John Dean

I find this furor over John Dean having his role in Watergate sanitized as perhaps the least surprising thing ever. Dean was a close adviser to Nixon and there's no way he is as innocent as he has always claimed. Give Colson, Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Mitchell, and the rest of that crew credit. They believed in what they did and didn't apologize for it, awful is it may be. Meanwhile John Dean has tried to weasel his way out responsibility ever since 1973. The most absurd and egregious instance of this was in Oliver Stone's Nixon film, where David Hyde Pierce played Dean as a man trying to do the right thing who was caught up in Nixon's shenangians. I was watching this thinking, you have got to be kidding me. Then I'm watching the credits, and low and behold! John Dean served as an advisor on the film!

About Stanley Kutler's alleged fooling with the evidence, I have no comment except to say that I hope it is not true. And there doesn't seem to be any hint that a relationship betweeen Dean and Kutler led to this happening. However, the Times article doesn't state there is no relationship between the two men and if Kutler did in fact sanitize Dean's role, there must be a reason why. Knowing the career of John Dean, I'd be surprised if his hand wasn't in this cookie jar somewhere.