The New P.O.W.s

Certain American impulses, it may be comforting to know, are flourishing in the midst of the Watergate malaise. The entrepreneurial spirit, for example. Three Chicago businessmen are now marketing engraved Watergate bracelets modeled after the P.O.W. bracelets so many Americans wore before the prisoners' release from Communist jails. The current P.O.W.--meaning "Prisoners of Watergate"--bracelets carry the names of former presidential advisers and the dates they were indicted or resigned. So far, there are four choices: John N. Mitchell (5-10-73), John W. Dean III (4-30-73), H.R. (Bob) Haldeman (4-30-73) and John D. Ehrlichman (4-30-73).

Selling for $3.95, the bracelets supposedly have an all-purpose message. "You can wear the bracelet until the man is either indicted, convicted, pardoned or paroled, depending on your point of view," says Louis Lerner, one of the three entrepreneurs. "What we're really hoping for is that on Jan. 19, 1977, Nixon gives them all a presidential pardon, so that all the wearers can take off their bracelets and throw them in one loud crash on the marble floors of America. Or they can send them back for recycling for the next scandal."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.