Chapter 319
Chapter 319
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Side Story 10) Watergate
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In 1972, as the CIA was plotting a coup in Chile, America found itself in the thick of presidential election season.
The Republican National Committee, gearing up for Nixon’s reelection, kept a close eye on public opinion polls and ran the numbers.
The outlook was somewhat grim.
“The election looks rough. Way too many headwinds.”
This race was shaping up to be even tougher than the 1968 contest.
The Korean bloc’s tightening grip amid the petrodollar’s decline.
The recession sparked by economic warfare with Korea.
Ditching the South Vietnam alliance.
Souring ties with European allies.
Saigon, 1972.
Nixon was saddled with a nightmare stack of bad news.
Pulling off a win in this climate wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
Nixon’s top advisors, staring down the mess, seriously weighed just handing the election over.
Then an unexpected break fell into the Nixon camp’s lap.
“Senator Robert Kennedy’s been assassinated!”
“What?”
Robert Kennedy, the Democrats’ top presidential contender, got gunned down mid-campaign.
“I’m the one who can beat Nixon— I should run!”
That sparked a flood of candidates, dragging the Democrats into a nasty civil war.
“This feels like our shot.”
The Nixon reelection team hatched a plan to ride the Democrats’ infighting all the way to victory.
“Korean tactics are perfect for a play like this.”
Nixon’s aides—folks with zero qualms about twisting the press—rolled out covert ops to fan the Democrats’ chaos to the max.
First target: Democratic frontrunner Senator Edmund Muskie.
“Senator Edmund’s discriminating against French-American voters.”
“What the hell’s that about?”
“Just putting it out there.”
Dirty “just saying” hits like that were low, but they landed.
The Nixon camp sank teeth into Muskie’s family too.
Personal smears, vicious rumors—every sleazy trick in the book—until Senator Edmund tumbled from the top spot.
“One down.”
Next up: George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey, battling it out for the lead.
“Polls love McGovern, but the party brass backs Humphrey. Figure out what they’re thinking, and we can cook up some infighting gold. Any ideas?”
The Nixon crew hungered for deeper intel on their rivalry.
“Ah, why overthink it?”
“What’re you on about?”
“Bug and wiretap the Democratic campaign HQ.”
“???”
Nixon’s inner circle hashed it out and greenlit wiretapping the Democratic National Convention offices.
Kicked off smooth.
Nixon’s team peered into the enemy’s moves through bugs planted in the DNC offices—like reading their palms.
“Democrats got some moves. Invalidating delegates? Clever.”
Nixon’s crew compiled the wiretap hauls and methodically prepped their media blitz.
But like most electronics back then, the bugs crapped out often.
Static. Crackle.
“What’s this? Can’t hear shit.”
“Looks busted, sir.”
“Damn it. This is crunch time. Can we swap ’em?”
“One day’s plenty.”
Nixon’s insiders dispatched a crew—five Cuban operatives and three from the reelection committee—disguised as plumbers to swap the fried bugs in the DNC offices.
“No screw-ups. Got it?”
“You bet.”
They posted separate lookouts outside the Watergate complex and packed shortwave radios for comms.
They’d scouted the Democrats’ routines and schedules cold, so slipping in was a breeze.
Unlike the real timeline, the night guards at the Watergate were clocked out—so no one to hassle the crew.
Or so it seemed.
Across the street, hidden eyes tracked their every move.
“Got visual?”
“Crystal clear.”
In a hotel facing the Watergate complex, German-Korean guys were holed up long-term, binoculars in hand.
They’d checked in right as U.S. election season heated up.
The Koreans, scanning the complex daily through high-end scopes, clocked shady types dipping in and out of the convention offices.
“Looks like they’re planting bugs.”
“Just document it.”
The Koreans captured the sketchy scene on video.
The Nixon camp hadn’t a clue.
Oblivious that the Koreans had the full picture, they leveraged the wiretap intel to stoke Democratic discord.
The Republicans snatched victory through those grubby means.
“That’s the thrill of elections.”
But it was too soon to celebrate.
The KCIA polished the Watergate dossier and shipped it to Pyongyang.
Pyongyang cracked a wry smile at the package.
“Washington’s no poster child for real democracy either.”
The Korean government puzzled over how to play the KCIA’s intel.
‘Can’t run this under our flag.’
That was Pyongyang’s take.
Calling out Nixon’s bugs would drag Korea’s preemptive surveillance into the light.
Simple fix.
‘Just don’t make it from the Korean government.’
The KCIA gift-wrapped the files and slipped them to the black civil rights crowd.
“Wait, why hand that to the blacks?”
“Gotta amp up their voice in politics, right?”
The KCIA had picked up plenty of tricks under Yi Seong-jun.
Andrew Young, civil rights leader, got the KCIA drop but didn’t grasp the jackpot at first.
“Video of goons sneaking around a complex at night with flashlights—what’s so hot about that?”
“That’s the point. Check the memo.”
Andrew skimmed the enclosed explainer and it clicked.
“So this went down at the Democratic National Convention offices during primary season?”
“Per the write-up.”
Mind-blowing.
If true, it meant thugs prowling the offices—what the hell for?
What else?
“Means someone inside the party pulled dirty tricks to kneecap rivals.”
Andrew couldn’t wrap his head around this happening in America, land of free democracy.
Unforgivable.
‘Can’t let the Democrats—who passed civil rights under Kennedy and Johnson—sink this low.’
Andrew had a soft spot for the Democrats who delivered civil rights.
So he couldn’t bury it.
“Get me Washington Post to New York Times—everybody.”
That’s how Watergate—one of America’s all-time mega-scandals—broke wide open.
“Exposing the sleazy plot in the Democrats’ primary race!”
Watergate exploded, and the finger-pointed Democrats lost their minds.
“What? Us staging a backstab show on ourselves? Bullshit.”
The Democrats’ internal probe confirmed: nothing like that happened in-house.
“So?”
“GOP’s handiwork.”
The Democrats swung their attack full bore at the Republicans.
“Why’re you pinning your office break-in on us? What’s it got to do with the Republican Party?”
GOP and Nixon camp alike played dumb.
Both stonewalled, but suspicions ran hot.
America split clean in two.
“Who buys the Democrats’ lame excuses? They’re coordinating lies to frame us.”
Republican backers figured Democrats were smearing them with fake dirt.
Democrat fans countered,
“What crap. Who gained from our messy primaries? The goddamn Republicans.”
Partisan finger-pointing clogged Congress with gridlock.
“We need a special prosecutor on Watergate—vote yes on appointing one.”
“What evidence ties our party to the Watergate break-in? Just that dodgy video.”
Republicans could strut because Democrats lacked hard proof.
“You tailored your negative ads to our internals—only explains if you bugged us. Those bugs in our office? Case closed.”
“Hey, quit yapping and bring receipts.”
Partisan sniping stalled urgent U.S. business.
“No matter how you slice it, Republicans are behind this. We can’t let it slide.”
Democrats hammered media daily on Watergate.
“This isn’t some nothingburger. Bugging a party HQ is a straight-up assault on democracy! How do we protect it if we greenlight this crap?”
Despite Democrats’ desperate spin, Watergate didn’t gut Nixon.
He held the throne unscathed; GOP rule stood firm.
But did Nixon’s survival do democracy any favors?
Hardly.
One pillar of the two-party system, the Democrats, lost all faith in their rivals over this.
Belief in fair play? Shattered. In its place: bottomless hate and enmity.
Now two-party clashes transcended policy—it was good vs. evil.
At least Democrats saw it that way.
As long as that mindset stuck, no unified America in sight.
The Koreans hid smug grins watching Congress snarl at itself.