Nixon Ordered Spying On Kennedy

President Richard M. Nixon ordered the planting of a spy or two in a Secret Service detail assigned to protect Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., during the 1972 campaign, according to White House tape recordings now available at the National Archives. “We just might get lucky and catch this son of a bitch. Ruin him for ‘76,” Nixon said at a meeting in the Oval Office on the evening of Sept. 7, 1972.

Former White House aide Alexander M. Butterfield said in a telephone interview that reports about Kennedy’s activities went to White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, but Butterfield said he did not think anything compromising ever turned up.

“I kept hearing they were batting zero,” Butterfield said.

A Secret Service spokesman took strenuous exception to the report. “It’s our contention that it was not done,” said spokesman Arnette Heintze. “We have zero tolerance for any indiscretions by an agent.”