European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 03, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Be f of Rei Winstin to that gets to the Point of motive. One must have a corrupt motive. Now i did not have a Cornil motive in concealing the involvement of White House aides in the watergate coverup. My motive was pure political cover up if a coverup is for the purpose of covering up criminal activities it is illegal. If. However a cover up As you have called it. Is for a motive that is not criminal that is something else again. And my motive was not criminal. 1 did t be Lieve we were covering up any criminal a Short lie did t mean it the Way it looked. It was just politics not crime. But he has dropped the National Security de sense he had cited at the Lime As his Moti vation for ordering the Cia to Chase the Fri out of the watergate probe. But he also denies he approved the hush Money payments actually made to the original watergate defendants denies he knew in Advance of a West coast burglary by the Whitehouse plumbers denies criminal involvement of any kind in watergate the cover up his tax fraud Case and other controversies. Frost would t buy it. At his roughest in that first telecast encounter actually the last sessions taped in their 21 hours of interviews he said repeatedly that he believes the White House tapes show Nixon was a , said Nixon is entitled to his own he also conceded a Little to those looking fur save. Now that he lied occasionally in some of his Public statements on the status of the White House watergate incs Tigai Ion bul docs not say what those lies concedes that in giving lawyerly advice to top aides who had become in snarled in the cover up. He failed to carry out his responsibly for seeing that the Laws of the United states Are enforced but. While a reasonable person could Call that a cover up he would . Although he vowed he would not Grovel he did so from time to time in a series of Long teary eyed monologues reminiscent in sentimental Appeal of his first renowned Public apology the 1952 checkers speech. Yep. Ii let the american people Down and i have to carry that Burden with me for the rest of my he said in a Low. Gravelly voice while Frost sat staring at him in fascinated silence. My political life is screwed up terribly in what was a lieu thing watergate he said and quickly put in Attiat i did some of the Uig things rather Well i China detente Middle East what it All cams Down to. He says this "1 made so Many bad judgments. I Hie worst ones mistakes of the heart. The former president with Frost during filming if they want me to get Down and Grovel. No. rather than the for being a softy and waiting Loo Long to fire Loyal aides involved in the judgments. He said that much the night he announced his viewing Public decreasing steadily through the second and third shows on foreign policy and Vietnam then jumping slightly for the finale on the Pardon got Many other glimpses into Richard Nixon s updated views of of it had a ring familiar to Long time Nixon now know he still harbours resent ment of the Kennedy clan which never had the Courtesy to invite him to lunch in the White House when they were up and he was defends Spiro Agnew on grounds Sim Ilar to his defense of himself namely that Agnew forced to resign the vice presidency to avoid prosecution for taking kick backs from state government contractors was an honest Man who never intentionally committed a crime. He merely got caught doing what his predecessors had done. The nation s press blatantly partisan to Liberal pin up boys and blatantly unfair to men like him and Agnew. Daniel Ellsburg the Pentagon papers leaker a and Berstein the Washington Post watergate reporters Kissinger a Genius but emotionally volatile an incorrigible Playboy and an awful Prima Donna. Foreign policy Nixon s favorite topic still the one where he can look and sound like a Happy Man when he recalls How he dealt with Mao and Brezhnev and Khrushchev and the israelis. And. Also where he can Illus trate How he. Not Kissinger ran the show. The anecdotes would begin Uzik Henry i said. Lie clearly Hopes As do his supporters that his record in peace making foreign policy will rehabilitate his reputation somewhere Down the Road. But for now most people in the new York City sampling area were watching the Brady Bunch or Baretta when Richard Nixon told of life in san Clemente. I feel myself that life without purpose. That life in which an individual has to. Is forced to go against his intuitions about what he thinks he ought to do. That life then becomes almost unbearable. And so resignation meant life without purpose As far As i was concerned. Resignation meant that i would be in a position of of not having really anything to live bul what of those embittered by the life of retired Leisure he lives while Many of those who served him went to prison and those who envy any wealthy Retiree they Don t know Nixon said. Sadly. Because what makes life mean something is purpose a goal the Battle the struggle even if you Don t win the future whatever it brings i la still be fight paranoia for peace in t that bad e 3, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 15
