Nixon: Past & President

[H2O Man]

19. Lamar Waldron's

"Watergate: The Hidden History (Nixon, the Mafia, and the CIA)" -- a fully-documented by recently-released federal government papers (hence, absolutely not a "conspiracy theory," as some of our good friends might otherwise claim!), shows that Ford should never, ever, have pardoned Nixon. However, at the same time, it reinforces the idea that Nixon knew he could not be prosecuted .....simply because various intelligence agencies would have claimed "national security" as valid reasons to not disclose the documents that Nixon would have demanded were necessary for his defense.

At that time, it is probably unlikely the courts would have insisted upon the release of those documents. It's anyone's guess if the federal courts would have forced Nixon to go to trial without them.

And it is a very direct line between Nixon's pardon, and the numerous crimes known collectively as the Iran-Contra scandal. And the failure to fully prosecute that, of course, led to many other crimes, as you have noted.