CONWAY, Ark. (Oct. 8, 2008) – John W. Dean, the legal counsel to former President Richard Nixon and a key figure in the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, will speak at Hendrix College Tuesday, discussing his experiences with the former president and Watergate.
Dean, who was a star witness during the Watergate hearings on Capitol Hill, will address the topic: “What we did and did not learn from Watergate.” He will speak at Reves Recital Hall inside the Trieschmann building beginning at 7 p.m. The event is free to the public, and Dean will sign books at a reception following his presentation.
Dean’s visit is sponsored by Hendrix’s Project Pericles program.
Dean started his legal career in Washington in the late 1960s, as the chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. He then served as an associate deputy in the Attorney General's office before being appointed as White House counsel.
In his testimony before a Senate committee, Dean claimed Nixon knew about the 1972 break-in at the national headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and had helped to cover it up. Dean was ultimately sentenced to four months in prison for his role in the scandal (he spent the four months under a "witness protection" program). Dean went on to write books about his experiences in the Nixon White House, including Blind Ambition (1976), which became a made-for-TV movie. Since then he has worked as an investment banker in California and written columns, essays and books on subjects as varied as president Warren G. Harding and Supreme Court justice William Rehnquist. In 2004 he emerged as an outspoken critic of the administration of George W. Bush and published the book Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.