Cutting Back on Candor

It was a sad end to a bad year for Richard Nixon. He had launched Operation Candor in the final few months to try to regain credibility by revealing information about himself and his activities. There were the inconclusive chats with groups of Congressmen about his role in Watergate, the televised press conference at Disney World with managing editors, and the release of information about his income tax returns. But the operation was too little, too late; each move only seemed to raise more questions. Finally, the President decided to cut back on Candor.

During his talks with the Congressmen, Nixon had indicated that he would be willing to make public the substance of the celebrated presidential tapes concerning the Watergate burglary that he had turned over to Federal Judge John J. Sirica. The tapes contain key conversations between the President and such former top aides as John Dean, John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman. Last week the White House decided not to release the summaries. The main reason was fear that the tapes might link the President closer to Watergate. Top White House aides readily admit that the tapes include "ambiguities" about the President's role.

Glaring Misuse. To justify withholding the summaries of the tapes, the White House argued that the inconclusive material would somehow be "misused" against the President. As a glaring example of such misuse, the White House cited the recent case of Attorney William Dobrovir. He entertained a Georgetown cocktail party by playing part of a presidential tape that he had got as evidence in a civil suit. The suit challenged the Administration's boost in milk price supports after milk cooperatives had made contributions to the Nixon re-election campaign.

Dobrovir's act was clearly outrageous. But it was scarcely proof that written summaries of the Watergate tapes, if published, would be misused or misinterpreted. The White House also argued that the President now faces a hostile environment, and that some critics were bound to twist any summaries of the tapes. However unconvincing its rationale, the White House was under no legal compulsion to make the summaries public.

The White House also decided last week that it would not deliver material that had been subpoenaed by Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate committee. The material includes 486 tapes and hundreds of documents that possibly bear on a variety of scandals. Just how the White House planned to deal with the subpoenas remained to be worked out, but Operation Candor obviously was hurt again. Late in the week, the White House did recover some ground by announcing that it would be releasing documents--although no summaries of tapes--dealing with the milk fund and the ITT case, the relatively favorable antitrust settlement that was granted to the conglomerate at a time when it was pledging to contribute up to $200,000 to the 1972 Republican Convention.

As the year came to a close, President Nixon got away for a few days' rest. Flying to California, he did his bit to ease the energy crisis with a symbolic act of conspicuous nonconsumption. Instead of traveling in Air Force One, the President, Wife Pat, Daughter Tricia, nine staffers and 13 Secret Service agents went, unannounced, aboard a United Air Lines DC-10.

Nixon left his $217.64 first-class seat and spent half an hour walking the aisles in the tourist-class section happily holding a baby, signing autographs and chatting amiably with passengers while Press Secretary Ron Ziegler snapped photos. When one 16-year-old girl blurted out: "You look like Bob Hope!", Nixon grinned and replied: "He's a good friend of mine." As he left the compartment, the passengers gave the President a standing ovation.

When Nixon came back down to earth, Watergate was waiting. This week Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski will announce that the grand juries he has been working with will soon "be prepared to consider the matter of returning indictments in a substantial number of major involvements." Such indictments could conceivably nudge Watergate a lot closer to the Oval Office, and some high level White House staffers believe that the worst is still to come for the President. "It's going to be more intense than ever," predicts one of his close advisers. Another admits: "I wouldn't place a bet on his survival at this point."

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