C.I.A. MEMOS SHOW POLITICAL FEARS OVER WATERGATE
According to series of high-level CIA memorandums, CIA, FBI and high White House officials viewed investigation in wks after Watergate bugging in June '72 as potential pol bombshell and not as legitimate matter of natl security; memorandums were submitted last mo to Sen Appropriations Subcom on Intelligence Operations by CIA Deputy Dir Walters and CIA Dir Schlesinger; according to documents, Pres Nixon's top White House aides warned that ongoing FBI investigation into Watergate episode could lead to high pol figures; 9 Walters memorandums and 1 submitted by Schlesinger disclose that J W Dean 3d expressed belief on June 26 that B L Barker had been involved in clandestine entry into Chilean Embassy; that then-FBI Acting Dir Gray had been urged by some high level officials to force US Atty H H Titus Jr to stop his attempts to subpoena financial records of Repub re-election campaign com as part of continuing investigation into financing of Watergate team; White House refuses to amplify Pres Nixon's May 22 statement in which Nixon said that he had forbidden FBI to interfere either with covert CIA operations or with matters of natl security that had been handled by special investigations unit set up in '71; Walters memorandums provide strikingly different image of those 1st meetings in late June about ongoing FBI investigation; Walters quotes Haldeman as saying on June 23 that 'whole affair was getting embarrassing and it was the Pres' wish that Walters call on the acting dir (of the FBI) and suggest to him that the 5 (Watergate) suspects had been arrested, this should be sufficient, and that it was not advantageous to have the inquiry pushed'; quotes Gray as declaring in subsequent meeting on same day that 'this was a most awkward matter to come up during the election yr and he would see what he could do'; memorandums say that 3 days later he met privately with Dean--after getting Ehrlichman's approval--and was told by Dean that 'some of the accused were getting scared and wobbling'; quotes Dean at June 28 meeting as declaring that 'problem was how to stop the FBI investigation beyond the 5 suspects...Dean then asked hopefully whether I could do anything or had any suggestions'; memorandums make little mention of Pres Nixon; in introductory message, Walters specifically retracted statement made in earlier memo that quoted Haldeman as specifically declaring that 'it was the Pres' wish' in instructing him to ask the FBI to halt or delay its Mexican money investigation'; Walters says 'I did not believe the Pres knew' of extensive cover-up being committed in his name; Walters illus
