I remember thinking at the time why would Nixon resort to dirty tricks to win an election that he was going to win anyway? As it turned out, he didn’t know about the Watergate caper before it happened. His crime was in covering it up when he did find out about it. - Knowing the Democrat Party, is anyone naive enough to think they didn’t have a dirty tricks patrol on steroids in play even as far back as Watergate? I suppose in a sense one might think Nixon had his own in self-defense.
It’s true that Nixon’s early career was marked by dedicated anti-communism. It’s also true that his late career was marred by dedicated socialism (wage and price controls).
As to whether he knew or didn’t know about Watergate, he certainly allowed that goon squad free reign and certainly trusted some very bad apples (speaking in terms of their common sense, if not necessarily their intentions) with his political career.