r File 2 May 77, date on Lnewsst ands Nixon Speaks Top of theWeek

Nixon Speaks Page 25 Precisely 1,000 days after he left office, Richard M. Nixon goes on nationwide television this week in the first of a series of taped interviews with David Frost. An unusual blend of , history and teledrama, the interviews show Nixon emotionally trying to explain his Water- gate disgrace and proudly talking about his triumphs in foreign affairs. A News- week team led by Hal Bruno talked to people involved in the project from Cali- fornia to Europe. A companion piece examines Nixon's current life in San Cle- mente, drawing on chats the ex-President had with John J. Lindsay (right) during and after his frequent golf games. (Cov- er photo by Lester Sloan—Newsweek.) The nineteenth hole: Nixon with Lindsay Illustration for Newsweek by Burt Silverman Frost and Nixon fence over the cover-up: 'Cut and thrust,' with the ex-President on the defensive once again NIXON SPEAKS

he face is somewhat changed— drops tidbits of conversation with Mao observer at the taping. Throughout the healthier and more relaxed—yet Tse-tung, Leonid Brezhnev and other series, Nixon is anxious to make his best T still hauntingly familiar with its world leaders. At other points, Nixon case—putting Watergate behind him so jowly outline, darting eyes and ski-slide reflects Presidentially on domestic is- that the other accomplishments of his nose. Precisely 1,000 days after his resig- sues from the right of privacy to the Administration can be fairly appreciated. nation as President of the United States, dangers of protest. Beyond that, the broadcasts may mark Richard M. Nixon returns to nationwide But then there is Watergate. More di- the beginning of the end of the ex-Presi- television this week, talking for the first rectly than ever, Nixon seems to concede dent's exile in San Clemente (page 26). time about the scandals that drove him that it was election-year politics—not "Now he is convinced he can make a from office. Cool and controlled at first, national security—that prompted his ef- personal comeback—not politically, of Nixon soon finds himself on the defen- forts to cover up the break-in at Democrat- course, but a personal vindication," says sive under tough questioning by veteran ic National Committee headquarters in one Nixon friend. "He is striving for talk-show host David Frost. His eyes June 1972. It is, claims one person in- acceptability and it is making him feel darken and tear, his voice quavers and his volved in the production, "as close to a good because he thinks it is happening." lip glistens under the hot lights. But out of mea culpa as he is capable of" The broadcasts may also mark a mile- the argument, the explanation and the `STRIVING FOR ACCEPTABILITY' stone for producer-interviewer Frost—an self-justification that follow comes the Englishman whose reputation as an clearest indication yet by the ex-Presi- There are moments of high emotion as obliging foil for comics and crooners on dent him self ofhis role and motives in the Frost and Nixon—both of whom prepped American TV raised initial doubts about national nightmare called Watergate. for months—spar with one another over his ability to pin down the ex-President. It is a rare combination of journalism, the cash payments made to Watergate Frost pursued complex negotiations to history and live teledrama—the first in a burglars to maintain the White House sign Nixon—for $600,000 plus an undis- series of taped Nixon-Frost interviews cover-up. And Nixon is likely to evoke closed percentage of profits—and put to- over the next several weeks that reflects sympathy when he talks about wife Pat's gether an ad hoc chain of147 local stations both the highs and the lows of a dishon- debilitating stroke last year—and the to carry the programs. He has already ored Presidency. At some points, Nixon connection he sees between it and the "more than broken even" on the $2.5 mil- talks proudly of his genuine triumphs in endless Watergate revelations. Part of an lion project, he says, and could end up the field of foreign policy; he recalls upcoming broadcast, that episode "will with a profit of over $1 million. Despite instances of personal diplomacy and reduce America to tears," predicts one some media hype, Frost insists his series May 9, 1977 25 Lester Sloan—Newsweek Farewell to Frost: A step toward vindication? really "breaks some new ground" in sev- eral areas. Others involved suggest that Nixon was obliged to talk candidly about Watergate because he wanted to have credibility on other subjects—and for his own forthcoming memoirs. President Jimmy Carter told NEWS- WEEK a fortnight ago that he expected the Nixon interviews to help "once and for all put the Watergate issue to rest." Yet more controversy seemed inevita- ble. Former Watergate special prosecu- tor Leon Jaworski, for example, warned that he would "speak out . . . for the record" if Nixon did not give a full account of his role in Watergate and admit, at the least, to "obstruction of justice." (Jaworski has agreed to write a "factual response" , to Nixon's first broadcast in next week's NEWSWEEK.) A more personal reaction may come from former top Nixon aides including John Mitchell, John Ehrlichman and (Bob) Haldeman, all currently appealingH.R. their own convictions in the Watergate cover-up case to the Supreme Court (page 66). Nixon, however, does not attempt to blame his former colleagues on-camera. "In some things the inter- views will increase understanding of the issues and Nixon's reasons for doing what he did," said a Frost staffer. "In others the debate will be closed. But in some it will start a new controversy." FROST FOR THE PROSECUTION The discussion of Watergate was taped toward the end of the lengthy Frost- Nixon interviews—nearly 29 hours' worth in eleven thrice-weekly sessions— but broadcast first because of its dramatic impact. After initially objecting to the rearrangement, Nixon told Frost: "Why be coy? Let's get it out." In the Watergate segment, Frost assumes an almost prose-

27 NATIONAL AFFAIRS

cutorial stance, focusing only on events and conversations in which Nixon was personally involved. They discuss a taped conversation between Nixon and Haldeman on June 20,1972-from which eighteen and a half minutes were subse- quently erased—and the now-famous "smoking gun" conversation of June 23, in which the two men agreed to have the CIA block an FBI investigation of Water- gate before its connection to the Nixon re- election campaign could be uncovered. Nixon almost willingly concedes that the motive was political, but maintains that his personal knowledge of Watergate events is "very limited." Frost follows up with questions about two previously unpublished tapes (box, page 31) of conversations between Nixon and former political tactician Charles Colson on Feb. 13 and 14, 1973; the two discuss clemency for Watergate spymas- ter E. Howard Hunt and freely use the Lester Sloan—Newsweek word "cover-up." (The tapes were ob- Frost huddles with Zelnick (left) and Winther: 'Training for the championship' tained by the prosecutor's office for use in the cover-up trial but never formally in- nating remarks by Nixon on the March ed that further argument would only eat troduced as evidence.) Frost and Nixon 21 tape—"You could get a million dol- away at the credibility he was trying to argue over Frost's contention that the ex- lars. You could get it in cash"—and build. Frost probes many of the events President's actions constituted obstruc- suddenly the former Chief Executive between March 21 and April 30, when tion ofjustice. Says one witness: "It's cut seems on the verge of tears, a tragic Dean, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Attor- and thrust with Nixon fighting for his figure. His voice grows hoarse, his eyes ney General Richard Kleindienst re- point of view—and not winning." dart and his face falls for an instant. But signed from the Administration—and NIXON AT A DISADVANTAGE Nixon pulls himself together; he admits Nixon went on television to expose the that his remarks to Dean ("You have no cover-up but deny his own personal The atmosphere grows even more choice but to come up with the knowledge of it. Nixon elaborates at charged when they turn to the March 21, $120,000, or whatever it is. Right?") great length, forcing Frost to pin down 1973, conversation in which White were followed by another payoff to specifics. "He's a strong guy used to House counsel John Dean warned of "a Hunt, yet he maintains that he did not holding the floor," said one Frost aide. cancer within, close to the Presidency." actually authorize it. Says one who "He's not afraid of long answers that are At that time, published transcripts show, watched the colloquy: "No reasonable almost a speech." Dean also detailed the progress of the person will be convinced." cover-up and the problem of paying hush After a commercial, the interview A PRESIDENT'S-EYE VIEW money to the Watergate burglars. Yet in picks up with a much subdued Nixon. Interviewer Frost lets that kind of the interview this week, Nixon complains That segment was actually taped two elaboration run unchallenged through that he did not get a full report about days after the first, during which time much of the second 90-minute broad- Watergate atthe time. Though he calls the Nixon and his advisers apparently decid- cast—next week—on the subject of for- recitation of events "horrors," eign policy. Here, Nixon makes he stresses those parts ofthe con- some genuinely historic contri- versation that serve him best. butions, giving an exclusive "No—it is wrong that's for sure," President's-eye view of reopen- the President told Dean at one ing relations with China, de- point—although the reference tente with the Soviet Union, was only to buying the burglars off with a public grant of Presi- peace efforts in the Middle East dential clemency. and the "tilt" toward Pakistan before its war with India. He Nixon and Frost both raise their voices and wave their talks candidly—but not very arms, but it is clearly Nixon who critically—about former Sec- is at a disadvantage—lulled, retary of State Henry Kissin- perhaps, by the gentlemanly, ger. And he provides some fasci- accepting manner displayed by nating footnotes to history. One Frost in most of the earlier tap- example: Leonid Brezhnev and ing sessions. There is a familiar other Soviet VIP's sported cuff touch of self-pity as Nixon re- links in the 1970s as opposed to minds Frost that he is answer- the plain, proletarian button ing without notes, and then a cuffs worn by their Kremlin characteristic Nixon counterat- predecessors in the '50s. It is, tack: the charge that Frost is say the Frost people, "raw mate- playing prosecutor and stacking rial" for history. the evidence. Frost parries, Though it is not completely complimenting Nixon for his re- edited yet, the third show—ten- sponsiveness and apologizing tatively called "War at Home for the prosecutorial tone, then and Abroad"—recaptures some plunges back into his case. of the same adversary tone that He ticks off a dozen incrimi- marks the Watergate segment. Celebration: Nixon with Pat on his birthday in January Frost challenges Nixon on Viet- Newsweek, May 9, 1977 29 nam, Cambodia and the campaign the Pentagon Papers, then broke into the one eyewitness. "In one sentence he against domestic dissent. Nixon justifies office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Again made an indirect association of Pat's the Christmas bombing of Hanoi in 1972, the exchanges grow emotional, and stroke with publication of 'The Final arguing that it was necessary to spur the while Nixon does not admit to any guilt, Days' [the unflattering account by Wash- peace negotiations. Frost challenges the people who saw the interview report that ington Post reporters Bob Woodward morality of that strategy and also ques- he leaves less doubt than ever before tions and Carl Bernstein]. He implied he held the U.S. "incursion" into Cambo- about the extent of his knowledge and the book responsible . ." dia in 1970, ostensibly to wipe out a involvement in the Ellsberg case. major Vietcong command post. No evi- A fifth program, one hour long, may be The tension remains high in parts of added to sweep up additional material dence of such a post was ever found, the fourth program whose working title Frost points out. from the Frost-Nixon interviews. Includ- is "The Final Days." That interview in- ed here, insiders say, would be some Still more tense is the discussion of cludes other alleged abuses of power and antiwar protest in the U.S. Frost ques- sharp questioning of Nixon on the the crumbling of the Nixon Presidency. American role in Chile—with Nixon tions the Nixon politics of polarization in Frost also prompts Nixon to expand on that period—particularly the unleashing again on the defensive—and on the his views of the news media and on the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap in the of Vice President Spiro Agnew—and the life he and Pat have led since his resigna- creation of the White House plumbers, White House tape of June 20, 1972. Nix- tion. Nixon becomes "agitated and ex- on insists he does not know how the tape the covert intelligence unit that spied on cited" and describes some segments of Daniel Ellsberg after his disclosure of was erased or who may have done it. The the press as "beneath contempt," recalls ex-President also states his views on two Newsweek, May 9, 1977 31

AP Secretary Rose Mary Woods: The gap is still unexplained

As the storm gathered in late 1973: 'I'm not a crook'

UPI Final days at the White House: An emotional hug for Julie Into exile: Leaving Washington for California, Aug. 9, 1974 32

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

of his White House predecessors— Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson—and on the U.S. Supreme Court, including some comments about one of his own rejected nominees, G. Harrold Carswell, that Frost people say is sure to "make news." This section may also include some of Nixon's reflections on government sur- veillance. He spent more than an hour of taping time on the subject of electronic bugs and wiretaps, and somehow man- aged to avoid any association with the bugging and taping that lay at the heart of his own Watergate crisis. "He could have been talking about his grandmother, Tri- cia or his dogs," said one man present. "He made absolutely no connection." In addition to the programs broadcast in the U.S., Frost and Nixon also taped Fred J. Maroon—Louis Mercier The President's men: Ehrlichman (left), Haldeman and Kissinger with Nixon in 1971 special segments for television networks in Britain, France, Italy and Australia. For the French, Nixon ex- presses support for the Con- corde SST and says that he hopes his polite praise of Presi- dent Valery Giscard d'Estaing • * • •' "‘ will not hurt him in the next election. For the British, he re- views his encounters with for- mer Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. The Italians were particularly inter- ested in Nixon's views on Com- munist electoral victories in Eu- rope, while the Australians wanted the ex-President's dis- cussion of his meetings with their leaders and his prognosis for stability in the Pacific. MAKING THE DEAL Whatever the public makes of the interviews—or the they reveal—just getting them on the air was a triumph for David Frost. Most British Photos by Wally McNamee—Newsweek critics consider Frost a TV heavyweight, both for his bril- liant early work in political satire ("That Was the Week That Was") and a string of interviews with political figures and ce- lebrities. He also produced a thirteen- part series on British Prime Ministers, and his company is currently filming a $2 million history of the Persian Empire, financed by the Shah of Iran. In the U.S., however, Frost is often remembered for his puffy talk programs and some silly shows in which people broke records with such stunts as kissing underwater. Indeed, . cynics thought that his lightweight reputation had helped Frost hook a wary Nixon. But Frost's first approach was a flop. In April 1975, he made overtures through former Nixon communications director Herb Klein, now a Metromedia, Inc., executive, but got no response. Three months later, visiting friends on Long Island, Frost learned from magazine publisher Clay Felker that New York agent Irving (Swifty) Lazar was offering a Nixon show to the major networks with- out much success. Frost quickly put to-

Newsweek, May 9, 1977 NATIONAL AFFAIRS

gether an offer of $600,000 to Nixon plus Jorn Winther and reporter-researchers subjects to be covered, and according to a percentage of the profits—in part as an C. Robert Zelnick, Philip Stanford and one recent visitor to San Clemente, "he incentive for Nixon to be candid and James Reston Jr., son of the columnist. practiced, sometimes aloud, in prepara- commercial. The researchers read everything pub- tion for the tapings." The ex-President It worked. The thirteen-page contract lished on Watergate and interviewed also kept asking for delays in the sched- was signed a year to the day after Nixon's hundreds of sources including Post re- ule of tapings and broadcasts—first be- resignation. Negotiated largely by porter Bob Woodward and psychoana- cause of Pat's stroke, next to do more Frost's lawyer, Paul Ziffren of Los An- lyst David Abrahamsen, author of "Nix- work on his memoirs, and then finally to geles, the contract gave the interviewer on vs. Nixon: An Emotional Tragedy." avoid interfering with both last year's full control over the questions and subse- The result was four.100-page volumes on election and the Inauguration. The Frost quent editing of the tape. "If David just the Nixon Presidency—covering foreign crew ran into a different sort of problem tosses you softballs and you hit them out policy, domestic affairs, Watergate and when they began to plan the taping in of the park, the people are going to turn other abuses of power—plus advice on Nixon's La Casa Pacifica home: radar at off in fifteen minutes," one Frost aide how to question Nixon. the nearby Coast Guard station inter- told Nixon. "I want him to toss me hard- Frost's men prepared questions that fered with the tape equipment. But a balls," he replied. "That's the only way they hoped would lead Nixon step-by- local real-estate agent made arrange- this is going to mean any- ments to use the home of thing to me. Make 'em as industrialist Harold H. Smith tough as you want." 12 miles up the coast in the But the sales job was far well-guarded community of from complete. The net- Monarch Bay. Smith's father works still weren't interest- was a customer at Nixon's ed, partly because they don't father's grocery store some like buying news and partly 45 years ago. The Smiths got because they prefer to retain $6,000 in exchange for mak- control of editing. So Frost ing themselves scarce on tap- raised $270,000 in produc- ing days—and signing a tion money from a group of pledge of secrecy. San Diego investors (some of whom hoped to see Nixon SETTING THE SCENE skewered). Then he assem- Most of the 40 people in bled his own network of sta- Frost's production crew had tions around the U.S. to sign similar pledges, and through a New York-based they were driven to the company called Syndicast Smith house three mornings Services, Inc. each week by special bus so At first, Syndicast offered a reporters could not trace barter deal under which local their cars. Inside, the living stations could get the inter- room had been redecorated view shows free in return for with a Presidential look: carrying six minutes of na- brass candlesticks, a parquet- tional advertising lined up by top writing desk, Nixon's col- Syndicast for each broadcast; lection of carved elephants the stations could then sell and shelves of books, each another six minutes to local personally approved by the advertisers and keep all the ex-President. Frost and Nix- profits. At some of the sta- on sat in camel-colored tions, the time was eagerly lounge chairs whose design snapped up by advertisers, was also approved by Nix- but others had trouble selling on—to assure it did not ag- it. Syndicast itself fell short •"l,, 00•■•■■• •■•••"*..... gravate the lingering effects on commercials and ulti- e• ice. of phlebitis in his left leg. mately insisted that each lo- Szep—Boston Globe Both men wore blue suits cal station buy one minute per broadcast. step from predictable explanations of and dark ties, and they stuck to those Among the national advertisers who Watergate and other subjects to fresh, re- outfits throughout the taping so that por- did sign on were Datsun, Radio Shack, vealing answers. Then they staged prac- tions from any session could be smoothly Hilton Hotels, Weed-Eater and Alpo. "It tice sessions that ran six to eight hours intercut with one another. was controversial and we did have our during which Zelnick took Nixon's part The first session was a general tour of pros and cons," admitted Weed-Eater ad and answered Frost's questions as he the horizon, and the Frost crew was glum manager Thomas Young. "But in the end thought the ex-President might. At one upon returning to headquarters at the we decided that it was probably going to rehearsal, one of Zelnick's answers was Beverly Hilton hotel. While Nixon had be an historic event and a public serv- so neatly put that Frost leaned back in not "come out swinging," according to ice—also a good advertising buy." Syn- frustration and exclaimed: "That's really one member, he had taken what they dicast executive Leonard Koch projected persuasive—what can I say to that?" thought were some low blows at mem- an audience of 18 million households. Nixon was also in training for the bers of the House Judiciary Committee match—"with massive seriousness and RESEARCH AND REHEARSALS and others, and they didn't know how to preparation," says Frost. Working with deal with the problem. "Do you let it slide While the deal was taking shape, both the ex-President were former White and edit it out later—or do you come back the Frost and Nixon camps were prepar- House aides Ken Khachigian, Ray Price, [at him] every time?" Frost put the tape in ing for the confrontation to come. `It Frank Gannon and Dianne Sawyer. He a safe each night, but showed parts ofit to was like training a fighter for the also consulted by phone with Henry Kis- friends, including Felker, whose advice heavyweight championship," said one singer about once a week, as he has since was: "Confront the son of a bitch." Even- Frost hand. Frost's principal aides were he left office. tually, the team developed techniques Marvin Minoff, executive in charge of Eventually, Nixon had his own set of dubbed "the declamatory question" and production, producer John Birt, director black, loose-leaf briefing books on the "the alternative hypothesis," in which Newsweek, May 9, 1977 37 NATIONAL AFFAIRS Frost let Nixon answer in his own way, then asked if other interpretations were not reasonable. In the end, the Frost crew was sur- prised at how often Nixon's answers matched the ones they had imagined in their rehearsals. Off camera, Frost often apologized for his tougher questions, telling the ex-President: "I've got to do this for this program to have any value." Nixon, for his part, talked more bitterly of his former aides when the cameras were turned off "There's no question he sees himself as a victim of Mitchell, Halde- man and Ehrlichman," said one witness. `DON'T LOSE THE EDGE' But mostly Nixon retreated to the Smiths' master bedroom when the tape wasn't rolling. "You prepare yourself for something like this and you don't want to lose the edge," he explained. Occasion- ally, he made small talk and cracked jokes. When he spotted a woman sipping a can of Tab, he said, "You realize that has saccharin in it." "Yes, of course," she said. "Ah," said the ex-President. "Then you'd rather die of saccharin than senili- ty." On a substantive level, however, Frost found him endlessly engaging: "There are very few people in the world Disabled demonstrators in Washington: 'A new era of civil rights in America' whom you could talk to for 28% hours and still wish you had another ten hours regional HEW office on April 5, staying the most. They must provide free ed- to talk." until last week. Said Barry Ryan, who When it was over, Nixon made a fare- ucation to 1 million disabled children has muscular dystrophy: "We are like now denied access to school. And rather well speech to the crew that drew a the audience in 'Network' that shouts, round of applause. Outside the Smith than segregating the handicapped in `We're mad as hell and we're not going separate classrooms, they must educate house, he and Frost paused for pictures to take it any more'." and the former President walked toward them in regular classes with the non- Soon they won't have to. Last week, handicapped to the "maximum extent a neighbor, Mrs. Olivia Tanner, and her four years after Congress passed the Re- dog Tinker. "Is this what you call a appropriate." habilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits The regulation has been controversial dachshund?" he asked stiffly—then discrimination against the handicapped, climbed into his limousine, waved and from the beginning. Critics say it is Califano finally signed the regulation vague, tangled in red tape and expen- drove back to seclusion in San Clemente. required to make the costly and contro- Clearly, Richard Nixon hopes the broad- sive. HEW officials estimate it will cost versial law effective. It seems certain to more than $2 billion to implement, but casts will end his long isolation and win force sweeping modifications in the em- him a measure of redemption. But it will they say the costs will be substantially ployment, education and treatment of offset by the productivity of the newly be the American people who rate his more than 35 million handicapped peo- performance, determining just what sort employed handicapped. One of the most ple. Said Califano last week: "It opens contentious issues was whether 10 mil- of re-entry he can hope for in the life of up a new era of civil rights in America" the nation he once led. lion alcoholics and 1.5 million drug and will "work fundamental changes in addicts should be classified as handi- —DAVID M. ALPERN with HAL BRUNO and many facets of American life." capped and thus protected by the regu- MARTIN KASINDORF in Los Angeles Braille Books: and NANCY STADTMAN in New York The regulation, which lation. Attorney General Griffin Bell goes into effect June 1, applies to any ruled last month that they should be, but school, college, hospital or other institu- Califano indicated that employers could THE ADMINISTRATION: tion receiving HEW funds. It prohibits refuse jobs to alcoholics or addicts if they employers from refusing to hire the dis- have records of unsatisfactory work per- Hire the Handicapped abled—including victims of cancer and formance. "The regulation clearly con- heart disease—iftheir handicaps don't in- templates [making] decisions on the ba- Dozens of the handicapped, some in terfere with their ability to do the job. It wheelchairs, gathered for a protest dem- sis of an individual's behavior caused by also requires employers to make "reason- such disease," he said. onstration outside the new offices of Jo- able accommodation" to their handi- seph Califano, Secretary of Health, Edu- HEW officials expect protracted litiga- capped workers. It mandates that all new tion over sections of the regulation, part- cation and Welfare. Later, some of the buildings be made accessible to the hand- crowd followed Califano to his home, ly because employers can be excused icapped with ramps, elevators or other from full compliance if it would mean and then to a number of his public ap- conveniences; many existing buildings pearances. Other disabled people, all "undue hardship." But the American Co- would have to be modified as well. It also alition of Citizens with Disabilities said protesting Califano's delay in imple- instructs universities to make their pro- menting a law that would ban discrimi- it was "90 per cent" happy with the new grams available to the handicapped (by rule, which, it hoped, would bring the nation against them, staged demonstra- providing books in Braille, for example) tions in , Boston, , Dallas handicapped into the mainstream of and orders hospitals to establish special American life. And after taking a day and and other cities. In San Francisco, 80 techniques for treating the disabled, such people brought mattresses, food and a half to clean up, the handicapped pro- as ways of communicating with the deaf testers in San Francisco finally ended battery chargers for their motorized in emergency rooms. wheelchairs and began occupying the their 25-day sleep-in. The public schools will be affected —SUSAN FRAKER with HENRY McGEE in Washington Newsweek, May 9, 1977 39