The Watergate break-in, was more about protecting "protecting" John Dean's wife's reputation ( she had been a high class "escort" )and Dean, himself, than anything else. And Mr. Nixon did NOT know anything at all about it, before or when it happened.
John Dean was a disgusting POS and did Mr. Nixon dirt!
Sounds like you have read the book “Silent Coup” by Len Colodny - an excellent and well-documented book. Yeah - Nixon was hood-winked by Dean, but the real coup was by the Pentagon.
I still have a Nixon / Agnew badge.. round metal about 2 1/4
inches across which through “prismatic magic” shows Nixon
when viewed from one angle and Agnew from another.
The magic doesn’t work so well anymore, but it is what it is.
‘Course I was just a punk kid at the time but my folks
were (and remain) a good influence on me. ;-)