The Jury of the People Weighs Nixon

For only the second time in U.S. history, the American people seriously confront the possibility of the impeachment or forced resignation of a President. It is a painful, lacerating process--as agonizing for them as it may ultimately be for the stricken President. Though a few are gleeful about the possible removal of an old enemy, most face the prospect with considerable foreboding, a profound sense of loss for themselves, their country, their history. A majority still do not favor impeachment, though it is openly discussed everywhere. But many hope that Richard Nixon, in a final presidential act, will resign.

His support is steadily crumbling. It is not too surprising that the liberal Atlanta Constitution would react to the missing tapes episode by calling it a "preposterous hoax," or that more than 200 political scientists would form a group to promote impeachment, or that the Society of Friends in Seattle sent a letter to the President "prayerfully" asking him to leave office, or that a poll of 393 Yale alumni and their wives showed that 70% favored an inquiry into impeachment. What is more ominous for Nixon is the collapse of some of his most loyal props. In a striking about-face, the pro-Nixon Detroit News urged the President to resign "to spare the nation three more years of turmoil and political vendetta." Admitting that the nation was in the midst of a "classic crise de regime," William F. Buckley's conservative National Review concluded that the President must step down if he no longer enjoys the support of the majority of the people. Buckley himself predicted that Nixon will resign.

There is a feeling that the republic is being tested more than at any other time since the Civil War. In a sense, the whole country is turning into a civics class to re-examine the American situation. Many teachers worry about the impact of Watergate on their pupils. At a Halloween party in a New York City Catholic school, the prize for the scariest costume went to an eleven-year-old girl wearing a Nixon mask. Helen Wise, president of the National Education Association, wrote the President: "Teachers are asking me how they can fulfill their responsibilities of teaching young people the moral, ethical and spiritual values required in a free society while the President of the U.S. disregards the nation's traditionally high standards of morality."

Other teachers report a resurgence of interest in American government. "Watergate has created a new enthusiasm among the kids," says Vivian Snyder, who teaches high school history in Atlanta. "Far more than before, they want to take the initiative and do something about it all." On a class assignment, one 13-year-old hit the Manhattan streets to take his own poll of adults (of 75 New Yorkers he questioned, 77% favored impeachment). At Chicago's suburban New Trier West High School, Janice Berman displayed two symbols to her civics classes. To the one, a picture of Nixon, they responded with frowns. To the other, the seal of the presidency, they replied with cheers. It is obviously possible for Americans--young and old--to make a distinction between the two.

In an effort to determine how the American people were responding to their President's problems, senior TIME correspondents conducted a nationwide survey last week. They found differences from one region to the next; New England was most ready to see Nixon resign or be impeached, the South most willing to forgive his flawed stewardship or even defend him as the victim of his critics. Everywhere there were Americans who still applaud his achievements in foreign policy, and particularly in finally ending the Viet Nam War. But the dominant mood was a growing sense of dismay, disenchantment, despair, and a willingness to recognize if not approve that the President may sooner or later have to step down.

THE EAST

New York Bureau Chief Marsh Clark is responsible for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. He reports:

People are traumatized, cynical, bored and exhausted. They wish Watergate would go away. Though they have little stomach for impeachment, a surprising number, their minds numbed by the constant bombardment of bad news from Washington, hope President Nixon will solve the crisis by resigning.

It takes no extrasensory perception to divine the public mood, though Beatrice Schmidt, a parapsychologist in Greentree, Pa., predicts that Nixon may "stagger along for a year and then resign." Others give him less time. W. Harry Sayen, G.O.P. chairman in Mercer County, N.J., thinks that Nixon loyalists have tried to "hang on and hang on to his believability. But something snapped after the Cox debacle."

George L. Wessel, an enrolled Republican who heads the AFL-CIO Council in Buffalo, feels that Nixon is "such an egoist that he's liable to burst and push the red button, and then we'd be at war." Despite the efforts of the Republican Party to dissociate itself from Watergate, it appears to have been badly hurt. G.O.P. fortunes seem dim in New Jersey, where voters are selecting a new Governor, and party coffers are empty. "I think the vote is going to be so low that it will be a repudiation of everybody," says a G.O.P. worker. "The people are disgusted with all of us."

The reactions of two important groups in the East--the business and Jewish communities--are particularly interesting. While Jewish intellectuals have largely soured on Nixon, other Jews are appreciative of his staunch support of Israel in the Middle Eastern war. "The Jewish community is by and large against impeachment," says Professor Seymour Siegel of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City. "Nixon's courage in supporting Israel in its time of trial has aroused feelings of gratitude."

Real World. Businessmen have for some time been appalled by the bad management of the Nixon Administration, and the revelations of arm twisting applied to raise campaign funds from business. Wall Street, however, is fearful of the effect a lengthy impeachment proceeding would have on the stock market, which already reflects investor jitters. "I think in people's zealousness to get at Nixon, they have forgotten the real world," says Walter B. Wriston, chairman of the First National City Corp. "In the real world, there has to be someone to take Nixon's place. Right now, all we have is Carl Albert, and he is not an acceptable alternative."

Says Peter Hochreiter, a Buffalo stockbroker: "The country is undergoing a binge of masochism, and Nixon should not resign." E.A. Lee, a retired construction company manager in Hamilton Square township, N.J., agrees: "If Nixon gets out, we'll just be giving some other burglar a chance."

Organized impeachment moves under way in New York City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have met with indifferent success. Amid the confusion and dismay, there are a few who discern a silver lining: "No matter how this turns out, the result will be favorable," says Alan K. Campbell, dean of the Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. "There are signs that the President is adjusting to the idea that a landslide victory doesn't mean a man can do as he wishes. The country is getting a good cleansing, and so is the President."

NEW ENGLAND

Boston Bureau Chief Sandra Burton is responsible for the six New England states from Maine to Connecticut. She reports:

Public opinion toward the President has turned as chill as the autumn air in New England. On the many college campuses that crisscross the region, the issue of impeachment is reviving some of the protest fervor of the anti-Viet Nam War days. What has been the topic of dining-hall conversation for some time has now become the subject of polls, petitions and street placards.

After the firing of Archibald Cox, 3,700 of Yale's 5,000 undergraduates signed petitions demanding impeachment. A poll of Harvard Business School students showed that 61% favored resignation; 75% felt the President was acting in a "dictatorial manner." To a cheering overflow crowd at Amherst College, Historian Henry Steele Commager declared: "The history of the present Administration is the history of repeated injurious usurpations having as direct object the subversion of the Constitution and the laws of the land."

Such harsh reactions are not peculiar to campuses. "The President may have fulfilled his pledge to bring us together," says Father Richard J. Shmaruk, a priest in Cambridge, Mass. "There are no lines of division on this any more. Young, old, rich, poor, liberal, conservative--they've all had it." Citizens in the Cambridge area collected 15,000 signatures in three days on an impeachment petition they are planning to present to their Congressman, House Majority Leader Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill Jr.

More than a hundred miles to the west of Cambridge, the three selectmen in Monterey, Mass. (pop. 600), a largely blue-collar community, voted unanimously to urge their legislators in Washington to move for impeachment proceedings. Says Selectman John S. Pizzichemi: "We may be a tiny town, but that doesn't mean that when we have strong feelings, we shouldn't show them." In Massachusetts' Twelfth Congressional District, the only one in the state to support Nixon in the 1972 election, Democratic Congressman Gerry E. Studds says that his mail is running 1,911 to 35 in favor of impeachment. "Many are long, thoughtful, soul-wrenching letters from people who voted two and three times for Nixon and now feel betrayed."

Pro-Nixon Ads. The mood in the more traditionally conservative states in the region is not much different. Many staunch Maine Republicans have left the fold. Says William McKeen, a Brunswick, Me., businessman who is running for the town council: "I voted and campaigned for the guy, but I wish they'd get rid of him now. If there are just seven tapes, then he should have said so long ago." Adds Mrs. Norman Kinney, a Vermont housewife: "Vermont is a strong Republican state. That so many people hate Nixon says something, I think."

Not everyone is abandoning the President. The National Citizens' Committee for Fairness to the Presidency, a group based in Providence, claims to have collected $175,000 to pay for pro-Nixon newspaper ads. Rabbi Baruch Korff, general chairman of the committee, says that his group will try to combat the media coverage, which borders on "insurrection and sedition." But such views in this area are the exception. More typical is that of Helen Carson, a mother of three in Brunswick, Me., who says: "I'm not so worried about what will become of the country if we get rid of the President; I'm worried about what will happen if he stays."

THE SOUTH

Atlanta Bureau Chief James Bell is responsible for eleven states from Virginia to Louisiana. He reports:

There is probably a greater degree of compassion for Richard Nixon in the South than anywhere else in the nation today. While his position has eroded in the past month, the South would appear to be more willing to forgive and forget than the rest of the country. There is more sorrow than anger over the President's transgressions, whatever they may be. Perhaps because of their own long history of resistance to the national Government, Southerners are less surprised or dismayed when that Government proves to be corrupt.

"You can't isolate Watergate as a separate problem," says Aaron M. Kohn, director of the metropolitan crime commission in New Orleans. "It's the peak of a pyramid that covers all 50 states. All of the ingredients of Watergate are merely a reflection of things we have tolerated too long throughout the political system." Says Fred Hand Sr., a Georgia farmer and banker who was speaker of the Georgia house for eight years: "Anyone who has run a political campaign on a state level knows that if everything he did were uncovered he could be put on a chain gang. I don't care who he is."

A majority of Southerners still seem to fear impeachment more than they resent Nixon. Joe Feinberg, who supplied the decorative ceramic tiles for the Key Biscayne homes of both the President and Bebe Rebozo, thinks Nixon is "guilty as sin." But he worries about "who is going to talk to Brezhnev and Mao. How is Carl Albert going to be able to carry on a dialogue with the big powers? They'll kill us."

On the basis of the evidence disclosed to date, Pat Smith, a sometime lobbyist in the Texas state legislature, thinks there are insufficient grounds for impeachment. "We could suffer this trauma every four years, and we can't afford it." Many Southerners blame the press more than Nixon for the Watergate debacle. Says Nick Parker, an advertising man in Birmingham: "A few Democrats and the liberal press--especially the Washington Post--are persecuting the President and tearing up the country."

What could eventually turn the South against Nixon is that he has not acted with the personal honor that the region has always valued. It is the gut that may react first, as it did with the patrons in the saloon owned by Manuel Maloof, a power in the Democratic Party in De Kalb County, Ga. Maloof was bartending when the news of the missing tapes was reported on TV. "You wouldn't believe the look on their faces," he recalls. "They can't believe this guy. I'm honestly afraid he might force a revolt in this country. Hell, this ain't a banana republic. We don't want a coup d'etat. But he's going to drive some people too far."

THE MIDWEST

Chicago Bureau Chief Gregory H. Wierzynski is responsible for 15 states ranging from Ohio to Oklahoma. He reports:

The Midwest has long been Nixon country. For years, millions in the heartland have felt that the President was one of them, embodying the simple traits they admire so much: purposeful ambition, pride in country, respect for family and church, plus a dash of disdain for the culture pushers from the East. But to these same people today, he is a much diminished man. His troubles are like a disgrace in the family. Few people want to disavow him completely, and some of the old affection lingers. Most citizens are embarrassed, perplexed and, most of all, saddened.

The Watergate hearings began eroding Nixon's popularity this summer, but lately the disillusionment has moved from the political left to include most of those in the middle and many on the traditional right. In one of its strongest outbursts, the conservative Chicago Tribune called the President's firing of Cox a "colossal blunder." While only a few weeks ago, most people were willing to give him at least the benefit of the doubt if not their full trust, his credibility today is virtually nonexistent. A Chicago newspaper sampling showed that 63% of the people in the area do not believe the White House statement that the two missing tapes never existed.

Not many people believe that the President can regain the country's confidence. Says Illinois Republican State Chairman Don Adams: "I'm convinced now that there is no way he can win, no matter what. He could give up every tape and hand over the key to the Oval Office and that's not going to be enough." University of Minnesota President Malcolm Moos, an adviser to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, has an even gloomier view. "He can't pull out of it, with the possible exception of contrived military crises."

In the board rooms of the great Midwestern corporations and in the private clubs where businessmen gather, Nixon is perceived not so much as a wicked man as an inept one. "Had he had a firm grip on what was done on his behalf, Watergate would never have happened," says Oscar Blomgren, president of Tuxco Manufacturing Corp. in North Chicago.

Shrill Campuses. With more passion than logic, other businessmen blame Watergate for the poor business climate. But the shrillest cries for the President's removal come from the campuses. Student demonstrations are lackadaisical by the standards of the late '60s, but petitions are circulating in just about every school in the Midwest, and campus papers are having a field day.

Despite their misgivings about Nixon, most Midwest citizens stop short of calling for impeachment. Many wish he would resign, but few hold out much hope for that. John Bauswein, 26, a registered Republican who runs a tavern in Cleveland, worries that impeachment would tarnish the country's image abroad: "I support the President only in that I don't want him impeached. I don't want the country further embarrassed." Some Midwesterners feel that impeachment would disfranchise them. Says Marjorie Bohac of Kimball, Neb.: "A vocal minority is trying to accomplish by impeachment and removal of our President what it was unable to do in the election last Nov. 7. I resent this group trying to take my vote from me."

A hard core of Nixon supporters blames the President's troubles on the press. The sentiment is particularly strong in Oklahoma and Nebraska, where Nixon ran up huge pluralities last year, but it can also be detected in parts of Kansas, Indiana, Missouri and, to a lesser degree, in every other Midwestern state. "After the President's news conference, I wept," wrote Mrs. V.A. Atkins, in a typical letter received by the Tulsa Tribune.

THE WEST

Los Angeles Bureau Chief Richard L. Duncan is responsible for 13 states stretching from Texas to Montana and west to Alaska and Hawaii. He reports:

Most Westerners do not want to impeach their President, but they are running out of patience with him. They may have been slow to arrive at this point, preferring to hope through the summer and early fall that there would be no more scandals in the Administration and that the question of the tapes would be settled neatly by the courts. The loss of Cox, Richardson and Ruckelshaus changed all that. Suddenly it seemed that the messages coming over the Rockies from Washington were all bad.

A massive hemorrhage of confidence in Richard Nixon began that weekend, was partially stanched by his subsequent agreement to turn over the tapes, then spurted anew when two turned up missing. San Diego Secretary Phyllis' Resnikoff summed up the new mood: "I'm a little paranoid right now about my Government. It seems like things are going to happen, and I don't know what they are, and I don't think I'm going to like them."

As a result of these recent shocks, most people have moved into a kind of political agnosticism. They no longer believe in their President, but they are not yet ready to deny him totally. A strong minority of perhaps more than 25% of the citizens in Western states are in favor of impeachment; a smaller group is unwaveringly behind Nixon, still feeling that he will be vindicated and can restore strong Government if only the Democrats and the press will give him a chance. "It's my opinion we should impeach Congress," says Stockbroker Ralph S. Cannon of Bountiful, Utah.

Others find themselves talking in terms of a jilted lover or abandoned spouse. "I'm kind of like the woman who's sure her husband has been unfaithful," says Carmelita Langeland, a housewife in Woodland Hills, Calif., who has supported Nixon for more than 20 years. Mourns a Los Angeles public relations man: "It's like a guy living with a woman he doesn't care about any more. He'd like to get a divorce, but he doesn't want to face the pain. And then there's what it would do to the kids."

To the West's conservative Republicans, the past months have been especially trying. They bit their tongues when Nixon went to China, and they reluctantly accepted "peace with honor" in Viet Nam rather than victory. But the contradiction between the morality of Watergate and their own law-and-order instincts irks them. They are coming to question his competence and his feel for the country. Most difficult for the majority who voted for him just a year ago has been the emotional roller coaster caused by each successive revelation. When Nixon reversed himself and agreed to turn over the tapes to Federal Judge John Sirica, William Murray Ryan, G.O.P. state chairman in New Mexico, was reminded of "Agnew's saying he'll never resign and then resigning."

Two factors seem to be inhibiting organized impeachment activity. One is the uncertainty over a successor--a deep concern that the hasty removal of Nixon might leave the nation in inept hands. Equally widespread is a reluctance to go the last mile on the basis of press reports. Though he has almost decided in favor of impeachment, Los Angeles Architect Paul Hoag declared: "I'd be more positive about it if I didn't have the feel of the press closing in for the kill."

As the disenchantment grows, partisan differences decline. Voices are generally lowered, rhetoric is restrained. Most citizens seem anxious to exchange views about the plight of the country but reluctant to commit themselves on what should--or might--happen. There is still faith in the Constitution, in firm values under "everything." There is a whiff of gentle patriotism in the air, born of uncertainty and caring.

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