It sounds like Dean was interviewed recently by Kerry's biographer Douglas Brinkley, judging by this passage in Brinkley's book:
It seemed as if a brutal showdown between the Nixon White House and VVAW would take place. But two White House advisors, Counsel John Dean and speechwriter Patrick Buchanan, wisely prevailed on the President to ease up on the hard-nosed tactics. As Dean wrote in an April 21 memorandum to Haldeman and John Ehrlichmann, Nixon's domestic policy advisor: "The policy--which the VVAW are totally unaware of--is that there will be no arrests made of VVAW who violate the order and it has been clearly and unequivocally given to the appropriate authorities. Decades later, Dean recalled that Nixon was "worried to death" about the VVAW. "He tried to pretend that the protests didn't bother him," Dean said. "But every half an hour--literally--he wanted an update."
(Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, 365-366)
On a related note, while looking into a possible Kerry-Watergate connection last night, I noted that Daniel Ellsberg appeared with Kerry at a VVAW event back in 1971:
The rest of 1971 was one of nonstop locomotion for Kerry. . .he appeared at a winter soldier event held at Faneuil Hall in Boston, where Edward Kennedy, George McGovern, and Daniel Ellsberg participated.
(Brinkley, 404)
Brinkley also mentions that Ellsberg was originally planning to leak the Pentagon Papers to Senator Fulbright for use by George McGovern, but McGovern changed his mind before publication (391-2); meanwhile in April 1971, "VVAW had received fifty thousand dollars from United States Senators McGovern and Hatfield, who... obtained the money from an unknown New York source." (www.wintersoldier.com: Time Line); and that same April, Fulbright showed up at a VVAW fundraiser where he met Kerry, whom he had "already heard good things about from his colleague Ted Kennedy", and the next day Fulbright's aide called Kerry to ask him to testify to the Senate (Brinkley, 366-367). Also, Kerry's pre-VVAW political ally Fr. Robert Drinan (cf. Brinkley, 342: "It was while serving as chairman of Drinan's congressional campaign that Kerry first came to the attention of VVAW") was the Congressman who initiated the call for Nixon's impeachment (""I was the first to file the resolution of impeachment against Nixon," said Fr. Robert F. Drinan, SJ, former dean of Boston College Law School 1956-70 and current Georgetown law professor.": Remembering Watergate: BC alumnus and former law school dean started Nixon accusations in Senate 30 years ago). It sure looks like Kerry was pretty close to Nixon's enemies during Watergate. This raises my suspicion that it may be more than coincidence that Dean has recently crawled out of the woodwork to climb on the Kerry bandwagon.
That $50,000 figure reached out and slapped me right in the face...think I found the "unknown New York source" (the time frame and the $ amount are right):
The protests were set for the week of April 20. Kerry spent some of his time at the Georgetown townhouse of his longtime friend George Butler, working the phones, trying to round up veterans. But the real problem was money. Kerry, who was not financially independent despite rumors to the contrary, was supposed to raise money to pay for buses that would transport the veterans.He called his friend Walinsky, who had run unsuccessfully for New York attorney general and had excellent financial connections. Walinsky arranged a meeting of potential donors at the Seagram Building in New York City. Among those present were Seagram chief executive Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. and about 20 other New York businessmen who opposed the war. Kerry delivered a low-key speech about the importance of having veterans attend the protest. Then the businessmen were each asked to stand and declare how much they would contribute. "We raised probably $50,000," Walinsky recalled. "It took an hour."
BTW, it is a very good article with lots of info.
Through Teddy Kennedy, Kerry linked up with Adam Walinsky, a former speech writer for Robert F. Kennedy who was involved with Jane Fonda and a handful of left-wing Hollywood types who had funded an antiwar advocacy group called Vietnam Veterans Against War [VVAW].