Kenneth Dahlberg

Kenneth H. Dahlberg (1917- ) is an American businessman and World War II fighter ace who became a figure involved in the Watergate scandal.

A Minnesota native, Dahlberg joined the United States Army Air Forces after high school. Dahlberg flew the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang with the USAAF Eighth Air Force in Europe. He was shot down three times and on the third time in 1945 he was captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war. As a fighter ace, Dahlberg was credited with 14 aerial victories. He received numerous awards and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross for leading a flight of eight P-51 Mustangs against an attack of 90 German fighters in 1944. Dahlberg shot down four enemy planes that day. Continuing his military service after the war, Dahlberg served with the Minnesota Air National Guard until 1951.

In 1948, Dahlberg founded Dahlberg Electronics which manufactured hearing aids. His company is credited with the first use of the newly invented transistor in a consumer product.

During the Watergate investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Bernstein traveled to Miami, Florida to see Martin Dardis, the head investigator for Dade County District Attorney Richard E. Gerstein. Since most of the Watergate burglars were from Miami, the district attorney's office had launched an investigation. Dardis showed Bernstein a photostatic copy of a cashier's check for $25,000 that had been deposited into the bank account of a real estate firm owned by Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars. The check was drawn on a Boca Raton, Florida bank and was made out to Kenneth H. Dahlberg. Bernstein telephoned this information to Woodward who was back at the Post in Washington, D.C.

Woodward had a research librarian at the Post check the newspaper's files for any articles mentioning or pictures of Dahlberg. The librarian found a 1967 photograph of Dahlberg with Vice-President Hubert Humphrey at a Minnesota fundraiser.

The search for Dahlberg was narrowed to Minnesota and Woodward located Dahlberg's telephone number from information and called him at home. At first, Dahlberg did not believe Woodward was actually a reporter. He later called Woodward back and explained that his neighbor, Virginia Piper, had been recently kidnapped and it was an upsetting experience. Dahlberg told Woodward he had the check made out to himself while he was in Florida on business and did not want to carry that much cash around. Dahlberg could not explain how the check got into Barker's bank account but said it was either given to the Committee to Re-elect the President or to Maurice Stans.

Dahlberg was the midwest finance chairman for the Committee to Re-elect the President during President Richard M. Nixon's 1972 campaign. In 1968, Dahlberg was the finance chairman for Clark MacGregor's unsuccessful Senate campaign in Minnesota. MacGregor was later appointed the head of the Committee to Re-elect the President in 1972 after former attorney general John Mitchell had resigned.

It was later learned the $25,000 came from Dwayne Andreas, chief executive officer of Archer Daniels Midland, as an anonymous donation to the Nixon campaign.

Woodward later commented that finding Dahlberg's check was a turning point in their Watergate investigation because it led to the discovery of how the Watergate burglars were financed through a money-laundering scheme.

Dahlberg was neither accused of nor implicated in any wrongdoing as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Note: In a coincidence that appears to be stranger than fiction, Watergate investigator Martin Dardis [see above] was one of five GIs who rescued Dahlberg as a POW after the Battle of the Bulge. It wasn't until 1991 that Dardis and the other four GIs were honored with Silver Stars for their heroism in rescuing Dahlberg.

In 1970, President Nixon appointed Dahlberg to the board of visitors of the United States Air Force Academy. He also served as a trustee to Hamline University.

More recently, Dahlberg was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in 1997.