Donald Segretti is revisiting his place in the Watergate era, describing himself as a pawn who was drawn into a political operation after returning from Vietnam. In a rare interview, he says an old friend from the University of Southern California contacted him with an offer to work for the president, setting him on a path that would later become tied to one of the biggest scandals in US politics.
Segretti says he was ultimately "thrown to the wolves" as the Watergate drama engulfed the Nixon administration. His account presents him less as a major strategist and more as someone pulled into a system far larger than he understood at the time.
The interview looks back at how quickly an opportunity in Washington turned into lasting notoriety. By framing himself as a figure used by others, Segretti adds a personal perspective to the broader story of Watergate and the political machinery that surrounded it.
His reflections are not only about the past. The headline focus of the interview is also on what concerns him about Washington today, suggesting that his experience in the Nixon years still shapes how he views the capital's political culture now.
