The world according to Liddy

It's possible that Gordon Liddy is crazy. As one of former President Nixon's right-hand men and a mastermind of the Watergate break-in, this convicted felon spent almost five years in prison. His guilt-free attitude about the matter led to widespread disbelief during a question and answer session he held with professor Mitchell Stephens' Foundations of Journalism class last week. Speaking via his nationally syndicated radio talk show based in Washington, D.C., Liddy — for some odd reason — decided to field questions from college students in one of the most liberal cities in the country.

The advertisement for the event on his website even stated "Rather than relying solely on their liberal textbooks, [the NYU journalism students] decided to do what good journalists do and go straight to the source." Thankfully the G-Man was there to sort out all the details our liberal textbooks misconstrued.

When Nixon's minions organized a group of burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee and illegally wiretap the office on June 17, 1972, they were caught. Liddy, however, wasn't too worried. "I went home that night and told my wife that I'd be going to jail and then I went to bed and right to sleep," he said. "If I just kept my mouth shut it wouldn't reach anyone above me, including the president. That worked until John Dean sought to save his hide at the expense of his colleagues."

John Dean, White House Counsel to Nixon and fellow Watergate conspirator, was the first administration official to accuse Nixon of being involved in the scandal. While it has been proven through secret tape recordings that Nixon was indeed involved, Liddy is still in denial: "Nixon didn't have anything to do with Watergate. His denials were correct."

While many of Liddy's responses reeked of absurdity, it was completely evident that he stood by everything he'd said and done. You might think that it's just a charade to protect Liddy's pride. Even if that were the case, 30 years is a long time to keep up an act. After a certain point, you have to start believing your own bull, right? But no — he may have done something other people considered illegal, but it wasn't wrong. He may have wiretapped the Democrats, but they deserved it. In fact, according to him, Liddy only has a single regret: That he "ever had anything at all to do with the likes of John Dean."

Surprisingly, Liddy's most baffling statement was on a subject separate from Watergate. When asked how the Nixon administration could have better handled the Vietnam War, he passionately replied, "What we should have done is bomb the Red River dikes. If you had done that, you would have flooded much of North Vietnam and destroyed their food production. Then, you could bomb the several railroad lines that came in from China and you could have starved them and won the war."

I'm clueless as to how someone like Liddy can believe in this view of reality that is vastly different than mine and the majority of my classmates. But according to a few of the recitation leaders, he was more reasonable this year. I finally realized I may never understand his philosophy or the way in which he views his action. As if to prove me right, Liddy ended the question and answer session with a fitting quote: "My philosophy all my life has been that I do what other men only dream of and I just make it an actuality."

Ashley Dills is a contributing columnist.