file cabinet

Nixon, Richard · 1971-09-03

During his first term, President Richard Nixon authorized the establishment of a special-operations unit that came to be known as the Plumbers. On September 3, 1971, a three-man Plumbers unit broke into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, Dr. Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. They were looking for damaging information against Ellsberg, a military analyst who had leaked to the press the Pentagon papers, a top-secret Department of Defense study of US involvement in Vietnam. This file cabinet was damaged by a crowbar used in the Plumbers’ search. This event was the first in a series of break-ins including two at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel that eventually led to Nixon's resignation.