Political Secrecy and Hidden Agendas
dnorris10 October 23rd, 2005
John W. Dean, former White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon, criticized the Bush administration’s penchant for secrecy, and drew parallels between this administration and the one in which he served from 1970 to 1973 in a speech at The College of Wooster last night. Dean addressed a crowd of almost 1,000 Wooster students, faculty, and local residents at McGaw Chapel in the opening event of the 2005 Wooster Forum.
Dean, whose most recent book is titled Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, also asserted that an unprecedented level of authority has been concentrated in the office of Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
“Decisions that used to go into the president’s office now go into the vice president’s office and don’t go any further.” Cheney acts as “a super chief of staff who is president in all but name,” Dean claimed. “But the problem is Cheney doesn’t answer any questions. He only has to answer to George Bush.”
During the question and answer period, one Wooster student drew laughter from both Dean and the crowd by asking why “your Independent Study is missing from the library’s special collections.”
Dean, a 1961 graduate of the college who double majored in English and political science, explained that John Baker, the adviser for his I.S., “Verisimilitude in the Political Novel,” later became head counsel for the National Council of Churches in Washington. One day, when Dean was serving as White House counsel, their paths crossed.
“John looked at me and said, ‘You know, I never liked your Independent Study,’” Dean recalled. “I think that’s what happened to it.”