Coming Attractions

Out of the 29 hours of interviews with Nixon that he taped for his series on the ex-President, David Frost plans to get enough material for three more shows. Round 3, to be broadcast on Thursday, will highlight the early years of Nixon's Viet Nam policy and include his views on the invasion of Cambodia and on domestic dissent. At one point, according to sources who have seen the tapings, Frost pauses, searching for a word to sum up the Nixon attitude. Nixon interrupts and suggests "paranoia?" Frost replies, "Yes." The two men talk about the former President's feelings about the antiwar movement, and several minutes later, Nixon says, "Call it paranoia, but paranoia for peace isn't that bad."

In the fourth show Nixon discusses Agnew's resignation, unresolved questions about his personal finances and why he did not pardon his two top aides. Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. He also vents his anger at The Final Days, the bestselling account of his downfall by the two Watergate reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. He calls the duo "trashy people who wrote a trashy book," and pointedly notes that his wife suffered a stroke three days after she read it.

Wrong Impression. With some editing still being done, a number of other interesting episodes could show up anywhere in the final broadcasts. In one long segment on Viet Nam, Nixon returns to an increasingly favorite subject, Henry Kissinger; especially Kissinger's position on the Christmas bombing of Hanoi in 1972, which was intended to pound the North Vietnamese into acceptance of a cease-fire and peace negotiations. Kissinger was reported by some liberal columnists to have been against the B-52 raids. Nixon says Kissinger never opposed the raids. He says he even called Kissinger the night before the Frost taping session to recheck his memory. According to Nixon, "Henry felt that he ought to try to win over those he said 'hate your guts.' They were his friends; he ran in their set. But they got the wrong impression. He supported the bombing." In fact, adds Nixon, Kissinger cabled from Hanoi at one point during his subsequent peace shuttle that the Christmas raids had killed only 400 to 500 civilians, which Nixon deemed "a remarkable achievement."

Nixon blames South Viet Nam's sudden collapse in 1975 on Capitol Hill, rather than on the weakness of the Thieu regime. By slashing aid to Saigon, he says, Congress "cut off Thieu's water. Congress lost it... and they have to take the blame for it." Was the long, costly effort to buy time for the Thieu regime worth it? "Two years is worth something." Nixon insists. He concedes that history must judge the wisdom of this policy, and concludes, "It will be a close call."

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