'Henry... Remember Lot's Wife'

In David Frost's first televised confrontation with Richard Nixon, the subject was Watergate, and the ex-President was combative, emotional and frequently uncomfortable. But last week, in the second of the five-part series, Frost led Nixon through his favorite terrain, foreign affairs, and he fairly bubbled over with talk-show trivia about world leaders he had known.

Nixon's memories of Nikita Khrushchev were vivid. He was "boorish, crude, brilliant, ruthless, potentially rash, with a terrible inferiority complex." He would put on a "big macho act to prove that he was ahead of everybody and everything." Part of the act was his "air of being just a common, peasantlike person... with a sloppy hat and a collar that wouldn't be too clean."

Delicate Hands. Nixon found Leonid Brezhnev to be much more poised and cautious than his predecessor: "Intellectually you had a man not as quick as Khrushchev, but he is a much safer man to have sitting there with his finger on the button than Khrushchev." Brezhnev is also evidence that "the new class is doin' pretty good" in the Soviet Union. He is "something of a fashion plate. He liked beautiful cars. He liked beautiful women."

One thing that impressed Nixon about China's Chairman Mao Tse-tung, whom he met in 1972 and again last year, seven months before Mao's death, were his "very fine, delicate hands." He had been "a tough, ruthless leader, but it didn't show in his hands." Chairman Mao, Nixon recalled, had a "devilish sense of humor." However, it was apparent in their first meeting that the Chairman had suffered a "partial stroke" and had to be helped around by "these rather pretty Chinese girl aides."

Nixon talked of Henry Kissinger at length, and at times seemed to be trying to de-emphasize his role in the Nixon Administration. Kissinger, suggests Nixon, was "more emotional" than himself. By Nixon's account, Kissinger favored the invasion of Cambodia in April 1970, but was upset at the adverse domestic reaction, especially after the Kent State shootings. Kissinger, said Nixon, told him that Cambodia "could have been a mistake. And I said, 'Henry, we've done it.' I said, 'Remember Lot's wife. Never look back.' " Frost asked Nixon whether Kissinger ever spoke of resigning. Nixon remembered "perhaps half a dozen times."

Kissinger, said Nixon, disparaged then Secretary of State William Rogers as a "leaker," and soon outmaneuvered the Secretary and took control of foreign policy. In Nixon's view, Kissinger found John Connally a "potential rival" for power in the Administration. To avoid a replay of the Rogers-Kissinger feud, Nixon dropped Connally as his choice to succeed Rogers as Secretary of State and gave Kissinger the job instead.

He never regarded Kissinger as a "personal friend," Nixon recalled, but only as an "associate." Rather patronizingly, the ex-President observed that "Henry likes to say outrageous things ... he was fascinated by the celebrity set and he liked being one himself."

Though the interview brought out much intriguing historical minutiae from the Nixon years, the viewing audience dropped off sharply. The Nielsen ratings gave the show an estimated audience of 20 million, down from the 45 million who saw the opening broadcast. For many Americans, evidently, interest in Nixon does not extend much beyond the Watergate saga.

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