President Nixon tells it all to nation ?
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
President Nixon made public
a 250,000-word White House
edited transcript of some of
his intimate Watergate
conversations Tuesday in an
effort to convince Congress
and the nation he played no
role in the scandal which has
overshadowed all else in his
second term.
As Nixon had warned, the
transcripts were ambiguous.
But they did show that during
a two-hour meeting on March
21,1973, Nixon never explicitly
rejected a proposal to pay
$120,000 to buy continued
silence from E, Howard Hunt,
one of the original seven
Watergate bugging defen
dants.
At one point in his con
versation with John Dean,
then a presidential lawyer,
this exchange occurred:
Nixon: “You have no choice
but to come up with the
$120,000...right?”
Dean: “That’s right.”
Nixon: “...Getit.’ The three
dots indicated an “expletive”
had been deleted by the White
House tape editors.
Nixon continuing: “Would
you agree that that’s the
prime thing that you damn
well better get that done?”
Dean: “Obviously he ought
to be given some signal
anyway.”
Nixon said in a radio and
television address Monday
night that he had agreed to
Hunt’s demands for ‘‘black
mail” because he wanted to
protect the secrecy of a
sensitive “national security”
operation. He did not Reveal
its nature.
The White House, in a 15,000
word preface to the edited
transcripts, said they would
establish Nixon’s innocence.
“In all of the thousands of
words spoken, even though
they often are unclear and
ambiguous, not once does it
appear that the President of
the United States was engaged
in a criminal plot to obstruct
justice,” the White House
said.
Kelease of the transcripts
was a gamble that the nation
would share that conclusion.
Millions of Americans were
likely to examine the contents
of Nixon’s most intimate
conversations over the next
few days. Some newspapers
planned to carry the texts in
full.
On Capitol Hill, the in
dications were strong that
Nixon’s action — and his
refusal to give the House
Judiciary Committee the
tapes it had subpoenaed —
would leave the committee
unsatisfied.
Generally, Republicans —
with some misgivings —
accepted the President’s
decision to provide transcripts
and not tapes. Some
Democrats were critical. Rep.
Robert Drinan, (D-Mass.),
said Nixon had provided a
“mish-mash.” Drinan said he
was astonished at the number
of marked deletions of “ex
pletives.”
The White House gave the
Judiciary Committee only 31
of the 42 conversations it had
asked for on Feb. 25 and
subpoenaed April 11.
Spokespersons said nine
conversations were never
taped and two tapes could not
be located.
The White House gave no
indication of how or whether it
would respond to an additional
subpoena — due Thursday —
issued by special prosecutor
Leon Jaworski for more
materials. Nixon stressed on
television his view that the
transcripts “tell it all.”
There were frequent
parenthetical denotations
showing deletions of “unin
telligible’’ or “inaudible”
portions or of materials that
were “irrelevant” in White
House judgment.
A black station wagon
delivered the transcripts in
individual manila envelopes
to Capitol Hill Tuesday
morning for distribution to the
38 members of Congress on
the House committee
weighing Nixon’s possible
impeachment. Six hours later,
the transcript, in a single blue
covered volume, was given
newsmen.
Much of official and jour
nalistic Washington set to
work poring over the texts.
In all, a total of 48 telephone
conversations and meetings
are presented beginning with
the meeting Sept 15, 1972,
between Nixon, Dean and
H.R. Haldeman, and ending
with the meeting on April 27,
1973 with a meeting between
Nixon, Henry Petersen, the
assistant attorney general;
and Press Secretary Ronald
Ziegler.
Other conversations involve
or discuss John Ehrlich man,
former attorneys general
Richard Kleindienst and John
Mitchell, former commerce
secretary and campaign
treasurer Maurice Stans, and
White House political aide
Charles Colson.
The day of April 16, 1973,
saw Nixon agonizing over
whether to fire Ehrlichman,
Haldeman and Dean while at
the same time conferring
with them and others on
handling the public relations
aspect of the scandal.
He talked on two occasions
for more than two hours with
Petersen, then in charge of the
government’s investigation of
the case
me transcripts snowea
Petersen freely reported to
Nixon on the normally secret
proceedings of the grand jury
and the President then used
the information to plan
strategy with his aides, who
themselves were the grand
jury’s targets.
For instance, Petersen told
Nixon that investigators had
evidence that Ehrlichman had
ordered FBI Director Patrick
Gray to destroy evidence
taken from Howard Hunt’s
White House safe and destroy
it and Gray denied any
recollection of it.
Minutes later, Nixon was
discussing the disclosure
casually with Ehrlichman:
“Gray denies to Petersen
that he ever got the bundle
Oh, he’s dumb,” Nixon said
"Hie transcripts totaled 1,306
pages.
Kissinger makes yet another trip to Mideast
By unitea tress international
Israel said its warplanes
scored “good hits’’ Tuesday on
Syrian positions on Mount
Hermon, including missile
batteries, while ground forces
traded artillery and tank fire in
the 50th consecutive day of
fighting on the Golan Heights.
Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger arrived in Egypt on his
latest —and admittedly
toughest—peace-seeking mis
sion.
The Tel Aviv command, in a
“I. F. STONE’S
WEEKLY”
"On* of 1974 * Boat Film*"
Judith Crist
Final Eugene Showing
Today—1:15 A 2:43 p.m.
Special Wayne Morse
Campaign Benefit
Paid Pol Adv Wayne Morse for
Congress. Phil George Treas., 595 Crest
Dr., Eugene.
delayed report, said a patrol
“east of the salient” captured by
Israel in the 1973 war killed two
Syrian soldiers in a clash late
Monday without suffering
casualties of its own.
The report was the first since
the war last October to mention
Israeli ground incursions in the
direction of Damascus, which lies
as close as 25 miles northeast of
the cease-fire lines.
In Beirut, the Defense
Ministry said Lebanese troops
exchanged fire for two hours
Tuesday with an Israeli force
encroached on Lebanese
territory near Mount Hermon
and forced it to retreat behind the
border. A communique broadcast
by Beirut Radio said one
Lebanese soldier was wounded.
The communique said the
fighting centered on two hills—El
Chahar and El Seddana—which
MICHAEL
PLAYS
REQUESTS &
DEDICATIONS
WEDNESDAYS
1 1 :30 to 2:00
LK^Eb'TM 96
746-3157
are natural extensions of Mount
Hermon. Press reports said the
Israelis were trying to gain a
strategic advantage over the
Syrians in the weeks-long battle
for the strategic 9,200-foot-high
mountain straddling the borders
The army spokesman con
tradicted a Beirut communique
reporting a clash with Lebanese
army units across the frontier in
the Arkoub region of south
Lebanon “There has been no
infiltration by our forces into
Lebanon,” he said.
Damascus Radio said the
fighting on the Golan Heights was
so fierce that long lines of Israeli
settlers were fleeing back into
Israel from the disputed
territory. Israeli officials
disputed the report as did several
of the Israeli settlers.
Kissinger flew to Alexandria
from Algiers where he won
support from President Houari
Boumedienne for his efforts to
promote a military
disengagement agreement
between IsraeJ and Syna and put
an end to the fighting which could
plunge the Middle East into
another full-scale war
Boumedienne has been one of the
toughest of the Arab hardliners
and his endorsement could play a
major role in Kissinger’s talks in
Damascus.
The Soviet Union already had
pledged to use its influence with
Syrian President Hafez Assad
and Kissinger is seeking similar
backing from Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat before he buckles
down to the task of getting
Damascus and Jerusalem to
agree to separate their military
forces.
Israeli diplomatic sources in
Tel Aviv reported some friction
between Kissinger and Israeli
Foreign Minister Aba Eban over
the latter’s public criticism of the
United States for voting in favor
of the U.N. Security Council
resolution condemning an Israeli
raid against Lebanese border
villages. The raid was in
University of Califernia •
Santa Cruz
1974
Courses in ARTS and SCIENCES
6 week sessions and 3 week sessions
Special Programs in
DANCE • FOREIGN LANGUAGES • MARINE SCIENCES
write for free catalog
127 Communications Building
University of California Santa Cruz, California 95064
retaliation for an Arab guerrilla
attack on an Israeli border set
tlement in which 18 persons were
killed
U.S. Ambassador Kenneth
Keating asked for a meeting
Tuesday with Eban to express
official U.S displeasure at
Eban’s remarks Government
sources said the current status of
the U.S.-Israeli relations was
reviewed by the Israeli cabinet
which met in Jerusalem to
discuss proposals on troop
disengagement that Israel could
present to Kissinger when he
arrives from Cairo Thursday.
A military spokesman said all
Israeli planes returned safely to
base Tuesday after intermittent
runs over the Mount Hermon
region that spanned 30 minutes
The armed forces radio said
“good hits” were reported on
“Syrian tank concentrations,
artillery and missile batteries.”
The command reported one
soldier wounded by Syrian
shellfire elsewhere along the
front.
cm tne ground, the Syrians
directed artillery and tank fire at
Israeli positions in the northern
sector of the October war bat
tlefield and the southern sector of
the Golan Heights west of the 1967
cease-fire line, the military
command said. Israeli gunners
returned the fire.
Damascus communiques said
Syrian forces destroyed three
Israeli tanks, blew up an am
munition depot and killed or
wounded a number of Israeli
troops early in the day in fighting
that spread from Mount Hermon
all along the front.
The Sun Shop
Buys Ised
Records