In The News

Businessman who was plunged into the Watergate scandal passes away

Businessman who was plunged into the Watergate scandal passes away

THE DEATH has taken of Kenneth Dahlberg who found himself plunged into the Watergate scandal even though he had done nothing wrong. He was 94.

Mr. Dahlberg had been a highly decorated World War II pilot before going on to be a successful businessman in Minnesota.

In the 1950s he invented the Miracle Ear hearing aid which proved to be highly successful.

By 1972 when the now infamous burglarly at the Watergate Building in Washington was discovered, Mr. Dahlberg was a fundraiser for the Republican party and had helped raise funds for President Nixon’s election campaign in 1968. 

Investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, from The Washington Post, had started to look at the backgrounds of the men who had been arrested at the Watergate building.

A breakthrough in the investigation came when the reporters discovered that a cheque for $25,000 had been deposited into the bank account of one of the burglars, Bernard Barker (see below). 

The cheque had been in the name of Kenneth Dahlberg. When the reporters contacted Mr. Dahlberg, he immediately said the money had been collected for President Nixon’s re-election campaign and had been given to Maurice Stans, the finance chairman of the campaign.

The first connection between Nixon and the burlgars had been established and Woodward and Bernstein were to eventually unravel the full story.

President Nixon resigned from office in 1974.

While Mr. Dahlberg had done nothing wrong, he still found himself swept up by the scandal and the publicity which surrounded it.

To view an excerpt from the film All The President’s Men in which news of Mr. Dahlberg’s cheque is discovered, click here.

 

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