An Appearance of Normalcy

By Hugh Sidey

In moments of severe stress, like last week, the little things count. Old friendships, normal routines, the familiar and comfortable become as studied and engrossing as high policy.

Richard Nixon came down to breakfast one day and he told his loyal Republican leaders that he did not usually eat such breakfasts. But, "Let's eat," he said. The White House waiters hustled in the scrambled and poached eggs, the rashers of bacon and sausage. Nixon began to talk congressional politics, calling on G.O.P. National Chairman George Bush to run down the coming elections. In the morning light Nixon was a realist. His trouble was the Republican trouble right now. He could understand the candidates staying clear of him. That was O.K. But they had better be careful. "If they jump on me too hard, the hard core [G.O.P.] may retaliate," he said. It was mellow, civilized and sensible talk, yet incomplete. There was no mention of possible impeachment.

One night he gathered a few tuxedoed stalwarts from the Hill for roast sirloin au jus and crepes suzette. That wise and respected patriarch, Vermont's George Aiken, who is retiring from the Senate, was on his right, and Nixon hoisted a glass to Aiken's 33 years of legislative wisdom.

"It was a nice thing," said Aiken. "No critical issues to be resolved." Aiken loved the evening.

The next night the dinner featured Congressman Leslie Arends, House whip from Illinois, who is also retiring. Again it was soft and pleasant. They watched Friendly Persuasion, an old movie from the book written by Jessamyn West, Nixon's cousin. And still the thought that Nixon might be forced from office, which permeated all of Washington, did not intrude.

It is one of the marks of these times that Nixon clings to the South. Many of his dinner guests were Southern legislators. He found 40 minutes for Virginia's Senator William Scott, one of his chief supporters, to talk of reducing environmental protection and building more highways in his state. No mention of the impeachment question.

Nixon gave Scott a pair of presidential cuff links (Scott already has some) and a presidential pin for the Senator's secretary. The Senator returned to his office glowing.

Then there was Tom Stuart, mayor of Meridian, Miss., coming around with another of those petitions of support for Nixon. This one was signed by 20,000 persons. Such documents seem to grow on trees down South. They surface at the White House in every time of tension.

Nixon sought out the safe waters of the Young Republicans meeting in the Shoreham Hotel. When they chanted in feverish ecstasy "Three more years!" the President held up three fingers and waved to them reassuringly. Some of them came by the White House later for a reception.

Shirley Temple Black visited the Oval Office for 45 minutes. She had some private messages for the President from Egypt's Anwar Sadat, whose guest she had been for two weeks. She found Nixon serious but in good spirits. At the end of their meeting they reminisced just a bit. Nixon's current problems did not come up.

Those around Nixon churned on, frenetically occupied in making things seem normal. Press Secretary Ron Ziegler one day walked by the presidential limousine, stopped, came back three paces and carefully straightened out the American flag flown on the right front fender. Jerry Warren, who has faced reporters' hostile questions of corruption and impeachment, made plans for a needed rest with his family. And Good Old Henry Kissinger was aloft around the world in search of peace, dispatching new statements every night that were jubilantly read out loud the next morning in the White House news briefings.

All of this, so small but yet so meaningful, played against the background of what was going on twelve blocks away in Judge John Sirica's court, a drama that future historians may rank as one of the ten or so most important events in the American presidency. The contrast was part of one more chapter of America moving on.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.