Rose Mary Woods ROSE MARY WOODS RE-ENACTS "MISTAKE," KEEPING FOOT ON PEDAL WHILE ANSWERING PHONE (RECORDER IS AT FAR LEFT)

THE CRISIS/COVER STORY The Secretary and the Tapes Tangle

"Next to a man's wife, his secretary which is aimed at explaining away his tape of a talk between Nixon and H.R. is the most important person in his ca- multiple Watergate woes. Her state- Haldeman, then his Chief of Staff, on reer. She has to understand every detail ments posed a new threat to Nixon's sur- June 20, 1972, just three days after the of his job; to have unquestioning loyalty vival in office. For if Miss Woods' story Watergate burglary. , the and absolute discretion. On every count is shown to be untrue, the inescapable fired Watergate special prosecutor, had Rose measures up. I'm a lucky man." conclusion would be that at least one of asked for the tape last July 23, contend- —, in a press the subpoenaed Nixon tapes has been ing that "the inference is almost irre- interview, 1957 deliberately and criminally altered. sistible" that Haldeman and former Do- Since the President has sworn that those mestic Affairs Adviser John Ehrlich- "The buttons said on and off, forward recordings were in "my sole personal man had reported to Nixon on that day and backward. I caught on to that fairly control," he presumably would be legal- whatever they knew about the Water- fast. I don't think I'm so stupid as to erase ly responsible for any such destruction gate wiretapping operation. Further, what's on a tape. '" of evidence. said Cox, Haldeman and Ehrlichman —Rose Mary Woods, in court Scientific Scrutiny. As the Presi- testimony, Nov. 8, 1973 dent's attorneys finally delivered some of those subpoenaed tapes to Federal Precisely because her loyalty to her Judge John J. Sirica, a new phase be- boss has never been questioned and she gan in the legal controversy over wheth- never makes stupid errors, Rose Mary er Nixon was innocent of any knowl- Woods was deeply enmeshed last week edge of the wiretapping of Democratic in the Watergate toils that have touched National Committee headquarters in the lives of so many who tied their ca- June 1972, and of the many efforts of reers to Richard Nixon's political fate. his closest aides to conceal the higher or- The President's personal and personable igins of that crime. Now the critical secretary sat uncomfortably in a Wash- question of whether a cover-up might ington federal courtroom and told a con- even still be in progress can be subject- fused and tangled story of how she had, ed to scientific scrutiny. Technical ex- after all, made "a terrible mistake." perts disagree on their proficiency at de- Contrary to her testimony of Nov. 8, tecting tape alterations. But they very she said that she apparently had pushed likely can determine whether the mys- the wrong button on a recorder and terious tone that obliterated a crucial erased a potentially crucial portion of conversation on one of those tapes came one of Nixon's Watergate-related tape about precisely as Miss Woods said it recordings. did. By raising new doubts and suspi- In Judge Sirica's court last week, cions, Miss Woods' testimony sharp- Miss Woods testified that she must have ly nipped any budding success of the been responsible for at least 4%2 min- UHER RECORDER MODEL USED BY MISS WOODS President's ongoing Operation Candor, utes of a raspy, overriding hum on the "I am dreadfully sorry." TIME, DECEMBER 10, 1973 15 THE NATION

WALTER GATES--WASN I N RION STAR-NEWS. "may well have received instructions" plained that Alexander Haig, from the President on how to handle Nixon's Chief of Staff, had ad- the affair. vised her to hire her own attor- Through three months of an extraor- ney. Ostensibly, this might have dinary struggle in the courts, Nixon re- been wise because she could be in sisted subpoenas for his tapes, yielding danger of personal indictment for only when he seemed in imminent dan- any conflict with her previous tes- ger of being cited for contempt of court timony. She hired Charles S. if he did not. Then the nine subpoenaed Rhyne, a former president of the tapes dwindled like nine little Indians. American Bar Association. The The number slipped to seven when the break also seemed to signal some White House contended that two were potential disagreement between "nonexistent." Nixon claimed that one the secretary and the White of them—a telephone call on June 20, House lawyers. Last week Miss 1972 to John Mitchell, then re-election Woods reappeared in court, and committee chief—was not taped because Rhyne was conspicuously present. he had placed it from his White House When Mrs. Volner linked Rhyne living quarters, on a phone that had no with the other White House at- taping apparatus. Another conversation torneys, he jumped up and de- with former White House Counsel John clared: "I don't want to be asso- Dean on April 15 was not secretly re- ciated with White House counsel. corded because, Nixon says, the equip- I'm a private lawyer." ment ran out of tape. On the stand, Miss Woods was Of the remaining seven tapes, the far more subdued and apologetic one at the center of attention last week than before, but still combative at was rendered apparently useless by the times. She was jolted by Mrs. Vol- ROSE MARY WOODS WITH ARTHUR BURNS blanked-out conversation with Halde- ner's opening reminder that she had a behind her and at arm's length to her man. Two other tapes, Nixon argues, constitutional right to remain silent, and should be withheld from the Watergate left, rang. She took off her earphones that anything she said could possibly be with both her hands, reached for the stop grand jury because of special executive- used against her in future proceedings. privilege considerations. Silica ordered button with her right hand but by mis- Yet she remained cool enough to dis- take must have hit the record button, that arguments on this claimed privi- play her wit. Asked why she hired lege be held this week, sending the re- which is next to the stop button but of a Rhyne, she replied with a smile: "There lighter gray color. With her left hand maining four tapes on to the Watergate aren't many attorneys left around town." grand jury. she reached back for the phone, cradled Miss Woods explained that on the it under her chin and talked to the caller Self-Assured. It was during Sirica's weekend of Sept. 29 and 30 she had hearings on whether two of the tapes —although she could not remember who worked at Camp David to transcribe it was. She estimated the length of the could not be produced at all that Rose some of the subpoenaed tapes for Nix- Mary Woods, 55, publicly entered the call variously from 4%. to 6 minutes. on's use and possible transmittal to the Throughout, she said at first, she kept controversy on Nov. 8 for the first time: court. She played the recordings back In her first court appearance of a long her left foot on the pedal. She agreed on- a Sony 800B portable tape recorder with Mrs. Volner that she could have career in high-pressure politics, she was —the same model used to make the self-assured. She was also testy and stopped the recorder by merely lifting President's office recordings. Since her her foot. "Then why did you push the openly antagonistic toward her ques- machine had no foot pedal, she had to tioner: Jill Wine Volner, 30, a persis- button?" asked Mrs. Volner. "Because press various buttons to reverse and re- I've done it both ways," Miss Woods re- tent courtroom lawyer and member of play portions of the tapes. She found the the Watergate special prosecutor's staff. plied. In any event, when both the re- job hard, she said, because there were cord button and the pedal are depressed, Miss Woods, her green eyes flashing loud sounds on the tapes, and the speak- with Irish indignation, grimaced at what any sound on the tape is erased. ers' voices often overlapped. She testi- Explaining that she did not notice she considered repetitive questioning, fied that Nixon dropped in to see how shook her head, pointed a finger at Mrs. the reels turning because the top of the she was doing. "He pushed a button back recorder was closed, Miss Woods said Volner and spoke sarcastically. Could and forth and said, 'I don't see how Miss Woods have accidentally erased that she discovered her error only when you're getting any of this.' " She labored she hung up the phone and then listened anything? for some 29 hours on just one conver- Miss Woods: I think I used every to the tape. She was horrified to hear sation—between Nixon and Ehrlich- the loud hum instead of conversation. possible precaution. man on June 20. Mrs. Volner: What precautions? She said she rushed right into the Oval She returned to her office in the Office and told Nixon. "I've made a ter- Miss Woods: I used my head—the White House the following Monday, only one I had to use. rible mistake. I accidentally pushed the Oct. 1, to complete work on the tape. record button and part of the tape is The secretary was drawn reluctantly Now she had a West German Uher 5000 back into Sirica's courtroom last week empty." He replied: "Don't worry about recorder. It was equipped with a foot it. It's not a subpoenaed tape." after an embarrassed and nervous White pedal, which can advance the tape—but House counsel, J. Fred Bwhardt, told Not Important? As her reason for only when constant pressure is applied. not having earlier told the court about the judge on Nov. 21 that 18 minutes of A foot-operated switch on the side of Nixon's June 20 conversation with Hal- the gap in the tape, Miss Woods also re- the pedal also permits a rapid rewind- lied on that odd White House belief that deman was totally obscured by a per- ing of the tape for replaying a portion. sistent hum. At the time Buzhardt said the Haldeman part of the conversation She had completed transcribing the Ehr- was not wanted by the Special Prose- that neither he nor Government tech- lichman conversation, she said, when nicians could explain how the noise had cutor. Asked Judge Sirica solemnly: the tape ran on into Haldeman's talk "Didn't you think it was important to originated. But last week he said that with the President—a portion, she tes- an explanation had been found, and that tell everything you knew?" Replied Miss tified, that Haig had told her was not Woods: "I can only say that I am dread- Miss Woods would provide it. under subpoena. The last she heard, she Meanwhile, the President's secre- fully sorry." Sirica ordered that her ear- said, was a chat between Haldeman and lier denials of any mistake be reread tary had been curiously abandoned by Nixon about Ely, Nev., 's White House lawyers, who had ap- from the record. After hearing them she birthplace. said: "I can only say again, I did work peared with her before in court. She ex- Then it happened. Her telephone, very hard over the whole weekend. Sure, 16 TIME, DECEMBER 10, 1973 WITH HOSPITALIZED BOSS (TREATED FOR KNEE INFECTION) IN 1960 CAMPAIGN

She bristled when Mrs. Volner termed justify this less than stealing Pentagon the interval "an erasure." "You may call Papers . . .? We should be on the attack it an erasure—I call it a gap," protested for diversion." Miss Woods. Later she testified she was Like Miss Woods, White House At- not at all certain there had been any con- torney Buzhardt was also pressed hard versation under the noise. "I never heard when he took the stand and was ques- any words on that segment," she said. tioned by Watergate prosecutors. Often The Uher company's representa- pleading a lack of memory, he finally tives and other experts immediately conceded under questioning that he had challenged Miss Woods' testimony. The first learned in early or mid-October that Uher 5000 recorder, claimed Frank Lar- there was some difficulty with the Hal- kin, sales manager of the West Coast dis- deman portion of the tape, although he tributor of the equipment, is "designed claimed not to have been aware of the to be fail-safe—you have to do two full 18-minute problem until mid-No- things simultaneously to erase. I just vember. His reason, too, for not telling can't conceive that a woman who has the court about this much sooner was the intelligence to be the secretary for that he thought the Haldeman conver- the Chief Executive of the U.S. could sation was not under subpoena. Sirica make such a mistake." Pearl Neier, a seemed openly skeptical. The subpoena Manhattan legal secretary, echoed the had asked for the tape of a "meeting of view of many other experienced secre- June 20, 1972 in the President's Exec- taries: "I can't conceive of how she could utive Office Building office involving have erased that tape without doing it Richard Nixon, and deliberately—I don't care if it was a but- H.R. Haldeman from 10:30 a.m. to noon WITH HENRY KISSINGER ton or a pedal that she had to push." (time approximate)." Cox amended the She's good with ice cubes. Asked if he believed the Woods account, subpoena on Aug. 13 to make it unmis- a former high official of the Republican takably clear, extending the time cov- I sounded a little cocky there . . . I can National Committee scoffed: "Does offer no excuse." ered from 10:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and anybody?" noting "Ehrlichman and then Halde- The most dramatic moment in the A part of the controversial tape was court session came when Mrs. Volner man went to see the President." played in the courtroom. The quality Rehearsing Testimony. asked Miss Woods to re-enact her mo- was surprisingly poor, with much of the The tions as the "mistake" was made. The courtroom scene turned tense again conversation between Nixon and Ehr- when Rhyne was allowed to question secretary quickly demonstrated how she lichman indistinguishable. Nixon was had turned slightly away from her type- Buzhardt. He established that neither heard to remark: "In the '68 campaign Buzhardt nor White House Attorney writer, made a long stretch, and reached the press was violently pro-Humphrey." for the phone. Looking down, Mrs. Vol- Leonard Garment had actually repre- After Haldeman entered, the hum be- sented Miss Woods at her first court ap- ner said dryly: "You took your foot off gan. It was a steady sound that did not the pedal, didn't you?" Indeed she had pearance, but were representing the waver in its medium-high pitch. But af- President. Garment interjected to agree. lifted her foot. Flustered, Miss Woods ter 5% minutes the hum suddenly be- declared: "Yes, that's just because I'm Then Rhyne said flatly that Garment came softer, and some sporadic clicks and another White House counsel, Sam- here and not doing anything else." could be heard for 13 minutes. Later, Miss Woods began to qualify uel Powers, "had spent hours rehearsing The White House submitted some her on her testimony." Garment imme- her explanation. She was no longer en- notes said to be taken by Haldeman on tirely sure that she had kept her foot on diately objected to the term "rehearsing" his June 20 conversation with Nixon. —and Sirica called all the attorneys to the pedal ("People keep telling me I They revealed that the only discussion must have"). At worst, she would take confer for some 25 minutes at his bench. of Watergate occurred just after the chit- Without explanation, Buzhardt then responsibility for only the first five min- chat about Ely—and where the hum utes or so of the overriding noise, the pe- was excused from the stand. began. Said Haldeman's notes: "What The animosity between attorneys riod while she was speaking on the is our counterattack? phone. She did not know where the oth- PR [public rela- was evident throughout the week's hear- tions] offensive to top this. Hit the op- ings. Rhyne seemed strangely friendly er 13 minutes of disturbance came from. position w /their activities .. . Do they with Prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste, TIME, DECEMBER 10, 1973 17 THE NATION typed for him—she savored the moment. "All of a sudden, there he was—and there I was," she later told friends. Like many a wise secretary, she has influenced her boss by telling him —sometimes with an informal remark, sometimes with a frown or a smile —what people, publications or even pol- icies she likes. But Nixon's politics are her politics. "She is a totally devoted ser- vant," says a longtime Nixon observer. "She would have been just as devoted to Richard Nixon if he had run on a Democratic or Socialist ticket." Loyalty pays, of course. She was one of the few Nixon aides ever to win a battle against Haldeman. When the White House Chief of Staff in 1969 tried to move her out of an office that opened directly into the Oval Office, she promptly—and suc- cessfully—went over his head and main- WHITE HOUSE'S J. FRED BUZHARDT; PROSECUTOR JILL WINE VOLNER tained her access. Co-workers of Mis Woods are unan- tory, Rose Mary Woods grew up in Se- imous in their high regard for her. "She bring, (pop. 5,000), and learned her is, without question, one of the most de- stenography in high school. Except for cent persons on the White House staff," Older Brother Joe, who became an FBI says a former colleague. "In a group of agent and is now a member of the board hard-boiled types, who then prided of commissioners in Illinois' Cook Coun- themselves on their superefficiency, she ty, her other brother and two sisters still had heart and warmth, and she would live in Mahoning County, Ohio. Rose go out of her way to help you out on a Mary also seemed content to stay near problem." home: her first job was with the Royal Great Girl. Unmarried, Miss China Co., her father's employer. But Woods dotes on nephews and nieces, after the death of a beau and a personal both her own and the two whom she bout with cancer, which she beat, she de- has informally adopted, Julie and Tri- cided in 1943 to move to Washington. cia. On trips abroad she and Pat Nixon She landed a secretarial post on Con- have extended wardrobes by exchang- gressman Christian Herter's select com- ing clothes (both are size 10), and she mittee studying the Marshall Plan, a job often dines with the Nixon family. But that put her near many politicians. One Miss Woods manages to keep up a life of them was Freshman Congressman of her own as well. Her $36,000 salary Richard Nixon. as Executive Assistant and Personal The future President hired Miss Secretary to the President allows her to Woods as his secretary in 1951, shortly live in an expensive co-op in the Wa- after he moved to the Senate. She has tergate apartment complex. been his indispensable office aide ever Her kitchen is equipped with three ROSE MARY WOODS' LAWYER CHARLES RHYNE since, through all the crises, through all ovens, though a frequent escort, Wash- Few attorneys left in town. the winning and losing campaigns, the ington Advertising Executive Robert out-of-office years in California and Gray, observes, "She doesn't cook, but who had interrogated Buzhardt. Several New York in the 1960s, the official trips times when Garment or Buzhardt raised she's good with ice cubes." Continues to South America, Western Europe, the Gray: "Rose is a great girl, but she's a objections, Rhyne, seated at a table Soviet Union and China. More than lousy date." One-third of an evening apart from them, muttered: "Those sons anyone outside his immediate family, with her, he complains amiably, is pre- of bitches." Just what the estrangement Rose Mary knew what Nixon was think- empted by interlopers who want to get means in terms of Miss Woods' relation- ing. She knew who was welcome on the messages through to the President. ship with the President in the whole telephone, which guests should be in- Though Rose politely takes them, says tapes tangle was not yet clear. But she vited (or not invited) to the White House Gray, "she would rather dance than obviously was not taking the rap for the church services or to a party. full obliteration of the Haldeman tape anything." When no dancing partner is Though -Miss Woods uncomplain- available, the auburn-haired, matronly as it apparently had been assumed she ingly followed Nixon to California and would. secretary has been known to take to the New York in his years out of office, dance floor by herself, dancing solo to Humble Beginnings. There was a friends doubt that she was very happy certain poignancy in her predicament. an orchestra's fiery tango rhythm. At in that period. "I used to go to see Nix- home she often listens to music, using Early in the first Nixon Administration, on at his New York law office regular- Miss Woods openly mistrusted the tac- what a frequent visitor describes as "a ly," says one. "And there was Rose, really good tape system." tics of some of the Nixon aides, notably stuck away in a little cubbyhole office, Haldeman, whose insensitivities con- Though her usually sunny disposi- typing his letters. She was really unhap- tion makes her probably the most uni- tributed to the Watergate excesses. Now py—she loved to have old friends stop versally well-liked and respected person she, too, seemed caught in the morass. in and gossip about everything that was in the Nixon inner staff, she has a tem- Until recently, she was the envy going on in politics." The President's per. She has flashed it in Judge Sirica's of secretaries throughout the land—a comeback, like all his ups and downs, spunky, hard-working woman who had courtroom, and against politicians and was a deeply felt personal triumph for journalists who criticized Nixon. During risen high from humble beginnings. The Miss Woods. Seated in the House gal- a recent Nixon press conference that she daughter of a second-generation Irish lery as he delivered his first State of the watched on television in her apartment, American who worked in a pottery fac- Union message in 1969—which she had she sprang out of her chair and shouted 18 TIME, DECEMBER 10, 1973 THE NATION epithets at the on-screen newsmen the panel includes some of the nation's One problem revealed by Buzhardt whose questions she considered imper- most sophisticated sound and recording about the subpoenaed tapes will also be tinent. As the Watergate drama unfolds, experts.* Last week the controversial examined by the technical panel. He a major question is just what might be June 20 tape reel was carried to New said that there are often silent spots, and the limits of the secretary's loyalty to York City in a steel box to prevent any he attributes them to the voice-actuat- her boss of nearly a quarter-century. possible interference by magnetic fields. ed recorders monitoring the President's Last week's testimony before Judge Six fully armed U.S. marshals escorted offices. They could be triggered by oth- Sirica raised bothersome questions. it on a train. It will be examined at the er sounds, such as a passing truck or If White House Attorney Buzhardt laboratories of the Federal Scientific the ticking of a clock, even though no learned of the trouble with the Halde- Corp. in West Harlem. Also transported conversation was taking place. Ben- man tape in early or mid-October, why were the Uher tape recorder and Miss Veniste said the silences were several did he at first claim in court that the Woods' Tensor lamp and electric type- minutes long. Yet persons familiar with problem had only been discovered on writer. The experts, who are expected the White House system contend that it Nov. 14? If Nixon knew about it on Oct. to present preliminary findings to Sili- shuts off automatically if no additonal 1, why did he assure a conference of Re- ca within two weeks, almost certainly sound is heard within about 10 seconds. publican Governors on Nov. 20 that all will be able to determine whether Miss As for a clock possibly triggering the of the remaining tapes were "audible"? Woods' office equipment was capable of mechanism, TIME'S Government expert And why did no one from the White producing all or part of the recorded HERBLOCK- House inform the court much earlier? noise. A still more urgent question was Some other experts consulted by whether the crucial 18 minutes of hum- TIME are confident that the skills of sci- ming on the Haldeman tape could have entists in detecting tape alterations run been caused by what some Washington well ahead of the talents of all but the cynics have dubbed "Rose Mary's boo- most ingenious tamperers. Particularly boo." Apart from the fact that she would through the use of spectral analysis tech- only take the blame for part of that gap, niques, in which various sound frequen- could her actions with the recorder have cies on a tape can be separated and stud- created such a noise at all? ied, these experts believe that any Ample Time. Buzhardt said that, heavyhanded deception can be exposed. without informing Miss Woods, he had One group of scientists at the Uni- used her recorder and re-created the versity of Arkansas reports in a paper overriding noise. On blank tape, one that "any alteration of the White House hum level was created, he said, when tapes could be detected in a timely fash- the secretary's electric typewriter and ion." The ear can be fooled and so can 18 MINUTES OF her Tensor lamp were both turned on; the oscilloscope (a device that can de- a different hum resulted when only the pict sound waves as electronically-gen- I/Ofrf AZONa lamp burned. The recorder's internal erated graphs). But the spectral anal- p/irw circuitry was apparently capable of ysis may well determine whether a given picking up the electrical "noise" from recorder produced a specific recording, P/C/COP NOR current flowing through the lamp and whether a tape has been cut or edited, typewriter. Other experimenters claim whether it is an original or a copy. Any THE INCREPILE to have duplicated a similar noise on change in microphones or acoustical tape when using similar equipment. conditions would be suspect. Since a re- ROSE MARY For the White House, however, the corder gradually heats up as it plays, any TilE KM0,4gp biggest problem with Miss Woods' tes- sudden shift in temperature leaves a timony is that she insists that she could magnetic pattern on tape that might tip not have caused the full 18-minute noise. off an analyst to tampering. Thus someone else might have deliber- Nail Down. Physicist Alan V. Lar- ately completed the obliteration of the son, who helped write the Arkansas Haldeman conversation. There certain- paper, insists that the panel of experts ly would have been ample time for any will be able to either "verify or chal- such tampering between Miss Woods' lenge" Miss Woods' version of what hap- revelation to Nixon on Oct. 1 that she pened. "They'll nail her right down," he had made a mistake and Buzhardt's pub- predicts. Other experts are not so cer- /973 vz.l.a Rzt_o cK lic revelation of the problem in court tain. Kenneth Stevens, a professor at on Nov. 21. M.I.T., agrees that "an amateurish" scoffs: "Baloney. One microphone in the A Government tapes expert consult- tampering job could be readily detect- President's office was hidden in a clock." ed by TIME believes that there was such ed, but he is not sure that the panel will There is a remote possibility that the an alteration. This expert, who has done be able to say with certainty whether a Haldeman conversation might even considerable bugging, wiretapping and specific tape has been altered. taping for the Government, also raises be retrieved through computer-aided The scientists widely suggest that the "signal enhancement" techniques. The the possibility that the tape submitted White House could help considerably by erase mechanism on portable recorders to the court might not be the original re- turning over a random sampling of a is relatively weak, and a magnetic im- cording but a copy. It might have been dozen or so of its other secret tapes for made in a bungled attempt to alter and print of the original recording could re- comparison with those under study. If main on the Haldeman tape and might then splice parts of the initial tape. To the subpoenaed tapes show a different this expert, the telltale sign is the series be amplified to intelligibility. But Bu- sound quality than the other tapes, the zhardt said that he had asked a Nation- of clicks during the hum. Clicks, he re- detection teams would have reason for ports, are produced when unskilled tam- al Security Administration expert about suspicion and further study. this and was told that such a recovery perers try to cut and splice tape. The *Richard H. Bolt, chairman of Bolt Beranek & was "very remote." It clearly would be buzzing sound then might even have Newman Inc., sound experts; Franklin S: Cooper, been introduced to try to conceal the ear- president of Haskins Laboratories; James L. Flan- if the tape had been deliberately passed agan, head of acoustics research at Bell Telephone through a strong magnetic field to en- lier attempt at deception. Laboratories; John G. McKnight, audio and mag- Sirica has asked a panel of experts netic recording consultant; Thomas G. Stockham sure total erasure. to examine the tapes. Selected by both Jr., computer science professor at the University Last week's developments demon- of Utah; and Mark R. Weiss, vice president for the White House and the prosecutors, strated again that Nixon's Watergate acoustics research of Federal Scientific Corp. defense has been remarkably inept. TIME, DECEMBER 10, 1973 21 THE NATION Asked who was to blame, one attorney of the White House. His listeners report- an ever-tighter circle of advisers, main- representing a major Watergate defen- ed that he had promised to make his dant replied: "The White House law- ly Haig and Ziegler. Melvin Laird, pop- tax returns public within a few days. ular on Capitol Hill, said that he will yers." But he also sympathized with Next day, however, Operation Candor them, contending that the President leave Nixon's staff as soon as Gerald hit another snag when Deputy Press Sec- Ford is confirmed as handicaps his own defense by not com- retary Warren said that Nixon had not Vice President; pletely leveling with even his own at- Ford will assume Laird's advisory du- yet decided whether to release the full ties. Veteran politicians consider both torneys. Wan and worn out from defend- returns or only "information" from the ing the President on Watergate since last Haig and Ziegler too inexperienced to returns. 4 -7-6 e-1 May, the loyal Buzhardt obviously has n - 6 *.r handle what they see as essentially a po- A dinner in the State Dining Room litical crisis for the President. slipped out of presidential favor. with 25 Democratic Congressmen, The fact that Buzhardt has not been As the tapes debacle shows, how- mostly from the South, was no smash- ever, Nixon's dilemma is more than po- kept fully informed even of the han- ing success either. One listener described dling of tapes within the White House litical. The processes of law are still Nixon as "taut and extremely tense, ges- crowding him, especially in Judge Si- was shown pointedly in court. He ad- turing wildly." North Carolina's Ike An- mitted that he was surprised to learn rica's courtroom. While the White drews found Nixon relaxed and jovial House staff predicts that Nixon will be- that Miss Woods had nine original but the situation awkward. tapes in her possession as late as Mon- Said he: "We gin releasing detailed papers on such were guests in his home—it makes it dif- matters as his personal finances, tax de- day of last week—despite agreement ficult to ask him questions. The first that only recently made copies of the ductions, and his intervention in settling tapes should be played so as to pre- AP antitrust cases against ITT, all that vent harm to the originals. Press Sec- could be too late. Far more urgent for retary Ronald Ziegler undercut Bu- the President—if he can do it—is to ex- zhardt with faint praise, saying: "I don't plain why so many Watergate discus- want to express criticism, publicly, of sions have eluded a White House record- any person. He has been working very ing system that was once described as hard. We've made some mistakes dur- superefficient. ing this period." Rose Mary Woods' tortured expla- White House officials reported that nation last week did not help. It is easy John J. Sullivan, an Illinois appellate to sympathize with the plight of an able court judge in Chicago and a longtime secretary who so dearly wants to aid her Nixon friend, despite being a Democrat, chief. But whether her bungled perfor- will be added to Nixon's defense staff. mance with the recorder was innocently After leaving the issue in doubt for two accidental, or willful—or worse yet, did days, presidential aides finally denied not take place at all—is still a question rumors that Sullivan would replace Bu- as tangled as the whole mess of the Pres- zhardt as head of the defense group, ident's tapes. which has now grown to 14 attorneys. Visceral Dislike. Almost in desper- ation, Nixon's aides also lashed out at others. Ziegler charged that the staff that Special Prosecutor had inherited from Archibald Cox held an "ingrained suspicion and visceral dislike of this President and this Administra- tion." Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren accused Jaworski's staff of leak- ing information to the press. Jaworski, however, has praised the staff for its "professionalism." TIME has learned, meanwhile, that the White House has begun responding to pressure from Jaworski by turning JUDGE LEAVING COURT over some documents requested long ago The skepticism showed. by Cox. That at least delays any court question was about the Middle East, and action by. Jaworski against the Presi- he took 21 minutes to answer it. There dent, though this remains a possibility were a couple more innocuous questions, if there is further stalling. then somebody said politely, 'Thank you While all the new doubts about the for this pleasant evening, but most of us integrity of Nixon's tapes set back the thought we'd hear you make some ex- progress of Nixon's Watergate counter- planation of Watergate.' " attack, he plunged on with it. Continued Andrews: "He said ab- He addressed the convention of the solutely nothing revealing. After about Seafarers' International Union, whose five questions, Tiger Teague [Olin President Paul Hall is under investiga- Teague of Texas] stood up and said we'd tion by Prosecutor Jaworski's staff for a agreed to break it up at 9 o'clock. About $100,000 secret contribution to Nixon's half of us had our hands up, and the campaign. The President inspired an President agreed to one final question. ovation by declaring in a nautical note: It was all so pat. And as he left me there "I can assure you that you don't need to in the State Dining Room with my hand worry about my getting seasick or jump- up, I thought, 'Good show.' " ing ship. It is the captain's job to bring Pressure rose from congressional that ship into port. I am going to stay Republicans for a far faster and fuller at the helm until we bring it into port." disclosure of all the Watergate facts. One night the President talked to There is dismay among some of them six Senators in the third-floor solarium that Nixon seems to be withdrawing into 22