J.T. Walsh credited as playing...
John Ehrlichman
- H. R. Haldeman: Eight words back in '72. 'I covered up. I was wrong. I'm sorry'. The American public would have forgiven him. But we never opened our mouths, John. We failed him.
- John Ehrlichman: Dick Nixon apologize? That will be the day. Most of his armor would fall off.
- H. R. Haldeman: You'll tell Mitchell?
- [Ehrlichman nods. Haldeman turns to go, then hesitates]
- H. R. Haldeman: And John... you *do* know that you and I are next?
- John Ehrlichman: You got people dying because he didn't make the varsity football team. You got the Constitution hanging by a thread because the old man went to Whittier instead of Yale.
- John Ehrlichman: Well, sir, it turns out one of the people implicated is still on the White House payroll.
- Richard M. Nixon: Who? Not another damn Cuban?
- H. R. Haldeman: No sir. A guy named Hunt. Howard Hunt, sir.
- Richard M. Nixon: [Fear creeping on his face] Hunt? Howard Hunt?
- John Ehrlichman: What's this Bay of Pigs thing? He goes white every time you mention it.
- H. R. Haldeman: It's a code.
- John Ehrlichman: Excuse me, sir. Are you saying you're gonna recognize Red China? That would cost us our strongest support.
- Richard M. Nixon: No, I can do this because I spent my whole career building anti-Communist credentials.
- H. R. Haldeman: If Kennedy or Johnson tried it, they'd have crucified them, and rightfully so.
- John Mitchell: Damned risky, Mr. President. Why don't we wait until the second term?
- H. R. Haldeman: This will get us a second term.
- Richard M. Nixon: This will get me a second term. Damn it, without risk, there's no heroism, there's no history. Nixon was born to do this. Give history a nudge. Come on.
- H. R. Haldeman: Hear, hear.
- Richard M. Nixon: If Cambodia doesn't work, we'll bomb Hanoi if we have to. That's right. And if necessary, I'll drop the big one.
- [everybody in the dinner table stays silent]
- Henry Kissinger: We have to entertain the possibility.
- Richard M. Nixon: Goddamn it! Who cooked this damn steak? Manolo, there's blood all over my plate. Take it away.
- Manolo Sanchez: I'm sorry, sir.