01, NATIONAL ENQUIRER FEBRUARY 25, 1975. Six months ago Richard and • Pet Nixon lived in the political nerve center of the world — the White House. Today, they live in quiet and lonely retirement 1a4 San Clemente. An old friend of the Nixons recently asked if he could pay them • pospenel visit. Last January 24, the friend — who requested that his identity he withheld Ai this story — visited the former President and Karst Lady for two hours. Hare is what Iva (carded.: "It's very hard to change. Before there was so much going on . and now there's so little. So little." Richard Nixon smiled faintly at his own words. He could not 0 hide the agony and loneliness — it was .etclied too deeply in his face. He invited me •into his office in what was once the Western White 4-) House, located on the sprawling grounds of a Coast Guard transmitting -P station. _ . ' The devastating change of events in 1974 — just two years after his cd a) landslide victory — had dramatically transformed him. He did not look like the same man we knew a year ago when as President he was the most powerful man on earth. Nixon's face is thinner now, his hair grayer. His eyes aren't as bright Ce and battling as they once were, but they're still piercing. His old self-assured walk has been replaced by a noticeable limp. His near-fatal phlebitis forces INSEPARABLE: Richard and Pat Nixon hove grown closer together. 0 film to move slowly and cautiously, 4-3 and he gingerly eased himself into a brown-gray velvet chair, resting his leg on a matching footstool. "I bought this chair when 1 was Vice-President," he said. "It's been my favorite ever standing to the left of since. I wrote my book 'Six Crises' sitting hi it. his executive desk. An '1 took 'it to the Lincoln Sitting Room when I went American flag stood to the White House, and I was sitting in it when on his right. "I have no feelings of bitterness. I'd Henry Kissinger told me Mao had Invited me to China rather look to the good things we accomplished dur- and I. wrote my resignation speech in this chair." ing those years. This past Christmas we had no war, The resignation still eats away at his heart. Nix- none of our boys were being killed in battle. Nobody On said earnestly: did the best I could. Some of was being drafted. it was my fault.',:- - "We made friends among the nations of the world. "I was so busy that I just didn't take the time East and West. We were strong and we were respect- to watch everybody. I lever thought much about ed, and that makes the • difference, you know." being loved. I just did the. best I could." Nixon gave another faint smile. "You know, it's Nixon's Sad eyes glanced at the Presidential flag times like these that you really find out who your staff." The golf cart stopped in front of the house. Off to one side, Mrs. Nixon — wearing a bright yellow and pink pantsult stopped puttering in her gar- den and came toward us. She gave us a cheerful greeting . "Isn't this a beautiful garden?" she asked. "I just love working with my flowers — that's how I spend most of my time." After exchanging more pleasantries. she excused herself and headed for the sratoen where every day the former President and First Lady stroll hand in hand. Nixon looked lovingly at Pat and then said: "These are very difficult, sad and lonely times for Pat and me. mends are." It's no secret that in the wake "We spend a great deal of time togethel- of his resignation, many of his personal friends now — more so than ever before u. .1") abandoned litical lives. ".170 4,1* .`t The telephone rang and he answered it. crises, we grow even closer together Since his resignation, the entire switchboard "We talk about all these thine. I get at his compound has been , strength from her. She's ripped out, leaving him at peace ,x W.: herself. with three *Ai Itses that don't SEW, what titstory irp_metbsies !weer; will say about me, but.I Inmeelf,..im. • .. "' "1-7 know It will say that Pat For the" *ft dok- was truly a wonderful ing our *it, Nixon's.fa60 . woman. There couldn't was aglow. His ; daughter have been a greater First Julie . was on the phone. Lady." After his chat with her, he Nixon led the way into said: . his house where mementos "That Julie. She's more from his headline-making qutspoken than I've ever trips to China and Russia been in standing up for r were proudly displayed. the good things we accom- He stopped and gazed p.edliti in tilt White House. out a window overleoldhg " e and Tricia call'ine the Pacific. "I used to of ..• They have been.. walk along the beach down wonderful daughters and - there with my dog King have provided strength to Timahoe. He'd run into both Pat and me during the water and then shake these difficult times. We himself all over me. I are awfully proud of therm used to get mad at him "Come en," he said, for getting me all wet. But -walking to the door, "let As MAN ALONE: Richcird Nixon now I wish we could do mb show you around." We in thoughtful mood, pictured re- that again. The doctors lett his rosewood paneled cently in grounds of his home in say I can't go walking on office and climbed into a Son Clemente Calif. the beach until March." souped-up yellow golf cart - ' /. He lingered a moment with the words "President Nixon" painted on longer — a wistful look in his eyes — and the front. As we drove through the San Cle- then with a slight limp strolled to the patio mente grounds 1,-. now just the empty shell where a doctor was about to take the blood of the bustling Western White House — an pressure of the 62-year-old former President. earlier statement by Ron Ziegler came to Nixon took off his gray checkered sports mind: . coat and rolled up the sleeves of his blue "Expenses Nitre been cut to the bone. The shirt. After downing two pills with a glass office buildings here are .prefabricated and of water, he was told by the doctor that the most of them don't have phones any more. medication wasn't working as well as ex- They've been stripped of furniture. But we're pected. told that that's the way a former President Nixon's conversation finally focused on tit supposed to be treated in this country." politics. On President Ford: "I picked him We beaded 'toward the seven-room house because I felt he was the best man and be- Nixon fondly calls La Casa Pacifica — the cause he had the support of Congress." On House of Peace. On the way he admitted: the Rockefeller Vice-Presidential hearings: "I'm afraid:-that many Americans think "It was tough, what he had to go through af- I'm living here, in splendor with hundreds of ter he was nominated." people working , for me all being paid by the • On. the nation and the world: "I hope and federal government. But in fact all that is pray that things will improve. Everythi*g is mine is my house, and I have only a small (Continued on page 44) The .Agony and Loneliness • know it took me five and., ',,liatr-piimth5 shard. Nix•* to get, icriy (Continued from back page) things returned.from the White so unsettled now — I hope that House, let alone my papers the economy recovers, and that and other possessions?" the world can hold on to the The government had refused peace We tried. to establish." to permit any of "Nixon's pa- And on the, support of the pers — including those which American people: "Since my have nothing to do with Water- resignation, I've received over gate — to be sent to San Cle- a million pieces of mail, over- menee. He said they wouldn't whelmingly in my support. even permit him to retrieve "I've been unable to reply a personal pair of eyeglaisses personally to each and every he left behind. • letter because my staff is so Nixon estimates'that the /e- small and overworked." . gal fees for non-Watergate re- Nixon shook his head. press- lated matters that he has been ing his lips together. "Do you slapped with because of his resignation will run to almost half a million dollars. I had spent nearly two hours with Nixon and it was time to leave. • But first he rummaged around In his desk and held out a presidential tiebar. "Perhaps you'd like .this," he sa4d4 `It's the only one have left from my White House days." - flis handshake was firm as he said goodbye. Then he fill- ed his pipe and turned to gaze out over the Pacific. .