Nixon's Silence Haunts Watergate

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Nixon's Silence Haunts Watergate IG 1 2 WXPo., Nixon's Silence Haunts Watergate By Lawrence Meyer the President's state of knowledge?" The stakes in the hearings are as Washington Post Staff Writer "What did the President know and high as they can be for the govern- He was the missing witness, the man when did he know it?" was the recur- ment of the United States. If the com- that the Senate select Watergate com- ring question that committee vice mittee determines that President mittee wanted to know about. His chairman Howard H. Baker Jr. (R- Nixon had prior knowledge of the name was invoked constantly in 37 Tenn.) put to witnesses who were close Watergate break-in, or that he aided clays of hearings, his presence was, felt to President Nixon. Baker said that the cover-up or that he knowingly al- almost palpably at times in the cavern- was the central question of the hear- lowed the cover-up to continue, then a ous, marble-walled Senate Caucus ings. firm foundation will have been laid for Room that already has seen so much The witnesses Ervin questioned proceeding with the impeachment of history. agreed that only Richard Nixon could the President of the. `United States. "Now do you agree with me," com- say with certainty what Richard Nixon President Nixon, Ervin has said, has mittee chairman Sam J. Ervin Jr. (D- knew. Baker's question received no the means at his disposal to establish N.C.) asked as he pursued one of his definitive answer, although the com- his innocence. But the fact is that favorite themes, "that of all the human mittee got conflicting indications of President Nixon has not testified, he beings on the face of the earth, the what President Nixon may have known has withheld presidential papers, docu- one who knows the most about this is about the Watergate affair and when the President himself, that is, about he knew it. See HEARINGS, A10, Col. 1 The hearings produced startling rev- What, indeed, did the President HEARINGS, From Al elations—a White House memo warn- know and when did he know it? How ments and tape recordings of conversa- ing that the favorable settlement of could he not have known? Why didn't tions he held with others about the antitrust suits against ITT could be someone tell him? Was Dean telling Watergate affair. placed "on the President's doorstep," the truth? What was the motivation In refusing to turn the tapes over to the "enemies list," the disclosure by for- for the cover-up? Did President Nixon the committee, President Nixon has mer White House aide Alexander P. purposely leak the existence of the held' steadfastly to his stated belief Butterfield that President Nixon tapes to support his case in public? that providing the tapes and other "automatically"' recorded all his con- Why did Haldeman give in so easily, presidential papers would violate the versations in the White House Oval Of- after initially balking, when the com- constitutional doctrine of separation of fice and on several of his telephones, mittee refused to accept his invocation powers. In addition, Mr. Nixon argued, and then two weeks later, the almost of executive privilege about what he the tapes are inconclusive. casual statement by former White heard in the tape of the March 21, "The fact is," Mr. Nixon wrote Ervin House chief of staff H. R (Bob) Halde- 1973, conversation between President July 23 in explaining why he would man at had twice listened to those Nixon and Dean, when Dean said he not turn the tapes over to the commit- tapes; rice while working in the White told Mr. Nixon everything about the tee, "the tapes would not finally settle House and later, in July, while a pri- Watergate affair? the central issues before your commit- vate citizen., tee. Before their existence became TheLbroad concern for "national se- publicly known, I personally listened curity that translated itself into the What Nixon Knew break` to a number of them. ' at the office of Daniel Ells- "The question is asked," Harry Rob- .berg' psychiatrist, the desire for "The tapes are entirely consistent bins Haldeman told the committee in with what I have stated to be the "intel gence" about political and pub- his opening statement, "'How could the lic figures and the frustration of Presi- truth. However,.as in any verbatim re- President not have known?' Very eas- cordings of informal conversations, dent Nixon and the men around him at ily. Reverse the question. How could theaanarent unwillingness of the In- they contain comments that persons the President have known?" with different perspectives and motiva- ternarRevenue Service to audit tax re- turns Of administration foes were ex- The defense of President Nixon was tions would inevitably interpret in dif- delivered most forcefully by Haldeman ferent ways," Mr. Nixon said. plored as evidence of the "we-they" perspective through which persons in and his close friend and associate, for-. Mr. Nixon is expected to make a mer top presidential domestic adviser statement about the Watergate affair the White House viewed the outside world. John D. Ehrlichman. They were known sometime this week. The history of the Watergate affair derisively in Washington as "Hans and Missing witness or not, the commit- has shown that each time that it seems Fritz" and "the Berlin Wall" because tee still was able to uncover facts and the bottom line in revelations has been of their closeness, their shared Ger- to illuminate the White House that reached, something more startling is man ancestry and their zealous guardi- President Nixon occupies and directs. revealed. anship of access to the President of A picture begins to emerge that at The President's tapes produced a the United States. the least, the testimony indicates that unique constitutional confrontation be- President Nixon returned their dem- Mr. Nixon missed several opportuni- tween"the Senate committee and spe- onstration of loyalty even as he ac- ties to remove what former White ea.( Watergate prosecutor Archibald cepted their resignations last April 30. House counsel John W. Dean III called Cox on the one hand and President "Two of my closest associates in the the "cancer on the presidency." At Nixon on the other. White House," Mr. Nixon called them, worst, the testimony—if believed—in- The disclosure of a memo written by "Two of the finest public servants it dicates that Richard Nixon knowingly special counsel to the President has been my privilege to know." permitted the malignancy to grow. , Charles W. Colson about the settle- Haldeman outlined for the commit- The defense of President Nixon was ment of the Justice Department's anti- tee how Mr. Nixon organized his White delivered most forcefully by Haldeman trust suit against the international con- House staff. "The decision facing the and his Close friend and associate, for- President," Haldeman said, "was mer top presidential domestic' adviser glomerate ITT promises to produce a whether to watch all the details, see John D. Ehrlichman. They were known new inquiry by the Senate Judiciary whoever wanted to see him, read every- derisively in Washington as "Hans and Committee into whether or not justice thing that was sent to him; or to dele- Fritz" and "the Berlin Wall" because was sold for a pledge of a $400,000 do- gate that authority and, by the exer- of their closeness, their German ances- nation to the Republican National Con- cise of major self-discipline, spend his try and their, zealous guardianship of vention. The Colson memo mentions time on the largest issues that con- access to the President of the United other • internal administration memos ' fronted the people he was elected to States. that would "directly involve" Presi- represent. The mind set of the Nixon White dent Nixon and "lay this case on the "The easy decision," Haldeman said House also became a subject of in- President's doorstep." quiry. with a phrase that has a familiar Nix- The committee produced political Summer in Washington is normally mian ring to it, "would have been to memos that circulated in the White a time for doing only the' most neces- follow the first course because that Honse among aides who seemed to sary work. The heat and the humidity course would have made him popular have a businesslike but damning habit induces torpor. But this summer Wash- and accessible and show what has been of committing their vindictiveness and ington has been consumed with Water- called charisma or the nice guy. Presi- questionable conduct to paper. gate. One goes almost nowhere in the dent Nixon elected to follow the sec- John Dean, the efficient White hot, muggy nights here without hear- ond course. Some have called it isola- House lawyer who turned into the ulti- ing the same questions asked over tion, but he viewed it as doing what he mate loner as he became President cocktails and dinner that the Senate was elected to do." Nixon's chief accuser, gave the White Committee and its staff have struggled House "enemies list" to the committee over for weeks. and thus to the world. On Aug. 29-73 days after the Water- gate break-in—President Nixon made a statement on the Watergate affair, his first public utterance on the subject. "Under my direction, counsel to the President, Mr. Dean, has conducted a complete investigation of all leads which might involve any present mem- bers of the White House staff or any- body in the government," Mr. Nixon told a press conference in San Cle- mente. "I can say categorically that his investigation indicates that no one in the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre inci- dent." That statement, according to Dean, was wrong on at least two counts.
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