Intruder in the Dust

[RainDog]

12. ...

''This country is going so far to the right you won't recognize it,'' Nixon's AG told a reporter.

John Mitchell embarked on a series of activities that the courts would later hold to be in violation of the Constitution. At first, they were directed chiefly against foes of the Vietnam War and black militants, then against officials and journalists suspected of leaking damaging information, finally against politicians from George Wallace to George McGovern who were deemed threatening to what was seen as the precarious position of Mr. Nixon.

On Jan. 27, 1972, a project to cripple these foes by muggings, kidnapping, sabotage, blackmail and burglary was unveiled in the office of the Attorney General of the United States.

In an early sample of the ''dirty tricks'' that would later mark the 1971-72 campaign, Mr. Mitchell approved a $10,000 subsidy to employ an American Nazi faction in a bizarre effort to get Governor Wallace off the ballot in California. The move failed.

--From the NYTimes obit for Mitchell.