Ehrlichman, Remembered For Watergate, Dies At Age 73 -- Public Perception Of Washington Native Forever Linked To Break-In

In recent years, John Ehrlichman didn't talk much about Watergate.

It was indeed a topic that dominated much of his public career. Mr. Ehrlichman, President Nixon's top domestic-policy adviser, went to prison for his role in the cover-up of illegal activity that ultimately led to Nixon's resignation.

Mr. Ehrlichman, 73, a former Seattle lawyer, died in Atlanta on Sunday. He had suffered from diabetes, his son, Tom Ehrlichman of Seattle, said yesterday.

It has been about 10 years since Mr. Ehrlichman talked about Watergate, his son said: "He sort of moved on with that topic with his family. It wasn't the topic of the day anymore."

Mr. Ehrlichman, born March 20, 1925, in Tacoma, graduated from UCLA and received a law degree at Stanford University in 1951. During World War II, he was a navigator in the 8th Air Force, where he earned the Air Medal clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Before joining the White House, Mr. Ehrlichman was a partner in the Seattle law firm of Hullin, Ehrlichman, Roberts & Hodge from 1952 to 1968. At that time, he lived in Hunts Point on the Eastside.

In the mid-1960s, he won fame by blocking the development of an aluminum plant on Guemes Island in a case that went to the Supreme Court.

In the late '60s, representing homeowners in Port Susan south of Stanwood, Mr. Ehrlichman sued Snohomish County over its approval of a housing subdivision on land owned by the Atlantic Richfield, Co., which had failed to get the permits needed to build a refinery on the property.

ARCO officials had put a member of the county's planning commission, Lew Bell, on retainer and had flown members of the County Council to California where they were wined and dined. The council, on the advice of the planning commission, eventually approved a housing development on a golf course to be built by the county - Kayak Point.

That case went to the state Supreme Court, where the homeowners won. What resulted was the state's Appearance of Fairness Doctrine, which says elected officials must not only be fair but must avoid the appearance that things were unfair or inappropriate.

Mr. Ehrlichman became a Nixon aide through his college friendship with H.R. (Bob) Haldeman.

The pair first worked on two Nixon defeats - his 1960 presidential campaign and his 1962 bid for California's governorship. They were key aides in Nixon's successful 1968 presidential campaign.

After Nixon's election, Haldeman became White House chief of staff, and with Mr. Ehrlichman formed what at the time many referred to as a "palace guard," tightly controlling those who had access to the president. In the process, they fostered the us-against-them mentality that pervaded the Nixon White House and helped lead to Watergate.

Early in Nixon's first term, he tabbed Mr. Ehrlichman to be his chief adviser for domestic policy.

The Watergate cover-up was an attempt to conceal from the public the White House's involvement in the break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington on June 17, 1972, by a gang of burglars, dubbed "the plumbers."

The burglars, quickly tied to Nixon's re-election campaign, were trying to replace a faulty telephone-bugging device installed during an earlier break-in.

They were caught when a security guard noticed they had taped a door to keep it from locking. He removed the tape, the burglars replaced it and the guard called police.

In April 1973, as the cover-up began to unravel, Nixon held a tearful meeting at his presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., with his two intimate and powerful advisers - the iron-willed Haldeman and the self-controlled Mr. Ehrlichman.

By that time, Nixon's counsel, John Dean, had implicated them in the cover-up. Nixon hoped the sacrifice would staunch the scandal and spare him.

Ehrlichman resigns

The next day, Nixon fired Dean and accepted the resignations of Haldeman, Mr. Ehrlichman and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.

Nixon had been re-elected in November 1972, but when he was forced by the Supreme Court to surrender the audio tape that showed his early involvement in the cover-up, impeachment became inevitable. On Aug. 9, 1974, he became the only president to resign. His successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him.

Mr. Ehrlichman served 18 months in prison in the late 1970s after he was found guilty of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and perjury. His conviction grew out of false testimony to a Senate committee and overseeing the plumbers' 1971 break-in of the offices of a psychiatrist who had treated Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon aide who had leaked the classified Pentagon Papers to The New York Times.

Mr. Ehrlichman would say that such a break-in, because it was done to protect national security, was "within the president's inherent constitutional powers."

Convicted in burglary

That didn't stand up, and Mr. Ehrlichman and others - including Egil "Bud" Krogh, a youthful protege of Mr. Ehrlichman who had been operations chief of "the plumbers" - were convicted of felonies.

"I think Watergate was a deeply tragic affair," said Krogh, now a Seattle attorney, after his re-admission to the bar in 1980. "Many things were done that John was held responsible for, even though they were really not his responsibility. But he was branded with the same broad brush that other people were."

Krogh, 59, said he'd known Mr. Ehrlichman since he was 12 and always considered him a good friend. "He was a wonderful boss and a great family man."

After serving his prison sentence in a minimum security federal institution in Arizona, Mr. Ehrlichman moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where he began a new career as an artist, writer and radio commentator.

The ghost of Watergate

Mr. Ehrlichman never seemed able to escape the ghosts of Watergate and its effect on the public's impression of him.

"I was never the person everybody saw in the Watergate hearings. But I have realized that I was never going to catch up with my image. It was set in concrete. It bothered me enormously for a while, what people thought of me," he told the Washington Post in 1979.

"I made myself stop caring because I knew I couldn't do a thing about it, and I knew it was going to tear me up if I tried."

In an interview in 1982 to promote his memoir - "Witness to Power: The Nixon Years" - Mr. Ehrlichman minimized his role and said Nixon's character kept him from telling the truth about Watergate.

"It was a question of weakness," Mr. Ehrlichman said. "He simply could not bring himself to do something which I think he saw as delivering himself to his enemies."

"You have to remember he was a very good lawyer - a very sharp attorney - and he approached the whole ordeal as an attorney," said his son, Tom, of his father. "He fought a hard battle, and though he didn't agree with the conclusion, he served his time. He certainly went through a thought-provoking, soul-searching experience and came out of it a better man, with some significant retooling of his priorities and values."

Wrote four novels

In addition to his memoirs, Mr. Ehrlichman wrote four novels: "The Company," 1976; "The Whole Truth," 1979; "The China Card," 1986, and "The Rigby File," (co-author) 1989.

He moved to Atlanta about eight years ago as senior vice president of an international engineering and environmental regulatory compliance firm. In the last years of his life, Mr. Ehrlichman returned to making radio and television commentaries. He also contributed to national news magazines, said his son.

In recent years, Mr. Ehrlichman collaborated on a documentary about his years with Nixon, and the Watergate scandal. Bruce Cohn, who produced and wrote the documentary, "John Ehrlichman: In the Eye of the Storm," said the former Nixon loyalist felt deeply betrayed by the president. "He always felt Nixon kind of did him dirt by sacrificing him and Haldeman," Cohn said.

Despite his controversial political career, Mr. Ehrlichman would have wanted to be remembered for his role in the environmental movement during the Nixon presidency, such as working with Congress to establish the legislation for the Environmental Protection Agency, said his son.

Mr. Ehrlichman also was very proud of his efforts toward recognizing greater sovereignty for Native-American tribes.

Mr. Ehrlichman was most recently in Seattle in May for the high-school graduation of his grandson. He loved the Cascades and often took fly-fishing trips with son Peter.

Even after his political career dwindled, Mr. Ehrlichman studied the office of the presidency. "He had one of the best libraries on the office of the presidency that I've ever seen," Tom Ehrlichman said.

Mr. Ehrlichman's first marriage ended in divorce, as did his second. He is survived by his third wife, Karen Hilliard, four sons and two daughters and his mother, Lillian. Funeral services will be private.

Material from Seattle Times staff reporter Arthur Santana, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.

--------------- John Ehrlichman ---------------

Born: March 20, 1925, in Tacoma.

College: Undergraduate degree from UCLA; law degree from Stanford.

Position in Nixon White House: Domestic policy adviser; resigned in April 1973.

Convicted: In late 1970s of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.

After Watergate: Writer (including four novels), artist, radio and television commentator.