Fifty years later, the Watergate scandal still makes for some fascinating TV, with another layer of the story coming to viewers with HBO's new series White House Plumbers. The limited series tells the story of E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, two of the prominent figures of the scandal that eventually caused Richard Nixon to resign from the US presidency.
But just how accurate is White House Plumbers? The series, created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and starring Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Lena Headey and more definitely likes to play up the comedy of errors that led to this landmark historical event. So what in the series is true and what may have been added or enhanced to make for an entertaining watch?
We're separating the fact from the fiction in all White House Plumbers episodes. In episode 1, we're looking at why Howard Hunt (Harrelson) left the CIA, the Dr. Fielding break-in and if the group at the center of the story were really known as "the Plumbers."
Warning. Spoilers ahead.
Was Howard Hunt fired from the CIA?
The fiction
When we first meet Howard Hunt, he is working at a job where his boss tells him he's lucky to be there after how he left the CIA. We see a quick cut to some newsreel footage referencing the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Later, when Howard gets a call about a new opportunity to work for the White House, he sees it as his big comeback.
Was Howard Hunt really fired from the CIA in disgrace?
The fact
According to Britannica, Hunt was involved in the CIA's Bay of Pigs mission (not to be confused with Operation Mongoose, which was covered in Godfather of Harlem this season). But despite that mission's infamous failure, it appears it did not impact Hunt's working status with the company.
Britannica says Hunt worked for the CIA from 1949-1970, leaving the agency upon his retirement. It is not clear if Hunt's retirement had any black mark on it at the time. As depicted in the show, Hunt did work in public relations after leaving the CIA and was also a published author.
Did the Plumbers break into Dr. Fielding’s office?
The fiction
Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux) are initially hired to work on the Special Investigations Unit to help handle the controversy surrounding the Pentagon Papers, which criticized the US's operations in the Vietnam War and the chances of winning. Hunt and Liddy's plan was to expose Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, as a communist agent, but to do that they needed access to his files from his psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding.
Hunt and Liddy first scope out Dr. Fielding's office in Los Angeles. Confident they can coordinate a successful break-in, they bring in "the Cubans" — Eugenio Martinez (Tony Plana), Bernard Barker (Yul Vazquez) and Virgilio Gonzales (Nelson Ascencio).
However, their plan quickly goes awry. The back door wasn't unlocked like they thought it would be, so they had to break a window. Then the Cubans couldn't get into Fielding's filing cabinet, so they broke it open and made a mess of the office. To cover their tracks they scattered some pills around to make it look like a drug addict broke in.
Hunt and Liddy believe they failed, but they soon learn that the White House is pleased with their effort and they are hired to continue their operations as part of the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
The fact
Hunt and Liddy were both part of the team that was brought on to handle the aftermath of the Pentagon Paper leaks, specifically, Nixon feared that Ellsberg could leak more classified information, per the Library of Congress. In a New York Times op-ed by Egil Krogh, who was in charge of Hunt and Liddy, the two of them were the principal parties planning the break-in. The goal of the operation was to discredit Ellsberg based on his mental condition.
Per the Smithsonian, the job was performed by a three-man team, though it is never specified who the three men were. It is also cited that Fielding's filing cabinet was damaged with a crowbar during the attempted burglary. Ultimately, no discrediting information on Ellsberg was found through the break-in, though Ellsberg told the Smithsonian Magazine that they did find his file, which included a paper he had written that referred to the Pentagon Papers.
As the one who officially authorized the break-in, Krogh pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to violate civil rights" and was sentenced to six years in federal prison; he served four and a half, according to documents from Nixon's Presidential Library.
Were they really called the Plumbers?
The fiction
There's a lot made by Hunt and Liddy about what their unit should be called throughout the first episode. They are not fans of the Special Investigators Unit, worried it hints they may have some mental handicaps. Liddy seems keen on calling it Odessa. Then at the end of the episode, they were officially hired to be a part of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. They come up with the nickname, "the Plumbers," for their unit because as Hunt puts it, they fix leaks.
The fact
In just about every article we read about this it refers to Hunt, Liddy and their team as "the Plumbers," though it is not clear if this was an official name. At the very least, it's better than that acronym that has historically become associated with the Committee to Re-Elect the President: CREEP.
US viewers can stream all episodes of White House Plumbers on Max. In the UK, new episodes of the series premiere Tuesdays on Sky Atlantic.
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