobody in this room talks to the press without clearing it first with Haldeman. That means a complete freeze on the New York Times, CBS, Jack fucking Anderson, and the Washington Post! From now on, Haldeman is the Lord High Executioner. So don't you come whining to me when he tells you to do something, ‘cause that's me talking. And if you come to me, I'll be tougher than he is. Anybody tries to screw us, his head comes off. Do you understand? Good day, gentlemen... He walks out, leaving them stunned and silent. HALDEMAN Well, I guess that's it for today's meeting... SCENE SEVENTY-SIX INT. POULTRY PROCESSING PLANT - MIAMI - NIGHT A chicken's head flies off. The CUBAN CROWD is going crazy as a FIGHTING COCK is moving in for the kill. The ring is surrounded by impromptu bleachers, the walls lined with metal cages filled with chickens. The slaughterhouse is adjacent. HOWARD HUNT stands at the edge of the crowd, holding a greasy wrapper of churos, as the fight ends. Cheers and groans. Fistfuls of money are exchanged. FRANK STURGIS turns from the ring, makes his way to Hunt, hands him a twenty. STURGIS How the fuck did you know? HUNT Injections. Even this noble sport's been fixed. (Pockets the twenty) See the guys? STURGIS They're around. Sturgis snags a piece of churo, swallows it. STURGIS Why, you got a customer? HUNT The White House. STURGIS (stops) You're fucking me. HUNT We're gonna be plumbers, Frank. We're gonna plug leaks. STURGIS Who we working for? HUNT A guy named Gordon Liddy. Thinks he's Martin Borman. You wanna meet him? (He motions) GORDON LIDDY comes out of the edges of the crowd, shakes hands with Sturgis. HUNT Gordon Liddy... Frank Sturgis. They turn the handshake into a parallel of the cock fight, iron grips subtly crushing the other's hand. LIDDY (after they break) Y'ever hold your hand over a fire? (pulls out a Zippo lighter) HUNT That's okay, Gordon. (motions him off) As Liddy drifts off: STURGIS Where'd you find him? HUNT Just don't tell him to do anything you don't really want him to do. STURGIS So, does Tricky Dick know about this? HUNT I won't tell him if you won't. The HANDLERS throw TWO NEW FIGHTING COCKS into the ring. They start to rip at each other. HUNT (chewing on his churo) The claws are out, Frank. SCENE SEVENTY-SEVEN INT. FIELDING PSYCHIATRIST OFFICE - NIGHT (1971) As seen before: a GLASS shatters, a CROWBAR jacks open the door marked: "Dr. Lewis J. Fielding, Psychiatrist." NIXON (V.O.) History will never be the same. Cabinets full of pills are overturned. The disguised HUNT and LIDDY, with the three CUBANS, go to work. A FILE FOLDER is ripped from a cabinet. In the flashlight beam the file reads "Daniel Ellsberg." A VOICE calls out: "Howard, I got it!" NIXON (V.O.) We've taken a step into the future. We have changed the world. "America the Beautiful" MUSIC takes us into: SCENE SEVENTY-EIGHT INT. MAO TSE-TUNG'S OFFICE - BEIJING - DAY (1972) SUBTITLE READS -- "FEBRUARY 1972" NIXON beams, standing under a huge red flag bearing the hammer and sickle. The "America" theme is being played on traditional Chinese instruments as CHINESE PHOTOGRAPHERS are allowed to take stiff portraits. The MEN chit-chat. NIXON I must say you look very good, Mr. Chairman. MAO Looks can be deceiving... NIXON We know you've taken a great risk in inviting us here. MAO stares at Nixon and replies in Chinese, which the INTERPRETER repeats: MAO (half smiles) I took no risk. I'm too old to be afraid of what anyone thinks. Nixon forces a rigid smile as they move to chairs. TIME CUT TO: MAO and NIXON are seated in armchairs opposite each other, KISSINGER and CHOU EN-LAI to either side of Mao. An INTERPRETER between. In media res: MAO Don't ever trust them. They never tell the truth or honor their commitments. Vietnamese are like Russians. Both are dogs. NIXON (clears his throat) Mr. Chairman, there is an old saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. MAO (smiles) That has the added virtue of being true. Mao doesn't seem to be taking any of this too seriously: in fact, he seems a little medicated. KISSINGER You know, Mr. Chairman, at Harvard I used your writings in my class. MAO What a waste of time. My writings mean absolutely nothing. KISSINGER But your writings have changed the world, Mr. Chairman. MAO Fung pi! (Bullshit!) I've only managed to change a few things around the city of Beijing. (then: to Kissinger) I want to know your secret. KISSINGER Secret, Mr. Chairman? MAO How a fat man gets so many girls. Mao howls at his own joke. KISSINGER Power, Mr. Chairman, is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Laughter. MAO (turns to Nixon) You know, I voted for you in your last election. NIXON (self-effacing) I was the lesser of two evils. A moment. Mao levels a gaze at him, deadly serious. MAO You're too modest, Nixon. You're as evil as I am. We're both from poor families. But others pay to feed the hunger in us. In my case, millions of reactionaries. In your case, millions of Vietnamese. NIXON (taken aback) Civil war is always the cruelest kind of war. MAO The real war is in us. (then) History is a symptom of our disease. CUT FORWARD TO: SCENE SEVENTY-NINE DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- The BOMBING of HANOI... SUBTITLE READS: "CHRISTMAS 1972." Hundreds of B-52 strikes, bombs pouring over the city. REPORTER (V.O.) (BBC accent) In a surprise Christmas bombing of Hanoi, President Nixon today delivered more tonnage than was used at Dresden in World War II... It is, without doubt, the most brutal bombing in American history. CROSSCUT: DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE -- 1. HANOI -- the devastation of the city. It's on fire. Bodies are being carried from a collapsed HOSPITAL. 2. The USA -- in contrast, shots in the media of Christmas trees (Rockefeller Center, etc.); families shopping; a children's choir singing "Gloria in Excelsis Deo." REPORTERS (V.O.) ...This Christmas bombing has shaken up the Paris peace talks and created a huge amount of criticism across the globe. Newspapers are calling it a "Stone Age tactic," and Nixon, a "maddened tyrant"... Nixon's only response: "When the Vietnamese take the peace talks seriously, I'll stop." STOCK FOOTAGE -- moving through a bank of clouds toward the sun. SCENE EIGHTY INT. AIR FORCE ONE - MAIN CABIN - SUBSET (1972) NIXON is looking out the window, PAT next to him. HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN are out of earshot. PAT Penny for your thoughts. NIXON Is that adjusted for inflation? She laughs. NIXON (CONT'D) Think of the life Mao's led. In ‘52 I called him a monster. Now he could be our most important ally. (then) Only Nixon could've done that. PAT You're a long way from Whittier. A beat. He shares her look. NIXON Yes... yes, I am. Pat puts her hand on his hand. PAT Congratulations, Dick. NIXON (smiles) How am I gong to break this to Bob Hope? KISSINGER walks into the cabin. KISSINGER We've got the Russians where we want them! They're calling us. We will have a SALT treaty with them this year. HALDEMAN In time for the election? Brezhnev's tough. He knows McGovern's right on our ass... KISSINGER He doesn't have a choice! He has to shift missiles from Europe to the Chinese border. With one stroke, the balance of power moves completely in our favor. This is a coup, Mr. President! EHRLICHMAN For you, Henry? Nobel Peace Prize, maybe... (sees the look on Nixon's face) NIXON Not for he Pentagon it isn't. I'm kissing Mao's ass. And the press is gonna find some way to shaft Nixon on this one. PAT It's not the press that matters. Nixon's wife is proud of him. He squeezes her hand. HALDEMAN And his staff. Come on, the copy they were filing from China was great. NIXON Wait till the Mai-tais wear off. EHRLICHMAN The country's loving it. NIXON The hard-core four million "Nixon nuts" aren't gonna go for it... They'll say I sold out to the Communists. KISSINGER You'll pick up the middle on this one -- the Jews and Negroes. NIXON Jews and Negroes don't win elections, Henry. Better to hang them around the Democrats' necks. HALDEMAN The Jews aren't the middle, Henry. They're the far left. NIXON You're talking too much about black Africa, Henry. It's killing us with the rednecks. HALDEMAN The blacks are lost, the "schwartzes" are gone... NIXON Don't let it lose us the right- wing vote... A silence as the sour notes depress everyone. NIXON (feeling the deflation) Hey, I sound like my father now. Let's have a drink! Pat smiles. ZIEGLER pokes his head in. ZIEGLER Mr. President, the press guys asked if you could come back for a minute. NIXON The hell with ‘em. KISSINGER I'll go back, Mr. President. Everyone glares at Henry. ZIEGLER No, they want you, Mr. President. I really think it would be a good move. Nixon puts aside his drink, gets up. NIXON Gentlemen, I go now to discover the exact length, width, and depth of the shaft. SCENE EIGHTY-ONE INT. AIR FORE ONE - PRESS CABIN - SUNSET NIXON closes the door behind him, turns. DOZENS of REPORTERS stand, burst into applause. He is momentarily stunned, then he moves down the aisle. Shaking hands. The reporters continue applauding. Nixon, for once, is deeply moved. On the sound of applause, we: CUT TO: SCENE EIGHT-TWO Omitted EXT. JONES RANCH - TEXAS - DAY (1972) REPORTER'S VOICE J. Edgar Hover is dead at the age of seventy-seven. The legendary crime buster served his country as Director of the FBI for almost half a century, from 1924 to 1972. An enormous BRAHMA BULL, red-eyed, snorting, thrashes viciously against the reinforced walls of its pen. NIXON and JACK JONES watch as SECRET SERVICE hover nearby. JONES (V.O.) There's two kinds of bulls, Dick. Your good bull and your bad bull. This here's a bad bull. You piss him off, he'll kill everything in his path. Only way to stop him is to shoot him. A WRANGLER climbs carefully into the chute. The Brahma lunges for him. JONES Eddie, you be damned careful with that beast. His nuts are worth a helluva lot more'n yours. He leads Nixon down the steps. JONES (cagey) So, what's this about, Dick? NIXON It's me or Wallace, Jack. Wallace's third party is only going to help McGovern. I need your support. JONES Well, you sure been chock full of surprises so far, "Mister President." SCENE EIGHTY-THREE INT. JONES RANCH - LIVING ROOM - DAY (1972) NIXON and HALDEMAN are standing by the hearth. The years have gone by but, in different clothing and hairstyles, it is much the same group of a DOZEN BUSINESSMEN gathered around, drinking Jack Daniels and smoking cigars. Among them we recognize the CUBAN and MITCH. It's heated. JONES It looks like to me we're gonna lose a war for the first Goddamn time and, Dick, Goddamnit, you're going along with it, buying into this Kissinger bullshit -- "detente" with the communists. "Detente" -- it sounds like two fags dancing. NIXON Jack, we're not living in the same country you and I knew in ‘46. Our people are just not gonna sacrifice in major numbers for war. We can't even get ‘em to accept cuts in their gas tanks. Hell, the Arabs and the Japanese are bleeding the shit out of our gold... JONES And whose fault is that? If we'd won in Vietnam... NIXON It's nobody's fault, Jack. It's change -- which is a fact of history. Even that old cocksucker Hoover's dead. Thing change. An uncomfortable silence. A servant brings coffee to Nixon, but Haldeman cuts him off. No one gets close to his guy. MITCH So... how's the food over there in China, Mr. Nixon? NIXON Free, if you're the president. Nervous laughter. MITCH What are you going to do about this Allende fellow nationalizing our business in Chile? You gonna send Kissinger down there? NIXON We're gonna get rid of him -- Allende, I mean -- just as fast as we can. He's on top of the list. MITCH How about Kissinger along with him? NIXON Kissinger's misunderstood. He pretends to be a liberal for his Establishment friends, but he's even tougher than I... CUBAN So Kissinger stays. Just like Castro, Mr. Nixon? NIXON Yeah, he stays... An uncomfortable silence. Jones walks closer to Nixon. JONES Desi's got a point. What the hell we gonna do about the Communists right here in our backyard?! NIXON What do you mean, Jack? JONES I mean I got federal price controls on my oil. The ragheads are beating the shit out of me. And I got your EPA environment agency with its thumb so far up my ass it's scratching my ear. HALDEMAN Gentlemen, I think it's about time for us to be getting to the airport. NIXON Let him finish, Bob. JONES ...And now I have a federal judge ordering me to bus my kids halfway ‘cross town to go to school with some nigger kids. I think, Mr. President, you're forgetting who put you where you are. NIXON The American people put me where I am. Jones smirks. They all smirk. A dreadful moment. JONES Really? Well, that can be changed. Dead silence. Nixon moves closer to Jones. NIXON Jack, I've learned that politics is the art of compromise. I learned it the hard way. I don't know if you have. But I tell you what, Jack... If you don't like it, there's an election in November. You can take your money out into the open, give it to Wallace... How ‘bout it Jack? Are you willing to do that? Give this country over to some poet-pansy socialist like George McGovern? Nixon is right in Jones's face now. NIXON Because if you're uncomfortable with the EPA up your ass, try the IRS... JONES Well, Goddamn. Are you threatening me, Dick? NIXON (softly) Presidents don't threaten. They don't have to. (then) Good day, gentlemen. As he walks out with Haldeman, there is a stone silence. SCENE EIGHTY-FOUR EXT. TEXAS LANDSCAPE - day As the PRESIDENTIAL CAR pulls away in a three-car entourage, we hear: REPORTERS (V.O.) ...With George Wallace out of the race, paralyzed by an assassin's bullet, Richard Nixon has crushed George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. It is the second biggest landslide in American history, but... SCENE EIGHTY-FIVE EXT. AIR FORCE ONE - DAY (STOCK FOOTAGE) The plane flying through clouds. A royal feeling. REPORTERS (V.O.) ...the Democrats have increased their majority in the House and the Senate. As the new term begins, there is mounting evidence of strong hostility to President Nixon's mandate for a "New American Revolution." However, it does not seem that the Watergate investigations have, up to now, damaged Nixon politically in any significant way... SCENE EIGHTY-SIX INT. AIR FORCE ONE - PRESIDENT'S CABIN - NIGHT NIXON looks out the window, turns to HALDEMAN next to him, making notes on his ubiquitous clipboard. ZIEGLER is nearby. NIXON You know, they all miss the point. Probably out biggest achievement as an administration, when it's all said and done, isn't China or Russia. It's pulling out of Vietnam without a right-wing revolt. HALDEMAN I believe you're right, boss. NIXON ...but even the presidency isn't enough anymore... HALDEMAN Sir? NIXON The presidency by itself won't protect us, Bob. We're beyond politics now... Haldeman is puzzled. EHRLICHMAN enters the cabin, excited, extending a cable. He is followed by long-haired JOHN DEAN. EHRLICHMAN Sir, just in from Paris -- the Vietnamese have accepted Henry's peace proposal. The bombing worked! They're caving. Nixon reads Kissinger's cable, but he doesn't express any happiness. HALDEMAN (excited) Congratulations, boss (handshake offered) -- a great victory! The madman theory wasn't so crazy after all. NIXON (to himself) This could be it... this could be it. Four long years... EHRLICHMAN Henry's on his way back to meet us. He wants to make sure he gets in all the photographs. Incidentally... maybe this isn't the right time but... uh, you should know... Bill Sullivan over at the FBI got back to us with his report on Kissinger. Nixon looks up, interested. EHRLICHMAN (nods) Yeah... Sullivan thinks Henry's leaking. He's the one... HALDEMAN Yeah, I knew it. I knew it from ‘69 on, and I said it all along, didn't I... Nixon's expression changes totally, narrowing, cold. NIXON No, you didn't, Bob... EHRLICHMAN Looks like he talked to Joe Kraft... and to the Times. Told them he was dead set against the bombing and that you were... "unstable." Claims he has to handle you "with kid gloves"... Waiting on Nixon, who goes into some inner state alone, dark brows furrowing with built-up rage. HALDEMAN (his darker side emerging) So that explains his press notices. Working both sides of the fence: Jewboy Henry, always trying to get his Nobel Prize, get laid... NIXON (in his own world) My God, my God! He talked to the New York Times? HALDEMAN We ought to fire his whining ass. Right now when he's on top. You know what -- it'll set the right example for the rest of this administration. EHRLICHMAN I would personally enjoy doing that, sir. NIXON (conflicted) No, no. He's our only ‘star' right now. He'd go crying straight to the press. He'd crucify us -- the sonofabitch!... (lethal) Get someone from on our staff on his ass. Tap his phones. I want to know everyone he talks to. HALDEMAN Then we'll see how long the Kissinger mystique lasts. In a foul mood now, paranoia setting in like a storm cloud on his face, Nixon shifts back to Dean, who is scared of this Nixon and tries to pacify him. NIXON So, what about those Watergate clowns, John? This fucking Sirica's crazy. Thirty-five-year sentences! There were no weapons. Right? No injuries. There was no success! It's just ridiculous. DEAN Sirica's just trying to force one of them to testify. But they're solid. NIXON Then what about this Washington Post crap? Woodwind and Fernstein? ZIEGLER (corrects him) Bernstein. NIXON (CONT'D) Who the fuck are they? (to Haldeman) Bob, are you working on revoking the Post's television license? HALDEMAN (nods) Yes sir, I am. NIXON Good. DEAN Well, they're trying to connect Bob and John to a secret fund, but they don't have much. HALDEMAN (with a look to Ehrlichman) They don't have anything on us. DEAN The FBI's feeding me all their reports. I didn't think you should lose any more sleep on it, sir. NIXON (mutters, relieved) Good man, John, good man. They all fall silent, feeling that false sense of security as the sound of the jet engines takes over. Suddenly, there is an air pocket and they rock back and forth. SCENE EIGHTY-SEVEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - PRESS CONFERENCE - EAST ROOM - DAY SUBTITLE READS: "JANUARY 1973." NIXON is concluding his statement to the PRESS, HALDEMAN in the background with ZIEGLER. NIXON ...I can therefore announce that our long and tragic involvement in Vietnam is at an end. Our mission is accomplished, we have a cease- fire, our prisoners of war are coming back, and South Vietnam has the right to determine its own future. We have peace with honor. The REPORTERS are immediately on their feet. A MONTAGE of QUICK CUTS follows to give the impression of a hostile and never-ending barrage of questions without satisfactory answers. REPORTER 1 ("Dan Rather"-type) Sir, isn't it true little has been achieved in this peace agreement that the Communists have not been offering since 1969? That in fact your administration has needlessly prolonged the war and, at certain stages, has escalated it to new levels of violence? JUMP TO: REPORTER 2 ("Leslie Stahl"-type) Mr. President, what is your reaction to James McCord's statement that high White House officials were involved in the Watergate break-in? JUMP TO: REPORTER 3 ("Sam Donaldson"-type) Sir, the Washington Post is reporting that Mr. Haldeman and Mr. Ehrlichman have secretly disbursed up to $900,000 in campaign funds. Is there any truth to that? NIXON (snaps) I've said before and I'll say again: I will not respond to the charges of the Washington Post. Nor will I comment on a matter that's currently before the courts. REPORTER 4 Do you intend to cooperate with Senator Ervin's committee? REPORTER 5 Will you agree to the appointment of a special prosecutor? The questions flood in. Nixon is overwhelmed. He gathers his papers and starts to move off. A darkly funny thing happens: ZIEGLER wanders into his path, almost colliding. Nixon, pissed, grabs Ziegler by the shoulders, spins him back towards the REPORTERS, and pushes him at them. Ziegler stumbles, looks confused. SCENE EIGHTY-EIGHT INT. OVAL OFFICE - THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY (1973) NIXON storms into his office, picking up an ashtray and hurling it across the room -- it shatters against a wall. Everyone in the room with him -- KISSINGER, HALDEMAN, EHRLICHMAN -- is stunned. NIXON I end the longest war in American history and they keep harping on this chickenshit! You know who's behind this, don't you -- it's Teddy Kennedy! He drowns a broad in his car and he can't run for president. EHRLICHMAN He got pretty burned at Chappaquiddick. NIXON My point exactly! Somebody had to die before his shit got in the papers! Fucking Kennedys get away with everything. Do you see me screwing everything that moves? (then) For Christ's sake! I did what The New York Times editorial page said we should do! I ended the war, I got SALT I with the Russians, I opened China! So why are these cocksuckers turning on me? Because they don't like the way I look. Where I went to school. HALDEMAN Because they're not Americans. NIXON Right. They don't trust! They don't trust America! HALDEMAN (venting with him) Why would they?! Who the hell's Sulzberger anyway? Their parents are gold traders from Eastern Europe. They buy things. They come to Jew York City and they buy up things. One of the things they buy is The New York Times. (glares at Kissinger) And you know what? Be proud because they'll never trust you, sir, because we speak for the average American. Ehrlichman shares a look with Kissinger as Nixon and Haldeman feed into each other. NIXON You know why they're turning on me? They're not serious about power, that's why. They're playing with power. They're forgetting the national interest. In the old days, people knew how to hold power, how to set limits. They wouldn't have torn this country apart over a third-rate burglary. All they care about now are their egos, looking good at cocktail parties... HALDEMAN ...beating out the other papers, chasing girls... NIXON ...worrying whether someone said something "nice" about them. All short-term, frivolous bullshit; Ben Bradlee worrying about Teddy Kennedy liking him... Kissinger tries to get the focus back. KISSINGER Mr. President, I feel we're drifting toward oblivion here. We're playing a totally reactive game; we've got to get ahead of the ball. (pause, in an embarrassed voice) We all know you're clean... Right? So let's do a housecleaning. Take the gloves off. Haldeman shares a look with Ehrlichman. Is he referring to them? Nixon turns slowly on Kissinger, cryptic. NIXON Housecleaning? It would be ugly, Henry, really ugly... KISSINGER But it must be done; your government is paralyzed. NIXON All kinds of shit would come out. Like the Ellsberg thing. You knew about that Henry, didn't you? KISSINGER (vague) I... I heard something... It sounded idiotic. NIXON Idiotic? Yes, I suppose it was. EHRLICHMAN But you're the one who said we should expose him as some kind of sex fiend. Someone took you literally. KISSINGER (stung, and suddenly knowledgeable) I never suggested for some imbeciles to go break into a psychiatrist's office. How stupid of... NIXON That doesn't matter now, Henry. The point is, you might lose some of your media-darling halo if the press starts sniffing around our dirty laundry. KISSINGER (indignant) I had nothing to do with that, sir, and I resent any implication... NIXON Resent it all you want, Henry, but you're in it with the rest of us. Cambodia, Ellsberg, the wiretaps you put in. The President wants you to know you can't just click your heels and head back to Harvard Yard. It's your ass too, Henry, and it's in the wind twisting with everyone else's. A stony silence. The men, all clenched jaws, wait. Kissinger, icily, clicks his heels and withdraws. KISSINGER (at the door) Mr. Nixon, it is possible for even a president to go too far. NIXON Yeah... Nixon laughs manically. JOHN DEAN crosses in as Kissinger exits. Dean closes the door behind him. HALDEMAN You played it perfectly, sir -- cocksucker! He's going to think twice before he leaks again. NIXON (exultant) He'll be looking in his toilet bowl every time he pulls the chain. They laugh madly, like hatter at a tea party. DEAN (worried) Mr. President, Hunt wants more money. Another hundred-and-thirty thousand. NIXON Son of a bitch. DEAN He says if he doesn't get it right away, he's going to blow us out of the water. And he means it. Ever since his wife died in the plane crash, he's been over the edge. NIXON Pay him. Pay him what he wants. HALDEMAN We've got to turn the faucet off on this thing. It's out of control... (as he crosses Dean, sotto voce) You might burden just me with this in the future. NIXON It's Helms -- it's got to be. HALDEMAN We could leverage Helms. NIXON How? HALDEMAN When I met with him, he said... SCENE EIGHTY-NINE INT. CIA - HELMS' OFFICE - DAY (FLASHBACK) Omitted HELMS, sitting across from HALDEMAN HALDEMAN ...this entire affair, the President wants you to know, is related to the Bay of Pigs, and if it opens up... Helms grips the arms of his chair, leans forward excitedly, and yells at Haldeman. HELMS The Bay of Pigs had nothing to do with this! I have no concern about the Bay of Pigs!! Haldeman is shocked by Helms' violent reaction, but remains very cool. HALDEMAN This is what the President told me to relay to you, Mr. Helms. HELMS (settling back) All right... BACK TO: SCENE NINETY INT. OVAL OFFICE - DAY (1973) RESUME SCENE -- HALDEMAN, EHRLICHMAN, DEAN and NIXON. HALDEMAN (fishing) ...I was wondering what's such dynamite in this Bay of Pigs story? Nixon stares, nothing. HALDEMAN (CONT'D) ...although it was clearly effective, because all of a sudden it was no problem for Helms to go to the FBI and try to put a lid on Watergate. NIXON What about the documents he promised? HALDEMAN He'll give us the documents. (then) But I think he should be offered the ambassadorship to Iran. Then he'll go without a whimper. Nixon stares at him, distracted. NIXON I promised Iran to Townsend. HALDEMAN Put Townsend in Belgium; it's available. NIXON Townsend gave us 300 grand. Belgium's not worth more than 100, 150... EHRLICHMAN What about England? NIXON Forget it. Ehrenberg's paid three times that much... HALDEMAN Helms wants Iran or there might be problems. All his old CIA buddies are over there making a fortune off the Shah. NIXON For God's sake, when does this end?! DEAN (suddenly) Executive clemency... NIXON What? DEAN Hunt has nothing to lose now. Pardon all of them. Nobody's going to investigate a crime for which the criminals have already been pardoned. NIXON I like that. That's a solution. EHRLICHMAN It'll never wash. Pardoning them means we're all guilty. The people, the press will go nuts. NIXON And what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and watch them coming closer? Eating their way to the center. (paces) Lyndon bugged! So did Kennedy! FDR cut a deal with Lucky Luciano. Christ, even Ike had a mistress! What's so special about me? (then) What about Lyndon? He could make a couple of calls to the Hill and shut this whole thing down. Did anyone talk to him? HALDEMAN (hesitant) I did. He hit the roof. No dice. He says if you come out with the story about how he bugged your plane, he's going to reveal... (he looks at Ehrlichman and Dean, pauses) We CUT ACROSS the room from Ehrlichman's point of view as Haldeman whispers the rest of the message in Nixon's ear. Nixon's face goes ashen. NIXON (low key) All right... all right. He walks to the window. NIXON (to himself) I don't know, I don't know... I just know we've made too many enemies. EHRLICHMAN Sir, Bob and I are gonna have to testify before Ervin's Committee. NIXON No, you're not! You're going to claim executive privilege and you're going to stonewall it all the way -- plead the Fifth Amendment. I don't give a shit. They can't force the President's people to testify. EHRLICHMAN Executive privilege will make it look like we're covering up. NIXON We are covering up! For some petty, stupid shit. (then) There are things I cay say -- when other people say them, they'd be lies. But when I say them nobody believes me anyway... Pause. A look between Haldeman and Ehrlichman, puzzled. DEAN Then we're going to have to give them Mitchell. Nixon turns, stunned. NIXON Mitchell? Mitchell's... family. DEAN Either it goes to Mitchell or it comes here. Nixon looks like he's been punched in the stomach. HALDEMAN (softly) John's right. It's not personal, boss. It's just the way the game is played. Sometimes you have to punt. Nixon looks out the window. Suddenly, he looks very old and very tired in the gray Washington light. NIXON Jesus, I'm so Goddamn worn out with this... SCENE NINETY-ONE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CORRIDOR - DAY HALDEMAN and EHRLICHMAN leave the President's office. They're pensive, on the move. They come to a huddle next to a window in an isolated alcove. EHRLICHMAN Who's gonna tell Mitchell? HALDEMAN You do it. EHRLICHMAN Why me? HALDEMAN ‘Cause he hates you. It's worse when you get it from someone you trust. EHRLICHMAN He's wrong, you know -- about Kennedy, LBJ, Truman. HALDEMAN How so? EHRLICHMAN Sure, they did stuff, but nothing like this, Bob. Forget Watergate, the break-ins, the Enemies List. You got an attempted firebombing at the Brookings Institution, planting McGovern stuff on the guy that shot Wallace, trying to slip LSD to Jack Anderson. HALDEMAN The "Old Man" plays politics harder than anybody else. EHRLICHMAN You think this is just about politics? They go inanimate as a White House STAFFER passes. EHRLICHMAN (privately) You think LBJ would ever have asked Hunt to forge a cable implicating John Kennedy in the assassination of the President of Vietnam? (whispering fiercely) How long have you known him, Bob? Twenty years? (then) You ever shake hands with him? You ever have a real conversation with him? We don't have a clue what's going on inside that man. And look what we're doing for him... Ehrlichman glances around to make sure no one is listening. He leans close. EHRLICHMAN This is about Richard Nixon. You got people dying because he didn't make the varsity football team. You got the Constitution hanging by a thread because the "Old Man" went to Whittier and not to Yale. (then) And what the hell is this "Bay of Pigs" thing -- he goes white every time it gets mentioned? Haldeman, more bothered than he pretends, looks around. HALDEMAN It's a code or something. EHRLICHMAN I figured that out. HALDEMAN (low whisper) I think he means the Kennedy assassination. EHRLICHMAN Yeah? HALDEMAN They went after Castro. In some crazy way it got turned on Kennedy. I don't think the "P" know what happened, but he's afraid to find out. It's got him shitting peach pits. EHRLICHMAN Christ, we created Frankenstein with those fucking Cubans. Haldeman sighs, lets his guard down. HALDEMAN Eight words back in ‘72 -- "I covered up. I was wrong. I'm sorry" -- and the American public would've forgiven him. But we never opened our mouths, John. We failed him. EHRLICHMAN Dick Nixon saying "I'm sorry?" That'll be the day. The whole suit of armor'd fall off. HALDEMAN So you tell Mitchell... SCENE NINETY-TWO EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. BRIDGE - NIGHT JOHN DEAN stands at the center of the bridge, looks down at the Potomac. REPORTER (V.O.) Lyndon Johnson passed away today at 74 -- one of the most tragic of American presidents... HUNT (O.S.) You're early, John. Dean jumps. Turns. HOWARD HUNT is standing behind him. DEAN I was sorry to hear about your wife. HUNT (a look) Yes... I got the money. DEAN The President would like to know if that was the last payment. HUNT I'll bet he would. DEAN Is it? HUNT (a beat) In Richard Nixon's long history of underhanded dealings, he has never gotten better value for his money. If I were to open my mouth, all the dominoes would fall. Hunt starts to walk away. DEAN Can I ask you a question? Hunt turns. DEAN How the hell do you have the temerity to blackmail the President of the United States? HUNT That's not the question, John. The question is: Why is he paying? DEAN To protect his people. HUNT I'm one of his people. The Cubans are his people. And we're going to jail for him. DEAN Howard, you'll serve no more than two years, then he'll pardon you. HUNT (lights his pipe) John, sooner or later -- sooner I think -- you are going to learn the lesson that has been learned by everyone who has ever gotten close to Richard Nixon. That he's the darkness reaching out for the darkness. And eventually, it's either you or him. Look at the landscape of his life and you'll see a boneyard. Hunt throws the match into the river. HUNT ...And he's already digging your grave, John. SCENE NINETY-THREE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CORRIDOR - DAY JOHN DEAN, looking glum, walks down the corridors for his meeting with the President. Passing the SECRETARIES who look at him -- that furtive look of people who sense crisis. REPORTERS (V.O.) FBI Director-designate, L. Patrick Gray, shocked the Senate by revealing that John Dean has been secretly receiving FBI reports on Watergate... Gray also said that Dead lied when he claimed Howard Hunt did not have an office in the White House... SCENE NINETY-FOUR INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - DAY SUBTITLE READS: "MARCH 1973" DEAN is explaining his new outlook to a quiet NIXON. DEAN ...this is the sort of thing Mafia people can do -- washing money, and things like that. We just don't know about these things because we're not criminals. On Nixon listening behind his desk, hands cupped over his mouth, frown across his face -- the classic Nixon image of a deep thinker. The CAMERA drops to his desk. And moves towards a MIKE drilled in the edge of the desk. INTERCUT TO: SCENE NINETY-FIVE INT. FILE ROOM - BASEMENT - DAY A bank of TAPE RECORDERS labeled "Oval Office," "Lincoln Room," "Phones 1-6," "EOB," is rolling. BACK TO SCENE AT OPTION: NIXON How much do you need? DEAN Uh, I would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years... NIXON We could get that. DEAN Uh huh... NIXON We could get a million dollars. We could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten. INTERCUT: the TAPE rolling. DEAN (pause) I'm still not confident we can ride through this. Some people are going to have to go to jail. Hunt's not the only problem. Haldeman let me use the 350,000 cash fund in his safe to make the payments. Ehrlichman had a role, a big role, in the Ellsberg break- in. And I'm... uh, I think it's time we begin to think in terms of cutting our losses. NIXON (worried about Dean) You say, John, cut our losses and all the rest. But suppose the thing blows and they indict Bob and the others. Jesus, you'd never recover from that, John. It's better to fight it out instead, and not let people testify... DEAN Sir, I still don't think, uh, we can contain it anymore. There's a cancer on the presidency. And it's growing. With every day that... NIXON Jesus, everything is a crisis among the upper intellectual types, the softheads. The average people don't think it's much of a crisis. For Christ's sake it's not Vietnam... no one's dying here. Isn't it ridiculous? DEAN I agree it's ridiculous but-- NIXON I mean, who the hell cares about this penny-ante shit. Goldwater put it right. He said: "Well for Christ's sakes, everybody bugs everybody else; we know that." ...It's the cover-up, not the deed that's really bad here. (then) If only Mitchell could step up and take the brunt of it; give them the hors d'oeuvre and maybe they won't come back for the main course. That's the tragedy in all this. Mitchell's going to get it in the neck anyway. It's time he assumed responsibility. Dean has a nervous look in his eye. DEAN He won't. He told Ehrlichman he won't. A lightning-like IMAGE reveals MITCHELL, responding to EHRLICHMAN. This is Nixon's mind at work. MITCHELL You tell Brother Dick I got suckered into this thing by not paying attention to what these bastards were doing. I don't have a guilty conscience... And he shouldn't either. Nixon glance towards the microphone as he moves around the desk to get closer to Dean. NIXON (loud and clear) He's right. Maybe it's time to go the hang-out route, John. A full and thorough investigation ...We've cooperated with the FBI, we'll cooperate with the Senate. What do we have to hide? DEAN (prompted) No, we have nothing to hide. NIXON (repeating) We have nothing to hide. (then) But the only flaw in the plan is that they're not gong to believe the truth. That is the incredible thing! Dean, who is worried about his own hide if the truth comes out, sees the point of this. DEAN I agree. It's tricky. Everything seems to lead back here, and, uh... people would never understand. Nixon awkwardly puts his arm around Dean's shoulder. Dean begins to sense a betrayal in the offing. NIXON John, I want you to get away from this madhouse, these reporters, and go up to Camp David for the weekend. And I want you to write up a report. I want you to put everything you know about Watergate in there. Say: Mr. President, here it all is. Another lightning-like IMAGE is Nixon's worst fear -- JOHN DEAN is at a table, plea-bargaining with TWO PROSECUTORS, their backs to us. DEAN (V.O.) You want me to put it all in writing? Over my signature? NIXON (V.O.) Nobody knows more about this thing than you do, John. A pause. DEAN I'm not going to be the scapegoat for this. Haldeman and Ehrlichman are in it just as deep as me. NIXON John, you don't want to start down that road. I remember what Whittaker Chambers told me back in ‘48 -- and he was a man who suffered greatly -- he said, "On the road of the informer, it's always night." (then) This is beyond you or even me. It's the country, John. It's the presidency. DEAN I understand that, sir. NIXON Good. You know how I feel about loyalty. I'm not going to let any of my people go to jail. That I promise you. (moves closer) The important thing is to keep this away from Haldeman and Ehrlichman. I'm trusting you to do that, John. I have complete confidence in you. Off Dean's face we: CUT TO: SCENE NINETY-SIX TELEVISION SCREEN - NIXON - NIGHT (1973) NIXON on the TV screen, shaken, ashen-faced. NIXON I was determined that we should get to the bottom of Watergate, and the truth should be fully brought out no matter who was involved... SCENE NINETY-SEVEN INT. CIA - HELMS' OFFICE - NIGHT (1973) RICHARD HELMS, absently watching NIXON on TV, carries a handful of documents to the fireplace. He drops them in the fire, watches them burn. NIXON (on TV, struggles) Today, in one of the most difficult decisions of my presidency, I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates -- Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman -- two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know... The counsel to the President, John Dean, has also resigned. CLOSE on Helms burning documents. SCENE NINETY-EIGHT LIMBO - HALDEMAN watches TV, his WIFE and CHILDREN next to him. He thinks back to: INT. EXEC. OFFICE BLDG. - NIXON OFFICE - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) Haldeman's mind -- the last one-on-one session. HALDEMAN leaves the office, looking back over his shoulder at NIXON alone in the gathering shadows. HALDEMAN More light, chief? NIXON (distracted, waves) No... Haldeman exits. BACK TO SCENE: NIXON (V.O.) ...There can be no whitewash at the White House... two wrongs do not make a right. I love America. God bless America and God bless each and every one of you. HALDEMAN (to himself) Six... six bodies. His wife puts her hand on his knee in support. He squeezes her hand. SCENE NINETY-NINE LIMBO - EHRLICHMAN also watches, with FAMILY. SCENE ONE HUNDRED INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT NIXON sits at his desk, holding a rigid expression. FLOOR MANAGER (O.S.) And... we're clear. We stay on Nixon as the film lights go off, leaving him in shadow. He is devastated. ALEXANDER HAIG, Nixon's new chief-of-staff, seen earlier, watches Nixon for a moment, turns to the VIDEO CREW. HAIG (softly) Out. SCENE ONE HUNDRED AND ONE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - DINING-ROOM - NIGHT (1973) NIXON at one end of the lengthy table, PAT at the other eat, in a dreadful silence, attended by MANOLO and SERVANTS who move nervously, anxious to have the dinner over with. PAT (at last) I'm giving a tea for the wives of the POWs. Nixon doesn't respond. PAT Are you going to Key Biscayne? Nixon doesn't look up. NIXON Yes. PAT When? NIXON Tomorrow. PAT Ron told me that Bob Haldeman's been calling. But you won't talk to him... If he's convicted, will you pardon him? NIXON No. She looks at him. PAT ...Why are you cutting yourself off from the rest of us? (then) Can't we discuss this? Nixon slowly sets his spoon down. An icy stare. NIXON What exactly did you want to discuss, Pat? PAT You. What you're doing-- NIXON (interrupts) And what am I doing? PAT I wish I knew. You're hiding. NIXON Hiding what? PAT Whatever it is you've always been hiding. You're letting it destroy you, Dick. You won't even ask for help. You're destroying yourself, Dick. Nixon pauses, rings the dinner bell. MANOLO reappears at the door. NIXON Mrs. Nixon is finished. Pat looks as if she's been slapped; slowly puts down her silverware. MANOLO clears away her plate. PAT I'm the only one left, Dick. If you don't talk to me, you... NIXON Brezhnev's coming in three days. I don't want to deal with them. And him. And you. Pat sits rigid for a moment. PAT How much more? How much more is it going to cost? When do the rest of us stop paying off your debts? Nixon puts down his fork, embarrassed. Manolo has beaten a hasty retreat. NIXON I'd like to finish my dinner in peace. It's not too much to ask. Pat stands slowly. PAT No, it isn't. I won't interfere with you any more. I'm finished trying. NIXON Thank you. PAT (incredulous) Thank you? (then) Dick, sometimes I understand why they hate you. Nixon watches her walk out the door. Then, he picks up his fork and continues eating. SENATOR SAME ERVIN (V.O.) (drawls) The Senate Select Committee on Watergate will come to order... A gavel POUNDS O.S. SCENE ONE HUNDRED AND TWO INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - HAIG'S OFFICE - DAY NIXON STAFFERS are gathered around Haig's TV set as we: CROSSCUT TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED AND THREE INT. COMMITTEE CHAMBER - (SEEN ONLY ON TV) - DAY (1973) JOHN DEAN reads his statement to the COMMITTEE. Conservatively groomed, horn-rimmed glasses, shorter hair, Dean speaks in a monotone. A pretty blonde woman, his WIFE, sits noticeably behind him. DEAN (on TV) ...it was a tremendous disappointment to me because it was quite clear that the cover-up, as far as the White House was concerned, was going to continue... STAFFERS Lying sack of shit! Little mommy's boy -- go tell the teacher, will ya... HAIG looks at Dean on TV, shakes his head, disgusted, and goes out. HAIG The weasel's got no proof. Just remember that it's still an informer's word against the President's. SCENE ONE HUNDRED FOUR INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CORRIDOR - DAY HAIG walking past STAFF into the Oval Office: DEAN (V.O., TV) (droning on) ...it was apparent to me I had failed in turning the President around... I reached the conclusion that Ehrlichman would never admit to his involvement in the cover- up... I assumed that Haldeman would not, because he would believe it a higher duty to protect the President... SCENE ONE HUNDRED FIVE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - DAY (1973) HAIG slides into the room where NIXON and LEONID BREZHNEV, Premier of the USSR, are engaged in a friendly meeting through an INTERPRETER. ANDREI GROMYKO completes the glum Soviet threesome. BREZHNEV (in Russian) ...Mao told me in 1963: "If I have nuclear weapons, let 400 million Chinese die, 300 million will be left." (leans closer) Mao suffers from a mental disorder; we know this a long time in my county. (then) This is the man you want to be your ally. NIXON He was your ally for twenty years, Leonid. BREZHNEV (makes a funny gesture) Yes, yes, Dick. Life is always the best teacher, you know this -- and you too will discover how treacherous he can be. But it must not interfere with the building of a SALT II treaty between our great countries. Peace in our era is possible... Nixon looks to Haig, who whispers something in his ear. NIXON Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. Nixon and Haig move to a corner of the room, whisper. BREZHNEV (to Gromyko) If Haldeman and Ehrlichman are indicted, it will wound him, perhaps fatally. GROMYKO That depends on who they believe -- Nixon or Dean. Brezhnev looks at Nixon, who is visibly shaken. BREZHNEV (shakes his head) Incredible. He looks like a man with little time left. SCENE ONE HUNDRED SIX INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIXON BEDROOM - NIGHT (1973) Nixon's daughter, JULIE, earnest, bright-eyed, looks at her Father. JULIE (hesitantly) Did you... Daddy? Did you cover it up? NIXON looks at her steadily. NIXON Do you think I would do something like that, honey? Julie shakes her head vigorously, then puts her hands to her eyes. JULIE Then you can't resign! You just can't. You're one of the best presidents this country's ever had! You've done what Lincoln did. You've brought this country back from civil war! You can't let your enemies tear you down! (calmer) You've got to stay and fight. I'll go out there and make speeches, Dad. No one knows the real you. How sweet you are, how nice you are to people. I'll tell them. She embraces him almost desperately, kissing him on the forehead, crying. JULIE Daddy, you are the most decent person I know. NIXON (over her shoulder) I hope I haven't let you down. JULIE (hugging him through her tears) They just don't know; they don't know the real you. On Nixon -- CLOSE. SCENE ONE HUNDRED SEVEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - PAT'S BEDROOM - DAY (1973) PAT is still wearing her nightdress; coffee, and cigarette in hand, as her press secretary, HELEN SMITH, runs through a sheaf of papers. A TELEVISION drones in the background. SMITH (cheery) ...and on Friday we have the high- school students from Ohio, Saturday is the Women's National Republican Club... NEWSCASTER 1 (V.O.) In a development that could break Watergate wide open, former White House aide, Alexander Butterfield, testifying today before the Senate Select Committee, revealed the existence of a taping system that may have recorded conversations in the White House, the EOB, and the Camp David retreat... Pat glances up over the top of her glasses. SMITH (CONT'D) And on Sunday you're saying hello to the ‘VFW Poppy Girl... She realizes Pat is not listening. SMITH Mrs. Nixon...? Close: on Pat as she slowly raises a hand to her lips. NEWSCASTER 1 (V.O.) White House sources say that for the past three years, President Nixon has recorded virtually every conversation he has had, including those with his staff, and even members of his own family... Pat is horrified. SCENE ONE HUNDRED EIGHT INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM - DAY NIXON sits in his bed, alone, still in his pajamas. It's clear he hasn't slept. He looks shell-shocked. NEWSCASTER 1 (V.O.) The is a stunning revelation. If such tapes exist, they could tell us once and for all: What did the President know and when did he know it... The CAMERA closing on NIXON. His deepest secrets are now being revealed. He begins coughing violently. He tries to cover his mouth, but notices now that his hand and the sheets around him are covered with blood. He screams, terrified. NIXON Oh, God -- Pat! HARD CUT TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED NINE INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAY (1973) NIXON on a gurney, being wheeled down a hospital corridor. PAT, wearing dark sunglasses, is with him, very concerned. A plastic mask is over his face. He struggles to get up, but a NURSE gently presses him back down. SECRET SERVICE AGENTS surround the gurney. HAIG clears the corridors nervously. HAIG Clear the path! The President is coming through. Clear a path. I'm in charge here. PAT gets the DOCTOR's attention on the move. PAT (privately) Is it TB? DOCTOR No. PAT He's sure he has tuberculosis. DOCTOR No, it's an acute viral pneumonia. (lowers his voice) But that's not what we're worried about. We found an inflammation in his left leg. It's phlebitis... CLOSE on Nixon, eyes closed; the overhead lights reflect in the mask. REPORTERS (V.O.) Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox has broadened his investigation to include President Nixon's business dealings and house payments. Nixon apparently paid no income tax in the years 1970, ‘71, and ‘72... and may have illegally used government funds to improve his San Clemente Western White House. HAIG holds open the doors as the ORDERLIES push Nixon into the respiratory unit. SCENE ONE HUNDRED TEN INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL - RESPIRATORY UNIT - DAY A DOCTOR and NURSE remove the mask from NIXON'S face. REPORTERS (V.O.) Attorney General Elliot Richardson will present evidence to a grand jury that Vice President Agnew is guilty of bribery, extortion and tax evasion... Nixon immediately starts gasping. He again tries to rise, but hands push him back. The doctor fits the mouthpiece of a respirator into Nixon's mouth. Images of the Beast pervade the room. Nixon begins breathing... His eyes going past PAT to... IMAGES of the PAST -- of his PARENTS, Frank, Hannah, little Arthur, Harold... the GROCERY STORE. INTERCUT with: SCENE ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN EXT. STREET - DAY MARTHA MITCHELL is acting strangely behind enormous sunglasses -- at an impromptu interview on the STREET. MARTHA ...Can you keep a secret, honey? ‘Tween you, me, and the gatepost, Tricky Dick always knew what was going on... every last Goddamn detail. And my husbands's not taking the rap this time... They know they can't shut me up, so they'll probably end up killing me, but I depend on you, the press, to protect me... and my husband, because that's what it's going to come to... INTERCUT with: SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWELVE EXT. STREET - DAY JOHN MITCHELL, angry, beleaguered, bypasses cameras outside a COURTHOUSE. MITCHELL She doesn't know what she's talking about. Stop bothering her. She's not well. Hell, she's nuts -- you bastards've seen to that. (brushing past another question) You can stick it right back up your keester fella. Our marriage is finished, thank you very much... (pushes on) BACK TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN NIXON in the hospital, breathing. REPORTER (V.O.) Archibald Cox declared war on President Nixon today by issuing a subpoena for nine of the President's tapes... NIXON (V.O.) (yells) Never! Over my dead body! SCENE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - WEST WING CORRIDOR - DAY (1973) NIXON, his leg swollen, limps down the corridor, furious. HAIG walks with him, ZIEGLER and the lawyer, BUZHARDT, bringing up the rear. HAIG clears the corridor of potential eavesdroppers. NIXON It's the President's personal property! I will never give up my tapes to a bunch of Kennedy-loving Harvard Democrat cocksuckers! HAIG This could trigger the impeachment. They'll go to the Supreme Court next. NIXON Let ‘em try! I appointed three of those bastards! I'm not giving ‘em my tapes! HAIG Can the president afford to ignore a subpoena? NIXON Who the fuck does Cox think he is? (fumes) I never made a dime from public office! I'm honest. My dad died broke. You know the sonofabitch went to law school with Jack Kennedy?... The last gasp of the Establishment! They got the hell kicked out of ‘em in the election, so now they gotta squeal about Watergate cause we were the first real threat to them in years. And by God, Al, we would have changed it, changed it so they couldn't have changed it back in a hundred years, if only... HAIG Congress is considering four articles of impeachment, sir. NIXON For what?! BUZHARDT Sir, the charges are serious -- first, abuse of power; second, obstruction of justice; third, failure to cooperate with the Congress; and last, bombing Cambodia... NIXON They can't impeach me for bombing Cambodia. The President can bomb anybody he wants. ZIEGLER That's true... BUZHARDT Sir, we'll win that one, but the other three... NIXON You know, Fred, they sell tickets. ZIEGLER Sir? NIXON They sell tickets to an impeachment. Like a fucking circus... Okay, so they impeach me. Then it's a question of mathematics. How many votes do we have in the Senate? A beat. Then: HAIG About a dozen. NIXON (wounded) A dozen? I got half of ‘em elected. I still got the South and Goldwater and his boys. I'll take my chances in the Senate. ZIEGLER We should... HAIG Then we'll have to deal with the possibility of removal from office, loss of pension, possibly... prison. NIXON Shit, plenty of people did their best writing in prison. Gandhi, Lenin... ZIEGLER That's right. NIXON (beat, glowers darkly) What I know about this country, I... I could rip it apart. If they want a public humiliation, that's what they'll get. But I will never resign this office. Where the fuck am I? They look at him strangely. They've stopped at the doors of the East Room. The SOUND of VOICES and a VIOLIN playing inside. NIXON (to Ziegler) What's in there? ZIEGLER POWs. And their families. NIXON So I'm supposed to be... ZIEGLER Compassionate. Grateful. NIXON Proud? ZIEGLER (confused) Sir? NIXON Of them. ZIEGLER Yes, yes. NIXON (back to Haig, bitterly) Fire him. HAIG Who? NIXON Cox! Fire him. HAIG But he works for the Attorney General. Only Richardson can fire him. BUZHARDT (concerned) Sir, if I may... echo my concern... NIXON (ignoring Buzhardt, to Haig) Then tell Richardson to fire him. HAIG Richardson won't do that. He'll resign. NIXON The hell he will! Fire him too. If you have to go all the way down the janitor at the Justice Department, fire the sonofabitch! And... ZIEGLER He's asked for it. HAIG May I just say something, sir? I think you should welcome the subpoena. The tapes can only prove that Dean is a liar. ZIEGLER That's right, sir. A moment. NIXON There's more... there's more than just me. You can't break, my boy, even when there's nothing left. You can't admit, even to yourself, that it's gone, Al. (pointing to the East Room) Do you think those POWs in there did. ZIEGLER No, sir... NIXON Now some people, we both know them, Al, think you can go stand in the middle of the bullring and cry, "Mea culpa, mea culpa," while the crowd is hissing and booing and spitting on you. But a man doesn't cry. (then) I don't cry. You don't cry... You fight! INTERCUT soft IMAGES over NIXON being pounded at FOOTBALL... Nixon straightens himself, puts on a smile, nods to Ziegler. Ziegler opens the door. A ROAR of CHEERS and MARTIAL MUSIC greets the President, as he disappears inside. CUT TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN TV SCREEN - NBC logo - LIMBO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) We interrupt this program for a special report from NBC News. A REPORTER appears, stunned. REPORTER (V.O.) The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in history. In the wake of Vice President Spiro Agnew's forced resignation on charges of corruption, President Nixon has fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. DOCUMENTARY IMAGES -- ARCHIBALD COX walking in the street, having heard the news, smiling. REPORTER (V.O. CONT'D) Attorney General Elliot Richardson has resigned rather than comply with the President's order, and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus was fired when he refused to carry out the order... DOCUMENTARY IMAGES -- FBI AGENTS carrying boxes of files out of the Special Prosecutor's office. RUCKELSHAUS getting into a car, refusing to comment. ELLIOT RICHARDSON moving down a gauntlet of REPORTERS. We CUT BACK to the REPORTER on camera, grim. REPORTER (CONT'D) (on TV) Tonight, the country, without a Vice President, stands poised at the crossroads -- has a government of laws become a government of one man. SCENE ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT - 1973 As before, the black iron bars. The facade of the mansion. The light in the second floor. We move in slowly. SCENE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT (1973) NIXON is really drunk now, listening to some GIBBERISH on the tape. We move in on his profile, farmed by Lincoln in the background. We should not be able to make out the voices -- occasional words like "Castro," "Kennedy." But that's about it... nothing more. And as we move closer on Nixon, bleary-eyed, we should feel he has no idea, either, of what he's listening to. It's just... noise. PAT's voice cuts in. She's standing at the doorway. She's been drinking too, but is sharp. PAT They're like love letters. You should burn them. Nixon, startled, tires to shut off the tape, but he hits the wrong button and we hear high-speed VOICES in reverse. PAT Why didn't you? NIXON (slurs) You can't expect me to explain that to you. PAT What matters to me is whether you understand it. A beat. He finally gets the tape stopped. NIXON They're evidence. You can't legally destroy evidence. Pat stares at him. PAT You don't expect me to believe that for one minute, do you? (then) Does it matter what's on them? Really?... Murder, Dick? Sex? Your secrets, your fantasies? Or just me and you and... NIXON Don't be ridiculous! PAT I remember Alger Hiss. I know how ugly you can be -- you're capable of anything. But you see, it doesn't really matter, at the end of the day, what's on them. Because you have absolutely no remorse. No concept of remorse. You want the tapes to get out, you want them to see you at your worst... NIXON You're drunk! PAT (laughs) Yeah, I am. NIXON (CONT'D) No one will ever see those tapes. Including you! A beat. PAT And what would I find out that I haven't known for years. (then) What makes it so damn sad is that you couldn't confide in any of us. You had to make a record... for the whole world. NIXON They were for me. They're mine. PAT No. They're not yours. They are you. You should burn them. She turns and walks out. Nixon is turbulent, upset. He turns and suddenly sees the ghost of his young mother, HANNAH, sitting there in the shadows, staring at him. He jumps. Those eyes of her. Penetrating, gazing right though him. HANNAH What has changed in thee, Richard... When thou were a boy... NIXON (blurts out) No! Please! Don't talk to me! Anything... but don't talk to me. A SHARP CUT snaps us from this reverie, and Nixon is alone in his sitting room, the door closed, the VOICE on the tape droning. He downs pills with the Scotch. NIXON (V.O.) (on tape) ...these guys went after Castro. Seven times, ten times... What do you think -- people like that, they just give up? They just walk away? (then) Whoever killed Kennedy came from this... this thing we created. This Beast... That's why we can't let this thing go any farther... He looks over the recorder, slowly turning. He pushes "Stop" and then runs it back on "Rewind." High-speed voices. He pushes "Stop" again. A series of TIME CUTS shows Nixon getting drunker. Playing sections of the tape. The camera closes on the tape machine. It's all a blur as we hear a HUM growing louder and louder, as we inch in on an abstract CLOSE-UP of the TAPE moving across the capstan. REPORTER (V.O.) In the latest bombshell, the President's lawyers revealed that there is an eighteen-and-a-half- minute gap in a critical Watergate tape... SCENE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - WEST WING - DAY (1974) A frenzy of paperwork as the PRESIDENT'S LAWYERS -- BUZHARDT and ST. CLAIR -- sit hunched around a table piled with transcripts, helped by TWO YOUNG ASSISTANTS. NIXON is aghast as he reads some of the highlighted sections. HAIG and ZIEGLER attend. REPORTER 1 (V.O.) ...In an attempt to head off impeachment proceedings, the President has agreed to release transcripts of forty-six taped conversations... REPORTER 2 (V.O.) ...In a simple ceremony, Gerald Ford was sworn in as Vice President. A long-time, popular member of Congress, Ford reinforces a sense of... REPORTER 3 (V.O.) ...citing White House wrong-doing, the judge has dismissed all charges against Daniel Ellsberg. REPORTER 4 (V.O.) ...the grand jury has indicted former Nixon aides Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and former Attorney General John Mitchell... Nixon shakes the paper in the faces of Buzhardt and St. Clair. NIXON You're lawyers. How can you let this shit go by! (points) Look! This? Nixon can't say this. BUZHARDT You did say it, sir. NIXON Never. I never said that about Jews! Buzhardt glances at St. Clair. BUZHARDT We could check the tape again, sir. NIXON You don't need to check the tape. I know what I said. He grabs the Magic Marker out of the lawyer's hand and furiously blacks out an entire section. NIXON And this?! Good, Lord, have you lost your mind? Nixon can't say this. "Niggers!" ZIEGLER Well, we could delete it. ST. CLAIR We're doing the best we can sir. NIXON Well it's not good enough... ST. CLAIR We can black it out. ZIEGLER Or we could write "expletive deleted." NIXON ...and get rid of all these "Goddamns"and "Jesus Christs!" ST. CLAIR Sir, all these deletion marks in the transcripts will make it look like you swear all the time. Nixon grows cold, stares steadily at St. Clair. NIXON For Christ's sake, it soils my mother's memory. Do you think I want the whole Goddamn world to see my mother like this? Raising a dirty mouth! BUZHARDT But sir, we'll have to start over from the beginning. We don't have the staff to... Nixon loses it, sweeps the piles of transcripts off the table. They fly around the office. NIXON (screams) Then start over! The world will see only what I show them. From page one! SCENE ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT (1974) NIXON sits at his desk, grimacing tightly into the TV CAMERA. Next to him is a stack of blue binders emblazoned with the presidential seal. NIXON Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I'm taking an action unprecedented in the history of this office... SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - HAIG'S OFFICE - NIGHT (1974) KISSINGER and HAIG watch NIXON on television. They share a drink. NIXON (CONT'D) (on TV) ...an action that will at last, once and for all, show that what I knew and what I did with regard to the Watergate break-in and cover- up were just as I have described them to you from the very beginning... HAIG He's completely lost touch with reality. NIXON (CONT'D) (on TV) I had no knowledge of the cover-up until John Dean told me about it on March twenty-first. And I did not intend that payment to Hunt or anyone else be made... KISSINGER Can you imagine what this man would have been had he ever been loved? NIXON (CONT'D) (on TV) ...because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have never made a dime from public service... KISSINGER Oh God, I'm going to throw up. HAIG They'll crucify him... Kissinger tuns to Haig. KISSINGER Does anybody care anymore? (then) What happens after...? They share a look. INTERCUT TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - PAT'S BEDROOM - NIGHT PAT sits alone, drinking, as the television drones on with the latest invasion of her privacy. As we move in, we see the spirit drawn out of her. She seems numb. SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO DOCUMENTARY IMAGE - EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT (1974) REPORTERS (V.O.) The Supreme Court ruled today eight-to-zero that President Nixon's claims of "executive privilege" cannot be used in criminal cases, and that he must turn over all subpoenaed tapes... a firestorm on Capitol Hiss as... SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CORRIDORS & STAIRS - NIGHT (1974) SUBTITLE READS: "JULY 1974," over EMPTY SHOTS of an EMPTY HOUSE, filled with gloom and dread. The FOOTSTEPS of two silhouettes crack the silence as they make their way towards the Lincoln Sitting Room. It is an eerie echo of the film's opening shots of the White House. The silhouettes now become apparent s GENERAL HAIG and HENRY KISSINGER. REPORTERS (V.O.) ...The House Judiciary Committee has voted twenty-seven-to-eleven to recommend impeachment to the full House. The deliberations now go to the House floor... In its reports, the Committee offers evidence that Nixon obstructed justice on at least thirty-six occasions, that he encouraged his aides to commit perjury, and the he abused the powers of his office... In a separate report, the Senate Select Committee detail the misuse of the IRS, the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Department. It denounced the Plumbers, and it raises the question of whether the United States had a valid election in 1972. HIGH ANGLE -- Haig knocks and enters the Lincoln Sitting Room. A shaft of LIGHT from inside zigzags the darkness. And we hear a snatch of LOUD MUSIC before the door is closed. SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - LINCOLN SITTING ROOM - NIGHT (1974) NIXON sits in his chair in a suit and tie, listening to "Victory at Sea" at top volume. In front of him is a picture album -- 1922 portraits of the NIXON FAMILY -- HAROLD holding ARTHUR. RICHARD stares glumly at the camera between HANNAH and FRANK. GENERAL HAIG, with KISSINGER behind, approaches with some papers held out in his hand. Nixon sees them, turns down the hi-fi. NIXON "Victory At Sea," Al... Henry. The Pacific Theater. Christ, you can almost feel the waves breaking over the decks. HAIG I'm afraid we have another problem, Mr. President. He hands him a paper. Nixon glances at it. HAIG June twenty-third, ‘72, sir. The part that's underline. Your instructions to Haldeman regarding the CIA and the FBI. NIXON So? HAIG Your lawyers feel it's the... "smoking gun." NIXON It's totally out of context. I was protecting the national security, I never intended-- HAIG Sir, the deadline is today. NIXON Can we get around this, Al? HAIG It's the Supreme Court, sir; you don't get around it. Nixon, silence, looks down at the paper in his hands and sighs. HAIG If you resign, you can keep the tapes as a private citizen... You can fight them for years. NIXON And if I stay? A long moment. HAIG You have the army. Nixon looks up at him, then over at Henry. NIXON The army? HAIG Lincoln used it. NIXON That was the civil war. HAIG How do you see this? Nixon closes his eyes. Haig takes the transcript back. HAIG We can't survive this, sir. They also have you instructing Dean to make the payoff to Hunt. NIXON There is nothing in that statement the President can't explain. HAIG Sir, you talked about opening up the whole "Bay of Pigs" thing again. NIXON That's right... HAIG Three day before, on the June twentieth tape -- the one with the eighteen-minute gap-- NIXON (interrupts) I don't know anything about that. HAIG (continues) ...You mentioned the "Bay of Pigs" several times. Sooner or later they're going to want to know what that means. They're going to want to know what was on that gap... NIXON It's gone. No one will ever find out what's on it. Haig moves closer and leans down, very low, whispers. HAIG They might... if there were another... recording. Nixon glances up at him. HAIG We both know it's possible. (then) I know for a fact it's possible. Nixon stares up at him. HAIG I've spoken to Ford... And there's a very strong chance he'll pardon you... Haig hands him a letter of resignation. INSERT: "I hereby resign the office of the President of the United States." HAIG This is something you will have to do, Mr. President. I thought you would rather do it now... I'll wait outside. Haig drifts out as Kissinger comes out of the shadows. Nixon looks down blankly at the sheet of paper in front of him. KISSINGER May I say, sir, if you stay now it will paralyze the nation and its foreign policy... Nixon looks up at Kissinger. The Judas himself -- at least one of them. There is irony here that is apparent to Nixon but not Kissinger. NIXON Yes, you always hand a good sense of timing, Henry. When to give and when to take. How do you think Mao, Brezhnev will react? (sitting up, suddenly intense) Do you think this is how they'll remember me, Henry, after all the great things you and I did together? As some kind of... of... crooks? KISSINGER (prepared response) They will understand, sir. To be undone by a third-rate burglary is a fate of biblical proportions. History will treat you far more kindly than your contemporaries. NIXON That depends who writes the history books. I'm not a quitter... but I'm not stupid either... A trial wold kill me -- that's what they want. (with some satisfaction) But they won't get it. He signs the resignation paper. A pause. It lies there. KISSINGER (grandiosely) If they harass you, I, too, will rising. And I will tell the world why. NIXON Don't be stupid. The world needs you Henry; you always saw the big picture. You were my equal in many ways. (then) You're the only friend I've got, Henry... KISSINGER You have many friends... and admirers... NIXON Do you ever pray? You know... believe in a Supreme Being? KISSINGER Uh... not really. You mean on my knees? NIXON Yes. My mother used to pray... a lot. It's been a long time since I really prayed. (a little lost) Let's pray, Henry; let's pray a little. As Nixon gets down on his knees, Kissinger perspires freely. He clumsily follows the President down to the floor. NIXON ...Uh, I hope this doesn't embarrass you. KISSINGER Not at all. This is not going to leak, is it? NIXON (looks at Henry) Don't be too proud; never be too proud to gon on your knees before God. He prays silently, then suddenly, he sobs. NIXON Dear God! Dear God, how can a country come apart like this! What have I done wrong...? Kissinger is experiencing pure dread, his shirt soaked with sweat. He opens his eyes and peeks at Nixon. NIXON ...I opened China. I made peace with Russia. I ended the war. I tried to do what's right! Why... why do they hate me so! A silence. Nixon wraps his arms across his chest and rocks back and forth in an upright fetal position. Kissinger, looking very distressed, reaches over and touches the President, trying awkwardly to console him. NIXON (woozily at his hands) It's unbelievable, it's insane... On that note, we: CUT TO: SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - CORRIDORS AND ENTRY - NIGHT (1974) A solitary SENTINEL -- a Marine Guard -- stands at strict attention, eyes forward, as we hear the VOICES of: The THREE SILHOUETTES of NIXON, KISSINGER, and HAIG walking out. HIGH ANGLES allow us to hear their VOICES echoing off the empty rooms, and sometimes catch a glimpse of a passing face. From the voice we can tell that Nixon has resumed his customary bluffness, a sense of bravado in the face of defeat. NIXON (OFF) ...they smelled the blood on me this time, Al. I got soft. You know... that rusty, metallic smell... HAIG (OFF) I know it well, sir. NIXON (OFF) It came over from Vietnam, you know. HAIG (OFF) Sir? NIXON (OFF) That smell. I mean, everybody suffered so much, their sons killed. They need to sacrifice something, y'know, appease the gods of war -- Mars, Jupiter. I am that blood, General. I am that sacrifice, in the highest place of all. All leaders must finally be sacrificed. They turn a corner, come into more light. NIXON Things won't be the same after this. I played by the rules, but the rules changed right in the middle of the game... There's no respect for American institutions anymore. People are cynical, the press -- God, the press -- is out of control, people spit on soldiers, government secrets mean nothing... Nixon separates from Haig and Kissinger who bid him a last "Mr. President." NIXON (remote) I pity the next guy who sits here... Goodnight, gentlemen... Haig and Kissinger depart. Nixon shuffles back, alone, coming to a stop in front of a larger-than-life, full-length oil portrait of JOHN F. KENNEDY. Nixon studies the portrait, pads closer. Looks up. NIXON When they look at you, they see what they want to be. (then) When they look at me, they see what they are... PAT, overhearing, comes from the shadows in a nightgown. She looks weary, crazed. PAT Dick, please don't... He half turns to her. He is unshaven, eyes red-rimmed, a wounded animal who can no longer defend himself. NIXON I can't... I just don't have the strength anymore... His voice trails off. For a moment, it looks like he's going to collapse. Pat moves towards him to support him. PAT It'll be over soon. NIXON No... it's going to start now... (looks into her eyes) If I could just... sleep. PAT There'll be time for that... He's barely aware of her. NIXON Once... when I was sick, as a boy... my mother gave me this stuff... made me swallow it... it made me throw up. All over her... I wish I could do that now... Pat puts her arm around him. NIXON I'm afraid, Buddy... There's darkness out there. Pat is crying now. She tries to soothe him, strokes his brow like a sick child. NIXON I could always see where I was gong. But it's dark out there. God, I've always been afraid of the dark... Buddy... Nixon breaks down. She slowly leads him up the grand staircase -- into the shadows of history. SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX INT. THE WHITE HOUSE - EAST ROOM - DAY The EPILOGUE and END CREDITS run over NIXON as he addresses the assembled WHITE HOUSE STAFF. PAT and the FAMILY flank him. NIXON ...I remember my old man. I think they would've called him a little man, common man. He didn't consider himself that way. He was a streetcar motorman first, and then he was a farmer, and then he had a lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon ranch in California, I assure you. He sold it before they found oil on it. IMAGES of FRANK and HANNAH NIXON now arise in Nixon's consciousness -- a past he could never really connect his own life to. As if it were a storybook, a fabled America that never was. The MUSIC should, in a sense, accentuate this divorce of sentiment from reality. NIXON (CONT'D) ...and then he was a grocer. But he was a great man because he did his job, and every job counts up to the hilt, regardless of what happens... Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all of you would say this about your mother: my mother was a saint. And I think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis and seeing each of them die, and when they died... Yes, she will have no books written about her. But she was a saint... But now, however, we look to the future. Nixon is holding himself together by sheer force of will. Many member of this STAFF are weeping. He pulls an old well-leafed book open, puts a set of eyeglasses on to read from it, the first time he's ever worn them in public. NIXON (CONT'D) ...I remember something Theodore Roosevelt wrote when his first wife died. He was still a young man, in his twenties, and this was in his diary -- "T.R." --... "She was beautiful in face and form and lovelier still in spirit... When she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her, then by a strange and terrible fate death came to her. And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever..." That was "T.R." in his twenties. He thought the light had gone from his life forever. He put down the book, nearly cracking. NIXON ...But of coarse he went on, to become president, sometime right, sometimes wrong, always in the arena, always vita... We sometimes think, when things happen that don't go the right way, we think that when someone dear to us dies, when we lose an election, when we suffer a defeat, that all is ended... but that's not true. It is only a beginning, always; because the greatness comes not when things always go good for you, but the greatness comes, and you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes... Because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain... To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead. SCENE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY A MARINE CORPS HELICOPTER waits at the end of a red carpet. NIXON and PAT make their way towards, it followed by the FAMILY. NIXON (V.O. CONT'D) ...Remember: always give you best, never get discouraged, never be petty. Always remember: Others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them... and then you destroy yourself. They climb the steps and Nixon turns on the top step and smiles bravely. Then he waves good-bye. NIXON (V.O. CONT'D) ...Only then will you find what we Quakers call "peace at the center." Au revoir -- we'll see you again! He raises his arms in his characteristic twin-V salute. And we FADE OUT. EPILOGUE runs over a DARK SCREEN. EPILOGUE Nixon always maintained that if had not been driven from office, the North Vietnamese would not have overwhelmed the South in 1975. In a sideshow, Cambodian society was destroyed and mass genocide resulted. In his absence, Russia and the United States returned to a decade of high- budget military expansion and near-war. Nixon, who was pardoned by President Ford, lived to write six books and travel the world as an elder statesmen. He was buried and honored by five ex-Presidents on April 26, 1994, less than a year after Pat Nixon died. We include a DOCUMENTARY CLIP of his FUNERAL, eulogized by President CLINTON, the four other PRESIDENTS alongside him. ROBERT DOLE eulogizes him as a "great American." EPILOGUE (CONT'D) For the remainder of his life, Nixon fought successfully to protect his tapes. The National Archives spent fourteen years indexing and cataloguing them. Out of four thousand hours, only sixty hours have been made public. We end on an IMAGE of YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA... turn of the Twentieth Century where it began. We focus on the faces of the early pioneers who settled the land -- we drift over the faces of HANNAH and FRANK, in their stern postures -- past the BROTHERS, including the two deceased one... to little RICHARD, yes all aglow with the hopes of the new century. THE END