Joseph Fred Buzhardt Jr (February 21, 1924 – December 16, 1978) was an American attorney and public servant. He is best known for serving as special
White House Counsel
The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...
to
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
during the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
. Previously he had served as
General Counsel of the Department of Defense
The General Counsel of the Department of Defense is the chief legal officer of the Department of Defense (DoD), advising both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on all legal matters and services, and providing legal advice to Office of the Secr ...
and as a legislative aide to Senator
Strom Thurmond.
Early life
Buzhardt was born in
Greenwood, South Carolina
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States. The population in the 2020 United States Census was 22,545 down from 23,222 at the 2010 census. The city is home to Lander University.
Geography and ...
, to Joseph Fred Buzhardt Sr., and Edna Hardin Buzhardt. The family later moved to
McCormick, South Carolina, and Buzhardt graduated from McCormick High School with honors.
Early career
![Melvin R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Melvin_R._Laird_and_J._Fred_Buzhardt.jpeg)
He first attended
Wofford College
Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the America ...
from 1941 to 1943 before he was appointed to the
US Military Academy. He graduated from West Point in 1946 and then served in the
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...
. Following his military service, he attended the
University of South Carolina and earned a law degree in 1952. He then returned to McCormick and entered private practice, alongside his father.
Buzhardt left private practice in 1958 to become a legislative assistant to Senator
Strom Thurmond.
During the 1964 presidential campaign, Buzhardt, along with
William J. Baroody Jr.
William J. Baroody Jr. (November 5, 1937 – June 8, 1996) was an American government official best known for running the White House Office of Public Liaison under President Gerald Ford and, later, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). His le ...
and Anthony J. Jurich, advised the
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...
on military affairs.
Buzhardt succeeded
Harry S. Dent Sr., as Thurmond's administrative assistant in 1965.
Buzhardt left Thurmond's staff in 1966, but the two remained close.
In 1968 Dent and Buzhardt attempted to talk Thurmond out of his proposed marriage to Nancy Moore, a former beauty queen and 44 years his junior. Their efforts were unsuccessful and apparently did not affect either man's relationship with Thurmond. Buzhardt was one of only 35 people, 26 of whom were family, in attendance at Thurmond's wedding to Moore in December 1968.
According to Dent, Buzhardt was "like a son" to Thurmond, who had practiced law with Buzhardt's father.
Buzhardt stayed active in Republican party politics in South Carolina, serving as
Marshall Parker
Marshall Joyner Parker (April 25, 1922 – November 15, 2008) was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Background
Born in Seaboard in Northampton County in northeastern North Carolina, Parker graduated in 1944 from ...
's campaign manager for the latter's unsuccessful bid for
US senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
in 1968.
That year, Buzhardt was named as an alternate delegate to the
Republican National Convention, which would nominate
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
for the presidency.
After the Republican victory in November, incoming Secretary of Defense
Melvin Laird
Melvin Robert Laird Jr. (September 1, 1922 – November 16, 2016) was an American politician, writer and statesman. He was a U.S. congressman from Wisconsin from 1953 to 1969 before serving as Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973 under Presi ...
tapped Buzhardt for his staff.
Watergate
![White House Chief of Staff General Alexander Haig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/White_House_Chief_of_Staff_General_Alexander_Haig.jpg)
Buzhardt was named as special White House counsel for
Watergate matters on May 10, 1973.
Alexander Haig
Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. (; December 2, 1924February 20, 2010) was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these ...
, President Nixon's new
White House Chief of Staff following the resignation of
H. R. Haldeman
Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...
, told Buzhardt that his role at the White House would be temporary, and so he retained his title at the Defense Department. His first task as special counsel was to investigate former
White House Counsel
The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...
John Dean
John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...
. Dean, whom the president had fired the previous week, was cooperating with investigators and was believed to possess classified documents. Buzhardt, through his contacts in the intelligence community, determined that the documents were related to the
Huston Plan
The Huston Plan was a 43-page report and outline of proposed security operations put together by White House aide Tom Charles Huston in 1970.Senate Watergate Committee
The Senate Watergate Committee, known officially as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, was a special committee established by the United States Senate, , in 1973, to investigate the Watergate scandal, with the power to inv ...
investigators about the existence of the
White House tapes. Nixon and Haig, who were aware of the sound-activated taping system in the Oval Office, had given to Buzhardt, who was not aware of it, detailed accounts of Nixon's meetings with Dean, including verbatim quotes. Buzhardt, in turn, conveyed the material to
Fred Thompson, then minority counsel to the Watergate Committee. As recounted by
Scott Armstrong, the majority staff discovered the transcript and questioned former White House aide
Alexander Butterfield
Alexander Porter Butterfield (born April 6, 1926) is a retired United States Air Force officer, public servant, and businessman. He served as the deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. He revealed the White House tapin ...
about its provenance. The questions led directly to Butterfield's July 16, 1973 disclosure of the taping system to the committee and then the public. Thompson, informed of the disclosure, in turn, warned Buzhardt, who then learned of it, for the first time, in that indirect way. Buzhardt would spend hundreds of hours listening to the tapes to determine their contents before the tapes were conveyed to investigators.
After Butterfield's revelation of the taping system, Buzhardt was active in resisting efforts by the Watergate
Special prosecutor
In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exis ...
to obtain them. That November, after Nixon agreed to surrender some tapes, it became Buzhardt's task to inform U.S. District Judge
John Sirica
John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904 – August 14, 1992) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal.
...
, who had issued the subpoenas for the tapes, that one of them contained an 18 1/2 minute erased gap. The tape in question contained a conversation between the president and H. R. Haldeman from June 20, 1972, just a few days after the Watergate break-in.
[
Additionally, Buzhardt was involved in the negotiations that led to Vice President ]Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second vice president to resign the position, the other being John ...
's resignation after being accused of accepting illegal payments. Judah Best, Agnew's attorney, recalled later that Buzhardt threatened to "personally... strap on his old '.45
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a ...
' and 'take care' of the situation" if anyone leaked the negotiations to the press. The negotiations did not leak, and Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973.
Later life
In a widely reported interview published in 1975, Buzhardt inquired whether the public would prefer "a competent scoundrel or an honest boob" as president, and he lamented that invasive media coverage inhibited good governance. Although Buzhardt denied it, ''Washington Post'' columnist David S. Broder interpreted the remark as a thinly-veiled attack on Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor.
Buzhardt died of a heart attack at Hilton Head, South Carolina
Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of Charleston. The island is n ...
.
Legacy
Buzhardt co-operated with Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for '' The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
While a young reporter for ''The Washingt ...
and Carl Bernstein
Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original n ...
during the research for a book, which became '' The Final Days'', by sitting for eight "extensive" interviews. In the 1989 film adaptation of the book, Richard Kiley
Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film and television actor and singer. He is best known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor In A Musical. Kiley ...
portrayed Buzhardt. Kiley called Buzhardt "one of the mystery men, very much behind the scenes, and yet he played a key role."
Leonard Garment, his former colleague in the Nixon White House, recalled Buzhardt as "one of the most profoundly moral men I have known."
Buzhardt's papers are at Clemson University
Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...
.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buzhardt, J. Fred
1924 births
1978 deaths
People from Greenwood, South Carolina
South Carolina Republicans
University of South Carolina School of Law alumni
United States Military Academy alumni
Nixon administration personnel involved in the Watergate scandal
People from McCormick, South Carolina