Y intern involved inWatergate

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    By HEATHER HANSEN

    Although most people know much about the Watergate scandal on a national level, many know little about the university level — and a BYU intern’s involvement.

    Prior to the 1972 Nixon-McGovern presidential race, BYU students were avid Nixon supporters. A November 1972 Daily Universe survey indicated incumbent President Nixon would carry the BYU student vote by 73.2 percent, while Rep. John G. Smitz would carry 11.6 percent to McGovern’s 6.3 percent.

    When the Watergate Scandal occurred, everyone was very disappointed, said Ray C. Hillam, an emeritus professor in the Political Science Department, who was the chair of the Political Science Department and 1974 Director of the Washington Seminar.

    In 1972, Hillam recalls a 22- or 23-year-old BYU intern who was working in Washington at the Democratic Headquarters. The intern somehow linked up with E. Howard Hunt and became a spy for the Republican party, Hillam said.

    Frank Fox, a professor in the History Department, said the intern was one of his honor students.

    Although he was a good student, Fox described him as being a bit na?ve and immature.

    “What happened was typical of his personality,” Fox said. “He was the kind of person who liked to throw water balloons at cars and people. It wasn’t so much that he was evil, just that he ceased to think about the consequences.”

    When Republican saboteurs needed access to a key to the Democratic headquarters, the intern made them a wax impression of the key instead of reporting the pre-meditated break-in to the FBI, Fox said.

    Hillam recalls that in addition to providing the burglars access to a key, the intern participated in doing surveillance and provided intelligence and information for Hunt, which led to the break-in.

    Following the burglars’ arrest, when the intern was approached by the FBI, he went to his bishop who advised him to cooperate with authorities.

    “He hadn’t committed a crime, but just lied saying he was a Democrat when he was really a Republican,” Hillam said.

    Although his actions could have been prosecutable, they weren’t — he was considered a “small fish,” Fox said.

    “BYU was very embarrassed (about the incident) because it was unbecoming to church standards,” Fox said.

    Upon returning to BYU, the intern told his professors and apologized, but was suspended and lost credit for the internship. However, he was reinstated to the university a year later, Hillam said.

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